I. In England. 1. Wesleyan Methodists: John Wesley, in his Short History of Methodism, gives the names of four Oxford students who, in Nov., 1729, began to spend certain evenings in a week in reading together, chiefly the New Testament in Greek. The number slowly increased and, in 1735, George Whitefield affiliated with them. "The exact regularity of their lives and studies occasioned a gentleman of Christ Church to say, 'Here is spung up a new sect of Methodists.' "
The undisputed founder of Wesleyan Methodism, John Wesley (q.v.), was the great-grandson of Bartholomew Wesley, a clergyman educated at Oxford, and one of 2,000 ministers ejected from their pulpits in 1662 under the Act of Uniformity (see Uniformity, Acts of). His son John also studied
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2. Early Associations. When George Whitefield (q.v.) returned from America he promptly visited Wesley. The reputation of Whitefield as the greatest of pulpit orators had spread on both continents; and as no building could contain the number who desired to hear him he resorted to the fields. Wesley found it difficult to approve this; but as he continued to preach with the terrible energy and unction of a first believer, he was not usually allowed to speak a second time in the churches: on this account and because of the crowds, he also was led to preach in the open sir. For doing the same thing the archbishop of Canterbury threatened Charles Wesley with excommunication. Wesley's Arminianism caused an estrangement from the uncompromising Calvinist Whitefield. When controversy had become intense, Wesley summed up by saying that "those who believed in universal redemption had no desire to separate, but that those who held particular redemption would not hear of any accommodation, being determined to have no fellowship with men who were in such dangerous errors; so there were now two sorts of Methodists-those for particular and those for general redemption." The break between Wesley and Whitefield lasted but a short time, but the result was the formation of two sorts of organized Methodists, "Wesleyan Methodists" and "Calvinistic Methodists." Before this separation numerous societies had been formed, but, not having proper supervision, most of them dissolved. Peter Bohler suggested to Wesley the formation of another in London, and it was established in Fetter Lane, conducted in connection with the Moravian Church. In the summer of the same year, several small companies in Bristol united under the name of the Methodist society; a similar union took place in Kingswood, and another in Bath. These received the name of "United Societies." Wesley places the time when the first of these was formed toward the close of the year 1739.*2 Dissensions arose in the Fetter Lane society. Errors were so strongly advocated that on Sunday, July 6, 1740, Wesley read to the society his objections to them. The principal heresies were "denunciation of the Christian ministry as an institution"; "opposition to all ordinances"; and the affirmation that " silence is the best substitute for the means of grace." Wesley repelled these views, and he and about seventy-five seceding members met at the Foundry instead of at Fetter Lane; and thus, on July 23, 1740, "the Methodist Society in London" was founded.
3. Bands; Class Meetings. While affiliating with the Moravians, Wesley's followers had instituted "Men's Bands" and "Women's Bands," which were to meet at least once a week to sing, pray, and exhort. They were expected to reveal the true state of their souls as they understood it, and confess their faults one to another. Wesley met the men every Wednesday evening, and the women on Sunday. Some objected on the ground that the Bands were "man-made." Wesley replied: "They are prudential helps, grounded on reason and experience, in order to apply the general rules given in Scripture according to particular circumstances." Others stigmatized them as "mere popery." Wesley answered: " Do they not yet know that the only popish confession is the confession made by a single person to a priest? ... Whereas what we practise is the confession of several conjointly, not to a priest, but to each other." Members of the "Bands" were selected from the united societies. The united
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4. Love Feasts, Prayer-Meetings, Lay Preaching. Love Feasts originated in the proposal that, on one evening in the quarter, the men, and on the next, the women, in the Bands should meet, and on a third day they should meet together. The latter Wesley called a Love Feast. In these assemblies bread Prayer- and water, partaken of by all present, are the symbols of fellowship. Prayer, singing of hymns, and testifying to experimental religion succeed each other, and in the early period of Methodism developed the greatest enthusiasm.
Public prayer-meetings were established in 1763 by two young men who introduced them in places where there was no Methodist preaching. They soon became general, for it was found that they exercised the talents of young men, training them in the various services of the church. When Wesley visited the Germans he heard Christian David (see Unity of the Brethren) preach, was deeply impressed, and was prepared by David's career to establish lay preaching, when a suitable person should appear. John Cennick, a spiritual, and intellectually capable man was invited to hear a brother read a sermon to the colliers, but, the reader not arriving, Cennick was requested to speak to the people; he reluctantly complied, and "the Lord bore witness with his words in so much that many believed in that hour." When Wesley came many desired him to forbid Cennick to preach, instead of which he gave encouragement, and for the next eighteen months Cennick preached constantly, sometimes supplying Wesley's place in Bristol. Writers before Tyerman assumed that Thomas Maxfield was the first lay preacher; Tyerman maintains that John Cennick preceded him.
5. Origin of Conference: George Bell. As unity, direction, and instruction of the lay preachers and actively sympathizing clergymen who affiliated with Wesleyan Methodism were essential to the integrity and spirit of the movement, they were assembled for consultation. The first conference was in the Foundry in London on June 25, 1744. John and Charles Wesley, John Hodges, Henry Piers, Samuel Taylor and John Meriton, clergymen of the Church of England, were present; and four lay preachers, Thomas Rogers, Thomas Maxfield, John Bennett, and John Downs. They evolved a system of doctrine, discipline, and practise. At the third conference the country was divided into seven circuits. Copies of the minutes of the conference were to be given to those who were present, but were ordered read to the stewards and leaders of Bands the Sunday and Thursday following each confer ence. At the conferences the preachers were stationed at the various circuits: the result of their systematic and energetic labors amazed the United Kingdom. The most distinguished clergyman in sympathy with the work of Wesley, and for many years the most useful to him next to his own brother Charles, was John Fletcher (q.v.), vicar of Madeley. A Swiss by birth, a man of culture and rare gifts in speech and literary composition, he had been converted by Methodists. As in the apostolic era and in every religious movement since, excess of enthusiasm turned the heads of some, so George Bell, one of Wesley's local preachers, became a fanatic, believing that he could work miraculous cures. He became almost if not actually insane. Wesley bore with him long, Methodism suffering in reputation thereby. To the grief and astonishment of Wesley, Bell secured the support of Thomas Maxfield, who had been converted under Wesley's preaching during his first visit to Bristol, and had been ordained by the bishop of Londonderry who, in laying hands upon him, said, "Sir, I ordain you to assist that good man, John Wesley, that he may not work himself to death." Bell, whose fanaticism daily intensified, caused a panic by prophesying that the world would end on a given day, and Wesley was obliged to expel him. Many in London withdrew from the societies, exclaiming, "Blind John is incapable of teaching us; we will keep to Mr. Maxfield." Subsequently Bell lost his religious ardor, became a skeptic, and then a politician, "as ultra in his political opinions as he bad been in religion." Maxfield opened an independent chapel (A. Stevens, History of Methodism, i. 409, New York, 1858).
It was not wonderful that thousands flocked to Wesley's standard, that many societies were established and chapels reared, since he was apparently ubiquitous, traveling constantly and preaching often ten times in a week, inspiring the people by his
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335 |
|
Circuits. |
Preachers. |
Members. |
|
|
England |
26 |
75 |
22,410 |
|
Ireland |
9 |
19 |
2,8012 |
|
Scotland |
5 |
7 |
468 |
|
Wales |
1 |
3 |
232 |
|
41 |
104 |
25,911 |
These had endured the scrutiny and discipline of Wesley. As Wesley advanced in years the necessity for measures to prevent the dissolution of the societies became obvious, not only to the magician who had wrought such marvelous results, but to leading minds among the clergymen who affiliated with him, lay preachers, and the more astute members of the society.
6. The Deed of Declaration. To meet the emergency, in the year 1784 Wesley gave to the conference "a legal settlement." From an early period the deeds of chapels and preachers' houses or parsonages had conveyed the said buildings to trustees for the use of such the preachers as John or Charles Wesley should send, and, after their death, as the conference should appoint. Thomas Coke, a wealthy clergyman, educated for the bar, who had devoted his time and possessions to Methodism, advised Wesley to consult the civil authorities; and he ascertained that the conference could not be recognized unless more precisely defined, and that, as things then were, it could not claim control over the pulpits. Wesley reported this to the conference, which requested him to "draw up a definition of its character and powers." Under the guidance of the best legal counsel he executed a deed of declaration, in which the names of one hundred preachers were recorded, to constitute a legal conference after his death. He deemed this number sufficient to secure the property and insure the unity of the body, and also as many as could wisely be withdrawn annually for a week or more from pastoral work. Wesley recorded that "in naming these preachers, as he had no advisers he had no respect to persons, but simply set down those which according to the best of his judgment were most proper." The deed provides that the conference meet once a year at London, Bristol, Leeds, or any other place which the members should select. The sessions were never to last over three weeks, nor less than five days, and the conference was empowered to fill vacancies. To give validity to any act or vote, forty members must be present, with the exception that if the legal hundred should by death or other cause be reduced, those present might conduct business. In order to secure attendance, any member who should remain away from two successive annual sessions forfeited membership, unless he appeared on the first day of the third session, or was voted exemption. It was forbidden to appoint to any of the chapels a preacher not a member of the Methodist connection. "No appointment could be made for a longer term than three years, except in the cases of ordained clergymen of the Church of England." The conference had power to commission members of the body to represent it in any part of the earth, their "official acts being recognized as acts of the conference." The life estate of John and Charles Wesley in the houses and chapels of the connection was not to be affected by this deed. As there were 191 members of conference, the names of ninety-one were not included in the deed and they were not allowed to participate in the conference on equal terms with their brethren. Controversy ensued, and several preachers left the connection. Those who remained were permitted to vote, and such as had been members a given number of years were allowed to vote for the president in nomination, for the confirmation of the legal hundred.
7. Events after Wesley's Death. After the death of Wesley serious contests arose and continued for several years. Influential laymen and ministers proposed to adhere to the Church of England, and a few attached themselves to various dissenting bodies. The conference of 1791 expressed its views equivocally, and that of 1792 cast lots to determine whether the sacraments should be administered in the ensuing year. Eventually the following rules were enacted:
"No ordination shall take place in the Methodist Conneotion without the consent of the Conference. "If any brother break the above-mentioned rule by ordaining or being ordained without the consent of the conference, the brother so breaking the rule does thereby exclude himself. The Lord's Supper shall not be administered by any person among our societies in England and Ireland for the ensuing year on any consideration whatever except in London."
In 1793 the conference resolved that:
"Where the Societies desired it they should have it, and that there should no longer be any distinction between ordained and unordained preachers, that no gowns, cassocks, bands nor surplices, nor the title of Reverend should be used."
Neither party was satisfied. The substance of the plan adopted in 1795 was that where the sacraments were being peaceably administered they should be continued; but that they should not be administered elsewhere unless a majority of the trustees and of the leaders and stewards concurred in desiring it; not for many years was the practise of laying-on of hands in ordination adopted.
