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

God. The Scotchman could endure it no longer. He again sprang to his feet, and shouted at the top
of his shattered voice, "Follow me, follow me, and leave the babbler to himself." Only some two or
three obeyed him. Cook was too much absorbed to pay the slightest attention to the ravings or flight
of his opponent. He pressed directly forward with his argument, dealing out at every step the most
startling demonstrations against error in faith and practice. Long before the mighty effort was
brought to a close the whole assembly were on their feet, all eagerly listening, and unconsciously
pressing toward the speaker. Every eye was fixed, every ear was opened, and every heart was
tremblingly alive to the importance of the theme. When he took his seat all faces were upturned, and
for the most part bathed in tears. The great multitude stood for some time like statues, no one
appearing disposed to move, utter a word, or leave the place. All seemed to be overwhelmed,
astonished, and captivated. At last the spell-bound multitude retired, "silent as a funeral procession.''
"It is well known," adds Cook's biographer, "that this controversy was the means of opening to her
ministry a 'great and effectual door' of usefulness. From that day forward the Methodist Church, in
all that mountain range of country,
The next year Daniel Hitt had charge of the vast district, a Virginian, who began to travel in 1790,
and became distinguished, throughout the Connection, as an effective laborer, the traveling
companion of Asbury and McKendree, and for eight years the Book Agent of the Church in New
York city; and who died, after a ministry of thirty-five years, in Washington County, Md., in 1825,
in the hope of the gospel. For eighteen years he had charge of districts which comprised more
territory each than most present individual Conferences. Like Asbury, McKendree, Lee, and many
of the early leaders of Methodism, he remained unmarried, through life, that he might give himself
entirely to his work. He was exceedingly particular and neat in his dress, the customary Quakerlike
costume of his brethren, the single-breasted coat, broad-brimmed hat and long hair. He was of grave
if not stern manners, a good counselor, a plain but, at times, very powerful preacher, and inflexibly
decided in his opinions, not to say prejudices.
James Quinn, to whom we have been already indebted for many historical reminiscences of this
region, appears for the first time on the list of its appointments in 1709. He was born in it (in
Washington County) in 1775, and lived to be its most venerable representative of his Church. His
family early moved to Fayette County, where they heard the first Methodist itinerants who crossed
the Alleghenies, and became their disciples. It was not till the eleventh year of his age that young
[2]
Quinn heard a sermon; he had then the great privilege of hearing the saintly Peter Moriarty. In his
[3]
thirteenth year he witnessed the second Conference beyond the Alleghenies, at Uniontown, Pa. He
was converted, and joined the Methodists in 1792, under the ministry of Daniel Fidler and James
Coleman, whom we have already met in far off fields of labor. He was immediately pressed into
active service in the Church, and in 1790 was received on probation by the Baltimore Conference,
and appointed to Greenfield Circuit, which extended into three counties. Before the year ended he
was tossed about on at least three similar circuits. Thus began his long and faithful career, in which
we shall often meet him again, for his life, during more than half a century, was almost a history of
Western Methodism. More than half a century after he began his ministry he stood in a Conference
in Ohio, and could say, "And now here I am, 'a reed shaken with the wind,' a feeble old man,
trembling as I lean upon the top of my staff; but where am I? In the midst of a Conference of
ministers, near one hundred and fifty in number, most of whom have been twice born since the time
of which I speak. Among them are the sons, the grandsons, and great-grandsons, of those who kindly