Hymns For The Use Of The Methodist Episcopal Church
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
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The Methodist Preacher: Containing Twenty-Eight Sermons, on Doctrinal and Practical Subjects (1852 )
(Originally published in 1852. This volume from the Cornel...)
Originally published in 1852. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.
Elijah Hedding was an American clergyman. He was a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church after twenty-four years’ pioneer work as circuit rider, stationed preacher, and presiding elder.
Background
Elijah Hedding was born on June 7, 1780, in Pine Plains, New York, United States. He was of English descent, the son of James Hedding. When he was about eleven years old his parents moved to Starksborough, Vermont, in which frontier settlement he became hardy in spirit and rugged in Physique.
Career
In his youth Elijah Hedding was converted into Methodism. In the early days of his preaching, it is said, he could be heard a mile away. He now became an exhorter.
In 1799 when Lorenzo Dow left the neighboring Essex Circuit in order to preach to the Catholics in Ireland, Hedding, not yet twenty, took his place, and on June 16, 1801, was admitted to the New York Conference on probation. In 1803 he was ordained deacon by Bishop Whatcoat, and in 1805, elder, by Bishop Asbury. He traveled long and difficult circuits, enduring hardships and exposure which brought on bodily infirmities from which he never fully recovered. Like other itinerants he carried books in his saddle bags, and by studying grammar, the English language, and theology, he became a clear, correct speaker and better informed than the average of his confreres.
Changes in the boundaries of the New York and New England conferences in 1805 made Hedding a member of the latter. From this time until he was elected bishop, he was one of the foremost agents in the extension of Methodism in New England. His work carried him into all its states, he was presiding elder of several different districts, and was stationed at Boston, Lynn, Nantucket, Portland, and New London. While in Boston in 1822, he was instrumental in the establishment of Zion’s Herald, the earliest exclusively Methodist periodical.
In the General Conferences, all of which he attended either as delegate or bishop from 1808 until his death, he was a conspicuous figure. At the first of these, when a resolution establishing “delegated” General Conferences had been defeated, which action was later rescinded, he helped to prevent the breaking up of the Conference by persuading the disgruntled New England representatives not to return home. In the long-continued but unsuccessful effort to make presiding elders elective by the annual conferences he was a leader, though in his later years his views on the matter changed. He strongly opposed the extreme abolitionist agitation in the northern conferences and thereby brought upon himself much abuse and persecution.
Hedding was preeminently a simple, practical man, keen-minded, shrewd in his estimate of others, quick-witted, and of sound judgment. He was a good reader and had a resounding voice. His physical presence suggested power and authority, for he was six feet tall, large-framed, and corpulent. His piety, however, was deep and sincere.
Connections
Hedding married Lucy Blish of Gilsum, Cheshire County, New Hampshire on January 10, 1810.