History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

exhausted in these paternal entails of Wesley and Asbury. In the West such men as John Cooper
carried on the pioneering, and with him Samuel Breese, John Akers, Moriarty, Tunnell, and
Poythress. Barnabas McHenry, William Burke, and Francis McCormick, the founder of Methodism
in Ohio. Scott, Tiffin, and others. Stevens gives up three-fourths of his third volume to sketches of
these noble men.
The General Conference of 1796. Dependence must be placed upon Lee for the most details. It
met October 20, in the Light Street church, Baltimore. Asbury dismisses it in a few lines. "About a
hundred preachers were assembled. . . . They agreed to a committee and then complained; upon
which we dissolved ourselves. . . . No angry passions were felt among the preachers; we had a great
deal of good and judicious talk. The Conference rose on Thursday, November 3: what we have done
is printed. Bishop Coke was cordially received, as my friend and colleague, to be wholly for
America, unless a way should be opened to France. . . . I am thankful that our session is over."
October 14, six days before the Conference, he notes, "We heard by the newspapers of the arrival
of Doctor Coke in the United States." The reader will not take the impression that Asbury was not
expecting him. Their relations had been cordial and confidential since the General Conference of
1792, when Asbury received his submission and restored him to favor. Lee says there were one
hundred and twenty preachers present. He also states that the District conferences, on the segregating
plan of Asbury, and which gave such dissatisfaction to the preachers, gave even more up to the
General Conference of 1796, when the name was changed to Annual, and the number restricted by
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law to seven in each year. It was a set-back for Asbury, but he does not refer to it, as he knew how
and when to bend, under the conviction that if he did not there might be a serious break.
At this Conference also a new form of deed for holding church property was enacted, and the link
forged was a solid one for Episcopal supremacy, as it formally established the dictum, "Empire
follows property." It is given in full in the tenth edition of the Discipline of 1796, on pp. 172-176,
a copy of which is now before the writer, printed in 1798. The gist of this new deed is in the
stipulation, "For the use of the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of
America, according to the rules and discipline which from time to time may be agreed upon and
adopted by the ministers and preachers of said church, at their General Conferences in the United
States of America; and in further trust and confidence that they shall at all times, forever hereafter,
permit such ministers and preachers, belonging to said church, as shall from time to time be duly
authorized by the General Conferences of the ministers and people of the said Methodist Episcopal
Church, or by the yearly Conferences authorized by the said General Conference, and none others,
to preach and expound God's holy word therein." Then follows provision for filling vacancies in the
board of trustees which place the choice practically in the preference of the minister or preacher, and
under his full control, and so also as to the first choice of a board. This legal paper, copper-bottomed
and steel-riveted, holds to this day, except in the case of a few large and influential churches which
are held by the congregation in fact as well as form, the authorities of the Church having found it
wise to connive at the departure. The true character of this deed has been discussed for nearly one
hundred years, and in its proper place in the controversy of 1827-30 it will be thoroughly explored.
The Arminian Magazine was changed in name to the Methodist Magazine. The Chartered Fund
of the Church was instituted for the support of superannuated preachers, their widows and orphans.
Preachers on trial were not to attend Conference. Local preachers were allowed some compensation