USA > Delaware > New Castle County > Wilmington > Centennial services of Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, Wilmington, Delaware, October 13-20, 1889 > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
Question, Are there any directions to be given concerning the negroes ?
Answer, Let every preacher, as often as possible, meet them in class. Let the assistant always appoint a proper white person as their leader. Let the assistant also make a regular return to the Conference of the number of negroes in society in their respective circuits.
We conjure all our ministers and preachers by the love of God and the salvation of souls, and do require them by all the authority that is invested in us to leave nothing undone for the spiritual benefit and salvation, and for this purpose to embrace every opportunity of in- quiring into the state of their souls, and to unite in society those who appear to have a real desire to flee from the wrath to come, to meet such in class and to exercise the whole Methodist Discipline among them.
One hundred years ago we had forty-three white members and nineteen colored. Now we have no colored members belonging to white churches in this city, the colored members having withdrawn and built Ezion Church, founded 1805, one of the best church buildings in this city, valued at $45,000. They pay their pastor $1000; Presiding Elder $210; Bishops $20. Total for salaries for pastors $1230. They have
128
CENTENNIAL EXERCISES
a parsonage valued at $1800. This church is doing a grand work not only at home in establishing missions in this city, viz., Haven and Whittington, both of which are now strong churches, but she is also contributing liberally to the benevolent interests of the church abroad.
From forty-three white members we have increased to 3,506 full members and 945 probationers.
Then we had no Sunday-schools in Wilmington. Bishop Asbury, however, had organized the first Sunday-school in the United States in Virginia in 1786; but its influences had not yet reached Wilmington.
Now we have thirteen schools with 617 officers and teachers, and 6.088 scholars of all ages.
Then we had no Sunday school libraries, now each school has supplied itself with a library, some of which are very valuable.
Then Ezekiel Cooper and the early preachers lined the hymns and were very much attached to this method. So much was Bro. Cooper attached to it, that he gave his consent reluctantly to the first request to sing wrthout lining. He writes in his diary: "I read off the Psalm and they then took it and sung it through, but I do not know that I was ever so beaten out by singing before; it almost put me out of order for preaching and I am afraid it hurt many in hearing; it was so light and airy that I thought it looked more like a place of vanity than of worship." In the society in Wilmington after the Tuesday night prayer meeting closed, a singing meeting was called to practice Methodist tunes dating from February 13, 1798. But these singing meetings did not always meet with the approbation of the pioneer preachers. Ezekiel Cooper writes concerning these meetings: "Such singing is strange to me-four parts all going at one time, and each part on different words. This is what they call the new mode of singing, and my opinion is, it was instituted more to please the ear than anything else." Now the new mode triumphs and there are but few congregations where all the four parts are not distinctly heard.
Then there were no musical instruments in the churches, and many remember the oppositions they met by many of our early ministers and laymen, but if this or the new mode of singing should seem to be a reflection on the wisdom and foresight of our fathers, let it be remembered that long before Methodism arose ministers of other denominations did not show superiority in many other things. In 1611 an English gentleman traveling in Italy, made this entry in his journal: "I observe a custom not used in any other country. They use a little fork when they cut their meat." He purchased one and carried it to England, but when he used it was so ridiculed by his friends that he wrote in his diary: "Master Lawrence Whitaker, my
129
ASBURY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
familiar friend. called me Furcifer for using a fork at feeding." That little two-tined article of table furniture brought about a fierce discus- ·sion. It was regarded as an innovation unwarranted by the customs of society. Ministers preached against its use. One minister main- tained that as the Creator had given men thumbs and fingers, it was an insult to Almighty God to use a fork. Some of our fathers believed the organ to be satan's instrument, and left the church when it was brought in ; but now every church and chapel and mission school as well are all supplied with organs, and this is not all, for we have car- ried out the request of the Psalmist as expressed in the one hundredth and fiftieth Psalm :
"Praise God in His sanctuary.
Praise Him for His mighty acts,
Praise Him for His excellent greatness,
Praise Him with the sound of the cornet. Praise Him with the psaltery and harp,
Praise Him with the timbrel and pipe,
Praise Him with stringed instruments and organs,
Praise Him upon the loud cymbals,
Praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals,
Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord."
