History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

METHODIST REFORM
Edward J. Drinkhouse, M.D., D.D.
Volume I
CHAPTER 32
Delegated General Conference; was it first suggested by Asbury, or Lee, or Snethen? — The
suppression of individuality under forms of law leads to its clandestine assertion without law —
Logical and philosophical reflections on the early Methodist preacher and the effects of the
hierarchic system on him thoroughly analyzed — The sovereignty of government and that of the
people contrasted — inventions in excuse of the former by Dr. Bond and others Asbury its
personification; maneuvering with O'Kelly; reform ideas and the laity; preparation for the General
Conference of 1792 — Lee's statistics, also Dickins' — The newly organized Protestant Episcopal
Church lay-representative; the example disregarded by the Methodist Bishops.
It was while Asbury was making his long circuit in New England named in the last chapter, that
he records, under date July 7, 1791 (Jesse Lee was abundant in labors in this section, and at Lynn
and Lynnfield the Methodists had grown to 2200): "This day brother Jesse Lee put a paper in my
hand proposing the election of not less than two, nor more than four preachers from each
Conference, to form a General Conference in Baltimore in December, 1792, to be continued
annually." It must be admitted that this is the first public suggestion of a delegated General
Conference with a plan. Asbury probably had been revolving some method in his mind to meet the
exigency which he could no longer defer nor thwart. Some years afterward Nicholas Snethen made
a suggestion of a properly constituted delegated General Conference to Asbury, who urged him to
advance it in the General Conference of 1804, which he did, but it was not adopted until 1808, and
the first Conference of this character met in 1812. Lee's original suggestion was not adopted, and
while Snethen admits that Asbury may have had some such plan in mind when he named his own
to him, he says that Asbury did not make it known, or give him information of Lee's suggestion made
nearly ten years before, so that Snethen's claim as originating the delegated Conference is well
founded. It will be reviewed later. Ware says of Lee, "he was the best speaker in the Conference."
Of commanding physique, of much natural intelligence, though not largely cultivated, deeply pious
and laborious, with a willpower to overcome obstacles and assert his convictions, he was rapidly
coming into leadership in the North, while O'Kelly was claiming the same attention in the South.
They were agreed in their opposition to the Council, and for a call of a General Conference. The
intelligent and pious among the laity were on the same side, so that Asbury, when he found that Dr.
Coke was with the malcontents, yielded to the pressure, and consented to the assembling of the
preachers in General Conference at Baltimore, December 1, 1792.
The mind of the reader has necessarily been much absorbed with the ecclesiastics of Methodism
so that the impression may obtain that there was little else doing but scheming among the
"superintendents," and counter-scheming among the leading preachers. It could not be otherwise
under such a system as that of Wesley and Asbury. The suppression of individuality under forms of
law leads to its clandestine assertion without law. The violation of natural and Christian rights may
seem to be a success under a hierarchy, and really conducive to prosperity, but opportunity comes
and then the pent-up forces effervesce and explode, often with disastrous results. But the average