History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

usiness." He can be spared at home in the Wesleyan body, and India furnishes an "extensive sphere
for preaching the gospel." The gist of it is, "I enlarged on the earnest desire I had of closing my life
in India — observing that if his Royal Highness the Prince Regent and the Government should think
proper to appoint me their Bishop in India, I should most cheerfully and most gratefully accept their
offer." "I should, in case of my appointment to the Episcopacy of India, return most fully and
faithfully into the bosom of the Church, and do everything in my power to promote its interests." "I
sincerely believe that my strong inclination to spend the remainder of my life in India originated in
the Divine Will, whilst I am called upon to use secondary means to obtain the end." This opens to
us his heart and explains his theory of Providence — a persuasion that God was in it and a farther
persuasion that to be Bishop of India would command him influence that would further his work.
He needs no apology by his friends, — he needs only the frank treatment he does not receive at their
hands. He thinks a hot climate would peculiarly agree with him, as he judges from his experience
in the West Indies; but his physicians did not think so as to India, and his bosom friend, Drew,
expostulated with him; but he overruled all their arguments and entreaties. Two or three times in the
course of the letter he prays Wilberforce not to expose him, as it might affect his usefulness among
the Methodists if his purpose to abandon them utterly and return to the National Church, if they
would make him Bishop of India, should become known. "If Mr._____ were acquainted with the
steps I am taking, he would, I am nearly sure, call immediately a meeting of our 'Committee of
Privileges,' and the consequences might be unfavorable to my influence, etc." Stevens, in a foot-note
upon the whole matter, sums it up in a sentence, "The whole case is highly creditable to the heart,
however it may detract from the head of Coke." A careful reader will not fail to peruse the full-text
letter as given in the Appendix.
Wilberforce gave him no encouragement — indeed, there is no evidence that his proposal was
ever officially considered; he was simply tabooed. He kept the secret himself and his friends of the
National Church were too magnanimous to disclose it; so when it came before the Conference a few
months later in the form of a mission to India, it simply startled by its gigantic character. Benson said
with vehemence, "it will ruin Methodism." The number of men called for, and the initial expenses,
and the chance of failure were more than the denomination could stand. The opposition greatly
afflicted Dr. Coke; he spent a night in tears over it. He returned to the Conference, eloquently
defended the plan, and offered as a guarantee to lay down $30,000 himself toward it. Strong men
came to his relief and the measure was carried. He was authorized to take seven men, including one
for southern Africa, and go to India. He at once made his additional preparations. The volunteers
were James Lynch, John McKenny, William Ault, George Erskine, William M. Howard, Thomas
H. Squance, Benjamin Clough, and the wives of Howard and Ault, and these with Coke, made the
missionary company. They assembled at Portsmouth, well furnished, including a printing-press and
type.
Coke rose with the occasion and all his Christian manliness asserted itself. He preached his last
sermon at Portsmouth. A divine afflatus comes upon men in great emergencies, and their utterances
are prophetic. "It is of little consequence," said he in it, "whether we take our flight from the land of
our nativity, from the trackless ocean, or the shores of Ceylon!" The last sentence of the sermon was
equally so, "God will give us our part in the first resurrection, that on us the second death may have
no power." On the 30th of December, 1813, they set sail in a fleet of six Indiamen, more than twenty
merchant vessels and three ships of war for convoy. On the 10th of February the wife of Ault, a