History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

consideration, when the minute shall be put in force. N.B. We do hold in the deepest abhorrence the
practice of slavery; and shall not cease to seek its destruction by all wise and prudent means." What
was the inspiration of this change of base? Most probably Dr. Coke; for, as it has already been
discovered, his policy while in the West Indies was to deliver himself freely on the subject, but to
make no attempt to incite insurrection or run counter to the civil laws. He may have suggested the
wisdom of this course to the Conference when he found what had been previously done of a more
drastic character. The institution had wrought itself into the very fibers of the domestic, social, and
civil relations of the people. More than three-fourths of the Methodist membership was in the
slave-holding states. Their personal piety could not be impugned. To continue to counsel coercion
meant a conflict which must have eventuated in an abandonment of the territory. The institution had
not yet assumed the proportions of a political power and party.
The minutes contain a list of the preachers, and the plan of appointments for this Conference was
made to supersede the three meetings called for April, May, and June of 1785, and no formal
meeting again occurred until a year later in North Carolina, Virginia, and Baltimore, Md., in
February, April, and May, 1786. The numbers in society were reported at 18,000, a gain of 3000.
Asbury, in his Journal, says: "May 30 — We went to Abingdon to settle our college business; and
took a bond for the conveyance of the grounds; we then returned [to Baltimore] and fixed our plan
for the approaching Conference. June 1 — Our Conference began. I was unwell during the session,
etc. On Thursday the Doctor [Coke] took his leave of us for this visit. We parted with heavy hearts.
June 4 — I spent three hours profitably in reading the printed minutes of the Conference," i.e. the
minutes of the Christmas Conference which Coke had bound up with the Sunday Service in
Philadelphia. The Conference referred to in these notes must have been an informal one, for no
minutes of it are printed with the volume issued in 1795. No regular Conference was held in
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Baltimore or elsewhere until 1786. For the first time, the plan of appointments found in the
minutes of the Christmas Conference distinguishes the Presiding Elders formally as in charge of
districts.
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