History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

METHODIST REFORM
Edward J. Drinkhouse, M.D., D.D.
Volume I
CHAPTER 36
Racy extracts from Asbury's Journal on sundry subjects — His failing health and the Wilbraham
annual conference; "assistant bishops" proposed; Lee in the episcopal saddle; and what came of the
adroit proposal; McCaine's information — Asbury's extraordinary itinerary for a sick man —
Statistics as to the O'Kelly secession; reflections on it — Sudden appearance of Dr. Coke in Virginia;
how he played coy with the American and British brethren; present at the General Conference of
1800; how Asbury now began to play fast and loose with him; McCaine exposes letters throwing
light on the subject — The writer's justification for exhuming these hidden facts; ignored by other
Methodist historians — Coke's resolve to come no more to America unless he can he received as a
coordinate Bishop — Final disappearance.
A few events call for notice. Asbury writes, May 21, 1795 "This day I heard of the death of one,
among my best friends in America Judge White, of Kent County, in the state of Delaware. This news
was attended with an awful shock to me. I have met with nothing like it in the death of any friend
on the continent. . . . He was about sixty-five years of age." And then a quizzical note — October,
1795, in the Pitt District of Maryland — "The Africans of this town desire a church, which in
temporals shall be altogether under their own direction, and ask greater privileges than the white
stewards and trustees ever had a right to claim." Naughty fellows. Was not Asbury striving for the
freedom of them all, and they innocently conclude that, if the sauce is good for the goose it must be
good for the gander — they would like to be free Christians also! The Bishop's language leaves in
doubt whether he was ready to laugh or cry. January, 1796 — "We have now a second and confirmed
account that the Cokesbury college is consumed to ashes, a sacrifice of about 10,000 pounds [fifty
thousand dollars] in about ten years." It was ten months before the meeting of the General
Conference. And now January, 1797, or two months afterward: "Serious news from Baltimore —
the academy and our church in Light St., with brother Hawkins' elegant house, all destroyed by fire.
The loss we sustain in the college, academy, and church, I estimate from fifteen to twenty thousand
pounds; it affected my mind." These were providences by second causes only. It was no Divine
frown, for in nothing has Methodism been more blessed than in its institutions of learning, etc. It has
been an unmixed good, except the churchly presumption it has engendered, and the strength it has
given to its largely unamenable officialism. Built by the people's money, but controlled and owned
by the Cincinnati, Ohio, incorporation of the Methodist Episcopal Church in trust for the General
Conference. But what did the O'Kellyites and the Sommersites say about it? It is a gratification that,
so far as can be discovered, there are no criticisms except those indulged by Asbury and Lee
themselves. Can it be believed that if the O'Kellyites had built such structures, and the destruction
had followed, that the Asbury party would have been as charitable? Asbury agreed with Cowper —
"God made the country and man made the town," and his notes are full of his preference for the
country. Escaping out of Charleston, S. C., he says: "On my way I felt as if I were let out of prison.
Hail! ye solitary pines the jessamine, the red-bud, and dogwood! how charming in full bloom! the
former a most fragrant smell." June, 1797, in Baltimore — "Thomas Barber, from Birmingham
(England) took a second likeness of me, at the desire of my mother, to send to England." His health