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

HISTORY OF THE
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
By Abel Stevens
CHAPTER XXI
THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1800 AND 1804
Coke returns to America -- Session of 1800 -- Ordination of Whatcoat -- Accounts of the
Conference -- Lee -- Coke -- Asbury -- "Allowance" to Preachers -- Other Provisions -- Anticipatory
Measures -- Richard Allen, the first African ordained in the Church -- Antislavery Enactments --
William Ormond against Slavery -- Leading Members follow his Example -- Additions to the Law
of the Church on the Subject -- Religious Excitement -- Catherine Bruff (Catherine Ennalls) -- Coke
revisits the United States -- General Conference of 1804 -- Its Members -- Unequal Representation
-- Necessity of a Delegated General Conference -- Revision and Changes of the Discipline --
Important Declaration on the National Sovereignty -- Slavery again Discussed -- The Adjournment
Two more General Conferences pertain to our present period, the sessions of 1800 and 1804.
Coke, since his last departure from America, in 1797, had been laboring, with his usual energy,
in Scotland, Ireland, and England. Asbury and the Virginia Conference had remitted, as far as they
were able, the obligation of his pledge to serve the American Church. The English, and especially
the Irish, Conferences entreated for a continued share in his labors. "They saw in him," says their
historian, "the spirit of missionary enterprise combined with a perfect knowledge of the details of
the work, together with a quenchless zeal, which was altogether marvelous. They clearly perceived
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that the Methodism of England needed such a man, and sought to reclaim him." They now sent
with him, to America, letters praying for the repeal of his pledge. It was his eighth voyage to the new
world. His journals of the visit are lost; we only know that he made his customary inspection of the
West India Missions, and arrived at Baltimore in time for the session of the Conference.
It began on Tuesday, May 6, 1800. Its published journals give no roll of its members, and the
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briefest possible outline of its proceedings; but, happily, a spectator of the occasion has recorded
some account of it. He says: "The General Conference of 1800 was one of the most remarkable in
the history of our Church. The revival at that time was the greatest that has ever occurred during the
session of any General Conference. I was a visitor, and had peculiar opportunities to witness the
wonderful scenes that created joy on earth and in heaven. All the accounts we have had are extremely
meager. As I have been preserved, while all who were actors in those scenes are gone, I will describe
what I heard and saw at that time. It is not generally known that the greatest displays of divine power,
and the most numerous conversion, were in private houses, in prayer-meetings. And yet the
preaching was highly honored of God, for the ministers were endued with power from on high. I kept
in my journal a particular account of their texts and themes. The General Conference commenced
its session on Tuesday, May 6, in Light Street, Baltimore. All the General Conferences, from the
famous Christmas Conference to the first delegated Conference, were held in Baltimore. Baltimore
was a small place to what it is now. We then called it Baltimore town. The Methodists had two
church edifices, one in Light Street, the other in Oldtown, which was in the suburbs. This was the
first time I had ever seen a body of Methodist preachers; only now and then one wended his way to