History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

4 This case in substance is that Rev. C. F. Klein, missionary at Yokohama, Japan, prospecting for
a place to work nearer the interior, selected Nagoya, then unoccupied by the M. E. Church in any
form. He made his purpose known to Rev. Mr. Soper and to McClay, superintendent of their mission
work, informing them that he thought of occupying Nagoya, and if they did not purpose so doing
under the invitation to "cooperate in foreign fields by churches of the same theology"; and his
approaches were met with a friendly intimation that the territory was open to him, as they could not
then occupy. He occupied accordingly, and built a house. This was in 1887. In 1888 Bishop Fowler
made a visit to the place, and though he must have known of the occupation, selected a site hard by,
and commenced operations for the M. E. Church, thus ignoring the ironical plan of non-interference
of the Methodisms abroad with each other's work. The full particulars are voluminous, but can be
furnished to any one doubting the substantial truth of these allegations.
5 The writer is indebted for these facts and others to be stated to J. W. Bond's letter to Bishop
McKendree, from which all other historians have likewise gleaned, and recollections given him by
Rev. Thomas McCormick, of Baltimore, who was the last survivor of the twelve pall-bearers, having
lived until February 20, 1883. He was one of the eleven ministers and preachers who were expelled
the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1827, for their advocacy of Reform through the Wesleyan
Repository and the Union Societies. Some ten years ago a person appeared in the office of the writer,
then editor of the Methodist Protestant, and exhibited the original class book of the Light Street
Station containing the names of the eleven, and after each name in a round, bold hand the word
"Expelled" written. The writer failed to secure the book under promise from the holder that he would
return it to the officiary of the Light Street church, but subsequent inquiry showed that he never did
it, and the book is probably irrevocably lost. The General Methodist Episcopal Conference of 1880,
in Baltimore City, honored itself and the man by introducing McCormick to it in his proper
character, and as the last survivor of the Asbury funeral. The writer recently made a careful
examination of the files of The American and Commercial Daily Advertiser, of Baltimore, for May,
1816, with the remarkable result that on the 9th of May, a brief notice is given of the Asbury funeral,
and all clergymen invited. On the 10th, it publishes the Bond letter to McKendree of more than a
column in length, giving all the particulars of his last illness and death minutely. But on the 11th,
and thereafter, not a single line is given as to the funeral. It can be accounted for only on the theory
that, as Black affirms, the whole of Baltimore town of that day, either attended the funeral or heard
of it, so that reportorially the paper deemed it unnecessary to publish what everybody knew, so
universal was the interest it excited. Bond's letter is under date, "Spottsylvania, April 1, 1816." Rev.
McCormick, before referred to, in 1882, then in his ninety-first year, presented the writer with a book
heretofore noticed, "The Conference, or Sketches of Wesleyan Methodism," published in 1824, at
Bridgeton, N.J. It is in verse, and as appendices, there is an account of Asbury with a pen-portrait
of great merit, and also a Letter to the unknown author* from Rev. William Black, General
Superintendent of the Canada work of the Wesleyan Conference, and who was a visitor at the
General Conference of 1816. He gives an extended account of Asbury's funeral, from which citations
have been made in the running text. He also informs that with Bishop McKendree they headed the
procession before the coffin, borne by the pall-bearers, as in that day carriages and hearses were
unknown at funerals, and that in the procession were the Protestant Episcopal Bishop, and the
governor of the state, and "several other ministers of different communions." Black made the
concluding prayer after McKendree's address. This letter is found nowhere else, and the book itself
so rare that the writer has never heard of but one other copy. Around the margins of this printed letter