History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

METHODIST REFORM
Edward J. Drinkhouse, M.D., D.D.
Volume I
CHAPTER 9
Methodism in other regions — Closing days of Wesley, 1791 — Letters to Ezekiel Cooper and
others — Last sermon — Illness and Dr. Whitehead — Religious experience — Buried by torchlight
at five in the morning of March 9 — Pen-pictures of Wesley by Whitehead, Haweis, Tyerman —
Eulogies by Whitehead, Tyerman, and Macaulay — A lost chapter recovered as to his obsequies —
Whitehead's sermon given only in full in Stockton's "Whitehead's Life of Wesley " — Secret reasons
of Whitehead's persecution by the Conference party — His full vindication in Appendix A.
Did the design of this work permit, it would be intensely interesting to follow Methodism as a
missionary organization in the British Islands, France, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, West Indies, and
Africa. Stevens is the best authority here. Dr. Coke is a leading spirit, braving the perils and
hardships of the ocean, despising personal ease, and pouring out his wealth without stint in the work
of spreading the gospel under Methodistic auspices. Duncan Wright, Duncan McAllum, Nathaniel
Gilbert, a layman who was converted in England and returning to his West Indies' home at Antigua,
established Methodism in his own house, afterward fostered by Coke and Hammett. Brackenbury,
another layman, operated in the islands of Jersey and Guernsey, as he could speak Norman French,
and also Mahy, De Quetteville, De Jersey, and Toase, to France. John Crook, a local preacher of
Liverpool, gave Methodism to the Isle of Man. He is one of the heroes of Wesley. Smyth, a
Methodist clergyman, followed up the work. Pierre Le Suour, Cougland, John Fenton, Captain
Webb, afterward notable in American Methodism, Jasper Winscombe, and Alexander Kilham, who
was a servant in the employ of Brackenbury, a wealthy layman, took part in the evangelization of
Jersey. Adam Clarke also did much faithful labor in the islands, specially Alderney. Elizabeth
Wallbridge, the original of the "Dairyman's Daughter," will forever perpetuate Wesleyan piety in the
Isle of Wight. Joseph Sutliffe for the Seilly Islands, William Black for Nova Scotia, with Freeborn
Garrettson, an American, as also James O. Cromwell, did wonders as pioneers in these distant
northlands. John McGeary must not go unmentioned in the same connection. On the 24th of
September, 1786, Dr. Coke, with Hammett, who will be mentioned later in other associations,
Warrener, and Clark embarked from England for Nova Scotia, but terrible storms and a leaking ship
drove them for refuge to the West Indies, where they reinforced Gilbert in his lay Methodistic society
at Antigua. They visited and formed societies in other islands. Harry, an American slave who had
been brought to these islands, is immortal in Methodism, as Harry of St. Eustatius, to distinguish him
from "Black Harry," Asbury's traveling companion and eloquent preacher. Coke made voyages to
the West Indies in 1788, 1790, and 1792, and made martyr-like sacrifices in establishing the
Methodist faith. Near six thousand members were reported before Wesley's death. In far-off Africa,
Wesley heard of a society organized at Sierra Leone of 223 Negroes. In this instance Stevens does
not name the missionaries, a regrettable fact.
The closing days of Wesley. He continued to write letters early in 1791, to Dr. Clarke, Thomas
Taylor, Miss Bolton, and Miss Cambridge, pious young Methodists; John Booth, Thomas Roberts,
Mrs. Susannah Knapp, and Ezekiel Cooper, then a young American preacher of great ability, who