8. Polity. Wesleyan Methodism is a form of Presbyterianism, yet, "strictly speaking, it is neither Episcopal, Presbyterian, nor Congregational," but has characteristics of each. Wesleyan Methodism denies a radical distinction between teaching and ruling presbyters, but reserves for the presbyters or pastors the determination of questions of doctrine and discipline. When the society developed into a church, the leaders and stewards became the local church council. There is a distinct local preachers' quarterly meet ing, over which the superintendent minister of each circuit presides. There are also lay officials, formerly called general, but now circuit stewards; these receive the moneys from stewards of the societies in the circuit. Such society and circuit officers are appointed to office by the ministers, and chosen by the members of the meeting into which they are to
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9. Eminent Officers and Representatives. The conference confers great power on its president; but, in general, the presidents have been both defenders and guides. The most dominating ruler was Jabez Bunting (q.v.), four times president, and, whether in or out of that office, for more than a third of a century the controlling spirit. Robert Newton, a chaste orator, was also four times president. and Adam Clarke (q.v.), oriental scholar, vigorous preacher and Biblical commentator, three times; and Thomas Coke (q.v.), Joseph Bradford, John Pawson, Thomas Taylor, Thomas Jackson, historical and connectional book editor; John Hannah, John Scott, Richard Reece, Joseph Entwisle, Henry Moore, one of the appointed biographers of Wesley; John Barber, James Wood, George Marsden, John Farrar, George Osborne, and James Harrison Rigg (q.v.) each twice filled the chair. The last-named was one of the most eminent in the list, in force of character and clearness of mind, who was long connected officially with public education. There is one living ex-president, who has served twice, Charles H. Kelly, beloved as a personality, and useful in high connectional offices. Several of the most notable men in the presidency served but once. Of these, perhaps the greatest was William Arthur (q.v.), conspicuous for fifty years throughout the religious world. Hugh Price Hughes (q.v.), of the modern type, was known as an evangelist and promoter of enterprises for uplifting the submerged classes and popularizing the Christian religion and church. Among the noteworthy men that Wesleyan Methodism has produced are Richard Watson, William B. Pope, theologians, and William Morley Punshon (qq.v.), the orator; from the beginning laymen have increased in influence, many being as well known and as useful as the most distinguished of the clergy.
10. Education and Missionary. Wesleyan Methodism has always placed a high estimate upon education. The views of Wesley on this subject were in some particulars unendurably ascetic, but mingled with these were principles of permanent value. In 1836 the conference took up the subject of education in general and a Wesleyan Educational Committee was appointed. Week-day and infant schools were established in 1843. In 1851 a training-college at Westminster was opened, and in 1872 a second training-college for female teachers. Houses for the Wesleyan schools are held in trust for the connection. The conference of 1875 approved the Education Committee's plan for establishing middleclass schools, of which there are ten or more. The first great movement in the direction of higher education was the establishment of Wesley College, Sheffield; the next, the institution now known as Queen's College, Taunton. A theological institution was established in 1834, and there are four branches, situated respectively at Richmond, Didsbury, Headingley, and Handaworth. Besides these are the Methodist College at Belfast, Ireland, the Westminster Training School and the Leys School at Cambridge. Missions to the heathen were not undertaken until 1786, when Thomas Coke started a mission to negro slaves in the British West Indies. At his instigation a mission to West Africa was begun in 1811, and in 1813 another in Ceylon. In 1815 missions were opened in Australasia, in Germany in 1830, in Switzerland in 1839, in Italy in 1860. Many of the missions established are now independent. The missions under the immediate direction of the British conference are: in Europe: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, and Malta; in Africa, Cairo; in South Africa, Transvaal, Swaziland, Rhodesia; in West Africa, Sierre Leone, Gold Coast, Lagos; in Asia, Ceylon, India (north and south), and China; in the western hemisphere, the Bahamas, Honduras, and the West Indies. In general, Wesleyan Methodist foreign missions have prospered greatly. Home missions are reduced to a most efficient system. The Wesleyan Methodists report for 1909 in Great Britain, 520,868 communicants; foreign missions, 143,467; French conference, 1,675; South African, including English and native, 117,146.
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The report for 1909 is 246 ministers, 621 lay preachers, 421 church buildings, 1,606 other preaching-places, 25,969 communicants.
2. Calvinistic Methodists: After the death of Whitefield, the Calvinistic Methodists divided into three sects. The first, known as Lady Huntingdon's Connection (see Huntingdon, Selina Hastings, Countess of), observed strictly the liturgical forms of the Church of England, and instead of an itinerant ministry instituted a settled pastorate. As practically a congregational .polity was adopted, many of the congregations became associated with the collection of Congregational churches. The second division was the Tabernacle Connection, or Whitefield Methodists. As each society considered itself independent, they soon disappeared as a distinctive denomination, most of them affiliating with the Congregationalists or Independents. The third was the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists (see Presbyterians), organized in 1743. They have prospered, extending principally in Wales and reaching the United States by way of immigration. They are influential and vigorous, at times experiencing revivals of such intensity as to attract the attention of the Christian world. After contributing for many years to the London Missionary Society, the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Foreign Missionary Society was founded in Liverpool in 1840. Its first attempts were in India, where persevering faith has been rewarded. There are more than 500 preaching-places, 450 day schools, 6,000 communicants, and nearly 20,000 attendants.
3. The Methodist New Connection: Alexander Kilham, born in Epworth, 1762, of Methodist parents, became a local preacher, and in 1785 Wesley received him into the regular itinerant ministry. As he grew in influence he proposed various alterations. Three years before the death of Wesley, Kilham made known his design of petitioning the conference "to let us have the liberty of Englishmen, and to give the Lord's Supper to our societies." He sent petitions to the conference of 1791, and submitted a new system of government for the connection. As discussion progressed he grew more determined, appealing to God "to destroy everything that belongs to despotism wherever it appears." At the conference of 1796 he was put upon trial. After hot debate the conference unanimously adjudged him "unworthy of being a member of the Methodist Connection." Soon afterward he began the formation of the Methodist New Connection. In places where the Wesleyans would not allow him to preach in their chapels, dissenters opened their houses of worship. To disseminate his views he established, at Leeds, a periodical called The Monitor. In Leeds 167 class-leaders and other officers, and sixty-seven delegates from the trustees of the connection appeared at the conference of 1797, calling for changes in the government. The spread of sympathy with Kilham's projects within the pale of the Wesleyan connection caused alarm.
The conference of the Methodist New Connection was constituted upon the representative system, laymen having an equal voice with the clergy in the government of the church; while in doctrine and general us" they did not differ from the old connection. This church at first gained rapidly, and later at a slow but steady pace. At the first ecumenical conference, held in London, 1881, it was reported to have 31,652 members.. It took the first step in mission work in 1824, and soon after established missions in Ireland. It began a mission in Canada in 1837, and thirty-eight years after,
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4. Primitive Methodists: The Primitive Methodists arose in 1810. Lorenzo Dow (q.v), an eccentric American Methodist preacher, with a spark of genius, visited England and Ireland and there introduced camp-meetings. The story of the remarkable meetings in the western forests of the United States recalled to older members the marvelous open-air triumphs of Wesley and Whitefield. Dow was master of a weird eloquence and absorbed by his conviction that the Lord had sent him to England to revive the spirit of the ancient days. A few regular Wesleyan preachers permitted the camp-meetings to be held within the bounds of their circuits, and attended them; but the conference denounced this as highly improper. About this time young Hugh Bourne was passing through an experience in some respects similar to that of John Wesley. When he was twenty-seven years of age he read The Life of Fletcher, several of Wesley's sermons, Alleine's Alarm, and Baxter's Call to the Unconverted, and these works seemed to meet his spiritual needs. He joined the Wesleyans and zealously sought the salvation of certain rough Iumbermen in his employment. In May, 1807, assisted by several Wesleyans, especially by William Clowes and Thomas Cotton, he held a camp-meeting at Mow Cap, "a border-line between Staffordshire and Cheshire." The next summer special meetings of like character were held. The Wesleyan preachers of the circuits adjacent to Mow Hill, fearing the spread of a fanaticism which might bring scorn upon true religion, issued hand-bills repudiating the movement. At the next session of the Wesleyan Methodist conference the following resolution was passed: " It is our judgment that even supposing such meetings to be allowed in America, they are highly improper in England and likely to be productive of mischief; and we disclaim all connection with them." Thereafter, most of the leading Methodists held aloof from the camp-meeting. Bourne and a few others persisted and, securing recognition of their meeting by the civil authorities, were enabled to preserve order. The Wesleyan conference would not endure what it described as Bourne's "insufferable contumacy." Bourne and Thomas Clowes were expelled from the connection, which naturally made them yet more zealous. In 1809 Hugh Bourne and his brother James hired James Crawfoot, noted for piety, to preach in neglected places for three months, the salary being ten shillings per week. " This is generally looked on as the commencement of the Primitive Methodist ministry." In the spring of 1810 those converted in meetings held by Hugh Bourne were formed into a class, which was offered to the Burslem circuit (Wesleyan), but the authorities declined to accept its members " unless they pledged to sever their connection with Hugh Bourne." Bourne took the class under his personal charge as a distinct society, Sept., 1810; and this is considered to be the birth of the connection. The name "Primitive Methodist" was formally assumed in 1812. Two years later a comprehensive body of laws was adopted. The form of church government is in substance Presbyterian, but with a larger mixture of the lay element than is found in Presbyterian, or, even at this day, in other Methodist denominations. The general conference convenes yearly, and consists of twelve "deed poll" members, four persons elected by the previous conference, and delegates chosen by the district meetings, in the unusual proportion of two laymen to one traveling. preacher. In 1829 a deed poll was "enrolled in chancery" to make more effectual the deeds, leases, etc., and to render donations and trusts secure; it was also valued as a permanent statement for the settling of controversy. An appeal isallowed from court to court to the final arbiter, the conference. This communion has paid much attention to education. One of the foremost scholars of to-day, Arthur Samuel Peake (q.v.), is associated with other accomplished persons on the staff of the Hartley College of this church, located at Manchester, England, and named after the philanthropist, W. P. Hartley, who has given munificently for its endowment. Famous preachers such as James Macpherson, William Antliff, Samuel Antliff, James Travis, and John Flanagan have been among the leaders of this enterprising and growing section of the Church of Christ. The Primitive Methodist Church is by far the largest of those which follow Wesley in Great Britain, with the exception of the original Wesleyan body. It has constantly grown; in 1881 it had 185,316 communicants, 1,150 ministers and more than twelve times as many local preachers, the majority preaching every Sunday. This denomination formed a foreign Missionary Society in 1844, opening missions in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. These missions were affiliated with the other Methodist bodies of those countries. It also carries on energetic missions in Africa among the natives. Statistics for 1909 show 212,168 members, 5,148 church buildings at home and 5,018 members and probationers in foreign missions.
5. The Protestant Methodists: The Protestant Methodists, who in 1828 organized themselves into a separate body, resulted from irreconcilable differences of opinion in the society over the introduction of an organ into the largest chapel in Leeds. Until 1820 trustees of chapels could obtain this "risky innovation" only by direct application to the conference. In this case the conference had prematurely consented, and a local preacher convoked unauthorized assemblies for the purpose of agitation. When, at the appeal of the superintendent, he would not desist, the latter sentenced him to three months' suspension from his office. Thereupon seventy local preachers made common cause, and refused to preach, affirming that they would sit in silence with him. He was expelled, and a futile attempt made to secure pacification. A large number seceded, assuming the name of nonConformist Methodists (popularly called "NonCons."). This name they changed for that of Protestant Methodists.
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6. The Wesleyan Methodist Association: The Wesleyan Methodist Association began in the determination of the Wesleyan conference to establish a theological seminary. Two days before the conference of 1834, a number of ministers and laymen met to discuss the project of such an institution, to be presided over by Dr. Jabez Bunting. In the progress of the controversy, Samuel Warren found himself in a minority; and as soon as the conference adjourned he began a general agitation. The Manchester district meeting suspended him, and Robert Newton was requested to undertake the superintendency. Warren applied to the court of chancery for an injunction against Newton and the trustees of the Oldham Street Chapel. The vice-chancellor sustaining the district meeting, Warren appealed to Lyndhurst, the lord chancellor, who, after a thorough review of the Methodist polity, as established by Wesley's deed of declaration, and of the chief events in the history of the conference, affirmed the decision of the vice-chancellor. Warren was expelled, as were two others on charges of lawlessly abetting him. Circulars had been distributed denouncing the action of the conference, as well as the leaders who directed the acts. All who had anything to do with the distribution were under censure, and others under suspicion. The disruption of 1849 began with the expulsion of James Everett, Samuel Dunn, William Griffith, James Bromley, and Thomas Rowland, suspected of connection with the "fly-sheets." No formal and general secession took place until after the conference of 1850. Within five years after that date the original Wesleyan connection was depleted by 100,469, and "some of the fairest and most fruitful circuits in Methodism were laid waste." But, less than half of those who left the Wesleyan connection entered the new denomination.
