History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

which measures were taken to triply bar the Church against a recurrence of such a loss as came of
the new Church movement, up to 1801, the Republican Methodists about held their own, counting
those who separated, but who did not return to the old Church from time to time. Meanwhile the
controversy so thickened and the pamphleteering so increased that Asbury brought his accumulations
for a swooping answer to the General Conference of 1800, and requested that a committee be
appointed to edit a "Reply" to O'Kelly. Bangs makes no allusion to this item. Stevens summarizes
it, but not correctly. As Rev. Nicholas Snethen figures so conspicuously in it, let him tell what was
done, and who did it. And as his career is to be fully limned hereafter, it is necessary only to say that
he was now a young preacher of splendid abilities, both with pen and tongue, who was admitted to
the Conference "on trial" in 1794. He acknowledges that as a young preacher, in 1792-94, he was
prejudiced to the extent of a firm belief that all the reformers of that day were bad men. "Motives
and intentions, thoughts and designs, that were known only to God, were thus transmitted to me by
my seniors and superiors as facts, and as such I received them, without reflection or examination.
It is evident, therefore, that my mind was prejudiced against men I had never seen, not merely
because they had done a peculiar act or held a certain opinion; but I was led to infer from my
information that they were bad men, and whatever they might say and do in their vindication must
go for nothing so long as this prejudice against their moral characters remained in my mind. All that
those men could have said of the nature and tendencies of the existing powers, though its truth might
have been as evident as the sun at noonday, would not have convinced me but that they were bad
men. And while this prejudice remained, I must needs have thought I did God service in opposing
them. . . . And how can a young man doubt what a bishop or a presiding elder shall tell him of a
Reformer. It seems that there is hardly a besetment of our frail nature, that we are so seldom
successful in guarding against, as evil surmisings. To question a man's motives is, indeed, infinitely
easier than to answer his arguments." What a faithful portrait this is of the human heart and mind,
and how it should be used as a mantle to cover a multitude of sins ascribed both to reformers and
anti-reformers. Again his evidence direct as to the "Reply" to O'Kelly. "At the General Conference
of 1800 Mr. Asbury presented a mass of materials and documents which he had prepared and
collected as an answer to O'Kelly's 'Apology.' The Conference was not eager to accept them. But near
the close of the session Philip Bruce, George Roberts, and Nicholas Snethen were chosen as a
committee, with powers to compose such an answer as they might think proper from the papers
furnished by Mr. Asbury. It was not Mr. Asbury, but the General Conference, which made the choice
of me as the last member of the committee, and the youngest. To this choice Mr. Asbury did not
object, though he well knew that I was what is now called a new-side man. My colleagues devolved
the labor of the compilation, or abridgment, upon me, and in this humble task I think it likely that
I made much of the language my own, but how much I could not now tell; for I have not seen either
of the pamphlets these twenty-seven years. But the leading ideas in the quotations I am persuaded
I spake not of myself. Young men were then taught, as they are now, if not that 'might is right,' that
success is truth. The reader may perceive that in those days young writers, scarcely out of their
novitiate, were quite as flippant in the use of the arguments drawn from our success as they are in
these days," etc. And here is a stray fact. "No circumstance is more distinctly in my recollection than
that Mr. Asbury conceived that the English preachers were of opinion that Mr. Wesley might recall
him, and that some of them were disposed to use their influence to effect his recall. The documents
I thought best in my answer to O'Kelly to suppress, and Mr. Asbury acquiesced."