History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

men will cast it out, even though it will demand of them to bear the shame of an unmerited but
unmitigated obloquy cast upon the name and the memory of Alexander McCaine and others.
Having traversed the antecedents and given the current story of the Christmas Conference, its
consequents demand careful consideration. Stevens, speaking of this Conference, says, 'The session
was a jubilee to the Methodists of Baltimore and its vicinity." Such it undoubtedly was. Never before
had they a commissioner direct from Mr. Wesley of such winning personal presence, clad while in
Conference and during all public services in the full canonicals of the Church of England. There was
preaching twice a day at Lovely Lane, and on the Point, and in Otterbein's chapel. What the
Conference did from day to day was given out to the people, and under the gloss, as already found,
that the whole was of Wesley's prompting and recommendation, it was received with all the authority
his name carried with every loyal Methodist. The preachers were to be ordained, and they were to
have from their loved pastors the ordinances, and no longer be compelled to seek them, as best they
might, from such Church of England rectors as could be found, few and far between. It gave general
satisfaction to the societies. They were to have a new name. Dickins had proposed it, — The
Methodist Episcopal Church; Coke had advocated it, and it was acceptable to Asbury, who seemed
to acquiesce simply in the proceedings, knowing that the grooves carved out would be followed,
interposing only when his far-seeing mind, taking in the future, saw peril to his primacy in America.
The fervor of Methodist devotion was in a flame. No statutory laws were passed. The "Rules and
Regulations" were such as they had had, and little attention was paid to the implications. A few of
the more harmful preachers, perhaps, had made some mental analysis of the doings, but it seemed
inopportune to make open exceptions where they were entertained. Their deliverance from past
disabilities and the prospect of unity on almost any basis were welcomed, so that it is an easy task
to quote from such of the preachers as in after years left journals and letters in which they set forth
their approval, and certify that the people were also in full accord with the new order of things.
Strange to say it is upon this testimony greatly that the defenders of Coke and Asbury depend in
making it appear that, if the people were not consulted formally and had no part in the legislation,
so far from protesting against anything that was done — after it was done, for no opportunity was
theirs before — they quietly acquiesced and enjoyed the spiritual feast the Conference spread for
them. It was a guileful application of the legal maxim what you do by another, you do yourself. Great
stress is laid upon this alleged popular approval, quoted to show, not as has been just exhibited, of
the removal of disabilities only, but of the polity under which they had been placed and which they
now endorsed. To this end Bangs cites these witnesses as though it was conclusive of the question,
italicizing for effect the most telling portions. First, he summons Lee in his "History": "The
Methodists were pretty generally pleased at our becoming a Church, and heartily united together in
the plan which the conference had adopted, and from that time religion greatly revived." All of this
from the word "heartily" he italicizes for Lee. Suppose the italics are placed instead upon the words
"were pretty generally pleased," and how does the matter stand? The contention of the Fluvanna
Conference, which thoroughly represented the wishes of the people, centered in the ordinations and
ordinances, so that it may be safely averred that none of the "people" objected to this action of the
Christmas Conference. Evidently Lee knew that there was a minority not pleased with something.
What could it be? It is safe to affirm that it must have been the exclusive rule of the preachers under
the Episcopacy, for the trend at Fluvanna was toward a liberal Presbyterian polity, and it was then
and afterward such a strong under-swell that Coke's knowledge of its extent may be repeated from
his letter to Bishop White: "Our societies would have been a regular Presbyterian Church but for the