CHAPTER VI.

THE ANNUAL CONFERENCES TO THE CLOSE OF RANKIN'S ADMINISTRATION IN 1777.

THE

I. The Conference of 1774.

HE Second Annual Conference assembled as before in Philadelphia, Wednesday, May 25, 1774, and adjourned Friday, May 27. General-Assistant Rankin occupied the chair, managed the business, and made the appointments.

In this second session, it is easy to discern that the body is settling down to what subsequently became the routine minute business of Annual Conferences, the answers to six of the ordinary disciplinary questions being recorded. The first session was extraordinary. It had much to do in the way of general review and final settlement of what some of the irregulars might have been disposed to view as open questions. Enactments, such as we have ventured to style constitutional agreements, in view of their fundamental and permanent character, disappear from the record of business transacted at the Second Conference; confirming once more the view that such action by no means fell within the scope of the ordinary powers of the body, but was proposed by Mr. Rankin, as the newly-arrived plenipotentiary of Mr. Wesley, in the initial Conference, that there might be from the beginning a free, full, and frank understanding of the relations of the Americans to Mr. Wesley and the English, and that the preachers then in connection, or afterward to be received, might be informed of the conditions under which membership in the Conference could be held, the violation of which would issue in the withdrawal of fellowship from them, "till they change their conduct."

The six "Questions "propounded and answered were as follows:

Ques. I. Who are admitted [i. e., into full connection] this year?

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Ques. 2. Who are admitted on trial?

Ques. 3. Who are Assistants [i. e., superintendents of circuits, or preachers in charge] this year?

"Ques. 4. Are there any objections to any of the Preachers?

"Ques. 5. How are the preachers stationed this year? "Ques. 6. What numbers are there in Society?"

Five preachers are admitted into full connection, and seven on trial. Rankin's name appears first on the roll of Assistants and Asbury's immediately follows, Shadford's being third. The answer to Ques. 4 has since become stereotyped, "They were examined one by one." There were seventeen preachers, with a total of 2,073 members in Society, of whom 738 were reported from Baltimore, and 1,063 from Maryland—more than half of the denomination being in this state. Brunswick Circuit reported 218 members against 204 in Philadelphia and 222 in New York. The increase in the whole work had been nearly a thousand members, a result largely due to the efficiency of Rankin's administration. Asbury was appointed to New York (apparently, as we shall see, against his will, as he desired to labor in Baltimore) and Rankin to Philadelphia, these two to exchange at the end of the first quarter. Shadford was placed in charge of the Baltimore Circuit, with Dromgoole, (Drumgole is the spelling in the minutes) Webster, and Lindsay as "helpers." Strawbridge's name does not appear on the plan. Indeed none of Asbury's "helpers " of the preceding year are returned to Baltimore. Evidently Rankin was stirring things, and introducing a discipline under whose severity even Asbury, now in feeble health, smarted. To the list of appointments this note is appended, "All the preachers to change at the end of six months," of course as directed by the General-Assistant.

"The itinerancy was under a stern regimen at that day. Hitherto, as we have seen, it transferred the preachers from

New York to Philadelphia every four months; now it was more rigorous toward the laborers of the cities than before, for while the preachers on the country circuits exchanged semi-annually, those of Philadelphia and New York exchanged quarterly. The itinerancy was prized not only as affording variety of ministerial gifts to the Societies, but as a sort of military drill to the preachers. It kept them energetic by keeping them in motion. No great captain has approved of long encampments. The early Methodist itinerants were an evangelical cavalry; they were always in the saddle; if not in line of battle, yet skirmishing and pioneering; a mode of life which conduced not a little to that chivalric spirit and heroic character which distinguished them as a class. The system speedily killed off such as were weak in body, and drove off such as were feeble in character; the remnant were the giants of those days' morally, very often intellectually, and, to a notable extent, physically. Young men, prudently initiated into its hardships, acquired robust health, stentorian lungs, and buoyant spirits, 'a good humor,' a bon hommie which facilitated not a little their access to the common people; but many whose souls were equal to their work sunk under it physically. Its early records are full, as we shall hereafter see, of examples of martyrdom." * The Conference "agreed to the following particulars in the matter of rules and regulations touching the temporal economy of the Church: "1. Every preacher who is received into full connection is to have the use and property of his horse, which any of the circuits may furnish him with. 2. Every preacher to be allowed six pounds Pennsylvania currency per quarter and his traveling charges besides. 3. For every assistant to make a general collection at Easter in the circuits where they labor; to be applied to the sinking of debts on the houses and relieving the preachers in want. Wherever Thomas Rankin spends his time he is to be assisted by those circuits." †