Then William Jessop, the first pastor of Asbury Church, received perhaps 20 {, or less than Sioo, for his year's service. The general minutes of 1788 state that many of the preachers did not receive more than 18 or 20 {, and several not more than 15 { per annumn.
Asbury Church one hundred years ago paid less than her youngest daughter, Cookman, pays, whose first Quarterly Conference has been organized since the last annual Conference when she promised her pastor $260. The largest salary paid by the Methodist church in this city is paid by Grace, $2,700 with parsonage. While the Methodist church in Wilmington one hundred years ago paid less than one hundred dollars salary, she now pays $14,097 in salaries to her pastors alone.
Then, as the following question and answer will show, donations and presents were all counted in to make up the salary :
"Question. What shall be done to get a regular and impartial supply for the maintenance of the preachers ?
"Answer. Let everything they receive, either in money or cloth- ing, be valued by the stewards at quarterly meeting and an account of the preacher's deficiencies given in to bring to Conference, that he may be supplied from the profits arising from the books and the Conference · collections ."
Now no such law or custom prevails, and stewards who would
9
130
CENTENNIAL EXERCISES
estimate a donation, and credit a preacher's salary with the same would be deemed worthy of being stewards no longer.
Then the whole church in the United States only contributed to the fund for the superannuated preachers and the widows and orphans of preachers 65 £, 5s. or about $325. Now Asbury Church alone con- tributes to this fund $150 annually and Methodism in this city $1,097 per annum.
Then we had no societies especially for the young ; now there are quite a number of societies, associations, lyceums, Chautauqua circles and Christian Endeavors, and last of all and largest of all, has been organized the Epworth League, under whose broad wings it is proposed to give all young people's societies a place and a representation through delegates in the board of control. Then in this country we had neither railroads nor steamboats. Bishop Asbury said : "I have ridden (on horseback) rapidly two hundred and thirty miles in six days, to redeem a day to write." Now we have railroads, steamboats and street cars run by steam and electricity, so that our Bishops often ride a mile a minute and have no difficulty in making two hundred and thirty miles in as- many hours as it took Bishop Asbury days. Then the term Presiding Elder was first published in the minutes in 1789, and it would seem not without opposition in as much as it does not again appear until 1797, and he was appointed for one year at a time for a term of four years, now he is appointed one year at a time, and a whole term includes six years. Then the districts were without names. Wilmington stood at the head of a list of eight appointments which formed a district to which two Presiding Elders were appointed, namely, Henry Willis and Lemuel Green. Now the Wilmington district has forty appointments or charges. Then the Presiding Elder found his way to his appointment by Saturday and spent the whole Sabbath in one place, preaching and presiding over all the services of the quarterly meetings; now I am compelled to average three sermons each Sabbath and sometimes preach four times at as many appointments, and am compelled to ride in order to reach them sometimes twenty or thirty miles. It often seems to me that I am more of a riding Elder than a Presiding Elder.
Then none of the seven benevolent collections were organized and consequently no monies were collected or reported for them. The only effort made in the way of collecting money seems to have been for bringing up the deficiencies of preachers' salaries and for the conference claimants. Now' we give to the Sunday-school Union $86; Tract Society, $85; Bible Society, $115; Domestic Missions, $210; Education, $197 ; Freedmen's Aid, $390 ; Church Extension, $521 ; Missions, $6,286. Then we had no Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, nor
ASBURY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
had we any W. H. M. Society, but now, like Ruth, the former gleans among the sheaves $709 annually, the latter, like Dorcas, provides for the poor to the extent of $612 per annum. The total amount given by our Wilmington churches to benevolences and published in our minutes annually is $8,511.
Then our preachers raised their voices against dram-drinking, but there were no temperance societies ; now they abound. The best organ- ized and most influential is the Woman's Christian Temperance Union which we heartily endorse and with which we actively cooperate, furnishing a large per centum of their membership. While there is great difference of opinion concerning methods, all agree that the only safety for the individual is in total abstinence ; for the State, total pro- hibition of the sale of intoxicants as a beverage by legal enactment. To secure the latter many methods are proposed. There is agitation everywhere. The earth tremibles under the tread of approaching armies. The press publishes daily the victims of drink. The platform rings with the utterances of temperance advocates. The pulpit hurls its anathemas against this iniquity. In a thousand ways the sum total of the people's wrath is increasing against the day of wrath, for
"There's a fount about to stream. There's a light about to gleam : There's a warmth about to glow, There's a flower about to blow ; There's midnight darkness changing into grey,
Men of thought and men of action clear the way.
