PRINCETON. N. J. 1 Library of Dr. A. A. Eod^e. Presented. /?~«..B.X.2.4:..1..?3 SecHo,^:.iSj33. /dumber >v Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/historyoforiginoOObowe HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE FREE METHODIST CHURCH. BY REV. ELIAS BOWEN, D.D. ROCHESTER, N. Y. PUBLISHKD BY B. T. ROBERTS. 1871. Entered, according to Act of Congress, m tde year 1871, BY BENJAMIN T. ROBERTS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. C01:^TEE"TS. Sketch of tlio Life of Rev. E. Bo wen, D. D. Engraving of Rev. E. Bowen. Pages 3-8. Preface. Pages 9-13. CHAPTER I. Denominations Proper. True Unity. Pages 13-17. CHAPTER II. Sketch of the History of the M. E. Church. Declension. Pages 18-23. CHAPTER III. Defection in Doctrine and Practice. Semi-Centennial Sermon. Pa- ges 24-40. CHAPTER IV. Christ' s Kingdom Spiritual. Odd Fellows and Masons. Pamph- let hy Rev. CD. Burlingham. War threatened — begun. Charg- es and Specifications. Clinnge of Venue asked for — but refused. Committee asked for — but refused. Secret Meetings. Testimo- ny of Rev. John Bowman impeached. Pages 40-56. CHAPTER V. Pleas of Rev. L. Stiles. Closing plea of Re.v. B. T. Roberts. Ver- dict. Pages 57-105. 2 CONTENTS, CHAPTER VI. Review of the Trials, Trials a sliam. Offences charged, trifling if true — Not true. Exjjulsion of Revs. Messrs Stiles, Cooley, Wells, and Burlingliani. Preaching in another Parish. Law making power usuri)ed. Victims hunted. Free Press pro- scribed. Decision of the Bishop. Right of private judgment surrendered. Pages 100-131. CHAPTER Vn. Persecutions. Reign of terror. Buffalo Advocate on state of re- ligion. Rev, Mr. Hart's review. Hosmer's review of Minutes of Gcncsco Coiifcrciirc, Sad decline confessed. Worse than al- leged in •• New Srliool Methodism." Outrages at Cayuga Creek. Methiidists hund-cufl'ed and sent to jail on tlie Sal)l>;ith. Church guarded l>y men and dogs. Mockei-y "f a tiia], Sryiiiiiui' -I. No- ble guillotined. James H.Brooks. Dewey Telft. Pages 1o2-1j4. CHAPTER Vni. Lay Conventions. One at Albion. Members. Report. Grievances. Innocent condemned. Guilty screened. Withholding supplies. Authorities quoted. Stevens, Emory, Bond. l!esoliitions adop- ted. Speeches, G. W. Estcs, T. B. Catton, W. Par.Kons, Bro's Jones and Jcfl'rrs. Ylry. ]',. I. Iv,',s. Conv, nli.m at Ol.-an. OflS- cers. Petitions to ( iciicial ( '(intncncr. 'J'hc K^nm s! Cliristian. Preamble and resolutions. Sl)ceches by Rev. J. McCreery, S. K. J. Chesbrough, T. B. Catton, Wm. Hart, J. W. Rcddy, and others. Pages 155-195. CHAPTER IX. No di^siiiii to li'nvc the M. E. Church. IMcmorial to the General Ccnfcrciirc. ('(iiiiiilniiits nf tlic action of tli^ (ienesee Confer- (;nce. Pastoral addrt.'ss. Ant iM i'tli()(!ist ic in doctrine. Frater- nizing with Unitarians and Ciii vrvsulists. New terms of mem- bership. Expulsions for attending Laymen's Convention. Strike CONTEXTS. 3 threatened. Secret meetings. Immorality covered up. Slan- ders. Pages 196-315. CHAPTER X. General Conference. Secret society and pro-slavery men unite. Court of Appeals — strange decision. Case of Kcv. E. oiirliiig- liam. Packed committee. Constitution violated. Appral not en- tertained. Pages 21G-228. CHAPTER XI. Free Methodist Church organized. Pages 239-235. CHAPTER XII. Discipline adopted. Doctrine. Government not aristocratic. Creed. Tsvo new articles. Pages 3:i6-314. CHAPTER XIII. Rules and Regulations. Free seats. Gospel to the poor. Dr. Olin. Instrumental music. Dress. Pages 24o-30o. CHAPTER XIV. Receiving members into the Church. Questions. Secret Societies. Maso)ary. Pages 2()G-374. CHAPTER XV Government. Lay delegations. Superintendents. Chairmen of Dis- tricts. Stationing committee. Pages 375-383. CHAPTER XVI. Scriptural organization. Ritual. Pages 284-288. 4 CONTEJ«TS. CHAPTER XVII. Education. Seminary founded. Magazine. Paper. Necessity of organization. Succession. Pages 289-300. APPENDIX. New School Methodism. Pages 301-310. Engraving of Dr. Redfield. Sketch of his life. Pages 311-324. Engraving of Wm. C. Kendall. Sketch of his life. Pages 325-333. Engraving of Rev. L. Stiles. Sketch of liis life. Pages 334-344. Engraving of Rev. B. T. Roberts. Sketch. 345-350. SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. BY REV. B. T. ROBERTS. Elias Bowen, D. D. author of the following work, has been too long, and too favorably known to need any commendation at our hands. For over half a century he has labored, as an able and faith- ful preacher of Jesus Christ in the M. E. Church, of which he is still a minister. He is one of the few who have not compromised to suit the worldly tendencies of the age. He has not grown proud and fbrmal, because the Church has become rich and popular. He has not changed his doctrines because the times have changed. AU along he has borne an uneqxuvocal testimony against sin in the church, as well as outside its pale. In his fidelity in reproving, by pen and tongue, the departure from the primitive spirit of Method ism, 80 painfully apparent in his church, he reminds us of one of the old prophets. We love to sit at the feet of such a man. The following autobiographical sketch we copy from the Northern Independent of Oct. 26th, 1865 : "The fifth year of my ministry, being told by one of the Presi- ding Eiders that I was set down for the Montreal Mission, Lower Canada, I went to the Bishop, al'ter failing in my expostulations with the Elder, and told him I wts not qualified for so responsible a sta- tion, and begged of him to give me an appointment of less impor- tance. I was sent to the mission, however, but at my very earnest re- quest was let off after one year, and returned to the States. " The next year I was stationed at Utica, no intimation having been given me of my appointment till it was read off in the Confer- ence. Here the weight of my responsibilities pressed so heavily up- on me that I entreated for a lighter charge, the station unanimously petitioning the Presiding Elder, as he told me, for my re-appointment. The authorities yielding to iny solicitations, I web placed on a little iv. SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. twp-weeks' circuit ; but Utica being dissatisfied with their preacher, sent for the Presiding Elder and insisted on my return. I was ac- cordingly sent back to them after an absence of only five weeks, and remained another year. " During the year, two Presiding Elders renewed the proposition, which they had made to me the year before, to take a District ; but in both instances, being assured of the great reluctance I felt, on ac- count of an unconquerable self-difi&dence, to preside over brethren in the ministry much older than myself, they agreed to have me ex- cused. But at the next Conference, they had my name placed upon a District without consulting me ; intending to take me by surprise, and forestall any objection on my part, by reading out the appoint ment before I knew anything about it. It so happened, however, that their project was made known to me by a singular incident about two hours before the Conference rose ; and, failing to prevail on my Presiding Elder to let me off, I addressed a note to the Bishop, to the effect that they must change my name to some other charge, or give me a location, for I could not possibly serve a District. Up- on this, the Bishop and covmcil retired a few minutes, leaving a sub- stitute in the chair, and changed me to another charge. For this absolute refusal to take the work assigned me by the appointing power, however, I had suflBcient cause of regret ; for God cursed me in my appointments, good though they were in themselves, just four years — the precise term I should have been on the District, had I submitted, as I had promised to do at my ordination, " to the powers that be," and I never repeated the offence. Always afterwards, if I could not persuade them to excuse me from responsible situations — which I often tried to do, particularly the last time I was sent to the Ithaca station — I entered upon them, though "with much trembling," and filled them as well as I could. " The records of the church will show that I have represented my Conference, in connection with other Delegates, in seven General Conferences of the church, and I am bold to say that I never attended a caucus, or used any other means whatever to procure an election to that body. My name was placed upon a ticket for General Confer- ence for the first time in 1828, and I doubtless should have gone had I not declined to run ; as the entire ticket, from which I had prevailed upon them to erase my name, was elected by a large majority. I felt I was quite too young and inexperienced to appear in the law-making department of the church, and hence my refusal to consent to be a candidate. At one of our Elective Conferences, I was assured by » SKETCH OP THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. V, particular friend — a member of the Conference — who came running to my room, almost out of breath, that a combination had been formed among the preachers to exclude me from the number of Del- egates to the General Conference ; and unless I attended to it im- mediately, I should fail of an election. I told him I should take no interest in the matter. If elected, I should look upon it as a Provi- dential ordering, and try to fulfil the trust confided to me ; but my preference was, if it should please the Lord, to stay at home. I was elected, however, and went to the General Conference, without either- seeking or desiring it. " In 1840, the Book Agent pressed me to be a candidate for the editorial chair of the Christian Advocate and Journal, telling me that the leading members of the General Conference, then in session, were favorable to it, and he was satisfied I might be elected to that post without much opposition. But, as usual, I shrunk from official responsibility, and persuaded him to give it all up. Very likely I should have failed of an election, had I consented to run for the of- fice, but if I had desired it, I certainly should have been willing — nay, anxious — with the encouragement so liberally held out to me, to hazard the result of a trial. " At the General Conference of 1844, being a member of the com- mittee on the Book Concern, and chiefly instrumental in procuring the adoption of the old Auburn Banner, (I have forgotten the name it then bore,) as a General Conference paper, I was afforded another opportunity, if the following circumstances may be regarded as evi- dence of the fact, of becoming a church editor. A committee of three, of which I was one, were appointed by the Delegations of three patronizing Conferences respectively, to nominate an editor for the new paper thus adopted. The other two at once proposed to put me in nomination for the ofiice, it being understood that the General Conference were prepared to elect whomsoever these Conferences should designate for that purpose. Here, again, my remonstrance against being promoted to office being yielded to, we nominated Rev. N . Rounds at my instance, and he was accordingly elected. " But though I might swell the list of instances almost indefinitely in which I have declined proffered honors during my career in the ministry, I shall mention but one more. At the General Conference of 1853, several of my Delegation took it upon them, day after day, for some little time, as opportunity offered, to mention my name in connection with the Episcopacy ; often remarking, in the way of mere pleasantry, as I supposed, that they were going to make me Bishop. vi. SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE AtTTHOB. At length, perceiving that I looked upon it as a matter of amusement merely, they assured me that they were in sober earnest, and had very little doubt of carrying their point. Upon this, I told them plainly that I did not want the ofBce, and was satisfied that I could not be elected if I did. But having been consulted by members of the Delegations from eight or ten other Conferences upon the sub- ject afterwards, and told that they were all prepared to go for me, I felt that matters were taking on somewhat of a serious form, and it was possible I might be elected after all. I then begged of the brethren to abandon the remotest thought of any such thing, as I certainly was not qualified for the place, and could not consent to be a candidate any way. Now, whether the brethren were sincere in proposing to put me in nomination for the Episcopacy, or not, or whether I should have been elected to that office if nominated, is nothing to the question in hand ; it is enough for my present pvir pose that I at least took them to be in earnest, meaning what they said, and that fearing I should be elected if my name were allowed to run, I shrunk from the possibility of an election, and prevailed on them to drop my name altogether. " I am aware of the declarations of Paul, ' If a man desire the office of a Bishop, he desireth a good work ; ' but not to suy that Bishop here means nothing else than presbyter or minister of the gospel, I never desired even that in the sense of seeking it, for I was licensed to preach, received into the Conference, aud appointed to a circuit, without the slightest application to tha t eflPect on my own part. And I have always ' labored as a son in the gospel,' going where I was sent, with one solitary exception, as above noticed, hav- ing never asked the first favor in regard to my appointment, as all the Bishops and Presiding Elders under whom I have taken work will bear me witness. I did, to be sure, once ask my Delegation to put me on a certain committee at General Conference ; not that on Episcopacy, upon which I had already been placed, as usual ; but one of less dignity ; and I asked it on account of the great interest I felt in the business that was to come before it. But I have always been sorry I did, both because it was out of keeping with my long- cherished principles and habits, and because of the jealousy it obvi- ously excited in the minds of two or three of my co-delegates, who have scarcely overlooked it in me, as I have reason to think, to the preseflt day. " And now, let me say to my detractors, ' If I am become a fool in glorying, ye have compelled me : for I ought to have been com- SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. vii. mended of you,' (rather than traduced,) especially for the fidelity with which I have ' told you your faults.' I ask no commendation at your hands, however ; either for reproving you as in duty bound, when you go astray, or for leaving my appointments, where I and everj'^ other Methodist preacher have promised, as upon oath, to leave them, in the hands of the authorities of the church. Nor can I en- tertain much respect for those self seekers among us who are forever tampering with the Bishop and Presiding Elders about their ap- pointments—forever wire-pulling for place, or promotion in some way, in palpable violation of their ordination vows. I would by no means intimate that all Methodist preachers are guilty of this mis- erable practice. There are many honorable exceptions, or used to be ; and it is with great satisfaction I am able to call up a goodly num- ber, even of modern date, who were always ready to go where they were sent. But never a year passed during the twenty-four years I was on Districts, when I was not harassed almost to vexation in some instances, with the incessant teasings of place-seekers. And it is this class chiefly— of all others the least deserving of good appoint- ments — who now impute to me the weak ambition of aspiring to office, alleging, as a cover of their wickedness, that I have become soured toward the church for overlooking my claims to posts of dis- tinction, and that this accounts for the great dissatisfaction I have manifested for a few years past with respect to their administration and behavior. But beside the besetment, so common to the way- ward, of attempting to clear themselves of guilt by implicating oth- ers, especially the witness by whose testimony they have been proved guilty, and made to writhe under the eye of public opinion ; the very natural rule of 'judging others by ourselves' should be pleaded, perhaps, in extenuation of their unchristian conduct in thus aspers- ing my character, since they seem incapable of appreciating any other motives of action than those by which they themselves are governed. " But though men of this description will still find some pretext for believing what they evidently want to be true in respect to the cause of the rebukes I have felt myself called upon to administer to the church, the great body of the faithful — preachers and people — will give all due weight to the representation I herein present of my own course and character. And while I shall consequently be looked upon, as heretofore, with an eye of friendship and charity by the thousands of this class whom I have known and loved, the cause of God and of Metliodism, so far as thej' may be identified with my viii. SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. character and doings, will be vindicated from an unmanly and most damaging aspersion. Albeit, though I ought to be commended, as aforesaid, for my fidelity to the true interests of the church, the Oneida Annual Conference especially, whom I so faithfully admon- ished of their sin and danger on a late occasion, still I ask no com- mendation, no thanks from the church, for occupying my appropriate place, or doing what she rightfully bids me do. Still, I must say, ' after doing all that is commanded me, I am an unprofitable serraut, I have done that which was my duty.' " ELIAS BOWEN. PREFACE. "Methodism is a creature of providence." So it has long been regarded. And as such, God has ever watched over it with a jealous care; impressing upon it at the eame time the seal of his Divine approbation and paternity. The origin, gi-owth and achievements of this peculiar form of Christianity, are such as to leave no rational doubt of its supernatural character. And having God for its Au- thor and Guardian, it can never be overthrown ; but will continue to operate and prevail in the earth, through in- strhmentalities of his own choosing, until its Heaven-ap- pointed mission shall have been fully accomplished and there is nothing more for it to do. As a pri?iciple, or system of truth and righteousness, Methodism is as old as the Christian era, being identical with the gospel itself; but as a system of rules and regu- lations for the carrying out of the great purposes of the gos» pel scheme, it is of recent date, having originated with the apostolic Wesley during the early part of the last cen- tury. Taken altogether, as it came from the hands of its immortal Founder, Methodism is none other than " Chris- tianity in earnest ; " being now what it ever has been, and ever will be to the end of time. It does not follow, however, because Methodism is al- ways the same, that, therefore, it is always known by the ix. X, PREFACE. same name, or is always found with the same denomina. tion of people. Adaptation is an essential element of the system ; and from the wonderful facility with which it ac- commodates itself to time, place, and circumstance, it finds no difficulty in taking on a new name, or passing from one association of people to another, whenever there is occasion for it, or the offer of more eligible means for the accomplishment of its legitimate ends, requires such change. As the mountain turtle casts ofi" its old shell, upon occasion, and takes on a new covering more suitable to the purposes of its being ; and as the rushing stream, when too much obstructed in its course, leaves the old channel for a new one, where it can pursue its ocean-bound career with more freedom ; so Methodism, tied up and em- barrassed in its soul-saving operations by an unscrupulous and almost universal conformity to the world in the old church, has been compelled, in order to fulfil its appropri- ate mission of "spreading Scripture holiness over the land," to leave its accustomed pulpits and altars, so terri- bly desecrated latterly by worldliness and churchism, and carry on its work through the newly organized medium of the Free Methodist Church. But, though Methodism has changed its home, it has in no wise changed either its character or its mode of opera- tion. And hence, as it fled to the Free Methodists to escape the trammels of worldly associations, a time-serving policy, and the soul-sickening routine of a lifeless formal- ism it could no longer endure ; so will it in like manner abandon them, should the contingency ever arise, when it is no longer permitted to operate through their instru- mentality in accordance with its own peculiar principles and purposes. It was a fatal mistake with the Jews, that their cove- nant relation to God gave them a sort of corporate title PREFACE. to be regarded and treated as his exclusive people ; and that the promissory guarantees of the covenant were ab- solute, securing to them this proud distinction in perpetu- ity, or rendering it inalienable to them and their posterity forever. They persistently repudiated the idea that the blessings promised in the covenant which God had made with them as his people were only to be continued to them during good behavior ; and hence, when he announced to them that they should pei'ish in the wilderness for their idolatrous and wicked rebellions against him, and never enter the land of Canaan into which he had promised to bring them at the time they came out of Egypt, they ac- cused him of a " breach of promise." But alas ! too late they awoke to the perception of the conditionality of the covenant they had violated, when an insulted Heaven pro- ceeding to execute its awful penalties upon them, exclaimed, " I'll show you my breach of promise ! " Some other churches also, notwithstanding " these things happened