*Stevens, Hist. M. E. Ch., I. 230, 231.

4.

For all the preceding, see Minutes, ed. 1795, pp. 9-11; ed. 1813, pp. 7, 8.

At the Quarterly Conference which Asbury held on the western shore of Maryland, Dec. 23, 1772, it will be remembered that Brother Strawbridge (a married man) was allowed £8 quarterage, and Brother Asbury and Brother King £6 each. The Annual Conference, it appears from Regulation 2, now relieved the Quarterly Conferences of this responsibility, and assumed jurisdiction of the matter of fixing the compensation of the laborers in the vineyard, placing all the preachers on a uniform basis of support. So this financial arrangement continued for many years afterward. Not until quite late in the history of the Church was this primitive jurisdiction of the Quarterly Conference restored, and the principle established that those who pay shall determine what is necessary for the support of the ministry, and what they are able to contribute. In this rule, also, appears the distinction between "quarterage" and "traveling expenses " which has hardly yet become extinct, the writer of these pages having had his traveling expenses to his last appointment allowed by the stewards.

The Quarterly Conference is the body of supreme authority and jurisdiction in the local Church: the Annual Conference originally exercised general supervision until the General Conference was developed from it by processes which will be fully noticed in the progress of our history. In England there is still but a single Conference supervising the whole work. It meets annually.

In the third rule, we see the germs (1) of the Churchextension fund and (2) of the Conference collection. Building church-houses soon came to be looked upon as the business of the local society, and the general collection for paying debts on chapels and meeting-houses disappeared. But the organization of Church-extension Boards is only a reversion to the primitive type. The principle of community of interest and obligation, even in the erection of local houses of worship, was recognized in the beginning and reappears at last in more formal appliances and organizations. In the fourth regulation we discover the beginnings of the

Bishops' Fund. It makes little difference whether the person exercising a general superintendency is known as General-Assistant, Superintendent, Presiding-elder, or Bishop; his relation to the work is practically the same. Mr. Rankin sustained by Mr. Wesley's appointment such a general relation to the whole work. His claim for support was accordingly placed on a general basis.

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General-Assistant Rankin gives the following account of the Conference session: "" Everything considered, we had reason to bless God for what he had done in about ten months. Above a thousand members are added to the Societies, and most of these have found peace with God. We now labor in the provinces of New York, the Jerseys, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. We spoke our minds freely, one to another in love; and whatever we thought would further the work we most cheerfully embraced. We had now more than seventeen preachers to be employed the ensuing year, and upward of two thousand members, with calls and openings into many fresh places. We stationed the preachers as well as we could, and all seemed to be satisfied." Ex-Assistant Asbury says: Wednesday 25. Our Conference began. The overbearing spirit of a certain person had excited my fears. My judgment was stubbornly opposed for a while, and at last submitted to. But it is my duty to bear all things with a meek and patient spirit. Our Conference was attended with great power; and, all things considered, with great harmony. We agreed to send Mr. W. [Wright] to England; and all acquiesced in the future stations of the preachers. My lot was to go to New York. My body and mind have been much fatigued during the time of this Conference. And if I were not deeply conscious of the truth and goodness of the cause in which I am engaged, I should by no means stay here. Lord! what a world is this! yea, what a religious world! O keep my heart pure, and my garments unspotted from the world! Our Conference ended on Friday with a comfortable intercession.” *

* Journal, I. 81.