7. The United Free Churches: The Protestant Methodists, the Wesleyan Methodist Association, and the "Wesleyan Reformers" (the title taken by those who organized after the expulsion of Everett and his companions), certain societies calling themselves "Arminian" Methodists, and others styling themselves Welsh Independent Methodists, united in the year 1857 under the name of the United Free Churches. This body at once became the third in numerical importance of the Methodist denominations in England. When consolidated it had 39,986 members and 2,152 probationers. At the end of twenty years the church included 72,997 members and 6,984 on probation. The government is democratic. The home circuits are divided into districts, but district meetings are not possessed of remarkable powers; the annual assembly controls only matters of connectional interest. The connectional officers are the president of the assembly, elected annually, the connectional secretary, treasurer, and the corresponding secretary. The church has shown commendable interest in foreign missions, continuing those which came in with the union, and establishing others in the West Indies, Africa, and China. Among the most eminent of British Methodists in his day was Marmaduke Miller, heard on religious and civic questions with great interest. At the end of 1907 it had 84,464 members and probationers at home, and in the foreign field 18,739 members and probartioners.
8. Bible Christians: The denomination known as "Bible Christians" originated in Cornwall. William O'Bryan was one of its founders, and in May, 1810, was formally excluded from the Methodist society, "in the chapel of which he had given the freehold beside one-half the cost of the building, for no crime except irregular attempts to save souls." In 1814 he retired from business in order "to be ready to go whithersoever providence directed his steps." He sought out parishes in which there was no evangelical preaching and wrought much good. After a few years of independent action he reunited with the Methodist society, but subsequently his "ticket" was withheld on the ground that he had not been excluded, but that he had excluded himself. He then began to form his own plan of appointments, and a new society resulted. James Thorne was an associate founder of the "Bible Christians." During 1815 and 1816 throngs were converted, O'Bryan being so active that the converts were characterized as "Bryanites." Societies were formed in various parts of England and adjacent islands. The first conference consisted of twelve of the itinerant brethren. Every circuit was empowered to send one of its stewards to the annual district meeting, "and, to prevent priestly domination, every fifth year additional representatives were to be so appointed as to make the number of the itinerant preachers and representives equal." A contention began in 1827 as to the authority of conference, and O'Bryan developed a spirit similar to that of those Wealeyans who had disfellowshiped him. In the struggle both O'Bryan and those who formulated their demands used the iron hand without the velvet glove. In the end O'Bryan migrated to America and had no further connection with the Bible Christians. The work had spread throughout the outlying provinces of England. The first chapel was built in 1818; in 1859 the connection occupied 453 chapels at home, and in 1900 the number had increased to 607. Between the years 1851 and 1860 separate conferences were established in Canada, South Australia, and Victoria. The enterprising spirit of the society was apparent in the fact that, in 1821, a missionary society was established for sending missionaries into dark parts of the United Kingdom and other countries, "as divine providence might open the way." In 1831 two missionaries were sent to British North America; and in 1850 James Rowe and the devout James Way were set apart to open a mission in South Australia, which prospered exceedingly and extended into the neighboring colony of Victoria. Missions were established later in New Zealand, Queensland, and China. In the report to the ecumenical conference in 1881 its number of communicants had reached 31,542. At home it had long maintained a force of missionaries working among the lowest stratum of London's population, and in other parts of England. See Bible Christians
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Methodism in Great Britain and Ireland now consists of three large bodies, Wesleyan Methodists, the Primitive Methodist Church, and the United Methodist Church.
Besides these are two smaller societies, the Wesleyan Reform Union, 8,489, and the Independent Methodist Churches, 9,442. There are in all these bodies 969,078 members, exclusive of members of the foreign missions.
II. In Australasia:
1. History.:The Rev. Samuel Leigh, the first Methodist preacher to go to Australia, arrived in Aug., 1815, and began his work in New South Wales. By Mar., 1816, an address of the Methodist societies in New South Wales was sent to the Wesleyan mission committee in London. The history of his subsequent work and that of his successors is as interesting as the civil and personal history of the country and its inhabitants. Thirty years after Mr. Leigh began his work, the Primitive Methodists appeared; and later the Bible Christians, United Methodist Free Churches, and the Methodist New Connection planted missions. The Wesleyan spread among the English in the seven colonies, and established missions in Fiji, Tonga, and New Guinea. The Primitive Methodists were also at work in all the colonies save West Australia. The Bible Christians labored in South Australia, Victoria, and New Zealand, maintaining a few circuits in New South Wales. The United Free Methodists were represented in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and New Zealand. The Methodist New Connection had established but two circuits in Australia. About 1888 these circuits were incorporated with the Wesleyan and Bible Christian churches. In 1895 the Wesleyan Methodists had in Australasia 51,702 members, and there were in the missions 34,691 members. According to the number of members at that time the Bible Christian denomination was twice the size of the United Methodist Free Churches, and the Primitive Methodist body double the size of the Bible Christians. These smaller bodies were two-fifths the size of the Wesleyan Church in Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, and one-fourth that of Wesleyan Methodism in the whole southern world. Methodist union in Australasia was agitated for a long time before effective steps were taken. In New Zealand, after prolonged negotiation, the ministers and members included in the Wesleyan conference, the United Free Methodist Churches, and the Bible Christians formed a union in the year 1896. The only section of Methodism in that island which declined to enter into the union was the Primitive Methodist. Two years later a union of the denominations was effected in Queensland. The Primitive Methodists and the Bible Christians in South Australia came together, and later the Methodist New Connection; and in 1900 the Wesleyan Methodists, the Primitive Methodists, and the Bible Christians, joined by the United Free Church, were consolidated into one body in South and West Australia. By this time preparations for the complete union of all Methodists in Australia reached a culmination, and from Dec. 31, 1902, Methodism became one in Australia, a continent nearly as large as Europe, and almost one in New Zealand, about as large as the British Isles; there was, therefore, a united Methodism throughout Australasia, except the Primitive Methodists in New Zealand, who represented only one-eightieth in numbers of the Methodism of Australia.
2. Agencies and Activities. The Methodist Missionary Society of Australasia supports missions in Samoa, Fiji, and New Britain. Tonga was formerly connected with the board of missions. The latest mission is that to Solomon Islands. The list of native ministers is long, and includes such names as Philemon Waqaniveitagavi, Ananias Tagavi, Tychicus Noke, Moses Mamafainoa, and Zephaniah Bilavucu. The Fiji district synod has reached such a degree of development that the conference resolved that the principle of lay representation be brought into operation in 1908. It is also under contract to accept from the Wesleyan Missionary Society of England a definite field of work in India, and a complete plant in one of the presidencies in that country. A recent conference recorded its gratitude to God for the signal success which he has given to its missions in the South Seas; for the islands which have been won from savagery and cannibalism and that are now Christian; for the thousands of men and women savingly converted to God, and for the native ministers, local preachers, and teachers raised up, by whose labors, in conjunction with those of the missionaries sent from England and Australia, so great a work has been done. These incontestable statements constitute a pillar of defense against attacks upon missionary effort in behalf of the uncivilized races. The Australasian Methodist Church is devoting itself to education. It supports a theological college and other institutions for training purposes and a number of high and village schools. The progress of Australasia, though unequally distributed in the various colonies, of recent years has been extraordinary, and not only the British Empire but all leading nations have watched with interest its various experiments in legislation which have dealt with the burning questions of the age. As in other continents Methodism has shown in Australasia its ability to stem a dangerous tide or swell a beneficent one. Many able ministers and
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III. In Japan: The Methodist Episcopal Church established a mission in Japan in the year 1873. In the same year the Canadian Methodist Church began a similar work in that country. Twelve years later, the Methodist Episcopal Church South also sent missionaries there. The work of the Methodist Episcopal Church has expanded into two annual conferences, and that of the Canadian Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church South into two more. As the same doctrines were taught, and the same spirit infused, a sentiment arose in favor of a union of the Methodist Churches in Japan. The churches in America appointed commissioners to effect a union and, in July, 1906, they unanimously agreed upon a plan. In accordance therewith, a general conference was convened in Tokyo, Japan, on May 22, 1907, composed of delegates, previously elected by the four annual conferences of the three uniting churches in Japan, and the Nippon Methodist Kyokwai was formally organized. A system of government was adopted, and went at once into effect, the first general conference under the same being held in June, 1907. The relation of the churches in the United States and Canada to the Methodist Church of Japan is cooperative. The missionaries from America hold their conference relation in their home conferences, and are supported by them; but they are entitled to the rights and privileges of membership in the annual conference to which their work of the preceding year has been related, except when the character or relations of Japanese preachers are under consideration.
IV. In America.-1. Methodist Episcopal Church:
1. Beginnings. Philip Embury (q.v.), an Irish Methodist local preacher, accompanied by his wife, Paul Heck, Barbara, his wife, and several others, emigrated in 1760 from Limerick to New York. Five years later came five families, some of whom were related to Embury. In 1766 Barbara Heck, finding several of them engaged in card-playing, expostulated, and begged Embury to sound a note of warning. He opened his house for a meeting, preaching there to Mrs. Heck and four others who had responded to her invitation. Those present at this first service were enrolled in a class. Numerous conversions followed and additional classes were formed. Embury was strongly reinforced by Thomas Webb (q.v.). a Wesleyan local preacher and captain in the British army, and soon it was necessary to build a church. While Embury and Webb were preaching in New York a similar awakening was creating excitement in Maryland. Robert Strawbridge (q.v.), an Irishman, had emigrated to Maryland, and, as he was persuasive in private, convincing in public, and ever active, many accessions resulted from his labors. The society in New York continued to prosper, and Thomas Taylor, a layman, besought Wesley to send over a preacher of wisdom, sound in faith, and a good disciplinarian. The twenty-sixth annual British conference, held in 1768, sent to the church in New York City fifty pounds, also passage money for two missionaries, Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor. In 1771 came Francis Asbury (q.v.), as devoted and untiring as Wesley, who, in Oct., 1772, appointed him "assistant superintendent." Pilmoor and others objecting to his methods as a disciplinarian, Wesley appointed Thomas Rankin (q.v.) "superintendent of the entire work of Methodism in America"; and with him sent George Shadford, who received a letter from Wesley which reveals the vastness of his imagination and expectations, all of which have been more than fulfilled. ". . . I let you loose, George, on the great continent of America. Publish your message in the open face of the sun, and do all the good you can. I am, dear George, Yours affectionately, John Wesley." Asbury came to America to stay, determined to identify himself fully with its people and their institutions; Rankin was full of notions and emotions of loyalty and government, and so magnified authority that those who had thought Asbury's hand iron found that of Rankin to be of steel. The first American conference was held in Philadelphia in 1773; ten preachers were present. It acknowledged the authority of Wesley and the Wesleyan conference; resolved that the doctrine and discipline of Methodism, as contained in the minutes, should be the sole rule of conduct; and that the members of the conference should "strictly avoid administering baptism and the Lord's Supper." Strawbridge had administered the sacraments before any of Wesley's regular missionaries arrived, and would not comply. Asbury explained that the rule was adopted with the understanding that "no brother in our connection shall be permitted to administer the ordinances at this time except Mr. Strawbridge, and he under the particular direction of the assistant." But Strawbridge refused to administer under such direction. At the second conference there was sharp conflict between Rankin and Asbury. The latter records, "My judgment was stubbornly opposed for a while, but at last submitted to." Unable to take the test-oaths or to sympathize with the colonies, Rankin left the country, and Rodda, another English preacher, also fled. Finally, Asbury of all the European Wesleyan preachers was left alone. The conference of 1778 showed a loss of 873 members; but in 1779, extensive revivals having occurred in those parts of the connection not directly affected by the war of the Revolution, the loss was made up with a gain of 1,600.
