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

sermons. We ordained on Friday, Saturday, and Sabbath day, and upon each day I improved a little
on the duties of ministers. On the Lord's day we assembled in the woods, and made a large
congregation. My subject was Isa. lxii, 1. On Friday and Saturday evenings, and on Sabbath morning,
there was the noise of praise and shouting in the meeting-house. It is thought there are twenty-five
souls who have found the Lord; they are chiefly the children of Methodists, the children of faith and
of many prayers. Monday, October 5, we parted in great love. Our company made twelve miles to
Isaiah Harrison's, and next day reached the Warm Springs upon French Broad River."
He and Snethen spent about two weeks more, west of the mountains, traveling, and preaching in
cabins and under trees; but we have only brief notes of their progress. They made their way back to
South Carolina, and hastened south, north, and east as usual. In the midsummer of 1802 the bishop,
with Snethen, was again approaching the mountains, and writing, "My mind is freely stayed upon
God, my guide in life and death." By the tenth of September he says: "We came upon Holston. I
found the people praising God. A blessed revival had taken place. Fourteen or fifteen times have I
toiled over the mighty mountains, and nearly twenty years have we labored upon Holston and lo, the
rage of wild and Christian savages is tamed, and God hath glorified himself. Sweet peace fills my
mind, and glorious prospects of Zion's prosperity cheer my heart. We have not, shall not, labor in
vain. Not unto us, not unto us, but to Jehovah, be all the glory on earth, and in heaven forever!"
He went preaching through Tennessee till the second of October, when he opened the Conference
at Bethel, Cumberland. William Hodge and William Magee, Presbyterian ministers of camp-meeting
fame, were present, and preached with "great fervency." Thirteen members attended. It was at this
session that they disposed of the sad case of their old chieftain, Poythress, and received Jacob Young,
Ralph Lotspeich, Jesse Walker, James Gwinn, Leven Edney, and William Crutchfield, some of them
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still remembered as eminent evangelists." After laboring nearly two weeks longer in Tennessee
the bishop returned through his usual western trials. On the eighteenth he writes: "We continued on
until half past six o'clock, then stopped, struck a fire, and encamped under a heavy mountain dew,
which, when the wind shook the trees, fell like rain upon us. Brother McKendree made me a tent of
his own and John Watson's blankets, and happily saved me from taking cold while l slept about two
hours under my grand "marquee" (canopy, large tent -- DVM). Brother McKendree threw his cloak
over the limb of a tree, and he and his companion took shelter underneath, and slept also. I will not
be rash, I dare not be rash in my protestations against any country; but I think I will never more brave
the wilderness without a tent. On Tuesday, after riding fifty miles, a part of ninety three miles in two
days, we came about eight o'clock to West Point."
Several times during this journey the horses of the bishop and his traveling companion had
perilous falls upon the difficult paths. By one of them Snethen was so injured that he had to be "left,
lame, upon the road." Asbury could stop for no man; yet, while hastening on, he was himself
desperately ill. He writes: "I have been sick for twenty-three days. Ah, the tale of woe I might relate!
My dear McKendree had to lift me up and down from my horse like a helpless child. For my sickness
and sufferings I conceive I am indebted to sleeping uncovered in the wilderness. I could not have
slept but for the aid of laudanum [Oxford Dict. laudanum n. a solution containing morphine and
prepared from opium, formerly used as a narcotic painkiller -- DVM]. Meantime my spirits and
patience were wonderfully preserved in general, although I was sometimes hardly restrained from
crying, 'Lord, let me die!' for death hath no terrors, and I could not but reflect upon my escape from