rs more
particularly to this illness (pp. 28, 39, and elsewhere). It was a
turning point in his life, and decided him to enter the ministry on his
twenty-second birthday.--J. G. H.

[5] Dr. Ryerson refers in another chapter to the overtures which were
made to him at this time to enter the ministry of the Church of
England.--J. G. H.

CHAPTER III.

1825-1826.

First Year of my Ministry and First Controversy.

My first appointment after my admission on trial was to the (what was
then called the York and Yonge Street Circuit), which then embraced the
Town of York (now the City of Toronto) Weston, the Townships of Vaughan,
King, West Gwillimbury, North Gwillimbury, East Gwillimbury, Whitchurch,
Markham, Pickering, Scarboro', and York, over which we travelled, and
preached from twenty-five to thirty-five sermons in four weeks,
preaching generally three times on Sabbath and attending three class
meetings, besides preaching and attending class meetings on week days.
The roads were (if in any place they could be called roads) bad beyond
description; could only be travelled on horse-back, and on foot; the
labours hard, and the accommodations of the most primitive kind; but we
were received as angels of God by the people, our ministrations being
almost the only supply of religious instruction to them; and nothing
they valued more than to have the preacher partake of their humble and
best hospitality.

It was during the latter part of this the first year of my itinerant
ministry (April and May, 1826) that I was drawn and forced into the
controversy on the Clergy Reserves and equal civil and religious rights
and privileges among all religious persuasions in Upper Canada.[6] There
had been some controversy between the leaders of the Churches of England
and Scotland on their comparative standing as established churches in
Upper Canada. In my earliest years, I had read and studied Blackstone's
Commentaries on the laws of England, especially the rights of the Crown,
and Parliament and Subject, Paley's Moral and Political Philosophy; and
when I read and observed the character of the policy, and state of
things in Canada, I felt that it was not according to the principles of
British liberty, or of the British Constitution; but I had not the
slightest idea of writing anything on the subject.

At this juncture, (April, 1826,) a publication appeared, entitled
"Sermon Preached and Published by the Venerable Archdeacon of Yor