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

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nation, and, as such, supreme and sovereign over all its states. It was at a period of no little political agitation on the question of state sovereignty that this change was made: the Kentucky "Resolutions of 1798," and those of Virginia, 1799, had become the basis of a State Rights party. A contemporary Methodist preacher (Henry Boehm, still living) records that just previous to this time "there was great political excitement. Federalism and Democracy ran high. Such was the excitement that it separated families, and friends, and members of the Church. I was urged, on every side, to identify myself with one political party or the other, or to express an opinion. I felt sad to see what influence this state of feeling was producing in the Church." It was in such circumstances that the Methodist Episcopal Church took its stand for the National Constitution. After the adoption of that Constitution, Methodism never doubted the sovereign nationality of the republic, and never had the unstatesmanlike folly to recognize any State right of secession, or any sovereignty which is not subordinate to the National sovereignty. During the late civil war it appealed to its Article, as expressing the loyal duty of all its people, and they responded to the appeal with a patriotic devotion surpassed by no other religious communion of the country. [14] [15] Thomas Lyell proposed the abolition of the presiding eldership, but was defeated "after a long debate." Bruce introduced a motion for the ordination of local elders, local preachers having hitherto been admitted only to deacon's orders; it had a tie vote of 44 to 44, and; on motion of Coke, was postponed, "as unfinished business," till the next General Conference. A motion to elect another bishop was lost. The request of the British Conference for the return of Coke was again conceded, on condition that he should at any time be recalled by the demand of three Annual Conferences, and, at furthest, should be back in time for the next General Conference. The subject of slavery was discussed as usual. McCaine introduced it by demanding that it be [16] made the order of the day for a given time. At the appointed time Bruce brought it up by a petition from the Virginia Conference, when McCaine made the motion "that the Question (in the Discipline) concerning it should run thus: 'What shall be done for the extirpation of slavery?'" which was "carried." The Journal then records that "a variety of motions were proposed on the subject, and, after a long conversation, Freeborn Garrettson moved, that the subject of slavery be left to the three bishops, to form such a section to suit the Southern and Northern states, as they in their wisdom may think best, to be submitted to this Conference. Carried. Bishop Asbury having refused to act on the last vote, the question was left open. Ezekiel Cooper moved, that a committee be formed, one from each Conference, to take the different motions and report concerning slavery. Carried. George Dougharty, Philip Bruce, William Burke, Henry Willis, Ezekiel Cooper, Freeborn Garrettson, and Thomas Lyell were appointed." This committee reported a long statute in answer to the new question, "What shall be done for the extirpation of the evil of slavery?" retaining most of the act of 1796, but with modifying phrases; the adjective "African" is dropped and the word "slavery" alone retained. The clause providing for the expulsion of a member who should be guilty of selling a slave was qualified by the proviso, except at the request of the slave, in cases of mercy and humanity, agreeably to the judgment of a committee of the male members of the society, appointed by the preacher who has the charge of the circuit." It was also provided that "if a member of our society shall buy a slave with a certificate of future emancipation, the terms of emancipation shall, notwithstanding, be subject to the decision of the quarterly-meeting conference." Methodists in the states of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee were exempt from the rules on the subject, on account of the stringent laws of these states. The directions, to the Annual Conferences,
to prepare forms of petition to the state legislatures for emancipation were omitted, and it was ordered that "our preachers, from time to time, as occasion serves, admonish and exhort all slaves to render due respect and obedience to the commands and interests of their respective masters." The treatment of their petitions and addresses in the South, and Dougharty's sufferings at Charleston, had evidently somewhat discouraged the preachers; their tone is more subdued, though the law, in its new form, is still very thorough, imposing the penalty of expulsion from the Conference upon any preacher who should "become, by any means, an owner of slaves," unless he should "execute their legal emancipation, if practicable, according to the laws of the state where he lives;" expulsion from the Church, on any member who should sell a slave, and conditional emancipation on any who should purchase one, except at the request of the slave. There was no little significance in the motion of Bruce, made immediately after these proceedings on slavery, that an edition of the "spiritual part" of the Discipline be printed for the slaves, the laws on slavery not being in that newly made division of the book. The next day Dougharty moved that two thousand be thus provided "for the use of the South;" an explanation of the fact that copies of a mutilated edition of the Discipline are still occasionally found in old Methodist families in the South. The Conference adjourned on the twenty-third of May, having sat seventeen days. It "closed," says Lee, "in peace, and the preachers parted in much love; but we had to lament before the Lord that there was very little stir of religion among us during the sitting. One principal reason of our barrenness, I believe, was owing to an improper plan which was adopted by the Conference in the beginning of their business, which was this: to admit men, women, and children into the galleries of the meeting-house to hear our debates. After a few days we were obliged to close the galleries, and sit in private, according to our usual plan. It was to the preachers a good Conference, but there was very little visible good done among the people in general." Coke embarked for Europe, and was to see his American brethren no more; and Whatcoat, the junior bishop by election, but senior by age, was to meet with them no more in a General Conference. ---------------------------------------------------------
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WESLEYAN HERITAGE Library HISTORY O
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HISTORY of the METHODIST EPISCOPAL
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BOOK VI CHAPTER I = PART 58 METHODI
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CHAPTER IX = PART 66 METHODISM IN T
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CHAPTER XV = PART 72 REVIEW OF THE
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disappearance of Coke, Asbury, What
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convened, a second time, in Wilbrah
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yet I did not go out that year; but
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He returned again to New Jersey in
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Asbury pressed on westward with his
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congregation, and meanwhile advanci
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direction of the presiding elder, G
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traveled in Massachusetts, Rhode Is
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knowledge. His judgment was always
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He did great services and endured g
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of the itinerants. There was no one
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found adequate to the singular exig
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as a sail in a leaking canoe, and p
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[16] of his decease, sent home for
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passing through small villages; but
Page 41 and 42: HISTORY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL
Page 43 and 44: God. The Scotchman could endure it
Page 45 and 46: [7] Conference till the next year.