2. Dissensions; Wesley's Device. The first serious controversy occurred in 1779 the preachers in the South having determined toy secure authority to administer baptism and the holy communion. A committee was chosen by those thus minded, who ordained themselves and others, and to the satisfaction of most of the Methodists in that region began at once to administer the sacraments. The preachers north of Virginia
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3. The New Organization. Coke and his companions landed in New York on Nov. 3, 1784. On Sunday the 14th, by appointment, he met Freeborn Garrettson at the residence of Judge Bassett of Delaware, and in a neighboring chapel preached to a multitude, administering the Lord's Supper to more than 500. At this service sixteen preachers, including Asbury, learned the purpose of the commissioners in coming to this country. A special conference was opened Dec. 24 of the same year, and about sixty preachers agreed to organize themselves into a Methodist Episcopal Church "in which the liturgy (as presented by the Rev. John Wesley) should be read, and the sacraments administered by a superintendent, elders and deacons, who shall be ordained by a presbytery, using the Episcopal form, as prescribed in the Rev. Mr. Wesley's prayer book." Asbury was ordained deacon by Coke, assisted by Vasey and Whatcoat; on the following Sunday was ordained an elder, and on Monday consecrated superintendent. Before receiving ordination Asbury was unanimously elected superintendent, having stated that he could not serve as he had hitherto done, merely by Mr. Wesley's appointment. Coke also was elected superintendent. Several days were spent in perfecting a code of rules, selecting preachers to receive orders, and in ordinations. The first Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church was adopted by this convention. The prayer-book which Wesley had prepared and printed for the use of the church in America was entitled, A Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America, with Other Occasional Services. The articles of religion of the Church of England were reduced from thirty-nine to twenty-four, and those retained were so altered as "to eradicate all traces of Romanism, High-church ritualism, and the distinctive points of Calvinism." The church now formed consisted of 18,000 members, 104 traveling preachers, as many local preachers, and twice as many licensed exhorters. There were sixty chapels and 800 recognized preaching-places. Coke went everywhere baptizing children and administering the Lord's Supper, as did Asbury wherever opportunity offered. In the mean time the general superintendents at their own initiative assumed the title of bishop, asking the conference to approve it, not to the exclusion of the name general superintendent under which they were ordained, but for brevity's sake, as its equivalent and alternative.
4. The General Conference. By the year 1789 it became necessary to hold eleven conferences. A plan was devised by Bishops Coke and Asbury, which involved the establishment of a council to be invested with extraordinary powers, and to consist of general superintendents (i.e., bishops) and presiding elders. The council met that year, and a second was convened in 1790, which boldly claimed general additional power. Its proceedings Conference. created such dissatisfaction that the plan was abandoned, and it was decided to provide for a general conference. The annual conferences unanimously authorized the bishops to call such an assembly to meet in Baltimore the first of Nov., 1792. The most important event was a conflict between Bishop Asbury and James O'Kelly (q.v.), a strenuous elder, who presided over a wide district. He proposed that preachers not satisfied with their appointments might appeal to the conference. The motion was lost by a large majority and O'Kelly and several other preachers seceded. The second general conference met in Baltimore in 1796, and the subject of slavery was discussed at length. An earnest debate, concerning the relations of Coke to the Methodist Epispocal Church, occupied two days. Jesse Lee—a powerful debater and preacher—and others, who opposed
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By 1828 the astonishing increase in members became a topic of public discussion. The increase in the next quadrennium was thirty-three per cent., and placed the membership more than 13,000 beyond the half-million mark. In 1836 the church established an annual conference in Africa, and plans were made to enter China.
5. Slavery amd the Church in the South. Notwithstanding several petitions, the conference refused to change the section on slavery, or to countenance the agitation on the slavery question then assuming the aspect of a crisis. Perplex-ing questions presented themselves in 1840. A resolution was adopted "that it is inexpedient and unjustifiable for any preacher among us to permit colored persons to give testimony against white persons in any state where they are denied that privilege in trials at law." To quell the commotion which this created, explanatory resolutions were passed. The material and spiritual progress of the denomination is indicated in part by the election of four book-agents, editors of the Quarterly Review, Christian. Advocate, Western Advocate, Christian Apologist, Ladies' Repository, Southern Christian Advocate, Richmond Advocate, and the South-Western Advocate; and the fact that, in addition to the main centers, depositories were appointed at Charleston, Pittsburg and Boston. The subject of slavery came up with explosive force in the conference of 1844. The Baltimore conference had expelled a member for holding slaves through his wife. He appealed to the general conference, which affirmed the expulsion by 117 to 56. The numerous petitions for the enactment of laws to exclude slave-holders from the church might have been dealt with to the pacification of a majority; but a fatal element entered with the knowledge that Bishop James O. Andrew had become a slaveowner by inheritance and marriage. A motion was made that he be asked to resign. Efforts to reach a peaceable solution were futile, and the conference finally declared, by a vote of 111 against 61, "That it is the sense of this conference that Bishop Andrew desist from the exercise of his office so long as this impediment remains." The southem delegates presented a protest " in behalf of thirteen annual conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and portions of the ministry and membership of several other conferences, embracing nearly 5,000 ministers, and a membership of nearly 500,000 constitutionally represented in this general conference." A plan of separation was passed, and a prominent member, Leonidas Lent Hamline, educated to the law, maintained that the only point in it which touched the constitution related to the division of the funds of the Book Concern, and that was the only one to be sent to the annual conferenore. On a test resolution there were 135 votes in the affirmative, and fifteen in the negative. After ten months of excited discussion throughout the country, the
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6. Lay Representation. The second vote for lay representation had failed, but in the interim the Methodist Episcopal Church South had admitted lay delegates, and sentiment speedily changed throughRepresen. out the whole church. Nearly all the members of this conference were ready to concede this long-deferred boon, but there were differences of opinion concerning the modus operandi. The plan adopted provided for a lay vote, and, should there be a majority for the innovation, the annual conferences were to vote to change the constitution so as to enable the ensuing general conference, after ratifying that action by a vote of two-thirds, to admit laymen provisionally elected. The required three-fourths were obtained, and on the first day of the general conference of 1872, the lay representatives were seated. The conference selected episcopal residences, and prescribed a method of residential assignment. A law was passed, that the general conference should declare "who of the bishops are effective, and who are non effective." In 1876 the election of presiding elders was strongly advocated, but being opposed on the grounds of unconstitutionality and inexpediency, the proposition was lost. The body also refused to approve the licensing of women to preach, and allowed conferences having both white and colored members to be divided on race lines "when it shall be requested by a majority of the white and also a majority of the colored members; but in no case where it is not clearly to be seen that such division would improve the work," etc. When the general conference of 1848 refused to receive Lovick Pierce as delegate from the Methodist Episcopal Church South, he announced that, should there ever be official fraternal relation, the Methodist Episcopal Church would be obliged to initiate it. Such preliminary steps having been taken by the Methodist Episcopal Church, the first fraternal delegates from the Methodist Episcopal Church South were welcomed with every demonstration of satisfaction, and their message augmented the spirit of fraternity. From that time the relations between the two churches have been increasingly friendly. The conference of 1880 is notable for having revised the ecclesiastical code. In 1884 William Taylor (q.v.), already the most renowned world-exploring voluntary missionary, was elected missionary bishop for Africa. The general conference also adopted and ordered inserted as a preface to the "Form of Consecrating Bishops," the following:
"This service is not to be understood as an ordination to a higher Order in the Christian Ministry, beyond and above that of Elders or Presbyters, but as a solemn and fitting Consecration for the special and most sacred duties of Superintendency in the Church."
7. Female Representation. At the conference of 1888 several women presented credentials of election, but their right to seats was challenged on the ground of sex, and by a small majority they were denied admission. It was maintained that the constitution did not allow women to act as representatives; therefore the conference sent the issue to the annual conferences that there might be a lay and clerical vote as
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8. Government. The general conference is the supreme legislative, judicial, and executive body, having "full power to make rules and regulations for the church," with certain constitutional restrictions. It can not do away with episcopacy, nor destroy the plan of itinerant general superintendency. This plan excludes diocesan bishops, gives the power of ordination to the bishops, makes them presidents in the annual conferences, and gives them authority to decide questions of law when presiding there, subject to appeal to the general conference. To them belong the power and duty of appointing the preachers and district superintendents, and to transfer pastors. Each annual conference is divided into districts, of which, in the absence of a bishop, the district superintendent has the charge. The quarterly conference is the ultimate body in the local church. The annual conference has substantially the function of a Presbyterian synod, except that, as a conference, it has no legislative function. It is the sole decider whether candidates for the ministry shall be received on trial, and, if so, who among them shall be ordained deacons and elders. Appointments are in the power of the bishop in charge and of his agents the district superintendents. Deeds to church property contain the provision that the pastors sent by the general conference through a bishop (and such only) shall be received. A bishop presides in the general conference, but in the absence of a bishop, the conference can elect one of its members president pro tempore. As an appeal can be taken from the presiding officer's decisions on parliamentary law direct to the conference, and he has no right to make decisions of law or interpret the constitution before the general conference, his functions are strictly those of a moderator. But the veneration felt for his office as bishop adds moral influence to his office as president, and it is rarely that his parliamentary decisions are contested. The bishop is amenable to the general conference. It can superannuate him, as annual conferences do their members, and can order the manner of his trial, and expel him if, in its judgment, this be just and necessary. From its decision there is no appeal. The rights of members and ministers to trial before a committee and to an appeal are guarded. The profits of the Book Concern and chartered fund are restricted to the purposes specified in the constitution. The general rules can be changed only as the constitution provides, and the ratio of representation is to be determined in the same manner. The doctrines of the church are protected by a double constitutional guard. They can not be changed by the general conference, nor by the constitutional methods which apply to other protected subjects. The method of change must itself be revoked before the doctrines, as embodied in the "Articles of Religion," the Sermons of Wesley, and his Notes on the New Testament, can be modified in the least degree.
9. Missions. The Missionary Society was founded in 1819, having the compound title of "The Bible and Missionary Society." The next year the title of "Bible" was eliminated, and the society made entirely missionary. It was adopted by the church in 1820, and dealt at first strictly with the home field. Foreign fields were entered in the following order: Africa, in 1833; South America, 1836; China, 1847; India, 1858; Bulgaria, 1857; Japan, 1872; Mexico, 1873; Korea, 1885; Malaysia, 1885; Germany, 1849; Norway, 1853; Sweden, 1854; Switzerland, 1856; Denmark, 1857; Italy, 1871; Finland, 1884; France, 1906; Russia at St. Petersburg, 1907. The missions in Scandinavia, Germany, and Switzerland received their initial impulse by citizens of those countries migrating to the United States, coming
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10. Brotherhood. The origin and organization of the Methodist Brotherhood is as follows: In 1877 Dr. A. B. Kendig organized a group of men in the church of which he was pastor, which he styled the Mizpah Brotherhood. He continued to organize such societies until 1898. Bishop T. B. Neely, independently of this movement, organized in the churches of which he was successively pastor what was termed a Wesley Brotherhood. The first of these was organized in 1890. Meanwhile societies of men in local churches had been springing up. Some of these were called the International Brotherhood of St. Andrew and Philip (see Andrew and Philip, Brotherhood of). Besides these there were Oxford Clubs and Brotherhoods, Embury Brotherhoods, etc. In 1896 Dr. F. D. Leete organized in his church the Brotherhood of St. Paul. In the succeeding two years the Wesley Brotherhood and the Brotherhood of St. Paul began to spread. In 1898 Dr. Neely invited representatives of all local and general brotherhoods to a convention. There was a union of several, and those bodies that united took the name, first, of the Brotherhood of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which later was changed to "The Wesley Brotherhood-the Brotherhood of the Methodist Episcopal Church." This was its legal title. As the Brotherhood of St. Paul had not affiliated with this body, there arose in the church two distinct movements, and this brought about the wide-spread organization of independent brotherhoods. In Nov., 1907, the first real convention of the Wesley organization was held at Louisville, Ky. At the convention of the Brotherhood of St. Paul, and at the instance of Bishop Berry, a resolution was adopted calling for union with the Wesley Brotherhood. Commissions were appointed by each body and the joint commission of unification met in Buffalo Mar. 11, 1908. The two brotherhoods then went out of existence and the Methodist Brotherhood was formed. The Methodist Brotherhood memorialized the general conference of 1908 for recognition and adoption, which was granted. In these later movements from the year 1905 Mr. William B. Patterson, corresponding secretary of the Wesley Brotherhood, was very influential, and he was elected general secretary and still holds that position.