unto them for ensamples and are written for our admoni- tion," have fallen into the same mistake; the Methodist Episcopal Church (as her high pretensions to piety and prerogative, and her notorious backslidings from God and Methodism at the same time, sufficiently show,) scarcely furnishing an exception. Nor do the teachings of history, assuring us that God has been wont to leave these fallen churches, one after another, and call his people by another natne, seem at all to remind her of her own impending fate ! But as there is nowhere to be met a more striking illus- tration of the truth of our cherished maxim, that " Metii- odism is a creature of Providence," than in the rise, jiro- gress, and permanent organization of the Free Methodist Church lately come into existence ; a brief history of the rise of this new denomination of Christians cannot be unaccepta- ble to those witli whom an all-i)ervading Providence, espe- xii. PREFACE. cially as it relates to the cause and people of God, is a prima- ry article of faith. To supply this desideratum in ecclesias- tical history, and magnify the grace of God for raising up this pilgrim band to exemplify and carry on the work of holiness among men, this unpretending work is now ofiered to the public. THE AUTHOR. CHAPTER I. Denominational Christianity is the order of God. — Still the church of God is one. Here is diversity in unity — a property which God has impressed upon all his works, whether of creation, of providence, or of grace — the uni- verse around him, in this respect, being made to reflect his own most glorious character. There are three persons in one God ; Christ has many members in his own mystical body ; and other sheep he has which are not of the same fold or denomination of Christians with any particular church. They who maintain that the unity of the one universal church of God, or that Christian union and fellowship lie in unity of sentiment, are greatly in error. For all to see alike, or to be of the same opinion, either all must see things just as they are, which presupposes omniscience, which no mere creature can lay claim to ; or, if one err, then all must err in the same direction and to the same extent, which is by no means a supposable case. Man is finite ; and none but the Infinite can see things just as they are, or know them unen-ingly. Else the stream can rise higher than the fountain from which it flows, or the effect exceed the cause by which it is produced. Diversi- ty, therefore, is inseparable from human society, and both can and actually does co-exist with the unity — the true spiritual unity or oneness — of the church of God. Equally groundless is the claim of the Church of Rome 13 14 A HISTORy OF THE to exemption from all error or diversity of sentiment in matters of religion, for the reason that Christ, Avho is an unerring Guide, is her leader, having promised to "be •with her always, even to the end of the world." The Apostles themselves erred in many things, except when they were under the control of plenary inspiration, which has been vouchsafed to none since their day. And be- sides, there could not be a more palpable fallacy than to claim infallibility because our Leader and Guide is infalli- ble. Here is, for instance, a perfect mathematician — one who is master of his text book, and can teach " the exact science " with unerring precision — but does it follow, therefore, that the pujjil can solve every problem the sci- ence proposes ? Experience demonstrates the contrary. — He will often fail of the answer required, not through any imperfection of his guide and teacher, but through the weakness of his own understanding. Nor is it true that the unity of the church of God lies in one and the same church organization, as the Church of Rome and some other bigoted successionists contend. Far from it. Such unity, being merely ecclesiastical or out- ward, rather than spiritual in its character, would tend to destroy, rather than strengthen, the unity of the church, properly understood, by the friction which bringing together the great body of Christians, with all their de- nominational peculiarities, must necessarily produce. Di- versity of sentiment, then, being inseparable from our fall- len race — extending not only to matters of a civil, but of a religious character — taking in creeds and confessions of faith, as well as church government, forms of worship, and things of that sort ; there can be no harmony or co-opera- tion — no real spiritual unity — in the practical workings ot the church where denominationalism is merged in one and the same ecclesiastical organization. FREE METHODIST CHURCH. 15 Such a church must stumble at the very threshold of its undertakings. It could not so much as begin its opera- tions by the settlement of a pastor. Could the Calvinists consent to sit under the teachings of an Arminian who should inculcate the doctrine of Christian perfection, the possibility of falling from grace, or free will ? No more could the Arminian, of the Methodist persuasion especial- ly, listen to the doctrine of absolute predestination, the necessity of sin in believers, or imputed rigliteousness. — Least of all could they agree on a pastor who should be so exceedingly accommodating as to engage to reflect the sentiments of all their various creeds indiscriminately. — Denominational Christianity, then, is clearly the order of God ; a variety of religious orders, corresponding to the various theological tenets or creeds of the Christian world, having sprung up from time to time, at the instance and under the auspices of Divine Providence. God is evident- ly in the arrangement ; the difierent denominations serv- ing as sentinels upon each other, and their mutual influ- ence, by means of the most salutary incentives and checks upon each other's conduct, contributing in a manner pe- culiar to their separate organizations to the common wel- fare. Indeed, as a good, strong line fence must be main- tained among neighbors, in order to the peace and harmo- ny of the neighborhood, so must denominational churches maintain their own distinctive organizations, in order to the maintenance of the Christian unity and fellowship of the church universal. Well : be it so, that denominational Christianity is, in- deed, the order of God ; or that he designs his one univer- sal church should be made up of different denominations, as it actually has been from the beginning ; are there not enough of them already in the world ? Why add to their number by the organization of another sect, especially an- 16 A HISTORY OF THE Other sect of Ifethodists ; there now being so many of these bodies in every }3art of the land? One would sup- pose that the ground occupied by these multiplied branch- es of the Methodist family was all covered by the old church, and that it were far better they were all united in one body than that they should undergo another division. So it appears to some — all, indeed, who prefer a dead to a living church — and their prediction is, (the wish being father to the thought, no doubt,) that the Free Methodists will either come to nothing, or discover their error in sep- arating from the Old Church and return to her bosom again, as has been the case with nearly all who have gone off before her. Now, it is true there have been quite a number of secessions from the Methodist Episcopal Church, which have either come to nothing after awhile, or re- turned to the body from which they broke oif ; but the leaders of these movements, to say the least, were invari- ably precipitated into secession by fanaticism, disappointed ambition, personal disaffection, or some such unworthy motive, and, of course, could not succeed. Their own convictions, not to say the hand of God and public opin- ion, were against them. But, in the first place, the Free Methodists are not a secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church, or any other religious body. They arose like the apostolic, the Protestant, and the Wesleyan churches ; some being cast out of the churches to which they belonged, or driven off for their pious zeal, by the hand of persecution ; while the great body of them have been gathered in from the world, or a backslidden state, by a sound and thorough conver- sion to God through their own apostolic pastors. The time having come when God could no longer work through the old church, as formerly, he was pleased to raise up another people to take the place and to do the FREE METHODIST CHURCH. 17 work which she had so shamefully vacated — overruling her wicked persecution of the faithful within her pale for this purpose. "The wrath of man shall praise bim." — And as the slaveholding South, in her madness to extend the area of slave territory, unintentionally brought about the emancipation of her slaves ; and the Jewish church, in like manner, became the wicked occasion of advancing the cause cf the early Christians, " who went every where preaching the word and turning great numbers unto the Lord," in consequence of the " persecution that arose about Steven " at her hands ; so the Methodist Episcopal Church, in attempting to crush out the life and power of religion among them, have become the instrument — the unintentional and very wicked instrument — in the hands of an overruling Providence, of bringing this new organ- ization into existence. But the occasion there was for the organization of the Free Methodist Church will be made more fully to appear in the next chapter ur two, as we proceed. CHAPTER II. The occasion seen and felt by many of the friends of a living Christianity in Western New York, and some other places, for the organization of the Free Methodist Church, will best be made to appear by showing what the Metho- dist Episcopal Church was formerly, and what she now is or has been for a few years past. If it should be found that pure Methodism — " Christianity in earnest" — which once characterized and distinguished said church, had nearly died out in her communion, while there was scarce- ly anything of real vital godliness to be met with among the sister churches of the land ; it must, of course, be con- ceded that the one lately formed by the Free Methodists was called for, and that the Divine Being, who "leaveth not himself without witness" in the earth, might be ex- pected to supply the demand. It is but a brief outline of the comparative history of the Old Church that can be at- tempted here ; and yet the rise and subsequent history of the New Connection is so interwoven with that of the Old, that a succinct sketch of the latter is indispensable to the proper understanding of the former. Tlie Methodist Episcopal Church, as is well known, orig- inating in a great and long-continued revival of religion, was for more than half a century a living body of Chris- tians, fully answering, (with a single exception, wliich wil' be more particularly noticed hereafter,) the following defi- nition of a true Christian church in her XIII. Art., viz.. 18 FREE METHODIST CHURCH. 19 " The visible church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word of God is preached, and the ordinances duly administered, according to Christ's ordi- nance, in all things that of necessity are requisite to the same." Her early character and mission may be seen also in the standing Address of the Bishops, (Dis. pp. 4, 5,) from which the following extract is taken : " We believe that God's design in raising up the people called Methodists in America, was to reform this continent and spread Scrip- ture holiness over these lands. As a proof thereof, we have since seen a great and glorious work of God from New York, through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Geor- gia, as also of late to the extremities of the Western and Eastern States." In addition to these authorities, the entire early history of the Methodist Episcopal Church, together with the historic biographies of Abbott, Roberts, Emory, Fisk, Hedding, and some others of precious memory, may be consulted on the subject ; but a short quotation from a late semi-centennial sermon by Rev. G. Peck, who will not be suspected of exalting the past at the expense of the present, will, perhaps, suiRce. He says: "The distin- guishing characteristics of the old preachers were their pi- ety, their simplicity and their zeal. As a general thing, they were men of great faith and of much prayer. They had power with God and with the people. Sinners quailed, trembled, and fell before them ; and Christians shouted aloud for joy. One of their thundering, old-fashioned sermons sometimes resulted in the conversion of scores upon the spot. Not unfrequently the preacher would close his sermon abruptly, and dash out into the congregation, to point some smitten heart to Christ, or pray for one who 20 A HISTORY OP THB was literally roaring in agony : ' Pray for me ; O, do pray for me ; I am sinking to hell ! ' My eyes and ears and heart were witnesses of these things. The old-fashioned singing," he proceeds, " was not always harmonious, scarcely ever artistic, but it was more generally devotion- al, sympathetic, melting. Sinners would be sung into tears, and then into the penitent's prayer, ' God be merci- ful to me a sinner ; ' and Aen sung into shouting, ' glory to God in the highest.' It was a moral force sometimes overwhelming. There was converting and sanctifying power in the singing. I would that I could hear it again; but I never shall in this world. The preaching was in thunder tones, and the prayer-meetings were seasons of strong emotion. Loud praying and singing, shouting and falling, were the ordinary characteristics of these occa sions. The excitement was not put on or worked up ; it was clearly the result of mighty impulses, occasioned by a Divine inspiration. God was in it, and it was a means of the awakening and salvation of souls." Had the Old Church always remained thus, there would have been no occasion for another Methodist church cer- tainly, as she could not have failed, in that case, to carry forward the great and glorious objects of her denomina- tional mission — the " spreading of Scrij^ture holiness over the land." Much less could she have thrust from her bosom her own most dutiful and devoted children for no other cause than the manifestation of their love to God and Methodism. But when we turn the tables, and look at what she now is, and has been for a number of years past, a very different conclusion will be arrived at. As intimated above, the Methodist Episcopal Church well accorded with her own definition of a pure Scriptural church of Christ for many years after she first arose, with one exception. " She was clean, but not all." There was FREE METHODIST CHURCH. 21 the plague-spot of slavery upon her forehead from the be- ginning ; and, tampering with the evil instead of resolv- ing in good earnest upon its removal, it continued to spread and rankle in her system till the whole body be- came paralyzed. The Bishops and many other leading men in the connection, making common cause with the dough-faced politicians of the North and all the other churches in general, had all along pandered to the slave power, till the nation at large — North and South, Church and State — had fallen under its domineering control ; and legislation and commerce, literature and religion, the pul- pit and the press, were placed in abject surveillance to its lordly dictation. As the Old Church had always some prohibitory rules against slavery, and a strong anti-slavery minority in her membership and councils who were doing all they could for its extirpation, a long-sulFering God continued to bear with her until the General Conference of 1860, when the last barrier to the foul abomination was swept from her statute book, and worldliness, and pride, and formalism, and all the fashionable associations and amusements which had been covertly following in its train, broke loose on every hand, the church throwing off all restraint, and scouting evangelical piety as the wildest fanaticism. It was now that God, whose patience had become exhausted, virtually said of a church he had so long smiled upon and cherished, " Ephraim is joined to his idols : let him alone ! " A new denomination, taking on the title of the Free Methodist Church, and adopting Wesleyan Methodism — purged from " the sum of all villanies," secret societies, and such other corruptions as " the peculiar institution " had drawn after it — was forthwith called into existence. It is not the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church, however, that we propose to write; .■iiid, of course, it will 22 A HISTORY OF THK not be deemed appropriate to trace her character and be- havior in much detail. It must suffice our present pur- pose to show generally what she now is, or was when the Free Methodists arose, rather than how she came to be such. CHAPTER III. That the Methodist Episcopal Church, as a body, is woefnlly fallen, having lost her simplicity and power, is almost universally believed. Her object now seems to be, not to " spread Scripture holiness ever the land," but to build herself up in worldliness and pride. And although this fact is generally understood and known, the church herself being conscious of it, in proportion as the light is forced upon her ; still she claims to be advancing in her appropriate work and character, insisting that there is consequently no occasion whatever for the establishment of another Methodist Church in the land ; a few extracts and reflections, showing the utter groundlessness of such pretensions, will here be introduced. The first extract will be taken from a semi-centennial sermon preached before the Oneida Annual Conference some four years ago from the text, "I marvel that ye are 6o soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel," etc., by the author of this work. Here follows the extract : " But the great object of our present discourse, is, to portray the defection of the Methodist Episcopal Church from God and Methodism. And having given a brief il- lustration of the general subject in the parallel we have drawn between our church and that of the Galatians, wa shall proceed to show, somewhat more in the light of his- 24 A HISTORY OF THE toiy, what are the particular aspects of the case by com- paring our present with our former condition ; the com- parison having respect, not as the custom is, to numbers, wealth, worldly influence, and the like, which constitute no adequate test of the character of a church ; but to doc- trine, discipline, and practical godliness. " 1. We shall first notice our defection from God and Methodism in respect to doctrine. And here we have most clearly been ' removed from him [Wesley, God, or both] who called us into the grace of Christ, unto another gos- pel,' on the subject of sanctification, merging this great subsequent change as we do in that of regeneration or the new birth. Mr. Wesley taught a distinction between these two states — using the terms justification and regen- eration interchangeably — in the following questions and answers : " ' Q. When does inward sanctification begin ? ' " ' A. The moment a man is justified. (Yet sin re" mains in him — yea, the seed of all sin — till he is sanctified throughout.) From that moment a believer gradually dies to sin, and grows in grace.' — Wesley's Works, Vol. VI., p. 496. " ' Q. Is this death to sin, and renewal in love, gradual, or instantaneous ? ' " * A- A man may be dying for some time, yet he does not, properly speaking, die, till the instant the soul is sep- arated from the body ; and in that instant he lives the life ot eternity. In like manner a man may be dying to sin for some time, yet he is not dead to sin, till sin is sep- arated from the soul. And the change undergone, when the body dies, is of a different kind, and infinitely greater than any he had known before, yea, su«h as till then it is impossible to conceive; so the change wrought when the soul dies to sin, is of a different kind, and infinitely greater FREE METHODIST CHURCH. than any before, and than any can conceive till he exper- iences it.' — Vol. VI., p. 505. "Here we have the views of our great Founder, too plainly set forth to be misunderstood ; the views of all our standard authors, and of the whole chui'ch formerly, as to the distinction between sanctification and justification — a distinction Mr. Wesley considered equivalent to that between death and dying — pronouncing it infinite. "The doctrine we now generally hold and teach on the subject, ' removed,' as we are, ' unto another gospel,' may be seen in the following extract, made by Mr. "Wesley, from the writings of Count Zinzendorf : " ' We are sanctified wholly, the moment we are justi- fied, and are neither more nor less holy to the day of our death, entire sanctification and justification being in one and the same instant.' — Works, Vol. VI., p. 22. "Entire sanctification, as taught by Mr. Wesley, imply- ing a subsequent and distinct work from justification, has always been regarded as a pi-imary doctrine of our creed. It is not only found in all our standards, having been held by the whole church — preachers and people — till within a few years ; but thousands of witnesses, of the most re- liable character, have borne testimony to its reality and blessedness from their own personal exjierience. But now, the old Moravian heresy of the identity of the tAvo states is pretty generally embraced among us. And its advocates, we are sorry to say, exhibit a virulence in their opposition to the Wesleyan view of the subject which but too clearly betrays their want of the spirit of Christ, and the aversion they feel to the subject of a living piety. " 2. Having disposed of the question of the doctrinal defection of the church, we shall now consider her equally great and desperate falling away in regard to discipline. "And here we are