History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

crosses the mountains — "the first of which I called steel, the second stone, and the third iron." His
description of the crossing makes one wonder that flesh and blood could endure such things. The
Conference was very informal; indeed, they were nothing more than preparatory meets for the
Baltimore Conference. It was about the same at the Virginia Conference. Crossed the Allegheny
Mountains again, and this is a part of his experience with the brethren who came along: "Near
midnight stopped at A___'s, who hissed his dogs at us, but the women were determined to go to the
quarterly meeting, so we went on. Our supper was tea. Brother Phoebus and Cook took to the woods;
old___ gave up his bed to the women. I lay along the floor on a few deerskins with the fleas. That
night our poor horses got no corn; and the next morning they had to swim across the Monongahela."
The next Conference at Uniontown (Beesontown either a misprint, or its old name in the edition of
the Minutes of 1795 from which quotation was formerly made) in what is now West Virginia, July
22. A flash of wit is so rare in Asbury's Journal that notice must be taken of an almost solitary
instance: "I attempted to preach at Bath, on 'the lame and the blind;' the discourse was very lame; and
it may be I left my hearers as I found them — blind." He is in improved physical condition, as not
only this flash but the record proves: "I am now closely engaged in reading, writing, and prayer —
my soul enjoys much of God." Baltimore, September 10, 1788: "Our Conference began; I chose not
to preach while my mind was clogged by business with so many persons, and on so many subjects."
That is all of it. In Philadelphia an extra Conference was held, September 21. Asbury has been
followed through the year and all the salient events he records in his Journal mentioned, except that
Whatcoat is named at times as being with him. The good man whose life was like an "even spun
thread" was a peace-lover and a peacemaker with no ambitions to foster. The great revivals of the
year receive also cursory mention. But the momentous events must be learned from other sources.
Jesse Lee in his "History" supplies the information. "In the course of this year (1787-88) Mr.
Asbury reprinted the general minutes; but in a different form from what they were before." A reprint
copy of 1788 is before the writer, with a title which challenges attention: "A Form of Discipline for
the Ministers, Preachers, and Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, considered
and approved at a Conference held in Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, on Monday, December
the 27th, 1784: in which the Reverend Thomas Coke, LL.D., and the Reverend Francis Asbury
presided. Arranged under proper Heads and Methodised in a more acceptable and easy Manner. With
some other useful Pieces annexed. Elizabethtown: Printed by Shepard Kollock. MDCCLXXXVIII."
The statement that this Discipline was "considered and approved," at the Conference of 1784, next
to Dr. Coke's prefatory allegations to the minutes of that Conference as found in the edition bound
up with those up to 1794, with the imprint of 1795 by John Dickins, is the first of those easy-going
departures in the printed official matter of the Church from the literal and exact truth, as made by
Asbury and Coke. The truth of history is that essential portions of this Discipline were not
"considered and approved" at the Conference of 1784. The following items are in this category.
Quoting again from Lee's "History": "In this discipline, 1787, there were thirty-one sections and
sixty-three questions, with answers to them all. The third question in the second section and the
answer read thus: Q. Is there any other business to be done by the conference? A. The election and
ordaining of Bishops, Elders, and Deacons. This was the first time that our Superintendents ever
gave themselves the title of Bishops in the minutes. They changed the title themselves without the
consent of the conference; and at the next conference they asked the preachers if the word Bishop
might stand in the minutes; seeing that it was a scriptural name, and the meaning of the word Bishop
was the same with that of Superintendent. Some of the preachers opposed the alteration, and wished