Cibrarp of Che Cheological ^emuwrjp PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY •3 SS? £• PURCHASED BY THE HAMILL MISSIONARY FUND Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/briefhistoryofmeOOhold - A:L«JRMav? , Jdrito , Clifrrn S- . f, rxicvn , F. C A BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM, AND OF METHODIST MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. WITH AN APPENDIX ON THE LIVINGSTON I AN MISSION. BY THE REV. W. CLIFFORD HOLDEN, AUTHOR OP "HISTORY OF NATAL AND THE ORANGE PAYER SOVEREIGNTY." AND OF “THE PAST AND FUTURE OF TUE KAFFIR RACES." WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. ^Toitbon : PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR AT THE WESLEYAN CONFERENCE OFFICE, 2, CASTLE STREET, CITY ROAD, AND OS, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1877. LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM NICHOLS, 4G, HOXTON SQUARE. PREFACE. In preparing this volume for publication my object has been to supply what seemed to me a desideratum, — a short but clear and comprehensive account of Methodism as it now is, and of the stages by which it has attained its pre- sent large development ; to give, more particularly, a brief history of Methodist Missions in South Africa ; and to do this in such a manner as to place the book within the reach of the European colonist, the Sabbath scholar, and the intelligent Kaffir or Fingoe Kaffir, many of whom have now acquired a sufficient knowledge of the English language to enable them to read, appreciate, and derive profit from the perusal of English literature. It may be said that such a History of Methodism and of Methodist Missions is not needed ; that already the want has been met by the Histories of Dr. Smith, Dr. Stevens, and others. The provision, certainly, is ample for those who have money to purchase and leisure to read these elaborate works ; but those for whom the present volume is designed have not either. With regard to Wesleyan Missions in South Africa, it may be urged that the works of Barnabas Shaw and William Shaw, Boyce’s “ Life of William Shaw,” Taylor’s “ Adventures,” Moister’s “ History,” and other books, supply all the knowledge needful on these subjects. But the object of this work is to condense much from these varied sources, and, by the addition of my own long ex- perience, to give all the information which the general reader may desire to obtain on these Missions. It will be apparent to the careful reader that the diffi- culty of selection and compression has been great. Some may suppose that the volume should have contained some things which they will not find in it ; and others may think a 2 IV PREFACE. that some parts might have been left out as unnecessary : but it is hoped that nothing of material interest has been omitted, whilst great care has been taken to curtail when- ever the subject admitted of it. My own observation and experience of thirty-six years should have some degree of weight in assisting me to form correct views of many facts recorded and events brought under consideration. There is another reason which cannot be ignored, and is of growing importance ; in stating which I have no per- sonal or party feeling, but simply record it as a fact ; namely, that the Roman Catholics are coming into the country in considerable force, and are pushing their way on the right hand and on the left. Many of the Episco- palians also affirm that the “ so-called ” Wesleyan Church is no Church, that the Ministry has no valid ordination, and that the people are “ renegades.” As a natural se- quence, they hold that the whole should be absorbed in a Church which can establish its credentials to connexion with remote periods of Church history, and even with the New Testament itself. These specious representations are embarrassing to the minds of the natives as well as others; and an antidote is greatly needed. This antidote I have sought to provide in the pages of this book. Nothing has been written in a polemical spirit ; but in the chapters on Church Organization and Polity an attempt has been made to prove that the Wesleyan Methodist Church is a true Scriptural Church, and that it has the high approval of God, who has very signally set the stamp of His approba- tion upon it in the extensive spiritual good which it has been the means of effecting in the world. In the preparation of the first part of this volume the following works have been placed more or less under con- tribution : Dr. George Smith’s and Dr. Stevens’s Histories of Methodism, Kirk’s “ Mother of the Wesleys,” Tyerman’s “ Life of the Rev. Samuel Wesley,” “ Lives of early Method- ist Preachers,” Jackson’s “ Centenary of Methodism,” Dr. Rigg’s “Essays for the Times,” Watson’s “Life of Wes- ley,” Crook’s “Ireland,” the “Minutes of Conference,” the “ London Quarterly Review,” Peirce’s “ Wesleyan Polity,” &c. PREFACE. V In order to secure the largest amount of information in the smallest space, I have treated the period of each chapter as an epoch, and have endeavoured to group around it the subjects and facts relating thereto. Some- times the order of dates has been a little violated, but, it is hoped, without confusion or detriment. In preparing the latter part of the volume, the works before enumerated have been consulted ; and in some places the Rev. William Shaw’s “ Story of my Mission” has rendered valuable aid : periodicals and miscellaneous papers have also been made use of, so far as they could contribute to the correctness and completeness of the whole. Ten years have elapsed since the first materials for this work began to be prepared ; during which period I have sought to utilize such information as has come within my reach ; while my owm observation and long experience have supplied such parts as could be obtained in no other way. In committing the book to the notice of the Christian public, I am conscious of much that is defective. Some apology for this may be found in the fact that the work has been carried on under consider- able difficulty, and has often been written in a fragmentary manner, consequent upon the pressure of numerous minis- terial duties. Sometimes a few days have been devoted to it, and then weeks or months of interruption have followed ; so that at times it has appeared problematical whether it would ever be completed and published. I thus have a strong claim upon the leniency of criticism ; whilst at the same time I have been actuated by a hearty desire that the book may be extensively useful, and may accomplish to a great extent the objects contemplated in it ; so that it may bring glory to God, and advance the good cause to which my life has been devoted. W. Clifford Holden. Fort Beaufort , South Africa, February, 1877. CONTENTS PART I. METHODISM IN GENERAL. Chapter Page I. THE ANCESTORS OF JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY . 1 XI. THE STATE OF RELIGION IN ENGLAND WHEN METHOD- ISM AROSE ....... 28 III. BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND CONVERSION OF JOHN WESLEY 35 IV. OPENING THEIR COMMISSION, AND SIGNS FOLLOWING 52 V. EXPULSION OF THE WESLEYS FROM THE PULPITS OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH, AND FORMATION OF THE UNITED SOCIETIES .... 62 VI. THE COMMENCEMENT OF LAY PREACHING, AND ORDI- NATION OF THE FIRST REGULAR MINISTERS . 77 VII. THE FIRST CONFERENCE (1744) ; AND THE CON- FERENCE OF 1769 . . . . .90 VIII. PERSECUTION 106 IX. IRELAND ........ 116 X. THE CONFERENCE OF 1784, AND THE DEED OF DE- CLARATION. THE DEATH OF WESLEY . . 126 XI. THE CONFERENCE OF 1797 139 xii. John wesley’s scriptural conversion the true ORIGIN OF THE WESLEYAN CHURCH . . 150 XIII. METHODISM A SCRIPTURAL CHURCH . . . 155 XIV. WESLEYAN CHURCH POLITY .... 171 XV. MISSIONS IN GENERAL . . . . .198 XVI. CENTENARY CONFERENCE, 1839 .... 216 XVII. CONFERENCE OF 1875 223 22& XVIII. METHODISM IN AMERICA vm CONTENTS, PART II. MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. Chapter I. THE CAPE DISTRICT ...... II. THE GRAHAM’S TOWN DISTRICT. EASTERN FRONTIER OF THE CAPE COLONY . . . . . III. KAFFIR MISSIONS ...... IV. THE QUEEN’S TOWN DISTRICT . V. THE CHRISTIAN CHIEF KAMA : HIS MISSION AND HIS TRIBE ........ VI. EDUCATION ........ VII. THE BECHUANA — NOW THE BLOEM FONTEIN — DIS- TRICT . . VIII. THE TRANS VAAL RIVER MISSION IX. THE NATAL DISTRICT ...... X. CONVERSION WORK AMONG THE NATAL AND AMAZULU KAFFIRS ....... Page 245 266 278 295 308 335 364 393 406 426 APPENDIX. THE LIVINGSTONIAN MISSION 471 ILLUSTRATIONS. HEALD TOWN ..... NATIVE DISTRICT MEETING JOHANNES MAHONGA, KAFFIR MINISTER THE CHRISTIAN CHIEF KAMA WILLIAM SHAW KAMA LOVEDALE INSTITUTION : TEACHERS, ETC. KAFFIR WITCH-DOCTOR LTVINGSTONIA MISSION PARTY Frontispiece . 293 . 307 . 316 . 327 . 362 . 440 . 503 PLAN OF THE ANNSHAW CIRCUIT, 1874-5 . . . 278 PLAN OF THE d’uRBAN CIRCUIT, 1850 . . . 424 A BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. PART I. METHODISM IN GENERAL. CHAPTER I. THE ANCESTORS OF JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY. Short as this History of Methodism is, it would be incomplete without some notice of the ancestors of the Rev. John Wesley. Those who have time to read the larger works of Dr. Clarke, Dr. Smith, the Rev. J. Kirk, and the Rev. L. Tyerman, will not need to he informed upon this subject. But this History is designed for those who have not the money to purchase, nor the leisure to read, those elaborate works ; and who, consequently, must remain in ignorance, unless they obtain information in this less pre- tentious form. The times in which the ancestors of the Wesleys lived, and the tragic scenes through which they passed, are full of deep and abiding interest ; and must remain so, as long as Ecclesiastical History exists. Many things of importance must be omitted in this volume, and others must he treated in a cursory manner, on account of the limited space allotted to the theme. But it is hoped that sufficient information may be given to supply a connected and satisfactory view of this part of Wesleyan History ; so that some may he induced to obtain more costly works, whilst those who are not able may not B 2 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. remain iu ignorance as to the chief transactions and events of this great national movement. Happily we have not to thread our way through a labyrinth of uncertainty and doubt in reference to this noble family. The Eev. John Kirk on the part of Mrs. Susannah Wesley, and the Eev. Luke Tyerman on the part of the Eev. Samuel Wesley, have so fully explored all matters relating to this family as to leave nothing more to be desired. The learned Hr. Adam Clarke was the first to take up this subject in due form, and to leave information which has been of essential service to those who, having more leisure, have entered more fully into it. The Wesley family was a family of Priests on both the paternal and the maternal side : they served at the altar, and ministered in holy things. Whilst Samuel and Susannah Wesley, the father and mother of John Wesley, were attached to, and closely con- nected with, the Established Church of England, their pro- genitors on both sides were decided Nonconformists ; who endured long and harassing persecution in connexion with that noble host of worthies who were ejected from that Church for refusing to subscribe to the Act of Uniformity in August, 1662. According to this Act, all those Clergymen who refused to conform to the ritual and liturgy of the State Church, were compelled by the strong arm of the law to abandon their livings, and thus sacrifice their means of subsistence, as well as be separated from their flocks. This intolerant Act was brought into operation on August 24th, 1662; a day which has since been fitly called “ Black Bartholomew’s Day ; ” because on that date more than two thousand of the most learned, godly, and devoted Ministers were ejected from their livings, “taking joyfully the spoiling of their goods ” rather than violate the dictates of conscience, by doing that which they felt to be contrary to the will of God. Amongst this noble band of confessors for conscience’ sake were the grandfather and great-grandfather of John Wesley. Mr. Tyerman thus describes the event : “ The previous Sunday had been a day such as England never knew either before or since. Hundreds of faithful Ministers CHAP. I.] ANCESTORS OF JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY. 3 on that day preached farewell sermons to heart-broken, weeping flocks. Churches were crowded ; aisles and stairs were crammed to suffocation ; and people clung to the open windows like swarms of bees. It would have been pardon- able if the Ministers had mingled with the loving exhorta- tions addressed to the distressed crowds before them, senti- ments of indignation at the legislative Act which was the means of their removal. But, instead of that, the discourses were as calm as the Pastors had ever preached, and some of them scarcely alluded to the peculiar circumstances of the time. A week after, on the day after Queen Catherine’s jubilant reception, the Act of Uniformity was enforced in all its rigour, and upwards of two thousand Ministers, with their families, were ejected from their livings.” “What a scene,” says John Wesley, “is opened here! The poor Nonconformists were used without either justice or mercy ; and many of the Protestant Bishops of King Charles had neither more religion nor more humanity than the Papist Bishops of Queen Mary.” “ By this Act of Uni- formity, thousands of men, guilty of no crime,— nothing contrary either to justice, mercy, or truth, — were stripped of all they had, — of their houses, lands, revenues,- — and driven to seek where they could, or beg, their bread. For what ? Because they did not dare to worship God accord- ing to other men’s consciences ! ” “Amongst the Ministers expelled by the Act of Uniformity, there were not a few of the most remarkable men that the Church in this country has ever had. Most of them were excellent scholars, judicious divines, faithful and laborious Pastors ; men full of zeal for God and religion, undaunted in the service of their Master, diligent students, and powerful preachers. Especially were they men of great devotion, pleading for almost hours together at the throne of grace, and there inspired with faith, "and love, and zeal, which raised them to the highest rank of heroes, and made them willing, not only to lose their livings, but to suffer ' even martyrdom itself, rather than to prove traitorous to Christ and to the liberties of His Church.” It was a day of sorrow to the worthy Ministers who were ejected, and to the flocks from whom they were driven, hut a heavier cala- b 2 4 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. unity for the Church itself from which they were ejected ; for, hy this one stroke thousands of her most devoted Ministers and pious people were cut off from her communion. Bartholomew Wesley, the great-grandfather of John Wesley, was born about the year 1600. The place of his birth is not known with certainty ; he was educated for the ministry, and in 1640 was inducted into the living of Cliarmouth, and in 1650 into that of Catherstone, where he continued until the Act of Uniformity in 1662. That he was a steady adherent of Cromwell and of the Parliament, admits not of doubt ; and that he was so from conscientious conviction, is equally clear. The times were exciting ; revolutions in Church and State were being brought about in the most unexpected manner, the very foundations of settled society appearing to be removed amidst the surging billows of political strife and Church polemics, in which Charles lost his head, and the Episcopal hierarchy was for the time being destroyed. The course which Bartholomew Wesley took amidst these mighty com- motions and sweeping revolutions, was not the result of ignorance, passion, or caprice ; but was based upon solemn conviction, and guided by fixed principle, arrived at after long and prayerful investigation. We do not stop to ask how far he was right, but we simply take the facts as they arrive before us. The closing scene of this good man’s life is thus given by Mr. Tyerman : “Bartholomew Wesley, after being ejected from his church at Cliarmouth, still continued to reside in the same village, and obtained a livelihood by the practice of physic. He made no secret of the fact that it was his intention and wish to capture the King ; and he jokingly told a gentleman that he was confident that, if ever the King came back, he would be certain to love long prayers ; for if he (Wesley) had not been at that time longer than any ordinary mortal at his devotion, he would have surely ‘ snapt ’ him. His were days of strife, of change, of oppression, and of sorrow. He lived to a good old age ; for he survived his son John, whose death, in 1678, greatly affected him. He preached when he could, and administered physic as far as he was able. A local historian writes concerning the persecuted •CHAP. I.] ANCESTORS OF JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY. 5 dissenting Christians in the west : ‘ They were rewarded with cruel mockings, bonds, and imprisonments ; they wandered in deserts and in mountains ; and in dens and caverns they hid themselves. In the solitudes of Pinney they offered up their prayers, in a dell between two high rocks, which have ever since been called “ the Whitechapel Rocks ; ” and in an old house at Lyme there was recently discovered an ingeniously concealed oak staircase, capable of admitting only one person at a time, which led to a small apartment that had been used as a chapel.’ In such places Bartholomew Wesley joined his fellow Christians in the worship which they stealthily presented to Almighty God. He and they have long since passed to the place where ‘ the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.’ ” John Wesley, son of the foregoing Bartholomew Wesley and grandfather of the founder of Methodism, was born about the year 1036. At a very early period he was the subject of deep religious impressions, and had a solemn conviction that he was called to the work of the ministry. As a son of the prophets, the spirit of the prophets rested upon him : he was sent to Oxford at a suitable age, and there made great proficiency in the attainment of knowledge, especially in the Oriental languages ; thus fitting himself for those responsible ecclesiastical duties which he had to perform. Plis entrance into the ministry was not according to estab- lished order; “irregularity” attended his steps; and as great events cast their shadows beforehand, in this respect he was not an obscure type of his grandson John. John Wesley began to preach, amongst seamen, at Radipole, a village about two miles distant from Wey- mouth. In the meantime the Vicar of Winterborne Whit- church died, and the people of that parish wished Wesley to preach to them as a Minister on probation. He went ; his ministry and life gave satisfaction to those who invited him ; he passed his examination before Cromwell’s “ Triers ; ” and was appointed by the trustees to the living. This was in May, 1658, when he was about twenty-two years of age. Winterborne Whitchurch is “ a village about five miles 0 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. from Blandford, in Dorsetshire, and in 1851 had a population of 595. The income of the living, when it was presented to John Wesley, was about £30 a year. He was promised an augmentation of £100 a year ; hut, on account of the many changes in public affairs which soon afterwards took place, the promise failed in its fulfilment.” Oliver Cromwell died about four months after Wesley had entered upon his regular course of duty : days of darkness and sorrow quickly followed. After the death of Cromwell, his son Bichard feebly tried to guide the affairs of state ; but being utterly incompetent for these arduous duties, great confusion followed ; Charles II. was recalled, and Bichard retired into private life, and was left unmolested in his obscurity. Charles II. was restored to the throne in 1660 ; but this was done in haste, and without any stipulations whatever being made as to the manner in which he should proceed in important matters arising out of the extraordinary state of commotion and revolution through which the nation had passed. Hence, as might have been expected, all who were connected with Cromwell and the Protectorate were sub- jected to the greatest hardships and privations. The Episcopal Church was soon again made the State Church, and all Ministers were required to observe its laws, and read the Prayers and Liturgy. This John Wesley positively refused to do ; for which contumacy he was quickly sum- moned before Dr. Gilbert Ironside, Bishop of Bristol, who was consecrated about the time of Charles’s restoration. The questions proposed by the Bishop, and the answers given by Wesley, are very characteristic, and strikingly show the spirit of the times ; but as want of space will not allow me to quote them, the reader is referred to the Life of Samuel Wesley by the Bev. Luke Tyerman, pp. 36 to 41. The result of the examination is thus given : “ This is a long conversation, but it is instructive and useful, (1) as casting light upon Church and State affairs, imme- diately after the restoration of Charles ; and (2) as furnish- ing several interesting facts in the history of Samuel Wes- ley’s father. Passing over the first, we learn that John Wesley, like his grandson of the same name, was a man of CHAP. I.J ANCESTORS OF JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY. 7 shrewd sense and pluck. He adhered to the Parliament and to the Commonwealth to the last moment ; hut when he saw that the Commonwealth was doomed, and that the nation was resolved to restore the monarchy, like a man of sense, he laid aside his sword and quietly submitted. His continued firm adherence to the^cause of the Commonwealth — ‘ to the last gasp,’ as the Bishop put it — brought him into trouble after the King’s return ; but royal clemency was properly exercised towards him, and there was an end of the affair. He had preferred another kind of government ; hut now that Charles, by the voice of the nation, Avas seateduponthe throne, Wesley took the oath of allegiance, and faithfully kept it.” He was not, however, long permitted to enjoy his liberty. His conversation Avith Bishop Ironside occurred some- time during the year 1661. About the same period he was arrested, on the Lord’s day, as he Avas coming out of church, and was carried to Blandford, where he was committed to prison. The reason of his arrest was exactly the same as that which brought him before the Bishop of Bristol. He would not use the Liturgy. His enemies had accused him to the Bishop, hut without effect, for the Bishop as yet Avas really without jurisdiction. King Charles had ap- pointed Bishops to several dioceses, and the Liturgy had been introduced into those churches where the Ministers Avere avowedly Episcopalians ; but it was not until the month of November, 1661, that the Prayer Book was revised by Convocation ; and it was not until August, 1662, that the use of it Avas made binding. It is true that, during the summer of 1660, a Bill had been passed by Parliament, giving power to expel from Church livings every incumbent who had not been ordained by an ecclesiastic ; and by this Act John Wesley might have been expelled from the living of Winterborne Whitchurch. But this was not the ground taken by Sir Gerard Napper and the other parishioners ayIio were inimical to his person and ministry. Probably they were not aware, or Avere not in a position to prove, that he had not received ordination ; and hence their illegal plot to imprison and expel him, because, in conducting Divine service in his church, he persisted in his refusal to use the Book of Common Prayer. 8 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. It was within two years after the restoration of Charles II. that Wesley was arrested and committed to Blandford gaol on such a charge. Sir Gerard Napper had been his most furious enemy, and the most forward in committing him ; hut after Wesley had lain in prison for some length of time Sir Gerard broke his collar-hone, and, perhaps think- ing that the disaster had happened as a judgment upon him for his cruelty to the young Minister, he requested some of his friends to hail him ; and told them, that if they refused, he would give bail himself. At length, by an order of the Privy Council, dated July 24th, 1661, it was directed that he should he discharged from his then imprisonment, upon taking the oaths of supremacy and allegiance. He was taken accordingly before a magistrate, who, for some reason, declined administering the oaths, but issued a war- rant dated July 29th, 1661, commanding him to appear before the Judges of the assizes to be holden at Dorchester on the 1st of August following. He was tried accordingly and liberated ; hut the notable 24th of August, 1662, quickly followed, when he was ejected from his living, in company with two thousand others. “ Little more,” writes Mr. Tyerman, “ remains to be said concerning Samuel Wesley’s father. Where he spent the first six months after his ejectment from his benefice, we have no means of knowing. Probably, however, he remained in the same village where he had spent the last four years, inasmuch as it was here that his son Samuel was horn, only four months after the youthful Minister and his wife were cast out of their vicarage. On February 22nd, 1663, when Samuel Wesley was only nine weeks old, his father and his mother removed to Melcombe. Before their arrival their old enemy, Sir Gerard Napper, and seven other magis- trates, by some stretch of authority, had turned out of office the Mayor and Aldermen of the borough, and had put into their place others more subservient to their will. Accord- ingly, when young Wesley and his wife, with then- infant child, reached Melcombe, they found that the new Corpora- tion had made an order against their settlement in the town ; and that if they persisted in settling there, a fine of £20 was to be levied upon the owner of the house in which CHAP. I.J ANCESTORS OF JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY. 9 they lived, and five shillings per week upon themselves. Wesley waited upon the Mayor and some others, pleading that he had lived in Melcombe previously ; and offering to give security for his proper behaviour ; but all was of no avail ; for, a few days afterwards, another order was drawn up for putting the former one into execution. These violent proceedings drove John Wesley and his family from the town, where, a few years before, he had lived beloved by all who knew him. He now went to Ilminster, Bridgewater, and Taunton ; in all of which places the Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists treated him with great kindness, and where he preached almost every day.” It was not long before the body of this devoted young Minister succumbed beneath the tempest which was con- tinually bursting upon him, and he found a martyr’s early grave. But he had previously begun to preach in private to a few good people in Preston, and occasionally at Wey- mouth, and at other places contiguous. After some time he had a call from a number of serious Christians at Poole to become their Pastor. He consented, and continued in that capacity while he lived, administering to them all the ordinances of God as opportunity offered. In consequence, however, of the Oxford Five Mile Act, passed in 1661, he was often put to great inconvenience. Notwithstanding all his prudence in managing his meetings, he was fre- quently disturbed, several times apprehended, and four times imprisoned ; — once at Dorchester for three months, and once at Poole for half a year ; and once, at least, he was obliged to leave his wife, his family, and his Hock, and for a considerable time to hide himself in a place of secrecy. Again and again, the handful of godly people meeting in the house of Henry Saunders, mariner, of Melcombe, were arrested for being present at a conventicle, and were fined, imprisoned, or otherwise punished. Dr. Calamy adds, that John Wesley “was in many straits and difficulties, but was wonderfully supported and comforted, and was many times very seasonably and surprisingly relieved and delivered. Nevertheless, the removal of many eminent Christians into another world, who had been his intimate acquaintances and kind friends, the great decay of serious religion among 10 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. many professors, and the increasing rage of the enemies of real godliness, manifestly seized on and sunk his spirits ; and he died when he had not been much longer an inhabit- ant here below than his blessed Master was, whom he served with his whole heart, according to the best light he had.” Application was made to the Vicar of Preston to have him buried in the church ; but the application was refused ; and in the churchyard no stone tells where his ashes lie, nor is there any monument to record his worth. From the concluding sentence of Dr. Calamy, it would seem that John Wesley died at the early age of thirty- three or thirty-four. He left behind him two sons, — Samuel and Matthew, and a faithful wife, who remained his widow for about half a century. Limited space would forbid further details concerning Samuel Wesley’s father ; but, infact, such detailsdo not exist. “John Wesley, though young in years, evinced a mind elevated far above the common level, even of those who have had the advantages of a collegiate education. He was no unthinking zealot or timid changeling. He had made himself master of the controverted points between the Established Church and Dissenters ; and his opinions, being founded upon conviction, were held with the fidelity of a martyr’s grasp. To say nothing of other facts, his interview with the Bishop of Bristol displays the same sincere and zealous piety, the same manly sense, and the same heroic yet respectful boldness, which distinguished his son Samuel and his grandsons John and Charles in after years.” Dr. Adam Clarke observes, that from the same conversation “ the reader may learn two important facts : (1.) That the grandfather of the founder of Methodism was a lay preacher. (2.) That he was an Itinerant Evan- gelist. Indeed, we find in John Wesley’s history an epi- tome of the Methodism which sprang up, through the instrumentality of his grandsons John and Charles ; his mode of preaching, matter, manner, and success, bearing a striking resemblance to theirs and to their coadjutors’.” The grandmother of John Wesley, on the paternal side, was thus left a young widow with two small children, to struggle through the world, amidst poverty and privation. CHAP. I.] ANCESTORS OF JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY. 11 Mr. Tyerman remarks, “ As already shown, her father died when she was young. Her uncle died when her husband was suffering imprisonment for conscience’ sake. Her husband died about the early age of thirty-four, leaving her nothing but his holy example, his loving prayers, and at least two young children. How she obtained a living in the early years of her widowhood there is no evidence to show ; but, in her later years, she was obliged to depend on the little help of £10 per annum, which her son Samuel was accustomed to squeeze out of his sadly too small Ep worth income. The whole of her married life was one continued scene of persecution ; and the forty years of her long and dreary widowhood, was an unceasing struggle with poverty and its attendant pain.” She was alive in 1710; (see Clarke’s “Wesley Family,” vol. ii., p. 144;) hut we have no particulars of her brave battling for bread and schooling for her children, and of her passing away to the “ land of rest.” SAMUEL WESLEY. Samuel Wesley, the father of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was one of the two sons thus early bereft of their father. The widow, though bereaved and poor and persecuted, did not lose heart amidst her complicated and heavy trials, but, as a true Christian heroine, resolved to do battle against her adverse circumstances ; and so far succeeded as to bring up her young Samuel for the Christian ministry. He being a son of the prophets, she was not willing that the sacred office should become extinct in the death of her martyred husband ; and, notwithstanding her pecuniary embarrassment, she found the means of sending him to school. Samuel Wesley was horn at Winterborne Whitchurch in 1662. He was educated at the Free School at Dorchester, by Mr. Henry Dolling, to whom, out of respect, he dedicated the first work which he published. Young Wesley remained here until he was a little more than fifteen years of age, when he was sent to an academy at Stepney, and afterwards to one at Newington Green, where he continued until August, 1683, when he had nearly arrived at the age of twenty-one. Meantime he BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. 12 [part I. made rapid progress, and gave signs of poetic genius in tlie production of some juvenile pieces. At this stage of his history an event of great importance occurred, being no less than that of his leaving the Dis- senters, and joining the Church of England. Samuel Wesley left the ranks of the Dissenters in 1683. This was an extraordinary step, considering the long and hitter persecution which his family had endured from mem- bers of the Established Church. His son, the Eev. John Wesley, gives the following account of it. “ Some severe invectives being written against the Dissenters, Mr. S. Wesley, being a young man of considerable talent, was pitched upon to answer them. This set him on a course of reading, which soon produced an effect different from what had been intended. Instead of writing the wislied-for answer, he himself conceived he saw reason to change his opinions ; and actually formed a resolution to renounce the Dissenters, and attach himself to the Established Church. He lived at that time with his mother and an old aunt, both of whom were too strongly attached to the Dissenting doc- trines to have borne, with any patience, the disclosure of his design. He therefore got up one morning, at a very early hour, and, without acquainting any one with his purpose, set out on foot to Oxford, and entered himself of Exeter College.” Such is Mr. Wesley’s account of the matter. We cannot, however, withhold the following apposite and forcible quotation from “ Essays for the Times.” After the writer has assigned various reasons for young Wesley’s conduct, he thus sums up : “But beyond all these considerations, the Nonconformity of 1682 was very inferior in strength and grandeur to the Puritanism of fifty years before. The nation was no longer capable of such fruit as it had borne in the last generation. It was passing through a stage of deepening degeneracy. The Commonwealth, with all its glories, had in part prepared the way for this. There was probably less religion, and certainly more hypocrisy, in 1659 than in 1640. A show of austere and punctilious godliness had become fashionable : the result was a wide- spread growth of sanctimonious hypocrisy, and, on the CHAP. I.j ANCESTORS OF JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY. 13 part of a large section of the nation, a rooted disgust at every thing like moral restraint or religious solemnity. Then followed the Restoration with its floods of unbridled licen- tiousness, and its fashion of unbelief. St. Bartholomew’s Day silenced by thousands the holiest and ablest preachers in the land, and suppressed the growth of godly Ministers who should have risen up into the offices of the Church. Twenty years had passed since that period, years of increasing irreligion and corruption of every kind. The King was a pensioner of Louis of France. French manners and French morals had debased the dignity and purity of the country of Cecil and Hampden ; the manliness of the nation was in process of decomposition ; the Christian faith and heart of the people were dying out : a downward course had been entered upon, so far as respected the national life and character, which neither the Revolution of 1688 nor the victories of Marlborough could effectually arrest, which reached its lowest point in the reign of George II., and from which England was only redeemed by the religious movement of which Methodism was the chief instrument and the representative. Great principles could not main- tain their ground in such an age ; the more noble or sacred any course might be, the less likely was it to obtain popu- lar support. Hence, in 1682, Nonconformity was fast losing its grandeur. It had no political party to sustain it. It had lost the heart of the nation. Puritanism had been identified with a great struggle for political liberty, with gallant resistance against a crushing and cruel despotism. Hence, in great part, its hold upon the nation at large ; hence its grandeur and sacredness in their eyes. But that great movement had worn itself out. Puritanism under the Commonwealth had done violence to national prejudices, offended popular taste, proscribed the pastimes and pleasures alike of high and low. This, in the case of a nation not as yet very far removed from Popish times, and from the licence of Popish and mediaeval manners, whose squires and yeomen were still in a high degree coarse, ignorant, and jovial, was more than could be endured. ‘ New wine ’ had been ‘ put into old bottles,’ and the result was that the bottles burst and the wine was spilled. More- 14 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [part I. over, the multiplicity of dissenting sects, and the ignorance, fanaticism, and presumption of not a few self-constituted sectarian teachers, had disgusted the rude but useful com- mon sense of the average Englishman of the period. From the combined effect of these causes, and causes such as these, Puritanism lost its hold upon the people of England. But for this, the Ministers and Parliament of Charles II. could not have carried into effect their policy of proscrip- tion and persecution. “ The people in 1662 were not prepared to run the hazard of another revolution, or, indeed, to run any hazard at all, in behalf of the Puritan divines, whose character, notwithstanding, multitudes among them revered, and whose cruel sufferings multitudes more commiserated. They might pity the poor victims, hut they could not rally to the cause. The consequence was, that as years passed away, what had once been a great and noble party, identi- fied with all that was truest, freest, and most godly in England, became little more than a sectarian remnant. Most of the great leaders among the Puritans were dead or aged. In an age of deepening heartlessness and vice, their plain worship and strict maxims found less and less favour. Occasionally, when such a man as Baxter was ‘ shamefully treated ’ by such a monster as Jeffreys, there was some movement of indignation. But this did not inter- fere with the general decline of the cause.” This quotation gives a general and philosophic view of the times, and the causes which would have an influence upon the mind of Samuel Wesley. But, great as this influence was, the real cause of this change was the absence of converting grace in the heart of this young man, and the consequent want of face and fortitude to combat the spirit of the times. “After making every deduction on account of the circumstances under which he, as a Church- man, was led to write, and afterwards to vindicate, his account of his education among the Dissenters, we fear so much in general must be accepted as undoubted. The radical evil, however, was, that neither Samuel Wesley nor his offending companions were truly converted, or had a sense of their Divine vocation to the work of the ministry.’ CHAP. I.J ANCESTORS OF JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY. 15 The turning point came at last. Being a young man of spirit, as his son John observes, “ he was pitched upon to answer some severe invectives ” recently published against the Dissenters. He had, as we have seen, for some time had his misgivings about Dissent ; to him, at any rate, it was not the holy thing it had been to his forefathers. He had seen the seamy side of a worn garment. True, it had been hallowed by the sufferings of his ancestors, and had still the love of many of the excellent of the earth. But the education of Samuel Wesley, a smart, wilful, and fatherless lad, had not been such as to teach him humility. His self-confidence had been nurtured ; his powers of dis- putation had been unduly stimulated. What wonder, then, that he soon discovered himself to be “wiser than all his teachers ? ” “ During his preparation for the task which had been assigned him,” as Mr. Kirk tells us, “ he saw reason to change his opinions.” The result was, that, in- stead of writing the answer, “he renounced the Dissenters, and attached himself to the Established Church.” This was in 1683, when he was probably about twenty-one years of age. I have thought it needful to place this part of young Wesley’s conduct in as clear a light as possible, as it may partially affect some observations in a future page. It will be needful for me to pass over nearly the whole of the life of this learned, laborious, and conscientious Minister of the Established Church, only stopping to notice a few leading particulars. He entered Exeter College, Oxford, as a servitor ; that is, taking the lowest place ; probably on account of his real poverty, as he had only a few pounds to commence with. But difficulties only nerved his resolute soul : he was resolved to conquer, and conquer he did. After a laborious and honourable College course, he was ordained a Priest of the Church of England, by Dr. Comp- ton, in St. Andrew’s church, on February 24th, 1689. This was only a few days after the Prince and Princess of Orange were declared by the Parliament to be King and Queen of England. “Mr. Wesley’s first ecclesiastical appointment,” says Mr. Tyerman, “ was a curacy with an income of T28 16 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [part I. a year. He was then appointed Chaplain onboard a man- of-war, where his salary was at the rate of £70 a year, and where he began his poem on the ‘ Life of Christ.’ He then obtained another curacy in London ; his ecclesiastical income, during the two years’ service that he rendered, being £30 per annum, an amount which he doubled by his industry and writings. It was wdiile he held this appoint- ment that he married, he and his wife living in lodgings, until after the birth of their first-born, Samuel.” Thirty pounds a year was a very small pittance for the support of himself, his wife, and first-born son ; but they were obliged to subsist upon it, with only such other aid as he could obtain from his writings. After being Curate, the living of South Ormsby was given him, of which we learn the following. “In 1691, or thereabout, Mr. Wesley was appointed to the parish of South Ormsby, a neat Lincolnshire village, about eight miles north-west of Spilsby. It is pleasantly situated ; and in 1821 the parish, including the adjoining hamlet of Ivettlesby, contained thirty-six dwelling-houses, and two hundred and sixty-one inhabitants ; a population probably quite equal to what it was in the days of Samuel Wesley. The church consists of a tower, a nave, and a chancel, with a small chapel on the northern side, and is dedicated to St. Leonard. “ This was no serious charge for a young clergyman of twenty-eight years of age, and possessed of learning and ability like those of Samuel Wesley; yet here, among his flock of two hundred men, women, and children, he resided and faithfully laboured for about the next five years. The living was obtained for him, without any solicitation on his part, by the Marquis of Normanby. Its emoluments were £50 a year, and a house to live in. The house was little better than a mud built hut, and Samuel Wesley, in describ- ing it and his own life in it, writes : ‘ In a mean cot, composed of reeds and clay, Wasting in sighs the uncomfortable day; Near where the inhospitable Humber roars, Devouring hy degrees the neighbouring shores ; Let earth go where it will, I’ll not repine, Nor can unhappy be, while heaven is mine.’ ” CHAP. I.] ANCESTORS OF JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY. 17 After being at South Ormsby for five years, the rectory of Epworth was given him, where he lived and laboured for thirty-nine years, until his death in 1735. The follow- ing letter gives a striking picture of the straitened circum- stances of the family, and the buoyancy and even playful- ness of Wesley’s mind under pressing difficulties. “Epworth, May 18th, 1701. “ My Lord, — This comes as a rider to the last, hy the same post, to bring such news as, I presume, will not be unwelcome to a person who has so particular a concern for me. Last night my wife brought me a few children. There are but two yet, a boy and a girl, and I think they are all at present. We have had four in two years and a day, three of which are living. “Never came anything more like a gift from heaven, than what the Countess of Northampton sent by your Lordship’s charitable offices. Wednesday evening my wife and I clubbed and joined stocks, which came but to six shillings, to send for coals. Thursday morning I received the £10, and at night my wife was delivered. Glory be to God for His unspeakable good- ness ! — I am, “ Your Grace’s most obliged and most humble servant, “ S. Wesley.” His house was twice destroyed by fire, and bis poverty was consummated by bis being at length sent to prison for debt. But even here bis vivacity did not forsake bim, as bis letter to Arcbbisliop Sharp shows : “Lincoln Castle, June 25th, 1705. “ My Lord, — Now I am at rest, for I have come to the haven where I have long expected to be. On Friday last, when I had been christening a child at Epworth, I was arrested in my churchyard by one who had been my servant and gathered my tythe last year, at the suit of one of Mr. Whichcott’s relations and zealous friends, (Mr. Pinder,) according to their promise, when they were in the Isle, before the election. The sum was not £30, but it was as good as five hundred. Now, they knew the burning of my flax, my London journey, and their throwing me out of my regiment, had both sunk my credit, and exhausted my money. My adversary was sent to where I was on the road, to meet me, that I might make some proposals to him. But all his answer was, that ‘I must immediately pay the whole sum or c 18 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. go to prison.’ Thither I went with no great concern for myself, and find much more civility and satisfaction here than in brevibus Gyaris of my own Epworth. I thank God, my wife was pretty well recovered, and was churched some days before I was taken from her ; and I hope she will be able to look to my family, if they do not turn them out of doors, as they have often threatened to do. One of my biggest concerns was my being forced to leave my poor lambs in the midst of so many wolves. But the Great Shepherd is able to provide for them, and to preserve them. My wife bears it with that courage which becomes her, and which I expected from her. “I do not despair of doing some good here, and it may be I shall do more in this new parish than in my old one ; for I have leave to read prayers every morning and afternoon in the prison, and to preach once a Sunday, which I choose to do in the after- noon, when there is no sermon at the minster. I am getting acquainted with my brother gaol-birds as fast as I can, and shall write to London by next post, to the Society for Propaga- ting Christian Knowledge, who, I hope, will send me some books to distribute among them. “ I should not write these things from a gaol if I thought your Grace would believe me ever the less for my being here ; where> if I should lay my bones, I would bless God and pray for your Grace. “ Your Grace’s very obliged and most humble servant, “ S. Wesley.” Although his enemies had deprived him of his liberty, it is evident from this letter that they could not rob him of his courage, confidence, and comfort ; and that if the door of usefulness in his church was closed, he would open one in his prison. This devoted Minister spent the last twenty-nine years of his life in herculean literary labours, constantly preach- ing the Word, and attending to pastoral duties ; until, old age coming on, his robust frame gradually sank under the pressure of more than three-score and ten years. His state of mind in his last illness is thus given by his son John : “My father did not die unacquainted with the faith of the Gospel of the primitive Christians, or of our first Reformers ; the same which, by the grace of God, I preach, CHAP. X.] ANCESTORS OF JOHN AND CXIARLES WESLEY. 19 and which is just as new as Christianity. What he ex- perienced before I know not ; hut I know that, during his last illness, which continued eight months, he enjoyed a clear sense of his acceptance with God. I heard him ex- press it more than once, although at that time I understood him not. ‘The inward witness, son, the inward witness,’ said he to me, ‘that is the proof, the strongest proof, of Christianity.’ And when I asked him, (the time of his change drawing nigh,) ‘ Sir, are you in much pain ? ’ He answered aloud with a smile, ‘ God does chasten me with pain, yea, all my hones with strong pain ; hut I thank Him for all, I bless Him for all, I love Him for all ! ’ I think the last words he spoke, when I had just commended his soul to God, were, ‘ Now you have done all ; ’ and, with the same serene, cheerful countenance, he fell asleep without one struggle, or sigh, or groan. I cannot therefore doubt hut the Spirit of God bore an inward witness with his spirit that he was a child of God.” In his sermon “ on Love,” preached at Savannah in 1736, he adverts to his father’s death, and says : “ When asked, not long before his release, ‘Are the consolations of God small with you ?’ he replied aloud, ‘ No, no, ixo ! ’ and then calling all that were near him by their names, he said, ‘ Think of heaven, talk of heaven ; all the time is lost when we are not thinking of heaven.’ ” MRS. SUSANNAH WESLEY. Lxjiited as my space is, it would he inexcusable if I were not to give at least a brief notice of Mrs. Samuel Wesley, the honoured mother of John Wesley. She was indeed one of the most remarkable and honoured women that have adorned the page of history, and conferred large benefits upon the human race. For a full-drawn portrait of her, let me recommend my readers to peruse her Memoirs, as given by the Rev. John Kirk in his “ Mother of the Wesleys.” She was the daughter of Dr. Annesley, one of the most distinguished Clergymen who were ejected from the Estab- lished Church, when the Act of Uniformity was enforced. His talents, his learning, and his fortune were consecrated to the service of God. They were “ offered upon the altar which sanctifieth the gift ; ” and being accepted and sancti- c 2 20 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [part I. fiecl by- Him who is “ Head over all things unto the Church,”' they were largely used in opposing the inroads of error, and repelling the flood of licentiousness, which now rolled in with such mighty force. Mr. Kirk thus relates the closing scene of Dr. Annesley’s life : “ During a severe and long continued affliction, he was perfectly resigned to the Divine will. He charged those around him not to entertain hard thoughts of God because he suffered so much in his last end. ‘ Blessed be God,’ he exclaimed, ‘ I have been faithful in the work of the ministry above fifty-five years ! ’ Having enjoyed ‘ uninterrupted peace and assurance of God’s love for above thirty years last past,’ the holy calm of soul was not broken when the waves and billows of death went over his head. ‘ I have no doubt, nor shadow of doubt ! All is clear between God and my soul. He chains up Satan ; he cannot trouble me.’ His mind had so long been filled with thoughts of God and heaven, that, even in moments of mental wandering, he still breathed the same spirit, and spake of Divine matters most consistently. His head was not free of those projects for God, which in health it was ever full of. ‘ Come, dear Jesus ! the nearer the more precious, and the more wel- come ! ’ was a sentence often falling from his lips. Then the flood of holy joy so inundated his soul that he exclaimed, ‘ I cannot contain it ! What manner of love is this to a poor worm ! I cannot express a thousandth part of what praise is due to Thee ! We know not what we do when we aim at praising God for His mercies ! It is but little I can give ; but, Lord, help me to give Thee my all ! I will die praising Thee, and rejoice that there are others that can praise Thee better. I shall be satisfied with Thy likeness ! — Satisfied — Satisfied ! 0, my dearest Jesus, I come! ’” “ In him,” says Williams, in closing his Funeral Sermon, “the world has lost a blessing; the Church has lost a pillar ; the nation has lost a wrestler with God ; the poor have lost a benefactor; you, his people, have lost a faithful pastor ; you, his children, a tender father ; we, in the minis- try, an exemplary fellow labourer.” He desired that his remains should rest with those of his beloved wife, and in the old register of St. Leonard’s, Shoreditch, for December, CHAP I.] ANCESTORS OF JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY. 21 1696, we read, “ Samuel Annesley was buried the seventh day, from Spittle Yard.” He sleeps within the walls of that grand old edifice, but no slab or monument marks his precise resting-place. The Omniscient Eye observes his dust. His flesh resteth in hope ; and could we give it voice, it would speak in the words of the ancient man of Uz : “ Thou slialt call, and I will answer Thee : Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands.” (Job xiv. 15.) And when the time of the consummation of all things shall arrive, then shall his dying utterance be realized: “ As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness : I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.” (Psalm xvii. 15.) Miss Susannah Annesley, afterwards Mrs. Susannah Wesley, was born in the year 1670. She possessed a fine mind, which was largely developed at an early period. She applied herself, not only to the attainment of know- ledge in general, but also to the study of those more abstruse subjects which related to Church and State, to Uniformity and Dissent; and, possessing great indepen- dence of soul, she asserted her right to judge and decide for herself upon points and subjects far beyond what is usual at so early a period of life. When only thirteen years old, she had examined these subjects, formed her conclusions, and resolved to forsake, like Wesley, the Church of her distinguished fathers. “In those perilous and trying times, the children of the Puritans seem never to have been young. That Susannah Annesley at the early age of thirteen abandoned the minis- try of her venerable father, and went alone to Shoreditch church, is hardly to be supposed. But from that age the convictions of the highly educated and independent girl were decided. Probably she, no less than her lover, had been disquieted with much that she had seen of Stepney and Stoke Newington students, so different from the spirit and deportment of her parents, from the manners and carriage of her noble relatives, from the ideal which she would have pictured of Puritan godliness and spirituality. She had fallen on an unheroic age ; the baldness of the meeting house was no longer redeemed by the heavenliness 22 EEIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. of tlie confessors. There was not, indeed, more godliness in the 'Established Church than in Dissent ; probably there was much less. But there was no pretence of superior godliness. And there were at this time great preachers in the London churches — such men as Barrow, Tillotson, Tenison, Stillingfleet, Lowth, and Sherlock, with whom, for popular effect, even such a man as Charnock could hardly compare ; wTiile the solemn beauty of the services satisfied her taste and won her admiration. So from this time forth Sukey Annesley is known in her father’s family as ‘ the young Churchwoman,’ and by her noble father indulged accordingly. She is the flower of the family. Others are more beautiful, though she is fair, but none more cultivated and accomplished, — none so thoughtful and thorough as she. The young Collegian has gained her heart ; the family understand that, and let her know that they understand it. Susannah goes to church sometimes ; more and more frequently as she expands into a noble woman ; after her marriage, which will not be delayed any longer than needful, she will be a Churchwoman altogether. Thus, if the Puritans could not transmit to her lover and herself their ecclesiastical principles, at least they trans- mitted a bold independence of judgment and of conduct.” She was married to Samuel Wesley in 1690, being twenty years old at the time, and had to go into lodgings in London with her husband, whose stipend was .£30 a year. She must have possessed a bold spirit and heroic resolve to have entered into married life under such circumstances : poverty was her lot all her life through. Each year brought to the family an addition of a child, — in one in- stance there were four in a little more than two years, — until there were at least thirteen at home at one time. Her poverty was extreme, as we have seen from her hus- band’s letters, but the following quotation gives her own statement.* “ The full story of their thrift, sufferings, and manifold contrivances to make ends meet, can never be told ; but there are facts to show that they had far more than an ordinary share of the common troubles of life. When, in * Kirk’s “ Mother of the Wesleys,” p. 171. CHAP. I.] ANCESTORS OF JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY. 23 the spring of 1701, Mrs. Wesley and her husband ‘ clubbed and joined stocks to send for coals,’ all they could muster was six shillings. A quarter of a century later, five pounds was all they had to ‘ keep the family from May-day till after harvest.’ Thirteen years from the date of the disas- trous fire, the house was not half furnished nor the family half clothed. No wonder that when he paid his friendly visit in 1731, the Rector’s wealthy brother was ‘strangely scandalized at the poverty of the furniture, and much more so at the meanness of the children’s habit/ ‘ Tell me, Mrs. Wesley/ said the good Archbishop Sharp, ‘whether you ever really wanted bread.’ ‘ My Lord,’ re- plied the noble woman, ‘I will freely own that, strictly speaking, I never did want bread. But then I had so much care to get it before it was eat, and to pay for it after, as has often made it very unpleasant to me. And I think to have bread on such terms, is the next degree of wretchedness to having none at all.’ ‘ You are certainly in the right,’ replied his Lordship, and made her a hand- some present, which she had ‘ reason to believe afforded him comfortable reflections before his exit.’ ” Her Christian labours were not limited, however, to her heavy domestic duties, and the thorough systematic educa- tion of her children, great and onerous as such claims were. She added to them by establishing regular religious services at the parsonage on a Sabbath evening in the absence of her husband. She thus broke dowm the barriers of church order, and entered upon a course of irregularity, which assisted in preparing her two younger sons for their future course of irregular duties. Towards the close of 1711, her husband went to London, where he remained several months. His place was sup- plied by a very inefficient Curate, and public worship was held only on the Sabbath morning. Mrs. Wesley felt that, as the mistress of a large family of children and servants, it was her duty to hold some religious service in the par- sonage, lest the greater part of the Lord’s day should be spent in idleness or frivolity. “And though the superior charge of the souls contained in the household lies upon you, as the head of the family, as their Minister,” she 24 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. writes to her husband ; “ yet, in your absence, I cannot but look upon every soul you leave under my care as a talent committed to me, under a trust, by the great Lord of all the families of heaven and earth. And if I am un- faithful to Him, or to you, in neglecting to improve these talents, how shall I answer unto Him when He shall com- mand me to render an account of my stewardship ? As these and other such like thoughts made me at first take a more than ordinary care of the souls of my children and servants ; so, knowing that our most holy religion requires a strict observation of the Lord’s day, and not thinking that we fully answered the end of the institution by only going to church, hut that likewise we are obliged to fill up the intermediate spaces of that sacred time by other acts of piety and devotion, I thought it my duty to spend some part of the day in reading to and instructing my family, especially in your absence, when, having no afternoon’s service, we have so much leisure for such exercises. And such time I esteemed spent in a way more acceptable to God, than if I had retired to my own private devotions.” The worthy Curate complained, and her husband, in writing to her, requested her to desist. Her answer was noble and unbending, and well became the mother of the men who afterwards braved the deposition of prelates, priests, magistrates, and mobs, and despite all opposition succeeded in establishing a great and mighty spiritual work and agency throughout the land.* “ Did not this proceeding, however, turn the parsonage into a conventicle, and damage the regular services of the church? This was alleged at the time ; and what was Mrs. Wesley’s reply ? ‘ I shall not inquire how it was possible that you should be prevailed on by the senseless clamours of two or three of the worst of your parish to condemn what you so lately approved. But I shall tell you my thoughts in as few words as possible. I do not hear of more than three or four persons who are against our meeting, of whom Inman is the chief. He and Whitely, I believe, may call it a conventicle ; but we hear no outcry here, nor has any one said a word against it to me. And * Kirk, p. 262. ■CHAP. I.] ANCESTORS OF JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY. 25 what does their calling it a conventicle signify? Does it alter the nature of the thing ? or do you think that what they say is a sufficient reason to forbear a thing that has already done much good, and by the blessing of God may do much more ? If its being called a conventicle by those who know in their conscience they misrepresent it, did really make it one, what you say would be somewhat to the purpose. But it is plain, in fact, that this one thing has brought more people to church than ever anything did in so short a time. We used not to have above twenty or twenty-five at evening service ; whereas we have now be- tween two and three hundred ; which are more than ever came before to hear Inman in the morning.’ ” Want of space forbids our lingering longer around the many excellences of this remarkable woman, and especially our noticing the part she took in guiding her devoted sons in the early stages of their evangelical career : it is hoped, however, that enough has been given to induce the reader to purchase Mr. Kirk’s book, “ The Mother of the Wesleys,” and read it for himself, or herself, as every young female or anxious mother must derive great benefit from the study of such a life, and the imitation of such an example. I quote the final scene : “ The records of her closing hours are not so ample as we could desire ; hut they are precious and suggestive, affording every evidence of a blissful and triumphant close. When her son John, after a hurried ride from Bristol, where the tidings of her approaching end probably reached him, arrived in London, on the twentieth of July, 1742, he wrote the touching sentence, ‘ I found my mother on the borders of eternity ! ’ Nature was rapidly giving way, and the bourne of life was reached. A few days before her bodily sufferings were severe, and her mental conflicts fierce and torturing : hut now all doubts and fears are fled for ever. There remains hut one desire, ‘to depart, and he with Christ, as soon as God shall call.’ Her husband and twelve of her children are already with the Lord, and why should she longer tarry ? On the twenty-third, just as the eyelids of the morning open upon her, and about twelve hours before her depar- ture, she wakes from a quiet slumber, rejoicing ‘ with joy 26 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. unspeakable and full of glory.’ Her exultant expressions attract the attention of her children. They listen, and hear her saying, ‘ My dear Saviour ! art Thou come to help me in my extremity at last ? ’ From that moment £ she is sweetly resigned indeed. The enemy has no more power to hurt her. The remainder of her time is spent in praise.’ “ Just after the customary mid-day intercession meeting, — when fervent supplications were no doubt offered for her departing spirit, — ‘her pulse is almost gone, and her fingers are dead.’ Her ‘ change is near, and her soul on the wing for eternity.’ That solemn commendatory prayer which, more than seven years before, rose over her dying husband at Epworth, and told that the hour of her widow- hood was at hand, now rises from the lips of the same beloved son, commending her own soul into the hands of Him with whom ‘ are the issues from death.’ Her look is ‘ calm and serene, and her eyes fixed upward.’ From three to four the silver cord is loosing ; the wheel is breaking at the cistern ; and those who look out of the windows are being darkened. Her son, and all her surviving daughters, — Nancy, Emilia, Hetty, Patty, and Sukey, — sit down ‘on her bedside, and sing a requiem to her dying soul.’ And what is the death-song which, in its beautiful burden of praise, rises from those tremulous but well-trained voices, as the grand accompaniment of the ascending spirit to the harmonies of heaven ? Some of those strains ‘ for the one departing ’ subsequently written by the dying widow’s own minstrel son, would have been a most appropriate expres- sion of the grateful sorrow of these devout children before Him who had been ‘ pleased to deliver the soul of this their dear mother out of the miseries of this sinful world.’ Well might they have sung in her closing ears : ‘ Happy soul, thy days are ended, All thy mourning days below : Go, by angel guards attended, To the sight of Jesus, go ! Waiting to receive thy spirit, Lo ! the Saviour stands above ; Shows the purchase of His merit, Reaches out the crown of love.’ “ When the sound of their song had ceased, ‘ she con- CHAP. I.] ANCESTORS OF JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY. 27 tinued,’ says John, ‘in just the same way as my father was, struggling and gasping for life, though — as I could judge by several signs — perfectly sensible till near four o’clock. I was then going to drink a dish of tea, being faint and weary, when one called me again to the bedside. It was just four o’clock. She opened her eyes wide, and fixed them upward for a moment. Then the lids dropped, and the soul was set at liberty, without one struggle, or groan, or sigh. We stood around the bed, and fulfilled her last request, uttered a little before she lost her speech : “ Children, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to God.” I close these brief notices of the Wesley family in the memorable words of Dr. Clarke : “ Such a family I have never read of, heard of, or known ; nor, since the days of Abraham and Sarah, and Joseph and Mary of Nazareth, has there ever been a family to which the human race has been more indebted.” * Kirk’s “ Mother of the Wesleys,” pp. 232-4. 28 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. CHAPTER II. THE STATE OF RELIGION IN ENGLAND WHEN METHODISM AROSE. It is admitted by all serious, well informed persons, that when God raised up John Wesley and his coadjutors as the instruments of reviving and spreading true religion through Great Britain, and subsequently through the world, error and sin prevailed to an alarming extent. From the accession of Charles II. in 1660 to the Revolution in 1688, a flood of licentiousness poured over the land ; every thing that was calculated to gratify depraved human nature was freely indulged in ; “ the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life,” were followed to the greatest extent. This depraved state of feeling and action was not confined to any particular class of the community, but pervaded all classes from the highest to the lowest. Under a wicked King, the vilest men were exalted, and all catered for the largest amount of sensual gratification. The govern- ment and the state were so disorganized and polluted, that they could not oppose any effectual harrier to this wide- spread deluge. As Dr. George Smith observes, “ The Restoration com- pletely removed this appearance of morality. It opened wide the flood-gates of licentiousness and vice. The court was the seat of wholesale prostitution. The King was a con- firmed voluptuary ; and being an utter stranger to virtue himself, he was careless of it in others. He is acknow- ledged to have been the father of at least eleven children, horn of seven different women, who lived successively with him as mistresses, although he had a Queen the whole time, who had to meet and mix up with these women at court. This profligacy exerted a fatal influence on the people, and soon greatly affected the morals of the nation; and wild licentiousness was accompanied by corresponding CHAP. II.] RELIGION IN ENGLAND WHEN METHODISM AROSE. 29 progress in brutality and violence. Sir John Coventry, having said something offensive to the King’s mistresses, was seized in the streets of London by some courtiers, who slit his nose open. Vice stalked through the land without disguise. Buckingham, Kochester, Sir Charles Sedley, and the Killigrews, were most distinguished by their wit and libertinism. Charles laughed at their follies, and, by his example and that of his cavaliers, rendered licentiousness and debauchery generally prevalent. Drunkenness was common ; conversation was fearfully corrupted ; the coarsest jests and most indecent words were admitted amongst the highest classes, and even disgraced the literature of the day.” Infidelity also with hold effrontery sought to effectually undermine Divine truth, and remove all moral obligation and control, throwing off all restraint, and sapping the foundation of political as well as moral life. This did not apply to a few obscure persons in the lower walks of life, but to those who bore the distinguished names of noblemen, statesmen, and philosophers.* Of this no doubt can be entertained, when it is remembered, that the pernicious and wicked writings of Hobbes, Toland, Blount, Collins, Mandeville, Shaftesbury, Tindal, Morgan, Woolston, and Chubb, were then in full circulation ; and that the higher and more influential classes of society were especially cor- rupted by their poison. The evil was aggravated by the appearance, about the middle of the century, of the infidel speculations of Bolingbroke. By many it was regarded as a settled point, that Christianity was a fable, which they were justified in holding up to public reprobation and scorn, for the manner in which it had restrained the appe- tites and passions of mankind. As the state was thus polluted and powerless, shameless vice was so bold and defiant that even men of literary talent felt it incumbent upon them to employ their pens in trying to lessen the evil. Much was written and said by the literary celebrities of the day, to expose revolting sensuality, and encourage at least the decencies of common morality. Thus Steele and Addison, Pope and Berkeley and Johnson, employed their satirical or eloquent pens in both prose and * Jackson’s “ Centenary of Methodism,” p. 3. 30 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. poetry, to defend and support truth, and propagate morality ; and doubtless much of the most revolting sensu- ality was restrained in outward action ; hut the root of the evil remained untouched, and men still gloried in their shame. As Dr. Smith observes: “ The virtue of Britain is represented at this time as in a dying state, at the last gasp. But could the moral essays of Addison, beautiful, chaste, and elevating as they were, save her? No: all their power, brilliance, and energy must have been totally inadequate. Nothing but the pure truth of God, sown broadcast over the country, and applied to the consciences of the people, by ‘ the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven,’ could meet the case, and save the population of England from spiritual death and moral putrefaction. The virtue of Britain must have panted and perished, if some active, general, and directly religious agency had not been brought to bear on the public mind : but such an agency it pleased the good providence of God at this period to provide/’ Men may try to purify the streams, but if the fountain is corrupt, the effort is vain : men may lop off some of the most cor- rupt branches, but if the tree is bad, little good is effected. The evil was deep-rooted, the moral and spiritual malady intense. We might, however, fairly suppose that truth and piety had taken refuge in the Church, either among Episcopalians, Dissenters, or both, where, if they failed in making aggres- sive action upon the world, they at least preserved evan- gelical truth and experimental godliness in the Church. Not so ; if reliance is to be placed upon the statements and representations of the most credible witnesses of those times. The Established Church, with its imposing array of cathe- drals, churches, Priests, altars, and vestments, with the prestige of hoary age, was powerless for good ; and the Presbyterian and Dissenting Churches, with less parade of outward show, knew but little of evangelical preaching and spiritual power. In proof of this, one or two quotations must suffice. Bishop Burnet says : “ I cannotlook on without the deepest concern, when I see the imminent ruin hanging over this Church, and, by consequence, over the whole Reformation. CHAP. II.] RELIGION IN ENGLAND WHEN METHODISM AROSE. 31 The outward state of things is black enough, God knows ; hut that which heightens my fears rises chiefly from the inward state into which we are unhappily fallen.” This was not the worst ; for the very seat of vital truth, in the conviction of the judgment and the force of the con- science, was invaded, if not destroyed ; and the Christian Church .was no longer affected in its action by the only power which God employs for the regeneration of the world and the salvation of men. Bishop Butler, on this point, affirmed : “ It is come, I know not how, to he taken for granted, by many persons, that Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry ; hut that it is now at length dis- covered to be fictitious. And, accordingly, they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreed point among all people of discernment ; and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were by way of reprisals for its having so long interrupted the pleasures of the world.” The great majority of the Clergy of the Church of England were unaccountably ignorant of the plainest truths of God’s holy Word, and were profligate in their lives. Instead of regarding their profession as a vocation from God, in which they were put in charge of souls, and must be accountable to God for them, they valued that profession only so far as it provided for the means of subsistence, and gave them a respectable position in society. Their parishes were neglected ; their flocks unfed, and sinners were strength- ened in an evil course by the force of unholy example in those who should have been set for the defence of the truth. Amongst the ranks of Dissent we also look in vain for evangelical truth and spiritual power, with only a few honourable exceptions, such as Dr. Annesley and a few others. The two thousand Clergymen who had been ejected from the Establishment had passed away, and their descend- ants were by no means equal to the noble stock from whence they sprang. Many still possessed strong political bias against the hierarchy of the Church ; but this was not com- pensated for by corresponding spiritual power. With many, Arianism, philosophic speculations, and cold formality were BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. 32 [part i„ substituted for that which was true and pure and vital in Christianity. Thus writes Dr. Guyse in 1729 : “ The greatest number of Preachers and hearers seem contented to lay Him” (Christ) “aside; and too many there are among us that set themselves against Him. His name is seldom heard of in conversation, unless in a way of strife and debate ; or, which is infinitely worse, in a way of contempt, reproach, and blasphemy : and I am persuaded it never entered less than at this day into our practical godliness, into our solemn assemblies, into our dealings with God, into our dependen- cies on Him, expectations from Him, and devotedness to Him. The present modish turn of religion looks as if we- began to think that we have no need of a Mediator ; but that all our concerns were managed with God as an absolute God. The religion of nature makes up the darling topics of our age ; and the religion of Jesus is valued only for the sake of that, and only so far as it carries on the light of nature, and is a bare improvement of that kind of light. All that is restrictedly Christian, or that is peculiar to Christ, — everything concerning Him that has not its apparent foundation in natural light, or that goes beyond its princi- ples,— is waved, and banished, and despised ; and even moral duties themselves, which are essential to the well- being of Christianity, are usually harangued upon without any evangelical turn, or reference to Christ, ‘as fruits of righteousness to the praise and glory of God by Him.’ They are placed in the room of Christ, are set up independ- ent of Him, and are urged upon principles and with views ineffectual to secure their practice, and more suited to the sentiments and temper of a heathen, than of those that take the whole of their religion from Christ. “ How many sermons may one hear that leave out Christ, both name and thing, and that pay no more regard to Him than if we had nothing to do with Him ! What a melancholy symptom, what a threatening omen, is this ! Do we not already feel its dismal effects in the growth of infidelity, in the rare instances of conversion work, and in the cold, low, and withering state of religion among the professors of it, beyond what has been known in some CHAP. II.] RELIGION IN ENGLAND WHEN METHODISM AROSE. 