compelled to say that the Discipline 26 A mSTOKV OF 'HiK of our church, no less a rule oflioly living than a standard of orthodoxy in former times, li;is been well nigh despoiled of its authority and moral power by reeent rhanges. To say nothing of those of a minor cliaraeter it lias undergone in relation to dress, free scats, ehnrcli rituals, etc. — all of wliieh have tendetl \n paralyze the arm of the church in (lie training of her children for heaven — the change ef- i'ected at the General Conference four years ago on the subject of church-slavery, by whicii the last vestige of any mandatory inhibition of the evil was toned down to mere advice, has left us in a pitifully demoralized condition. A Avide door is now thrown open to spiritual licentiousness and pride, and -wickedness of almost e\ ery hue may revel upon our very altars M'itli im])unity ! If some ])articular sins are still interdicted l)y tlie letter of the Discipline, the authority to punish the otfcnder in these cases is entirely neutralized from the necessity we are under, for consis- tency's sake, of interpreting such interdictory laws upon the basis of a more recent general enactment M'hich vir- tually tolerates 'the smn (if all vilL-inies.' "We now say, in effect, to our offending members — our mandatory rules being reduced to mere advice — 'Why do ye such things, my sons ? for it is no good report I hear of you;' knowing at the same time that they will just do as they please. "We repeat it, that to place ' the sum of all villanies ' upon the ground of mei-e advice, is to ])lace each and ev- ery particular sin — the greater comprehending the less — on the same ground: a coni-se of administration which the most of us, taking advantage of the rose-water legislation of the late General Conference, and drinking into the same spirit of defection which prompted their guilty ac- tion in the premises, have already adopted. "Oh, how little of our .arly snn],licity, our early KI!KK M Kill O 01 ST CHURCH. abandonment of tlie devotion to the one great -work of soul-saving, still remains with us at the present day ! — The successors of Wesley, of Asbury, of Garrettson, and their self sacrificing lay coadjutors, where are they? — Where are our Whites, our Cases, our Puffers ? And those of the membership who helped ' them much in the Lord ?' On whom, of all our Israel, has their mantle fallen ? Dot s not a melancholy echo answer, ' On whom ? ' "But as all error, in general, since the foundation of the world — as well in life and manners, as in doctrine and dis- cipline — is known to have originated with the clergy : we shall bestoAV the burden of our remarks, on this branch of the subject, upon them ; comparing them with their pre- decessors of an early day, as preachers, as pastors, and as Christians. " 1. And first, as pi-eachers. Possibly, the early pulpit of our church may have had less of general science, or of scliool oratory, than the pulpit of to-day ; but in sound, practical theology, and a knowledge of the various sus- ceptibilities and workings of human nature, so necessary to ministerial success, it 'stood head and shoulders above us.' Its utterances were plain, pointed, and ellective ;— 'turning many to righteousness, and building vip believers in their most holy faith.' It miglit well be said of our fathers in the ministry, that being 'full ol' faitli aTid the Holy Ghost,' ' their speech and their pi-eaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstra- tion of the Spirit and of the power.' In those days, God was pleased to put honor upon His ambassadors; 'pour- ing out His Spirit ' upon the field of their labor, and 'open- ing a great and effectual door ' to them on every hand. "In those days 'the slain of the Lord were many;' it being a matter of ordinary ocem-rence that scores were converted and brought into the kingdom under the preach- 28 A HISTORY OF THE ing of the word. No all- winter campaigns, with a corpH or two of extra help, were then necessary to bring about a revival in the church ; the ordinary appliances in their hands were all-sulBcient for this purpose. It was then they preached holiness — Scriptural, Wesleyan holiness — and tliat too in almost every sermon ; showing forth its power and loveliness in their lives and conversation. And it was then that the most hardened and violent opposers even, ' unable to resist the wisdom and the Spirit with which they spake,' were won over to Christ by the power of Di- vine Truth, or driven from the field of contest with shame and confusion of face. Let the millions now on earth and in heaven, gathered into the fold of Christ through their labors, attest the divinity and power of their faithful min- istrations. "But O, the change that has come over our ministry in later times ! How lamentable the defection observable within a very short period. Popularity is now the goal ; and in order to reach it, the style and manner of preach ing must be changed. The plain, simple style of Jesus, of Wesley, and of Hedding, must give place to a turgid bombastic display, which makes the illiterate masses gape and stare, instead of 'bringing them to repentance and to the knowledge of the truth.' Popular sins must not now be meddled with, as they are too delicate a subject to be treated of in a popular assembly ; or, belonging exclusive- ly to politics, the Christian minister has nothing to do with them. Such is the pretext. The true reason is, that few of us can hew to the line in respect to these sins, but the chips will fly in our own face. And then, it would of- fend our fashionable hearers — driving them from our con- gregations, and cutting off their support — which will never do. The doctrines, the duties, the institutions of the gos- pel, every thing connected with religion, must be popular- FKEE METHODIST CHURCH. 29 ized and adapted to the public tuste. ' The oiience of the cross must cease;' and cold, moral essays, interspersed with anecdote and poetry, and embellished with rhetorical flights and tiourishes, must succeed to the preaching of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesns Christ.' "And besides all this, there is a numerous class of the community who can visit only places of amusement ; and to secure the attendance of these, as well as to gratify our own carnal inclination, we must convert the church into a sort of a play-house, where the most fastidious pleasure- taker can find the entertainment he seeks. Our bombas- tic, highfalutin, moralizing declamation will not suffice for this class of hearers. There must be something to excite their risibilities, and fill their mouths with laughter ; some- thing of the ludicrous, and the funny ; something of the coniico-pious type, by which the almost universal taste of mankind will be gratified, and the highest degree of pop- ularity and patronage secured. " The responsive ' amen ' of the devout worshiper is no longer looked for or desired . among us. Nor is there much in our pulpit exercises to call it forth. Much less do we tolerate the old-fashioned Methodist shouting in our congregations. Such manifestations of pious joy ATOuld be esteemed quite disorderly — a palpable interrup- tion of the order and solemnity of Divine worship — and not to be allowed in the house of God. But while we shrink from these pious demonstrations, lest our iasliion- able hearers should suspect us of sympathizing with a re- ligion the world hates, we can well endure the bursts of carnal laughter, and rounds of clamorous cheering excited by our comical, pantomimic, merrj'-making exhibitions, and might not be greatly disturbed in our feelings, were the scenes of the declining apostolic church to return ; 30 A HISrOKy OF THE when the people, in In- w :i> )ii-..»,-f< e now liecome I lit- higli way to i)opularity, and must be resorted to at all events, tor we must be popular, and there is no other way to gain our end. But the theme is too painful to be pursued, and we turn from it in disgust. Suffice it to say, we exceed- ingly loathe this religious butfoonry — this charlatanism of the pulpit — this holy fun — so much in vogue among the ministry of our day, and we would now and forever bear our protest against it. " We are deeply pained with such shameful prostitution of the sacred desk. Nor do we find any relief to our feelings in the reflection that the period is not distant when, at our present rate of deterioration, it will be im- possible to distinguish between the pulpit and the stage. " 2. Again, secondly : having contemplated the defec- tion of our ministry in reference to their pulpit perform- ances, we shall now inquire how it is with them as to their pastoral oversight and character. Do they make any real pastoral visits among the people of their respective charges — praying with the families on whom they call and speaking to each member personally on the subject of religion — as formerly ? Are they uniformly found at the stated social meetings of the church, there to ' reprove, rebuke, and exhort,' as the case may be ; giving the re- (piisite counsel, looking after the delinquent, and promo- ting the spirit of revival among all classes of the commu- nity, as their fathers were ? Ah, how changed we are be- come in these respects ! These primary institutions, so necessary to the prosperity, if not to the very existence of Methodism, are almost run down upon their bands — a a. . _ ■ rroiB. we«t weeit u.r - - - a Sid oi^coTaKnc. a» L- paaC'.r 2 -lii^T. j^r die sane pmrp«^. tie"*- h» fearfei»r ni th»- • bwe « G*L ■« : ^ - : kr «£ tke ffufci in •9C ^ - »ietiirsEetL ! tiiey BHC -ieseezaBe s&e ^aereti ofSet:^ aoiH^n- doa K^Ba.T i M i. sni ■ iiiiiiif cae Btfoar uui d>r-' h im itt cM i fa i ua a£ God. W plansms^ inso lao^ rtsr- «■■•]! Itimiiii secvK «M3e«ae& Ie e trze. d^ese aesBes of 32 A HISTORY OF THE ministry to be relieved by such inquiry ? It would afford us great pleasure to be able to add a few lights here ; but alas for us ! the Discipline, once a living principle in our hands, guarding the purity of the Church, and aiding her children to build themselves up in faith and love, has now become a dead letter. And here also our defection from God most clearly appears — the life and power of religion invariably declining, and the spirit of worldliness and corruption taking possession of the church, in the same proportion as the administration of Discipline is neglected. Formerly, we were in the habit of arraigning offenders, who would not be reproved, for trial ; expelling the incor- rigible, as well as for 'a breach of our rules of Discipline, as for immoral conduct.' But how seldom is either the one or the other done now ! Some, to be sure, are said to be cut off on both these accounts; but are all offenders so treated ? Are any of them, except the crime of pov- erty, or want of influential friends, or of presuming to ' obey God rather than man ' — very conveniently termed ' contumacy ' — be superadded to their other offences ? — These last named sins may not constitute the ostensible ground of complaint, but who can say they are not the real ground, at least in very many cases, after all, — other names being given them merely to save appearances. " Formerly, we were a living church, ' worshiping God in spirit and in truth, and in the beauty of holiness.' We then prayed with the Spirit, and with the understanding also ; ' and we sang in the same manner, as the effect of our devotions sufficiently attested. But where shall we look for much of this sort of worship in these times ? — Who now gets those answers to ])rayer that used to be realized in the ' pouring out of the Spirit ' upon the pray- ing ones ' assembled in the name of Christ,' the ])rostra- tion of sinners under the power of God, and the so filling FRHE METHODIST CllUUdl. 33 believers with transports of liea\ enly joy as to cause them to appear to the world to be ' drunk with new M'ine' ? — Our prayers at the present day are usually so formal, and so complimentary both to God and the people, as utterly to fail of their legitimate eftect, receiving no more of a Divine answer than those of the prophets of Baal in their contest with Elijah. 'Praying to be heard of men, we have our reward ; ' our prayers being praised and puffed by the listless, dozing assembly, who cannot for their life tell what we have been praying about, and with this we are satisfied. " And as for our churcli music — the surest exponent of the character of our devotions — it can scarcely be regarded as anything else than solemn mockery. The Apostle said, ' I will sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with the un- derstanding also,' placing tlie music of the sanctuary pre- cisely on the same ground with prayer — the one, equally with the other, belonging to the worship of God, and to be conducted in the same devotional and solemn manner. But what sort of worship is there in our singing at the present day ? Do we indeed ' sing with the Spirit and with the understanding,' as enjoined to do, ' making melo- dy in our hearts unto the Lord' ? Do we V Instead of the grave, soul-cheering music of other days, inspiring a frame of the purest and most lively devotion in genuine Christian worshijjers, and softening the obstinate sinner even into a gracious susceptibility of the preached word by its moving, melting, all-subduing melody ; we are treated to a set of light and frivolous airs — inharmonious, undignified, and dissipating to every thought and feeling of .the heart — the merest affectation of music — and so mis- erably artificial as to exclude every element, as well of na- ture as of grace, from their composition. " Nor is there any more of ' the understanding' than of 84 A HISTORY OF THE ' the Spivit' in our modem church music ; since none can understcand one word in ten of the hymn pretended to be sung- — the peculiar modification of the voice, or confor- mation of the vocal organs now cultivated ; and the speechless, soulless, Christless bellowings of some sort of musical instruments, rendering the articulation of the per- formers utterly indistinct. Add to this the grating, inco- herent, fiddle faddle interlude by which the tune is inter- rupted at the close of every stanza, and the monopoly of this branch of Divine worship on the part of a few — often of the ungodly — and Satan himself could scarcely con- trive anything more calculated to neutralize the legiti- mate effect of the services of the sanctuary upon the con gregation. " But this is not all. Our reverence and love of God — the first great branch of Christian piety, as exhibitited above — having sunk into mere formalism ; it were to be expected that the second branch also — the obedience due Him in the various relations of life— would be found to have degenerated into a loose and easy morality. And such we now discover to be actually the case with us. " The holy Sabbath is now desecrated among us to a great and growing extent in the ordinary visiting back and forth of friends, the rambling over wood-land and field for purposes of recreation or pastime, in taking from the Post Office and looking over our mail — secular and po- litical newspapers not excepted — even more than any oth- er day of the week ; and last, not least, in traveling twen- ty or thirty miles to and from meeting, as is the case with many of our preachers — presiding elders especially — for the reason that their lucrative, secular avocations, and the attractions of home, leave them no leisure to go to their appointments on a week day. "With respect to intemperance, we may not have kept FEEE METHODIST CHURCH. 35 pace with the English Wesleyau connection, whom a cor- respondent of the Christian Advocate represents as a community of incipient drunkards. They, being a little older than we, might be expected to have got somewhat ahead of us in their devotion to Bacchus. But, however we may have fallen behind them in the use of wines, beers, and other intoxicating liquors, as a beverage, still, in that nastier form of intemperance, which consists in chewing, smoking, and snuffing tobacco, we can scarcely be outdone. In vain are we expostulated with on che subject by rela- tives and friends ; all sense of the indecency of the prac- tice, and of its offensiveness to all decent people, having become extinct. Especially is this the case with most of our preachers. Still they continue to bow down at the shrine of their Bacchanalian idol, and pay him their eager, filth}^ slobberin'JC devotions. The appalling criminality of a practice which has wasted more lives, not to say more time and money, than any other species of intemperance ; and of insulting every body they approach, by compel- ling him to stand aloof with seeming incivility, or inhale tlie pestiferous atmosphere they carry about them, gives them no concern. They even rej c».rd their guilty indul- gence as an accomplishment, without which they would scarcely be qualified for respectable society, and scoif at the vulgarity or superstition of those who presume to make it a question of morals. "Again; the loose and easy morality — if, indeed, it be not a gross immorality — into which our practical godliness has degenerated latterly, may be seen in the custom which has obtained for awhile past, of raising money for church purposes, by the sale of church seats or pews, and then re- pudiating the title by which they were conveyed to pur- chaser, by church action — the preachers approving, if not instigating the abominable fraud, because, forsootlij 36 A HISTORY OF THE the annual renting of these seats, when disencumbered of the cLaims of their rightful owners, would yield a larger and more certain revenue for their support than could be realized in any otlier way. " But the strongest and most conclusive evidence of our defection from God is found in the fact, that having lost the life and power of religion ourselves, we now per- secute it in others. It is by this work of hell, more than anything else, that we become identified with fallen churcliLS; for tliese alone assume the prerogative, and pos- sess the disposition, to persecute others for their religion. It is the cliurcii, noininalli:, that has forever constituted the great perse'-uting power, the civil authorities — wheth er Heathen, Cliristian, or Intidel — doing comparatively lit- tle in tliis direction ; scarcely anything, indeed, except by her instigation. All the persecutions, in general, from the foundation of the world, may be traced to the church — covered, of course, by the pretended holy purpose of pro- moting the cause of God by the extirpation of its ene- mies, particularly those she is pleased to charge with 'fa- naticism' or ' contumacy.' " Who persecuted and slew the Prophets, the Apostles, the Lord of life and glory ? The church. Who destroyed the lives of more than fifty millions of Protestant Chris- tians in the sixteenth century ? The church. Who drove the Puritans out of England, and the Huguenots out of France — massacreing many thousands of them in the most barbarous manner, — and hung the Qu?-kers in Boston? — Tlie church. Who formerly persecute the Methodists in the old country, and more recently in this, while they sus- tained the character of a holy people ? The church. And if the question be asked, Who are now kindling the flame of persecution against the Free Methodists that have late- ly sprung up among us, and all who go in for holiness in FREE MKTHOUIST CHUKCH. 37 life and manners, as inculcated by Mr. Wesley, even with- in our own pale? The same humiliating answer must be given : It is the church — aye, the Methodist Cliurch ! She it is, being fallen to the self-conceited eminence of Popish infallibility and exclusiveness, who excoraraunicates her best members, lay and clerical — ostensibly for ' contuma- cy' — the one grand complaint of all fallen, persecuting cliurche's agfiinst reputed heretics — but really for the rea son that 'her own works are evil, and theirs righteous.' " We could easily multiply extracts, showing that the above views of the fallen condition of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, are generally entertained by the communi- ty. The following, however, from an editorial of the Kew York Chronicle^ a well-known paper of the Baptist de- nomination, must suffice: "'We attended last Sabbath evening the Methodist Church, corner of Fourth Avenue and Twenty-Second Street, and heard a very good sermon from the pastor, whose name we have not the pleasure of knowing. Our purpose is not to report the sermon, but to express our sense of the contrast between Methodism now and over forty years ago. It exceeds all computation. Then we used, as a lad, to frequent their meetings held in barns, private houses, groves, and in any place affording tlie least convenience for earnest worshipers. . Now, what do we behold? An archepiscopal palace, with its ample interior spaces, broad galleries, lofty, frescoed ceilings, extended aisles, cushioned pews, done off in costly woods, and floors covered with rich carpeting. Then the worshipers kneeled on the hard floor, and felt themselves privileged to do so in the audience chamber of the Maker who they supreme- ly loved and adored ; now cushioned foot-stools, soft as down, are provided for the bended knees of those who condescend to so low an attitude — the most of the audi- 36 A HISTORY OF THE tors remaining in a sitting posture, after the absurd exam- ple of the sects whose worldliness was then the object of Methodist rebuke. " ' We confess to a little gazing to see how the women dressed, when, lo ! it was in the very top of the fashion, their bonnets as lofty and as blooming with artificials, their hoops as expanded, their hair as elaborately orna- mented, and their whole style and appearance quite as worldly as they are in oar most fashionable circles. Such dressy Methodists as these ! Why, not a man or a wo- man of them could have passed the door of a love-fesst fifty years ago. They would have been doomed together to the lake of fire. The ofiiciatiug clergyman seemed a modest, good man ; but where was his Quaker suit, his drab, round coat, his long vest, hanging on the hips, or his studied peculiarity in equipage and appearance ? And this lofty exterior structure of hewn stone, this towering steeple, this pealing organ, resounding the praise of God in notes of operatic power ; why, the Methodists of our young days would have scouted ye all as the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. " ' In putting the two ends of this Methodist half cen- tury together, the contrasts rising to our view seem more like those of a thousand intervening years than of so brief a period. And when we look beyond the sanctuary to those pret'^-ntious Methodist universities dotting the land, this show of learning, these professors, doctors of divinity, contests for place and power under the Govern- ment, and in the high places of society, and compare them with the simple, uneducated people, who appear as their ancestors in the past age or two, we are overwhelmed. — Whence comes this mighty change ? Nine-tenths of this young brood of ministero know not the bird that hatched them. ' They forget the rock from which they were hewn, FUEK METHODIST CHURCH. 