[August 20, 1801] — to Thomas Coke
ASB_VOL3.PDF, PDF page 278
Coke was back in England, and Asbury and Whatcoat were
carrying on in America. Asbury is giving Coke an account of the work.
[STONE CHAPEL, MD.]
[August 20, 1801]1
[TO THOMAS COKE]2
My very dear Brother:
To whom I wish grace, mercy, and peace. After a confinement of seven weeks in Philadelphia, and the eating out of a principal sinew in my foot by caustics, (it having been strained by excessive riding,) I am in my work again. I am now beating up to the westward to attend the yearly conference, for that department, in the east end of the State of Tennessee. By accounts from Cumberland [Tennessee], according to elder McKendree, the work goeth on among the Methodists and Presbyterians. At a meeting of the latter, about twenty souls professed to have received converting grace: at a meeting of the former, about forty found the Lord between Saturday and Monday; and there was no sign of the meeting ending, when the elder was obliged to come away. Few days pass but we have accounts from eight to twelve souls being brought to God at a meeting. Every circuit upon the Eastern and Western shores [Maryland] appears to have a revival. Since I wrote from Philadelphia, I have heard of a stir in [New] Jersey. Brother Whatcoat3 is upon a thousand miles tour, in going to meet the [New] York and Massachusetts Conferences, and to come thro’ the Lake, and Genesee country, round [New] York, Jersey, and Pennsylvania, I mean along the extremities of the country. In a little time I hope to meet him, and take the western journey, from Frederick-Town, in Maryland; thence to recross the Allegany to the south. I shall not have a probable opportunity of writing again till December, in Charleston. Brother Whatcoat will perhaps go down the old path you have frequently gone with me, thro’ old Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. We shall not be able to meet all the conferences, if we keep together, tho’ our bones were brass and our flesh iron. The conferences are extended near one thousand three hundred miles along our world, besides the Western Conference, which will call our attention every year, from seven to eight or nine hundred miles from the coast. God is good to me, weak, lame, and feeble as I am. We have vast openings to the north-east; but as I have been kept back by my lameness, I have not informed myself of the particulars. Your circular letters4 came late to hand: We have spread them abroad. I hope you enjoy perfect love; and fail not to urge it in every sermon and exhortation, and every prayer. If I were to judge myself worthy to write to the elder brethren in England, it would be, “Seek pure hearts; preach instantaneous salvation from all sin; let every prayer, every hymn and sermon be seasoned with this wholesome, holy doctrine.” Give my Christian salutations to every Methodist preacher in all the kingdoms, and all the people you please; I give you a full commission. I am, as ever, thine,
FRANCIS ASBURY
The Methodist Magazine, 1802, 217-18
Notes (4)
- A comparison with Francis Asbury’s Journal makes it quite clear that this letter was written between August 19 and 28, 1801, and probably about the twentieth. ↩
- Coke returned from America after the election of Whatcoat as bishop in May, 1800, and was busy in England, Wales, and Ireland. He presided over the Irish conferences each July and served the English Conference as secretary. He was preparing his Commentary on the Holy Bible for the press. (Frank Baker.) ↩
- Bishop Whatcoat. ↩
- Probably prospectuses seeking subscribers for Coke’s Commentary on the Holy Bible. The first two of six volumes were published in 1801. On February 28, 1801, he wrote to the Rev. James Moore that one volume was published but he dare not risk sending 250 copies in case they were lost and 250 sets thus broken. He intended himself bringing over “next August or September, two years… a sufficient number of complete sets on the Old Testament, neatly bound.” (Frank Baker.) ↩