History of the M.E. Church, Vol. IV - Media Sabda Org

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preach. Evans was from Virginia; a shoemaker by trade, and, I think, was born free. He became a Christian and a Methodist quite young, and was licensed to preach in Virginia. While yet a young man he determined to remove to Charleston, S. C., thinking he might succeed best there at his trade. But having reached Fayetteville on his way to Charleston, his spirit was stirred at perceiving that the people of his race in that town were wholly given to profanity and lewdness, never hearing preaching of any denomination. This determined him to stop in Fayetteville, and he began to preach to the Negroes with great effect. The town council interfered, and nothing in his power could prevail with them to permit him to preach. He then withdrew to the sand-hills, out of town, and held meetings in the woods, changing his appointments from place to place. No law was violated, while the council was effectually eluded, and so the opposition passed into the hands of the mob. These he worried out by changing his appointments, so that when they went to work their will upon him, he was preaching somewhere else. Meanwhile, whatever the most honest purpose of a simple heart could do to reconcile his enemies, was employed by him for that end. He eluded no one in private, but sought opportunities to explain himself; avowed the purity of his intentions, and even begged to be subjected to the scrutiny of any surveillance that might be thought proper to prove his inoffensiveness; anything, so that he might but be allowed to preach. Happily for him and the cause of religion, his honest countenance and earnest pleading were soon powerfully seconded by the fruits of his labors. One after another began to suspect their servants of attending his preaching, not because they were made worse, but wonderfully better. The effect on the public morals of the Negroes, too, began to be seen, particularly as regarded their habits on Sunday, and drunkenness, and it was not long before the mob was called off by a change in the current of opinion, and Evans was allowed to preach in town. At that time there was not a single church edifice in town, and but one congregation, (Presbyterian,) which worshipped in what was called the State-house, under which was the market, and it was plainly Evans or nobody to preach to the Negroes. Now, too, of the mistresses there were not a few, and some masters, who were brought to think that the preaching which had proved so beneficial to their servants might be good for them also, and the famous Negro preacher had some whites as well as blacks to hear him. From these the gracious influence spread to others, and a meeting-house was built. It was a frame of wood, weather-boarded only on the outside, without plastering, about fifty feet long by thirty wide. Seats, distinctly separated, were at first appropriated to the whites, near the pulpit. But Evans had already become famous, and these seats were insufficient. Indeed, the Negroes seemed likely to lose their preacher, Negro though he was; while the whites, crowded out of their seats, took possession of those in the rear. Meanwhile Evans had represented to the preacher of Bladen Circuit how things were going, and induced him to take his meeting-house into the circuit, and constitute a Church there. And now there was no longer room for the Negroes in the house when Evans preached; and, for the accommodation of both classes, the weather-boards were knocked off; and sheds were added to the house on either side; the whites occupying the whole of the original building, and the Negroes these sheds as a part of the same house, Evans' dwelling was a shed at the pulpit end of the church. And that was the identical state of the case when I was pastor. Often was I in that shed, and much to my edification, I have not known many preachers who appeared more conversant with Scripture than Evans, or whose conversation was more instructive as to the things of God. He was a Boanerges, and in his duty feared not the face of man. He died during my stay in Fayetteville in 1810. The death of such a man could not but be triumphant, and his was distinguishingly so. I was with him just before he died. His last breath was drawn in the act of pronouncing, 1 Cor. xv, 57, 'Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.' On the Sunday before his death the little door between
his humble shed and the chancel where I stood was opened, and the dying man entered for a last farewell to his people. He was almost too feeble to stand at all, but, supporting himself by the railing of the chancel, he said, 'I have come to say my last word to you. It is this: None but Christ. Three times I have had my life in jeopardy for preaching the gospel to you, Three times I have broken the ice on the edge of the water and swum across the Cape Fear to preach the gospel to you, and now, if in my last hour I could trust to that, or to anything else but Christ crucified, for my salvation, all should be lost, and my soul perish forever.' A noble testimony! worthy, not of Evans only, but St. Paul. His funeral at the church was attended by a greater concourse of persons than had been seen on any funeral occasion before. The whole community