39 and the hole of the pit whence they were digged.' They liave, they can have no such appreciation of their antece- dents fifty years ago, as flit before our youthful memories. " ' But the saddest of all is the decay of spiritual pow- er. Well do we remember the remark of a plain, hard- working class leader, nearly fifty years ago, that the Meth- odists would fall away like other denominations, and when they did, their peculiar power would pass to other hands, to leave them a nonentity, in all except exterior show. — Has this singular prediction come to pass?'" " Undoubtedly it has. " But no farther proof of the apostacy of the Methodist Episcopal Church need be sought, than the silence of her warmest advocates on the subject of h&v present spiritual- ity, while at the same time they acknowledge her spirit- uality in former days. The Rev. G. Peck, in a semi-cen- tennial sermon to which we have already referred, may be cited as an example in point. This sermon, though evi- dently intended as a eulogy upon the church, rather than as an impartial review of her past history, presents no evi- dence of the wonderful progress and pre-eminently high standing he claims for hev, except what is found in an in- crease of numbers, wealth, education, refinement, social position, worldly infiuenoe, and the like, which he certain- ly would have presented had the facts in the case been such as to justify it. Could he have said that the church was ' growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Sa vioiir, Jesus Christ,' how much it would have been to his purpose, and now gladly would he have availed himself of the advantage thus aflTorded him. But if no evidence of the existence of any spiritual life in the church could be found for the occasion of a semi-centennial discourse, when so loudly called for ; and the church-press could «;verywhere endorse the production as a true portrait of 40 A HISTORY OF THE the chfiracter and condition of the church, as it actually has done, in the utter absence of such evidence; it is clear no such evidence exists." We shall not formally pursue the subject of the falkn condition of the Old Church any farther. Nor need we. If any doubt of the fact still remains, it can but be re- moved as we proceed to trace, as we shall now do more directly, the particular circumstances under which the Free Methodist Church arose, and the way the Old Church has treated her during the short period of her ex- istence. CHAPTER IV. "My kingdom," says the Saviour, "is not of this world" — not of a worldly or temporal, but of a sj)iritual character. It is spiritual in its subjects, in its govern- ment, in its associations and pursuits — constituting the people of God " a peculiar people." " Wherefore come out from the world, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and I will receive you." This docs not imply secession, in form. Much less that we shall literally go out of the world ; but simply that we shall liave no intercourse with it, except for purposes of business, benevolence, and evangelization — notliing by way of mere sociability, or the cultivation of the world's friendship, since this " is enmity with God." So Christ, — " I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." The idea is that we are to " have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." Here is where the Free Methodists have stood from the beginning. The one great object of their lives has been to be good, and do good. And for this they have been hated, and persecuted, and excommunicated where they belonged to the Old Church ; until compelled to rally their forces, and go into a new church organization, and are now being spread abroad over the length and breadtk of the land. This people took their rise within the bounds of the Genesee Conference, where the hand of an over-ruling Providence had for some time been preparing the way. 41 42 A IIISTOKY OV IHK \\r. Samiif! K. J. ('ht sImuhoIi. from wliosf account of ihe iii;UtiM- we >liall (|iiolf >o)ne\vliat laroely, Pays: "The .liftiruliif s (it tlip •iffiPMc ('(_)iilVi-cii<'e li:i,|.al ,l,.,.,,ly svitl, tl)e do.'.- irine of i^<>lines^. lau'j ln li\ i lie v| ;,i,.i:ir-il« i he i.:hurob. After his transfer to Culiiunila, liie Lord rai^L•d up Revs. I. C. Kiugsley, C. D. Bui liiigliain, and L. Stiles, to4ead on His hosts ; the first was presiding Elder of Niagara Dis- trict, the second of Glean, and the third of (ienesee. — Camp-meetings, which had been revived, were kept up with increasing usefuhiess; Quarterly jMeetings, especially those known as 'General Quarterly Meetings,' were at- tended with deep interest; and the work of full salvation went on with something of tlie primitive i\Iethodist life and vitality. " At the Conference hekl two years since at Medina, the secret-society men, now know n as the l^uftalo Regen- cy, or regency party, to the number of some thirty, en- tered into a combination, threatening not to take work unless Kingsley and 8tilos, who were very popular among the people — the latter es})eeially— were removed from the cabinet. Being satislied that one or both of them would be removed, they asked foi- a transfer to the Cincinnati Conference, which was, unliesila' inglx , granted. In their places were appointed men sn l>sei-\ lent to the wishes of the regency party. The PreMiling Elder of Genesee Dis- trict, at one of the tirst Quarterly .Meetings he held, enter- tained, put to vote, and allowe(l to pass, and to Ije pub- lished as ' Quarterly Conference Proceedings,' a preamble and resolutions, condemning persons of the opposite party in their absence, who were not responsible to that tribunal. "At the Conference held in 1857 at Le Roy, an issue was made between the opposing parties, upon the election of the Secretary of the Conference. Rev. James Fuller 44 A HISTOKY OF THB was elected over Rev. B. T. Roberts by some two or three majority. "Revs. L. C. Kingsley and L. Stiles, at the request of :i large number of preachers and people, were re-tiansfiM-rid to the Genesee Conference. This occasioned a Presiding Elder to say, ' If these men come back we are in for a seven years' war.'' " The ' war ' was soon commenced by presenting a bill of charges against Rev. B. T. Roberts, and two bills of charges against Rev. W. C. Kendall. That against the former was proijecuted, and voted sustained. Those against the latter were deferred for want of time, with the assurance that they would be prosecuted the next year. " Kingsley, seeing how the battle was going, went back to the Cincinnati Conference. Notwithstanding these ad- verse influences, the cause of holiness advanced in the Conference more during this year than ever before. The camp-meetings held in Genesee and Niagara Districts, without the co-operation of the Presiding Elders, were the largest and most successful of any held for years in this region. " The regency party seemed to grow more and more desperate, and for months before Conference, intimations were given out that those most prominent in getting up and sustaining these meetings must be expelled. In the expressive, though not very elegant language of a regency preachei-, ' Nazaritism,' — the name given to Methodism in earnest—' must be crushed out ; and we have the tools TO DO IT WITH.' " In the following pages you have an account of the means employed to carry this holy purpose into execution." Here follows au account of the trial of Mr. Roberts, condensed somewhat, in regard to the testimony, from the FREE METHODIST CHURCH. 45 account given by Mr. Chesbroiigh, yet so as in no wise to change its import or bearing. But we must premise, for the better understanding of the matter, that Mr. Roberts had previously been tried for publishing a certain article, entitled, " New School Meth- odism " — pronounced "guilty of immoral conduct," and then sent on to a charge ! We shall give this article — since published in tract form — entire in the Appendix of this work, that the reader may see the ground of his con- demnation. And now for the trial : CHARGES AXD SPECIFICATIONS. CnAEGE. — I hereby charge Baijamin T. Roberts tcith un- christian and immoral conduct. SPECIFICATIONS. First. — Contumacy : In disregarding the admonition of this Conference, in its decision upon his case at its last session. Second. — In republishing, or assisting in the republish- ing and circulation of a document, entitled, "New School Methodism," the original publication of which had been pronounced by the Conference unchristian and immoral conduct. Third. — In publishing, or assisting in the publication and circulation of a document, printed in Brockport, and signed " George W. Estes," and appended to the one en- titled " New School Methodism," and containing among other libels upon this Conference generally, and upon some of its members particularly, the following, to wit : 1. "For several years past there has been the annual sacrifice of a human victim at the Conference." . 2. " No man is safe who dares even to whisper a word against this secret inquisition in our midst." 46 A HISTORY OF THE 3. " Coinnion crime can command its indulgence ; bankru])tcies and adulteries are venal offences; but oppo- sition to its schemes and policies is a mortal sin — a crime without benefit of clersy." 4. That " The same, fifty men who voted Bro. Roberts guilty of unchristian and immoral conduct, voted to re- admit a Brotiier for the service performed of kissing a young lady." 5. That " Bro. lloberts' trial was marked by gross in- iquity of proceedings." 6. That " On the trial a right which any civil or mili- tary court would liave allowed him, was denied." 7. That "A venerablfl Doctor of Divinity read the * auto-da fe' sermon, \\ herein he consigned, in true inquisi- torial style, Jm-o. Roberts' body and soul to hell." 8. That "Tliis venerable D. D. is quite efficient in em- barrassing elective preachers in tlieir work, and pleading them to hell for the crime of preaching and writing the truth." P. That " There is a cliaue among us, called the ' Buffalo Alogency,' conspiring and acting in secret conclave, to kid- nap, or drive away, or proscribe and destroy, by sham trials and starvation appointments, every one who has the boldness to question their supremacy in the Confer- ence." 10. That "The fearless champions of true Methodism arc being cloven down one after another in our sight." 11. That " The aforesaid members of this Conference are a monster power, which is writhing its slimy folds ji.ronnd tlie church of God and crushing out its life." 1'kkky, Oct. 11, 1858. (Signed,) Daviu Nichols. At the request of the complainant, Kev. James M. Ful- ler was appointed to assist in I lie jirosci-nt ion ; subsequent Iv lie\'. Thomas Carlton was added. FKKE METHODIST ("HUIH II. 47 The defendant asked that lie miglit be permitted to have as counsel a member of another Conference. Bishop Janes decided — Bishop Baker concurring — that he could not go out of the Confere nee for counsel. He then re- quested that Br. Ives might, with his own consent, be transferred to this Conference to assist defendant in thifor the shore when thrown into the water. The prosecution were obliged to assume this ridiculous position, from the fact of kaving utterly failed, as all must see, to either fix the authorship of the pamphlet in question upon the defendant, or to prove that he has aided in the publication or circu- lation of the same. It is important to keep in mind this ridiculous position of the pros- ecution, from the fact that upon this most senseless .subterfuge, the defendant was finally condemned and expelled from the Conference and the Church, on the charge of " unchristian and immoral conduct ! " Either this must be confessed, or else an attitude equally uncomplimentary to the head or heart of the prosecution, and one not less farcical and sham-like, is forced up- on them, viz : That of convicting the defendant of " unchristian and immoral con- duct," and of expelling him from the Conference and the M. E. Church for the act (if such testimony .-is was presented were allowed to be valid ) of putting a three-dozen package of fly-sheets into the hands of a neighboring preacher, with the request that he hand them to the third person. And this, too, when perhaps one-half of the mem- bers of the Conference were equally guilty. 64 A HISTOUY OF THE literally true, sentiments which I thought better never be uttered, reflections upon tlie Bishops wliich I believe un- just; and, hence, I put said proof-sheet within the envel- ope, and refused to i-ead it tlu'cui^h. Rut there n7-e senti- ments uttered in these items, which we believe to be both strictly true and important, and our object in entering Kpon a defense of these truths will be most ai)parent be- fore we conclude our remarks. The first item says : "For several years past, there liaa been the annual sacrifice of a human victim at the Con- ference." To know whether the declaration of this item is true, we should understand what was in the mind of the author. What is to be understood by the term sacrrftced" f No one believes this declaration true in a strictly literal sense. We do not, of course, suppose the author of this pami)hlet meant to say that a " human victim " was literally annu- ally immolated and beheaded. The absurdity of sucii an idea is only equ;illed by the view taken of this expre>sion by the piMseeution. They seem to have nothing else in mind but a )iione>/ sacrifice JMouey^ mo/icy^ seems to be the commo- FREK METHODIST CHURCH. 76 posed to this secret clique that we have so fully exposed, must and would be put out of the Conference at this ses- sion, and Bro. Roberts has been named as one of the per- sons who must be thus sacrificed according to the prede- termination and dictation of this secret clique. One of these leading men of this secret clique said, prior to Bro. Roberts' trial last year, " Those men must be sacrificed, and they will be ; Iknow the minds of the lead- ing men in this Conference on this point, and also of the Bishops." In justice to our bench of Bishops, I here take pleasure in saying that these reflections upon their integrity we brand as grossly unjust and calumnious. We do not now, and we never have believed that these men ever had any good reason to say that they " knew the minds of the Bishops on this subject." We never have believed that the Bishops ever designed to show any party partiality towards either of the party sections of our Conference. — If we had no other evidence of the impartiality of the Bishops in our Conference issues, I think that the total ab- sence of the slightest appearance of favoritism during the progress of this perplexing and laborious trial, should be sufficient to disabuse any candid mind of so unfounded a suspicion. And yet this talk is no new thing to us. This is not the first time that we have heard from the same quarters, by the same class of men, that the Bishops were committed to the favor of the Regency party, and against the Nazarites. These things have been stated to the laity for party purposes and to serve personal ends. We re- gard, as we always have, these declarations as unjust in their reflections upon the Bishops, as they are void of tru.th. We repudiate such statements as slanders upon tlie Episcopacy, which, as far as they arc bi'licvcd. nrc calcu- lated to do tliem groat injustice. But to return to the culpability on the part of the pros- 7C A HISTORY OF THE ecution of prejudging and predetermining this case : Bro. Roberts was named by this man, who made the remark we liave quoted, as one of tlie men who " must be sacri- ficed." One of these leading men said in a private family only a few miles distant from this place, on his way to tills Conference, " some of these men must be put out of the Conference at this session, and we have the tools to do it with." In yonder Chapel, but a few hours since, it was said by one of these secret clique men, " one of these parties must be driven to the wall at this Conference." Witnesses have testified that men -of that secret clique party have told them during the year, that two or three of the leading men of the so-called Nazarite party were to be expelled at this Conference. To break the force of our witness on this point as to " sham trials," the prosecution has asked a witness " If one of these expressions was not uttered dui'ing a conver- sation on the evils of Nazaritisra." Here again we find the "dog Noble" barking away at the empty holeof Naz- aritism, where he has been barking for the past three years. We have shown that tliere is not the slightest evidence that any such a society ever existed. Bro. J. McCreary has here testified, and as he did also three years ago at tlie Oleaii Conference, that he alone was responsible for whatever had been written indicating that such a society ever existed. Sucli has l)een tiie understanding ever since, and yet the empty hole is again assailed by the barking " dog Noble." From the fact of the persistent determi- nation of these men to insist upon the existence of a Naz- arite party, a few of us who considered ourselves misre- picsi nted at the Le Koy Conference, published a disclaim- er, setting this matter in its true light, which you will find in the testimony of Rev. J. P. Kent. But, suppose we admit that these remarks were made FREE METHODIST CHURCH. 