History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

Asbury is now on a tour among the Virginia and North Carolina brethren. In July he writes, "I
have thought if I had two horses, and Harry a [colored man] to go with and drive one, and meet the
black people, and to spend about six months in Virginia and the Carolinas, it would be attended with
a blessing." Black Harry afterward became famous in his travels with Asbury. Reaching North
Carolina at Cypress chapel he says, "Here James O'Kelly met me; he spoke, and appears to be a
warm-hearted, good man; but he was troubled with the people about these times." A few days later,
"James O'Kelly and myself enjoyed and comforted each other: this dear man rose at midnight, and
prayed very devoutly for me and himself." About twelve years later he changed his opinion of
O'Kelly materially, and it seems that it was the "people" who continued to give trouble as against
Asbury's Episcopal plan. Afterward he met brother Allen, "A promising young man, but a little of
a Dissenter." Alas, that there should be any independent thinkers in the world except brother Asbury.
September 16, 1780, he says, "Wrote to Mr. Wesley at the desire of the Virginia Conference; who
had consented to suspend the administration of the ordinances for one year." This must have been
in addition to the letter they authorized sent through John Dickins before noticed. There is no
contemporary evidence that the "Virginia Conference," as Asbury states, authorized formally the
writing of this second letter. There is no way to reconcile the discrepancy, but to assume that after
the Dickins letter had been forwarded, some of the Virginia preachers suggested to Asbury, nearly
six months later, perhaps because Wesley within this lapse of time had made no answer, to write
again, and the early practice of his taking the consent of the part for the whole led him to say that the
"Virginia Conference" desired him to do so. It met, no doubt, his personal approval, as it gave
opportunity to fortify his position with Wesley. It was only a reflection of a monarchical idea: what
is done by the Crown is done by the kingdom. That both the letters were written and sent is in
evidence, because the answer to the Dickins letter, which the Conference at Manakintown did
authorize, was received, Garrettson says, in time for the Baltimore Conference of April 24, 1781,
[1]
while the answer to Asbury's second letter was delayed until 1784. Why delayed until three years
after? It needs only a little reading between the lines to decipher the reason. Wesley's answer to the
Dickins letter covered the ground as far as he saw his way at that time. It simply directed, as has been
found from Garrettson 's semi-centennial sermon, that "we should continue on the old plan until
farther directed." His counselors distracted him, for it was a well-known fact that he not only listened
to all the statements made him, and was impressed by the last interviewer or the last letter, until a
nature ingenuous and unsuspicious as was Wesley's when he was compelled to compare conflicting
statements, hesitated and delayed. It accounts for the fact that his letter to the Conference of 1781
does not recommission Asbury as General Assistant, an office now vacant for four years, or since
Rankin's return to England. Neither Rankin, nor Boardman, nor Shadford, nor Rodda, in fact none
of Wesley's returned missionaries, except perhaps Pilmoor, were advocates of Asbury at home
nevertheless, though three thousand miles distant, it will be seen in the sequel that he out generalled
them all. In dismissing for the time these two famous letters it may be worth the remark that no other
historian has developed their significance.
Pursuing his tour among the disaffected southrons he preaches at Manakintown in October, and
finds his way to the Brokenback chapel, where the Conference was held. He is accompanied by
brother Edward Bailey as a guide, but he became sick and hindered his progress. He returns rapidly
to Maryland, and, as six months had expired, according to the rule, he met some of the preachers at
Barratt's chapel and changed them. He had traveled during this tour, he says, 2671 miles. In
November he writes, "I arranged my papers containing a brief account of the beginning and progress