THE
C'ENITENARY
AME~RICAN ME~THODIJSM:
A SKETCH OF ITS HISTORY, THEOLOGY, PRACTICAL
SYSTEM, AND SUCCESS.
PREPARED BY ORDER OF THE CENTENARY COMMITTEE
OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
By ABEL STEVENS, LL.D.
WITHL A STATEMENT OF THE PLAN OF THE CENTENARY CELEBRATION
OF 1866,
By JOHN M'CLINTOCK, D.D.
,Neo a ork'
PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PORTER,
200 MULBERRY-STREET.
1866.
I
OF 
I
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by
CARLTON & PORTER, -
in,e Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
.' **:              Southern District of New York.
I
f
1, 
-:,  if ~<
Xo    r     o>-Il!                 s.-  
>~~~~~~~,.,
.'Z~   tr  -
DEDICATORY PREFACE.
OLIVER HOYT, ESQ.
MY DEAR S:-Aside from our personal friendship and those distinguished services which have connected your name with some of the
most important interests of the Church, I deem it proper to submit
this work to you as the author of the resolution, in the Cleveland
meeting of the Centenary Committee, appointing me to "prepare a
centenary volume, setting forth such facts and showings as should
properly come within the scope of such a work;" and the Rev. Dr.
M'Clintock, "to co-operate" with me "by adding a chapter embodying the action of the Centenary Committee, and reflecting the spirit
which pervaded its discussions."
The Committee were doubtless determined, in their choice of a
writer of the proposed book, by the fact that it has been my task foi
a number of years to prepare for the denomination a "History of the
Religious Movement of the Eighteenth Century, called Methodism,"
etc., and "The History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the
United States of America." In the familiarity with the historical
facts of Methodism which these writings have afforded me, I have
found, however, my chief difficulty in preparing the present volume.
There is so much that is heroic, and even romantic, in the early history of Methodism, that a writer, in whose mind such data are fresh
and vivid, must be perplexed to know where to stop, what to record,
or, at least, what to omit. Unless hlie would risk the design of his
work, by its magnitude and consequent high price, he must, with
whatever reluctance, omit names sacredly memorable, and incidents
as marvelous as any in modern religious history. I have been able to
relieve myself from this embarrassment at last only by binding myself
rigidly to the practical design of the volume: to the preparation of
such a brief yet comprehensive exhibit of Methodism as might most
directly promote the purposes of the Centenary Celebration, by showing the true character and claims of the Church, and by setting them
4.
I
.0*
I 
PREFACE.
forth in such manner that they shall be intelligible to the most uninformed reader. As stated in the Introduction, I have also avoided, as
much as possible, except in the last chapter of the volume, any merely
didactic treatment of its subjects, but have studied to give it throughout popular attraction and effect, by historical facts and style. The
first three chapters, however, are alone in purely narrative or chronological form, and are such only so far as the founding of Methodism
in England and America is concerned, or as they can best answer
historically the question, What is Methodism? by showing its evangelical stand-point. This chronological narrative could not be furthet
extended without making the work too large; and it must be borne in
mind that it is the founding of Methodism that is to be celebrated in
the Centenary Jubilee. Its subsequent results are classified and embodied in other chapters. It would seem desirable that the good and,
in many instances, truly great men who have built up the denomination during its first century, should have some record in the volume,
but this is obviously impossible; they have their place in its history,
but this is not its history.
I indulge the hope that you, and other readers, who have followed
me through my larger works on Methodism, will not find this more
compendious and more classified review of its first century in America
uninteresting, though it must necessarily be, to a great extent, a repetition of my former data, and in some instances, with but slight modifications of style. The similar books, officially published by different
branches of the denomination at its General Centenary in 1839, have
been retained as manuals in their literature. I have endeavored to
secure to the present volume the same advantage, by so presenting
the history and official statistics of the various institutions and interests of the Church as to make the book a permanent standard for
reference, affording, in the most convenient form, the chief data which
may be needed by writers, preachers, or others, respecting its history, theology, discipline, literature, education, missions, Sundayschools, etc.
I shall always consider it no small honor to have co-operated, however slightly, with you and your colleagues of the Centenary Commiittee in the onerous labors with which you have been preparing the
Church for its approaching festival, an occasion which I doubt not
will be rendered forever memorable.
Respectfully,
ABEL STEVEN&
MAMARONEOK PARSONAGE, Oct., 1865.
I
I
t
4 
CONTENTS.
INrRODUCTION................................... Page 9
PART I.
WHAT IS METHODISM?-THE QUESTION HISTORIC                      ALLY ANSWERED.
Page
Robert Strawbridge............7
Early Local Preachers......... 79
Page
CHAPTER I.
ITS ORIGIN, FOUNDERS, AND EARLY
PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
Its Historical Stand-point......           ELEAES11
Sketches of John and Charles..
Wesley...................,11
Susannan Wesley................11
Studies and Religious Inquiries
of the Wesleys.............. 13
John Wesley's Charities.....20.........
Sketch of whitefield.......... 21
Conversion of the Wesleys..... 25
Peter Boehler................. 31
Luther on Faith............... 33
Beginning of the Methodist Mis  sion......................... 38
Religious Condition of England. 43
Remarkable Scenes.............. 48
Lay Preachers..................  51
The first Society............... 52
Persecutions...................... 53
Whitefield in America.........55
Results....................... Rm 57
CHAPTER Im.
EARLY EVANGELISTS.
Robert Williams.............. 83
John King.....................  87
Boardman and Pilmoor........ 89
Wright and Asbury............90
Asbury's Character............ 91
Rankin and Shadford.......... 95
Other Preachers............... 96
The Revolutionary War...... 96
CHAPTER IV.
RAPID PROGRESS.
Methodism in the West....... 102
Episcopal Organization.... 102
M~fethodism in New England  103
In Canada.................... 108
Its Native Ministry........... 104
Subsequent Progress.......... 105
Remarkable Statistics......... 106
Comparative Strength in differ  ent parts of the Country..... 107
CHAPTER H.
ORIGIN, FOUNDERS, AD PROGRESS IN
AMERICA.
The Irish Palatines...........64
Philip Embury.................. 66
Methodism in New York......69
Barbara'leck...................... 69
Captain Webb................. 70
Outspread of Methodism....... 75
CHAPTER V.
ITS PRACTICAL SYSTEM.
"The United Society".......    109
The "Class Meeting".......... 109
"General Rules "............ 109
Church Officers........... 110
Circuits, Districts, Conferences 111  
I
CONTENTS.
Page                                Page
Vigor of its System............. 113  Witness of the Spirit........... 128
Its Origin and Development.. 114 Christian Perfection.......... 130
Lay Representation........... 120  Catholicity of Methodism.... 134
Examples of Wesley's Liber         CHAPTER  VI.                 ality......................   189
S DOCTRINAL SYSTE.     Scientific Theology........... 140
Watson and Warren.......... 140
Articles of Religion.......... 125 Relative Position of Methodist
Arminianism................. 127    Theology.................. 140
PART II.
WHAT HAS METHODISM ACHIEVED ENTITLING IT TO
THE PROPOSED COMMEMORATION?
Wesley adopts the Institution. 172
Asbury introduces it into
America................... 173
History of the Methodist Sun  day-School Union.......... 175
Its great Success............ 176
Results —Statistics......... 176
CHAPTER I.
ITS SPECIAL ADAPTATION AND USE    SSLmEss TO TLEB COuPrY.
Great Growth of Population...  147
The Methodist Itinerancy ilec  essary to meet the Moral
Wants of the Country......... 148
Its Remarkable Results...... 150
,Its Relative Success.......... 152
CHAPTER HI.
ITS LABORS IN THE DIFFUSION OF LIT            ERATURE.
Wesley's Literary Services.... 155
Origin of the Methodist Book
woncern..................... 157
Its History................... 157
Its present Magnitude......... 160
Its usefulness................ 161
CHAPTER III.
ITS EDUCATIONAL LASORS.
First Methodist School....... 163
Wesleyan Educational Efforts. 164
Theological Schools.......   1    W     y      tRu... 165
Early Educational Efforts in
America................... 165
Asbury misrepresented.......2 166
History of Education in the
Church............1........ 167
Results-Statistics............ 170
CHAPTER IV.
rrS SUm)AY-sCHOOL E1RPRISE.
Early Methodism and Sunday  Schools.................... 171
CHAPTER V.
ITS MISSIONAY TAROBS.
Early Methodism and Missions 180
Bishop Coke and Missions.... 181
Great Success................. 184
History of Methodist Mission  ary Siety.................. 187
Foreign Missions............ 191
German Methodism...........  196
Present Condition of Methodist
Missions................... 198
Results-Statistics......... 198
CHAPTER   VI.
ITS LOYALTY AND PATRIOTI0 S]V              ICES.
Wesley and the Revolution... 201
His change of Opinion............. 201
His Letter to British   Cabinet
M i nisters.................. 201
Methodis    t E. Church first rec ognizes the New Government 203
Important change of its Article 208
Methodism asserts the National
Sovereignty................ 208
Address to Washi  ngton.    205
His Reply....... 207
The      ntslaveryContovery: 20a
6
4 0 0. 
CONTENTS.
Page
New York East Conference.... 209
Services in the War............. 209
President Lincoln's Testimony 210
P.g
Church Property............. 218
Book Concern................ 214
Sunday-School Union........ 214
Missions..................... 214
Methodist Episcopal Church
South..................... 214
Aggregate................... 215
Other -Methodist Bodies...... 215
General Aggregate........... 216
Bishop Janes on the Actual
State of Methodism........ 217
CHAPTER VII.
SUMMARY VIEW.
Great Numerical Growth...... 213
Statistics of the M. E. Church. 213
Membership and Ministry... 218
Educational Institutions...... 218
PART III.
ITS OAPABILITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE
FUTURE.
Its Wealth................... 225 Church Architecture......... 288
Demands upon it............. 225 Religious Ar       t................ 234
Prospective Population of the    Reunion of Methodist Bodies. 286
Country................... 22 6 Church Care of its Children..   288
Area of the Republic......... 229 Significant Statistics.......... 238
Educational Responsibilities.. 230 Pastoral Care of Children.... 289
Proportion of Juvenile Popula-   Spiritual Mission of Method  tion................... 230   ism....................... 241
Ministerial Education 2.......232 The Centenary Memorial..... 242
7
4 6 4.  
CENTENARY
AMERICAN METHODISM.
INTRODUCTION.
THE American Methodists propose to celebrate, in
the year 1866, the completion of the first great cycle
of their history, its centenary jubilee. From Maine
to California, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico,
they will assemble in their churches for religious
ceremonies and pecuniary offerings. What entitles Methodism to this solemn, this national commemoration?
In answering this question it is proposed to show:
First, What is Methodism..
Second, What it has achieved that commends it to
such general and grateful recognition.
Third, What are its capabilities for the future, and
the consequent responsibilities of its people.
It is not designed to discuss these propositions in
or
. a 0!
0 
INTRODUCTION.
the way of dissertation, but, as far as possible, in
a historical form such as shall present the general
scope of Methodism, as a historical, a doctrinal,
and a practical system; so that the inquirer, who
may have heretofore given it no studious attention,
shall be able to appreciate its real character and
claims.
10
0 
PART I.
WHAT IS METHODISM?
CHAPTER I.
ITS ORIGIN, FOUNDERS, AND EARLY PROGRESS IN
ENGLAND.
METHODISM has been  described as "a revival
Church in its spirit, a missionary Church in its
organization;" a resuscitation of the spiritual life
and practical aims of primitive Christianity. This
is its genuine standpoint, the only one from which
its history and its theological and practical systems
can be interpreted. It is implied not only in the
characteristic features of its progress, doctrines, and
economy, but in the individual history of its founders
and other principal agents.
John Wesley, its chief apostle and legislator, was
born June 14, 1703, in the Epworth Rectory, Linc6lnshire, England. Charles Wesley, one of its
ablest preachers, and the author of its Psalmody,
now its virtual liturgy throughout the world, was
born there, December 18, 1708. Susanna Wesley,
their mother, who has been called "the real found
i
0 
12   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
ress of Methodism," was distinguished by her rare
intellect, her piety, and her domestic management.
Her system of household education has been the
wonder, if not the admiration, of most historical
writers on Methodism.  It was her custom to retire
with each of her children once a week, for religious
conversation and prayer. She has recorded that, on
these occasions of devout self-recollection, she felt
a peu]ilar solicitude for her most celebrated child.
When not yet seven years old he had providentially
been saved from a terrible death. The rectory was
burned down at night; all its inmates, except John,
had escaped, but he was sleeping in a room which
the flames rendered inaccessible. The rector and his
family knelt on the ground, in the light of their
burning home, and committed the soul of the child
to God, when suddenly he appeared at the window of
his chamber. A peasant, mounting on the shoulders
of another, rescued him at the instant that the roof
fell in; two minutes of delay would have deprived
the history of the world of the name and achievements of its most remarkable modern religious character.  "I do intend," said his grateful mother, in
one of the recorded meditations of her weekly retirement and prayer with him, "I do intend to be
more particularly careful of the soul of this child
that thou hast so mercifully provided for, than
ever I have been, that I may do my endeavor to 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
instill into his mind the principles of true religion
and virtue. Lord, give me grace to do it sincerely
and prudently, and bless my attempt with good
success."
In advanced life John Wesley recorded the admiration with which he recalled this faithful mother; the
skill with which she managed, with little assistance,
and in no little poverty, the daily affairs of her family,
comprising thirteen children, all of whom, that attained responsible years, became devoted Christians,
and "died in the Lord;" her household school,
commenced daily with singing and prayer, and conducted solely by herself with academic regularity;
her devotion as family priestess to religious duties;
her daily evening hour of retired prayer and converse with her children severally; the prudence
and zeal with which she conducted in the absence
of her husband a sort of Sunday public worship,
in the rectory, for the villagers as well as her
family.
It was inevitable that such a training should have
impressed, for life, the minds of such men as the two
Wesleys. They bore from the rectory tendencies
which the world could never reverse. John left the
home for the Charterhouse School, London, when
eleven years old, and entered Oxford University in
his seventeenth year. Charles went to the Westminster school when about eight years of age, and in due
13 
14   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
time joined his brother at Oxford. Their vigilant
mother maintained a frequent correspondence with
them.  "Now," she wrote, "in good earnest, resolve
to make religion the business of your life; for, after
all, that is the one thing that, strictly speaking, is
necessary.   All things besides are comparatively
little to the purposes of life. I heartily wish you
would now enter upon a strict examination of yourself, that you may know whether you have a reasonable hope of salvation by Jesus Christ. If you have,
the satisfaction of knowing it will abundantly reward
your pains; if you have not, you will find a more
reasonable occasion for tears than can be met with
in any tragedy."   And now  the influence of the
saintly example and instructions of this extraordinary
woman was made manifest, not only in the uprightness of the general moral conduct of her sons, and
their success in study and collegiate honors, but in
their extraordinary spirit of religious inquiry and
devotion.   John was the first to reveal this effect;
but his conversations with his brother soon awoke a
responsive sympathy in the heart of the latter. They
perceived that the religious life is the supreme interest of man, that all else should be subordinated to
this, and that without it human life must be a failure,
the saddest of problems, nay, a mixed farce and
tragedy. They perceived further, not in uncharitableness, but deep self-abasement, that the habitual 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
Christian life of their country, as well as of themselves, was generally, if not universally, incompatible
with the standard of spiritual life prescribed by
Christianity and exemplified by the original Church.
In fine, the very genius of Methodism, as not an
ecclesiastical, nor a theological, but a vital and practical system, was foretokened in the moral history of
these young and earnest inquirers.
John gave himself to the best religious reading he
could command. Three authors became now his
habitual companions, next to his Greek Testament.
Bishop Taylor's "Holy Living and Dying," Kempis's
"Imitation,"  and  Law's  "Serious  Call"  and
"Christian Perfection," agreed with those convictions of the thoroughness and sanctity of the Christian life, which had struck into his inmost consciousness; but these three most remarkable writers,
perhaps, since the apostolic age, on Spiritual Christianity, failed in an essential point. They delineated
accurately a genuine spiritual life, but did not
show the requisite means of its attainment.  "They
preserve a complete silence," says a good authority,
"respecting the faith by which the conscience is
purged from dead works, and the very thoughts of
the heart are made pure, and therefore leave the
reader in the hopeless attempt to practice Christian
holiness while he is under the power of sin. He is
required to love God with all his heart, but he
15 
16   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
receives no information concerning the manner in
which he is to be saved from the condemnation to
which he is liable on account of his past sins, and
the carnal mind which is enmity against God." In
fine, the great Pauline doctrine of "Justification by
Faith," which was the most potential truth of primitive Christianity, and by which Lmher restored
apostolic life to the Church, was generally inert, if
not practically ignored, in the English Church of the
day. The Wesleys were now, and for some years,
feeling after it as in the dark; they were to find it at
last, find it by the help of Luther, its great restorer,
and with it begin the "Religious movement of the
eighteenth century, called Methodism."
The history of their inner life, at this time, is
an exceedingly interesting study, and is important as a preliminary and an exponent of their
subsequent public life as founders of Methodism.
Bishop Taylor's teachings respecting purity of motive, deeply impressed the mind of John Wesley.
"Instantly," he says, "I resolved to dedicate all my
life to God, all my thoughts and words and actions,
being thoroughly convinced that there is no medium;
that not only a part but the whole must be a sacrifice
to God or to myself, that is, in effect, to the devi]."
This became the characteristic maxim ofhis whole
subsequent life. He could not accept some of Taylor's sentiments, and his dissent led him more defini 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
tively to doctrines which were to be vital in the
-theology of Methodism. The bishop, like most religious teachers of his day, denied that the Christian
could usually be sure of his acceptance with God.
Wesley replied: "If we dwell in Christ and Christ
in us, which he will not do unless we are regenerate,
certainly we must be sensible of it. If we can never
have any certainty of our being in a state of salvation, good reason it is that every moment should be
spent, not in joy, but in fear and trembling; and
then, undoubtedly, in this life we are of all men
most miserable. God deliver us from such a fearful
expectation! Humility is, undoubtedly, necessary
to salvation; and if all these things are essential to
humility, who can be humble, who can be saved?
That we can never be so certain of the pardon of our
sins as to be assured they will never rise up against
us, I firmly believe. We know that they wvill infa]libly do so, if we apostatize; and I am not satisfied
what evidence there can be of our final perseverance,
till we have finished our course. But I am persuaded
we may know if we are now in a state of salvation,
since that is expressly promised in the Holy Scriptures to our sincere endeavors, and we are surely
able to judge of our own sincerity." Here was not
only his later doctrine of the "Witness of the Spirit,"
but a clear dissent from the Calvinistic tenet of
"final perseverance."  His proclivity to Arminian
2
17 
18   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
ism became quite decided about this time.  "As I
understand faith," he wrote, "to be an assent to any
truth upon rational grounds, I do not think it possible, without perjury, to swear I believe anything
unless I have reasonable grounds for my persuasion.
Now that which contradicts reason cannot be said to
stand upon reasonable grounds; and such, undoubtedly, is every proposition which is incompatible with
the divine justice or mercy. What, then, shall I say
of predestination? If it was inevitably decreed from
eternity that a determinate part of mankind should
be saved, and none besides, then a vast majority of
the world were only born to eternal death, without
so much as a possibility of avoiding it. How is this
consistent with either the divine justice or mercy?
Is it merciful to ordain a creature to everlasting
misery? Is it just to punish a man for crimes which
he could not but commit? That God should be the
author of sin and injustice, which must, I think, be
the consequence of maintaining this opinion, is
a contradiction to the clearest ideas we have of
the divine nature and perfections." His mother
confirmed him in these views, and expressed her
abhorrence of the Calvinistic theology.  God's prescience, she argued, is no more the effective cause
of the loss of the wicked than our foreknowledge
of the rising of to-morrow's sun is the cause of
its rising. She prudently advised, however, absti 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
nence from these speculations as "studies which
tended more to confound than to inform the understanding."
He visited his father's parish at Epworth, and in
its rural retirement became more than ever infected
with the mysticism of Kempis and Law. He was
inclined to the recluse life of the Catholic saints; it
was, he says, "the decided temper of my soul."  He
proposed to himself a secluded school in the Yorkshire
Dales, but his vigilant mother checked him, predicting that God would open for him a more important
career in the world. He made a journey of some
miles to converse with " a serious man,' of whom he
had heard.  " Sir," said this man, as the frank and
anxious inquirer stood before him, "you wish to
serve God and go to heaven, but remember you cannot serve him alone; you must, therefore, find companions, or make them; the Bible knows nothing of
solitary religion." He returned to Oxford and found
them; for his brother, led by his influence, had
gathered about him a group of devoted students,
and  the  "Holy  Club"  was  already  organized.
Its members were soon derisively called "Methodists," for the systematic regularity of their lives.
and especially of their religious observances.  John
immediately became their leader by the tacit recognition of his superior capacity and character. They
studied together the Greek Scriptures, the classics,
19 
20   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
and theology; they fasted twice a week, and received
the Lord's supper every Sunday. Wesley drew up
for them a severe system of self-examination, worthy
of a monastic order. They devoted certain hours to
the instruction of poor children, the visitation of the
sick and prisoners. Wesley himself now began that
course of practical charity to the poor which continued to be one of the distinctions of his remarkable
life.  In a printed sermon he says: "When I was at
Oxford, in a cold winter's day, a young maid (one of
those we kept at school) called upon me. I said,
I You seem half starved. Have you nothing to cover
you but this thin linen gown?'  She said,'Sir, this
is all I have.' I put my hand in my pocket, but
found I had scarce any money left, having paid away
what I had. It immediately struck me,'Will thy
Master say, Well done, good and fathful 8rteward?
Thou hast adorned thy walls with the money which
might lhave screened this poor creature from the
cold! 0 justice! 0 mercy! Are not these pictures the blood of this poor maid? See thy expensive apparel in the same light; thy gown, hat, headdress! Everything about thee which cost more than
Christian duty required thee to lay out is the blood
of the poor!  0 be wise for the time to come!  Be
more merciful! more faithful to God and man! more
abundantly adorned with good works!"'
When his income from his college fellowship was 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
but ~30 a year he gave away ~2; when it was ~60 he
still confined his expenses to ~28, and gave away
~32; when it reached ~120 he kept himself to his old
allowance, and gave away ~92. Besides giving himself wholly to the public good, and laboring as devotedly as any other man of modern times for the moral
welfare of the poor, he gave away, it is computed, a
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the proceeds of
his publications, etc. The last insertion in his private journal, written with a trembling hand, reads
thus: "For upward of eighty-six years I have kept
my accounts exactly. I will not attempt it any
longer, being satisfied with the continual conviction.
that I save all I can and give all I can; that is, all I
have."
With such rigor did these earnest young men
seek self-purification and peace  of  soul.   They
were treated with contempt by their fellow-collegians, especially as they marched together to their
weekly sacrament; but their number increased, and
the germ of the future and world-wide growth of
Methodism was already planted within the learned
pale of Oxford.
In 1735 a young man joined them, whose fame, as
an apostle, was to fill the English realm in both hemispheres. He was born in Gloucester, in 1714, and
spent his early life in poverty, ignorance, and vice.
When about fifteen years old he became a " common
21 
22   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
drawer" in an inn at Bristol, (which was kept by his
mother,) wearing, as he says, his "blue apron and his
snuffers," and "washing and cleaning rooms." "If I
trace myself," he adds, "from my cradle to my manhood, I can see nothing in me but a fitness to be
damned; and if the Almighty had not prevented
me by his grace, I had now either been sitting in
darkness, and in the shadow of death, or condemned,
as the due reward of my crimes, to be forever lifting
up my eyes in torments." Yet he was a youth of the
largest soul and the most susceptible moral sensibili
ties. Religious books fell into his hands; he sought
improvement both of heart and head; he made his
way to Oxford, where he was now struggling for his
education in the humble condition of a servitor, or
"poor student."  Kempis and Alleine's "Alarm"
here deepened his religious solicitude, and, groping
in the thick spiritual darkness which surrounded him
amid so much intellectual light, he fell into pitiable
anguish and not a few superstitious extravagances.
His mental struggles seemed at times to impair his
faculties; his memory failed; he describes himself as
feeling like a person bound in iron armor; he chose
the poorest food that he could subsist on, and the
meanest raiment, "dirty shoes, patched garments,
and coarse gloves," for the mortification of his baffled
soul. He almost daily suffered some insult from his
fellow-students.  When he knelt in prayer he felt a 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
mysterious and insupportable "pressure on soul and
body," and often spent hours in these intercessory
agonies while the sweat dripped down his person.
"God only knows," he says, "how many nights I
have lain upon my bed groaning under what I felt.
Whole days and weeks have I spent in lying prostrate on the ground, in silent or vocal prayer." For
forty days, during Lent, he tasted nothing but coarse
bread and sage tea, except on Saturdays and Sundays. He resorted to solitary places seeking rest
and finding none; he spent the hours of night praying under the trees, and trembling with cold and
mental anguish, till the bell of the college called him
to his chamber, where the remaining hours, till dawn,
were passed in tears and prayers. Of course his
health failed under these errors; a long sickness disabled him to pursue them, and in his helpless prostration he was led to apprehend clearly the doctrine of
justification by faith.  "God," he says, "was pleased
at length to remove the heavy load, to enable me to
lay hold on the cross by a living faith, and by giving
me the spirit of adoption to seal me, as I humbly
hope, even to the day of everlasting redemption.
0! with what joy, joy unspeakable, even joy that
was fall of glory, was my soul filled, when the weight
of sin went off, and an abiding sense of the pardoning love of God, and a full assurance of faith,
broke in upon my  disconsolate soul  Surely it
23 
24   CENTENARY OF AMERICA METHODISM.
was the day of my espousals, a day to be had in ever
lasting remembrance.  At first my joys were like a
spring tide, and, as it were, overflowed the banks;
go where I would I could not avoid the singing of
psalms almost aloud; afterward they became more
settled, and blessed be God, saving a few casual
intervals, have abode and increased in my soul ever
since."
Such was George Whitefield's initiation into the
"Holy Club," the Methodistic band at Oxford.  He
was to pioneer their public career in England and
all along the British colonies of North America, the
most eloquent, the most flaming preacher that the
Christian Church has known since its apostolic age;
a man whose native genius for oratory, heightened by
saintly piety, was to shake with an unprecedented sensation, and awaken, as in a moral resurrection, nearly
the whole British empire; to extort unwonted admiration, and compliments from Hume, Bolingbroke,
Garrick, Walpole, and Chesterfield; to attract in his
private ministrations at the mansion of the Countess
of Huntington, the nobility of the Court, while it
swept like a hurricane over throngs, ten, twenty,
forty thousand strong, on the hillsides, and in the
market-places of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland,
and North America, startling them to tears, sobs, and
irrepressible cries of anguish and penitence.  He
seems indeed the providential man for the approach 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
ing religious crisis. His moral struggles, even the
superstitious rigors which came so near destroying
him, prepared him to meet and counsel similar cases,
in the general religious agitation which was about to
set in, to appreciate and assert the true Christian life
as "the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free."
With a heart incandescent with divine fire, palpitating
with those generous sympathies that render all the
world kin and give to the orator irresistible control
of the popular mind, he combined an imagination as
sublime as that of the IHebraic prophets, and the most
extraordinary oratorical aptitudes of voice and gesture.
Garrick said he could make his hearers weep or
shout with exultation, merely by his varied pronunciation of the word Mesopotamia; Hume said
he would go twenty miles to hear him; Chesterfield
opened for him his own chapel at Bretby Hall, and
theatrical actors resorted to his preaching to study
the secret of his unrivaled power. A peasant hearer
best characterized perhaps that indescribable power
when he declared that Whitefield "preached like a
lion."
The Wesleys had a longer preparatory moral struggle. Failing to find rest to their souls in their religious observances and painful self-discipline at
Oxford, they resolved to seek it in entire self-sacrifice
as missionaries in the ends of the earth. They went
in 1735 to Georgia, to preach to the Indians and the
25 
26   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
colonists of Oglethorpe. On their passage they found
that their faith could not sustain them in the perils of
storms; though their Moravian fellow-passengershumble peasants and artisans-sang hymns of hope
and joy in the expectation of sudden death. John
Wesley conversed with them, and saw clearly that
he had not yet attained similar piety. On reaching
Georgia he was hospitably received by its little
Moravian community;  Spangenberg, one of their
pastors, put to him a searching question: "Does the
Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit that you
are a child of God?"  Wesley was arrested by the
inquiry and knew not how to answer it.  "Do you
know Jesus Christ?" continued Spangenberg.  "I
know he is the Saviour of the world," responded
Wesley.  "True," replied Spangenberg, "but do you
know that he has saved you?"   "I hope he has
died to save me," rejoined Wesley. Spangenberg only
added, "Do you know yourself?"  "I do," answered
Wesley, "but I fear," he writes, "they were mere
words." Hie lodged with these devout men, and was
much impressed with the singular simplicity and
purity of their daily life. He witnessed with admiration their ecclesiastical counsels, the election and
ordination of a bishop, and writes that as he sat in
their little but dignified synod, he forgot the seventeen centuries which had passed since the days
of the apostles, and seemed to be in one of those 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
assemblies where form and state were unknown, but
where Paul the tentmaker, and Peter the fisherman, presided with the demonstration of the spirit
and of power.
Yet even here, amid the pure light of the primitive
faith, which these good men had kindled in the
wilderness, "he comprehended it not," but sought
peace to his troubled soul in ascetic self-denial and the
"merit of works."   He read daily prayers at five
o'clock in the morning, preached and administered the
communion at eleven, and read the evening service
at three. He refused all food but bread and water,
slept on the ground, taught the children in a school,
and went barefooted that he might encourage his poor
scholars. He was severe to others as well as to himself; his rigors broke down the patience of the people,
and he at last retreated from the field discomfited and
in despair. His brother had failed in a similar manner, and had returned to England. John followed
him about fifteen months later. As he came in sight
of Land's End, England, he wrote in his journal:
"I went to America to convert the Indians, but 0!
who shall convert me? Who, what is he that will
deliver me from this evil heart of unbelief? I have
a fair summer religion; I can talk well, nay, and
believe myself, while no danger is near; but let death
look me in the face and my spirit is troubled, nor
can I say, to die is gain. I think verily, if the Go
27 
28   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
pel be true, I am safe; for I not only have given and
do give all my goods to feed the poor-I not only
give my body to be burned, drowned, or whatever
else God shall appoint for me, but I follow after
charity-though not as I ought, yet as I can-if haply
I may attain it. I now believe the Gospel true. I
show my faith by my works, by staking my all upon
it. I would do so again and again a thousand times,
if the choice were still to make. Whoever sees me,
sees I would be a Christian. Therefore are my ways
not like other men's ways; therefore I have been, I
am, I am content to be, a by-word, a proverb of reproach. But in a storm I think, What if the Gospel
be not true? Then thou art of all men most foolish.
For what hast thou given thy goods, thy ease, thy
friends, thy reputation, thy country, thy life?  For
what art thou wandering over the face of the earth?
a dream? a cunningly-devised fable?   O! who will
deliver me from this fear of death?  What shall I
do?  Where shall I fly from it?  Should I fight
against it by thinking, or by not thinking of it? A
wise man advised me some time since,'Be still, and
go on.' Perhaps this is the best; to look upon it as
my cross; when it comes to let it humble me, and
quicken all my good resolutions, especially that of
praying without ceasing; and at other times to take
no thought about it, but quietly to go on in the work
of the Lord."  On the 1st of February, 1738, he was 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
again in England, and writing in his diary:  "This,
then, have I learned in the ends of the earth-that I
'am fallen short of the glory of God;' that my whole
heart is'altogether corrupt and abominable,' and,
consequently, my whole life-seeing it cannot h that
an' evil tree' should'bring forth good fruit;' that,
'alienated' as I am from'the life of God,' I am  a
'child of wrath,' an heir of hell; that my own works,
my own sufferings, my own righteousness, are so far
from reconciling me to an offended God, so far from
making any atonement for the least of those sins
which'are more in number than the hairs of my
head,' that the most specious of them need an atone
ment themselves, or they cannot abide his righteous
judgment; that'having the sentence of death' in
my heart, and having nothing in or of myself to
plead, I have no hope but that of being justified
freely,'through the redemption that is in Jesus;'
I have no hope, but that if I seek, I shall find Christ,
and'be found in him, not having my own righteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith."'
Again he writes, "It is now two years and almost
four months since I left my native country, in order
to teach the Georgian Indians the nature of Christianity. But what have I learned myself, meantime?
Why, what I the least of all suspected, that I, who
went to America to convert others, was never myself
29 
so   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
converted to God.  I am  not mad, though I thus
speak, but I rpeak the words of trth and soberness,
if, haply, some of those who still dream may awake,
and see that as I am so are they." Were they read in
philopphy? he continues with eloquent earnestness,
and in language which would cover boastfulness itself
with shame; were they read in philosophy? so was
he. In ancient or modern tongues? he was also.
Were they versed in the science of divinity? he too
had studied it many years. Could they talk fluently
upon spiritual things? the very same could he do.
Were they plenteous in alms? behold, he gave all his
goods to feed the poor. Did they give of their labor
as well as their substance? he had labored more
abundantly. Were they willing to suffer for their
brethren? he had thrown away his friends, reputation, ease, country; he had put his life in his hands,
wandering into strange lands; he had given his body
to be devoured by the deep, parched up with heat,
consumed by toil and weariness, or whatsoever God
should please to bring upon him. But, he continues,
does all this, be it more or less it matters not, make
him acceptable to God? Does all he ever did, or can,
know, say, give, do, or suffer, justify him in His sight 
If the oracles of God are true, if we are still to abide by
the law and testimony, all these things, though when
ennobled bv faith in Christ they are holy, and just, and
good, yet without it are dung and dross.  He refuses 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
to be comforted by ambiguous hopes. "If," he adds,
"it be said that I have faith, for many such things
have I heard from many miserable comforters, I
answer, so have the devils a sort of faith; but still
they are strangers to the covenant of promise. The
faith I want is a sure trust and confidence in God,
that, through the merits of Christ, my sins are for given, and I reconciled to the favor of God."
Methodism is indebted to Moravianism for not only
some of the most important features of its moral dis- Y
cipline, but for the personal "conversion" of both
the Wesleys. On returning to London they found
representatives of that community conducting certain
social religious assemblies, which met weekly. To
these they resorted, especially to one held in Fetter
Lane, for they found there a better exposition of
Christianity than at St. Paul's or Westminster Abbey,
more responsive at least to those religious solicitudes
which were quickening their souls into regenerated
life. Peter Bohler, afterward a Moravian bishop,
became now the daily companion and counselor of
the two inquirers. Charles Wesley was the first to
emerge, under his guidance, out of the mists which
had so long hung about them, into the true light and
peace of the Gospel, but not without much hesitancy, and certain theological fallacies which would
seem incredible to the better instruction which
Methodism has afforded to our age. iHe was dan
81 
32    CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
gerously ill, and B6hler came to sympathize with
him. After praying at his bedside, the good Moravian
took his hand and asked, " Do you hope to be saved?"
"I answered, Yes."  "For what reason do you hope
to be saved?". "Because I have used my best endeavors to serve God."   lHe shook his head and said no
more.   I thought him very uncharitable, saying in
my heart, What, are not my endeavors a sufficient
ground of hope? Would he rob me of my endeavors?
I have nothing else to trust to." Some time after this
interview, while still uncertain of his life, the great
truth of justification by faith dawned clearly upon his
vision, he believed, and "entered into rest." "I
now," he writes, "found myself at peace with God."
His brother still cleaves to B6hler, "not losing an
opportunity of conversing with him." They go to
Oxford and converse in Latin on divine themes, in
the University cloisters and adjacent groves. After
one of these walks, Wesley records, "By him, in the
hand of the great God, I was on Sunday [March 5th,
1738] clearly convinced of unbelief, of the want of
that faith whereby alone we can be saved."   B6hler
has himself left an account of these interviews, and
says that Wesley "wept bitterly while I was talking
upon this subject, and afterward asked me to pray
with him. I can freely affirm, that he is a poor
broken-hearted sinner, hungering after a better
righeousness than that which he has hitherto had, 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
even the righteousness of Christ. In the evening he
preached from the words,'We preach Christ crucified, etc. He had more than four thousand hearers,
and spoke in such a way that all were amazedmany souls were awakened."
On the evening of the 24th of May, 1738, Wesley
attended one of the social religious assemblies of the
Moravians, where he says "one was reading Luther's
Preface to the Epistle to the Romans." It was this
original protest of the Reformation, in behalf of the
doctrine of justification by faith, that led Wesley into
the personal experience of that great truth and kindled it on all the altars of Methodism. The venerable
document has never been cited by any of the historians of the denomination or biographers of Wesley,*
yet it deserves attention not only for its historical connection with the denomination, but for its clear, bold,
and genuinely Lutheran statement of the doctrine.
"Faith alone," it says, "justifies, and it alone fulfills
the law. For faith, through the merits of Christ,
obtains the Holy Spirit. This blessed Spirit renews,
exhilarates, excites, and inflames the heart, so that it
spontaneously performs what the law requires.. And
then, at length, from the faith thus efficaciously
working and living in the heart, freely,ut/nt, proceed those works which are truly good. The apostle
* It is inserted in the Appendix of Jackson's "Centenary of Wesleyan Methodism."
' 33
3 
34   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
wishes to convey this meaning in the third chapter.
For after he had, in that chapter, utterly condemned
the works of the law, and might almost seem, by the
doctrine of faith, about to destroy and abolish the
law, he at once anticipates the objection by asserting,
' We do not destroy the law, but we establish it;'
that is, we teach how the law is really fulfilled by
believing, or through faith.
