his chief members show how thoroughly his views had been accepted by the society. The polity was Presbyterian, the theology tended toward Arminianism, and the Church discipline was far in advance of the Reformed Churches.

At an annual meeting of the pastors who co-operated in the revival movement, it was agreed to hold a "conference" in Baltimore in 1789 to consider more fully the interests of the growing congregations that looked to them for spiritual guidance. This may properly be considered the first definite step of the new organization. Of the fourteen preachers who were committed to the movement, seven were present. They were a company of ministers that would have done honor to any Church; and on account of their talents, piety, and devotion to the work of the ministry, were well qualified for the duties of the hour. The names of Otterbein, Martin Boehm, and Christian Newcomer will always be held in honor by the Christian Church. The members of the conference arrived at a satisfactory understanding, and adopted a confession of faith largely drawn from the Apostles' Creed. This was not a hasty or ill-advised proceeding. Mr. Asbury says in his Journal, under date of June 5, 1786: "I called on Mr. Otterbein; we had some free conversation on the necessity of forming a Church among the Dutch, holding conferences, the order of its government, etc." Mr. Otterbein no doubt saw quite plainly in what direction the work of the revivalists was tending, and was in thought preparing for the future. He was not of an adventurous spirit, even when most impressed with the conviction of duty. From the first the Methodists had been closely observed by Mr. Otterbein and his associates; they could not be insensible to the merits of the system which was being developed in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and especially its fitness for the work of evangelization which they were themselves pursuing, and the grand results of the itinerancy. And the organization which grew up under Mr. Otterbein and his coadjutors has more and more taken on the practical peculiarities of the Methodists; and, to its honor be it said, has perpetuated some of these which Methodists have allowed to fall into disuse. And its great gains may be already attributed to this flexible, simple system which seems fitted beyond any other for the saving of souls. It is not intended to assert that these minis

ters were under any special obligations to Methodism, or dependent on it for their success, but that their common aims and singleness of purpose led them along nearly the same paths, profiting by each other's experience.

The new organization, which was for years after known as the United Brethren, began soon to vindicate the judgment of those who formed it. We cannot follow its history from year to year. Its growth was not rapid, partly, we are inclined to believe, because it did not assume a more independent position. Mr. Otterbein, like Mr. Wesley, seems to have retained great affection for the Church in which he was ordained to the ministry, and maintained for a long time a twofold ecclesiastical relation-some persons still affirming that he never separated from the Reformed Church. He met with the synod of that Church for the last time in 1800. During the next month the first regular Annual Conference of the United Brethren was held, and the organization took on more definite form. Mr. Otterbein and Martin Boehm were elected, or perhaps only recognized by general consent, as superintendents or bishops. A great revival was in progress among the Methodists, in which the United Brethren shared, and the greatest sympathy prevailed between the two bodies. They preached in each other's houses of worship, and were as one people in social worship and in the communion of the Lord's Supper. So long as Mr. Otterbein was able he preached far and near, and his influence was felt throughout the societies as the leading spirit in the movement. Boehm was as active, and hardly less popular among the people, but Otterbein was the acknowledged head, and thought of as the founder of the Church. He had the characteristics that are sought after for one in such a position.

The last Conference that he attended was in 1805, after which his age and increasing infirmities compelled him to abide in Baltimore. But he was not forgotten, nor did he lose his influence in the Church. The chief ministers came to see him in the quiet of his ministerial home, sought his advice in all important matters, and enjoyed the presence of the patriarch. A serious sickness toward the close of the year named induced him to make his will. He did not preach as often as he had, but his sermons are yet described as powerful and with the "unction from on high." Always kind and

benevolent, he grew still more tender toward the poor, and more mindful of the common duties of life. He took part in some honorable negotiations which looked toward a possible union of the United Brethren and the Methodist Episcopal Church; of which, however, nothing came beyond an agreement in regard to the use of churches and attendance on classmeetings and love-feasts. In March, 1812, the venerable, cath olic-spirited Martin Boehm, his colleague in the superintendency from the beginning, who, like himself, had been laid aside from active labor, fell asleep in Jesus in his eighty-seventh year. Hardly had two months passed when the tender-hearted, eloquent Adam George Geeting, soon after a brief visit to Baltimore, closed his life in triumph. In April of the next year, Bishop Asbury, accompanied by Henry Boehm (son of Martin), paid him a last visit. "I gave an evening to the great Otterbein," says Mr. Asbury; "I found him happy and placid in God," and the evening was a memorable one. Perhaps no other words could have described the condition of the aged saint more accurately, so thoroughly in keeping with the character of the man. In October Christian Newcomer, who now filled the chief place in the superintendency, visited him, and writes that he was "weak and feeble in body, but strong and vigorous in spirit, and full of hope of a blissful immortality and eternal life." It had been the custom to license the preachers that had grown up in the revival, and to give them permission to adininister the sacraments without ordination. Mr. Otterbein had not seen the necessity for any thing more, and his modesty and regard for Church order had restrained him from following the solicitations of others. But the brethren in the West had, by vote of the Conference, requested him to ordain Mr. Newcomer, who had been elected a bishop. He yielded to the request, and on the 2d of October Mr. Newcomer and two others, in the vestry of the church, were ordained elders, Mr. Otterbein having been lifted from his bed and placed in a chair. He was assisted by Rev. William Ryland, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This was his last public service, and it was marked by his accustomed fervor and unction. As these brethren took leave of him next day, bidding them farewell, he said: "If any inquire after me, tell them I die in the faith I have preached." He continued to grow more feeble day by

