. The history of Methodism. ote at Baltimore in the preceding year, and now againonly one refused to sign the paper. To his old friend George Shadford, in England, who knewhis heart so well, and whose departure had been his sorestloss, Asbury wrote, after the Conference of 1783, touchingthe outcome of the bitter strife over this question: Youhave heard of the divisions about that improper questionproposed at the Deer Creek Conference (1777), What shall bedone about the ordinances? You know we stood foot byfoot to oppose it. I cannot tell you what I suffered in thisaffair. However, God has brou
. The history of Methodism. ote at Baltimore in the preceding year, and now againonly one refused to sign the paper. To his old friend George Shadford, in England, who knewhis heart so well, and whose departure had been his sorestloss, Asbury wrote, after the Conference of 1783, touchingthe outcome of the bitter strife over this question: Youhave heard of the divisions about that improper questionproposed at the Deer Creek Conference (1777), What shall bedone about the ordinances? You know we stood foot byfoot to oppose it. I cannot tell you what I suffered in thisaffair. However, God has brought good out of evil, and ithas so cured them that I think there will never be anythingformidable in that way again. Before the end of the next year, 1784, the vexed questionwhich had brought the societies to the verge of disruptionwas finally settled, to the satisfaction of preachers and peo-ple, by the organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church;an independent ecclesiastical body, served by its own or-dained CHAPTER XXII The Man at the Helm Wesleys One-man Theory.—Early Superintendents.—Asbury Cho-sen by the Brethren.—A Tour of Duty.—Confidence in theFuture of America. JOHN WESLEY was no democrat. A supporter of thecrown in British politics, he was himself monarchamong his preachers. The Wesleyan Conferenceswere no more than the name implies. Wesley, or his ap-pointee, was in the chair, and however freely the preachersmight speak their minds in these conversations the finaldecision of all questions was reserved to him. This personal authority Wesley strove to exert in distantAmerica through regularly appointed deputies. As soon asthe prospects of the work in the Xew World warranted sucha step he commissioned a member of the British Conferenceto act as his assistant, and committed to him the superin-tendence of the American societies. Richard Boardman was,it appears, the first to exercise this authority. In October,1772, Francis Asbury received a letter
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