A History Of The Rise Of Methodism In America - Media Sabda Org

When Mr. Shadford arrived, he found him chained in bed; for the family supposed him to be mad,
or possessed of the devil. Mr. Shadford told him of the love of Christ, in dying for sinners; and the
young man laid hold of the name of Christ, and said he would call on the name of the Saviour as long
as he lived. They knocked his chain off; and shortly afterwards the Saviour unchained him, and made
him "free indeed."
The Rev. Thomas Ware says of him, "He was so illiterate as to unable to write his own name; and
yet he preached in the demonstration of the Spirit, and with an authority that few could withstand.
By his labors, thousands of all classes and conditions in society had been brought into the fold, and
were walking worthy of their profession." Concerning him, Mr. Asbury remarked, when he first
heard him at the widow Brady's, in Kent county, Del.: "He is an original indeed -- no man's copy.
On another occasion, he says, "He is the only man I have heard in America, with whose speaking I
am never tired. I always admire his affected simplicity. He is a prodigy -- a man that cannot write
or read well; and yet his words go through me every time I hear him. The power of God attends him
more or less in every place. He seldom opens his mouth but some are cut to the heart." He continued
thus useful for about fifteen years; and it would be well if his last days had been without dark
shadows. Like the great Samuel Bradburn, of England, he was daily in the fire of temptation. He was
so extraordinary that Mr. Asbury feared he would not stand or live long. In 1797, he stands on the
Minutes as expelled for immoral conduct; and in 1804, Mr. Asbury received from the Rev. J. J.
Jacobs the account of his end. "He had walked backward, according to his own account. Three days
he lost in drunkenness, three days he lay sick in darkness -- no manifestation of God to his soul; and
thus he died! We can only hope that God had mercy on his soul!"
While we admit that a man might do as much, and even more for the cause of the Redeemer, than
the Rev. Joseph Cromwell did, and yet be lost in the end; yet we strongly incline to the persuasion
that he was saved. It does not appear that he had any enmity to God, or Christ, or the Holy Spirit, or
the means of salvation, which constitutes the great obstacle in the way of returning to God. That he
had "no manifestation of God to his soul," seems to have been cause of grief to him, which we are
disposed to regard as an element of penitency; and where there is repentance, the way appears to be
open for the exercise of Divine mercy.
Mr. John Dickins was born and educated in London. He joined the Methodist society in America
in 1774; and in 1777 was received as a traveling preacher. He labored in Virginia and in North
Carolina until 1782, when he desisted. It appears that Mr. Asbury first became personally acquainted
with him in North Carolina in 1780, when he drew the subscription for a Kingswood school in
America. This came out in the end Cokesbury College. In 1783, Mr. Asbury prevailed with him to
go to New York, where he labored for several years; and in 1789 he was stationed in Philadelphia,
where he remained until his death. While here he superintended the book business for the
Methodists, as book steward. For the business he was well qualified by his sound literature; being
master of the English language, and also acquainted with Latin and Greek. He was one of the greatest
and best men of that age, and a very profitable preacher. As it was said of Mr. Whitefield, "He
preached like a lion." Having passed through the malignant fever of 1793 and 1797, he fell in the
third visitation of the yellow fever in 1798, in his fifty-second year. His daughter Elizabeth died of
the same disease the day before his death. They were interred in the cemetery of St. George's, in
Crown street. But when the ground was built upon some years since, the remains of many of the dead