"But true faith is the work of God in us, by which
we are born again and renewed, through God and the
Spirit of God, as we are told in John i; and by which
the old Adam is slain, and we are completely transformed per omnia, in all things; as the Apostle declares,'We are made new creatures in Christ through
faith;' ubi, in which new creatures the Holy Spirit
becomes vita et gubernatio cordis, the living and ruling principle of the heart. But faith is an energy in
the heart; at once so efficacious, lively, breathing, and
powerful, as to be incapable of remaining inactive,
but bursts forth into operation. Neither does he who
has faith, moratur, demur about the question, whether
good works have been commanded or not; but even
though there were no law, feeling the motions of
this living impulse putting forth and exerting itself
in his heart, he is spontaneously borne onward to
work, and at no time does he cease to perform such
actions as are truly pious and Christian. But whosoever from such a living affection of the heart pro 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
duces no good works, he is still in a state of total
unbelief, and is a stranger to faith; as are most of
those persons who hold long disputes, and give utter ance to much declamation in the schools about faith
and good works,'neither understanding what they
say, nor whereof they affirm.' Faith, then, is a con stant 2ducia, trust in the mercy of God toward us
a trust living and efficaciously working in the heart;
by which we cast ourselves entirely on God, and com
mit ourselves to him; by which, certo fretS, having
an assured reliance, we feel no hesitation about
enduring death a thousand times. And this firm
trust in the mercy of God is tam animosa, so animating, as to cheer, elevate, and excite the heart, and to
transport it with certain most sweet affections toward
God, and it animates this heart of the believer in
such a manner that, firmly relying on God, he feels no
dread in opposing himself 8olum, as a single champion, against all creatures. This high and heroical
feeling, therefore, ho8 ingentes animos, this noble
enlargement of spirit, is injected and effected in the
heart by the Spirit of God, who is imparted [to the
believer] through faith. And hence we also obtain
[the privilege] to be impelled to that which is good,
by this vital energy in our hearts. We also obtain
such a cheerful propen.sionem, inclination, that freely
and spontaneously we are eager and most ready to
do, to suffer, and to endure all things in obedience to
35 
36   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN ME'THODISM~
a Father and God of such great clemency; who,
through Christ, has enriched us with such abundant
treasures of grace, and has almost overwhelmed us
with such transcendent benefits. It is impossible
that this efficacious and vital principle of faith can be
in any man without continually operating, and producing fruit to God. It is just as impossible for a
pile of dry fagots to be set on fire without emitting
flames of light. Wherefore use watchfulness, ibi, in
this quarter, so as not to believe the vain imagina
tions of thy own mind, and the foolish cogitations
and trifles of the sophists. For these men possess
neither heart nor brains: they are mere animals of
the belly, born only for these solemn banquets of the
schools. But do thou pray to God, who by his word
has commanded light to shine out of darkness, that
he would be pleased to shine into thy heart, and
create faith within thee; otherwise thou wilt never
believe, though thou shouldest spend a thousand
years ill studying to fabricate such cogitations about
a faith already obtained or to be hereafter acquired."
Such were the passages of Luther which, we may infer fromWesley's allusions, were read when at "about
a quarter before nine, while he was describing the
change which God works in the heart through faith in
Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed; I felt I did
trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an
assurance was given me that he had taken away m,j 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
Bins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin
and death. I began to pray with all my might for
those who had in a more especial manner despitefully
used me, and persecuted me. I then testified openly
to all there what I now first felt in my heart."
Bohler had sailed for America; but Wesley's mother, now residing, a widow, in London, was his faithful
and most trusted counselor. He read to her a record
of his new experience; she emphatically approved it,
and exclaimed that "she heartily blessed God, who
had brought him to so just a way of thinking."
Thus in the thirty-fifth year of his age, after twenty- 
five years, as he tells us, of religious struggles, he
found peace to his soul, by the clearer apprehension
of the apostolic doctrine of faith and its relation to
justification. And now he was prepared to go forth
on his memorable career, publishing through the
realm, to all contrite men, the same peace on the
same condition. The next month he was preaching
"salvation by faith" before the University of Oxford.
I have treated, somewhat in detail, this early portion of the history of Methodism, because it affords
us the true standpoint of the new movement. Its
origin is to be traced to the Lutheran, not to the Cal- ~
vinistic conception of Christianity.  It was personal
zpiritual life that its founders sought and obtained, a
fact that characterizes all its subsequent development.
The formal organization which it afterward assumed
40
87 
38.CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
tends indeed to disguise this, its essential character; to
casual readers of its history, it appears as an ecclesiastical system, as definitive sects, as great hierarchical
Churches in Europe and America; but let it be
repeated that the reproduction of the apostolic spiritual life was its single aim; and its complicated and
singularly powerful organization was but an effect
of this its primary fact or principle, an energetic
scheme for the propagation of spiritual religion in
the Churches and throughout the world.
"What was the rise of Methodism? " asked Wesley, in his conference of 1765. Hie answered, "In
1729 my brother and I read the Bible; saw inward
and outward holiness therein; followed after it, and
incited others so to do. In 1737 we saw this holiness
comes byfaith.  In 1738 we saw we must bejustifed
before we are sanctified. But still holiness was our
point; inward and outward holiness. God then
thrust us out to raise a holy people."
John Wesley hastened, after his conversion, to the
continent, to consult with  the Moravians, whose
English representatives had thus far been his best
guides. He conversed with Count Zinzendorff and
other leaders of the United Brethren, and returned
to England confirmed in his faith and the now single
purpose of his life.
Whitefield had been preaching in Bristol, London,
and some country towns, with extraordinary effect;
4b 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
seldom or never had so great hosts of people assembled in England to hear a preacher; he had stirred
the whole metropolis; he had also hastened across the
Atlantic and initiated in Georgia his great American
mission, which was to quicken all the colonies and
prepare the way for the later work of American
Methodism. He was now on his way back to England, at the opportune moment to co-operate with
the Wesleys. Charles Wesley had also preached in
London and elsewhere with much interest during his
brother's absence in Germany; his congregations
had been crowded, but church after church had been
closed against him by the clergy, who could not
condemn his doctrines, but rebuked his zeal and
disapproved the-eager interest and excitement of the
people. He was compelled at last to resort to the
prisons and the religious "society meetings," which
have been mentioned, and which now, more than
ever, seemed a providential provision for the incipient Methodism. When John Wesley reached the
city he resorted to these humble assemblies as to an
asylum.  The next day after his arrival "I began,"
he says, "to declare in my own country the glad
tidings of salvation, preaching three times, and afterward expounding to a large company in the Minories.
On Monday I rejoiced to meet our little society,
which now consisted of thirty-two persons. The
next day I went to the condemned felons in New
39
40 
40   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
gate, and offered them a free salvation.  In the evening I went to a society in Bear Yard, and preached
repentance and remission of sins. The next evening
I spoke the truth in love at a society in Aldersgatestreet; some contradicted at first, but not long; so
that nothing but love appeared at our parting.
Thursday, 21st, I went to a society in Gutter Lane,
but I could not declare the mighty works of God
there as I did afterward at the Savoy, with all simplicity, and the word did not return empty. On
Saturday, 23d, I was enabled to speak strong words
both at Newgate and at Mr. E.'s society, and the
next day at St. Anne's, and twice at St. John's, Clerkenwell, so that I fear they will bear with me there no
longer." Thus he entered upon the great career of
his life; for these incessant labors, it has been justly
observed, were no consequence of a febrile or temporary zeal; they were an example of what was thereafter to be almost his daily habit till he fell, in his
eighty-eighth year, at the head of more than a hundred and fifty thousand followers, and five hundred and
fifty itinerant preachers, who were stimulated by his
unabated zeal to similar labors in both hemispheres.
He began by "expounding," nearly every day, in the
London "Societies."  On Sundays he preached in
the churches, but, at the end of almost every sermon,
he records it to be the last time; not that his manner
was clamorous, or in any way eccentric; nor that his 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
doctrine was heretical, for it was clearly that of the
Homilies and other standards of the Church; but it
was brought out too forcibly and presented too
vividly for the state of religious life around him.
He went from the closed pulpits not only to the
"Societies," but to the prisons and the hospitals,
where his message was received with gratitude and
tears and was attended with the demonstration of
the Spirit and of power.
Denied the city pulpits, the brothers went not only
to the "Societies" and prisons, but to and fro in the
country, preaching almost daily.  Whitefield was
needed to lead them into more thorough and more
necessary "irregularities."  He arrived in  London
December 8, 1738. Wesley hastened to greet him,
and on the 12th " God gave us," he writes, "once
more to take sweet counsel together." The mighty
preacher who had agitated the whole metropolis a
year before, now met the same treatment as his
Oxford friends. In three days five churches were
denied him. Good, however, was to come out of
this evil.  He also had recourse now to the "Societies," and his ardent soul caught new zeal from their
simple devotions as from his new trials. Wesley
describes a scene at one of these assemblies, which
reminds us of the preparatory Pentecostal baptism of
fire, by which the apostles were "endued with power
from on high" for their mission. He says, January
41
0 
42   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
1, 1739, that Messrs. Hall, Kinchin, Ingham, White field, and his brother Charles were present with him
at a love-feast in Fetter Lane, with about sixty of their
brethren. "About three in the morning, as they were
continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came
mightily upon them, insomuch that many cried out
for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As
soon as they had recovered a little from the awe and
amazement which the presence of the Divine Majesty
had inspired, they broke out with one voice, "We
praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the
Lord." Whitefield exclaims: "It was a Pentecostal
season, indeed." And he adds, respecting these
"Society meetings," that "sometimes whole nights
were spent in prayer. Often have we been filled as
with new wine, and often have I seen them over whelmed with the Divine Presence, and cry out,
'Will God indeed dwell with men upon earth?
How dreadful is this place I This is no other than
the house of God, and the gate of heaven!"' In this
manner did the three evangelists begin together the
memorable year which was afterward to be recog nized as the epoch of Methodism. On the 5th
Whitefield records an occasion which foreshadowed
the future.  A "conference" was held at Islington
with seven ministers, "despised Methodists," con cerning many things of importance. They contin ued in fasting and prayer till three o'clock, and then 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
parted " wit/  afull conviction that God was about to
do great tAings among us."
Was it necessary that these predicted"great things"
should be done in England at this time?  The moral
condition of the United Kingdom in the last century
is well. known. Citations from indisputable authorities, to prove its general demoralization, have
become trite passages in works on Methodism. The
reaction against Puritanism, produced by the restoration of the Stuarts, had left a universal moral blight
upon the nation. Seldom or never had gross vice
been more rife among the masses of the people, seldom or never had the Churches and their clergy sunk
into more complete moral stupor, not to say moral
death.  Bishop Burnet declares that he was "oppressed night and day" with "sad thoughts" on the.
prospects of Christianity in the realm.  "I cannot,"
he adds, "look on without the deepest concern, when
I see the imminent ruin hanging over this Church,
and, by consequence, over the whole Reformation.
The outward state of things is black enough, God
knows; but that which heightens my fears rises
chiefly from the inward state into which we are
unhappily fallen." Referring to the character of
the clergy, he says, "Our ember weeks are the burden and grief of my life. The much greater part of
those who come to be ordained are ignorant to a
degree not to be apprehended by those who are not
43 
CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
obliged to know it. The easiest part of knowledge is
that to which they are the greatest strangers. Those
who have read some few books, yet never seem to
have read the Scriptures. Many cannot give a tolerable account even of the Catechism itself, how short
and plain soever. This does often tear my heart.
The case is not much better in many who, having
got into orders, come for institution, and cannot
make it appear that they have read the Scriptures,
or any one good book, since they were ordained."
Watts declares that there was "a general decay of
vital religion in the hearts and lives of men;" that
"this declension of piety and virtue" was common
among Dissenters and Churchmen; that it was "a
general matter of mournful observation among all
who lay the cause of God to heart;" and he called
upon "every one to use all possible efforts for the
reeove  of dying religoi  in  the world."  Another
writer asserts that "the Spirit of God has so far departed from the nation, that hereby almost all vital
religion is lost out of the world."  Another says,
"The religion of nature makes up the darling topics
of our age; and the religion of Jesus is valued only
for the sake of that, and only so far as it carries on
the light of nature, and is a bare improvement of
that kind of light. All that is restrictively Christian, or that is peculiar to Christ, (everything concerning him that has not its apparent foundation 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
in natural light, or that goes beyond its principles,) is waived, and banished, and despised."
Archbishop Secker says: "In this we cannot be
mistaken, that an open and professed disregard is
become, through a variety of unhappy causes, the
distinguishing character of the present age."
"Such," he declares, "are  the  dissoluteness  and
contempt of principle in the higher part of the
world, and the profligacy, intemperance, and fearlessness of committing crimes, in the lower, as must,
if this torrent of impiety stop not, become absolutely
fatal."  He further asserts that "Christianity is ridiculed and railed at with very little reserve, and the
teachers of it without any at all;" and this testimony
was made but one year before that which is commemorated as the epoch of Methodism. About the
same time Butler published his great work on the
Analogy between Religion and the Constitution and
Course of Nature, as a check to the infidelity of the
age. In his preface he gives a deplorable description of the religious world. He concurs with the
preceding authorities in representing it as in the
very extremity of decline.  "It has come," he says,
"to be taken for granted that Christianity is no
longer a subject of inquiry; but that it is now at
length discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly
it is treated as if, in the present age, this were an
agreed point among all persons of discernment, and
45 
46    CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
nothing remained but to set it up as a principal
subject for mirth  and ridicule."  Southey says:
"The  clergy had lost that authority which  may
always command at least the appearance of respect;
and they had lost that respect also by which the
place of authority may sometimes so much more
worthily be supplied. In the great majority of the
clergy zeal was wanting. The excellent Leighton
spoke of the Church as a fair carcass without a
spirit. Burnet observes that, in his time, our clergy
had less authority, and were under more contempt,
than those of any other Church in all Europe; for
they were much the most remiss in their labors, and
the least severe in their lives. It was not that their
lives were scandalous; he entirely acquitted them of
any such imputation; but they were not exemplary,
as it became them to be; and in the sincerity of a
pious and reflecting mind, he pronounced that they
would never regain the influence they had lost till
they lived better and labored more."
A scarcely less prejudiced writer on Methodism,
Isaac Taylor, admits that when Wesley appeared the
Anglican Church was " an ecclesiastical system under
which the people of England had lapsed into heathenism, or a state hardly to be distinguished from
it;" and that Methodism'" preserved from extinction
and reanimated the languishing Nonconformity of
the last century, which, just at the time of the 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
Methodistic revival, was rapidly in course to be
found nowhere but in books."
This general decline had reached its extremity
when Wesley and his coadjutors appeared.  "It
was," to use his own words, "just at the time when
we wanted little of filling up the measure of our
iniquities, that two or three clergymen of the Church
of England began vehemently to call sinners to
repentance."  "What,"  he  asks, "is the present
characteristic of the English nation?  It is ungodliness. Ungodliness is our universal, our constant,
our peculiap character."
There was, in fact, a profound infidelity undermining British Christianity at this time; it was the
chief cause of the inefficiency of the pulpit, of the
declension of the Churches, and of the popular
demoralization. Moreover, it really gave birth to
the later skepticism of Germany and of Europe generally. The writings of Hlobbes, Shaftesbury, Tindal,
and Collins, were in prevalent circulation, and were
reinforced by the three mightiest giants, in skeptical
error, which modern times have produced, Bolingbroke, Hume, and Gibbon. Natural religion was
the favorite study of the clergy, and of the learned
generally, and included most of their theology.
Collins and Tindal had denounced Christianity as
priestcraft; Whiston pronounced the miracles to be
Jewish impositions; Woolston declared them to be
47 
48   CENTENARY OF AMERTCAN METHODISM.
allegories; and the next year after the recognized
date of Methodism, Edelmann and Reimarus introduced the English deism into Germany, tand thus
founded the Rationalism which, as developed by her
"Historical" or " Negative Criticism," nearly extinguished, for a time, her religious life. The decayed
state of the English Church, in which Methodism was
about to have its birth, was, in fine, the cause, direct
or indirect, of most of the infidelity of the age, both
at home and abroad. Arianism and Socinianism,
taught by such men as Clarke, Priestley, Price, and
Whiston, had become fashionable among the best
English thinkers.  Many illustrious names  can be
cited as exceptions; they were, however, but exceptions to the general condition of religion throughout
the United Kingdom. Some of the most emphatic
testimonies, to the deplorable declension of piety and
morals, which have come down to us, are from the
pens of such exceptional men.
The Methodistic movement may be said to have
now definitively commenced. Whitefield went to
Bristol; the whole city seemed aroused by his powerfuil preaching, but he was soon repelled from its pulpits. Hie betook himself to its jails, alms-houses, and
public grounds, where the common people "heard
him gladly." He went to the neighboring Kingswood Mines, and there began that reformation and
evangelization of the colliers of England, which has 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
been one of the greatest honors of Methodism.
The miners came forth unwashed from their caverns
and crowded about him to hear his open-air sermons,
weeping till their tears traced "white gutters" down
their cheeks. All the surrounding country felt the
sensation of his wonderful eloquence, and his congregations "on the mounts" comprised thousands
and tens of thousands; "the hedges and trees were
full." His sonorous voice rung to their utmost
limit; they stood "in an awful manner around the
mount," hushed into profound silence, and he was
reminded by the spectacle of "the scene of the
general assembly" of the last day. He sent to London for Wesley, who, on arriving, scrupled as a rigid
churchman about "out-door preaching."   But he
soon saw that it was a providential necessity. What
else could he and his associates do?  The churches
were closed against them, and the people were
perishing in ignorance  and  vice.   He  followed
Whitefield's example, and having once preached in
the open air, he had crossed the Rubicon, never to
retreat. Field preaching, with all its consequences,
was now to be the first great practical measure of
Methodism, and with it the whole realm was to be
stirred.
Whitefield, leaving Wesley among the blackened
colliers of Kingswood, hastened into Wales, where
Howell Harris, a young man who had been driven
4
49 
t0    CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
from Oxford University by its infidelity and its
scoffings at his religious earnestness, was going to
and fro preaching in its villages, though he was Ltt
in Holy Orders. His example seemed a strange, a
providential coincidence with the new movement
at London, Bristol, and Kingswood.   Whitefield
seized his hand and bade him "God speed."  They
traversed the principality together, preaching in
churches, in the grave-yards, in the market-places,
on the mountain sides. Other evangelists co-operated with them, chiefly Griffith Jones, and Daniel
Rowlands "the Welsh thunderer." Wales, which had
been as demoralized as any other part of the United
Kingdom, was thoroughly aroused by these itinerants, and rose as in a moral resurrection under the
subsequent labors of Methodism.  The new denomination, distinguished into two sections, as Calvinistic
and Arminian, now predominates in the country.
Wales had at the beginning of the century but
twenty-three dissenting Churches; they have multiplied to twenty-five hundred; more than twelve hundred of them are Methodistic. A chapel dots every
three square miles of its territory, and over a million
of people, nearly the whole population, attend public
worship some part of every Sunday. Wales has been
religiously renovated by the Methodistic movement.
Whitefield returned to London, where  he and
Wesley took the open field at Moorfields and 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
Kennington Common. Their congregations were
estimated at twenty, forty, sometimes  fifty thousand. The singing of the vast multitudes could
be heard two miles off, Whitefield's voice a mile.
The lowest masses of the neglected people were
thus invaded by the Gospel; hundreds and thousands
were reclaimed to virtue and piety and incorporated
in the London "Societies."  It was not long before
the evangelists were abroad in all England, Scotland,
Wales, and Ireland, surprising and arousing the
Churches, and the population generally, by their
unwonted measures and zeal, and thus was inaugurated the greatest "religfous revival" of modern ages.
Lair preachers were rapidly raised up from among
the converts of the movement:  Thomas Maxfield,
Thomas Richards, Thomas Westell, John Nelson,
and others, the pioneers of that army of thousands
and tens of thousands of lay itinerants whose proclamation of the truth has since resounded through
much of both hemispheres, and is daily sounding
further and firther toward the ends of the earth.
Like their great leaders, they traveled over the realm
preaching by day and by night. Their artless but
earnest ministry secured the attention of the common people, and it was apparent that they wielded
a power which belonged not to the established pulpit. Wesley as their superintendent and guide was
almost ubiquitous in the land, preaching twice or
51 
52   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
thrice daily, beginning at five o'clock in the morning.  "Societies" were formed in order to bring
their numerous converts into relations of Christian
communion and discipline. Being excluded from
the churches, they were compelled to meet in the
open air till they began the erection of chapels. On
May 12, 1739, the foundations of the first Methodist
chapel in the world were laid, with prayers and songs of
praise, at Bristol; in November of the same year, the
"Foundry," in London, was consecrated. The former
was begun first, though the latter was opened first.
Wesley had no thought yet of a sect or a schism; he
was a stanch churchman;  fie opened these edifices
as temporary accommodations of his converts, and
only because the clergy of the establishment compelled him to do so, by excluding him and his associates from its pulpits and sacramental altars. The
chapel in Bristol bore the humble name of "The
Preaching House," that in London its former title of
the "Old Foundry."
The year in which these chapels were opened is
considered to be the epoch of Methodism. In his
"Church History," Wesley assigns it other dates, as
the formation of "the Holy Club," at Oxford, in
1729; and the meeting of himself and others, by the
advice of Peter B6hler, in Fetter Lane, May 1, 1738;
but in his introduction to the "General Rules of the
Society," he says, "In the latter end of the year 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
1739, eight or ten persons came to me in London
and desired that I would spend some time with them
in prayer, and advise them how to flee from the
wrath to come; this was the rise of the UNITED
SOCIETY."  "This," he tells us, "was soon after the
consecration of the Foundry." Twelve came the
first night, forty the next, and soon after a hundred.
Though he continued in fraternal relations with the
Moravian "Societies" at London, till July 20, 1740,
the society, formed the preceding year, was organized
and controlled by himself, and has continued in unbroken succession down to our day. The date of its
origin was celebrated with centenary solemnities by
all the Methodist communities of the world in 1839.
It was signalized not only by the organization of the
Society, by the opening of the Foundry for worship,
and by the erection at Bristol of the first Methodist
chapel, but by the organization of "Bands" in that
city, and the publication, by the Wesleys, of their
"Hymns and Sacred Poems," the beginning of that
Methodistic psalmody which has since been of inestimable service to the denomination, wherever it has
extended, as its virtual liturgy.
It was not long before "societies," and chapels
or "preaching houses," as they were unpretentiously
called, began to rise more or less in all parts of the
country. Hostilities also arose; mobs assailed the
itinerants; their chapels were pulled down: for
53 
54    CENTENAIY OF AMERPICAYN METHODISM.
months, and even for years, riots were of almost
constant occurrence.   In some sections the rabble
moved in hosts from village to village, attacking
preachers and people, destroying not only the
churches, but the homes of Methodists.   In Staffordshire "the whole region was in a state little
short of civil war." In Darlaston, Charles Wesley
could distinguish the houses of the Methodists by
their marks of violence as he rode through the town.
At Walsall he saw the flag of the rioters waving
in the market-place, their headquarters. In Lichfield "all the rabble of the country was gathered
together, and laid waste all before them."   The
stormi swept over nearly all Cornwall. Newcastle
was in tumult. In London even occurred formidable
mobs. In Cork and Dublin they prevailed almost
beyond the control of the magistrates. Methodism
had, in fine, to fight its way over nearly every field
it entered in Great Britain and Ireland. The clergy
and the magistrates were often the instigators of
these tumults. Not a few of the itinerants were
imprisoned, or impressed into the army and the
navy; some were martyred. But the devoted sufferers held on their way till they conquered the
mob, and led it by thousands to their humble altars.
Howell Harris, amid storms of persecution, succeeded,
as we have seen, in planting Methodism in Wales,
where it has elevated the popular religious condi 
EARLY PROGPESS IN ENGLAND
tion, once exceedingly low, above that of Scotland.
Wesley traversed Ireland as well as Great Britain.
He crossed the channel forty-two times, making
twenty-one visits; and Methodism has yielded there
some of its best fruits. Whitefield, known as a Calvinist, and forming no societies, was received in Scotland. His congregations were immense, filling valleys or covering hills, and his influence quickened
into life its Churches. Hle continued to aid Harris
in founding Calvinistic Methodism in Wales. The
whole evangelical dissent of England still feels his
power.   With  the Countess  of Huntingdon,  he
founded the Calvinistic Methodism of Great Britain;
but such was the moral unity of both parties, the
Arminian and the Calvinistic, that the essential
unity of the general Methodistic movement was
maintained, awakening to a great extent the spiritual life of both the national Church and of the Nonconformists, and producing most of those "Christian enterprises" by which British piety has since
been spreading its influence around the globe. Their
British Bible Society, most of the British Missionary
Societies, Tract Societies, the Sunday-school, religious
periodicals, cheap popular literature, negro emancipation, Exeter Hall with its public benefits and follies, all arose directly or indirectly from the impulse
of Methodism.
Whitefield crossed the Atlantic thirteen times and
55 
56   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
journeyed incessantly through the colonies, passing
and repassing from Georgia to Maine like a "flame
of fire." The Congregational Churches of New England, the Presbyterians and the Baptists of the
Middle States, and the mixed colonies of the South,
owe their later religious life and energy mostly to
the impulse given by his powerful ministrations.
The "great awakening" under Edwards had not
only. subsided before Whitefield's arrival, but had
reacted. Whitefield restored it; and the New England Churches received under his labors an inspiration of zeal and energy which has never died out.
He extended the revival from the Congregational
Churches of the Eastern to the Presbyterian Churches
of the Middle States. In Pennsylvania and New
Jersey, where Frelinghuysen, Blair, Rowland, and
the two Tennents had been laboring with evangelical
zeal, he was received as a prophet from God, and it
was then that the Presbyterian Church took that
attitude of evangelical power and aggression which
has ever since characterized it. These faithful men
had begun a humble ministerial school in a logcabin "twenty feet long and nearly as many broad."
"The work is of God," said Whitefield, "and therefore cannot come to naught." The fame of Princeton has verified his prediction.  "Nassau Hall received a Methodistic baptism at its birth; Whitefield
inspirited its founders, and was honored by it with 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
the title of A.M.; the Methodists in England gave
it tunds; and one of its noblest presidents (Davies)
was a correspondent of Wesley, and honored him as
a'restorer of the true faith."  Dartmouth College
arose from the same impulse. It received its chief
early funds from the British Methodists, and bears
t
the name of one of their chief Calvinistic associates,
whom Cowper celebrated as "The one who wore a
coronet and prayed." Whitefield's preaching, and
especially the reading of his printed sermons in Virginia, led to the founding of the Presbyterian Church
in that state, whence it has extended to the South
and South-west. " The stock from which the Baptists
of Virginia and those in all the South and South-west
have sprung was also Whitefieldian." The founder
of the Freewill Baptists of the United States was
converted under the last preaching of Whitefield.
Such are but glimpses of the progress of British
Methodism before its organization in America. It
became apparent that a new epoch had occurred in
the history of English Christianity. Under the influence of Whitefield and the Countess of Huntingdon the Calvinistic nonconformity of the realm arose
as from the dead to new life, which has continued
ever since with increasing energy; by the same
means, with the co-operation of Wesley, a powerful
evangelical party was raised up in the Establishment,
and most of the measures of evangelical propagand
57 
58    CENTENAIlY OF AMERICAN METHlODIS.M.
ism which have since kept British Clhistianity alive
with energy, and have extended its activity to the
foreign world, are distinctly traceable to this great
"revival."  Meanwhile its reformatory power among
the English common people had become unquestion   able and marvelous to all candid observers.  It has
been remarked that at about the end of its first
decade a scarcely paralleled religious interest had
been spread and sustained throughout the United
Kingdom and along the Atlantic coast of America.
Not only had the Churches of both countries been
extensively reawakened, but the great fact of a Lay
Ministry had been accomplished-great not only in its
direct results, but perhaps more so by its reacting
shock, in various respects, against the ecclesiasticism
which for fifteen hundred years had fettered Christi   anity with bands of iron. It had presented before
the world the greatest pulpit orator of the age, if
not of any age-Whitefield; also one of the greatest
religious legislators of history-Wesley; a hymnist
whose supremacy has been but doubtfully disputed
by a single rival-Charles Wesley; and the most
signal example of female agency in religious affairs
which Christian history records-the Countess of
Huntingdon.   The lowest abysses of the English
i population among colliers and miners had been
reached by the Gospel. Calvinistic Methodism was
restoring the decayed nonconformity of England. 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
Wesleyan Methodism, though adhering to the Establishment, had taken an organic and permanent form;
it had its Annual Conferences, Quarterly Conferences,
Class Meetings anid Band Meetings; its Watch-nights
and Love-feasts; its Traveling Preachers, Local
Preachers, Exhorters, Leaders, Trustees, and Stewards. It had districted England, Wales, and Ireland
into Circuits for systematic ministerial labors, and now
commanded a ministerial force of about seventy men.
It had fought its way through incredible persecutions
and riots, and had won at last a general, though not
universal peace. Its Chapels and Preachers' houses,
or parsonages, were multiplying over the country.
It had a rich Psalmody, which has since spread wherever the English tongue is used; and a well-defined
Theology, distinguished by two notable features that
could not fail to secure popular interest, namely, that
it transcended the prevalent creeds in both 8virituality
and liberality; in its experimental doctrines of Conversion, Sanctification, and the Witness of the Spirit,
and in the evangelical liberalism of its Arminianism. It had begun its present scheme of Popular
Religious Literature, had provided the first of that
series of Academic institutions which has since extended with its progress, and was contemplating a
plan of Ministerial Education, which has been effectively accomplished. Already the despondent declarations of Watts, Secker, and Butler, respecting the
59 
60    CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
prospects of religion, might be pronounced no longer
relevant. Yet Watts had been dead but two years,
and Secker and Butler still survived.
At the end of the third decade, the year in which
it sent its first missionaries to America, it enrolled
more than twenty-eight thousand members and one
hundred and twelve lay traveling preachers, besides
the Wesleys and their clerical coadjutors.
Wesley lived to see his cause established in the
United States with an episcopal organization, planted
in the British North American Provinces, and in the
West Indies, and died at last, in 1791, with his
system apparently completed, universally effective
and prosperous, sustained by five hundred and fifty
itinerant and thousands of local preachers, and more
than a hundred and forty thousand members, and so
energetic that many men, who had been his co-laborers, lived to see it the predominant body of Dissenters
in the United Kingdom and the British Colonies,
the most numerous Church of the United States of
America, and successfully planted on most of the
outlines of the missionary world.
In 1839 was celebrated the hundredth anniversary
of English Methodism. The English Methodists
appointed the 25th of October as a day of festive
religious observance throughout their Churches in
all parts of the world. Pecuniary contributions for
certain great interests of the Church were called for, 
EARLY PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.
and the call was answered by a liberality never before
equaled in any one instance in their history, if, indeed, in the history of any other Christian body.
The Wesleyans gave one million and eighty thousand
dollars. The American Methodists gave six hundred thousand.   On the appointed day Methodists
throughout the earth met in their temples to thank
God for his blessings upon the first cycle of their history. Signal indeed had been those blessings. Wesley, as we have seen, died in 1791, at the head of a host
of 550 itinerant preachers, and 140,000 communicants
in the United Kingdom, the British Provinces, in
the United States, and the West Indies; at the centenary, less than half a century later, the denomination had grown to more than 1,171,000, including
about 5,200 itinerant preachers, in the Wesleyan
and Methodist Episcopal Churches; and, comprising
the various bodies bearing the name of Methodists,
to an army of more than 1,400,000, of whom 6,080
were itinerant preachers. Its missionaries, accredited
members of Conferences, were about three hundred
and fifty, with nearly an equal number of salaried,
and about three thousand unpaid assistants. They
occupied about three hundred stations, each station
being the head of a circuit. They were laboring in
Sweden, Germany, France, Cadiz, Gibraltar, Malta,
Western and Southern Africa, Ceylon, continental
India, New South Wales, Van Dieman's Land, New
61 
62   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
Zealand, Tonga, Habai Islands, Vavou Islands, Fiji
Islands, the West Indies. They had under instruction in their mission schools about fifty thousand
pupils, and in their mission Churches were more
than seventy thousand communicants. At least two
hundred thousand persons heard the Gospel regularly in their mission chapels.  The Methodist missionaries were now more numerous than the whole
Wesleyan ministry as enrolled on the Minutes of
Wesley's last Conference, and their missionary communicants were about equal to the whole number
of Methodists in Europe at that day. Wesley presided over Methodism during its first half century
and two years more; during the remainder of the
century it reproduced, in its missions alone, the
whole numerical force of its first half century. Thus
far it had demonstrated its providential mission as a
revival of apostolic spiritual life and apostolic prop#,
gandism. 
EARLY PROGRESS IN AMERICA.
CHAPTER II.
ORIGIN, FOUNDERS, AND PROGRESS OF METHODISM IN
AMERICA.
THOUGH Wesley sent no missionaries to America
till 1769, the true epoch of American Methodism
dates three years earlier.
The humbleness of its origin, contrasted with the
greatness of its results, presents perhaps as striking
an example as ecclesiastical history affords since the
apostolic age, of the scriptural truth, that "God hath
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the
things which are mighty, and low things of the
world, and things which are despised, hath God
chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to
naught things that are: that no flesh should glory
in his presence."   The History of the Methodist
Episcopal Church records that, in 1758, John Wesley visited the county of Limerick, Ireland; that
his Journal reports there a singular community, settled in Court Mattress, and in Killiheen, Balligarrane, and Pallas, villages within four miles of Court
Mattress; that they were not native Celts, but a
Teutonic population, and that having been nearly
half a century without pastors who could speak their
68
0 
64   CENTENARY OF AM ERICAN METHODISM.
language, they had become thoroughly demoralized:
noted for drunkenness, profanity, and "utter neglect
of religion." But the Methodist itinerants had penetrated to their hamlets, and they were now a reformed, a devout people. They had erected a large
chapel in the center of Court Mattress. "So did
God at last provide," writes Wesley, "for these poor
strangers who, for fifty years, had none who cared
for their souls." At later visits he declares that
three such towns as Court Mattress, Killiheen, and
Balligarrane were hardly to be found anywhere else
in Ireland or England. There was "no cursing
or swearing, no Sabbath breaking, no drunkenness,
no ale-house in any of them."  "They had become
a serious thinking people, and their diligence had
turned all their land into a garden. How will
these poor foreigners," he adds, "rise up in the
day of judgment against those that are round about
them!" But the most interesting fact respecting
this obscure colony was not yet apprehended by
Wesley, or he would have wondered still more at
their providential history. The Methodism of the
New World was already germinating among them;
in about two years the prolific seed was to be transplanted to the distant continent, and at the time of
Wesley's death (about thirty years later) its vigorous
boughs were to extend over the land from Canada to
Georgia, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, shelter 
EARLY PROGRESS IN AMIERICA.
ing more than sixty-three thousand Church members,
and two hundred and fifty itinerant preachers. In
about thirty years after Wesley's death (1820) American Methodism was to advance to the front of the
great "movement" with a majority of snore than
seventeen thousand over the parent Church, including
all its foreign dependencies, and thenceforward the
chief numerical triumphs of the denomination were
to be in the western hemisphere.
The "Palatines," as these German-Irishmen are
usually called, were driven from the Palatinate, on
the Rhine, by the Papal troops of Louis XIV. They
found refuge within the lines of Marlborough, and
were provided for by Queen Anne, some in England,
some in Ireland, some in America. The Teutonic
Methodists in the county of Limerick, who were destined to found American Methodism, were descendants of the persecuted Protestants whom the Papal
zeal of the Grand Monarch had expatriated; his
attempt to suppress Protestantism in the Palatinate
led thus to one of the most energetic developments
of Protestantism in the modern history of religion.
"On a spring morning in 1760," says an Irish writer,
"a group of emigrants might have been seen at the
custom-house quay, Limerick, preparing to embark
for America. At that time emigration was not so
common an occurrence as it is now, and the excitement connected with their departure was intense.
5
65 
66    CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
They were Palatines from Balligarrane, and were
accompanied to the vessel's side by crowds of their
companions and friends, some of whom had come
sixteen miles to say'farewell' for the last time.
One of those about to leave-a young man, with a
thoughtfiul look and resolute bearing-is evidently
the leader of the party, and more than an ordinary
pang is felt by many as they bid him farewell. He
had been one of the first-fruits of his countrymen to
Christ, had been the leader of the infant Church, and
in their humble chapel had often ministered to them
the word of life. He is surrounded by his spiritual
children and friends, who are anxious to have some
parting words of counsel and instruction. He enters
the vessel, and from its side once more breaks among
them the bread of life. And now the last prayer is
offered; they embrace each other; the vessel begins
to move. As she recedes uplifted hands and uplifted
hearts attest what all felt. But none of all that vast
multitude felt more, probably, than that young man.
His name is Philip Embury.  His party consisted of
his wife, Mary Switzer, to whom he had been married on the 27th of November, 1758, in Rathkeale
Church; two of his brothers and their families;
Peter Switzer, probably a brother of his wife; Paul
Heck, and Barbara his wife; Valer Tettler; Philip
Morgan, and a family of the Dulmages.  The vessel
arrived safely in New York on the 10th of August, 
EARLY PROGRESS IN AMERICA.
1760. Who that pictures before his mind that company of Christian emigrants leaving the Irish shore
but must be struck with the simple beauty of the
scene? Yet who among the crowd that saw them
leave could have thought that two of the little band
were destined, in the mysterious providence of God,
to influence for good countless myriads, and that
their names should live long as the sun and moon
endure! Yet so it was. That vessel contained
Philip Embury, the first class-leader and local
preacher of Methodism on the American continent,
and Barbara Heck,'a mother in Israel,' one of its
first members, the germ from which, in the good
providence of God, has sprung the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States; a Church which
has now more or less under its influence about seven
millions of the germinant mind of that new and
teeming hemisphere!'There shall be a handful of
corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains;
the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they
of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.'"
In 1752 Philip Embury heard John Wesley preach
in Ireland; and of the same year, a manuscript fragment, in his own hand-writing, says, "On Christmas
Day, being Monday, the 25th December, in the year
1752, the Lord shone into my soul, by a glimpse of
his redeeming love, being an earnest of my redemption
in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory for ever and ever.
67 
68    CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
Amen!" He was respected for his probity and
obliging manners.; he studied the elements of knowledge under both English and German teachers, and
afterward learned the craft of a carpenter, in which,
it is said, he became skillful. Soon after his conversion he was licensed as a local preacher, and minis
tered to his countrymen in their Irish settlements.
