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

tireless apostle completed by the next General Conference, which assembled in Light Street Church,
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Baltimore, May the 7th, 1804. Coke, "as senior bishop," presided. John Wilson was elected
Secretary. The records present, for the first time, a list of the members, who amounted to a hundred
and twelve; five, however, were "excepted" as not entitled to vote, not having traveled four years.
Many of the chief men of the ministry were there: among them Burke from the West; Pickering and
Joshua Taylor from the East; Garrettson, Ostrander, Crawford, Hunt, and Sawyer from New York
Conference; from that of Philadelphia, McClaskey, Sargent, Ware, Owen, Woolsey, Cooper, Colbert,
Sharpe, Roberts, Chandler, and other similar characters; from that of Baltimore, Henry Willis,
George, McCombs, Wells, Henry Smith, Quinn, Hitt, Snethen, Watters, Fleming; from that of
Virginia, Lee, McCaine, Bruce; from that of South Carolina, Dougharty and Jenkins. William Black,
of Nova Scotia, was also present as a guest, and was allowed to speak, but not to vote, on the
questions discussed. The Philadelphia Conference was represented by thirty-seven, Baltimore by
thirty, New England by but four, and the great Western field by three. Philadelphia and Baltimore
had sixty-seven or the members, nearly two thirds of the whole Conference. It was obvious that a
reorganization of the body, on the principle of delegation, had become necessary, but it was deferred
to the next session. [11]
The Discipline was elaborately revised, section by section, Coke reading item after item, and the
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Conference debating with no little interest. Some changes were made. The bishops were required
to allow the Annual Conferences to sit a week at least; hitherto they could conclude them at their
own discretion. They still retained the right to appoint the times, but not the places of the sessions.
They were not allowed to appoint preachers for more than two successive years to the same
appointment; hitherto there had been no restriction, and some had been three years in one
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appointment." Asbury rejoiced in the new rule as a great relief to the appointing power. The title
of "Quarterly Meeting Conference" was given to the quarterly assembly of the official members of
the circuits. Provision was made for the election of a presiding elder, to preside in all Annual
Conference, in case of the absence of a bishop. The law against the marriage of Church members
with "unawakened persons"' was modified, the penalty being no longer expulsion, but that the
offender shall "be put back on trial for six months." The "Book Concern" was ordered to be removed
from Philadelphia to New York, and Ezekiel Cooper was re-appointed agent, with Daniel Wilson
as assistant. It was recommended to the Annual Conferences to restrain preachers from imprudent
publications, by requiring their manuscripts too be submitted to their respective Conferences, or to
the Book Committee at New York.
At the organization of the Church, in 1784, it was the first religious body of the country to insert
in its constitutional law (in its Articles of Religion) a recognition of the new government, enforcing
patriotism on its communicants. A very noteworthy modification (peculiarly interesting in our day)
was made in this article at the present session. In the original article it was affirmed that the
"Congress," etc., "are the officers of the United States of America, according to the division of power
made to them by the General Act of Confederation," etc., the national constitution having not yet
been adopted; but the present Conference, by a motion of Ezekiel Cooper, (a man noted for his
sagacity,) struck out all allusion to the "Act of Confederation," inserting in its stead "the Constitution
of the United States," etc., and declared that "the said states are a sovereign and independent nation."
Methodism thus deliberately, and in its constitutional law, recognized that the "Constitution"
superseded the "Act of Confederation," and that the republic was no longer a confederacy but a