Page 47 and 48: y his own hands, and his furniture
Page 49 and 50: there were three circuits, with thr
Page 51 and 52: performed incredible labors and tra
Page 53 and 54: Before he reached the last stanza h
Page 55 and 56: "in the wilds of Virginia, where he
Page 57 and 58: ed, and trembling with agitation. E
Page 59 and 60: this melancholy record. I never rea
Page 61 and 62: at Cabbin Creek, Ky., twenty thousa
Page 63 and 64: in that vast wilderness, and had no
Page 65 and 66: poles. This was their bedstead. Som
Page 67 and 68: Benjamin Lakin, Samuel Doughty John
Page 69 and 70: Gibson. "Here," say his brethren, "
Page 71 and 72: of the Little Miami River. On Thurs
Page 73 and 74: Circuit) for this year began at Moo
Page 75 and 76: Sale, J. Oglesby; Guyandotte, Asa S
Page 77 and 78: worst for stealing, fighting, and l
Page 79 and 80: twentieth they reached the scene of
Page 81 and 82: the toil and sufferings, of another
Page 83 and 84: ENDNOTES 1 See Extracts by Bishop M
Page 85 and 86: 37 Rev. Dr. Trimble's Address at Oh
Page 87 and 88: my father's neighborhood. The Confe
Page 89 and 90: attempted also to make local preach
Page 91: tireless apostle completed by the n
Page 95 and 96: HISTORY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL
Page 97 and 98: a change which it has always since
Page 99 and 100: Methodism was now entrenched in eve
Page 101 and 102: ENDNOTES 1 Bangs, (II, p. 171,) fol
Page 103 and 104: Methodists in other places, and wis
Page 105 and 106: are reported from Flint Circuit. Th
Page 107 and 108: Russell, fallen as he was from the
Page 109 and 110: ENDNOTES 1 Bangs, ii, 194. Dunwody'
Page 111 and 112: intensely bright by the grateful jo
Page 113 and 114: eached the furthest end of the piaz
Page 115 and 116: his humble shed and the chancel whe
Page 117 and 118: class-meetings, and to no small ext
Page 119 and 120: 1 Minutes, 1858. ENDNOTES 2 Rev. Dr
Page 121 and 122: grandchildren were gay and playful;
Page 123 and 124: in a swamp on the Waccamaw Lake, a
Page 125 and 126: ENDNOTE 1 A few months ago, accompa
Page 127 and 128: Asbury, in the summer of 180, wrote
Page 129 and 130: means by which this necessary objec
Page 131 and 132: I should have to preach, but determ
Page 133 and 134: themselves, it was resolved that th
Page 135 and 136: ENDNOTES 1 Bangs, though his narrat
Page 137 and 138: directions, preaching as far as Buf
Page 139 and 140: and in the States, from the Ulster
Page 141 and 142: Conference sent over three missiona
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1814 Michael Coate, of New Jersey,
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1 Peck's "Early Methodism," p. 158.
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limits, when it will devolve upon t
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That very significant and convenien
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Channing, the elder Beecher, Wainwr
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in the eyes of the people, and grea
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HISTORY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL
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own souls, because ye were dear unt
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Early in the spring of 1808 he retu
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seventeen preachers upon trial. The
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this meeting. Monday, 22d, I turned
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strengthened the whole denomination
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savage men, and venomous serpents."
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indescribable. At one time I saw at
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extraordinary learning, of tireless
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oom; but, finding there no means of
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By the end of our present period th
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some sixty or seventy souls. They a
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stacked away at the end of the cour
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olled over the whole Conference." H
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ashamed of yourselves?' which only
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living; I have outlived every membe
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iographer of the itinerant. Born in
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gentleman. While the circles of fas
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His itinerant ministry in the West
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took a prominent part in the great
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to the people, and to go back to Na
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country. These were about to return
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of preachers had increased thirty-f
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1 Rev. F. C. Holliday, in Sprague,
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Astonishing, superhuman almost, as
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of "through the interior of Louisia
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their children. In ten years, I thi
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hates the nefarious practice. In th
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These extraordinary facts excited n
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15 I must remind the reader that I
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[3] and threatened to return home.
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he prepared for South Carolina, wit
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the expediency of increasing the nu
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1 General Conference Journal,, vol.
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itinerants he said, "See that every
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In our day (1866) the Methodist Boo
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edifice was soon after provided in
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in both hemispheres, and which prop
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even romantic record, but our limit
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He organized the Liberia Mission. H
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and the moral prospects of the worl
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ut we may well hesitate to admit th
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They preached and suffered in Engla
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ENDNOTES 1 An error in the Minutes
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and great labors; his charity, his
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directing the advancing Church with
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history, and presents, in full vita
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