11. Other Agencies. In the Methodist Episcopal Church, almost from the beginning, education has been in the front rank of denominational enterprise. The official list shows that the church sustains 173 institutions of learning: 26 of these are theological institutions; 54 universities and colleges; 27 classical seminaries; 8 institutions exclusively for women; 55 foreign-mission schools; and 4 missionary institutes and Bible training-schools. Wesleyan University was founded in 1831. It is the first institution of its grade established under distinctively Methodist auspices. The Northwestern, Syracuse, Boston, and Wesleyan universities have the largest endow ments; and the first three the largest number of students.
The first theological institution established by American Methodists was located at Concord, N. H., in 1847. Its corporate name was the Methodist General Biblical Institute. After Boston University was established, the Institute was transferred from Concord, and became in 1871 The Boston University School of Theology. The Garrett Biblical Institute, incorporated by the legislature of Illinois in 1855, situated in Evanston, Ill., was endowed by the philanthropic woman whose name it bears. Drew Theological Seminary, formally opened in 1867, at Madison, N. J., was made possible, furnished with buildings, and endowed by Daniel Drew. The value of the property held for the church by the trustees of these institutions is twenty-six million dollars, and the sum total of the endowment twenty-four million dollars. In addition to the Missionary and Church Extension societies, the church supports a Board of Education, a Board of Sunday-schools, and a peculiarly interesting Board of Freedmen's Aid. It has, in the southern and neighboring states, 217,011 communicants of African descent. Vast sums have been expended in aiding them to maintain churches and schools. To an intelligent and sympathetic appreciation,
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12. Notable Representatives. The episcopacy has been the most potent personal force in the development of those bodies in which it exists. After Coke and Asbury, the most representative directing and constructive bishops were William McKendree, Joshua Soule (q.v.), and Elijah Hedding. Since 1844, Edmund S. Janes (q.v.), who was most efficient for more than thirty years, Edward R. Ames, who was a dominant factor for a quarter of a century, and Matthew Simpson (q.v.), who combined administrative skill with unsurpassed persuasive oratory, were the most notable. The last-named probably did more to popularize his denomination in the United States, and other countries, than any other of its bishops. In higher education, Wilbur Fisk (q.v.) occupies the first place in time and value of influence. In the organization and promotion of foreign missions, John Price Durbin (q.v.) stands forth most clearly; and among the missionaries whose work is done William Butler, William Taylor, and Robert Samuel Maclay (qq.v.) will be recognized as leaders. The relation of William Nast to his countrymen in Germany, and in this country, is similar to that of the men who, having migrated from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark to this country and falling under the influence of Methodism, have returned and laid the foundations of that form of Christianity in those countries.
The whole number of communicants in the United States at the close of 1909 was 3;159,913; and the number of communicants in the foreign missions of the church, 313,818—a total of 3,473,531 members.
1. Organization.
2. The Methodist Episcopal Church South: The separate history of- this body, the second in number of communicants in the Methodist world, begins with the close of the fourteenth general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The momentous proceedings of that body are recorded above. It adjourned at midnight June10, 1844. The next day the southern delegates met to determine what course should be pursued. Wisely they suggested to their constituents that nothing be done till "all the conferences represented" could assemble in a general convention. It was decided to meet in Louisville, Ky., May, 1845. In the interim the quarterly conferences, stations and circuits, and annual conferences discussed the subject and concluded that "dire necessity" was upon them to be freed from the jurisdiction of the northern conferences. All recommended strict adherence to the Plan of Separation adopted by the general conference. The convention assembled, and a committee on organization was instructed to consider events and influences which had a bearing on the possibility of maintaining the " unity of Methodism under one General Conference jurisdiction, without the ruin of Southern Methodism." It reported that ninety-five per cent of the ministry and membership in the south deemed a division of jurisdiction indispensable, and on May 17, by a vote of ninety-four to three, the convention adopted a report which declared:"The jurisdiction hitherto exercised over said Annual Conferences by the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church entirely dissolved; and that said Annual Conferences shall be, and hereby are, constituted a separate ecclesiastical connection under the provisional Plan of Separation aforesaid, and based upon the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, comprehending the doctrines and entire moral, ecclesiastical, and canonical rules and regulations of said discipline, except only in so far as verbal alterations may be necessary to a distinct organization, and to be known by the style and title of the Methodist Episcopal Church South."
The first general conference (under this plan of withdrawal and organization) met in May, 1846, in Petersburg, Va., and its successors were to convene in the month of April or May, once in four years successively. There Bishop Soule formally declared his adherence to the Methodist Episcopal Church South, upon which, by a unanimous rising vote, he was received as one of the bishops of that church. A permanent Board of Missions was organized, and an agent chosen to establish a Book Concern. Three commissioners were elected to confer with a similar body from the Methodist Episcopal Church concerning the division of the property of the Book Concern. Lovick Pierce (q.v.) was elected fraternal delegate to the ensuing general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. William Capers and Robert Paine were elected bishops, and ordained by Bishops Soule and Andrew. The pastoral address, sent out to the conferences, declared:
"No recognized principle of the Methodism of our fathers has been in any way affected by these changes. All the doctrines duties, and usages, the entire creed and ritual of the Church before the separation, remain without change of any kind."
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|
[if !supportEmptyParas] [endif] |
Traveling preachers |
1,519 |
|
[if !supportEmptyParas] [endif] |
Local preachers |
2,833 |
|
[if !supportEmptyParas] [endif] |
White members |
327,284 |
|
[if !supportEmptyParas] [endif] |
Colored members |
124,961 |
|
[if !supportEmptyParas] [endif] |
Indian members |
2,972 |
|
[if !supportEmptyParas] [endif] |
Total |
459,589 |
2. Property and Development. In 1849 the Methodist Episcopal Church South entered suit, in the United States courts of New York and Ohio, for a pro rata part of the property of the Book Concern. That brought in New York was decided in 1851 in favor of the claimants on every matrial point; that in Ohio was, in 1852, decided adversely to them and the commissioners appealed to the supreme court of the United States, when the judgment was reversed by a unanimous decision. The conclusions of the court are thus stated:
"The division of the Church as originally constituted, thus became complete; and from this time two separate and distinct organizations have taken the place of the one previously existing. ... We entertain no doubt that the General Conference of 1844 was competent to make it; and that each division of the Church, under the separate organization, is just as legitimate, and can claim as high a sanction, ecclesiastical and temporal, as the Methodist Episcopal Church first founded in the United States. The authority, which founded that Church in 1784, has divided it, and established two separate and independent organizations, occupying the place of the old one. ... As a division of the common property followed, an matter of law, a division of the Church organization, nothing short of an agreement or stipulation of the Church South to give up their share of it, could preclude the assertion of their right; and it is quite clear no such agreement or stipulation is to be found in the Plan of Separation."
By this decision the Methodist Episcopal Church South secured the printing-establishments in Richmond, Charleston, and Nashville. "To them were transferred the debts due from persons residing within the limits of their annual conferences, and in addition $270,000, in cash, the defendant also paying the cost of the suit." The second general conference, held in 1850, showed an increase of 60,000, of which four-fifths were white. Two years before the meeting of this conference, California was ceded to the United States. The bishops, urged by southern emigrants, sent missionaries "to unfurl their banner in that distant and interesting portion of the great republic." Another large increase of membership was noted when the general conference of 1854 convened. New conferences were required, and Drs. Pierce, Early, and Kavanaugh were added to the episcopacy. The general conference of 1858, in session at Nashville, Tenn. , permanently located the publishing-house in that city. This "determined the future rank of Nashville as the ecclesiastical center of Southern Methodism." The general conference provided the organization of the Rio Grande Mission Conference, recommended the establishment of a mission in Central America, and requested the bishops and Board of Missions to organize a mission at such point in Africa as should he deemed expedient. New Orleans was chosen as the place for the conference of 1862. The historian Gross Alexander says "Little did the delegates dream of the events and changes that were to take place in the interval." During the war "halls were vacated, schools deserted, endowments swept away, hundreds of schools as well as churches burned or dismantled by use as hospitals, warehouses, or stables; mills destroyed, plantations and farms laid waste." "In April, 1862, New Orleans was in the possession of the Federal Government, which was represented there by General Butler." Delegates were appointed, but it was impracticable to hold a conference at that time and place. Not till 1866 was a general conference held, which met in New Orleans. The Baltimore conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church at the time of the separation had adhered to that church, but in 1861 a large part of it withdrew from its jurisdiction and maintained a separate existence. Now it was received into the Methodist Episcopal Church South. The statistics showed a loss of 246,044 members during the Civil War, "practically a threefold decimation." The Missionary Society of the church was $60,000 in debt, and the publishing-house practically in ruins. Of the 207,776 colored members in 1860, in the southern body, there remained at the close of the war only 48,742. Attendance upon class-meeting was made voluntary, and the rule requiring a probation of six months before membership, set aside. The pastoral term was extended from two to four years. The reconstructive spirit of this conference and the statesmanship manifested in the introduction of equal lay and clerical representation into the general conference, and a limited representation of the laity in the annual conferences, was a prophecy that the ravages of war would soon he repaired.
3. Government and Activities. The government of the Methodist Episcopal Church South is still, in most respects, in agreement with that of the undivided church, but the general conference of 1870 initiated a constitutional change of vital import, which the annual conferences confirmed. It was, that when any rule is adopted by the conference which, in the opinion of the bishops, is unconstitutional, they may present their objections in writing, and if the general conference shall by a two-thirds vote ad here to its action, the rule shall take the course pre scribed for altering a restrictive rule. The bishops' veto, therefore, in any case, delays the consummation for four years. In the first instance, if the conference should not by a two-thirds vote adhere to its action, it is made by the objection of the bishops null and void. Another feature of the government is that when a bishop decides a question of law in an annual conference, it controls for that time and place; but is not binding elsewhere unless the college of bishops approves it. The making of and dealing in intoxicants is treated unequivocally and laconically as follows: " If any preacher or member shall engage in the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors to be used as a beverage, let the discipline be administered as in cases of immorality." From 1845 to 1860 the church, as its members had been from the beginning, was much occupied with the instruction and conversion of the slaves. When the Civil War began, there were "207,776 negro
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4. Representatives and Results. No small elected body has included a larger majority of competent men of different types than the college of bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In its early period Bishops Soule and Andrew and William Capers sentatives and Robert Paine were the most revered. H. B. Bascom, already renowned, died less than six months after he was elected. The oratorical fame of Bishop George Foster Pierce spread throughout the United States, and he lived to diffuse it more than thirty years after his election. No more potential bishop arose in that body than Holland Nimmons McTyeire (q.v.), legislator, administrator, historian. John Christian Keener (q.v.) was for half a century un usually influential in several spheres. The sage Lovick Pierce, who survived to be appointed fraternal delegate to the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Nathaniel of the church, and John Berry McFerrin, the rejuvenator of every embarrassed enterprise, were pillars amidst the changes of their times. In all the diverse and increasing modes of Christian effort upon which Methodism, in Europe and America, has been so ready to enter, the Methodist Episcopal Church South is energetically working, being rewarded by a constant increase of members and liberality. The tendency to federation, if not to union, between the two great divisions of Episcopal Methodism is shown in their copartnership in the publishing-work in China, a common catechism, and a common hymnal, compiled by joint commissioners, authorized by the general conferences and introduced to the congregations by the signatures of the bishops of both communions.
The membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church South was computed at the end of 1909 to be 1,780,778, and in the foreign missions over 15,000, making a total membership of about 1,800,000.
