The war was raging with terrific violence; and some of the preachers, as Mr. Rodda, were not so wise, politically speaking, as seemed desirable: but, despite all this, Methodism actually spread and prospered. Thomas Rankin, George Shadford, and others thought of fleeing from the field of conflict; and it was only by Asbury’s solicitation, that they were induced to stay awhile longer. The baptists too became a hindrance. “Like ghosts,” says Asbury, “they haunt us from place to place.” Wesley’s political tracts also were a serious stumbling block.[296] A Methodist backslider enlisted three hundred men for the British army, was arrested, and hanged as a rebel against the government of his country.[297] Even peaceful, prudent, and loyal Francis Asbury was fined £5 for preaching at Nathan Perrig’s; and, in October 1777, Rankin and Rodda returned to England, and Shadford soon after, leaving poor, persecuted, but faithful Asbury the only one of Wesley’s itinerants that now remained at the post of duty, and preaching peace to the people by Jesus Christ. And here let us pause to say, that a grander specimen of a Christian apostle than Francis Asbury the world has never had. Much as we revere the memory of Wesley, we regard Asbury with an almost equal veneration. Among the self denying, laborious, Christian ministers of the past eighteen hundred years, we believe, that Francis Asbury has no superiors, and but few that can be considered equals. And yet, how little does the church catholic, indeed, how little does the Methodist section of it, know concerning this great and grand, because good, old man!