77 during a conversation on the " evils of Nazaritism," what then ? We deny positively, that any such evils exist among those who are called Nazarites, as are charged upon them. "We know positively tliat the charges of excess and ex- travagance in religious devotions, imputed to them, are absolutely and grossly false and slanderous, and that they have not the slightest foundation in truth; and we doubt not these reflections upon them are made for party purpose and effect. Talk about the evils of Nazai-itism ! Sir, the time has come among us, when evil is put for good, and good for evil ; bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter ; light for darkness, and darkness for light. The question was asked a witness : " Was not the opin- ion based on the fact, if they continued to pursue this ir- regular course, they were to ^be put out of Conference ? " What palliation of the iniquity of prejudging these men, and predetermining to expel them from the ConfereiKse, is this, we would wish to know, even if this should prove to be true, which was not so proved ! Tliis only shows that these men assume to say what is regular, and what is irregular. It has come to that, that a few men assume to be the self-constituted regulators of the Conference ; but it so happens that we question their claims in tliis matter. What they call regular, in some matters, we call very ir- regular; and what they call irregular, we call refrular. — This Conference lias been so long regulated by these irreg- ular men, as we hold them, that things are found to be in a very irregular condition among us. We call these triats " sham trials " again, from the fact of their having been virtually decided, as we have clearly and fully shown, by the jurors, prior to their coming into the coui-t-room. We will not detain the Conference to de- tail these revolting circumstances again. These test-votes, and these secret pre-enactmeuts, are before you. The at- 78 A HISTORY OF THE tempt, by the prosecution, to avoid the inevitable rebuke and condemnation that must fall upon the perpetrators of these deeds of secret injustice, which we have brought to light by prying open the doors of the secret conclaves, by saying that they " voted that the character of B. T. Rob- erts should not pass till he had a fair trial^'' is another baseless artifice that all unprejudiced minds will look up- on in its true light. We have already seen what these men call a " fair trial." What they call " fair," we pro- nounce most unjust and unfair ; and we believe tlie un- pi'ejudiced judgment of the chu<"3h and the community will pronounce such secret-meeting proceedings as were had in Bro. Roberts' case of last year, not only unjust and unfair, but will brand such trial proceedings as sham-like and grossly unjust. The sham nature of these trials is seen, again, in the partiality of the subjects upon whom they are fixed. If it is a matter of guilt, or moral wrong, to circulate these fly-sheets, and ii we should acknowledge that this guilt or wrong-doing was proved against Bro. Roberts, and if a penalty of any nature is to be inflicted on him for said acts, then, we wish to know, why fix on one, or two, or three men of this Conference as worthy of charges and Conference censure, while many others in the Conference, equally guilty, are passed by unnoticed ? Why this mak- ing the very same act a venial ofience in one man, and a mortal sin in another ? Why, we ask, is Rev. B. T. Rob- erts fixed upon as guilty and blame-worthy, wlien those who stand opposed to him in the matters of our Confer- ence issues, are unnoticed, tliough guilty of the very same thing charged upon him ? Mr. Chairman, we need not ask why ; for we know why. It is simply, sir, because he is a man " who has the boldness to question the supremacy " of the clique known as the Buffalo Regency. This seems to be about tlie head and front of the oflending of Bro. FRKK MKTHODIST PHCRCH. Roberts. Did he not " question th..nr Fupremacy," and damage their craft, and expose their seci-et plottings, and make bar.' their wroug-doinos, and wroiiu' doctrines and teaching^:, this bill of charges had never been presented against bira, and four days of tiie time of this Conference would not have been consumed in tlie traversing of ti.is case. The prosecuting counsel, in a fruitless eflbrt to w .jrm himself out of this dark feature in tliis palpable injustice perpetrated against Bro. Roberts, says, " What have we to do with others ? He is the man. The question is not, Have others circulated these documents? but. Has Bro. Roberts circulated them ? " Exactly so ! This is jwe- cisely the question ! The question is not, How many oth- ers have circulated them ? Or, liow many of them have others circulated? These are questions of no importance whatever. The all-important question is. Has Bro. Rob- erts circulated them? And why, we beg to know, is this the question? The answer is at hand in the language of this item. It is simply and solely because he " has the boldness to question the supremacy in our Conference" of this Buffalo Regency clique. Let this fact be distinctly kept in mind. Did Bro. Roberts pusillanimously submit to the arbitrar) dictation and control of this secret clique in our Conference, he would to day l)e in as higli esteem among these men as any brotlier in the Coni'erence. But, sir, he has involved himself in ditliculty, simply because he has the manliness, integrity and bc'dness to question the s^ipremacy of, and hurl defiance at a secret power in our Conference, which marks every man as a victim wiio does not submit to its arbitrary rule. Having thus reviewed these items in *ho light of the testimony before us, and having seen the cloud of facts that come in to substantiate the truthfulness of all the points we have attempted to sustain, we are willing to 80 A HISTORY OF THE submit to the decision of any impartial tribunal, the ques- tion, should Bro. Roberts, or any other man, be pronounced guilty of " unchristian and immoral conduct " for uttering the sentiments of these items ? Had the efforts been suc- cessful to prove that Bro. Roberts had published and cir- culated the fly-sheet, this Conference could not, with any show of justice, pronounce him guilty of " unchi-istian and immoral conduct," for publishing those sections in these items, tlie sentiments of which we have vindicated and shown to be true, in the light of the evidences and facts we have presented to this Conference. But the efforts of the prosecution to prove the agency of Bro. Roberts in the publication and circulation, have been a palpable failure. We have proved by tlie publish- er of the pamphlet, that Bro. Roberts had not the slight- est agency in its publication : that he never contributed in any way a single cent for that object, and it does not ap- pear that Bro. Roberts even knew of the intention of its publication until after it was issued. There is not, tlien, as all must see, the slightest ground upon wliich to base a pretext for the conviction of the de- fendant ; and his conviction, under tliese circumstances, would be an outrage on justice scarce ever paralleled in the history of ecclesiastical jurisprudence. It will be well for us to remember, that whatever may be the action of this Conference in this case, that after we have passed upon it, it is to go before the tribunal of the Church and the world. Whatever may be our decision, their verdict will, doubtless, . be that of acquittal. We should remember that the influences of this trial are not to be confined to this court-room. Without doubt, it will "affect the people and the harmony of our Zion." The people are watching with intense interest our action in' this case, and it will not answer for us to say, as has been said by the prosecution, " what have we to do with out FREE METHODIST CHURCH. 81 side influences ? " We shall learn Lliat we have much to do with " outside influences " and " outside influences " have much to do with us. ' As I love the church of my choice, in which I have lived and labored for the past few years, and in which I mean to live and labor until I die, so deeply do I feel an interest in the influences of this trial on the harmony and peace of our Methodist Zion in this section of the work. Such are the surrounding influences of this trial, the in- fluences which have induced it, and the issues pending, that its results upon the interests of our church must iu- e\-itab]y be wide-spread and lasting for good or evil. Bro. Roberts is well known to be an ardent lover of, and zealous defender of, the Methodist Episcopal Church. From a special intimacy with him for years past, I know as but few others do, how deep and ardent are his attach- ments to our church. His labors in this church of his choice have been remarkably blessed of the Lord, since he entered its ministry. Wherever he has labored, God has given him seals of his ministry, and favor with the peo- ple. The past year has been one of marked success in his ministry. The people expect and desim his return. It is well known that he has so endeared himself to tlie people of his several charges, as but few among us have ever done. To all appearances, as bright a future of usefulness and of ministerial success lies before him, if permitted to labor on uninterruptedly, as that of any man in our Con- ference. Now, can it be possible, with the evidences of the innocency of the defendant whicli we have beibre us, that we, as a Conference, shall dare in any way, to ])eril his career of usefulness, by pronouncing Conference cen- sure upon him, for a single act, even if said act be admit- mitted to have transpired, of whicli, if he be blameworthy at all, he only stands in equal condenniation witli, perhaps, half of the members of this Conference ? If from the 4* 82 A HISTORY OP THE evidences and the facts in the case we now have before us, Benjamin T. Koberts is worthy of Conference censure in anj' degree, then, we ask, empliatically, where is the man among us who is guiltless ? " Let him who is with out sin cast the tirst stone." CLOSING PLEA BY REV. B. T. ROBERTS. Mr. Presidknt: It is fitting that I should, in this pub- lic manner, before this large audience, express to you* my sincere thanks for the able and impartial manner in which you have presided during this protracted investigation. — Whatever the result may be, I shall always cherish for you, sir, the liveliest feelings of gratitude for the kind- ness you have manifested to me personally, and the equi- table spirit which has prompted the decisions which you have, from time to time, been obliged to make. Fathers and Brethren of the Conference : I will not en- deavor to conceal from you the disappointment I felt in not being able to procure a committee, as pi-ovided for in the Discipline. But as you have chosen to take the decis- ion of the case into your own hands, I trust you will re- member that in reality the same responsibility rests upon you personally, as though the determination of the ques- tion devolved upon each one of you alone. For months, intimations have been currentf that several who have been instrumental in promoting what such veterans of the cross as Rev. John P. Kent and Rev. Asa Abell consider nothing more nor less than the life and power of godli- ness, must be put out of the Conference. The Advocate ♦Bishop Janes. tThe Advocate of Aug. 26th, says of Mr. Roberts : " The (ruth, is. the days of hin darling schemes of ambition are nearly numbered^ This is the tone of one conficlcnt that he is, at least, the month-piece of those wlio have the power of life and death; and who have resolved upon tlieir victim ! Oiiinipolince it6<>lf could hardly use more positive language ! FREE JfKTllODIST CHUKCH. S3 of last week says. " For years past a disturbing elcinenv has existed in it, which the conservative and leading por- tion of the body are determined to control and put out if possible during the present session." No one can mistake the meaning of this language. Does the editor speak by authority when he says, " the leading portion," the Re- gency, " ARE DETERMINED to jt>i<< out the disturbing ele- ment,^'' the leaders of the opposing party ? Will you, by your action, show that the result to be arrived at in this and similar cases, has been " determined " upon long ago, without any regard to the testimony adduced, and the facts elicited ? Certain it is that in ordinary times, by un. prejudiced men, no notice whatever would be taken of such charges as those against us ; much less could an adverse decision be obtained. In the examination of witnesses, we have gone into the details of this case, not because we deemed it necessary to our complete vindication, but because we would have your eyes open to the state of things that exists among us, as a Conference. The brethren of the other side have re peatedly denied that they have any secret society or any secret meetings. In our charity, we believed there were honest men in the Conference who, blinded by these pro- testations, were led to give their countenance to schemes they would never tolerate, if tlie delusion was dissipated and things made to appear as they are. For their sakes we have opened the secret chambers of iniquity, and per- mitted you to see men professing godliness — the accred- ited ministers of Jesus Christ — plotting, under the pledge of secrecy, and in the guise of devotion to the chnrcli, the overthrow of their unsuspecting brethren. I shall not go into details ; my friend has done that ably and fully. In my remarks, I shall confine myself to those points that have, as I conceive, a direct bearing upon the question a,^ issue. I shall pass over ^11 which, however important in 84 A HISTORY OF lliE itself, is irrelevant to the case. This trial grows out of - the one of last year. I am cliargeil with " coiituiuacy," in disregarding the action of this Conference at its last session. I do not know in what way I disregarded its ac- tion. When friends came, in the dead of night, and in- formed me of the action of the Conference in my case, I arose from my couch, j)ut on my apparel, and repaired with all haste to the Confei-ence room, and received, with resignation, the reproof that the Bishop was directed to , administer. If there was any admonition to pni-sne a bet- ter course in the future, I am sui-e I nevei- heard of it un- til this present trial was commenced. I was not present when the vote was taken, but I have inquired of several reliable brethren who were, and they think there was no such addition to the reproof But it so stands u]ion the Journal, and such we must presume to be the action of the Conference.* But be that as it may, I have honestly endeavored to do better than I have ever done before. I have tried to be instant in season and out of season, al- ways abounding in the work of the Lord. I have gone, " not only to those who wanted me, but to those who wanted me most." The Lord has been pleased to own my unworthy, though sincere efforts, to promote His cause, to a greater degree than in any former period of my minis- try. He has permitted me to see many souls rejoice in a present, free and full salvation, who one year ago were walking in the ways of sin and death. I believe in grow- ing in grace; and it appears to me tliat I have grown in grace the past year ; and if spared, I will endeavor to in the year to come. If the want of a cordial acquiescence in the justice of the decision of last year be contumacy, then I am contu- *Tlie Secretary is one of the strongest partisans of the Rege«f evil for evil, liars, swearers, profaners of tlie day of tlie Lord."' — Vol. v., p. 24. The Arehbishop of York sent a paternal address to the clergy of his diocese. Part of it ran nearly, if not exact- ly, thus : " There is great indiscretion in preaching up a sort of religion, as the true and only Ciiristianity, which, in tlicii- own account of it, consists in an cntliusiastic ardor, to be understood, or attained, by very few, and not to be ])rac- ticed without breaking in upon the conmion duties of life." "Wesley replies to this in the following severe terms: — " O, my lord, what manner of words are these ! Suppos- ing candor and love out of the question, are they the words of ti-ufli '■' T dar(> stake my life upon it, there is not one true <'lause in all this ]iaragrapli/' — p. 42. Why did not his graee ha\e him turne I 111' enormity of their crimes. The ninth or last circle is reserved for Ihr rniisi il.iL,'i I inns sinners. The circle is divided into four wards; in the inmost round of llie inmost circle— the very centre of hell, exposed to the imme- diate torments of Satan liimsclf— places thase who betrayed the confidence re posed in ttiem by friends. He says : 'Fraud, that in every conscience leaves a stinj', May be by man employed nil one, whose trust He wins, or on another who williliDkls Strict confidence. Seems as the latter way Broke but the bond of love which Nature makes. The other way Forgets both Nature's general love, and that Which thereto added afterward gives birth To special faith. Whence in the lesser circle, Point of the universe, dread seat of Dia, The traitor is eternally consumed." Canjftrunslalion.Canlozi. | FREE METHODIST CHtTRCH. 101 ehown, the witness stands impeached, to all intents and purposes. His testimony is to be discredited. Let us see how the case stands with Rev. John Bow- man. When called to testify upon another point, he says, " He cannot say that there was any thre.af'' made to hirn if he did not take back what he had said in favor of Bro. Kingsley : " We all would suffer in common, in conse- quence of our having an inefficient Pi-esiding Elder." — This, according to his statement as a witness, was all the consequence that another preacher said would follow to him, " personally," if he did not retract his eulogy of Bro. Kingsley. Compare this with what he said to others, in relation to this matter. Rev. R. E. Thomas testifies that " Bro. Bowman told me that a member of the Conference said to him, if he did not take back what he had said in reference to Bro. Kings- ley, on the Conference floor, he would rue it." Rev. C. C. Church, Rev. E. S. Furman, and Rev. Wm Barrett, all testify to the same efiect as Bro. Thomas. — Bro. Barrett adds, that Bro. Bowman told him, more than twenty times during the year, that he had been threatened by a member of this Conference, if he did not take back what he had said in favor of Bro. Kingslej-. We all know how much more readily we remember mat- ters affecting us personally, than we do those which re- late to others. Narrating an event frequently, has, also, a strong tendency to fix it in the memory. Yet liere is a threat made to Rev. John Bowman personally, wliich he has mentioned to four difterent preachers, during tlie year, and to one of them a score of times at least, (others miglit have been brought, if necessary) and yet, when he is called to testify in relation to it, " He cannot say that any threat was made'''' to him at all I Can any reliance be placed up- on a witness whose memory is so treacherous ? Not the 102 A HISTORY OF THE least credit would be given to such testimony in a court of justice. Such is the only witness* brouglit forward to prove my agency in the circulation of this document. — Were not this testimony of so extremely doubtful charac- ter, it would still be insufficient to procure a conviction. In the Statute Book, that ought to govern in this case, we read: "Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone : if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But, if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that, iu the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established." — Matt, xviii. 15, 16. The first direction has never been followed. Though the offense is charged to have been committed in the early part of the Conference year, no brother has so much as intimated that he considered himself trespassed against. Again, we read: " Against an Elder receive not an ac- cusation, but before two or three witnessess." — I Tim. v. 19. In accordance with these plain passages, is the pro- vision of our Discipline, which says : " Out of tiie mouth of two or three witnesses, he shall be condemned." This, then, is the law of the Churcii. It requires the testimony of two or more witnesses. The language is ex- plicit and unambiguous. Some of the 2}arties concerned in this 2)rosecutio7i, are far more deeply interested than tee possibly ca7i be, in establishing the doctrine that mure than one witness is necessary to secure the conviction of an El- der. In this case, there is the testimony of only one witness; *The course of this witness m Conference uiaiters r.-m;n(l8 ouu of what Hutnei says of the treacherous God of War : " From these to those he flies . And every side of wavering combat tries . Large promise makes and Ijrealts the promise made, Now gives the Grecians, now llic Trojans aid." FREE METHODIST CHURCH. 103 mid that has been impeached, as fully Us the testimony of a Diember of ©ur churcli can bo impeached. It lias been urged, at great length, by tlie opposinr; counsel, tliat, because we went into the merits of the case, and showed that many things in the pamphk't are true, therefore we ought to be condemned, wliether there is 9.ny proof that we circulated it or not. This is strange logic. We a-'e charged with publishing, or assisting in the Dub- lication and circulation of, a certain document; and, if we are to be condemned, we insist upon it, tlmt we ought to be first proved guilty of what has been charged against us. We protest against being condemned, because we have not conducted the defense in a manner more satisfac- tory to tlie opposing counsel. My frietid, Br. Stiles, has done nobly ; I have done the best 1 could ; and if we have, in our inexperience, committed any mistakes in tlie man- agement of this case, I insist upon it, that I ought not to be brought in guilty of " immoral and uncliristian con- duct," on that account.* Tlie counsel has dwelt long and earnestly upon the ag- gravated nature of the oiFonse charged. If the accusation had be4'ii for the most atrocious crime, it could not have been urged with greater vehemence and zeal. Libel is an oflFense that may or may not involve moral delinquency. — Some of the best men in our church have been convicted of libel — not before a partisan tribunal, but by a civil court, and mulcted in damages. The venerated Bishops, Emery, and Waugh, and Dr. Bangs, were brought in, by *Sinoc tlie trial, I lenrn that some who votetl ap:!iinpt mo, Rttoiapt to rescue themselves on the grouiul that we attempted a vindication of th(^ 8tat<,-ments of the pamphlets. They say if w,' had made no drfcnHc we would have lieen ac quitted. Yet tbcpe eame men voted airaii^Ft us last year when we did not ex- amine a Bingle witness I We attempted the examination of only one. If thife Information \>e correct, it would fcom that I was convicted of " unchrist.an and immoral conduct," not for " publishing and circulating" the pamphlet, but for atteniptins to bring to light the secret doings of the Regency party 1 104 A HISTORY OF THE an impartial jury, guilty of libeling a business man, and yet they suffered no loss of confidence on that account. But here the most strenuous exertions are put forth to make out that in the long catalogue of crime, there is none of quite so deep a dye, as the handing, to a supposed friend, of a package of pamphlets, which contain some an- imadversions upon a party of men, which they are pleased to consider libelous. To the accusation which has been so repeatedly made, of my being a young man, I plead guilty. To tlie liabili- ty of human nature to be miiitaken in judgment, I claim no exemption. But allow me to suggest, that if I have fallen into any mistakes, the best way to correct them will not be by partisan prosecutions, under fi-ivolous pre- texts. Tlieir tendency will rather be to create the suspi- cion that my position is one that could not be successfully assailed by argument. Convince me that I am wrong, and you shall find no man more ready to confess it, and more willing to be set right. Finally, brethren, allow me to say that I do not affect any indifference as to the results of this investigation. I have an ardent attachment for the church of my choice. I love her doctrines, her usages, and her aggressive spirit. If I have erred at all, it has been occasioned by loving the church too much, rather than too little. Any depai-ture from the landmarks of Methodism has awakened jealous solicitude, and called forth whatever influence I possessed, to persuade our people to "ask for the old paths, that they might walk therein." It has been my offense not to have labored altogether in vain. We have been favored by the Great Head of the Church, with revivals, deep and pow- erful, such as has given to our beloved Zion her present position among the Churches of the Lord. It would be our delight to continue to toil in the same blessed work, with what little ability and energy the Lord FREE METITODIST CIU'RCH. 105 has been pleased to endoM- us with. This, above all others, is the service that I delight in, and to which I feel God has specially called and comn\issioned me from on high. — I do not feel that my work is done, nor my commission from the Lord revoked. I love the Methodist Episcopal Chiu-ch ; no one has ever heard me say ought against her ; and I should esteem it my highest privilege to be permit- ted to put forth mightier efforts than I have ever done, to build up her walls and enlarge her borders. We are hastening to a great, impartial tribunal, before which all actions must pass in review, and all secrets be revealed. There the deliberations of this hour, and the motives by which we are governed, will be disclosed be- fore an assembled universe. Remember it is written : — " With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged ; and WITH what measure YE METE, IT BHALL BE MEASURED UNTO YOU AGAIN." The case was now submitted, and the accused formally expelled — in the utter absence of the least particle of evi- dence to sustain the charge preferred against him. CHAPTER VI. HoAV clear it is, that the foregoing trial was all a sham ! But sham trials are no uncommon thing. Tiiey are ever and anon conjured up to save appeaianccs, and aflbrd im- punity to tyrants, by clothing injustice and oppression with the forms of law. Ecclesiastical, as well as civil tri- bunals, are made the arena of these shameful exhibitions — an altar, even, upon which the innocent and good have been sacrificed, in all ages and countries, by the arm of power. Such trials are a mighty engine in the hands of anti-Christian Churches ; and they never fail to put them in requisition for the crushing out of " enthusiasm," " fa- naticism," " contumacy," and the like, as they call the man' ifestations of the love of God in the heart ; except where it is deemed safe to dispense w ith even the foi'malities of a trial, and rely on the more summary process of ridding themselves of those, whose war upon the sins of the Church give them so much inconvenience, by "withdraw- ing them from the Church, (for the Bishop says 'they may, in certain cases,') without their knowledge or consent ! " — Such enginery has been vei-y freely used, for a few years past, in the Genesee Conference. And now, " Behold the man " — not " Jesus of Nazareth," but one of his faitli'ul followers. Aye, " Behold the man : " the appearance of the devoted Roberts before the Genesee Conference ! O, how it reminds one of a trial which was perpetrated, more than eighteen hundred yeai sago, at the bar of Pontius Pilate ! In both cases alike, the clamor of the " chief priests and elders," prevailing over the voice lOG FREE METHODIST CHURCH. 