33 former days ? May not these things be chargeable in great measure on a prevailing disuse of preaching Christ ? and where will they end if the disuse goes on, and little or nothing concerning Him is to be heard among us ? How should all the Ministers of Christ, that heartily love Him, that are concerned for His honour, and for the honour of His religion, as Christians, he affected at these thoughts ! ” The seats of learning at Oxford and Cambridge, as also many of the Dissenting academies, were lamentably bad. For the most part the rising youth who were being pre- pared for the sacred office of the ministry in these semi- naries were not only destitute of the saving grace of God, but wTere “ wild and depraved.” The Christian ministry was looked upon as a mere profession, the preparation for which consisted in a small amount of learning without the least restraint or obligation ; so that, unless Providence should go out of the ordinary course, there appeared to be no help from ordinary sources, but to allow error and sin to go on unchecked, until an angry God should arise to “ take vengeance on such a nation as this.” All ordinary and “regular” means had been tried, and failed: Popery had failed, — Protestantism had failed, — High Church under the Stuarts had failed, — Puritanism under Cromwell had failed. The Established Church had failed, and Dissenting Churches had failed. Thus to the few praying remnants it appeared as if the religion of Jesus Christ must be banished out of the land. And this must have been the result, had not God interposed. Many have objected to Methodism on the ground of its “irregularities;” but, instead of this being blameworthy, if something had not arisen out of the ordinary course of things, judging from the past, the nation must have been handed over to infidelity, licentiousness, and Satan. When the night is the darkest, and the prospect the saddest, God often interposes. The time of “man’s extremity” becomes the time of “God’s opportunity;” “the day-star arises.” So was it more than eighteen hundred years ago, when the Day-Star arose, and gilded our gloomy hemisphere. So was it again when Dr. Martin Luther appeared from out of the darkness, the leading D 34 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. spirit and the bright star of the Reformation. He broke up the' old order of things, became “ irregular,” and estab- lished a new order of things and course of action. So was it also with the Apostle of experimental religion, John Wesley. God arose from His resting-place ; He came forth, setting aside the abodes of learning, “ casting down imaginations,” removing the “ mighty from their seats,” and “ exalting men of low degree.” He brought to nought things that were, and raised from the dust things that were not; that “no flesh should glory in His presence.” Thus the irregular and objectionable points of Methodism constitute its highest credentials, and become the very things which attest its origin to be Divine, and stamp it as the work of God. The chief instruments of this great work rise from obscurity; a “few young raw-necks,” as they were ironically called, commence and carry on a work which is now affecting every part of the religious community, and extending its influence to the ends of the earth. The Wesleys and Wliitefield arise, being prepared of the Lord, and go forth to convert the world. The next part of our duty will be to mark the hand of God in the preparation of these instru- ments and in sending them forth with their messages of mercy to the sons of men. CHAP. III.] BIETH, EDUCATION, AND CONVERSION OF WESLEY. •j •) CHAPTER nr. BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND CONVERSION OF JOHN WESLEY. John Wesley was born June 14th., 1703; and, when only about six years old, had a remarkable escape from being burnt to death, his father’s rectory at Epworth being consumed in flames. It was thought that an incendiary had set the house on fire. Be that as it may, the family had only time to make their escape in their night clothes ; but, after they were collected together, it was found that John was missing. He had been sleeping in a room to which all access was now cut off. In this awful moment the boy awoke, and flew to a window, from which he was rescued by two men, the one standing on the shoulders of the other. A few moments later the roof fell into the flaming mass, in which he must have perished but for this timely rescue. When the good Parson found that his wife and family were all safe, he called upon all present to kneel down and offer thanks to God; saying, “Let the house go ; I am rich enough .” If this deliverance was not miraculous, it was so striking as to impress the minds of all concerned with the convic- tion that God had some special work for John to do. His providential escape impressed him early with the sense of a special mission in the world. His mother shared the impression, and felt herself called by that event to specially consecrate him to God. Two years after it we find her making it the subject of one of her recorded evening meditations. “ I do intend,” she writes, “to be more par- ticularly careful of the soul of this child, that Thou hast -so mercifully provided for, than ever I have been, that I may do my endeavour to instil into his mind the principles of Thy true religion and virtue. Lord, give me grace to do it sincerely and prudently, and bless my attempts with .good success.” d 2 3G BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. At a very early age John Wesley became very serious, anti his 'whole deportment was so correct that he was ad- mitted to the Lord’s table when he was only eight years old. It would appear as though, from childhood, he did not knowingly and wickedly depart from God ; the special training of his devoted mother, and the godly example of his exemplary father, exerting a constantly beneficial effect upon his spirit and conduct. He left home for the Charterhouse School in London, some say at eleven years of age, and others at thirteen : probably the latter is right. “ There could,” says Stevens, “ hardly be a misgiving of his moral safety in passing out into the world from the thorough and consecrating disci- pline of the rectory. His scholarship and life at the Charterhouse showed a character already determinate and exalted. He suffered the usual tyranny of the elder students at the Charterhouse, being deprived by them, most of the time, of his daily portion of animal food ; but he preserved his health by a wise prescription of his father, that he should run round the garden three times every day. The institution became endeared to him, and on his yearly visits to London he failed not to walk through its cloisters, and recall the memories of his studious boyhood, memories which wrere always sunny to his healthful mind.” In 1720, at the age of sixteen, he entered Christ Church College, Oxford. Here, says Dr. Smith, “ he displayed the same diligence as at school. He became an excellent classic ; attracted notice there for his attainments gene- rally, and especially for his skill in logic ; and was at the age of twenty -one a very sensible and acute collegian, a young man of the finest taste, and the most manly and liberal sentiments. His perfect knowledge of the classics gave a smooth polish to his wfit, and an air of superior elegance to all his compositions.” This was an admirable preparation for the course of use- fulness wdiich God had for him in the world. After his conversion this polished scholar dedicated to God the whole of his attainments, and employed them on His work, being thereby a more accomplished and powerful instrument for good than he could otherwise have been. CHAP. III.] BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND CONVERSION OF WESLEY. 37 Whilst lie was diligently pursuing his studies at Oxford, his mind became more and more impressed with Divine things, and an earnest desire to be useful to his fellow men was implanted in his heart. The reading of Bishop Jeremy Taylor’s “ Holy Living and Dying,” Law’s “ Serious Call,” and Thomas a Kempis’s “ Christian’s Pattern,” produced a powerful effect upon his mind. These works, however, in addition to having much mysticism about them, were only calculated to place his duty clearly before him, and produce deep sorrow on account of his coming so far short of it, at the same time causing him to put forth every effort in trying to discharge it, without directing his soul to Christ, the Source of comfort, and Author of that salvation which he needed in order to enable him to do what he perceived he ought to do. Consequently, being ignorant of Christ’s righteousness, he went about to estab- lish a righteousness of his own ; doing this, not designedly, hut in reality, although the design was absent. This led to that rigid course of self-denial, fasting, and Christian duty, which caused the epithet “ Methodist ” to he applied to him and to those who acted with him. This name was probably given as a term of reproach ; but whether it was so or not, no other word could more fitly express the orderly course of Christian action which he and his friends adopted. Every duty had its assigned time and place, f and was performed with the utmost exactness, — fastings, prayers, and sacraments, — visiting prisons, hos- pitals, and the abodes of the poor, &c.; all being done with so much order, method, and punctuality, as to make the whole one continued “ methodical” course. In November, 1729, “ four young gentlemen of Oxford, Mr. John Wesley, Fellow of Lincoln College, Mr. Charles Wesley, Student of Christ Church, Mr. Morgan, Commoner of Christ Church, and Mr. Kirkman, of Merton College, began to spend some evenings in a week together, in reading chiefly the Greek Testament. The next year two or three of Mr. John Wesley’s pupils desired the liberty of meeting with them, and afterwards one of Mr. Charles Wesley’s pupils. It was in 1732 that Mr. Ingham, of Queen’s College, and Mr. Broughton, of Exeter, were added to their number. 33 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. To these, in April, was joined Mr. Clayton, of Brazenose, with two or three of his pupils. About the same time Mr. James Hervey was permitted to meet with them, and after- wards Mr. Whitefield.” * Another epithet or nickname given them was that of “ The Holy Club.” “ What will others think of me, or say of me ? ” was no question with them ; hut amidst all the surrounding frivolity, ribaldry, and wickedness of college life, tliej’ pursued their course of self-denying, arduous duty. “ Conscious duty with them was law.” A rigid system of self-examination was drawn up for them by John Wesley, which, it has been observed, might have been appended to the Spiritual Exercises of Loyola, had it not mentioned the laws of the Anglican Church. The almost monastic habits of life which they were forming, in which, as Wesley’s biographers, Coke and Moore, remark, “ the darkness of their minds as to Gospel truth is evi- dent,” were counteracted by the benevolent and active sympathies of Morgan. He had visited the prison, and brought back reports which induced the little company systematically to instruct the prisoners once or twice a week. Morgan also came to them from the bedside of a sick person of the town, and they were led to adopt a plan for the regular visitation of the sick. It is important for us to note, in this place, the course of severe mental conflict through which Wesley and his associates passed before they obtained scriptural views of the plan of salvation by faith alone without the works of the law. In this respect there was great similarity betwixt his course of anxious inquiry and that of Hr. Martin Luther, the Apostle of the Beformation. To us who have the clear light of scriptural truth shining fully upon us, there appears to be little difficulty about the subject. Not so with them : they had to thread their way through the mazes of dark and difficult error in order to find that truth ; yea, often to unlearn that which they had already learned ; to take off their attention from philosophy, mysticism, and good works, and to fix their minds on Christ alone. “ My kingdom is not of this world,” and,. * Wesley’s Works, vol. viii., p. 348. CHAP. III.] BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND CONVERSION OF WESLEY. 39 “ The kingdom of God is not meat and drink/’ &c., was language which they understood not. “ Christ the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth/’ was a doctrine hid in deep mystery to them. How much and how long did Martin Luther search, before he obtained the knowledge of this truth ! He fasted, he prayed, he af- flicted his body, until life was almost gone, seeking to be saved by “ the works of the law,” but all in vain. How long, how sincerely, how earnestly, did Wesley pursue the same path before he found Christ ! and the experimental discovery of this truth was the foundation on which the whole superstructure of Methodism has been reared. Wesley and his associates would have made thorough- going tPuseyites ; and their earnest minds might have carried them forward until they were fully landed in all the superstitious practices of the Eomish Church, as is the case now with England’s Popish Cardinal and many of the Clergy. But High Churchism, with all its ritualism, and parade, and show, and effect, is nothing more than the earnestness of souls wrongly directed : they cannot rest ; they have constant disquiet, arising from their not under- standing the plan of salvation by simple faith in Christ. Had not Wesley, Wliitefield, and others pursued their search to the true and grand result, which we shall briefly record, nothing more than a rigid, icy formalism would have been produced. These resolute spirits were at length brought into con- tact with the Moravians, from whom, gradually and slowly, they acquired a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. The manner in which this took place appears accidental ; but these apparent “ accidents ” are part of the arrange- ments of Inflnite Wisdom, wrought out by the hand of Him who sees the end from the beginning, and causes His creatures unconsciously to fulfil His wise purposes. The Bector of Epworth, John Wesley’s father, as he ad- vanced in life, was anxious, for various reasons, to have his son John for his successor in that living. To this proposal, however, John steadily and perseveringly objected, to the great sorrow of his father and to the damage of the tem- poral interests of the family. But, in doing this, he knew 40 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART l. not the spirit which influenced him, nor the hand which guided him. His object was to remain at Oxford and assist in preparing young men for the sacred office of the ministry. But God had other work for him to do, and he must he prepared for it in God’s own way. At this critical moment a proposal was made to him to go to Georgia as a Mission- ary, to which he lent a favourable ear. “ The Trustees of the new Colony of Georgia were greatly in want of zealous and active Clergymen, both to take care of the spiritual concerns of the settlers, and to teach Christianity to the Indian tribes in the neighbourhood. The Methodists of Oxford appeared likely to supply the desired agents ; and Mr. John Wesley was requested to accept an appointment to that station. For a considerable time he hesitated ; but, after consulting his mother and other friends, he con- sented ; as did also his brother Charles, who received ordi- nation with an especial reference to this service.” * They sailed from Gravesend on Tuesday, October 21st, 1735, accompanied by Mr. Oglethorpe, the Governor of the Colony, Mr. Benjamin Ingham, of Queen’s College, Oxford, and Mr. Charles Delamotte, son of a merchant in London. “ Our end in leaving our native country,” says Mr. Wesley, “was not to avoid want, (God having given us plenty of temporal blessings,) nor to gain the dung or dross of riches or honour ; but singly this,— to save our souls ; to live wholly to the glory of God.” Dr. Stevens thus describes the voyage, and daily course of procedure on board : “ On the 14th of October, 1735, the party, consisting of the two Wesleys, Messrs. Ingham and Delamotte, left London to embark. They found on hoard the ship one hundred and twenty-four persons, including twenty-six German Moravians, with their bishop, David Nitschman. John Wesley seems immediately, though informally, to have been recognised as the religious head of the floating community, and his methodical habits prevailed over all around him. The ship became at once a Bethel church and a seminary. The daily course of life among the Methodist party was directed by Wesley : from four till five * Jackson’s “Centenary of Methodism,” p. 41. CHAP III.] BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND CONVERSION OF WESLEY. 41 o’clock in the morning each of them used private prayer ; from five till seven they read the Bible together, carefully comparing it with the writings of the earliest Christian ages : at seven they breakfasted ; at eight were the public prayers. From nine to twelve Wesley usually studied German, and Delamotte Greek, while Charles Wesley wrote sermons, and Ingham instructed the children. At twelve they met to give an account of what each had done since their last meeting, and of what they designed to do before the next. About one they dined; the time from dinner to four was spent in reading to persons on board, a number of whom each of them had taken in charge. At four were the evening prayers, when either the second Lesson of the day was explained, as the first always was in the morning, or the children were catechized and instructed before the congregation. From five to six they again retired for private prayer. From six to seven Wesley read in his state room to two or three of the passengers, and each of the brethren to a few more in theirs. At seven he joined the Germans in their public service, while Ingham was reading between decks to as many as desired to hear. At eight they met again to exhort and instruct one another. Between nine and ten they went to bed, where, says Wes- ley, neither the roaring of the sea nor the motion of the ship could take away the refreshing sleep which God gave them. “ Here was practical ‘ Methodism ’ still struggling in its former process ; it was Epworth rectory and Susannah Wesley’s discipline afloat on the Atlantic.” It was here that these sincere seekers after truth and sal- vation were first brought into contact with simple spiritual religion, as exhibited in the conduct of the unpretending Moravians who sailed with them. “ The great event of the voyage,” says Stevens, “ as affecting the history of Method- ism, was the illustration of genuine religion which the little band of Moravian passengers gave during a perilous storm. Wesley had observed with deep interest their humble piety in offices of mutual kindness and service, and in patience under occasional maltreatment ; but when the storm arose there was an opportunity, he says, of seeing 42 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. whether they were delivered from the spirit of fear as well as from, that of pride, anger, and revenge. In the midst of the Psalm with which their service began, the sea broke over the ship, split the mainsail into pieces, and poured in between the decks as if the great deep had already swallowed them up. A terrible alarm and outcry arose among the English, but the Germans calmly sang on. Wesley asked one of them, ‘Were you not afraid?’ He answered : ‘ I thank God, no.’ ‘ But were not your women and children?’ ‘No; our women and children are not afraid to die.’ ” This affords a beautiful illustration of the practical effect of consistent piety on the minds of others, not only upon the ignorant and thoughtless, but also upon the intelligent and serious. John and Charles Wesley found, in the holy lives and cheerful tempers of these modest fol- lowers of Christ, that which they had not found in the halls of learning or the churches of their native land. From the Journal kept during the voyage it is evident that but little interruption to the regular course of things was allowed. Each duty had its assigned time and place, and was performed with the greatest regularity. This proves in a very striking manner the fixed purpose and unwavering resolve of these devoted men. Only those who have been a long voyage can understand fully the ennui of daily life on ship-board ; the lassitude of body and mind resulting from sea-sickness and heat ; or the various inconveniences and annoyances arising from a number of persons being closely packed together on board a small vessel, with the calms and squalls, &c. But these resolute men allowed nothing to turn them aside from the regular course of duty laid down, or stop for one day their onward career. Here on the broad Atlantic was the prac- tical carrying out of those lessons and habits which had been commenced in the Epworth rectory under Susannah Wesley. On their arrival in America they entered upon their ministerial and pastoral duties wdth characteristic zeal and energy. But the rigidness and severity of the course they pursued were by no means suited to colonial life, and CHAP. III.] BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND CONVERSION OF WESLEY. 43 quickly brought upon them complicated and harassing trials, which caused them to return homewards in less than two years. Charles Wesley reached England in December, 1736, and John in February, 1738. The spiritual exercises of John Wesley, as the day of deliverance from darkness drew near, were anxious and distressing. God leads the blind by a way which they know not. He went to America to preach to wandering colonists and convert dark heathens ; instead of which he made the humbling discovery that he was not converted himself. As we have already seen, it was by this means that he was brought into company with the Moravians, and by intercourse with them was led to see that he was not saved. Light gradually penetrated into his mind ; but, as beam after beam broke in upon his soul, and fold after fold of his darkness was cleared off, he became asto- nished and confounded at the discoveries that were made. His philosophy, divinity, and self-righteousness opposed the light ; but he was too thorough in his pursuit to be driven back by these unwelcome discoveries of his own state. Hear his own language : “ I was ordained Deacon in 1725, and Priest in the year following. But it was many years after this before I was convinced of the great truths above recited. During all that time I was utterly ignorant of the nature and condi- tion of justification. Sometimes I confounded it with sanctification ; particularly when I was in Georgia : at other times I had some confused notion about the forgive- ness of sin ; but then I took it for granted the time of this must be either the hour of death, or the day of judgment. “I was equally ignorant of the nature of saving faith, apprehending it to mean no more than a firm assent to all the propositions contained in the Old and New Testa- ments.” “All the time I was at Savannah I was thus beating the air. Being ignorant of the righteousness of Christ, which, by a living faith in Him, bringeth salvation ‘ to every one that believeth,’ I sought to establish my own righteous- ness ; and so laboured in the fire all my days. I was now properly ‘ under the law ; ’ I knew that * the law ’ of God 44 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. was ‘ spiritual ; I consented to it that it was good.’ Yea, ‘ I delighted in it, after the inner man.’ Yet was I ‘ carnal, sold under sin.’ Every day was I constrained to cry out, ‘ What I do, I allow not : for what I would, I do not ; hut what I hate, that I do. To will is ’ indeed ‘ present with me : but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good which I would, I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that I do. I find a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me : ’ even ‘ the law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,’ and still ‘ bringing me into captivity to the law of sin.’ “ In this vile, abject state of bondage to sin, I was indeed fighting continually, hut not conquering. Before, I had willingly served sin ; now it was unwillingly ; hut still I served it. I fell, and rose, and fell again. Sometimes I was overcome, and in heaviness : sometimes I overcame, and was in joy. For as in the former state I had some foretastes of the terrors of the law, so had I in this, of the comforts of the Gospel. During this whole struggle between nature and grace, which had now continued above ten years, I had many remarkable returns to prayer ; especially when I was in trouble : I had many sensible comforts ; which are indeed no other than short anticipations of the life of faith. But I was still * under the law,’ not ‘ under grace : ’ (the state most who are called Christians are content to live and die in :) for 1 was only striving with, not freed from, sin : neither had I the witness of the Spirit with my spirit, and indeed could not ; for I ‘ sought it not by faith, hut as it were by the works of the law.’ ” His Journal on his return voyage bears witness that he was the subject of great searchings of heart, and was deeply afflicted with a “ sense of unbelief, pride, irrecollec- tion, and levity of spirit,” until he cries out, “ Lord, save, or I perish ! ” On his arrival in England, God still continued to employ the same instrumentality in leading him to Christ as had already been effectual in teaching him his lost condition as an unpardoned sinner. He had not been many days in England before he met with Peter Bohler, who was on his way from Germany to America. This learned and evan- CHAP. III.J BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND CONVERSION OF WESLEY. 45 gelical divine wras as an angel of light to the inquiring mind of Wesley. He was introduced to him at the house of a Dutch friend in London, and lost no opportunity of conversing with him on spiritual subjects, until he left for Carolina in May following. Wesley’s true state at this time is best described in his own language : “ Saturday, March 4th, 1738. — I found my brother at Oxford, recovering from his pleurisy ; and with him Peter Bohler; by whom (in the hand of the great God) I was, on Sunday, the 5th, clearly convinced of unbelief, of the want of that faith whereby alone we are saved. “Immediately it struck into my mind, ‘Leave oft* preaching. How can you preach to others, who have not faith yourself ? ’ I asked Bohler, whether he thought I should leave it off or not. He answered, ‘ By no means.’ I asked, ‘ But what can I preach ? ’ He said, ‘ Preach faith till you have it ; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.’ “Accordingly, Monday, 6tli, I began preaching this new doctrine, though my soul started hack from the work. The first person to whom I offered salvation by faith alone, was a prisoner under sentence of death. His name was Clifford. Peter Bohler had many times desired me to speak to him before. But I could not prevail on myself so to do ; being still (as I had been many years) a zealous assertor of the impossibility of a death-bed repentance.” “ Thursday, 23rd. — I met Peter Bohler again, who now amazed me more and more, by the account he gave of the fruits of living faith, — the holiness and happiness which he affirmed to attend it. The next morning I began the Greek Testament again, resolving to abide by ‘the law and the testimony ; ’ and being confident, that God would hereby show me, whether this doctrine was of God.” “ Saturday, April 22nd. — I met Peter Bohler once more. I had now no objection to what he said of the nature of faith ; namely, that it is (to use the words of our Church) ‘ a sure trust and confidence which a man hath in God, that through the merits of Christ his sins are forgiven, and he reconciled to the favour of God.’ Neither could I deny either the happi- ness or holiness which he described, as fruits of this living. 46 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. faith. ‘ The Spirit itself bearetli witness with onr spirit that we are the children of God : ’ and, ‘ He that believetli hath the witness in himself,’ fully convinced me of the former : as, ‘ Whatsoever is horn of God doth not commit sin ; ’ and, ‘ Whosoever believetli is horn of God,’ did of the latter. But I could not comprehend what he spoke of an instantaneous work. I could not understand how this faith should he given in a moment : how a man could atoncehe thus turned from darkness to light, from sin and misery to righteousness and joy in the Holy Ghost. I searched the Scriptures again, touching this very thing, particularly the Acts of the Apostles ; hut, to my utter astonishment, found scarce any instances there of other than hist ant a * neons conversions ; scarce any so slow as that of St. Paul, who was three days in the pangs of the new birth. I had but one retreat left ; namely, ‘ Thus , I grant, God wrought in the first ages of Christianity ; hut the times are changed. Wliatreason have I to believe He works in the same manner now ? ’ “But on Sunday, 23rd, I was beat out of this retreat too, by the concurring evidence of several living witnesses : who testified, God had thus wrought in themselves ; giving them in a moment such a faith in the blood of His Son, as translated them out of darkness into light, out of sin and fear into holiness and happiness. Here ended my disputing. I could now only cry out, ‘ Lord, help Thou my unbelief ! ’ ” To many it would appear unaccountable how God should allow this sincere and earnest seeker after salvation to struggle so much and so long ; but it was in order to stave him out of every other refuge, until he should cry out : “ What shall I say Thy grace to move ? Lord, I am sin,— but Thou art Love. I give up every plea beside, Lord, I am damn’d, but Thou hast died.” His Deliverance. — The day-star was now beginning to arise in his soul ; the day of liberty drew near, and his emancipated spirit was about to take its first bound, and then to pursue its tireless course through the whole of his 'CHAP. III.] BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND CONVERSION OF WESLEY. 47 long earthly career, and finally to appear before the Throne, giving thanks to God and the Lamb. In the order of time, Whitefield was the first to find the Saviour. His experience is thus given by Dr. Stevens : “About the end of the seventh week, after having under- gone inexpressible trials by night and day, under the spirit of bondage, God was pleased at length to remove the heavy load, to enable him to lay hold on the cross by a living faith, and by giving him the Spirit of adoption to seal him, as he humbly hoped, even to the day of ever- lasting redemption. ‘But 0 ! ’ he writes, ‘with what joy, joy unspeakable, even joy that was full of glory, was my soul filled, when the weight of sin went off, and an abiding sense of the pardoning love of God, and a full assurance of faith, broke in upon my disconsolate soul ! Surely it was the day of my espousals ; a day to be had in everlast- ing remembrance. At first my joys were like a spring tide, and, as it were, overflowed the banks ; go where I would, I could not avoid the singing of psalms almost aloud ; afterwards they became more settled, and, blessed be God, saving a few casual intervals have abode and increased in my soul ever since.’ ” Charles Wesley was the next in order. About this time he had a severe illness, so that his life was in imminent danger. When his sufferings were excruciating, and it was doubtful whether he could survive many hours, he was visited by Bolder. “ I asked him,” says Charles Wesley, “to pray for me. He seemed unwilling at first; hut be- ginning faintly, he raised his voice by degrees, and prayed for my recovery with strange confidence. “Then he took me by the hand, and calmly said, ‘ You will not die now.’ I thought within myself, ‘ I can- not hold out in this pain till morning.’ He said, ‘ Do you hope to be saved ?’ I answered, ‘ Yes.’ ‘ For wh at reason do you hope to be saved ? ’ * Because I have used my best endeavours to serve God.’ He shook his head, and said no more. I thought him very uncharitable, saying in my heart, ‘ What, are not my endeavours a sufficient ground of hope ? Would he rob me of my endeavours ? I have nothing else to trust to.’ ” 48 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [FART I. Mr. Cliarles Wesley, wlio was thus offended with the doctrine of free and present salvation from sin by faith in Christ, turned his anxious and prayerful attention to the subject,, and was soon led to concur in sentiment with his brother and the devout German that salvation must be by faith. Hitherto John had always taken the lead in matters of a religious nature ; but this order was now reversed. Charles, who had been the last to receive the doctrine in question, was the first to realize its truth in his own ex- perience. On the morning of Whitsunday, May 21st, 1738, having had a second return of his illness, and his brother and some other friends having spent the preceding night in prayer for him, he awoke in earnest hope of soon attain- ing the object of his desire — the knowledge of God recon- ciled to him in Christ Jesus. About nine o’clock, his brother and some friends visited him, and sang a hymn suited to the day. When they had left him, he betook himself to prayer. Soon afterwards one of his religious acquaintance said to him, in a very impressive manner, “ Believe in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and thou slialt be healed of all thine infirmities.” The words went to his heart, and animated him with con- fidence ; and in reading various passages of Scripture, he was enabled to trust in Christ, as set forth to he a pro- pitiation for his sins through faith in His blood ; and re- ceived that peace, and attained that rest in God, which he so earnestly sought. Only three days elapsed between Mr. Charles Wesley’s obtaining the pardon of his sins through faith in Christ and his brother John’s finding the same blessing. John Wesley’s own account is as follows : “ Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I had continual sorrow and heaviness in my heart : something of which I described, in the broken manner I was able, in the follow- ing letter to a friend : — “ ‘ 0 why is it, that so great, so wise, so holy a God will use such an instrument as me ! Lord, “let the dead bury their dead ! ” But wilt Thou send the dead to raise the dead ? Yea, Thou sendest whom Thou wilt send, and showest mercy by whom Thou wilt show mercy ! Amen ! CHAP. III.] BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND CONVERSION OF WESLEY. 49 Be it then according to Thy will ! If Thou speak the word, Judas shall cast out devils. “ ‘ I feel what you say, (though not enough,) for I am under the same condemnation. I see that the whole law of God is holy, just, and good. I know every thought, every temper of my soul, ought to bear God’s image and superscription. But how am I fallen from the glory of God! I feel that “I am sold under sin.” I know, that I too deserve nothing but wrath, being full of all abomina- tions : and having no good thing in me, to atone for them, or to remove the wrath of God. All my works, my righteousness, my prayers, need an atonement for them- selves. So that my mouth is stopped. I have nothing to plead. God is holy, I am unholy. God is a consuming fire : I am altogether a sinner, meet to be consumed. “ ‘ Yet I hear a voice (and is it not the voice of God ?) saying, “Believe, and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth is passed from death unto life. God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, hut have everlasting life.” “ ‘ 0 let no one deceive us by vain words, as if we had already attained this faith ! By its fruits we shall know. Howe already feel “peace with God,” and “joy in the Holy Ghost?” Hoes “His Spirit bear witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God ? ” Alas, with mine He does not. Nor, I fear, with yours. 0 Thou Saviour of men, save us from trusting in anything but Thee ! Hraw us after Thee ! Let us be emptied of ourselves, and then fill us with all peace and joy in believing ; and let nothing separate us from Thy love, in time or in eternity.’ ” His prayer was heard. On Wednesday “ evening,” says he, “I went very unwillingly to a society in Alder sgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation ; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my E 50 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. sins, even mine, ancl saved me from the law of sin and death. “ I began to pray with all my might for those who had in a more especial manner despitefully used me, and per- secuted me. I then testified openly to all there, what I now first felt in my heart.” This blessed result is as clear as human nature can ex- perience or human language express. Thus at the age of thirty-five, and after twenty-five years’ pursuit, he found that Saviour “ of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write.” How long the search ! How severe the struggle ! How rich the reward ! Eternity alone, and the eternal happiness of tens of thousands of redeemed, saved immortals, will be able to declare it. Angels may he jubilant, as a new era of the Church and the world has commenced. The Messengers of the Cross are now to go forth, proclaiming throughout the world the glad news of a free, full, and present salvation through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Before proceeding further, it is worthy of special note that the plan of salvation by faith in Christ alone was made known to the Wesleys and Wliitefield by the Mora- vians ; and thus was laid the foundation of that great work, Wesleyan Methodism, which has extended its in- fluence through many parts of the world, and has to a great extent also pervaded other Christian denominations ; and which must, in its ultimate results, go on until the know- ledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea. Thus the ways of God are far above out of sight, and His plans deeper than the plummet-line of man’s short- sightedness can sound. More than three hundred years had passed away since the Council of Constance had broken faith with the Bohe- mian martyrs, Jerome and Huss ; and contrary to the solemn engagement of a “ safe- conduct ” had these two worthies been burnt to death, the Papists hoping thereby to extinguish the first lights of the Reformation. But they succeeded not. A long, dark night followed ; and when at leugth the persecuted descendants of the Bohemian and Moravian Christians were driven from their own land, CHAP. III.] BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND CONVERSION OF WESLEY. 51 Peter Christian found an asylum on the estate of Count Zinzendorf, in Germany, gathered together the remnant, and founded the Church of Herrnliut, “the Watch of the Lord,” from which the light has penetrated to every part of the globe, and more especially was the means of lead- ing the Wesleys and others to Christ, and of kindling a fire which shall never be extinguished. “ The ‘ Reformers before the Reformation' had not, then, laboured in vain. The Bohemian sufferers at Constance had verified the maxim so often consecrated by the tears and thanksgivings of the faithful, that ‘ the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.’ There gleam to-day on the darkest skies of the pagan world reflections of light from the martyr fires of Constance ; and Herrnliut, ‘the Watch of the Lord,’ has become a watch-light to the world. From this people — so remarkable and fruit- ful in their history — was Methodism not only to copy much of its internal discipline, but to receive the impulse which was yet necessary to start it on its appointed course. Wesley had already learned much from them. In their resignation amid the storms of the Atlantic, he had seen a piety which he possessed not himself. On his landing in Georgia, the doctrine of the ‘ Witness of the Spirit/ which had dawned upon his mind from the Scriptures, while reading Jeremy Taylor at Oxford, was brought home to his conscience by the appeal of Spangenberg. His un- availing asceticism had been rebuked there by their more cheerful practical piety ; his unsuccessful, because defec- tive, preaching, by their more evangelical and more useful labours ; and his rigid ecclesiasticism by the apostolic simplicity of their Church councils. And now, hardly had he landed in England from Georgia when witnesses for the truth, from Herrnliut, met him again with the appeal : ‘ This is the way, walk ye in it.’ ” In fine, John Wesley, spiritually, was not the child of the Established Church of England, hut of the Moravian Church ; and therefore the Church of England cannot claim him as her spiritual child. 52 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. CHAPTER IV. OPENING THEIR COMMISSION, AND SIGNS FOLLOWING. Before tracing the manner in which the Wesleys and Whitefield and their coadjutors opened their commis- sion, and the signs which followed, we must notice the baptism of fire, by which they were prepared for their great work. It is thus described by Dr. Stevens : “Denied the city pulpits, the brothers went not only to the ‘ Societies ’ and prisons, hut to and fro in the country, preaching almost daily. Whitefield was needed to lead them into more thorough and more necessary ‘ irregula- rities.’ He arrived in London, December 8tli, 1738. Wesley hastened to greet him, and on the 12th ‘ God gave us,’ he writes, ‘ once more to take sweet counsel together.’ The mighty preacher who had stirred the whole metropolis a year before, now met the same treatment as his Oxford friends. In three days five churches were denied him. Good, however, was to come out of this evil. He also had recourse now to the ‘Societies,’ and his ardent soul caught new zeal from their simple devotions as from his new trials. Wesley describes a scene at one of these assemblies, which reminds us of the preparatory Pentecostal baptism of fire, by which the Apostles were ‘ endued with power from on high,’ for their mission. He says, January 1st, 1739, that Messrs. Hall, Kinchin, Ingham, Whitefield, and his brother Charles were present with him at a love-feast in Fetter Lane, with about sixty of their brethren. About three in the morning, as they were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon them, inso- much that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as they had recovered a little from the awe and amazement which the presence of the Divine Majesty had inspired, they broke out with one voice, ‘We praise Thee, 0 God : we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord. CHAP. IV.] OPENING THEIR COMMISSION. 53 Whitefield exclaims : ‘ It was a Pentecostal season indeed.’ And he adds, respecting these ‘ Society meetings,’ that ‘ sometimes whole nights were spent in prayer. Often have we been filled as with new wine, and often have I seen them overwhelmed with the Divine Presence, and cry out, “Will God indeed dwell with men upon earth ? How dreadful is this place ! This is no other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven! ” ’ In this manner did the three evan- gelists begin together the memorable year which was after- ward to be recognised as the epoch of Methodism. On the 5th Whitefield records an occasion which foreshadowed the future. A ‘ conference ’ was held at Islington with seven Ministers, ‘ despised Methodists,’ concerning many things of importance. They continued in fasting and prayer till three o’clock, and then parted ‘ with a full conviction that God was about to do great things among us.’ ” In such scenes as these, the Apocalyptic vision was being literally fulfilled: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell upon the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him ; for the hour of His judgment is come : and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” (Rev. xiv. 6, 7.) Whitefield was the first of the three to find the Saviour, and to throw off the restraints of ecclesiastical con- ventionalism. It appeared as though his hold spirit and impassioned eloquence were required to break down the harriers of extreme Church order. Going into the streets and lanes to preach, he willingly “ submitted to be more vile.” The more calm and methodical Wesley had to be led on, until by degrees he was brought to see the path of duty. Whitefield opened his commission of out-door preach- ing at Bristol, where he had crowds to hear him ; and he soon called Wesley to his aid. “He was thus employed,” says Mr. Jackson, “when he received a letter from his friend, Mr. Whitefield, recently returned from America, and now in Bristol, earnestly press- ing him to come to that city without delay. On his arrival, 54 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [part I. he says, ‘ I could scarce reconcile myself at first to this strange way, of preaching in the fields, of which he set me the example on the Sunday ; having been all my life (till very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin, if it had not been done in a church.’ On the following day, Mr. Whitefield having left Bristol, Mr. Wesley says, ‘ At four in the afternoon, I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining to the city to about three thousand people.’ ” “ On his return to London, in June following, he accom- panied Mr. Whitefield to Blackheath, where about twelve or fourteen thousand people were assembled to hear the Word. At Mr. Wliitefield’s request, Mr. Wesley preached in his stead ; and afterwards for many years addressed similar, and even larger, multitudes in Moorfields and at Kennington Common, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and other parts of England, as also in Wales and Ireland.” His weekly course of labour was this : “ Every morning I read prayers and preached at Newgate. Every evening I expounded a portion of Scripture to one or more of the Societies. On Monday, in the afternoon, I preached abroad near Bristol ; on Tuesday, at Bath and Five Mile Hill alter- nately ; on Wednesday, at Baptist Mills ; every other Thursday, near Pensford ; every other Friday, in another part of Ivingswood; on Saturday in the afternoon, and Sunday morning, on the howling green ; (which lies near the middle of the city;) on Sunday at eleven, near Hanliam Mount ; at two, at Clifton ; and at five, at Rose Green. And hitherto, as my days, so my strength has been.” Mr. Charles Wesley also entered on the same course wfitli heroic valour, which soon brought him into difficulties. “ During the continued stay of his brother at Bristol,” observes Dr. Smith, “ Charles was neither idle nor inatten- tive to the manner of his proceeding, and to the great work which was being accomplished by his instrumentality. At Broad Oaks in Essex, Thaxted, and some other places, Charles preached both in churches and in the open air with great success. CITTA.P. IV.] OPENING- THEIR COMMISSION. 55 “ In consequence of these proceedings, the heads of the Church appear to have entertained serious thoughts of pro- ceeding to extreme measures against Whitefield and the two Wesleys. On Thursday, the 19th of June, Charles Wesley, with the Vicar of Bexley, appeared at Lambeth, on the summons of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to answer a complaint which appears to have been made by some third party (probably some of the parishioners) as to Mr. Charles Wesley’s frequent preaching in that parish. On this occasion the Archbishop significantly observed to him, that he should ‘ not proceed to excommunication yet.’ Although this threat did not, at the time, greatly disconcert or distress the pious young Minister to whom it was ad- dressed, he afterwards felt it severely ; hut having convinced himself that this uneasiness arose from the fear of man, he took Mr. Whitefield’s advice, and, on the following Sunday, boldly went forth into Moorfields, and preached the Gospel of Christ to near ten thousand hearers. “ It required a mind of more than ordinary vigour, even with the aid of Divine grace, to sustain the peculiar and conflicting feelings which Charles Wesley’s engagements at this time must have excited. On the Thursday before the Sabbath just referred to, he was at Lambeth Palace, and was there threatened with excommunication. On Sunday he preached in the morning to ten thousand per- sons in Moorfields : in the forenoon he attended Divine ser- vice, and received the sacrament at St. Paul’s cathedral ; in the afternoon he preached at Newington Butts, and went directly from the pulpit to Kennington Common, where he addressed multitudes upon multitudes in the name of the Lord ; and in the evening he attended a Moravian love- feast in Fetter Lane, where he felt as though in one of the primitive Churches. On the following Sunday he preached with great boldness, in his turn, at St. Mary’s, before the University of Oxford, choosing for his subject the leading doctrine of all Protestant Churches, justification by faith. The amount of opposition which these godly efforts called forth, may be estimated by the fact, that on the Sabbath before mentioned, as he was walking to his afternoon ap- pointment, he crossed an open field on his way to Ken- 56 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. nington, and, whilst doing so, was seen by the owner of the field, a Mr. Goter, who threatened to prosecute him for a trespass. This threat he carried into effect, and a few days afterwards Mr. Charles Wesley was served with a writ on this account, and had to pay ten pounds for the trespass, and nine pounds sixteen shillings and eightpence for taxed costs in the suit. The injured Minister endorsed the receipt with the significant words, ‘ To be re-judged in that day ; ’ words which will as certainly be verified, as was the threat of the petty tyrant.”* We now have these three worthies fairly committed to preach Christ crucified, and to “ call upon all men every- where to repent.” This they do with dauntless courage and wonderful effect ; thousands attend their ministry, and a very extensive religious awakening takes place. They have now set themselves at liberty, have drawn the sword, and thrown away the scabbard, and have boldly entered on this career of duty, leaving the results with God. Here is no defined plan, no calculation about consequences, but the fearless entry upon a course of plain duty. “What wouldst Thou have me to do ? ” has been the inquiry. When the will of God is made plain, that is enough ; their feet tread, not only swiftly, but safely ; there is no timidity, no vacillation, no question about the care of the flesh ; but straightforward, honest, fearless discharge of acknowledged duty. We have now before us the chief instruments raised up by God, for reviving and extending true religion, and spread- ing scriptural holiness throughout the land, and, ultimately, throughout the world. These instruments were differently constituted and differently prepared, but bore the marks of Him “ who filleth all in all.” That Being who is “ Head over all things to His Church ” took these men of different mental capacities and intellectual and religious training, together with their several gifts and graces, bowing the whole to His sceptre, and using the whole for His glory. John Wesley was highly cultivated, cool, clear, and persevering ; Charles Wesley was poetic, energetic, and * Dr. George Smith’s “History of Wesleyan Methodism,” pp. 178, 179. GHAP. IV.] OPENING THEIR COMMISSION. 57 impassioned ; Whitefield was bold, eloquent, and powerful. These were “ the first three,” and they were all fired with self-sacrificing love to God, and zeal for the salvation of men. The lay Preachers who from the force of circum- stances were brought to labour with them, and became their helpers in the Lord, were not equally educated, but were eminently prepared of God for carrying on His work. They possessed clear knowledge of the Word of God, were truly converted, and were endowed with strong sense and a disposition to labour and suffer for the good of others. All “had tarried at Jerusalem until they were endowed with power from on high ; ” and being “full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,” and taking fire from the holy altar, their arms and hands being made strong by the power of the mighty “God of Jacob,” they went forth, like winged angels of light, with a speed and swiftness which made them almost ubiquitous ; they performed prodigies of moral valour, and endured fatigues, and discharged duties, such as had not been heard of since the days of the Apostles. They were “men to be wondered at,” “the Lord working with them, and signs following.” The extremities of the land were soon penetrated. Lon- don and Bristol were the first centres of operation ; hut quickly Newcastle in the north, and Cornwall in the south- west, were visited by them, and tens of thousands heard the everlasting Gospel preached. They conducted their ser- vices in public buildings, or private houses ; on the house- top, or in the open field ; in the narrow street, or on the broad common ; anywhere, everywhere, in this vast temple of God, it mattered not ; they had a message to deliver, and they were straitened until they had proclaimed it, and when they had done thus in one place, they hastened to another, and delivered it there. They were men of one business, and of one aim ; all the powers of their souls were absorbed and centred in it, and all the powers of their bodies became the willing servants of their burning souls. They thought of nothing else ; they talked of nothing else ; they lived and laboured for nothing else. The doctrines they taught were as old as the New Testa- ment, but new to the tens of thousands who heard them BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [part I. 5 8 for the .first time. These doctrines had either been buried for ages, or been obscured amidst the ceremonials of a State Church ; and now that they were clearly exhibited to view, they shone as light out of darkness, and possessed a fresh- ness and power which astonished, captivated, and subdued all who heard them. That mighty results must quickly follow was only what might be fairly calculated upon. Some men, who under- took the office of prophets, prognosticated that it wras only a wild enthusiastic flame "which would soon be extinguished ; but no ! it was a torch lighted at the eternal Sun, never to be dimmed, until absorbed in endless day. They declared that these madmen would soon weary in their course, and, being offended, tire and faint ; but no ! they tired not until the weary wheels of life stood still in death ; and in the case of John Wesley the wheels turned round many times in the fifty years which intervened before his death ; but then a thousand more are set in motion, and they and their successors are not to cease their circles until the globe is encompassed, and the earth ceases to revolve, fleeing before the face of Him who sits upon the throne, when death shall be swallowed up in victory. Let us notice a few of these results as chronicled by competent witnesses. To a gentleman who had requested some information on the subject Mr. Wesley writes : “Few persons have lived long in the west of England who have not heard of the colliers of Kingswood, a people famous, from the beginning hitherto, for neither fearing God nor regarding man ; so ignorant of the things of God, that they seemed but one remove from beasts that perish, and, there- fore, utterly without the desire of instruction, as well as without the means of it. “ Many last winter used tauntingly to say of Mr. White- field, ‘ If he will convert heathens, why does not he go to the colliers of Kingswood ? ’ In the spring he did so. And as there were thousands "who resorted to no place of public worship, he went after them into their own ‘ wilderness, to seek and save that which was lost.’ When he was called away, others went into ‘ the highways and hedges, to compel them to come in.’ And, by the grace of God, their CHAP. IV.] OPENING THEIR COMMISSION. 59 labour was not in vain. The scene is already changed. Kingswood does not now, as a year ago, resound with cursing and blasphemy. It is no more filled with drunken- ness and uncleanness, and the idle diversions that naturally led thereto. It is no longer full of wars and fightings, of clamour and bitterness, of wrath and envyings. Peace and love are there. Great numbers of the people are mild, gentle, and easy to be entreated. They ‘do not cry, neither strive ; ’ and hardly is ‘ their voice heard in the streets,’ or indeed in their own wood, unless when they are at their usual evening diversion, singing praise unto God their Saviour.” As early as 1740 we have the following record of Charles Wesley’s labours: “He passed to Evesham, Westcot, Oxford, and other places, preaching, and withstanding the clamours of the people, till he arrived again in London, where the Foundry, Moorfields, and Kenning- ton Common were his arenas. While in the city he was tireless also in pastoral labours, devoting three hours daily to ‘conferences’ and to the ‘bands.’ In June, 1740, he was again abroad among the rural towns, accompanied by his faithful assistant, Thomas Maxfield. He preached in Bexley, Blendon, Bristol, and Kings- wood. At the latter place he was especially refreshed by the good results of the Methodist labours. Methodism had already commenced those demonstrations of its efficacy among the demoralized masses which have since com- manded for it the respect of men who have questioned its merits in all other respects. ‘ 0 what simplicity,’ he exclaims, ‘ is in this child -like people ! A spirit of contri- tion and love ran through them. Here the seed has fallen upon good ground.’ And again, on the next Sabbath, he writes : ‘ I went to learn Christ among our colliers, and drank into their spirit. 0 that our London brethren would come to school to Kingswood ! God knowTs their poverty ; but they are rich, and daily entering into rest, without first being brought into confusion. Their souls truly wait still upon God, in the way of His ordinances. Ye many masters, come, learn Christ of these outcasts : for know, “ except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye cannot 60 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. enter into the kingdom of heaven.” ’ He questions whether Herrnhut could afford a better example of Christian sim- plicity and purity ; and yet these reclaimed colliers were repelled from the Lord’s Supper by most of the regular Clergy of the churches of Bristol, because their reformation had been effected by the ‘ irregular ’ labours of the Methodists.” John Wesley preaching at Epworth on his father’s tombstone presents a touching scene, which is thus sketched by Dr. Stevens : “ On his return he passed rapidly through many towns, preaching daily. He stopped at an inn in Epworth, the parish of his father and his own birthplace. The Curate, who was a drunkard, refused him the pulpit. David Taylor, Lady Huntingdon’s servant, was with him, and announced, as the congregation retired from the church, that Wesley would preach in the graveyard in the afternoon. He accordingly stood upon his father’s tombstone, and preached to such a congregation as Epworth had never seen before. For one week he daily took his stand above the ashes of his father, and ‘ cried aloud to the earnestly attentive congregations.’ He must have deeply felt the impressive associations of the place, but paused not to record his emotions. His one great work of preaching, preaching day and night, seemed wholly to absorb him. His hearers, however, felt the power of his word and of the scene. God bowed their hearts, he says, and on every side, as with one accord, they lifted up their voices and wept ; several dropped down as dead. A gentleman came to hear him who boasted that he was of no religion, and had not been in a church for thirty years. The striking scene of the churchyard could probably alone have brought him to hear Wesley. He was smitten under the sermon, and when it was ended stood like a statue, looking up to the heavens. WTesley asked : ‘ Are you a sinner ? ’ ‘ Sinner enough,’ he replied, with a broken voice, and remained gazing upward till his friends pressed him into his carriage and took him home. Ten years later Wesley saw him, and was agreeably surprised to find him strong in faith, though fast failing- in body. For some years, he said, he had been rejoicing in God without either doubt or fear, and was now waiting CHAP. XV.] OPENING THEIR COMMISSION. 61 for the welcome hour when he should depart and be with Christ.” These are only a few instances, selected for the purpose of showing the great results which attended and followed the labours of these devoted men ; results which were immediate, and which bore the distinct impress of God’s own hand. 62 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [part I. CHAPTER Y. EXPULSION OF THE WESLEYS FROM THE PULPITS OF THE ESTAB- LISHED CHURCH, AND FORMATION OF THE UNITED SOCIETIES. How was this “ irregular ” course of action received by the Clergy of the Established Church, and what were the consequences ? The immediate result was, ejection from the churches, and, in many instances, direct personal persecution. It has already been pointed out, how fine an opportunity was here given for making the Established Church thoroughly efficient by incorporating into it the new spiritual life and tireless vigour of these men of God ; but the opportunity was lost ; many of the best Churchmen, both lay and clerical, have since seen the error, and would have been glad to rectify it, hut it was too late. Many would now rejoice if some comprehensive scheme could be devised ; and some efforts have been made in that direc- tion, but in vain ; the difficulties in the way are now too for- midable to be overcome, and, as will he seen, the third stage of departure from the Established Church was consummated. How short-sighted, as well as wicked, is man, when he seeks by his own contrivances, and by the use of unlawful means, to destroy the work of God ! A great work of God had broken out ; hut the Clergy, instead of fostering it, sought, first by ejecting these Ministers from their pulpits, and afterwards by direct persecution, to destroy it. The result has proved how utterly they failed. The quotations given will show how strong and how tireless was the oppo- sition of the Episcopal hierarchy. The first (from Dr. Smith) relates to Charles Wesley. “ Charles Wesley, as already noticed, had accepted the curacy of Islington, but had entered on the duties of that office only by private arrangement with the Yicar, as the Bishop never gave his sanction to the appointment. The CHAP. Y.J EXPULSION FROM THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. G3 Churchwardens were soon offended with his ministrations, and were determined to get rid of him. At first they con- fined their opposition to insult, and met him in the vestry before the commencement of service, and requested a sight of the Bishop’s licence, which they knew he did not possess. He meekly endured this conduct. They then proceeded to the most abusive language, and tcid him that ‘ he was full of the devil.’ Still the pious Minister pro- ceeded on his way, ‘ bearing ill, and doing well.’ These violent officials, however, were determined to expel the object of their dislike from the church ; they accordingly employed men to take possession of the pulpit stairs, and to push him back when he attempted to ascend. Afterward, notwithstanding the appeals of gentlemen of the highest respectability, they themselves did this, in the face of the whole congregation. This violence being continued, the Vicar, who was a good man, but lacked firmness, gave way to the storm, and the case was laid before the Bishop of London, who justified the Churchwardens in the course they had taken. Charles Wesley had in consequence to retire from his curacy, and seek some other field of labour.” These proceedings only demonstrated the intense enmity which actuated these opposers ; but let the reader observe, they were not the ebullition of an ignorant mob, but were the acts of the “Churchwardens and the Vicar and Bishop, who should have protected him, declined so to do. Before Wliitefield went to America, he had been un- boundedly popular ; the churches at Bristol and other places were crowded ; thousands hung upon his eloquence with delight, and almost with rapture. But no sooner had he returned, and entered upon his “irregular” course, than the churches were closed against him also. “ He went to Bristol,” says Stevens, “the ancient city which had formerly received him with enthusiasm. The churches were open to him at his arrival, but in a fortnight every door was shut, except that of Newgate prison ; and this, also, was soon after closed against him, by the authority of the Mayor. Not far from Bristol lies Kingswood, a place which has since become noted in the history of Methodism. It was formerly a royal chase, but its forests had mostly fallen, 64 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. and it was now a region of coal mines, and inhabited by a population which is described as lawless and brutal, worse than heathens, and differing as much from the people of the surrounding country in dialect as in appearance. There was no church among them, and none nearer than the suburbs of Bristol, three or four miles distant. White- field found here an unquestionable justification' of field preaching, and on Saturday, February 17tli, 1739, he crossed the Rubicon, and virtually led the incipient Methodism across it, by the extraordinary irregularity of preaching in the open air. Standing upon a mount, he proclaimed the truth to about two hundred degraded and astonished colliers. He took courage from the reflection that he was imitating the example of Christ, who had a mountain for His pulpit, and the heavens for a sounding-board ; and who, when His Gospel was refused by the Jews, sent His servants into the highways and hedges. ‘ Blessed be God,’ he writes, ‘ that the ice is now broke, and I have now taken the field. Some may censure me, but is there not a cause ? Pulpits are denied, and the poor colliers are ready to perish for lack of knowledge.’ ” Posterity has endorsed his decision, admired his zeal, and applauded the results. In modern times Bishojjs and Clergymen have in some instances been equally irregular. Mr. John Wesley was not to he more favoured. Having adopted the same course, he had to submit to similar treatment. After his return from Georgia, he says : *“ I was in haste to retire to Oxford, and bury myself in my beloved obscurity ; but I was detained in London, week after week, by the Trustees for the colony of Georgia. In the mean time, I was continually importuned to preach in one and another church ; and that not only morning, after- noon, and night, on Sunday, hut on week-days also. As I was lately come from a far country, vast multitudes flocked together ; but, in a short time, partly because of those unwieldy crowds, partly because of my unfashionable doc- trine, I was excluded from one and another church, and, at length, shut out of all ! Not daring to be silent, after a short struggle between honour and conscience, I made a virtue CHAP. V.] EXPULSION FROM THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. G5 of necessity, and preached in the middle of Moorfields. Here were thousands upon thousands, abundantly more than any church could contain ; and numbers among them who never went to any church or place of public worship at all. More and more of them were cut to the heart, and came to me all in tears, inquiring with the utmost eagerness, what they must do to be saved.” “ Things were in this posture, when I was told I must preach no more in this, and this, and another church ; the reason was usually added without reserve, ‘Because you preach such doctrines.’ So much the more those who could not hear me there flocked together when I was at any of the Societies ; where I spoke more or less, though with much inconvenience, to as many as the room I wras in would contain. “ But after a time, finding those rooms could not contain a tenth part of the people that were earnest to hear, I determined to do the same thing in England, which I had often done in a warmer climate ; namely, when the house would not contain the congregation, to preach in the open air. This I accordingly did, first at Bristol, where the Society rooms were exceeding small, and at Kingswood, where we had no room at all ; afterwards, in or near London. “ And I cannot say I have ever seen a more awful sight, than when, on Bose Green, or the top of Hannam Mount, some thousands of people were calmly joined together in solemn waiting upon God, while ‘ They stood, and under open air adored The God -who made both air, earth, heaven, and sky.’ And whether they were listening to His word with attention still as night, or were lifting up their voice in praise as the sound of many waters, many a time have I been constrained to say in my heart, ‘ How dreadful is this place ! This ’ also ‘ is no other than the house of God ! This is the gate of heaven ! ’ “Be pleased to observe: (1.) That I was forbidden, as by a general consent, to preach in any church, (though not byany judicial sentence,) ‘ for preaching such doctrine.’ This was the open, avowed cause ; there was at that time no other, either real or pretended, except that the people F 66 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. crowded so. (2.) That I had no desire or design to preach in the open air, till after this prohibition. (3.) That when I did, as it was no matter of choice, so neither of pre- meditation. There was no scheme at all previously formed, which was to be supported thereby ; nor had I any other end in view than this, — to save as many souls as I could. (4.) Field-preaching was therefore a sudden expedient, a thing submitted to, rather than chosen ; and therefore submitted to, because I thought preaching even thus better than not preaching at all : First, in regard to my own soul, because, * a dispensation of the Gospel being committed to me,’ I did not dare ‘not to preach the Gos- pel ; ’ Secondly, in regard to the souls of others, whom I everywhere saw ‘seeking death in the error of their life.’ ” Thus were Wesley and his coadjutors ejected from the churches, and cast forth upon the world, which thencefor- ward became their “ parish.” How cogent and how scrip- tural were the reasons which induced them thus to act ! A dispensation of the Gospel was committed to them ; and woe to them, if they preached not that Gospel ! Mr. Wat- son’s eloquent summing up is as follows : “ That great public attention should be excited by these extraordinary and novel proceedings, and that the digni- taries of the Church, and the advocates of stillness and order, should take the alarm at them, as ‘ doubting where- unto this thing might grow,’ were inevitable consequences. A doctrine so obsolete, that on its revival it was regarded as new and dangerous, was now publicly proclaimed as the doctrine of the Apostles and Reformers ; the consciousness of the forgiveness of sins was professed by many, and enforced as the possible attainment of all ; several Clergy- men of talents and learning, which would have given influence to any cause, endued with mighty zeal, and with a restless activity, instead of settling in parishes, were preaching in various churches and private rooms, and to vast multitudes in the open air, alternately in the metro- polis, and at Bristol, Oxford, and the interjacent places. They alarmed the careless, by bringing before them the solemnities of the last judgment ; they explained the spirituality of that law upon which the self-righteous •CHAP. V.] EXPULSION FROM THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. 67 trusted for salvation, and convinced them that the justifica- tion of man was by the grace of God alone through faith ; and they roused the dozing adherents of mere forms, by teach- ing, that true religion implies a change of the whole heart wrought by the Holy Ghost. With equal zeal and earnest- ness, they checked the pruriency of the Calvinistic system, as held by many Dissenters, by insisting that the law which cannot justify was still the rule of life, and the standard of holiness to all true believers ; and taught that mere doc- trinal views of evangelical truth, however correct, were quite as vain and unprofitable as Pharisaism and formality, when made a substitute for vital faith, spirituality, and practical holiness. All this zeal was supported and made more noticeable by the moral elevation of their character. Their conduct was scrupulously hallowed ; their spirit, gentle, tender, and sympathizing ; their courage, hold and undaunted ; their patience, proof against all reproach, hardships, persecutions ; their charities to the poor abounded to the full extent of all their resources ; their labours were wholly gratuitous ; and their wonderful activity, and endurance of the fatigues of rapid travelling, seemed to destroy the distance of place, and to give them a sort of ubiquity in the vast circuit which they had then adopted as the field of their labours. For all these reasons they £ were men to he wondered at,’ even in the infancy of their career ; and as their ardour was increased by the effects which followed,— the conversion of great numbers to God, of which the most satisfactory evidence was afforded, — it disappointed those who anticipated that their zeal would soon cool, and that, ‘ shorn of their strength,’ by opposition, reproach, and exhausting labours, they would become ‘like other men.’ ” As time rolled on, we might have supposed that a change for the better would have taken place ; but, instead of this, persecution became more intense and systematic, and con- tinued, with more or less vigour, until the close of Wesley’s long and honoured career ; so that one of the last draughts of suffering he had to drink was, to find the Bishops deny- ing his people the benefits of the Toleration Act, and compelling them to have their places of worship licensed f 2 68 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I» as Dissenting Meeting-houses. One of Wesley’s latest letters — a pathetic letter it is — refers to this subject. It is. addressed to one of the Bishops, and is as follows : — “ My Lord, “ It may seem strange, that one who is not acquainted with your Lordship, should trouble you with a letter. But I am con- strained to do it : I believe it is my duty both to God and your Lordship. And I must speak plain ; having nothing to hope or fear in this world, which I am on the point of leaving.” “The Methodists, in general, my Lord, are members of the Church of England. They hold all her doctrines, attend her service, and partake of her sacraments. They do not willingly do harm to any one, but do what good they can to all. To encourage each other herein, they frequently spend an hour to- gether in prayer and mutual exhortation. Permit me then to ask, Cui bono ? ‘ For what reasonable end ’ would your Lordship drive these people out of the Church? Are they not as quiet, as inoffensive, nay, as pious as any of their neighbours? except, perhaps, here and there a liair-brained man, who knows not what he is about. Do you ask, ‘ Who drives them out of the Church ? ’ Your Lordship does ; and that in the most cruel manner ; yea, and the most disingenuous manner. They desire a licence to worship God according to their own conscience. Your Lordship refuses it, and then punishes them for not having a licence ! So your Lordship leaves them only this alternative, ‘ Leave the Church, or starve.’ And is it a Christian, yea, a Protestant Bishop, that so persecutes his own flock ? I say, persecutes; for it is persecution to all intents and purposes. AY>u do not burn them, indeed, but you starve them. And how small is the difference ! And your Lordship does this under colour of a vile, execrable law, not a whit better than that Be Haretico comburendo. So persecution, which is banished out of France, is again countenanced in England ! “ 0 my Lord, for God’s sake, for Christ’s sake, for pity’s sake, suffer the poor people to enjoy their religious, as well as civil, liberty ! I am on the brink of eternity ! Perhaps so is your Lordship too ! How soon may you also be called to give an account of your stewardship to the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls ! May He enable both you and me to do it with joy ! So prays, my Lord, “ Your Lordship’s dutiful Son and Servant.” CHAP. V.] EXPULSION FROM THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. 69 As a writer in the “London Quarterly observes, “The effect of the policy pursued in this case by those who represented the Church of England, was to force both Preachers and people to be licensed under the Toleration Act. Thus were Methodists driven to become, in legal construction, Protestant Nonconformists. After eighty years Churchmen are now seeking to reverse what was then done, not by Methodists, but by their predecessors.” Put in South Africa ignorant natives are told that John Wesley was a Churchman, and that the Methodists are renegades ; and thus, without any appeal, the whole of them are claimed as the rightful property of the Established Church. “ When all this is borne in mind, and when it is also remembered that the Bishops and most of the Clergy repelled, or at least declined, the overtures of the Methodists from the first ; that some of them insulted and drove away from the Lord’s table, and sometimes even from their churches, both Preachers and people, not excepting the Wesleys themselves; that no such efforts as now, a century too late, are imagined and projected for including Methodism, with its itinerancy, and its living energy, within the pale of the Church of England, were made during Wesley’s life, or were for a moment entertained, although they would have precisely coincided with Wesley’s views : it will then he understood how ignorant as well as how unjust a thing it ia, how childish as well as narrow and bigoted it must appear to Wesleyans, to argue that, as true followers of John Wesley, the Methodists of to-day are hound to return to the Estab- lished Church ! Such arguments can only excite the wonder and the pity of manly Methodists. They may have influence with the feeble-minded and ill-informed, with a few dependent, depressed, and ignorant rustics, or with effe- minate aspirants for a certain social recognition, wdiich they have not character enough otherwise to obtain, but which, it is imagined, the passport of the Clergy can confer ; but they can never make an impression on the body and soul of Methodism.” * London Quarterly Review,” 1807, p. '285. BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I.. 70 FORMATION OF THE UNITED SOCIETIES. Another step of departure from the Established Church was, the formation of the United Societies. The persons awakened and reformed by the powerful preaching of Wes- ley and his fellow labourers were gathered and joined in “Classes,” that they might be preserved. The foundation of Classes and the organization of a “Society” did not necessarily involve departure from the Established Church; nor was it designed to lead to this result by Wesley. His design was, that it should be a Society within the Church, for the purpose of promoting the spiritual life of that Church; an “ imperium in imperio .” In this, he looked not into the future, neither did he calculate future contingent consequences. What urged him was, that it was a felt want, and was calculated to advance the spiritual prosperity of those concerned. The want had been created by the earnest preaching of these zealous men ; and, like a wise master-builder, he looked out for such agency as the want demanded. Hence the origin of Class Leaders and Class Meetings. The origin of Class Meetings is thus given by John Wesley himself : “ In the latter end of the year 1739- eight or ten persons came to me in London, who appeared to be deeply convinced of sin, and earnestly groaning for redemption. They desired (as did one or two more the next day) that I would spend some time with them in prayer, and advise them how to flee from the wrath to come, which they saw continually hanging over their heads. That we might have more time for this great work, I appointed a day when they might all come together, which from thence- forward they did every week, namely, on Thursday, in the evening. To these, and as many more as desired to join with them, (for their number increased daily,) I gave those advices, from time to time, which I judged most needful for them ; and we always concluded our meeting with prayer suited to their several necessities. “ This was the rise of the United Society, first in London, and then in other places. Such a Society is no other than a company of men having the form and seeking the power CHAP. V.J FORMATION OF SOCIETIES. 71 of godliness, united in order to pray together, to receive the word of exhortation, and to watch over one another in love, that they may help each other to work out their salvation.” The office of Class Leader arose from the inability of Mr. Wesley to meet personally all those anxious inquirers who sought spiritual advice and counsel. He therefore selected and appointed one of the most spiritual and well informed persons, to meet (about) twelve others, and to take the spiritual oversight of them. This office was not confined to men, hut females of equal qualification were alike eligible for it. Thus was created an order of officers in the infant Church, which has not only continued to the present day, but has been one great cause of the progress, stability, and success of Methodism. It is the business of the Leader, as it is stated in the “Buies of the Society,” “ I. To see each person in his Class, once a week at least, in order to inquire how their souls prosper ; “To advise, reprove, comfort, or exhort, as occasion may require ; “ To receive what they are willing to give towards the support of the Gospel : “ II. To meet the Ministers and Stewards of the Society once a week, in order “ To inform the Minister of any that are sick, or of any that walk disorderly, and will not be reproved ; “ To pay to the Stewards what they have received of their several Classes in the week preceding ; and “To show their account of what each person has con- tributed. “ 4. There is only one condition previously required of those who desire admission into these Societies, namely, ‘a desire to flee from the wrath to come, to be saved from their sins.’ But wherever this is really fixed in the soul, it will be shown by its fruits. It is therefore expected of all who continue therein, that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation, by,” &c. Then follow the proofs which should be given by all who have this desire ; viz., on the one hand, by refraining from all things opposed to the Gospel; and on the other, by 72 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. performing all Christian duties. These plain and scriptural “ Rules ” close with the following paragraph : “These are the General Rules of our Societies : all which we are taught of God to observe, even in His written word, the only rule, and the sufficient rule, both of our faith and practice. And all these we know His Spirit writes on every truly awakened heart. If there be any among us who observe them not, who habitually break any of them, let it be made known unto them who watch over that soul, as they that must give an account. We will admonish him of the error of his ways : we will bear with him for a sea- son. But then, if he repent not, he hath no more place among us. We have delivered our own souls.” There is a beautiful simplicity and adaptation about the whole of this arrangement, — nothing foreign, nothing strained, — nothing far-fetched ; no cumbrous round of duties or ceremonies, on the one hand; no indifferent neglect, on the other ; no wild extravagance of a heated imagination ; no mystery ; no asceticism. The whole is simple, natural, scriptural. The great qualification of admission into the Society is, “a desire to flee from the wra.th to come.” Where this exists, it will be demonstrated by its natural and legitimate fruits. Where the fruits do not follow, there is demonstrative proof that the desire does not exist. Some have thought this qualification insufficient. It might be so, were not the means of removal from the Society equally simple. “ If there be any among us who observe them not,” &c., they have “no more place among us.” The token of membership is a quarterly ticket, issued by the Minister when he meets the Classes at the end of each quarter. If any just cause of complaint exists against any person, at the renewal of the quarterly tickets, the offend- ing person is excluded from membership by his ticket being withheld, and is thereby disqualified from all other Church privileges. Perhaps one of the most remarkable things connected with these terms of membership is, their extreme liberality. There is no other condition whatever imposed than that of a “ desire to flee from the wrath to come.” And this was CHAP. V.] THE CONNEXIONAL PRINCIPLE. 73 a point to which Wesley himself often called attention. As Dr. Stevens says, “His only restriction on opinions in his Societies was, that they should not be obtruded for discussion or wrangling in their devotional meetings ; not the creed of a man, but his moral conduct respecting it, was a question of discipline with primitive Methodism. The possible results of such liberality were once discussed in the Conference. Wesley conclusively determined the debate by remarking : ‘ I have no more right to object to a man for holding a different opinion from me, than I have to differ with a man because he wears a wig and I wear my own hair ; but if he takes his wig off, and begins to shake the powder about my eyes, I shall consider it my duty to get quit of him as soon as possible.’ “Is a man,’ he writes, ‘a believer in Jesus Christ, and is his life suitable to his profession ? are not only the main, hut the sole inquiries I make in order to his admission into our Society/” THE CONNEXIONAL PRINCIPLE. One of the peculiarities of Methodism is what is called “ the Connexional principle.” In this respect it differs from the order and organization of other Churches, except perhaps the Moravian, from which probably Mr. Wesley first derived the idea, and laid down the platform of the Connexion. According to this principle, wherever a Society was formed, whether composed of few or of many members, in England or in any other part of the world, it became united firmly with all who acknowledged Mr. Wes- ley as their head, and, since his death, with all the Societies under the direction of the British Conference. The United Societies are consequently an association of Christian men, who from choice, without coercion of any kind, determine to adopt these Buies, be bound by these laws, submit to this discipline ; acknowledge the same pastorate, and labour to carry out the same designs. By this means, not only is a powerful agency exerted to preserve and control what may have been attained and realized, but a mighty power is brought into force, by which aggressive 74 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. action may be taken upon tbe world. The strong help the weak, and the weak are made strong by the support derived. When needful, the combined force of the whole can be brought to bear upon any particular subject, and promote the common cause. This is one reason why Methodism has made such rapid progress in the world. The only qualified exceptions to this rule at the present time are, the Methodist Episcopal Church, of America, and the affiliated Conferences in other countries, as the I'esult of missionary labours and enterprise. But even with these the same principle prevails, with varied adaptation to the peculiar state and wants of the country in which each Conference is held. That particular action which enabled Mr. Wesley and his successors to adopt and carry out the Connexional principle was, the quarterly visitation of the Classes,' — first by Mr. Wesley himself, and afterwards by his instruments, — at which the “ticket” of membership was given, by which the person receiving it became a member of the Society, and personally identified with it. As Dr. Smith observes, “ This arrangement, valuable and excellent in itself, led to another important usage. Wesley, giving an account of it, says, ‘As the Society increased, I found it required still greater care to separate the precious from the vile. In order to this I determined, at least once in three months, to talk with every member myself, and to inquire at their own mouths, as well as of their Leaders and neighbours, whether they grew in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ To each of the persons thus spoken to, whose conduct was satisfactory, Wesley gave a ticket, on which he wrote the member’s name. This ticket enabled the person to obtain anywhere the privilege of being a member, and was, says Wesley, ‘just of the same force as the commendatory letters mentioned by the Apostle.’ ” This usage, established by Wesley, and strictly adhered to ever since, involved more than was at first contemplated. The Connexion is now one vast brotherhood throughout the world, with the Conference at its head. The manner in which Mr. Wesley personally visited CHAP. V.] THE CONNEXION AL PRINCIPLE. 75 every Society, and examined every member, for many years, is truly marvellous. His travelling, his preaching, his publication of books, &c., were something extraordinary ; but when there were added to these the visitation of the Classes, and the personal examination of each member, the amount of work done becomes astounding, and it appears incredible that any one man should accomplish so much. “The steady and zealous attention of Wesley to the character, conduct, and spiritual state of the individual members of his Societies is truly remarkable. In 1745 he carefully examined the Society in London one hy one, and wrote a list of the whole with his own hand, numbered from 1 to 2008. In 1746 he repeated this operation, and wrote another list, in which the number was reduced to 1989.” Wesley having secured the personal inspection of the members, and being satisfied of their piety and godly lives, the various officers of the Connexion were selected and ap- pointed. First, ClassLeaders: Second, Lay Preachers: Third, Itinerant Preachers : Fourth, Stewards, to take charge of the temporal affairs of the Church. The various Church courts followed in order, as will be seen in another place : there was, first, the Quarterly Meeting, which was and is the meeting of the various officers in each Circuit, for the transaction of Circuit business. This embraces every place and Society in that Circuit, thus extending the family or Connexional range. There is, next, the District Meeting, which includes a certain number of Circuits, massed to- gether within a specified district of country. The forma- tion, however, of the District is purely a Methodistical arrangement, having no reference whatever to the divisions of England into counties, but made solely for the con- venience and prosperity of the work. There is, lastly, the Conference, which includes all the Districts in the kingdom, and extends its ample range and influence over the whole. Truly this organization is wonderfully simple, beautiful, and effective. The machine is complete, symmetrical, and easily worked. There is the centre spring and power, first in Mr. Wesley, and afterwards in the Conference ; and this power is felt through the whole of the ramifications ; all 76 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. the wheels, and joints, and pulleys, and pins, and shafts, and rods, performing their allotted part, and ministering to the efficiency of the whole. Yes, and all this without previous design and arrangement, so far as Mr. Wesley and his successors were concerned. Each part arose, or was called for, or was taken hold upon, to meet some emergency, some felt want. Hence, nothing is cumbrous, nothing is superfluous, nothing inefficient. Sometimes there has been a little jar and a slight breakage, which has thrown a few members and Ministers off ; but the breakage has soon been repaired, and the machine has gone on, often with greater harmony and power than before. CHAP. VI.] COMMENCEMENT OF LAY PREACHING. 77 CHAPTER VI. THE COMMENCEMENT OF LAY PREACHING, AND ORDINATION OF THE FIRST REGULAR MINISTERS. The establishment of lay preaching was an important step in advancing separation from the Established Church. This serious innovation greatly shocked Wesley’s High Church prejudices, and required a marked interposition of God’s providence to enable him to enter upon its organiza- tion. He had not contemplated such a result to his labours, and evidently was not prepared for it. His brother Charles was also strongly opposed to it. But in this, as in other things, let God make the path plain, and the consequences are not regarded by him. That the will of God was clearly made known, the facts will prove. Happily for John Wesley and the world, his devoted and exemplary mother was at hand, to render that advice at this critical moment which was so greatly needed. How does God take care of His own cause, and provide for unforeseen consequences! “ Several Preachers,” says the Bev. Richard Watson, “ were now employed by Mr. Wesley to assist in the growing- work, which already had swelled beyond even his and his brother’s active powers suitably to supply with the minis- tration of the word of God. Mr. Charles Wesley had dis- couraged this from the beginning, and even he himself hesitated; but, with John, the promotion of religion was the first concern, and Church order the second, although inferior in consideration to that only. With Charles these views were often reversed. Mr. Wesley, in the year 1741, had to caution his brother against joining the Moravians, after the example of Mr. Gambold, to which he was at that time inclined ; and adds, ‘ I am not clear, that brother Maxfield should not expound at Greyhound Lane, nor can I as yet do without him. Our Clergymen have miscarried full as much as the laymen ; [and that the Moravians are 78 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. other than laymen, I know not.] ’ Mr. Maxfield’s preaching- had the strong sanction of the Countess of Huntingdon ; hut so little of design, with reference to the forming of a sect, had Mr. Wesley, in the employment of Mr. Maxfield, that, in his own absence from London, he had only autho- rized him to pray with the Society, and to advise them as might be needful ; and upon his beginning to preach, he hastened back to silence him. On this his mother addressed him : ‘ John, you know what my sentiments have been. You cannot suspect me of favouring readily any thing of this kind. But take care what you do with respect to that young man ; for he is as surely called of God to preach, as you are. Examine what have been the fruits of his preaching, and hear him also yourself.’ He took this advice, and could not venture to forbid him. “ His defence of himself on this point we may pronounce irrefutable ; and it turns upon the disappointment of his hopes, that the parochial Clergy would take the charge of those who, in different places, had been brought to God by his ministry, and that of his fellow-labourers. “ ‘ It pleased God,’ says Mr. Wesley, ‘ by two or three Ministers of the Church of England, to call many sinners to repentance, who, in several parts, were undeniably turned from a course of sin to a course of holiness. “ ‘ The Ministers of the places where this was done ought to have received those Ministers with open arms ; and to have taken those persons who had just begun to serve God, into their particular care ; watching over them in tender love, lest they should fall back into the snare of the devil. “ ‘ Instead of this, the greater part spoke of those Minis- ters, as if the devil, not God, had sent them. Some repelled them from the Lord’s table ; others stirred up the people against them, representing them, even in their public dis- courses, as fellows not fit to live ; Papists, heretics, traitors ; conspirators against their King and country. “ ‘ And how did they watch over the sinners lately reformed ? Even as a leopard watcheth over his prey. They drove some of them from the Lord’s table ; to which, till now, they had no desire to approach. They preached 'CHAP. VI.] COMMENCEMENT OF LAY PREACHING. 79 all manner of evil concerning them, openly cursing them in the name of the Lord. They turned many out of their work, persuaded others to do so too, and harassed them in all manner of ways. “ ‘ The event was, that some were wearied out, and so turned back to the vomit again: and then these good Pastors gloried over them, and endeavoured to shake others by their example. “ ‘ When the Ministers, hy whom God had helped them before, came again to those places, great part of their work was to begin again, if it could be begun again ; but the relapsers were often so hardened in sin, that no impression could be made upon them. “ ‘ What could they do in a case of so extreme necessity, where so many souls lay at stake ? “ ‘ No Clergyman would assist at all. The expedient that remained was, to find some one among themselves who was upright of heart, and of sound judgment in the things of God ; and to desire him to meet the rest as often as he could, in order to confirm them, as he was able, in the ways of God, either by reading to them, or by prayer, or by exhortation.’ “ This statement may indeed be considered as affording the key to all that which, with respect to Church order, may be called irregularity in Mr. Wesley’s future pro- ceedings. God had given him large fruits of his ministry in various places ; when he was absent from them, the people were ‘ as sheep having no shepherd,’ or were rather perse- cuted by their natural Pastors, the Clergy; he was reduced, therefore, to the necessity of leaving them without religious care, or of providing it for them. He wisely chose the latter ; but, true to his own principles, and even prejudices, he carried this no farther than the necessity of the case : the hours of service were in no instance to interfere with those of the Establishment, and at the parish church the members were exhorted to communicate. Thus a religious society was raised up within the national Church, and with this anomaly, that, as to all its interior arrangements as a society, it was independent of the ecclesiastical authority of that Church. The irregularity was, in principle, as 80 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. great when the first step was taken as at any future time. It was a form of practical and partial separation, though not of theoretical dissent ; but it arose out of a moral necessity, and existed for some years in such a state, that, had the Clergy been disposed to co-operate in this evident revival and spread of true religion, and had the heads of the Church been willing to sanction itinerant labours among its Ministers, and private religious meetings among the serious part of the people for mutual edification, the great body of Methodists might have been retained in com- munion with the Church of England.” * How cautiously does Wesley proceed, whilst he is stag- gered at what is going on around him! In “The Large Minutes” he gives this brief account of the origin of this assistance in preaching : “After a time a young man named Thomas Maxfield came and desired to help me as a son in the Gospel : soon after came a second, Thomas Richards : and then a third, Thomas Westell. These severally desired to serve me as sons, and to labour when and where I should direct.” It would be agreeable to the writer to supply here some details respecting these men and their early labours ; but want of space will not allow him to do so. He must therefore refer the reader to Jackson’s “ Lives of Early Methodist Preachers,” and to Dr. Smith’s and Dr. Ste- vens’ Histories of Methodism ; only stating in general, that they were men truly converted to God ; that they were filled with loving zeal for the souls of men, and were willing to labour and suffer for their salvation. Mr. Jackson, in his “ Centenary ” volume, thus describes them : “ Some of Mr. Wesley’s early Preachers were men of strong intellect, and attained to considerable eminence in sacred scholarship. Thomas Olivers, originally a shoemaker and a young man of profligate habits, became not only an excellent Christian, hut an able and powerful Preacher. He wrote several polemical tracts, which reflect great credit upon his theological attainments, and his ability as a reasoner. The fine hymns, beginning, ‘ Lo, He comes, with clouds descending,’ * Watson’s Life of Wesley, pp. 94-97 CHAP. VI.] COMMENCEMENT OF LAY PREACHING. 81 and, ‘ The God of Abraham praise,’ were both his composition ; and also the beautiful and appropriate tune which is set to the first of them in Mr. Wesley’s ‘ Sacred Harmony.’ Thomas Walsh, Mr. Wes- ley declares to have been the best biblical scholar with whom he was ever acquainted. Though he died at the early age of twenty-eight, yet, says Mr. Wesley, ‘ if he was questioned concerning any Hebrew’ word in the Old, or any Greek word in the New, Testament, he would tell, after a little pause, not only how often the one or the other occurred in the Bible, but also what it meant in every place. Such a master of biblic knowledge I never saw before, and never expect to see again.’ Others of them were well acquainted with the English Scriptures, with Christian theology, and especially with the nature of personal religion ; and that they were able and effective Preachers, is attested by the fruit of their labours in every part of the land. ‘ In one thing which they profess to know,’ says Mr. Wesley, ‘ they are not ignorant men. I trust there is not one of them who is not able to go through such an examination, in sub- stantial, practical, experimental divinity, as few of our candidates for holy orders, even in the University, (I speak it with sorrow and shame, and in tender love,) are able to do. But 0, what manner of examination do most of those candidates go through ! and what proof are the testimonials commonly brought, (as solemn as the form is wherein they run,) either of their piety or knowledge, to whom are entrusted those sheep which God hath purchased with His own blood ! ’ ” Thus was Mr. Wesley borne onward by a tide of events which was resistless. The first departure from the regular order of the Church hierarchy involved in its consequences the raising up of a Ministry which now numbers its thou- sands, who have proclaimed Divine and saving truth to millions of the human race ; and if peopling heaven with a multitude of redeemed and happy souls, and filling the Church on earth with tens of thousands of devoted and consistent Christians, be any signs of a true scriptural Ministry, then may Wesleyan Ministers say, “The seals of G 82 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. our Apostlesliip are ye in the Lord.” This Ministry has extended its operations to distant lands, and in many languages of the Babel world does it now show forth the unsearchable riches of Christ. These lines are written by one of these men on one of the many Missions in the towns and among the native tribes of South Africa. ORDINATION. I give prominence to this subject for two reasons. First, because of its own intrinsic importance ; second, because of the pertinacity with which it was and still is disputed and rejected by many of the adherents of the Established Church in England, and by the Ejnscopcd ( not established) Churches in the Colonies. I have had anrple proof of what is Contained in the following quotations. “ The per- sistent misrepresentations of him (Wesley) on this point are astonishing. The Bev. Edmund Sj'dney (‘ Life of Walker of Truro,’ p. 260) says, that when he wanted ordained Preachers for America, he, of a sudden, in his old age, found out, by Lord King’s account of the primitive Church, that Bishops and Presbyters were of the same order ! ’ This inexcusable violation of historical truth is common in the writings of Churchmen against Methodism.” So long as these misstatements came only before educated Englishmen, the consequences were not serious ; but when they are made use of to influence natives, just emerging from heathenism, and unable to understand the real merits of the case, it is far otherwise, and the facts require to be placed in the most clear and convincing light possible. Dr. Smith thus fairly introduces the subject: “It is a remarkable fact, that as, at the English Conference this year, the Deed of Declaration, which gave consistency and perma- nence to Methodism in Britain, was announced as enrolled and in operation ; so, at the same assembly of his Preachers, Wesley determined upon carrying out the measure which, under God, has been the means of raising the Methodist Societies in America into the state and condition of a Christian Church. “ There is scarcely any action which occurred in the long and eventful life of the founder of Methodism of more CHAP. VI.] ORDINATION OF THE FIRST REGULAR MINISTERS. 83 intrinsic importance than that which effected this great object, and perhaps not one which has been more fiercely and foully censured. It is necessary, therefore, to give a clear and faithful account of the whole proceeding. “ Notwithstanding the early zeal of Wesley for Church order, and his continued adherence to the National Estab- lishment, he had been convinced that Bishops and Pres- byters are essentially of the same order in the Christian Church, and consequently that whatever religious right or power is inherent in one, is equally possessed by the other ; and therefore that both are equally authorized to ordain, or set apart, suitable persons for the office of the Christian ministry. “ It was not, therefore, from any sense of inability that Wesley allowed his Preachers in England to remain in the position of laymen, and the great majority of his Societies to continue without the administration of the sacraments in their own places of worship. He fully believed that he possessed the scriptural power and right to supply all this want,- — to place his Societies everywhere in the position of Churches, and himself in the character of a scriptural Bishop over the largest spiritual flock in the country. And it would be well if those who sneer at the conscientious- ness of this great and good man, and dilate on his ambition and love of power, would trouble themselves to reconcile these ascriptions of character with his conduct in this respect. Why did not Wesley take this course ? Because he considered the orders of ministry in the Established Church reasonable and useful as human arrangements ; and because he felt conscientiously bound to remain all his life in communion with this Church, and, as far as in him lay, to keep his people in the same path. To secure this object, he subjected himself and them to violent perse- cution,— from which the plea of Dissent would have given full protection, — and retained his Societies in a disadvan- tageous and anomalous position. And, so long as the Ame- rican colonies were subject to the British Government, he pursued a similar course in that country.” Accordingly Mr. Wesley and Dr. Coke, assisted by Mr. Creighton, all three being by ordination Presbyters of the g 2 84 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART r.. Clmrcli of England, ordained Mr. Richard Whatcoat and Mr. Thomas Yasey Presbyters to the Wesleyan Church in America. Mr. Wesley afterwards ordained Dr. Coke as Superintendent, giving him letters of ordination under his own hand and seal. On a subject of so much importance., and one against which so much opposition has been brought, Mr. Wesley ought to be heard for himself. In the following letter, which Dr. Coke was to take with him to America, and have printed and circulated on his arrival there, he states the whole subject in a very brief and lucid manner. “Bristol, September 10 th, 1784. “To Dr. Coke, Mr. Asbury, and our other Brethren in North America. “By a very uncommon train of providences, many of the provinces of North America are totally disjoined from their mother country, and erected into independent States. The English Government has no authority over them, either civil or ecclesiastical, any more than over the States of Holland. A civil authority is exercised over them, partly by the Congress, partly by the Provincial Assem- blies. But no one either exercises or claims any ecclesi- astical authority at all. In this peculiar situation, some thousands of the inhabitants of these States desire my advice ; and, in compliance with their desire, I have drawn up a little sketch. “ Lord King’s account of the Primitive. Church con- vinced me, many years ago, that Bishops and Presbyters are the same order, and consequently have the same right to ordain. For many years I have been importuned, from time to time, to exercise this right by ordaining part of our Travelling Preachers. But I have still refused, not only for peace sake, but because I was determined as little as possible to violate the established order of the National Church, to which I belonged. “ But the case is widely different between England and North America. Here there are Bishops who have a legal jurisdiction. In America there are none. Neither any parish Ministers. So that, for some hundreds of miles together, there is none either to baptize or to administer CHAP. VI.] ORDINATION OF THE FIRST REGULAR MINISTERS. 85 ■the Lord’s Supper. Here, therefore, my scruples are at an end ; and I conceive myself at full liberty, as I violate no order, and invade no man’s right, by appointing and sending labourers into the harvest. “ I have accordingly appointed Hr. Coke and Mr. Francis Asbury to be joint Superintendents over our brethren in North America ; as also Richard Wliatcoat and Thomas Yasey to act as Elders among them, by bap- tizing and administering the Lord’s Supper. And I have prepared a Liturgy, little different from that of the Church of England, (I think the best constituted national Church in the world,) which I advise all the Travelling Preachers to use on the Lord’s day in all the congregations, reading the Litany only on Wednesdays and Fridays, and praying- extempore on all other days. I also advise the Elders to administer the Supper of the Lord on every Lord’s day. “ If any one will point out a more rational and scriptural way of feeding and guiding these poor sheep in the wilder- ness, I will gladly embrace it. At present, I cannot see any better method than that I have taken. “ It has, indeed, been proposed to desire the English Bishops to ordain a part of our Preachers for America. But to this I object, 1. I desired the Bishop of London to ordain only one, but could not prevail. 2. If they con- sented, we know the slowness of their proceedings ; but the matter admits of no delay. 3. If they would ordain them now, they would likewise expect to govern them. And how grievously would this entangle us ! 4. As our Ame- rican brethren are now totally disentangled both from the State and from the English hierarchy, we dare not entangle them again either with the one or the other. They are now at full liberty simply to follow the Scriptures and primitive Church. And we judge it best, that they should stand fast in that liberty, wherewith God has so strangely made them free. “ John Wesley.” As in the early Church in Alexandria Presbyters ordained Bishops, so Mr. Wesley believed that he and -other Presbyters of the Church of England had power to 86 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. ordain not only Presbyters, but even Bishops for America. He accordingly used this power ; the result of which is, that the Methodist Church in America has been Episcopal ever since ; Philip Asbury being the first Bishop ordained by Dr. Coke. Dr. Stevens thus further states the case : — “It is another of the great providential facts of his history, that the same year which thus gave a constitu- tional security to Methodism in Great Britain, was signal- ized by its episcopal organization in America ; a measure which, by its consequences, may well be ranked among the most important events of Wesley’s important life. Here again did he follow, with simple wisdom, the guidance of that Divine Providence, the recognition of which, in the affairs of men, and especially in the affairs of the Church, was the crowning maxim of his philosophy and the crowning fact of his policy. He had been providentially preparing for this new and momentous exigency by that gradual development of his personal opinions, which we have already traced. Bigoted even, as a High Church- man, at the beginning of his career, we have seen him, year after year, reaching more liberal views of ecclesias- tical policy. Nearly forty years before his ordinations for America, he had, after reading Lord King’s ‘ Primitive Church,’ renounced the opinion that a distinction of order, rather than of office, existed between Bishops and Pres- byters. Fifteen years later he denied the necessity, though not the expediency, of eqiiscopal ordination. Bishop Stil- lingfleet had convinced him that it wras ‘ an entire mistake, that none but episcopal ordination was valid.’ Henceforth he held that Presbyters and Bishops, identical in order, differing only in office, had essentially the same right of ordination. It was not possible for a man like Wesley, keen, quick, fearless, and candid, to remain long in any ecclesiastical prejudice, now that he was on this track of progressive opinions. He soon broke away from all other regard for questions of Church government than that of scriptural expediency. And as early as 1756, when in his maturest intellectual vigour, he declares : ‘ As to my own judgment, I still believe the episcopal form of Church government to be scriptural and apostolical ; I mean, well CHAP. VI.] ORDINATION OF THE FIRST REGULAR MINISTERS. 87 agreeing with the practice and writings of the Apostles ; hut that it is prescribed in Scripture I do not believe. This opinion, which I once zealously espoused, I have been heartily ashamed of ever since I read Bishop Stilling- fleet’s “ Irenicum.” I think he has unanswerably proved that “ neither Christ nor His Apostles prescribe any par- ticular form of Church government, and that the plea of Divine right for diocesan episcopacy was never heard of in the Primitive Church.” ’ ” The subject is thus settled, so far as America is concerned ; but how are Scotland and England to be dealt with? In answering this question, it will be needful to anticipate dates and events somewhat ; but it is better to do this than to break the course of the narrative. The claims of Scotland were first met. At the Conference of 1785, only one year after the provision made for America, Ministers were ordained for Scotland. As Dr. Smith writes, “ Wesley proceeded to provide, as far as circumstances permitted, for the spiritual wants of his people. He accordingly informs us in his ‘Journal’ under this date, that, ‘ having with a few select friends weighed the matter thoroughly, I yielded to their judgment, and set apart three of our well tried Preachers, John Pawson, Thomas Hanby, and Joseph Taylor, to minister in Scotland ; and I trust God will bless their ministrations, and show that He has sent them. On Wednesday our peaceful Conference ended, the God of power having presided over all our consulta- tions.’ The evident object of these ordinations was to enable Methodist Preachers to administer the sacraments in all those places in which the Church of England had no status. America had been provided for at the preceding Conference ; the wants of Scotland were now met.” Having proceeded so far, Wesley found it difficult to stop ; the more so, as the state of things in England had become perplexing and painful. Large numbers of his people became so utterly dissociated from the State Church, that they mingled but little in its ordinances ; many of them, not at all. Indeed, although he persevered with so much pertinacity in urging them to attend church as he did himself, in many instances he was so humbled and ashamed 88 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. at the manner in which the services were conducted, that he could not conscientiously urge his people to continue their attendance. Many of them had been baptized by himself, and by other Church Ministers who had laboured with him ; and these had scarcely been in a church at all ; so that, to a great extent, those who adhered to him had no opportunity of receiving the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Thus the want became so pressing, and the cry so loud and long, that he at length yielded ; and, being assisted by two other Church Ministers, ordained Messrs. Mather, Rankin, and Moore. “ Besides these regulations which appear in the ‘ Minutes,’ it is known that on this occasion Wesley, assisted by the Rev. J. Creighton and the Rev. Peard Dickenson, set apart and ordained, by inrposition of hands and prayer, Alexander Mather, Thomas Rankin, and Henry Moore, for the service of the Church in England. Mr. Mather was afterwards ordained Bishop, or Superintendent. Yet, even in this innovation on the order of the Church of England, Wesley gave clear proof that he was influenced solely by what he regarded as the urgent demands of the cause of God. For, whilst making these appointments, he earnestly advised the persons so ordained, £ that, according to his example, they should continue united to the Estab- lished Church, so far as the blessed work in which they were engaged would permit.’” His brother and Mr. Whitehead severely condemned these measures, as completing the separation from the Established Church: for, although Mr. Wesley wished the men thus ordained to continue as closely united to the Church as they could, they could actually do so only in name and appearance. Either their ordination was a valid ordination, or it was not : all the parties agreed that it was a scriptural ordination. This ordination was effected in entire separation from the Established Church ; it had no connexion with it in any way farther than this, that the men who performed it were ordained Ministers of that Church. How then it could be less than giving a separate, independ- ent, ecclesiastical status to these men, it is difficult to conceive. The following remarks from Dr. Rigg’s “ Essays for the Times ” may fittingly close this chapter : CHAP. VI.J ORDINATION OF THE FIRST REGULAR MINISTERS. 89 “He was persuaded that it was not his vocation to lead away a separation, or fully to organize an independent Church. In his lifetime at least, he trusted to be able to prevent such a consummation. He ordained Ministers to give the sacraments in different parts of England, as well as in Scotland and America, that he might thus still the just outcry of the people whom the parish Clergy drove from the Lord’s table, or who could not receive the com- munion from the hands of openly immoral ‘ Priests.’ By this measure he put off the inevitable day of avowed separation. But he only put it off. He was even in postpon- ing it educating both the people and their Preachers for the state of separation, and the mutual relations which that state would involve. No doubt he saw this. But his plan through life had been to trust and follow Providence, not anticipating troubles before the time, nor allowing himself to be deterred by probable consequences, by diffi- culties and complications looming in the future, from do- ing what he felt to he right and needful for the time pre- sent. He trusted to Providence the future of the people whom he had been the instrument of raising up. Was there not a Conference of Preachers ? Were there not among them men of counsel and might ? Had they not before their eyes the precedent of an independent and organized Methodism in America ? Was not Dr. Coke, who had acted in America as ‘ Superintendent,’ a member of the British Conference ? And was there not the same God to guide the Preachers in Conference, as there had been to guide him? ” In treating the subject of the ordination of Wesley’s Itinerant Preachers in this place, the order of Circuits has been considerably anticipated ; but the writer thought the order of subjects more important than the undisturbed record of dates, as by this means the rise of Lay Preachers, the gradual development of Itinerant Preachers, and ulti- mately the establishment of a regularly ordained Ministry follow each other in proper succession ; the reader’s atten- tion not being diverted by the introduction of other subjects, nor having again to take up that which had partially passed from the mind. 90 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. CHAPTER VII. THE FIRST CONFERENCE (1744) ; AND THE CONFERENCE OF 1769. Having, in the last chapter, traced the institution of the regular Ministry from its beginning, I shall devote my next historic notes to the basis upon which the govern- ment of the Methodist Church rests. This consists in the establishment of the Annual Conference, which became the conscious and governing power in the Connexion, and in its present matured and permanent form gives separate and independent existence to the Wesleyan Church. The first Conference was held in London, beginning on the 25th of June, 1744. Matters of great moment, relating to the wonderful work already accomplished and the best methods to be adopted in the future, rendered the Conference neces- sary. Some of these stirring events are thus recorded by Dr. Stevens : “ The year 1744 was to be signalized in the history of Methodism not only by the first session of the Wesleyan Conference, but by formidable trials. Before the Confer- ence Wesley made rapid excursions into various parts of England and Wales. The country was in general com- motion, occasioned by threatened invasions from France and Spain, and by the movements of the Scotch Pretender. Reports were rife that the Methodist Preachers were in collusion with the Papal Stuart. All sorts of calumnies against Wesley flew over the land. He had been seen with the Pretender in France ; had been taken up for high treason, and was at last safe in prison awaiting his merited doom. He was a Jesuit, and kept Roman Priests in his house at London. He was an agent of Spain, whence he had received large remittances, in order to raise a body of twenty thousand men to aid the expected Spanish inva- sion. He was an Anabaptist; a Quaker; and had been CHAP. VII.] THE FIRST CONFERENCE. 91 prosecuted for unlawfully selling gin ; had hanged him- self ; and, at any rate, was not the genuine John Wesley, for it was known that the latter was dead and buried. That he was a disguised Papist, and an agent for the Pre- tender, was the favourite slander ; and when a proclama- tion was made- requiring all Roman Catholics to leave London, he staid a week in the city to refute the report. He was summoned by the Justices of Surrey to appear before their court, and required to take the oath of alle- giance to the King, and to sign the Declaration against Popery. Charles Wesley was actually indicted before the Magistrates in Yorkshire, because in a public prayer he had besought God to ‘call home His banished ones.’ This, it was insisted, meant the House of the Stuarts ; and he had to explain, at the tribunal, the purely spiritual mean- ing of the phrase, before he was acquitted.” Persecution of the most violent kind now raged through- out the land, and the Methodists had for a time the honour of being the “sect everywhere spoken against.” (Acts xxviii. 23.) Mohs, roused to fury, and in many places led on by the Episcopal Clergy, resorted to every kind of violence, in order to drive away or destroy the hated messengers of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the same time many members of the Society were rudely repelled from the Table of the Lord, and were in very deed treated as “the tilth and offscouring of all things.” The reader will carefully note that the Conference did not take its origin from any preconceived notion or the working out of any previously arranged plan ; but was, like all other parts of the Wesleyan economy, the creation of circumstances, — a necessity arising out of the develop- ment of the work, and the need for combined action in the future. Thus Dr. Stevens again writes, speaking of harassing and revolting persecution : “It is not surprising that the scholarly mind of Wesley sometimes revolted from such scenes. ‘I found,’ he writes, ‘ a natural wish, 0 for ease and a resting-place ! Not yet, hut eternity is at hand.’ Amid these very agitations he was planning for a still more energetic prosecution of the great work which was manifestly henceforth to occupy his 92 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. life. He wrote letters to several Clergymen, and to his lay assistants, inviting them to meet him in London, and to give him ‘ their advice respecting the best method of carry- ing on the work of God.’ And thus was called together the first Methodist Conference, on Monday, the 25th of June, 1744. It was held in the Foundry, London. On the preceding day the regular Clergymen and lay Preachers who had responded to the call took the Lord’s Supper together. On the morning of the first session Charles Wesley preached before them. Besides the Wesleys there were present four ordained Ministers of the Church of England : John Hodges, Rector of Wenvo, Wales, a friend and co-labourer of the Wesleys in the Principality, who not only opened his own pulpit to them, but accompanied them in their different routes and out-door preaching ; Henry Piers, the Vicar of Bexley, a convert of Charles Wesley, and whose pulpit and home were ever open to him and his brother ; Samuel Taylor, Vicar of Quinton, whose church the Wesleys always occupied when passing through that parish, and who himself was known as an itinerant evangelist ; and John Meriton, a Clergyman from the Isle of Man, who itinerated extensively in both England and Ireland. It has usually been supposed that these six regular Clergymen composed the first Wesleyan Confer- ence. There were present, however, from among the Lay Preachers, Thomas Maxfield, Thomas Richards, John Bennet, and John Downes. “ The Conference being opened, regulations were imme- diately adopted for its own government. They were marked by the simplicity and purely evangelical character with which the Methodistic movement had thus far been cha- racterized, and also by that charitable freedom of opinion which it has ever since been at least an indirect tendency of Methodism to promote. ‘ It is desired,’ said these good men, ‘ that everything be considered as in the immediate presence of God, that we may meet with a single eye, and as little children who have everything to learn ; that every point may be examined from the foundation ; that every person may speak freely what is in his heart, and that every question proposed may be fully debated and “bolted CHAP. VII.] THE FIRST CONFERENCE. 93 to the bran.” ’ It was a question formally proposed, ‘ How far does each agree to submit to the unanimous judgment of the rest ? ’ The answer is worthy of perpetual remem- brance. ‘ In speculative things each can only submit so far as his judgment shall be convinced ; in every practical point, so far as we can, without wounding our several consciences.’ Should they be fearful, it was asked, of thoroughly debating every question which might arise ? ‘What are we afraid of? Of overturning our first prin- ciples ? If they are false, the sooner they are overturned the better. If they are true, they will bear the strictest examination. Let us all pray for a willingness to receive light to know every doctrine whether it be of God.’ “ Having settled its own regulations, the Conference suspended its business for an interval of prayer, after which it proceeded to consider, first, What to teach ; second, What to do, or how to regulate the doctrine, dis- cipline, and practice of the Ministry and the Society. These propositions comprehended the scope of its further deliberations. The first two days were spent in discus- sions of the theology necessary to be maintained in their preaching ; and the whole record of the debate vindicates the representation already made of the disposition of the Methodist founders to avoid unnecessary dogmatics, by confining their discussions to those vital truths which appertain to personal religion. Repentance, Faith, Justi- fication, Sanctification, the Witness of the Spirit, were defined with precision. No other tenets were discussed except as they were directly related to these. “ On the third, fourth, and fifth days, questions of dis- cipline and methods of preaching were examined. The relations of the Methodist Societies to the Church of England were considered. Secession from the Establish- ment was discountenanced, but evidence was given that Wesley’s opinions of ‘ Church order ’ had already under- gone a liberal improvement “ On Friday the little band dispersed, to proclaim again their message through the country. They made no pro- vision for future sessions ; they apparently had no definite conceptions of the great work in which they found them- 94 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [part I. selves involved, except the suggestion of their spiritual faith, that God would not allow it to come to nought with- out first morally renovating the Churches of the land. Any organic preparations for its future course would pro- bably have interfered with the freedom and efficiency of its development. History teaches that men raised up for great events are usually endowed with wisdom and energy for their actual circumstances, and seldom effect momentous changes on hypothetical schemes ; and that even the con- stitutions of states are best when they arise from gradual growths. Great men are God’s special agents, and they are not only good, but great, in proportion as they are co- workers together with Him, using to the utmost their present resources, and trusting the results to His fore- seeing wisdom. Such an anticipation of the result as might fit them intellectually to forecast it, might unfit them morally to achieve it. We behold with admiration the prodigious agency of Luther in the modern progress of the world, but we can hardly conceive that he could have anticipated it without being thereby morally dis- qualified for it. Most of the practical peculiarities of Methodism would have been pronounced impracticable if suggested before the exigencies which originated them. To have supposed that hundreds of thousands of the common people could he gathered, and kept from year to year, in weekly Class-meetings, for direct conversation and inqui- sition respecting their personal religious experience, and that such a fact should become the basis of one of the most extended forms of English Protestantism ; that a Ministry for these multitudes could be raised up among themselves, a Ministry without education, many of its members, according to their critics, eccentric and predis- posed to enthusiasm, if not fanaticism, and yet kept from doctrinal heresies ; that they could he trained to habits of ministerial prudence and dignity, and to the most syste- matic methods of evangelical labour known in the modern Church ; that with uncertain salaries, and generally with severe want, they should devotedly adhere to their work : that generation after generation they should consent to the extraordinary inconveniences of their ministerial itine- CHAP. VII.] CONFERENCE OF 1769. 95 rancy, to be torn up with their families every two or three years from their homes and Churches, and dispatched they knew not whither, — such unparalleled measures, pro- posed beforehand, would have seemed, to thoughtful men, preposterous dreams. Yet more than a hundred years have shown them to be not only practicable, but effective beyond any other contemporary means of religious pro- gress. That Wesley did not seek to anticipate the wants of Methodism, except in the most obvious instances, was both a reason and a proof of his practical ability to meet them when they came.” Such is an account of the calling and action of the first Methodist Conference. Well may it be said, “Whereunto has it grown ! ” since there are now many Methodist Conferences in the world. CONFERENCE OF 1769. In the preparation of this work I have thought it best to observe the order of events, and to note specially the principal epochs, rather than merely chronicle the details of each successive year. Thus the first Conference, held in 1744, was an important epoch in the history of Method- ism. The Society then received a separate and distinct organization : the Conference became the centre of union and the source of strength ; and its members went forth, guided by fixed rules, preaching the same doctrines, and aiming at one great end ; namely, the conversion of souls to Christ, and “ spreading scriptural holiness throughout the land.” Those who desire to trace the regular order of occurrences in the detail of dates, will do well to turn to the History of Methodism by Dr. George Smith, and also that by Dr. Abel Stevens. The Conference of 1769 is selected as another important epoch ; this being the one at which an appeal from Ame- rica was received, for the appointment of Ministers to that country, and from which the first two Ministers were sent to that vast continent and people. Other matters of great importance were also discussed and settled by this assem- bly, which was held in Leeds, and commenced on the 21st of August. During the cycle of twenty-five years, — a 96 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. quarter of a century, — the work had rapidly progressed, acquiring greater consistency and gathering fresh force, until its momentum had become very great, and was exten- sively felt. In 1744 the number of Circuits was nine ; now they had increased to fifty-six. There were then half a dozen Lay Preachers ; now the number of Itinerants was about eighty, besides a large staff of Local Preachers and Class Leaders. There were now 28,263 members of Soci- ety, besides the large numbers who attended the chapels, but were not enrolled as members. Many chapels had been built in different parts of Great Britain, and also in Ireland. Kingswood School had also been founded, for the education of Ministers’ sons. The great event of this Conference was the appointment of Bicliard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor as the first Ministers to America. In the year 1760, the first Methodists, from among the Palatines in Ireland, emigrated to America, among whom were PhilipEmery and Barbara Hick. They were afterwards joined by another party in 1765, when public worship was commenced, and a Class formed. Subsequently they were greatly strengthened by the arrival of Captain Webb ; and a chapel was built in New York, — the first Wesleyan chapel erected in America. Being thus prepared of the Lord, this active little band sent a pressing request to Mr. Wesley for regular Preachers to be appointed. “ It was at this Conference that the first appeal for Methodist preaching from America was presented by Wesley. ‘ Who is willing to go?’ he asked. Bichard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor responded, and were appointed to the dis- tant field. The occasion could not fail to produce a deep interest in the assembly. Methodism had already begun its work in the West Indies by Nathaniel Gilbert, who had formed a Society of two hundred Negroes in Antigua. Whitefield had spread it in spirit and power among the Independent Churches of North America, where he was about to die. It was now to take an organic form in the New World by the agency of Wesley’s Lay Preachers. ‘ What can we do further in token of our brotherly love ? ’ he asked, after the appointment .of Boardman and Pilmoor. £ Let us now make a collection among ourselves,’ was the CHAP. VII.] CONFERENCE OF 1769. 97 prompt response, and the liberal sum of £70 was collected among these generous men, most of whom were habitual sufferers from want. Twenty of the seventy pounds were appropriated for the voyage of the two Missionaries, and fifty were sent toward paying the debt of c Wesley Chapel,’ the first that ever bore that name, and the first Methodist church of the Western hemisphere.” Another subject, which had acquired considerable im- portance, was, the manner in which the Preachers and their families were to be supported . Something had already been done with this object in view, and a small pittance had been allowed to these hard-working men ; hut no step had been taken towards providing support for their wives and families. About two thirds of the Ministers were un- married, and those who had wives did not know how to live. Under these circumstances some of the Preachers had, up to a recent date, been engaged in trade, in order to supplement their small income. But at the Conference of 1768 it was ascertained that the increase of Circuits and members was not satisfactory. This led to searching in- vestigation as to the cause ; and, among other things, it Avas thought that the circumstance of Preachers being en- gaged in trade had an injurious effect upon the work ; — not that they usually carried on business in their own names ; hut even when it was done by means of agents, it was thought to be a serious evil. The result of the dis- cussion on this question was embodied in a resolution affirming the impropriety of Itinerant Preachers carrying on trade, and an earnest exhortation to all Preachers who had been engaged therein, “to give up all, and attend to the one business.” No unnecessary delay was to be allowed in carrying out the measure. “It is true,” says the Minute on the subject, “this cannot he done on a sudden; hut it may between this and the next Con- ference.” At the following Conference, (that of 1769,) the subject of the support of Preachers’ wives was seriously discussed ; and the decision arrived at was, that a small allowance should be made, probably on the ground that the Preachers had been required to give up all trade, and devote all their H 98 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. time, energies, and attention to tlie work of Christ. The following statement, given in Dr. Smith’s words, will be interesting to all Methodists, and the Bradford friends especially will have the opportunity of verifying the data . “At this Conference an important discussion took place respecting a provision for Preachers’ wives. It was said, ‘ Many inconveniences have arisen from the present method of providing for Preachers’ wives. The Preachers who are most wanted in several places, cannot be sent thither be- cause they are married ; and if they are sent, the people look upon them with an evil eye, because they cannot hear the burden of their families.’ The question therefore arose, ‘ How may these inconveniences he remedied ? ’ In answer to this question, it was resolved that the Circuits should contribute according to their means toward the support of the wives of the Preachers, whether married or single Preachers were appointed to them. The allowance for a wife was, at this time, fixed at L'10 per annum, and the following kind of assessment made : — London was to con- tribute £5 per quarter, or sufficient for two ; Sussex, £2. 10s. ; Salisbury, Bradford, Bristol, Devon, Cornwall East the same, ; Cornwall West, £5 ; Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, York, Yarm, Haworth, the Dales, the same ; Staf- fordshire, Cheshire, and Derbyshire, T2. 10-s. ; Liverpool, Sheffield, T3. 15s. ; Lincolnshire East, T6 ; West, £3. l-5s. ; Bradford, £3. 15s. ; Newcastle, £7. 10s. Thus a provision was made for thirty-six wives at £2. 10s. per quarter each. There were at that time but thirty-one wives of Preachers dependent on this means of support ; and the surplus was ordered to be divided among those who had children, or according to their requirements. “ Notwithstanding these efforts to make an improved pro- vision for the Preachers, it was still very inadequate ; indeed, so much so, that besides the persecution which their labours provoked, they had to endure great, sometimes very grie- vous, privations. So extensively was this the case, that many who bade fair to be the brightest ornaments of the Wesleyan Itinerancy, as their families increased, were driven back to business, merely to obtain the ordinary necessaries of life. The following extract from the Brad- ford Circuit bookfor 1770 is given as a specimen of the CHAP. VII.] CONFERENCE OF 1769. 99 usages of the Connexion in wliat was then regarded as the advanced era of its financial movements A'. S. cl. The preacher’s quarterly hoard, 13 weeks, at 3.s. 6cl 2 5 G The preacher’s quarterage 3 0 0 Ditto ditto for the wife 1 17 G Allowed for servant 0 12 G Allowed for turnpikes 0 6 0 £8 1 G “ To those not conversant with Methodistic affairs, it may he necessary to state that the sum allowed under the head of ‘ weekly hoard ’ was designed for the maintenance of the family ; or, as it is technically entered in one page of the Society’s record, ‘ for eating.’ The ‘ quarterage ’ was intended to meet the expense of clothing, hooks, &c. Less than L33 per annum was thus the income of the Preacher and his family for clothing, maintenance, and other neces- saries ! The Preacher, it is true, was much from home ; provisions, too, must have keen considerably cheaper than at present ; yet, with, every allowance for all these, other aid must have keen imperatively necessary to enable a Preacher and his family to live.” In order to raise the additional amount required for the Preachers’ wives, it was resolved to make an annual col- lection in all the congregations. Another matter which gave Mr. Wesley and the Preachers deep concern was, the union and supervision of the Preachers and the Societies after the Founder’s death. He was now in his sixty- sixth year ; and although he felt no decay of energy, yet, judging by the most favourable average of human life, his presence could not be calculated upon much longer. So long as he was among the Preachers, they were sure to acknowledge his authority and to be guided by his counsels ; but as soon as he was dead, his authority must cease, and there was nothing to supply its place. Various methods and plans were suggested ; but these were all ultimately abandoned, or absorbed in the Deed of Declaration, which will be noticed in another place. pi 2 100 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. In the rapid progress of the work of Methodism, it had been objected that Mr. Wesley arrogated too much power to himself, and offensive epithets had been used, such as “Pope,” &c. It was admitted by his assailants that he called the Conference together for consultation ; but they asserted that at the same time he took the control of every thing into his own hands. The fact of his doing this he did not deny, but affirmed that thereby he did no one any wrong, as the Preachers were all his children in the Gospel ; besides which the Connexion was a perfectly voluntary association, and its members knew the nature of its organi- zation, and, if they did not approve of it, were under no obli- gation to unite themselves with him, or to remain in it any longer than was agreeable to them. Under these circum- stances he held that it would be unfair to attempt to force upon him a course of action contrary to the dictates of his own judgment. The reasonableness of this line of argu- ment every impartial person must admit. At the Conference of 1748 England had been divided into nine “Circuits,” arranged in the following order : “ I. — London : including, 1. London itself. 2. Kent and Surrey. 3. Essex. 4. Brentford. 5. Windsor. 6. Wycomb. 7. Oxford. 8. Beading. 9. Blueberry. 10. Salisbury. “ II. — Bristol : including, 1. Bristol itself. 2. Kings- wood. 3. Bath. 4. Bearfield. 5. The Devizes. 6. Boad. 7. Coleford. 8. Oakhill. 9- Shepton Mallard. 10. Middlesey. 11. Beercrocombe. 12. Taunton. 13. Collompton. “ III. — Cornwall : including, 1. Tavistock. 2. Plymouth Dock. 3. Trewint. 4. St. Tue. 5. Gwennap. 6. St. Agnes. 7. Illogan, &c. 8. St. Ives. 9. The Western Societies. “ IV.— Ireland : including, 1. Dublin. 2. Tullamore. 3. Tyrrel’s Pass. 4. Atlilone. “ V. — Wales: including, 1. Cardiff. 2. Fonmon. 3. Lanmais, &c. 4. Lantriffent. “VI. — Staffordshire: including, 1. Stroud. 2. Ciren- cester. 3. Stanley. 4. Evesham. 5. Wensbury. 6. Shrewsbury. 7. Leominster. CHAP. VII.] CONFERENCE OF 1769. 101 “ VII. — Cheshire : including, 1. Cheshire itself. 2. Not- tingham. 3. Derbyshire. 4. Lancashire. 5. Shef- field. “ VIII.— Yorkshire : including, 1. Leeds. 2. Birstal. 3. Keighley. 4. Acomb. 5. Syke-liouse. 6. Epwortli. 7. Hainton. 8. Grimsby. 9. The Fens. “IX. — Newcastle: including, 1. Osmotlierley. 2. New- castle itself. 3. Sunderland. 4. Biddick. 5. Burn- upfield. 6. Spen. 7. Swalwell. 8. Horseley. 9. Plessey. 10. Berwick-upon-Tweed.” This arrangement, when compared with that of the present day, strikes us with wonder, and fills the heart of every lover of Methodism with gratitude for the unexampled progress which has been made in little more than one hundred years. Meantime Charles Wesley had not ceased to travel in co-operation with his brother ; but in 1757 he discontinued his regular course of labour in connexion with him, though his name was still retained on the Minutes, and in a more private manner he sought to advo- cate the interests of the cause. He saw that, year by year, there was a greater tendency to separate from the Estab- lished Church ; and as his attachment to that body was strong, he gradually withdrew from open and active labour with his brother. There was this difference between John and Charles Wesley : they were both attracted to the Church of England, but John had placed the salvation of souls and the glory of God above Church order, whilst Charles regarded that order as a “sine qua non.’' The latter was desirous for men to be saved and go to heaven, but insisted that the process should be conducted in a “regular ” way, and in accordance with Church “order:” and if it could not be carried on in that manner, then he must decline having to do with it in any other. No person, however, can fully understand his case without reading the excellent Life of him by the Bev. Thomas Jackson. Charles Wesley’s fame is enshrined in his immortal hymns ; and, thanks to his genius and spirituality, the psalmody of the Wesleyan Methodists is not only not surpassed, but not equalled by any other collection. Much of its depth, originality, and force, was imparted to it by the stirring scenes and sore 102 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. persecutions through which he himself passed with heroic spirit in the early clays of Methodism. He could not have produced such spirited and practical hymns, had it not been for his own personal experience. Many of them were composed on horseback, and some of them amongst lawless riots, and whilst suffering from boisterous mobs. The Minutes of the Annual Conferences now began to be regularly published, and have continued to be so ever since. As Dr. Stevens writes, “ With the twenty-second Confer- ence, held at Manchester, August 20th, 1765, began the- regular annual publication of the Minutes. They now as- sumed more than ever the form of business-like documents. Theological and ecclesiastical questions are seldom dis- cussed in them, as these subjects had already been settled with sufficient definiteness for the present progress of the body. The names of Preachers admitted on trial, of the Assistants, Helpers, and Circuits, the appointments for the ensuing year, and financial arrangements, with singularly minute rules of discipline for the Societies as well as for the Preachers, make up their substance.” At the preceding Conference, — 1764, — Mr. Wesley made another powerful but ineffectual effort for incorporation with the Established Church. “He was, however, still intent on the union of all evangelical Clergymen in the great revival which he was conducting, and on the stead- fast union of his people with the Church. He therefore addressed a circular letter to many of the most evangelical Clergy of the Establishment, proposing, not any concession of opinions, for ‘ they might agree or disagree touching absolute decrees on the one hand and perfection on the other,’ but a more catholic spirit, and better co-operation with him, as a member of the Church of England, in the spread of true religion throughout the land. It is to this correspondence that he refers in the brief allusion of his Journal to the present Conference. Though only three Clergymen had responded to his overtures, no less than twelve met him at the session, but not in the catholic spirit which he himself had manifested. They insisted, in fine, upon the very course which Walker had proposed and Wesley had rejected seven years before. It was a momen- CHAP. VII.J CONFERENCE OF 1769. 103 tous juncture to Methodism; and to Wesley’s calm stead- fastness subsequent generations owe the fact that it was not then absorbed into the Establishment, and that the organic consolidation which it had been for some time assuming was not effectually counteracted. Charles Wes- ley himself had the indiscretion to take side with these Clergymen against him, and the heedlessness to declare that if he were a parish Minister the Lay Itinerants ‘ should not preach in his parish.’ The Lay Preachers showed both their good sense and self-respect by unanimously agreeing with Wesley ; and as the clerical visitors would not unite with him, except on their own conditions, he determined to pursue his providential course without them. And thus was another step taken forward toward the legitimate independence and permanence of Me- thodism.” The Calvinistic controversy prevailed at this time and for some years after with considerable force, and ultimately led to the permanent separation of those who held pre- destinarian views from Wesley and his people. Mr. White- field and Lady Huntingdon were at the head of those who favoured these tenets ; and the sainted Fletcher conducted the controversy on the part of Wesley and his friends, taking the Arminian view of the subject, and advocating it with great ability and success ; so much so, that since that time the Calvinistic views of many persons have been greatly moderated, whilst several Dissenting Churches have abandoned them altogether. Those who desire to see the subject fully and ably treated may gratify their wish by reading'Dr. Stevens’s “History of Methodism ; ” but in these pages I have only room for this passing notice. Whilst, however, I thus summarily dispose of the Cal- vinistic controversy, I cannot withhold from the reader the closing scene of the life of that great, honoured, and suc- cessful Evangelist, George Wliitefield, as sketched by Dr. Stevens. “ He departed the same day for Newburyport, where it was expected he would preach on the morrow. While at supper, the pavement in front of the house, and even its hall, were crowded with people, impatient to hear a few words from his eloquent lips ; but he was exhausted, 104 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. and, rising from the table, said to one of the Clergymen who were with him, ‘ Brother, you must speak to these dear people; I cannot say a word.’ Taking a candle he hastened toward his bedroom, but before reaching it he was arrested by the suggestion of his own generous heart, that he ought not thus to desert the anxious crowd hungering for the bread of life from his hands. He paused on the stairs to address them. He had preached his last sermon ; this was to be his last exhortation. It would seem that some pensive misgiving, some vague presentiment touched his soul with the saddening apprehension that the moments were too precious to be lost in rest ; he lingered on the stairway, while the crowd gazed up at him with tearful eyes, as Elisha at the ascending prophet. His voice, never, perhaps, surpassed in its music and pathos, flowed on until the candle which he held in his hand burned away and went out in its socket ! The next morning he was not, for God had taken him ! “He died of an attack of asthma, September 30th, 1770, as the Sabbath sun was rising from the neighbouring sea. The effulgence of the eternal day had risen upon his benefi- cent, his fervid, his consecrated life. He had slept com- fortably till two o’clock in the morning, when he awoke his travelling attendant, and told him that his ‘ asthma was coming on again.’ His companion recommended him not to preach so often as he had. ‘ I would rather wear out than rust out,’ he replied. He had expressed a desire to die suddenly, and now realized his wish. He sat in his bed some time, praying that God would bless his preaching, his Bethesda school, the Tabernacle congregation, and ‘all connexions on the other side of the water.’ He attempted again to sleep, but could not ; he hastened to the open window, panting for breath. ‘ I am dying,’ he exclaimed. A physician was called, but could give him no relief. At six o’clock he ‘ fetched one gasp, stretched out his feet, and breathed no more.’” In some respects he lived and laboured alone, but his life and labours were honoured with amazing influence and success. His marvellous career is ably summed up by the author from whom the previous quotation is taken : “ Thus CHAP. VII.] CONFEKENCE OF 1769. 105 lived and died, and in the results of his labours lives still and will live for ever, George Wliitefield, the ‘common drawer ’ of the Gloucester Inn, the ‘ poor Scholar ’ or Servi- tor of Pembroke College, the ‘ Methodist ’ of the Holy Club of Oxford, and the ‘ prince of Preachers.’ In proportion as the historian of his times should, by the soberest study of facts, approximate an exact estimate of his life and its consequences, would he incur the suspicion of exaggera- tion. It is not only questionable whether any other one man ever addressed by the voice so many of his fellow-men, but whether any other ever swayed them more irresistibly. It has been estimated that he preached eighteen thousand sermons, which would be ten a w'eek for the thirty-four years of his ministry. He crossed the Atlantic thirteen times. The preaching tours he made through the colonies, from Maine to Georgia, would, with our modern means of travel, signalize before the country any Clergyman’s life ; but the inconvenience and labour which they then involved can scarcely now be conceived. He has the grand distinc- tion of having travelled more extensively for the Gospel, preached it oftener, and preached it more eloquently, than any other man, ancient or modern, within the same limits of life. A nobler eulogy could not crown his memory.” John Wesley preached his funeral sermon in the Taber- nacle, London. 106 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I- CHAPTER VIII. PERSECUTION. “The carnal mind is enmity against God,” says a high authority : opposition to that which is godly and God-like is therefore only the natural action of man’s depraved nature. Thus has it been in ail ages of the world, from the death of righteous Abel to the present time. The most notable instance of the operation of this law of sin was in the case of Christ Himself, and culminated in His death on the cross. He was God incarnate, holy, just, and good ; and therefore on Him was made to fall man’s intensest rage, bitterness, and blasphemy. Amongst His followers Stephen was the proto-martyr, and had the honour of being the leader of that noble band who have sealed the truth with their blood. In every age of the world, when there has been the most striking display of the power of God in the salvation of men, “ the offence of the cross ” has been the greatest. It was so in the Apostles’ days, and again in those of the Reformation from Popery, in England, Ger- many, Switzerland, and France ; and when John Wesley, and those who laboured with him, successfully preached the Gospel of Christ, hell was “moved from beneath” to stop the work ; and every kind of scorn, rage, and violence was employed to inflict suffering or death upon these zealous, godly, and laborious men. It is worthy of notice that in most instances the drunken rabble were only the instruments of carrying out the ill-will of Clergymen, Magistrates, and persons moving in the higher walks of life. When Christ was crucified, the great perse- cutor was the High Priest, together with the Priests and Levites: inthe Reformation from Popery the Pope, Cardinals, Prelates, and Priests were the great moving power to em- ploy the secular arm to cut off these offending innovators : and now again, in the eighteenth century, the Clergy, and CHAP. VIII.] PERSECUTION. 107 those whom they could influence, were the parties to resort to every kind of violence to destroy the work of God. Some- times they preached from the pulpit upon the subject, and sometimes they employed “ men of the baser sort,” making them half mad with intoxicating drink, in order that they might more fully and freely execute their dark designs. Instead of giving my own account of any of the scenes which presented themselves, I prefer quoting some of the statements of those who were the subjects of these persecu- tions and annoyances, which took place in almost every part of the kingdom, and were continued through a series of years. “Another prominent element of this history,” says Dr. Smith, “and one which has been reserved for notice here, is the violent persecution with which the Wesleys and their friends were assailed in many places, and for some years. It is believed, that the manner, extent, and continued fury of this persecution are without a parallel in English history. Most of the other aggressions which have been made on religion have taken place under the cover of real or pretended law, or by the will and authority of cruel and violent rulers 5 hut this was originated and carried on without law, and in defiance of it, by the outrageous violence of rude and vulgar mobs, very frequently instigated and urged on by the malig- nant feelings of gentlemen, Magistrates, and Clergymen. “ It is a singular circumstance that the first public inter- ruption and opposition that Wesley received in his out-door preaching was from the celebrated Beau Nash, the noted master of the ceremonies at Bath. Great expectation had been raised in the public mind, by reports which had been circulated respecting a threatened opposition to Wesley on this occasion; and he was entreated not to preach, lest some fearful calamity might happen. He, however, was not the man to be deterred, by any apprehension of consequences, from discharging what he believed to be a religious duty. He accordingly took his place, and began to preach. For awhile he proceeded in quiet; but at length Mr. Nash appeared, and demanded by what authority he did those things. Wesley replied, ‘ By authority of Jesus Christ, conveyed to me by the (now) Archbishop of Canterbury,, when he laid hands upon me, and said, “ Take thou authority 108 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. to preach the Gospel.’” Then Mr. Nash objected to Wes- ley’s proceeding by asserting, it was ‘ contrary to Act of Parliament.’ This, said he, ‘ is a conventicle.’ To which Mr. Wesley rejoined, ‘ The conventicles mentioned in that Act, (as the preamble shows,) were seditious meetings ; but this is not such, here is no shadow of sedition ; therefore it is not contrary to the Act.’ Nash replied, ‘ I say it is : and besides, your preaching frightens people out of their wits.’ But when asked by Wesley whether he had ever heard him preach, he said he had not, but judged by com- mon report ; to which judgment Wesley demurred, as rest- ing on insufficient grounds. Nash, however, not willing to be thus silenced, demanded what the people met there for ; on which an old woman cried out, ‘ Leave him to me, let an old woman answer him. — You, Mr. Nash, take care of your body, we take care of our souls, and for our souls food we come here : ' on which he retired. This unmannerly and profane intrusion, however, was but the beginning of a series of annoyances and persecutions. On the Thursday following, two men, hired for that purpose, began singing a ballad in the midst of Wesley’s prayer, as he was prepar- ing for preaching on Priest-down.” A specimen of these raging persecutions is given in the following extract from Dr. Stevens: “On Wesley’s return to Bristol, his brother set out for the north, preaching in almost every town on his route, and was repeatedly beset by ferocious mobs. At Wednesbury he found that Metho- dism was accomplishing its salutary work among the col- liers. More than three hundred had been reformed and gathered into the Society, while others raged against the Itinerants, like untamed beasts of the forest. He walked with his Wednesbury brethren to Walsall, singing as they went ; but as they passed through the streets of the latter place, they were hailed by the shouts of the rab- ble. He took his stand on the steps of the market-house, where a host of excited men rallied against him, and bore down like a flood to sweep him away. Stones flew fast and thick. Many struck without hurting him. He kept his ground till he was about to close his discourse, when the raging stream bore him from the steps. He regained them, CHAP. VIII.] PERSECUTION. 109 and was pronouncing the benediction, when he was again swept down ; but a third time he took his position, and returned thanks to God, after which he passed through the midst of the rioters, menaced on every hand, but untouched. “He went to Sheffield, where worse scenes awaited him. He says : ‘ Hell from beneath was moved to oppose us.’ As soon as he was in the desk, ‘ the floods began to lift up their voice.’ A military officer contradicted and blasphemed, hut the preacher took no notice of him , and sang on. Stones were thrown, hitting the desk and people. To save them and the house, he gave notice that he should preach out of doors, and look the enemy in the face. ‘ The whole army of aliens followed me,’ he says ; their leader laid hold of him and reviled him; he gave the enraged soldier ‘A Word in Season, or Advice to a Soldier,’ one of the tracts of his brother ; he then prayed particularly for the King, and preached on amid the contention, though often struck in the face by stones. After the sermon he prayed for sinners as servants of their master, the devil, upon which the officer ran at him with great fury, threatening revenge for his abuse, as he called it, of the King his master. He forced his way through the crowd, drew his sword, and presented it to the preacher’s breast. Wesley threw' open his vest, and fixing his eye on his assailant, calmly said : ‘ I fear God, and honour the King.’ The Captain’s countenance fell in a moment ; he put up his sword and quickly retreated from the scene. Wesley returned to the house of a friend ; but the rioters followed, and exceeded in their outrage any- thing he had seen before. Those of Moorfields, Cardiff, and Walsall, were lambs, he says, compared to these. They re- solved to pull down the preaching-house, ‘ and they set to their work,’ he writes, ‘ while wre were praying and praising God. It v7as a glorious time with us. Every w7ord of ex- hortation sunk deep, every prayer wras sealed, and many found the Spirit of glory resting on them.’ The mob pressed hard to break open the door. Wesley would have gone out to them, but his brethren would not suffer him. The rabble raged all night, and by morning had pulled down one end of the house. “ ‘ Their outcries often waked me in the night,’ he writes ; 110 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. * yet I believe I got more sleep than any of my neighbours.’ This disgraceful tumult he ascribes to sermons preached against the Methodists by the Clergy of Sheffield.” These were the scenes that awaited them, as they pro- ceeded from place to place ; but they halted not in their onward course. Let us look at Ireland, and see whether matters were any better there, especially as John Wesley pronounced the Irish to be “ the politest nation he had ever seen.” He exclaims, “ What a nation is this ! Every man, woman, and child, except some of the great vulgar, not only patiently, but gladly suffers the word of exhortation.” But it was not long before the “ roaring lion ” was heard here also- “In about two weeks [September, 1747] Charles Wesley arrived in Dublin, accompanied by Charles Perronet, another of the sons of the Shoreham Vicar, and remained more than half a year in the country. During the brief interval since the visit of his brother, the ‘ roaring lion ’ had raged in Dublin. A Papist mob had broken into the chapel, and some storehouses which appertained to its pre- mises, destroying furniture, stealing goods, making a bon- fire of the seats, window cases, and pulpit in the streets ; wounding with clubs the members of the Society, and threatening to murder all who assembled with them. It was, in fine, a thoroughly Irish riot, bristling with shillalahs and triumphant with noise. The Mayor was disposed to protect the Methodists, but was powerless before the great numerical force of their persecutors. The grand jury threw out bills brought against the rioters, and thus gave indirect encouragement to their violence. Wesley met the Society privately, but was followed through the streets to his lodg- ings by a retinue of the rabble, who complimented him with shouts of derision.” Having given an example of the manner in which the two brothers endured persecution and triumphed over it, I will now cite the case of one or two of the Lay Preachers, to show that they received no better treatment. John Nelson was amongst the first Lay Preachers who assisted Mr. Wesley, and occupies a prominent place in the history of Methodist heroism. He was a robust. CHAP. VIII. j PERSECUTION. Ill powerful man, a mason by trade. Before he met with the Wesleys, he was a sincere seeker of salvation. When he heard Mr. Wesley in London explain the plan of salvation with so much simplicity and clearness, he quickly em- . braced it, sought and found the Saviour, was made happy in the love of God, and became zealous for His glory. He then returned to his home at Birstal, in Yorkshire, where his wife was living ; and she also soon became a partaker of like precious faith. Nelson began to explain and apply the Word of God in his own house ; but in a short time the number of those who desired to hear him increased so much that he stood at the door and addressed a multitude from thence. Wesley shortly afterwards pro- ceeded to the North, and when he found what was done, he permitted rather than encouraged Nelson to proceed. The latter soon extended his efforts, working by day and preaching by night. His ministry was made exceedingly useful, and, in a short time, he extended his labours to oilier towns. He became the spiritual father of Methodism in Leeds, and in many parts of the North of England. He was a very powerful preacher, and many were converted to God through his instrumentality. He had not laboured long, however, before he was made to feel the full force of violent persecution ; but he bore “ hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” “Nelson was to encounter worse perils immediately after at Hepworth Moor. He was assailed there with a shower of stones while preach- ing on a table in the open air. All who were around him fled, leaving him as a mark for the flying missiles, but none touched him. When he descended, and was depart- ing, he was struck on the back of his head with a brick, and fell bleeding to the earth. He was unable to rise for some time, but being lifted up, staggered away, the blood running down his back and filling his shoes, and the mob following him with shouts and menaces that they would kill him as soon as he passed the limits of the town. “ Lord,” cried the perilled Methodist, as he tottered along, “ Thou wast slain without the gate, and canst deliver me from the hands of these bloodthirsty men.” An honest man opened his door and took him in ; a surgeon dressed his 112 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. wound, and the same day lie was on his way to preach at Acomb. There his trials were to culminate. A coach drove up crowded within and without by young men, who sang bacchanalian songs and threw rotten eggs at the women of the assembly. Two of the strongest of the rioters approached him, one of them swearing that he would kill him on the spot. Handing his coat and wig to his associate, he rushed at the preacher, crying, “If I do not kill him I will be damned.’ Nelson stepped aside, and the assailant pitched on his head. On rising, he repeated the attempt, and rent away Nelson’s shirt collar, but again fell. In a third assault he prostrated the preacher, and leaping with his knees upon him, beat him until he was senseless, opening mean- while the wound on his head, which bled freely. The ruffian supposed he was dead, and returned to his asso- ciates, seizing as he passed one of Nelson’s friends, whom he threw against the wall with such violence as to break two of his ribs. The rest of the mob doubted whether Nelson had been completely dispatched, and twenty of them approached him. They found him bleed- ing profusely, and lifted him up. The brother of the parish Clergyman was among them, and denouncing him, said : * According to your preaching, you would prove our Ministers to be blind guides and false prophets ; but we will kill you as fast as you come.’ Another said : ‘ If Wesley comes on Tuesday, he shall not live another day in this world.’ When they had got him into the street, they set up a huzza, and a person caught hold of his right hand ‘ and gave him a hasty pluck ; ’ at the same time another struck him on the side of his head and knocked him down. As he rose, they again prostrated him. No less than eight times did they fell him to the earth. His robust frame alone saved him from death. When he lay on the ground unable to rise again, they took him by the hair of his head and dragged him upon the stones for nearly twenty yards, some kicking him meanwhile with merciless rage. Six of them stood upon him, to 1 tread the Holy Ghost out of him,’ as they said. * Then they let me alone a little while,’ he writes, ‘ and said one to another, CHAP. VIII.] PERSECUTION. 113 “We cannot kill him.” One said, “I have heard that a cat hath nine lives, but I think that he hath nine score.” Another said, “ If he has, he shall die this day.” A third said, “Where is his horse ? for he shall quit the town im- mediately.” And they said to me, “ Order your horse to be brought to you, for you shall go before we leave you.” I said, “ I will not, for you intend to kill me in private, that you may escape justice ; hut if you do murder me, it shall be in public ; and it may be that the gallows will bring you to repentance, and your souls may be saved from the wrath to come.” ’ They attempted then to drag him to a well and thrust him into it, but a courageous woman who was standing near it defended him, knocking several of his persecutors down. These ruffians passed in the community for gentlemen, and whilst still harassing Nelson at the well, they were recognised by two ladies in a carriage from the city, whom they knew ; they slunk away confounded, and their victim escaped.” A volume might be filled with a recital of the numerous instances in which these disgraceful scenes were enacted, but limited space will allow me to give only one extract more, which is from the “ Life of Mr. Thomas Mitchell,” contained in Jackson’s “ Lives of Early Methodist Preachers,” vol. i., pp. 247-249. “ In the year 1751, I was stationed in Lincolnshire. I found a serious people and an open door ; but there were many adversaries. This was far the most trying year I had ever known. But in every temptation God made a way of escape, that I might he able to hear it. “ On Sunday, August 7th, I came to Wrangle very early in the morning. I preached, as usual, at five. About six, two constables came at the head of a large mob. They violently broke in upon the people, seized upon me, pulled me down, and took me to a public-house, where they kept me till four in the afternoon. Then one of the constables seemed to relent, and said, ‘ I will go to the Minister, and inquire of him whether we may not now let the poor man go.’ When he came back, he said, * They were not to let him go yet.’ So he took me out to the mob, who presently hurried me away, and threw me into a i 114 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. pool of standing water. It took me up to the neck. Several times I strove to get out, but they pitched me in again. They told me I must go through it seven times. I did so, and then they let me come out. When I had got upon dry ground, a man stood ready with a pot full of white paint. He painted me all over from head to foot, and then they carried me into a public-house again. Here I was kept till they had put five more of our friends into the water. Then they came and took me out again, and car- ried me to a great pond, which was railed in on every side, being ten or twelve feet deep. Here four men took me by my arms and legs, and swung me backward and forward. For a moment I felt the flesh shrink ; but it was quickly gone. I gave myself up to the Lord, and was content His will should be done. They swung me two or three times, and then threw me as far as they could into the water. The fall and the water soon took away my senses, so that I felt nothing more. But some of them were not willing to have me drowned. So they watched until I came above water, and then, catching hold of my clothes with a long pole, made shift to drag me out. “ I lay senseless for some time. When I came to myself, I saw only two men standing by me. One of them helped me up, and desired me to go with him. He brought me to a little house, where they quickly put me to bed. But I had not lain long before the mob came again, pulled me out of bed, carried me into the streets, and swore they would take away one of my limbs, if I would not promise to come there no more. I told them, ‘I can promise no such thing.’ But the men that had hold of me promised for me, and took me back into the house, and put me to bed again. “ Some of the mob then went to the Minister again, to know what they must do with me. He told them, * You must take him out of the parish.’ So they came and took me out of bed a second time. But I had no clothes to put on ; my own being wet, and also covered with paint. But they put an old coat about me, took me about a mile, and set me upon a little hill. They then shouted three times, ‘ God save the King, and the devil take the Preacher V ” CHAP. VIII.] PERSECUTION. 115 Thus these veterans laboured, and suffered, and con- quered. One thing strikes us as marvellous— that so few of them were killed, or even seriously injured. Doubtless illness and death followed these outrages in many instances ; but these cases, as compared with the violence displayed and the missiles thrown, were comparatively few. The Master whom they served was often a wall of fire round about them, not only restraining the wrath of their enemies, but causing the remainder of that wrath to praise Him. Many of their most violent persecutors were converted, and became zealous preachers of that Gospel which they had so ardently sought to destroy ; and ultimately all active opposition came to an end, and the “ offence of the Cross” ceased. Great care will he required by the Methodists of the present day, or they will become very feeble and effeminate followers of this noble band. If there is not now active open persecution, there is the enervating influence of the world, with its gaudy fashions, gay followings, and absorb- ing pursuits. To resist and overcome its allurements will require an amount of self-denial, taking up the cross, and resolute energy equal to what was demanded in those old troublous times. The profession of religion is wide-spread, but the athletic, robust Christian is not often met with. The Church and the world still greatly need men filled with the Spirit, men of deep piety and of self-denying labour. Let not the Methodists of the present generation forget the price at which their peaceful state and many privi- leges were purchased. “ The blood of the martyrs” has been “the seed of the Church;” and the obloquy, scorn, and sufferings endured by the early Methodists were the purchase price of the comfort, respectability, and high position now attained. At the present day every one sits under his own vine and fig-tree, none daring to make him afraid. Let gratitude abound in proportion to the benefits enjoyed, and let that gratitude be made apparent by ener- getic participation in every good word and work. i 2 116 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. CHAPTER IX. IRELAND. The “Emerald Isle” has been, and still is, the states- man’s great difficulty ; and so it will remain, as long as Popery is dominant. The true cause of Ireland’s woes is Popery : it is sick at heart, and the only cure is Bible truth and Gospel power. Politicians seek remedies from other sources ; and doubtless there are many ways in which they may ameliorate the condition of the Irish : but such methods as endowing Maynooth, establishing Popish Universities, and giving salaries to the Papal Priesthood, can only feed the disease and increase the evil. So long as Ireland is Popish, she is alien to Great Britain, and loyal to Rome. Ireland is said to be the only country which the Reformation did not benefit. And, in truth, the subjection of the people by force of arms, and the establishment of a Protestant State hierarchy, did not reform the people, or touch the heart of the nation ; so that in sympathy and interest Ireland has not been one with Great Britain. Scotland became part of the British Empire not so much by force of arms, as through the triumphs of the Protestant religion. Edward I. was the “ hammer of the Scotch,” but he did not break the heart of the nation. It was when Scotland received the Reform- ation that it became one in heart with England. Thus their sympathies and interests could blend ; and conse- quently a real union has grown up and become consoli- dated. Not so with Ireland : she was broken by the power of the sword, but remained rebellious at heart, and has remained so ever since, and will continue so until the internal state of the nation is renovated. Episcopal hier- archy was established in Ireland, but it was forced upon the people, and hated by the mass ; and with sorrow of heart we are compelled to admit, that not only were many CHAP. IX.] IRELAND. 117 of the Protestant Clergy destitute of evangelical religion, but some of them were immoral in their lives ; so that more proselytes were made from Protestantism to Popery than from Popery to Protestantism. Such was the state of the people and nation when the Wesleys first went there. Mr. Wesley had no sooner established his Societies in England, than he turned his attention to Ireland, and resolved to visit it. He “ arrived in Dublin on Sunday, the ninth of August, 1747. The bells were ringing, and he went immediately to St. Mary’s church, and in the afternoon, by arrangement with the Curate, preached to as ‘ gay and careless a congregation ’ as he had ever seen. The Curate treated him politely, but was immovably pre- judiced against his employment of Lay Preachers, and assured him that the Archbishop was equally opposed to so extraordinary a novelty. Wesley sought the Arch- bishop, and had an interview with him ten miles from the city. Two or three hours were spent in the consultation, during which the Prelate advanced and Wesley answered ‘ abundance of objections.’ Had Berkeley been the Bishop, Methodism would probably have taken possession of the Church. Wesley gives us no information of the result of the interview ; he immediately began, however, his usual course of independent labours. “A Lay Preacher from England, Thomas Williams, had formerly a Society in Dublin in 1747- Wesley found in it nearly three hundred members. He examined them per- sonally, as was his habit in the principal Societies at London, Bristol, and Newcastle ; for none of his ‘ assist- ants or successors has been more minute and faithful in such pastoral labours.’ He found them ‘ strong in faith,’ and admired their docile and cordial spirit. He pro- nounced the Irish the politest people he had ever seen. ‘ What a nation,’ he exclaims, ‘ is this ! Every man, woman, and child, except a few of the great vulgar, not only patiently, but gladly suffers the word of exhortation.’ He had not yet fully learned their character ; the ‘ roaring lion,’ as he afterwards found, ‘ shook himself here also/ ” The first impression made by the Irish on Mr. Wesley’s 118 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. mind was, as we see from the above, a very favourable one : but be soon had abundant cause to alter bis opinion. His brother Charles, who shortly after followed him, bad to suffer the most violent persecution, and other followers and Preachers had to endure “a great fight of affliction.” Yet, notwithstanding the formidable opposition and haras- sing persecutions of Popish Priests and Irish mobs, Method- ism not only lived, but prospered in the land, producing the most beneficial effects upon the temporal as well as spiritual condition of the people. This was especially manifest among the Palatines in the south-west of the country. These people were Germans, who emigrated from their native land in the reign of Queen Anne, and settled in the south-west of Ireland in the county of Limerick. They were Protestants by profession ; but, having been long removed from their own country, and having had no Ministers to take the spiritual oversight of them, had sunk down into the lowest state of profligacy and vice. In this condition they were found by Mr. Wes- ley, and those who laboured with him in the Lord : but as they at once received the truth as it is in Jesus, the trans- forming effects were soon seen in their improved temporal condition and their reformed lives. For a full account of these people, see Hr. Crook’s “Ireland,” etc. This distinct notice of them is the more needful, as it was from among this obscure people that Methodism was first introduced into the United States of America. With- out entering into details, which may be found in Hr. Crook’s work, I must content myself with quoting his pictorial account of the first emigration to America. “ It is now just one hundred and six years since, one summer’s morning, a group of emigrants might have been seen at the Custom House Quay, Limerick, preparing to embark for America. At that time emigration was not so common an occurrence as it is now, and the excitement connected with their departure was intense. They were Palatines from Ballingran, and were accompanied to the vessel side by crowds of their companions and friends, some of whom had come sixteen miles to say farewell for the last time. By a very slight effort of imagination you CHAP. IX.] IRELAND. 119 can vividly recall the scene. One of those about to leave — a young man, with a thoughtful look and resolute bearing — is evidently the leader of the party, and more than an ordinary pang is felt by many as they bid him farewell. He had been amongst the first fruits of his countrymen to Christ, had been the leader of the infant Church, and in their humble little sanctuary had often ministered to them the word of life. He is surrounded by his spiritual children and friends, who are anxious to have some parting words of counsel and instruction. He enters the vessel, and from its side once more breaks amongst them the bread of life. And now the last prayer is offered ; they embrace each other ; the vessel begins to move. As she recedes, uplifted hands and, better still, uplifted hearts attest what all felt. But none of all that vast multitude felt more, probably, than that young man. His name is Philip Embury. His party consisted of his wife, — Mary Switzer, to whom he had been married in Rathkeale church about a year and a half before, — two of his brothers and their families, Peter Switzer, probably brother to his wife, Paul Heck and Barbara his wife, Yaler Tettler, Philip Morgan, and a family of the Dulmages. The vessel arrived safely in New York on the 10th of August, 1760. Who that pictures to his mind that first band of Christian emi- grants leaving the Irish shore, but must be struck with the simple beauty of the scene ? Yet who, amongst the crowd that saw them leave, or the thousands whose eye will fall upon this sheet, could have thought that two of that little band were destined, in the mysterious Providence of God, to influence for good countless myriads of Adam’s chil- dren, and that their names should live long as the sun and moon endure ? Yet so it was.” * We have already seen that Methodism was introduced into Ireland by John Wesley in August, 1747, and that he was quickly followed by his brother Charles, who carried on the work. It advanced with so much rapidity, that in August, 1752, only five years later, the first Conference was held by John Wesley, on his second visit to Limerick. “ The record in his journal is characteristically brief : ‘I * Dr. Crook’s “ Ireland,” pp. 73, 75. 120 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. spent Friday and Saturday in Conference with our Preach- ers, and the next week spake with each of the members of the Society ; many of whom, I now found, were ‘ rooted and grounded in love,’ and ‘ zealous of good works.’ “ The following composed the Conference : John Wesley, Samuel Larwood, John Haughton, Joseph Cownley, John Fisher, Thomas Walsh, Jacob Rowell, Thomas Kead, Robert Swindells, John Whitford, and James Morris : all of whom, with the exception of Morris, may be regarded as Wesley’s staff of Itinerants then labouring in Ireland. Wesley had reason to suspect that the Calvinistic leaven had injured more of his Itinerants than Williams, and he dreaded its baneful influence upon Preachers and people as he did the plague. Hence, a large proportion of the time of this first Conference was given up to this subject. In answer to the question, ‘ What wrong doctrines have been taught ? ’ we find the answer, ‘ Such as border on Antinomianism and Calvinism.’ Baxter’s ‘ Aphorisms on Justification ’ were then read carefully, and the Scriptures referred to examined, and ‘ all objections considered and answered.’ This course was all the more necessary because of the influence of Moravian teaching upon Methodism at that time ; and many of these devoted labourers were young men who had had but little time or opportunity for obtaining clear views as to the doctrinal teaching of the Word of God on these controverted points. At this Conference, Philip Guier of Ballingran, James Morris, John Ellis, James Wild, Samuel Levic, and Samuel Hobert, were received as ‘ fellow-labourers.’ Philip was received as what Wesley called ‘ a Local Preacher,’ as distinguished from an Itinerant. Wesley never intended him to travel, but made him the first Methodist Pastor of the Palatines.'” Methodism in Ireland exercised distinct action in con- nexion with its own annual Conference, without being separated from the English Conference ; the President of which is ex officio the President of the Irish Conference ; the Irish Conference also having always its own represen- tatives in the English Conference. This arrangement has doubtless been of unspeakable advantage to Irish Metho- CHAP. IX.] IRELAND. 121 dism, as men on the spot and in the work were much better able to understand its nature, and adapt the working power, than those at a distance could possibly be. Mr. Wesley bestowed special care upon Ireland. He often visited it in person, and sometimes remained for months at a visit. He held twenty-one Conferences in that country, and appointed some of his best and most successful Preachers to labour there ; so that it was sometimes said in England that Ireland had more than its share of atten- tion : but Mr. Wesley declared that it would repay all the labour bestowed upon it. This prophetic declaration was amply verified. Ireland soon gave Thomas Walsh to Eng- land, who was declared by Mr. Wesley to be the best bib- lical scholar he had ever known ; and when this accom- plished and zealous man was removed by death at the early age of twenty-eight Mr. Wesley felt his loss keenly, and expressed his inability to fathom the mysterious dealings of God in connexion with His own work. Ireland has given many Ministers of eminence to England, among whom we will only mention the learned Commentator, Dr. Adam Clarke, and, of our contemporaries, the Eev. William Arthur, one of the ex-Presidents of the British Con- ference. Many of the Irish Ministers have been most laborious and successful preachers of God’s holy Word. With true Christian heroism they have manfully maintained an un- equal contest against the most formidable difficulties,— Popery, poverty, and emigration. In reference to the last, Dr. Crook observes : “Irish Methodism has probably lost from fifty to seventy thousand members within the last century, of whom old Garrett Miller and his worthy family are not unfair specimens. If we take into account the children, who would in all probability have joined the Church of their fathers, the loss to the Irish Methodist Church by emigration during the past century cannot be much less than from a hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand members ! And yet some wise folk in England and else- where amuse the public with homilies on the failure of Irish Methodism ! ” This is a result at which no one would have attempted to guess ; and it was only after Dr. Crook had 122 ' BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. thoroughly investigated the subject that he made this statement. The last Conference which the venerable Wesley attended in Ireland was in 1789. “ In July Wesley presided for the last time in the Irish Conference, now composed in the main of Irishmen, as the great majority of the English brethren long since had retired from Ireland. Wesley’s final testimony as to the Irish Conference, — which had then in its number such familiar names as John Crook, Thomas Barber, Gustavus Armstrong, Samuel Wood, David Gordon, the spiritual father of Gideon Ouseley, Matthias Joyce, Matthew Stewart, William Wilson, Thomas Ridgeway, George Brown, Andrew Hamilton, sen., and jun., James M'Mullen, John Malcolmson, John and Thomas Kerr, Alex. Moore, Lawrence Kane, and many more, — is worth transcription here. ‘Friday, July 3rd. — Our little Confer- ence began in Dublin, and ended Tuesday, 7th. On this I observe I never had between forty and fifty such Preachers together in Ireland before ; all of them, we had reason to hope, alive to God, and earnestly devoted to His service. I had much satisfaction in this Conference ; in which, con- versing with between forty and fifty Travelling Preachers, I found such a body of men as I hardly believed could have been found together in Ireland ; men of so sound experi- ence, so deep piety, and so strong understanding. I am con- vinced they are no way inferior to the English Conference, except it be in number.’ ” Such was the character given of the Irish Preachers by this aged Apostle : well had they deserved it, and still they sustain it. The number of members is now 20,000, not- withstanding all their losses by emigration, &c. Irish Methodism retains all its energy ; and now seeks to become more effective by the establishment of a College at Belfast for training Irish Ministers ; towards which object the American Episcopal Church has largely contributed from its Centenary fund. The Report of the Missionary Committee at the Irish Conference of 1876 gives the following statistics: 28 Mis- sion Stations ; 30 Missionaries ; 54 chapels ; 219 other preaching-places ; 5 paid Catechists ; 29 unpaid Local CHAP. IX.] IRELAND. 123 Preachers; 2,136 Church members ; 104 on trial for Church membership; 1,761 scholars in the schools; ancl 6,954 attendants on public worship. This is distinctly Mission work, as distinguished from ordinary Circuit work ; and the labours of these Mission- aries are confined to some of the most dark and depraved parts of the land, and are especially directed against the bold and frowning aspect of Popery. Bishop Janes, at the Centenary Meeting in New York, when speaking on this subject, said, “ The fact is, that wherever English-speaking Methodism exists out of Eng- land, it has been planted by Irishmen, and English-speak- ing Methodism is Irish Methodism the world over.” We must, however, take an exception to this high eulogy. There are many English-speaking Methodists in the South African Colonies ; but the work was not begun by Irish Methodists, since the Bev. Barnabas Shaw commenced the work at the Cape, and the Rev. William Shaw came out with the British settlers in 1820 ; and neither of these eminent men was of Irish birth or extraction. In closing his book on Ireland, Dr. Crook makes the fol- lowing appeal for a fair estimate of what Irish Methodism has accomplished: “Before closing this little book, and sending it abroad, I feel that I should embrace this oppor- tunity of saying a few words on the claims of Irish Metho- dism on English-speaking Methodism everywhere, but particularly in America. This book has already outgrown my original idea very much, and these parting words, in taking leave of the indulgent reader, must be few. No one, I think, can fully understand the peculiar position and diffi- culties of Irish Methodism, who has not spent some years in the Itinerancy in Ireland, and seen Methodism in all the provinces, and from behind the scenes as well as from with- out. If we are to estimate power by the difficulty which it surmounts in its victorious march, I may be allowed to think that Irish Methodism will compare favourably with any branch of the great Wesleyan family in any part of the world. Nowhere has it had more stern and formidable external difficulties. In the north it has won tens of thou- sands of converts to its glorious doctrines of general redemp- 124 ' BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. tion ; and this, notwithstanding the most organized and persevering opposition from the most ultra type of Calvin- ism to be found, perhaps, in any part of our world. It has not only made itself known in all the principal towns in Ulster, but felt too ; and its influence in liberalizing the tone of Calvinistic preaching and theology has been incal- culable. In the south and west it has been confronted and opposed by High Church influence, backed by enormous wealth, aristocratic pride, and indomitable prejudice ; and everywhere Popery, like a fearful upas tree, sustained by tens of thousands of pounds from the purse of Protestant England, (‘ Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon,’) has opposed its progress. Meantime, without national endowment, without foreign assistance deserving of notice, it has not only maintained its position through- out the land, but has a stronger position, in proportion to the population, now than at any former period of its history- And never had it a more noble, true-hearted, and enterpris- ing band of sons and daughters than at the present hour ; and this after having given at least five times its present ministerial staff to the ranks of our Ministry in England, the United States, the Canadas, Eastern British America, Australia, and various parts of our foreign Mission field, and perhaps ten times the number at present enrolled in its membership. Suppose the politico-religious circumstances of the country had been different, so that its sons and daughters were not driven by the stern hand of necessity to seek a home in a foreign land, would not Irish Metho- dism be, in proportion to the population, by far the most powerful section of the Methodist family on this side of the Atlantic ?” Every sound-hearted Protestant should read, and mark well, Dr. Crook’s concluding observations on Irish Popery. We have room only for one extract : “ Am I wrong in say- ing that both Great Britain and America are at the present hour in fearful danger from the influence of Irish Popery ? And are not the Maynooth apostolical bachelors paying off Protestant England smartly for her national apostasy from the God of her fathers ? It is easy for liberal Protestants (so-called) to say, ‘We shall meet the crisis when it comes.’ CHAP. IX.] IRELAND. 125 ‘ The crisis is now ; what will come will prove the catas- trophe/ The progress of Popery in England and Scotland in our day is truly alarming, and mainly through Irish Priests and Irish Popery. Dr. Manning regards the ascendancy of Popery in England as so inevitable, from her present position and prospects, that he throws off the mask so long worn grace- fully by his lying mistress, and in the face of Protestant England avows the intention of the Popish Church to regain its ancient ascendancy in England, and within a brief period too ! He says : ‘ It is the duty therefore of Catholics to prepare themselves for the future which is before them. They little thought thirty years ago to be as they are now. They little thought ten years ago of the majestic expansion of the Catholic Church at this hour, and of its dignified attitude of calm in the midst of the religious confusion and dissolution which is around it. Still less can we anticipate what the next ten years may bring. The advance of the Church is in geometrical progression.’ That this is not an idle boast, but sober matter of fact, an appeal to statistics will prove. The same thing is true, to an alarming extent, in the land of John Knox. ‘Throughout Scotland, in 1830, there were not fifty Priests in all ; there are now two hun- dred,— more than four to one ! There were then but twenty- five chapels in all ; there are now two hundred, besides the cathedrals, — eight to one. There were then no converts ; there are now fourteen. There were then no public schools ; there are now one hundred and two in efficient working order.’ In the light of these figures how suggestive is the fact that one fifth of the entire population of Glasgow are Irish Komanists ! ” 126 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. CHAPTER X. THE CONFERENCE OF 1784, AND THE DEED OF DECLARATION. THE DEATH OF WESLEY. The Conference of 1784 I take as constituting another epoch in Methodism, inasmuch as — in addition to other important business transacted — by the ordination of Dr. Coke and two other Ministers, provision was made for the successive ordination of Wesleyan Ministers in America ; and, by passing the “ Deed of Declaration,” the permanent settlement of chapel property was effected. No two acts of Mr. Wesley did more than these towards consummating the full and permanent separation from the Established Church. By the former, provision was made for the regular ordination and the perpetuity of the Methodist Ministry ; and by the latter, chapels were secured in which their ministra- tions might be carried on in an uninterrupted manner. The Conference of 1784 was held at Leeds, and com- menced its sittings on July 27th. There were now seventy- two Circuits. The number of members in Society was reported to be 64,207, of whom 14,988 were in America. These numbers show an increase on the year, in Great Britain and Ireland, of 3,274. This increase was dis- tributed generally throughout the Circuits. There were also nearly two hundred Travelling Preachers. Chapels. — As before mentioned, one of the great acts of the Conference was that of passing the “ Deed of Decla- ration,” by which all chapel property might be secured to the Connexion for all time to come. This subject had long occupied the serious and anxious attention of Mr. Wesley. But, before stating the manner in which this great and grave subject was arranged, it will be needful to give some account of chapel matters from the commencement ; the more so because I have not treated upon the subject in the general course of the narrative. CHAP. X.] THE CONFEEENCE OF 1784. 127 When the Wesleys and Whitefielcl were excluded from the churches of the Establishment, they had no other alternative than either to cease preaching, or to preach out of doors, and build chapels, as opportunity offered. They took the latter alternative. Wesley’s first chapel was erected in Bristol, of which Dr. Stevens gives the following account: “His Societies in Bristol grew so rapidly that he was compelled to erect a place of worship for their accommodation ; and thus was another step taken forward in the independent career upon which he was being uncon- sciously led by the providence of God. On the 12th of May, 1739, the corner stone ‘was laid with the voice of praise and thanksgiving.’ This was the first Methodist chapel in the world. He had not the least design of being personally engaged either in the expense or the direction of the work, having appointed ‘eleven feoffees,’ on whom he supposed the burden would fall ; but becoming involved in its entire financial responsibility, he was constrained to change this arrangement. And $,s to the direction of the undertaking, he says he presently received letters from his friends in London, Whitefield in particular, (backed with a message by a person just from the metropolis,) that neither he nor they would have anything to do with the building, nor contribute anything towards it, unless he would instantly discharge all feoffees and do every thing in his own name. Many reasons they gave for this course, but one was decisive with him ; namely, that such feoffees always would have it in their power to control him ; and, if he preached not as they liked, to turn him out of the house he had built. He accordingly yielded to their advice, and, calling all the feoffees together, cancelled, without opposition, the instrument made before, and took the whole management into his own hands. Money, he says, it is true, he had not, nor any human prospect of procuring it ; but he knew ‘ the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,’ and in His name set out, nothing doubting. In this manner was it that the property of all his chapels became vested solely in himself during the early part of his career, a responsibility which was neces- sary in his peculiar circumstances, which he never abused, 128 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. and which he transferred, in prospect of his death, by a ‘ Deed of Declaration,’ to his Legal Conference. Decisions in the Court of Chancery, made under this document, have given security to the property, and stability to the whole economy of Wesleyan Methodism down to our day.” The Bristol chapel was the first erected, but not the first opened for public worship. That honour belongs to the “Foundery” in London, of ancient celebrity, wThich was the first building dedicated by the Wesleys to Divine worship. Mr. Jackson supplies the following account of it : “ The first chapel that the Wesleys themselves erected was in Bristol ; but the first they opened for Divine wor- ship was in London. The history of this place is not a little curious. The chapel was a large unsightly brick building, near the present site of Finsbury Square, and was known by the name of ‘ the Foundery.’ It had been in the occupation of the Government, and used for the purpose of casting brass cannon. Its nearness to London rendered it inconvenient, in consequence of the crowds of people that assembled to witness the process ; and a serious accident having occurred, by which some lives were lost, and several persons greatly injured, the business was transferred to Woolwich, and the premises were leased to Mr. Wesley, who fitted up the principal building as a place of worship. The form and character of the erection were changed, but the name was retained. This chapel was a sort of cathedral in Methodism till the year 1777, when it was superseded by the very commodious and elegant chapel in the City Boad, which for many years was not unfre- quently called * the New Foundery.’ Behind the old Foun- dery was Mr. Wesley’s dwelling-house, the entry to which was through the gallery of the chapel. Here Mr. Wesley resided when he was in London, and here his venerated mother died in the Lord. At one end of the Foundery was a building of one story, which was occupied as a day- school ; in another spacious room was a large electrifying machine, which was used on two days every week in the case of the afflicted people who resorted thither for relief ; and in another, the publications of the two brothers, in prose and verse, were kept on sale. At the top of the CHAP. X.] THE CONFERENCE OF 1784. 129 Foundery was a small bell, which was rung as the signal of the preaching at five o’clock in the morning, and of other religious services. This part of London was then open, and unfurnished with lamps ; and the Methodist people, men and women, were regularly seen, at that early hour, during the winter season, selecting their steps by the help of a small lantern, and wending their way to the house of prayer, drawn by the well-known sound, and anticipating those lessons of evangelical instruction which their venerated teachers were accustomed to deliver. Mr. Wesley had often preached his morning sermon, performed his early devotions with his people, and was on his way to distant places in the country, before other people had shaken off their slumbers, and were prepared to apply themselves to the duties of life. “ The opening of the Foundery in London, and of the ‘ Boom ’ in Bristol, was soon followed by the erection of the Orphan-house in Newcastle ; and then by chapels of various dimensions in Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, York, Hull, Birmingham, and other populous towns. In these buildings of primitive Methodism, elegance of architecture was little studied. They were 'plain and substantial, in- tended for use, and not for ornament. The most remark- able circumstance connected with them was, the amplitude of their accommodation for the poor. The pulpits also were large, and contained a bench of considerable length for the use of the Preachers who might be expected suc- cessively to address the congregation at the quarterly watch-nights, and other similar services. The preaching in these sanctuaries was plain, pointed, searching, and powerful. The singing was lively ; the body of the people generally joined in ; and not a few persons in different places were drawn by its sweetness and power to an attendance upon the ministry of the word. The tunes were mostly simple melodies, composed by the old masters, and selected by Mr. Wesley, whopublisliedvariousbooksof sacred music ; and they were sung, if not always according to the rules of art, yet with the spirit and the understanding. The men and women sat apart in the congregation : a practice which Mr. Wesley derived from the Moravians, K 130 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. but which, even in his time, was found to he inconvenient. It was ultimately abandoned. In these assemblies, which were often annoyed by mischievous and riotous people, multitudes of ungodly persons were awakened, converted, regenerated, sanctified, and built up in faith and love.” This quotation gives a particular account of the Foundery, and a general statement of the mode in which chapels were erected in other parts, and the style in which the simple, stirring, spiritual worship was conducted. The chapels had increased in number in all places where Wes- ley and his Itinerants laboured : they were now numerous and of great value. No wonder then that Mr. Wesley should be anxious about their security after his death, as hitherto they had been held in his name, and in that of his brother. So long as he lived, there was no difficulty ; but he was now more than eighty years old, and of neces- sity must soon cease to labour and govern. No practical purpose would be answered by entering into details about different chapels. I shall therefore con- tent myself with giving an account of the manner in which they wrere all finally settled at the Conference now under consideration. This settlement was effected hy what was called “the Deed of Declaration,” or “Poll Deed;” a document in which Mr. Wesley constituted the “ Legal Conference ” as consisting of one hundred Preachers, whose names were inserted in the Deed, which he had enrolled in Chancery, so giving it all the force of a legal document. The Conference was to assemble annually, as long as there were one hundred Preachers in the Connexion, fifty of whom were to form a quorum. The decrease by deaths during the year was to be filled up at each Conference. The plan adopted was for two of every three Ministers to come into the “Legal Hundred” by seniority, and the third by nomination and a vote of the Conference. By this means younger men, of the greatest talent and busi- ness power, have been brought in, and their services rendered effective. The honour is prized, and the time of the election is one of excitement. In this manner Mr. Wesley delegated the power which had been possessed by CHAP. X.] THE CONFERENCE OF 1784. 131 himself to one hundred of his Preachers ; thus laying a very hroad basis for future action. The power of voting has, however, been extended to all the Preachers who have travelled a certain number of years ; but in some cases the vote has to he confirmed by the Legal Hundred ; such as the election of President, etc. So long as forty of the Legal Hundred assemble, they have power to appoint Preachers to these chapels ; and so long as these Preachers live godly lives, and preach Methodist doctrines, the trus- tees have no power to exclude them from the pulpits. This Heed of Declaration was revised in 1832, and now makes full provision for the settlement of all chapel property in what is designated the “ Model Deed; ” all the particu- lars relating to which are published in a small volume, which may be consulted by those who take an interest in such matters. If the question is asked, “ To whom do the chapels be- long?” the answer is, To no person or body exclusively ; but they are held under authority by the Conference on the one part, and by trustees connected with the chapels on the other ; and they cannot possibly be alienated except under certain conditions, which make the alienation of a chapel a rare occurrence. The Deed of Declaration gives to the Connexion distinct and independent status ; its validity has several times since been assailed, but without effect ; and the operations of the Church have been carried on with regularity and success. Mr. Wesley, however, did not get this “Deed of Declara- tion” through the Conference without some trouble, in overcoming which all his wisdom and power were severely tried, and the aid of the sainted Fletcher was called into requisition. “The ‘long debate,’” says Dr. Smith, “to which reference is made in the beginning of this paragraph, and ‘ in which Mr. Fletcher took much pains,’ was caused by the opposition which was offered to the Deed of Declara- tion by John Hampson, senior, John Hampson, junior, William Eels, Joseph Pilmoor, and a few others. As pre- viously stated, the first of these Preachers had published a circular, calling on all his fellow-labourers, and the people everywhere, to defeat this measure. The principal cause 132 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. of this violent conduct was undoubtedly tlie omission of their names from the list inserted in the Deed. This is, indeed, virtually admitted by Hampson, in his ‘ Appeal ; ’ and he confidently expected to raise such a storm of com- plaint as would enable him to induce Wesley to abrogate or modify the course of action which had been adopted. What was urged in. this debate is not known; but there can be no question that it was very earnest and impassioned. If John Hampson ventured to introduce into his speech only a few of the terms of invective and reproach which he printed in his circular, it is very certain that there were men in the Conference who, loving Wesley, and approving of his con- duct, would repel such charges with great indignation. It is known that the contention grew so warm, that Mr. Flet- cher all but besought the contending parties on his knees to stay the contest, and be reconciled. Principally through his means, an apparent harmony was restored. The four Preachers ‘ acknowledged their fault ; ’ and the Conference proceeded to other business. But this harmony was only in appearance. Every one of these four soon afterward left the Connexion. The elder Hampson became an Indepen- dent Minister ; the younger obtained ordination in the Established Church, and a living in Sunderland. Mr. Eels, some time afterward, joined Mr. Atlay in Dewsbury; and Mr. Pilmoor returned to America, but not in connexion with Wesley. As Mr. Hampson, senior, was old and infirm, and the people among whom he laboured very poor, he was generously allowed twelve pounds a year out of the Preachers’ Fund.” This allowance to Mr. Hampson was certainly very gene- rous and very liberal, not in the amount given, so much as in the spirit manifested ; from which it is evident, that, though discussion ran high, yet bitterness and rancour wrere not mixed up with it, or, if at all, only to a very limited ex- tent. It is, however, very evident that in order thus to carry out his purpose, and render chapel property per- manently secure, all the wisdom, patience, and firmness of Wesley were brought into requisition. The result has proved how needful was the action, how far-seeing the plan, and how successful its issue. CHAP. X.| DEATH OF WESLEY. 133 THE DEATH OF WESLEY. The time had now arrived when this distinguished man of God must exchange mortality for life. Though by no means of robust health in early life, he had been spared to an honoured old age ; and presented an illustrious example of what may be accomplished by one m'an, under the guid- ing, controlling, impelling power of God. His compeers, Wliitefield and his brother Charles, Grim- shaw and Perronet, had passed away in triumph long be- fore. He was spared long enough to see the great work which he had begun extended and spread to an astonishing degree. In March, 1785, he thus speaks of the revival of religion, in which he had acted so prominent a part : “ I was now considering how strangely the grain of mustard seed, planted about fifty years ago, has grown up. It has spread through all Great Britain and Ireland, the Isle of Wight, and the Isle of Man ; then to America, from the Leeward Islands, through the whole Continent, into Canada and Newfoundland. And the Societies in all these parts walk by one rule, knowing that religion is holy tempers ; and striving to worship God, not in form only, hut in spirit and in truth.”* “Who, I ask in amaze, Hath begotten me these? And inquire, from what quarter they came ? My full heart it replies, They are born from the skies, And gives glory to God and the Lamb.” But, although he was spared long enough to witness the wonderful results of his ceaseless labour, it was not too long for the necessary influence of his presence in arranging and consolidating the work so auspiciously commenced, and sub- sequent events proved how difficult and harassing were the questions and subjects which had to he discussed and settled in order that the work might be perpetuated to succeeding generations. In the first years of his ministry he had to endure every kind of contumely and opposition ; hut, long before his de- parture from this world, the scene had wonderfully changed. “When he first went into Cornwall, accompanied by John * Wesley’s Works, vol. iv., p. 298. 134 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. Nelson, lie plucked the blackberries from the hedges, to allay the cravings of hunger ; and slept upon boards, having his saddle-bags for a pillow, till the bones cut through his skin. Now he was received, in that county especially, as an angel of God. On the 17th of August, 1789, on visiting Falmouth, he says, ‘ The last time I was here, above forty years ago, I was taken prisoner by an immense mob, gaping and roaring like lions. But how is the tide turned ! High and low now lined the street, from one end of the town to the other, out of stark love, gaping and staring as if the King were going by.’ ” This was the man whom the people delighted to honour; and that honour was not limited to one place or locality, but prevailed more or less in every place where he had laboured. It was not confined to one class alone, whether high or low, rich or poor, but was manifested by all classes. At length, however, natural vigour yielded to the feeble- ness of age. On January 1st, 1790, he says, “I am now an old man decayed from head to foot. My eyes are dim ; my right hand shakes much ; my mouth is hot and dry every morning ; I have a lingering fever almost every day ; my motion is weak and slow. However, blessed be God, I do not slack my labour. I can preach and write still.” This at nearly eighty-seven years of age ! Thus he continued until February, 1791, “ when his strength entirely failed ; and after languishing a few days, during the whole of which he presented a most edifying ex- ample of holy cheerfulness and resignation, he died on the 2nd of March, in great peace. When the hand of death was upon him, he oftener than once repeated, and that with solemn emphasis, these lines : ‘ I the chief of sinners am, But Jesus died for me.’ And, as the result of that faith in the Lord Jesus, of which these words were the significant expression, he again and again exclaimed, ‘Tice best of all is, God is with usd ” “ God is with us,” was his glory and joy in his last hours. When nearly exhausted, he lifted up his dying arm in token of victory, and “ raising his feeble voice in a holy triumph not to be expressed, he again repeated, ‘ The best of all is, CHAP. X.] DEATH OF WESLEY. 135 God is with us.’ ” In these last moments he also said, “He causeth His servants to lie down in peace.” “ The clouds drop fatness.” “ The Lord is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.” “I’ll praise, I’ll praise.” “The next morn- ing the closing scene drew near. Joseph Bradford, his faithful and well-tried friend, prayed with him ; and the last word he was heard to utter was, ‘ Farewell.’ While several of his friends were kneeling round his bed, without a groan, this man of God, this beloved Pastor of thousands, entered into the joy of his Lord.” This was a fitting close to so holy and beautiful, so laborious and useful a life. His funeral was an occasion on which multitudes testi- fied their love for the departed and them sorrow at their loss. The Bev. Thomas Jackson, in his “Centenary of Wesleyan Methodism,” gives the following account of the event : “ Few men have been more honoured in their death than this venerable servant of the Lord. On the day pre- ceding his interment his remains wrere, according to his own directions, placed in the chapel near his dwelling-house in London ; and the crowds that went to see them were so great, that business was generally suspended in the City Boad, and it was with great difficulty that any carriage could pass. His funeral took place early in the morning, lest any accident should occur, in consequence of the vast concourse of people which was otherwise expected to attend. When the officiating Clergyman at the grave side pro- nounced the words, ‘ Inasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to take unto Himself the soul of our dear father here departed,’ the people, who nearly filled the burying-ground, burst into loud weeping ; and it is believed that scarcely a dry eye was to be seen in the entire assembly.” The inscription on the marble tablet to his memory in City Boad chapel is at once historical and expressive, in few words, of the character, piety, labours, and successes of this eminent man of God. It is as follows : 136 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. “ The best of all is, God is with us.” J?acretf to tijc of THE REY. JOHN WESLEY, M.A., SOMETIME FELLOW OF LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD. A man, in learning and sincere piety, scarcely inferior to any : In zeal, ministerial labours, and extensive usefulness, superior, perhaps, to all men, since the days of St. Paul. Regardless of fatigue, personal danger, and disgrace, he went out into the highways and hedges, calling sinners to repentance, and publishing the Gospel of Peace. He was the Founder of the Methodist Societies, and the chief Promoter and Patron of the plan of Itinerant Preaching, which he extended through Great Britain and Ireland, the West Indies, and America, with unexampled success. He was horn the xvn of June, mdcciii, and died the 11 of March, mdccxci, in sure and certain hope of eternal life, through the Atonement and Mediation of a Crucified Saviour. He was sixty-five years in the Ministry, and fifty-two an Itinerant Preacher ; He lived to see in these kingdoms only, about three hundred Itinerant, and one thousand Local, Preachers, raised up from the midst of his own people, and eighty thousand persons in the societies under his care. His name will be ever had in grateful remembrance by all who rejoice in the universal spread of the Gospel of Christ. SOLI DEO GLORIA. CHAP. X.] DEATH OF WESLEY. 137 Though Charles Wesley died a few years previously to his brother, it will not be out of place to give here the in- scription on the tablet to his memory in the same chapel ; it being no less expressive and characteristic than the one just quoted. “ God buries his workmen, but carries on his work.” JI'Acrctf to tip fWfntorn of THE REV CHARLES WESLEY, M.A., EDUCATED AT WESTMINSTER SCHOOL, AND SOMETIME STUDENT AT CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD. As a Preacher He was eminent for ability, zeal, and usefulness, being learned without pride, and pious without ostentation ; to the sincere, diffident Christian, A Son of Consolation ; but to the vain boaster, the hypocrite, and the profane, a Son of Thunder. He was the first who received the name of Methodist ; and, uniting with his brother, the Rev. John Wesley, in the plan of Itinerant Preaching, endured hardship, persecution, and disgrace, as a good Soldier of Jesus Christ ; contributing largely, by the usefulness of his labours, to the first formation of the Methodist Societies in these Kingdoms. As a Christian Poet, he stood unrivalled ; and his Hymns will convey instruction and consolation to the faithful in Christ Jesus, as long as the English Language shall be understood. He was born the xviii of December mdccviii, and died the xxix of March mdcclxxxviii, a firm and pious Believer in the Doctrines of the Gospel, and a sincere Friend to the Church of England. 138 • BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. If these two wonderful men are permitted to look down from their lofty seats, and witness what transpires in this lower world, with what rapture must they behold the ever- widening and extending successes of the Gospel of Christ ! Even this spot (Annshaw) where I now write was for untold ages the dwelling-place of the dark and cruel heathen ; hut it is now won to Christ; and the hallelujahs of hundreds of saved Kaffirs ascend to heaven, and rise accepted in the skies, perfumed with the incense of the Saviour’s merits. CHAP. XI.] THE CONFERENCE OF 1797- 139 CHAPTER XL THE CONFERENCE OF 1797. The Conferences of 1795 ancl 1797 form another im- portant epoch in the history of Methodism. In the last chapter we gave the closing scene of Mr. Wesley’s laborious and useful life, but no account of the last Con- ference which he attended. Before recording what occurred immediately after his death, it is needful to notice the progress which had been made when that event occurred. The last Conference at which this venerable patriarch was present, was held in Bristol, commencing on July 27th, 1790, and was the forty-seventh from the beginning. Of this Conference Dr. Smith writes as follows : “As the state of the Connexion at this Conference must be taken as its condition and extent at the death of Wesley, it may be desirable to be more than usually particular in the statement, and to go rather more into detail than would otherwise be necessary. The following table presents a summary view of the number of Preachers and members, in the Methodist Societies at this Conference. Countries. Circuits. Preachers. Members. England G5 195 52,832 Ireland 29 67 14,106 Wales 3 7 566 Scotland 8 18 1,086 Isle of Man 1 3 2,580 Norman Isles 2 4 498 West India Isles ... 7 13 4,500 British America . . . 4 6 800 United States 97 198 43,265 216 511 120,233 “ The work had now attained such magnitude and im- 140 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. portance, as to demand in its several departments more careful oversight than any man of Wesley’s age could sup- ply, or than could be afforded by any annual inspection at the Conferences. This oversight it was wisely determined to supply by the appointment of Committees, as circum- stances rendered them necessary. At this time a Commit- tee was appointed for the management of the West India Missions. It was composed of Dr. Thomas Coke, Alex- ander Mather, Thomas Eankin, James Rogers, Henry Moore, Adam Clarke, John Baxter, William Warrener, and Matthew Dumb. “ A Building Committee for England was also appointed, consisting of Alexander Mather, John Pawson, Thomas Rankin, William Thompson, William Jenkins, and the London Assistant. “A similar Committee was also appointed for Ireland, of which Andrew Blair, Adam Clarke, Thomas Rutherford, and Thomas Mitchell were the members.” Soon after the death of Mr. Wesley, the difficulties of the new and altered state of things began to be felt. He left the following brief and characteristic letter to he read at the first Conference after his decease. “ TO THE METHODIST CONFERENCE. “ Chester, April 7th, 1785. “ My dear Brethren, “ Some of our Travelling Preachers have expressed a fear, that, after my decease, you would exclude them either from preaching in connexion with you, or from some other privi- lege which they now enjoy. I know no other way to prevent any such inconvenience, than to leave these, my last words, with you. “ I beseech you, by the mercies of God, that you never avail yourselves of the ‘Deed of Declaration,’ to assume any supe- riority over your brethren : but let all things go on, among those Itinerants who choose to remain together, exactly in the same manner as when I was with you, so far as circumstances will permit. “ In particular, I beseech you, if you ever loved me, and if you now love God and your brethren, to have no respect of persons, in stationing the Preachers, in choosing children for CHAP. XI.] THE CONFERENCE OF 1797. 141 Kingswood school, in disposing of the yearly Contribution, and the Preachers’ Fund, or any other public money. But do all things with a single eye, as I have done from the beginning. Go on thus, doing all things without prejudice or partiality, and God will be with you to the end. “ John Wesley.” This letter, short and general as it is, discloses Mr. Wesley’s intense concern for the future 'welfare of his Societies : hut it was by no means adequate to meet the exigency of the case. Some have held that one of Mr. Wesley’s most serious defects was, that of not making more full and complete provision for the well-being of his system after his death. The -whole of what he had done was preparatory ; and so long as he was present to guide and work it, all went on well : but after he was taken away, serious difficulties beset the path of those who had to legislate on Church organization. He had proceeded too far to allow his people to recede and become absorbed in the National Church, and not far enough to enable the Connexion to advance with steadiness and safety. In fact, the Conference was not in a position to legislate, when legislation was most needed. It might have been able to execute or carry out what had been previously arranged and prepared, but lacked the unity and authority essential to organize a regular system of Church polity, and to make such new regulations as were needed by the altered cir- cumstances in which the Methodist Connexion was placed. The divided sentiments and feelings of Wesley’s followers may be classed under three heads. First : the conserva- tives, or High Church party, with Dr. Coke at their head. These were desirous, under certain conditions, to return to and be absorbed in the Establishment. Dr. Coke made proposals to that effect, but they were rejected by the dig- nitaries of the Establishment. “ The conservatives,” says Stevens, “ included most of the trustees of chapels, as these were generally chosen from the most wealthy mem- bers of the Societies, and were therefore most likely to be influenced, by their social position, in favour of the national Church. They were, indeed, the ‘ High Church ’ 142 ■ BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. lay aristocracy of Methodism, distinguishable, as such, from the mass of the people who demanded the sacra- ments, and from the ultra democratic party represented by Kilham. By extensive consultations and correspond- ence they prepared to exert their influence, if not their official power, against all liberal changes. They met by delegations at Bristol, before the session of the Conference there. They claimed a larger control than had been con- ceded them over the affairs of the Societies, and particu- larly the right of a veto on the sacraments in the chapels. They denounced the meeting at Lichfield, demanded that the Preachers should abandon all ecclesiastical titles, cease to administer the sacraments, abjure ordinations, and divide more equally with the trustees the administra- tion of the affairs of the Church.” The carrying out of these proposals would have been fatal to Methodism, and ultimately they were rejected by the Conference. The Second class consisted of those who might he desig- nated the progressive party. The policy of this large and preponderating class was to carry out Mr. Wesley’s plan of availing themselves of the openings and calls of Provi- dence as to their future operations. “ The devout spirit of the Conference of 1791 pervaded all its proceedings. Its members were too deeply impressed with the sense of their critical position to allow unhallowed passions to affect their doings, or to suffer irritating language to escape their lips. At the examination of twelve candidates, the older Preach- ers wept around them as the pledges of future success ; at their public reception similar emotions prevailed in the congregation. Entwisle, who was one of the received probationers, describes the scene as peculiarly solemn : ‘ Hopper, whose usefulness, age, wisdom, and experience, rendered him truly venerable, opened the meeting by prayer ; he prayed till he could pray no longer for weep- ing. Preachers and people seemed to have similar feel- ings, and the whole congregation felt the Divine power in a very remarkable manner. For my own part, I felt what I never did before. I seemed to receive a new commis- sion, and I do believe that I experienced something of what Paul speaks of in 1 Tim. iv. 14.’ An early historian CHAP. XI.] THE CONFEKENCE OF 1797. 143 of Methodism says : ‘ The business being ended, the Con- ference broke up. Great was the comfort of the Preachers, that such a foundation was laid for the peace and pros- perity of the Societies. The Lord they saw was better to them than their boding fears. His servants were of one heart and one mind. The voice of thanksgiving ascended up on high, and they departed to their usual Circuits blessing and praising God.’ “ The pledge of the Conference to ‘ follow strictly Mr. Wesley’s plan ’ was vague, and was variously interpreted. The controversy could not hut he resumed, and more defi- nite results must be reached before the Church could he at rest. Partisans of the national Church regarded the pledge as binding the Methodists to the Establishment ; the advocates of progress dissented, and, in the language of Pawson, declared, ‘ Not so ; our old plan has been to follow the openings of Providence, and to alter or amend the plan as we saw it needful, in order to be more useful in the hand of God.’ Hanby, whom Wesley had authorized to administer the sacraments, still claimed the right to do so wherever the Societies wished him. Pawson wrote, the same year, that if the people were denied the sacraments, they would leave the Connexion in many places. Taylor was determined to administer them at Liverpool ; and Atmore wrote, that having ‘ solemnly promised upon his knees, before God and His people, that he would give all diligence, not only to preach the word, but to administer the sacraments in the Church of God,’ he would do so, wherever required by the people.” The Third class may be characterized as the ultra liberals, of whom Mr. Kilham, who was afterwards expelled, was the leading spirit. These sought immediate and entire separation from the Established Church, and the full organization of an independent Methodist Church. This party was also defeated ; and Mr. Kilham, who was re- moved from the Conference in 1796, established a new sect, called “ The New Connexion Methodists,” which still exists, and has a large number of Preachers and members. The classes here enumerated had not only their own 144 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. peculiar views, but several pleas wliicli might be fairly urged in support of their views. Hence the difficulty of legislation. Had the Established Church of England pos- sessed a little more moderation, liberality, and wisdom, it might have absorbed into itself at this time much of the rising intelligence and wealth of Methodism. But the Episcopal hierarchy knew not the golden opportunity, but rudely repulsed or coldly slighted all overtures, and the opportunity returned no more. Many of the Episcopalians have, since those days, desired a liberal plan of incorpo- ration ; but in vain ; there is no place for reparation, if there is for repentence. The moderate party prevailed, after seven years of toil and struggle. The conflict was conducted with great spirit, but upon the whole with wonderful moderation. (See the Histories of Methodism by Dr. Smith and Dr. Stevens.) It is not improbable that the type in Mr. Wesley’s mind, if he had a type at all, was that of the Methodist Episcopal Church of America. In the formation of that Church, he ordained Dr. Coke Bishop, who ordained Asbury ; and the succession has been continued ever since. In England, also, he ordained Mather as Superintendent, in addition to the Presbyters, with the design probably that he and Dr. Coke should ordain others, and that thus in England, as well as in America, there should be a Methodist Episcopal Church. This was also a favourite project with Dr. Coke, but he failed to get it carried into execution. Probably he calcu- lated upon being the successor of Wesley, and expected to be the President of the first Conference after his death ; and possibly he was disajipointed by his non-election by his brethren to that office. Instead of making that appoint- ment they placed William Thompson in the chair, and constituted the Doctor Secretary for several years in suc- cession. There could not be two John Wesleys, and the Founder of Methodism could have no successor. It was not till 1797 that Dr. Coke was raised to the presidency. At the Conference of 1795 a general ‘ ‘ Plan of Pacification was, after much discussion, adopted : but this did not fully meet the case. It formed the basis, however, upon which more satisfactory action afterwards took place ; but not CHAP. XI.] THE CONFERENCE OF 1797- 145 until tlie Conference of 1797 was the whole subject fully and amicably arranged. “Many of the trustees of the Connexion were still dissatis- fied with its government. A week before the next Confer- ence sixty-seven delegates from them met at Leeds to make further demands. The Conference itself assembled there, according to appointment, on the 1st of August, 1797, the trustees being still in session. Never, says an historian of Methodism, had the Methodist Preachers entered upon the work of their annual assembly under circumstances of so much difficulty and danger to the Connexion. Dr. Coke was chosen President, and Samuel Bradburn Secre- tary. The Minutes enrolled 399 Preachers ; 23 were re- ceived on probation ; 3 ceased to travel ; 3 had died since the previous session. The Circuits numbered 145, being a gain of two. The British Islands reported 99,519 mem- bers of Society ; their increase was 4,293 ; the British North American Provinces and the West Indies reported 8,742, showing a decrease of 911. The total membership under the jurisdiction of the Conference was 108,261 ; the total increase was 3,382.” The spirit in which the negotiations between the trustees and the Conference were carried on, is thus depicted by Dr. Stevens : “ The most critical part of the business of the session related to the demands of the assembled trustees ; it was conducted during nine or ten days with as much cordiality as dignity, by written communications and Com- mittees from both bodies, and the final agreements were so satisfactory to both that the convention of trustees adjourned, declaring by formal resolution its thanks to the Conference, and the determination of the delegates to ‘ sup- port the Methodist cause on the plan agreed on by the Conference ; ’ and the Conference voted that ‘ we do sin- cerely return you our thanks for your candid and Chris- tian-like conduct throughout the whole of your proceedings in the character of representatives of the trustees. We join our hands and hearts with yours, and trust we shall all of us continue faithful till death in the good old cause, which many of you and us have so long been engaged in, and in which we are determined to spend our strength and L 146 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. lives. To God’s holy keeping we recommend you.’ Thus did the tossed and driven hark come forth from the protracted storm. ‘ The division of the body,’ says a Methodist authority, [Dr. Smith,] ‘which enemies to its prosperity, both within and without, ardently desired, was entirely averted ; and Preachers and people, released from vexatious and unprofitable wrangling, were able to pursue their true and proper calling of building up believers, and spreading scriptural holiness throughout the land.’ The result of the struggle was most salutary, not only in the restoration of harmony, but, if possible, more so, as giving a consolidated government to Wesleyan Methodism, by which it has not only survived later strifes, but has extended its sway with increasing energy, more or less, around the world, and which in our day, after more than half a century of labours and struggles, remains as effective a system of Church polity as Protestant Christendom affords. The fact that it is due as much to the moderation and con- cessive spirit as to the firmness of the good and great men who conducted Methodism through this formidable struggle, presents a lesson which should never be forgotten by their successors.” The final results are thus summarized: “The adjust- ment of 1797 was essentially the completion of the Plan of Pacification of 1795. The combined results of both were : that the supremacy of the Conference, as designed by Wes- ley— its right to appoint the Preachers to Circuits, and its control of the pulpits of the Church — was maintained ; a majority of the trustees, stewards, and Leaders of any Circuit having, however, power to demand a meeting of the Preachers and other officers of the Circuit to examine a Preacher whose disqualifications might render him unfit for the appointment, he being subject to removal if a majority of the meeting should condemn him, and subject to suspen- sion till the next Conference, if he should refuse to submit to their decision. The sacraments were accorded with re- strictions which could not finally prevent their general ad- ministration. The Conference pledged itself to publish annual accounts of the yearly collections. All accounts of deficits in the allowance of Preachers, which the Circuits 'CHAP. XI.] THE CONFERENCE OF 1797. 147 did not meet, were to be presented in the Circuit Quarterly Meetings, and to be endorsed by the Circuit stewards ; these claims having been heretofore reported by the Preacher only to the District Meetings, which were composed of Preachers, and were often at a distance from the local Quarterly Meetings. The District Meetings were allowed 'to decide no other temporal business without the consent ■ of the Quarterly Meetings of the District. No person was +to be admitted to the Society by the Preacher or otherwise if the Leaders’ Meeting had declared the candidate inad- missible, and no member was to be expelled unless the charges against him were proved before the Leaders’ Meet- ing. A steward or Leader could not be appointed or dis- placed against the will of the Leaders’ Meeting. No Local Preacher could be placed upon the Plan of Local Preachers’ appointments without the consent of the Local Preachers’ Meeting. If at any time the Conference should deem it proper to enact any new rule for the Societies, and such rule should be objected to in the first Quarterly Meeting- in any Circuit, and if the majority of the meeting, in con- junction with the Preachers, be of opinion that the enforce- ment of the rule would be injurious to the prosperity of the Circuit, it need not be enforced before the next Conference ; nevertheless the Quarterly Meeting, refusing a new rule, should not, by publications, public meetings, or otherwise, make it a cause of contention, but must strive by every means to preserve the peace of the Connexion.” The general principles of the Connexion here laid down have been the guide and basis of Methodism ever since ; with such alterations, modifications, and additions, as the altered circumstances of the body have called for. Having given a general and connected account of these long struggles, with the final adjustment and settlement of the great difficulties which were now surmounted, it is proper to trace these gratifying results to the special assist- ance and guidance of Almighty God. Throughout these pages, I have endeavoured to show that Methodism wras pre-eminently a spiritual work, based upon the conversion of John Wesley to God, and the gradual development of those Divine plans which were carried into operation by 9 L 148 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. liim and his assistants, with this one object, “to spread scriptural holiness throughout the world.” The period from the death of Mr. Wesley to the Conference of 1797 was the most difficult and critical in the history of Metho- dism ; hut, as an able writer observes concerning the first Conference, “ The devout spirit of the Conference saved it.” God, not man, bore it safely through the ordeal. Let us look for a few moments at the manner and spirit in which these perplexed but godly men met the crisis and sought to pass through it. How earnestly they endeavoured to set aside party motives and personal interests, seeking guidance from God by fasting and prayer ! Take an in- stance in the Conference of 1795, of which Dr. Stevens re- lates : “ After this stormy year the Preachers resorted to their next session with intense anxiet}r, believing that de- liverance must be there providentially vouchsafed to them, or their trials culminate in a general explosion of their organization. The session began at Manchester, July 27th, 1795. Joseph Bradford, the travelling companion of Wes- ley, was chosen President, and Dr. Coke Secretary. Op- pressed by the perils which beset it, the Conference devoted its first day to fasting and prayer. It had reached a crisis, and the Divine Providence which had so long tested it, as in the fire, was about to lead it out of its consuming agita- tions ; not, indeed, suddenly, but surely. Entwisle, who was present, wrote home that he £ never saw so much love among the Preachers before.’ After jmwerful preliminary sermons on the Sabbath, the Conference met at five o’clock on Monday morning and began their devotions, which were continued till seven ; again they assembled at eight, and continued together till ten ; at twelve they re-assembled, and spent two hours in prayer ; after which the Preachers, by themselves, partook of the Lord’s Supper. ‘ It would re- joice your heart,’ says Entwisle, ‘to see how all former things are laid aside, and the persons concerned declare that they will not only forgive, but forget former grievances, •and never mention them more.’ ” The character of the men who under God brought about these great results was of a high order. There were the veterans, who had marched side by side with Wesley for ••-CHAP. XI.] THF CONFERENCE OF 1797. 149 many years, liacl fought under his banner, and achieved glorious victories under his leadership, Amongst them were William Thompson, the first President of the Confer- ence ; Cownley, Moore, and Mather, who were ordained by the apostolic hands of Wesley ; Hopper, Pawson, and At- more, who had laboured long and hard and well. Amongst the men of the day who were there in their manly prime were Dr. Coke, Benson, Samuel Bradburn, Taylor, and Adam Clarke, who was just becoming a man of mark, and had yet a long and honourable career to run, enriching the literature of the Church and of the world by drawing from the ample stores of his vast and varied learning. The men of the future were Bichard Watson, who brought his profound thought and solid piety to bear upon the theology of Wesleyan Methodism; Jabez Bunting, the great legislator of the body, with his clearsightedness and conclusive reasoning ; Bobert Newton, with his manly form, his sonorous voice, his wondrous eloquence ; Joseph Entwisle, with his childlike simplicity and angelic piety. These, with a large number of other worthies, constituted the men of the past, the workers of the present, and the promise of the future. What is further remarkable is, that during these years of distraction and trial God in a wonderful manner poured out His Holy Spirit. The word of the Preachers was attended with great power ; thousands were subdued and saved, and added to the Society; so that the annual increase in the number of members was large. This is the best proof which can he given that the men who strove did not do so for party purposes, but to secure what they believed to be the best ends ; and hence God made abundant use of them as instruments in carrying out His work. Their suc- cess in their holy employment served to strengthen their confidence in God, being the pledge and assurance that ultimately He would work deliverance for them from their manifold perplexities. 150 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I.- CHAPTER XII. john wesley’s scriptural conversion the true origin OF THE WESLEYAN CHURCH. The heading of this chapter may be considered by some to contain a bold assertion. Be it so, but the assertion is sustained by fact. The Wesleyan Church has now grown into a complete and separate ecclesiastical organization, with its own regularly appointed Ministry, well defined polity, and mighty action ; hut the foundation of the whole was laid in Mr. Wesley’s scriptural conversion to God ; that conversion being based upon Christ, the Bock of Ages. I am not ignorant of, nor indifferent to, the prominent part which Charles Wesley and George Whitefield took in the early work of Methodism ; they laboured, suffered, triumphed. But when Charles Wesley saw the manner in which his brother John departed more and more from the Established Church, he ceased to co-operate with him as an Itinerant. The Wesleyan Church has, however, a legacy of priceless value which he bequeathed to it and the world, in his spiritual psalmody. Whitefield drifted into Calvinism, and became associated with Lady Hunt- ingdon ; so that ultimately the result of his labours was absorbed mostly in Dissenting Churches. Thus John. Wes- ley alone must he taken as the founder of that Christian denomination which hears his name, and perpetuates his labours. Nothing could he further from his desire and intention than to found such a Church. He was pro- foundly, and some think inconsistently, attached to the Established Church : yet he practically, though not for- mally, left that body, and established a separate Christian organization, which since his death has only become more clearly defined and more fully developed. Yet, throughout life, he tried to reconcile this course of action with his position as a member of the Establishment. CHAP. XII.] ORIGIN OP THE WESLEYAN CHURCH. 151 It has been broadly affirmed by some modern Episcopal Church Ministers and Missionaries, that the present “self- styled” Wesleyan Church is “ renegade; ” that, in fact, it properly belongs to the Establishment. They would thus, by one great claim, swallow up all those persons who have been gathered in through Wesleyan instrumentality. They affirm, “ Mr. Wesley was a Churchman, and by sequence all his followers belong to the Church ; and we have a right to them.” Such reasoning may appear very futile to Englishmen who are well instructed in the technicalities of Church government ; but it is not quite so easy for par- tially instructed African converts or ignorant Europeans to understand the real merits of the case. It will there- fore be no matter of surprise, if a little prominence and distinctness is here given to this subject. The conversion of Mr. Wesley to God is the basis of the Wesleyan Church ; but his conversion did not take place in the National Church at all, hut teas brought about by an instru- mentality that had no connexion with that Church, namely, the Moravians. The real ground or cause of Mr. Wesley’s future action was, his discovering the plan of salvation by faith in Christ, and adopting that plan ; his being born again of the Holy Ghost, and being made a new creature in Christ Jesus ; his being filled with the burning love of God, and being constrained by this love to seek the salva- tion of others. He was thus rightly designated “the modern Apostle of experimental religion.” Had it not been for his conversion, he might have been the polished collegian, the astute logician, the profound philosopher, the learned linguist, and the consecrated Priest. But, without this, he could not have been the author of a great religious movement, such as that which then sprang forth, and has since been sustained. He might have been a High Church- man, a consummate ritualist, a semi or real Papist, but no more. His conversion did not take place in the Establishment ; nor could it take place there, in the nature of things. The stream cannot rise above the fountain, and we are not acquainted with any leading Divines in the Established Church at that time, who either knew or taught the plan 152 . BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. of salvation by faith in Christ without the works of the law ; and consequently what they did not know, they could not possibly teach. Those who have the opportunity of perusing the works of that period will see how fully these remarks are borne out by the printed theology of that day. No; the Established Church was defective, was inade- quate to the task, — could not meet the emergency. There- fore was it that God, having a great work to accomplish, brought Wesley and others into contact with the Moravians, who were able to “teach them the way of God more per- fectly.” Hence this great work of God was from without, or beyond the pale of the Establishment ; and the founda- tion of this great spiritual edifice and ecclesiastical struc- ture was not laid in the Episcopal Church, but on the broader base of a cosmopolitan plan, bringing within its range, not only another Church, but also another nation ; incorporating Germans and Germany, and in them and through them all Churches “ built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Corner-stone.” Let not the reader for a moment suppose that I am indifferent to the other great agencies employed in the pre- paration of this distinguished instrument. No ; maternal care, Oxford learning, and Moravian spirituality were re- quired in the adaptation of this polished shaft. Mrs. Wesley fostered the opening genius, and moulded the meth- odical mind. The Charterhouse School and Oxford Uni- versity gave mental culture, scholarly polish, and solid erudition. But Moravian simplicity and spirituality took all these golden preparations, brought them to the cross, and laid them on “that altar which sanctifietli the gift.” Then the mighty impulse of converting grace sent forth this special instrument, and caused it to effect a wonderful and lasting work. Divine grace was the central spring of all the greatness, goodness, and usefulness of John Wesley. The power which he wielded was the power of God ; so that, when brought into contact with Church order, the force and upheavings of his sanctified soul were too great to be con- •CHAP. XII.] ORIGIN OF THE WESLEYAN CHURCH. 153 trolled or restrained by ecclesiastical surroundings. Thus, when the first great shock of closing church doors against him came, he exclaimed, “It were better for me to die than not preach the Gospel ; yea, and even in the fields, either when I may not preach in the church, or when the church will not contain the congregation.” What might not be expected from such a man, acting in accordance with, and prompted by, such Divine impulses ! How bold and eloquent was the challenge to those who opposed him, in the following words ! “ Suppose field-preaching to be ever so expedient, or even necessary ; yet who will contest with us for this province ? May we not enjoy this quiet and unmolested? unmolested, I mean, by any competitors. For who is there among you, brethren, that is willing (examine your own hearts) even to save souls from death at this price ? Would not you let a thousand souls perish, rather than you would be the instrument of rescuing them thus ? I do not speak now with regard to conscience, but to the inconveniences that must accompany it. Can you sustain them if you would ? Can you bear the summer sun to beat upon your naked head? Can you suffer the wintry rain or wind, from whatever quarter it blows ? Are you able to stand in the open air, without any covering or defence, when God casteth abroad His snow like wool, or scattereth His hoar-frost like ashes ? And yet these are some of the smallest inconveniences which accompany field-preaching. Far beyond all these are the contradiction of sinners, the scoffs both of the great vulgar and the small ; contempt and reproach of very kind ; often more than verbal affronts, stupid, brutal violence ; sometimes to the hazard of health, or limbs, or life. Brethren, do you envy us this honour ? What, I pray, would buy you to be a Field-Preacher ? Or what, think you, could induce any man of common sense to continue therein one year, unless he had a full con- viction in himself that it was the will of God concerning him ? ” What is still more remarkable is, that not only did the Established Church not bring about the conversion of the Wesleys and Whitefield, but, when they were converted 154 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I- and prepared for extensive usefulness, the Church did not employ them, but cast them from its pale. Either judicial blindness, or rigid order, or godless indifference, induced the Clergy of the National Church to oppose, instead of encouraging this great movement. Had they encouraged it, it might probably have been absorbed in the Establish- ment. In this respect they had not the clear-sightedness or political acumen of the Church of Rome, which, when Loyola arose, instead of thrusting him out, saw at once how he might be incorporated in it, and made subservient to its great designs. The Society of Jesuits was formed, and its propagandism has effected more for the fallen and corrupt Church of Rome than any other agency. But it was far different with Wesley and his coadjutors : they were rejected from the pulpits of the State Church, and, in many instances, the godless Clergy became the insti- gators and abettors of bitter and barbarous persecution. Wesley’s original intention was, to impart spiritual life and power to the Establishment, not to separate from it ; but in this he was disappointed and defeated ; he and his work were thrown off, as an oppressive incubus, or as an unwel- come appendage ; and hence arose by natural steps, provi- dentially marked out, the present Wesleyan Church. CHAP. XIII.] METHODISM A SCRIPTURAL CHURCH. 155 CHAPTER XIII. METHODISM A SCRIPTURAL CHURCH. We have, in the preceding pages, endeavoured to show how Mr. Wesley separated step by step from the Estab- lished Church of England, and formed a distinct Christian Church, independent of that Establishment. In name and sympathy he still adhered to it, so far as its ecclesiastical polity was concerned ; but he had in reality formed a separate organization, which, if not carried out in all its details before his death, yet, in all the principles, facts, and essentials, was a separate independent Church. All the acts of the Conferences since his death have not been separation ; they have been merely arranging and adapting the essentials of the Church, which were placed in their hands by Wesley himself. I make this statement advisedly and deliberately, having before my mind all that has been said by zealous High Church partisans. The Wesleyan Church is not renegade: it has not departed from the spirit and practice of its founder ; but is still what its founder made it, with such modifications as times and circumstances have required. In the previous chapter it was affirmed that the scrip- tural conversion of John Wesley was the basis of the Wesleyan Methodist Church ; and that he grounded on that great fact a second, in placing the work of God in the salvation of man above conformity to Church order and rule. Had it not been for the latter fact, based upon the former, Methodism as a Church would not have existed, hut must have been absorbed in the Establishment. Charles Wesley was equally converted to God with John ; he was equally zealous ; preached abroad, and bore con- tumely and persecution, just as did his brother John ; hut, when he ultimately saw whereunto these things would lead, he drew hack ; he was too devoted to the Church of Eng- land to violate its orders, and to run the risk of a separate 156 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. Church being consummated. So would it have been with John, but for what is now distinctly noted. John Wesley had been a great stickler for Church order, and thought that to save souls out of a church was almost sin ; but another spirit had come over him : “ A dispensation of the Gospel being committed to me, I did not dare not to preach the Gospel ; if in a church, well ; if not, in the fields, anywhere. I had better die than not preach the Gospel.” From this noble, philanthropic design he never departed ; when perplexed and tried, he never wavered, but was borne onward by an impulse higher than Church order or conformity : his mission was Divine. These two facts combined gave Methodism to the world. Then fol- lowed, in natural order, the establishment of the “United Societies:” after this, the accumulated pressure demanded a lay Ministry : as a consequence that could not be obvi- ated, these Ministers must have chapels to preach in; they were built, and dotted over the land. The work thus begun and carried on must be perpetuated when the hand and heart which brought it into existence had passed away. Hence a separate independent organization must be effected. The “ Deed of Declaration ” is prepared ; the chapels are secured; the Conference is formed ; the itinerancy is estab- lished ; Ministers are ordained ; the sacraments are administered, and the whole polity of the Church is estab- lished. So that, at the death of Wesley, he had done all that could be done, except to pronounce a formal declara- tion of separation and independence. The Methodist Church was already formed and established. The succeeding seven years, after Wesley’s death, were difficult, if not stormy ; but they were not so in the sense of having to lay down new principles, or effect radical changes in old ones. It could not reasonably be supposed that when the master mind and strong hand of Wesley were removed, one hundred men, however excellent, or well- informed, and desirous of doing their best, could mould these materials into organic shape, and order their future har- monious working, without some trouble, or without at times appearing to endanger the whole work. But they sought assistance from God, and He granted them their petition. CHAP. XIII.] METHODISM A SCRIPTURAL CHURCH. 157 When in the midst of their perplexities and trials, they did not endeavour to settle them by an appeal to popular feel- ing or excited clamour ; hut, as we have seen, sought from God by fasting and prayer the guidance which their new and altered circumstances required. This consideration should deeply impress those of after ages. It was not “grasping for power ” on the part of those earnest men to make the Conference dominant, in order to “lord it over God’s heritage ; ” hut their object was, to make such regu- lations as were in accordance with the principles which they had received, and such laws as were best adapted to carry out the designs of the Founder. A gla nee down the last seventy years will show the amount of their success. Wesleyan Methodism is now a distinct, independent, scriptural Church. The following quotations will give Mr. Wesley’s views upon this subject, with some explanations and comments from Dr. Stevens’s able pen : “ £ Here, then, is a clear, unexceptionable answer to that question, What is the Church ? The Catholic or Universal Church is all the persons in the universe whom God hath so called out of the world as to entitle them to the preceding character ; as to be “one body,” united by “one Spirit;” having “one faith, one hope, one baptism ; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in them all.” That part of this great body of the Universal Church which in- habits any one kingdom or nation, we may properly term a national Church ; as the Church of France, the Church of England, the Church of Scotland. A smaller part of the Universal Church are the Christians that inhabit one city or town ; as the Church of Ephesus, and the rest of the seven Churches mentioned in the Revelation. Two or three Christian believers united together are a Church in the narrowest sense of the word. Such was the Church in the house of Philemon, and that in the house of Nymphas, mentioned Col. iv. 15. A particular Clmrcli may, therefore, consist of any number of members, whether two or three, or two or three millions. But still, whether they be larger or smaller, the same idea is to be preserved. They are one body ; and have one Spirit, one Lord, one hope, one faith, one baptism ; one God and Father of all.’ 158 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. “ According to this definition, Wesley must have con- sidered his own congregations or Societies as real Churches. If ‘two or three Christian believers united together are a Church ; ’ if ‘ several of those whom God hath called out of the world, uniting together in one congregation, formed a larger Church ; ’ if ‘a particular Church may consist of any number of members, whether two or three, or two or three millions,’ what were his Societies but Churches ? ” “ While, therefore, lie paused not in the beginning to anticipate whether the associations of his people would become permanent Churches, or even permanent Societies, it would seem impossible to doubt that, according to his definition of a Church, they did become, in his own esti- mation, a genuine Church, and that, in gradually giving them, as providential circumstances required, an organic form, under which the preaching of ‘the pure word of God ’ and ‘ the sacraments duly administered ’ were pro- vided for them, he conceded their just claim to that cha- racter, though he wished them not to be dislocated, as such, from the national Establishment, which to him was a spiritual Church only in its spiritually-minded member- ship, and beyond this only an ecclesiastico-political insti- tution.” “ At first he knew not what consistence or form his own Societies would take ; he had no anxiety on that point ; he left it to the Providence which, he believed, was directing him. But we have seen him taking step after step for their more thorough organization. He and his clerical associates administer to them the sacraments in their own humble preaching-houses ; and he allows them, at last, to worship in their chapels during ‘ church hours.’ Are the sacraments ‘duly administered’ essential to a true Church? He would qualify the phrase, yet he ordains Lay Preachers to duly administer them to his Societies in Scotland, and then in America, and finally in England itself. Did he, then, still believe that they were ‘ Societies,’ but not Churches ? “ Pie completes their organization, at last, by a discipline and constitution, and provides for their permanent exist- ence, but never changes their terms of membership, as CHAP. XIII.] METHODISM A SCRIPTURAL CHURCH. 159 recorded in the ‘ General Rules ; ’ never inserts a dogmatic requirement in that document ; and in his last years more than ever boasts of the liberality of his system. Did he not, then, consider the ‘ General Rules ’ as a sufficient basis of Church communion ? “But did he not provide a standard of doctrines for his people ? Do not the deeds of his churches and the courts of England recognise his Notes on the New Testament and a portion of his Sermons as that standard? ” The above quotations must settle the question in the minds of all who are disposed to take a candid and impar- tial view of the subject ; but many, both Churchmen and Dissenters, have, by force of prejudice, been disinclined to take such a view of it. “ The first of these parties,” says Dr. Smith, “ comprises the Papists and the High Church- men, with many others in the National Establishment, who deny that the Wesleyan Preachers have any scriptural ministerial appointment or position. They repudiate the validity and efficacy of the sacraments as administered by them, and consider the whole community in a state of schism. The other class is found in the ranks of extreme Dissent. They maintain that the Methodist Conferences of 1795 and 1797, instead of conferring any boon, or giving any additional privileges to their Societies, actually — from a lust of power and thirst for aggrandizement — robbed them of rights and powers previously possessed, thereby violating the first principles which ought to regulate the internal economy of a Christian Church, and perpetuating a vicious and corrupt ecclesiastical system.” The High Church party, both in England and the Colo- nies, has resisted all evidence with the greatest pertinacity, and, in order to do so, has resorted to the most unworthy methods, involving the violation of truth. As Dr. Stevens writes: “ The chief difficulty among £ Churchmen,’ respect- ing Wesley’s view of his United Society, arises from the fact that they have not appreciated his distinction between a simple, spiritual Church and a national Church. His tenacious regard for the latter, as existing in his country, has led them to disbelieve that he recognised the former as existing in his own United Society. They have even 160 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. accused his successors of mutilating some of his writings which favour the Establishment. Alexander Knox, who venerated Wesley, has (Appendix to Southey’s Wesley, ii., 362, Am. ed.) charged them with 4 mutilating’ an entry in his Journal for Oct. 24tli, 1786, and cancelling a passage for Jan. 2nd, 1787, which he affirms were in the original editions. He says, ‘ that in every edition subsequent to Wesley’s death the former passage is mutilated, and the latter wholly cancelled.’ The reader will find these very passages precisely given in all the editions, American and English, of Wesley’s Works since his death ! Knox also accuses the publishers of suppressing Wesley’s Sermon on ‘ The Ministerial Office.’ By turning to any edition, American or English, of Wesley’s Sermons, this very ser- mon will be found numbered one hundred and thirty ; and Moore, in his ‘ Life of Wesley,’ published as early as 1792, one year after the death of Wesley, makes special com- ments on it. I cannot account for Knox’s extraordinary mistake ; the bitterness of his false charge is accountable enough on the ground of his High Churchmanship. ‘Their suppression,’ he says, ‘ is remarkable not only for the wily policy of the act itself, but also as it serves to illustrate the kind of influence under which Mr. Wesley was placed during the last years of his life : ’ a favourite supposition of Churchmen, which has been sufficiently refuted in these volumes.” How bad the cause which needs supporting by such means ! And how wonderful the blindness with which ecclesiastical prejudice clouds even a cultivated and acute mind ! The fact is, they have failed in apprehending Mr. Wes- ley’s views, both in reference to a scriptural Church and a Christian Ministry. Wffisley regarded a true Church as consisting of “ two or three, or two or three million ” per- sons, truly converted to God, and having the ordinances of religion duly administered, — not as consisting in any ecclesiastical polity or material building whatever. He considered a scriptural call to the Ministry, not as con- sisting in the “ laying on of hands ” by any Church digni- tary, but in being “ moved by the Holy Spirit to take upon CHAP. XIII.] METHODISM A SCRIPTURAL CHURCH. 161 them that office and Ministry;” and being separated to that Ministry by the Church. If there is added the impo- sition of hands, -well ; but if not, they have the call of heaven, and the call of God ; and as the greater includes the less, so with this call they must go forth ; and if God gives His sanction to their ministry, this is a proof that they go not a “warfare at their own charges,” but, by the high commission of Him, do battle against sin, and Satan, and the world ; and God “ works with them with signs following.” Others took the shadow, Wesley the substance ; others confided in the form, he in the power. He believed that he was a true Episcopos, and that he had the power to ordain others, if need be ; he used that power, and an ordained Ministry arose out of it. He believed that the pretended Apostolic Succession was a figment, and was sure that it could not he satisfactorily traced ; still, supposing that it could, its pedigree, as given by its assertors, leads through such an impure channel that honourable men might blush to own it. Wesley maintained that the true succession was not a line of men carrying virtue and powrer by some secret sanction con- veyed by the laying on of hands ; but the succession of apostolic truth and power, evinced by apostolic labours, sufferings, and triumphs ; and in this opinion he was un- doubtedly right. The late Eev. George Steward tfius sums up Church government in his work entitled, “The Principles of Church Government:” “The scriptural claims of Methodism to he regarded as a Church, we have shown. It remains only to add here an observation or two on its origin and history. Undoubtedly, the Founder of Methodism pos- sessed, as a Presbyter, the right of forming his converts into a Church, instead of holding them as mere Societies. He had the requisite authority, they possessed the requisite qualifications, as drawn from the New Testament repre- sentations of persons appropriate to a Church state — viz., ‘the saints which are in Christ Jesus.’ Although the nature of the Founder’s position to the Established Church, — his sense of reverence and duty towards it, and his cherished views of the mission of Methodism on its M 162 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. behalf, and on religion generally, kept him back from all the necessary steps to this object ; nevertheless, the prin- ciples he brought into operation, and the organization he adopted, as well as the men he was obliged to call in as helpers in his work, did all but necessitate the issue, sub- sequently made definite. Where the elements of a Church exist, (unless absorbed by some co-existing body,) they must needs assume a characteristic shape : they form a plastic substance, which gives out its own mould, members, stature, just as does the principle of life. Churches there may be in this elementary state, but in order to their being fully recognised according to Scripture rule, there must be ‘set in order the things that are wanting.’ Distinct public worship must be set up, and rights avowed and acted upon with respect to the ordinances, and all other administrative parts of Christianity — they must stand fully on Christ’s ordinance, which embraces as a cardinal matter that of the Ministry. How does the ease stand then with respect to Methodism ? “ First, we have its Founder, by his own personal exer- tions, raising up multitudes of spiritual people, in all respects fitted for Church communion, but temporarily withheld from some of their privileges by prudential reasons, yet requiring these to complete their position. Just in accordance with the position of the people, was that of the band of helpers called together by the Founder. “ Substantially they were Ministers, because authorized and separated teachers ; and invested also with ruling powers, subject only to the Founder’s supervision. There was only wanting to them the power of administering the ordinances, to complete their power as Ministers, a power withheld for like prudential reasons with those affecting the people, but afterwards altered by the necessities of their altered position on the death of Wesley. If, then, the argument for the validity of Methodism, as a Church, depends upon that which concludes for the validity of its Ministry, it is sufficiently safe, it stands on a scriptural footing throughout ; the very accidents which mark its history confirm, instead of weakening, this, indicating a course of Providence in unison with the design and nature CHAP. XIII.] METHODISM A SCRIPTURAL CHURCH. 163 of its mission. It is one of those instances of the progres- sive development of a principle, till it fully embraces a prescribed scope, which so generally marks the hand of God. There was nothing merely conventional about it— it went on, step by step, as did Wesley’s successes from the beginning. The body of Itinerant Preachers constitute the living descendants of Wesley, both in his office and mission. They are the normal Ministry of Methodism, and claim to be regarded as the types and representatives of the system in their joint capacity.” The views thus clearly expressed by this excellent author upon Wesleyan Church polity are still further enunciated by an accomplished writer in a recent number of the “ London Quarterly Review : ” “All Wesley’s variations and irregularities as a Churchman, fundamental and numberless as these were, were forced upon him by the necessities of the great Mission work in which he had been constrained to engage. If Wesley had submitted to be a regular and tractable Churchman, that work must have been arrested and broken up. And after Wesley’s death the Methodist Conference walked most strictly in their Founder’s steps ; they separated no further than they were compelled ; they suffered the peace of the Connexion to be most seriously embroiled, and allowed many of their Churches to he brought to the verge of dissolution before they consented to permit even the gradual extension of separate services in church hours, and of sacramental administrations by their own Preachers for the members of their Societies. In giving this guarded permission, they still did but follow the precedent of Wesley, and act in conformity with his spirit and principles. They never at any time decreed a separation of Methodism from the Church of England; that separation was effected by the Society’s members dis- tinctively and individually, not at all on the suggestion, or in any way by the action or authority, of Conference. The Wesleyan Conference did not, in fact, recognise and pro- vide for the actual condition of ecclesiastical independency into which the Connexion had been brought until that con- dition had long existed ; and Methodist Preachers ab- stained from using the style and title appropriate to m 2 164 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. ordained Ministers, or in any way from assuming collec- tively tlie language of complete pastoral responsibility, until, by tlie universal action of the Connexion, their people had, of their own will, separated themselves from the Church of England, and forced their Ministers into the full position and relation of pastors — pastors in common of a common flock, who recognised them alone as their pastors, and amongst whom they itinerated by mutual arrangement.” * This quotation shows how the complete separation and independent organization of the Methodist Church were forced upon the Conference by the condition of the Societies in existence and their actual working. The following ex- tract demonstrates how Wesley himself saw that the course of conduct which he had adopted must inevitably lead to that result ; unless the Church of England should prevent it by timely reformation, and making such arrangements as might absorb it in the Establishment: “Mr. Wesley was well aware that what he had done amounted to partial separation from the Church of England, and that this was likely to spread farther and further ; he knew that he had done a number of things, each of which contained the principle of a complete separation, unless the Church of England should take some special means of reform, exten- sion, and comprehension to avert such a separation, and to gather into organic connection the Churches of Methodism. His longing was that such means might be taken : and, as long as it was possible, he would, for his part, keep the door for union open. His object was not division or separation, but revival and reanimation. Hence his stout and invincible opposition to all proposals for express and general separation from the Church. If separation was to ensue, he would leave the blame of it entirely on the supineness or the contempt and intolerance of the Anglican Clergy. His hand, at least, should not sever the tie. He knew, however, that unless a change came over the character and policy of the Clergy, a separation must come before long after his death. He knew that the very steps he had taken had shown the way to effect such a separa- * “ London Quarterly Review ” for 1868, pp. 284, 285. CHAP. XIII.] METHODISM A SCRIPTURAL CHUECH. 165 tion : and lie never repented of those steps, although he saw most clearly whither they pointed. Had the Church known the day of her visitation, no separation need have ensued. If it did not, a separation was inevitable, and even desirable ; and it was necessary that the way to wisely provide against it should be indicated ; besides, every one of those steps had been imperatively forced upon him by the necessities of his evangelical labours. Provi- dence had indicated them. The work must have been brought to a stand without them. And if, through the obstinacy of the Church of England, steps thus forced upon Wesley were to prepare the way of separation, this also must be right, and in the order of Providence.” The fact is, that, in strictly correct phraseology, the independent existence of the Methodist Church is not a “ separation ” at all : it is simply the gradual growth of scrip- tural truth and experimental religion with an organization adapted thereto. There has been no schism — no division — no separation ; but, on the contrary, a long progressive development, which has by degrees assumed the attitude and attained the form and power of distinct organization, Church order, and wide-spread action. Bishops, Clergy, Magistrates and mobs tried to strangle or crush this new- born, heaven-born life and fire and power ; as being un- natural, a deformity, a curse : but in vain, it lived, it still lives, and it will live until scriptural holiness is spread over all the globe. Wesley himself says, “We have in a course of years, out of necessity, slowly and wisely varied in some points of discipline, by preaching in the fields, by extemporary prayer, by employing Lay Preachers, by forming and regulating Societies, and by holding yearly Conferences. But we did none of these things till we were convinced that we could no longer omit them, but at the peril of our souls.” In this chapter the following five positions are illustrated and established: 1. What constitutes a scriptural Church. 2. By the Wesleys and their coadjutors the materials for forming a scriptural Church were provided, in the converts whom they made, and the Societies which they established. 3. These materials were presented to the Conferences, as 166 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I- requiring provision for tlieir separate organic existence, and tlie supply of their varied spiritual wants. 4. Mr. Wesley saw whereunto his line of action would lead; but he neither repented of what he had done, nor adopted means to prevent the result. 5. From all these concurrent circum- stances, facts, and events, a true scriptural Church was established ; and now this Church exists in a separate, in- dependent form, with its multifarious arrangements and adaptations for carrying on the work of God in the world. It has already attained huge proportions and great power, and promises in the future to become increasingly an instru- ment for good in the earth. The Established Church of England is now in a distracted and enfeebled state, with High Church ritualism carrying it to Rome on the one hand, and Rationalistic comprehen- sion dragging it into infidelity on the other. In this state of weakness and confusion, the evangelical party in it are anxious for some method to be adopted by which Method- ism may be absorbed in the Establishment. Our limited space does not allow us to enter fully into the discussion of this question, or to point out the impracticability of the Wesleyan Church being absorbed in the Established Church of England ; hut we must be content to give the admirable summing up of the article in the “London Quarterly ” from which quotations have already been made : “Methodism, then, as we have noted, if it were to he ‘ reconciled ’ to the Church of England, would have to part company with other Christian Churches and commu- nions throughout the world. The liberty of friendship and co-operation which it now enjoys would have to be given up. From a large and wealthy place, where almost all evan- gelical Churches can meet, it would have to retire into a very strait room. “But what we would particularly ask Churchmen to consider is, that the genius of Methodism and of Anglican Episcopacy are mutually repellent and exclusive. In the Church of England everything depends upon and descends from the Minister, or, as they say, from the ‘ Priest.’ This is not the case in Methodism. No Leader can be appointed without the concurring vote of the ‘Leaders’ Meeting,’' CHAP. XIII.] METHODISM A SCRIPTURAL CHURCH. 167 nor any Local Preacher be admitted on trial or into full recognition, except on the resolution and by the vote of the Local Preachers’ Meeting. The power of discipline is, to a large extent, in the hands of the Leaders’ Meeting. No member can be censured or expelled unless he has been found guilty at a Leaders’ Meeting, or by a Committee of a Quarterly Meeting. No Minister can he introduced into the pulpit of a Methodist chapel who has not been recom- mended to the Ministry by a Quarterly Meeting of the Cir- cuit to which he belongs. All this, we apprehend, is con- trary to the essential principles of the Church of England. How could these provisions he admitted into harmony with an organization, in which the sole and absolute power of the Clergy, as such, to admit to communion or repel, is, however it may he in practical abeyance, a fundamental principle, and in which the law of patronage remains supreme ? Moreover, it would he impossible for the Church of England to admit all Wesleyan Ministers, merely as such, to take full pastoral rank and authority in the administra- tion of the sacraments. To do so would he to renounce the dogma of sacerdotal succession, and to admit that the validity of orders has no relation to Episcopal authority. And, on the other hand, it is certain that neither the Methodist people nor their Ministers would endure a word of re-ordination, or consent to the relinquishment of the right of sacramental administration. “ Besides, it is just as likely that Methodism should ab- sorb Anglican Episcopacy as that Anglican Episcopacy should absorb Methodism. Methodism has already, within the network of its own sister or daughter Churches, a more widespread and a more numerous connexion and commu- nion of Churches — a vaster host of adherents than Angli- can Episcopacy can sum up in all its branches and cor- relatives. As a world power, Methodism is much the more potent in its operation and influence. For the Church of England (so called) now to absorb Methodism would be a portentous operation. It would be more hazardous than to put new wine into old bottles. “But surely, in all reason and decency, the Church of England should heal her own breaches before her congresses 168 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. give sittings to consider how to effect the inclusion and re- conciliation of Nonconformists within her own pale. There are three parties within the Church of England, — High, Broad, and Low. If the High are to reconcile Non- conformists with themselves, Nonconformists must em- brace apostolic succession and sacramental efficacy — in fact, embrace that which, in its essentials, is Popery. If the Nonconformists are to be reconciled on the principles of the Low Church, they must contrive to harmonize evan- gelical Calvinism with the Prayer-book, if not also with the fable of apostolical succession, which, fascinating dream as it is to the strange vanity of Churchmen, is held by some even among the Low Church Clergy. If, again, Noncon- formists are to be reconciled on the principles of the Broad Church, they must make up their minds to accept a lati- tude of faith and construction in matters of religion which will dissolve all definite theology, and all distinctions be- tween faith and unbelief, between the Church and the world, doing away at the same time with all Church discipline and with all real and earnest Christian fellowship.” This chapter may be fitly closed by a quotation from a letter of the late llev. L. H. Wiseman, which appeared in the “Times” newspaper of September, 1867. It shows the relative strength, at that date, of the Methodists and the Anglican Episcopalians. “ In the United Kingdom there are belonging to the original Wesleyan Society 356,727 recognised and registered members. Careful inquiries have shown that for every member three other persons may be added, either as regular hearers though not avowed members, or as children of members who are being brought up in the faith of their parents ; thus giving a total of a million and a half of adherents. In Australia, the West Indies, Canada, and other Colonies where the English language is spoken, the number calculated in the same way will be about 570,000 more. The several bodies which have separated on dis- ciplinary grounds — none of them on any doctrinal ground — from the original Society number in England and in the Colonies 288,000 members, or 1,152,000 adherents. It will thus be seen that in England and its dependencies CHAP. XIII.] METHODISM A SCRIPTURAL CHURCH. 169 considerably over three million persons are attached to the Methodist communions. If we turn to the United States, a recent return places the membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church at 1,700,000: the numbers cannot be given at present with absolute exactness from some of the Churches in the South. It is generally estimated, how- ever, in the United States that this Church numbers not less than seven million adherents ; and there are, in addition, as is the case in England, minor bodies which have separated from the parent Church, though still hold- ing the Methodist name and discipline, whose followers may be estimated at a million more. Putting all these numbers together, it will appear that the several branches of the Methodist communion number between eleven and twelve million persons in those countries where the English language is spoken. Taking the same area of comparison, what now is the number of adherents to the Anglican Com- munion ? To begin with the United Kingdom, it is well known that in Scotland and Ireland they form only a small part of the population ; but in England they probably equal all the Nonconforming bodies put together Allowing for Ireland and Scotland, it appears a fair cal- culation to allow to her eight millions of adherents in the United Kingdom. As to the Colonies computation is difficult. Throughout Canada and Australia the number of Methodist Clergy and places of worship greatly exceeds the number belonging to the Church of England ; for example, the number of Methodist Clergy in Canada last year was 1,003, and of Anglicans 479 ; but let it be supposed that the number of Churchmen in the Colonies is a million, or nearly double the number we have put down for the Metho- dists, and let the Anglicans in the United States, whose communicants have been estimated at 250,000, be put down at a million or a million and a half more, the total number of adherents will then be ten millions or ten millions and a half against the eleven millions and up- wards belonging to the Methodists.” These statistics were furnished to the public in Sep- tember, 1867 ; but the rapid progress made in that year and subsequently would of course give a much larger 170 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. return. There were more than 100,000 members added to the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States in 1875, and in other parts of the world the increase was in almost an equal ratio ; so that the numbers are augmented with accelerated force from year to year. There are some who say, “We do not like this tabulated manner of putting the subject ; ‘ comparisons are odious,’ and not to be relied upon.” But we answer that this is the only way in which anything like a correct estimate can be formed of the relative number and force of the two Churches. It is is also affirmed that this numbering savours too much of parade and show, and is only the ebullition of pride and ostentation. We reply that it is not so of neces- sity, and in our own case is not so in reality and fact. Many of us have had to feel that the parade and ostentation have been on the other side ; and it is only by the stern reality of facts and figures that we can maintain our posi- tion and establish the truth. At the same time we would give all the glory to that Holy Being from whom all real good proceeds ; and we should only be too thankful if the Anglican Church were more free from error and more energetic in the promulgation of evangelical truth. Often, when we would say “ God speed,” we are repulsed by high- sounding pretensions and ritualistic absurdities. The author of these pages would be thankful indeed if the Missionary operations of the Episcopalians in this country (Africa), especially among the natives, were more calcu- lated to teach men the way of salvation by simple faith in Christ, and to lead them to personal trust in Him alone for pardon, instead of setting forth their own special dogmas, and raising up High Church observances in the place of the cross of Christ. The reader can judge with what show of fairness the Episcopalians represent to our people that the Wesleyan Church is no Church, and that therefore the natives and others must be incorporated into their ranks, in order to- obtain proper Church status. CHAP. XIV.] WESLEYAN CHURCH POLITY. 171 CHAPTER XIV. WESLEYAN CHURCH POLITY. The subject of Wesleyan Cliurck polity is large, and requires a volume, rather than a chapter, for its ample treatment. In the brief space at our disposal nothing more can be done than to state a few of the great leading principles and facts upon which this vast ecclesiastical edifice is erected. It is admitted by all writers upon ecclesiastical polity, whether they favour Episcopacy, Presbyterianism, or Con- gregationalism, that there are no fixed rules or specifica- tions in the Inspired Records to render any particular form of Church polity obligatory ; and that much is left to the age, country, and circumstances of the people who embrace Christianity, to decide which particular form of government should be adopted. The advocates of Episcopacy are not generally willing to allow this ; but probably those who hold Presbyterian or Congregational views have as much scriptural warrant for the system they advocate, as the Episcopalians have for theirs. The limits of this volume will not admit of my entering upon the wide subject of Church organization in general. I must therefore confine my observations to the Wesleyan polity, merely reminding the reader, in reference to the whole subject, that “ where there is no law, there is no transgression.” The polity of the Wesleyan Church embraces two dis- tinct parts ; namely, that which belongs specifically and legitimately to the Ministry, and that which is exercised by the laity. Not that these points are isolated the one from the other, or inimical the one to the other, but that each one has its own privileges and duties. In reference to the former, it has already been stated that the great basis of the Connexion is the Conference ; that the legal Conference is solely and absolutely ministerial, being com- posed of one hundred Ministers ; and that it claims, as 172 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. its inalienable prerogative, the power of government, in making laws, and in tlie enforcement of discipline. It tenaciously holds the power to admit and expel the mem- bers of its own body; and, through the pastorate, the members of the Church. It maintains the Connexional principle, by which it insists upon the power to appoint the Preachers annually to the different chapels, and by which it becomes obligatory on the part of the Ministers to preach only Wesleyan doctrines. It is also made the final court of appeal from all the inferior courts of the body. But, although the Conference claims and adminis- ters these large prerogatives, yet the laity have also im- portant and responsible action in the Church. It must be so in the nature of things, as one of the peculiarities of Methodism is, the very great extent to which Mr. Wesley brought lay action into operation in his Societies ; and it would be alike unreasonable and impolitic to exclude laymen from a prominent place in the organization. In- deed, Methodism could not be carried on, in all its exten- sive ramifications, without thus recognising them. It therefore becomes incumbent on us to consider each part separately, in order to have a clear view of the whole. Before remarking upon the constitution of Methodism, it is proper to observe that it was brought into existence by Wesley, with the sole motive of saving souls from death, and “ spreading scriptural holiness through the land.” Mr. Wesley, during his life, claimed the sole power of superintending the order which he had created ; but all who have calmly examined his history, and impartially observed his spirit and conduct, must be convinced that he lived, laboured, and governed, only for the spiritual benefit of those whom God had placed under his care in so extra- ordinary a manner. He held power as he believed it to be placed in his hands by God ; whether it was so or not, is another question : but he believed it to be so. This power, this sacred trust, he held and used, not for ambitious pur- poses, as Dr. Southey at one time thought, but solely for the benefit of the souls which God had given him as his spiritual children. This power in the course of time must CHAP. XIV.] WESLEYAN CHURCH POLITY. 178 naturally drop from his hands, and he must descend to the grave. His deep concern, therefore, for many years, was, how it might safely be delegated to others, so as to con- serve this great work, and not to destroy it, nor to suffer it to fall to the ground. After years of thought, of counsel, and of prayer, he prepared “the Deed of Declaration,” (as observed in a former chapter,) by which he delegated or transferred the power possessed by himself to one hundred Ministers, with authority to fill up the vacancies as they might occur not that these one hundred Ministers should arrogate to themselves authority over their brethren, but simply be placed in trust, and have additional responsi- bility. The power thus invested in the one hundred Minis- ters, without a single layman, constituted the foundation on which the whole body rested and still rests. By this means all the chapels are legally secured for the use of those by whom, and for whom, they were built ; a regular Ministry is supplied ; scriptural doctrines are preached ; and godly discipline is administered. The great difficulty of the Conference has been, to work out or elaborate a system, by which this delegated autho- rity might be used for the good of the whole Connexion, and especially in such a manner as would allow the lay element to have full and free action, without jar or break; and unless we have proof to the contrary, we are bound on Christian grounds to admit, that the Conference uses its delegated power in the same spirit and manner as that in which it received it from the original Founder. Mr. Watson thus states the subject: “ That appoint- ment was in the hands of its Founder ; it passed from him, by his own appointment, into the hand of the Conference, and was finally settled there by consent of all, under cer- tain regulations which restricted the administration of its powers. This has been the state of things to this day. We are under a government common to all the Societies ; that government is vested in the Conference, but subject to various regulations which restrain its exercise. Nothing new in principle has therefore been introduced of which you can complain ; and if any just reason of dissatisfaction exists, it can only be found in the acts of the Conference, BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. 174 [part I. or of some other subordinate authority, not in any funda- mental change of the system. “ To the same effect run all the declarations and resolu- tions of Conference, whenever disturbances in the body have required it to speak out on the matters which it has viewed as included in its sacred trust.” “By the ‘Deed of Declaration’ enrolled in Chancery, the full validity of which has been acknowledged by the highest Courts in the land, Mr. Wesley has so fixed the constitution of the Conference, that it must always consist, as he declares it has always heretofore consisted, of the Ministry of the Connexion. On this foundation, that the Conference shall consist of Ministers alone, does Metho- dism, as a system acknowledged by law, completely rest.” Mr. Steward also, in his treatise on “ Church Govern- ment,” (p. 236,) thus alludes to the matter: “Unless, then, the fundamental principle of Methodism be trampled on, the Conference must remain the same unmixed body of men, so long as it exists for other and higher reasons than those of expediency or the laws of the realm. It must re- pudiate such an intermixture : it is stereotyped with im- mutability,— not by Wesley, and his Poll Deed, but by the supreme ordinance of the Great Head of the Church. The Conference stands or falls with this ordinance, as it inter- prets it, and as it has been interpreted for it by its Founder ; and it is highly important that the people of Methodism understand this, that they may understand on what grounds they wage war with the Conference at any time, for effect- ing a change in its constitution. Their war is with the principle lying at the foundation of their government, which, so long as it abides in force, must array the conscience of every Minister in the body against them. They cannot, ought not to surrender, unless honestly converted to other opinions.” Several secessions from the 'primitive body (a term which, as applied to one of the offshoots of Methodism, is simply a misnomer) have taken place, mostly on the ground that the Conference would not allow lay delegates to be brought into it for the purpose of taking an active share in its government. The last secession was by far the most CHAP. XIV.] WESLEYAN CHURCH POLITY. 175 serious and extensive ; about one hundred thousand members being thereby lost to the Wesleyan Society. From those who remained numerous memorials were sent to Conference, and the whole subject was taken into very serious and prayer- ful consideration. The result at that time is thus given in the “Minutes” of 1852, pp. 15G-8 : “ Q. XXX. What is the decision of the Conference on the Report of the Committee appointed last year, ‘ carefully to examine the principal suggestions contained in the me- morials and other communications, as well as those put forth in the Declaration of the Manchester Meeting ? ’ “ A. I . The Conference approves and confirms the fol- lowing Resolutions, which the Committee adopted ‘by way of preamble to its Report : ’ — “1. The Committee, previously to its entering on the con- sideration of these communications and suggestions, feels itself bound, by the solemn and lately-affirmed Declaratory Resolutions of the Conference, to except from such con- sideration all suggestions manifestly contravening any of the three great principles avowed in those Resolutions ; namely, the integrity of the Pastoral Office, — the invio- lability of the Connexional Principle, — and the authority of District Committees. “ In particular, — “ 2. In conformity with the obligation imposed by the Jirst of these three principles, and with reference to certain suggestions contained in some of the Memorials and other communications, the Committee feels itself to be precluded from entertaining any proposal which would goto transfer, altogether or in part, the responsibility of the sentence in disciplinary cases, from the Pastorate to Lay Officers, whether in a Leaders’ Meeting or elsewhere. In any case, to adopt such a course of procedure would be to give up a principle which, in the judgment of the Conference, is essentially inherent in the Pastoral Office. For, according to the New Testament, the Ministers of Christ who are made by Him the Pastors of His Church, are charged, in the most solemn terms, to ‘ feed the flock of God, taking the oversight thereof; ’ are described as ‘having the rule over ’ God’s people ; are required to ‘rule well’ their ‘own 176 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. house ; ’ ‘ for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?’ (1 Tim. iii. 5;) and are expressly commanded to ‘reject ’ offenders ‘ after the first and second admonition ; ’ — and all this in order that they may render the final account of their stewardship ‘ with joy, and not with grief.’ Should a Leaders’ Meeting, by its vote, determine the sentence, the Minister presiding would, in most cases, he little more than the mere organ of the Meeting in matters in which, never- theless, he feels himself under a peculiar responsibility to the great Head of the Church. That peculiar responsibility, except on the extreme and (to a Wesleyan Minister) inad- missible theory of making the authority of the Pastor simply co-ordinate with that of Leaders and other Lay Officers, cannot be supposed to rest in anything like an equal degree on any other member of the Leaders’ or other Local Meet- ing ; and the obligations which it involves cannot be other- wise discharged than in conjunction with the right, on the part of the Pastor, of exercising an authority commensurate with that responsibility. On the same principle, in all cases of appeal from Circuit authorities, the responsibility, and consequently the determination of the sentence, must of necessity be with the collective Pastorate of the District, and ultimately with the Conference, as the collective Pastor- ate of the Connexion. “ 3. By the second of these principles in conjunction with the first, the Committee is restrained from giving any countenance to proposals for ‘ establishing, especially as it regards disciplinary matters, the absolute local inde- pendency, either of single Societies, or Circuits, or Dis- tricts ; ’ all such proposals involving principles which, taken in their natural working and necessary consequences, amount virtually to nothing less than a suggestion for the abandonment of our Connexional system. “4. By the third of these principles, in connexion with the first and second, the Committee deems itself to be restrained from encouraging any attempt to interfere either with the constitution or the jurisdiction of Ordinary Dis- trict Committees, as recognised by the regulations of the Conference, and the established practice of the Connexion. CHAP. XIV.] WESLEYAN CHURCH POLITY. 177 With respect to Special District Meetings, the Committee feels itself to be under similar restraint ; the Conference of 1850 having shown that ‘ this method of procedure neces- sarily grows out of the Scriptural principles which the Con- ference has adopted as the basis of its pastoral authority, and the ecclesiastical order which is essential to us as a Connexion, and which have therefore been uniformly acted on ; ’ and having declared that it is resolved to adhere to this practice on important occasions, ‘ not only as being necessary to the due maintenance of our Connexional dis- cipline, hut also as furnishing to the People (as well as to the Ministers) one of the strongest and most availing securities they can possess, against the hazard to which Laymen, as well as Ministers, may often be exposed, of suffering from the undue pressure of local partialities, or local prejudice and irritation.’ “ 5. With these exceptions, imposed by the settled prin- ciples of the Connexion, it is the earnest wish of the Com- mittee to consider the suggestions laid before it, by Mem- orials or otherwise, in the spirit of Christian candour and affection ; and to recommend to the Conference such modi- fications of our economy and discipline as may be shown to be consistent with those principles, and likely to conduce to the general benefit of the Connexion.” The District Meeting. — This Meeting, here held in- violate, is composed of all the Ministers residing in a cer- tain neighbourhood, the Circuits being grouped together, for the transaction of important local business ; by which means the time of the Conference is saved to a considerable extent. As Dr. Smith remarks, “ Much controversy has been carried on respecting this topic, which we think might have been obviated by one simple consideration. The dis- trict Committees were appointed immediately after Wesley’s death, to afford the Connexion in its several localities that effective supervision which had been lost by the death of the Founder of Methodism. The District Meeting is there- fore competent to do all that Wesley could do, with only this limitation, — that as he would act in consistency with himself, so the District Committee must act in consistency with the Resolutions of Conference, and can only possess N 178 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. authority from one Conference to another. The terms of the original Minute are : ‘ The Assistant of a Circuit shall have authority to summon the Preachers of his District, who are in full Connexion, on any critical case, which according to the best of his judgment merits such an inter- ference And their decision shall be final till the meet- ing of the next Conference.’ ” The Financial District Meeting is held in September, when the Stewards of the various Circuits attend, and financial business connected with the various chapel and Connexional funds is transacted. Time is also given for special prayer in which the laity take part. Having considered the constitution of the Conference, and shown that it is ministerial in its governing power, it is for us now to notice how far the lay element is permitted to exert its influence and raise its voice. That the Confer- ence is not an unlimited clerical despotism admits of ample proof. Numerous guards are thrown about its action, which must circumscribe its power, and prevent any acts of tyranny. Taking the fact as undoubted that the Confer- ence is the supreme governing power, the question is, How far has it gone in arranging a liberal policy and limiting its own action ? The answer will show that the Connexion is now a well defined compact body, securing a large amount of religious liberty to the laity, as well as retaining the in- dependence of the governing body. There are three points which I wish to make promi- nent. First : The Ministry is the creation of the people ; so that it is the people’s Ministry. Second : Whilst legis- lation is the prerogative of the Conference, this prerogative is largely controlled by lay action. Third : Although the power to expel members is retained by the Ministers, still it is so surrounded with guards as to prevent this being ordinarily done in a capricious or tyrannical manner : at the same time it is proper to observe that the Church is a voluntary association, and members can leave, when not satisfied with its constitution or acts. The Quarterly Meeting is the court of laymen under the presidency of the Superintending Minister of the Cir- CHAP. XIV.] WESLEYAN CHURCH POLITY. 179 cuit ; and claims our first notice. The Quarterly Meeting was not defined until 1852. The definition given in the “ Minutes ” for that year (p. 159) is as follows : “ Considering that there is a very general desire expressed in the Memorials referred to the Committee, that the proper constitution of a Quarterly Meeting should be defined ; and considering further the desirableness of precluding in future such debate and contention as have occasionally arisen from the uncertainty existing on this subject ; the Conference hereby declares that the following parties, and no others, shall be formally recognised as Members of the Quarterly Meeting ; namely, “ 1. All the Ministers and Preachers on trial in the Cir- cuit, and the Supernumeraries whose names appear in the printed Minutes of the Conference. “2. The Circuit Stewards, all the Society Stewards, and the Poor Stewards. “ 3. All the Class-Leaders in the Circuit. “ 4. All the Local Preachers of three years’ continuous standing, after having been twelve months on trial ; they being resident Members of Society in the Circuit. “5. All the Trustees of Chapels situate in places named on the Circuit Plan ; such Trustees being resident Mem- bers of Society in the Circuit. “ The Conference further recommends, “1. The immediate adoption of this Plan for the con- stitution of the Quarterly Meeting in those Circuits in which it can be introduced in a peaceful and satisfactory manner. — N.B. It is not designed that the adoption of this Plan should have the effect of excluding any Local Preacher, who, though not yet of the standing therein required, is already, according to local usage, a Member of the Quarterly Meeting. “2. In Circuits in which this Plan may not be at once adopted, it is, nevertheless, enjoined that all new Members brought into the Quarterly Meeting be introduced accord- ing to its provisions/’ This defines who the persons or Church officers are that compose the Meeting, but does not state the nature of the business transacted by them. The Circuit or Quarterly n 2 180 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [part I. Meeting is held at the close of every quarter, when the officers above named assemble to transact all the business relating to their own Circuit. The Society Stewards from each place in the Circuit pay over to the Circuit Stewards the moneys raised in each particular place towards the support of the Ministers in the Circuit. The Circuit Steward places the whole together, and pays the Ministers’ stipends therefrom. Whilst the Quarterly Meeting cannot pay less than a certain minimum to the Ministers, it has power to increase the amount, if the funds will permit its doing so. The Superintendent Minister, on his part, produces his Circuit Schedule, in which the number of members and of those on trial is carefully inserted, with a statement of increase or decrease, and the reason thereof. Thus the financial and spiritual state of the Circuit is brought under review, the general or particular state of the Society is commented upon, and such methods are adopted as are calculated to advance the work of God in the Circuit. Candidates for the Ministry.— The above matters of business having been disposed of, if there are any Candi- dates for the Ministry, being young men whose scriptural conversion and promising gifts point them out as suitable persons to enter the full Ministry, having been Local Preachers some time already ; they are nominated by the Chairman, being generally known to all present as having been brought up amongst them. Each member of the Meeting is at liberty to ask suitable questions and make his own remarks ; after which the vote is taken and the candidates are accepted or rejected by the suffrages of their brethren. It has been objected against the Conference that it claims the power to accept or reject its own Ministers, and is itself a Clerical Corporation. But the fact is, that the Conference can do nothing at all, until the young men are sent to it from the Quarterly Meeting; and then it has only the power of rejecting after due examination any who may be thought unsuitable for the Ministry; so that actually the Ministry itself is the creation of the lay mem- bers of the body; and if any improper person finds his CHAP. XIV.] WESLEYAN CHURCH POLITY. 181 way into the ranks of the Pastorate, he has been sent there by the people themselves. Hence the great responsibility attached to the action of the Quarterly Meeting. Personal sympathies and party interests should have no place there. This is not all. The Conference, as we have stated, claims the right of appointing Ministers to their Circuits, to officiate in certain chapels ; and the trustees of such chapels are bound to receive them ; but they must preach certain specified doctrines, and administer certain well- defined discipline ; and if any of these Ministers fails in his duty, and preaches erroneous doctrine, or is immoral in conduct, the Laity at once step in and arrest the real or supposed evil ; for, by the “ Plan of Pacification ” of 1795, it was provided, “ That, if a majority of the trustees, or a majority of the stewards and Leaders of any Society, believe that any Preacher appointed for their Circuit is immoral, erroneous in doctrine, or deficient in abilities, or that he has broken any of the Rules, they have power to summon the Preachers of the District, and all the trustees, stewards, and Leaders of that Circuit ; and if a majority of such meeting find such charge well founded, such Preacher shall be considered as removed from that Circuit, and his place be supplied by the “ District Committee.” This proviso still exists, with certain modifications. The offending Minister is at once brought before a Special District Meeting, put upon his trial, and, if found faulty or guilty, suspended until the District Meeting. If not then able to clear himself, he is brought before the Confer- ence ; and then, if no lighter punishment will meet the offence, he is expelled. But, in addition to this, provision is made to supply his place until the Conference, so that the Circuit may not suffer. Is there any other Church, I would ask, that has an organization so simple, so direct, so complete ? I know not any. Besides the Quarterly Meeting there is also the Local Preachers’ Meeting ; but this is confined solely to business connected with their office and work, and has no action, either in trying characters, or communicating with the Conference. If a Local Preacher is immoral, his offence 182 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [.PART I. is brought to a Leaders’ Meeting ; he is tried and punished as a member, and his offices cease as a natural conse- quence : but if he is erroneous in doctrine, or deficient in abilities as a Local Preacher, these things are dealt with in a meeting of his peers. Legislation. — Again, the Conference is the supreme legislative body ; but how far does it allow legislation to be influenced and controlled by the Laity ? Does it simply take its own ministerial views, develope them in laws, and force them upon the people? Certainly not. The Con- stitution of the Conference may be as fixed as the laws of the Medes and Persians ; but in connexion with lay Church officers, especially trustees, it has allowed its own action to be controlled to a great extent. This is done principally by mixed Committees, in which there are an equal number of laymen to that of Ministers ; and also by “Memorials” from Circuits, which go direct to Conference. To give a list of some of the more important of those Committees is all that my space admits. They are,— the Committee of Privileges, of Missions, of Schools, of Book Affairs, of Chapel Affairs, (twenty-five Ministers, twenty- eight Laymen,) of Watering Places, of Home Missions and Contingent Fund, of Army and Navy, of Worn out Minis- ters’ Fund, of Theological Institution, of Education, (West- minster College,) Lord’s Day, &c., &c., &c. Here are twelve Committees enumerated, embracing all the great subjects upon which the Conference has to legis- late. These Committees are large and influential ; half of them are laymen. The members of these Committees are taken from all parts of England, and embrace a large por- tion of the intelligence and wealth of the Church, men of all political creeds, in all departments of business, who bring all their tact and talent to bear upon the particular economies of the subject under consideration. Some of these Committees meet several times during the year, and all the most important ones assemble in the Conference town during the week preceding the sitting of that body. At the Conference of 1867 the venerable Thomas Jack- son gave the first speech at the meeting of the first Com- CHAP. XIV.] WESLEYAN CHURCH POLITY. 18B mittee, i. e., “ The General Education Committee ; ” in which the following remarks are found. He said, “ I do not know, Mr. President, why I should be called upon to move the first Resolution at this meeting, except it be that I am a sort of relic of a former age, and seem to be linger- ing in this world. However, here I am. My heart beats as true to the cause of Methodism as it ever did. I have been thinking since I entered this chapel of the difference between former times and the present. It is just fifty-nine years since I came to Bristol to be received into full Con- nexion. Circuit Stewards were never seen at our Confer- ence in those days, unless it were a Circuit Steward came to remonstrate upon some subject. You will give me leave to say, as an old man, and as an old Methodist Preacher, there is nothing gives me greater satisfaction in contem- plating the present state of the work of God among us in our religious community than to witness these annual gatherings of our lay friends with us. They give us their countenance, they give us their counsels, they give us their support ; and though some of us may be tolerably fluent Preachers in the pulpit, many of us do not excel in finan- cial matters. At least I am conscious I never did. My financial arrangements during a long life have been carried on on a limited scale, and I should feel myself perfectly incompetent to manage the financial affairs of the various institutions of Methodism ; and, as an old Methodist Preacher, I do from my heart and soul welcome our lay friends, and thank them for their attendance, and for their support and counsel. What is the Confer- ence ? and what is the whole body of Methodist Preachers without the society of Methodist lay friends ? Ay, and what are the lay friends without the Preachers ? We are strong when we are united. We are nothing when we are separated. Then let that union be perpetual, and let it be strengthened, and may God’s blessing attend that union in perpetuity.” Here is the connecting link between Methodism as it was after Mr. Wesley left the world, and the present time ; and we see how greatly lay influence and action have in- creased in the Connexion ; yes, and how advantageously 184 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. too. But, apart from its historical interest, this statement is touching, as coming from an old and honoured Minister, bending over the grave, after sixty years of holy toil. It breathes the spirit of love, and pours forth its heavenly benedictions. May the sons in the Ministry possess the same spirit, and emulate the same honoured example ! At these meetings, after each subject has undergone the fullest consideration and investigation, decisions are arrived at, and resolutions passed, which go from thence direct to Conference. Thus the legislation of the Confer- ence is prepared to its hand. But it will be said that the Conference has power to alter, modify, or reject. And so it should have, or otherwise it becomes a nonentity. But those who have attended Conference, as the writer did after twenty-seven years’ absence from England, will observe with what very great deference the resolutions of the Committees are treated ; how few alterations are made ; scarcely one resolution being rejected ; and if any are not adopted, they are probably deferred, rather than thrown out, in order to give time for greater deliberation, and to incorporate any new matter that is thought desirable. “ Yes, but the Conference has power to legislate, without those Committees.” Truly so ; but when it does, and makes a new rule, does it send forth that rule to be enforced at once ? Not so ; according to the “ Plan of Pacification ” of 1795, it was enacted, “ That if at any time the Confer- ence see it necessary to make any new rule for the Societies at large, and such rule shall be objected to in the first Quarterly Meeting in any Circuit, and if the major part of that Meeting, in conjunction with the Preachers, be of opinion that the enforcing of such rule in that Circuit will be injurious to the prosperity of that Circuit, it shall not he enforced, in opposition to the judgment of such Quarterly Meeting, before the second Conference. Nevertheless, the Quarterly Meeting rejecting a new rule shall not, by pub- lications, public meetings, or otherwise, make that rule a cause of contention; but shall strive by every means to preserve the peace of the Connexion.” Hereby the power is given to the laity to decline accept- ing a new rule for a year, and the Quarterly Meeting can CHAP. XIV.] WESLEYAN CHURCH POLITY. 