History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

pioneers it may be said that in their most arduous fields and distant exiles they were volunteers; the
love of Christ was the constraining force, and though they were parts of the governmental system,
and by many it is given all the credit of the work, the results would have been the same under a wiser
and less autocratic one, with the same class of men to move forward. They were not "sent"; they
went under a call from within by the Spirit of God, and nothing could keep them back.
Note has been made of the decease of Coke, Asbury, and Whatcoat, Bishops of the Church. It
remains to note the departure of Jesse Lee, than whom no man has done more for American
Methodism. Uncultured as the schools go, he was yet well read, and he had the faculty of utilizing
all he did know for the effective preaching of the gospel. Six feet in stature, of sinewy build, rugged
intellect, great will power, he was a loyal Methodist, though of independent mental structure, and
Asbury handled him cautiously. He met and mastered the New England climate, the hard theology
of Calvinism, and planted Methodism in its uncongenial soil. In the Middle States and the South, he
was an acknowledged leader, and his many stanch adherents kept him forward as a prospective
Episcopos, furthered by Asbury, who secretly loved manly independence, and so admired him as he
did Alexander McCaine for the same reason; but his advocacy at times of liberal measures, his bluff
manners, and lack of the conciliatory temper kept the prize from him, though it is undeniable that
he labored in laudable expectation of it. To this end, probably, he never married and never located;
facts that in his day were strong recommendations. Those who would see him in the favorable light
of partial biography will consult his "Life," by his nephew, Rev. L. M. Lee. He was a marked figure
in the procession of Asbury's funeral. Thrift, who also wrote a biography of him, walked with him,
and says, " Lee's countenance bespoke his emotions. A dignified sorrow, such as veterans feel, while
following to the grave an old companion in arms, was evinced by his words and countenance." Only
four months after, in August, he attended a camp-meeting near Hillsboro', Eastern Shore of
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Maryland, and after preaching was seized with an intractable fever, and all remedies failed.
Realizing the end, at first he was depressed, but soon rallied, and for several days before his death
was filled with holy joy. He gave minute directions about his affairs, with rapturous assurance that
he was "dying in the Lord," sent his love to Bishop McKendree and his fellow-laborers, and fell
asleep on the evening of the 12th of September, 1816. His remains were brought to Baltimore, and
after fitting services buried in Mt. Olivet cemetery. He was but fifty-eight years of age, with unabated
vigor of mind and body. It is not altogether idle to speculate what would have been the result to
himself and the momentous events of the succeeding fifteen years had he lived out the natural length
of such a physical constitution. For years of pronounced opinions as to the elective eldership, he
would have gone into the contest of 1820, with sledge-hammer blows such as he could wield, and
would have enjoyed the signal, if short-lived, victory of the hour, as he did the overthrow of the
Council Plan of Asbury and the call of a General Conference as its substitute. It would probably have
carried him into the bishopric over Soule, and thus changed the current of history. In the subsequent
controversy of 1824-30, whether mitred or not, his position would have been, to say the least,
conservative, and thus have arrested the extreme measures inaugurated against the Reformers. As
it was, it has taken fifty years to modify the intolerant policy that did ensue.
One object of this History is to provide incidentally for Reform Methodists, and others as well,
a succinct view of general Methodism so that other histories need not be consulted to gain a
necessary knowledge of its salient literature. To this end it may be emphasized that the Press as an
auxiliary to religion was highly appreciated by Wesley, as the liberal use of it and the numerous