107 of justice and humanity, the pre-dooraed victims were con- demned to execution. There was this only material ex- ception to the parallel of the two cases: At Jerusalem, " the judge was supposed to be on the prisoner's side." In the one instance, the victim was crucified, to be sure ; and that, too, under circumstances of the most excruciating insult and cruelty; in the other, he was barely turned out of the church, by virtue of the sentence passed against him — the laws of the land, and the state of public opinion, not allowing the actual taking of life in such case — but pursued at the same time with calumnies and detraction, for the evident purpose of shutting him out from all hu- man sympathy, and inflicting upon him something more intolerable than crucifixion — aliving death! The expulsion of Messrs. Roberts and McCreery, was followed by that of Rev's Mr. Stiles, Wells, Cooley, and Burlingham, the next year ; and the Conference — either to pacify the community, whose sense of right and justice she had so shockingly outraged by her doings, or, " glorj^- ing in her shame " — proceeded to publish something like an official report of the matter in the Northern Christian Ad- vocate. Perhaps, too, the fear of the publication of the trial, less favorable to her administration and character, by another hand, determined her to endeavor to pre-occupy the public mind with her own version of it. But though she cannot be suspected of putting forth a report that would be calculated to prejudice her own cause ; yet, tak- ing the facts of the case as represented by herself even, the whole proceeding, in general, will be seen to be glar- ingly at variance with the Discipline of the Church. For ourself, we were an utter stranger to these breth- ren, at the time of their expulsion, and of course could have had no predilection in their favor; but feeling that great wrong had been done them, whoever they might be, ;uh1 tliat the cause of God and Methodism had liccii dis- lOS A HISTORY OP THE graced by tlie way they were dealt witli — our only knowl- edge of tlie case being derived from the Conference re port — we took up our pen and went into a somewhat ex- tende'd review, of the matter soon after it transpired. — This review, from the justness of its criticisms, and its appropriateness to the character and objects of the history of the Free Methodist Church, is here introduced. REVIEW. For the Northern Independeut. Bro. Hosmer : — From the time we first read over the report of the proceedings of the Genesee Conference, in relation to llev. L. Stiles and others, at its last session, we have felt that so flagrant an outrage upon our common Methodism deserved to be held up to the just reprehen- sion of the church and of the world. As it respects the general subject, you have done it good justice in your well-conducted and very candid editorial columns. But it still remains, we think, to examine some points a little more in detail, and to keep constantly in view a matter so vitally important to the interests and character of the church. With the exception of the dominant party or clique, by which some of these brethren were arrested and thrown out of the church, and others made to relinquish the right of private judgment in deference to their superiors as the only condition of retaining their membership, the commu- nity have pronounced their trial a mere sham — the forms of law liaving been taken on, while its spirit -and import and true intent, as they understand the matter, were shame- fully perverted. We cannot say how much glory they may have gained with those who are ever ready to sub- stitute " law and order," oflice and authority, for iiumanity and religion ; but nothing has ever transpired in the his- tory of the judicial proceedings of the chuixjh, whicli has l-PKK METHODIST CHt'ROH. 109 placed us in such ill-odor before the community at large fi"om the time we first became a people down to the pres- ent period. The presiding Bishop, we are sorry to say, shares largely in the feeling of condemnation with which those proceedings are regarded. In our humble opinion, the charges preferred against tlicsc brethren, if true, amounted to very little ; particu- larly when viewed in the light of the specifications into which they were drawn out. But, in general, they were not true ; and we are surprised that they were entertained by a grave and enlightened body of divines, for a moment. Nor are we alone in our opinion. The verdict of the pop- ular mind has been rendered to the same effect. This ver- dict, which could only reach us through the secular press, and the Northern Independent — there being no other re- ligious paper which dare give utterance to a sentiment that is adverse to the slave-power among us — determines the proceedings of the Conference to be arbitrary, illegal and oppressive : the individuals expelled having deserved the confidence and commendation of their brethren, in- stead of the fate they received. A brief examination of the proceedings in question, as reported by the oflicial organ of the Conference, will suf. fice to satisfy the candid reader, we believe, that the opin- ion upon which the public mind has settled down in rela- tion to the matter, is unhappily but too well founded. — But as the brethren excomnuinicated were all good and useful preachers, having been guilty of no crime, in the judgment of the people with whom they lived and la- bored ; and the charges on which they were condemned were substantially the same in their nature and design ; — we shall not trouble ourselves to discriminate in respect to the different cases of trial which were had by the Con ference, but treat them all under one common liead — leav- ing the reader, who must have seen or heard the report of 110 A HISTORY OP THE these trials, to refer the matters of complaint to this or that individual complained of, according to the facts in the case. The main charge preferred against the reputed offender, was " contumacy " — a charge peculiarly Popish in its char- acter, and always employed where the accused individual is intended to be condemned and punished by authority, M'ithout law or evidence. Nothing, in general, could go farther to evince the innocence and fidelity of the accused, and the tyranny and conscious injustice of the party ac- cusing, than the fact of the arraignment of the former un- der a charge of this designation. Of all otlier charges, it is the most appropriate and convenient in such cases. And while the world stands, it will continue to be used as the stereotyped denomination of all charges which have nothing but the envy, or the interest, or the dictum of persecuting tyrants to rest upon. But, flimsy and accommodating as this general charge was, in the trial of the accused brethren the specifications did not sustain the charge, if able and impartial judges are to be credited in relation to the matter; nor the evi- dence, the specifications. Of this fact, a sufficient demon- stration may be seen in the following brief analysis of some of the cases : 1. Specification: " Receiving expelled brethren into the church, 'without contrition, confession and satisfactory reformation,' as the Discipline requires." But, (1) this specification does not prove the charge of contumacy — the charge of an obstinate, wilful disobedi- ence to the order and discipline of the church. The thing may have been done, as it often has been, and the accused declares it actually was, in this instance, without any such feeling or design. And, (2) there was no evidence to sustain the specifica- tion ; as it seems the " reformation," etc., of the brethren FREE METHODIST CHURCH. Ill received, was " satisfactory " to the preacher and society receiving them, and that was all-sufficient. The Discipline did not require that the whole church, or the Conference even, should be satisfied ; but merely the society to whom the application for admission was made. But supposing the accused had received expelled members illegally, why did not the Conference remove these members by simply correcting the administration, or declaring it erroneous ; and leave the administrator untouched in his character and standing, in accordance with universal usage? Why the infliction of the extremest penalty known to ecclesiastical law ? When men of the character of Burlingham are ex- pelled from the church in violation of all law, and of all precedent, for a simple error in administration — which, by the way, he seems not to have been guilty of — we need not be surprised if the people should take the matter in hand, and range themselves on the side of the oppressed. 2. Specification ; " In worshiping with these expelled members while they were yet out of the church." As it relates to this specification, it was immaterial to the case in hand, whether it sustained the general charge, or not; since it was not itself sustained by evidence. Of course, the charge of contumacy, attempted to be built upon it, necessarily falls to the ground. The brethren accused did indeed unite in religious worship with members who had been expelled ; but as they had been restored to member- ship again, and licensed to exhort by a valid, thougli it might be illegal administration, they had a perfect right to worsliip with them, the same as before they were ex- pelled ; there being no law or usage of the church to for- bid it. The Bishop himself decided that the administra- tion by which these brethren were received into the cliurch was valid ; and that all were bound by it — preachers and people — till it should be corrected by the Conference. — Why, then, should these brethren be pronounced guilty 112 A HISTORY OF THE of contumacy in the premises? Was it because the Con- ference were determined to cast them out of tlie church at all events, and could only execute their horrid purpose by some such means? So it is generally believed by the com- munity ; and of course the usefulness of those who were concerned in the business is at end ; for it is impossible to benefit the people, as it relates to their spiritual interests and condition, except you have their confidence. We would suggest whether the Rev. authors and procurors of so unhappy a state of things had not better go into the practice of law, (if indeed men of their stamp should be deemed worthy to be admitted at the bar,) and give up the sacred ministry as being altogether unsuited to their character and taste. 3. Specification : " Preaching within the bounds of other charges than their own." And what if they did? Does this specification prove the cliarge of contumacy ? Well, then, we are all guilty of it : for not to insist that the world is in some sort the parish of every Methodist preacher, and that "he is to save all the souls he can ; going not only to those who want him, but to those wlio want him most;" the preaching be- yond tlie bounds of our own particular charges, or within the bounds of the charges of others, occasionally, lias been our custom from the beginning. And, inoreo\'er, tliere is no law against it, excejjt in tlie code lately eiiactrd by the Genesee Conference, of wliich we sliall take lai tlicr notice liereafter. But, while the specification does not sustain the charge, as we have seen, the evidence does not sustain the specifi- cation. That the accused labored more or less upon terri- tory lying between him and his neighbor, but claimed by neither as a part of his original charge, was not denied. — But Avhat harm was there in all that? lias it come to tliis, t hat we are forbidden to take up new ground, in pal- ^'KEE METMODIST CHURCIJ. 113 pable contraventioL. of our whole history and mission aa Jin itinerant ministry, simply for the reason that some jealous, snarling " dog in the manger," refuses to allow us to eat the hay which he will not eat himself? O, what a crime to follow in the footsteps of our early fathers of the itinerancy, by " going out into the highways and hedges ; " and who that is spiritually-minded among us — having the work of the ministry at heart, and feeling more pleasure m seeking after " the lost sheep " of the house of Israel among the mountains, than in carousing at beer saloons, mingling in the midnight revel, or persecuting his breth- ren for their superior piety — has not been' guilty of it ? — Are all these to be excommunicated, therefore ? We will attend to the circumstances of the forbidding these breth- ren to pass over their ordinary bounds, by their superiors, in another connection. 4. " Specification : " The circulating a certain pamphlet which had been interdicted by the Conference." Here again the charge of contumacy falls to the ground, as there was no evidence to sustain the specification on which it was predicated. It was, to be sure, testified by a solitary individual, tliat the accused left a package of tlie pamphlet with some person ; but, to say nothing of the neutralizing effect of his own counter-statement on the subject, his uncorroborated testimony was entirely can- celed by the denial of the accused. And yet, evidence or no evidence, the victim liad been seized ; and the conse- quence of a crime he had never committed, and the penal- ty of a law he had never violated, must be visited upon him by Ids conscientious brethren. Another indication this, of a predetermination to sacrifice brethren against whom no charge or specification of crime could be sus- tained. How wonderful that a Bishop should have been there, consenting \ If Pilate, a heathen ruler, who pre- sided at the mock trial of the Saviour, had been in hia 114 A HISTORY OP THE place, would he not have washed his hands, and said, " take ye these men and crucify them, for I find no fault in them " ? We have now given the substance of " the head and froixt of the oftendiiig" of the expelled brethren — the sub- stance of the ciiarges and specifications liroiight against them, and the nominal evidence on M'hich they were turned out of the church — and the comuiunily will jud^^ for themselves of the character of the administration in the premises. For ourselves, we are deeply mortified and grieved, that any of our brethren — gi'eat or small, preach- ers or people — should have been arrested and expelled from the cliurch, on such grounds; and we have been led to ask, AVlio among us would liave escaped with so little to tarnish our rcpiUation, or lay us open to Disciplinary paiiis ami pciialliL-s, if watched and pursued for so great a length of time l)y those with whom we were on terms of familiar intercourso 'i Sui cly, our church-membership must be held by the most precarious tenure, when we have reached the crisis in the administration of Discipline where it may be taken from us on the ground of party issues, rather tlian upon that of the evidence of guilt ! Having shown tliat the clia-rges against the preachers hitcly cxpi'lh-d from the (icm'scc Conference, as reported in the Xiiii/itni x '/t/.s/ /k/i .[iliu/catc, invohed no cause of action ; \^•e shall now proceed to inquire, taking the same official i-e))orL for our guide, by what means their expulsion was ell'ected. Am-i if, in the course of this investigation, the court shoidd be found to have deserved the penalty v.hich they inflicted upon the accused — while the latter were fully vindicated from t'ae slightest imputation of gniit — the responsibility will rest, not upon us, but upon ihe Conference who constituted the court, or their repoit- er. But by what means were several of the most able and devoted members of the Conference, against whom no FREE METHODIST CHURCH. 115 charge of crime or impropriety even, could be established, expelled from the Methodist Episcopal Church 'i As a basis of action in the premises, the Conference pro- ceeded to pass a set of laws, which, to save appearance, they denominated " resolutions." This was the first stej» in the programme. And, being preparatory to the series of trials which was to follow, it is not sui'prising that should be found to correspond in its character and bear- ing to the object to be gained by its adoption. It was but reasonable to expect that unwarrantable ends would be sought to be brought about by unwarrantable measures; and hence the extraordinary course pursued by the Gene- see Conference in the trial and expulsion of the brethren in question. We pretend not to judge of the motives of the Conference. We are afraid they were not the best, however. But be that as it may, their course of action in the trials alluded to, was most egregiously wrong ; and we scruple not to take issue with them in regard to it, par- ticularly as it relates to their law-making assumptions, for the following reasons : 1. To assume the law-making power was a high-handed usurpation ; for they were not a legislative body, and had no right to pass laws of any kind, much less of a judicial character. If it be said that the resolutions passed by the Conference upon the occasion, Avere not intended as laws ; why, then, we would like to know, were they made a test of membership — the accused brethren being passed, or exj)elled, accordingto their conformity, or non-fontorinity ? Either they were laws, or they were not. If tlicy were, the Conference had no right to pass them. If thoy were not, they had no right to make them a test of membersliip. Let them take which horn of the dilemma they will, and they are impaled by their own action. 2. These Conference laws were substituted for the laws of the Discipline ; as well in the final decision of the case 116 A HISTORY OP THE of the hretln cii acoused, as in their examination, or trial. Henee it was that brethren, promising to obey the latter, were expelled nevertheless for declining to obey the for- mer. Tliis will be evident to any one who looks over the report of the trial and final disposition of the accused brethren. 3. Tliese laws of the Conference were eajpos^/'ac^o, both in their cliaiacti r and effect; since they were of a charac- ter to be used, and were actually used, to exclude brethren from tlie church for " contumacy," in violating them be- fore they were made. 4. They involved a pre-adjndication of the case of the accused brethren — a virtual condemnation of the individ- uals arraigned, in advance of their trial — thereby super- seding the testimony of their witnesses, and of their plead- ings before the Conference, in contravention of all law, and of all justice. The moment these laws were passed, »the exclusion of the accused brethren from the Church was a foregone conclusion. What followed in the way of testimony, and of argument, and of law decisions, was a mere matter of form ; saving the appearance of arbitrari- ness, somewhat, as it was doubtless intended to do, but having no influence whatever upon the final result. 5. 'J'liese laws of the Genesee Conference very forcibly remind one of the fatal decree by which Daniel of old was cast into the lion's den. The princes and officers of the king entered into a foul conspiracy to destroy an innocent man. They were instigated to this abominable outrage by jealousy and hatred. They well knew that they could find no occasion against him, except by means of special legislation, or the passage of a law by which he could be convicted of "contumacy," and consigned to destruction for his fidelity to the cause of God. And all this in the spirit and style of fawning sycophancy towards their mas- ter, the king. How far the parallel between the courtiers FREE METHODIST CHURCH. 