He was modest and shrunk from responsibility. On
arriving at New York it is probable, though not certain, that he endeavored to keep up the religious
communion of his Methodist fellow-immigrants; but
the temptations of their new condition prevailed
against him; they fell away, and he seems to have
become discouraged, and not to have used his office
as a "local preacher" till the autumn of 1766.  Dr.
Roberts, who has made this part of our history a
special study, says, "the families who accompanied
him were not all Wesleyans-only a few of them; the
remainder were members of the Protestant Church in
Ireland, but made no profession of an experimental
knowledge of God, in the pardon of sin and adoption.
After their arrival in New York, with the exception
of Embury and three or four others, they all finally
lost their sense of the fear of God, and became open
worldlings.   Some  subsequently fell into greater
depths of sin than others. Late in the year 1765
another vessel arrived in New York, bringing over
Paul Ruckle, Luke Rose, Jacob Heck, Peter Bark 
EARLY PROGRESS IN AMERICA.
man, and Henry Williams, with their families. These
were Palatines, some of them relatives of Embury,
and others his former friends and neighbors. A few
of them only were Wesleyans. Mrs. Barbara Heck,
who had been residing in New York since 1760,
visited them frequently. One of the company, Paul
Ruckle, was her eldest brother. It was when visiting
them on one of these occasions that she found some
of the party engaged in a game of cards; there is no
proof, either direct or indirect, that any of them were
Wesleyans, and connected with Embury. Her spirit
was roused, and, doubtless emboldened by her long
and intimate acquaintance with them in Ireland, she
seized the cards, threw them into the fire, and then
most solemnly warned them of their danger and
duty. Leaving them, she went immediately to the
dwelling of Embury, who was her cousin.  It was
located upon Barrack-street, now Park Place. After
narrating what she had seen and done, under the
influence of the Divine Spirit and with power she
appealed to him to be no longer silent, but to preach
the word forthwith.  She parried his excuses, and
urged him to commence at once in his own house,
and to his own people. He consented, and she went
out and collected four persons, who, with herself, constituted his audience. After singing and prayer he
preached to them, and enrolled them in a class. He
continued thereafter to meet them weekly. Embury
69 
to   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
was not among the card-players, nor in the same
house with them."
Embury's house could not accommodate all the
hearers who soon flocked to it; he hired therefore a
larger room in the neighborhood, providing for the
rent by gratuitous contributions, and preaching without compensation. In a short time he had organized
"two classes," of six or seven members each. He
extended  his labors, preaching in  other  places
particularly the almshouse, where the poor heard
him gladly.
In the early part of the next year the humble
pastor and his congregation were surprised by the
appearance among them of a British officer in his
regimentals; his reverent demeanor soon assured
them that he had come not to interfere with,
but to share their worship. At its close he introduced himself as Captain Thomas Webb, "of the
King's service, but also a soldier of the Cross, and a
spiritual son of John Wesley." They were overjoyed, and hailed him as a "brother beloved."  The
good captain had fought at Louisburg and at Quebec;
at the latter he had been wounded in the arm, and
at the former had lost his right eye, over which he
now wore a shade. After these perils he returned
to England and heard Wesley preach in Bristol; he
became a regenerated man, and was licensed by Wesley as a local preacher. During the remainder of 
EARLY PROGRESS IN AMERICA.
his life he was one of the most active evangelists, of
Methodism, preaching in England, Ireland, and
America till his death in 1796. Asbury called him
"an Israelite indeed."  "He is a man of fire," wrote
Wesley, "and the power of God constantly accompanies his word." He heard Webb in the Old
Foundry, London, and writes, "I admire the wisdom of God in still raising up various preachers,
according to the various tastes of men.  The captain
is all life and fire; therefore although he is not deep
or regular, yet many, who would not hear a better
preacher, flock to hear him, and many are convinced
under his preaching." He records, again, that he
had "kindled a flame" in Bath, "and it has not yet
gone out." "I found his preaching in the street in
Winchester had been blessed greatly. Many were
more or less convinced of sin, and several had found
peace with God. I never saw the house before so
crowded with serious and attentive hearers."  For
eleven or twelve years we catch glimpses of the
military evangelist in the Journals of Wesley. The
last of them is in 1785, when, being at Salisbury,
where the captain had recently preached, he "endeavored to avail himself of the fire which" that
veteran "seldom failed to kindle."   Fletcher of
Madeley appreciated him, and tried hard with hinm
to induce Benson, the commentator, to throw himself into the Methodistic movement in America
71 
72   CENTENARY OF AMEPICAN METHODISM.
Fietcher himself, doubtless by the influence of Webb,
had strong thoughts of doing so, but his health forbade it. The allusions to Webb in the cotempocrary
publications of Methodism show that he was a man of
profound piety. "He experienced much of the power
of religion in his own soul," says an itinerant who
usually lodged at his home in England; "he wrens
tied day and night with God for that degree of grace
which he stood in need of that he might stand firm
as the beaten anvil to the stroke, and he was favored
with those communications from above which made
him bold to declare the whole counsel of God. His
evidence of the favor of God was so bright that he
never lost a sense of that blessed truth,'the blood of
Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.' For him to
live was Christ, to die was gain." John Adams, the
statesman of the American Revolution and President
of the Republic, heard him with admiration, and
describes him as "the old soldier, one of the most
eloquent men I ever heard; he reaches the imagination and touches the passions very well, and expresses himself with great propriety." By another
hearer he is spoken of as "a perfect Whitefield in
declamation." A high Methodist authority, who
knew the captain well, says, "They saw the warrior
in his face, and heard the missionary in his voice.
Under his holy eloquence they trembled, they wept,
and fell down under his mighty word." One of 
EARLY PROGRESS IN AMERICA
Wesley's veterans, who was intimate with the captaim, and who read the funeral service over his coffin,
says, "Great multitudes crowded to hear him, and a
vast number in different places owned him for their
spiritual father.  His ministry was plain, but remarkably powerful; he was truly a Boanerges, and
often made the stout-hearted tremble."
Such was the stranger in uniform, whose sudden appearance startled the little assembly of Embury's hearers. He had heard of them at Albany,
where he had lived a short time before as barrackmaster, and where he had opened his house for
religious services, conducted by himself.  He had
hastened to New York to encourage the struggling
society. Following the custom of the times, he
always wore his military dress in public. He
preached in it, with his sword lying on the table
or desk before him. The populace were attracted
by the spectacle, and soon crowded the preachingroom beyond its capacity. A rigging loft, sixty feet
by eighteen, on William-street, was rented in 1767.
Here Webb and Embury preached thrice a week to
crowded assemblies.  "It could not contain half the
people who desired to hear the word of the Lord."
A chapel was necessary. Barbara Heck, the real
foundress of American Methodism, and who, from
the day that she recalled Embury to his duty, had
guarded the incipient cause with the vigilance of a
73 
74    CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
priestess, was the first to suggest such a provision;
Webb seconded her proposal. She even submitted a
plan of the humble edifice, one which she believed
God approved and had suggested to her while pray ing on the subject. "I the Lord will do it," was
the response to her supplication, which seemed to
come to her by inspiration. A site on John-street,
ever since sacred, was leased in 1768, and purchased
two years later. Subscriptions were made extensively through the city for the expense of the
modest edifice. Embury was first on the list of its
trustees; he had the honor of being first preacher,
first class-leader, first treasurer, and first trustee of
the first society of Methodism in the Western hemisphere. The chapel was of stone, faced with blue
plaster, sixty feet by forty-two.  Embury seems to
have been its chief architect; and he labored upon
it by the side of the humblest mechanic. On the
30th of October, 1768, he ascended its pulpit, made
by his own hands, and dedicated the building with a
sermon on Hosea x, 12, "Sow to yourselves in
righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow
ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come
and reign righteousness upon you." The population
of the city was about twenty thousand, not too large
for a general recognition of the fact that Methodism
had now its monumental edifice, however humble,
in the midst of them, and John-street chapel has 
EARLY PROGRESS IN AMERICA.
ever since been, not only a sacred memorial of the
denomination, but has become one of the most venerable monuments of the city. It was immediately
thronged with hearers, and Embury and Webb were
its diligent preachers. In about half a year after
its dedication an American correspondent of Wesley
wrote, "the Lord carries on a very great work by
those two men."
Webb made frequent excursions to other parts of
the country, and soon became the principal founder
of American Methodism. He spent some time
preaching at Jamaica, Long Island, where at least
"twenty-four persons  received justifying grace."
He passed often through New Jersey and formed
Societies in its chief towns. He was the first Methodist who preached in Philadelphia, where, in 1767
or 1768, he formed a "class" of seven members, in
a sail loft, which, as in New York  and later in
Baltimore, was for some time the only temple of the
infant cause. His zeal and liberality led to the
purchase, in 1770, of St. George's Church, the first
Methodist chapel of the city. In 1769 he founded
Methodism in Delaware, preaching in Newcastle,
Wilmington, and the forests of the Brandywine. He
extended his labors to Baltimore; he corresponded
with Wesley, entreating him to send out missionaries
to the new field; after some were sent he went to
England to obtain a reinforcement, and brought
75 
76   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODIS.
back with him, in 1773, Rankin and Shadford. He
plead for America in the British Conference and in
the Methodist chapels generally. Down to the outbreak of the Revolution he was, in fine, an apostle
to the New World, devoting his whole time here for
about nine years to Christian labors. After his final
return to England he continued to preach with his
early fervor and power till December 20th, 1796,
when he suddenly died at Bristol, where he sleeps
beneath the pulpit of Portland Chapel, an edifice
which was erected chiefly through his own exertions. A monument on its walls commemorates
him as "brave-active-courageous-faithful-zealous-successful."
Embury continued to serve the John-street society
gratuitously till the arrival of Wesley's first missionaries, in 1769, when he gladly surrendered to them
its pulpit. He soon after emigrated with a party of
his fellow-Methodists to the town of Salem, Washington county, New York. It is recorded that he
there continued to labor as a local preacher, and
formed a society, chiefly of his own countrymen, at
Ashgrove, the first Methodist class within the bounds
of the Troy Conference which in our day reports
more than twenty-five thousand communicants, and
more than two hundred traveling preachers. He
was held in high estimation by his neighbors, and
officiated among them not only as a preacher, but as 
EARLY PROGRESS IN' AMERICA.
a magistrate.* While mowing in his field in 1775,
he injured himself so severely as to die suddenly,
aged but  forty-five years, "greatly beloved and
much lamented," says Asbury. He was buried on
the neighboring farm of his Palatine friend, Peter
Switzer. After reposing fifty-seven years in his solitary grave without a memorial, his remains were
disinterred with solemn ceremonies, and borne by a
large procession to the Ashgrove burial ground,
where their resting-place is marked by a monument,
recording that he "was the first to set in motion a
train of measures which resulted in the founding of
John-street Church, the cradle of American Methodism, and the introduction of a system which has
beautified the earth with salvation, and increased
the joys of heaven." Some of his family emigrated
to Upper Canada, and, with the family of Barbara
Heck, were among the founders of Methodism in
that province.
About the time that Embury and Webb were
laying the foundations of the denomination in New
York, Robert Strawbridge was inaugurating it in
Maryland. Like Embury, he also was an Irishman,
and was characterized by the native ardor of his
countrymen.  He was eloquent, and a melodious
* " In a map (now before me) of the Province of New York, copied
from a London map dated 1779, that locality is laid off as a manor,
bearing the name of Embury."-Rev. P. P. Harrower to the Author.
14, 7 
78    CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
singer; he loved adventure and travel, and as an
evangelist went to and fro preaching night and day.
He arrived in this country at some time between
1760 and 1765, and settled on "Sam's Creek," in
Frederick county, Maryland, which had but recently
been reclaimed from the perils of savage invasion.
He opened his house for preaching; formed in it a
Methodist society; and, not long after, built the
"Log Meeting-house" on Sam's Creek, about a mile
from his home. He buried beneath its pulpit two
of his children. It was a rude structure, tweiay-two
feet square, and, though long occupied, was never
finished, but remained without windows, door, or
floor. "The logs were sawed on one side for a
door-way, and holes were made on the other three
sides for windows." He became virtually an itinerant, journeying about in not only his own large
county, (then comprehending three later counties,)
but in Eastern Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania,
and Virginia; preaching with an ardor and a fluency
which surprised his hearers, and drew them in multitudes to his rustic assemblies. He seemed disposed
literally to let the morrow, if not indeed the day,
take care of itself. His frequent calls to preach in
distant parts of the country required so much of
his time that his family were likely to suffer in his
absence, so that it became a question with him
"Who will keep the wolf from my own door while 
EARLY PROGRESS IN AMERICA.
I am abroad seeking after the lost sheep @" His
neighbors, appreciating his generous zeal and selfsacrifice, agreed to take care of his little farm,
gratuitously, in his absence. The Sam's Creek Soci3ty, consisting at first of but twelve or fifteen per30ons, was a fountain of good influence to the county
and the state. It early gave four or five preachers
to the itinerancy. Strawbridge founded Methodism
in Baltimore and Harford counties. The first Society in the former was formed by him at the house
of Daniel Evans, near the city, and the first chapel
of the county was erected by it. The first native
Methodist preacher of the continent, Richard Owen,
was one of his converts in this county; a man
who labored faithfully and successfully as a local
preacher for some years, and who entered the
itinerancy at last, and died in it. He was long the
most effective co-laborer of Strawbridge, traveling
the country in all directions, founding societies,
and opening the way for the coming itinerants.
Owen's temperament was congenial with that of
Strawbridge. He clung to the hearty Irishman with
tenacious affection, emulated his missionary activity,
and at last followed him to the grave, preaching his
funeral service to a "vast concourse," under a large
walnut tree.
Several preachers were rapidly raised up by Strawbridge in his travels in Baltimore and Harford coun
79 
80   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
ties: Sater Stephenson, Nathan Perigo, Richard
Webster, and others; and many laymen, whose families have been identified with the whole subsequent
progress of Methodism in their respective localities,
if not the nation generally.   We  have frequent
intimations of his labors and success in the early
biographies of Methodism, but they are too vague
to admit of any consecutive narration of his useful
career. We discover him now penetrating into
Pennsylvania, and then arousing the population of
the Eastern Shore of Maryland; now bearing the
standard into Baltimore, and then, with Owen, planting it successfully in Georgetown, on the Potomac,
and in other places in Fairfax county, Virginia; and
by the time that the regular itinerancy comes effectively into operation in Maryland, a band of preachers, headed by such men as Watters, Gatch, Bowham,
Haggerty, Durbin, Garrettson, seem to have been
prepared, directly or indirectly, through his instrumentality, for the more methodical prosecution of the
great cause. We find his own name in the Minutes
in 1773 and 1775 as an itinerant. We trace him
at last to the upper part of Long Green, Baltimore county, where an opulent and generous public
citizen, Captain Charles Ridgely, who admired his
character and sympathized with his poverty, gave
him a farm, free of rent, for life. It was while
residing here, "under the shadow of Hampton," his 
EARLY PROGRESS IN AMERICA.
benefactor's mansion, that, in "one of his visiting
rounds to his spiritual children, he was taken sick
at the house of Joseph Wheeler, and died in great
peace;" probably in the summer of 1781. Owen, as
has been remarked, preached his funeral sermon in
the open air, to a great throng, "under a tree at the
north-west corner of the house."  Among the concourse were a number of his old Christian neighbors,
worshipers in the "Log Chapel," to whom he had
been a Pastor in tile wilderness; they bore him to
the tomb, singing as they marched one of those rapturous lyrics with which Charles Wesley taught the
primitive Methodists to triumph over the grave.  He
sleeps in an orchard of the friend at whose house he
died-one of his own converts-under a tree, from
the foot of which can be seen the great city which
claims him as its Methodistic apostle, and which, ever
since his day, has been pre-eminent among American
communities for its Methodistic strength and zeal.
81  
EARLY EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES.   83
CHAPTER III.
EARLY EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES.
THE news of the success of Embury, Webb, and
Strawbridge reached England and excited no little
interest. Wesley was pondering the expediency of
sending out missionaries to enter the opening doors;
but meanwhile some zealous evangelists, impatient of
delay, hastened as volunteers to the new field. The
first of them was Robert Williams, a local preacher,
who went on board the packet for America, with his
saddle-bags, a bottle of milk, and a loaf of bread, but
no money for the expense of the voyage. A Methodist fellow-passenger paid the latter. On arriving
in New York (1769) Williams immediately began his
mission in Embury's Chapel, and thenceforward, for
about six years, was one of the most effective pioneers
Df American Methodism: "the first Methodist minister in America that published a book, the first that
married, the first that located, and the first that died."
We have but little knowledge of his career, but sufficient to prove that he had the fire and heroism of
the original itinerancy. He was stationed at Johnstrcet Church some time in 1771. He labored succewfully with Strawbridge in founding the new cause 
84   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
in Baltimore county. In the first published Confer.
ence Minutes he is appointed to Petersburgh, Va.
"'He was the apostle of Methodism in Virginia."
Hie followed Strawbridge in founding it in 1772 on
the Eastern Shore of Maryland.   In the same year
he appeared in Norfolk, Va. Taking his stand on
the steps of the Court-house, he collected a congregation by singing a hymn, and then preached with
a plainness and energy, so novel among them, that
they supposed he was insane. No one invited him
home, in a community noted for hospitality; they
were afraid of his supposed lunacy; but on hearing
him a second time their opinion was changed. He
was received to their houses, and soon after a society
was formed in the city, the germ of the denomination
in the state. In 1773 he traveled in various parts of
Virginia. Jarrett, an apostolic churchman, and afterward a notable friend of the Methodists, encouraged
his labors, and entertained him a week at his parsonage. Williams formed the first circuit of Virginia.
A signal example of his usefulness (incalculable in
its results) was the conversion of Jesse Lee. He was
"the spiritual father" of this heroic itinerant, the
founder of Methodism in New England.  "Mr. Lee's
parents opened their doors for him to preach. They
were converted. Two of their sons became Methodist ministers, and their other children shared largely
in the blessings of the Gospel, which he proclaimed 
EARLY EVANGELISTS AND'nMISSIONARIES.   85
with such flaming zeal, holy ardor, and great success."
The religious interest excited by Williams's labors
soon extended into North Carolina, and opened the
way for the southward advancement of Methodism.
He bore back to Philadelphia, says Asbury, a "flaming account of the work in Virginia: many of the
people were ripe for the Gospel and ready to receive
us."  He returned, taking with him a young man
named William Watters, who was thus ushered into
the ministry, and has ever since been honored as the
first native American itinerant.* Leaving him in the
field already opened, Williams went himself southwestward, "as Providence opened the way."  Subsequently he bore the cross into North Carolina. He
formed a six weeks' circuit from Petersburgh southward, over the Roanoke River, some distance into
that state, and thus became the "apostle of Methodism" in North Carolina, as well as Virginia, Like
most of the itinerants of that day, he located after
his marriage, and settled between Norfolk and Suffolk, where, and in all the surrounding regions, he continued to preach till his death, which occurred on the
26th of September, 1775. Asbury was now in the
country, and at hand to bury the zealous pioneer.
Hle preached his funeral sermon, and records in his
* Owen was the first native Methodist preacher, but he did not
join the conference or regular itinerancy till after Watters had been
received. 
86   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISX
Journal the highest possible eulogy on him.  "He
has been a very useful, laborious man. The Lord
gave many seals to his ministry. Perhaps no one in
America has been an instrument of awakening so
many souls as God has awakened by him." "He
was a plain, pointed preacher, indefatigable in his
labors," says a historian of the Church.   "That
pious servant of the Lord," says Watters, his young
fellow-traveler in the South.  "The name of Robert
Williams," says our earliest annalist, "still lives in
the minds of many of his spiritual children.  He
proved the goodness of his doctrine by his tears in
public and by his life in private. He spared no pains
in order to do good-standing on a stump, block,
or log, he sung, prayed, and preached to hundreds"
as they passed along from their public resorts or
churches.  "It was common with him after preaching to ask most of the people, whom he spoke to, some
question about the welfare of their souls, and to
encourage them to serve God." He printed and circulated Wesley's Sermons, " spreading them through
the country, to the great advantage of religion: they
opened the way in many places for our preachers,
where these had never been before. Though dead,
he yet speaketh by his faithful preaching and holy
walk." Such was the evangelist who was the first
practically to respond to the appeals from America
to England. His grave is unknown, but he will 
EARLY EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES.   87
live in the history of the Church forever, associated
with Embury, Webb, and Strawbridge. He did
for it, in Virginia and North Carolina, what Embury did for it in New York, Webb in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, and Strawbridge
in Maryland.
Not long after Williams's arrival, John King also
came from England. He opened his mission in the
Potter's Field of Philadelphia. He extended his
labors into Delaware, and soon was co-operating
with Strawbridge and Williams, in Maryland. He
was the first Methodist who preached in the city of
Baltimore. His first pulpit there was a blacksmith's
block at the intersection of Front and French streets.
His next sermon was from a table at the junction of
Baltimore and Calvert streets. His courage was tested
on this occasion, for it was the militia training-day,
and the drunken crowd charged upon him so effectually as to upset the table and lay him prostrate
on the earth. He knew, however, that the noblest
preachers of Methodism had suffered like trials in
England, and he maintained his ground courageously. The commander of the troops, an Englishman,
recognized him as a fellow-countryman, and, defending him, restored order, and allowed him to proceed.
Victorious over the mob, he made so favorable an
impression as to be invited to preach in the English
Church of St. Paul's, but improved that opportunity 
88   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
with such fervor as to receive no repetition of the
courtesy. Methodism had now, however, effectively
entered Baltimore, down to our day its chief citadel in
the new world. In five years after King stood there
on the blacksmith's block, it was strong enough to
entertain the Annual Conference of the denomination.
King was afterward received into the regular itinerancy. He was a member of the first Conference
of 1773, and was appointed to New Jersey. He
soon after entered Virginia, and with two other
preachers traveled Robert Williams's new six weeks'
circuit, extending from Petersburgh into North Carolina.  "They were blessed among the people, and a
most remarkable revival of religion prevailed in
most of the circuit," says the cotemporary historian
of the Church; "Christians were united and devoted
to God; sinners were greatly alarmed: the preachers
had large congregations; indeed, the Lord wrought
wonders among us that year." Still later we trace
him again to New Jersey; he located during the
Revolution, but in 1801 reappeared in the itinerant
ranks in Virginia. He located finally in 1803. One
of our historical authorities assures us that "he was
a truly pious, zealous, and useful man,and so continued till his death, which occurred a few years
since, at a very advanced age, in the vicinity of
Raleigh, N. C. He was probably the only survivor,
at the time of his decease, of all the preachers of 
EARLY EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES.   89
ante-revolutionary date." John King did valiant
service in our early struggles. He seems, however,
to have been often led away by his excessive ardor;
he used his stentorian voice to its utmost capacity;
and it is said that when he preached in St. Paul's,
Baltimore, he "made the dust fly from the old velvet cushion." Wesley, who probably knew him in
England, and corresponded with him in America,
calls him "stubborn and headstrong."
Webb's correspondence with Wesley at last procured the appointment of regular itinerant preaohers to America. On the 3d of August, 1769, Wesley
announced in the Conference at Leeds, "We have a
pressing call from our brethren of New York (who
have built a preaching house) to come over and help
them.  Who is willing to go?"  Richard Boardman
and Joseph Pilmoor responded, and were sent. They
arrived at Philadelphia in October, 1769.
Boardman had been in Wesley's itinerancy about
six years, and was now about thirty-one years old.
Wesley describes him  as "pious, sensible, greatly
beloved." Asbury says, he was "kind, loving,
worthy, truly amiable, and entertaining, of childlike temper." An old writer on Methodism says,
he was "a man of great piety, of amiable disposition, and great understanding." His companion,
Pilmoor, was converted in his early youth, was
educated at Wesley's Kingswood school, and had 
90   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
now itinerated about four years. He was a man of
deep piety,. of good insight, and much courage, of a
dignified presence and ready discourse.
Whitefield saluted them gladly in America and
bade them Godspeed. He had prepared the way
for them by awakening a religious interest throughout the colonies.   He  had made  his thirteenth
passage of the Atlantic, and the next year after
their arrival he died at Newburyport, Mass. Hie
had finished his extraordinary career, and left the
field white for the harvest. The Methodist itinerants were now to reap it. Boardman and Pilmoor
continued to labor in the country about four years,
from Boston to Savannah.
In 1770 "America" is recorded for the first time
in Wesley's printed "Minutes of Conference," with
four preachers, Boardman, Pilmoor, Williams, and
King. In the following year it is recorded with
three hundred and sixteen Church members. In the
conference of 1771 Wesley again called for volunteers for the new field. "Our brethren in America,"
he said, "call aloud for help; who will go? "  Five
responded, and two were sent: Francis Asbury
(afterward bishop) and Richard Wright. Of the
latter we know but little. He had traveled but one
year in the ministry before he came to America; he
labored, with more or less success, from New York
to Norfolk for three or four years, and then returned 
EARLY EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES.   91
to England. But Francis Asbury was destined to
be the most historical, the representative character
of American Methodism. He was now a young man
about twenty-six years of age. He had been in the
traveling ministry only about five years, and but
four years on the catalogue of regular appointments,
but had seen hard service on Bedfordshire, Colches
ter, and Wiltshire circuits. He was studious, somewhat introspective, with a thoughtfulness which was
tinged at times with melancholy. His was one of
those minds which can find rest only in labor;
designed for great work, and therefore endowed
with a restless instinct for it. He was an incessant
preacher, of singular practical directness; was ever
in motion, on foot or on horseback, over his long
circuits; a rigorous disciplinarian, disposed to do
everything by method; a man of few words, and
those always to the point; of quick and accurate
insight into character; of a sobriety, not to say
severity, of temperament, which might have been
repulsive had it not been softened by a profound
religious humility, for his soul, ever aspiring to the
highest virtue, was ever complaining within itself
over its shortcomings. His mind had eminently a
military cast. He never lost his self-possession, and
could therefore seldom be surprised. He seemed
not to know fear, and never yielded to discouragement in a course sanctioned by his faith or con 
92    CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
science. He could plan sagaciously, seldom pausing
to consider theories of wisdom or policy, but as seldom failing in practical prudence. The rigor which
his disciplinary predilections imposed upon  others
was so exemplified by himself, that his associates or
subordinates, instead of revolting from it, accepted
it as a challenge of heroic emulation. Discerning
men could not come into his presence without perceiving that his soul was essentially heroic, and that
nothing committed to his agency could fail, if it
depended upon conscientiousness, prudence, courage,
labor, and persistence. " Who," says one who knew
him intimately, "who of us could be in his company
without feeling impressed with a reverential awe
and profound respect? It was almost impossible
to approach him without feeling the strong influence
of his spirit and presence. There was something in
this remarkable fact almost inexplicable and indescribable. Was it owing to the strength and elevation of his spirit, the sublime conceptions of his
mind, the dignity and majesty of his soul, or the
sacred profession with which he was clothed, as an
embassador of God, invested with divine authority?
But so it was; it appeared as though the very
atmosphere in which he moved gave unusual sensations of diffidence and humble restraint to the boldest confidence of man."  Withal, his appearance was
in his favor. Ini his most familiar portrait he has 
EARLY EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES.   93
the war-worn aspect of a military veteran; but in
earlier life his frame was robust, his countenance
fiill, fresh, and expressive of generous, if not refined, feelings. He was attentive to his apparel,
and always maintained an easy dignity of manners,
which commanded the respect, if not the affection,
of his associates.  The appeals from the American
Methodists had reached him in his rural circuits, for
he had never left his ministerial work to attend the
Annual Conference. Two months before the session
of 1771 his mind had been impressed with the
thought that America was his destined field of
labor. He saw in the new world a befitting sphere
for his apostolic aspirations.   The great qualities,
manifested in his subsequent career were inherent in the man, and Wesley could not fail to perceive them. He not only accepted him for America,
but, notwithstanding his youth, appointed him, at
the ensuing conference, at the head of the American
ministerial itinerancy.
His labors in the New World were, if possible,
greater than those of Wesley in the old; he traveled
more miles a year and preached as often. On
becoming bishop of the Church, he seemed to
become ubiquitous throughout the republic. The
history of Christianity, since the apostolic age,
affords not a more perfect example of ministerial
and episcopal devotion than was presented in this 
94   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
great man's life. He preached almost daily for
more than half a century. During most of this
time he traveled over the continent, with hardly
an intermission, from north to south and east to
west, directing the growing hosts of his denomination with the skill and authority of a great captain.
He was ordained bishop of the Methodist Episcopal
Church when thirty-nine years old, at its organization in 1784, when it comprised less than fifteen
thousand members and but about eighty preachers;
and he fell in 1816, in his seventy-first year, at the
head of an army of more than two hundred and
eleven thousand members, and more than seven
hundred itinerant preachers. It has been estimated
that in the forty-five years of his American ministry
he preached about sixteen thousand five hundred
sermons, or at least one a day, and traveled about
two hundred and seventy thousand miles, or six
thousand a year; that he presided in no less than
two hundred and twenty-four annual conferences,
and ordained more than four thousand preachers.
ie was, in fine, one of those men of anomalous
greatness, in estimating whom the historian is
compelled to use terms which would be irrelevant, as hyperbole, to most men with which he
has to deal. His discrimination of character was
marvelous; his administrative talents would have
placed him, in civil government or in war, by the 
EARLY EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES.   95
side of Richelieu or Cesar, and his success placed
him unquestionably at the head of the leading characters of American ecclesiastical history.   No one
man has done more for Christianity in the western
hemisphere. His attitude in the pulpit was solemn
and dignified, if not graceful; his voice was 0sonorous and oommanding, and his discourses were often
attended with bursts of eloquence "which spoke a
soul full of God, and, like a mountain torrent, swept
all before it." Notwithstanding his advanced age
and shattered health he continued his travels to the
last, till he had to be aided up the pulpit steps, and
to sit while preaching. On the 24th of March, 1816,
when unable to either walk or stand, he preached
his last sermon at Richmond, Va., and on the 31st
died at Spottsylvania, Va. With Wesley, Whitefield, and Coke, he ranks as one of the four greatest
representative men of the Methodistic movement.
In American Methodism he ranks immeasurably
above all his cotemporaries and successors, in historical importance, and his eventful life affords the
chief materials for the history of the Methodist
Episcopal Church during half a century.
At Wesley's conference for 1772 Captain Webb
made an eloquent appeal for recruits for the ministry in America, and obtained Thomas Rankin and
George Shadford. The former was a thorough
"disciplinarian," a man of "iron will," and did 
96   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
good service in the colonial societies, by his general
enforcement of discipline. Shadford was a preacher
of extraordinary unction, the "revivalist" of the
times.  Each of them traveled and labored indefatigably from New York to North Carolina, till
the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, when
they returned to England.
Meanwhile other English missionaries arrived:
James Dempster, Martin Rodda, and William
Glendenning; but the alarm of the approaching
revolution dispersed the foreign laborers. Most of
them returned to their native country, and there
resumed their evangelical travels. A native ministry, however, had now providentially been raised
up, consisting of gigantic men, true apostles, peculiarly fitted for the further work of the evangelization
of the continent.  Watters, Hatch, Abbott, Mann,
Lee, Garrettson, Dickins, Dromgoole, and others had
either entered the itinerant ranks or were about to
do so, and during the storm of the war, while Asbury
alone of their foreign coadjutors remained, and he
much of the time in concealment, they bore the
standard of the cross forward, sometimes into the
very camps of the army. The cradle of Methodism
was in fact incessantly rocked by the revolutionary
storm, and it was the only form of religion that
advanced in America during that dark period. In
the year (1760) in which Embury and his fellow 
EARLY E VANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES.   97
Palatines arrived, the Lords of Trade advised the
taxing of the colonies, and the agitations of the
latter commenced. The next year James Otis, the
"morning star" of the Revolution, began his appeals
in Boston for the rights of the people. The following year the whole continent was shaken by the
royal interference with the colonial judiciary, especially at New  York;  and Otis attacked, in the
Massachusetts legislature, the English design of taxation as planned by Charles Townshend. Offense
followed offense from the British ministry, and surge
followed surge in the agitations of the colonies.  The
year preceding that in which the John-street Church
was formed is memorable as the date of the Stamp
Act; the Church was founded amid the storm of
excitement which compelled the repeal of the act in
1766-the recognized epoch of American Methodism.
The next year a new act of taxation was passed
which stirred the colonies from Maine to Georgia,
and "The Farmer's Letters," by John Dickinson of
Pennsylvania, appeared —" the foundation rock of
American politics and American statesmanship." Inl
two years more the Massachusetts legislature "planned resistance." Samuel Adams approved of making the "appeal to heaven," of war, and British
ships and troops were ordered to Boston. The first
Annual Conference of American Methodism was
held in the stormy year (1773) in which the British
7 
98   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
ministry procured the act respecting tea, which was
followed by such resistance that the ships bringing
that luxury were not allowed to land their cargoes
in Philadelphia and New York; were only allowed
to store them, not to sell them, in South Carolina,
and were boarded in Boston harbor and the freight
thrown into the sea. In the next year the Boston
Port Bill inflamed all the colonies; "a General Congress" was held; Boston was blockaded; Massachusetts was in a "general rising;" then came the year
of Lexington, and Concord, and Bunker Hill, introducing the "War of Revolution," with its years of
conflict and suffering. Thus Methodism began its
history in America in the stormn of the Revolution;
its English missionaries were arriving or departing
amid the ever increasing political agitation; it was
cradled in the hurricane, and hardened into vigorous
youth, by the severities of the times, till it stood
forth, the next year after the definitive treaty of
peace, the organized "Methodist Episcopal Church
in the United States of America." Its almost continual growth in such apparently adverse circumstances is one of the miracles of religious history.
In 1776 it was equal, in both the number of its
preachers and congregations, to the Lutherans, the
German Reformed, the Reformed Dutch, the Associate Church, the Moravians, or the Roman Catholics. At the close of the war it ranked fourth or 
EARLY EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES.  99
fifth among the dozen recognized Christian denominations of the country.  During the war it had
more than quadrupled both its ministry and its
members. It was a special providential provision
for the religious wants of America, and was therefore initiated and trained in the trying circumstances
which gave birth and training to the new nation.
*       e 
e 
RAPID PROGRESS IN AMERICA.
CHAPTER IV.
RAPID PROGRESS OF METHODISM IN AMERICA.
METHODISM broke out almost simultaneously, as
we have seen, in both the north and middle of the
the opening continent. By the end of the Revolutionary war it had laid securely its foundations il
both regions. From these its first humble positions
it was now rapidly to advance till it should dot the
whole country with its temples, and growing with
the growth of the population, become the predominant religious faith of the nation. Its history henceforth develops too rapidly and largely to admit of
more than a few further allusions in this part of our
volume; nor are its details indeed required by the
plan of this brief work; for its Churches are about to
commemorate its origin in America, and thus far its
origin has been sketched.* In other sections of the
volume we shall have occasion to present much of its
remaining history in outlines of its Disciplinary and
* For its fuller history I must take the liberty of referring the reader
to "The History of the Religious Movement, etc., called Methodism,'
3 vols., and "The History of the Methodist Episcopal Church," etc.,
2 vols., works in which I have endeavored to gather most of the remains of its annals, and from which I have condensed much of the
present volume.
101 
102  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
Doctrinal systems. A few additional chronological
and statistical statements must here suffice.
In 1773 was held its first Annual Conference, in
the city of Philadelphia, consisting of 10 preachers,
and reporting 1,160 members of society. In 1781
it crossed the Alleghanies and began that grand
work of western evangelization, which has become
the most important portion of its subsequent history, giving birth to the "old Western Confer
ence," which extended from the Northern Lakes
to Natchez, and every one of whose original "districts" comprehends in our day several conferences.
There are now, west of the Alleghanies, 33 conferences, 2,816 traveling preachers, (besides superannuates,) and nearly 438,000 members, not including
the Southern and other branches of Methodism.*
In 1784 its first General Conference was held in
Baltimore for the organization of "the Methodist
Episcopal Church in the United States of America,"
Dr. Thomas Coke having been ordained by Wesley
a bishop, and Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Yasey
elders, for the purpose of consecrating Francis
Asbury a bishop over the new Church, and of
ordaining other preachers to the orders of elder
and deacon, that the sacraments might be administered among the scattered Societies.   A  system
of government, with its Liturgy, Articles of Re
* Compare Appendix, Table No. III, with the Minutes. 
RAPID PROGRESS IN AMERICA.
ligion, Discipline, Hymn  Book, etc., was formally
adopted, and the denomination thus took precedence, in its episcopal organization, of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. Its
bishops were the first Protestant bishops of the
western hemisphere.
In 1785 Freeborn Garrettson extended its labors
to the northeastern British Provinces; in 1789 Jesse
Lee extended them into the New England States;
and in 1790 William Losee extended them into
Upper Canada.   In New England it was destined
to become the second religious denomination in
numerical strength and the first in progress, reporting in our day about a hundred thousand members,
nearly a thousand preachers, at least one academy
for each of its conferences, a university, and a theological school. In Canada it was destined to raise
up many mighty evangelists, to keep pace with
emigration, and reach westward to the Pacific, and
eastward till it should blend with the Methodism
planted by Coughlan, M'Geary, Black, and Garrettson on the Atlantic coast; Indian missions were
to arise; Methodist chapels, many of them elegant
structures, to adorn the country; a Book Concern,
periodical organs, a university, and academies be
provided; and Methodism, as in the United States,
to become numerically the predominant faith of the
people apart from the Church of Englaud; its dif
103 
10(4 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
ferent branches* reporting in our day more than
a hundred thousand members and nearly one thousand traveling preachers.
Before the end of the century Methodism had
planted its standards from Nova Scotia to Georgia,
from the Atlantic coast to the furthest western
line of emigration.   It ended the century with
eight Annual Conferences, or Synods, with three
bishops, Coke, Asbury, and Whatcoat, with two
hundred and eighty-seven traveling preachers, besides hundreds of local preachers, and with nearly
sixty-five thousand church members, of whom more
than thirteen thousand were Africans. In the first
Annual Conference, 1173, all the preachers save one,
William Watters, were foreigners; but after the
first General Conference (1784) Wesley dispatched
no "missionaries" to America.  All his former missionaries, except Asbury and Whatcoat, had returned
to Europe, or located; but American Methodism
had now its native ministry, numerous and vigorous.
