February 20, 1804 — to Bennet Kendrick
NEWBERN, N.C.
ASB_VOL3.PDF, PDF page 355
For a second time within a month Asbury is writing to Kendrick. The division in Charleston is being healed, and Asbury considers Kendrick a most important figure in bringing peace. He compares the Charleston and Philadelphia divisions.
NEWBERN, N.C.
February 20, 1804
[TO BENNET KENDRICK]1
My dearly beloved Brother,
May the good will of Him that dwelt with Moses in the bush, be with thee. I conclude matters are just as you have given me information. Before you will receive this, I hope brother Norman2 will be with you before this will come to hand, then you will do the best you can. I advise you to be steady and uniform, and go on as you have begun, step by step. You will have your difficulties on both sides the question; as to the Doctor3 I thought the Bishop did not read him right; but your statement perfectly meets my view of things. I am pleased with our prospects in Georgetown, and Wilmington, in the latter they are pleased with brother Russell4 and I trust and hope they will grow this year, in grace, and numbers; dear souls, they were praying most hours of the night, whenever I waked I heard cries going to God the Lord for mercy.
We have concluded that we must add twenty feet to the pulpit end of the house. I presume you will have the heaviest siege in Charleston this year you ever had in your life, but the grace of God is sufficient for you; it will be a great matter to heal a division,5 that has been made for thirteen years: we cannot cure that division6 in Philadelphia, that has been but of three years’ standing, and they are all violent Methodists and fit to die almost with religion, but we have strange spirits in the world, and the Church and people appear sometimes bereaved of grace and reason also. You will find it best to preach pointedly on Christian tempers and duties, to add energy and fire to your administrations; above all, meet your colleagues, and spend a prayer and band7 hour together every week, to keep love and union among yourselves, and the God of love and peace be with you all.
Write me at farthest to Baltimore in May, or even to Norfolk about the 1st of March if any thing critical should turn up, or if Brother Norman should fail; that I may look out for help from some other quarter. I am most affectionately thine,
F. ASBURY
Southern Christian Advocate. Transcribed by Albert D. Betts
Notes (7)
- This letter has no address. However, the facts indicate Bennet Kendrick. He was pastor in Charleston. Jeremiah Russell was appointed to Wilmington at the South Carolina Conference in January, 1804. (Minutes.) Coke was present at the conference. (See Minutes.) Norman evidently did not go to Charleston, and Nicholas Watters was placed there. (See former letter to Kendrick, January 29, 1804.) ↩
- Kendrick had asked for help. ↩
- Bishop Coke. ↩
- Jeremiah Russell. ↩
- The Hammett division. ↩
- Between St. George’s and the Academy Church. ↩
- The early Methodists had societies, classes, and bands. The band was the smallest unit within the class. (See editions of the Discipline from 1785 to 1844 for rules on the bands; see also Buckley, History of Methodism, I, 97-98.) ↩