Francis Asbury [Electronic Resource]: the Prophet of the Long Road

FRANCIS ASBURY [Mtat. circa 63] From the Portrait painted by Bruff in 1808 FRANCIS ASBURY THE PROPHET OF THE LONG ROAD BY EZRA SQUIER TIPPLE THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN NEW YORK CINCINNATI Copyright, 1916, by EZRA SQUIER TIPPLE Prlnted in the United States of America First Edition Printed February, 1916 Reprinted November, 1916; July, 1923 IN REVERENT AND GRATEFUL PRAISE OF AN ITINERANT PREACHER AND CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL, THE REVEREND EZRA S. SQUIER AND HIS DAUGHTER, MY MOTHER. CONTENTS CHAPTEB PAGE I. FOREWORD 11 IL The Flame 15 III. The Challenge 37 IV. The Church in the Wilderness 57 V. Asbury's Journal 80 VI. Two Révolutions 111 VII. The Christmas Conférence 134 VIII. The Long Road 158 IX. The Methodist Evangelism 183 X. ASBURY AS A PREACHER 211 XL The Care of All the Churches 241 XII. The Lengthening Shadows 276 XIII. The Man Himself 300 Index 329 ILLUSTRATIONS Francis Asbury Frontispiece FACING PAGE The Reputed Birthplace of Asbury 42 Manwood's Cottage, Handsworth, England .... 42 Letter of Asbury to His Parents 56 Facsimile of the Appointment of Thomas Mor- RELL, ETC 78 Perry Hall, the Home of Henry Dorsey Gough 78 Barratt's Chapel—Interior 140 Barratt's Chapel—Exterior 140 Consécration of Francis Asbury as a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church 152 Page from the Rare Discipline of 1787 168 Portrait of Bishop Asbury 190 Letter of John Wesley to The Révérend Mr. Asbury 250 Title Page of the Minutes of the Second Council 256 Ebenezer Academy, Virginia 272 "Wakefield," the Home of Henry Willis 272 Facsimile Bishop Asbury's Will, I and II 284 Bishop Asbury's "Mite Subscription " 294 House Where Bishop Asbury Died 298 Asbury's Watch and Spectacles 298 Francis Asbury in Middle Life 304 Bishops' Lot, Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Baltimore 324 — CHAPTER I FOREWOBD Before he died Francis Asbury enjoined that no life of him should be written. Enough had been said about him, he felt—and against him while living. Moreover, would not his Journal, which was begun and written with this thought in mind, and is therefore largely autobiographie, give ail necessary information concerning his manner of life and his ceaseless activities through- out his long and distinguished ecclesiastical career ? And what more need be said of him after he had finished his course, having kept the faith, than was said of La Tour d'Auvergne, the warrior of Breton, fallen in battle, when his name was called and some comrade in arms who held him in loving remembrance, responded, 'Dead on the field' ? One day a sister of Thomas Carlyle asked him whom he desired for his biographer. *I want no biography,' was his curt answer. 'But there will be many biographies of you written,' she persisted. Men of power of achievement cannot escape this fate, however much they may wish to. 11 FRANCIS ASBURY Asbury's demand was unreasonable. It ^as inévitable that 'many biographies' of him would be written. The year following his death, at the Annual Conférence in Baltimore, March, 1817, Bishop McKendree spoke of the importance of having an authentic and comprehensive Life of his late colleague and friend; the Conférence concurred in his views, and a committee to carry them into exécution was appointed and given authority to sélect some one for the important task. This was done, but the choice seems not to hâve been a fortunate one, for at the General Conférence in 1824, seven years having passed, the Rev. William Beauchamp, one of the most prominent members of that Conférence, was requested to become the biographer of the still lamented leader, but he died before he had time to enter upon the work. This project failing, it would appear that the Rev- Robert Emory pur- posed writing a Life, and gathered a considérable quantity of valuable material, which later came into the possession of Drew Theological Semi- nary, where the Emory Collection of Manu- scripts is regarded as among its most valued treasures. Of this collection, as well as of other important collections and letters and manuscripts in the same library, I hâve made much use. Strick- land's The Pioneer Bishop: or, The Life and 12 FOREWORD Times of Francis Asbury, appeared in 1858; The Character and Career of Francis Asbury, Illustrated by Numerous Sélections from his Journal, Arrangea in Chronological Order, by the Rev. Edwin L. Janes, in 1872; Briggs's Bishop Asbury: A Biographical Study for Chris- tian Workers, in 1879; Smith's Life and Labors of Francis Asbury, in 1898; and Dr. George P. Mains' small but valuable Francis Asbuvy, in 1909. Methodism has had some distinctive features by which it has been distinguished from other