Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-10-23

the manual labor of the world is entitled
to an honorable place in the memory OF
posterity, and we have cause to be proud
of our Irish fellow citizens for the mate
rial prosperity they have brought to us
through the labor of their strong arms,
but in addition to that we must thank
the green island for sending us bright in
tellects and brave hearts as well as
strong arms. Our halls of legislation,
our courts of justice, our marts OF trade
and our pulpits, have been adorned by
many true-hearted son of Ireland but
no more honored name shines upon the
roll of Ireland's contributions to Ameri-
can citizenship. than the revered name
of Philip Embury, to whose memory the
Methodists dedicated granite monu-
ment at Cambridge on Monday.
While John Wesley was engaged in
the active labor of his ministry, he made
several tours through Ireland, scattering
his wonderful and soul-stirring doctrines
of Methodism. In one of his journeys
he found upon the west coast of Ireland
profane and drunken colony, that had
wandered away from the Palatinate on
the Rhine, in the reign of Queen Annie.
This colony had such a contempt for the
teachings of the gospel that it was not
considered safe for the priests of the es-
tablished religion to go among them, but
Wesley preached his scheme of salvation
to this rude people and in his fascinating
and earnest manner converted many of
them to the Gospel of the Holy Ghost.
Among these rude colonists was Philip
Embury, then young man. AS years
rolled on Embury became local preach
er, and in middle life he emigrated with
some of his neighbors to this country.
Being a stranger in a strange land,
with unfavorable surroundings and ne
cessity of earning his daily bread rest
ing upon him, Embury did not continue
his ministrations for the first year of his
residence in New York, but upon the
solicitation of devout woman he was
finally prevailed upon to resume preach
ing, and he opened his house for re-
ligious services, and there formed the
first Methodist society in America,
ter's shop in 1776. 1t is said that his
shop stood on the site of the present
City Hall, in New York. Two years
later he dedicated the first Methodist
chapel in the New World. He then re-
moved to Washington county and or
gained at Ash Grove, near Cambridge,
the second Methodist church ia America,
and the first within the limits of the
present Troy Conference, and where.
he died about 1888, from injuries he re-
ceiyed while at work in the hay field.
We have not received a full account
of the exercises upon the unwilling Of
the monument at the time of writing
these paragraphs, but from the inspira-
ton that must hover around. the name
and last resting place of the founder of
one of our most numerous and enthusi-
astic religious denominations, aided by
two learned bishops and hundreds of the
clergy, we have no doubt the services
were impressive and interesting, and we
cannot close this hasty sketch more APP
propriately than by quoting the language
of Mat1it,. one of the most brilliant ora
tors the Methodist church ever produced,
at previous ceremony over his grave,
when he spoke of him as the chosen in
strument who was to perpetuate in this
country the work of Welsey and White
field. ''Now, said this eloquent preach
er, 1--WE stand over the ashes of one who
was glorious star shining in the early
dawn before the blue heavens were red
with the glories of morning. We stand
over sacred DUST. He fell on what was
then the outskirts of Methodism."