History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

METHODIST REFORM
Edward J. Drinkhouse, M.D., D.D.
Volume I
CHAPTER 33
The General Conference of 1792; sources of information — Arrival of Dr. Coke; Asbury receives
his repentant brother — The business prearranged by Asbury in conference with his confidants;
O'Kelly's account — November 1, 1792, the Conference assembled at Light Street church,
Baltimore; who composed it; Coke presiding; business committee shut out the Council matter for
which it had been called; revision of Discipline instead; Lee's and O'Kelly's story as to the business;
Coke a confessed "weathercock"; forsakes O'Kelly and reform and works with Asbury — O'Kelly's
right of appeal brought forward; methods for its defeat; large majority turned into a small minority;
ingenious scheming of Asbury; course of the debate; Asbury's letter to the Conference; defeat of
O'Kelly and his secession — The Episcopacy strengthened; and other business of the Conference.
The minutes of the General Conference of 1792, like those of the General Conference of 1784,
are irrevocably lost. In the printed edition of the minutes by John Dickins of 1795, it has been
established that the prefatory statements as to 1784 were made on the sole authority of the
Superintendents Coke and Asbury. They are brief and misleading, and because misleading were
afterward amended with the change of circumstances for a specific purpose by the same sole
authority. This edition makes no note whatever of the Conference of 1792. All that is known of it
must be gleaned from Asbury's Journal, Lee's "History," O'Kelly's "Apology," and a few
reminiscences left by preachers who were also present. This testimony, except O'Kelly's, is biased
in favor of the constituted authority of the Church of that day. It shall be the purpose to weave a
consecutive statement which will offset this bias as far as may be without falling into the opposite
tendency.
Asbury says: "Tuesday, October 30 — Came to Baltimore in a storm of rain. Whilst we were
sitting in the room at Mr. Rogers', in came Dr. Coke, of whose arrival we had not heard, and whom
we embraced with great love." Dr. Coke left England for America, September, 1792, and after a
stormy voyage of sixty days, as is ascertained from his Journal, reached New Castle, on the
Delaware, October 30, Stevens says, citing the Journal. He had seventy miles to ride in the space of
a day and a few hours, in order to be in time for the General Conference; he flew over the distance,
wearing out one chaise-horse and breaking down another. "About nine o'clock Wednesday night,
October 31, I arrived at the house of my friend, Philip Rogers of Baltimore, with just time to take
some refreshment, and a little sleep before the General Conference commenced. Mr. Asbury and the
preachers who were at Mr. Rogers' were surprised to see me at this critical moment. They had almost
given me up, but intended to spend ten days in debating matters of the smallest importance, in
prayer, and in declaring their experiences, before they entered upon the weightier business, if I did
not sooner arrive." Recurring to Coke's letter to Asbury of September 23, 1791, in which he so
piteously begs for recognition, and anxiously solicits an interview with him in America in
November, 1792 — the time set for the General Conference it is necessary to observe that there are
no dates by which the period of Asbury's condescension to resume epistolary association with Dr.
Coke, after this utter estrangement, can be fixed, as no other letters between them during this time