"Aid the dawning tongue and pen,
Aid it, thought of honest men :
Aid it, paper, aid it, type, Aid it for the hour is ripe ;
And our earnest must not slacken into play,
Men of thought, men of action, clear the way."
We believe, while evil opposes truth, disputes her rights, crosses her track, impedes her progress, that truth has the right of way. One morning early I landed at the wharf in Philadelphia, and being in a hurry to get up town, elbowed my way through the crowd, and finally succeeded in reaching the street car, which was so surrounded by carts. wagons and footmen that it was difficult to see how we should proceed. However, when the driver gave the signal, the track was hurriedly cleared for we had the right of way. So the truth has the right of way. The liquor traffic may dispute it, but when the hour strikes, God will speak and prohibition's car will go forward. "It may not be in your way. It may not be in my way, but in God's own way " he has promised to answer prayer and watches from heaven's throne that the labor of His- people shall not be in vain.
132
CENTENNIAL EXERCISES
In the early days of Methodism our preachers were greatly per- secuted.
Asbury was concealed, in time of the Revolution, at his friends, Judge White's, where he spent five or six dumb Sabbaths. Joseph Hartley was imprisoned in Easton, Md .; Freeborn Garretson was beaten and imprisoned in Cambridge, Md .; Gatch was tarred by a mob ; Abbott and others were threatened at New Castle and in Wil- mington. At Newport, Del., they were compelled to lodge with people of color, and were glad to find such accommodations. "But they choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for they had respect unto the recompense of reward. They, through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, quenched the violence of fires, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Some were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they night obtain a better resurrection, and others had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings ; yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They wan- dered about, being destitute, afflicted, tormented ; in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by their own countrymien, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painful- ness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness; besides those things which were without, there was that which came upon them daily-the care of all the churches."
Once our church was poor, her hands were hard, her garments coarse and plain, her face soiled with the sweat of manual but honest toil her children came from the lanes and highways, from the field and workshop. Now she is rich. The cot is changed for the palace, the homespun for the purple, the rigging-loft for marble churches. She has money and social standing. She sits among the rulers of the land ; she lives at court ; she is in honor : her colliers and cobblers have become merchant princes, and her rustic converts have grown up families of refinement and culture. And with all, and best of all, she retains the old-time power. Penitents still bow at her altars and rise rejoicing. The old doctrines are still faithfully proclaimed. Great as the success of Methodism has been there is yet a great work for her to perform.
I urge upon you the necessity of personal piety, the importance of united efforts in your home church work. Stand by your pastors, doing all possible to carry forward the work of the home church.
I33
ASBURY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
I also recommend a union of effort upon the part of all the Methodist churches of this city, for the purpose of extending Metho- dismi in Wilmington. I do not believe that any city in the United States has greater reasons to boast of the spirituality and liberality of her Methodist laymen than Wilmington, Del. My almost seven years' experience as pastor and Presiding Elder in this city enable me to speak with knowledge of the facts. For during that time about $30,000 have been expended in extension, repairs and in the payment of debts on Asbury, St. Paul's, Brandywine. Scott and Epworth. About $20,000 have been expended in building Sweedish Mission, Silverbrook, Edgemoor, Wesley and Cookman. Besides the addition of two new parsonages and improvements in our preachers' homes to the amount of at least $5,000, making a total of $55,000. While our laymen have spent this amount and more on church property in the city, they have been frequently called upon by the regions round about. The requests by personal appeals and by letters for help have been so frequent, that they have become a great tax upon the time, patience and means of our laymen who give and give, (doubtless never turning any away representing a good cause without regret.) They do not give more than they ought, nor do I believe they have reached the limit of their ability, but their benevolence, in my judgment, could be more wisely and more effectively used, if, instead of diffusion, there should be system and concentration. For instance, every Methodist believes in the extension of Methodis 11, and especially do Wilmington Methodists believe in the extension of Methodism in Wilmington; therefore, let the city Methodism combine and resolve to concentrate their means, and help the neglected parts of this city to