History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

And now final explanation of his connection with the "Reply." "In 1800 I lent the aid of my pen
to stop the progress of a separation from the Church; in 1821 I did the same, as may be seen from
the first volume of the Wesleyan Repository. . . . In 1827 I continue to do the same." Upon what was
this line of procedure based? He tells in a judgment of the O'Kelly secession, with which the views
the writer has expressed are in accord. "The disastrous division in Virginia savored more at first of
a strife for the mastery than a fair and correct discussion of social rights. The leader of it, while a
presiding elder, was considered among the most rigid of that class of officers; and, like most men
of irascible tempers and indistinct views, in the progress of his struggles and disappointments seems
to have yielded himself up to the influence of the most desperate prejudices. There was a crisis in
the public mind, which, I cannot but think that if he had possessed a head sufficiently clear to have
seized upon and held up to the view of the people, the true principles of social liberty would have
insured him success. This chapter in our earlier history might to be an everlasting monument to warn
all of the danger of building or attempting to support a church upon any but the broadest foundation
of the abstract principles of social rights."
There is much solid philosophical instruction in these quotations, but they are given at such length
because those who read Methodist history elsewhere cannot but be struck with the half-concealed
zest with which Snethen's name is connected with Asbury's "Reply" (so it should be titled) to
O'Kelly's "Apology," and the suggestion, as between the lines, of his inconsistency therefore as a
reformer in 1827-30. But the difference between the objective of these two men is antipodal:
O'Kelly's contention was for ministerial rights pure and simple at the time; Snethen's contention from
1800 to his death was for laical rights — he was a lay-representationist pure and simple. Bangs and
Stevens, and, specially, Drs. Bond and Emory, were not ingenuous in this mal-use of Snethen's name.
O'Kelly's "Apology for Leaving the Episcopal Methodists" was not issued until 1799-1800, the first
editions. The Asbury-Snethen "Reply to an Apology" followed, to which O'Kelly rejoined in "A
Vindication of an Apology," printed at Raleigh, N. C., Jos. Gales, Printer, 1801, 62 pp. Snethen
answered the "Vindication." The whole was under the revisive eye of Asbury, as it must be
remembered that Snethen was traveling companion to the bishop by appointment of the General
Conference this year. He refers to it in his Journal: "Thursday, 28th [August, 1800] — At Perry Hall
— I was visited by Elders Bruce and Snethen. I heard the 'Reply' to Mr. O'Kelly's 'Apology'; soft and
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defensive and as little offensive as the nature of the case would admit." McKendree and Lee were
also much with him at this period. In all this Snethen was entirely consistent with himself. At no time
of his life did he lose his personal respect for Asbury, and their friendship remained to the close of
the latter's life, though he held pronounced liberal views on government and often discussed them
with his chief. It was during this period that he won from Asbury the cognomen "My silver trumpet,"
alluding to his remarkable voice and overwhelming oratory. There may be surmised two reasons
Asbury did not complete his purpose to reply to O'Kelly personally. He had a distrust of his literary
abilities, hence he left nothing but his Journal, and this severely edited by Hollingsworth, and his
posthumous instructions to the Conference through McKendree. Again, he fully understood the
leveling tendencies of controversy, so he forebore to enter the lists with O'Kelly under his own name
— he held himself above him. It is noteworthy that Lee makes not the slightest reference to the
Asbury-Snethen-O'Kelly controversy.
A period is now reached in the career of O'Kelly which calls for a resumption of the heresy
question and its final disposition. Dissatisfaction grew out of the denominational name, Republican