His services to the missionary cause were perhaps the most important of all his vast and varied labors. He was one of the founders of the. Methodist Mission- ary Society ; he framed its original Constitution; he v rote its first " Circular Address" to the church. Dur- ing sixteen years prior to the organization of the sec- retaryship as a special and salaried function, he la- bored jndefatigably and gratuitously for the society as its vice-president, secretary, or treasurer. He wrote in these years all its annual reports. In 1836 he was
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appointed " Missionary Secretary." He now devoted his entire energies to the Missionary Society, conduct- ing its correspondence, seeking missionaries for it, planning its mission-fields, pleading for it in the pul- pits, and representing it in the Conferences until 1841, ■when he accepted the presidency of the Wesleyan Uni- versity at Middletown, Conn. In 1842 he returned to pastoral work in New York, and remained in active service until 1852. The remainder of his life was passed in quiet literary labor, with occasional preach- ing as his health served. Much of the literary labor of Ins later years was devoted to the exposition of the doctrine of entire sanctitication. In his eightieth year he preached with vigor, and his writings of that period are luminous and powerful. His last sermon was on the certain triumph of the Gospel. He died in great peace May 3, 1862.
Dr. Bangs was a man of vigor and force — a fighter, when need be, to the last. " No man could show a nobler indignation against anything unrighteous or mean ; no man could speak more unflinchingly or di- rectly to the very face and teeth of a pretentious, an evasive, or disingenuous disputant, but no man ever had a more genial heart, a more instinctive sympathy with whatever is generous, heroic, or tender. His friendships were as steadfast as adamant. Unlike most old men, he was, to the last, progressive in his views. He sympathized with all well-considered meas- ures for the improvement of his church, but its old honor was dearer to him than life, and woe to the man that dare impeach it in his presence. To him its his- tory was all providential, and the very necessity of changes was the gracious summons of Providence for it to arise and shine still brighter. This hearty, reso- lute love of his friends and Ins cause, was one of the strongest, noblest traits of the war-worn old hero. It made him lovable as he was loving. His old age seemed to mellow rather than wither his generous dis- positions. He was always deeply devout, but with advanced years he seemed to attain advanced heights of Christian experience and consolation. The Pauline doctrine of sanctitication, as denned by Wesley, be- came his habitual theme ofiiiierest and conversation. He delighted to attend social gatherings for prayer on this subject, and during several late years he presided over one of the most frequented assemblies of this kind in New York. He seemed to take increasingly cheer- ful views of life, and of the prospects of the kingdom of God in the world, as he approached the end of his career. There was no querulousness in his temper, no repining in his conversation, at the changes which ware displacing him from public view."
His writings alone would have made him an histor- ical character of his church. His editorial productions in the Advocate, the Magazine, and the Quarterly Re- r:< w would fill scores of volumes. His Annual Mis- sionary Reports would make no small library of mis- sionary literature. His more substantial publications are more numerous than those of any other American Methodist. As early as 1809 he began his career as an author by a volume against " Christianism," an heretical sect of New England. Three years later the General Conference appointed him chairman of a com- mittee to collect the historical materials of the denom- ination, and thus began the researches which resulted in his History of tlie Methodist Episcopal Church. Be- fore the appearance of this, his most important pro- duction, he published Errors of //ojikinsianism (1815, 12nio) ; Predestimd'on examined (1817, 12mo) ; Refor- mer Reformed (1818, 12mo); Methodist E.piscopacy (1*820, 12mo) ; Life of the Rev. Freeborn Garrettson, one of the best of our biographies, and an essential collection of data for the history of the church. In 1832 appeared his Authentic History of the Missions tauter tin- emu if the Methodist Episcopal Church, a volume which has aided much the missionary enterprise of the denomi- nation. In 1835 he published Letters to a Young Preach-
er, full of excellent counsels on ministerial habits, on books, study, preaching, etc. ; and in 1836, TJie Orig- inal Church of Christ (12mo). In 1839 appeared the first volume of his History of the M. E. Church. In three years the remaining three volumes were issued. It was a book for the times, if not for all time. His other publications are an Essay on Emancipation (1818, 8vo); Stale and Responsibilities of the Methodist Epis- copal Church (1850, 12mo); Letters on Sonet feat ion (1851, 12mo); Life of Arminius (18mo); and numerous ; occasional sermons. His scheme of " Emancipation" is substantially that recommended in the message of I the President of the United States to Congress, 1862. I "Let Congress," he says, "make a proposition to the several slave states that so much per head shall be al- lowed for every slave that shall be emancipated, leav- I ing it to the state Legislatures respectively to adopt | their own measures to effect the object." Thus did i this sagacious old man anticipate by several years the I best suggestion which our national leaders were able to utter on our greatest national problem before its final solution by the sword. It is elaborated with skilful and intrepid ability, and fortified by decisive proofs from facts and figures. It has been said of his concluding "array of motives to emancipation," that they "are strong enough, one would think, to rouse all but the dead to the importance of the task." See Stevens, Life and Times of Xatlian Bangs, D.D. (N. Y. 1863, 12mo) ; Ladies' Repository, June, 1859 ; The Mt th- odist, May 10, 1862 ; Methodist Quarterly, Januarv, 1864, p. 172. '