185 express its opinion upon it ; sending it back to Conference, requesting that it may not become law, or may receive suggested modifications, &c. Every candid person must thus see that the fullest scope is given to the voice of the people to be heard. Memorials. — In addition to the above, Circuits have the power to memorialize Conference direct, under the follow- ing regulations : (“ Minutes ” for 1852, pp. 159-161 :) “Although persuaded that much undue prejudice has been created against the Eegulations concerning the Special Meeting for the purpose of memorializing the Conference on Connexional subjects, which were enacted in 1835, the Con- ference, nevertheless, deems those Regulations susceptible of being improved by modifications connecting them with the June Quarterly Meeting, as now defined; and, being desirous to provide for the free access of Circuits to the Conference, when any matters arise which they regard as of sufficient importance to become the subjects of Memorial, the Conference adopts, instead of the Minutes of 1885 on this subject, the following Regulations ; namely, “ 1. That should a majority of the June Quarterly Meet- ing in any Circuit, constituted according to the preceding definition, be of opinion that it is desirable to address to the Conference a Memorial on any Connexional subject, and agree to do so, that Meeting itself, subject to the Re- gulations which follow, shall have authority to adopt and transmit to the Conference such a Memorial ; and at such Meeting any member thereof may propose, for considera- tion, the propriety of addressing a Memorial to the Con- ference. “ 2. That not less than ten days previously to the June Quarterly Meeting, a copy in writing shall be given to the Superintendent, of the particular motion or resolution which any member of the Quarterly Meeting intends to propose as the basis of a Memorial to the Conference ; and no pro- posal, of which such notice has not been given, shall be brought forward that year. But, should the Quarterly Meeting adopt the substance or principle of a resolution so brought forward, it may amend, as well as simply adopt or reject it. 186 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. “3 A Memorial, founded on such motion or resolution, if approved by a majority of the persons present, shall be signed by them individually within a week afterwards. It shall then remain with the Superintendent, who shall be responsible for its delivery to the President of the ensuing Conference, on or before the second day of its session. All Memorials thus received by the Conference shall be re- ferred to a Committee of its members ; who shall carefully examine, consider, and classify the whole, and present their report thereon to the Conference. “With regard to the subjects of such Memorials, the Conference cannot entertain any proposals which are of a manifestly revolutionary character, or subversive of that system of doctrine or discipline which has been confided to it as a sacred deposit by Mr. Wesley, and which, as it be- lieves, has also been committed to its keeping by the provi- dence and grace of God ; neither can it sanction such Memorials as involve a direct interference on the part of one Circuit with the local affairs or proceedings of any other Circuit.” It has been further objected, that the Conference asserts the power to expel members from Society, that is, through the Pastorate ; instead of assigning it to local courts, or allowing the joint action of laymen in connexion with the Ministers. This is admitted. But what are the guards thrown around this power, so as to prevent arbitrary action ? First: A Superintendent cannot admit a member into Society, if the majority of the Leaders’ Meeting are opposed to it. (“ Standing Buies.”) Second: If it is found need- ful to expel a member for improper conduct, before this can be done, the person can demand a trial before a Leaders’ Meeting; the Meeting forming the “jury” to pronounce as to the guilt or innocence of the person accused. If found guilty, the Minister has to pronounce sentence ; but he does not do this even until the next meeting, or until he has conversed with his colleagues ; thus affording time for any feeling to subside or for new light on the subject to appear. If the Superintendent feels it his duty to expel the member, and if the member is not satisfied with the sentence, he can appeal to a “ Special Circuit Meeting; ” CUAP. XIV.] WESLEYAN CHURCH POLITY. 187 the nature of which is thus defined in the “Minutes” of 1852: “ The Conference, after long and careful deliberation, agrees that, instead of such appeal by the Superintendent to a Minor District Meeting, as is provided by the Minutes of 1885, (under the title ‘ Expulsion of Members,’ vol. vii., p. 582,) — and before an appeal be made to the Pastorate of the District, — a second trial shall take place within the Circuit. And, while objecting, on principle, to invest the Quarterly Meeting with the power of final decision in cases of discipline, the Conference enacts, — “ 1. That when such a case as the preceding paragraphs describe shall occur, the Superintendent shall be authorized to require a re-hearing by a Special Circuit Meeting, con- sisting of not more than twelve Lay Members of the Quarterly Meeting, as herein-before defined, to be chosen for the occasion by that Meeting in such manner as it may deem proper. “2. That at such Special Circuit Meeting the Chairman of the District shall preside ; or, in case of unavoidable absence, shall appoint some other Minister of the District to preside in his place. “3. That the Meeting thus constituted shall have full power to re-hear the case. “ 4. That if, on such re-hearing, the accused party (whether a Leader, Local Preacher, Trustee, or other local Officer, or Member of Society without any office) be found guilty by the verdict of the Special Circuit Meeting, the case shall then be left in the hands of the Pastorate ; and the Superintendent be empowered, after advising with the Chairman and his own colleagues, to remove the party, so convicted, from the Society, or to administer any other measure of discipline which may be deemed sufficient. “5. That, if the party so tried by the Special Circuit Meeting be dissatisfied with the sentence of the Superin- tendent, he shall have the right of appeal, first, to the Annual District Meeting, and afterwards, if still dissatis- fied, to the Conference. “ 6. The Leaders’ Meeting and the Special Circuit Meet- ing for re-hearing are entitled to declare, by their verdict, 188 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. whether the facts alleged are, or are not, proved to their satisfaction ; and whether, in their opinion, those facts are violations ‘ of the Laws of God, or of our own Body.’ And the verdict of a Meeting for re-hearing is not to be reversed, unless a Special District Meeting or the Conference inter- pose, and deem that justice requires such reversal. “7. In most instances it is highly probable that a verdict which, from any cause, may have been given by a Leaders’ Meeting ‘ in contradiction to law and evidence,’ will, on a re-hearing of the case by a Special Circuit Meeting, ap- pointed by the Quarterly Meeting, be corrected. But should the result unhappily show that the spirit of faction, or any other misleading influence, so extensively prevails in the Circuit as to prevent the ordinary administration of godly discipline, in such case it is to be understood that the Superintendent retains the right of appeal to the collec- tive Pastorate of the District ; and that the District Com- mittee may then interpose by virtue of the powers with which it was originally invested in 1791, and which from that time it has exercised in great emergencies, and may adopt such measures (disciplinary or otherwise) as it may deem necessary to meet the ‘ critical case ’ in question, [Min., 1791, vol. i., p. 241,] and to maintain discipline and order in the disturbed Circuit ‘ till the meeting of the next Conference, when the Chairman of the Committee shall lay the Minutes of its proceedings before the Conference.’ [Ibid.] “ 8. Should the Quarterly Meeting refuse to appoint a Special Meeting to re-hear the case, or should the persons appointed refuse to give any verdict, the Superintendent may, at once, appeal, in the usual form, to the District Committee.” If still dissatisfied, the accused can appeal to the District Committee, and ultimately to the Conference. To a stranger or mere looker on, this system appears complex and difficult of working : but it is not so in reality, if results are to be the test of success : it is worked with considerable harmony and great effect. It is not for us to say that Ministers may not act in an arbitrary manner, and with too little regard for the feelings and interests of CHAP. XIV.] WESLEYAN CHURCH POLITY. 189 members, or that partiality may not influence their con- duct on some occasions. A perfect system would be some- thing more than human. But to infallibility the Wesleyan Clergy and laymen make no pretension, being satisfied if they can be happy and holy themselves, and can promote holiness and happiness around them. One of the great distinguishing characteristics of Metho- dism is, that its doctrinal and scriptural functions are mostly clerical, while its temporalities are guided and con- trolled by the laity. Another of its great excellencies is, that it possesses the inherent power of preserving its own orthodoxy and purity. No sooner does a Minister become erroneous in doctrine, or immoral in conduct, than the evil is detected, and the remedy applied ; the broken wheel is taken out, and a new one put in with but little damage ; the slender shaft too weak for the pressure is removed, and a stronger one supplied. In this respect it differs greatly from the Established Church of England on the one hand, and from Dissenting Churches on the other. In the Establishment the order is not Church and State, but State and Church ; the civil power is supreme. Hence, if heterodoxy or immorality, on the part of Ministers, lead astray or destroy the flock, there is no power to remedy the evil. The Clergy, the Bishops and the Archbishops, may unite and combine, may try, and condemn, and depose a delinquent ; but he at once appeals to the civil power, which decides the question, not on its doctrinal or spiritual merits, but according to the technicality of the law, con- cerning the interpretation of which there is often great dif- ference of opinion, so that long and expensive litigation ensues ; and the result probably is, that the decision of the highest ecclesiastical authority is revoked, and an adverse sentence given ; the offender glories in his triumph, and an infidel Bishop or Popish Priest may first lead the flock astray, and then precipitate them into ruin. Happily, on the other hand, the Churches of Dissent have not of late years so frequently departed from the faith of their forefathers, as in days gone by. Formerly it was not uncommon to find chapels built by orthodox Dissenters occupied by Arian or Socinian Ministers and congregations. 190 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. Philosophy and vain conceit are dangerous foes, when allowed to enter unceremoniously the sacred precincts of the Church, unless that Church is guided by the pure light of revelation, and guarded by a wholesome and scriptural discipline. The preceding outline of Wesleyan polity had been pre- pared previous to the action which has recently taken place relative to Lay Representation in the Conference. For some time past this subject had been gradually assuming a very grave aspect, and events had transpired of such a nature as to force it upon the Conference and the Connexion in such a manner as not to admit of further delay with safety. Happily the parties most concerned, both lay and clerical, were loyal to Methodism. The subject was not taken up as the result of angry agitation, but from a growing con- viction in the minds of all parties that the time had arrived when, to meet the altered state of the times, that which could not have been done before with advantage now ad- mitted of safe action. Hence, at the Conference of 1875, a large Ministerial Committee was appointed ; as also another, in which laymen were united with an equal num- ber of Ministers, forming what was called the “ Mixed Committee.” These two Committees met separately and at different times shortly before the Conference of 1876, when the whole subject was taken up and discussed in its different aspects and bearings; and resolutions were passed, recommending the Conference to take action upon the sub- ject at once by the admission into the Conference of a number of laymen equal to that of the Ministers, for the performance of such duties as related to the temporalities of the Church, without infringing upon those which apper- tained to the vocation of the strictly pastoral office. Hr. Punshon was the distinguished Minister who proposed the principal resolution in the Conference. He said : “ The subject before them was one of great gravity, and one which should be approached on all sides with the utmost sincerity of motive, integrity of purpose, prayerful- ness of spirit, and charity towards others. If ever there was a time when it was necessary that there should be in CHAP. XIV.] WESLEYAN CHURCH POLITY. 191 their hearts the law of kindness, and on their lips the spirit of love, he hoped that that would be the occasion. For himself he felt the most perfect love for every one of the brethren. He was taking a position that morning which was to a certain extent foreign to him, but which he felt bound by conscientious convictions of duty to take. He was going to move, with certain verbal alterations, the third resolution of the Mixed Committee. He would first review the case.” Here Dr. Punshon sketched the history of this move- ment from the time when the subject was first formally brought before the Newcastle Conference in 1873, to the present time ; and then said : “Mr. President, I am no theorizer upon these matters, and, for myself, I am not disposed to think that lay repre- sentation will either damage the Connexion to the extent which some of those who oppose its introduction imagine, or benefit the Connexion to the extent which some of those who are very ardent in its favour are sometimes disposed to dream. I believe, however, (and I must he excused for making this reference,) that in moving this resolution I am doing nothing contrary to my obligation as a Method- ist Preacher. I hope I need not say that I have studied my Ordination vows, and that anything which I believe to be a violation of their letter or spirit it would be impossible for me to do. If I cannot say that much, I am not worthy of a place in your communion at all. I feel no hesitation or misgiving on that part of the matter. And at the same time I beg to say that I am not dissatisfied personally with the report of the Ministerial Committee. I could go in for either of the reports that have been presented to the Conference this morning. So far, I am not wedded to any particular scheme ; but I remember the wonderful consent of sentiment — a consent of sentiment so marvellous, when we consider the differing natures of the men who were present in that Mixed Committee, that I have felt it my duty to do what I would willingly have been excused from doing — to come, so to speak, to the front in this discus- sion, and to present for the consideration and adoption of the Conference the third part of this resolution : ‘ That it 192 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. is expedient that lay representatives shall be admitted into and take part in the proceedings of the Conference during the time when such matters shall he considered and decided as shall be declared to be within the province of Ministers and laymen acting conjointly.’ In moving this resolution I do not think I am departing from any sacred obligation under which I have come ; or that I am doing otherwise than extending the old lines of the constitution of Methodism ; or that I am abating in one jot or tittle the pastoral rights of the Ministry ; or that I am doing any- thing that will damage either our Connexional unity or that wonderful process of consolidation and extension through which God has been pleased to put us, and in the extension of which I believe the future prosperity and blessing of Methodism lies. I do not wish to enter upon the discussion as to the merits of the question ; I simply beg to move this resolution.” The Eev. E. J. Kobinson seconded the resolution; and a very able and lengthy discussion followed, which well became the men and the occasion, but which is so well analysed in the leading article which I quote from the “Watchman” that note or comment is not needful here. The final result was the passing of Dr. Punshon’s resolu- tion in the following form: “That lay representatives shall be admitted into and take part in the proceedings of the Conference during the time when such matters shall be considered and decided as shall be hereinafter declared to be within the province of Ministers and laymen acting conjointly ; but that the details of the proposed scheme be referred to the District Meetings when the laymen are present, and subsequently to a Mixed Committee to be appointed by this Conference, that shall present a report to the Conference of 1877 for final settlement.” This reso- lution being put to the Conference, there were 369 in favour of it, and 49 against it, — majority 320. Thus the great principle of lay representation was settled ; the final details not being agreed upon and filled in until the Conference of 1877. No apology is needful for the introduction of the following article, taken from the London “ Watchman ” of August 16th, 1876, which gives a very lucid and philosophical CHAP. XIV.] WESLEYAN CHURCH POLITY. 193 analysis of the subject of debate and of the more notable speeches : “ Our readers have had ample time to study this great debate, and doubtless have not failed to do so. In that case they will kindly follow us in the remarks which we propose to make upon it. The question to which it related is the gravest ecclesiastical one which has been raised among us during the present generation and that which preceded it ; and the change which has been agreed upon is, without doubt, the most critical and important one ever made in our economy. While saying this, we must point out that it is not a question or a change affecting the vital and fundamental principles of that economy. It is rather an adaptation to modern times and to modern needs and usages of a principle which has underlain our ecclesias- tical procedure for more than seventy-five years — namely, that while spiritual and pastoral administration lies within the exclusive province of the Christian pastorate, the over- sight and administration of the temporal affairs of the Church are properly entrusted to the laity in conjunction with the Ministry. The Conference almost immediately after Wesley’s death openly and honestly avowed this principle ; and every stage in the development of Method- ism has been marked by its more complete adoption. In 1828, 1835, and 1852, great modifications were introduced with the purpose and effect of increasing the amount of lay influence in temporal administration ; and when, shortly after the last-named year, the Conference provided for the election, by laymen only, of a representative layman in every District of the Connexion, it laid down a principle which could not fail to be still further developed, and was sure to lead to the adoption of some such measure as has now been agreed upon. That principle has been adopted in the constitution of the Special Committees which have been appointed during recent years to deal with urgent and critical questions ; notably in the Special Committees on Education and the Constitution of the Committees of Review ; and it is altogether a mistake to speak of its introduction into the Conference itself as if it were a radical and revolutionary development. We agree with o BRIEF HISTORY OF METHOD A. 194 [■PART I. the ingenious and eloquent speaker who exclaimed, ‘ It is not revolution ; it is evolution.’ “ We cannot but congratulate our section of the Church upon the exceeding interest of the debate itself, and the vast amount of logical acumen, scriptural learning, admi- nistrative talent and experience, rhetorical grace, and splendid elocution which were exhibited during its pro- gress. Few, if any assemblies, whether ecclesiastical or political, have ever witnessed a greater. It was unmis- takably a ‘battle of the giants; ’ and no one, whatever may be his special views on the question itself, can do otherwise than admire and be thankful for the evidence afforded that the Methodism of our day is in no way inferior as to the intellectual and moral vigour of its Ministry to that of the past, even of that great ‘ Middle Age,’ as the late Dr. Smith designated the epoch which such men as Kicliard Watson, Jabez Bunting, Robert Newton, James Dixon, and Thomas Jackson adorned and benefitted. Whatever could be said in opposition to the thing proposed — namely, the admission of laymen into Conference during the transac- tion of business now considered and decided on in the Annual Committees of Review — was said as well as it was possible to say it by Mr. Pope, Mr. J. R. Hargreaves, Dr. Jobson, Mr. Bedford, and Dr. Osborn. It should be noted, however, that though all these spoke in favour of an amendment to the effect that the whole scheme prepared by the Special Committee should be referred, as to both principle and detail, to the consideration of the District Meetings, they by no means all stood upon the same ground. There is a very marked and wide difference, for instance, between the position taken up by Mr. Pope and perhaps Dr. Jobson, on the one hand, and that assumed by Messrs. J. R. Hargreaves and Bedford. Neither of the last-named gentlemen was disposed absolutely to negative the proposals of the Committee. Mr. Bedford’s speech was studiously moderate ; and admitted frankly and fully that the principle of the scheme neither assailed the pastoral office, nor violated the Deed Poll. His objec- tions seemed to turn chiefly on the possible insufficiency of the legal oqunions which had so much influenced the CHAP. XIV.] WESLEYAN CHURCH POLITY. 195 Committee’s decision, and on tlie doubt as to whether the limits of time prescribed by the Deed Poll would permit the transaction of the whole business of the Conference in some eighteen days. We are not intending to argue the question ; but we must point out that, if the legal opinions be correct, the whole of the business with which laymen are to be concerned can, if necessary, be transacted outside those limits. The Deed Poll affects questions of trust pro- perty; and whatever proceedings or enactments involve such questions, must be done in the way and by the parties prescribed in that instrument ; but all other matters may be considered when, and as, and by whom, the require- ments or discretion of the Connexion may dictate. “As to those speeches on the same side which took the highest ground — and especially as to the argument of Mr. Pope’s very able and beautifully written letter — we venture to think that they were addressed against, not the scheme really under consideration, but the proposals which were made on former occasions of strife and bitterness, and which the Conference, at enormous cost, steadily and suc- cessfully resisted. In that point of view it is not disre- spectful to speak of most of the arguments adduced as anachronisms. Very much of what was said was really irrelevant to a scheme which, in view of pastoral rights and responsibilities, did not assail them, did not propose to abridge them one iota, but reaffirmed and reserved them in the most solemn and deliberate manner, and made their explicit assertion an essential principle in the very basis of the new constitution. And, as to the Deed Poll, the same irrelevancy was marked and pointed out. The latest and best opinions that have been obtained declare that the scheme relates to things of which that instrument takes no cognizance. “ If we turn to the other side, the wonderful issue of the debate — the practical unanimity with which the principle of the scheme was carried — justifies us, without any dis- respect to the minority, in dwelling upon the immense preponderance of argument in favour of that principle. Mr. E. J. Robinson’s ingenious and witty speech in seconding the motion of Dr. Punshon was worthy of the reputation o 2 196 _ BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. won by him as mover of a corresponding one in the Special Committee. Mr. Arthur’s address appeared to exhaust the whole question. As an historical induction ; as a luminous, close, and overwhelming argument ; as the counsels of ‘ a brother beloved,’ breathing the most tender and confiding spirit of fraternal affection ; as imbued with the spirit of perfect consecration to the advancement of Methodism and of God’s work ; that address will never be forgotten. It did very much to give to the debate the lofty moral and intellectual tone which, with scarcely a momentary excep- tion, characterized its progress. Dr. Eigg’s absence in America during the incubation of the scheme prevented his taking that prominent part which his antecedents, and the extent and accuracy of his knowledge of our history and constitution, would otherwise have assigned him ; but the speech in which he expressed his general concurrence with the Committee was wfise and weighty. Mr. Gregory’s scholarly, polished, and witty deliverance, and Mr. Perks’s thoughtful and practical utterance, greatly helped on the solution. On Mr. Olver devolved the chief burden of re- plying to Dr. Osborn ; and he evidently approached his task with a deep and almost crushing sense of its difficulty. For modesty of demeanour and expression ; for clear, com- pressed, luminous logic ; for keen and searching analysis ; for ready and penetrating repartee ; for moderation of sen- timent and language ; for philosophic and statesmanlike breadth of view ; for perfect self-command and complete personal dignity, this great speech will be long remem- bered, and is worthy of repeated study as a model speech in such an assembly as the Wesleyan Conference. “ And what are we to say of Dr. Punslion’s reply upon the whole question ? By the confession even of his most earnest opponents, he far surpassed even himself. No aspect of the case escaped his notice, no argument of his antagonists was left undealt with or unanswered ; no pleasantry even was unmatched with a still more appro- priate and entertaining one. The genial and happy way in which he exposed even the absurd and ridiculous sides of the opposite case — and every case in this world has its absurd and ridiculous side — moved the Conference again CHAP. XIV. ] WESLEYAN CHURCH POLITY. 197 and again to irrepressible and hearty laughter, in which even those who were hardest hit by the exposure could not help joining. Then the light of poetical inspiration and the magic of imagination threw a lustre upon, and a halo of beauty around, the whole address, which can hardly be appreciated by merely reading the report of it ; and the impassioned eloquence of the speaker rang like a trumpet-note through the excited audience, and ultimately ‘ brought down the house ’ with a thunder of applause. “ Such was this truly great discussion. As to the result itself, we do not hesitate to express our thankful concur- rence with it. Especially do we rejoice in the enormous majority by which the principle was voted. A narrow one would have awakened serious apprehensions of subsequent agitation and disturbance. But this vote will be accepted generally as indicating the will of Divine Providence. We have no doubt that the Connexion will be as unanimous as the Conference was ; and we look forward, in behalf of our beloved Methodism, to a long career of united, loving, and successful toil and triumph in the Great Master’s work.” 198 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. CHAPTER XV. MISSIONS IN GENERAL. That Methodism should be pre-eminently a Missionary Church, cannot he matter of wonder, when it is remembered that John Wesley took for his motto, “ The world is my parish ; ” thus at once sweeping away all names and creeds and parties and “ Church order ” and convention- alism and human inventions, except so far as they might contribute towards saving this large “ parish.” The spirit of this utterance was from above ; it was the fire of Divine love ; and as the love of God extends to all, so from this man, under the influence of this love, issued no limited or uncertain sound : “0 for a trumpet voice, On all the world to call ! To bid their hearts rejoice In Him who died for all ! For all my Lord was crucified : For all, for all my Saviour died ! ” What is further remarkable is, that no sooner did he meet with Dr. Coke, the father of Wesleyan Missions, than he at once recognised in him just the man he wanted to fill a certain place, and do a certain work, which no other man could do so well. This is still more remarkable, in that, at their first interview, the Doctor was not a saved man ; as yet, he was only an earnest seeker ; he only saw “ men as trees walking.” He was Curate of South Petlierton, and was very active in the discharge of his duties. Hav- ing heard of the doings of Wesley, he was anxious to see him, and went twenty miles for that purpose. Of this interview Wesley says: “I preached at Taunton, and afterwards went with Mr. Brown to Kingston. Here I found a Clergyman, Dr. Coke, late Gentleman Commoner of Jesus College in Oxford, who came twenty miles on CHAP. XV.] MISSIONS IN GENERAL. 199 purpose. I had much conversation with him ; and a union then began which I trust shall never end.” Coke was ultimately obliged to leave Petherton, on account of the opposition raised against him because of his Methodist practices ; and the people manifested their plea- sure at his departure by ringing the bells, as he left the town. He joined Wesley without delay, and soon obtained the saving grace of God, and then entered with the greatest ardour into all Wesley’s plans of usefulness. He was specially adapted for a certain kind of work ; Wesley had that work to do, and at once engaged him in it. For a full account of this eminently laborious and useful man, the reader must peruse his Life by Dr. Etheridge : only two or three notices of him can be given in our limited space. He was, and is well entitled to he recognised as, “the father of Wesleyan Missions.” He did not originate the work in America, but was the first to organize it, and ordained the first Bishop and Presbyters. Neither did he originate the work in the West Indies, hut, after God had prepared the way, he was drawn there under peculiar circumstances. “ Soon after this Conference,” writes Dr. Smith, “ Wes- ley sent Dr. Coke to visit the Societies in the British domi- nions of North America. He was accompanied by William Warrener, who was intended to labour in Antigua, and William Hammet and John Clarke, as Missionaries to New- foundland. The vessel which carried them was driven out of her course by distress of weather, so that on Christmas day they all landed at Antigua. What the Doctor saw there of the fruits of Mr. Baxter’s ministry soon disposed him to regard his being driven out of his intended course as a very remarkable and gracious providence. He accord- ingly left Mr. Warrener and the two other Missionaries at Antigua, as a staff of Ministers to promote the work of God in that and the neighbouring islands.” His labours and journeyings by land and by sea con- tinued to increase until, on the death of Wesley, we find the following account given of them by Dr. Smith : “Dr. Coke was in America when he heard of the death 200 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. of Wesley. This was his fourth visit to that country, and his third to the West Indies, in the space of seven years. On his first visit to these islands, in 1785, he spent about six weeks in Antigua, Dominica, St. Vincent’s, St. Christo- pher’s, and St. Eustatius, and then sailed to Charlestown, where he arrived on the 10th of February, 1787. He then travelled through the country, preaching as frequently as possible; and, in conjunction with Mr. Asbury, held three Conferences. He embarked at Philadelphia, for his home- ward voyage, on the 27th of May, and reached Dublin on June the 25th. Toward the end of the following year, he again crossed the Atlantic, visiting St. Vincent’s, Dominica, Antigua, St. Kitt’s, St. Eustatius, Jamaica, and again passed over to Charlestown on the Continent. Here he pursued his usual course of preaching, travelling, and hold- ing Conferences in conjunction with Mr. Asbury, witness- ing everywhere the prosperity of the work of God. On the 7th of June, he sailed from New York, and reached England about the middle of July. On the 28th of November, 1790, he again left this country, made another tour of the West India Islands, and was pursuing his journey through the States, when, at Port Eoyal in Virginia, he heard of the death of Wesley, and hastened home.” Dr. Coke had a small body, hut a large soul ; and having- done so much for the Western world, his active spirit was directed to the Eastern hemisphere. The teeming millions of India excited his compassion, moved the depths of his soul, and would not allow him to rest until a Mission to Ceylon was consummated. Being unable longer to with- stand the fire of his quenchless zeal, he, at the Conference of 1813, urged his plea with so much earnestness that the Conference was obliged to yield a reluctant compliance. “ The grand business of this Conference,” says Dr. Smith, “was its arrangements to send Missionaries to the East, for the purpose of making an attempt to introduce the Gos- pel among the natives of India. It was well known to Dr. Coke’s friends some time before, that he had .set his heart upon this work. As early as 1806, when travelling in Cornwall, he obtained from Colonel Sandys, a pious gentle- man who had served twenty years in India, much impor- CHAP. XV.] MISSIONS IN GENEKAL. 201 tant information respecting the religious condition of that country, and the prospects of Missionary success. Dr. Coke communicated this information to the Missionary Commit- tee ; and at their request Colonel Sandys sent them a writ- ten statement of what he had verbally communicated to Coke. “ The debates in Parliament, on the renewal of the Com- pany’s charter, directed special attention to this subject ; and the more so, as a resolution which merely tolerated the introduction into that country ‘ of useful knowledge, and of religious and moral improvement,’ subject ‘to the authority of the local government,’ was violently opposed in the House of Commons. The death of the pious and devoted Henry Martyn took place in Persia, October six- teenth, 1812, after a brilliant career of Missionary labour and usefulness, which contributed to impress the British public with the practicability of reaching the Asiatic mind by judicious and earnest Christian instruction.” “ The travels and stirring publications of Claudius Buchanan also did much to turn the attention of the Chris- tians of England to the moral and spiritual misery and degradation of British subjects in India. His vivid por- traiture of the abominations of Juggernaut first gave a public and popular exhibition of these foul and bloody superstitions. Coke, anxious to avail himself of every means of information, put himself in communication with Buchanan, who was the friend, correspondent, and relation of Colonel Sandys. From him Coke received further in- formation, and a confirmation of that previously obtained from the Colonel. It is a beautiful subject for contempla- tion to mark this venerable Minister, at the age of sixty- six, planning the evangelization of India. We joyfully turn away from contemplating the arts of statesmen and the feats of warriors, to see an old man, who had succeeded in planting and directing successful Missions in America, the West Indies, Gibraltar, Sierra Leone, Ireland, Wales, and in the neglected districts of England, casting his eye across the mighty deep, and bending his whole soul to the glorious work of preaching Christ crucified to the heathens of India. “To an intimate Christian friend, who endeavoured to dissuade him from the enterprise, principally on account of 202 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. his age, and the difficulty, at his time of life, of learning to pronounce a new language, he replied, about a month be- fore the Conference : — ‘ I am now dead to Europe and alive for India. God Himself has said to me, “Go to Ceylon.” I am as much convinced of the will of God in this respect, as that I breathe ; so fully convinced, that methinks I had rather he set naked on the coast of Ceylon, without clothes, and without a friend, than not go there. The Portuguese language is much spoken all round the coast of Ceylon, and indeed all along the coast of India. According to Dr. Buchanan, there are 500,000 Christians (nominal Chris- tians, at least) in Ceylon ; and there are only two Ministers to take care of them. I am learning the Portuguese lan- guage continually, and I am perfectly certain I shall con- quer it before I land in Ceylon. The fleets sail in October and January. If the Conference employ me to raise the money for the outset, I shall not be able to sail till January. I shall bear my own expenses, of course. I’ll request you to speak to the Preachers, to see whether a Preacher or two can be procured, who will consent to travel with me.’ “With these views and feelings the Doctor attended the Conference, and propounded his whole plan. Many were startled at its magnitude, others at its daring ; and there was considerable opposition. We prefer giving the account from a manuscript in the handwriting of Benjamin Clough, one of the Missionaries, who witnessed the whole scene. ‘ When the subject was first named, many rose to oppose. Mr. Benson, with great vehemence, declared that it would be the ruin of Methodism. The debate was adjourned till the day following. Dr. Coke walked down the street, lean- ing on Mr. Clough’s arm, in unutterable agony : the tears flowed down his cheeks, and, almost broken-hearted, he retired to his room to pray. The following morning he was not at the Conference before breakfast. Mr. Clough called to inquire for him. The Doctor had not come down from his room : Mr. Clough knocked at the door, and, recognis- ing his voice, Dr. Coke asked him to walk in. There he saw the most affecting spectacle. The Doctor had not been to bed, and his dishevelled silvery locks showed something of his night’s distress. Mr. Clough asked what was the matter. Pointing to the floor, the Doctor said, “ There I CHAP. XV.] MISSIONS IN GENERAL. 203 have spent hours in pleading with God in behalf of India.” They together went to the Conference. When the subject was resumed, the Doctor delivered a most energetic, thrilling address, which produced such an impression, that it was at once moved, seconded, and carried, that the Mission should he forthwith established. Mr. Barber was either the mover or seconder. Shortly afterwards Dr. Coke called Mr. Clough out of the Conference, and they went down the street together. With joy beaming in his eye, and a full heart, Dr. Coke said, “ Did I not tell 3rou that God would answer prayer ? ” ’ ” The Doctor made arrangements for his speedy departure. He was to be accompanied by James Lynch, William Ault, George Erskine, William M. Harvard, Thomas II. Squance, and Benjamin Clough. The four former were already Itinerant Preachers, and the two latter were admit- ted on trial for the full ministry. Messrs. Ault and Har- vard were married, and their wives sailed with them. It is needless to detail the events of the voyage, and the con- sternation of the party at the Doctor’s sudden death, which took place near the end of their passage. He was buried in the deep, and there awaits the final scene, when the sea must deliver up the dead that are therein. But he had originated a scheme which did not die when its great mov- ing spirit was quenched in death. The Master of the work provided for its continuance and perpetuity. Things had now arrived at that stage in which the work could not be executed or superintended by one man. The burden laid down by Dr. Coke must now be taken up by the whole Connexion, and thus be multiplied a thousand- fold. The Wesleyan Missionary Society was formed. To the town of Leeds, in Yorkshire, was assigned the honour of being the place from which emanated the definite form and enduring character of Wesleyan Missions. An address having been prepared and circulated, its pub- lication “ was soon followed by arrangements for holding a public meeting for inaugurating a District Missionary Society. The meeting was convened for two o’clock in the afternoon of Wednesday, the sixth of October, 1813. James Buckley and Bichard Watson preached preparatory ser- 204 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. mons. This plan was quite new in Methodism. Watson had hut recently returned to the Connexion, and he natu- rally thought that, under these circumstances, his taking a prominent part in the introductory services would lay him open to the imputation of introducing injurious novelties. His objections, however, were overruled, and he submitted, though reluctantly, to the judgment of his brethren. Buckley preached on the Tuesday evening at Armley, and Watson on the Wednesday morning at Albion Street, Leeds. This sermon, a remarkable specimen of pulpit oratory, produced a great impression. The text was, ‘ Come from the four winds, 0 breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ (Ezek. xxxvii. 9.) The preacher gave a just and striking view of the state of the heathen, the power of the Gospel, and the obligation which rests upon the Church to make provision for its universal publication. The discourse was afterward printed, and its extensive cir- culation was made a great blessing to the cause of Missions. “The meeting was, however, the great feature of the move- ment. When the appointed hour arrived, almost every one shrunk from the serious responsibility. Here, as in the preliminary arrangements, the judgment, decision, and energy of Jabez Bunting cleared away every difficulty. After the devotional exercises, Thomas Thompson, M.P., of Hull, was called to preside. He delivered a brief address, referring to the Missionary operations of the Methodist Connexion and of other religious bodies, and urged on the congregation becoming seriousness of feeling and demean- our during the meeting. The first resolution was moved by the venerable James Wood, and seconded by William Warrener, many years a Missionary in the West Indies, hut then labouring in Selby. The second resolution was moved by Charles Atmore ; the third, by George Morley ; the fourth, by W. G. Scarth, of Leeds; the fifth, by John Braithwaite ; the sixth, by John Wood, of Wakefield ; the seventh, by William Dawson. Thomas Yasey moved the tenth resolution ; James Buckley the twelfth ; and Jabez Bunting the sixteenth. We have only mentioned the names of those speakers whose able addresses on this most interesting occasion have been preserved for our perusal by CHAP. XV.] MISSIONS IN GENERAL. 205 the ability and kind care of a gentleman who was present [the late Mr. James Nichols] . Our limits forbid our attempting to give even an outline of them ; but they richly deserve the attention of all Methodists and lovers of Mis- sions.” Thus the great Wesleyan Missionary enterprise was fairly inaugurated. Those who took part in its first services were not aware “whereunto it would grow.” Truly “ the little one ” has “ become a thousand, and the small one a strong- nation.” The advent of this great philanthropic institu- tion was attended with difficulties, as most important events are ; but the difficulties were overcome, and the increase and development of the work has surpassed the most san- guine expectations of its warmest, staunchest advocates. From that time to the present the area has gradually widened and extended, until it now encircles the globe, and embraces within its evangelistic labours nearly every nation under heaven. The isles which waited for God’s law have many of them received that law which “ converteth the soul.” Vast continents with teeming masses of human beings have not only had their coasts fringed with Mission Stations, the head quarters of laborious Missionaries, but the interior has been explored, and Africa, India, and China have had the Messengers of the Cross penetrating to the very heart of their vast solitudes or seething masses. “ The north has given up, and the south has not kept back : ” Christ has “ brought His sons from far, and His daughters have been nursed by His side.” Much of what has been done has been preparatory, and the progress consequently slow ; but conquests have been achieved in every land, and the trophies of redeeming love placed at the Saviour’s feet. But the probability is that the future ratio of speed will far outstrip the past. Mountains have had to be levelled and valleys uplifted ; rough places have had to be made plain, and crooked places straight ; but they who work and pray are encouraged to hope and believe that the time is fast approaching when Immanuel, the Prince of Peace, shall march along these highways, dispensing His saving gifts, and subduing the nations to His mild sway; and when not only shall the Messengers of Life stand along the banks of 206 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. the river of the water of life, crying, “ Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,” but the thirsty nations shall respond, — not single individuals, hut nations, “We come ; ” and then hasten to slake their thirsty, weary spirits with these living waters, so as to thirst no more for the dark and turbid and poisoned waters of error and sin and death, but rise to the fountain head, and drink abundantly and for ever before the throne of God. To attempt to give even an outline of the manner in which this great work has increased and developed is more than the limited space of this volume will permit. Those who desire more lengthened details may find them in the Eev. William Moister’s “ History of Wesleyan Missions : ” but even this is rather a brief summary than a full account of those extensive Missions. The “Report” read at the annual Meeting of the Society in Exeter Hall, on May 1st, 1876, will fitly close this chapter : “ The Rev. Dr. Punshon read the following financial statement and abstract of the Report : — Home Receipts. £. s. d. Mission House Donations, Subscriptions, &c. . . . 8,600 8 11 Home Districts, including England, Wales, Scotland, and Zetland 99,087 1 2 Hibernian Missionary Society (exclusive of Christmas Offerings) ......... 3,605 13 8 Juvenile Christmas Offerings 12,950 16 10 Legacies . 10,091 13 8 Dividends on Property to secure Annuities . . . 914 19 4 Interest on Centenary Grant 450 0 0 Lapsed Annuities 1,300 0 0 £137,000 13 7 Eoreign Receipts. Australasian Conference, and Mission Districts (exclusive of Canada and Eastern British America) . . . 22,105 11 9 Total £159,106 5 4 Payments. General Expenditure . ...... 139,972 6 6 Rome, Special ditto 1,814 10 0 Naples, ditto ........ 2,939 14 9 Germany, ditto ........ 6,485 0 0 Total £151,211 11 3 CHAP. XV.] MISSIONS IN GENERAL. 207 “ The Ladies’ General Committee for Female Education in Foreign Countries, and other benevolent purposes, has also expended Tl,368 Is. 10 cl., besides furnishing school materials, clothing, &c., to many parts of the Mission field, including China, India, Ceylon, Africa, Central Ame- rica, Hudson’s Bay Territory, &c. General Summary. “Missions under the immediate direction of the Wesleyan Missionary Gommittee and British Conference, in Europe, India, China, South and West Africa, and the West Indies. Central or Principal Stations called Circuits 303 Chapels and other Preaching Places, in connexion with the above- mentioned Central or Principal Stations, as far as ascertained . 2,195 Ministers and Assistant-Missionaries, including Supernumeraries . 300 Other Paid Agents, as Catechists, Interpreters, Day-school Teach- ers, &c. ........... 1,448 Unpaid Agents, as Sabbath-school Teachers, &c. .... 6,593 Bull and Accredited Church Members 78,039 On trial for Church-Membership . 10,045 Scholars, deducting for those who attend both the Day and Sab- bath schools 72,428 Printing Establishments ......... 3 “ Our summary of the present state of the Missions must, from its necessary brevity, appear dry and tedious to the hearer : compensation will, however, be found by those who study attentively the large Report of the Society’s proceedings during the past year. Beginning with Ireland, the oldest Mission of Methodism, there are 35 Ministers labouring in connexion with the Irish Conference, report- ing 3,566 members, and 1,770 scholars. The French Mis- sion, (embracing a portion of Switzerland,) under the care of the French Conference, together with the English Soci- eties, in Paris, Rheims, and Boulogne, is carried on by 37 Ministers — the members are 1,989, and the scholars, 3,005. The field of labour occupied is second to none. Measures are about to he adopted which it is hoped will give new life and vigour to this important Mission. In Italy, 2 European and 21 Italian Ministers report 1,149 members, and 866 scholars. The prospects of success are very encouraging. Whatever may he the result of political changes, neither Italy nor Spain can ever revert to their former condition. In Spain and Portugal we have 3 208 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. Ministers, and an agent in Minorca. Our members in the Peninsula, including Gibraltar, are 246 in number, with 1,096 scholars. The battle of religious liberty is at present being fought in Spain, and we await the result with some anxiety. The German Mission, which has extended from Wurtemberg to Bavaria and Austria, is carried on by 2 English and 18 German Ministers. Its Church members are 2,844, and the scholars 2,371. On these continental Missions there are in all 83 Missionaries, with 5,728 Church members, and 7,338 scholars. Some of these Missions are of an expensive character, owing to the re- quirement of chapels and other buildings necessary for the carrying on of the work, the cost of which must at present be borne by the Society. Their importance must not be measured by the nominal returns of members or scholars. They are exerting a moral influence which cannot be tabu- lated, and are as witnesses for Christ and His truth in the midst of Popish and semi-infidel populations. “ The Missions to India, Ceylon, and China, are seeking to enlighten and convert some 700,000,000, probably one half of the entire population of the globe. In this field we are co-operating with a large number of Missionary Soci- eties connected with almost every denomination of Chris- tians, and we regret that our share in this great work is so small. In India and Ceylon we have 89 Missionaries, of whom 52 are natives. In China, 12 Missionaries, includ- ing 1 native. The total number of our Indian and Chinese members is 3,816, and the scholars are 18,787. As few dispute the value of Christian Missions in India, since the publication of the Parliamentary reports of recent years, we are not called upon to defend them, but to press upon Christian people the duty of doing their part, and praying for those who are labouring in this most trying portion of the Mission field. The educational work is, however, very promising. Light is spreading. So also in China, from whence thousands are flocking to our Australian Colonies and the United States. It may yet be a struggle on our part to uphold our own civilization and religion in portions of America and Australia against the overwhelming flood of a Chinese immigration ! It is our wisdom and our CHAP. XV.] MISSIONS IN GENERAL. 209 safety to bring our Christianity boldly and emphatically to confront the heathenism of India and China at head- quarters. The danger to our colonies is not so distant as we are tempted to imagine. We have need to be up and doing, lest the next generation suffer from our remissness. The Missions in India and China have been, during the year, visited by our esteemed brother, the Eev. E. E. Jen- kins, from whom several interesting letters have appeared in the ‘ Notices/ and whose arrival in England is daily expected. “We now turn to Southern Africa, in which we include the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, the two Dutch Re- publics beyond the Orange River, the Bechuana tribes to the north, and the Kaffir tribes to the east of the colony. In this colony and among the Bechuana and Kaffir tribes we have 94 Missionaries, of whom 16 are natives, who report 15,858 Church members and 16,932 scholars. In no part of the world has our Mission work been more suc- cessfully and satisfactorily carried on ; savage races are being raised in the scale of civilization ; a native literature has been created for those who cannot understand the English or Dutch languages ; and the colonial Churches are for the most part the fruit of Missionary labour. The Rev. G. T. Perks, one of the Secretaries, who was deputed to visit these Missions, has finished his arduous task, and is expected to return by the next packet. The narrative of his journey may be seen in letters which have appeared in the ‘ Notices/ The vast interior of South Africa, from the Yaal River to the Central African Lakes, is open to Missionary effort. We wish and pray for the blessing of God upon the Missionary Societies which have begun to enter these openings. A great desire is felt by some of our South African brethren to share in this glorious work, and possibly in time the opportunity may be afforded to them. “West Africa, by which we mean the Gambia, Sierra Leone, and the Gold Coast, is another base line of opera- tion from which North Central Africa should be approached. The Gambia has providentially escaped for the present being handed over to France ; and this large river, with p 210 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. the populous tribes on its shores, yet remains accessible to Protestant Missionaries. In Sierra Leone the colonial work among the African settlers and other branches of the population at present fully occupies the attention of our Missionaries. On the Gold Coast we have access to Ashanti, to portions of Dahomy and the Yoruba country, as well as to the Fanti and other tribes on the coast. We are ready to resume our Missions at Kumasi, to which we are invited by the King of Ashanti ; and Mr. Pieot is making preparation to visit the King, in order to arrange for the residence of the Missionaries who may he sent. On this coast we have a large and valuable staff of native Missionaries. Seventeen out of our twenty-five Mission- aries in West Africa are natives. The number of our Church members is 10,849, and of scholars 8,091. A native literature is growing up, to which the Missionaries of the Church of England, the German Missionaries, and our own Missionaries have largely contributed. “In the West India Islands (with British Guiana and Honduras) the larger portion of the population is of African descent. Many circumstances stand in the way of the revival of the former material prosperity of these colonies ; but there are signs of some improvement, espe- cially in Jamaica. Ninety-one of our Missionaries labour in the West Indies, and report 43,637 members, with 28,202 scholars. In this enumeration we include Hayti with Samana and Puerto Plata in San Domingo. “In those Missions directly under the control of the British, Irish, and French Conferences, are employed 429 Missionaries, the number of the Church members is 83,484, and of the scholars 55,120. “There now remain the Missions in Australasia and Polynesia, under the care of the Australasian Conference, and the Missions in British North America, under the care of the Canadian Conference. We have as yet no complete returns of the members of the Australasian Churches and of the Missions. Last year the total num- ber of Ministers was 377, and of Church members 60,142 ; of scholars 131,683. The most recent returns of the purely Mission work in Polynesia at the last meeting held in ■CHAP. XV.] MISSIONS IN GENERAL. 211 February at Sydney are 80 Missionaries, of whom 63 are natives, 26,389 members, 58,475 scholars. The Chinese Mission in Victoria is not included in these returns. The numbers in Polynesia have been seriously narrowed by the recent epidemic, which carried off some thousands of the population, including above 7,500 of our Church members, Teachers, &c. The continued extension of the population of the colonies over the surface of New Holland, accom- panied as it is by the immigration of thousands of Chinese and other Asiatics, especially in Queensland, makes the island continent of New Holland an important field for Missionary effort. The colonists, necessarily occupied to the full extent of their means in the extraordinary demands for the extension of their home work, and for the support of the Polynesian Mission, will need some assistance in the arduous work of following the rush of population towards the Gulf of Carpentaria. As an instance of the great change which a century has wrought in the condition of the Australian continent, we need only to refer to the five large colonies, with about two millions of European popu- lation (besides Tasmania and New Zealand). In the locality called the Endeavour River, where Captain Cook, in his first voyage, a. d. 1770, a hundred and six years ago, repaired his damaged vessel, there is now a town called Cook’s Town, with a European population of about two thousand persons. By this extension of our population it must be admitted that our responsibilities to do our utmost to maintain the influence of Christianity among the emi- grant population are largely increased ; for our English race, wherever it is found, will, as the ruling power, be either a blessing or a curse to the aborigines and others with whom it is brought in contact. The same obligation rests upon us with regard to the Missions of the Canadian Conference, carried on in the vast territory of the far West, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, over one half of the continent of North America. It is impossible to give the full impression of the importance of these Missionary efforts in Australia and North America by any general view. Those only who have patience to read the detailed report of these two great Missionary Societies, the noble off- 212 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. springs of this Parent Society, can properly appreciate the greatness and importance of the work. The Missions of the Canadian Conference, including the recent Mission to Japan, are carried on by 392 Missionaries, engaged in 383 Mission Stations, and the return of Church members is 30,071. The revenue of the Canadian Missionary Society is L'30,982, and will be from this time kept distinct in our balance-sheet from that of the Parent Society. “ The Committee are more than ever convinced of the importance of the establishment of schools adapted to all classes, from the most elementary to the high schools, in all our Mission Districts. In carrying on the present schools, and in the additional schools called for, the requi- site outlay, already large, will have to be much increased. On the success of these establishments in training up teachers and others, who may eventually become Minis- ters to their own people, the perpetuity of all our Missions, especially in tropical climates, mainly depends. Already we have small establishments for educational purposes in Italy, Germany, and under the French Conference ; also at the Gambia and Sierra Leone, and at Cape Coast and in the Bahamas. The buildings for the High School at Lagos are in a state of forwardness. In Jamaica Dr. Kessen and Mr. Westlake have commenced their labours in the New High School with cheering prospects. In South Africa the High School at Heald Town is not able to meet the demand upon it for teachers, and applications have been made for the establishment of several other schools of a similar character, which the Committee will have this year to consider. In India and Ceylon there are High Schools of a very superior character, and a new one is being established at Galle. The great difficulty is in obtaining teachers of a superior class, especially for schools in tropical districts. “ The Society has this year lost by death many valuable friends and agents. Among others, the Eev. Charles Prest, a veteran supporter and friend, to whose fearless advocacy the Society owes much. Thomas Knight, for many years a liberal supporter of the Missions, and at all times ready for any good work. Walter Griffith, for a generation past CHAP. XV.] MISSIONS IN GENERAL. 213 the treasurer of the London Districts. Thomas Tombleson, whose liberality to the Polynesian Mission is well known. Joseph Hardey, one of the original settlers in Western Australia, and one of the fathers of our Mission in that rising colony. W. T. Whelpton, a member of the Com- mittee, an active and liberal friend of the Society. Dr. Thomas Brown and the Bev. Benjamin Frankland, also members of the Committee, have recently been called away to their reward. Other two of our friends, formerly en- gaged in our Polynesian Missions, have also departed this life — Mrs. Tucker, the wife of the Bev. Charles Tucker, for many years Missionary in Tonga, and the Bev. Matthew Wilson, whose earlier life was spent in that Mission. In South Africa the death of the Chief Kama, one of the first of the Kaffir converts under William Shaw’s ministry, and of the Bev. James Cameron, a sound theologian, ‘ mighty in the Scriptures,’ the Chairman of the Natal District, after forty-seven years of continuous unbroken labour in South Africa, reminds us that the generation engaged in our early Missions is rapidly passing away. Add to these honoured names that of the Indian Chief John Sunday, well known to our English friends, and identified with our .North American Mission ; and the name of George M‘Dou- gall, who was present with us last year, hut who has since perished in a snowstorm in the wilds of North America, on the 24th of January, 1876. To this list we must add fur- ther the names of James Banfield, Bohert Hawkins, Henry de Silva, T. S. King, who have also died in the Mission field, and of the following wives of Missionaries, Mrs. Bur- gess, Mrs. Milum, Mrs. Tull, and Mrs. Dixon. It is a comfort to be able to say, ‘ All these died in faith.’ ‘ Blessed .are the dead which die in the Lord : Even so, saitli the Spirit ; for they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.’ “ The Committee have to rejoice in the continued libera- lity of their friends in England and of the Societies con- nected with the Canadian and Australasian Conferences in the support of their Missions, and in the efforts of the various Mission Districts, either towards the realization of self-support, or the increase of the Missionary income of 214 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I- tlieir respective auxiliaries. They are thankful to the Great Head of the Church for the general prosperity of the Mis- sion Churches during the past year, and for the addition to the number of acknowledged Church members, which in the Missions under the immediate care of the British Con- ference amounts to more than 4,000, with 3,500 children beyond the number reported last year. To the Ladies’ Committee, who have so actively assisted in the furtherance of female education by their grants and by the supply of suitable teachers, the Committee have been greatly indebted. The calls for lady teachers are increasing, and must natu- rally increase, with the general extension of the Mission work. It is highly desirable that this important branch of the work should meet with more general support from the ladies of the Methodist Societies. “And now again the Committee meet their friends and supporters, solemn in the consciousness of responsibility and stewardship, but ready, in God’s strength, for vigorous work and prayer, and assured as much as ever of the scripturalness of the obligation, and of the ultimate success- of the work which God has given them to do. The world belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is His by right of possession, and by right of ransom, and shall speedily be Llis by right of conquest too. Only let the Church conse- crate her choicest — the firstlings of the flock, the first-fruits of the increase, the first-born or the best beloved of her children — and Heaven will honour the spirit of sacrifice, and respond to it in wealthier blessing and in diviner dis- plays of power. Then shall the increase be rapid as well as sure. ‘ The plowrman shall overtake the reaper, and the Header of grapes him that sow7etli seed.’ ‘ He shall finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness ; ’ and in the ears of many a tired watcher, who has growm weary in watching the face of the weather, and of the fields, shall sound the glad summons which inspires the reapers for their toil : ‘ Thrust ye in the sickle, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.’ ” With wonder and gratitude maywre well exclaim, “What hath God wrought ! ” These mighty results far surpass the expectations of the most sanguine. For, before these actual CHAP. XV.] MISSIONS IN GENERAL. 215 results could be tabulated, preparatory difficulties of tlie most formidable kind liad to be overcome. Foreign coun- tries had to be opened; a knowledge of difficult languages had to be acquired ; schools had to be formed, and an elementary literature prepared. Only those wTho have had to grapple with these difficulties can fully understand their magnitude. But they have been overcome ; and now in many countries the word of God is read and preached in the languages of the people. These remarks apply only to the past ; but, for the future, there is every reason to calculate that the progress will be much more rapid than it has hitherto been . In addition to actual results, a vast amount of light has been imparted, and influence exerted, which cannot be tabulated, but which will doubtless cause the work to advance with accelerated speed. Great as the progress has been in the past, we are not able to form a correct opinion as to wrhat the future will be. Light is diffused, “the way of the Lord is pre- pared,” and nations may be born in a day. 216 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. CHAPTER XVI. CENTENARY CONFERENCE, 1839. The year 1839 completed the first century of Wesleyan Methodism. A little difficulty was felt in fixing the pre- cise time at which the event should be celebrated, some being of opinion that it should be in 1838, as being one hundred years from the time of Mr. Wesley’s ordination ; but, after much deliberation and consultation, it was decided to hold the Centenary celebration in 1839. There can be no doubt that this was the proper time. The year 1739 was certainly the epoch when Methodism took its rise and entered upon its glorious aggressive course. The first day of that memorable year was remarkable for the baptism of fire which the first actors in this great work received. On this day, as a Love-feast was held in Fetter Lane, Wbitefield, Charles Wesley, Hall, Kinchin, Ingham, and others experienced a “ Pentecostal season,” as White- field called it, when the Holy Ghost came mightily upon them in such a manner that all were awed into silence, some falling to the floor insensible. When they had somewhat recovered from the amazement which this Divine manifestation had inspired, they broke out with one voice in the exulting language of the Te Deum, “ We praise Thee, 0 God: Ave acknowledge Thee to he the Lord.” It was in the year 1739 that Whitefield broke through all restraint and preached out of doors at Bristol. It was in that 3^ear that John Wesley, led on by the vehement Whitefield, commenced field preaching. It was in that year that the first “Bands” met at Bristol, that the “United Societies” were formed, and that the corner-stone of the first Methodist chapel was laid in Bristol. It was in that year that these devoted men were ejected from the pulpits of the Established Church, and took the world as their “parish,” entering upon their untiring career of CHAP. XVI.] CENTENARY CONFERENCE, 1839. 217 evangelistic effort. Thus was it a remarkable year of grace to the world, and as such should he held in remem- brance. At the Conference of 1837 a Committee was appointed to take into consideration the whole subject and report upon it to the Conference of 1838. This Committee met three times during the year, and decided upon recom- mending to the Conference of 1838 that the Centenary should be celebrated in 1839 by special religious ser- vices and pecuniary contributions, which should be me- morial thank-offerings to God. The Conference of 1838 was held in Bristol, Thomas Jackson being the President. The report of the Committee was presented and approved, and another large and influential Committee was appointed for the purpose of making preparatory arrangements. It was also agreed that the President should preach the official sermon at the ensuing Conference, and that he should prepare during the year a volume which might supply the place of a handbook of Methodism, showing the rise and progress of the body, its present state and its future prospects. This important Committee met in Oldham Street chapel, Manchester, on November 7th, 1838, the Presi- dent, the Bev. Thomas Jackson, in the chair. It was the largest and most influential Committee that Methodism had ever known, consisting of two hundred and fifty of the leading Ministers and laymen of the Connexion. These were drawn from all parts of the kingdom ; and when they met, the proceedings were of the most enthusiastic descrip- tion. The account of the whole may be found in the Appendix to Mr. Jackson’s “Centenary of Methodism,” but cannot be quoted here for want of space. It was resolved that the celebration should consist of two parts : namely, religious services and pecuniary offer- ings ; that by this means religious advancement might be effected, and the funds of the Connexion extended and strengthened. These enthusiastic people resolved that not less than ;£80,000 should be laid on God’s altar ; but before the movement closed the sum amounted to over ^£200,000. One very important part of the proceedings 218 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [part I. was to determine in wliat manner the money should be appropriated. The first action resolved upon was the erection of two Theological Institutions for the better training of the rising Ministry. But it was only for the accommodation of those students who had given “ satisfactory evidence of their sound conversion to God, their solid piety, and their Divine call to the work of the Christian Ministry.” Those, and those only, were to be “received into the Wesleyan Theological Institution, whether such students were designed for home or for Missionary service.” The second great object was to obtain suitable buildings in London for carrying on the great and increasing busi- ness of the Connexion, especially in relation to the Mis- sionary department of the work. This led to the purchase and designation of “Centenary Hall,” which has since been used for Missionary and other purposes. A third object was to obtain a Missionary ship which might be employed in the South Sea Islands, New Zealand, and Australia ; a want so pressing as only to be understood thoroughly by those who had often much privation and suffering to endure in those distant fields of Missionary enterprise. A fourth very philanthropic object was to make arrange- ments for affording permanent relief to the Fund for Worn- out Preachers and the Widows and Orphan children of those who had died in the work. These were often left in very destitute circumstances, and well deserved the sympathetic consideration of the body. The Chapel Loan Fund was also to derive aid, so as to make its operations and usefulness more extensive. These and other important objects derived effectual assis- tance, such as could not have been obtained in the ordinary routine of Connexional operations, but which served very greatly to consolidate Methodism, and send it onward with increased momentum. The key-note of these large pecuniary contributions was struck by a lady giving one thousand guineas as a thank- offering to God for the great benefits which she and her family had received from God through Methodism. This CHAP. XVI.] CENTENARY CONFERENCE, 1839. 219 led the way to multitudes of others, at home and abroad, following in the same track. Many forgotten ones, except in the privacy of the loving hearts where they lay embalmed, were again brought to the light of day, — departed fathers, mothers, children ; worthy Ministers, dear friends, and distant relatives, were all placed in grateful offerings on the altar of the Church. The memories of past days were called up, — days of suffering and days of blessing, — the long, hard struggle, followed by remarkable deliverance, — the dark, dreary night, followed by the break of day, — the battling with many complicated difficulties, and the wondrous interposi- tions of Divine Providence, by which effectual relief at length came. All vicissitudes were brought in vivid form before the eye, and took a tangible shape in grateful offerings to God ; until more than .£200,000 told how gene- ral, how deep, how strong the feeling was. When the first day of 1839 dawned, it was inaugurated by meetings for praise and prayer throughout the Method- ist body, and tens of thousands of joyful lips celebrated the praises of God. Just one hundred years before, White- field, Wesley, and others were overpowered with the sense of the Divine glory, and entered upon their apostolic course : now at the end of one hundred years hundreds of thousands proclaimed the wonders God had wrought through their instrumentality. They felt that God was about to do a great work : the multitudes who were the fruits of that work now acknowledged it with joyful lips. The song of wonder and of triumph was loud and long : “ Saw ye not the cloud arise, Little as a human hand? Now it spreads along the skies, Hangs o’er all the thirsty land.” The Conference of 1839 assembled at Liverpool on the 31st of July. It met under the most favourable auspices ; more than sixteen thousand members had been added to the Societies during the year, and one hundred and eighteen Candidates for the Ministry presented themselves. The holy, exultant feeling of the Conference was profound. October 25tli was the day on which the Centenary cele- 220 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [part I. bration was to culminate in religious services, held throughout England, and in foreign lands so far as prac- ticable. It was “ a day to be remembered.” Whilst the hundreds of thousands of God’s Methodistic Israel were celebrating His worship, and offering praises and prayers, showers of blessing descended, the Societies were quickened, and many were added unto the Lord. There were praises for the past, and the girding on of new spiritual armour, by which fresh and extensive conquests were to be won in the future. Dr. Stevens writes : “ From the death of Wesley to the Centenary jubilee of the denomination, we have had to trace chiefly the practical progress of his system ; he left it so complete that no revolutionary changes have ensued ; but it has continued in rapid and powerful development ; it has broken away from its original, necessary limitation to the territorial dominions of the Anglo-Saxon race, and, conceivingTts mission to be one of universal evangelization, it has planted its standard upon most of the outlines of the world. The practical demonstration of this conception is the culminating fact of its history, and, taken in connexion with the other marked stages of its progress, gives it an almost peculiar historic unity, no less providential than peculiar, and as prophetical as providential. “ Wesley died at the head of a thoroughly organized host of 550 Itinerant Preachers and 140,000 members of his Societies in the United Kingdom, in British North America, in the United States, and in the West Indies. At our present period, about half a century later, it had grown to more than 1,171,000, including about 5,200 Itinerant Preachers, in the Wesleyan and Methodist Episcopal Churches ; and, including the various bodies bearing the name of Methodists, to an army of more than 1,400,000, of whom 6,080 were Itinerant Preachers. Its Missionaries, accredited members of different Conferences, were about three hundred and fifty, with nearly an equal number of salaried, and about three thousand unpaid assistants. They occupied about three hundred Stations, each Station being the head of a Circuit. They were labouring in Sweden, Germany, France, Cadiz, Gibraltar, and Malta, CHAP. XVI.] CENTENARY CONFERENCE, 1839. 221 Western and Southern Africa, Ceylon, Continental India, New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land, New Zealand, Tonga, Haabai Islands, Vavau Islands, Fiji Islands, and the West Indies. They had under instruction in their Mission schools about fifty thousand pupils, and in their Mission Churches were more than seventy thousand communicants. At least two hundred thousand persons heard the Gospel regu- larly in their Mission chapels. The Methodist Missionaries were now more numerous than the whole Wesleyan Minis- try as enrolled on the Minutes of Wesley’s last Conference, and their Missionary communicants were about equal to the whole number of Methodists in Europe at that day. Wesley presided over Methodism during its first half- century and two years more ; during its second half-century it reproduced, in its Missions alone, the whole numerical force of its first half-century. “ Such were some of the facts, astonishing to the most sober contemplation, which its history presented at the time of its Centenary jubilee ; but with even such facts to stimulate the general joy, gratitude, and hope of its people, they could hardly have dared to anticipate the results which about twenty additional years were to present to us, in confirmation of the providential mission of their cause ; its 18,000 Itinerant Preachers, its 2,800.000 communi- cants, its 10,000,000 hearers. The sectarian partialities of our modern Protestantism render the task of the historian apparently invidious in the citation of such facts ; but they are the legitimate, because the most significant historic data ; as here presented they are assuredly within the limits of the actual truth, and may well justify the com- mon gratitude and congratulation of the friends of our common faith.” This year is also memorable to the writer of these pages, as being the one in which he had to leave his fatherland, and embark as a Missionary to South Africa. It was at the Centenary Conference of 1839 that his name appeared on the “Stations” as appointed to the interior of that country ; and shortly after that Conference he had to bid adieu to an aged widowed mother, — under the circumstances, a very heavy trial to her, but the sacrifice was made with- 222 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. out a murmur. She lived some years longer, ripening for heaven and blessing earth, until, in her eighty- sixth year, she exchanged mortality for life. She is gone before, hut we hope to meet again in that happy world where moun- tains rise and oceans roll no more betwixt the united and loved ones ; where together they shall behold the glory of the Lamb and sing the high praises of God. CHAP. XVII.] CONFERENCE OF 1875. 223 CHAPTER XVII. CONFERENCE OF 1875. This brief history of the origin, progress, and polity of Methodism is now brought down to the year 1876. Since the Centenary year, 1839, many events of importance have transpired, a mere record of which must suffice ; whilst those readers who desire more elaborate details will be able to find them in the larger works to which reference has been made, and in the “ Minutes of Conference.” At different periods of the progress of Methodism some parties have been dissatisfied; and when they could not have such changes made in the polity of Methodism as they desired, they have separated from it. The years 1850, 1851, and 1852, were remarkable for one of the most serious and widespread agitations which the Connexion has sustained. The Conference found it needful to exer- cise discipline upon three Ministers of the body, who, feel- ing themselves aggrieved, sought in every possible way to agitate and divide the Connexion. They so far succeeded in their efforts, by preaching, public meetings, writing, &c., as to occasion the loss of many thousands of members to the Society. They established a new Church organi- zation, now generally known as the “ Methodist Free Church,” and, having found enough to do to carry out their own operations, have for years past ceased to agitate the parent body. Since that time Wesleyan Methodism has put forth new and still more vigorous efforts to recover what she had lost, and to provide the best safeguards against any future rupture. Educated Ministry .