3. The Methodist Protestant Church; William S. Stockton, an influential layman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, began, in 1821, the publication of the Wesleyan Repository, its contributors being ministers and members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. "Church polity" was criticized in successive numbers by Nicholas Snethen (q.v). As its circulation increased, its utterances became more aggressive, and it encountered wide opposition, but on account of an announcement in the Methodist Magazine of 1823 that its editors would not admit "subjects of controversy which act to disturb the peace and harmony of the church," the Wesleyan Repository gained a large patronage.
While the general conference of 1824 was in session in Baltimore a convention of reformers was held there. It consisted of local and itinerant ministers, several of whom were members of the general conference, and numerous laymen. To take the place of the Wesleyan Repository this convention established a periodical entitled The Mutual Rights of the Ministers and Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and made preparations to organize union societies in various parts of the country. The Methodist Episcopal Church, considering this movement revolutionary, took steps to suppress it. Dennis B. Dorsey, a member of the Baltimore conference, was excluded from the church for refusing to pledge himself to desist from "spreading incendiary publications." W. C. Pool was similarly dealt with, and within thirty days eleven local preachers and twenty-two laymen were expelled in Baltimore; they took an appeal. When the general conference of 1828 drew nigh, the reformers adopted a memorial to be presented to that body and also issued an address to the public. Thomas Emerson Bond, a physician of Baltimore and a local preacher, issued a powerful appeal to Methodists in opposition to the changes proposed by the reformers; these were the elimination of the episcopacy and the presiding eldership, and the admission of laymen to the general and annual conferences. The general conference confirmed the expulsion of Dorsey and Pool. Prior to this a number of expelled members and their sympathizers formed themselves into a society named Associate Methodist Reformers. Its members were. most numerous in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, and Cincinnati. A book issued by one of their number, Alexander McCaine, which proved peculiarly irritating, was chiefly devoted to attacks upon episcopacy as a form of government, and upon the
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"If we are true to it [the pure, unmixed question of representation], if we are not ashamed of it, if we glory in it, it must finally prevail, and proselyte every Methodist in the United States. They may, indeed, remain episcopal Methodists, but so sure as we are not moved away from our high calling, the whole lump will be leavened into representative Methodists."
Its government is the embodiment of the representative principles for which it contended. In no period of its existence has it failed to be represented by men of rare ability. Among those of the middle period was Thomas Hewlings Stockton (q.v.), who had few if any superiors as a preacher. Another was Dr. Alexander Clark, orator, author, editor, traveler, no mean poet, and the principal compiler of the Voice of Praise, the hymn-book of the denomination. This communion has always been interested in education, and maintained useful institutions. For many years it aided the foreign mission work of other denominations. The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society was formed in 1879, and the Board of Foreign Missions in 1882. Its work has been chiefly in Japan and China.
The membership in 1909 numbered 188,806, a gain of over sixty per cent since 1892.
4. Wesleyan Methodist Connection or Church of America: Divers uncompromising abolitionists conferred together in 1842 as to the wisdom of secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church. In that year Orange Scott, Jotham Horton, and Leroy Sunderland announced, in a paper called the True Wealeyan, their withdrawal, and issued a call for a convention of all who agreed with them to prepare a plan of government and to organize a church which should be non-episcopal and anti-slavery. The convention met May 31, 1843, at Utica, N. Y., and founded the Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America. About 6,000 joined, twenty-two of whom were traveling ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and as many more from the Methodist Protestant and Reformed Methodists. To these were added forty-four who reported by letter. The discipline of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America differs in various particulars from that of other sections of the Methodist family. Members are forbidden to join any secret society, and if any break this rule and refuse to withdraw "they shall without trial be declared withdrawn from the church." Unatationed ministers are allowed to speak in. the conference but not to vote. In less than eighteen months after it was founded the membership increased from 6,000 to 15,000; but thirty-two years later it had no more. Its rigid condemnation of secret societies repelled many, and after slavery was destroyed, nearly one hundred ministers, accompanied by thousands of communicants, returned to the Methodist Episcopal Church. This denomination of Christians strives faithfully to convert men, and to enforce the stringent rules which it conscientiously holds to be just—to be Christian. Its present roster shows 19,485 members.
5. The Free Methodist Church: This church was organized in 1860 at a convention of ministers and laymen. The action was the culmination of an agitation in the Genesee conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Certain ministers in that body had, for several years, been declaring that the church was tolerating worldly practises, and contradictory teachings on entire sanctification; that primitive Methodist simplicity was disappearing, unconverted persons being received into the church; that little attention was paid to discipline, and that many Methodists were allowed to belong to secret societies. They condemned the renting of pews, choir-singing, all worldly amusements, and the building of costly churches. In 1858 B. T. Roberts and Joseph McCreary were expelled from the Methodist Episcopal Church on charges of contumacy and alleged immoral and unchristian conduct. The charge of contumacy was based upon Roberts' publishing and circulating a second edition of New School Methodism and a pamphlet giving a short account of his previous trial. Many considered the expulsion of these ministers as persecution. Several ministers of the conference publicly expressed their sympathy, and four of them were expelled on similar charges, and two others were retired from the itinerant ministry to the local. At the general conference of 1860 the cases were taken up and the appeal of Roberts was not allowed. The conference affirmed that an unendurable spirit of censoriousness and insubordination was the cause of the action against them, and that their expulsion was in harmony with the regular forms. In the government of the Free Methodist Church a general superintendent, elected quadrennially, was substituted for the episcopacy. In all church courts the number of laymen was made equal to the ministry. The office of presiding elder was retained, but the officer is entitled district chairman. Two articles of faith were added to those of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The first is on entire sanctification, and the second on future reward and punishment. B. T. Roberts, who was long general superintendent of the body, having been reelected several times, was an alumnus of Wesleyan University, a good writer, and in private intercourse a man of both commanding and persuasive ability. The Free Methodist Church has furnished many illustrations of heroic self-denial. Limited as are the resources of the body, it has small missions in Africa, India, San Domingo, and
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6. The African Methodist Episcopal Church: Early in the history of American Methodism there was dissatisfaction in the colored membership, who were aroused by Question 25 in the minutes of the conference of 1780: "Ought not the assistant to meet the colored people himself, and appoint as helpers in his absence proper white persons, and not suffer them to stay late and meet by themselves? Ans. Yes." In Philadelphia, in 1787, certain colored people belonging to the Methodist Church met to consider their condition. When their ideas were opposed, they withdrew from the church, and Bishop William White (q.v.), of the Protestant Episcopal Church, ordained a colored preacher for them. Asbury, in 1799, ordained Richard Allen (a slave who had bought his freedom, grown rich, and erected on his own land a church for the people of his race) a deacon, he being the first colored preacher ordained by the Methodist Episcopal Church. The African Methodist Episcopal Church sprang from the relations between the white and colored Methodists of Philadelphia. John Emory (q.v.), representing the Methodist Episcopal Church, sent a letter to them stating that the white preachers could no longer maintain pastoral responsibility over them. On account of this they considered themselves disowned by the Methodists, but an attempt was made to regain them. The case was taken into the courts, and was decided in favor of Bethel Church, with the result that the colored people in 1816 organized themselves into an independent body, adopting as its standards the doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and, with a few modifications, its form of government. Richard Allen was elected bishop. The church steadily prospered, but not proportionately in education. In 1843 a controversy arose on the subject of the qualifications for ministers, led by Daniel Alexander Payne (q.v.), who had been trained as a theologian in the Gettysburg Theological Seminary, and to him is due a large part of the intellectual progress of the church. In 1863 the church purchased Wilberforce University in Ohio. This institution has been successfully conducted. After the Civil War, the church increased steadily. Educational work is carried on with intelligence and enthusiasm. The African Methodist Episcopal Church and the British African Methodist Episcopal Church of the Dominion of Canada were united as a result of negotiations begun in 1880. A peculiarity of this body is that it makes the bishops members of the general conference. The African Methodist Episcopal Church has been devoted to missions. Before it was sixteen years old it established a mission in Hayti. In 1847 it founded The Parent Home and Foreign Missionary Society. It carries on missions in Africa, South America, West Indies, and Hawaii, and in Africa its missions have about 12,000 members. This body has produced notable orators, such as Bishops Campbell and Arnett, who have elicited admiration and respect for themselves, their race, and their denomination. The government of the body resembles that of other Methodist Episcopal Churches in most respects, but includes special differences of its own origination. The corrected returns by Dr. Carroll give the membership at 452,126.
7. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church: The colored people of the City of New York resented caste prejudice, which "forbade their taking the sacrament until white members were served." This, and the desire for other church privileges denied them, induced them to organize among themselves, which they did in 1796, and in the year 1800 they built a church and called it "Zion." A contract was made between that body and the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States of America., that, as they had no ordained ministers of their own race, the Methodist Episcopal Church should provide them. Under this arrangement "Zion" received the services of preachers of that church for "about twenty years." In the end, a minister, who had been sent to " Zion Colored Church," having seceded from the Methodist Episcopal Church, the trustees of " Zion " invited him to finish out the year, and, when this was done, the members induced him to ordain as elders three of their brethren, already ordained as deacons. These proceeded to ordain others. These elders, following the example of Wesley, ordained one of the number a bishop: During 1820 churches were organized in Philadelphia and New Hampshire. An eight years' controversy began in 1848, which finally reached the civil courts. The laity were admitted to representation in the annual and general conferences in 1851, and by 1858 the spirit of unity in the church had gained the ascendency. As late as 1865 the church had but 92 ministers and 5,000 members; but between 1864 and 1876 it doubled its membership more than five times. This body eliminated the word, "male" from the discipline so that the sexes are equally eligible to all positions, lay and clerical. In 1868 an unsuccessful attempt was made by Gilbert Haven (q.v.) and others to promote the union of the Zion Church with the Methodist Episcopal Church. Negotiations for union between the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and the African Methodist Church have also proved abortive. In 1868 the episcopacy was made technically a life office; nevertheless the bishop was to be elected quadrennially; if not reelected, he was considered to be "retired," but could retain the title of bishop. This rule, in practise, created dissatisfaction, and in 1880 it was enacted that, without reelection, the bishop should be certain of tenure during good behavior. This church early espoused education, but for a long while its enterprises to promote it were unsuccessful; at last, however, Livingstone College was firmly established under the presidency of Dr. Joseph C. Price, whose abilities were extraordinary. On the platform and in conversation he was irresistible; anywhere in England or America he could secure money. for the institution, which became famous. The church publishes weekly periodicals and a Quarterly Review, and is endeavoring to
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8. The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church: In 1866 the conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South authorized the bishops to organize its colored members "into an independent ecclesiastical body," if it should appear that the members desired it. The bishops then formed a number of annual conferences, consisting wholly of colored preachers. These requested in 1870 the appointment of five as a commission to meet five of their own number to create an independent church. The convention chose as the name of the body "The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church." Two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church South presided and ordained to the episcopacy two colored elders, W. H. Miles and R. H. Vanderhorst, selected by the eight colored conferences. The total value of church property then made over by the Methodist Episcopal Church South to the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church was $1,500,000. Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South have given them plots of ground and aided them in building churches. Paine College, Augusta, Ga., (with an enrolment of 300 in 1907), and Lane College, Jackson, Tenn., are carried on by the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in connection with the Methodist Episcopal Church South. This church took over, from the body that had nourished it, the articles of religion and the forms of government. Its rules will not allow any others than negroes the privilege of membership. At the outset there were but little more than 60,000 members; in 1909 it had 233,911, shepherded by 2,809 ministers and housed in 2,619 churches.
