History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

October 8, "This evening she was buried, but I was not informed of it till a day or two after." [11]
Throughout this year he was always on the wing, and yet managed to write and publish extensively.
The thirty-ninth Conference met in August, 1782, in London. The serious question discussed was
the case of the Birstal chapel. Originally built by John Nelson in 1751, it became necessary to rebuild
in 1782. The deed gave a reserve right after the death of the two Wesleys and Grimshaw, to select
their own preacher. The new deed was in substance the same, and Wesley now refused to sign it,
claiming property right for the Conference in his name absolutely over all the chapels. Like a
shuttlecock in the game of battledore the controversy raged; propositions and counter propositions
were submitted. Dr. Coke took part, probably at Wesley's prompting, and his letters to the trustees
exhibit that insinuating diplomacy running through his whole future history. After a year or more the
matter was settled; the trustees, pushed financially to meet a debt of 350, yielded the point on a
pledge from Wesley that he would raise the money for them. Tyerman says of it, — note that he was
a strong but candid Conference partisan, — "Wesley committed a mistake; but be it borne in mind
that he was now an old man of nearly eighty, and that Alexander Mather, and Thomas Briscoe, the
superintendents of the Leeds and Bristol circuits, were participators in his folly." [12]
Thus early in the history of Methodism was the issue joined of empire by property, resumed from
time to time, and made one of the fundamentals in the Reform controversy in American Methodism
in 1827-30. When it comes for consideration the merits of the question shall be reviewed
exhaustively. Suffice it to observe that the gist of it at Birstal and ever afterward was, Which is
antecedently more probable, that the people will depart from Methodist usages and doctrines, or that
the preachers will depart? The contention of Wesley and his coadjutors was that the people could
not be trusted to control their own property. The contention of the people was, that after Wesley's
decease it was a necessary security, to mention no other grounds, that the preachers would not use
the advantage against the people. The citation just made from Tyerman is pregnant of consequences,
soon to be realized, in the one sentence, "He was now an old man of nearly eighty," as accounting
in part for the uncompromising attitude he assumed in the Birstal matter, as he was influenced,
maybe unconsciously to himself, by his familiars and confidants: Not Coke only, but Charles
Wesley, took part in the Birstal contention. It is interesting to note that he cites from one of the
letters of the nineteen trustees the following just observation, "The civil and religious rights of
mankind have seldom been promoted by the assemblies of ecclesiastics of any denomination; and
they never will be, unless they are composed of men devoted to God, and dead to all allurements of
[13]
ease, and avarice, and ambition." Charles Wesley admits its truth in his reply, but hopes that the
Methodist Conferences will always be of the character depicted, as a reason for their yielding.
Elizabeth Wallbridge must be mentioned, as in this year she was converted under the ministry of
James Crabb, a Methodist preacher, and she became a member of society and continued such to her
death in 1801. She was the original of Leigh Richmond's "Dairyman's Daughter," of which millions
of copies have been published in thirty languages, but he omits to name her Methodist faith and
associations. Wesley continued his unremitting labors, traveling, writing, and publishing. Coke or
Moore or Bradburn shared his conveyance frequently, as he was now an old man.
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