build one Me.hodist church a year. It can be done. It ought to be done. You have averaged for the last seven years about 53,000 annually in new church buildings without system, with it you could average $5,000 which would put a small church on a self-supporting basis, which would furnish a grand opportunity for young men who are now graduating at our theological schools, who would help solve the problem of reaching the masses. It might be well to set apart a day to be observed by the churches, when all might be informed through their pastors of the locality needing help, when they could make their contributions and be saved much time and annoyance. As Kingswood has already resolved to build, why not begin by concentrating our efforts first of all to aid her in securing a church. There are five other places already spoken of by different persons as proper locations for building Methodist churches. Bro. Joseph Pyle spoke on Monday of the needs of the district lying between Market street bridge and Wesley. There ought, also, to be a church near West Eighth Street
I34
CENTENNIAL EXERCISES
Park, one in the neighborhood of Cookman, one Thirteenth and King, and the improvements, new houses and Children's Home make a Methodist church a necessity in East Lake Park. $5,000 a year for the next six years will enable these communities to build six Methodist churches which will become centers of influence and power. In my judgment no wiser investment of capital for the extension of Christ's Kingdoui and the salvation of souls, could be made by Methodist laymen. I plead for the poor. Extend to them a helping hand. Neither pauperize nor pension them, but help and trust them. Put upon them the responsibility. There is nothing like it to strengthen and build up. God trusted the fathers when they were poor. Many of their sons and daughters have grown rich. So that there are individual members of the Methodist church in this city who could do the work I have pointed out in the next six years if life should be continued with God's blessing upon their business, and be richer in spirit and happier in their life work. The generations to come would bless their memory. There is no higher tribute paid to man in the Gospel than that given by loving hearts, which said He hath built us a synagogue.
Standing between the century past and the century to come, I close this paper with the eloquent words of Bishop Foster as appropriate to Asbury Church as to the Methodism for which he wrote them:
"There is a glorious future for her of long and hallowed successes. Her brilliant morning is but the harbinger of a resplendent day. The marvels of her first century we may believe are but the precursors of the hallowed wonders she is to witness in the long march of the coming ages. If to-day suggests retrospect, it is no less a Pisgah of prospect. If it thrusts upon us memories of the struggles and victories past, it also beckons us on to the contemplation of the future. The has been is linked with the will be. As the old century recedes, the new advances. With grateful tears we wave farewell to the one and hold up signals of welcome to the other."
135
ASBURY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
History of Asbury Methodist Epis- copal Church.
BY THE REV. JOHN D. C. HANNA, PASTOR.
The century's history of Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, of the heroic efforts for her establishment, of the sacrifices endured for her advancement. of the magnificent results of her endeavors, is written in glowing characters on high, but cannot be fully betrayed at these services. It is a thrilling record of long preparation, mighty struggle, glorious victory. Whose soul is so dead as not to be stirred by the associations of this place, by the memories of the heroic days that now crowd upon us. From the pulpit of this church have spoken pastors whose voices have been the most powerful of the century, and whose saintly ministrations among the people have comforted the broken-hearted, raised the lowly, and encouraged the desponding. Thomas Ware, Ezekiel Cooper, Jose; h Rustling. Levi Storks, Lawrence Laurenson, Henry White, Joseph Lybrand, Matthew Sorin, Solomon Sharpe, Robert Gerry, Anthony Atwood, Thos. J. Thompson. Wm. Cooper, Geo. Quigley, and many other equally great men, living and dead, have made these walls re- sound with their mighty appeals to men to be loyal to Christ. The church records bear the names of such men of God as Edward Wor- rell, Samuel Saffington, James A. Sparks, Henry J. Pepper, Miller Dunott. John Hagany, Thos. Young, Samuel Wood, John Taylor, James P. Merrihew, James Guthrie, Charles Farra, Wm. R. Cotter, Wmn. Beggs, and a host of other godly men and saintly women, who long since have answered the roll on high; while in the tombs about us, beside these already named, sleep Jeremiah Dodsworth, John Bosler, Edward Kennard, Wm. Torbert, Jr., John Guyer, Lewis Ash-
136
CENTENNIAL EXERCISES
ton, James Simpson, Jr., Charles Sanders, Edward H. Bonsal, George Young, David Webster, Curtis Rudolph, and other noted men and women of early Methodism who will have a triumphant resurrec- tion when the trump of God shall sound. It is a great privilege to be permitted to gather here to-day to trace the feeble efforts of this society before this church was built, and review the dealings of God in century past.