dénominations, and which account for its suc- cess. Among thèse are its System of church gov- ernment, its ardent, effective evangelism, its rational, scriptural, and preachable theology, its aggressive missionary spirit, its teaching concerning expérimental salvation, and the freedom and warmth of its services, especially of its preaching and singing. To no man are we more indebted for the currents of denominational power flowing through our history than to Francis Asbury. A hundred years hâve now passed since this man of extraordinary greatness, who in his gén- ération did more for Christianity on this con- tinent than any other, died, and it seems only fitting that in this centennial year of his death the attention of his spiritual descendants should 13 FRANCIS ASBURY be directed to this colossal figure of our denoni- inational history, for Vith Wesley, Whitefield, and Coke, he ranks as one of the four greatest représentatives of the Methodist movement, and in American Methodism he ranks immeas- urably above ail his contemporaries and suc- cessors.' This has been my object in writing this volume. I hâve not attempted to write another 'Life'—this book is not so much a biography as it is an estimate of the man. It is not the history of a movement, but the study of a personality. Henry Boehm, who knew him intimately, having traveled more than forty thousand miles with him, declared: 'Bishop Asbury possessed more deadness to the world, more of a self-sacrificing spirit, more of the spirit of prayer, of Christian enterprise, of labor, and of benevolence, than any other man I ever knew; he was the most unselfish being I was ever acquainted with.' Beyond any other person he embodied the genius and spirit of early Methodism. Among Methodism's noblest sons he has the prééminence, and though not canonized should be forever enshrined in our hearts, as our Saint Francis, the Prophet of the Long Road. 14 CHAPTER II THE FLAME When Francis Asbury was born, August 20, 1745, the fîre of the 'Evangelical Revival' in Eng- land had been burning for some years. The story of this marvelous religious awakening will never lose its interest. However often it may be repeated, it will never become stale or com- monplace any more than the rays of the sun grow old. The romance and charm of the beginnings of the Methodist movement in the eighteenth century are second only to the fascinating and stirring account of the early days of Christianity, Moreover, hâve they not many features in com- mon? Methodism was more nearly a renewal of primitive Christianity than any movement of the centuries since the apostles. It was a revival of the teachings of Christ and of the attitude of his disciples toward personal religion and toward society, and of the whole spirit and purpose of the gospel. If what accredited English writers say of that period is even half true, England in the early décades of the eighteenth century was a sorry 15 FRANCIS ASBURY spectacle, in spite of the fact that it had men of brilliant genius like Bolingbroke, Walpole, and Chesterfield, and men of learning like Butler, Warburton, Whiston, and Gibson, Bishop of London, 'whose piety was equal to his érudition.' This was the century too of Isaac Watts and Philip Doddridge, and what men of light and * power they were ! On the other hand, Jonathan Swift was playing the part of a clever ecclesiastical buffoon,' and the clergy as a rule were impotent as teachers of a pure Christianity. Bishop Burnet said in 1713: 'The much greater part of those who corne to be ordained are igno- rant to a degree not to be apprehended by those who are not obliged to know it. They can give no account, or at least a very imperfect one, of the contents even of the Gospels.' The plain precepts of the Scriptures were disregarded by priests and people. The Bible was a neglected book. Sunday was a day of sport, and clergy- men were notoriously active in their observance of the day in this fashion. The fox-hunting parson is a conspicuous figure in the literature of the eighteenth century- Religion was a term rather than a life. The predominating char- acteristic of the period was the prominence given to external morality. Emotion had no place in religion. The entire sufficiency of natural religion was blatantly asserted by many so-called 16 THE FLAME teachers. Much of the skepticism of the day took the form of deism. Hume was a deist, and so was the other historian, Gibbon. The practice of extempore preaching had died out, and preachers droned platitudes by the hour. There was no vigor, no intensity of zeal, no ardent émotion, no compelling unction, in the preaching of the âge. Philanthropy—there was nothing of the sort worth speaking about. Religion was at low ebb.

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