Plaque a! Gun wen Farm, Corn wall, England 0055 Coll.

2. REV. WILLIAM O’BRYAN: HIS REJECTION BY THE METHODIST CHURCH

In the meanwhile, he was married and became involved in business to support his family. A serious illness in 1804 caused him to remember the original profound conviction of his call which time and negative advice had weakened. Another influence on the life of William O’Bryan occurred in 1808 resulting from the death of his infant son, Ebenezer William O’Bryan. For five years, after recovering from an illness in 1804, he was satisfied to work in the Bodmin Circuit, Cornwall as a local preacher of the Wesleyans, while still in business. His fine presence, courteous manner, great magnetism, and above all, his fervent godliness gave him much popularity as a preacher. In his keen hunting for souls, he grew restive under restraint, over stepped the boundary of the circuit and plunged into the wild wastes of Cornwall and North Devon where the voice of Methodism had never been heard.

“This, in the mind of the Wesleyan authorities, was a dangerous irregularity of method, against which Mr. O’Bryan had been cautioned and, when he appeared at the District Meeting as a candidate for the itinerancy, caused his first rejection. The financial responsibility which would be incurred by accepting a married man, as he now was, was named as the second cause for his final rejec- tion. He at once entered unoccupied fields in a new campaign. His unquestioned moral uprightness, indefatigable labors, and unsparing self-sacrifice made his evangelical message remarkably successful. The generosity which prompted him

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