r, "The four
guineas a year for tuition, we are persuaded cannot be lowered, if we
give the students that finished education, which we are determined they
shall have. And, though our principal object is to instruct them in the
doctrines, spirit, and practice of Christianity, yet we trust that our
college will, in due time, send forth men that will be a blessing to
their country in every laudable office and employment of life, thereby
uniting the two greatest ornaments of human beings which are too often
separated: _deep learning_ and _genuine piety_."

As soon as the building was under roof, a preparatory school was opened
and the Trustees applied to John Wesley for a President. He suggested a
Rev. Mr. Heath, and this suggestion was accepted on December 23,
1786.[31] His inauguration occurred a year later and was a grand affair.
Asbury presided on each of the three days of the ceremony, and his text
on the second day, "O man of God, there is death in the pot,"[32] was
looked on by the superstitious, in time to come, as a presage of
disaster. The faculty was filled up and all seemed to bid fair for
prosperity; but Mr. Heath remained in charge of the College less than a
year, resigning because of certain charges of insufficiency, which seem
rather trival. Another professor left to go into business and Asbury's
soul was tried by these "heavy tidings."

The good Bishop was indefatigable in his care of Cokesbury. His visits
were frequent, and while there, he was very active, examining the
pupils, preaching, and arranging the affairs, both temporal and
spiritual. Abingdon became a centre of Methodism, families moved there
to enjoy the educational advantages, and the Conference regularly
visited the College, coming over from Baltimore for that purpose.

Dr. Jacob Hall, of Abingdon, was the second President, and had under him
a faculty of three professors and a chaplain. The school prospered and
had public exhibitions of its students' proficiency from time to time.
It is doubtful if sufficient care was exercised in the expenditure of
money and, in December, 1790, the Trustees felt obliged to contract a
loan of L1000. The charitable contributions fell off, and Asbury was
forced to go from house to house in Baltimore, "through the snow and
cold, begging money for the support of the poor orphans at
Cokesbury."[33] The instruction was good, and Asbury could write to
Coke, then in England, that "one promising young man has gone fo