appeared to mourn his death, and the universal feeling seemed to be that in honoring the memory of Henry Evans we were paying a tribute to virtue and religion. He was buried under the chancel of the church of which he had been in so remarkable a manner the founder." At the Conference in the latter part of 1810, Capers was sent to Charleston. At this time there were seventy-four preachers belonging to the Conference, employed on thirty-nine circuits and stations, of which twenty-four belonged to South Carolina, and that part of North Carolina lying south of Cape Fear and the head-waters of Yadkin; fourteen belonged to Georgia, and there were two preachers employed as missionaries in Alabama. The returns gave seventeen thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight whites, and eight thousand two hundred and two colored members. Charleston had yet but two churches, Cumberland Street and Bethel; Hammett's "Trinity Church" having not yet been ceded to the denomination. The antislavery measures of Methodism had arrayed the community against it. Even native preachers, belonging to slave-holding families, like Capers, were hardly allowed to preach to the colored people for miles around the city; but there were some "extraordinary colored men," who were "raised up for the exigencies of these times in the city Churches, such as Castile Selby, Amos Baxter, Thomas Smith, Peter Simpson, Smart Simpson, Harry Bull, Richard Halloway, Alek Harlston, and others, men of deep piety and natural talents, who were made preachers, and were sent out by Capers and his colleagues to minister to the slaves on the plantations in all directions. It was thus that Methodism got its powerful hold on the black population of South Carolina. They labored successfully on Goose Creek, Cooper River, Wanda, in St. Paul's parish, St. James, St. John, and Wadmalaw Islands, even as far as Pon-Pon River. The opposition of masters to the labors of white preachers among the slaves led to a compromise of the stringent policy of the Church against slavery. About this time we perceive the tendency to a more moderate course in even Asbury's resolute mind. In 1809 he writes, in the South, "We are defrauded of great numbers by the pains that are taken to keep the blacks from us; their masters are afraid of the influence of our principles. Would not an amelioration in the condition and treatment of slaves have produced more practical good to the poor Africans than any attempt at their emancipation? The state of society, unhappily, does not admit of this; besides, the blacks are deprived of the means of instruction; who will take the pains to lead them into the way of salvation, and watch over them, that they may not stray, but the Methodists? Well, now their masters will not let them come to hear us. What is the personal liberty of the African, which he may abuse to the salvation of his soul! How may it be [5] compared?" This was an honest but fatal expediency. Asbury took his bias from the preachers and planters of the South. It was the crisis of Methodist anti-slavery opinion. Steadily hereafter compromise and retrogression mark the policy of the Church, followed at last by fierce reaction controversy, schism, rebellion, and devastating war.
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WESLEYAN HERITAGE Library HISTORY O
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HISTORY of the METHODIST EPISCOPAL
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BOOK VI CHAPTER I = PART 58 METHODI
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CHAPTER IX = PART 66 METHODISM IN T
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CHAPTER XV = PART 72 REVIEW OF THE
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disappearance of Coke, Asbury, What
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convened, a second time, in Wilbrah
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yet I did not go out that year; but
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He returned again to New Jersey in
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Asbury pressed on westward with his
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congregation, and meanwhile advanci
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direction of the presiding elder, G
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traveled in Massachusetts, Rhode Is
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knowledge. His judgment was always
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He did great services and endured g
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of the itinerants. There was no one
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found adequate to the singular exig
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as a sail in a leaking canoe, and p
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[16] of his decease, sent home for
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passing through small villages; but
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HISTORY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL
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God. The Scotchman could endure it
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[7] Conference till the next year.
