In March,
1818, the _Methodist Magazine_ tells us that there were one hundred and
seventy students, and that "The Asbury College has probably exceeded in
its progress, considering the short time it has been established, any
literary institution in the country."[42] In that spring, a class was
graduated, and yet only a few months later Dr. Bangs wrote that the
College "continued for a short time and then, greatly to the
disappointment and mortification of its friends, went down as suddenly
as it had come up, and Asbury College lives only in the recollection of
those who rejoiced over its rise and mourned over its fall."
This statement is not absolutely correct; it is probable that there was
some catastrophe, and possibly Dr. Jennings then began to break away
from the Methodist Episcopal Church, which he left entirely, when the
Methodist Protestant Church was formed in 1828. Still some sort of an
organization was kept up under the old name; for does not good Hezekiah
Niles, of Register fame, tell us of examinations and exhibitions he
witnessed in the early spring of 1819,[43] at which time prodigies of
learning and cramming were exhibited, and do we not find in 1824, a
pamphlet published by Dr. Jennings, entitled "Remarks on the Subject of
Education, to which are added the general rules of the school under the
appellation of Asbury College.
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