"The story of my life"

by Egerton Ryerson

Dr. Ryerson was appointed as a representative of the Conferences of British America to the General Conference of the United States in 1876. Being unable to go, he addressed a letter to Bishop Simpson, from which I take these extracts:—

I regret that I have been unable to fulfil my last public mission in behalf of our Canadian Church to the Conference of British Methodism to go to Baltimore to look upon your General Conference, and bid a last earthly farewell to brethren whom I esteem and love so much—with whom I was first brought into church membership, by whose Bishop Hedding I was ordained both deacon and elder, and with whom I feel myself as much one this day as I did half a century ago.

My first representative mission was in 1828, to visit and urge upon the late Rev. Dr. Wilbur Fisk, of Wilbraham, Conn., the request of our Conference to become our first bishop; and had he consented, or Dr. Bangs afterwards, I believe it would have been a great blessing to Methodism in Canada; but an overruling Providence ordered it otherwise, and the extension of the work of God, through our ministry and Church, down to the present time, is one of the greatest marvels to ourselves and to others.

For thirty-one years and upwards, by the annual permission of my Conference, I have administered the governmental system of public instruction in this country; but the Government and Legislature have at length acceded to my request to retire, and have done so without reducing my official allowance; and now, in the seventy-fourth year of my age, and fifty-second of my ministry, I am enabled, in the enjoyment of good health, to go in and out, as aforetime, among my brethren, with a brightening hope and increasing desire of soon being permitted to "depart and be with Christ, which is far better," and where I feel sure of joyously meeting thousands of fellow-ministers and labourers whom I have known in the flesh on both sides of the Atlantic.

In May, 1876, Dr. Ryerson went to England to consult works on the history of America in the British Museum Library. Writing to me from near Leeds, just after his arrival, he says:—I was most cordially received by Rev. Gervase Smith, and Dr. Punshon. The latter insisted upon my being his guest first, as he had the strongest claim upon me. I was his guest for eight days—and they were very agreeable days to me. When I came here I was enthusiastically received by the Methodist New Connexion Conference—a most cultured, gentlemanly, and respectable body of men—their whole body being not numerous, but select.

I have thus far enjoyed my visit to this country most thoroughly—free from care, and surrounded by most kind friends and agreeable associations.

Writing to me from London, on the 17th July, he says:—I experienced a great pleasure in my visit to Ireland, in becoming personally acquainted with many of the Irish preachers, and in witnessing their conferential proceedings. They are a faithful, hard-working body of men; they have hard work to do, and their success the last year has been in advance of that of preceding years.

I have seen Mr. Longman in regard to publishing my history. He was very cordial and complimentary. I explained to him in brief the origin and scope of what I had written, and of what I intended to write, and gave him the table of contents of the first fifteen chapters—to the end of the reign of Elizabeth, and the 13th chapter on the "Protestantism of Queen Elizabeth," as published in the Canadian Methodist Magazine.

I was at the Houses of Lords and Commons a part of one afternoon and evening. Sir Stafford Northcote, hearing that I was there, came to me under the Speaker's gallery, and conversed with me nearly half an hour. Other members also spoke to me. Earl Grey recognized me in the street, and stopped and conversed with me.

I go to the Wesleyan Conference at Nottingham next Monday, and may probably remain there ten days. I attended four services yesterday—at 8 a.m. (communion), at the parish Church of St. James, near Piccadilly, where I was lodging; at the Temple at 11 a.m., a grand service, delightful music, and an excellent sermon from Rev. C. J. Vaughan, Master of the Temple; at 3 p.m. at Westminster Abbey—prayers read by the Dean of Lichfield, and sermon by the Dean of Richmond on the words, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,"—a plain, practical sermon, but the music, etc., inferior to that of the Temple. In the evening I went to one of the most fashionable and advanced Ritualistic Churches; poor singing, poorer preaching. Everything pretentious, and certainly not attractive to me. In all three churches, the hymns and tunes were old Methodist hymns and tunes, and well sung.