Besides Asbury, Coke, and Whatcoat, it still retained
many of the great evangelists it had thus far raised up,
Garrettson, Lee, Abbott, O'Kelly, Crawford, Burke,
Poythress, Bruce, Breeze, Reed, Cooper, Everett,
Willis, Dickins, Ware, Brush, Moriarty, Roberts,
Hull, Losee, and others. A host of mighty men,
* The Canada and other Wesleyan Conferences, and the Methodist
Episcopal and New Connection Churches. 
RAPID PROGRESS IN AMERICA.
who were yet young and obscure, had already joined
these standard-bearers: M'Kendree, George, (both
afterward bishops,) Roszel, Nolley, M'Gee, Smith, Gibson, M'Henry, Kobler, Fleming, Cook, Scott, Wells,
Pickering, Sharp, Bostwick, M'Claskey, M'Combs,
Bartine, Morrell, Sargent, Taylor, Hunt, and scores
more. These were soon to be followed, or rather
joined, by another host of as strong if not stronger
representative men: Roberts, Eledding, Soule, Bangs,
Merwin, Capers, Pierce, Winans, Kennon, Kenneday,
Douglass, Redman, Thornton, Finley, Cartwright,
and many others equal to them; and amid an army
of such were to arise in due time, to give a new
intellectual development to the ministry, such characters as Elliott, Ruter, Emory, Fisk, Summerfield,
Bascom, Olin, and others, some surviving to our
day, men of not only denominational but of national
recognition.
The Church retained vividly the consciousness and
spirit of its original mission as a revival of apostolic religion. Its ministry was remarkable for its
unction and preached with demonstration and with
power; its social and public worship was characterized by animation and energy; it was continually
promoting "revivals" and "reformations," extending
them, not only over conferences or single states, but
sometimes simultaneously over much of the nation.
Therefore was its growth rapid beyond parallel; the
105 
106   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
65,000 members with which it began our century,
had swelled by the year 1825 to nearly 350,000, its
287 preachers to more than 1,300.
By the year 1844, when it was divided by the
secession of the South, it comprised more than
1,170,000 members, and more than 4,600 traveling
preachers; it had gained, in the preceding four years,
430,897 members and 1,325 preachers, an average of
107,724 members and 331 preachers per year. Thus,
in the hour of its most gigantic strength and capacity
for usefulness, when its arms could be outstretched to
the ends of the world with the blessings of the Gospel of peace, was the mighty Colossus broken in twain.
But the loyal Church fast recovered its strength
and moved onward, so that by 1850 it reported nearly
690,000 members, 4,129 traveling and 5,420 local
preachers. In 1860 it reported 994,447 members,
6,987 traveling and 8,188 local preachers; and the
two bodies, North and South, enrolled 1,743,515
members, 9,771 traveling and 13,541 local preachers.
This hundredth year of the denomination witnesses in the Methodist Episcopal Church alone 60
conferences, 928,320 members, 6,821 itinerant preachers, 8,205 local preachers, 10,015 churches, valued,
with their 2,948 parsonages, at $26,883,076.* Including both branches of Methodism, North and
* Minutes of 1864, the latest published before the present volume
goes to pres& 
RAPID PROGRESS IN AMERICA.
South, the aggregate is 1,628,388 members, 9,421
traveling, and 13,205 local preachers.* Its congregations are among the largest in the country, and its
terms of Church membership are among the most
stringent known in Protestant Christendom. It is
a moderate calculation that there are three members
of its congregations to one of its communicants, including its numerous children and youth; at this
rate the aggregate population, more or less habitually under the influence of its two leading Churches,
North and South, can hardly be less than 6,710,000;
it is more likely about 7,000,000, more than one
fifth of the population of the nation.
Adding the other branches of Methodism, there
must now be in the United States 1,950,000 members
and 12,000 traveling preachers religiously training,
more or less, a population of 7,800,000 souls. In
the whole western hemisphere, including the West
Indies and British North America, there are at least
2,100,000 Methodists.
In the four Middle states, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, "Methodism had
in 1850, according to the United States census, 2,556
churches, while the four remaining evangelical and
leading denominations-the Baptist, Congregationalists, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian-had an aggre
* The latest Southern reports are for 1860. The war has doubtless
affected them, as the above figures show it has Northern Methodism.
107 
108 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
gate of only 3,600, showing that Methodism holds
about three quarters of the popular power of evangelical Christianity in that central division of the country, where the leading state and the metropolitan city
of the continent are found. In the ten Southern states
and the District of Columbia, the above-named denominations have 4,458 churches, the Methodists
5,015, which gives Methodism an excess of several
hundred churches over this combined evangelical
competition; and in the eleven Western states, the
comparison stands: the four denominations, 4,899
churches; Methodism, 4,863, which, with'the statistics of the territories compiled since the census of
1850, will give to the youngest leading religious body
in the land a relative ascendancy still greater than in
the states of the South. The sum of it all is, that
in New England, Methodism is rapidly gaining on
the ancestral religion; that in the Middle states, it
nearly balances the four great evangelical denominations; that in the states of the South, it more than
balances them; that in the great West, which is soon
to wield a weightier influence than all the other states
combined, it has taken a still stronger position."*
* Tefft's Methodism, p. 199. 
ITS PRACTICAL SYSTEM.
CHAPTER V.
ITS PRACTICAL SYSTEM.
THE  historical  answer to the question, What
is Methodism? is not complete without a more
precise account of its practical or "Disciplinary"
system.
The first organic form which the new movement
took was that of the "United Society," founded by
Wesley in connection with the "Old Foundry," London. The model of this elementary organization was
before him in the Fetter Lane and other societies
to which he had resorted in the metropolis. These
Societies rapidly multiplied throughout the country.
In their maturer form, they were composed of members, and probationers (six months on trial), divided
into classes of twelve or more persons, and meeting
weekly, under the care of a Class-leader, for religious
counsel and the contribution of money for the support of the Church according to the General Rules.
The leaders were met at filrst weekly, afterward
monthly, by the preacher.
The Class Meeting became one of the most imports
tant institutions of Methodism: the basis of its
financial economy and the germ of almost every
109 
110 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
new Society formed in its rapid progress. The two
Wesleys prepared the document, known now through out the Methodist world as "The General Rules,"
and prescribing the "only one condition previously
required of those who desire admission into these
Societies."*  It is distinguished by  its practical
thoroughness, and, equally, by the absence of any
dogmatic requisitions.  As presenting the "only"
terms of membership in the Church, it is a striking
proof of what we have assumed to be the stand-point,
the providential design of Methodism, namely, the
revival and propagation of spiritual religion; not
of sectarian ecclesiasticism, or sectarian theology.
Each Society has its Trustees, holding the chapel
property; its Stewards, having charge of its other
finances; and, in many cases, its licensed Exhorters
and Local Preachers, men who pursue secular vocations, but labor as public teachers whenever they
find opportunity.  The Exhorters usually graduate
to the office of Local Preacher, and thence to the
traveling ministry; this, in fine, is the recruiting
process of the Annual Conference. Each Society also
has its "Prayer Meetings," in which its lay talents,
without respect to sex, are brought into exercise, and
thereby developed and made subservient to the common cause; its Love-Feasts, derived through the Moravians, from the primitive Agape, and held usually
* See it in Appendix No. 1. 
ITS PRACTICAL SYSTEM.
once a quarter; its Watch-nights, generally celebrated
on the last night of the year.
A group of these Societies form a Circuit, extending in some cases five hundred miles, requiring from
two to six or more weeks to travel around it, and
supplied by a preacher " in charge," and two or three
assistants, who are aided by the Local Preachers; the
Class-Leaders maintaining a minute pastoral oversight
of the Societies during the absence of the itinerants.
A group of circuits constitute a District, superintended by a Presiding Elder, who incessantly travels
his extensive territory, preaching, counseling the
traveling and Local Preachers and Exhorters, meeting the official members of the circuit Societies, and
promoting the interest of the Church in every possible way.
The Quarterly Conference is held by the Presiding
Elder, in accordance with its title, once in three
months, on each circuit, and. is composed of the
preachers of the circuit, its local preachers, exhorters,
leaders, stewards, and Sunday-school superintendents.
It has, subordinately to the Annual Conference,
jurisdiction over all the local interests of the circuit:
its finances, the authorization of its local preachers
and exhorters, a class of judicial appeals, and the
recommendation of candidates for the Annual Conferences. Formerly its exercises were largely, mostly
indeed, spiritual.   It continued about two days,
ill 
112  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
during which there were almost continual sessions,
sermons, prayer-meetings, or love-feasts. The Methodist families of the circuit, often from the distance
of many miles, assembled at it, making it a great
religious festival.
A number of districts (with their Quarterly Conferences) constitute the Annual Conference, composed of the traveling preachers of the given territory.
These annual assemblies became imposing occasions.
A bishop presided; the preachers, from many miles
around, usually including several states, were present;
hosts of laymen were spectators. There was preaching in the early morning, in the afternoon, and at
night. The daily proceedings were introduced with
religious services, and were characterized by an impressive religious spirit.   They continued usually a
week, and it was a festal season, gathering the warworn heroes of many distant and hard-fought fields,
renewing the intimacies of preachers and people, and
crowned alike by social hospitalities and joyous devotions.  They have their particular regulations prescribed in the Discipline.
All the Annual Conferences are represented by
delegates in the General Conference, which meets
once in four years, and is the supreme assembly of
the denomination, making its "rules and regulations," under certain Restrictive Rules, and revising
its whole work and interests. Its session usuallv 
ITS PRACTICAL SYSTEM.
lasts about four weeks; it is the great jubilee of the
denomination, and has unquestionably become one of
the most important ecclesiastical occasions of the
Christian world.
Such is a mere glance at the "economy" or practical
system of Methodism, not altogether as it was under
Wesley in England, but as it developed and enlarged
itself in America at and after the Christmas General
Conference of 1784, when the Church assumied an
organic form with its series of synodal bodies, extending from the fourth of a year to four years, from the
local circuit to the whole nation; its series of pastoral
functionaries, Class-leaders, Exhorters, Local Preachers, Circuit Preachers, District Preachers or Presiding Elders, and Bishops whose common diocese was
th       e    entire country; its Prayer-meetings, Band-meetings, Love-feasts, and incessant preaching; its Ritual,
Articles of Religion, Psalmody, and singularly
minute moral discipline, as prescribed in its "General Rules" and ministerial regimen. Its system
was remarkably precise and consecutive, and, as
seen in our day by its results, as remarkably effective.
Time has proved it to be the most efficient of all
modern religious organizations, not only among the
dispersed population of a new country, but also in
the dense communities of an ancient people; on the
American frontier, and in the English city, it is found
efficacious beyond all other ecclesiastical plans, stimu
8
113 
114  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
lating most others, and yet outstripping them. This
singular system of religious instrumentalities was not
devised. It was in but few respects the result of
sagacious foresight; it grew up spontaneously, and
Wesley's legislative wisdom shows itself not so much
in inventing its peculiarities, as in appropriating
skillfully the means which were providentially provided for him.  Its elementary parts were evolved
unexpectedly in the progress of the denomination.
Wesley saw that the state of religion throughout the
English nation required a thorough reform; God, he
believed, would provide for whatever was necessary
to be done in such a necessity, if willing and earnest
men would attempt to do it. He was ready to attempt it, and to be sacrificed for it. He looked not
into the future, but consulted only the openings of
his present duty. He expected at first to keep within
the restrictions of the national Church. The manner
in which he was providentially led to adopt, one by
one, the peculiar measures which at last consolidated
into a distinct and unparalleled system, is an interesting feature in the' history of Methodism, and
worthy to be traced with more particular attention
than we have hitherto been able to give it.
The doctrines which he preached, and the novel
emphasis with which he preached them, led to his
expulsion from the pulpits of the Establishment.
This treatment, together with the great assemblies 
ITS PRACTICAL SYSTEM.
he attracted, compelled him to preach them   the
oen air: a measure which the moral wants of the
country demanded, and which is justified, as well
by the example of Christ as by its unquestionable
results.
The inconvenience of the "room" occupied by
his followers for spiritual meetings at Bristol, led
to the erection of a more commodious edifice. This
was a place of occasional preaching, and finally,
without the slightest anticipation of such a result,
the first in a 8er   of cha~pels which became the
habitual resorts of his followers, and thereby contributed more, perhaps, than any other cause to their
organization into a distinct sect. The debt incurred
by this building rendered necessary aplan of pecunia rycontributions among the worshipers who assemb]ed in it. They agreed to pay a penny a week.
They were divided into companies of twelve, one of
whom, called the leader, was appointed to receive
their pittances.  At their weekly meetings, for the
payment of this contribution, they found leisure for
religious conversation and prayer. These companies,
formed only for a local and temporary object, were
afterward called clas8es, and the arrangement was incorporated into the permanent economy of Methodism. In this manner originated one of the most distinctive features of its system, the advantages ot
which are beyond estimation. The class-meeting has,
115 
116 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
more than any other means, preserved the original
purity and vigor of the denomination. It is the best
school of experimental divinity that the world has
seen in modern times. It has given a sociality of
spirit and a disciplinary training to Methodism which
have been characteristic of it, if not peculiar to it.
We cannot but admire the providential adaptation
of this institution to another which was subsequently
to become all-important in the Methodist economyan itinerant ministry. Such a ministry could not
admit of much local pastoral labor, especially in
the New World, where the circuits were long. The
class-leader became a substitute for the preacher
in this department of his office.   The fruits of
an itinerant ministry must have disappeared in
many, perhaps most, places during the long intervals which elapsed between the visits of the earlier
preachers, had they not been preserved by the classmeeting.
Another most important result of the class-meeting
was the pecuniary provision it afforded for the prosecution of the plans which were daily enlarging under
the hands of Wesley.  The whole jca / sytem of
Methodism arose from the Bristol penny collections,
modified at last into the "rule" of "a penny a week
and a shilling a quarter." Thus, without foreseeing
the great independent cause he was about to establish, Wesley formed, through a slight circumstance, a 
ITS PRACTICAL SYSTEM.
simple and yet most effective system of finance for
the expenses which its future prosecution would
involve. And admirably was this pecuniary system
adapted to the circumstances of that cause. He was
destined to raise up a great religious organization;
it was to be composed chiefly of the poor, and yet to
require large pecuniary resources. How were these
resources to be provided from among a poor people 
The providential formation of a plan of finance which
suited the poverty of the poorest, and which worldly
sagacity would have contemned, banished all difficulty, and has led to pecuniary results which have
rarely if ever been equaled by any voluntary religious
organization.
The itinerant lay ministry was equally providential in its origin. Wesley was at first opposed to the
employment of lay preachers. He expected the cooperation of the regular clergy. They, however,
were his most persistent antagonists. Meanwhile
the small societies, formed by his followers for
spiritual improvement, multiplied. - "What," he
says, " was to be done in a case of such extreme
necessity, where so many souls lay at stake?  No
clergyman would assist at all. The expedient that
remained was to seek some one among themselves
who was upright of heart and of sound judgment in
the things of God, and desire him to meet the rest as
often as he could, to confirm them, as he was able, in
117 
118  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
the ways of God, either by reading to them or by
prayer and exhortation." From exhortation these
men proceeded to exposition, from exposition to
preaching. The result was natural, but it was not
designed. Such was the origin of the Methodist
lay ministry.
The multiplication of societies exceeded the increase
of preachers. It thus became necessary that the lat
ter should travel from town to town, and thence
arose the itinerancy, one of the most important features of the ministerial system of Methodism. It is
not a labor-saving provision-quite the contrary-but
a laborer-saving one.   The pastoral service, which
would otherwise have been confined to a single
parish, was extended by this plan to scores of towns
and villages, and, by the co-operation of the classmeeting, was rendered almost as efficient as it would
have been were it local. It was this peculiarity that
rendered the ministry of Methodism so successful in
new countries.   It also contributed, perhaps more
than any other cause, to maintain a sentiment
of unity among its people. It gave a pilgrim, a
militant character to its preachers; they felt that
"here they had no abiding city," and were led more
earnestly to seek one out of sight. It would not
allow them to entangle themselves with local trammels.  The cross peculiarly "crucified them to the
world, and the world to them."  Their zeal, rising 
ITS PRACTICAL SYSTEM.
into religious chivalry; their devotion to one work
their disregard for ease and the conveniences of
stationary life, were owing largely to their itinerancy. It made them one of the most self-sacrificing,
laborious, practical, and successful bodies of men
which have appeared in the great field of modern
Christian labor. And it was the opinion of Wesley
that the time when itinerancy should cease in the
ministry, and classes among the laity of Methodism,
would be the date of its downfall.
These developments inevitably led to others.  It
was necessary that Wesley should advise his preachers; they met him annually for the purpose, and
from such informal consultations arose the constitutional Conference, a body whose title has taken
a prominent place in the ecclesiastical terminology
of Christendom, among the names of councils, convocations,  and  synods.   Its deliberations at last
originated the laws, defined the theology, and
planned the propagandism of the denomination. Its
Minutes, revised and reduced, became the AMet/dist
Disc8line. It has reproduced itself in Ireland, in
France and Germany, in the American Republic,
in the British North American Provinces, in Australia, in India and in Africa; and it promises to
be a perpetually if not a universally recognized
institution of the Protestant world.
With the erection of churches arose the necessity
119 
120   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
for the appointment of Trwtees to hold their prop
erty. The finances of the societies rendered necessary the appointment of local Steward; the multiplication of societies, the appointment of Circuit
Stewards, to whom the local stewards became
auxiliaries. The increase of business on the circuits
led to the creation of the  Quarterly Weeting, or
Quarterly Conference as it is called in America,
comprising the officers, lay and clerical, of the
several societies of the circuit; and the Diztrict
3eeting or Conference, combining several circuits.
And thus, wheel within wheel, the system took
form, and became a settled and powerful economy.
The importance of this system becomes still more
striking when we consider its adaptation to the
New World-to the immense fields of immigration
and civilization which were about to be opened ill
not only North America, but in Oceanica, the
"Island World," to which geographers give rank
as the fifth division of the globe, and along whose
now busy coasts Cook, the navigator, was furtively
sailing while Wesley was founding Methodism in
England. Its importance to our own country will
be considered hereafter.
It has been objected to the ecclesiastical system of
Methodism that it excludes its laity from its higher
councils. Historically this fact is not discreditable to
it. Its early preachers went forth not at the call of 
ITS PRACTICAL SYSTEM.
the people, but to call the people. A small body of
ecclesiastics, they traversed the land preaching and
forming Societies on circuits hundreds of miles long.
These Societies were usually feeble, individually; they
were composed mostly of poor, dispersed, and unlettered people; and the preachers were compelled to
have the almost exclusive management of their scattered, untrained Churches.   It was necessary for
the itinerants to meet periodically to revise and
rearrange their labors; these periodical assemblies
were called, as we have seen, by the unpretentious
name of Conferences; it would have been impossible,
in the early days of the denomination, to have gathered, in their sessions, any satisfactory lay representation of the Societies. The conference grew into the
supreme legislature and judiciary of the Church, and
thus came to pass, at last, the startling anomaly of
the largest religious body in the republic, a body, too,
entirely pervaded by the republican sentiments of
the country, yet controlled exclusively, in at least its
higher assemblies, by its clergy. The fact was not
the result of design, it was historically an accident,
and I repeat, in nowise dishonorable to the ministry.
In agitations for a reform of this fact, there has been
no little contention and confusion, but opposition to
a change has not arisen so much from theories of
church government, as from a fear, on the part of
loyal laymen and preachers, that the practical
121 
122  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
efficiency of the system would be endangered by any
radical change. Theories of Church polity have
been of course more or less unavoidable in such
discussions, but practical expediency has been the
main question with both parties. The liberality,
not to say liberalism, of Methodism  in theology
(hereafter to be shown) has characterized it equally
in matters of Church government. It does not admit
that there is any scriptural or divinely enjoined form
of ecclesiastical polity, but that practical expedience
is the only divine right of any system. Its own
system is essentially Presbyterian, a Presbyterian
episcopacy. Its bishop is a presbyter in "order,"
though a bishop in office; a presbyter superintending
the body of presbyters, prim-us inter pares. In
retaining the two clerical orders of presbyter and
deacon, it does not declare that they are necessary
to the validity of the ministry, nor impeach sister
Churches that have them not; in adopting ordination, by imposition of hands, it does not assert any
sacramental virtue or scriptural obligation in the
rite, but uses it as an impressive and appropriate
ceremony. In America Methodism has always, since
its organization, had bishops, in England it has never
had them; in America it has the two orders of the
ministry, in England it has but one; in the former
it has always practiced "ordination" by imposition
of hands, in England it never used such ordination 
ITS PRACTICAL SYSTEM.
until some years ago, when it was adopted at the
suggestion of an American visitor, and solely as an
expedient form; and yet British and American
Methodism have never questioned each others' scriptural validity.
Basing all Church government on Christian expediency, American Methodism is ready for any modifications of its system which time may show to be
desirable for its greater effectiveness. Its General
Conference has therefore formally declared that it is
not only willing to provide for lay representation
whenever the Churches demand it, but that it
approves of the change.  Many Annual Conferences
have also formally seconded this declaration of the
supreme body, and it is evident that the Church is
now generally becoming convinced that in its present
maturity it can safely'modify its government in this
respect, and thus rid itself of an ecclesiastical anomaly which, if it has not seriously interfered with its
prosperity, has at least been a disparagement to its
character, especially in the writings of its opponents.
Lay representation is a prospective, apparently a
certain fact of American Methodism, and with it
will come, it may be hoped, a reunion of most if not
all its various sects in the nation, this being now the
only important question between most of them and
the parent body.
123 
I 
ITS DOCTRINAL SYSTEM.
CHAPTER VI.
ITS DOCTRINAL SYSTEM.
IT has been affirmed that, consistently with its
Providential mission, as a revival of spiritual life in
Christendom, Methodism did not start on itscareer
with any new dogmas or any sectarian or theological
exclusiveness.  It haI its theology nevertheless, and
this theology has doubtless been one of the most
potent elements of its vitality as an ecclesiastical
movement. Not a single doctrine, however, did it
announce, or does it yet proclaim, that was not sanctioned by the standards of the Anglican establishment. It was not, as we have seen, novelty of opinion
so much as the earnestness with which Methodism
uttered the acknowledged doctrines of the Church,
that gave offense and provoked opposition and proscription. Wesley provided the theology of American Methodism in a symbol called the "Articles of
Religion," and these articles were taken from the
"Thirty-nine Articles" of the Anglican  Church.
They are abridged, and in some cases slightly
amended, but they convey no tenet which is not
received by the Church of England, and they are
the only officially recognized standard of Methodist
125 
126  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN MEIHODISM.
doctrine in America. Wesley's emendations chiefly
guard them against interpretations favorable to sacramental regeneration and other Romish errors.
Singularly enough, the opinions which are considered most distinctive of Wesleyan theology have
no expression in the "Articles of Religion," which,
by Wesley's own prescription, have become the
dogmatic standard of American Methodism.  lHe
eliminates the supposed Anglican Calvinism, but
he does not introduce his o0n Arminianism, except in the thirty-first Angican  article on  the
"Oblation of Christ," which is Arminian as to
the extent of the atonement.   In  like manner
we have no statement of his doctrines of the
"Witness of the Spirit" and "Christian Perfection." And yet no doctrines more thoroughly permeate the preaching, or more entirely characterize the moral life of Methodism than his opinions
of the universal salvability of men, assurance, and
sanctification. lHe evidently designed the articles
to be the briefest and barest possible symbol of
expedient doctrines; and, as we shall hereafter see,
not even a requisite condition of Church membership, though a requisite functional qualification for
the ministry. He consigned his other tenets, however precious to him, to other means of conservation
and diffusion, for it was not his opinion that the
orthodoxy of a Church can best guarantee its spirit 
ITS DOCTRINAL SYSTEM.
ual life, but rather that its spiritual life can best
guarantee its orthodoxy.
The Arminianism  of Wesley has been rightly
so called. It is essentially true to the teachings
of the great theologian of Holland, though not to
the elaborations of his system by Episcopius and
Limborch, and much less to the perversions of its
later eminent representatives. Wesley had the courage to place the name of Arminius on his periodical
organ, one of the earliest and now the oldest of
religious magazines in the Protestant world. His
Arminianism was far from being that mongrel
system of semi-Pelagianism and semi-Socinianism
which, for generations, was denounced by New
England theologians as Arminianism, until the
most erudite Calvinistic authority of the eastern
states (Prof. Stuart of Andover) rebuked the baseless charge and bade his brethren be no longer
guilty of it. Wesley taught " original sin" in the
language of the ninth Anglican Article; though he
taught also that both the justice and mercy of the
Creator require that the human race should not have
been continued, under this law of hereditary depravation, unless adequate provision were made for it
by the atonement; he preached, therefore, universal
redemption. He taught with the tenth Anglican
article, on "Free Will," that " the condition of man,
after the fall of Adam, is such that he cannot turn
127 
128   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
and prepare himself, by his natural strength and
works, to faith and calling upon God;" that he has
"no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God, by Christ,
preventing" him; but he taught also that such "preventing grace" is provided for all responsible souls,
and  that none  could  be  responsible without it.
With the eleventh Anglican article he taught "justification by faith" alone, "and not for our own
works and deservings;" yet he also taught that
"good works follow after justification," and' do
spring out, necessarily, of a true and lively faith."
He taught the absolute sovereignty of God: that,
like the potter with the clay, he can make some
vessels for more, some for less honor; yet he also
taught that, as wisdom and beneficence are essential
attributes of the divine sovereignty, God  neither
would nor could (any more than the wise potter
with his clay) make some for the gratification of a
wanton caprice in their destruction, much less in
their interminable anguish.
Of Wesley's Doctrine of Assurance, founded upon
the text, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with oiur
spirits that we are the children of God," and upon
analogous Scripture passages, I have already said
that it was not a peculiar opinion of Methodism,
but common, in its essential form, to the leading
bodies of Christendom, Greek, Roman, and Protest 
ITS DOCTRINAL SYSTEM.
ant; that as a high theological as well as philosophical authority of our times, Sir William Hamilton, has
declared, "Assurance was long universally held in
the Protestant communities to be the criterion and
condition of a true or saving faith; Luther declares,
'He who hath not assurance spews faith out;' and
Melanchthon, that'assurance is the discriminating
line of Christianity from heathenism;' that assurance
is indeed the punctU   8alien  of Luther's system,
and unacquaintance with this, his great central doctrine, is one prime cause of the chronic misrepresentation which runs through our recent histories of
Luther and the Reformation; that assurance is no
less strenuously maintained by Calvin, is held even
by Arminius, and stands essentially part and parcel
of all the confessions of all Churches of the Reformation down to the Westminster Assembly." Wesley
defines the doctrine clearly. "By the testimony of
the Spirit," he says, "I mean an inward impression on
the soul, whereby the Spirit of God immediately and
directly witnesses to my spirit that I am a child of
God; that Jesus Christ hath loved me, and given himself for me; that all my sins are blotted out, and I,
even I, am reconciled to God. I do not mean hereby
that the Spirit of God testifies this by any outward
voice; no, nor always by an inward voice, although
he may do this sometimes. Neither do I suppose
that he always applies to the heart (though he often
9
129 
130 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
may) one or more texts of Scripture; but he so
works upon the soul by his immediate influence, and
by a strong, though inexplicable operation, that the
stormy wind and troubled waves subside, and there
is a sweet calm, the heart resting in Jesus, and the
sinner being clearly satisfied that all his iniquities
are forgiven and his sins covered." He disclaims
any originality in his teachings on the subject, and
says, "With regard to the assurance of faith, I apprehend that the whole Christian Church in the first
centuries enjoyed it. For though we have few
points of doctrine explicitly taught in the small
remains of the ante-Nicene fathers, yet, I think,
none that carefully read Clemens Romanus, Ignatius, Polycarp, Origen, or any other of them, can
doubt whether either the writer himself possessed it,
or all whom he mentions, as real Christians. And I
really conceive, both from the Harmonia Confes8iontum, and whatever else I have occasionally read,
that all reformed Churches in Europe did once believe,'Every true Christian has the divine evidence
of his being in favor with God."'  "I know likewise
that Luther, Melanchthon, and many other (if not all)
of the reformers, frequently and strongly assert that
every believer is conscious of his own acceptance
with God, and that by a supernatural evidence."
For his doctrine of Sanctification, Wesley adopted
the title of "Perfection," because he found it so used 
ITS DOCTRINAL SYSTEM.
in the Holy Scriptures. Paul and John he deemed
sufficient authorities for the use of an epithet which
he knew, however, would be liable to the cavils of
criticism. The Christian world had also largely
recognized the term in the writings of Clemens
Alexandrinus, Macarius, Kempis, Fenelon, Lucas,
and other writers, Papal and Protestant. Besides
incessant allusions to the doctrine in his general
writings, Wesley has left an elaborate treatise on it.
Fletcher of Madeley, an example as well as an
authority of the doctrine, published an essay on it,
proving it to be scriptural as well as sanctioned by
the best theological writers. Wesley's theory of the
doctrine is precise and intelligible, though often distorted into perplexing difficulties by both its advocates and opponents. He taught not absolute, nor
angelic, nor Adamic, but "Christian  perfection."
Each sphere of being has its own normal limits;
God alone has absolute perfection; the angels have
a perfection of their own above that of humanity, at
least of the humanity of our own sphere; unfallen
man, represented by Adam, occupied a peculiar
sphere in the divine economy, with its own relations to the divine government, its own "perfection," called by Wesley Adamic Perfection; fallen,
but regenerated man, has also his peculiar sphere
as a subject of the  Mediatorial Economy,  and
the highest practicable virtue (whatever it may
131, 
132 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
be) in that sphere is its "perfection," is Christian
perfection.
Admitting such a theory of perfection, the most
important question has respect to its practical limit.
When can it be said of a Christian man that he is
thus perfect?  Wesley taught that perfect Christians
"are not free from ignorance, no, nor from mistake.
We are no more to expect any man to be infallible
than to be omniscient.... From infirmities none
are perfectly freed till their spirits return to God;
neither can we expect, till then, to be wholly freed
from temptation; for'the servant is not above his
Master.' Neither in this sense is there any absolute perfection on earth. There is no perfection of
degrees, none which does not admit of a continual increase.... The proposition which I will hold is this:
'Any person may be cleansed from all sinfutl tempers,
and yet need the atoning blood.' For what? for
'negligences and ignorances;' for both words and
actions, (as well as omissions,) which are, in a sense,
transgressions of the perfect law. And I believe no
one is clear of these till he lays down this corruptible body." Perfection, as defined by Wesley, is
not then perfection, according to the absolute moral
law; it is perfection according to the special remedial economy introduced by the Atonement, in
which the heart, being sanctified, fulfills the law by
love, (Rom. xii, 8, 10,) and its involuntary imperfec
4 
ITS DOCTRINAL SYSTEM.
tions are provided for, by that economy, without the
imputation of guilt, as in the case of infancy and all
irresponsible persons.  The only question, then, can
be, Is it possible for good men to so love God that
all their conduct, inward and outward, shall be
swayed by love? that even their involuntary defects
shall be swayed by it? Is there such a thing as the
inspired writer calls the "perfect love" which "casteth out fear " (1 John iv, 18.) Wesley believed that
there is; that it is the privilege of all saints; and
that it is to be attained by faith.  "I want you to
be al love," he wrote.  "This is the perfection I
believe and teach; and this perfection is consistent
with a thousand nervous disorders, which that highstrained perfection is not. Indeed, my judgment is,
that (in this case particularly) to overdo is to undo;
and that to set perfection too high is the most
effectual way of driving it out of the world."
" Man," he says, "in his present state, can no more
attain Adamic than angelic perfection. The perfection of which man is capable, while he dwells in
a corruptible body, is the complying with that kind
command,'My son, give me thy heart!'  It is the
loving the Lord his God with all his heart, and
with all his soul, and with all his mind." Such
is his much misrepresented doctrine of Christian
perfection. Wesley taught that this sanctification is usually gradual, but may be instantaneous
133 
134  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
as,  like  justification, it is to  be  received  by
faith.
Such are the theological characteristics cf Methodism. It demands the assent of all its adult
candidates for baptism to the Apostles' creed, and
has in its Articles a general, though a very brief,
platform, consisting of the leading dogmas of
the universal Church; aside from these, it preaches,
especially, Universal Redemption, Assurance, and
Perfection.   The latter are special to it, not so
much as opinions, (for they are still, more or less,
common to the Christian world,) but by the special emphasis with which Methodism utters them.
They are the staple ideas of its preaching, of its
literature, of its colloquial inquiries in its classmeetings, prayer-meetings, and in the Christian
intercourse of its social life. Though the success of
the denomination cannot be explained apart from its
disciplinary system and its spiritual energy, yet
unquestionably its spiritual life and its practical
system could not long subsist without its special
theology.
I have remarked on the striking fact that Wesley
did not insert in the theological Articles of American
Methodism the tenets which are deemed most distinctively Wesleyan, and which unquestionably have
been a chief source of vitality to the denomination;
but a still more singular fact remains to be noticed, 
Im  DOCTRINAL SYSTEM.
namely: that he makes no theological opinions
requisite for membership in the Church, and recognises no creed but the universal symbol of the early
Church, the Apostles' creed, and this only in the
administration of baptism. Of few things connected
with Methodism does Wesley speak oftener or with
more  devout gratulation than  of its catholicity.
"One circumstance," he says, " is quite peculiar to
the people called Methodists;  that is, the terms
upon which any persons may be admitted into their
Society. They do not impose, in order to their
admission, any opinions whatever. Let them hold
particular or general redemption, absolute or conditional decrees.... They think, and let think.
One condition, and one only, is required, a real
desire to save their souls.  Where  this is, it is
enough; they desire no more;  they lay stress upon
nothing else; they ask only,'Is thy heart herein
as my heart  If it, be, give me thy hand."' "Is
there," he adds, "any other Society in Great Britain
or Ireland that is so remote from bigotry I that is sc
truly of a catholic spirit? so ready to admit all
serious persons without distinction?- Where is there
such another society in Europe? in the habitable
world?  I know none.  Let,any man show it me
that can. Till then let no one talk of the bigotry ot
the Methodists." When he was in his eighty-fifth
year, preaching in Glasgow, he wrote: "I subjoined
1.35 
136  CTENTARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
a short account of Methodism, particularly insisting
on the circumstance, there is no other religious
society under heaven which requires nothing of men,
in order to their admission into it, but a desire to
save their souls. Look all round you; you cannot
be admitted into the Church, or Society of the Presbyterians, Anabaptists, Quakers, or any others, unless
you hold the same opinions with them, and' adhere
to the same mode of worship. The Methodists alone
do not insist on your holding this or that opinion.
... Now, I do not know any other religious society, either ancient or modern, wherein such liberty
of conscience is now allowed, or has been allowed
since the age of the Apostles. Here is our glorying,
and a glorying peculiar to us. What society shares
it with us? " The possible results of such liberality
were once discussed in the Conference. Wesley
conclusively determined the debate by remarking:
"I have no more right to object to a man for hold
ing a different opinion from me, than I have to differ
with a man because he wears a wig and I wear my
own hair; but if he takes his wig off, and begins to
shake the powder about my eyes, I shall consider it
my duty to get quit of him as soon as possible." "Is
a man," he writes, "a believer in Jesus Christ?  and is
his life suitable to his profession? are not only the
main, but the sole inquiries I make in order to his
admission into our Society." Did he design the 
ITS DOCTRINAL SYSTEM.
new American Church to be equally liberal?  As
the "General Rules," used in England, were retained,
after the Christmas Conference, in America, as the
" only one condition" of membership, and the "Articles of Religion" are not mentioned in these Rules,
but 4placed apart in the Discipline, are not the Articles to be considered rather as an indicatory than an
obligatory dogmatic symbol; an indication to sincere
men, seeking an asylum for Christian communion,
of what kind of teaching they must expect in the
new Church, but not of what they would be required
to avow by subscription?
The Articles and the General Rules are both parts
of the organic or constitutional law of American
Methodism, though the General Rules prescribe the
"only condition " of membership, without an allusion
to the Articles. Conformity to the doctrines of the
Church is required by its statute law as a functional'qualification for the ministry; but Church
members cannot be excluded for personal opinions
while their lives conform to the practical discipline
of the Church; they can be tried and expelled for
"sowing dissensions in the Societies by inveighing
against their doctrines or discipline;" that is, in
other words, not for their opinions, but for their
moral conduct respecting their opinions. They cannot be expelled for anything short of defects which
"are sufficient to exclude a person from the king
137 
138 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
dom ot grace and glory." And at what would Wes
ley himself have more revolted than the assumption
that opinions, not affecting the Christian conduct of
a member of his Society, were "sufficient to exclude
him from the kingdom of grace and glory? "* This
interesting historical fact is full of significance, as
an example of that distinction between indicatory
and obligatory standards of theological belief which
Methodism has, perhaps, had the honor of first
* Such, it will scarcely be questioned, is the right of communion
possessed by a person already in the Methodist Episcopal Church;
but it has sometimes been a question whether doctrinal opinions are
not required for admission by the administrative prescription adopted
since Wesley's day, (Discipline, Part I, chap. 2, ~ 2): "Let none be
received until they shall, on examination by the minister in charge
before the Church, give satisfactory assurances both of the correctness of their faith and their willingness to keep the rules." It may be
replied, 1. That, according to Wesley's definition of the faith, essential
to a true Church, there could be no difficulty here. 2. That, as the
requisition is merely an administrative one for the preachers, and
prescribes not what are to be "satisfactory assurances," etc., the latter are evidently left to the discretion of the pastor, and the requirement is designed to afford him the opportunity of further instructing
the candidate, or of receiving from him pledges that his opinions shall
not become a practical abuse in the society. 3. If the rule amounts
to more than this, it would probably be pronounced, by good judges
of Methodist law, incompatible with the usages and general system of
Methodism, an oversight of the General Conference which enacted it,
and contrary to the General Rules, as guarded by the Restrictive
Rules. 4. It would be a singular and inconsistent fact, that opinions
should be made a condition of admission to the Church, but not of
responsibility (except in their practical abuse) with persons already
in the Church. (See History of the Religious Movement, etc., vol. ii,
p,44$ 
ITS DOCTRINAL SYSTEM.
exemplifying among the leading Churches of the
modern Christian world.*
* See Articles of Religion, Appendix I1 Wesley's liberality would
startle many Methodists of our day.  I ad a few examples:  "This
in Scripture, perhaps not once in the sense we now use it." Notes
term, (converted,) so common in modern writings, very rarely occurs
on the New Testament, Acts iii, 19.  "True repentance is a change
from    siita  death to spiritual life, and leads  to life everlasting."
