Quotes: Circuit Riders.

Freeborn Garrettson was a member of a wealthy Anglican family, but as a young man he fell under the influence of itinerant Methodist Preachers. In 1775 he had a traumatic conversion experience – “my soul was exceeding happy,” he later wrote, “that I seemed as if I wanted to take wings and fly to heaven. “He freed his slaves, and in due course resolved to become a Methodist preacher. Beginning his ministerial work in 1776 as a preacher-on-trial, he itinerated widely for the next several years in Maryland and neighbouring states. As a pacifist, he wanted to have nothing to do with the American revolution, explaining that “it was contrary to my mind, and grievous to my conscience, to have any hand in shedding human blood,” and he carefully pursued a policy of neutrality despite much persecution from the patriots. He was ordained a Methodist minister at a conference held in Baltimore in December 1784, the same conference that witnessed the creation of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States.

I concluded to travel five miles, as nearly as I could guess, then stop, reconnoiter the neighborhood, and find some kind person who would let me preach in his log cabin, and so on till I had performed the entire round.”

Near the end of one dreary day, Young came upon a solitary cabin in the woods. He spotted a woman in the doorway and asked for lodging, but the woman refused. Desperate, Young exclaimed, “I am a Methodist preacher, sent by Bishop Asbury to try to form a circuit.”

“This information appeared to electrify her,” recalled Young. “Her countenance changed, and her eyes fairly sparkled. She stood for some time without speaking, and then exclaimed, ‘La, me! Has a Methodist preacher come at last?’”

John A. Granade served as an extreme but telling of Circuit Riders. He was born in North Carolina near the time of the American Revolution, As a young man Granade was labeled as “perfectly reckless.” He wandered through Kentucky and Cumberland country (being the Appalachian region in Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee) then settled in South Carolina thinking he might teach school. Haunted concerning his spiritual condition, Granade made traveled to Tennessee, where over two years he was plagued by “voices” and “tormenting whispers.”

Tirelessly day and night, through snow and rain, during the winter and spring of 1797–1798, young Granade wandered about the woods; some say “howling, praying, and roaring in such a manner that he was generally thought to be crazy.” Throughout the western states he was known spoken of as the “wild man.”

Granade was finally converted at a camp meeting, and afterward directed his spiritual energy into preaching. He told companions, “I would sing a song or pray or exhort a few minutes,” Granade later stated regarding the Holy Spirit, “… and the fire would break out among the people, and the slain of the Lord everywhere were many.” Not unlike John the Baptist, cowds began to follow him from place to place, “singing and shouting all along the road.” Some claimed Granade had a secret powder that he threw over the people to enchant them, and others believed he worked “some secret trick by which he threw them down.” At one meeting, so many people fainted and “lay in such heaps that it was feared they would suffocate.”


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