a good knowledge of the English language, and took an active part in all their godly exercises.

As time passed and he matured in the grace of God, he became more and more impressed with the neglected condition of the Germans. Contemplation upon the sad state of affairs led to prayer. "Full of solicitude," he says, "I frequently cast myself upon my knees and pleaded with hot tears that God might lead my German brethren to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, and might send them faithful leaders, who should preach to them the gospel in power, awaken lifeless professors of religion, and lead them to a life of true godliness, so that they might be made partakers of the peace of God and of the inheritance of the saints in light. Thus I prayed daily. While I thus communed with God, a sudden light appeared in my inmost soul; I heard, as it were, at the same time, my own heart propound the searching question: 'Is it mere accident that has caused the miserable condition of thine erring brethren so deeply to affect thee? Was it an accident that thy heart, particularly thy heart, has been thus overwhelmed with sympathy for thy brethren? Is not this rather the hand of Him whose wisdom guides not only the destiny of the individual but of nations? What if his infinite love had chosen thee as his instrument to lead thy brethren to the way of life and to the reception of his saving mercy?' This thought at first startled, alarmed me. But as I considered it my heart felt easier. I gained confidence that God would answer my prayer. I heard, so to speak, the command of God: 'Go, work in my vineyard, proclaim my gospel in its purity with emphasis and power to my people, and trust to my fatherly love that those who hear and believe shall partake of my grace.'

This was Albright's first call. But, clear as it was, he

BEGINNING OF ALBRIGHT'S MINISTRY.

395 shrank from the task. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. The very clearness of the call made him tremble. And when he thought of the magnitude of the work, the difficulties and opposition that must be met and overcome, he felt himself insufficient. Especially did his lack of gifts and talents and of education appear to render him utterly insufficient. Like Moses, he pleaded earnestly that God might intrust this work to one more worthy and more efficient. .Albright was no fanatic, much less was he an egotist. Nothing was further from his mind than unholy ambition or sordid motives. He hesitated long. But God laid the hand of affliction upon him. He suffered great bodily pain. His mind was ill at ease. A great weight oppressed his heart. Fear and trembling seized him, for through it all duty became still clearer, and more imperative its voice. At length he yielded. In a final surrender he exclaimed, "Lord, here am I, send me."

Notwithstanding Albright's self-depreciation, he was indeed a chosen vessel, the man for the hour. His very lack of specific literary and theological training gave him access to the common people. He was a man of energy and tact, and proved to be a capable preacher and a born organizer. Of German ancestry but of American birth, he was peculiarly fitted to begin a religious movement among German-Americans. Withal he was a man of sound judgment, penetrative intellect, sympathetic nature, and consecrated boldness and independence of thought. Soundly converted, deeply pious, conspicuously humble, a man of God, a man of and for the people. Conscientious and thoroughly disciplined by grace, he went not upon his own charges, but followed the urgent call of God, oppressed always by the feeling that "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel." The principal

Albright began to preach in 1796.

theater of his early operations was in the eastern counties of Pennsylvania, and in the States of Maryland and Virginia, in the latter State especially, along the Shenandoah Valley. He was persecuted almost as soon as he began his labors, but he had crossed the Rubicon. Nothing daunted, he toiled on, and God gave him souls. Up to the year 1800 no step had anywhere been taken looking toward an organization, or the establishment of any congregations. Albright himself had no such object in view. He simply followed the voice of God, to preach the gospel to his erring brethren and to lead those wandering sheep to the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls.

His labors as an itinerant among his German countrymen led him out of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The assertion that Albright left the Methodist Episcopal Church because it would not ordain him as a minister is utterly groundless. Nor did he cause a schism from that church, as Dr. Dorchester, in his "Christianity in the United States" (p. 479) seems to indicate. He took no one with him. He never proselyted, nor in any way opposed that church in its operations. He had no quarrel with it. On the contrary, he was in full accord with its doctrines and general polity. He simply followed the divine call. The leaders of the Methodist Church did not, at that time, wish to engage in work among the German Pennsylvanians, believing that the German language would soon become extinct in this country. Albright could have found a congenial home in the Methodist Episcopal Church, but the Lord of the church called him out into a special field.

CHAPTER II.

ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION.

MR. ALBRIGHT'S converts were widely scattered and isolated. They found none near them of like mind or of similar religious experience. Albright was as yet alone in the work, and his visits were necessarily few and far between. His converts were thus thrown upon most meager spiritual resources. Despised and hated by the regular churches of the time, they were indeed a cause of much anxiety to the pious preacher who had led them to Christ. The conviction was forced upon him that if they were not to fall a prey to discouragement and the fruit of his labors be lost in the end, steps must be taken to introduce some kind of order, and to effect some sort of organization.

Accordingly, after much prayer, he ventured to establish several "classes." This was possible, however, in only a few cases, on account of the great distances between the homes of individual members. In Berks County, at the Colebrookdale Iron Works, a few lived closely enough together to be organized into a class. They were united into what was called Lieser's Class. Another, called Walter's Class, was formed near Quakertown, Bucks County, and a third, called Phillip's Class, in Northampton County. Class-leaders were at once elected, whose

1 R. Yeakel's "History of the Evangelical Association."

duty it was to watch over the little societies, to preserve Christian order, and to hold regular prayer-meetings.

This was the beginning of ecclesiastical organization. Nothing, however, was as yet done to effect a general organization. That was, in fact, a secondary consideration. In his mind, conversion, sanctification, and spiritual life were of paramount importance. The matter of ecclesiastical organization was left subject to the force of circumstances and the indications of Providence. He had planted a mustard seed, and it was beginning to grow. True, it was as yet small, but it had within it the vital spark, and he was willing to commit its destiny to the Head of the church.

In reference to this organization of classes Albright himself said: "As I had now preached about four years, and had been at special pains to proclaim the gospel among such as were strangers to vital godliness and Christian order, I also sought by the grace given me from above to instruct those who were awakened and converted as to how to work out their salvation in the unity of faith according to the doctrine of Christ and his apostles. God blessed the effort, so that by means of this union many who lived in darkness were brought to the light."

The classified membership at this time amounted to twenty. The three classes were indeed small beginnings, but could all the scattered sheep of Albright's incipient flock have been gathered, the membership would have been considerably greater.

About this time Albright received his first assistant and coadjutor in the person of John Walter, a youth who was converted at the age of nineteen, during these first four years of Albright's labors, and soon entered the gospel ministry. He was without education, but his extraordi

1 "History of the Evangelical Association," vol. i.