Wilmington Methodism was born in 1766 or '67. At this time Capt. Thomas Webb, an officer in the British army, came from Phila- delphia to Wilmington and preaclied under some trees near the corner of King and Kent streets (now King and Sth). This remarkable man, wherever he went, must have attracted great attention. Clad in the uniform of King George, but owning a higher allegiance to King Jesus, described by John Adams as "one of the most eloquent men he ever heard," still in the prime of life, preaching the heart-moving, all- embracing Gospel of the Methodists, no wonder he had earnest list- eners whenever he preached, and stirred the souls and fortified the courage of the followers of Wesley in these days of constant strife. It does not require a vivid imagination to see him more than a century ago, within a few squares of this place, preaching the first Methodist sermon ever heard in Wilmington. The crowd gathered under the trees, study with curious interest the peculiar preacher delivering his strange truths ; one eye blind, covered with a green shade, the other flashing fire or melting into tenderness as he presents the many-sided Gospel, his voice ringing out over the commons, his mien martial, his soul fearless, his form dilating under the marvelous power of the matchless truth, he is a fit messenger of God, and a man of whom we may well be proud as the founder of Methodism in our city. In these services John Thelwell, who kept a public house near the Lower Market, officiated as clerk and set the tunes to the hymns given out by Capt. Webb.
After these meetings had been held under the trees for a while, the first assemblage of Methodists worshiped in an upper story of Capt. Joseph Gilpin's storehouse on King street wharf. Here they remained a short time, until invited by John Thelwell to occupy his school-room. This staunch Methodist and unswerving friend of the church, and his daughter Deborah, or Miss Debby as she was called, had commenced teaching at the foot of Quaker Hill, but were soon promoted to the little Senate Chamber over the Market House. To this building, on the southeast corner of King and Third streets, afterwards used as a chair manufactory, where the office of the Daily Republican now stands, the Methodists accordingly moved. Meetings were also.
137
ASBURY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
occasionally held at the cedar cooper shop of Mr. Geo. Witsill, on Water street below Main (now Market). Sometimes the preachers ad- ministered the word in the upper and lower Market Houses.
It was in Mr. Thelwell's school-room, however, that the society obtained its first formation. John Thelwell, Deborah Thelwell, his daughter, Henry Colesbury, Betsy and Sarah Colesbury, John Miller, Thomas Webster, William Wood, I. Jaquet, George Witsill, David Ford, Samnel Fondry, James Bell, and others, were among the earlier members.
At this time the society was connected with Chester Circuit, and persons as distant as Bethel held their membership at Wilmington. The preachers appointed to Chester Circuit preached at Wilmington in their regular tour of their work. Many men of note preached Christ with power to this small society in those early days. John King, in 1769, was appointed to labor in and about Wilmington. In 1772 Francis Asbury preached for the first time at Wilmington to a few persons. In 1780 Benjamin Abbatt, in his regular monthly round of a circuit of more than 28 appointments, and extending from the Delaware to the Susquehanna, and from New Castle far up into Pennsylvania, found his second appointment at Wilmington. He preached at the dwelling of J. Stidham to a small but attentive congregation, some of whom were very happy. One woman lay under the Divine power for three hours, and said God had given her a clean heart. She continued to cry, "O, Daddy Abbatt, how can I live ! O that I could go to Jesus." The rejoicing was continned all night. On his second round he preached in the old storehouse of Joseph Gilpin's, on the wharf, to which reference was before made. Mr. Abbatt says in his journal : "Some people went through the town and said there was an old sailor cursing and swearing at a terrible rate. This brought the people together from every quarter, and the house and wharf were crowded. Some laughed, some mocked, and others wept ; some were awakened, and inquired what they should do to be saved. I told them to look to Jesus."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.