Acts xi, 18.   "He that, first, reverences God,  etc.; secondly, from
this awful regard to him, not only avoids all known evil, but endeavors,
according to the best light he has, to do all things well, is accepted of
Him-through Christ, though he knows him not. The assertion is
express, and admits of no exception. He is in the favor of God, whether
enjoying his written word and ordinances or not." Acts x, 35. "A
mystic, who denies justification by faith (Mr. Law for instance) may
be saved. But if so, what becomes of Artwiculus stantus  vel          is
I  If so, is it not high time?
Projicere ampullas et sesquipedalia verba,
and to return to the plain word;'He that feareth God and worketh
righteousness is accepted with him?"' Journal, December 1st, 1767.
"I have not for many years thought a consciousness of acceptance
to be essential to justifying faith." A.D. 1768, vol. vii, p. 495.   He
published for the edification of his people the Life of one of the most
active Unitarians of his day, and  in the Preface remarks:  "I
was exceedingly struck at reading the following Life: having long
settled it in my mind that the entertaining wrong notions concerning the Trinity was inconsistent with real piety. But I cannot
argue against matter of fact. I dare not deny that Mr. Firmin was a
pious man, although his notions o)f the Trinity were quite erroneous."
Vol. vii, p. 574.  "Who are we that we should withstand God?   Particularly by laying down rules of Christian communion which exclude
any whom he has admitted into the Church of the first-born from
worshiping God together. O that all Church governors would consider how bold an usurpation this is on the authority of the supreme
Lord of the Church I 0 that the sin of thus withstanding God may
not be laid to the charge of those, who perhes with a good in,
139 
140  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
Methodism has naturally, in the first century of
its history, not developed largely in the way of
systematic divinity. But it has a thorough and able
doctrinal exposition in the "Theological Institutes"
of Richard Watson, of whom Prof. J. W. Alexander,
of Princeton College, says: " Turretine is, in theology, instar omnium: that is, so far forth as Blackstone is in law. Making due allowance for the diference of age, Watson, the Methodist, is the only
systematizer, within my knowledge, who approaches
the same eminence; of whom I use Addison's words:
'He reasons like Paley, and descants like Hall."'
Another systematic work is now in progress in
the German language, from the pen of Prof. Warren;* one of the most important contributions from
an American hand to modern theological literature.
This author has endeavored to determine the true
relative position of Methodist theology, and says:
"There are four great complete Christo-theological systems, the contrarieties of which are so fundamental and exhaustive that every writer on sys
but in an over fondnes8 for their own fors, have done it, and are coiintinually doing it l" Notes, Acts xi, 17. In fine he expresses his
whole policy, as an ecclesiastical leader, in a letter to a friend: "The
first of your particular advice is'to keep in view the interests of
Christ's Church in general, and of practical religion; not considering
the Church of England, or cause of Methodism, but as subordinate
thereto.'  This advice I have punctually observed."
* Systematische Theologie, einheitlich behandelt. Vonr. William F.
Warren.  Bremen, 1865. 
ITS DOCTRINAL SYSTEM.
tematic theology who is not willing to give up the
essence of Christianity itself must, in respect to
them, choose and maintain a definite stand-point.
The four mentioned great systems of doctrine are
the Roman Catholic, the Calvinistic, the Lutheran,
and the Wesleyan. These systems rest on different
conceptions of the soteriological relation of God and
man as established by Christ, and correspond to
different stages of development of the religious
consciousness.   Besides these four great  systems
there is no other worthy of notice. The Greek
Church has as yet formed no definite regular system of doctrine, anid, so long as she retains her
present views, can form none which can radically
differ from Romanism. The Church of England
has, much less, a peculiar complete system. Her
theology is a mass of the most discordant elements.
Her books of doctrine are appealed to by Calvinists
and Arminians, Puritans and Puseyites, Evangelicals
and Sacramentarians, High and Low Churchmen,
and with about equal propriety. If she is less onesided than the Reformed and Lutheran Churches,
nevertheless her teaching embraces almost all the
incompleteness and errors of them both."
"According to the Roman Catholic view of Chris
tianity, salvation is imparted through the (Papal)
Church alone, and is conditioned on a meritorious
co-working of the subject with grace.  With this
141, 
142  CENENARY OF AMERICAN MEODISM.
ground-view all the other peculiarities of the system,
as, for example, the doctrine of the infallibility of
the Church, priestly power, the merit.of works, the
sacrifice of the mass, purgatory, picture-worship, in dulgences, angel and saint-reverencing, etc., are
closely connected. According to its inmost spirit
and essence, Catholicism is nothing other than an
essentially pagan view of Christian truth.
"According to the  Calvinistic  view of Chris
tianity, the salvation or non-salvation of each human
being depends absolutely on the free action of God
toward him. God, according to this system, has
elected to certain salvation a certain unalterable
number of mankind, accurately fixed before the
foundation of the world, and has either predestinated all others to certain damnation, or within himself resolved to permit them, unredeemed, to perish
in their inherited depravity. This eternal twofold
decree he executes unfailingly in time through his
gracious sovereignty.  With  this ground-view of
Calvinism, all its other peculiarities, for example,
its limited (partial) atonement, its total denial of
human freedom, its dogma of the irresistibility of
grace and of the impossibility of apostasy, are intimately connected. According to its inmost spirit
and essence, this system is a conception of Christianity from the stand-point of an Old Testament
faith. 
ITS DOCTRINAL SYSTEM.
"According to the Lutheran view of the soteriological relation of God and man, the salvation or
non-salvation of each human being is solely dependent on his own personal action in regard to the
means of grace, (the word and the sacraments.) If
any one uses these properly, and everybody is
capable of doing this through his own natural
powers, then God will give to him, through these
means of grace, faith, and with faith justification. If
he continues diligently in the proper use of the word
and of the sacraments, he will retain the received
blessings and finally overcome death and hell.
With this ground-view of Lutheranism, all the
other peculiarities of the system, such as the bodily
presence of Christ in the eucharist, the relative overestimation of the sacraments, over-attachment to
the Church, etc., are closely allied. In respect to
its inmost spirit and essence this creed is a view
of Christianity from the stand-point of justification.
"According to the Methodistic view of the soteriological relation of God and man, the salvation
or non-salvation of each human being depends
on his own free action in respect to the enlightening, renewing, and sanctifying inworkings of the
Holy Spirit. If, in respect to these inworkings, he
holds himself receptively, then will he become
holy both here and hereafter; but if he closes his
heart against the same, he will continue in death
143 
0
144 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
both here and in eternity. With this ground-view,
all the other peculiarities of Methodism, such as
its peculiar dogma of freedom, its emphasis of the
working of the Holy Spirit, its doctrines of Christian
perfection, etc., are intimately connected. In respect
to its inmost spirit and essence it is a viewing of
Christianity from the stand-point of Christian perfection or perfect love.
"Such is the stand-point, such the doctrinal and
historical significance, of the Methodistic system. It
presents  Christian theology'high as the love of
God, deep as the want of man.' It is the ripe
final result of the millennial-long spiritual study
and searching of the Church of Christ into the
truths of the divine revelation. And as soon as
this view of the soteriological relation of God and
man shall find universal prevalence and acceptance,
so soon will the salvation or non-salvation of the
soul cease to be made dependent either on human  conduct  in  regard  to  a  particular priesthood or an eternal decree of God, or on the mysterious working of Church ceremonies, but will be
regarded as depending on man's own action in regard to the enlightening, renewing, and sanctifying
influences of the Holy Spirit.  Let us venture to
hope for an early dawn of that day, so much anticipated and so anxiously wished for by so many
and such earnest spirits of our time, in which a 
ITS DOCTRINAL SYSTEM. 
new and rich outgushing of the Holy Ghost will
put an end to the intolerable disagreements of the
old Churches and creeds, and reveal the kingdom
of God in power and great majesty."
Such, then, is Methodism, as seen in its History, its
Practical Economy, and its Theological Platforma system of spiritual life, of Evangelical liberalism,
of apostolic propagandism.  As such it has preeminent claims on the consideration and gratitude 6f
our age; but these claims it has further demonstrated by its beneficent, its extraordinary results,
especially in this new world. We are now prepared
to consider some of these results.
10
145  
PART II.
WHAT HAS METHODISM AOHIEVED, ENTITLING IT
TO THE PROPOSED COMMEMORATION?
CHAPTER I.
ITS SPECIAL ADAPTATION TO THE COUNTRY.
IWETHODISM, it has been affirmed, was a specia.
provision for the early religious wants of this nation.
The Revolution opened the continent for rapid settlement by immigration. A movement of the peoples
of the old world toward the new was to set in on a
scale surpassing that of the northern hordes which
overwhelmed the Roman Empire. Much of this
incoming population was to be Roman  Catholic,
most of it low, if not semi-barbarous. Some extraordinary religious provision was requisite to meet
and counteract its demoralizing influence on the
country.
The growth of population was to transcend the
most credulous anticipations. The one million and
a quarter (including blacks) of 1750, the less than
three millions of 1780, were to be nearly four mill
i 
148  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
ions in 1790; nearly five and a third millions in
1800; more than nine and a half millions in 1820;
nearly thirteen millions in 1830. Thus far they were
to increase nearly thirty-three and a half per cent. in
each decade. Pensioners of the war of the Revolution were to live to see the "Far West" transferred from the valleys of Virginia, the eastern base
of the Pennsylvania Alleghanies, and the center
of New  York,  to the great deserts beyond  the
Mississippi; to see mighty states, enriching the
world, flourish on the Pacific coast; and to read,
in New York, news sent the same day from San
Francisco. Men, a few at least, who lived when
the population of the country was less than three
millions, were to live when it should be thirty
millions.
Methodism,  with  its "lay  ministry"  and  its
"itinerancy," could alone afford the ministrations
of religion to this overflowing population; iwas to
lay the moral foundations' of many of the great
states of the West. The older Churches of the
colonies could never have supplied them with "regular" or educated pastors in any proportion to
their rapid settlement.  Methodism met this necessity in a manner that should command the national
gratitude. It was to become at last the dominant
popular faith of the country, with its standard
planted in every city, town, and almost every vil. 
ITS SPECIAL ADAPTATION TO THE COUNTRY. 149
lage of the land. Moving in the van of emigration, it was to supply, with the means of religion, the frontiers from the Canadas to the Gulf
of Mexico, from Puget's Sound to the Gulf of California. It was to do this indispensable work by
means peculiar to itself; by districting the land
into circuits which, from one hundred to five hundred miles in extent, could each be statedly supplied with religious instruction  by  one or two
traveling  evangelists who, preaching  daily, could
thus have charge of parishes comprising hundreds
of miles and tens of thousands of souls. It was
to raise up, without delay for preparatory training,
and thrust out upon these circuits, thousands of such
itinerants, tens of thousands of local or lay preachers and exhorters, as auxiliary and unpaid laborers,
with many  thousands of class-leaders who  could
maintain pastoral supervision over the infant ocieties in the absence of the itinerant preachers, the
latter not having time to delay in any locality for
much more than the public services of the pulpit.
Over all these circuits it was to maintain the
watchfiul jurisdiction of traveling presiding elders,
and over the whole system the superintendence of
traveling bishops, to whom the entire nation was
to be a common diocese. It was to govern the
whole field by Quarterly Conferences for each circuit, Annual Conferences for groups of circuits, 
150 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
Quadrennial Conferences for all the Annual Conferences. It was to preach night and day in churches,
where it could command them, in private houses,
school-houses, court-houses, barns, in the fields, on
the highways. It was to stud the continent with
chapels, building them, in our times at least, at the
rate of nearly two a day. It was to provide academies and colleges exceeding in number, if not in
efficiency, those of any other religious body of the
country, however older or richer. It was to scatter
over the land cheap publications, all its itinerants
being authorized agents for their sale, until  its
"Book Concern" should become the largest religious publishing house in the world. The best authority for the moral statistics of the country, himself of another denomination, (Dr. Baird,) was at
last to "recognize in the Methodist economy, as
well as in the zeal, the devoted piety and the efficiency of its ministry, one of the most powerful
elements in the religious prosperity of the  United
States, as well as one of the firmest pillars of their
civil and political institutions."  The historian of
the Republic (Bancroft) records that it has "welcomed the members of Wes]ey's Society as the
pioneers of religion; that the breath of liberty
has wafted their messages to the masses of the
people; encouraged them to collect the white and
negro, slave and master, in the green wood, for 
ITS SPECIAL ADAPTATION TO THE COUNTRY. 151
counsel on divine love and the full assurance of
grace; and carried their consolation and songs  and
prayers to the furthest cabins in the wilderness."
It would indeed appear that the Methodist movement was thus a providential intervention for the
new nation. As we have seen, it began its operations here at the dawn of the Revolutionary controversy; its infancy was cotemporaneous with the
infancy of the Republic; it was the only form of
religion that possessed much vitality or made any
progress during the Revolutionary struggle; its
denominational organization at the Christmas Conference anticipated the national organization under
the Federal Constitution; it fairly started with the
Republic, and has kept pace with it, establishing
the ordinances of religion coextensively with the
spread of the population and the laws of the Government. It not only, by its peculiar system, met the
emergent moral necessities of the opening continent,
but exerted also a most important influence on the
other and older religious provisions of the land.
Whitefield's repeated passages through the colonies
had aroused the Churches for the coming wants of the
country.  The "Great Awakening" under Edwards,
in New England, had subsided, and even reacted;
Whitefield restored the evangelical vitality of New
England, and it has never since been lost. The Presbyterian and Baptist Churches of the middle states 
t52 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
were quickened into their subsequent and abiding
energy by his fiamin  ministrations.   The earliest
religious impulses of the South were given by him.
Methodism, organized, took up the work when he
fell in the field, and it has never ceased to advance,
in all evangelical denominations, beyond any for eign example. Methodism was not designed to sup plant its elder sister Churches in the land, but to
provoke them to new life and labors, while it
accomplished its own given work. It nevertheless
quickly surpassed them. We have authentic statistics of the leading Christian denominations
of the United States for the first half of our century. They attest conclusively the peculiar adaptation of the ecclesiastical system of Methodism
to the moral wants of the country. During the
period from 1800 to 1850 the ratio of the increase
of the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church
has been as 6 to 1, of its communicants as 6 to 1;
of the ministry of the Congregationalists as 4 to 1,
of their communicants as 2  to 1; of the ministry
of the regular Baptists as 4 to 1, of their communicants as 5j to 1; of the ministry of the Presbyterians
("old and new schools ") as 14 to 1, of their communicants as 84 to 1; of the ministry of the Methodist
Episcopal Church (North and South) as 191 to 1,
of its communicants as 171 to 1. It must be borne
in mind, however, that most if not all these relig. 
ITS SPECIAL ADAPTATION TO THE COUNTRY. 153
ions bodies have, during the whole of this period,
been more or less pervaded by the Methodistic impulse given by Whitefield and his successors, and
much of their success is unquestionably attributable
to that fact. Methodism has given them thousands
of its converts and received but comparatively few
from them.   
DIFFUSION OF LITERATURE.
CHAPTER II.
ITS LABORS FOR THE DIFFUSION OF LITERATURE.
METHODISM has always appreciated the importance
of literature. If individual prejudices have seemed
to indicate the contrary, they have been but exceptional to the general sentiment of the denomination.
It began its march from the gates of a university.
Wesley labored incessantly, by his pen, for the elevation of the popular mind.  A German historian of
Methodism classifies, with German elaborateness,
the great variety of his literary works, as Poetical,
Philological, Philosophical, Historical, and Theological. Though he wrote before Wesley's death, he
states that many of these writings, after ten or twenty
editions, could be obtained only with difficulty, and
the whole could not be purchased for less than ten
guineas, notwithstanding they were  published at
rates surprisingly cheap; for Wesley was the first
to set the example of modern cheap prices sustained
by large sales. A catalogue of his publications,
printed about 1756, contains no less than one hundred and eighty-one articles in prose and verse,
English and Latin, on grammar, logic, medicine,
music,  poetry,  theology,  and  philosophy.   Twc
iss 
156  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
thirds of these publications were for sale at less than
one shilling each, and more than one fourth at
a penny.   They were thus brought within reach
of the poorest of his people.   "Simplify religion
and every part of learning," he wrote to Benson,
who was the earliest of his lay preachers addicted
to literary labors. To all his preachers he said,
"See that every society is supplied with books,
some of which ought to be in every house."
It has justly been said that Wesley reduced many
folios and quartos to pocket volumes; he waded
through the mass of the learned works of his day,
and, simplifying, multiplying, cheapening them, presented in the cottages and hovels of the poor almost
every variety of useful or entertaining knowledge.
In addition to his own prose productions, constituting fourteen octavo volumes in the English edition
and seven in the American, his "Notes" and abridgments make a catalogue of one hundred and eighteen
prose works, (a single one of which, The Christian
Library, contains fifty volumes,) forty-nine poetical
publications by himself and his brother, and five
distinct works on music. Not content with books
and tracts, Wesley projected, in August, 1777, the
Arminian Magazine, and issued the first number at
the beginning of 1778. It was one of the first four
religious magazines which sprung from the resuscitated religion of the age, and which began this 
DIFFUSION OF LITERATURE.
species of periodical publications in the Protestant
world. Though nominally devoted to the defense
of the Arminian theology, it was miscellaneous in
its contents, and served not only for the promotion
of religious literature, but of general intelligence.
He conducted it till his death, and made faithful
use of it for the diffusion of knowledge among the
people. It is now the oldest religious periodical in
the world. It may be questioned whether any English writer of the last or the present century has
equaled Wesley in the number of his productions.
American Methodism has always been true to this
example of English Methodism, and in fact has far
transcended it. Its "Book Concern" is now the
largest religious publishing house in the world. As
early as 1789, John Dickins, then the only Methodist
preacher in Philadelphia, was appointed "Book Steward" of the denomination. The first volume issued by
him was the "Christian Pattern," (Wesley's translation of Kempis's celebrated "Imitation;") the "Methodist Discipline," the" Hymn Book," "Wesley's Primitive Physic;" and reprints of the first volume of
the "Arminian Magazine," and Baxter's "Saint's
Rest," followed. The only capital of the Concern
was about six hiundred dollars, lent to it by Dickins
himself.  In 1790 portions of Fletcher's "Checks"
were reprinted.  In 1797 a "Book Committee" was
appointed, to whom all books were to be submitted
157 
] 58  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
before their publication-a guardianship of its press
which has ever since been maintained by the Church
In 1804 the Concern was removed from Philadelphia
to the city of New York. It had early attempted
the publication of a monthly magazine, in imitatioa
of Wesley's periodical, but failed, till 1818, when
the Methodist Magazine was begun; it still prosperously continues under the title of the Methodist
Quarterly Review. In 1824 the Concern secured
premises of its own on Crosby-street, with presses,
bindery, etc.  In 1823 the "Youth's Instructor," a
monthly work, was begun.  The same spirit of enterprise led to the publication of the Christian Advocate
and Journal, which appeared, for the first time, on
the 9th of September, 1826. The success of the Advocate was remarkable.  "In a very short time," writes
Dr. Bangs, one of its original publishers, "its number
of subscribers far exceeded every other paper published
in the United States, being about twenty-five thousand; and it soon increased to thirty thousand, and
was probably read by more than one hundred and
twenty thousand persons, young and old."  It should
be noticed, also, that, at the earnest request of Methodists west of the mountains, the General Conference
of 1820 authorized the establishment of a branch of
the Book Concern in Cincinnati, a precedent which
led to secondary branches in various parts of the
country. The rapid increase of the business very 
DIFFUSION OF LITERATURE.
soon led to the necessity of enlarging its buildings.
Accordingly all the vacant ground in Crosby-street
was occupied. But even these additions were found
insufficient to accommodatethe several departments
of labor, so as to furnish the supply of books, now
in constantly increasing demand. To meet this
deficiency five lots were purchased in Mulberrystreet, between Broome and Spring streets, and one
building erected in the rear for a printing office and
bindery, and another of larger dimensions projected.
Soon after the General Conference of 1832, the
agents began the erection of the front building on
Mulberry-street; and in the month of September,
1833, the entire establishment was removed into the
new buildings. In these commodious rooms, with efficient agents and editors at work, everything seemed
to be going on prosperously, when suddenly in 1836
the entire property was consumed by fire.   The
Church thus lost not less than two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. The buildings, all the printing
and binding materials, a vast quantity of books,
bound and in sheets, a valuable library which the
Editor had Peen collecting for years, were in a few
hours destroyed. Fortunately the "Concern" was
not in debt. By hiring an office temporarily, and
employing outside printers, the agents soon resumed
their business, the smaller works were put to press,
and "the Church's herald of the news, the Christian
159 
160 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
Advocate and Journal, soon took its flight again
(though the first number after the fire had its wings
much shortened) through the symbolical heavens,
earrying the tidings of our loss, and of the liberal
and steady efforts which were making to reinvigorate
the paralyzed Concern." At the General Conference of 1836 the plan of a new building was submitted and approved, and the agents entered upon
their work with energy and perseverance. The new
buildings went up with all convenient dispatch, in a
much better style, more durable, better adapted to
their use, and safer against fire than the former.
The front edifice is one hundred and twenty-one
feet in length and thirty in breadth, four stories
high above the basement, with offices for the agents
and clerks, a bookstore, committee rooms, etc. The
building in the rear is sixty-five feet in length, thirty
in breadth, and four stories high, and is used for
stereotyping, printing, binding, etc.
In our day the Methodist Book Concern, aside
from that of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
which was founded by a division of its fends, comprises two branches, eastern and western, and seven
depositories, with an aggregate capital of more than
$837,000.  Four " Book Agents," appointed by the
General Conference, manage its business. It has
twelve editors of its periodicals, nearly five hundred
clerks and operatives, and between twenty and 
DIFFUSION OF LITERATURE.
thirty cylinder and power presses constantly in operation.  It publishes above five hundred "General
Catalogue" bound books, besides many in the German and other languages, and about fifteen hundred Sunday-school volumes. Its Tract publications
number about nine hundred in various tongues.
Its periodicals are a mighty agency, including one
Quarterly Review, four monthlies, one semi-monthly,
and eight weeklies, with an aggregate circulation of
over one million of copies per month. Its quarterly
and some of its weeklies have a larger circulation
than any other periodicals, of the same class, in the
nation, probably in the world.
The influence of this great institution, in the diffusion of popular literature and the creation of a
taste for reading among the great masses of the
denomination, has been incalculable. It has scattered periodicals and books all over the valley of the
Mississippi. Its sales in that great domain, in the
quadrennial period ending with January 31, 1864,
amounted to about $1,200,000. If Methodism had
ma     de no              other contribution to the progress of knowledge and civilization in the New World than that
of this powerful institution, this alone would suffice
to vindicate its claim to the respect of the enlightened world. Its ministry has often been falsely disparaged as unfavorable to intelligence; but it should
be borne in mind that its ministry founded this stu                        11
161 
162 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
pendous means of popular intelligence, and has continued to work it with an increasing success up to the
present time. They have been, as we have seen,
its salesmen; they have scattered its publications
over their circuits. Wesley enjoined this service
upon them in their Discipline.  "Carry books with
you on every round," he said; "leave no stone
unturned in this work;" and thus have they spread
knowledge in their courses over the whole land, and
built up their unparalleled "Book Concern."  There
has never been an instance of defalcation on the part
of its "Agents;" it has never failed in any of the
financial revulsions of the country; and it is now
able, by its large capital, to meet any new literary
necessity of the denomination. 
ITS EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS.
CHAPTER III.
ITS EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS.
CRADLED in a university, and trained by such men
as the Wesleys, Fletcher, Benson, Coke, Clarke, Watson, Methodism could not be indifferent, much less
hostile, to the education of the people, though its
poverty, and its absorption in more directly moral
labors for their elevation, did not at first allow much
scope to its educational measures. Wesley, however, never lost sight of such measures; and it is
an interesting fact, that in the year which is recognized as the epoch of Methodism, the date of its
first field preaching, and among the miserable peo.ple where the latter began, it also began the first
of its literary institutions.  And if anything could
enhance the interest of this fact, it is that the
founders of both Methodistic parties, Calvinistic and
Arminian, shared in the founding of the first Methodist seminary. Whitefield laid the corner-stone of
the Kingswood School; and kneeling upon the
ground, surrounded by reclaimed and weeping colliers, prayed that "the gates of hell" might not
prevail against it; while the prostrate multitude,
now awakened to a new intellectual as well as moral
163 
164   CENI ENARY OF AMERICAN MiETIODISM.
life, responded with hearty Amens. Wesley reared
it by funds which hlie reserved from the income of
his college fellowship or received from his followers.
It was the germ of the later institution which bears
its name, and which has become an educational
asylum for the sons of itinerant preachers. Its accommnodations were subsequently found to be insufficient for the growing numbers of such pupils, and the
estate of "Woodhouse Grove," not far from Leeds,
was purchased for a second institution of the same
character. In our day from two hundred to two
hundred and fifty sons of preachers and missionaries are educated within them, and gratuitously
boarded and clothed during a term of six years.
The Connection has expended between ~300,000
and ~400,000 upon these seminaries.  Wesley also
early projected schools for poor children at Newcastle and London.   His preaching-house at then
former place was called the Orphan-House, and its
deed provided that it should maintain a school of
forty poor children, with a master and mistress. Its
site is now occupied by a substantial edifice for a
Mixed and Infants' Wesleyan Day School, and also
a Girls' Industrial School. More than four hundred
children are daily receiving instruction within its
walls. He maintained for years, also, a school at
the Old Foundry.
As early as his first conference, in 1744, Wesley 
ITS EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS.
proposed a theological school or "Seminary for
Laborers." It could not then be attempted for
want of funds. The project was reconsidered at
the next session, and failed for the same reason.
Kingswood School was made a kind of substitute
for it, but the original design was never abandoned,
and is embodied to-day in the two effective "Theological Institutions" of Richmond and  Didsbury,
and  the  two "Biblical Institutes" of American
Methodism. Such were some of the efforts for education made by the Methodism of Wesley's day.
They have since given origin to a system of educational provisions as extensive, if not as effective, as
belongs to any other English or American Protestant body, except the Anglican and Scotch Establishments: to the Wesley College in Sheffield, the
Collegiate Institution in Taunton, (both of them in
a collegiate relation to the University of London,)
the Wesleyan Normal Institution at Westminster,
whose stately buildings cost $200,000, and accommodate more than one hundred students preparing
to be teachers; to a grand scheme of Day Schools
which at present comprises nearly five hundred
schools and sixty thousand pupils.
American Methodism early shared this interest of
the parent body in education. In the year of its formal organization (1784) Coke and Asbury projected the
Cokesbury College, and laid its foundations the next
165 
166  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
year at Abingdon, twenty-five miles from Baltimore.
In 1787 Asbury consecrated and opened it with public
ceremonies. In 1795 it was destroyed by fire, but a
second edifice was soon after secured in Baltimore;
this, however, shared the fate of its predecessor. It
has been supposed that these disasters not only discouraged Asbury, but led him fallaciously to infer that
Providence designed not the denomination to devote
its energy to education. It was far otherwise, however, with that great man; he no longer believed that
collegiate or pretentious institutions of learning
should be attempted by the Church while yet in
its infancy, but he never abandoned the design of
secondary or more practically adapted institutions.
He formed, indeed a grand scheme, for the establishment of academies, all over the territory of the
denomination. As far south as Georgia, contributions in land and tobacco were received for the
purpose; and in the yet frontier settlements of
Kentucky, such institutions were attempted under
his auspices. At Bethel, Kentucky, an edifice and
organization was really obtained, but financially
broke down at last. In 1818 Dr. Samuel K. Jennings and other Methodists attempted a college in
Baltimore, but this also failed. No failures, however, no discouragement, could obliterate from the
mind of the denomination the conviction of its
responsibility for the education of the increasing 
ITS EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS.
masses of its people. In 1820 the General Conference recommended that all the Annual Conferences should establish seminaries within their
boundaries; thus proposing to supply the whole
republic with such schools, though with considerable territorial intervals. This demonstration of
interest for education, in the supreme body of the
Church, was prompted by the spontaneous enterprise of the ministry and the people, who, three
years before, had, chiefly under the guidance of Dr.
Martin Ruter, started an institution in New England, (at New Market, N.H.,) still distinguished, in
its later location, at Wilbraham, Mass., and in 1819
another, chiefly under the guidance of Dr. Nathan
Bangs, in New York city, afterward transferred
to White Plains, N. Y. The impulse thus given
not only produced numerous academies, but led,
in 1823, to the beginning of Augusta College,
Ky., whose edifice was erected in 1825, and commenced the series of modern collegiate institutions  under  the  patronage  of  the  Church,  so
that by the General Conference of 1832, says
the biographer of Hedding, Bishop  Clark, "the
Wesleyan University had been established at Middletown, Conn., and Dr. Wilbur Fisk, of the New
England Conference, was at its head, and John
M. Smith, of the New York Conference, one of the
professors. Madison College, now extinct, but whose
167 
168 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
place has since been supplied by Alleghany College,
had gone into successful operation, in Western Penn sylvania; J. HI. Fielding had succeeded H. B. Bas corn as president, and H. J. Clark was one of the
professors; both were members of the Pittsburgh
Conference. Augusta College had been established
under the patronage of the Kentucky and Ohio
Conferences; Martin Ruter was president, and H. B.
Bascom, J. S. Tomlinson, J. P. Durbin, and Burr
H. M'Cown, were professors; all of them members
of the Kentucky Conference except J. P. Durbin,
who belonged to the Ohio.  In the south-west, Lagrange College had been established; Robert Paine
was president, and E. D. Simms one of the prolsors.  In Virginia, Randolph Macon College had
been established, and M]. P. Parks, of the Virginia
Oonference, was one of its professors, and Stephen
Olin was soon after placed at its head. Thus it
will be seen that no less than Jve colleges had
sprung into existence in an incredibly short time,
and were already in successful operation under the
supervision of the Church. Several conference
seminaries also had been established; such were the
Cazenovia Seminary, the Maine Wesleyan Seminary,
Wilbraham Academy, Genesee Wes]eyan Seminary,
Shelbyville Female Academy, and others, which
were in successful operation in different parts of the
Church." 
ITS EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS.
The Church could not pause here. Wesley, as we
have seen, had proposed ministerial education at his
very first conference, and the British Methodists had
embodied the proposition in two imposing "theo
logical institutions." The New England Methodists
agitated the question in their Church periodical,
and in 1839 a convention was called, in Boston, to
provide such an institution. It was founded with
the title of the Biblical Institute; it struggled through
severe adversities, was at first connected with the
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., then with
the Methodist Seminary, at Newbury, Vt., but at last
was located in Concord, N. H., where it has exerted
no inconsiderable influence upon the character of the
New England Methodist ministry. In 1845 the
Rev. John Dempster, D.D., of New York city,
became its professor of theology.  He threw  his
remarkable energy into the cause of ministerial
education throughout the denomination, and not
only forced along the New England institution
against formidable discouragements, but became a
leading founder of the north-western seminary at
Evanston, Ill., where a Chicago Methodist lady,
by the gift of property amounting to $300,000, gave
endowment and her name to the Garrett Biblical
Institute.
Thus boarding academies, colleges, and theological seminaries, have rapidly grown up in the
169 
170  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
denomination till the Methodist Episcopal Church
alone now reports no less than 25 colleges, (including
theological schools,) having 158 instructors; 5,345
students; $3,055,861 endowments and other property; and 105,531 volumes in their libraries. It
reports also 77 academies, with 556 instructors and
17,761 students, 10,462 of whom are females, making an aggregate of 102 institutions, with 714 instructors and 23,106 students. The Southern division of the denomination reported before the war
12 colleges and 77 academies, with 8,000 students,
making an aggregate for the two bodies of 191 institutions and 31,106 students.
The moral and social influence, in England and
America, of such a series of educational provisions,
reaching from the first year of Methodism to our
own day, must be incalculable; and could it point
the world to no other monuments of its usefulness,
these would suffice to establish its claims as one of
the effective means of the moral progress of the
English race in both hemispheres since Wesley
began his singular career.*
* The limits of this work will not admit of more detail in these
important facts.   I give, however,  a  tabular view  of Methodist
educational institutions in the United States, as reported in 1865, in
the Appendix No. IV. 
ITS SUNDAY-SCHOOL ENTERPRISE.
CHAPTER IV.
ITS SUNDAY-SCHOOL ENTERPRISE.
METHODISM has an honorable place in the history
of Sunday-schools. As early as 1769 a young Methodist, Hannah Ball, established a Sunday-school in
Wycombe, England, and was instrumental in training
many children in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. Doubtless similar attempts were made before
that time, but they were only anticipations of the modern institution of Sunday-schools. In 1781, while
another Methodist young woman (afterward the wife
of the celebrated lay preacher, Samuel Bradburn,)
was conversing in Gloucester with Robert Raikes,
a benevolent citizen of that town and publisher of
the Gloucester Journal, he pointed to groups of
neglected children in the street, and asked: "What
can we do for them?" She answered: " Let us teach
them to read and take them to Church! " He immediately proceeded to try the suggestion, and the
philanthropist and his female friend attended the first
company of Sunday-scholars to the Church, exposed
to the comments and laughter of the populace as
they passed along the street with their ragged procession. Such was the origin of our present Sunday.
171 
172 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
school, an institution which has perhaps done more
for the Church and the social improvement of Protestant communities than any other agency of modern
times, the pulpit excepted. Raikes and his humble
assistant conducted the experiment without ostentation. Not till November 3, 1783, did he refer to it
in his public journal  In 1784 he published in that
paper an account of his plan. This sketch immediately arrested the attention of Wesley, who inserted
the entire article in the January number of the
Arminian Magazine for 1785, and exhorted his people
to adopt the new institution. "They took his advice," says an historian of Methodism, and "laboring, hard-working men and women began to instruct their neighbors' children, and to go with them
to the house of God on the Lord's day." The same
year, as we learn from a letter of Mary Fletcher,
her husband,  "lately hearing of Sunday-schools,
thought much upon them, and then set about the
work."  He soon had three hundred children under
instruction, and diligently trained them till his last
illness. He drew up proposals for six such schools in
Coalbrook Dale, Madeley, and Madeley Wood. He
wrote an essay on "the Advantages likely to Arise
from Sunday-Schools," and designed to prepare small
publications for their use, but his death cut off his
plans.
Wesley's earliest notice of Sunday-schools is in his 
ITS SUNDAY-SCHOOL ENTERPRISE.
Journal for July 18, 1784, the year of Raikes's published account of them.  Ile speaks of them prophet
ically: "I find these schools springing up wherever
I go; perhaps God may have a deeper end therein
than men are aware of; who knows but some of these
schools may be nurseries for Christians." They were
introduced into the metropolis by the Calvinistic Methodist, Rowland Hill, in 1786; and in the same year
they were begun in the United States by the Methodist bishop, Francis Asbury, and this first Sundayschool of the New World prefigured one of the most
important later advantages of the institution, by
giving a useful preacher to the Methodist Episcopal
Church. Wesley mentions in 1786, that five hundred
and fifty children were taught in the Sunday-school
of his society at Bolton, and the next year he found
there eight hundred, taught by eighty "masters."
Richard Rodda, one of his preachers, records that, in
1786, he formed a Sunday-school in Chester, and
soon had nearly seven hundred children "under
regular masters." Wesley wrote to him in the beginning of 1787: "I am glad you have taken in hand
that blessed work of setting up Sunday-schools in
Chester.  It seems these will be one great  of
retviving religion throughout the nation.  I wonder
Satan has not yet sent out some able champion
against them."  On the 18th of April, 1788, Wesley
preached at Wigan  "a sermon for the Sunday
173 
174   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
schools," and "the people flocked from all quarters
in a manner that never was seen before." The year
before his death he wrote to Charles Atmore, an
itinerant preacher: "I am glad you have set up
Sunday-schools at Newcastle. This is one of the best
institutions which has been seen in Europe for some
centuries." Thus is Methodism historically connected with both the initiation and outspread of this
important institution. Under the impulse of its zeal
the Sunday-school was soon almost universally established in its societies. A similar interest for it prevailed among other religious bodies; and in three
years after Raikes's published account of it, more
than two hundred thousand children were receiving
instruction from its thousands of teachers. The Irish
Conference of 1794 voted: "Let Sunday-schools be established as far as possible in all the towns of this kingdom where we have societies;" and in March, 1798, a
"Methodist Sunday-School Society" was formed at
City Road Chapel, London. In the following December Drs. Coke and Whitehead preached the first
sermons before it. In our day Methodism, exclusive
of all minor sects which bear the name, has under its
direction an army of nearly 500,000 scholars and
more than 80,000 teachers in England and Scotland.
