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

twentieth they reached the scene of the camp-meetings, then just begun by the Magee's and their
Presbyterian associates. All three of the travelers preached, with extraordinary interest, amid these
novel circumstances, near Drake's Creek Meeting-house. Two thousand people were present on
Sunday. Asbury has left us a brief picture of these first meetings of the kind. On the 21st he says:
"Yesterday, and especially during the night, were witnessed scenes of deep interest. In the intervals
between preaching the people refreshed themselves and horses, and returned upon the ground. The
stand was in the open air, embosomed in a wood of lofty beech trees. The ministers of God,
Methodists and Presbyterians, united their labors, and mingled with the childlike simplicity of
primitive times. Fires blazing here and there dispelled the darkness, and the shouts of the redeemed
captives, and the cries of precious souls struggling into life, broke the silence of midnight. The
weather was delightful, as if heaven smiled, while mercy flowed in abundant streams of salvation
to perishing sinners. We suppose there were at least thirty souls converted at this meeting. I rejoice
that God is visiting the sons of the Puritans, who are candid enough to acknowledge their obligations
to the Methodists."
He turned his face eastward again. On his way toward Knoxville he writes: "Here let me record
the gracious dealings of God to my soul in this journey: I have had uncommon peace of mind and
spiritual consolations every day, notwithstanding the long rides I have endured, and the frequent
privations of good water and proper food to which I have been subjected. To me the wilderness and
the solitary places were made as the garden of God, and as the presence-chambers of the King of
kings and Lord of lords."
The journey among the mountains of East Tennessee was, however, to try his utmost patience.
The roads were bad, his horse and chaise were upset, the latter turned bottom upward, and only saved
from being precipitated down the steep rocks by the obstructing trees; the clothing and furniture of
emigrants were spread on the route from their wagons, which had met with similar accidents. Asbury
had but lately taken to a vehicle. He now writes: "We must bid farewell to the chaise; this mode of
conveyance by no means suits the roads of this wilderness; we are obliged to keep one behind the
carriage, with a strap to hold by and prevent accidents, almost continually. I have health and hard
labor, and a constant sense of the favor of God."
On the fourteenth of November he was safe in North Carolina, at "the foot of the grand mountain
division of South Carolina." He had traveled in this western excursion a thousand miles in less than
two months.
On the 15th of September, 1801, he was again climbing the Alleghenies, accompanied by
Nicholas Snethen. When they arrived at the comfortable shelter of the late General Russell's
mansion, Asbury wrote: "I have a partial restoration of health; but the fever returns every morning,
added to which, the severe and constant riding, with want, and generally irregularity, of meals,
becomes in a great degree a cause of sickness. I was pleased to see our local brethren come forty and
fifty miles to visit me. We met with joy, and parted in tears." By the thirtieth he was holding a
Conference at Ebenezer in Tennessee. "Our brethren in Kentucky," he says, "did not attend; they
pleaded the greatness of the work of God. Twelve of us sat in Conference three days, and we had not
an unpleasant countenance, nor did we hear an angry word; and why should it not always be thus?
Are we not the ministers of the meek and lowly, the humble and holy Jesus? N. Snethen gave us two