9. Minor Methodist Churches: The Primitive Methodist Church, as it exists in the United States, came from England. It has three annual conferences subdivided into districts and maintaining itinerant and local ministers and class-leaders. They are slowly growing, having had 4,764 communicants in 1890 and 7,295 in 1909. The Independent Methodist Churches are composed of congregations in Maryland, Tennessee, and the District of Columbia. Their statistics are inaccessible. The Evangelist Missionary Church comprises ministers and members in Ohio, who in 1886 withdrew from the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. They have now about 5,000 members. They have one bishop and profess to have no creed but the Bible. The New Congregational Methodists withdrew in 1881 from the Methodist Episcopal Church South in Georgia on account of alleged arbitrary action. Seven years later a number of its churches united with the Congregationalists. At the present time they report 1,782 members. The Congregational Methodists originated in Georgia in 1852. When the Congregational body began to establish congregations in the South after the war many of the churches and ministers that organized the Congregational Methodist Church went over to them. In doctrine, the Congregational Methodists agree with other Methodist bodies; and in polity they are not strictly Congregational. Appeals from the decision of the lower church may be taken to a district conference, thence to the state conference, and ultimately to the general conference. This church has 15,529 members, chiefly in the southern states. The African Union Methodist Protestant Church dates from 1816, and differs from the African Methodist Episcopal Church in opposing itinerancy, paid ministers, and episcopacy. It has 3,867 members in eight states. The Union American Methodist Episcopal Church agrees in doctrines and usages with other Methodist bodies. It antedates the African Methodist Episcopal Church, being organized in 1813 in Wilmington, Del., is divided into conferences, and elects its bishops for life. In 1890 it had 2,279 members, and now reports 18,500. The Zion Union Apostolic Church was organized in 1869 in Virginia. It was reported in 1890 to have 2,346 communicants, and at the end of 1909 reports 3,059.
10. In Canada and the Maritime Provinces:
1. Beginnings. Methodism was introduced into Newfoundland in 1765 by Lawrence Coughland, who was admitted as a traveling preacher by John Wesley in 1755. Coughland preached there until 1773, his work being strengthened by local preachers. In 1785 Wesley sent John McGeary especially to that colony. Methodism came into being in Nova Scotia in 1779 by the conversion of William Black through the influence of Wesley's sermons, and the efforts of newly arrived Methodists. Black in 1784, seeking for reinforcements, visited the conference called at Baltimore, Md., to receive Dr. Coke and form the Methodist Episcopal Church. By 1791 the work had so prospered in Nova Scotia as to demand a district with Black as elder, to act as superintendent of six stations, manned by as many preachers from the United States. Other preachers had been sent to various parts of the provinces. Methodism reached New Brunswick by way of Nova Scotia and the United States. In the Province of Canada local preachers had been working before the year 1790, but to William Losee, a preacher on trial without a definite appointment, belongs the honor of being the first missionary to Canada. His experiment proving successful, the next year he was regularly appointed. By 1799 a flourishing, presiding elder's district existed. In 1810 the Genesee conference was organized, and preachers in Canada for the most part assumed relations with that body. Until 1812 they had been associated with the Methodist Episcopal Church. From the beginning there had been steady advance till the war between the United States and Great Britain; but during that conflict the members were dispersed, and at its close only 1,785 could found. The Methodists of Lower Canada, having no preacher competent to administer the ordinances, applied to Nova Scotia for aid, and a regular minister was sent from the British conference. This created confusion, which continued till 1820, when the upper province was allotted to the American preachers, and the lower to the British. In 1824 Methodism in Upper Canada, then comprising thirty-five ministers and preachers on trial and 6,150 members, was organized into a single annual conference, and during the next four years increase was
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2. Division and Denominations, In 1833 the Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada had three annual conferences, 197 effective ministers, 25,000 members, and a polity practically the same as that of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. In that year it unified with the British conference, changing its name and form of government. When the conference agreed to this union it did so without formal consultation with the laity. The majority both of ministers and laymen acquiesced, but certain dissentients declared that, as it had not been submitted to the societies, the act was unconstitutional, and that it infringed upon the agreement made between the church in Canada and the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. These organized a new Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada, more than one-thirteenth of the membership, declining to affiliate with the British conference, associating with them. Being without schools, parsonages, and churches, they began litigation to secure a pro rata part of the property. The lower courts decided in their favor, but on appeal the higher court recognized the Wesleyan Methodists of Canada as the rightful owners. After this question was settled the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Canada entered on a career of prosperity, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, thrown wholly on its own resources, made every sacrifice in order to succeed. Four Primitive Methodist ministers had been sent in 1829 from England because of the number of that sect emigrating to the United States. Three years later the Hull circuit in England decided to take the Canadian societies under its immediate charge. A general missionary committee was formed by the home church and under its management the increase of members was such that in 1854 the Canadian annual conference of Primitive Methodists was established. In 1831 the Bible Christians sent two missionaries to the British dominions in America, one to West Canada and the other to Prince Edward Island. In 1855 the society was strong, and held its first conference in Columbus. It then had 51 churches, 21 regular preachers and many lay helpers, and 2,200 members. Ten years afterward the union with it of the Prince Edward Island churches, together with local growth, raised its membership to 5,000. The Canadian Wesleyan Methodist Church was formed in 1829. It was founded principally by Henry Ryan and introduced lay representation in all its courts. Ryan died in 1833, but the little church struggled on, and in 1841 united with the Methodist New Connection. The Methodist New Connection of England, with the consent of the parent society, established a mission in Canada in 1837. The mission, enlarged by admitting a small denomination, assumed the title "Canadian Methodist New Connection." In 1840 the British conference "withdrew from its cooperation" with the Canada conference, which acted independently for seven years, but during that period the form and name of the Wesleyan Methodist Church remained unchanged. In 1847 the union was restored, and in 1854, by special arrangement, the Lower Canada and the Hudson Bay missionary districts, both of which had stood in immediate connection with the British Wesleyan conference, became incorporated with the Wesleyan church in Canada. In 1857 the Methodist Episcopal Church founded an educational institution at Bellville, which was incorporated as Bellville Seminary; three years later it was affiliated with the Toronto University as Bellville College, the ladies' department taking the designation of Alexandria College, and later the remaining part of the institution being known as Albert University.
3. Unification. For years a yearning existed in many hearts for organic union of Methodist bodies. This first bore fruit in the union of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada, the Eastern British American conferences, and the Methodist New Connection Church, proposed in 1872, and consummated in Toronto in 1874, the uniting bodies adopting the all-inclusive name of the Methodist Church of Canada. Its first census reported 1,031 ministers, and 101,946 mem bers, two universities, three theological schools, and several colleges and secondary schools. Yet some thing still greater awaited Canadian Methodism. The first Ecumenical Conference of Methodism, which convened in Wesley Chapel, London, in 1881, gave such impulse to fraternity as to extend the horizon till glimpses of complete Methodist unity could be perceived in the not distant future. Canada was the first to know its visitation. In Bellville, in 1883, was accomplished the formal and ac tual union of the Methodist Church of Canada, the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada, the Primitive Methodist Church in Canada, and the Bible Christian Church of Canada. The body thus formed was in the possession of seven colleges, having 100 professors and 5,068 students. The Methodist Church of Canada contributed to the union 128,337 members; the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada, 25,678 members; the Primitive Methodists, 8,000; and the Bible Christians, 6,800—a sum total of 168,815 members. The itinerant general superintendents hold office for the term of eight years, and are eligible to reelection. The annual conferences are composed of ministers and an equal number of laymen, a president being selected from among the ministerial members. The president of the annual conference is the superintendent of the district in which he may be stationed. The annual conference elects superintendents for each district. There are now six departments of mission work, home, Indian, French, Chinese and Japanese in British Columbia, and foreign. The home work embraces needy fields in the dominion, Newfound land, and Bermuda. These include more than 35,000 communicants. The French missions are in Quebec, The foreign missions are in China and
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V. The Doctrinal Standards of Methodism:
1. Doctrinal Bases. John Wesley was a clergyman of the Church of England. The societies which he formed were organizations for the conversion of men and their religious development. He aimed to retain his converts within the pale of that great national church, and from its clergymen the majority of Methodists received the sacraments. He and they believed the fundamental doctrines of universal Christendom, as contained in the articles, homilies, and ritual to which they had been accustomed from childhood. Nevertheless, in the judgment of Wesley, certain doctrines of the New Testament were neglected by the clergy or robbed of their true proportion and emphasis. These doctrines were by him considered vital to the spread of pure Christianity. Accordingly he expounded them in his conferences, published them with comments in the Minutes and preached upon them. Also he found it necessary to write and publish sermons upon the doctrines which Methodism emphasized; for his preaching excited vehement opposition from unsympathetic Anglican clergymen, and from Presbyterian, Independent, and Baptist ministers. The Baptists differed from him on the method and subjects of baptism and its relation to the reception of the Lord's Supper. To preserve unity of belief among the preachers and members of his societies, he prepared Notes on the New Testament, wherein are clear explanations of the pivotal passages upon which he based the views he so firmly believed and fervently preached. To render impossible the preaching of heretical doctrines in the chapels, the deeds by which they were held contained a limitation of the powers of trustees in the following words: "Provided always, that the persons preach no other doctrine than is contained in Mr. Wesley's 'Notes on the New Testament,' and four volumes of 'Sermons.'" The same provision subsists in the model deed of the Wesleyan Methodist Church (in England, Ireland, etc.) in the following words: "No person shall be allowed to preach, who shall maintain, promulgate, or teach any Doctrine or Practise contrary to what is contained in certain Notes onthe New Testament, commonly reputed to be the Notes of the said John Wesley, and in the first four volumes of Sermons, commonly reputed to be written and published by him."
When introducing these Sermons to the public, Wesley said,
"The following sermons contain the substance of what I have been preaching for eight or nine years past. During that time, I have frequently spoken in public on every subject in the ensuing collection, and I am not conscious that there is any one point of doctrine, on which I am accustomed to speak in public, which is not incidentally, if not professedly, laid before every Christian reader. Every serious man, who peruses these, will, therefore, see in the clearest manner what these doctrines are, which I embrace and teach as the essentials of true religion."
It was for this purpose that Wesley made these Sermons so large and vital a part of his doctrinal standards. Certain discrepancies have been alleged with respect to the number of these Sermons. The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Great Britain and Ireland and the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States recognize fifty-three; the Methodist Church of Canada and the Methodist Episcopal Church South but fifty-two, and certain critics but forty-three. The discrepancies are of no significance, as all agree on the smallest number, stated in the model deed, and all essential truths of the system of doctrine on which Methodism depends are discussed in the forty-three, and nothing additional of doctrinal value is contained in the nine or ten added by Wesley after he had made the others a standard.
2. Distinctive Doctrinal Features. The distinctive doctrinal features of Methodism are suggested by the titles of these Sermons: "Scriptural Christianity," "The Almost Christian," "Awake thou that sleepest," "The Way to the Kingdom," "Salvation by Faith," "Justification by Faith," "The Righteousness of Faith," "The First Fruits of the Spirit," "The Spirit of Bondage and Adoption," "The Master of the New Birth," "The Witness of our own Spirit," two sermons on the" Witness of the Spirit," "Sin in Believers," thirteen sermons on the Sermon on the Mount, "The Nature of Enthusiasm," "A Caution against Bigotry," "Christian Perfection," "The Judgment." Incidental to the direct exposition of these topics the distinction between Wesley's Arminian theology and that of Calvin is pointed out; and the dangerous license of Antinomianism condemned. Wesley emphasized foreknowledge, but opposed the doctrines of election and reprobation as taught by Calvin. Magnifying free will and resultant responsibility, he acknowleged
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3. American Position. Until 1784 Methodism in America was under the control of Wesley; it was in fact the extension of his societies. In that year it devolved upon him to superintend its transformation into a church. Before his plan had fully matured or any American had anticipated it, the American conferences asked, and by vote answered, a peculiar question.
Q. " How shall we conduct ourselves toward European preachers? "Answer:" If they are recommended by Mr. Wesley, will be subject to the American conference, preach the doctrine taught in the four volumes of Sermons, and Notes on the New Testament, ... we will receive them; but if they walk contrary to the above directions, no ancient right or appointment shall prevent their being excluded from our connection."