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y his own hands, and his furniture
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there were three circuits, with thr
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performed incredible labors and tra
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Before he reached the last stanza h
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"in the wilds of Virginia, where he
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ed, and trembling with agitation. E
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this melancholy record. I never rea
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at Cabbin Creek, Ky., twenty thousa
Page 63 and 64: in that vast wilderness, and had no
Page 65 and 66: poles. This was their bedstead. Som
Page 67 and 68: Benjamin Lakin, Samuel Doughty John
Page 69 and 70: Gibson. "Here," say his brethren, "
Page 71 and 72: of the Little Miami River. On Thurs
Page 73 and 74: Circuit) for this year began at Moo
Page 75 and 76: Sale, J. Oglesby; Guyandotte, Asa S
Page 77 and 78: worst for stealing, fighting, and l
Page 79 and 80: twentieth they reached the scene of
Page 81 and 82: the toil and sufferings, of another
Page 83 and 84: ENDNOTES 1 See Extracts by Bishop M
Page 85 and 86: 37 Rev. Dr. Trimble's Address at Oh
Page 87 and 88: my father's neighborhood. The Confe
Page 89 and 90: attempted also to make local preach
Page 91 and 92: tireless apostle completed by the n
Page 93 and 94: to prepare forms of petition to the
Page 95 and 96: HISTORY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL
Page 97 and 98: a change which it has always since
Page 99 and 100: Methodism was now entrenched in eve
Page 101 and 102: ENDNOTES 1 Bangs, (II, p. 171,) fol
Page 103 and 104: Methodists in other places, and wis
Page 105 and 106: are reported from Flint Circuit. Th
Page 107 and 108: Russell, fallen as he was from the
Page 109 and 110: ENDNOTES 1 Bangs, ii, 194. Dunwody'
Page 111 and 112: intensely bright by the grateful jo
Page 113: eached the furthest end of the piaz
Page 117 and 118: class-meetings, and to no small ext
Page 119 and 120: 1 Minutes, 1858. ENDNOTES 2 Rev. Dr
Page 121 and 122: grandchildren were gay and playful;
Page 123 and 124: in a swamp on the Waccamaw Lake, a
Page 125 and 126: ENDNOTE 1 A few months ago, accompa
Page 127 and 128: Asbury, in the summer of 180, wrote
Page 129 and 130: means by which this necessary objec
Page 131 and 132: I should have to preach, but determ
Page 133 and 134: themselves, it was resolved that th
Page 135 and 136: ENDNOTES 1 Bangs, though his narrat
Page 137 and 138: directions, preaching as far as Buf
Page 139 and 140: and in the States, from the Ulster
Page 141 and 142: Conference sent over three missiona
Page 143 and 144: 1814 Michael Coate, of New Jersey,
Page 145 and 146: 1 Peck's "Early Methodism," p. 158.
Page 147 and 148: limits, when it will devolve upon t
Page 149 and 150: That very significant and convenien
Page 151 and 152: Channing, the elder Beecher, Wainwr
Page 153 and 154: in the eyes of the people, and grea
Page 155 and 156: HISTORY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL
Page 157 and 158: own souls, because ye were dear unt
Page 159 and 160: Early in the spring of 1808 he retu
Page 161 and 162: seventeen preachers upon trial. The
Page 163 and 164: this meeting. Monday, 22d, I turned
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strengthened the whole denomination
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savage men, and venomous serpents."
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indescribable. At one time I saw at
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extraordinary learning, of tireless
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oom; but, finding there no means of
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By the end of our present period th
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some sixty or seventy souls. They a
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stacked away at the end of the cour
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olled over the whole Conference." H
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ashamed of yourselves?' which only
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living; I have outlived every membe
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iographer of the itinerant. Born in
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gentleman. While the circles of fas
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His itinerant ministry in the West
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took a prominent part in the great
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to the people, and to go back to Na
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country. These were about to return
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of preachers had increased thirty-f
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1 Rev. F. C. Holliday, in Sprague,
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Astonishing, superhuman almost, as
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of "through the interior of Louisia
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their children. In ten years, I thi
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hates the nefarious practice. In th
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These extraordinary facts excited n
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15 I must remind the reader that I
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[3] and threatened to return home.
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he prepared for South Carolina, wit
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the expediency of increasing the nu
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1 General Conference Journal,, vol.
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itinerants he said, "See that every
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In our day (1866) the Methodist Boo
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edifice was soon after provided in
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in both hemispheres, and which prop
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even romantic record, but our limit
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He organized the Liberia Mission. H
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and the moral prospects of the worl
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ut we may well hesitate to admit th
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They preached and suffered in Engla
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ENDNOTES 1 An error in the Minutes
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and great labors; his charity, his
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directing the advancing Church with
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history, and presents, in full vita
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