- — Amongst the things which have received special attention, one has been the more careful and systematic education of the rising Ministry. Now three “schools of learning,” or Colleges, are in active and 224 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. efficient operation, — two for candidates for the Home Minis- try, and one for those who are more immediately designed for Mission work. Into these “ schools of the Prophets ” none are admitted who have not passed satisfactorily through the various preceding tests and preparations. They must all have been members of the Church, pro- fessing to he truly converted to God. They must all have been employed as Local Preachers on the Plans of their various Circuits for a longer or shorter space of time. They must all have professed to be called by the Holy Ghost to the work and office of the Christian Ministry. They must all have been recommended by their own re- spective Quarterly Meetings to be received into the full work of the Ministry ; and they must all have passed care- ful theological examinations, before they were accepted by the Conference, and sent to these Institutions of learning, to lie more fully prepared for the solemn and responsible work of the Ministry. In these particulars there is a vital distinction betwixt the candidates for the Christian Ministry in the Methodist Connexion, and those of some other Churches. In the latter, the Ministry is taken up as a profession, for which the candidate must prepare in the same manner as he would he required to do for the legal or the medical pro- fession. Not so here : the man must he a converted man, called of the Holy Ghost to preach the Gospel, of which satisfactory proof must he given before he can even enter the seminaries of learning ; so that in this manner, being “no novice,” he may be the better prepared to preach acceptably and efficiently the word of God. Home Missions have also been called into extensive and active operation by the Conference, being greatly aided by the very efficient labours of the late Ptev. Charles Prest, who was for many years the Secretary of this part of Methodistic work ; and under whose penetrating eye and vigorous hand a regular system of Home Missions was organized ; so that there are now eighty-six Home Mis- sionaries employed, including those who are engaged as Chaplains in connexion with different military and naval stations. The value and importance of this part of Metli- CHAP. XVII. 1 CONFERENCE OF 1875. 225 odist agency can scarcely be over-estimated, as it not only penetrates among the poor and neglected part of the population of the large towns and rural districts, but is a school of great value to young Ministers, in educating them in a systematic course of pastoral work. This is a point of great importance, since there is a danger of young Ministers being absorbed in endeavours to become good sermonizers, and neglecting pastoral duty, whereby their success will be greatly lessened. General Education has also shared largely in the atten- tion and efforts of Methodism. Westminster College, and Southlands for female students, are providing large num- bers of trained, well- qualified teachers, who are going forth from year to year to establish new schools, and to fill up vacancies which may arise. The object of these colleges is not so much to convey knowledge as to show those who are designed for teachers how they may best and most successfully impart knowledge to others. Thus teaching is made a science, and the right management of schools is made a study and an art ; so that in these respects the character of schools and teaching is changed from what it was in days of yore. The work thus so well inaugurated is likely to receive large development, as the English nation has now taken up the subject of educating the masses in earnest ; and the best way of doing this is one of the great problems of the day to be worked out by any Ministry which may guide the affairs of the British Empire. Sabbath Schools also are not only increasing in the num- ber of teachers and scholars, but are acquiring that reli- gious character by which they may be to a great extent the nurseries of the Church. The necessity of the young being taught religiously appears to have taken more effec- tual hold on the Christian Church than in years gone by ; and hence more careful and systematic efforts are being- put forth to make the schools in every respect what they ought to be. Catechumen classes are formed in many schools, and are being conducted very successfully, so that large numbers of Sabbath-school teachers and Church members are being gathered out of the schools. The Bev. John Clulow was set apart for some years as Inspector Q 226 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. and helper in school operations, and greatly assisted in rendering them more effective, and guiding the labours of those engaged in schools to the best results. In addition to the above, the Leys School and the Col- leges of Sheffield and Taunton are provided for the rising youth of Methodism ; whilst Kingswood and Woodhouse Grove still hold on their way for the education of Preachers’ sons; and from these various sources candidates for honours in the London and Cambridge Universities frequently meet with high success in competitive examinations. Chapels. — In this department rapid and substantial pro- gress has been made during the last few years. Many new chapels have been erected with considerable architectural taste and at large cost ; mostly without debt, or having only a small debt upon them. Many chapel trusts have also been effectually relieved ; so that a large amount of money, which was before lost in the form of interest, is now liberated to assist in providing additional Ministers, and in other ways to assist in the more effectual carrying onward of the work of God. Amongst these numerous proofs of extensive and substan- tial progress there is, however, one fact which is of an lmm- blingnature ; tliatis, that the number of actual Church mem- bers has only increased to a very limited extent . In some years there has been actual decrease, and in other years only small increase, in Great Britain and Ireland.* In America * The following “General View,” however, containing the tabulated number of members and Ministers at the Conference of 1876, shows a large increase of membership, especially in Great Britain. GENERAL VIEW. Mem here On Trial. Minister*. On Trial. Supernumeraries. I. British Conference : Great Britain 372,938 33,228 1,384 243 236 Ireland, and Irish Missions. . •20,405 822 134 27 26 Foreign Missions 78.023 10,043 273* 141* 14. IT. French Conference 1.883 145 25+ 5+ 6f III. Australasian Conferences ...... 52,692 8,186 811 53 27 Totals 525.941 52,424 9.197 4*-o * Exclusive of Missionaries in Ireland. t The French Ministeis who are employed in ihi Chanr.el Islands District are not included in these returns. N.B. — In t. is Table the number of Ministers and Members in connexion with the Con- ferences of Canada an l Eastern British America, — now combined in the Conference of the Wesleyan-Methodist Church in the Dominion of Canada, — is not {riven. 'CHAP. XVII. CONFERENCE OF 1875. 227 the numerical increase has been very large ; and in the affiliated Conferences considerable advance has been chroni- cled, as also on nearly all the foreign Mission Stations. Various reasons have been assigned for the small increase in England ; and doubtless these reasons have their weight : but the real cause, it is to be feared, is the low state of spiritual power among many of the Methodists, and a very great increase of worldly conformity. Many Methodists have become rich, and the only safety-valve is that of hav- ing large demands made upon their liberality in support of the various financial regulations of the Church. Some of them are princely contributors to the various funds : but whilst they are thus benefiting those funds by their liberal offerings, they are still more largely benefiting themselves and their families by laying up imperishable treasure in heaven. The great want of Methodism at the present time is “the baptism of fire,” in her Ministers, members, and congrega- tions. We should then hear no more about the Class- Meeting being objected to as a “ test of membership; ” but the Church would be “fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.” May the Lord .send down this “ baptism of fire.” Amen ! 228 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. CHAPTER XVIII. METHODISM IN AMERICA. Were it not requisite for the completeness of this his- tory, this chapter would not he given, as the subject is so fully treated in the able works of Dr. Stevens and Dr. Crook as to preclude all necessity for further notice. But as it is supposed that this book will find its way into the hands of manjr who will not have the opportunity of con- sulting those authors, it becomes needful to give at least an epitome of the great work effected on the American Continent. In the chapter on Methodism in Ireland, a descrip- tion was given of the manner in which Philip Embury, Barbara Heck, and other Irish Methodists, emigrated to America. Dr. Crook says, “ AYe have seen that Philip Embury and his party, including Paul and Barbara Heck, arrived in New York in August, 17G0. The presumption is, that Embury attempted some religious service shortly after landing ; but, being constitutionally timid and retiring, and meeting with little or no encouragement, and having no suitable place in which to conduct the services, he abandoned the idea of attempting any public services, at least for the present. It is probable that in a new and strange land he found it increasingly difficult to support his wife and young family, and that this was not without its influence in his ultimate decision. It is also fair to assume that the Irish emigrants were located in various parts of the city, so that the difficulty of getting even a few of them together may have been very considerable. He joined the Lutherans, and we have the testimony of his son, Mr. Samuel Embury, that he never abandoned the practice of family worship. During the period in which Embury’s ‘talent lay hid in a napkin,’ several of his children were born, who were baptized amongst the Lutherans. Two of these died in infancy — Catherine Elizabeth, his CHAP. XVIII.] METHODISM IN AMERICA. 229 first-born, aged two years ; and John Albert, aged three.” This small band scarcely took definite Methodistical form, until another batch of emigrants from Ireland arrived. “In August, 1765, a second party of Palatine emigrants arrived in New York, from Ballingran and the neighbourhood. Amongst them were Paul Ruckle, Luke Rose, Jacob Hick, Peter Barkman, Henry Williams, and their families. Mr. Ruckle was related to Embury, and brother to Barbara Heck, who, as we have seen, with her husband, Paul Heck, had accompanied Embury in 1760. Jacob Hick and his wife had been Methodists in Ireland, and were amongst the earliest friends of the infant Method- ist Church in New York. I take Jacob Hick to have been the founder of the Hick family, mentioned in the ‘ Old Book,’ and the ancestor of John Paul Plick, so frequently mentioned in Wakely’s ‘ Lost Chapters.’ His wife, doubtless, was an excellent woman, and amongst the earliest friends of Methodism in New York ; but she is not to be confounded with Barbara Heck, ‘ the heroine of American Methodism,’ as in my judgment the Rev. J. B. Wakely has done in his beautiful book. Jacob Hick, his wife, and family, lived and died in New York; whereas, Paul Heck, and Barbara his wife, went with Embury from New York to Salem, in 1770, and ultimately were connected with the first Class in Canada, where they died ; having had the honour of being identified with the origin of Methodism both in the United States and in Canada, as I shall show by and bye. “ Many of the Palatines who accompanied Embury and Barbara Pleck from Ireland, had by this time lost even the form of godliness, and had become adepts at card playing and other sinful amusements. Several of those who accompanied Paul Ruckle had but little respect for religion, and in the evenings, when both parties met after the day’s labour, card playing formed the staple amuse- ment. There is not the slightest shadow of evidence that Embury ever played with them, or even witnessed them playing. One evening in the autumn of 1766, a large company were assembled playing cards as usual, when 230 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I*. Barbara Heck came in, and burning with indignation, she hastily seized the cards, and throwing them into the fire, administered a scathing rebuke to all the parties concerned. She then went to Embury’s house, and told him what she saw, and what she had done, adding, with great earnest- ness, ‘ Philip, you must preach to us, or we shall all go to hell, and God will require o%ir blood at your hands ! ’ Philip attempted a defence by saying, ‘ How can I preach, as I have neither house nor congregation ? ’ ‘ Preach,’ said this noble woman, ‘ in your own house, and to your own company.’ Before she left, she prevailed on Philip to resolve to make the attempt, and within a few days Em- bury preached the first Methodist sermon in New York, in his own hired house, to a congregation of five persons. Such was the origin of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States — now the largest and most influential Church in the great American Continent. ‘ Who hath despised the day of small things ? ’ ” We leave Dr. Smith and Dr. Crook to settle the question, as to whether Philip Embury was found playing cards, when Barbara Heck accosted him, or not. The probabilities are, that Dr. Crook is correct, and that Philip Embury had oined the Lutheran Church, and was living a quiet Chris- tian life ; and that it was this warm-hearted, devoted woman who shook him from his reverie, and roused him to action. Be the particulars what they may, the thing was done, and Philip Embury set to work in right good earnest, in the right way ; and Barbara Heck seconded him with her Irish fire and Christian zeal ; and, as we have seen, a congregation of five persons was gathered in Em- bury’s house, and he preached his first sermon to them. “In a short time the congregation so increased under the faithful ministry of Embury, that it was found necessary to obtain a larger room ; and, accordingly, the infant Church hired a large ‘ upper room ’ in Barrack Street, about ten doors from the barracks, now called Augustine Street. ‘ Here,’ says Peter Parks, of New York, ‘ a great excitement took place among the people ; many were awakened and some converted. Among those that were converted was my grandmother, Catherine Taylor, and CHAP. XVIII.] METHODISM IN AMERICA. 231 my mother, Mary Parks. At this time Mr. Embury formed a class of all the members then in Society, which was twelve. There were three musicians belonging to the six- teenth regiment of British troops, then stationed in the barracks in Barrack Street. Their names were James Hodge, Addison Low, and John Buckley : they were ex- liorters, and assisted Mr. Embury in the meetings. There were some souls got awakened and converted in the poor- house. Mrs. Deverick was one, and, through her instru- mentality, Mr. Embury was called to preach in the poor- house. By this means the master of the poor-house, Billy Littlewood, was awakened and converted.’ “ Thus ‘ mightily grew the Word of the Lord and pre- vailed; ’ so that, early in 1767, we find the little Church had outgrown the ‘ Upper Boom/ the second Methodist preaching place in New York, and had hired the far-famed ‘ Bigging Loft,’ in Horse-and-Cart Street, now called William Street, and not far from John Street, so noted in American Methodism. This loft was long and narrow, sixty feet by eighteen. Here they erected a desk and benches, and here Embury preached on Sabbath mornings, at six o’clock, and on Sabbath evenings, and, alter a time, on Thursday evenings also. About this time Charles White and Bichard Sanse, who were both Methodists in Dublin, arrived from Ireland, and proved an important accession to the rising Church. Both were pretty well off in the world, and nobly identified themselves with the interests of the little Church worshipping in the ‘ Bigging Loft.’ They were liberal contributors to John Street Chapel, — ‘the cradle of American Methodism,’ — and earned for themselves an enduring renown by being amongst the first trustees of Methodist property in America, as we shall see by and bye.” Captain Webb, a converted soldier, arrived about this time, and rendered valuable aid to the infant Church. He was converted to God under Wesley’s preaching in Bristol, and had been employed by him as a Local Preacher. He was now quartered at Albany, and hearing that there was a small Methodist Society at New York, he found them out. Instead of being ashamed of this primitive, feeble 232 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. LPART I. band, and keeping aloof from them, as some gentlemen are disposed to do when they arrive in distant lands where Methodism is not very popular, he joined himself unto them, and preached for them, gathering large crowds to- gether to hear the Captain in his regimentals. Great good was effected, and the place in which they worshipped was soon too small for them. Methodist-like they “ must have a chapel,” and forthwith a “subscription list” made its appearance. As Dr. Crook’s descriptions are so graphic, I shall again quote from his “ Ireland,” &c., pp. 113-116. “ ‘ PREAMBLE OF THE SUBSCRIPTION LIST, WITH THE NAMES OF THE SUBSCRIBERS, AND RESPECTIVE SUMS GIVEN ANNEXT. “ ‘ A number of persons, desirous to worship God in spirit and truth, commonly called Methodists (under the direc- tion of the Eev. Mr. John Wesley), whom it is evident God has been pleased to bless in their meetings in New York, thinking it would be more to the glory of God and the good of souls had they a more convenient place to meet in, where the Gospel of Jesus Christ might be preached without distinction of sects or parties; and, as Mr. Philip Embury is a member and helper in the Gospel, they humbly beg the assistance of Christian friends, in order to enable them to build a small house for the purpose, not doubting but the God of all consolation will abundantly bless all such as are willing to contribute to the same.’ “ Then follow the names, nearly 250 in all, from Cap- tain Webb, who gave £30, down to coloured servants who gave Is. 6d. or 2s., making £418. 3s. 6 <1. Amongst the subscribers we find : — Richard Sanse, £13. 5s. ; Charles White, £5; Paul Heck (husband of Mrs. Heck), £3. 5s.; David Embury (Philip’s brother), £2; and several others from Ireland. Embury’s name does not appear in the list. He was poor, and had no money to give ; but he contri- buted something to the enterprise which silver and gold were too poor to buy. “ The idea of building a church originated with Mrs. Heck, who said that she had made it a matter of special CHAP. XVIII.] METHODISM IN AMERICA. 233 prayer. Strange to tell, this noble woman also was the architect of the church, having supplied the plan, which was throughout approved and adopted by general consent. “ The length was sixty feet by forty-two in width. It was built of common stone, covered with blue plaster. It had a gallery, but for many years had no stairs, but the people ascended by a ladder. The seats had no backs at first, as the funds were low. The timber work was done by Embury and David Morris. Embury’s own hand con- structed the pulpit. “ The ‘ Old Book ’ proves that Embury was also the first Treasurer of the Chapel Fund, and that he had the entire burden and responsibility, until relieved by the appointment of Mr. Lupton. Some idea of his services in this department may be gathered from the following receipt from the mason who built the chapel : ‘Received, New York, 7tli October, 1769, of Mr. William Lupton, forty-three pounds, which, with the different sums I have before received from Mr. Philip Embury, amounts to the sum of five hundred and eleven pounds, which is in full of all demands from the Methodist Preaching House. ^511. Samuel Edmonds.’ “ The opening sermon was preached by Embury, October 30th, 1768 — just two years after his first sermon in his own house— from Hosea x. 12 : ‘ Sow to yourselves in right- eousness, reap in mercy ; break up your fallow ground : for it is time to seek the Lord, till He come and rain right- eousness upon you.’ With characteristic simplicity he said, that the best consecration of a pulpit was to preach a good sermon in it. “ Such was the first Methodist Church in New York, ‘the cradle of American Methodism,’ and such its opening service — simple, appropriate, beautiful ; the honest car- penter from Ballingran — the founder of American Method- ism—preaching the opening sermon in the first Methodist church in the goodly land of his adoption, and amongst a people who loved and prized him. What hath God wrought ! What a marvellous change now, within one hundred years! 234 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [part I. “ From this date the ‘Rigging Loft’ was abandoned as- a Methodist preaching place, and John Street Church became the head quarters of Methodism in the city. Embury’s church was demolished in 1817, to make way for a new and enlarged edifice, adapted to the rising for- tunes of the Church ; and in turn this new building gave place, in 1841, to the present noble church known as John Street Church, the third built on this site. The ‘ Rigging Loft ’ outlived Embury’s church many years. It was taken down in 1854, during some improvements in the street in which it stood. Many old Methodists bid it a fond adieu, as a place hallowed by precious memories. The timbers were still sound, and were converted into walking-sticks. An ivory head was placed upon each with the inscription, ‘ Rigging Loft. 1766. Philip Embury.’ Both timber and ivory will crumble to dust beneath the iron tooth of time, but the name of Philip Embury will last as long as time itself.” At the Conference of 1769, Messrs. Boardman and Pil- moor volunteered to go to America, in reply to Mr. Wes- ley’s call for volunteers. Wesley Chapel was already built in New York, and a regularly organized Ministry was wanted ; an urgent request was sent to Mr. Wesley, and the result was, that these two self-denying men volunteered and went. “ In October, 1769, Messrs. Boardman and Pilmoor arrived in New York, from England, and took charge of Wesley Chapel, John Street. Embury was truly glad to be thus honourably released from his laborious services in connexion with Methodism in New York, and be at liberty to devote some attention to the interests of his family. Accordingly he removed from New York, with his wife and three children, in April, 1770, and joined the colony at Salem. We find an entry in the ‘Old Book’ under date, April 10th, 1770, of £2. 5s. for ‘a Concordance for Philip Embury;’ this was probably a parting gift from the little Church to Philip, as they bid the founder of American Methodism farewell. It is the last entry in connexion with his name.” In 1770, America appears on the “Minutes of Confer- CHAP. XVIII.] METHODISM IN AMERICA. 235 cnce ” as the fiftieth Circuit. As Dr. Smith writes, “The twenty- seventh annual Conference was held in London, August 7th, 1770. The number of Circuits had now in- creased from forty-six to fifty. The last on the list affords a striking proof of the readiness with which the founder of Methodism entered every open door, and of the quiet con- fidence with which he carried into practical operation his favourite maxim, ‘ The world is my parish.’ The last Cir- cuit on the list for this year is ‘No. 50. America.’ The continent of America a Methodist Circuit ! ” The first American Conference was held in 1773. “ On the 4tli of July, 1773, the first Wesleyan Conference was held in America. At this time there were six Circuits in that country : New York, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Baltimore, Norfolk, and Petersburg, Avith 10 Preachers and 1,160 members. The great principles which governed the Soci- eties at home were enforced here, especially that the Preachers were prohibited from administering the sacra- ments, and required to urge their people to attend the church, and receive the ordinances there. The Wesleyan plan of stationing the Preachers having been thus fully adopted, and Wesleyan discipline diligently enforced by Mr. Bankin, the work of God advanced with remarkable rapidity and power.” The Avar of the Revolution was attended with serious difficulties to the infant Wesleyan Church. “Although the war with America was continued with all the energy the British Ministry could command, the revolted colonists Avere daily getting the advantage in the conflict ; the Con- gress was accordingly encouraged to assume, in the fullest sense, the sovereignty of the country. The inhabitants of the seATeral States were in consequence required to take an oath of allegiance to the existing Government. Mr. Asbury, as an Englishman, could not conscientiously comply Avith this demand. He had, therefore, to retire from his usual course of ministerial duty, and seek refuge in concealment. He lived thus in the house of a friend, Judge White, for nearly twekve months. Yet even in these circumstances his zealous soul could not be inactive ; for, when unable to appear at all in the day-time, he would emerge from his 236 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. retreat in the gloom of night, and go from house to house, enforcing the great truths of the Gospel.” The circumstances of America at the close of the Revolu- tionary war were peculiar in a religious point of view, and more especially so far as Methodism was concerned. “ Methodism,” as Dr. Stevens observes, “ had spread rapidly in America, notwithstanding the war of the Revolution. It now comprised eighty-three travelling Preachers, besides some hundreds of Local Preachers, and about fifteen thousand members, and many thousands of hearers, and its ecclesiastical plans were extending a net- work of powerful agencies over the country. The Revolu- tion had not only dissolved the civil, but also the ecclesi- astical relations of the Colonies to England. Many of the English Clergy, on whom the Methodist Societies had depended for the sacraments, had fled from the land, or had entered political or military life, and the Episcopal Church had been generally disabled. In Virginia, the centre of its colonial strength, it had rapidly declined, morally as well as numerically. At the Declaration of Independence it included not more than one-tliird of the population of that province. At the beginning of the war the sixty-one counties of Virginia contained ninety-five parishes, one hundred and sixty-four churches, and ninety- one Clergymen. At the conclusion of the contest many of her churches were in ruins, nearly a fourth of her parishes ‘ extinct or forsaken,’ and thirty-four of the remaining seventy-two were without pastoral supplies ; twenty-eight only of her ninety-one Clergymen remained, and these, with an addition, soon after the war, of eight from other parts of the country, ministered in but thirty-six parishes. In the year in which Wesley ordained an American Meth- odist Bishop, ‘ memorials ’ to the Virginia Legislature for the incorporation of the ‘ Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia,’ and for other advantages to religion, were met by counter petitions that ‘ no step might be taken in aid of religion, but that it might be left to its own superior and successful influence.’ The memorials were postponed till the next session, and then rejected ; but a bill for the ‘ in- corporation of all religious societies which may apply for CHAP. XVIII.] METHODISM IN AMERICA. 237 the same,’ was adopted. In other parts of the country the English Church never had been numerically strong, and its existence was now precarious, except in two or three large cities. “ Under these circumstances the Methodists demanded of their Preachers the administration of the sacraments. Many of the Societies had been months, some of them years, without them. The demand was not only urgent, it was logically right ; but by the majority of the Preachers it was not deemed expedient. The prudent delay which Wesley, notwithstanding his liberal ecclesiastical principles, had practised in England, afforded a lesson which their good sense could not disregard. They exhorted their people, therefore, to wait patiently till he could be con- sulted. Thomas Rankin, one of Wesley’s Missionaries, presiding at the Conference of Deer'Creek, Maryland, 1777, induced them to delay one year. At the next session the subject was again prudently postponed, as no English Preacher was present ; Rankin having returned to England, and Asbury being absent and sick. In 1779 the question occasioned a virtual schism, the Preachers of the South being resolute for the administration of the sacraments, those of the North still pleading for patient delay. The latter met in Conference at Judge White’s residence, the retreat of Asbury, in Delaware ; the former at Brocken- back Church, Fluvanna county, Virginia, where they made their own appointments, and proceeded to ordain them- selves by the hands of three of their senior members, unwilling that their people should longer be denied their right to the Lord’s Supper, and their children and proba- tionary members the rite of baptism. At the session of 1780 Asbury was authorized to visit the southern Preachers, and, if possible, conciliate them. He met them in Conference ; they appeared determined not to recede, but at last consented to suspend the administration of the sacraments till further advice could be received from Wesley. The breach was thus happily repaired, but must evidently soon again be opened if redress should not be obtained.” It is thus apparent that, as a matter of necessity, Wesley '238 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. had to make some suitable provision to meet the pressing want, as a preparatory process had been going on in his mind for some time. We find it thus recorded by Dr. Stevens: “What could Wesley do under these circum- stances ? What but exercise the right of ordination which he had for years theoretically claimed, but practically and prudently declined ? He had importuned the authorities of the English Church in behalf of the Americans. In this very year he had written two letters to Lowth, Bishop of London, imploring ordination for a single Preacher, who might appease the urgency of the American brethren, by travelling among them as a Presbyter, and by giving them the sacraments ; but the request was denied, Lowth reply- ing that ‘there are three Ministers in that country already.’ ‘ What are these,’ rejoined Wesley, ‘ to watch over all that extensive country? I mourn for poor America, for the sheep scattered up and down therein — part of them have no shepherds at all, and the case of the rest is little better, for their shepherds pity them not.’ If there was any imprudence on the part of Wesley in this emergency, it was certainly in his long continued patience, for he delayed yet nearly four years. When he yielded, it was only after the triumph of the American arms, and the acknowledged independence of the Colonies ; and not then till urged to it by his most revered counsellors. Fletcher, of Madeley, was one of these. That good man’s interest for American Methodism should endear his memory to the American Church. He had thoughts at one time of going to the New World and of giving himself to its struggling Societies, but his feeble health forbade him.” “ He referred to the example of the Alexandrian Church, which, at the death of its Bishops, provided their successors through ordination by its Presbyters, — a historical fact exemplified during two hundred years. Recognised as their founder by the American Methodists, required by them to provide for their new necessities, and unable to induce the English Prelates to do so, he proposed to ordain Coke that he might go to the American Societies as their Superintendent or Bishop, ordain their Preachers, and thus afford them the sacraments with the least possible irregu- CHAP. XVIII.] METHODISM IN AMERICA. 239 larity. Coke hesitated, but in two months wrote to Wesley accepting the office. Accordingly, accompanied by the Rev. James Creighton, a Presbyter of the Church of England, Coke met him at Bristol, and on the second of September, 1784, was ordained Superintendent or Bishop of the Method- ist Societies in America; an act of as high propriety and dignity as it was of urgent necessity. Richard Wliatcoat and Thomas Yasey were at the same time ordained Pres- byters ; and on the third of November, attended by his two Presbyters, (the number necessary to assist a Bishop in ordination, according to the usages of the English Church,) Coke arrived in the Republic, and proceeded to ordain Francis Asbury, first as a Deacon, then as a Presbyter, and finally as a Bishop, and to settle the organization of American Methodism, one of the most important ecclesi- astical events (whether for good or evil) of the eighteenth century, or indeed since the Reformation, as its historical consequences attest. “ The Colonial English Church being dissolved by the Revolution, its dwindled fragments wrere yet floating, as had been the Methodist Societies, on the stormy tide of events. Methodism preceded it in re-organization. The Methodist Bishops were the first Protestant Bishops, and Methodism was the first Protestant Episcopal Church of the New World ; and as Wesley had given it the Anglican Articles of Religion, (omitting the seventeenth, on Predes- tination,) and the Liturgy, wisely abridged, it became, both by its precedent organization and its subsequent numerical importance, the real successor to the Anglican Church in America.” Thus, at the Conference of 1784, Wesley ordained Dr. Coke as Bishop, and two Presbyters, that they might go to America and ordain others, which they did ; Asbury being the first Bishop, and from him a regular succession of Bishops and Presbyters being kept up, in this manner. So Methodism in America has taken an episcopal form ; the difference between Bishops and Presbyters being not one of order, but of office. Having thus noticed the commencement of the work in America, — the formation of the first Class, — the erection 240 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. of the first Chapel, — the organization of the first Church, — and the ordination of the first Bishop, — we must pass over all the intervening spaces of extension and development, until we arrive at the Centenary year, 1866 ; with reference to which we shall quote from Dr. Crook : “ I think the most remarkable chapter in Church history, in ancient or modern times, is supplied by the History and Progress of American Methodism in the past century. It forms no part of my design at present to attempt a solution of the philosophy of its success. The following statistics will give the reader the best idea of the fact of its success. If there be any parallel case in the history of the Church, I confess I have not heard of it. I give these statistics on the authority of the Rev. Dr. Stephens, of New York, and I believe that they are below, rather than above, the true figures. “Embury’s little congregation of five persons, in his own house, has multiplied to thousands of Societies, from the northernmost settlements of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico — from Nova Scotia to California. The first small Confer- ence of 1773, with its ten Preachers and its 1,160 reported members, has multiplied to 60 Conferences, 6,821 Itiner- ants, 8,205 Local Preachers, and 928,320 members in the Methodist Episcopal Church alone, exclusive of the Southern, the Canadian, and minor branches, all the off- spring of the Church founded in 1766, and episcopally organized in 1784. “ It has property, in Churches and Parsonages, amount- ing to about twenty- seven millions of dollars. “It has 25 Colleges and Theological Schools, with pro- perty amounting to 3,055,000 dollars; 158 Instructors, 5,345 Students ; and 77 Academies, with 556 Instructors, and 17,761 Students; making a body of 714 Instructors, and an army of 23,106 Students. “Its Church Property (Churches, Parsonages, and Col- leges, aside from its 77 Academies and Book Concern) amounts to thirty millions and fifty-five thousand dollars ! “Its Book Concern has a capital of 837,000 dollars ; 500 Publishing Agents, Editors, Clerks, and Operatives, with some thirty cylinder power presses in constant operation ; CIIAP. XVIII. 1 METHODISM IN AMERICA. 241 about 2,000 different books on its catalogue, besides tracts, &c. ; 14 periodicals, with an aggregate circulation of more than a million copies per month. Besides the above, it has five independent or non-official weekly papers, with immense circulation. “ Its Sunday School Union comprises 13,400 Schools; more than 150,000 Instructors; nearly 918,000 pupils; and more than two millions and a half of library books. It issues nearly 2,500 publications, besides a monthly cir- culation of nearly 300,000 numbers of its periodicals. “ Its Missionary Society has 1,059 Circuits and Stations ; 1,128 Paid Labourers; and 105,675 communicants. “ The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, has pub- lished no statistics since the rebellion broke out ; it has doubtless suffered much by the war ; but it reported the last year before the rebellion nearly 700,000 Church mem- bers ; nearly 2,600 Itinerants, and 5,000 Local Preachers. It had twelve periodical publications; 12 Colleges, and 77 Academies, with 8,000 Students. Its Missionary Society sustained, at home and abroad, about 360 Missionaries, and 8 Manual Labour Schools, with nearly 500 pupils. “According to these figures the two great Episcojial divisions of the denomination have had, at their latest reports, 1,628,320 members ; 9,421 Travelling and 13,205 Local Preachers ; with 191 Colleges and Academies, and 31,106 Students. “The Canada Wesleyan Church was not only founded by, but for many years belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church ; it now reports more than 36,000 members ; 500 Itinerant Preachers ; and 750 Sunday Schools, with about 45,000 pupils ; a University ; a Female College ; and a Book Concern, with its weekly periodical. “ Another branch of Canadian Methodism, the ‘ Meth- odist Episcopal Church in Canada/ equally the child of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, reports 3 annual Conferences ; 2 Bishops ; 216 Travelling, and 224 Local Preachers ; and 20,000 members ; a Semi- nary and Female College, and a weekly newspaper. “ The Canadian Wesleyan Methodist New Connexion Church reports 90 Travelling and 147 Local Preachers ; p. 242 BRIEF HISTORY OF METHODISM. [PART I. and 8,450 communicants. It sustains a weekly paper and Theological School. “ The other Methodist bodies in the United States are, the ‘Methodist Protestant Church,’ the ‘American Wesleyan Methodist,’ the ‘African Methodist Episcopal Church,’ and some three or four smaller sects ; their aggregate membership amounts to about 200,000, their Preachers to 3,423. “ Adding the Travelling Preachers to the membership, there are now in the United States about 1,901,164 Methodist communicants. Added three non-communicant members of its congregation for each communicant, it has under its influence 7,604,636 souls — between one fifth and one fourth of the whole national population. “ Aggregately there are nowin the United States and Canada as the result of the Methodism of 1766, 1,972,770 Church members, 13,650 Travelling Preachers, 15,000 Local Preachers, nearly 200 Colleges and Academies, and more than 30 periodical publications ; 1,986,420 commu- nicants, including Preachers, and nearly eight millions of people. “ The influence of this vast ecclesiastical force on the moral, intellectual, and social progress of the New World can neither he doubted nor measured. It is generally con- ceded that it has been the most energetic religious elementin the social development of the continent. With its devoted and enterprising people dispersed through the whole popu- lation ; its thousands of laborious Itinerant Preachers, and tens of thousands of Local Preachers and Exhorters ; its unequalled publishing agencies ; and powerful periodicals, from the Quarterly Keview to the Child’s Paper ; its hundreds of Colleges and Academies ; its hundreds of thou- sands of Sunday-school Instructors ; its devotion to the lower and most needy classes ; its animated mode of worship and religious labour, it cannot he questioned that it has been a mighty, if not the mightiest, agent in the maintenance and spread of Protestant Christianity over these lands. It stands now on the threshold of its second century, mightier than ever, in all the elements and resources requisite for a still greater history. CHAP. XVIII.] METHODISM IN AMERICA. 243 “ These figures are not only interesting, as illustrative of the power of Methodism under favourable circumstances, hut they supply an argument to which there is no answer, as to the superiority of the voluntary principle as compared with the National Endowment system, in the maintenance and diffusion of religion. Here is a Church — without any endowment but the blessing of God on the consecrated brain and heart of its sons and daughters — and within a single century it has risen from five obscure persons, to influence and mould the character of about one fourth of the American population ! Dr. Dixon tells us, ‘ There are no sects in America, no Dissenters, no Seceders, or what- ever other term may be employed to designate the position and standing of a Christian Society. They are alike con- sidered as Christians ; and adopting, according to the judgment of charity, with equal honesty the common charter of salvation, the word of God, they are treated as equal, and as possessing similar and indefeasible rights.’ ” PART II. MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. CHAPTER I. THE CAPE DISTRICT. Cape Town is the metropolis of the Western part of the South African Peninsula ; and Graham’s Town, the capital of the Eastern Province. Cape Town is three hundred years old ; having been in the hands of the Dutch until 1806, when it was taken by the English, in whose posses- sion it has remained ever since. Graham’s Town is only little more than fifty years old. Methodistically the Cape District is first in order of time, hut not first in the scale of importance. The Graham’s Town District will he treated upon in a subsequent chapter, so that it does not need further notice in this place. There is a much larger portion of the Dutch element in the Cape District than on the Eastern Frontier of the Colony, where the English and Kaffir largely prevail. The population is also much denser in the latter than in the former part of the country. ' Barnabas Shaw was the father and apostle of Methodism in the Cape District ; William Shaw, the father and apostle of Methodism in the Eastern Districts. Although these two worthies bear the same surname, they were not at all related to each other ; and probably never saw each other until after they had been long engaged in different parts of the South African Mission field. At the Cape, as in many other places, converted soldiers were the first to call the attention of the Wesleyan Conference to South Africa. Amongst those whose names hear a prominent place in the record of this movement, we find Sergeant Hendricks of the Twenty-First Yorkshire Light Dragoons. Pie was converted in Leeds ; and after his Regiment removed to the 246 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. Cape, lie, and others like-minded, conducted religious ser- vices among themselves ; at the same time sending a pressing request to England that a Missionary might be appointed to the Cape forthwith. The warm-hearted Ser- geant did not live to see his wishes gratified ; but shortly after his removal to a better world Barnabas Shaw arrived. This zealous young Missionary had been appointed to the island of Ceylon ; but this appointment was afterwards changed to the Cape, where he arrived on April 13tli, 1816. Difficulties of a very formidable nature beset the path of Mr. Shaw upon his arrival. The enlarged views of religious liberty now known and adopted had no existence then. Lord Charles Henry Somerset was Governor of the Colony at the time : Mr. Shaw quickly waited upon him, and presented a letter of introduction from the Earl of Bathurst, with a request to obtain his sanction for com- mencing religious services. The Governor, however, did not feel at liberty to sanction the application. “He replied, that considering the high and responsible office which he sustained, together with the adequate supply of Clergymen, both for the Dutch and English population, and that seve- ral of the slaveholders were opposed to the instruction of the coloured classes, he could not grant me the sanction required. Upon the exercise of religious liberty various restrictions had been imposed by the Dutch Government in the year 1804 ; to which His Excellency undoubtedly referred. Some of the articles are as follows: ‘None shall be permitted to perform any Divine service, nor keep public meetings, except with the perfect knowledge of the Governor for the time being.’ ‘ No public meetings of devotion may be held at any other time than the usual Sundays or holidays, and in public churches, without due permission of the Governor for the time being ; and then always under the guidance and at the responsibility of the qualified consistory of that community to which those per- sons belong, who wish to hold these separate meetings, Ac.’ ” (Shaw’s “Memorials,” pp. 59, 60.) This courageous young Minister was not, however, to be deterred ; and therefore, without the authorized permission,, he exercised his ministerial functions among the soldiers CHAP. I.] THE CAPE DISTRICT. 247 and others, so far as circumstances would permit. But, after a short time, finding that the impediments in the way of extensive usefulness in the town were of a serious nature, and that favourable openings for good were presented in the interior, he resolved to go “far hence unto the Gentiles.” Nmv the open doors and extended fields of usefulness are so numerous that the Church cannot go in and occupy them ; hut then it was otherwise, and often the Church had to knock and wait. So it was in this instance. Having taken his decision and made his arrangements, Mr. Shaw says : “ At length, having obtained a passport, we purchased a wagon and twelve bullocks, with every thing requisite for the journey; and, in company with Mr. Sclimelen, left Cape Town on the 6tli of September, to take our route in the wilderness. Messrs. Young, Evans, and West accompanied us to some distance, and then hade farewell. We travelled till almost midnight, and for a considerable part of the time through deep sands. On halting we were about to prepare our wagon for our night’s rest, hut found the slaapkamer, ‘ bedroom,’ in such con- fusion, it being filled with bags and boxes of provisions, guns, saws, spades, articles of clothing, implements of agriculture, tea-kettles, pots, and pans, &c., &c., — that we were constrained to desist from our purpose, and being extremely fatigued, we were soon asleep in a less agreeable place.” Their design was to accompany the Rev. Mr. Schmelen beyond the Great Orange River into Great Namacqualand ; hut, as they were proceeding on their way, they were met by the Chief of the Little Namacquas, who was on his way to Cape Town in order to seek a Missionary, to come and dwell among them. Here, then, the perplexed Missionary and the seeking Chief met. Whilst Cornelius was fasting and praying, Peter was being prepared for the message and summons to go to the Gentiles. With less distinct intima- tion of Divine interposition in modern Missions, we fre- quently see concurrent circumstances combine to bring about the same results. Mr. Shaw took this as an intima- tion from God that his destination was to the Little Namacquas, and acted accordingly. After the numerous 248 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. trials and dangers connected with such a journey, through a desert land, the Mission party arrived at the scene of their future labours. Mr. Shaw thus records their feel- ings : “ October 16th. — Mr. Schmelen departed on his way towards Great Namacqualand. The kindness of this German brother, and his excellent wife, is indelibly written on our hearts, and their departure exceedingly affected us. Though surrounded by Namacquas, we were truly solitary, as many of them spoke a language -which we could not understand. All our earthly friends were far hence, our fellow-travellers had left us, and we could not refrain from weeping in this wilderness of savages. At length we were enabled to dry up our tears, and take courage, trusting in the veracity of Him, who hath promised, ‘ Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.’ ” Mr. and Mrs. Shaw entered upon their labours with devoted zeal and untiring energy, attending to both the spiritual and temporal interests of the people ; and they soon had cause to rejoice in seeing “ the wilderness be- come a fruitful field, and the fruitful field as the garden of the Lord.” Limited space forbids our going into detail as to the great moral and social changes which were effected in a few years, and by which this barren Station was transformed into a blooming oasis in the desert. In 1826 Mr. Shaw was directed to leave Little Namac- qualand, and take charge of the Cape Town Circuit, where a great change had taken place in reference to religious liberty ; “ a great door and effectual ” being opened, which has not since been closed. In his very interesting “ Memorials ” we find the following record : “May, 1826. — I received notice from the late Rev. R. Watson, to pro- ceed without delay to take charge of the Cape Town Station. The Lord’s Supper was administered on the 7th to a deeply affected congregation, and four adults were baptized. One of them was a female of the Bushman tribe, who said, before her baptism, ‘ The Lord has heard my prayer, and ik lean niet mier uithouden, I can hold out no more.’ How similar to the language of our own sweet singer ! ‘ Nay, but I yield, I yield, I can hold out no more.’ The number of adults baptized was ninety-seven.” CHAP. I.] THE CAPE DISTRICT. 249 Mr. Shaw left on the 8th, and the demonstrations of sorrow from that simple people, gathered out of the great moral wilderness, were of the most touching and over- whelming kind. This has ever since been an important and flourishing Station, from which many have gone to heaven, and some have removed to other parts. There are at this time two hundred and nine Church members, and thirty on trial ; one Minister ; two subordinate paid Agents ; two chapels, and three other preaching-places ; two day and Sabbath schools, one hundred and fifty-six day scholars. The population and members would have been much larger, but for the severe and terrible droughts which have visited the locality, and decimated the people. Cape Town. — As already stated, the Society in Cape Town consisted of a few soldiers, who in process of time were removed, and the work became extinct for a while. In 1819 the prospects again began to brighten, and Mr. Edwards commenced regular religious service ; of which Mr. Shaw writes : “ In the year 1819 I again waited on His Excellency the Governor, when the Colonial Secretary was likewise iiresent. Feeling assured from that interview that there would then be no hinderance to the commence- ment of a Mission in the metropolis, Mr. Edwards was im- mediately appointed to it. He hired a store to he used as a place of public worship ; and, by subscription, fitted it up with pews and pulpit. The congregation was composed both of civilians and soldiers, and a Class of sixteen mem- bers was then formed. Mr. Edwards on the Sabbath after- noon repaired to the place where the slaves wrere accus- tomed to dance, and by persuasive methods induced many of them to attend the services. The members of the Class, at my arrival, were all soldiers, with the exception of Mr. West, their Leader.” Thus this infant cause] assumed its first distinct form, and entered upon an aggressive course. The day was small, hut the day of “small things” was not to be “ despised.” As might be expected among zealous Methodists, the coloured and slave portion of the population soon attracted attention, and called forth separate effort in order to supply them with the means of religious instruction and 250 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. saving knowledge. Messrs. Broadbent and Hodgson having arrived, systematic efforts were commenced to obtain funds for the erection of a chapel for the separate use of the coloured races. The devoted and enthusiastic Tlirelfall, who was after- wards brutally murdered when on an exploring tour in the interior, arrived about this time, and gives the following account of what he witnessed: “I found the brethren and their wives in tolerable health. The chapel is nearly finished, and will be a convenient place for the slaves. The school for the slaves is pretty well attended, and the children are kept in good order. The Missionaries are indefatigable. They have either school or preaching to attend to every night except Saturdays. Adults as well as children attend ; their progress in reading is considerable ; they sing very well. The second evening I attended the children’s school I could not refrain from tears ; all appeared so interested and diligent.” The chapel being completed, its dedication to the solemn worship of God -was an occasion of gratitude and joy. The event is thus recorded: “On June 16th, 1822, the chapel was opened for religious worship by the Bev. Dr. Philip and others. Thirty pounds were collected at the services ; and though the building cost six hundred pounds, it was erected without any assistance from the Missionary Com- mittee. This w7as to me a day of gratitude and joy; for, on reviewing the past, I could recollect the time when we assembled for worship in a kind of hay -loft ; in order to come at which we had to pass the heels of the horses in the stable beneath, and ascend an awkward and dangerous ladder. To God be all the praise ! ” The Missionary afterwards gives expression to those feelings of sadness which often oppress the spirit, arising out of prevailing indifference on religious subjects among those around him ; and states that this is heavier to be borne than any of the physical and social trials to which he was exposed in his pioneer work. The following description of the school is unique : “ Our school consists of the greatest possible variety. Here are the aged, learning to spell with spectacles ; and babes, who can CHAP. I.] THE CAPE DISTRICT. 251 just waddle to the school. Here are children of Heathens, Mohammedans, and Christians ; children who are descend- ants of parents from all the four quarters of the globe ; faces of every colour, and countenances of every expres- sion ; some slaves, as ivhite as snoiv ; some free, as black as jet. Among all this variety, however, we have but one who is learning the English language.” The Eev. W. J. Shrewsbury, calling at the Cape on his way to Kaftraria, observes : “ June 4th. — Brother B. Shaw came from Khamies Berg to take the superintendence of Cape Town Circuit, and several Namacquas came down with him. It was very delightful to hear them singing the praises of God in family worship. The Gospel has evidently been a great blessing to that people. Before philosophers have time to decide the disputed question, whether or not a degraded heathen people can be bene- fitted by Missionary exertions, facts present themselves, and render further debate unnecessary ; and the Missionary exhibits the moral miracles wrought through his instru- mentality, by the accompanying power of God. He shows ‘his living epistles, known and read of all men.’ ” These quotations sufficiently illustrate the origin and nature of the good work begun at the Cape, which has been carried on, with varied success, from that time to the present. In 1828 Mr. Shaw visited England, where he was not only very cordially received, but his statements concerning Mission work did much towards creating and stimulating Missionary effort. Amongst other effects of this visit, large contributions were freely given towards the erection of a more commodious chapel in Cape Town. He returned to Africa in 1829, and at once took steps by which to carry out this laudable design. The chapel and Mission-house thus erected were opened and occupied in 1830. Of this event we have the following record in his “ Memorials : ” “ March 4th. — The opening of our chapel at Cape Town took place on the 13th of last month. Brother Iv., who was here at the time, on his way to England, preached in the morning, from Psalm lxxii. 16-18. Several respectable individuals were present on the occasion. In consequence 252 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. of the sickness of the Eev. A. Fame, one of the Ministers of the Reformed Church, I was constrained to preach in Dutch in the evening. Sermons were afterwards delivered by the Eev. Messrs. Yon Staveson, Adamson, Piers, and Beck. All the congregations appeared to feel interested. The chapel is neat and well built. The dwelling-house adjoining it is sufficiently large for the Mission family, and occasional visitors from the Interior or the East. How changed the scene ! When I arrived here in 1816, I could not obtain the sanction of Government to preach even in a private house. ‘ The Lord has done great things for us, whereof we are glad.’ Our thanks are due to several of the Cape residents, who gladly came forward to sign the deed of trust, and especially to some of the Dutch gentle- men who understood the nature of Cape building. We availed ourselves of their advice ; and, though our chapel stands on the ‘ Cape of Tempests,’ we doubt not but that it will remain when this and many other generations shall have passed away. May the Highest Himself establish our Zion, that it may be said of her, ‘ This and that man was born there ! ’ ” Methodism in Cape Town must from this time be regarded as having a “ local habitation and a name.” The change which had come over the scene since 1816 is fitly alluded to in the preceding quotation from Mr. Shaw ; and to his mind it must have been specially gratifying. Only those who have had to battle with first great difficulties can appreciate the success achieved after years of patient toil and persevering effort. Mr. Shaw “ rejoiced to see” this “ day : and he saw it, and was glad.” As men and means increased, the work was gradually but rapidly extended through the districts of the Cape and into Great Namacqualand and Damaraland, until, in 1850, the following was the list of Stations : Cape Town and Eondebosch : William Moister, Thomas L. Hodgson, Barnabas Shaw, Benjamin Eidsdale. Wynberg, Simon’s Town, &c. : Richard Haddy. Stellenbosch : Edward Edwards. Somerset (West) : Richard Ridgill. Khamiesberg (Little Namacqualand) : Joseph Jackson. OHAP. I.] THE CAPE DISTRICT. 253 Nisbet-Bath (Great Namacqualand) : John A. Bailie, Assistant Missionary. Concordiaville (Damaraland) : Matthew Godman. Elephant Fountain (Damaraland) : Joseph Tindall. Roodf. Yolk (Damaraland) : John Thomas, 2nd. William Moister, Chairman, &c. On these Stations there was in 1850 an aggregate number of accredited Church members of 1,539. To give a detailed account of the rise and extension of the work in each separate place is beyond what the limits of this history will allow ; but full information may be obtained by consulting the Rev. Barnabas Shaw’s “ Me- morials of South Africa,” and the Rev. William Moister’s “ Missionary Labours in Africa,” &c. In 1867, we find, there were eight Ministers and 1,323 members in this District, showing a decrease, as contrasted with 1850, of four Ministers and 216 Church members. This is the result of modern “ retrenchment ” on the part of the parent Wesleyan Missionary Society, arising out of the want of funds ; and is not the result of non-success in any instance.- The whole of Damaraland was first blotted from the Mission map of this District ; and more recently Great Namacqualand, including Nisbet Bath and Hoole’s Fountain, shared the same fate. Of this latter portion of the Mission field abandoned, some notice must be taken ; especially as it was first visited by Mr. Shaw soon after Khamiesbergin Little Namacqualand was commenced, has been the scene of considerable successes, and contains the honoured dust of the Rev. W. Cook and the Missionary Martyr Threlfall. A condensed statement of the history of this Station is contained in the following quotation from Mr. Moister’s book: “In the year 1832 a Missionary Meeting was held at Simon’s Town, at which Josiali Nisbet, Esq., of the Madras Civil Service, occupied the chair. At this meeting affecting reference was made to the three Missionary Martyrs of Namacqualand, and to the morally degraded and destitute condition of the inhabitants of the interior ; when the chairman generously offered to give the sum of £200 towards the commencement of a Wesleyan Mission at the Warm Bath among the Bundlezwarts, who 254 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. ["PART II. were so anxious to have a Teacher. At the same meeting a zealous young Missionary, the Rev. E. Cook, recently arrived from England, nobly offered himself for this ser- vice, and exclaimed, in the language of the Prophet, ‘ Here am I; send me.’ The spontaneous offers of the money and the man were both accepted, and in a short time Mr. and Mrs. Cook were wending their way to Great Namacqualand. This attempt to establish a Mission at the Warm Bath was successful, and the place received a new name in honour of the patron of the enterprise. From that day to this it has appeared on the list of Mission Stations as ‘ Nisbet Bath, Great Namacqualand.’ ” Had Mr. Moister been writing at this day, instead of that, he could not have used the language above quoted. Nisbet Batli, in Great Namacqualand, exists no more as a Wesleyan Mission Station. Nor is it like some other Sta- tions, which have merely changed localities, springing up, plioenix-like, in other places : on the contrary, the whole of that vast extent of country beyond the Orange River has now been abandoned by the Wesleyan Missionary Society. The Station has, indeed, been handed over to another Society, but amid the deep sorrow and bitter regret of those who had been gathered in by the Wesleyan Ministry, and who were properly their fruit in the Lord. It has been said that the population is sparse, and other Mission agency adequate ; but we cannot admit either of these reasons concerning a Station which has numbered from two hundred to four hundred members for many years past, and on which so much money, labour, and suffering have been expended. If this be the order and result of “retrenchment,” the Wesleyan Missionary Society will not only have some solemn questions to ask, but will need to be prepared to give a good and satisfactory reply. Methodism is needed for the Cape District and Namacqualand as much as for any other part of the world; and if from crippled finances it cannot be extended, it should at least be maintained in its integrity and entirety where it has already won its conquests and reaped its rewards. 1867 is the year in which Nisbet Bath ominously disappears from the Minutes of the Wes- leyan Conference. CHAP. I.] THE CArE DISTRICT. 255 , The chapel built and opened in 1830 was enlarged 'during the superintendency of the Eev. William Moister, and is now a large and commodious building. The writer called at the Cape on his way to the Eastern frontier in the early part of 1840, and preached in the chapel, which was still comparatively small. On his recent visit to England he spent a few days there, both on the homeward and on the return voyage, and preached on both occasions : the congregations were very good, and the services very hearty. The Kev. Samuel Hardey appeared to be the “right man in the right place;” and the effect of his ministry and general spirit evidently told well upon the congregation and the public in general. But he appeared to be oppressed in attempting to do the work which re- quires at least tivo men to do it as it ought to lie done ; for, in addition to the duties of Chairman and General Superintendent, he had to do the whole work of the English congregation and Society. It is a pity that such good men should wear themselves out before the time. Since then, however, a second Preacher has been appointed. The term “ Dutch,” as applied to the second Circuit in Cape Town, does not represent correctly the people in- cluded. According to this designation a stranger would suppose that it consisted of Dutch colonists of European descent ; instead of which, it does not apply to them at all, hut emphatically to the different races of coloured persons speaking the Dutch language. These embrace persons of all shades of colour, from the pale or yellow Hottentot and half-caste, down to the jet black Mozambique or late slave; as would be seen in the quotations given above from Mr. Shaw. The amount of good effected among these varied races is not to be tabulated in figures or told by human tongue; only “the day" can and will “declare it.” The Wesleyan ministerial agenc}r employed at the Cape is small compared with the work done and the results effected. But even these results would be larger if many Wesleyans who visit the Cape were more loyal to their Church. Comparatively, Methodism at the Cape has not taken the position of influence which some other Churches have ; and consequently many Wesleyans of respectability, when 256 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. visiting the Cape, have found it convenient not to know — or at any rate not to identify themselves with — their own Church. It is painful and humbling to record such a fact, but a faithful historian cannot pass it by unnoticed. There have, however, been many honourable exceptions ; and not unfrequently gentlemen from India and other countries, not connected with the Methodist body, have countenanced it by their presence and help. In bringing down the progress of Methodism in Cape Town to the present time, (1876,) we have to record that a change for the better has gradually come over it ; so that whilst the preceding remarks truly and fitly represent the discouragements and difficulties with which Methodism had to contend in days gone by, a fresh order of things must brighten the present page. A new and greatly improved chapel had long been needed, but the means were for some time wanting : these were, however, at length forthcoming, and at the same time an eligible site provi- dentially offered itself, and was secured for the much desired house of God. When the necessary arrangements had been made, the corner-stone was laid by the Governor, Sir Henry Barkley, on May 6th, 1875. The following is an account of the proceedings on that occasion. “ For a considerable time past the Wesleyan body in Cape Town have found their present church accommoda- tion too restricted, and accordingly steps have been taken to meet the deficiency ; and they are certainly to be con- gratulated on having obtained one of the most central, eligible, and commodious sites in the city, namely, in Greenmarket Square, just at the corner of Burg and Long- market Streets. This site was purchased shortly after the unfortunate fire which destroyed Mr. Landsberg’s mercan- tile premises ; and the erection of the new building, which has the advantage of possessing two admirable frontages, was entrusted to Mr. B. Godfrey. Thursday was the day fixed for laying the foundation-stone, and the occasion was well and appropriately chosen. In the first place it was Ascension Day, and consequently a holiday ; this affording many an opportunity of witnessing the auspicious and im- CHAP. I.] THE CAPE DISTRICT. 257 portant ceremony, who otherwise would have been debarred that pleasure. Moreover, as Parliament is sitting, many members of the Legislature were able to be present, not a few of whom, as is well known, are members of the Wes- leyan denomination ; and doubtless assisted, not alone with their presence, but with their contributions. The afternoon fortunately was fine, although the indications touching the weather at the commencement of the day were far from favourable, and almost induced the belief that the ceremony would have to be postponed, or at all events con- ducted with no small discomfort and inconvenience. Towards midday, however, the sun shone out brightly, and as the hour for laying the stone approached, Greenmarket Square presented quite a gay and animated appearance. The site of the new building was railed off, and admittance to the enclosure had to be gained by tickets ; but the whole square Avas crowded, and even the surrounding house-tops were quite packed Avitli sightseers. There was a good dis- play of bunting and evergreens, and at the principal entrance a sort of triumphal arch was erected, bearing the inscriptions in Avliite letters on a blue ground, ‘ To the honour and glory of God,’ and, £ God save the Queen.’ About four o’clock His Excellency the Governor dro\re up in an open carriage, and was conducted to the spot where the ceremony of the day was to be performed. We should, however, state that the proceedings commenced at half- past two, with an interesting address by the Eev. R. Ridgill, in the Wesleyan chapel, Burg Street ; the subject being the rise and progress of Wesleyan Methodism in South Africa, especially in Cape Town and its vicinity. The crowded audience listened attentively to the delivery of this address. “ At a quarter to four, the Ministers, office-bearers, and friends specially invited, accompanied by the Sunday schools, proceeded to the site of the new church, and took up the place assigned to them. The order of the proces- sion was as follows : 1. All the Ministers of the different Churches. 2. The Trustees of the new chapel. 3. The Office-bearers of the Church ; the Elders and Beacons, &c., of all other Churches were present. 4. The Ticket-holders s 258 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. joined the procession in proceeding to the ground. 5. The Choir also joined. A hymn was sung by the choir ; and after prayer offered by the Eev. Dr. Robertson, and the reading of a passage from the Holy Scriptures, a short address to the Governor was read by the Rev. H. Tindall, as follows : “ ‘ May it please your Excellency : The honour has been accorded to me of expressing to your Excellency the gratification which your presence on this auspicious occa- sion affords to the Ministers, office-bearers, and members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Cape Town and its vicinity. The congregations with which they are identified have, in many instances, been indebted to the honoured representatives of our gracious Sovereign the Queen for acts of kindness and consideration, of which they have endeavoured to prove themselves not unworthy, by their uniform loyalty and hearty allegiance ; but they have never been favoured with a more distinguished manifesta- tion of the appreciation in which they are held, as citizens and Christians, by those who rule over them, than that which the position your Excellency has consented this day to occupy confers upon them. The pleasure they feel is enhanced by the personal worth and administrative ability for which your Excellency is distinguished. The period during which your Excellency has presided over the affairs of this Colony has been remarkable for the large and important undertakings which have been commenced under your auspices. We sincerely trust your term of office may he prolonged to witness their completion. To those in whose name I now address your Excellency, the erection of this edifice will be an enterprise involving much anxiety and effort, and they will have, to some extent, to call in the sympathy and help of their fellow-citizens. Whilst keeping in view their own religious requirements, they are also endeavouring to raise a structure which shall be an orna- ment to the city, and in keeping with its expected progress. On behalf of the Trustees and Building Committee, to whose invitation you have so cordially acceded, I beg most sincerely to thank your Excellency. Those, as whose spokesman I now have the honour to address your Excellency, will ever ••CHAP. I.] THE CAPE DISTRICT. 259 pray that the blessing of Divine wisdom and strength may he granted to you while you sustain the honourable office of Governor and High Commissioner of this Colony, and that your whole future career may he crowned with dis- tinction and happiness, to be consummated hereafter by a place in the temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens/ “ His Excellency replied as follows : “ ‘ My part in the ceremony of to-day by no means entitles me to the kind eulogiums contained in the address which you have just presented to me on behalf of the Trustees and Building Committee of the new Wesleyan Methodist church. I felt gratified at the invitation given me to lay this foundation-stone, because, whilst of course aware that it was primarily addressed to me as the repre- sentative of Her Majesty, I yet knew that the members of the Wesleyan community would not have selected me for the performance of so solemn a duty, unless they were con- fident that I took a real interest in their pious undertaking. In my representative capacity they had almost a right to expect my services ; for, though in this Colony the State is unconnected with any religious body, it docs not follow that because it is undenominational, it should he irreligious. On the contrary it must ever he deeply concerned in all that conduces to the spread of morality and the repression of crime. In my private capacity, my cordial sympathy and good-will might well he counted on, although I do not belong to the Wesleyan communion, hut to the English Episcopal Church. Of that sympathy and good-will the Committee may rest assured. I have seen too many proofs of the zeal and devotion of Wesleyan Ministers, as well as of the success which has attended their labours among the heathen in this and other colonies, not to have learnt to respect them highly, and to desire to co-operate with them whenever I consistently can. Never perhaps since the grand cardinal event, which Christians of all denominations this day celebrate, has the Church which our Lord before His ascension founded stood, humanly speaking, more in need of union and harmony. Never was there a period during the eighteen centuries and upwards which have s 2 260 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [part ir- elapsed, when the very existence of Christianity seemed more seriously threatened by attacks from without, by dis- sensions within. Surely, therefore, Christians should as much as possible agree to sink minor differences of opinion, and unite on occasions like the present in endeavouring to resist the common foe. Every church built, every school chapel founded, serves as an outwork thrown up against infidelity and sin ; whatever the particular corps of Chris- tians is called, by which it is to be manned. Who cares, when his country is invaded, whether it he by the regular army or the volunteers that the enemy is held in check ? The soldiers of the one may boast the greater antiquity of his traditions ; its better organization and discipline : the others, their independent, less formal, yet more enthusiastic- spirit : but all march under the same banner ; ail serve the same Lord ; and all may humbly hope, when they have fought the good fight, to receive crowns of glory in the same heaven.’ “ The customary formalities then followed ; His Excel- lency using a very handsome silver trowel, specially pro- vided for the occasion ; and after some coins and papers of the day had been deposited, the foundation stone, a large block of granite, was slowly lowered into its place, and declared laid. A salver was then placed on the stone, in which donations appeared to he placed freely ; and after the singing of another hymn, and the pronouncing of the benediction, the proceedings terminated with ‘ God save the Queen.’ “ We may add that the design of the new church will be Gothic, and furnish accommodation for a thousand persons. A prominent feature of the edifice will he a tower and spire, rising one hundred and forty feet from the level of the pavement. This will not only serve as an ornament, hut furnish the means for the escape of hot air, thus ven- tilating the interior perfectly. The nave will be nearly sixty feet high to the underside of the ridging, and twenty- five feet wide in the clear. There will he an organ gallery in the chancel behind the pulpit, and at the opposite end of the church another gallery, extending across the nave and both aisles. Each gallery will have a handsome CHAP. I.] THE CAPE DISTRICT. 261 tracery front, 'with panelled ceilings. The arches at the sides of the nave are elegantly designed, and the roof of the nave itself will he of deal, open-timbered, stained, and varnished. The Avails will be finished inside in rough plaster, gauged Avith cement. The proposed entrances are three in number, tAvo in Long-market Street and one in Burg Street, and all the doors will be of oak. The AvindoAvs are to be glazed Avith cathedral glass, and the lighting furnished by gas Avreaths above the capitals of the nave, Avhicli proves very effective. The roof is to be of slate, finished Avith an ornamental ridge crest, and pierced with picturesque dormer ventilators. The Avails, of blue stone, with a granite plinth as high as the top level of the entrance steps. The foundations are carried down into the solid rock underlying the site, and the building surrounded by an ornamental iron railing. The inside dimensions are one hundred and four feet six inches by fifty-five feet. Altogether the neAv church will prove a striking feature in the city from an architectural point of view ; and we con- gratulate the Wesleyan community on the success that has hitherto attended their efforts, and the prospect of possessing so fine and commodious an edifice for the pur- poses of public worship. “ An enthusiastic meeting was held in the evening, and the subscriptions amounted to £200 ; making £826 sub- scribed during the day.” The whole of these proceedings are in the highest sense gratifying, whilst they reflect distinguished honour upon the parties concerned. Every true-hearted Christian must not only endorse the admirable address of the Governor, but rejoice in the expression of such truly noble, catholic, and Christian sentiments by one so high in office as the representative of Her Majesty the Queen of England. Various causes have contributed to prevent the speedy completion of the proposed beautiful ecclesiastical edifice ; so that the writer is not able to record the opening services which will take place not long hence, and be, no doubt, in accordance with the auspicious commencement. Then the venerable Chairman of the District, the Rev. Samuel 262 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. Hardey, with liis worthy coadjutors, may rejoice in the consummation of their desires and prayers. This, however, is not the only house of God in course of erection in the Cape District. One is being built at Stellenbosch , to seat about five hundred persons. Estimated cost, £2,000 : style of architecture, early English : about £1,200 in hand. The advances which have been made towards self-sup- port are also of a very gratifying character. Thus Cape Town (English) supports, without aid from the parent Society, three Ministers : Cape Town (Native), one Mission- ary. Khanriesberg (Lily Fountain) supports a married Missionary, and, in conjunction with Copper Mines, a second to some extent. So that, considering the various and numerous discouragements and difficulties with which the District has had to contend, it has developed a good degree of truly noble action and Christian effort. The annexed Tabular View will show the nature and extent of operations in the District. Education. — This chapter would not be complete without a brief account of educational movements. From the com- mencement of this Mission, those who laboured in it with tireless, self-denying zeal, directed special attention to education both in Sabbath and day schools. As already quoted, the schools contained old men and young children,— “ some slaves, as white as snow ; some free, as black as jet.” The school operations thus commenced amidst difficulty and opposition were continued and increased as years rolled on, and as the means of extending them were obtained; so that, from the first, this has been a power in the Cape Mis- sion. Its importance cannot be over-estimated. There is still much of ignorance and profligacy among the lower orders in Cape Town, notwithstanding the efforts of all the Christian denominations in the town ; but how much more aggravated and deplorable must this have been but for the extensive and hard-working agency of the energetic Wesleyans ! The nature and extent of these operations are thus set forth by Mr. Moister : “ But the most encouraging and hopeful department of our work was that which pertained CHAP. I.] THE CAPE DISTRICT, 263 EH O HH PH EH m i— i P P PH o H P o o e> p o p p <1 o *0 oo ts w HH > P3 <3 iH P m <1 EH Acuierents including, &c. 2100 900 475 400 600 1120 900 950 1400 8845 Scholars, deducting, &c. Total. 