For many years American Methodism made no
provision for the general organization or affiliation of
its Sunday-schools. Its Book Concern issued some 
ITS SUNDAY-SCHIOOL ENTERPRISE.
volumes suitable for their libraries, chiefly by the
labors of Rev. Dr. Durbin, who' prepared its first
Library volume and its first Question Book; but no
adequate, no systematic attention was given to this
sort of literature. It was obvious, on a moment's
reflection, that an almost illimitable field for the
enlargement of' the business of the Concern and
the diffusion of useful knowledge was at its command in this direction.  Accordingly the "Union"
was organized on the 2d of April, 1827. Dr. Bangs
says:  "The measure indeed was very generally
approved, and hailed with grateful delight by our
friends and brethren throughout the country. It
received the sanction of the several Annual Conferences, which recommended the people of their charge
to form auxiliaries in every circuit and station, and
send to the general depository in New York for
their books; and such were the zeal and unanimity
with which they entered into this work that at the
first annual meeting of the society there were reported 251 auxiliaries, 1,025 schools, 2,048 superintendents, 10,290 teachers, and 63,240 scholars, besides
above 2,000 managers and visitors. Neveri therefore, did an institution go into operation under more
favorable circumstances, or was hailed with a more
universal joy, than the Sunday-School Union of the
Methodist Episcopal Church." This great success,
however, could not save it from the misfortunes of
175 
176   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
bad management.  Under "an injudicious attempt,"
writes Dr. Bangs many years later, "to amalgamate the Bible, Tract, and Sunday-School Societies
together, by which the business of these several
societies might be transacted by one board of management," and by other causes, it declined, if indeed
it did not fail, until resuscitated by the zeal of some
New York Methodists and by an act of the General
Conference of 1840. It passed through modifications till it assumed its present effective form of
organization, and grew into colossal proportions
under the labors of its indefatigable secretaries,
Rev. I)rs. Kidder and Wise. It now has (aside
from its offspring in the Methodist Episcopal
Church South) 13,400 schools, more than 150,000
teachers and officers, and near 918,000 scholars, about 19,000 of whom are reported as converted during the last year. There are in the libraries of these schools more than 2,529,000 volumes.
They are supported at an annual expense of more
than $216,000, besides nearly $18,000 given to the
Union for the assistance of poor schools. There are
circulated among them semi-monthly nearly 260,000
"Sunday-School Advocates," the juvenile periodical
of the Union. The numbers of conversions among
pupils of the schools, as reported for the last eighteen years, amounts to more than 285,000, showing that much of the extraordinary growth of the 
ITS SUNDAY-SCHOOL ENTERPRISE.
Church is attributable to this mighty agency. The
Union has four periodicals for teachers and scholars,
two in English and two in German, and their aggregate circulation is nearly 300,000 per number. Its
catalogue of Sunday-school books comprises more
than 2,300 different works, of which more than a
million of copies are issued annually. Including
other issues, it has nearly 2,500 publications adapted
to the use of Sunday-schools. In fine, few if any
institutions of American Methodism wield a mightier
power than its Sanday-School Union.
12
177  
ITS MISSIONARY LABORS.
CHAPTER V.
ITS MISSIONARY LABORS.
A DISTINGUISHED English writer, a layman of the
Church of England, has said that "the Methodism
of the last century, even when considered apart
from its consequences, must always be thought worthy of the most serious regard: that, in fact, that
great religious movement has, immediately or remotely, so given an impulse to Christian feeling
and profession, on all sides, that it has come to
present itself as the starting-point of our modemrn
religious history; that the field-preaching of Wesley
and Whitefield, in 1739, was the event whence the
religious epoch, now current, must date its commence
ment; that back to the events of that time must we
look, necessarily, as often as we seek to trace to its
source what is most characteristic of the present time;
and that yet this is not all, for the Methodism of the
past age points forward to the next-coming development of the powers of the Gospel." *
These remarks are especially true in respect to the
relation of Methodism to modern Christian Missions.
The idea of religious Missions is as old as Chris
* Imac Taylor's Wesley and Methodism, Preface.
179 
180 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
tianity, and has been exemplified by the Papal Church
through much of its history and in the ends of the
world. The Moravians early embodied it in their
system. In the Protestantism of England it had but
feeble sway till the epoch of Methodism. That
sublime form of it which now characterizes English
Protestantism in both hemispheres, and which proposes the evangelization of the whole race, appeared
in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Societies
for the propagation of the Gospel had previously existed in Great Britain, but they were provided chiefly,
if not exclusively, for the Christianization of countries
which, by reason of their political dependence upon
England, were deemed to have special claims on
British Christianity-the inhabitants of India and
the Indians of North America. An historian of missions, writing in 1844, says: "It was not until almost
within the last fifty years that the efforts of the religious bodies by whom Christian missions are now
most vigorously supported were commenced." *
Methodism was essentially a missionary movement,
domestic and foreign.  It initiated not only the
spirit, but the practical plans of modern English
missions. Bishop Coke so represented the enterprise
in his own person for many years as to supersede the
necessity of any more formal organization of it, but it
was none the less real and energetic. The historian
* Ellis's History of the London Missionary Society, vol. i p. 3. 
ITS MISSIONARY LABORS.
just cited says: "The Wesleyan Missionary Society
was formed in 1817, but the first Wesleyan missionaries who went out, under the superintendence of the
Rev. Dr. Coke, entered the British colonies in 1786.
The Baptist Missionary Society was established in
1792; the London Missionary Society in 1795; and
the Edinburgh or Scottish and the Glasgow Missionary Societies in 1796.  The subject also engaged the
attention of many pious persons belonging to the Established Church, besides those connected with the
London Missionary Society, and by members of that
communion the Church Missionary Society was organized in the first year of the present century." The
London Missionary Society, embracing most Dissenting bodies of England, arose under the influence of
Calvinistic Methodism, and the Church Missionary
Society sprang from the evangelical Low Church
party which Methodism, Calvinistic and Arminian,
had originated in the Establishment, Venn, the
son of the Methodist churchman Venn, being its
projector.
Though Bishop Coke represented the ArminianMethodist Mission interest, as its founder, secretary,
treasurer, and collector, it really took a distinct
form some six years before the formation of the
first of the above named societies.  Coke  spent
more than a year in bringing the Negro missions
before the English people immediately after his
181 
182   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
second visit to the West Indies. In 1786 a formal
address was issued to the public in behalf of a comprehensive scheme of Methodist missions. It was
entitled "An Address to the Pious and Benevolent,
proposing an Annual Subscription for the Support of
Missionaries in the Highlands and adjacent Islands
of Scotland, the Isles of Jersey, Guernsey, and Newfoundland, the West Indies, and the Provinces of
Nova Scotia and Quebec. By Thomas Coke, LL.D.
1786." It speaks of "a mission intended to be established in the British dominions in Asia," but which
was postponed till these more inviting fields should
be occupied. This scheme was called in the address
an "Institution;" it was really such; though not
called a society, it was one in all essential respects;
and if the fact that it was not an extra-ecclesiastical
plan, but a part of the system of Methodism, should
detract from its claim of precedence in respect to
later institutions of the kind, that consideration
would equally detract from the Moravian missions,
which were conducted in a like manner. The Address filled several pages, and was prefaced by a letter from Wesley indorsing the whole plan.
The next year (1787) the Wesleyan Missions bore
the distinctive title of "Missions established by the
Methodist Society." At the last Conference attended
by Wesley (1790) a Committee of nine preachers,
of which Coke was chairman, was appointed to take 
ITS MISSIONARY LABORS.
charge of this new interest. Coke continued to conduct its chief business; but the committee were his
standing council, and formed, in fact, a Mission
Board of Managers two years before the organization of the finst of British missionary societies.
Collections had been taken in many of the circuits
for the institution, and in 1793 the Conference formally ordered a general collection for it.  Coke
published accounts of its'receipts and disbursements."  The amount for 1787 was t1,167.  The
names of eminent Churchmen, Dissenters, and
Calvinistic as well as Arminian Methodists, are
reported on its list of subscribers.  Among  them
are those of Whitbread, Wilberforce, the Thorntons, the Earl of Dartmouth, Earl of Belvidere, Lord
Elliott, Lady Mary Fitzgerald, Lady  Maxwell, Sir
Charles Middleton, (afterward Lord  Barham,) Sir
Richard Hill, Sir John Carter, Sir William Forbes,
Lady Smythe, Hon. Mrs. Carteret, and the Hon.
Mrs. Bouverie; the Rev. Mr. Dodwell, of Lincolnshire;* Melville Horne, of Madeley;  Berridge, of
Everton; Abdy, of Horsleydown;  Dr. Gillies of
Glasgow; Simpson, of Macclesfield; Pentycross, of
Wallingford; Easterbrook, of Bristol; Kennedy, of
Teston, and others.
In this manner did Methodism early prompt the
* This clergyman (of the Establishment) several years afterward
mude a contribution of ~10,000 to the Wesleyan Missionary Society.
183 
184 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
British Churches, and call forth the energies of the
British people, in plans of religious benevolence for
the whole world. Its previous missions in Scotland,
Wales, Ireland, and the Channel Islands did much
for the reformation of the domestic population.
Besides its efforts in 1786 in the West Indies, it
began its evangelical labors in France as early as
1791, and its great schemes in Africa in 1811;
in Asia in 1814; in Australasia in 1815; in Polynesia in 1822; until, from the first call of Wesley
for American evangelists, in the Conference of 1769,
down to our day, we see the grand enterprise reaching to the shores of Sweden, to Germany, France,
and the Upper Alps; to Gibraltar, and Malta; to
the banks of the Gambia, to Sierra Leone, and to
the Gold Coast; to the Cape of Good  Hope; to
Ceylon, to India, and to China; to the Colonists and
Aboriginal tribes of Australia; to New Zealand, and
the Friendly and Fiji Islands; to the islands of the
Western, as well as of the Southern Hemisphere;
and from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Puget's Sound.
Frog 1803 to the present time Wesleyan Methodism
has contributed more than twenty millions of dollars
for foreign evangelization.  In England the "Church
Missionary Society" alone exceeds its annual collections for the foreign field; but the Wesleyan Society enrolls more communicants in its Mission
Churches than all other British missionary societies 
ITS MISSIONARY LABORS.
combined. The historian of religion during the last
and present centuries would find it difficult to point
to a more magnificent monument of Christianity.
Methodism, gathering its hosts mostly from the mines
and cottages of England, has embodied them in this
sublime movement for the redemption of the world.
Its poor have kept its treasury full. They have supplied hundreds if not thousands of their sons and
daughters as evangelists to the heathen; and while
they have thus been enabled to do good in the extremities of the earth, they have reaped still greater
good from the reacting influence of their liberality
upon themselves. They have received from it the
sentiment of self-respect which comes from welldoing. They have been led to habits of frugality
that their poverty might be consecrated by liberality.
They have been elevated above the perversion of
local or personal sentiments, by sympathies with
their whole race. They have been led to a knowledge of the geography of the world, and to habits
of reflection upon its religious, social, and political
interests, by the habitual reading of missionary intelligence. They have been brought into closer social
as well as Christian communion with one another
by their frequent missionary meetings. Thousands
of them have acquired habits of public usefulness
by the management of their missionary affairs; and
sentiments of universal philanthropy and religious
185 
186  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISIM.
heroism have been spread through their ranks to
ennoble their own souls while saving the souls of
others.
Coke, the first bishop of American Methodism, the
first Protestant bishop of the new world, was to the
end of his life the representative character of Meth odist Missions   In his old age he offered himself to
the British Conference as a missionary to the East
Indies; he died on the voyage, and was buried in the
Indian Ocean, His death struck not only a knell
through the Church, but a summons for it to rise uni,
versally and march around the world. He had long
entertained the idea of universal evangelization as
the exponent characteristic of the Methodist movement. The influence of the movement on English
Protestantism had tended to such a result, for in both
England and America nearly all denominations had
felt the power of the great revival, not only during
the days of Whitefield and Wesley, but ever since.
Anglo-Saxon Christianity, in both hemispheres, had
been quickened into new life, and had experienced a
change amounting to a moral revolution. The sublime apostolic idea of evangelization in all the
earth, and till all the earth should be Christianized,
had not only been restored, as a practical conviction,
but had become pervasive and dominant in the consciousness of the Churches, and was manifestly thenceforward to shape the religious history of the Protest 
ITS MISSIONARY LABORS.
ant world. The great fermentation of the mind of
the civilized nation-the resurrection, as it may be
called, of popular thought and power-cotemporaneous in the civil and religious worlds, in the former
by the American and French Revolutions, in the latter by the Methodist movement, seemed to presage
a new history of the human race. And history is
compelled to record, with the frankest admission of
the characteristic defects of Thomas Coke, that no
man, not excepting Wesley or Whitefield, more completely represented the religious significance of those
eventful times.
Though American Methodism was many years
without a distinct missionary organization, it was
owing to the fact that its whole Church organization
was essentially a missionary scheme.  It was, in fine,
the great Hiome Mission enterprise of the north
American continent, and its domestic work demanded all its resources of men and money. It early
began, however, special labors among the aborigines
and slaves.   The history of some of these labors
would be an exceedingly interesting'and even romantic record, but our limits admit but this passing
allusion to them. The year 1819 is memorable as the
epoch of the formal organization of its missionary
work. Dr. Nathan Bangs, long distinguished as its
secretary and chief representative, was also its chief
founder. He made it the theme of much preliminary
187 
188   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
conversation with his colleagues and the principal
Methodist laymen of New York city. Rev. Dr.
Laban Clark introduced it by a resolution to the
attention of the metropolitan preachers at their
weekly meeting, "consisting," says Dr. Baigs, "of
Freeborn Garrettson, Samuel Merwin, Laban Clark,
Samuel Howe, Seth Crowell, Thomas Thorp, Joshua
Soule, Thomas Mason, and myself. After an interchange of thoughts the resolution was adopted, and
Garrettson, Clark, and myself were appointed a committee to draft a constitution. When this committee
met we agreed to write, each, a constitution, then
come together, compare them, and adopt the one
which should be considered the most suitable. The
one prepared by myself was adopted, submitted to the
Preachers' Meeting, and, after some slight verbal alterations, was finally approved. We then agreed to call
a public meeting in the Forsyth-street Church on the
evening of the 5th of April, 1819, which was accord.
ingly done. I was called to the chair, and after the
reading of the constitution Joshua Soule moved its
adoption, and supported his motion by a powerful
speech, concluding by an appeal to the people to come
forward and subscribe it. He was seconded by Freeborn Garrettson, who also plead in favor of the
scheme, from his own experience in the itinerant
field from Virginia to Nova Scotia." The constitution was unanimously adopted, and the following 
ITS MISSIONARY LABORS.
officers were chosen: Bishop M'Kendree, President
Bishops George and Roberts, and Nathan Bangs,
Vice-Presidents; Thomas Mason, Corresponding Secretary; Joshua Soule, Treasurer; Francis Hall, Clerk;
Daniel Ayres, Recording Secretary. The following
managers were also chosen: Joseph Smith, Robert
Mathison, Joseph Sanford, George Suckley, Samuel
L. Waldo, Stephen Dando, Samuel B. Harper, Lancaster S. Burling, William Duval, Paul Hick, John
Westfield, Thomas Roby, Benjamin Disbrow, James
B. Gascoigne, William A. Mercein, Philip J. Arcularius, James B. Oakley, George Caines, Dr. Seaman,
Dr. Gregory, John Boyd, M. H. Smith, Nathaniel
Jarvis, Robert  Snow,  Andrew  Mercein, Joseph
Moses, John Paradise, William Myers, William B.
Skidmore, Nicholas Schureman, James Wood, Abraham Paul. The historian of the society (Dr. Strickland) says: "It is obvious that almost its entire
business was conducted by Dr. Bangs for many years.
In addition to writing the constitution, the address
and circular, he was the author of every Annual
Report, with but one exception, from the organization of the society down to the year 1841, a period of
twenty-two years. He filled the offices of Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer for sixteen years,
without a salary or compensation of any kind, until
his appointment to the first named office by the
General Conference of 1836.   That he has con
189 
190   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
tributed more than any other man living to give
character to our missionary operations, by the productions of his pen and his laborious personal efforts,
is a well authenticated fact, which the history of the
Church fully attests." In this single instance of his
manifold public life he was to be identified with a
grand religious history. He was to see the annual
receipts of the Society enlarged from the $823 of its
first year to $250,374, (including its offspring of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to half a million,)
and its total receipts, down to the last year of his life,
morethan four and a half millions, not including the
southern Society. He was to witness the rise (chiefly
under the auspices of the Society) of American-German Methodism, an epochal fact in the history of his
Church, next in importance to the founding of the
Church by Embury and Strawbridge.  Without a
missionary for some time after its origin, the
Society was to present to his dying gaze a list
of nearly four hundred missionaries and more
than thirty-three thousand mission communicants,
representing the denomination in many  parts of
the United States, in Norway, Sweden, Germany,
Switzerland, Bulgaria, Africa, India, China, and
South America. Assisting in this great work, and
rejoicing in its triumphs, he was to outlive all its
original officers but three, Joshua Soule, Francis
Hall, and Daniel Ayres: and all its original mana 
ITS MISSIONARY LABORS.
ges save three, Dr. Seaman, James B. Oakley, and
William B. Skidmore.
The next General Conference, in 1820, sanctioned
the scheme.'Dr. Emory submitted an elaborate report on the subject.  After reasoning at length upon
it, he asked, "Can we, then, be listless to the cause
of missions I We cannot. Methodism itself is a
missionary system. Yield the missionary spirit, and
you yield the very lifeblood of the cause. In missionary efforts our British brethren are before us.  We
congratulate them on their zeal and their success. But
your committee beg leave to entreat this Conference
to emulate their example." The Conference adopted,
with some emendations, the constitution prepared for
the Society by Dr. Bangs.  He thus saw his great
favorite measure incorporated, it may be hoped forever, into the structure of the Church. He writes:
"These  doings of the Conference in relation to
the Missionary Society exerted a most favorable
influence upon the cause, and tended mightily to
remove the unfounded objections which existed in
some minds against this organization."
By the session of the General Conference of 1832,
the Society's operations had extended through the
states and territories of the nation, and had become
a powerful auxiliary of the itinerant system of the
Church. Hitherto it had been prosecuted as a domestic eheme, comprehending the frontier circuits, the
191 
192 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
slaves, the free colored people, and the Indian tribes;
it had achieved great success in this wide field, and
was now strong enough to reach abroad to other
lands. It proposed, with the sanctionff this Conference, to plant its standard on the coast of Africa, and
send agents to Mexico and South America to ascertain the possibility of missions in those countries.
Thus were begun those foreign operations of the
Society which have since become its most interesting
labors.
Its domestic Indian missions had now become numerous, and some of them were remarkably prosperous; " attended," Dr. Bangs says, " with unparalleled
success."   In Upper Canada they numbered, in
1831, no less than ten stations and nearly two thousand
Indians " under religious instruction, most of whom
were members of the Church. Among the Cherokees,
in Georgia, they had at the same date no less than
seventeen missionary laborers, and nearly a thousand
Church-members. Among the Choctaws there were
about four thousand communicants, embracing all
the principal men of the nation, their chiefs and
captains." And, more or less, along the whole frontier, Indian Missions were established.  Meanwhile
the destitute fields of the domestic work proper were
dotted with humble but effective  mission stations,
from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, and
these stations were rapidly passing from the mission 
ITS MISSIONARY LABORS.
ary list to the Conference catalogue of appointments
as self-supporting Churches.
In 1832 Melville B. Cox sailed for Africa, the first
foreign missionary of American Methodism. He
organized the Liberia Mission. He fell a martyr to
the climate, but laid on that benighted continent the
foundations of the Church, never, it may be hoped,
to be shaken. The next year a delegation from the
distant Flathead Indians of Oregon arrived in the
states soliciting missionaries. Their appeal was zealously urged through the Christian Advocate, and
received an enthusiastic response from the Church.
Dr. Bangs, who had been a leading promoter of the
African Mission, now, in co-operation with Dr. Wilbur Fisk, advocated this new claim with his utmost
ability. Jason and Daniel Lee, and Cyrus Shepard,
were dispatched as missionaries in the spring of 1834.
An extraordinary scheme of labors was adopted,
involving  great expense; but, writes Dr. Bangs,
"the projection of this important mission had a
most happy effect upon the missionary cause generally. As the entire funds of the Society up to this
time had not exceeded eighteen thousand dollars a
year, and as this mission must necessarily cost considerable, with a view to augment the pecuniary resources of the Society, a loud and urgent call was
made, through the columns of the Christian Advocate and Journal, on the friends of missions to'come
13
193 
194 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
up to the help of the Lord' in this emergency; and
to assist in this benevolent work, the Messrs. Lee
were instructed, while remaining in the civilized
world, to travel as extensively as possible, hold missionary meetings, and take up collections.   The
' Flathead' Mission, as it was then called, seemed to
possess a charm, around which clustered the warm
affections of all the friends of the missionary enterprise, and special donations for the' Flatheads' were
sent to the treasury with cheering liberality and
avidity. As an evidence of the beneficial result of
these movements, the amount of available funds had
risen, in 1834, from $17,097 05, the sum raised in
1833, to $35,700 15. So true is it that those who
aim at great things, if they do not fully realize their
hopes, will yet accomplish much."
The surges of emigration have overwhelmed nearly
all that grand transmontane region; the aborigines are
sinking out of sight beneath them; but the Oregon
Mission, after some useful labors among the Indians,
became the nucleus of the Christianity and civilization of the new and important state which has since
arisen on the North Pacific coast.
Meanwhile Fountain 0. Pitts was sent on the mission of inquiry to South America. In the autumn
of 1835 he visited Rio Janeiro, Buenos Ayres, Monte
Yideo, and other places, and the Methodist South
American Mission was founded the next year by 
ITS MISSIONARY LABOPR.
Justin Spaulding. Thus had the Church borne at
last its victorious banner into the field of foreign
missions. It was to be tried severely in these new
contests, but to march on through triumphs and de feats till it should take foremost rank among denom inations devoted to foreign evangelization.
At the General Conference of 1836, it was found
that the missionary cause had grown rapidly since
the preceding session.   In the last single year its
receipts surpassed those of any preceding year by
about twenty-two thousand dollars; and in the
various missionary stations there had been within
the same time an accession to the membership of
the Church of more than four thousand converts.
The Liberia Mission was now organized into an
Annual Conference, and the operations of the Missionary Society had assumed such importance, and
involved such responsibility, as to justify, in the
judgment of the Conference, the appointment of a
special officer, or "Resident Corresponding Secretary," who could devote his whole attention to them.
Of course the mind of the Conference, as indeed
of the general Church, turned spontaneously to Dr.
Bangs as the man for such an office, and he was
elected by a majority which surpassed that of any
of the three bishops, or any of the numerous editors
and Book Agents (save one of the latter) who were
elected by ballot at this session.
195 
196   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
At the adjournment of the Conference he returned
to New York, and entered with energy upon his
new functions. The first year of his secretaryship
(1836-7) was signalized by the first recognition and
announcement, by the Missionary Society, of one of
the most remarkable events in the history of modern missions, the beginning of the German Methodist Missions.  Professor Nast, a young German
scholar of thorough but Rationalistic education, had
been reclaimed by Methodism to the faith of the
Reformation. In 1835 he was sent to labor among
his countrymen in Cincinnati; in 1836 he was appointed by the Ohio Conference to a German charge
on the Columbus District, comprising a circuit of
three hundred miles and twenty-two appointments.
Thus originated the most successful, if not the most
important of Methodist missions; and in the next
Annual Report of the Society the "German Mission," and the name of "William Nast," its founder
and missionary, were first declared to the general
Church. German Methodism rapidly extended
through the nation, to Boston in the north-east, to
New Orleans in the south-west. German Methodist
Churches, circuits, districts, were organized.  "In
the brief space of fourteen years," says the historian
of Methodist Missions, "the German Missions have
extended all over the country, yielding seven thousand Church members, thirty local preachers, eighty. 
ITS MISSIONARY LABORS.
three regular mission circuits and stations, and one
hundred  and  eight  missionaries.   One  hundred
churches were built for German worship, and
forty parsonages. The increase in membership during the past year (1848) was nearly one thousand.
Primitive Methodism appears to have revived in the
zeal and simplicity and self-sacrificing devotion of
the German Methodists. May they ever retain this
spirit l No agency has ever been employed so
specifically adapted to effect the conversion of Romanists as that which is immediately connected with
the German Mission enterprise. The pastoral visitations of the preachers bringing them into immediate
contact with German Catholics, their distribution of
Bibles and tracts, their plain, pointed, and practical
mode of preaching, all combine to bring the truth
to bear upon that portion of the population; and
the result is the conversion of hundreds from the
errors of Romanism."  The chief importance of the
German Mission has, however, been developed since
this date. It has not only raised up a mighty evangelical provision for the host of German emigrants
to the New World, but under the labors of Dr.
Jacoby, it has intrenched itself in the German
"fatherland," and is laying broad foundations for a
European German Methodism. German Societies
and circuits, a German Conference, a German "Book
Concern" and German periodicals, and a Ministerial
197 
198 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM,
School, with all the other customary appliances of
evangelical Churches, have been established; and, in
our day, this Teutonic Methodism comprises, on
both sides of the Atlantic, nearly thirty thousand
communicants, and nearly three hundred missionaries.
It is impossible here to trace in detail the further
outspread of this great interest, especially under the
successful administration, since 1850, of its present
secretary, Dr. Durbin, nor is it requisite to the plan
of the present volume. Suffice it to say that the
annual receipts of the Society which, the year before his administration began, amounted to about
$104,000, have risen to nearly $560,000, and that
besides its very extensive domestic work, the Methodist Episcopal Church has now missions in China,
India, Africa, Bulgaria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and South America. Its
Missions, foreign and domestic, have 1,059 circuits
and stations, 1,128 paid laborers, (preachers and assistants,) and 105,675 communicants. The funds
contributed to its treasury, from the beginning down
to 1865, amount to about $6,000,000. About 350 of
the missionaries preach in the German and Scandinavian  languages, and more than 30,000 of the
communicants are German and Scandinavian. The
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, had before the
rebellion missions in China, among the foreign set. 
ITS MISSIONARY LABORS.
tlers in the United States, among the American Indians, and the southern slaves. About three hund
red and sixty of its preachers were enrolled as
missionaries.
American, like British Methodism, has become
thoroughly imbued with the apostolic idea of foreign
and universal evangelization. With both bodies it
is no longer an incidental or secondary attribute, but
is inwrought into their organic ecclesiastical systems.
It has deepened and widened till it has become the
great characteristic of modern Methodism, raising it
from a revival of vital Protestantism, chiefly among
the Anglo-Saxon race, to a world-wide system of
christianization, which has reacted on all the great
interests of its Anglo-Saxon field, has energized and
ennobled most of its other characteristics, and would
seem to pledge to it a universal and perpetual sway
in the earth. Taken in connection with the London and Church Missionary Societies, the British
and Foreign Bible Society, the London Tract Society, to all of which Methodism gave the originating
impulse, and the Sunday-school institution, which it
was the first to adopt as an agency of the Church,
it is not too much to say that it has been transforming the character of English Protestantism and
the moral prospects of the world.  Itsg missionary
development has preserved its primitive energy.
According to the usual history of religious bodies,
199 
200   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
if not indeed by a law of the human mind, its early
heroic character would have passed away by its
domestic success and the cessation of the novelty
and trials of its early circumstances; but by throwing itself out upon all the world, and especially
upon the worst citadels of paganism, it has perpet:
uated its original militant spirit, and opened for
itself a heroic career, which need end only with
the universal triumph of Christianity. English
Methodism was considered, at the death of its
founder, a marvelous fact in British history; but
to-day the Wesleyan missions alone comprise more
than twice the number of the regular preachers
enrolled in the English Minutes in the year of
Wesley's death, and nearly twice as many communicants as the Minutes  then reported from  all
parts of the world which had been reached by
Methodism. The latest reported number of Missionary communicants in the Methodist Episcopal
Church equals nearly one half the whole membership
of the Church in 1819, the year in which the missionary Society was founded, and is nearly double
the membership with which the denomination closed
the last century, after more than thirty years of
labors and struggles. 
ITS LOYALTY AND PATRIOTIC SERTVICES.  201
CHIAPTER VI.
ITS LOYALTY AND PATRIOTIC SERVICES.
THE first American missionaries of Wesley, being
native Englishmen, and uncommitted to politics,
left the country (all except Dempster, Asbury, and
Whatcoat) at the outbreak of the Revolution. The
infant Church therefore suffered for some time under
the suspicion of disloyalty. The imputation was,
however, unfounded. Methodism included no larger
proportion of " Toryism" than any other denomination of the times, in the middle states, to which it
was yet limited. Wesley, however, strengthened this
suspicion by publishing an abridgment of his friend
Dr. Johnson's "Taxation No Tyranny," under the
title of " A Calm Address to the American Colonies,"
recommending loyalty to the crown. It is due to
Wesley, nevertheless, to say that, by the time the war
really began, he took sides with the Americans. The
very next day after the arrival in England of the
news of the battles of Lexington and Concord, he
wrote to Lord North and the Earl of Dartmouth,
severally, an emphatic letter.  " I am," he said, " a
High-Churchman, the son of a High-Churchman,
bred up from my childhood in the highest notions 
202  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
of passive obedience and non-resistance, and yet, in
spite of all my long-rooted prejudices, I cannot avoid
thinking these, an oppressed people, asked for nothing more than their legal rights, and that in the
most modest and inoffensive manner that the nature
of the thing would allow. But waiving this, I ask,
Is it common sense to use force toward the Americans?  Whatever has been affirmed, these men will
not be frightened, and they will not be conquered
easily. Some of our valiant officers say that'two
thousand men will clear America of these rebels.'
No, nor twenty thousand, be they rebels or not, nor
perhaps treble that number. They are strong; they
are valiant; they are one and all enthusiasts, enthusiasts for liberty, calm, deliberate enthusiasts. In
a short time they will understand discipline as well
as their assailants. But you are informed'they are
divided among themselves.' So was poor Rehoboam
informed concerning the ten tribes; so was Philip
informed concerning the people of the Netherlands.
No; they are terribly united; they think they are
contending for their wives, children, and liberty.
Their supplies are at hand, ours are three thousand
miles off. Are we able to conquer the Americans
suppose they are left to themselves? We are not
sure of this, nor are we sure that all our neighbors
will stand stock still."
Though Bishop Asbury had to keep himself con 
ITS LOYALTY AND PATRIOTIC SERVICES. 203
cealed during a part of the Revolutionary period, he
was in favor of the independence of the colonies.
At the organization of the denomination in 1784,
it was the first religious body of the country to
insert in its constitutional law (in its Articles of
Religion) a recognition of the new government,
enforcing patriotism on its communicants. A very
noteworthy modification (peculiarly interesting in
our day) was made in this article in the year
1804. In the original article it was affirmed that
the "Congress," etc., " are the officers of the UInited
States of America, according to the division of power
made to them by the General Act of Confederation,"
etc., the national constitution having not yet been
adopted; but the General Conference of 1804, by
a motion of Rev. Ezekiel Cooper, (a man noted
for his sagacity,) struck out all allusion to the
"Act of Confederation," inserting in its stead "the
Constitution of the United States," etc., and declared
that  "the said states are a 8overeign  and  independent  nation." *  Methodism  thus  deliberately,
* The italics are my own. A recent paper, "The Christian Witness," in the interest of the insurgent South, attacks the Methodist
Episcopal Church on account of this amended Article.  "We regret,"
it says, "that we have to mention in this connection what was incorporated into the organization [of the Methodist Episcopal Church]
from the beginning, but has been generally overlooked. We refer to
the 23d Article of Religion, which is as follows:'The President, the
Congress, the General Assemblies, the Governors, and the Councils
of State, as the delegates of the people, are the rulers of the United 
204   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
and in its constitutional law, recognized that the
"Constitution" superseded the "Act of Confederation," and that the republic was no longer a confederacy but a nation, and as such, supreme and
sovereign over all its states. It was at a period of
no little political agitation on the question of state
sovereignty that this change was made: the Kentucky "Resolutions of 1798," and those of Virginia,
1799, had become the basis of a State Rights party.
A cotemporary Methodist preacher (Henry Boehm,
still living) records that just previous to this time
"there was great political excitement. Federalism
and Democracy ran high-such was the excitement
that it separated families, and friends, and members
States of America, according to the division of power made to them
by the Constitution of the United States, and by the Constitutions of
their respective States. And the said States are a sovereign and
independent nation, and ought not to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction.'"  The "Witness" proceeds to say that "the language of the
Article leans very strongly toward an anti-democratic view of the
relations between the Federal and the State governments, and has
been often so construed by the authorities of the Church since our
present political troubles began. It has been referred to again and
again by the Annual and General Conferences, by the official papers,
and by the bishops and preachers, as decisive of the position which
the Church holds upon the subject of State rights."  The " Witness"
errs in saying this form of the Article existed "from the beginning,"
but is correct in its statement of the Church's interpretation of the
Article. After the adoption of the National Constitution, Methodism
never doubted the sovereign nationality of thile Republic, and never had
the unstatesmanlike folly to recognize any State right of secession, or
any sovereignty which is not subordinate to the National sovereignty. 
ITS LOYALTY AND PATRIOTIC SERVICES.  205
of the Church. I was urged, on every side, to
identify myself with one political party or the other,
or to express an opinion. I felt sad to see what
influence this state of feeling was producing in the
Church." It was in such circumstances that the
Methodist Episcopal Church took its stand for the
National Constitution. During the late civil war
it has appealed to its Article, as expressing the
loyal duty of all its people, and they have responded
to the appeal with a patriotic devotion surpassed by
no other religious communion of the country.
The Methodist Episcopal Church was also the first
religious body to recognize the organization of the
national government and the presidency of Washington. Bishops Coke and Asbury, in the name of the
Conference in session at New York, waited on Washington, then just inaugurated, on May 29, 1789, and
Asbury read to him the address of the Conference.
" The address," says a cotemporary preacher, "and
the answer, in a few days, were inserted in the public
prints; and some of the ministers and members of the
other Churches appeared dissatisfied that the Methodists should take the lead. In a few days the other
denominations successively followed our example."
The Address of the Bishops was signed by Coke and
Asbury.  It said, "We, the Bishops of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, humbly beg leave, in the name of
our Society, collectively, in these United States, to 
206 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
express to you the warm feelings of our hearts, and
our sincere congratulations on your appointment to
the presidentship of these states. We are conscious,
from the signal proofs you have already given, that
you are a friend of mankind; and under this established idea, place as full confidence in your wisdom
and integrity for the preservation of those civil and
religious liberties which have been transmitted to us
by the providence of God and the glorious Revolution, as we believe ought to be reposed in man.
We have received the most grateful satisfaction
from the humble and entire dependence on the
great Governor of the universe which you have
repeatedly expressed, acknowledging him the source
of every blessing, and particularly of the most excellent Constitution of these states, which is at present
the admiration of the world, and may in future
become its great exemplar for imitation; and hence
we enjoy a holy expectation, that you will always
prove a faithful and impartial patron of genuine
vital religion, the grand end of our creation and
present probationary existence. And we promise
you our fervent prayers to the throne of grace, that
God Almighty may endue you with all the graces
and gifts of his HIoly Spirit, that he may enable
you to fill up your important station to his glory,
the good of his Church, the happiness and prosperity of the United States, and the welfare of man 
ITS LOYALTY AND PATRIOTIC SERVICES. 207
kind. Signed in behalf of the Methodist Episcopal
Church."
Washington, in reply, said: "I return to you
individually, and through you to your Society collectively in the United States, my thanks for the
demonstrations of affection, and the expressions of
joy offered in their behalf, on my late appointment.
It shall be my endeavor to manifest the purity of
my inclinations for promoting the happiness of
mankind, as well of the sincerity of my desires
to contribute whatever may be in my power toward
the civil and religious liberties of the American
people. In pursuing this line of conduct, I hope,
by the assistance of Divine Providence, not altogether to disappoint the confidence which you
have been pleased to repose in me. It always
affords me satisfaction when I find a concurrence
of sentiment and practice between all conscientious
men, in acknowledgments of homage to the great
Governor of the Universe, and in professions of support to a just civil government. After mentioning
that I trust the-people of every denomination, who
demean themselves as good citizens, will have occasion to be convinced that I shall always strive to
prove a faithful and impartial patron of genuine
vital religion, I must assure you in particular, that
I take in the kindest part the promise you make of
presenting your prayers at the throne of grace for 
208  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
me, and that I likewise implore the divine benedic
tion on yourselves and your religious community."
These two first bishops of Methodism were inti
mate with Washington, and were entertained at his
table at Mount Vernon, where they held patriotic
consultations with him, especially on the subject of
slavery, he being, as they have recorded, of their
own sentiments on that subject.
On this great national question, which has so
fortunately reached its solution in our day, Methodism has always borne a decided testimony, and
has contributed more, perhaps, than any other
Christian denomination, to its final settlement. If
Quakerism has given a less equivocal verdict on
the evil, Methodism has done incomparably more
effectual work against it. At the organization of
the Church it enacted a law against it, and afterward incorporated into its constitutional law (its
General Rules or terms of membership) a prohibition of "the buying and selling of men, women, and
children, with an intention to enslave them," a law
which has kept its honorable record down to this
day. The early Methodist preachers, who, like
Hatch and Garrettson, inherited, or otherwise came
into the possession of slaves, emancipated them.
With the rapid spread of the Church southward, its
stringent opinions on the subject became lax; violent discussions and parties arose within its com 
ITS LOYALTY AND PATRIOTIC SERVICES. 209
munion, and confusion and schism followed; bust its
primitive standard of opinion at last triumphed,
and at the General Conference of 1844, rather than
endure further encroachments from the barbarous evil,
it sEifcred the greatest schism in the ecclesiastical history of the country, the secession of the Methodist
Episcopal Church South, by which it lost at a stroke
nearly half its members and half its territory.
In the further progress of the antislavery controversy as a national question, no religious communion of the country has been more energetic than
Methodism. It was the first denomination to enter
practically and prominently into the contest, notwithstanding the opposition of many of its strongest
men; and if, in its southern and schismatic people,
have been found the strongest abettors of slavery
and rebellion, northern Methodism has redeemed the
denominational honor by its uncompromising devotion to the slave and the Constitution. A Methodist conference (the New York East Conference) was
the first ecclesiastical body to pledge its loyal and
utter co-operation with the government, after the
attack on Fort Sumter; and by a happy coincidence
was the first to telegraph congratulations to the
government at the downfall of the rebellion, by the
surrender of Lee.*  Methodism has contributed, it
* This Conference happened to be holding sessions at the time ot
each of these events.
14 
210 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
has been estimated, a hundred thousand white and
seventy-five thousand black troops to the war for
the Union. The Methodist Episcopal Church has
thinned its congregations, disbanded many of its
Sunday-school and Bible classes, by these patriotic
contributions. Its pulpits have resounded through
the war with enthusiastic pleas for the Constitution.
Its entire denominational press (the most extensive
in the land) has, without one exception, been fervently and continually devoted to the national cause.
