History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

August 1, 1769, the twenty-sixth Conference began at Leeds. There was a gain of six circuits and
of 922 members. An appeal came from America for helpers, and Richard Boardman and Joseph
Pilmoor responded and were accepted. A collection of seventy pounds was made, fifty for the new
chapel in New York and twenty for their traveling expenses to the distant land. Wesley was now
sixty-six years old. He began to concern himself seriously about the successorship — heart and mind
were intent upon preserving the unity of his preachers and his people after his death. It may be
admitted, according to the favorite phrasing of most of his biographers, that, as a rule, he had no
preconceived plans; but in this matter he exhibited an anxiety which could not be fathered upon
Providence, or referred to any thing but the delusive necessity all autocratic minds see, for a
perpetuation of the absorbing idea of their personal leadership. Running before Providence, he finally
settled it in a way that ultimated in the converse of his purpose; it destroyed the unity of both his
preachers and "the people called Methodists." His distraction was great, for though he presented a
plan at this Conference curiously involved and complicated, he held it in suspense for years, then
brought it up again at the Conferences of 1773, 1774, and 1775, when it was signed by all the
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preachers present, 101. In 1784 it was superseded by the Deed of Declaration when he was
eighty-one years of age.
Meantime a pious, educated, wealthy, versatile, consecrated, and diplomatic character had come
into Methodism, and, more than any other man, Wesley excepted and Asbury not considered, molded
its structure both in England and America. That character was Thomas Coke. But for him, probably
the advice of his brother Charles would have prevailed, when he wrote to John on this very subject:
"You cannot settle the succession. You cannot divine how God will settle it." Had Providence been
allowed to settle it, Providence would have followed its own precedents for church government in
the New Testament, and thus settled, it would have been settled right. An earnest appeal had been
made to him by the few preachers doing missionary work in America, to pay them a visit, and
Wesley was strongly inclined to comply; but he long hesitated, and finally abandoned the idea.
Whitehead gives his dominating reason for not going, characteristic of Wesley. "Being one day asked
in company if he intended to go to America, he answered, 'If I go to America, I must do a thing
which I hate as I hate the devil.' 'What is that, sir?' said one present. 'I must keep a secret,' he replied,
meaning that he would have to conceal it from the societies, which were strongly opposed to his
going. And this incident authenticates his brother's declaration, 'But you expect he will keep his own
secrets! Let me whisper into your ear; he never could do it since he was born. It is a gift which God
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has not given him.'" His nature was open and ingenuous. Those who traveled with him had free
access to his letters. The representations made him by others, if reputable persons, he never
questioned. He had a childlike confidence in the sincerity of others, and thus was moved to action,
often unconsciously to himself, by the influences prompting it. The trait is noteworthy as furnishing
a key to some of the pregnant events of his life, fraught with consequences of deepest moment, acts
of which he repented with tears when it was too late to amend them. He was incapable of guile or
malice, and he easily condoned the conduct of those who at times misled him.
The twenty-seventh Conference was held in London, August 7, 1770. There were fifty circuits,
a gain of four; the last is significant — "Fiftieth, America, Joseph Pilmoor, Richard Boardman,
Robert Williams, John King." There was a gain of 1143 members. There were forty-three preachers'
wives to be provided for out of something over one hundred, thus inroads were made upon a celibate
ministry. The support was extremely meager: 64 for the preacher, 12 for his wife, 8 for each child,