History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

In his pastoral relation he raised the feeble society in that city to strength and influence, and himself
won the confidence of the church leaders. He took an active part in the Christmas Conference, and
was ever afterward an ardent friend of Asbury's, who kept him in view for promotion, and, now that
everything was ripe for it, appointed him book steward. It is the first of a number of instances to be
considered in the progress of this History in which change of sentiment is found to be coincident
with promotion, and which induced McCaine in after years to quote against several of his
controversial opponents the sentiment: "God forbid that men should not learn while they live, but
it is a bad sign when illumination and preferment come together." Dickins had saved six hundred
dollars, which he invested in the business, and it was the cash foundation of the Book Concern,
which arose from this humble beginning until it represents millions, a vast establishment, and an
untold amount of good through its numerous publications. It stands the pride of the Methodist
Episcopal Church today, but it has not been an unmixed good in that it became a right hand of power
to the Episcopacy, and ultimated after the division of the Church in 1844 in a civil suit by the Church
South against the Church for a recovery of her equitable share of the property, after all proposals of
honorable Christian compromise had been rejected, and in which suit the Supreme Court of the
United States, Judge Nelson presiding, gave verdict for the Church South, and in his statement of
the genius of the government of the Church sustained all the allegations of earlier Reformers as to
its law-structure. That suit stands an indelible disgrace, which time cannot wipe out. Dickins
continued in charge of the book business of the Church until 1798, when he peacefully departed this
[4]
life. The Book Concern stands a monument to his business sagacity and honest management, while
his private character and ministerial career are above reproach.
The abuse of the power lodged in the preachers for the expulsion of members had grown to such
flagrant proportions that at this Conference a note was added to the minutes qualifying section 32
of the Discipline, but it soon fell into desuetude "When a member of our society is to be tried for any
offense, the officiating minister or preacher is to call together all the members, if the society be
small, or a select number, if it be large, to take knowledge, and give advice, and bear witness to the
justice of the whole process, that improper and private expulsions may be prevented in the future."
Vested authority encourages administrative abuse under a hierarchy. The bishop ruled supreme over
all the orders below him; the elders over the preachers, and preachers over the people. That there
should be exaggerations of discipline, errors of judgment, sometimes passion and oftener prejudice
as elements in such administration, all history proves. Those inferior in authority learned of their
superiors. Stripling preachers took the short cut to the settlement of local church feuds by expelling,
by simple announcement from the pulpit, whole classes, tearing up the class-books and
reconstructing them. This was the method of Asbury with recalcitrants in the Conferences; witness
Fluvanna and Petersburg; and those below him were not slow for a purpose to "copy the blot" as well
as the writing. The young preachers in their novitiate were put into training, and the lesson set them
until they became perfect in it was obedience. Any one of independent turn of mind and the elements
in him to make a good presiding elder after a while, if he developed the traits prematurely, was
"mounted" by his superior, to use a colloquial phrase of the times, and soon ridden into subjection
or run out of the Conference.
Partridge, Bingham, Gill, Cooper, White, and Spry died this year, and from four to six lines are
given each as an obituary in the minutes. This is all to remember them here, for their graves are
unknown, but their "record is on high."