117 of the King of Babylon, and the creatures of the slave- power in the Genesee Conference, will hold, in respect to jealousy and hatred and conspiracy and special legislation and sycophancy toward a master — Darius in the one case, and the slave-power in the other — we leave the communi- ty to judge for themselves. Nor shall we undertake to say, whether the same terrible fate which overtook the conspirators of the former case, will be visited upon those of the latter, or not. God in his providence will see to that matter in his own time and way ; and here we are content to leave the question. But the programme of the Genesee Conference in rela- tion to Roberts, Stiles, and others, was not fully carried out when these brethren had been barely expelled from the church : they must be pursued, especially by the offi- cial press, beyond her pale, and hunted down at every turn ; as if they had no rights which anybody was bound to respect. It was not enough to deprive them of their" ministerial character and standing and support, and of all the rights and privileges of church-membership which they counted so dear; their social position, their business prospects or means of a livelihood, and tlieir claim to the common courtesies of life, must be undermined by a sort of mad-dog cry that has been sent abroad througliout the length and breadth of the land against tlioni. And why are these men thus pursued ? What have they done that they should be shut out like a pack of out- laws, from the sympathy of human society ? Expulsion from the church, even w'here it is deserved, ought to be penalty enough for any one. At any rate, it is all we are authorized to inflict. Beyond this point, we are to regard the excluded member " as aheathen man, and a publican;" i. e., as any common sinner, who is still entitled to our sympatl»ies, our prayers and our instructions. Pursuing excommunicated members beyond the pale of the church. 118 A HISTORY OF THE is diabolicallj malicious — a course which none but the emissaries of the old murderer is ever known to follow. — The expulsion of an offender from the church where hehas merited sut li punishment, is all right and proper. It is the " delivering him to Satan for the destruction of the llesli, lliat the soul may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus ; " but the calling him names, or casting a slur up- on his character, and laboring to crush him to death, after he has suffered the highest penalty we are authorized to inflict upon liim, in being cut off from our communion, is to " deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the" soul, and to join our efforts with those of his infernal majesty to effect this most devilish object. We have said that to pursue these Genesee excommuni- cates beyond the pale of the church, was palpably mali- cious; and so it is. But this is not the only motive-power by which the pursuing party are driven on in their career of cruelty and abuse. They are afraid of the light, and must needs extinguish the last flickering ray that shines upon their dark deeds. If the brethren are left Avith any reputation for truth and veracity, the account they give of the manner in which they have been treated by the Conference, will be believed ; and then there will be " death in the ])ot." The sympathies of the community will be turned in their favor — tlie advantages of position and of power be thrown into tlieir hands by the popular will — and the expelling i)arty degraded to the condition in which tiiey have sought to place the expelled. Thus would Ha- inan be hung upon the gallows he had prepared for Mor- decai. It is this terrible retribution they so much fear. And how are they to provide against it ? The answer seems to be, — "If we let [these expelled brethren] thus alone, all men will believe on them : and the Romans shall come, iind lake away both our place and nation." " By this FREE METHODIST CHURCH. 119 craft we have our wealth." " Great is Diana of the Ephe- sians." So these men, it would seem, are not to be let alone. They have offended against :i clique or party; nay, against the slave power; and they must he put down- must be immolated upon the altar of churcli-saving ; and tlie church and community be put upon their guard, and made to look upon them as fanatics, as heretics, as mad- men, with whom it would be dangerous to have anything to do. But how is all this to be done? is the question. What plan is to be contrived — what method employed — to effect an object so desirable, and yet so difficult ? Why, the friends of the oligarchy, — " the tools to do it with," — are all on hand. " Report, say they, and we will report." — But among these " tools," none can be relied on to do the same efficient service in this line with the official press. — The facilities of this "tool " for gathering up and scatter- ing over the land, the scavenger-sweepings of slander and detraction whicli await its call in respect to the expelled brethren, places it in the highest requisition by the party controlling it ; and we are not surprised that they should have the address to turn it to their account. We should naturally look for them to give to the public " the judicial history of these men;" accompanying it with sucli an. notations and reflections as would go to prejudice their cause with the General Conference, and forestall the suc- cessful prosecution of their appeal belbre that body — shut- ting them out from the sympatiiies of the community, and • the openings of business life, at the same time, and ruin- ing them forever in respect to their social position. And we should look, too, for the tyrannical expulsion of brethren whose only crime consisted in their peculiar devotion to the cause of God and humanity, to be followed by that crowning act of tyranny— the interdiction of the freedom of the press! The Northern Indi-jxnJA'iU — the 120 A HISTORY OP THE only religious paper among us that dare open its mouth for the oppressed, and expose the stygian villatiy of the oppressor — must be strangled, or forced out of circulation by an official decree ; and the flood-gates of a popular re- ligion be hoisted over our heads. All this must be done. The free press must be silenced, and the official organs of the church alone be allowed to represent the doings of her "chief ministers," or her proscribed childi-en, and their proscribed cause, will survive the storm of persecution that is raging about them, and their persecutors and op- pressors be consigned to merited infamy and contempt. — O, cursed slave power ! What hast thou done ? A hand- ful of piratical slave-holders at the South have gone on, increasing their exactions, and multiplying their encroach- ments upon the North, till their career of despotism and villany has culminated in the foulest treason. They must now possess the absolute control of the government — fill- ing all its offices, and sharing all its emoluments — or " dis- solve the Union." And so with the church. A miserable minority — corresponding to that of the Slate — must " have the pre-eminence in all things ; " monopolizing every post of honor and profit at our disposal ; nay, must " rule or ruin." The prediction we uttered more than three years ago, that the freedom of the press would, ere long, be inter- dicted among us by churcii authority, has already become history. " The decree has gone forth." The Independeiit is put under the ban — put upon the " inde x expurgato- rius " — and the charge and penalty of " contumacy," pre- paratory to which this Conference legislation was had, will henceforth be visited upon all who presume to disre- gard the unauthorized enactment. How truly Babylonian the stratagem here concocted ! A law is passed which it was understood no genuine Christian, or man of common integrity even, could obey ; on purpose, uo doubt, to pro- FRKE METHODIST CHURCH. 121 voke the commission of the Popish crime of " contumacy ; " and thereby furnish an occasion for the expulsion of those faithful, praying ones, who could neither be persuaded to cease their denunciation of i)opular sins, nor driven into se- cession. We now come to consider the part which the presiding Bishop took in the late famous trials of the Genesee Con ference. To pass bim by, and go into a critique on tlie proceedings of the Conference in the premises, would be disrespectful to him ; and this will never do, though it were barely on account of the office he occupies. The simple reading over the report of the administra- tion of tlie Bishop in regard to tlie aforesaid trials, sufH- ciently evinces his unfortunate leanings to the side of the prosecuting party. Prima facie evidence of his co-opera- tion with the friends and advocates of Border-churchism, is thought to be strikingly manifest in every position he takes ; and not a few are of opinion that his strange rul- ing, more than anything else, contributed to the condem- nation of the accused. At all events, there are some of Lis decisions and teachings which it would be difficult to account for, except upon the supposition that such was the result at which he aimed. It is a well-established maxim in criminal jurisprudence, that "the judge is sui)posed to be on the side of tlie pris- oner." A brief survey of a few of the multitudinous law decisions of the Bishop upon the occasion, will show how far he acted upon the principle of this maxim. II' the fair reputation which had been previously accorded to him for impartiality and candor, do not sutfer an almost total eclipse in the public estimation, by reason of his de- cisions and rulings in the case, we shall be happily disap- pointed. 1. In one instance he decides — the cause of " t*he Re- gency," as the prosecuting party were called, seeming to 122 A MISTOEV OF THE require it — tliat the adininistrfition of a preacher, in re- spect to any matter falling within his appropriate juris- diction, was valid, however illegal it Jiiight be; and tliat all were bound by it, till it should be set aside or corrected by the Annual Conference. Wliicli was all right. But again he decides — the party interest having shifted grounds in tliis instance — that such administration was invalid ; and that consequently no one was bound by it. Did the liisliopV; memory fail him liere? Had he forgotten the iirst decision, when he pronounced the second? Perhaps it may have been found a great convenience in the admin- istration of justice, (V) to have one i<)ii : or to save the neck of a Regency brol luH , w hose arliitrary exclusion of one of his charge rccjuiieu such a decision to cover it, may be difficult totell FREE METHODIST CHUKCH. l2o Possibly, this was deemed a fit oj3casion for placing the membership in absolute subjection to the ministry — as it could now be done, so far as the precedent of the Episco- pal decision of a law question was concerned — at the same time tliat the cause of a favorite party could be saved, and one of their number cleared of a charge which would have been adjudged sufficient to expel a poor Nazm iie from the church. 3. He decided that the pastor, together with the offi- cial board, had the power to appoint all meetings. And, in another connection, that no meetings could be legally appointed for religious worship, except by the official board. Here again is the doctrine of centralization — the placing our religious exercises, as well as our membership, in the hands of the official board, a body that has nothing to do with either. That the official board, as indb'dduals, and in some other relations, have more or less to do with our social duties and church-membership, is not denied ; but nothing under heaven in the character of an official board. And we cannot see what good object the Bishop could have had for investing that board with so much au- thority, or clothing it with powers and prerogatives which the Discipline distributes to other functionaries of the church. Leaving the object of the Bishop out of the question, however, he has evidently committed two palpa- ble errors here: the one, in making the j)ower of the preacher to appoint religious meetings depend on the co- operation of the official board — he havir:g the power to do it when and where he thinks proper, upon his own respon- sibility; the other in limiting that power to the official board — in connection with the preacher in charge, we sup- pose, though he does not say so — since local preachers and exhorters are authorized, not only by the very terms of their license or parchment, as the case may be, but by im- memorial and universal custom, to appoint their own 124 A HISTORY OP THE meetings; and it has always been our practice to urge them out into the field, to labor for God and souls, wher- ever and whenever they could find an opening. And even class-leaders Iiave been in the habit of appointing prayer- meetings for their own classes ; and private individuals, male and female, in their own houses — "none daring to molest, or make them afraid." But now that the ukase of one of the junior Bishops has been issued on the sub- ject, we must take care how we open our mouths in social prayer or praise, except at the dictum of the preacher in charge. And how long before this ghostly fiither will be authorized by another Episcopal decision, or an official construction of the one under consideration, to claim the absolute control of the family altar, and of the closet even, it is not for us to say. But, as things have gone on of late, it will not be a great wliile. And close upon the heels of such a stride, a little farther development of the power of the Bishop may teach us, that the pardon of our sins, and a passport to heaven, is to be sought at the hands of the priest ! 4. He decided that all meetings, otherwise appointed than by the aforesaid authority, are "irregular;" and that a ))reacher has the right to suppress them, at his own dis- cretion. But this decision covers a little too much ground for Protestantism — nay, for Christianity itself: for not only Wesley and Luther, but Christ and the apostles even, went largely into meetings of this description ; and the churches raised up by them respectively, were the fruit of such meetings. If an English priest might have sup- pressed the meetings of Wesley, a Popish priest the meet- ings of Luther, and a Jewish priest the meetings of Christ and the apostles, in accordance with the decisions of the Bishop, what would have become of tlie living Cliristiau Church ere this age of the world V Would tlie " regular order " of Judaism, or of Popery, or of Eiiglisli Chwrchisiu, FREE METHODIST CHURCH. 125 have sufficed to preserve it ? Alas ! for a Methodist Bish- op, who condemns irregular meetings, when the very church over which he has been appointed to preside, owes her existence to them ! Mrs. Susanna Wesley — the mother of our noble founder, and, indeed, of Methodism itself — held irregular meetings in her day ; and her husband and pastor — a staunch old English clergyman — less intolerant than a Methodist Bishop, dare not take the responsibility of suppressing them at his own discretion. And who that has the fear of God before his eyes, would be willing to answer for such a deed at the bar of final judgment, though authorized to perpetrate the abomination by the decision of a thousand Bishops ? If any of our ministers or members are guilty of crime — whether committed in meeting or out of meeting — in meeting regular, or irregu- lar — let them be called to account for it. But for heaven's sake, let none of us ever molest any one for going into re- ligious meetings to worship God, and get souls converted and saved, simply because they are "irregular." This substituting the letter for the spirit — the order and author- ity of the church for the life and power of religion — has always marked the decline of the Church : always been the precursor and means of her downfall. It seems to us high time that we ponder these historic facts, when the faithful are being excluded from our fellowship for no other crime than the seeking spiritual food — independently of that unscriptural church-order whicli restricts them to the husks of a cold and heartless formalism. 5. Another decision was, that members on trial could not be appointed to any official station, or licensed to ex- hort. "Where's the Discipline for this ? The usage has always been otherwise. We should like to know whether St. Paul stood out a six months' probation, and was re- ceived into full membership, before he.was licensed to ex- hort. But the object of this decision evidently was, to 126 A HISTORY OP THE jiave the way for the coiiclemiiation of Stiles and others for recognizing Roberts and McCreery as exhortcrs before their term of probation had expired. Admitting, howev- er, that the licensing these probationers to exhort were il- legal, it was valid^ nevertheless ; and all were bound by it, for the time being ; according to the Bishop's own pre- vious decision. Why then should brethren be condemned for associating with them as public laborers ? To have refused to recognize these brethren as exhorters — coming to them as they did, with a valid license in their hands — would have been to usurp the prerogative of the Annual Conference, and to nullify the valid administration of a co-ordinate authority. And in that case, there would have been ample cause of a('tion against them ; and they might Lave been justly convicted of "contumacy," or some equivalent oifense, upon good and sufficient grounds. But as it was, they were condemned and punished for doing their duty — condemned and punished for obeying the laws of the church! Did the cause of the pro-slavery Regency require this barbarous immolation of the innocent, and the good ? 6. The only remaining decision of the Bishop we shall notice in this review, was, that no preacher' had a right to drop or take up an appointment, without authority from his superior officer. This doctrine seems a little too strin- gent for the meridian of our itinerant, "go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," system. We should tliink, from Part I., chap. IV., sec. XIIL, of Dis., that a suhordinate preacher had some discretion in the premises. At any rate, he has always exercised more or less in respect to things of this kind ; particularly in pioneer times, and large districts, where he seldom could see "his superior officer;" and we never knew any fuss to be made about it before. Nor can we suppress the be- lief, so universally entertained, that it was not the intei'est FIJEE METIIOniST CIIUKCII. of the Churchy but of a pai'tij, wliicli blew up sucli a Ivv- rible flame on the subject at tlie scssiou of llie Gen- esee Conference. The reference tlie Bisliop inukes to the General Conference in support of liis (kcision liere, seems to us ratl)er dubious. We wisli he had qiiuted liis author- ity; or, at least, told us where to iiud il. And even tlien, wo should have been iiiucli better pleased if lie liad read us a passage from the l)isci])line. But if it be so great a crime for a preaclier to enlarge the sphere of his activities " without authority from Iiis superior officer," what shall we think of an officer of the Genesee Conference, leaving his prescribed field of labor for a considerable jtortiou of the time ; drawing liis full salaiy from tlie Book Concern meanwhile : and lilling an- other charge, beyond his aj^pointed limits, at the compen- sation of a tliousand dollars more ? What, we ask, shall we think of all this ? Or of his making the tour of Eu- rope — still enjoying the same fat salary, us we are told — whUe others ai e paid Irom the Book Room for supplying liis lack of st'i-viet at home 'i What "superior officer" has authorized him to do all these things? Were the laws of the Genesee Conference, with their accomj)anying inter- pretations and decisions by the Chair, ajjplied to Jiini, who does not see the result ? And why, we would ask the Bishop, why should they not be so applied? Why "make flesh of one, and fish of another " ? There are doubtless some hundreds among the ministry, who could poorly abide -such test; nor can we tell how the Bishop himself would contrive to escape, for he, too, as we understand the case, ventured "ofi" the limits," and wandered away to tiie Holy Land, " without authority from his superior officer." " Thou, thei'efore, that teachest another, teachest thou thy- self? Thou that teachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, tlirougli breaking the law dishonorest thou God ? " The 128 A HISTORY OF THE difference between the two cases arising from the circum- stance of the Genesee brethren being forbidden to go abroad, or enter upon new ground by " their superior of- ficers," amounts to nothing ; since this forbidding, as it would seem from the testimony in tlie case, was tlie effect, not of right or necessity, but of a mean and miserable party jealousy ; and was designed to involve them in the sin (?) of " contumacy," which it was foreseen their con- sciences and their manhood would impel them to commit. But though this review of the extraordinary proceed- ings of the Genesee Conference, and of the still more ex- traordinary course of the presiding Bishop, in relation to the Church trials by wliich their late session was distin- guished, might be readily expanded into a volume, em- bracing, as they do, a number of questions of vital im- portance to our ecclesiastical jurisprudence: yet we must dismiss the subject, for the present at least, witli a cursory examination of one single point farther. And what do you think it is ? It is not the recognition of the famous five resolutions of the Conference on the part of the Bishop, as so many laws, and his