History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

Wesley] was afterward considered by some disaffected persons, as improper. If there was anything
improper in the business, it was in entering into the engagement, and not in departing from it." It is
an echo no doubt of Asbury's opinion, but logically inconsequent. Those who kept silent during the
proceedings, and by their silence and not by their concurrence made the action seem unanimous, now
began to dissent and discuss it. Garrettson was probably one of the number. His lifelong intimacy
with Dr. Coke, and his well-known objection to several features of the Asburyan plan, made him a
dissenter.
O'Kelly had given Asbury unexpected encouragement when at the Virginia Conference, being the
principal speaker, he opposed Coke, and Wesley's plan for the ordination of Whatcoat as a joint
superintendent with Asbury and Coke. Did he go the whole length of the Baltimore Conference?
There are no records to show, but it is probable that he did, for he was something of an extremist in
any position he took. There is no doubt that he was one of the earliest to perceive that, if a change
of masters was the point to be gained by eschewing Wesley, the gain was a signal loss, and soon he
is found giving evidence of his repentance by plotting against Asbury, putting himself in
correspondence with both Coke and Wesley, and with such encouragement as he may have received,
stoutly resisting his authority and becoming clamorous for reforms. Asbury unwittingly furnished
the ground; for, with the fatality attending autocratic minds, finding himself sole master in America,
it occurred to him, as is always the case with such typical characters, that the safe way to meet these
incipient demands for a more liberal administration, was to tighten the fetters of personal authority.
Reaching Philadelphia on his return tour southward, he makes record, "Here I found T. V.
[Thomas Vasey] had scattered firebrands, and thrown dirt to bespatter us." Riding down into
Maryland he adds, "I find T. V. has misrepresented us as having cast off Mr. Wesley, making this
a plea for his reordination." Vasey had been disgruntled almost from his arrival in America with
Coke and Whatcoat. He was evidently disappointed, so he sulked and probably did much to
misrepresent American matters to Wesley and the English preachers. The course of Asbury and the
preachers who shared his opinions did much to give the occasions. Vasey entered the ministry of the
Protestant Episcopal Church and was put into the rectorship in Philadelphia. Asbury reaches Bath
in Virginia, and meets with T. V. in person at the Widow Stroud's, some miles from Bath — he
journalizes — "where I met with T. V., who made some acknowledgments for what he had said in
the heat of his zeal at Philadelphia and at Bath." Asbury was back again in Baltimore by September,
and also in Philadelphia. Southward again he turns, at times much depressed, his liver is torpid,
producing malaise so that his spiritual moods are variable. He rides through the rain and meets every
kind of discomfort. Back again to Maryland, down the Eastern Shore, up to Abingdon and —
"opened our College, and admitted twenty-five students," December 6, 1787. A week after, "Brother
H_____ attempted to travel with me, but was soon glad to resign." Who could keep up with him?
Later a few men, Lee, Henry Boehm, Snethen, and J. Wesley Bond made themselves equal to the
service. Down into Virginia he dashes, to North Carolina, and Charleston, S. C., where the first of
the Conferences was held March 14, 1788 — "Our Conference began and we had a free, open time."
That is all of it. He is on to Georgia, where the next Conference is held April 9. A week before he
says, "I rested and compiled two sections, which I shall recommend to be put into our form of
discipline, in order to remove from society, by regular steps, either preachers or people that are
disorderly." The only record of this Conference is — "began at the Forks of Broad River, where six
members and four probationers attended." He is on to the Holstein Conference in Tennessee and