History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

who had been elected Book Agent to succeed Dickins, was reelected, and the Book Concern
removed to New York. Asbury dismisses the Conference with a few lines. May 7 (the 6th was a
Sabbath): "Our General Conference began. What was done the revised form of discipline will show.
There were attempts made upon the ruling eldership. We had a great talk. I asked little upon any
subject; and was kept in peace. I preached but twice.
"The Lord did not own the ministerial labors of the General Conference." Bangs gives a full list
of the names of those in attendance and makes it 105, seven being declared ineligible by reason of
time disqualification. Stevens, as usual, gives details. William Black, who was a visitor at the
Conference, 1784, is again present just twenty years later. The unequal representation of the
preachers gave much force to the renewed attempts to organize the Conference on a delegated plan.
Stevens alone refers to it: "It was deferred to the next session." Snethen furnishes an item. He had
discussed it with Asbury in their travels, and he makes this record: "I was ignorant of Mr. Asbury's
sentiments, about a representative General Conference, when I broached the subject to him. We
discussed the subject between ourselves, and it was agreed that I should support it at the General
Conference. The motion, however, was lost by a large majority; and when it was carried (1808) I was
no longer a member of the General Conference. I will not take upon me to say that Mr. Asbury had
not the plan in his mind, when I first made known to him my thoughts upon the subject."
Hitherto there had been no restriction as to the appointments. The preachers were sent for six
months, or longer, as the Bishop might deem best, but some were retained through the pressure of
influence for three years. A restrictive rule was now enacted which forbade the appointment of a
preacher longer than two years. It is embalmed in Methodist history as the "Restrictive Rule." Asbury
was pleased with this regulation as it came to the assistance of the appointing power. It was probably
a wise regulation in its day, but it became so incorporated with the fundamental law as to require
special legislation for any change of it. For more than fifty years it was jealously guarded as a kind
of fetish which augured and secured the success of Methodist preaching. But with the increasing
diligence and spirituality of the surrounding Christian denominations, and the peculiar environment
of city pastoral work, the disadvantages of such an iron-clad law grew upon the convictions of the
most thoughtful, and gradual extensions were made of the rule, more by the pressure brought to bear
by the ministry than by the active interference of the laity, who though so thoroughly mistrusted and
deemed incompetent to share in the legislative functions of the Church, have ever been its most loyal
and conservative force, until, at this date, the time limit has been prolonged to five years.
A ruling was made that Bishops should allow Annual Conferences to sit at least a week. Hitherto
they closed them at pleasure, often after two or three days. It gave more time, if not more liberty of
debate, in these bodies. The presiding Bishop entertained, or refused to entertain motions, and
controlled debate within such limits that there was little semblance of a deliberative assembly. The
title of "Quarterly Meeting Conference" was given the quarterly gathering of the officiary on the
local work. Provision was made for the election of a presiding elder to preside at Conferences in the
absence of a Bishop. The law against the marriage of Church members with "unawakened persons"
was changed from expulsion to being put back on trial for six months. Rev. William Colbert, who
was a member of the Conference, says of it: "I am possessed with awful fears that this Conference
as a body will lift the flood-gates of corruption." It was recommended to Annual Conferences that
preachers be restrained from publications of any kind before submitting their manuscripts to the