Dr. Coke very soon returned to England. He designed, at first, to make America his home; but such were the urgent necessities of the work in England, especially after the death of Wesley, that the General Conference permitted him to remain there, but not to exercise his episcopal functions outside of America. He resided for many years in England. He established missions in the West India Islands. He presided for many years in the Irish Conference, and frequently in England. He made several visits to the United States, the last being in 1804. On that occasion he went as far east as Boston, spending a full week in Providence, R. I. An incident illustrating his humility and undying love for the Church of his choice occurred on his visit to Providence. A gentleman in New York had requested James Burrill, Esq., a lawyer and a highly respectable citizen of Providence, to receive Dr. Coke with the honors due an English bishop, though he was not an English bishop. Rev. Thomas Lyell accompanied Dr. Coke from Newport to Providence. A crowd had assembled on the wharf to see and welcome a bishop. Arrangements had been made for Dr. Coke's entertainment at the palatial residence of John Enos Clark, Esq., a wealthy citizen of Providence, and Mr. Clark's carriage was in waiting. As Dr. Coke landed he inquired of Messrs. Clark and Burrell if there were any Methodists in the town. They knew of none. Mr. Shubal Cady, the class leader, being present, came forward and said, "There is a small class." He then asked, "Where do the Methodist preachers stop when they come to town?" He was informed that they stopped with Mr. Benjamin Turpin, a Quaker gentleman. Dr. Coke then expressed a desire to stop there, if convenient. Mr. Turpin, being present, assured him that he would be pleased to entertain him, though his accommodations were greatly inferior to those of Mr. Clark. Mr. Clark's carriage conveyed the bishop to the residence of Mr. Turpin, where he remained during his stay in Providence.
Dr. Coke was invited to preach in the churches. But before he consented he inquired where the Methodist ministers preached when they came to town. Being told that they preached in an old Town House, he refused all other invitations until he had first preached where they did. He knew that Methodism was weak and despised in Providence, and he was determined that the Methodists should receive the benefit first of whatever influence his position gave him. With him it was Methodism first, then a world-wide fraternity with all the family of God.
The missionary spirit dominated Dr. Coke. "He was himself a missionary society." In all his journeys he paid his own expenses. At the age of nearly seventy he proposed to the Wesleyan Conference to go personally to the East Indies and establish a mission. The Conference objected on account of expense. He offered to bear the entire expense himself, to the amount of thirty thousand dollars, and the Conference finally consented. He selected six men to accompany him, and sailed for the Indies. A few days before they expected to land Dr. Coke was found dead one morning in his stateroom. The mission was established, though Dr. Coke was with the glorified. He was buried in the Indian Ocean, where, in after years, Dr. Judson, the great Baptist missionary, rested from his labors.
It has been said, "No man in Methodism, except Wesley, did more for the extension of the work through the world than Dr. Coke." Mr. Asbury says, "He was a minister of Christ, in zeal, in labor, and in services, the greatest man of the last century."
Bishop Asbury continued his labors with marvelous success until March, 1816, when, in great weakness, he preached his last sermon, Sunday, March 24. Hoping to attend the General Conference, which met in Baltimore, May 1, he succeeded in reaching Spottsylvania, and there, on the afternoon of the following Sunday, he fell asleep in Jesus. Dr. Coke died three years before Mr. Asbury. These were great, good, and honored men.
Methodism spread from its first introduction. Robert Strawbridge, accompanied by Robert Williams and John King, was the first to enter Maryland. Captain Webb was the first to introduce Methodism into Pennsylvania. Freeborn Garrettson, assisted by William Black, was the first to enter New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Boardman, Jesse Lee, and Freeborn Garrettson were the first to enter New England, including Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Francis Clark, a local preacher, was the first to enter Kentucky, in 1782. The first Conference preachers were James Haw and Benjamin Ogden. We do not know who first entered Indiana. Lorenzo Dow was the first to carry Methodism into Alabama, in 1803 or 1804. Jesse Lee was the first to enter Florida, then Spanish, in 1807; he crossed the St. Mary's River in a small boat, knelt down in the woods, and implored God to claim the territory for himself. In 1823 J. N. Gallen was appointed to St. Augustine. E. W. Bowman was the first to enter Louisiana, in 1805, where the people were said to know "nothing of God or religion." Joseph Pilmore was first to enter South Carolina, in 1773; in 1785, Asbury, not to speak of Wesley, in 1736. In 1769 Robert Williams, a local preacher, was first to enter Virginia and preach his first sermon at Norfolk. Joseph Tillard was the first Methodist preacher to enter Illinois; he formed the first class. Nathan Bangs preached the first Methodist sermon in Detroit, Mich., and William Mitchell organized the first class. Beverly Allen preached first in Georgia, in 1785. In 1835 L. Stevens entered Iowa. In 1849 William Roberts and J. H. Wilber, on their way to Oregon, spent some time in San Francisco, and in 1849 Isaac Owen and William Taylor were sent as missionaries to California. Wisconsin first heard the Gospel from John Clark.
We have thus given the dates of the introduction of Methodism into the several States, and the names of the preachers so far as we are able to ascertain. There may be some mistakes in these dates and names, but they are substantially correct.
But this work was not prosecuted without fearful persecution. Not all suffered equally. Freeborn Garrettson, in a letter to Mr. Wesley, says: "Once I was imprisoned, twice beaten, left on the highway speechless and senseless (I must have gone to the world of spirits had not God sent a good samaritan that took me to a friend's house); once shot at; guns and pistols presented to my breast; once delivered from an armed mob, in the dead of night, on the highway by a flash of lightning; surrounded frequently by mobs; stoned frequently. I have had to escape for my life at the dead of night. O, shall I ever forget the divine Hand which has supported me?" Of his sufferings and labors in Nova Scotia he writes: "I have traveled mountains and valleys frequently on foot, with my knapsack on my back, guided by Indian paths in the wilderness when it was not expedient to take a horse; and I had often to wade through morasses, half a leg deep in mud and water, frequently satisfying my hunger with a piece of bread and pork from my knapsack, quenching my thirst from a brook, and resting my weary limbs on the leaves of the trees. Thanks be to God! He compensated me for all my trials, for many precious souls were awakened and converted to God." These holy men cared not how they lived, what trials they endured, what hardships they suffered, so that souls were won to Christ. These were but few of their sufferings.
One has said: "They braved the rigors of severe winters, and the perils of flood and forest; they slumbered on hardest pillows and housed in lowliest hovels. But in their work they were joyous; in their trials they were patient; in their homes they were contented; in their journeyings the woods echoed their songs; in their pulpits they had power with man; in their persecutions they prayed for their enemies; in their old age they testify they have not followed 'cunningly devised fables;' in their death hour they are borne up on their shields, 'where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.' And in their final home, 'These are they who came up out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; thenceforth they are before the throne.'" We are now reaping the fruit of their toil and enjoying the rich heritage they have bequeathed to us.