1300 230 182 58 93 390 376 407 200 3236 Girls. 646 125 102 33 50 204 181 260 123 1724 Boys. 654 105 80 25 43 186 195 77 PI IQ rH Day Scholars. 524 74 33 32 339 358 188 130 00 l— ZQ Day Schools. 1 CO rH rH rH PI CO PI PI IQ Sabbath Scholars. PIO*0C0 10C©tH»0O CO rH r— < r— < r— I i-H CM —1 CO O PI PI Sabbath Schools. o P4 On Trial. PJrHi— (PIUOPIOCSO iO O rH F—1 rH 202 Members. 220 191 42 42 41 221 200 150 193 o o CO l| S4? Loc. Prchs., &c. JOCOi-hPJi-hPICOCOO o PI & 8 A d i o m fcH O'. O c; PI PI O »0 t- O"} rH rH rH rH rH '-H CO Subord. Paid Agents. Day School Techs. 00 rH rH rH -P IO CO — I > P3 P P PQ - O O O X ^CCHWNW^HHWHrlb. JO -f © NOOOc0CH<05««^hO co »- — ONt-Np-CS^^OO^OOWO © CO Cl Ol •— I i-h i .-h 04 »— I -f 04 Ol 04 ^OWCCSCOKCOlffOO't'O © 1-0 co »o jo co cc co O 1 — ^ CO CO A C © -f © © — I f-H CO<— I © f— • co © I I L Day Schools. Sabbath Scholars. Snbbnth Schools. © cr. »o © © © Hhoowoi CO O 1-1 O O I— »o Ol I’M I— Ol < -f CO 1—1 CO Ol CO -t- f— f— Ol I— . On Trial. oi oi t — f k co h w w n h cj o co (NC5l>O(Na)(M0OOOO^O O iQ CD I— O C lO CC H '"+< CO ”f GO t~— CG> Ol Cl Cl CO Cl in rH rH — 04 04 I— -f 278 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II.. CHAPTER III. KAFFIR MISSIONS. For tlie information of persons not residing in South Africa it is needful to state that in the Colony, as distin- guished from Kaffirland, there are a large number of coloured persons of -different races: Kaffirs, Fingoe Kaffirs, Hottentots, late slaves, half castes, &c. Of these the Kaffirs and Fingoe Kaffirs largely predominate. Some ask, “What is the difference between Kaffirs and Fingoes?” The difference is that the Kaffirs proper belong to the dif- ferent tribes which occupy the country between the frontier of the Cape Colony and Natal, generally known as Kaffir- land proper. The Fingoe Kaffirs are the remnants of the tribes which formerly dwelt in what is now the Natal Colony, who were conquered and driven out by Utshaka and Udingaan, as is fully explained in my work on the Kaffir Races. The latter were under subjection to the former, and were treated with great severity, until the British troops conquered the Kaffirs, and brought the Fin- goes out of Kaffirland. The distinction is still rigidly kept up amongst them ; but by an ordinary European it cannot be well observed, as they are one in colour, one in language, and one in customs, with only slight shades of difference. Numerous coloured persons are employed in the Colony as domestic servants, male and female ; wagon-drivers and leaders, shepherds, &c. ; and now, on different native loca- tions, as P.eddie, Annshaw, and many others, thousands reside, making a total of a large population who are thus interspersed among the white population, and more or less mingling with them. This being the case, Mr. W. Shaw and his coadjutors, from the first, began Missionary opera- tions in the Colony ; the Preachers in the colonial towns generally having an important native congregation under their charge. The writer has many times preached four CHAP. III.] KAFFIR MISSIONS. 279 times on the Sabbath ; the services being conducted in the English, Dutch, and Kaffir languages. The great prin- ciple of Wesleyan Missions is, that “souls have no colour,” and that all souls belong to God ; that Christ died for all ; that He came to save all ; that all are invited to par- take of the rich provision of Gospel grace. Very many natives have come from the interior, have worked awhile in the Colony, have become converted, have returned to their friends in their former abode, and either begun a new Mission, or greatly strengthened the one already in existence. Having stated these facts, and made these explanations, the distant reader will be able to understand more clearly the relative position of the different classes of persons brought into notice. As before stated, Mr. Shaw was the Minister or Chaplain to the settlers, and commenced his ministerial operations amongst them in the Colony, taking at the same time every opportunity of preaching to the natives, as will have been seen in his very first visit to Graham’s Town. Had Mr. Shaw not possessed a true Missionary spirit and a very large grasp of soul, he would have been content to have confined his labours to the Colony ; saying truly that he had quite enough to do in his large rough parish without thinking anything of aught beyond : but it was not so. If John Wesley felt that “ the world” was his “parish,” William Shaw felt that Kaffir- land was certainly part of his, and it must be visited as soon as possible. Many hinderances and delays took place, but these did not divert his mind from its object, or retard the preparation for its execution. Dr. Vanderkemp was the pioneer Missionary to the Kaffir tribes along the boundary ; but, after a trial of eighteen months among the Ghikas, he was compelled to abandon the enterprise. The next to follow in this diffi- cult and trying undertaking was Mr. Williams, who com- menced his operations on the Ivat River, not many miles distant from where I now write. Mr. Shaw thus writes of him : “ The Rev. Mr. Williams, therefore, with the con- currence of the Chief Gaika, established himself, in June, 1816, on the Kat River, a short distance higher up that stream than where Fort Beaufort now stands. The spot 280 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. chosen was then near the colonial boundary, and in the district forming the western extremity of the Kaffir country. Here Mr. Williams, who was a Missionary of great devoted- ness and industry, soon succeeded in calling a number of Kaffirs, and a still larger number of Ghonaquas, a border tribe of Hottentots who had mingled with the Kaffirs during one or two generations, and many of whom consequently could speak the Kaffir language. Among this people the indefatigable Williams and his excellent wife laboured with ardent zeal, amidst various difficulties. Their efforts were not without success ; for they established a regular con- gregation, their people learned to observe the Sabbath, and a few embraced Christianity. The efforts of Mr. Williams were, however, too exhausting. He erected a dwelling- house and school-house, and made a dam across the Kat River, thereby turning its waters for the purpose of irri- gating the cultivated lands. These heavy labours were chiefly the work of his own hands. His health, however, failed; and he died on August 17th, 1818, having been a faithful witness for Christ among this clan of Kaffirs for the space of about two years and two months. His widow, left alone among the natives, made known her painful situation to the nearest friends ; and Mr. Hart, of Somer- set, most promptly and kindly proceeded to the Kat River, and removed Mrs. Williams into the Colony.” Such is the account given by Mr. Shaw of this Mission- ary and his wife, who first fairly sat down before this gigantic citadel of Kaffir heathendom. Only those who have some knowledge of the bold, defiant nature of the Kaffir character, of the intense pollution of Kaffir sensu- ality, of the enslaving power of Kaffir superstition, and the spell which Kaffir customs hold over the race, can form any conception of the arduous nature of this work. There was a moral and Christian heroism about Mr. Williams and his wife of the highest order ; they must have been animated and nerved by a faith in the power of the Gospel truly wonderful ; whilst their zeal and self-sacrifice were such as have been rarely witnessed. He quietly fell in the noble fight, having only just begun to reap the fruit of his toil. CHAP. III.] KAFFIR MISSIONS. 281 As I am not willing to make any statement in my his- torical records which is not fully sustained by fact, I yes- terday rode out to visit the tomb of the late Mr. Williams. Mr. Ainslie, a worthy Christian man, lives near the spot, and kindly accompanied me to the place ; otherwise I could not have found it, owing to the numerous mimosa and other trees which are growing around it. It is in a rich and beautiful valley, surrounded by grand mountain scenery ; the Kat River just emerging from a gorge be- tween two ranges of mountains into the open plain below ; about four miles from Fort Beaufort, on the road to ■Queen’s Town. A more favourable site for a Mission Sta- tion could not have been selected. The Gliika Kaffirs were numerous in this neighbourhood when Mr. Williams com- menced his labours among them. We found the tomb quietly standing in the midst of luxuriant vegetation, surrounded by a good wooden fence, in a state of excellent preservation. The site had been preserved by the brother of the late Rev. Mr. Brownlee, who had previously built a rough dais of stone. These, however, had gone to decay, when, two years ago, the London Missionary Society very properly sent out a good marble slab. Mr. Ainslie had the dais properly built of stone, and the slab placed upon it, with the following inscription : “ IN MEMORY OF the Reverend Joseph Williams, WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE ON THE 1?TH OF AUGUST, 1818, AC ED 38 YEARS. AN AGENT OF THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY, AND THE FIRST MISSIONARY WHO, WITH HIS FAMILY, RESIDED AMONG THE AMAXOSA TRIBES, AND PREACHED THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST TO THEM. ‘ BLESSED ARE THE DEAD WHICH DIE IN THE LORD FROM HENCEFORTH : YEA, SAITH THE SPIRIT, THAT THEY MAY REST FROM THEIR LABOURS ; AND THEIR WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM.’ ” The situation of the widow and her two children was the most painful that can possibly be conceived of. She was in the midst of heathen Kaffirs, not having an English person nearer than Somerset, a distance of sixty miles, and 282 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. liad to get a coffin made and her husband buried in the best way she could. Mr. Hart, of Somerset, lost no time in sending for her, and bringing her among friends. Some years afterwards she was married again, to the Eev. Mr. Robson, one of the London Missionary Society’s Mission- aries in Port Elizabeth. Thirty-five years ago I had the pleasure of spending an evening at the house of these de- voted Christian workers. Mr. Robson has been dead some time; but Mrs. Robson still lives, “in age and feebleness extreme,” quietly waiting for the call to enter into the joy of her Lord. Messrs Brownlee and Thompson were the next in order of time in the Kaffir Mission, of whom we learn from the “ Story of my Mission.” The Rev. J. Brownlee, who had been sent to South Africa by the London Missionary Society, accepted an appointment as the Government Mis- sionary in 1*20, and was joined by the Rev. W. R. Thomp- son, of the Church of Scotland, who arrived from Glasgow in November, 1821, being accompanied by Mr. Bennie, at that time a Catechist of the Glasgow Missionary Society, and subsequently ordained as one of its Missionaries. Mr. Brownlee selected the site of his Mission on a very suitable part of the Chumie River, and soon collected around him several families who had already been under the instruc- tion of the late Mr. Williams. Thus, while the workman was dead and buried, God carried on His work by other agents. The excellent character and zealous, although brief, labours of Mr. Williams had produced an effect on the minds of many of the Ghika Kaffirs, which doubtless induced them to receive with less suspicion and prejudice the Missionaries who now successively entered the country. Mr. Brownlee was one of the writer’s personal friends : he lived to a good old age, and died only a few years ago, having been permitted to celebrate the Jubilee of his Mis- sionary toils after fifty years of consecrated labour in the Mission field. The representatives of five Missionary Societies joined to do him honour on that happy event. I I saw him after he was confined to his bed, and only a short time before his departure ; and found him peaceful and happy, relying on the merits of Christ for salvation. Mr.. CHAP. III.] KAFFIR MISSIONS. 283 Thompson is yet alive, upwards of eighty years old, but still vigorous. He was a worshipper in our Fort Beaufort chapel last Sabbath evening, when I preached. On the Monday morning we had some pleasant conversation about old times. He remembered very distinctly the first time that Mr. Shaw went to see them at the Chumie, in 1823 ; and how they agreed that no differences of opinion, &c., should be brought before the heathen ; that they should preach the great truths of the Gospel, and let denominational distinc- tions lie in abeyance. The changes wrought since then have been so great as to be the subject of wonder, and, in many things, admiration and gratitude. These two worthies had braved the difficulties, the dangers, and the disasters of three terrible Kaffir wars ; but, true to their principles, true to their Church, true to their God, they remained at their post, and now reap their reward. The Rev. William Shaw did not enter Kaffirland until 1823. He took two preparatory journeys before removing his wife and family there, to take up their permanent abode. He had considerable difficulty with the Government in carrying out his views, arising out of the peculiar relations which existed between the colonists and the Kaffirs. Want of space does not admit of details being given, which can be obtained from his “ Story of my Mission.” When about to enter Kaffirland, Mr. Shaw was in a very perplexed and anxious state, on account of rumours of a Kaffir war on the one hand, and of the strong representations of his friends, dissuading him, on the other. In his perplexity he consulted his excellent wife, who gave the following noble reply: “You have long sought and prayed for this open- ing ; Divine Providence has now evidently set the door open before us ; expenses have been incurred in the purchase of outfit; you stand pledged to the Chiefs; and the character and conduct of the Kaffirs only show how much they need the Gospel. We shall be under Divine protection ; ” end- ing with these emphatic words, “ Let us go in the name of the Lord.” This wise and confident reply closed the matter, and every thing was done to enter upon and carry out the great enterprise. It is much to be regretted that a suitable memoir of this truly devoted woman has not' 1284 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. been prepared, and given to the colonists and to the world. On the 13th day of November, 1823, they left Graham’s Town; the party consisting of, (1.) Mr. Shaw and Mr. Shepstone, who rode on horseback. “ (2.) My wife and Mrs. Shepstone, with their respective children ; my wife’s youngest being a babe about six weeks old. These were all placed together in one wagon, and were most uncomfort- ably crowded. The other wagon contained many heavy articles, with spades, pickaxes, and implements of various kinds. (3.) In the second wagon three or four native women with children, being domestics, or wives of our two wagon- drivers and interpreter. The drivers were Hottentots, and the interpreter was a young Kaffir, who had married a Hottentot wife.” After some difficulties and disasters had been overcome, the start was made. Mr. Shaw remarks : “ To many who reside on. the frontier and in Kaffirland it will seem strange that what is at present regarded as an every-day occurrence, and a journey which excites no more apprehension among the colonists than a trip from London to Paris usually does in England, should have been regarded as so serious an undertaking. But at the period to which I am referring, (1823,) for Europeans to go with their wives and children among the Dhlambi tribes or coast country Kaf - firs, was considered to be an almost certain course to destruc- tion. The amazing difference which time and the changes produced by Missionary labour, commercial intercourse, and political events, now present in this respect, is only a part of the manifold evidence which is patent to all men, prov- ing the steady progress and improvement which have taken place in that country.” On the 19th of November they arrived safely at the Mis- sion Station of Messrs. Brownlee and Thompson, on the Chumie, and were received with great kindness and cor- diality. They had surmounted herculean difficulties ; but the God of Missions was their Protector and Defender, so that no evil had befallen them, and they were able to say, “ Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” After resting a short time, and partaking of the hospitality of their friends, they proceeded on their way. But, as an account of this part CHAP. III.] KAFFIR MISSIONS. 285 of their journey is given in the chapter on Kama and his Mission, it is not needful to present it here, nor to detail the progress of the Mission at Wesleyville. Mount Coke. — Wesleyville was only a stepping-stone or advanced post towards Mount Coke. This Station was placed among the Dhlambi tribe of Kaffirs, under Dhlambi and Dushane, as Wesleyville was under Pato, Ivobus, and Kama. Mr. Shaw took preparatory journeys among the Dhlambies and other tribes before commencing the Mount Coke Station. When he had made his arrangements, we read, “About the end of July, 1825, Mr. Tainton, a British settler from Albany, who had been engaged as an assistant to the Missionary at Mount Coke, arrived with his family at Wesleyville. Here they remained for some time, making preparatory arrangements ; and Mr. Tainton then pro- ceeded to Mount Coke, to erect a dwelling for Mr. K. and family, who, after a few weeks, removed from Graham’s Town, and commenced this Mission.” Here, as in other places, there was much to try and discourage, from the darkness and gross superstition of the heathen ; hut in process of time a small Society was formed, which became the nucleus of a gradually increasing work. The labours of the Rev. Samuel Young, who followed Mr. Iv., were especially useful, and his influence among the Chiefs of the most favourable kind. The veteran still lives, and his children are growing up to the third generation ; his grand- sons at the Diamond Fields serving the God of their father, whilst his daughter is a member of the Church n this Circuit. Mount Coke, like several other Kaffirland Stations, has gone through various vicissitudes, hut has not passed away like Wesleyville. At the close of the war of 1835 it was removed to another site a few miles distant on the Buffalo River, but was subsequently moved hack to its original site, where it has since remained. For many years the Mission press was kept at Mount Coke, and the late worthy Rev. W. J. Appleyard ably conducted the operations. In a very quiet way and with a very frail body he performed a vast amount of work. He was the man to give the first Bible to the Kaffir races in their own tongue. For many 28f, MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. years translations of different parts, made by different Missionaries, bad been in circulation ; but Mr. Appleyard had the labour and honour of first giving the entire Bible in the Kaffir language. He spent three or four years in England, carrying the whole through the press, either making new translations or correcting and altering old ones ; so that this Bible must stand as a glorious monu- ment to the zeal, "the labour, and the scholarship of this indefatigable labourer in the vineyard of our Lord Jesus Christ. Another edition is being prepared by the united and combined labours of the Missionaries of other Soci- eties in connexion with the Wesleyan ; but this forms the basis upon which the emendations are being made. Since Mr. Appleyard’s death the work has been carried on under the able management of the Rev. W. Holford. The press is now about to be removed to Graham’s Town. The spiritual work in this Circuit progressed only slowly, until a few years ago, when it began to put forth new life and vigour. A zealous Native Preacher was appointed to it, in addition to the English one, and subsequently another Native Minister ; the staff now consisting of one English and two Native Missionaries, in addition to Local Preachers and Class Leaders. The next Station formed was Butterworth, so named after the munificent benefactor of Wesleyan Missions, Joseph Butterworth, Esq., M.P. This Station was among the Amagcalekas, some distance beyond the Great Kei River. This was carrying out the design of William Shaw for a chain of Stations to Natal. The first link, to Mount Coke, was a short one ; but the second, to Hintsa, was a long one. The “ Story of my Mission ” says : “ The third Mis- sion established by us was with the great Chief Hintsa, called the Amagcaleka tribe. My first interview with this Chief, as already stated, was in April, 1825. On our arrival we had an opportunity of surveying the ‘ royal residence.’ It was situated amidst some singular rocks of trap stone, and commanded a view of a beautiful valley, ■comprising an extensive flat of rich alluvial soil, bounded by a meandering stream, called by the Kaffirs Gcuwa or chap, in.] KAFFIR MISSIONS. 287 Ghoowa, which, flowing in a roundabout course, gives the valley a circular form.” The late devoted Rev. W. J. Shrewsbury was the Mission- ary selected to commence this new Station. He arrived at Wesleyville on the 24th of November, 1826. Mr. Shaw and he left Wesleyville on the 4th of December for this purpose, calling at Mount Coke to take Mr. K. with them. After a journey in which no small difficulties and dangers were encountered and overcome, they arrived in safety at the site of the new Mission. “ After our arrival at Hintsa’ s residence, we had another conference with him. While •the Chief did not express in any decisive terms his consent, yet he made no serious objection to the actual com- mencement of the Mission. Mr. Shrewsbury therefore resolved to remain ; and I left him and Mrs. Shrewsbury on the site they had chosen, and returned to my family at Wesleyville. Thus was the Butterworth Station established, and shortly afterwards Mr. Shepstone removed from Wes- leyville to assist Mr. Shrewsbury in the arduous work of commencing the Mission. Hintsa did not, however, for- mally recognise the Missionaries till some months after- wards, when, on August the 9tli, 1827, with great Kaffir ceremony, he sent to the Station one of his brothers and a company of councillors, mostly old men, (councillors of Kauta, his father,) with the following remarkable message : ‘ Hintsa sends to you these men, that you may know them: they are now your friends ; for to-day Hintsa adopts you into the same family, and makes the Mission the head of that house.”’ This Station probably more than any other has suffered from the terrible ravages of the war. Thrice it has been destroyed, and thrice has it risen again from its ashes, and now rears its head as one of the most remark- able trophies of Missionary success. Some seven hundred persons, either actual members of the Church or candi- dates for membership, together with a host of workers, — as Class Leaders, Local Preachers, Day and Sabbath School Teachers, &c., — attest the magnitude of the work. It was from this Station that the Fingoes were first eman- cipated from Kaffir bondage, in the war of 1835, by the Br itish troops, under the care of the late Rev. John Ayliff ; 288 . MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. and at a later period, under the care of the late Rev. F. P- Gladwin, a large number more made their escape. But now they are the occupants of the place from which they before fled for refuge into the Colony. Such are the changes which transpire in the order of Divine Provi- dence, that the Kaffirs, their former task-masters, are now ejected; and of this Station, with the Tsomo Station and the Stations of Fingoeland, we may truly say, God has made those “ a people who were not a people, and called those beloved who were not beloved.” The fourth Ivaffirland Mission formed was Morley. The details of the difficulties in finding a road for wagons over the TTmtata River, and of settling the dispute as to the site of the Mission among three contending chiefs, are graphi- cally given by Mr. Shaw, in his “ Story.” It was at the District Meeting of 1829 that Mr. Shepstone was appointed to commence this fourth Mission. Mr. and Mrs Shep- stone were accompanied on this difficult enterprise by Mr. Robinson and his wife. Mr. Robinson was a young settler from Salem, of much piety and promise, and soon after his arrival was killed by the fall of a large tree which he wTas engaged in cutting down for the pupose of obtaining a supply of timber required in the erection of the Mission buildings. This was a mysterious and painful providence, but was permitted by that Being who cannot err, and who t does not give account of His matters to any one. Mr. Shaw and Mr. Shrewsbury accompanied Mr. Shepstone, and assisted in making the arrangements and settling the questions in dispute. When this was done, writes Mr. Shaw, “the Mission was commenced with the Chief descended from the white woman. At my request it had been already decided by the District Meeting that when this new Station was commenced it should be named ‘Morley,’ in honour of my venerated friend, and the persevering patron of our Mis- sion in South Eastern Africa, the Rev. George Morley, who was at this period one of the Secretaries of our Missionary Society, and under whose auspices, as Superintendent of the Leeds Circuit, the first regular Missionary Society in the Methodist Connexion was organized.” This Station, like many others, passed through many changes ; some- times adverse and sometimes encouraging. It attained a CHAP. III.] KAFFIR MISSIONS. 289 high degree of order and prosperity during the years in which the late Mr. S. Palmer conducted the operations. At a later period the courageous Rev. J. S. Thomas was killed here, while seeking to quell a tumult among the people, when the Mission village was attacked at night by con- tending foes. After remaining many years as a separate Station, it has at length been incorporated in the Clarke- bury Station. Clarkebury. — Thejifth Mission established by our Society in Kaffraria was in the country of the Abatembu, under the Great Chief Yossanie, or, as he was often called by his people, Ngubincuka, “Wolf’s Cloak.” The Mission" was commenced in April, 1830. Mr. Haddy was the first Mis- sionary appointed to this Station ; of whose introduction Mr. Shaw says, he was “accompanied by Messrs. Shepstone, Boyce, and Haddy, and introduced the latter to him [Yos- sanie] as his future Missionary. The Chief faithfully kept his word, and received Mr. Haddy with evident satisfaction, giving him leave to search the country, and find a place which would suit as the site for the proposed Mission. Mr • Haddy accordingly selected the spot on which was founded the Station called Clarkebury, in honour of Hr. Adam Clarke, the celebrated commentator, and the warm friend and ad- vocate of Methodist Missions.” Clarkebury has continued : until this day as an important Station among the Abatembu tribe. Clarkebury has also passed through various vicissi- tudes of prosperity and adversity; but it has now, under the long, careful, and successful labour of the Bev. P. Har- greaves, attained a high degree of prosperity. It numbers some six hundred members of Society, besides a large working staff. Some years ago a large chapel was built and paid for by the people ; and last year one at the Cweclueni, which cost .£350, an amount which was also raised by the people. In addition to these the last Report says, “ At Clarkebury a boys’ boarding school is in course of erection. The building will cost £1,200, and accommo- date fifty boarders. The people have raised £700 towards the building fund. The Government will aid in supporting the school. The Rev. J. E. Parsonson will take charge of the educational department of the institution.” The design •290 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. is that this school should be a preparatory school to the Iieald Town Training Institution, so that youths instructed here may be able to avail themselves of the higher advan- tages of Heald Town in preparing to become Teachers or Preachers. Buntingville was the name given to the sixth Mission establishment in Kaffirland. This name was given in hon- our of the late Dr. Bunting, who for so many years occupied a prominent position in the Wesleyan Church, and aided so largely in consolidating and carrying out the Mission work. This Mission was established shortly after Clarke- bury, and was placed among the Amapondo nation, under the great Chief Faku. The Rev. W. B. Boyce was the Mis- sionary appointed to commence this Mission ; of which Mr. Shaw says : “ From a variety of causes Mr. Boyce was pre- vented from reaching the country of Faku till November 22nd, 1830, on which day, in company with Mr. Tainton, he arrived and commenced the Mission.” Buntingville has re- mained a Station from that time to the present. It has not, like some others, been destroyed by war ; neither has it on the other hand been favoured with that amount of prosperity which some others have. Local circumstances have not always been favourable ; and then, being so far from the Colony, it has not been fed with the stream of persons converted in the Colony returning to it, and so strengthening it, as has been the case on many other Sta- tions. Some time ago it was resolved to give it up, or at least to take away the European Missionary, which would in all probability have led to its being abandoned. But on a recent visit of the Rev. W. J. Davis to the Station lie writes : “In the morning I conducted Divine worship in the chapel. The congregation was large. Among the wor- shippers were the two sons of Damas, the chief of the tribe, who had been deputed by their father to meet me on the Station. During the day there was a large gathering of the people of the tribe, and also of the people of the Station. It had been arranged at our District Meeting that their Missionary, Mr. Warner, should remove from Buntingville, and go and commence a new Mission further in the in- terior of the country. To this the chiefs and people strenu- CHAP. III.] KAFFIR MISSIONS. 291 on sly objected, and after a long discussion it was arranged that he should remain at Buntingville.” We hope this may be the beginning of a brighter day for Buntingville, and that it may yet rise up to be a prosperous Station. It certainly is very undesirable that after so much labour and money have been expended upon it, it should cease to exist. Palmerton, — so named to perpetuate the memory of the Rev. Samuel Palmer, who was a very devoted and useful Missionary in this part of the Mission field for many years, being also Deputy Chairman of the Eastern Section of the Albany and Ivaffraria District for some time. Pie was cut off suddenly in the midst of his days and labours by the anxieties and fatigues connected with the rescue of his brethren from danger during one of the wars which raged and threatened his destruction. The formation of the Palmerton Station was owing to the removal of Baku from Buntingville to another part of his country on the eastern ■side of the Umzimkulu. The Rev. Thomas Jenkins, who had been some time at Buntingville, was appointed to com- mence this Station, and for a while it greatly prospered under his indefatigable labours. He laboured not only for the spiritual welfare of the people, but also for their eleva- tion in a temporal point of view : the Station became em- phatically an oasis in the desert. He was also of unspeak- able value to Faku and the Amapondos, as a wise and faithful adviser in their intercourse with the British Government. Faku was sometimes greatly tried by some grave mistakes on the part of certain Government officials ; but by the advice and influence of his faithful Teacher he was preserved from all acts which might have brought him into collision with the British Government. Emfundisweni. — This Station arose out of the removal of the Chief Faku again, and was placed about thirty miles upwards from Palmerton. The Missionary, Mr. Jenkins, removed with him and began the new Station. A number of the members went with Mr. Jenkins ; which greatly weakened Palmerton, and it has never fully recovered : so that there are now three Stations, — Buntingville, Palm- erton, and Emfundisweni, — all of which are in a com- 292 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II, paratively weak state. This is greatly to be regretted : it may be hoped that God will pour out the Holy Spirit upon them, so that the weak may be made strong and the small great. These Stations are in the very heart of Kaffirland,. being on the border of the Natal Colony, to which district Palmerton and Emfundisweni now belong. The veteran Missionary Thomas Jenkins remained at his post until death removed him from his earthly toils and triumphs to the heavenly rest. His widow still survives, and continues to watch over the work so well begun by her late husband ; remaining at Emfundisweni, and assisting both Missionary and people by her counsels, prayers, and example. Shawbury. — This Station partially arose out of Bunting- ville. Of this Mr. Shaw writes: “Two important Mis- sions have grown out of that established at Buntingville. One lies about seventy miles to the northward on the Tsitsa River, a noble stream and tributary of the Umzimvubu. This Mission was established among the people of Ncapaye, called Amabaca, who once occupied a country now included in the Natal Colony, but who had been driven out of it by the Amazulu. They proved at first very fierce and destruc- tive neighbours to Yossanie and Faku ; but after a great deal of marauding and fighting, carried on for many years, the Missionaries at Mori ey and Buntingville opened a com- munication with Ncapaye, that led to the establishment of a Mission, under circumstances of considerable privation and difficulty, by the Rev. W. H. Garner. The Mission- aries named it ‘ Shawbury.’ Various circumstances have combined, under the blessing of God, to render this Station one of the most populous and important in Kaffraria.” Mr. Garner was a genial man; and at a later period, when he was in more favourable circumstances, he told the writer with considerable zest that one night they were greatly alarmed by a lion prowling about the house and making a terrible roar, after which it advanced so near as to put its head over the top of their frail door and give a roar inside which was truly terrific. The inmates had then to hide away in the most secure places they could find, and there remain until this ferocious beast took his depar- ture, which he afterwards did without seizing an)’ of the M&m >(is V **¥$£& w, s* -AJLa-Biviere .T.ifho, ChfOon. S^,l allowed. The people asked Aser, ‘ What do you want ? ’ He said that he wished to see their Chief, to ask permis- sion to teach them. They said, he must give the Chief a present, if he wished to see him. He took off the coat which was given him by his Missionary, and sent that to the Chief. He was received, and remained for two or three days talking with the Chief. When asked what he wished to do, Aser said that he had come to tell the people that the Son of God had come to save sinners ; and he preached the Gospel. The Chief talked over the truths of the Gospel again and again. He seemed astonished and was much in thought. He said that there was a tradition in their tribe that the son of one of their great Chiefs had been killed by his own people ; that he would rise again, and the people were to wait for him. When Aser heard this, he told again how the Lord Jesus died, and rose again ; and said that Christians are waiting for His coming. The Chief said, ‘ If your teaching agrees with our tradi- tion, we will receive your Teachers.’ He then told Aser that he would have a meeting with his people, and meanwhile that he might go on to the next Chief On his way he met a party of Knobnosen returning from buying cattle. They recognised him and gave him food. He had slept in the village to which the boy belonged the previous night, and his inquiry whether the boy had re- turned led to the father having accused him of killing his son. The Baniai followed him just after the Knobnosen had gone on. Aser and the guide had guns, and the Baniai, being unarmed, were afraid to seize them. Their shouts made the Knobnosen, who were thirty men armed with guns, turn back. They asked what was the matter. The Chief of the Baniai told his story. They asked Aser, who said the boy had run away. The Knobnosen then said, ‘ That man is our Missionary ; he has taught us God’s word. He could not do such a thing as kill your son.’ They then told Aser and the guide to go on while they kept the Baniai back. Thus peace was made. You can see how God watched over His servant. He went to another great Baniai Chief, who received him gladly, and showed him a place where he was to build his house. 380 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. He wished to send a man back with him to Basutoland to see if the white Teachers really existed, and whether they would send Teachers to his people. Aser said, ‘ You need not. I have given you my word. You will see that in two years I will return, please God, with more Teachers.’ “Aser wished to go further, but the guide now became sick ; and having obtained the permission of two Baniai Chiefs to open a Mission in their tribe, he thought it was the Lord’s will he should return to the Church in Basu- toland. He was able to write, and had kept a journal; so that in case of his death on the road we might know that the door to the Baniai was open. As he returned through the different tribes, he felt sad. He told the Basuto Churches, ‘ I wished I could have cut off an arm, and made it a Missionary in this place ; and the other arm, and made it a Preacher in that place ; ’ and so on his legs, and his body ; and then there would not he enough Preachers. He spoke the truth. His heart is full of zeal for Christ. He said, if he could have sent his report by any safe hands, he would have remained. He went first to the place where he had left Jonathan. Pie was still sick. Aser sold a gun for cattle, and, in spite of .Jonathan’s request to be allowed to remain, put him on an ox, and took him back to Mr. Hofmeyer’s house. This ox he brought back to Basutoland as a memorial of the Lord’s mercy to Jonathan and himself. He visited Eliakim, whom he left preaching the Gospel near Zoutspanberg. Two Missionaries of the Swiss Church and three Basuto Evangelists have since then gone to the tribe. “When Aser returned to us, he visited the Churches in Basutoland, telling them it was their duty to send the Gospel to the Baniai, and the other tribes that have not heard it. At the meeting of the Synod at Moriga, when all the Missionaries and seventy delegates from the Basuto Churches were assembled, it was put before them whether they would undertake the work. After some conversation an old Christian rose, saying, ‘ It is no use talking, let us act ; ’ and, walking up to the table, put down some money. The people who were in the church immediately rose, ran CHAP. VII.] THE BECHUANA OR BLOEM FONTEIN DISTRICT. 381 to their homes to get money, and that day nearly £‘40 was given. It was decided to appeal to the Churches for funds. The Basuto Churches are not wealthy ; and they support their Native Teachers except four or five. Nevertheless £260 was given to buy a wagon, Scotch cart, clothes, tools, Ac. ; and the oxen needed were also given before we left for the Conference at King William’s Town. A lady in France sent £40. You see how good the Lord is. We did not know where we could get money enough to com- mence the Mission. Friends in King William’s Town asked us to tell them about it, and they gave us more than £100. Last Lord’s day Major Malan spoke of this Mission to the Gaika Church at Peelton, and they sent us £5 by him. “ But, dear friends, in this work, men are more im- portant than money. We had to ask our Evangelists and Teachers, who would go ? Many offered. Only four, how- ever, had wives who consented to go with their husbands. We wondered very much at this ; for the women are gener- ally more willing for the Lord than men. One of our best men, who had long wished to go to other tribes, told liis wife that she had robbed him of his duty, and that God would not bless them for keeping back from this work. I will give you the names of the four who are going, that you may remember them and their wives in prayer : Aser, Onesima, Andreas, Asael. “I must tell you of the conversion of Aser’s wife. When he left Basutoland with us, he sent a message to the Churches, that as he had given his heart to work for the Lord in the north, they were to pray for his wife’s conver- sion. The Lord has heard prayer on her behalf, and she is willingly going with her husband to work for him. We trust that the Evangelists will start in March. We are to have a meeting of our Synod at Leribe, M. Coillard’s Sta- tion, in that month, when they are to be commended to the grace of the Lord, and take farewell of us. We thank God, who has put this thing into the heart of the Basuto Churches. They have much home work. They support nearly sixty Evangelists. Josefa, who is here, is one of them. He has a Station of eight}'- members and forty in- 382 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. quirers. We have many like him. All are supported by the Churches except four or five. You see they have a great work in their own country. But they feel that unless they work, Central Africa will never hear the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. “ I must nowr cease. I have tried to tell you what we are doing. I hope that henceforth you will make this your work, and remember the men in your prayers. Let me add that our joy was very great when we heard of the con- version of the first Knobnosen woman through the preach- ing of Aser and Eliakim. We said, ‘ The Lord has shown His will, that all the Native Christians who wish to see the Gospel of Christ spread should give themselves to the work.’ The first thing this woman did was to give some- thing. She brought a hoe to Eliakim, saying, ‘ This is all I have, but I give it to the Lord/ Who knows how many men and wromen of those tribes will be believers ten years hence ? The work of God begins by little things. Let us all pray that the kingdom of God may spread everywhere, and especially in Central Africa.” (“The Christian Express,” January 1st, 1876.) This unadorned detail of Missionary exploration, pur- poses, and facts, is full of thrilling interest. It is the narration of a multitude of facts ; these efforts and results being the outcome of strong Christian principle, developed in deep yearning for the souls of the perishing heathen, those who are their brethren according to the flesh. Aser must be a man of deep piety, of burning zeal, and indomi- table perseverance ; his intense love for souls bearing him through all. Who ever read or heard of a man who wished one arm could be cut off, if it could make a Missionary ? and then the other : and so with his legs and body. But he did more than this : those arms and legs and that body, inhabited and influenced by an intelligent spirit burning with the love of God, shall send more messengers of the cross to the heathen than his mutilated body could do. Then again, after nursing his sick companion Jonathan for six weeks, and finding after that time that he is unable to accompany him, he leaves him in the hands of a careful woman and goes on alone. Then, when he finds his wife CHAP. VII.] THE BECHUANA OR, BLOEM FONTEIN DISTRICT. 383 is not converted and cannot go witli him, he commits her to the prayers of the Churches whilst he goes alone. God answers prayer, eo that his wife is saved, and is willing to go with him in the month of March when they are to start. Further, we meet with the conversion of the first Knobnosen woman, who, when she had nothing else to offer to the Lord, brings her “pick” as the first offering- on the shrine of a Saviour’s dying love ; she being in all probability the first Knobnosen sheaf to be offered before the Lord in token and pledge that the harvest is to be reaped, and that soon. The perseverance of Aser -is crowned with success. He reaches the Baniai natives, sees the Chiefs, explains his errand ; his application is approved, he returns to carry out and complete his pur- pose, and in March Aser, Onesima, Andreas, and Asael, with their wives, are to bid farewell to their friends and take up this distant Mission. Mr. Mabile’s account of the self-support of the Native Churches in Basutoland is proof of the genuineness of the Christian work among these people ; but this resolve and effort to have their own Mission, finding their own men, and providing their own means, is the crowning work of true Christian zeal developed in sacrifice for the cause of Christ and the salvation of the perishing heathen, who are their “ brethren according to the flesh.” Thus the swelling .tide of Gospel truth and saving power is rolling up towards the centre of Africa from the circumference, until by and bye the loud song shall be echoed from the centre to the .circumference, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” The information thus supplied is, however, not only interesting in a Missionary point of view, but is also of in- trinsic value to the historian, as only little was known of the part of the country thus explored. The labours and explorations of Moffat and Livingstone lay more to the westward, and the early journey of Livingstone to the in- terior was by way of Kuruman, Kolobeng, and Linyunti ; whilst the country Makalaka to the eastward was compara- tively unknown. On the eastward Zululand, Delagoa Bay, ,and Hambane, with the northern extending coast, were 384 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. also known. This middlf. line, then, which reaches far towards the country up which the Scotch Mission to Lake Nyasa has passed, is now brought before our notice as full of people. Thus Mr. Mabile says of the Maacas, “ They live in villages of eight or ten thousand people ; ” at another village further on there were ten thousand ; and the people of Sekukuni are estimated at a hundred and fifty thousand, being many more than the whole of the Basutos ; whilst the “ Batlokua, Baremapulani, Mot- yatye's, (a woman,) number about two hundred thousand, who have never heard the name of Christ.” This is apart from the numerous tribes which Aser passed on both sides of the Limpopo, and the still more distant one of the Baniai. The whole of these facts prove that however great may have been the number of human beings slaughtered in internal wars, or to obtain victims for the slave market, hundreds of thousands of people still dwell in the land ; and as they are assembled in large villages or towns, they loudly call for the cheering light of Gospel truth, and Hie healing virtue of that Saviour who “ would have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” After this long digression I must return to the part of the Wesleyan Mission from which 1 broke off. It appeared to me that a brief account of the manner in which the country north of the Orange Biver was taken, peopled, and formed into separate permanent states, would he satisfac- tory to all who might desire information on these points ; as also of the manner in which the London Missionary Society had occupied the country to the westward of the Free State and Transvaal Republics, with the exception of Moshuang ; and how the French Missionaries had occu- pied the eastern part of those states ; whilst the Wesleyans had taken a more middle sphere of country in the two states. This knowledge would enable the reader to form a correct view of the whole as one vast Mission field. The religious agencies engaged in these parts connected with the Butch Reformed Church, the Episcopalians, and the Roman Catholics, have not been considered The three Missionary Societies of which a brief account is given, are those which have been labouring in these regions for many years ; the others are of more recent date. CHAP. VII.] THE BECHUANA OR BLOEM FONTEIN DISTRICT. 385 The Rev. William Shaw’s history of these Missions brought us down to the year 1853 ; and, as before stated, I arrived in Colesberg early in 1840, seven years later. Colesberg was then a town in process of formation, near the Orange River, and the last English town of South Africa in a northerly direction. Many Dutch lived beyond the river, but they had to come to this place to purchase their supplies and obtain any legal, magisterial, or medical aid which they required. Many of them, also, came from a great distance to attend the Nachtmaal (Lord’s Supper) ; and by these means, in addition to the visits of Mission- aries, sportsmen, and travellers, constant communication was kept up. It was during my two years’ residence in Colesberg that the Wesleyan chapel there, still in use, was erected. In 1841, I took a journey up to Basutoland, visiting the Stations that had been formed at Thaba ’Ncliu and Plaat- berg. This was a memorable journey ; travelling in those days, thirty-five years ago, being widely different from the present. A friend accompanied me in this journey : we had a cart and four horses, with a half-caste man as driver. The first day was long, the road rough, and travelling difficult. We crossed the Orange River at All- man's Drift, which was broad and fordable ; and in the evening arrived at the homestead of a Dutchman. We sought permission to stay the night, which was granted, some little refreshment being given. We were then directed to sleep in a wagon, which had nothing more than the bare breetplimk, i.e., the bottom of the wagon made of thick planks, between which there were large openings, as also in the sail or tent covering above ; through all of which the wind rushed in considerable force, so that sleep was out of the question. The hard planks made our bones sore, and the cold wind pierced our bodies, so that we were glad when the morning light dawned. We made an early start, and drove over rough paths, — roads they could scarcely be called, — and in the evening came to another Dutchman’s place, where we found a little better accom- modation than the night before, as there was some thatch in the wagon in which we were put to sleep. This was a c c 386 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. little softer tlian the bare planks, and it served also to break the force of the wind. Early on the third day we arrived at Bethany, which was a German Mission Station among the Korannas. We were very kindly received and hospitably entertained. The Bev. Mr. Wurass was the chief Missionary, being assisted by another. The younger Missionary and his wife vacated their bed, so that wTe might occupy it. This happened to be a feather bed, and was so soft that we seemed as if we could not find the bottom of it. After the hard planks of the two preceding nights this was indeed a bed of down, on which we could scarcely sleep because it was so soft. We remained at Bethany one day, and started early the next morning. In the course of the day we encountered a terrific storm, ■which threatened to blow over the cart. It was a storm of wind so violent that the dust was one vast dense cloud. As soon as we entered it, the wind took away the driver’s hat, any attempt to recover which must have been fruit- less ; so he had to tie a handkerchief round his head until he could get another. In the evening we arrived at another Dutchman’s house on the Modder River, lower down than the present site of Bloem Fontein. We had a young friend living here ; and the family being friendly, we had the best fare they could give. We rose early in the morning, when we found the good vroinv, “housewife,” seated by the side of the “ coffee kettle ; ” and she quickly supplied us with a cup in homely style. But what asto- nished us a little was that the house was full of young- ducks, which were waddling in all directions, so that it was difficult to place a foot on the ground without crush- ing these busy little creatures. This advent of the ducks was amusing, but another episode partook of a graver character. At Bethany I purchased an additional horse to assist us on the journey ; but here a gentleman put in his claim for the horse, saying it was his, and he required it. This produced a little awkwardness, not to say un- pleasantness, as I knew not how to proceed without it. However, when I placed before him my difficulties, he con- sented to allow us to take the horse on the journey, and I agreed to leave him on our return, which I accordingly 'CHAP. VII.] THE BECIIUAXA OH BLOEM FONTEIN DISTRICT. 887 did. He had faith in my integrity, and I took care not to violate his trust. Fortunately I had not paid for the horse when I proceeded on my journey ; so that on my return I had to tell the parties from whom I bought him that vio- lent hands had been laid on the horse, and I must leave them to fight out the battle : of which I heard nothing more. On the evening of this day we arrived at Thaba ’Nchu, and were glad enough to take up our quarters with our brother Giddy ; where we remained over the Sabbath. By this time matters had become serious with my companion, as his life was in some danger from an attack of quinsy brought on by the first night’s exposure in the hare wagon. We both took severe colds that night, and were poorly enough ; but this attack brought him into danger, as he had not been able to take any solid food for some days. Fortunately the gathering broke externally, and he was relieved : had it broken internally, the consequence might have been serious, if not fatal. It has been before stated that the people of this place, Barolongs, had been brought hither by the Missionaries, when they found they could not settle quietly on the Yaal River. The number was estimated at ten thousand, with Moroko as the Chief, who was subject slightly to Moshesh ; Moshesh saying that “ he lent him this cow to milk.” The houses of these Bechuanas or Barolongs were by far the best native buildings I had seen, having raised plastered walls about four or five feet high ; and the roof being brought down two feet over the wall outside, so as to per- form the part of a verandah ; having also a good reed en- closure outside to serve as a kitchen. They were not at all like the bold naked Kaffirs I had been accustomed to see. These people were the tanners and tailors of the country. They obtained the skins and hides of wild animals, of which there were many in the country at that time. These they “ brayed,” or made soft, by greasing, heating, and rubbing; after which they sewed them into karosses or large skin blankets. These they either sold or bartered for food. The Basutoes were the great corn-growers of the country, and frequently the Bechuana tailors bartered karosses with the 2 c 2 383 MISSION'S IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART 11^ Basuto corn -growers for food ; and thus this large number of people were able to live together, not being dependent upon gardening for food. The congregations at the chapel on the Sabbath were large, and afforded much promise in the future, which has been fully realized, there being more than seven hundred Church members at the present time. On Monday we proceeded onward to Plaatberg, which was the Station of Newlanders, Bastards or half-castes, and Basutoes, as before stated in Mr. Shaw’s narrative. Half of the people were of this class, and the other half were Basutoes. It was a beautiful Station in a lovely locality. When I saw it, I could well understand how the Basutoes were the corn-growers of the country, as some way up the mountain side it appeared as though a small fountain of water gushed out, and gradually spread itself towards the base of the mountain, watering the ground and making it productive. At this time the corn was growing, and all the lower parts of the mountains, waving with the green or golden grain, had a very charming appearance. The late excellent -James Cameron was “deputy Chairman” of the Bechuana District Meeting at that time. We held the Dis- trict Meeting, some six Missionaries being present, with Mr. Cameron as Chairman. The meeting lasted only a fewr days, was very harmonious, and terminated in a happy manner. Subsequently war prevailed in the land; this Station was lost, and is now part of the Free State. On Saturday we proceeded onwards to one of the French Mis- sion Stations, of which the Bev. Mr. Roland was the Mis- sionary. Here we remained over the Sabbath, and partook of the Lord’s Supper with this devoted Missionary and his excellent wife and the little Church they had gathered from among the heathen. It was a delightful Sabbath: I greatty enjoyed the services of that day. This Station, Mequat- long, was also a beautiful one, situated at the head of a fruitful valley. Cultivation and labour had made the whole all that could be desired in this lovely spot. This Station, however, as well as two more, was taken by the Dutch Boers in their war with the Basutoes, and no compensation was made for them. ■ CIIAP. VII.] THE BECHUANA OK BLOEM FONTEIN DJSTRICT. 389 On Monday we turned our faces homeward, returning to Tliaba ’Nchu by a different route to the one we bad taken in going. The day was intensely hot : about midday we came to a native kraal, and asked for a little water, but • could not obtain any. The woman gave us a little “ Kaffir beer,” but this luxury was so nauseous to us that we could not do more than taste it, so as to remove our thirst a little. There was no tree or shelter for us ; so we crept under the sticks of the cattle fold for a little protection from the fiercer rays of the sun. Nothing more of moment oc- curred on our return journey, and we were glad to arrive safely at the place called “ home.” For some years the Mission in the Becliuana District barely kept up an existence. "Wars and commotions con- tinually arose, which very seriously retarded the work, and sometimes resulted in the abandonment of Stations, until the year 1864, when this division of the Mission was con- stituted a separate and independent District, with its own General Superintendent and the entire control of its own internal affairs ; subject only to the General Committee in London and the annual Conference. When the separation from the Graham’s Town District was made, several Cir- cuits in the Colony were attached to the District, and formed a great support to the interior Stations, not being subject to the changes and fluctuations which had so often operated injuriously upon them. These were, Colesberg, Burgher’s Dorp, Aliwal North, Wittenbergen, and Benson- vale. The following is the list of Stations and Church Members in 1864, when the District was regularly formed : Church Members. Wittenbergen : Arthur Brigg 125 Sterk’s Spruit or Bensonvale : John Thomas Daniel 110 Aliwal North : under the superintendence of the Mis- sionary at Wittenbergen. Thaba ’Nchu and Lokuala: James Scott, Timothy Cresswell 302 Tauane’s Tribe : under the superintendence of the Missionary at Thaba ’Nchu. 390 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. Umpukani and Moramitse : under tlie care of the Mis- sionary at Thaba ’Nchu. Plaatberg : Joseph D. M. Ludorf 143 Bloem Fontein : John G. Morrow 4 Fauresmitii : George Scott (d) 14 Colesberg: Bichard Giddy 79 Burgher’s Dorp : John Thorne, Assistant Missionary. 26 Imparani : Under the superintendence of the Mission- ary at Plaatberg. Total of Church Members 863 A wonderful advance has taken place in the eleven years which have elapsed since this return was given. This has been owing not only to the great progress made on some of the Stations by the converts gained upon them, but also to the very large number added from the Colony, both white and coloured. The opening of the Diamond Fields, with other concomitant circumstances, has been among the chief causes of this great change. Thus in 1875 the Sta- tions ranged as follows : Cliurcli Members. Colesberg : Purdon Smailes ; a Native Catechist, 365 Burgher’s Dorp: Samuel B. Cawood ; John Smith (a), Supernumerary 112 Wittenbergen (Native Reserve) : Richard Giddy; two Native Evangelists (Kwantunja) 469' Bensonvale (Native Reserve) : Joseph Start ; a Native Catechist (Blikana) ; a Native Evangelist (Kwan- dofela) ; a Native Evangelist (Mapoliseng) 396 Aliwal North 98 Tiiaba ’Nchu, John T. Daniel, Edward Harris, who shall give attention to training Native Agents ; five Native Evangelists : 702 Moshaneng (Tawane’s Tribe) : One to be sent ; a Native Evangelist 154 Bloem Fontein: James Scott, John E. Parsonson; a Native Catechist; a Native Evangelist (Harte- beest Hoek.) Southfield : to be visited. 90 CHAP. VII.] THE BECIIUANA Oil BLOEM FONTEIN DISTRICT. 391 Fatjresmith : to be visited; a Native Evangelist. Diamond Fields, Kimberley : Gardener Scates, Fred- erick Elton ; a Native Catechist 135 Total (1874) 2,521 •James Scott, Chairman of the District and General Superintendent. The return of full Church Members in 1875 was 3,118, and 903 on trial. According to these returns the increase in the number of Church Members in the eleven years is 2,255 ; giving a total of more than three times the former number. It must be admitted that the Diamond Fields have had much to do with the rapid progress of this Dis- trict ; but that does not alter the positive fact of this large increase. It will occur to the thoughtful reader, that these Dia- mond Fields, which are situated on the borders of the Free State, the Yaal River, and Griqualand West, are revolution- izing that part of the country. The traffic now is very large, and Europeans are filling up the land. Two carts go to and from the Fields weekly : thus the post and pas- senger traffic is kept up ; and the Fields, instead of being a valueless desert, are a source of great wealth ; and the slow-going Dutch, instead of lying sleeping alone on their farms or small villages, have the enterprising English jost- ling them on every side. Thus progress in natural wealth and social position is being made every month. It was thought at one time that these Diamond Fields would soon be exhausted ; but of this there are no indications at present. In closing this history of the Becliuana District we can say nothing of the future. The writer has known it for thirty-six years ; and if the progress of the last few years, as given in these pages, continues, then a bright and pros- perous future is in reversion. As the Roman Catholics and Ritualistic Episcopalians are now pressing into the land, there is a greater need for Wesleyan Methodism, with its clear Scripture doctrines and sound Protestantism, than ever before. 392 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. The following is the latest official and authentic infor- mation relating to this District that has been obtained. It was given by the Eev. George T. Perks, at a meeting at Bloem Fontein, and brings the statistics down to the end of 1875. “There are in the District of Bloem Fontein,” (Becliuana District,) “ Methodistically considered, 22 Churches, and 96 other preaching places ; 13 English Mis- sionaries, 15 subordinate paid Agents employed as Cate- chists ; 15 day-schoolteachers, 166 Sabbath schoolteachers, 126 Lay Preachers; 3,118 full and accredited Church members, with 603 on trial ; 33 Sabbath schools, 2,707 Sab- bath scholars; 13 day schools, 851 day scholars; with an average number attending public worship throughout the District of 10,800, including members and scholars.” -CHAP. VIII.] THE TRANS VAAL RIVER MISSION. 393 CHAPTER Y1H. THE TRANS VAAL RIVER MISSION.* This is a new District, which is being gradually formed ; and although “ last, not least ” in point of importance. It is the territory of the Trans Yaal (pronounced in English Trans Faal) Republic. Geographically it is of vast extent, reaching from the Limpopo River on the north to the Vaal River on the south ; stretching from the twenty-second to the twenty-eighth degree of south latitude, — some six degrees. Many parts to the northward are said to be very fruitful ; in addition to which, that is the locality of the (l old Fields. These fields have not yet been very remu- nerative, although much gold has been obtained. The expenses of getting there, and of living there, are very great, and would require a large return to allow of any profit. Hence, up to this time there has not been a “rush” of Europeans; many have been up and have returned : still a considerable number remain there ; and if a “ paying reef ” can be found, the number will increase. President Burghers is now in Europe; arranging for a rail- road to be made from Delagoa Bay to the Republic ; and it is said that Holland is taking up the subject, and enga- ging to find the money for the execution of this work, which will probably not be a very paying one, but, if carried out, will have a great effect upon the country. The difficulties in the way, especially in respect of climate, will be very formidable ; but, possibly, in these days of means and enterprise they may be all overcome. This country was originally occupied by various large tribes of natives. It was afterwards included in the country taken over by the English, who at a late period unfortu- nately handed it over to the Dutch Farmers ; a full account of which transfer is given in the Appendix to my “ History * This Mission is attached to the Bloem Fontein District for the present. 394 MISSIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II, of Natal.”* There are still many thousands of natives in the land under the Dutch. Formerly a modified form of slavery existed to a considerable extent, hut in later times this does not prevail as before. The entrance of so many Europeans into the country in connexion with the Gold Fields has had a considerable effect ; and the present President Burghers, having had the opportunity of mixing considerably with Europeans in the Colony and on the continent of Europe has more enlightened and enlarged views than those farmers who have been brought up in Africa can possibl}r have. A transforming process is going on both in politics and in social life, all of which is favour- able to liberty, and, to a certain extent, to Missionary operations. The following is a list of the Stations and appo intments, as they stood in the “ Minutes ” of 1875 : — Potchefstrom : G. Weavind ; a native Evangelist. Pretoria : Timothy Cresswell. Lydenburg (The Gold Fields) : George Blencowe ; one to be sent. Kronstadt : Charles Harman. Zeerust, Bustenburg, Wakkerstrom, Utrecht, and Newcastle, request two or three Missionaries. A total of fifty-five members is given as the return of these Stations. This, like other places, is small in its commencement ; but the importance of the work and the limited extent of results cannot be tabulated. There are always difficulties in the commencement of a new work, which gradually lessen as the work proceeds. This will doubtless be the case here. The above names are names of towns or villages. The population of these is partly Dutch and partly English. Only when the facts are inquired into, is it ascertained how the English penetrate every part of the land, and enter into mercantile transactions. Indeed, the Dutch seem too phlegmatic to attempt any- thing in mercantile affairs. If they do this, it is usually only for a short time, as the English come in, and by their superior intelligence and pushing energy soon displace them. Only some of the more advanced Germans succeed, especially those who are called “ German Jews,” who enter * See note on p. 370 of this volume. CIIAr. VIII.] THE TRANS VAAL RIVER MISSION. 395 into a stiff competition with the English ; hut, notwith- standing this, the English always take up and maintain a position ; so that by degrees they form at least one of the strongest strata of the social and mercantile fabric of any community. It is well that it is so ; well for them, well for the Dutch, and well for the natives. English influence more or less permeates the whole. But the importance and value of this Mission must not he estimated by the English inhabitants alone. Natives have to be numbered by tens and hundreds of thousands. In the last chapter the statement of Mr. Mabile shows that in one part there were 150,000, and in another 200,000, who, up to the time of his visit, had not heard the sound of the Gospel; so that truly the harvest is great, and the labourers are still few. One happy fact is that in recent years the Dutch have established a Mission in these parts. Mr. Mabile speaks of the work which the Rev. Mr. Hof-- meyer is doing. This is a great revolution in the Dutch mind and mode of action, and, if only carried out, will be a new element in Mission work, capable of indefinite ex- pansion and action. The Wesleyan Missionaries still carry out the plan, so wisely inaugurated by the late William Shaw, of commencing the work in the towns, and making them the base of operations from whence other parts can be the better acted upon and worked. The above appoint- ments in the Trans Yaal are all to European towns ; but it will soon be found that as the native work rises up in the towns, it will extend from them to different parts of the outlying districts. This Mission is important, further, as being the advanced post from which the far interior must be penetrated, and by which the work must be sustained. The Scotch Church has made a bold aggressive movement northward in going up at once to Lake Nyassa from the coast ; but there is a vast amount of territory between the Limpopo and the Lake, and multitudes of people who are needing the Gos- pel, as well as tens of thousands in the north of the Trans Vaal. The Rev. G. T. Perks stated that the “Wesleyan Missionary Society was willing to advance northward.” If so, the Trans Yaal is a valuable base of operations : 39G MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA^ [PART II. unless a new base of operations is formed from the eastern coast, after the manner of the Scotch Mission on the Ny- assa. If any attempt wrere made to establish a Mission about Delagoa Bay, or further on along the coast, it is to be feared it would be the Mission of death to those who engaged in it. I have had frequent intercourse with Dr. Stewart about the Nyassa Mission particularly, and the difficulties that lay in their way ; but I have been solemnly impressed with the deep feeling the Doctor had about fever, and his great anxiety for the party to get into the upper region. Strong and confident and energetic as the Doctor is, he seemed to quail before this deadly foe ; and it has been no small relief to find the party at the Lake, and their small steam craft ploughing its waters. Without extending my own remarks, I now give copious extracts from the number of “ The Little Light of Basu- toland ” published at Morija in April, 1876. It is so full of Missionary information that it will form a fitting sequel to what is found in the last chapter. There we had the inter- esting and graphic record of the journey of exploration and preparation ; here we have the accomplishment of the plans and the commencement of the enterprise. The reader will readily excuse any little irregularity in the arrangement of the narrative, in order to secure the com- pleteness of the whole. Every true lover of Missions must saj “God speed” to this first native Missionary enterprise. “ THE THIRD BIENNIAL SYNOD OF THE BASUTO CHURCHES, SOUTH AFRICA. “ The Missionaries, Catechists, and delegated Elders from the various Mission Stations of Basutoland, in connexion with the French Mission, met tliisyear on Thursday, the 6tli of April, at Leribe, which is the most northern of the Stations. The Missionaries had a preliminary meeting on Wednesday evening, and another on Thursday morning, to arrange the order of proceedings. Some of the Missionaries came in their wagons with their wives and children, and for the time they remained at Leribe had to sleep in their wagons, or camp out in the field or garden. The rest were accom- modated in the Mission house. Others came on horseback CHAP. VIII. ] THE TUANS VAAL RIVER MISSION. 39T across the mountains, as there are only these two ways of travelling in this outlying Mission field. There were fourteen Missionaries, besides seventy-eight native repre- sentatives sent by the vai'ious Churches. “ On Friday, there was an introductory service of prayer and praise with an appropriate address by the Rev. T. Jousse ; after this, the Synod was commenced, and the Rev. F. Coillard occupied the chair. The audience amounted at most of the meetings to near six hundred. We had with us some of the people of the Rev. G. Maeder, a child of our Mission, now a Missionary of the Dutch Reformed Church, ministering the Gospel to a Basuto Church at Wetzie’s Hoek. It was very interesting to find that two Kaffirs had come from their own land as repre- sentatives of the Kaffir Church of Sbawbury to bring us £7. 2 s. 6d. towards the Banyai Mission, which the Basutoes have commenced by raising i>286, besides giving twenty- four oxen, to send a Mission with four Catechists four months’ journey to the north of their own land. It is so much to be commended, when we know that the Kaffirs, as a nation, are so hostile to the Basutoes. This act of theirs brings out in bold relief their true Christian feeling. After these had spoken, Mr. W. Baker was introduced to the Synod, and pointed out to the natives the importance of a nation honouring the Bible. He illustrated this point by telling them how the Queen of England, when asked by a North American Indian to account for the greatness of Britain, pointed to the Bible, and not to her army and navy. He also congratulated the natives upon their zeal in sending the Gospel to the heathen. Kind messages were also received from the American Mission, whose dele- gates had been prevented from coming by illness ; also from our co-worker, Major Malan, and from some friends in Cape Town. Major Bell, one of the Magistrates of the land, spoke a few encouraging words in English, which were interpreted, as well as the former speech, by the chairman. “The reports of the Churches given mostly by Elders showed clearly that the Church in Basutoland is still a militant one. A ery few cases are now to be recorded of 398 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. Christians returning to the gross practices of heathenism, and we thank God for it. Nevertheless, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that we are passing through a crisis, which might easily prove fatal, were it not that the Good Shepherd is still watching over His flock, as tenderly as ever. A new regime, the progress of civilization, the increase of wealth, new influences, not always salutary, are amongst the many foes with which we have to fight. The members of the Churches are no more the little children of thirty years ago, docile but weak, having to be conducted with leading strings. They have grown, they have reached the age of adolescence, an age of transition, the most diffi- cult in human life to keep under control ; and, like a young man before whom a new life bursts open, they are apt to wink at the drudgery of common duties, and overrate their rights and their strength. All this is striking among the youths. What in other Churches proves an element of energy and strength, is to us a source of trouble and great anxiety. They are few, among our people, to whom the commendation of the Apostle could be addressed: £ Young men, I write unto you, because you have overcome the evil one.’ We trust, howe\Ter, that, the crisis once past, as the old element disappears in our Churches, and sound education is developed and spreads everywhere, the piety of our youth will be all the stronger for having passed through this painful ordeal. We despair not ; the young must be the hope of the Churches, here as elseAvliere ; and among them there are surely some Samuels and Davids and Daniels and Timothys, whom the Lord has set apart for a great work. “A singular craving after the golden age of the fore- fathers with all the dark customs has seized the nation like a spirit of madness. Some cunning women, or raving brains, pretending to be inspired by the shades of departed Chiefs, declared a crusade against everything that savoured of Christianity or civilization. This has impeded the pro- gress of the Gospel, and shut many doors against it. But the movement is subsiding rapidly, and we have no doubt but it may have done good, by stirring up the religious feelings of the nation. CIIAP. VIII. THE TRANS VAAL RIVER MISSION. 399 “ On Saturday, the Synod was continued, when Molapo, one of the Chiefs of the country, was expected. On his ai’rival on horseback, with several of his councillors, the chairman went out and met him. He was dressed inordi- nary European clothes. In his speech, which of course was in the native language, he referred to what had been said by Mr. Baker about the Bible having caused the greatness of Britain. “The verbal or written Reports were next presented, showing the state of each Church. It is satisfactory to know that the numbers of members and candidates have increased this last year, making a total of eight hundred and nine. The collections also have been very satisfactory, amounting to £415. 12s. lid. (including the sum for the Banyai Mission) above that collected in the previous year. Several new out-Stations have been commenced, as well as some new chapels built. The two training schools for young men and women have progressed satisfactorily, some of the students having obtained Government Certi- ficates. “ The discussion after this was on the proper training of ■children, and the duty of parents restraining them from evil. It appears that in Africa, as well as in Europe, parents are too lax in bringing up their children whom God has entrusted to their care. After several had spoken, they were referred to what Solomon says as to the necessity, at times, of using the rod. “ The most important matter discussed came next, which is the Home Mission work. God’s Church has its various agencies and schools, in which Catechists and school- masters work in various ways. Some Churches have already occupied all the important places in their districts, and these are the old established ones. These generally have an income sufficient to maintain the work without applying to the Home Committee. Others of later date are still very weak in numbers, and have very large heathen districts to evangelize. These are the districts of Leribe, Cana, Matatiele, and Paballong, all of which hope to begin several out-Stations during the present year. These Churches need help in men and money ; hitherto 400 MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [PART II. the Home Committee have given help, but the Missionaries wish to do without it. Last year the Churches made a collection of nearly <£40 for this purpose ; but this year it will amount to above <£100. They desire to occupy all the posts likely to serve as centres of light. —Our readers will like to know what each Mosuto Cliristiau gives for the work of the Lord yearly. In one Church the average will be 2peer Librar II | II III II O' 2 O' 13 5 6c 4: 3 DATE DUE Demco, Inc. 38-293