examination of the ac- cused in reference to these Conference statutes, instead of making the Discipline his ultimate authority ; nor the " warning " these brethren " as their chief pastor," to ab- stain from any farther attendance upon irregular meet- ings, and the like, to which we i-efer. No : nor yet the peremptory ordering of brethren, as wise and as good, to say the least, as himself, to leave a camp-meeting where scores were being converted to God, and made holy, on pain of arraignment before the church for the enormous crime of engaging in Divine worship irregularly. All these points, in relation to Episcopal Geneseism, tliough suffi- ciently humiliating and offensive, we propose to pass ovei without comment : a bare reference to them being suffi- cient to stamp them with merited condemnation and scorn. FREE METHODIST CHURCH. The point lo be examined before we take leave of the Genesee administration, and which, by the way, involves the verj^ gist, or principle, of the last-named particular, is neither less nor more than the right of private judgment on the part of the body of the ministry. A right on which tlie Bishop descants, liaving placed his official ne- gation upon it, with so much arrogance and pertinacit y- A surrender of the right of private judgment, as Meth- odist preachers, is now claimed at our hands. It was con- tended by the Bishop, in connectiou with the Genesee trials, that we had already made it, in becoming members of the Conference ; and he was greatly surprised, as if some new thing had happened under the sun, that any of the inferior ministry should presume to assert, or exercise such right in tiie very face of the vows they had solemnly taken upon themselves at their ordination. Fiom the tone of the annunciations of the Bishop and of the otlicial press, with respect to this right — the spirit in which they dogmatize about law and order, judicial decisions and church authority — and the everlasting changes wrung up- on the twelfth " rule for the conduct of preachers," as by the preachers of the South upon " servants obey your mas- ters," and the like ; we would seem to have become tran- substantiated into the very Church of Rome, where the inferior clergy, as well as the people, are all swallowed up — faith, conscience, private judgment, and all — in the in- fallibility of the Pope. That we have surrendered "our own wilV^ — not our pri- vate judgment, but "our own will" to those who have the rule over us," is not denied. But even this surrender of " our will" is far from being absolute. It is both lim- ited in its nature, and conditional in its exercise. Limited to those tilings in which " our superiors " have a right to command us, and conditioned upon the contingency of the righteousness of their commands. It is worse than idle 180 A IIISTOKY OF THE for them to attempt to control us in things beyond their legitimate jurisdiction, while they themselves are playing the tyrant at our expense. The obligation between us ia mutual ; the same as between parents and cliildren ; the I'elative duty of the one, depending on that of the other. Children, to be sure, are commanded to " obey their pa- i-ents in all things ; " but it is only in those things, after all, in which parents have a right to command them — and, to obey them always, i. e., whenever the command is just and proper. So in regard to " our chief ministers ; " we are required to obey them, it is true, but only so far as they are authorized to command us, and their commands are in accordance with the Discipline and the Word of God, — In both cases, as the authority of the governing party to command ceases the moment they go beyond these bounds, so the obligation of the governed to obey ceases precisely at the same point. We most cheerfully acknowledge, that obedience to the '■'■godly admonitions and judgments " of our bishops is obligatory upon us. At the same time, we are not only not bound to obey their ungodly " admonitions and judg- ments," but we are bound not to obey them. And it is botli our right, and our duty to discriminate as to what is godly, and what ungodly, in the exercise of our own pri- vate judgment. We claim the right of private judgment as our own. It is inalienable — a right we never have sur- rendered, and never will. It is indeed our birtli-right ; be- longing essentially to our moral being — our accountability to God — and to Him alone are we responsible for its due and proper exercise. To surrender it to man, whether bishop, pope, or " Mother Church" even, would be treason aoainst God our Saviour, who has placed it beyond the control of any but ourselves — requiring us to exercise it, in subordination to His will alone, upon our everlasting peril, If the attempt to compel us to surrender this right PBEE METHODIST CHURCU. 131 to " our superior officers " be persisted in, we wish it to be understood that we believe in passive resistance : a glori- ous illusti'ation of which we have in the history of Daniel and James, and John, and Luther, and Wesley, and all the holy martyrs; and we will never do wrong in obedience to any authority. We shall follow the impulsions of our own untramraeled consciences — the decisions of our own private judgments, if the bishop please — and, if called to it in the order of Divine Providence, shall not hesitate to "resist unto blood, striving against sin." CHAPTER nr. Upon the expulsion of Mr. Roberts from the Church, he took an appeal to the General Conference ; and pending the appeal — a period of about two years — the spirit of persecution, already inflamed against the so-called Nazar- ites, became rampant, and burst forth with a violence which threatened their universal and speedy extirpation. The madness of Saul of Tai'sus in persecuting the saints of his time, even unto strange cities, scarcely exceeded the rage with which the living portion of the Church were hunted down by the secret-society, worldly-minded, apostate ma- jority of the Conference during this period. The truly faithful, without respect to age, sex, or condition, were brought before inquisitorial committees ; and large num- bers, lay and clerical, were hustled out of the Church in some way, or forced into the leading-strings of the domi- nant party. It was, indeed, a reign of terror. Ridicule, disfranchisement, sham trial, and various other contrivan- ces, well known to the order of Jesuits, were put under contribution for the crushing out of the life and power of religion ; and wide-spread desolation, as the result of these outrageous persecutions, were seen to pervade the Confer- ence througliout all its borders. We shall here present two several extracts: tlie one from the Buffalo Advocate — the organ of the Genesee Conference — and the other from the JNIinutes of the Con- ference itself; fully confirming what we have said above in regard to the condition of the Church, by lier own ac- knowledgment. The first of these extracts is furnished by 132 FUEE METHODIST CHURCH. 133 Rev. Wm. Hart ; the other by Rev. Wm. Hosmer — each accompanying his own extract, respectively, with appro- priate remarks. We give both the extracts and the re- marks, just as they came into our hands. Tliey will speak for themselves. Mr. Hart says: "The following deplorable state of re- ligious feeling and interest, we find copied into the Advo- cate and Journal of March 10th, from tlie Buffalo Advo- cate, as follows : " ' Buffalo. — The Advocate, in an article headed, " Re- ligious Interest in Buffalo," says: We have none ; we have no more than is usual through the year. We do not in- tend to convey the idea, by the above heading, that tliere is any special movement among us, or that there are any very marked efforts toward getting souls converted, or keeping those converted who are already in the Cluirch. The great movement among us, is, we judge, to determine how far the Church can go back to the world, and save its semblance to piety, devotion and truth. Hence many, many Church-members, have become the most frivolous and pleasure-loving and folly-taking part of our town's- people. They love, give and sustain the most popular worldly amusements, such as dancing-parties, card-parties, drinking parties, masquerade and surprise-parties, and have no disposition to come out from the world, and to be sep- ai-ate from it. All tliis may' be seen, read and known, in more or less of the Buffalo Churches.' " Now the question is," proceeds Mr. Hart, " are these charges true or false ? If false, is the Advocate aware what it costs to slander the Church in these days ? It saw a couple of men belieaded for an offence which dwindles into superlative insignificance, when compared with these wholesale charges. Let us look at them : " 1st. No effort towards getting souls converted. " 2nd. No effort to keep souls converted. 134 A HISTORY OF TUK "3d. 'The great movement,' 'the marked eftbrt,' is to gain a position where they can just balance between God and the devil. " 4th. The Church members are frivolous, folly-loving and pleasure-taking, even more so than those who are op- enly in ' the way to hell.' "5th. They love, give and sustain dancing-parties, card- parties, and drinking parties, &c., and have no disposition to do otherwise. " These are the charges ; now for the testimony. Br. Robie called : " Are the above charges true respecting the Churches in Buffalo ? ' " Ans, ' All this may be seen, read and known, in more or less of the Buffalo Churches.' " Dr. Stevens sends out these awful charges to his thou- sand of readers, on the simple assertion of the Advocate, without waiting to know the facts. How he has anatha- matized the Northern Independent, as villifying and slan- dering the Church ; but since its commencement to the present day, where will we find anything to equal the above from Bro. Robie and Stevens ? Now, if the above charges cannot be sustained, should not Bro. Robie be prosecuted for slandering the Buffalo Churches, and Dr. Stevens for ' publishing and circulating 'slanderous reports? If they belonged to Genesee Conference, and were charged with abusing and slandering the Church, they would, ec- clesiastically, be sent higher than Haman. In Genesee Conference, the above extract from the Advocate, would be considered as slanderous, whether true or false. So, Messrs. Editors, you had better take care. What was Bro's. Roberts' and McCreery's fault, compared with yours ? Where or when have these bretliren ever said anything half as severe as this from the Advocate. "But if wliat Br. Robie writes be true, why all this hue and cry against the so called Nazarites ? 'i'iie same un- FREE METHODIST CUUBCH. 135 godly influences, and the same proneness to comply with them, exists in othei' places as well as in Buffalo. — And would it be strange if like causes produced results like those now being experienced by the Churches in Buf- falo ? The same state of things narrated by the Advo- cate, has and does exist in other places. The temptations of the devil have been listened to, and the prayer-meet- ing has given way to the social party ; entire consecra- tion has died, and the spirit of compromise between the Church and world obtains ; formality and indifference re- specting the salvation of souls, have taken the place of Bpirituality and the love which 'constrains to seek the wandering souls of men.' " To counteract these effects, a few faithful souls stood up for Jesus, and like the Hebrew children, declared that they would not fall down and worship the worldly gods which those ' frivolous, folly-loving and pleasure-taking members ' and ministers were setting up. This, as every- body knows, that knows anything about it, was the origin of Nazaritism. The natural antagonism between sin and holiness has caused all the trouble. While the current flows along, as Br. Kobie says it does in Buffalo, and no- body stands up for Jesus and proclaims the whole truth, they will have peace and prosperity ; but it will be the peace of death, and the prosperity of those ' whose eyes stand out with fatness.' " If Br. Robie would stand out as an uncompromising exponent of the whole truth, and in the might of the Spir- it, bear a decided and open testimony against all the worldly connections and associations that are cursing the Churches in Buffalo, he would see such a commotion and storm of opposition, as has been seen and felt in other places. But glory to God, souls would be awakened and saved. Then would commence the work of persecution; for, as ' he that was born after the flesh, persecuted Him 136 A HISTORY OF THE that was born after the Spirit, even so it is noto.'''' If Br. Robie would take this position with an eye single to the glory of God, and seek to root out dead formality, by a living, earnest Christianity, and make " special effoi-ts " for the conversion of sinners, he would be to all intents and purposes a Nazarite. Will Br. Robie take this stand, and see and feel the salvation of God, or will he let the Buffalo Churches drift down to everlasting wo, unwarned, he ■bl- lowing in their wake ? Wsi. Hart. Mr. Hosmer says : — " A copy ot the Minutes of the last session of this [Genesee] Conference, lies upon our table. Its mechanical execution is excellent, and reflects credit upon all concerned. With the matter in general, we are equally pleased. Each page, if we except the account of the ' Conference Camp-meeting,' bears marks of diligence and candor. But what strikes us most, is the report on the ' State of tlie Work.' It is able, pungent, truthful, humiliating. Yet it would have been more so, had all the facts of the case come out. Their language of confession wants translating, and then it would read much like the following : " ' They said one to another, we are verily guilty concern ing our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear : therefore is this distress come upon us.' And Reuben answered them saying. Spake I not unto you, saying, ' Do not sin against the child, and ye would not hear? Wherefore be- liold also his blood is required.' — Gen. xlii, 21, 22. " But let us have their own statement of the sad condi- tion of affairs in a Conference from which all traces of Nazaritism and ' Contumacy ' have been carefully excluded. As this purgation has been eminently expensive to com- mon sense, moral principle, and Methodist Discipline, one would suppose that it might have been prolilic of mere FI;?:E METHODIST CHUHCH. 137 numbers and of a certain kind of self respect. Yet even in these poor results it fails, and hence they say : " 1. ' Our revivals have not been, either in number or extent, what we desired, or had reason to expect. Are we God's ministers, commissioned and sent forth by the Great Head of the Church, to win souls to Christ, and must we, in so many instances, pass on, year after year, with no more marked results ? Are we doing our whole duty, as preachers of the everlasting Gospel, while the years go by, and that Gospel seems essentially powerless in our ministrations? While we are the appointed guardians of the churches, must we, of necessity, see them moving ou to inevitable extinction? This is not GoJ's will. The fault lies, in part, at least, at our own doors. There is, on the part of many of us, cause for profound humiliation before God, and for the most serious inquiry whether we are not essentially failing of the great ends of our minis- try. " 2. 'Another unfavorable feature in our condition is the fact, that in many, perhaps in most of our churches, the membership is made up, almost wholly, of persons far ad- vanced in life. We see among them very few of the young. In a large portion of our churches, we rarely find a young man in the Official Board. This indicates a la- mentable want of extensive revivals among us, for the PAST TEN YEARS. Thcsc aged persons in our churches are true and faithful, and worthy of all honor. But they will soon pass to the church triumphant. There are, perhaps, scores of churches in our Conference, the very existence of which seems to depend on the lives of one, two or three men now far advanced in years. These men are rapidly passing away. It is obvious that, in many places, nothing can save our cause but powerful and far-reaching revivals of religion. " ' Another very great evil among us, and one fraught 138 A HISTORY OP THE with most damaging results to God's cause and all our interests as a Conference, is the engaging in secular pur- suits by so many of our ministers. This evil, during the past two years, has been largely on the increase. It is needless to spend time to show the error of a practice so obviously contrary to both the spirit and letter of our commission, and of our ministerial vows. We claim to have obeyed the voice of the Master, " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature," at the altars of the clmrch. In the presence of God and man we have solemnly pledged to be men of one work, and how can we, conscientiously, engage in occupations that must di- vide our interest, energies, time and affections. This prac- tice is alarmingly shaking the confidence of the people in us, as ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ. They say we are as greedy of gain, as covetous of large possessions, as easily swept into wild speculations as any other class of men. Tills loss of confidence in the ministry is not con- fined to those alone wlio engage in secular pursuits, but extends measurably to the wliole body. Thus the inno- cent suffer with the guilty, and our hold upon the people is lost.' " The chronology of the above is worthy of note, and we have marked it by putting the words in capitals. It is now almost ten years since that Conference arrested the cliaracter of one of its ablest and most useful ministers, and finally expelled him for slander — which slander con- sisted in writing an article for this paper, on 'New-School Methodism.' The article retiected pretty severely on some usages current in that and other Conferences, but was not one whit niore scathing than this report on the ' State of the Ciuirch.' Its allegations indeed were not as broad, nor were its developments as alarming. A keen observer, however, at that time saw the evil in its iucipiency — saw a ministry shorn of its strength, secularized, unsuccessful, FREE METHODIST CHURCH. 139 and the church dying out — saw exactly what this official document declares began to exist ten years ago. The brave man whose eyes, anointed of God, saw this deplor- able condition of the Genesee Conference, should have been rewarded by something better than expulsion, for he meant well, spoke well, and is now fully endorsed by the Conference itself. We saw the injustice done, saw it at the time it was done, and gave notice of the fact ; but our words were then, they probably will be now, unheeded, and the Conference went on its way trying men for ' Con- tumacy,' and expelling such large numbers of their very best ministers and laymen, that absolute ecclesiastical an- nihilation stares them in the face. This result will sur- prise none. It is but the inevitable consequence of a wrong course. Had the leaders of that once prosperous section of the Church listened to good counsel they would not be uttering their De profimdis, but their N'unc dbnit- iis, and each valiant soldier of the cross, looking back over a well contested field could say, ' I have fought a good fight.' "Ten years of spiritual barrenness, the secularization of the ministry to such an extent that the people have lost confidence in them, and many other evidences of decline should satisfy the Conference that it has done wrong — that its administration has cast down those whom God has not cast down. By way of helping them out of their trouble, we suggest that the Conference at once reconsider its action in the case of all who have been expelled on mere technical grounds, and thus restore those on whose account God lias sent leanness into all their borders." — Northern Independent. The following account of outrages perpetrated by the instigation of one of the Genesee Conference Preachers of the M. E. Church, was published in the Niagara (Jity 140 A HISTORY OF THE Herald^ of Oct. 8th, 1859. The writer is a gentleman of the highest respectability, and was an eye-witness of most of the proceedings : "RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. " Outrages at Cayuga Creek — Methodists Hand- Cuffed and sent to Jail on the Sabbath. "The daj^s of persecution have returned. The spirit of the old inquisition is among us. Our informants, who are some of the most respectable citizens at Cayuga Creek, and wealthy gentleman, witnessed the strange spec- tacle of peaceable, devoted Christians, while quietly list- ening to the preaching of an aged and honored local preach- er of the E. Church, being arrested, hand-cuff^ed as fel- ons, and hurried away to jail, on charges manufactured for the purpose. We could hardly persuade ourselves we were residents of a free and enlightened country, in the 19th century. It would seem as if the wheel of time had rolled us back to the dark ages. "The history of this outrage is briefly as follows : The Cayuga Creek Church forms a part of the Niagara Falls charge — the same preacher officiates at the Falls in the morning, and at the Creek in the afternoon of each Sab- bath. Soon after Conference, the pastor went covertly to work to carry out the Anti Methodist doctrine of the ' Pastoral Address,' adopted by the stronger or ' regency ' party of the Genesee Conference. The faithful and effi- cient Sabbath School Superintendent, and the Class Lead- ers were changed, and persons whom the pastor could use, were appointed. " As soon as the term of office of one of the Trustees, a citizen of the highest respectability, and who had con- tributed liberally for the erection and support of the Church, expired, the preaclier, in a quiet way, went to FREE METHODIST CHURCH. 141 ■work to get