Francis Asbury shaped the religious landscape of early America more decisively than any other person. As the first bishop of the Methodist Church in America, Asbury attempted to visit all of his preachers every year, crisscrossing most of the territory east of the Mississippi River on horseback. In this biography, Darius L. Salter gives us a candid view of Asbury's personal life and public ministry. Book jacket.
English-born Francis Asbury was one of the most important religious leaders in American history. Asbury single-handedly guided the creation of the American Methodist church, which became the largest Protestant denomination in nineteenth-century America, and laid the foundation of the Holiness and Pentecostal movements that flourish today. John Wigger has written the definitive biography of Asbury and, by extension, a revealing interpretation of the early years of the Methodist movement in America. Asbury emerges here as not merely an influential religious leader, but a fascinating character, who lived an extraordinary life. His cultural sensitivity was matched only by his ability to organize. His life of prayer and voluntary poverty were legendary, as was his generosity to the poor. He had a remarkable ability to connect with ordinary people, and he met with thousands of them as he crisscrossed the nation, riding more than one hundred and thirty thousand miles between his arrival in America in 1771 and his death in 1816. Indeed Wigger notes that Asbury was more recognized face-to-face than any other American of his day, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.
Francis Asbury (August 20, 1745 – March 31, 1816) was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. As a young man English-born Francis Asbury traveled to America after being asked by John Wesley. During his 45-year ministry in America he devoted his life to ministry, traveling on horseback or by carriage thousands of miles to faithfully deliver sermons to those living on the frontier. Bishop Asbury's tireless leadership helped spread Methodism in America. He was the single greatest person responsible for establishing the Methodist church in America. He also launched several schools during his lifetime. His journal also left a lasting legacy and is valuable to scholars for its account of frontier society, as well as giving insights into his personal life and ministry. When Asbury arrived in America he climbed on the back of his horse and started riding and preaching the gospel. He never stopped riding and preaching across the land of America until the day he died. He never owned or even rented a house. Day and night, through rain or snow, he said, “I’ll never stop”. He continued saying, "No one will ever know my struggles, I am weary in body and mind”. He also said “All my earthly goods are reduced down to what I can fit in my saddle bags." One of the typical prayers he would say, even on his way to America, was “Lord, we are in thy hands and in thy work. Thou knowest what is best of us and for thy work; whether plenty or poverty. The hearts of all men are in thy hands. If it is best for us and for thy church that we should be cramped and straitened, let the people’s hands and hearts be closed: If it is better for us; for the church,—and more to thy glory that we should abound in the comforts of life; do thou dispose the hearts of those we serve to give accordingly: and may we learn to be content whether we abound, or suffer need” Within the first 17 days of being in the colonies, he had preached in Philadelphia and New York. During the first year he was Mr. Wesley’s assistant and preached in 25 different settlements. When the American War of Independence broke out in 1776, he was the only Methodist minister to remain in America. In 1784, John Wesley named Asbury and Thomas Coke as co-superintendents of the work in America. This marked the beginning of the "Methodist Episcopal Church of the USA". For the next 32 years, Asbury led all the Methodists in America. His manner of life and his ceaseless activities throughout his long and distinguished ecclesiastical career were unmatched. He rose at five every morning to read the Bible, and preached almost every day and many times he delivered more than two or three sermons a day. It was said of him that he was “one of the wisest and most farseeing men of his day”. Like Wesley, Asbury preached in myriad places: courthouses, public houses, tobacco houses, fields, public squares, wherever a crowd assembled to hear him. For the remainder of his life he rode an average of 6,000 miles each year, preaching virtually every day and conducting meetings and conferences. Under his direction, the church grew from 1,200 to 214,000 members and ordained 700 preachers. Among the men he ordained was Richard Allen in Philadelphia, the first black minister in the United States. He lived in an exciting time in American history; Asbury was reported to be an extraordinary preacher. What more need be said of him after he had finished his course, having kept the faith, than was said of La Tour d'Auvergne, the warrior of Breton, fallen in battle, when his name was called and some comrade in arms who held him in loving remembrance, responded, 'Dead on the field'? In this powerful and impressive biography, Ezra Tipple tells of the self-sacrificing life’s journey of Francis Asbury, the Prophet of the Long Road, who spared nothing in his zeal to bring the gospel to America.
In February 1925, 17-year-old Jimmie Foxx left his home in Sudlersville, Maryland, and joined the Philadelphia Athletics in spring training. Over the next twenty years, Foxx was one of the most consistent stars in the majors. His long home runs were legendary--his 535 were second only to Babe Ruth's 714 when he retired in 1945. Only six years later, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Foxx tried his hand at a variety of jobs after he left baseball, but seemed always to be drawn back to the game. He coached and managed in the minor leagues and even managed the Fort Wayne Daisies of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1953. This is the story of Foxx's rise to glory, his life in and out of the game, and his love affair with the national pastime.
The digital copies of these recordings are available for free at First Fruits website. place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruits God Cannot Do Without America Matthew Simpson and the Apotheosis of Protestant Nationalism By Darius Salter September 2016