Wesley sent to America a series of articles of religion, selected from the Thirty-nine of the Church of England. The following were adopted, with slight verbal changes and minor omissions: "Of Faith in the Holy Trinity," "Of the Word, or the Son of God, who was made very Man," "Of the Resurrection of Christ," "Of the Holy Ghost," "Of the Old Testament," "Of Free Will," "Of the Justification of Man," "Of Good Works," "Of Works of Supererogation," "Of Sin after Justification," "Of the Church," "Of Purgatory," "Of Speaking in the Congregation in such tongue as the People understand," "Of the Sacraments," "Of the Lord's Supper," "Of both Kinds," "Of the one Oblation of Christ, finished upon the Cross," "Of the Marriage of Ministers," "Of the Rites and Ceremonies of Churches," "Of Christian Men's Goods" and "Of a Christian Man's Oath." The following were retained with important omissions: "The Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation," "Of Original or Birth Sin," "Of the Church," and "Of Baptism." The following were rejected: "Of the Going down of Christ into Hell," "Of the Three Creeds," "Of Works before Justification," "Of Christ alone without Sin," "Of Predestination and Election," "Of Obtaining Eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ," "Of the Authority of the Church," "Of the Authority of General Councils," "Of Ministering in the Congregation," "Of the Unworthiness of the Ministers which Hinders not the effect of the Sacrament," "Of the Wicked which eat not the Body of Christ in the Use of the Lord's Supper," "Of Excommunicate Persons, how they are to be avoided," "Of the Homilies," "Of Consecration of Bishops and Ministers," "Of the Civil Magistrates."
4. Purpose and Results. A comparison between the English Articles as they were originally and as they were transmitted to the American conference reveals that the guiding purpose of Wesley, in altering and omitting, was to expurgate the leaven of ritualism, Calvinism, and Romanism. These articles, however, do not contain special reference to some of the most precious doctrines held by the founder of Methodism and by the churches that derived preaching, teaching, and example from those whom he instructed. But Wesley knew that the American Methodists had incorporated in their standards all that he had imposed upon English Methodism. Episcopal Methodist Churches, including the Canadian Methodist Church, accepted the articles sent by Wesley. The Methodist Episcopal Church of America is in harmony with these facts. The rule on the subject is as follows:
"The General Conference shall not revoke, alter or change our Articles of Religion, nor establish any new standard or rules of doctrine contrary to our present, existing, and established standards of doctrine."
The unparalleled unity in belief among the various Methodist bodies is the fruit of Wesley's method of conserving doctrines. Had he expressed them in confessions or even creeds, they would have been centers of controversy. His followers in every land concur with the Canadian Methodist theologian, Burwash:
"It is to the spirit and type of this preaching that our obligations bind us. There may be in the Notes and Ser mons things incidental, accidental and personal, to which no Methodist minister or layman would feel bound to profess assent; but Methodism demands that in all its pulpits we should preach this Gospel and expound the word of God according to this analogy of Faith."
The Calvinistic Methodists signify their doctrines by their name. In Evangelical spirit they are similar, but in the doctrines on which Wesley took the Arminian position they adhere to the Calvinist standards.Bibliography: The fundamental sources are the Works of John Wesley, the best ed. for this purpose being that issued as standard by the Methodist Book Concern, New York, in 7 vols., including in vols. i-ii. his Sermons, in vols. iii.-iv. his Journals, and in vols. v.-vii. his miscellaneous works; his Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, issued by the same house as a standard (the recently deciphered diaries from which the Journals were written, containing a considerable amount of new material, are in course of publication in London, and will be available at the principal repositories for Methodist literature in the United States); the Lives and other literature given under the articles on the Wesleys in the lsst volume of this work; the Books of Discipline of the various Methodist bodies; the Journals of the Methodist Episcopal Church and of the Methodist Episcopal Church South; the Minutes of the annual conferences; the Proceedings of the Ecumenical Methodist Conferences, bold in London, 1881 Washington,1891, and London, 1901; the Records of theCentennial Convention in Baltimore, 1884; the Year Books of the various bodies; and the early periodicals to which reference in made in the text. Consult also the numerous sketches of Methodist worthies in this work, and the literature given there.
Treatises of a general character are: A. Stevens, Hist. of the Religious Movement . . . Called Methodism, 3 vols., New York, 1858-61; H. S. Skeats, Hist. of the Free Churches of England, 1688-1851, London, 1859; G. Smith, Hist. of Wesleyan Methodism, 3 vols., ib. 1885; L. S. Jacoby, Geschichte des Methodismus, seiner Entstehung und Ausbreitung, 2 vols., Bremen, 1870; W. H. Daniels, Illustrated Hist. of Merhodism in Great Britian and America from the Wesleys to the Present Time, New York, 1880; J. Atkinson, Centennial Hist. of American Methodism, ib. 1884; idem, Beginnings the Weslyan Movement in are Wesleyan Movement in
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Works on various Methodist bodies are: G. Smith, Hist. of Wesleyan Methodists, 3 vols., London, 1857-61; H. Smith, Sketches Sketches of Methodist New Connexion Ministers, ib. 1893; G. Packer, The Centenary of the Methodist New Connexion 1797-1897 ib. 1897; T. Colhouer, Sketches of the Founders of the Methodist Protestant Church and its Bibliography, Pittsburg, 1880; A. H. Bassett, Concise Hist. of the Methodist Protestant Church, Baltimore, 1882; E. J. Drinkhouse, Hist. of Methodist Reform and the Methodist Protestant Church, 2 vols., Baltimore, 1899; E. Bowen, Hist. of the Origin of the Free Methodist Church, North Chili, New York, n.d.; F. W. Bourne, The Bible Christians: Origin and History, London, 1905; J. Petty, Hist. of the Primitive Methodist Connexion, 1861; W. Williams, Welsh Calvinistic Methodism. A Historical Sketch, ib. 1884; D. Young, The Origin and Hist. of Methodism in Wales and the Borders, ib. 1893; J. S. MacGeary, The Free Methodist Church, Chicago, 1909.
For the Methodist Episcopal Church North and South consult: Hist. of the Organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Comprehending all the Official Proceedings of the General Conferences, etc., Nashville, 1845; A. Stevens, Memorials of the Introduction of Methodism into the Eastern States, 2 vols., Boston, 1848-52; idem, Hist. of the M. E. Church in U. S. A., 4 vols., New York, 1864; idem, Centenary of American Methodism, ib. 1866; C. Elliott, History of the Great Secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church in the year 1845, Eventuating in the Organization of the New Church Entitled "The Methodist Episcopal Church South," Cincinnati, 1855; J. Lednum, A History of the Rise of Methodism in America. Containing Sketches of Methodist itinerant Preachers, 1738-86, Philadelphia, 1859; N. Bangs, Hist. of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 4 vols., New York, 1860; L. C. Matlack, Antislavery Struggle and Triumph in the M. E. Church, ib. 1881; H. N. McTyeire, Hist. of Methodism, Nashville, 1886; J. G. Jones, A Complete Hist. of Methodism as Connected with the Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, Vol. i., 1799-1817, Nashville, 1887; G. Alexander, in American History Series, vol. xi., New York, 1894; J. M. Buckley, in American Church History Series, vol. v., New York 1897.
For Methodism among the African races consult: J. B. Wakeley, Lost Chapters Recovered from the Early History African Methodism, New York, 1889; L. M. Hagood, The Colored Man in the Methodist Episcopal Church, Cincinnati, 1890; D. A. Payne, Hist. of the A. M. E. Church, Nashville 1891; J. W. Hood, One Hundred Years of the African M. E. Zion Church, New York, 1895; I. L. Butt, Hist. of African Methodism in Virginia; or, four Decades in the Old Dominion, Eastville, Va., 1908.
Books dealing with special topics are: J. Emory, Defense of Our Fathers, New York, 1827; D. W. Clark, Life and Times of Elijah Hedding, ib. 1855; R. Paine, Life of W. MaKendree 2 vols., Nashville, 1869; E. H. Myers,Description of the M. E. Church, 1844-1846: comprising a 30 Years' History of the Relations of the two Methodism, Nashville, Tenn., 1875; T. L. Flood and J. W. Hamilton, Lives of Methodist Bishops, New York, 1882; F. A. Arehibald, Methodism and Literature, Cincinnati, 1883; A. W. Cummings, Early Schools of Methodism, New York, 1886; W. J. Townsend, The Story of Methodist Union, London, 1906; D. B. Brummitt, Epworth League Methods, Cincinnati, 1906; H. K. Carroll, Missionary Growth of the M. E. Church, Cincinnati, 1907; J. Telfond, Wesley's Veterans. Lives of Early Methodist Preachers told by Themselves. With Additions and Annotations, London, 1909;
On Methodism in various, countries consult: G. H. Cornish, Cyclopedia of Methodism in Canada, Toronto, 1881; E. Ryerson, Canadian Methodism; its Epochs and Characteristics, ib. 1882; A. Sutherland, Methodism in Canada, London, 1903; J. E. Sanderson, First Century of Methodism in Canada, vol. i., Toronto, 1908; C. H. Crookshank, History of Methodism in Ireland, vol. i., Wesley and his Time, vol. ii., The Middle Age, Belfast, 1885-1886; E. Thomas, Irish Methodist Reminiscences, London, 1889; R. C. Phillips, Irish Methodism, ib. 1897; H. B. Foster, Wesleyan Methodism in Jamaica, ib. 1881; J. Colwell, Illustrated Hist. of Methodism in Australia, New South Wales. and Polynesia, Sydney, 1904; H. Adams, Methodism in the West Indies, London, 1908; J. M. Erikson, Metodismen i Sverige, Stockholm, 1895; J. Jüngst, Der Methodismus in Deutschland, Giessen, 1906.
On the polity, constitution, doctrines, and discipline of Methodism consult: R. Emory, Hist. of the Discipline of the M. E. Church, New York, 1843; T. E. Bond, The Economy of Methodism Illustrated and Defended, ib. 1852; T. E. Bond, Economy of Methodism, ib. 1852; E. Grindrod A Compendium of the Laws and Regulations of Wesleyan Methodism, London, 1858; B. Hawley, Manual of Methodism, or the Doctrines, General Rules and Usages of the Methodist Episcopal Church, New York, 1868; J. H. Rigg, Connexional Economy of Wesleyan Methodism, London, 1879; idem, Church Organizations, ib. 1896; H. W. Williams, Constitution and Polity of Wesleyan Methodism, London, 1881; S. M. Merrill, A Digest of Methodist Law; or, Helps in the Administration of the Discipline of the E. Church, Cincinnati, 1885; D. Sherman, Hist. of the Revisions of the Discipline of the M. E. Church, New York, 1890; T. B. Neely, Evolution of Episcopacy and Organic Methodism, ib. 1888; idem, Hist. of the Origin and Development of the Governing Conference in Methodism, Cincinnati, 1892; B. Gregory, Side Lights on the Conflicts of Methodism, 1827-52, London, 1898; D. J. Waller, Constitution and Polity of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, ib. 1898; W. F. Barclay, Constitution of Methodist Episcopal Churches in America, Nashville, Tenn., 1902; G. F. Oliver, Our Lay Office Bearers, Cincinnati, 1902; J. J. Tigert, Doctrines of M. E. Church in America, ib. 1902; idem, Constitutional Hist. of American Episcopal Methodism, Nashville, 1903; Doctrines and Discipline of the M. E. Church South, ed. Alexander, ib. 1906; D. A. Goodsell, J. B. Hingeley and J. M. Buckley, The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Cincinnati, 1908; H. Wheeler, Hist. and Exposition of the Twenty-five Articles of Religion of the M. E. Church, New York, 1908; H. T. Hudson, Methodist Armor; or, A Popular Exposition of the Doctrines, Peculiar Usages and Ecclesiastical Machinery of the M. E. Church South, Nashville, n.d.
1 1. John Wesley; Early Life.
2 * Thomas Jackson, author of The Centenary of Wesleyan Methodism (London, 1839), says: "From that time Wesley distinguishes what he sometimes designate the United societies, and at other times the United society, from all religious associations with which he had been previously connected."
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