History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

ENDNOTES
1 Stevens says, "During the administration of Rankin, Asbury was entirely subordinate to his
authority, and sometimes grievously humiliated by it. Rankin presided at all the annual conferences,
and made out all the appointments, sometimes appointing Asbury to circuits directly against his will.
Asbury had never presided at an annual Conference recorded in the minutes." Asbury in this gave
evidence, if any were needed, of his fitness to control on the well-known principle, he alone is fit to
command who has first learned to obey. And he had that rare patience and diplomatic skill which
assured him of a final advantage over less discreet men, like Rankin, and afterward O'Kelly.
2 Guirey gives the names of all who were present at the 1779 Asbury Conference: Freeborn
Garrettson, Jos. Hartley, William Glendenning, Daniel Ruff, Jos. Cromwell, Thomas S. Chew,
Thomas McClure, Caleb B. Peddicord, John Cooper, William Gill, and William Watters, making,
with Francis Asbury, twelve. The information is important. Jennings, in his "Exposition," gives the
full list, probably from Guirey. See p.124.
3 That is Wesley's rule in the English Minutes.
4 Bangs' "History M. E. Church," Vol. I. p.128.
5 Stevens' "History," Vol. II. pp. 56-66.
6 Guirey gave a satirizing couplet of the times reproaching Dickins for his change of front.
Who would not blush, if such a man there be, —
Who would not weep, if John Dickins were he.
7 Guirey states that in 1781 the following minute was passed by the Asbury Conference against the
Fluvanna brethren, "If any of the preachers administer the ordinances they may he borne with a year,
but if any of the members receive them from the preachers they shall be expelled immediately." It
anticipated this high-handed proceeding — the "Gag Law," of 1796, used relentlessly against
Reformers ever afterward, by which they were thrown out of this branch of the visible Church,
notwithstanding their unimpeachable moral characters. You look, however, in vain for this minute
in those published by Dickins in 1795. By that time Asbury and Coke found it expedient to suppress
it from history; but these arbitrary and unchristian rulings find the light, as in this instance, through
other sources. See p. 287 of Guirey's "History."
8 Watters' "Life," p. 72.
9 Guirey tells that this Conference was composed of the eleven named as attending the Delaware
1779 Conference, except McClure, who was not in the 1780 meeting, and to the others was added
John Hagerty, Richard Garrettson, John Tunnell, and Micagah Debruler, all young men just received.
No other historian gives this complete list.