day, suffering from an asthmatical affection, till, on November 17, in the evening, his friends perceived that his course was finished. At the close of a prayer by a ministerial friend of the Evangelical Lutheran Church he responded, "It is finished." He sank away, but rallied again soon after, and in expressing his faith in Jesus he said: "The conflict is over and past. I begin to feel an unspeakable fullness of love and divine peace. Lay my head upon my pillow and be still." And as this last service of earth was rendered him he passed away to the company of the redeemed, to be forever with his Lord.

A great company, Christians of all the Churches, attended the funeral. Rev. Dr. Kurtz, of the Lutheran Church, for many years his friend and collaborator in Baltimore, preached in German, and Rev. William Ryland in English. A Protestant Episcopal minister conducted the ceremony at the grave. The departed Christian was akin to them all. But when the Baltimore Conference was held in March, 1814, four months later, by request of the Conference and the Otterbein congregation, Bishop Asbury delivered a discourse in memory of the friend whom he had loved with unvarying affection. He was himself growing feeble, and the shadows were falling across his path. He wrote in his Journal: "By request, I discoursed on the character of the angel of the Church of Philadelphia, in allusion to P. W. Otterbein-the holy, the great Otterbein -whose funeral discourse it was intended to be. Solemnity marked the silent meeting in the German church, where were assembled the members of our Conference and many of the clergy of the city. Forty years have I known the retiring modesty of this man of God; towering majestic above his fellows in learning, wisdom, and grace, yet seeking to be known only of God and the people of God."

Nothing could have been more appropriate. Indeed, we can hardly conceive the record complete without this closing scene. At the ordination of Mr. Asbury to the episcopacy, nearly forty years before, in the Methodist chapel not far away, he had asked the favor of Mr. Otterbein that he should assist in the ceremony. The request was granted, and the stately figure and devout bearing of the German divine made him the most conspicuous person of the company. And now Asbury, infirm and nearly worn-out with incessant labor, the head of a Church

whose rapid increase contained already the prophecy of its future, testifies of his friend in words that will never be forgotten. The foundations which Otterbein and his co-laborers laid remain, and the superstructure has grown far beyond any anticipation he may have had of its future. The Church of the United Brethren in Christ, of which it is but just to say that he was the founder, retains the spirit and vigor of its youth, and has taken on a more compact organization, increasing in connectional feeling, and establishing the agencies of a thoroughly equipped Church. From having been entirely German it has become so nearly English that it is no longer looked on as a German institution. The old intimate fellowship between the United Brethren and the Methodists has disappeared, but the most kindly feeling still exists. It has grown rather more Methodistic in form and methods in its manhood, preserving, however, the differences which marked its beginning, yet modifying them wisely, we think. It accepted an invitation to the London Methodist Ecumenical Conference, was well represented, and in perfect sympathy with the followers of Wesley. It belongs to the great revival movement of the eighteenth century, and will continue in it so long as it cherishes the memory and preserves the faith and spirit of its illustrious founder.

ART. II. THE CRITICAL AND THE ETHICAL IN LITERATURE.

The author dreads the critic.-JAMES ELLIS.

A just criticism injures no man's proper influence.-T. TILTON.

The most noble criticism is that in which the critic is not the antagonist so much as the rival of the author.-I. DISRAELI.

Those who do not read criticism will scarcely merit to be criticised.-B. DIS

RAELI.

THE office of the literary critic is a responsible one, often more so even than authorship itself. The reading public may be under less obligation to the writer of a book, able and important though it be, than to the trained critic, who, by his insight and the application of just canons, is able to show its true character, and disclose its real merits and defects, and so assign it to its true place in the world's literature.