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

A HISTORY
OF THE
RISE OF METHODISM IN AMERICA
by
John Lednum
CHAPTER 43
At the end of this Conference year, Mr. Asbury and several other preachers, such as Messrs.
Garrettson, Cromwell, and John Cooper, held quarterly meetings at the Sound: this seems to have
been the first quarterly meeting held at that place; and as the Baptists persuaded the people not to
hear the Methodists preach, and to be dipped -- thus influencing the weaker ones, Mr. Joseph Wyatt
was left to take care of the cause of Methodism in this place, while the preachers went to Conference.
On their way to Conference they held another quarterly meeting at Forest or Thomas' Chapel,
assisted by Dr. McGaw and Mr. Neal.
The Methodist preachers had not had as much success this year as the previous one. The greatest
prosperity had been on the Peninsula, in Delaware and Maryland. As the South had become the seat
of war, there was a decrease of Methodists in this quarter -- the whole number returned was 8504;
of this number less than 400 were found north of Mason and Dixon's line, and about 8000 south of
it. Nineteen twentieths of them were south of the above line.
The preachers on the Northern stations met in April, 1780, in Baltimore, to hold Conference, --
Mr. Asbury presiding. They reviewed, revised, and extended the polity of Methodism. They agreed
to change circuits at the end of, six months. Besides this, there were twenty-six questions considered
and affirmed. The seventh question made it the duty of all the assistants to see that all our meeting
houses were regularly settled by deed and trustees. The seventh question affirmed that all our
preachers ought conscientiously to rise at four or five, and that it was a shame for a preacher to be
in bed till six o'clock in the morning. The fourteenth question provided for the needy wives of the
preachers that they should receive as much per quarter as their husbands. The fifteenth made it the
duty of the preachers to have religious conversation with every member of the family where they
lodged (if time permitted), at the time of family prayer. This rule was productive of much good. The
eighteenth recommended the quarterly meetings, that had, hitherto, been generally held on Mondays
and Tuesdays, to be held on Saturdays and Sundays, when convenient to do so. Question
twenty-three disapproved of distilling grain into liquor, and provided for disowning the Methodists
that continued the practice. The twenty-fifth provided for meeting the colored people, and not
suffering them to meet by themselves, or to stay late at night. Question twenty-six laid down the
terms of union with the Virginia brethren, who were administering the ordinances, -- namely, for
them to suspend them for one year, and all meet together in Baltimore for Conference. The other
questions being of less general interest, are not quoted.
The preachers who sanctioned the arrangement at the Fluvanna Conference to have the ordinances
of Christianity administered among the Methodists, were Isham Tatum, Charles Hopkins, Nelson
Reed, Reuben Ellis, Philip Gatch, Thomas Morris, James Morris, James Foster, John Major, Andrew