History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

of Episcopacy." l2mo. 351 pp. Written before 1800. A copy in Maryland Historical Library,
Baltimore, Md.
9 His remains were long after removed to Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Baltimore.
10 "Journal," Vol. I. p 431.
11 This ancient verdict is perhaps as near the truth of history as to the priority of Strawbridge or
Embury as posterity will ever get. Since the previous Section bearing upon it was written, the author
has had the pleasure of perusing Rev. Dr. Atkinson's elaborate and exhaustive argument defensive
of Embury's claim, to which he devotes forty-six pages of his new History.* Nothing could be more
ingenuous than his method of treating the alleged facts and arguments on both sides, and most
readers will rise from its perusal convinced that the case is with Embury. It is not, however, claimed
even by Dr. Atkinson that Strawbridge came to America later than 1766, nor is it claimed that
Embury, though in the country following secular business as a linen manufacturer, began preaching
earlier than 1766 in New York City, under Barbara Heck's entreaties, nor that there could have been
more than nine months' or a year's difference in any case between their first preaching respectively,
so that it was "about the same time" after all — Strawbridge, the pioneer of Methodism in the South,
and Embury in the North. This is the whole case. Embury, as a resident of New York City, has the
advantage of recorded documentary evidence as to certain dates, whereas Strawbridge — in the wilds
of Frederick County, Md., has no such records; left no Journal, not even letters to authenticate his
case; only the traditions of the neighborhood, upon which Asbury relied; so that the traditional case
is with the latter, though as Dr. Atkinson shows, the documentary case is with the former.
The latest phase of the question is furnished by Rev. Dr. W. S. Edwards in the New York
Christian Advocate for January 7, 1897, by citing from certain papers of Rev. Alfred Griffith, among
them the following, in which Griffith gives the substance of a conversation held by him with Bishop
Asbury in 1809: "He said he was aware of the dispute about the priority of claim in church building
between the two original branches of the Methodist family, and that with a view to compose the
difference he had investigated the question with considerable pains by inquiries on the spot in each
locality; that he had had recourse to the most intelligent and reliable sources, but still was unable to
determine with certainty who commenced first to build, Embury or Strawbridge; but that
Strawbridge commenced to preach first there could be no doubt; that he had concluded that it was
most probably true that each had commenced to build his house within the same calendar year 1768
— and there could not have been more than a few months' difference between them; but which had
his house ready for preaching first he could not determine. He then observed that the whole question
was of little consequence."
*"History of the Origin of the Wesleyan Movement in America and of the establishment therein
of Methodism." By John Atkinson, D.D., Jersey City, N. J., Wesleyan Publishing Co. 1896. Large
8vo. 458 pp. Cloth. It treats of the American period prior to 1774, and is a most valuable
contribution.
12 Wakeley's "Lost Chapters," p. 20.