with them
in their public services, not only in Colored but also in white
congregations. When they were sick or otherwise disabled they could
trust the pulpit to Harry without fear of unfavorably disappointing
the people. Mr. Asbury acknowledges that the best way to obtain a
large congregation was to announce that Harry would preach. The
multitude preferred him to the Bishop himself. Though he withstood for
years the temptations of extraordinary popularity, he fell,
nevertheless, by the indulgent hospitalities which were lavished upon
him. He became temporarily the victim of wine; but possessed moral
strength enough to recover himself. Self-abased and contrite, he
started one evening down the neck below Southwark, Philadelphia,
determined to remain till his backslidings were healed. Under a tree
he wrestled in prayer into the watches of the night. Before the
morning God restored to him the joys of His salvation. Thenceforward
he continued faithful. He resumed his public labors. In the year 1810
he died in Philadelphia. "Making a good end," he was borne to the
grave by a great procession of both Colored and white admirers, who
buried him as a hero--one overcome, but finally victorious.

It is said that on one occasion, in Wilmington, Del., where Methodism
was long unpopular, a number of the citizens, who did not ordinarily
attend Methodist preaching, came together to hear Bishop Asbury. Old
Asbury Chapel was, at that time, so full that they could not get in.
They stood outside to hear the Bishop, as they supposed; but in
reality they heard Harry. Before they left the place, they
complimented the speaker by saying: "If all Methodist preachers could
preach like the Bishop we should like to be constant hearers." Some
one present replied: "That was not the Bishop, but his servant." This
only raised the Bishop higher in their estimation, as their conclusion
was, if such be the servant what must the master be? The truth was,
that Harry was a more popular speaker than Asbury, or almost any one
else in his day.[130]

So we find in the very inception of Methodism in the United States the
Colored people were conspicuously represented in its membership,
contributing both money, labor, and eloquence to its grand success.

The great founder of Methodism was an inveterate foe of human slavery,
which he pronounced "the sum of all villainies," and in this
particular the Methodist societies in their earliest times reflected
his senti