The national flag has waved from its spires and
draped its pulpits, and its characteristic enthusiasm
has been kindled to the highest fervor by the national
struggle. Many of its preachers have followed the
army as chaplains, others as officers, and others
as privates. Thousands of Methodist martyrs for
the Union sleep under the sod of southern battlefields. In fine, Methodism, as the chief religious
embodiment of the common people, has felt that
its destiny is identical with that of the country, and
has thrown its utmost energy into the great struggle for the national life. The government has recogiiized its services, and, at its last General Conference,
President Lincoln addressed it an emphatic testimonial, saying: " Nobly sustained as the Government has
been by all the Churches, I would utter nothing which
might in the least appear invidious against any. Yet
without this it may fairly be said that the Methodist 
ITS LOYALTY AND PATRIOTIC SERVICES. 211
Episcopal Church, not less devoted than the best, is,
by its greater numbers, the most important of all.
It is no fault in others that the Methodist Church
sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the
hospitals, and more prayers to heaven than  any.
God bless the Methodist Church! bless all the
Churches! and blessed be God! who in this our
great trial giveth us the Churches."  
SUMMARY VIEW.
CHAPTER VII.
SUMMARY VIEW.
SUCH, then, is Methodism, historically viewed; such
the results which entitle its birth in the New World
to the grateful commemoration of its people.
Embury's little congregation of five persons, in
his own house, has multiplied to thousands of Societies, from the northernmost settlements of Canada
to the Gulf of Mexico, from Nova Scotia to California. The first small conference of 1773, with its
10 preachers and its 1,160 reported members, has
multiplied to 60 conferences, 6,821 itinerant, 8,205
local preachers, and 928,320 members in the Methodist Episcopal Church alone, exclusive of the southern, the Canadian and minor branches, all the offspring of the Church founded ill 1766 and episcopally organized in 1784.
It has  property  in  churches  and  parsonages
amounting to about $27,000,000.
It has 25 colleges and theological schools, with
property amounting to $3,055,000, 158 instructors,
and 5,345 students; and 77 academies, with 556
instructors and 17,761 students; making a body of
714 instructors and an army of 23,106 students.
213 
214   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
Its church property, (churches, parsonages, and
colleges, aside from its 77 academies and Book Concern,) amounts to $30,055,000.
Its Book Concern has a capital of $837,000; 500
publishing agents, editors, clerks, and operatives;
with some thirty cylinder power presses in constant
operation, about 2,000 different books on its catalogue, besides tracts, etc.; 14 periodicals, with an
aggregate circulation of more than 1,000,000 copies per month.*
Its Sunday-School Union comprises 13,400 schools;
more than 150,000 instructors; nearly 918,000 pupils; and more than 2,500,000 library books. It
issues nearly 2,500 publications, besides a monthly
circulation of nearly 300,000 numbers of its periodicals.
Its Missionary Society has 1,059 circuits and stations; 1,128 paid laborers, and 105,675 communicants.
The Methodist Episcopal Church South has published no statistics since the rebellion broke out; it
has doubtless suffered much by the war, but it
reported, the last year before the rebellion, nearly
700,000 Church members, nearly 2,600 itinerant and
5,000 local members. It had 12 periodical publications, 12 colleges, and 77 academies, with 8,000 stu
* There are five independent weekly papers in the Church besides
the above number of "official" periodicals. 
SUMMARY VIEW.
dents. Its Missionary Society sustained, at home
and abroad, about 360 missionaries and 8 manual
labor schools, with nearly 500 pupils.
According to these figures the two great Episcopal
divisions of the denomination have had, at their
latest reports, 1,628,320 members; 9,421 traveling,
and 13,205 local preachers; with 191 colleges and
academies, and 31,106 students.*
The Canada Wesleyan Church was not only
founded by, but for many years belonged to, the
Methodist Episcopal Church; it now reports more
than 56,000 members, 500 itinerant preachers, and
750 Sunday-chools with about 45,000 pupils; a
university, a female college, and a Book Concern
with its weekly periodical.
Another branch of Canadian Methodism, the
"Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada," equally
the child of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the
United States, reports 3 Annual Conferences, 2
bishops, 216 traveling and 224 local preachers, and
20,000 members; a seminary and female college, and
a weekly newspaper.
The Canadian Wesleyan Methodist New Connec
* Some of these figures differ slightly from enumerations given
elsewhere in this volume; the latter were made from earlier data, and
went to press before the former reached me; they do not, however~
materially affect the aggregate& Methodism, in common with other
Churches, has suffered by the late period of political and military
agitation.
215 
216  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
tion Church reports 90 traveling and 147 local
preachers, and 8,450 communicants. It sustains a
weekly paper and a theological school.
The other Methodist bodies, in the United States,
are the Methodist Protestant Church, the American
Wesleyan Methodists, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and some three or four smaller sects;
their aggregate membership amounts to about
260,000; their preachers to 3,423.*
Adding the traveling preachers to the membership,
there are now in the United States about 1,901,164
Methodist communicants. Adding three non-communicant members of its congregations for each communicant, it has under its influence 7,604,656 soulsbetween one fifth and one fourth of the whole
national population.
Aggregately there are now in the United States
and Canada,+ as the results of the Methodism of
1766, 1,972,770 Church members, 13,650 traveling
preachers, 15,000 local preachers, nearly 200 colleges and academies, and more than 30 periodical
publications; 1,986,420 communicants, including
preachers, and nearly 8,000,000 people.
The influence of this vast ecclesiastical force or
* As reported in 1860, in Schem's Ecclesiastical Year Book; our
best authority in American ecclesiastical statistics.
f The other North American British Provinces are not included, as
their Methodism did not originate with the denomination in the United
States. The Primitive Methodists are also omitted. 
SUMMARY VIEW.
the moral, intellectual, and social progress of the
New World, can neither be doubted nor measured.
It is generally conceded that it has been the most
energetic religious element in the social development
cf the continent. With its devoted and enterprising
people dispersed through the whole population, its
thousands of laborious itinerant preachers, and tens
of thousands of local preachers and exhorters, its
unequaled publishing agencies and powerful periodicals, from  the Quarterly Review  to  the  child's
paper, its hundreds of colleges and academies, it
hundreds of thousands of Sunday-school instructors,
its devotion to the lower and most needy classes, its
animated modes of worship and religious labor, it
cannot be questioned that it has been a mighty, if
not the mightiest agent in the maintenance and
spread of Protestant Christianity over these lands.
It stands now on the threshold of its second century
mightier than ever, in all the elements and resources
requisite for a still greater history. It has modified
somewhat its primitive methods, but only for its
increased efficiency.
The question, What is the actual position, moral
as well as statistical, of the Methodist Episcopal
Church in particular? cannot be more authoritatively answered than in the address of its latest
delegate to the British Conference, Bishop Janes.
"In this epoch of her history," he says, "the ques
217 
218  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
tion naturally arises,'What has been the career
of American Methodism, what its attainments of
power and usefulness in the land and in the world?'
As a partial answer to this inquiry, we refer you
to our latest tables of statistics:* Communicants
928,320; itinerant ministers, 6,821; local ministers,
8,205; churches, 10,015; parsonages, 2,948; estimated value of churches and parsonages, $26,883,076;
Sunday-schools, 13,153; officers and teachers,
148,475; scholars, 859,700.  We have 161 missionaries in foreign lands, and 7,022 church members.
Among the foreign populations of our own country,
we have laboring 286 missionaries; and in the
churches under their care, 26,138 communicants.
In our domestic missionary department we have
about 800 missionaries; their statistics are given in
the general aggregate I have stated. Some of these
missionaries are supported wholly by the missionary
fund, but most of them only in part. Receipts,
$558,993; the appropriations for the current year
are $625,000.  With regard to our education, we
have 23 universities or colleges, in which there are
5,345 students, with property and endowment funds
amounting to more than $2,800,000. We have
two theological schools, in which there are 116
* The statistics, given elsewhere in this volume, are the latest I have
been able to obtain; a difference of time will account for any differ.
ence of figures between the bishop's statements and my own. 
SUMMARY VIEW.
students, with property valued at $150,000.* We
have 77 academic institutions, with about 18,000
students, the number of males and females being
about equal. Our use of the press has been continually increasing. We have now nine weekly and
several semi-monthly, monthly, and quarterly periodicals, which are official, and several unofficial
periodicals which are Methodistic in their character.
We still follow the example of Mr. Wesley in zealously circulating Christian books. We have a very
large number of Sunday-school publications, and a
religious literature adapted to the wants of the
whole Church. These statistics only answer the
question partially. There have been several large
secessions from the Church, which have continued
to preach our doctrines and observe most of our
usages. I have not been permitted to examine the
' Book of Life' to ascertain the great number who
shared her militant fellowship on earth, but now
enjoy the divine fruition of the Church triumphant
in heaven. Could I obtain the number of those, living and dead, who have been enrolled in the annals
of American Methodism, even that would not give
the full measure of its usefulness. Its influence,
subtle as the fragrance of the flower, could not be
registered by man.' As the dew of Hlermon, and
the dew that descended upon the mountain when
* This does not include the legacy of the late Mrs. Garrett.
21.9 
220 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
the Lord commanded the blessing,' the influence of
American Methodism has descended upon the whole
land, permeating more or less all denominations of
Christians, and germinating and maturing many
rich fruits, which have been garnered in other
Churches and recorded in other registers. It is,
perhaps, a most important question for us to answer
whether the American Methodism of 1865 is the
Methodism introduced in 1766. Notwithstanding
all that croakers and grumblers have said or can
say on this subject, a careful examination will show
that if it does not strictly retain the resemblance of
the impression to the signet, it does bear the identity of manhood to childhood, of the harvest to the
seed.  Changes have been made in the'Rules and
Regulations' from time to time, by legitimate
authority, as the exigencies of the Church have
required. It is exceedingly interesting to see how
these changes have been made in the direction of
development, of enlargement, and of progress.
"The Methodist Episcopal Church was organized
by authority of Mr. Wesley, in 1784, bv Dr. Coke.
The liturgy which Mr. Wesley. provided for the
Church contained the forms of making and ordaining superintendents or bishops, and elders or presbyters, and deacons. The discipline he gave the
Church provided for employment of unordained
ministers and local preachers to assist the pastors 
SUMMAR Y VIEW.
in their pulpit labors, and class-leaders to aid them
in their pastoral work. These are the orders and
duties of our ministers and pastors at this present
time. The number of ministers soon became so
large, and their distance from each other so great,
that it was found impossible for them to meet in one
conference. Two conferences were then formed.
As these became inconveniently large, they were
again divided; and this process has been continued,
until now, including our conferences in Africa and
Germany, an(} India, we have sixty Annual Conferences. For the same reason, it was found necessary
to provide for a delegated General Conference, to
meet quadrennially, with authority, under certain
specified restrictions,'to make rules and regulations' for the Church, to review the administration
of the Annual Conference, and to elect and ordain
bishops whenever the state of the work required it.
We have also a Quarterly Conference, composed of
the preachers of the circuit, the local preachers,
stewards, trustees, class-leaders, exhorters, and Sunday-school superintendents.  Thiconference has a
general but prescribed supervision of all the interests of the circuit. The few simple rules which Mr.
Wesley provided for removing improper persons
from society and improper ministers from the conference have been elaborated into a complete system
of ecclesiastical jurisprudence. We maintain, unim
221 
222  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
paired, the itinerancy of our ministry. In the older
and more densely populated portions of the oountry,
the work is divided into stations or separate pastoral charges.  In the newer and more sparsely
peopled sections we retain the circuit form. The
late General Conference extended the term of ministerial service so as to allow a minister to remain
three years in the same charge. The Episcopacy
constitutes an' Itinerant General Superintendency.'
There is no feature of our polity of which both the
ministers and laity of the Church are more jealous.
The attachment to it is universal. Attendance
upon class-meeting has not been uniformly enforced
as a condition of Church membership. The duty
of attendance upon this social means of grace has
been strongly urged upon all our members. Many
of the pastors have laid aside for a breach of our
rules such members as were delinquents in this
respect. The institution is very highly appreciated
by the spiritual and devout portion of the Church.
It is invaluable in training our converts. Our
leaders, taken 4a a body, make a sub-pastorate, a
lay agency which is unequaled. The local preachers
and class-leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church
constitute one of the grand forces of American
Methodism.
"Does the Methodist Episcopal Church retain its
simplicity and spirituality? Is it being built up 
SUMMARY VIEW.
with living stones? Is it a spiritual house, a holy
priesthood, offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God through Jesus Christ. We cannot search
the hearts or discern the spirits of our brethren.
We can only judge from outward signs, and even
thus with great carefulness. Most of our members
bring forth the fruits of good living. They testify
in class-meetings and love-feasts, and on other suitable occasions, to their enjoyment of God's pardoning mercy and adopting love, many of them of his
sanctifying power. Our people almost uniformly
prefer  spiritual  scriptural  preaching.   We   are
favored with frequent and extensive revivals; and
we can and do feel and say,' the best of all is, God
is with us.' As to the fiuture, our success is likely
to by greater than ever."
223 
0 
PART III.
ITS CAPABILITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
FOR THE FUTURE.
THE capabilities of American Methodism, for continued and increased usefulness, have already been
shown in the historical view of its practical methods,
its theological teachings, and its actual results. It
stands strong to-day in its essential doctrines and
methods; and it has the additional ability and
responsibility of greater financial resources than it
has ever had before. Its people, originally the
poorest of the land, have become, under its beneficent training, perhaps the wealthiest. Not only
has it more diffused wealth than any sister denomination, but its cases of individual opulence have, within
the last quarter of a century, greatly multiplied.
As the leading Church of the country, it bears, before
God and man, the chief responsibility of the moral
welfare of the nation. The better consecration of its
wealth to the public good is therefore one of the  rncipal responsibilities of its future.
We have seen how providentially it met the moral
exigencies which grew out of the early rapid growth
15 
226  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
of the American population; exigencies that could
not otherwise have been met. But a greater demand, if possible, is to be made upon it in the
future.   This wonderful growth  of population-is
to advance at a rate which threatens to outstrip
the provisions for its intellectual and religious
training. In less than forty years from the present
date more than one hundred millions of human
souls will be dependent upon these provisions for
their intellectual and moral nutriment. They bear
now no adequate relation to the real necessities
of the land. If, after more than two centuries of
religious and educational efforts, under the most
auspicious circumstances of the country, we have
but partially provided for thirty-five millions, how
shall we, in forty years, meet the immensely
enlarged moral wants of nearly three times that
number?  The question is a very grave one.  Our
rapid growth, so much the boast of the nation, is
not without imminent peril; it may be too rapid to
be healthful; it is to be the severest test of both
our religion and our liberties, for one is the essential condition of the other. And yet it cannot, by
ally probable contingencies, be restrained. It has a
momentum which will bear down and overleap all
the ordinary obstructions of population. We cannot want work, we cannot want bread; and where
these exist, population must advance as inevitably 
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE FUTURE.
as the waters under the laws of the tide. Every
growth of this population provides indeed somewhat, morally as well as materially, for the next
growth; but the law of proportion must fail in this
respect, under our rapid advance and the peculiar
elements of our growth, unless the religious bodies
of the land, to which its education is so largely
confided, make special provisions for it.
When we remind ourselves that so much of this
popular increase is from abroad, that Europe has
been in an "exodus" toward our shores, that its
ignorance and vice-wave overtopping wave-roll
in upon the land, the danger assumes a startling
aspect. In about thirty-six years from this day our
population will equal the present aggregate population of England, France, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and Denmark. A step further in the
calculation presents a prospect still more surprising
and impressive: in about sixty-six years from today this mighty mass of commingled peoples will
have swollen to the stupendous aggregate of two
hundred and forty-six millions-equaling the present
population of all Europe. According to the statistics of life, there are hundreds of thousands of our
present population who will witness this truly grand
result. What have the friends of education and
religion to do within that time! If our present
intellectual and moral provisions for the people are
22-1 
228 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
far short of the wants of our present thirty-five
millions, how in sixty-six years shall we provide
for more than two hundred and eleven additional
millions, and these millions, to a great extent, composed of semi-barbarous foreigners and their mistrained children?
We may well ponder these facts, and feel that
on us, the citizens of the republic, at this the
middle of the nineteenth century, devolves a moral
exigency such as, perhaps, no other land ever saw;
an exigency as full of sublimity as of urgencyas grand in its opportunity as in its peril. This
immense prospective population-certain, though
prospective-is to be thrown out, by the almighty
hand of Providence, upon one of the grandest
arenas of the world. Here, on this large continent,
bounded in its distant independence by the Atlantic,
the Pacific, the great tropic gulf, and the Arctic;
here, away from the traditional governments and
faiths and other antiquated checks of the old world,
it is to play its great drama of destiny-a destiny
which, as we have shown, must, numerically at
least, be in less than seventy years as potential as
all present Europe, and how much more potential
in all moral, political, and commercial respects?
What an idea would it be, that of all Europe consolidated into one mighty, untrammeled common wealth, in the highest liberty, religious enlighten 
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE FUTURE.
nent, and industrial development-and this mighty
revolution to be completed in less than seventy
years from to-day  Who would credit the conception?  Yet our republic will, in that time, more
than realize the stupendous idea, if its political and
moral integrity be not sacrificed.
Look at its field. According to an official report,
the total area of the United States and territories
in 1853 was 2,983,153 square miles. This estimate
is found to be even short of the truth: various
official reports from the Land Office, and the aggregate of the census, show 3,220,572 square miles. It
is estimated from these facts that the territorial extent of the republic is nearly ten times as large as
that of Great Britain and France united, three times
as large as the whole of Britain, France, Austria,
Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, and
Denmark; one and a half times as large as the
Russian empire in Europe; only a sixth less than
the  area covered by  the  nearly sixty empires,
states, or republics of Europe;  of  larger extent
than the Roman empire, or that of Alexander,
neither of which exceeded three millions of square
miles. What a theater is this for the achievements
of civilization and religion! Surely there should
be "giants in these days" to enact worthily the enterprises of such a field.  And if circumstances make
men, are we not to hope that the consciousness
229 
230  CENTFNARY OF AMERICAN METHODISMf.
of this unparalleled destiny will enlarge and ennoble
the intellect, the philanthropy, and moral energy of
the country to a scale of corresponding magnificencewill bring forth sublime examples of public devotion,
of talent, of moral heroism, and of munificence? Let
it be repeated that Methodism, by its numerical
strength and wealth, has a larger responsibility for
this great field than any other Church-of the land.
American Methodism, as we have seen, has been
remarkable for the progress of its Educa.         prov';  and this fact may be considered one of its
providential adaptations to its great mission ii the
New World.  Wisely has its General Conference
"Centenary Committee"  proposed  to commemorate its centenary jubilee, not so much by a
monumental  edifce as by a monumental  institution-a permanent fund for education. An impressive argument for education is found in the
large proportion of our juvenile population. Where
there is plenty of food, as there must indefinitely
be in this country, there will always be plenty
of children. It is a beneficent, a beautiful law.
Nearly half our present white population are yet
in what may be called the flower of youth. We
almost literally present an example of national adolescence-the freshness, the ardor, the vigor, and
the susceptibility of childhood and young manhood.
o 
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE FUTURE.
Our  white population  in 1860  was  26,957,471;
the portion which was under twenty years of age,
12,614,637. The destiny of the country is then in
the hands of its educators. The population of to-day
is to surpass all the millions of Europe in less
than seventy years; and its educators hold within
their power nearly one half of the population of
to-day, nearly one half the present elements of the
grand geometrical progression. Let them work out,
then, with an untiring hand and a sublime consciousness, this mighty arithmetic of destiny! It may be
soberly said that never before was there a battlefield for humanity like this; never were the elements
of good and evil set forth against each other in a
grander arena; never was humanity thrown out
upon conditions more experimental, more free from
the trammels of old institutions, of old traditions,
of old fallacies. It must be mighty here-that is
inevitable; but it will be mighty in the strength
of its wickedness, like the antediluvian giants who
brought the world to dissolution, or mighty in
the virtues which shall subdue the world to the
reign of religion, intelligence, and liberty. They
who have the means of educating the young can
lay a mightier hand upon this sublime future than
any other heroes in the field. The legislators of
the land, its high places of power, and of professional life, may do much for it; but its humble places
231 
232   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
of education, including its Sunday-schools, are its true
fortresses-" the cheap defense of the nation."
It is to be hoped, therefore, that Methodism, with
its chief responsibility for the moral and intellectual
progress of the country, will prosecute more vigorously than ever its educational work, and that it
will especially crown its present jubilee by' endow
ing, in accordance with the plan of its Centenary
Committee, a monumental fund for education, which
shall worthily commemorate the great occasion, and
from which not only its present numerous colleges
shall receive additional strength, but new ones shall
spring up as the population of the country advances.
It should especilly enlarge its means of miniserial education. It has done a. great work in the
mere conquest (now universal) of the popular prejudice against theological schools. It has provided,
as we have seen, two such institutions, one in the
northeast and one in the north-west; it needs at
least three more immediately: one in the middle
East, one in the middle West, and one on the Pacific
coast. It should have them, at latest, within five
years, and its proposed Centenary fund will probably
enable it to provide them even earlier.* Ministerial
* Daniel Drew, Esq., has already pledged $250,000 for a theological school near New York City, the first centenary donation to the
Churc, and one worthy of the occasion, 
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE FUTURE.
education is evidently one of its greatest necessities
for the future; it is not only necessary for its progress, but for the safety of the great conquests it has
already won. Its people are rapidly advancing in
intelligence; their demand for improved pulpit instruction cannot be waived; it must be met,'or
their families be lost from the denomination. The
Church has become conscious of this necessity, and
will not, it is to be hoped, delay to provide abundantly for it.
Xfethodm sho7ul feel iteaf re bonble to moiter hereafter, more than heretofore, to the public
ulture, by the improvement of its church architecture. During most of its history, it has had to
extemporize its temples. Within the last twentyfive years it has been providentially enabled to
renew a large proportion of them, to give them
better locations, better internal accommodations,
and better architectural style; so that in some of
the principal cities, Boston, New  York, Newark,
Philadelphia, Wilmington, Chicago, Cincinnati, its
places of worship are rapidly taking rank with
those of older denominations. It has need, indeed,
of caution against excess in this respect, but it has
more need of liberal taste than of caution, for its
error has been in the opposite direction, if not in
the opposite extreme. It should bear in mind that
233 
234 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
its permanent hold upon its congregations, especially
in the larger communities, will depend much upon
the convenience and even the elegance (the just
elegance) of its churches; that there can be no
moral objection to good taste and genuine art;
and that the monuments of religion deserve such
tributes above all other structures. The taste of the
Church has advanced much in this respect, more,
perhaps, than its liberality, but it needs further
training in both. It needs to be reminded that true
taste and true art are not adventitious things, much
less the products of pride or luxury; that they are
founded in original laws, that is to say, divine laws
of human nature, and therefore meet a natural want
of man;  that even the strictest "utilitarianism"
cannot rationally condemn them, for beauty is often
the highest utility, ministering, in art, to our higher
wants in a manner incomparably more utilitarian,
than the service of the lower or "practical arts" to
our lower nature. God has written its vindication
over all his works, for whatever may be their mechanical processes and directly utilitarian designs, he has
decorated them everywhere with beauty or sublimity, and their very first appeal is to our minds rather
than to our physical necessities. The heavens by
day and by night, the mountains and valleys, the
streams and seas, and most living things, are made
by him pictures for the soul before they can be made 
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE FUTURE.
by us tributary to our material wants.  He permits
not the vegetable world to yield us bread, till it has
first yielded beauty through the. eye, to the mind.
The blossom precedes the fruit. True art should
be recognized as one of the noblest handmaids of
religion; elevating impressions and associations,
through the senses in our temples, may  ennoble
even divine worship; and imposing monuments of
taste, consecrated to piety, are among the highest
means of national culture, and the highest proofs of
advanced civilization. It is a sacred peculiarity of
architectural art that, unlike painting and sculpture,
it will not lend itself to vice; its severe and stately
beauty disdains effeminate or voluptuous tastes. It
is the most sublime, the most religious, of the works
of man.
On really utilitarian grounds, then, may we plead
for religious art. Yet we may plead for it also on
really economical grounds. The most expensive
temple is usually the most economical.  The Church
that builds its edifice in the most eligible locality
and in the most attractive style, almost invariably
finds its expense the best reimbursed, by its command
of the people, their attendance, their intelligence,
and their money. A well located, substantial, and
commanding temple aids much in giving security to
a Church, and is cheap in this respect. The stability
of the religions of the old world, their power over
235 
236   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
local populations, are owing largely to their grand
edifices.  Methodism should not despise this power.
It must still throw up hastily, especially in its frontier
fields, temporary "meeting-houses," shanties, or logcabins; it should multiply greatly its cheap suburban
temples; but it should make all prudent haste to
supersede these by better structures.   Consulting
always, and primarily, practical convenience in its
buildings, it should also endeavor liberally to ennoble
the house of God by every aid of genuine taste and
art. It will not be able to justify itself against the
claims of public opinion and public taste upon it if,
with its great prosperity, it should fail to have within
the next twenty-five years the most approved and
most commodious churches of the nation.
It s8hould be one of it8 most earnest aims to consolidate its forces by tke union of its variou8s American branches. There would seem to be but temporary, if indeed any reason, for the continued separation of its two chief bodies, north and south. They
divided on the question of slavery; that question is
now practically obsolete; they are identical in their
theological and practical systems and in their ecclesiastical aims; their reunion would contribute much to
the social and political reconciliation of the North
and South; it is a duty, therefore, that they both
owe to their common country, and to our common 
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE FUTURE.
Christianity. On what terms such a reconciliation
should be founded, need not here be discussed; it is
sufficient to affirm the obvious fact that it should be
effected, and whatever is obviously right is always,
sooner or later, practicable.  The other branches of
American Methodism have arisen mostly by seces  sions, founded on questions of church government,
especially on the demand for lay representation. The
position of the supreme assembly of the Church on
this subject, its readiness at the will of the Church
to make the change, should make it possible for
such sister bodies to return to the common household.
Such a consolidation of the various communions
which bear the name of Methodists and have
identical doctrines and discipline, would mightily
strengthen, numerically and morally, the common
cause. Perhaps a still greater advantage would be
~ the diminution of the prevalent sectarianism of the
country, and the consequent abatement of its rancor,
its wastefulness, and its bad moral effect on the
public mind. Whatever may be the advantage of a
variety of religious denominations, for the accommo   dation of a variety of religious opinions or scruples,
(an advantage enormously exaggerated in this coun   try,) it surely cannot justify those distinctions, with   out an essential difference, which the various sects of
Methodism now present. If American Christianity
must needs have divisions, it certainly need not have
237 
238 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
these subdivisions. Wesley gloried, as we have seen,
in the liberality, the catholicity of Methodism; it is
a boast which his disciples should be eager to maintain throughout the world and to the end of time.
What a crowning glory would it be to its centenary jubilee, if all its now practically unnecessary
branches could be blended into one common cause
before the joyous year (never to be enjoyed on earth
by any of us again) has passed away! If this be
impossible, can we not, at least, in the proceedings
of this memorable year, lay with certainty the
foundations of so grand a consummation?
ethodim shou8    d earnestly seek to solve that now
most important of its practical problems, how to secure itq children within its own pale. Its Sundayschools help it much in this respect, but not sufficiently. Thousands of its youth have been annually 
converted within these schools: nearly 19,000 the
last year, (1864,) nearly 40,000 within the last two
years; more than 285,000 within the last eighteen
years. In several of these years the reported conversions in the schools equaled half the annual additions
to the Church membership; in several the former
more than equaled the whole of the latter. In the
entire period the Sunday-school conversions have surpassed the entire gains of the Church membership by
nearly 5,000. During three years of the war the 
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE FUTURE.
membership decreased 67,000, but during these same
three years the reported conversions in the schools
amounted to 50,500. While these facts speak emphatically for the religious power of the school, they show
alairmingly the inefficient guardianship of the Church
over its children. They prove that most of its converted youth either fail to enter or are lost from its
communion. The startling exhibit of these statistics
should be kept under the eye of the Church,* and
be anxiously pondered till a remedy be found for the
extraordinary evil.   The last General Conference
ordained that the "baptized children of the Church"
shall be "organized into classes," with suitable leaders, (male or female,) and in due time.be "enrolled
on the list of probationers" and "admitted into full
membership." This is an important advance in the
right direction; but it must fail without the diligent
pastoral attention of the ministry. The intimate
co-operation of the pastor with his Sunday-school
teachers; his presence in
the school, especially in
Total  Increase    of
Year.   conv ers ions. Ch. Membership
1857      14,669        20,192
1858      32,315       136,036
1859      20,580        17,790
1860      19,517        20,102
1861       17,498  dec. 1,924
1862      12,828   dec.45,617
1863      20,233   dec.19,512
1864      18,892         4,926
285,730     280,773
Total      Increase of   I
conversions. Ch. Membership.,
4,118         Dec.
8,240          7,508
9,014        23,249
11,398         27,367
14,557        32,122
13,243          6,896
16,916          3,937
17,494        30,732
17,443         16,073
16,775            896
iI
239
I Year.
1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856 
240 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
times of religious interest; his habitual personal
care of converted scholars until they shall be fully
incorporated and confirmed in the Church, and his
continual endeavors to interest them in their religious duties, are indispensable means of their safety.
He should behold in the Sunday-school the Church
of the future.   There more than  anywhere  else
should we exert our utmost strength, for thence chiefly are we to reinforce our hosts for all coming battles
and victories. The great number of reported conversions in our schools, probably exceeding that of
any other, if not indeed of all other American
Churches combined, should thrill the denomination
with interest, should convince it that here it has a
field of immeasurable resources, and that I have not
wrongly called the question of the Church relation of
its children its greatest practical problem.
Finaly, and above all things, Methodism should
be remind     of itr responibility to maintain vita,
apostolic piety in the land, and to 8spread it over the
world. This, as we have seen, was its original
mission; this its historical stand-point; from this
has sprung all its surprising achievements; if this
ceases the light will go out in all its sanctuaries.
Its spiritual life has, let it be repeated, preserved its
doctrinal integrity and its practical vigor through
these hundred years. It has never had, at least in 
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR TIlE FUTURE.
America, a serious outbreak of theological heresy.
Seldom has it had even an individual judicial case
of heterodoxy. Such causes of faction and division
have been almost unknown to it. Its piety has
kept it orthodox, notwithstanding the extraordinary
liberality of its terms of membership. Doubtless its
peculiar methods have been the proximate cause of
its great success, but what would these methods have
been without the spiritual energy which has worked
them? That energy has been divine, but the energy
of the Divine Spirit itself works by the truth; the
doctrines of Methodism have therefore been its vital
element. Repentance, faith, personal regeneration,
the witness of the Spirit, sanctification, these have
been the living ideas of Methodist teaching through
out the world. It retains these vital truths to-day
unimpaired; let it continue to guard them sacredly,
as the very fire on its altars. Let it incessantly
expound and enforce them in all its sanctuaries, and
these sanctuaries shall continue to be thronged with
inquiring, awakened, and living souls.
Reviewing thus with grateful joy the blessings of
God to us and our families through  his Church,
and reminding ourselves, with devout self-admonition, of our responsibility for the future, it is befitting
that we should erect, not in stone, but in more
enduring substance, a monument, the light on whose
summit shall shine with ever increasing glory dur.
16
241 
242  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
ing the coming hundred years, and shall be witnessed
by the eyes of our posterity, when on the anniversary
morning of October, 1966, they shall throng in redoubled hosts to their temples, and respond back over
our graves, to this anniversary epoch, and send forward to the next the anthems of our jubilee. God
grant that the hymns of that morning may resound
not only over this, but over both American continents, from Labrador to Terra del Fuego, and that the
missions of Methodism may respond to them from
all the ends of the earth! Our chief memorial of the
epoch, as has been stated, is not to be a building but
an institution-a Fund for Education;* the interest
of which alone is to be expended, the principal to be
handed down as our salutation to the Methodists who
shall assemble on that far-off morning. A more
practicable or more sublime design is hardly possible
to the denomination. Its other leading interests,
like missions, Sunday-schools, etc., have the habitual
sympathy and support of its people, but education
can hardly expect such support, and yet can it be
pronounced a less important, though it may be a less
direct interest of the Church?  Were its centenary
contributions to be given to these more immediate
interests, they would soon be absorbed or expended,
* The Centenary plan, as appended to this volume, provides for special contributions for other objects, including a Centenary Missionary
building; but these are comparatively minor designs. 
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE FUTURE.    243
profitably indeed, but in such manner as to lose their
monumental character. The Church can confide
these interests to its current sympathy and help, but
education needs permanent endowment, and a great
educational fund, like that proposed, is of all Church
interests the best fitted to be monumental. It can
continually assist our existing seminaries and erect
new ones, and yet its undiminished principal be transmitted as our benediction to the future. Let us then
establish it on a scale worthy not only of the last, but
of the next hundred years of our history.
With such a history, such capabilities, and such
responsibilities and aims, we enter upon the hundredth year of our great mission. The eye of Christendom will be specially upon us this year. The
eye of God will be specially upon us. All the
doings of the year should be done as in the sight of
him and of his whole catholic Church. At the
close of the memorable year, both he and his general
Church will judge us according to our works. We
shall then also be compelled to judge ourselves. The
measure of our gratitude for such great prosperity, of
our sense of such great responsibility, and of our
Christian zeal for the improvement of such a sublime
opportunity, will be apparent to ourselves and to all
the world. Surely we shall not, we cannot, fail to rise
to the high occasion. We will consecrate it with
hymns of acclamation, with prayer, with the renewal 
244  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
of our religious vows, and unequaled offerings of
treasure.   The first donation for the occasion has
already been tendered, and has never been equaled
by any personal act of liberality in the history of
Methodism. If it cannot be equaled by other donors,
yet should it be a standard by which we should all
proportionately measure our liberality. Should a
dollar be laid on the altar of the Church this year
by each of its recorded members, the sum will be
nearly a million. There is scarcely one of them,
young or old, who cannot give this pittance.   It
should be the resolution of the Church that every
member shall thus have a share in its offerings;
every Society in the connection should see that it be
obtained, and should provide it for any individual
case of extreme poverty, if any such there be, where
it cannot be afforded.  Besides this amount of nearly
a million, we can expect thousands of gifts from five
dollars to five, ten, or twenty thousand each, and
probably some of still greater amount. Thus while
in acts of worship around our altars we celebrate the
centenary festival, let us heap upon those altars the
palpable proofs of the sincerity of our gratitude, and
by the close of the joyous year, present to the Christian world an example of beneficence which shall
never be forgotten. 
CONNECTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
FOR TIHE CELEBRATION OF THE
CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM,
1866,
AS AUTHORIZED BY THE GENERAL CONFERENCE, AND
THE COMMITTEES APPOINTED BY ITS ORDER.
BY JOHN M'CLINTOCK, D.D.  
CONNECTIONAL PLAN
FOR THE OELEBRATION OF THE
CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
ORDER OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE.
THE General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, at its session in Philadelphia, 1864, adopted
the following preamble and resolutions:
Whereas, Methodism in the United States of America will
complete the first century of its history in 1866;
And whereas, under the special blessing of God, it has risen
in power and extended in usefulness to a degree hardly paralleled in the history of the Church;
And especially in view of the many thousands that have been
saved through its instrumentality, the influence it has exerted
upon the theology of its times and the evangelization of the
world, we deem it right to observe the closing period of this
first centenary with special solemnities and pious offerings,
which shall present before God some humble expression of our
devout gratitude, and lead to a renewed consecration of ourselves, our services and means to the glory of our Divine Master; therefore be it
Resolved, By the delegates of the Annual Conferences of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in General Conference assembled,
as follows:
1. The centenary of Methodism in America shall be cele
-.8 0 
248  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
brated by all our Churches and people with devout thanksgiving, by special religious services and liberal thank-offerings.
2. This celebration shall commence on the first Tuesday ill
October, 1866, and continue through the month, at such times
and places as may best suit the convenience of the Societies.
3. The primary object of the celebration shall be the spiritual
i improvement of our members, and especially by reviewing the
great things God hath wrought for us, the cultivating of fee]ings of gratitude for the blessings received through the agency
of Methodism.
4. As the gratitude of the heart ever seeks expression in outward acts, we invite as a spontaneous offering to Almighty God
on this occasion pecuniary contributions from each "according
as God hath prospered him," to be so appropriated as to render
more efficient in the century to come those institutions and
agencies to which the Church has been so deeply indebted in
the century past.
5. Two departments of Christian enterprise shall be placed
before our people, one connectional, central, and monumental,
the other local and distributive, and all shall be urged to
make liberal appropriations to both according to their own
discretion.
6. The Board of Bishops shall appoint twelve traveling
preachers and twelve laymen, who, in connection with the
members of their own Board, shall be a committee to determine to what objects and in what proportions the moneys
raised as connectional funds shall be appropriated, and have
power to take all steps necessary to their proper distribution.
7. The local funds shall be appropriated to the cause of education and church extension under the direction of a committee
consisting of an equal number of ministers and laymen appointed by the several Annual Conferences within the bounds
of which they are raised.
8. Each Annual Conference shall provide for the delivery of
a memorial sermon before its own body at the session next preceding the centennial celebration, and also appoint a committee
of an equal number of ministers and laymen to give advice and
direction for the appropriate celebration of the centennial in
our principal Churches. 
CONNECTIONAL PLAN.
9. As the highest authority of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, we commend this whole subject to the prayerful consideration of every minister, traveling and local, and every
official and private member of the Church, calling for the most
systematic and energetic efforts everywhere to carry out in their
true spirit these noble plans; and after due consideration, we
deem it right to ask for and to expect not less than two millions
of dollars for achievements which will be worthy of our great
and honored Church, and which shall show to our descendants
to the latest generations the gratitude we feel for the wonderful Providence which originated and has so largely blessed and
prospered our beloved Church.
10. We cordially invite our brethren in all the branches of
the great Methodist family, in this and in other lands, to unite
with us in this grand Centennial Celebration, that together we
may lift our thanksgivings to the God of our fathers, and renew
our consecration to his spiritual service. —Journal of Geal
Conference, 1864, pp. 445447.
COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE BISHOPS.
In accordance with the sixth of the above resolutions, the Board of Bishops appointed the following
persons, to constitute, together with the Bishops, the
Committee:
Ministers.
Rev. George Peck, D.D.; Rev. Charles Elliott, D.D.; Rev.
John M'Clintock, D.D.; Rev. D. P. Kidder, D.D.; Rev. D.
Patten, D.D.; Rev. E. Thomas; Rev. D. W. Bartine, D.D.;
Rev. F. C. Holliday, D.D; Rev. Thomas Sewall, D.D.; Rev.
James F. Chalfant; Rev. Moses Hill; Rev. F. A. Blades.
Laymen.
Thomas T. Tasker, Esq., Philadelphia; George C. Cook,
Esq., Chicago, illinois; The Hon. James Bishop, New Brunswick, New Jersey; John Owen, Esq., Detroit, Michigan; Isaac
Rich, Esq., Boston; General Clinton B. Fisk, St. Louis, Mis
249 
250  CENTENAPRY OF AM[ERICAN METHODISM.
souri; I. P. Cook, Esq., Baltimore; Maryland; The Hon. Cary A.
Trimble, Chillicothe, Ohio; Oliver Hoyt, Esq., New York city;
Alexander Bradley, Esq., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; F. H. Root,
Esq., Buffalo, New York; Edward Sargent, Esq., Cincinnati,
Ohio.
This committee was convened, by the Board of
Bishops, at Cleveland, Ohio, February 22, 1865.
ACTION OF THE GENERAL COMMITTEE.
At the time appointed, the committee met at
Cleveland. All the bishops were present except
Bishop Thomson, then in India. The ministers and
laymen of the committee were gathered from every
part of the Church: the East, the Center,.the West,
and the Pacific slope were all fairly in presence of
each other in deliberation. It is believed that the
Methodist Episcopal Church was thoroughly, as a
whole, represented at Cleveland.
The spirit of the committee was admirable. The
utmost freedom of speech prevailed; every bishop,
every minister, and every layman on the committee
took part in the discussions at some period of its protractcd session. All opinions were compared, all interests were weighed, and all proposed plans were
discussed. The great aim was so to provide for the
Couigectional interests of the Church, and for such a
connect;onal demonstration of devotion to her welfare, as not only not to interfere with local wants,
but also, and to a larg,e extent, to provide for them. 
CONNECTIONAL PLAN.
An adjounied meeting of the committee was held
in New York on the 8th of November, 1865.  The
result of the deliberations of such a body of men,
animated by such a spirit, is set forth in the filial
resolutions of the committee, as follows:
Ived, That it is the sense of this committee that the Centenary Educational Fund ought to be placed before our people
as the prominent object for connectional contributions.
Resolved,   That if any contributors desire to specify the precise objects of their centenary subscriptions, in whole or in
part, it shall be open to them to name the following objects,
namely:
1. The Centenary Educational Fund.
2. The Garrett Biblical School at Evanston.
3. The Methodist General Biblical Institute at Concord, to
be removed to the vicinity of Boston.
4. A Biblical Institute in the Eastern Middle States.
5. A Biblical Institute in Cincinnati or vicinity.
6. A Biblical Institute on the Pacific coast.
But contributions to these three last objects (4, 5, and 6) shall
be retained and managed by the Centenary Educational Board
till assured that enough has been actually raised from other
sources to make the aggregate amount, including the counec
tional contributions to those respective objects, not less than
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in each case.
7. The erection of Centenary Missionary buildings for the
Mission House at New York.
8. The Irish Connectional Fund.
9. The Biblical School at Bremen, Germany.
10. The Chartered Fund. (Such sums as contributors may
desire to appropriate in that way to the support of worn-out
preachers, their widows and orphans.)
Resolved,   That all the unspecified funds raised throughout
the Church, and also all sums specifically contributed for the
"Centenary Educational Fund," be placed in the hands of a
Board, to be appointed as provided in a subsequent resolution,
251 
252   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
to be called the Centenary Connectional Educational Board
of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
oloed,    That the said board shall securely invest the entire principal funds, and shall appropriate the interest only
from time to time, at their discretion, to the following purposes
and none other, namely:
a. To aid young men preparing for the foreign missionary
work of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
. To aid young men preparing for the ministry of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. These two objects to be reached
through the Missionary Society, the bishops, and such educational societies of the Church as may be approved by the
board.
c. To the aid of the two biblical or theological schools now
in existence, and of such others as may, with the approval of
the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
hereafter be established.
d. To the aid of universities, colleges, or academies now
existing under the patronage of the Church, or which may
hereafter be established.
Provided, 1. That no appropriation shall be made by the
board at any time for building purposes, either for biblical
schools, or for universities, colleges, or academies.
2. That no university, college, or academy not now in
existence shall be aided by the board, unless the board shall
first have been consulted, and shall have approved of the
establishment and organization of such institution.
Rsold,   That the board shall consist of twelve trustees, of
whom two shall be bishops, four ministers, and six laymen,
of which number five shall be a quorum; and no trustee shall
receive any compensation for his services, except for expenses
in attending the sessions of the board.
veoed, That the board be authorized to secure a suitable
charter, which shall empower the board to receive, hold, and
convey real and personal estate, and to receive and administer
bequests and legacies: also to fix the seat of its operations and
of its place of meeting from time to time, and to appoint, if
need be, a secretary and treasurer, with proper compensation,
who shall be required to give suitable bonds. 
CONNECTIONAL PLAN.
RBesolved, That the bishops be authorized and requested to
appoint the first board, and that at its first meeting the board
shall settle by lot the terms of service of its individual members in such manner that four trustees shall go out of office
with each and every General Conference term of four years, and
that all vacancies be filled as follows, namely: The General
Conference shall nominate two persons for each vacancy, and
the trustees shall choose one to fill the vacancy; providedhowever, that all vacancies occurring more than six months before
the session of the General Conference shall be filled by the
bishops, the persons so appointed to hold office only up to the
time of the General Conference, when their places shall be held
as vacant, and shall be filled as aforesaid.
oewed, That a committee be appointed, to be called
"The Central Centenary Committee of Arrangements and
Correspondence," whose duty it shall be to correspond with
the conference Centenary Committees, to prepare and publish
the necessary documents, through the periodical press and
otherwise, and to make such other arrangements as may be
necessary to secure the general sympathy and co-operation
of the Church in the connectional part of the Centenary collections.
"Resolved, That a committee of six be appointed by the
Chair to nominate the Central Committee."
The Chair appointed the committee of six. After
a short deliberation the committee reported the following names, to constitute the "Central Centenary
Committee of Arrangements and Correspondence,"
namely: Dr. M'Clintock, Dr. Curry, Dr. Crooks,
Mr. Oliver Hoyt, Mr. James Bishop, and Mr. C. C.
North.
Finally, a number of Branch Centenary Committees
were appointed, and the Central Committee was au
thorized to appoint additional branches. A list of
253 
254  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
the committees appointed at Cleveland will be found
below.
THE CENTRAL CENTENARY COMMITTEE.
The Central Committee began its sessions, in the
city of New York, soon after the session of the
General Committee. Its first duty was to distribute the Minutes of the General Committee, copies
of which were sent to every member of that coinmittee, to all members of the branch committees, as
far as then formed, to every presiding elder throughout the Church, and to all the editors of Methodist
papers.
The next step of the committee was to form additional branch  committees.   The General  Committee had already appointed branches for the principal cities. It was thought best, in order to reach
the whole Church, that a branch committee should
be formed for each presiding elder's district, with the
presiding elder at its head. Circulars were issued in
May, 1865, to all the presiding elders, requesting them
to nominate committees. In many cases the answers
to this circular were long delayed, and even yet
(November, 1865) some of the districts are not provided for. The Rev. W. C. Hoyt, who was appointed
secretary of the committee in August, entered into a
very extensive correspondence on the subject; and it
is now hoped that within a few months every district 
CONNECTIONAL PLAN.
in the Church will be represented. A complete list
will be issued before October, 1866.
CITY BRANCH COMMITTEES.
BALTIMORE: Thomas Kelso, William Hamilton, D.D., L P.
Cook.  BOsTON: N. E. Cobleigh, D.D., Hon J. Sleeper, I. Rich.
BROOKLYN: Hon. M. F. Odell, Jolin French, Samuel Truslow.
BUFFALO: Rev. J. E. Robie, F. H. Root, H. H. Otis. CENTRAL
NEW YORK: Rev. D. D. Lore, Mr. Wood, of Rochester, Rev. W.
H. Goodwin, Samuel Luckey, D.D., G. Peck, D.D.  CIUCAGO:
T. M. Eddy, D.D., J. V. Farwell, A. R. Scranton.  CHmILICOR,
Omo: William T. M'Clintock, William ]'Kell, O. Harmen.
CmciATI: James F. Chalfant, Rev. J. M. Reid, D.D., Harvey
De Camp. CLEVELAND, O.: H. Benton, W. P. Cook, Rev. M.
Hill. CONCORD, N.H.: Rev. E. Adams, William Prescott, M.D.,
Hon. T. L. Tullock.  COLUMBUS, O.: Rev. J. M. Trimble, D.D.,
J. F. Bartlett, Timothy Carpenter. DETROIT: S. Cements, Jr.,
D. Preston, Hon. John Owen. DENVER CITY: O. A. Willard,
Gov. John Evans, Rev. B. T. Vincent. HARTFORD: Rev. M. L.
Scudder, J. F. Judd, C. P. Case.  INDIANAPOLIS: Rev. F. C.
Holliday, D.D., O. Toucy, J. S. Dunlop.  KALAAZOO, MICH.:
F. D. Hemmingly, S. W. Walker, H. Wood.  MEMPHIS, TEN.:
Rev. Wm. Hawkins, F. A. Marou, Dr. C. Collins. MWIDDLETOWN: Rev. John Pegg, Jr., Prof. John Van Vleck, Hon. D.
W. Camp. MONTPELIER, VT.: Rev. E. J. Scott, Hon. P. Dillingham, Rev. P. P. Ray.  NASHVILLE, TENN.: Rev. W. H.
Norris, James K. Ferris.  NEWARK: C. Walsh, Rev. L. R. Dunn,
Thomas Campbell. NEW HAVEN: Rev. T. H. Burch, James
Punderford, W. O. Armstrong. NEW ORLEANS: ReV. J. P.
Newman, D.D., Rev. W. H. Pearme, G. W. Ames. PHILADELPrHIA: Joseph Castle, D.D., J. Whiteman, C. Heiskell. PITTSBUIRGH: Dr. S. H. Nesbit, Alexander Bradley, W. H. Kincaid.
PORTLAND, ME.: E. Clark, M.D., George Webber, D.D., S. Rich.
PORTLAND, OREGON: Rev. H. C. Benson, D.D., Hon. N. C.
Gibbs, Rev. William Roberts.  PROVIDENCE, R. I.: Hon. W.
B. Lawton, Rev. Paul Townsend, J. D. Flint. SAN FRANCISCO.
Rev. E. Thomas, A. Merrill, W. H. Coddington.  ST. PAUL,
Mixs..: Rev. C. Brooks, D.D., Rev. C. Hobart, Hon. John
255 
256  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
Nikols. ST. Louis, Mo.: Rev. B. F. Crary, D.D., Gen. C. B.
Fisk, S. Rich.  VIRGINIA CITY: Gov. H. G. Blaisdell, Rev.
Thomas S. Dunn, J. Faul. WASHINGTON CITY: Rev. John
LanahaD, D.D., Rev. B. H. Nadal, W. Woodward, Esq.
WHEELING, VA.: Rev. J. Drummond, D.D., Hon. C. Hubbard,
A. M. Adams. WILMINGTON, DEL.: J. Ganse, G. W. Sparks,
Rev. J. Riddle.
CENTENARY RELIGIOUS SERVICES.
The primary object of the whole Centenary celebration is declared by the General Conference to be
The spiritual improvement of our members; and especially
by reviewing the great things God hath wrought for us, the
cultivating of feelings of gratitude for the blessings received
through the agency of Methodism.
To carry out this object the General Conference
further directs that
Each Annual Conference shall provide for the delivery of a
memorial sermon before its own body at the session next preceding the centennial celebration, and also appoint a committee
of an equal number of ministers and laymen to give advice and
direction for the appropriate celebration of the Centennial in
our principal Churches.
The Committee, in accordance with a generally
expressed desire from various parts of the Church,
recommend also the following:
That the first Sunday in January, 1866, be observed as a day
of special and united prayer for the divine blessing upon the
Centenary services of the year, and for a general revival of
religion that the Centenary year may prove to be an epoch in
the spiritual progress of the Church; and that the pastors of
all our Churches be requested to read the Centenary Resolutions of the General Conference and to expound them to their
people on that occasion. 
CONNECTIONAL PLAN.
That a special service be set apart in each of our societies
where there is a Sunday-school, in October, 1866, for a ichldren'8
celebration of the Centenary festival, and that suitable arrangements be made in due time by the Branch Committees in concet with the pastors and Sunday-school teachers
That the last Sunday of October, 1866, be observed as a
day of Special Centenary services, and that the Central Committee prepare and publish a proclamation and programme in
reference to the observance of the day.
The Centenary Religious Services will thus include:  (1.) The services of the first Sunday in
January, 1866. (2.) The memorial sermon before
each Annual Conference.  (3.) The Church services
in October, 1866, plans for which are to be suggested
by the Annual Conference Committees. (4.) The
Sunday-school services in October, 1866, to be arranged by the Centenary Branch Committees, in concert with pastors and Sunday-school officers.  (5.) The
Special Centenary Thanksgiving service of the last
Sunday in October, 1866, under uniform arrange
ments for the whole Church.
Other religious services, such as general classmeetings, prayer-meetings, district meetings, etc.,
will doubtless be held, under the directions of the
Presiding Elders, Pastors, and Branch Committees
in the various localities.
CENTENARY CONTRIBUTIONS.
The General Conference directs (see above, p. 248)
that two classes of objects, Connectional and Local,
17
257 
258 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
shall be placed before the people for their contributions. What the connectional objects shall
be has been decided by the Joint Committee of
.inisters and L.aymen  appointed by the General
Conference for that purpose. What the local objects shall be is to be decided, in each conference,
by a Conmittee of  iini8ters and Laymen appointed
by the conference.
CONNECTIONAL OBJECTS.
The objects named for contributions by the Cleveland Committee are, as will have been seen, (pages
251 and 252,) all of a Connectional character. The
first place is given to Education. The chief object
presented to the Church, for connectional contributions, is the foundation of a Permanent Fund, to be
called "The  Centenary  Educational Fund;"  the
interest only of which is to be employed in aiding
our institutions of learning and in helping poor
young men to prepare themselves for the ministry
at home, or for the missionary work abroad. As
Dr. Stevens remarks, (p. 242,) "a more practicable
or more sublime design is hardly possible to the
denomination." See his remarks, at the page cited,
in confirmation of this broad statement. Our more
thoughtful and far-seeing contributors will doubtless
give to this object more largely than to any of the
others named. 
CONNECTIONAL PLAN.
It is the one object to which every member of the
Church, it is hoped, will contribute something, inasmuch as it is, of all the objects named, the most
thoroughly Connectional and the most clearly monumental. A permanent fund of a million of dollars,
or more, will be a monumental institution, more
lasting than brass, to carry down to posterity the
gratitude of the Methodists of 1866, as testified by
their Centenary gifts. It will form at the same time
our most beneficent legacy of the Centenary year to
the century that is to follow. The rapid march of
the census of American population outstrips all
calculation. By the year 1900 there will be teeming
millions in regions now just opened to settlement
and to enterprise. Moreover, the whole South is
just reopened by the extinction of the great rebellion. For all this vast population our Permanent
Fund will afford a steady assistance and stimulus to
effort for the great work of Christian education.
Let us make this fund a grand and worthy Centenary
monument. If there be failure in any part of our
plan, let there be none in this.
All the other objects proposed by the Committee
have, it will be seen, a Connectional character. The
Committee has taken it for granted that the conferences severally will provide, in their local collections, for their colleges and academies. But
the interest of theological education is a com
259 
260 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
mon and connectional one. Ministers educated at
Boston or Evanston, in New  York or Ohio, or
even on the Pacific coast, are educated for the whole
Church. They may be transferred, in a year after
graduation, from the East to the West, or from the
North to the South.  The whole Church is interested in each of the existing theological schools, and
in the new ones contemplated by the Centenary
Committee, because it is the interest of the whole
Church that her young men everywhere, who are
called to the ministry, should have the opportunity
of theological training.
The Xis,onary Society is also a thoroughly connectional interest. The society mut have a permanent home. Its Centenary Hall will not only afford
the necessary accommodation for the vast operations
of the society, but will also be a permanent and
visible monument of the centenary year.
The Iri8/ Futnd is also a connectional enterprise.
There is hardly a corner of Methodism in the
United States that has not been strengthened by
Irish Methodism. There is not a conference which
does not contain ministers from Ireland or of Irish
descent. There are more Methodists from Ireland
in our Church than are left in Ireland. The
small contribution named by the Centenary Committee will no doubt be offered freely by the
Church. Those of our members who are them 
CONNECTIONAL PLAN.
selves from Ireland, or who are of Irish descent,
will, no doubt, see to it that this part of our connectional plan shall not fail. And they will be
aided by many others who will remember that
Methodism was first planted in America by Embury and Strawbridge, both Irishmen, and who
will see a special fitness in recognizing this obligation on the Centenary occasion. The very Centenary date itself is fixed by the date (1766) of the
labors of Embury, the Irish local preacher, who
was the honored instrument of planting Methodism
in America.
The Biblical Schoo at Bremen affords instruction
to young men preparing for the ministry in Germany, as well as in America. Its support appeals to
no single locality of Methodism, but to the whole
Church. Let us remember that the Palatine Irish,
among whom Embury and his associates were trained,
were not Romanists, but the children of German
Protestants.  Let us remember, too, that our Metlhodist theology, and especially our Methodist view of
practical and experimental religion, were originally
derived by Wesley from German sources. It was
the reading of Luther on Galatians that led Wesley
to true faith in Christ. It was the influence of the
suggestions of Bbhler and the Moravians that gave
his mind the first bias toward the fuill evangelical
view of faith and its effects. (See pp. 29-32.) And
261 
262 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
with this sense of gratitude for the past, let us consult our security for the future, by doing all we can
to evangelize, in their own home, the Germans who
are to make up so large a part of the future American people.
MODES OF CONTRIBUTION.
The general modes of giving to the Centenary
objects are two, contributions by individuals, and
Church collections.   In addition to these, special
provision has been made, as will be seen below, for
Sunday-school collections.
Contributions.
1. Contfition8 may be made at any time betweeu
this date and the end of October, 1866. It is suggested that, in all large cities and important towns,
preliminary meetings of leading laymen be held, for
information as to the plan and scope of the movement, for the distribution of Centenary documents,
and for the securing of subscriptions. Liberal donations from our prominent members,- at an early date,
will give tone and spirit to the whole Centenary enterprise. The Pastors and Branch Committees should
take pains to get up such meetings, and to see that
all contribution8 be reported duly to the treasurer.
2. Contributions may be made payable in cash,
or in such installments as the donor may find convenient to himself; such installments, of course, being 
CONNECTIONAL PLAN.
properly secured, to avoid trouble or litigation in
case of death.
3. Donors will, in all cases, specify what amount
of their contribution is intended for Connectional,
and what for Local purposes. Thus, suppose that a
person intends to give a certain sum, he may simply
say, "I give so much to the Connectional and so
much to the Local Fund." In that case his connectional sum will go to the "Permanent Educational
Fund," while his local sum will be appropriated
by the Conference Local Committee.
Or, he may wish to divide his connectional contributions among the several connectional objects
named. In that case he may say, " rgive so much
to the Centenary Educational Fund; so much to the
Garrett Biblical Institute, (or to the Boston Biblical
Institute, etc., as the case may be;) so much for
Centenary Mission Buildings at New York; so much
for the Irish Fund; so much for the Biblical Institute at Bremen; and so much for the Chartered
Fund." Of course, every donor may vary his relative
contributions to each of these objects at his own
pleasure. But let it always be borne in mind that
the "Centenary Educational  Fund" is the chief
object to be considered.
Collections.
1. It is understood that Centenary collections will
be taken, in all our churches throughout the land,
263 
264   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
before the close of October, 1866. The collections
may be fixed for some special day in that month, or
may be taken up at every meeting to be held during
the month, as may seem most expedient to the local
authorities.
2. It is earnestly hoped that there will be universal
agreement to the principle that the plate collec
tion8, and all unspecified contributions made in the.
public congregation, shall be divided equally between
the Connectional and Local Funds.
3. It is suggested that as the month of October,
1866, is appropriated by the General Conference
for Centenary collections, it is desirable that, as far
as possible, all other special collections shiould be
avoided in our Churches during that month.
Sunday-School Collections.
The Central Committee having called the attention
of the General Committee to the importance of
enlisting our Sunday-schools in the centenary movement, after fully considering the subject the following
action was taken:
1. That a Sunday-school children's fund be established for
the following purposes and under the following conditions:
(1.) The fund to be vested in and administered by the Board
of Trustees already authorized, but to be kept as a separate
fund. (2.) The interest of it to be appropriated to assist
meritorious Sundaychool scholars of either sex who may need
help in obtaining a more advanced education. (3.) Each conference to share in the annual proceeds of this fund propor. 
CONNECTIONAL PLAN.
tionately to the number of Sunday-school children under its
care. (4.) That the beneficiaries within the bounds of each
annual conference be selected in such manner as each conference shall direct.
2. Each Sunday-school scholar who shall contribute one
dollar to the Children's Fund, and each one who shall collect five dollars for the same, and pay that amount into the
treasury, shall be entitled to receive a medal as hereinafter
described.
These medals will have the head of Rev. John
Wesley on one side, and that of Bishop Asbury, the
pioneer Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
on the other. The inscriptions will be: on one side,
" Children's Medal;" and on the other, "Centenary
of American Methodism, 1866."
It is recommended that a special service be set
apart in each of our societies where there is a Sunday-school, in October, 1866, for a children's celebration of the centenary festival, and that suitable
arrangements be made in due time by the branch
committees, in concert with the pastors and Sundayschool officers. We think this subject as it is here
presented cannot fail to secure the hearty co-operation of all bur Sunday-schools-officers, teachers,
scholars, and friends.
CENTENARY DOCUMENTS.
The Central Committee has commenced the publication of a series of Centenary Document8, which
265 
266  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
will be issued from time to time. Among these
documents will be found the Resolutions of the
General Conference, the Address of the Bishops, the
Address of the Central Committee, Instructions to
Branch Committees, and several tracts explanatory
of the Centenary movement, and of its objects.
These documents may be obtained of the Branch
Committees, of the Book Agents at New York,
Cincinnati, Chicago, and the Depositories generally,
or upon application in writing to the Secretary of
the Central Committee, 200 Mulberry-street, New
York.
CONCLUSION.
The General Conference of 1864, after setting
forth the two great channels of contribution, Connectional and Local, for the gifts of the people,
appealed to the Church in the following stirring
words:
As the highest authority of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
we commend this whole subject to the prayerful consideration
of every minister, traveling and local, and every official and
private member of the Church, calling for the most systematic
and energetic efforts everywhere to carry out in their true spirit
these noble plans; and after due consideration, we deem it
right to ask for and to expect not less than two millions of
dollars for achievements which will be worthy of our great
and honored Church, and which shall show to our descendants
to the latest generations the gratitude we feel for the wonderful Providence which originated and has so largely blessed and
I)rospered our beloved Church. 
CONNECTIONAL PLAN.
The sum of two millions is here named as the
lowest mark at which the Church should aim in its
Centenary offerings of gratitude. It is believed that
this minimum will be largely transcended; and,
indeed, that the final summing up will be nearer
four millions than two. And without pretending to
dictate to the ministry or the membership of the
Church, we feel it our duty to make the following
concluding suggestions:
1. One great object of the Centenary movement
should be to promote the Connectional spirit of
Methodism, and to bind anew, in cords of fraternal
love and of devotion to the common cause, the East,
the West, the North, and the South.  So  let us
rebuke, by the grand unity of our vast societies, the
spirit of secession, whether in Church or State.
Unity in Christ is one of the needful marks of the
true Church, and to promote the unity of the American people is one of the obvious functions of the
Church in this country. We trust that this mark
and function of the Church will be dwelt on in every
pulpit of Methodism at some period of the Centenary
celebration.
2. One of the most signal and obvious ways of
showing our Connectional spirit will be to contribute
to the Centenary Educational Permanent Fund, and
to the other Connectional objects named by the
General Conference and its committees. As we
267 
268   CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
have said, the whole Church, and at the same time
every locality within its bounds, is interested in these
objects.
Local objects will doubtless be urged, with earnestness and pertinacity, by those interested in them.
We do not wish to overshadow these objects so as
to hinder their success. At the saine time let us
remember that these objects are always with us,
always at our doors, and therefore always likely to
be taken care of. But our Permanent Fund is to be
the great mark and proof of our connectional feeling
as demonstrated by our Centenary gifts. Let the
Centenary year be our Sabbath of Church fellowship; one year, at least, out of the century, in which
we shall rise above all local and sectional thoughts,
feelings, and interests, into the higher atmosphere of
our Unity in the Church, and in Christ the Head of
the Church.
CENTRAL COMMITTEE.
J. M'ICLINTOCKx, D.D.,     OLIVER HoYr, ESQ.,
D. CURRY, D.D.,            Jams BISHOP, E*,
G. IL CROOKS, D.D.,        C. C. NOR, Esq.
W. C. HoYr, Secretary.
GERL TREASUREmS, CARLToN & PORTER, 200 Mulberry
street, New York.
LOCAL TREASERS will be appointed by each Branch Committee. 
* APPENDIX.
No. I.
THE GENERAL RUILES.
THE NATURE, DESIGN, AND GENERAL RULES OF OUR
UNITED SOCIETIES.
(1) IN the latter end of the year 1739, eight or ten
persons came to Mr. Wesley in London, who appeared
to be deeply convinced of sin, and earnestly groaning for
redemption. They desired (as did two or three more
the next day) that he woid spend some time with them
in prayer, and advise them how to flee from the wrath to
come; which they saw continually hanging over their
heads. That he might have more time for this great
work, he appointed a day when they might all come together; which from thenceforward they did every week,
namely, on Thursday, in the evening.  To these, and as
many more as desired to join with them, (for their number increased daily,) he gave those advices from time to
time which he judged most needful for them; and they
always concluded their meeting with prayer suited to
their several necessities.
(2) This was the rise of the UNITED SOCIETY, first in
Europe, and then in America. Such a society is no other
than "a company of men having the form and seeking
O,    0 0. 
270   CENTENARY OF AMIERICAN METHODISM.
the power of godliness, united in order to pray together,
to receive the word of exhortation, and to watch over one
another in love, that they may help each other to work
outt their salvation."
(3) That it may the more easily be discerned whether
they are indeed working out their own salvation, each
society is divided into smaller companies, called classes,
according to their respective pla& of abode. There
are about twelve persons in a class; one of whom is
styled the leader. It is his duty,
I. To see each person in his class once a week at least;
in order,
1. To inquire how their souls prosper.
2. To advise, reprove, comfort, or exhort as occasion
may require.
3. To receive what they are willing to give toward the
relief of the preachers, Church, and poor.*
II. To meet the ministers and the stewards of the society once a week; in order, 
1. To inform the minister of any that are sick, or of
any that walk disorderly, and will not be reproved.
2. To pay the stewards what they have received of
their several classes in the week preceding.
(4) There is only one condition previously required of
those who desire admission into these societies, "a desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from
their sins." But wherever this is really fixed in the soul,
it will be shown by its fruits. It is therefore expected of
all who continue therein, that they should continue to
evidence their desire of salvation,
First, By doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every
* This part refers to towns and cities; where the poor are generally
numerous, and Church expenses considerable. 
APPENDIX.
kind, especially that which is most generally practiced;
such as,
The taking of the name of God in vain.
The profaning the day of the Lord, either by doing
ordinary work therein, or by buying or selling.
Drunkenness, buying or selling spirituous liquors, or
drinking them, unless in cases of extreme necessity.
Slaveholding; buying or selling slaves.
_ighting, quarreling, brawling, brother going to law
with brother; returning evil for evil; or railing for railing; the using many words in buying or selling.
The buying or selling goods that have not paid the
duty.
The giving or taking things on usury, that is, unlawful interest.
Uncharitable or unprofitable conversation; particularly speaking evil of magistrates or of ministers.
Doing to others as we would not they should do
unto us.
Doing what we know is not for the glory of God; as,
The putting on of gold and costly apparel.
The taking such diversions as cannot be used in the
name of the Lord Jesus.
The singing those songs, or reading those books,
which do not tend to the knowledge or love of God.
Softness and needless self-indulgence.
Laying up treasure upon earth.
Borrowing without a probability of paying; or taking
up goods without a probability of paying for them.
(5) It is expected of all who continue in these societies, that they should continue to evidence their desiro
of salvation,
Secondly, By doing good; by being in every kind
271 
272 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
merciful after their power; as they have opportunity,
doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all men.
To their bodies, of the ability which God giveth, by
giving food to the hungry, by clothing the naked, by
visiting or helping them that are sick or in prison.
To their souls, by instructing, reproving, or exhorting
all we have any intercourse with; trampling under foot
that enthusiastic doctrine, that "we are not to do good
unless our hearts be free to it."
By doing good, especially to them that are of the
household of faith, or groaning so to be; employing them
preferably to others; buying one of another; helping
each other in business; and so much the more because
the world will love its own, and them only.
By all possible diligence andfrugality, that the Gos
pel be not blamed.
By running with patience the race which is set before
them, denying themselves, and taking up their cross
daily; submitting to bear the reproach of Christ, to be
as the filth and offscouring of the world; and looking
that men should say all manner of evil of them falsely
for the Lord's sake.
(6) It is expected of all who desire to continue in
these societies, that they should continue to evidence
their desire of salvation,
Thirdly, By attending upon all the ordinances of God:
such are,
The public worship of God:
The ministry of the word, either read or expounded:
The Supper of the Lord:
Family and private prayer:
Searching the Scriptures; and 
APPENDIX.
Fasting or abstinence.
(7) These are the general rules of our societies; all
which we are taught of God to observe, even in his
written word, which is the only rule, and the sufficient
rule, both of our faith and practice. And all these we
know his Spirit writes on truly awakened hearts. If
there be any among us who observe them not, who
habitually break any of them, let it be known unto them
who watch over that soul as they who must give an
account. We will admonish him of the error of his
ways. We will bear with him for a season. But if
then he repent not, he hath no more place among us.
We have delivered our own souls.
18
273  
APPENDIX.
No. II.
ARTICLES OF RELIGION.
I. OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRNITrrY.
THERE is but one living and true God, everlasting,
without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and
goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, visible
and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead, there are
three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity, the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
II. OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, WHO WAS MADE
VERY MAN.
The Son, who is the Word of the Father, the very
and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took
man's nature in the womb of the blessed virgin; so that
two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and manhood, were joined together in one person,
never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God and
very man, who truly suffered, was crucified, dead and
buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins
of men.
III. OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.
Christ did truly rise again from the dead, and took
again his body, with all things appertaining to the per fection of man's nature, wherewith he ascended into
275 
276  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
heaven, and there sitteth until he return to judge all men
at the last day.
IV, OF THE HOLY GHOST.
The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the
Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the
Father and the Son, very and eternal God.
V. THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES  FOR
SALVATION.
The Holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to
salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor
may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any
man, that it should be believed as an article of faith, or
be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the
name of the Holy Scripture, we do understand those
canonical books of the Old and New Testament, of
whose authority was never any doubt in the Church.
THE NAMES OF THE CANONICAL BooKs.
The First Book of Chronicles,
The Second Book of Chronicles,
The-Book of Ezra,
The Book of Nehemiah,
The Book of Esther,
The Book of Job,
The Psalms,
The Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher,
Cantica, or Songs of Solomon,
Four Prophets the greater,
Twelve Prophets the less:
Genesis,
Exodus,
Leviticus,
Numbers,
Deuteronomy,
Joshua,
Judges,
Ruth.
The First Book of Samuel,
The Second Book of Samuel,
The First Book of Kings,
The Second Book of Kings,
All the books of the New Testament, as they are commonly received, we do receive and account canonical.
0 
APPENDIX.
VI. OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
The Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for
both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is
offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator
between God and man, being both God and man.
Wherefore they are not to be heard who feign that the
old fathers did look only for transitory promises. Although the law given from God by Moses, as touching
ceremonies and rites, doth not bind Christians, nor ought
the civil precepts thereof of necessity be received in any
commonwealth; yet, notwithstanding, no Christian what
soever is free from the obedience of the commandments
which are called moral.
VII. OF ORIGINAL OR BIRTH SIN.
Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam,
(as the Pelagians do vainly talk,) but it is the corruption
of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered
of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone
from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually.
VIII. OF FREE WILL.
The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such,
that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and works, to faith, and calling upon God;
wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant
and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by
Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and
working with us, when we have that good will.
277 
278  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
IX. OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN.
We are accounted righteous before God, only for the
merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith,
and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore,
that we are justified by faith only, is a most wholesome
doctrine, and very full of comfort.
X. OF GOOD WORKS.
Although good works, which are the fruits of faith,
.and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins,
and endure the severity. of God's judgments; yet are
they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and
spring out of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by
them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree
is discerned by its fruit.
XI. OF WORKS OF SUPEREROGATION.
Voluntary works, besides, over, and above God's
commandments, which are called works of supererogation, cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety.
For by them men do declare that they do not only ren
der unto God as much as they are bound to do, but that
they do more for his sake than of bounden duty is re.
quired: whereas Christ saith plainly, When ye have
done all that is commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants.
XII. OF SIN AFTER JUSTIFICATION.
Not every sin willingly committed after justification
is the sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable
Wherefore, the grant of repentance is not to be denied 
APPENDIX.
to such as fall into sin after justification; after we have
received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace
given, and fall into sin, and, by the grace of God, rise
again and amend our lives. And therefbre they are to
be condemned who say they can no more sin as long as
they live here; or deny the place of forgiveness to such
as truly repent.
XIII. OF THE CHURCH.
The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of
faithful men, in which the pure word of God is preached,
and the sacraments duly administered, according to
Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity
are requisite to the same.
XIV. OF PURGATORY.
The Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardon,
worshiping, and adoration, as well of images as of relics,
and also invocation of saints, is a fond thing, vainly
invented, and grounded upon no warrant of Scripture,
but repugnant to the word of God.
XV,. OF SPEAKING IN THE CONGREGATION IN SUCH A
TONGUE AS THE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND.
It is a thing plainly repugnant to the word of God,
and the custom of the primitive Church, to have public
prayer in the Church, or to minister the sacraments, in a
tongue not understood by the people.
XVI. OF THE SACRAMENTS.
Sacraments, ordained of Christ, are not only badges
or tokens of Christian men's profession; but rather they
279 
280 CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
are certain signs of grace, and God's good will toward
us, by the which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth
not only quioken, but also strengthen and confirm our
faith in him.
There are two sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord
in the Gospel; that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of
the Lord.
Those five commonly called sacraments, that is to say,
confirmation, penance, orders, matrimony, and extreme
unction, are not to be counted for sacraments of the
Gospel, being such as have partly grown out of the corrupt following of the apostles; and partly are states of
life allowed in the Scriptures, but yet have not the like
nature of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, because they
have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God.
The sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be
gazed upon, or to be carried about; but that we should
duly use them. And in such only as worthily receive
the sanme, they have a wholesome effect or operation;
but they that receive them unworthily, purchase to
themselves condemnation, as St. Paul saith. 1 Cor. xi, 29.
XVII. OF BAPsM.
Baptism is not only a sign of profession, and mark of
difference, whereby Christians are distinguished from
others that are not baptized; but it is also a sign of regeneration, or the new birth. The baptism of young
children is to be retained in the Church.
XVIII. OF THE LORD'S SUPPER.
The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love
that Christians ought to have among themselves one to 
APPENDIX.
another, but rather is a sacrament of our redemption by
Christ's death; insomuch that, to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same, the bread which we
break is a partaking of the body of Christ; and likewise the clip of blessing is a partaking of the blood of
Christ.
Transubstantiation, or the change of the substance of
bread and wine in the Supper of our Lord, cannot be
proved by Holy Writ, but is repugnant to the plain
words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions.
The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the
Supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual manner.
Anthe means whereby the body of Christ is received
and eaten in the Supper, is faith.
The sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by
Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or
worshiped.
XIX. OF BOTH KnDs.
The cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the lay
people; for both the parts of the Lord's Supper, by
Christ's ordinance and commandment, ought to be administered to all Christians alike.
XX. OF THE ONE OBLATION OF CHRIST, FINISHED UPON
THE CROSS.
The offering of Christ, once made, is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins
of the whole world, both original and actual; and there
is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifice of masses, in the which it is commonly
281 
282  CENTENAkY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
said that the priest doth offer Christ for the quick and
the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, is a bla.
phemous fable, and dangerous deceit.
XXI. OF THE MARRIAGE OF MIIASTERS.
The ministers of Christ are not commanded by God's
law either to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain
from marriage: therefore it is lawful for them, as for all
other Christians, to marry at their own discretion, as
they shall judge the same to serve best to godliness.
XXII. OF THEI RTrrEs AND CEREMONIES OF CHURCHES.
It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in
all places be the same, or exactly alike; for they*ave
been always different, and may be changed according to
the diversity of countries, times, and men's manners, so
that nothing be ordained against God's word. Whosoever, through his private judgment, willingly and purposely doth openly break the rites afd ceremonies of the
Church to which he belongs, which are not repugnant
to the word of God, and are ordained and approved by
common authority, ought to be rebuked openly, that
others may fear to do the like, as one that offendeth
against the common order of the Church, and woundeth
the consciences of weak brethren.
Every particular Church may ordain, change, or abolish rites and ceremonies, so that all things may be done
to edification.
XXIII. OF THE RULERS OF THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA.
The president, the congress, the general assemblies,
the governors, and the councils of state, as the delegates 
APPENDIX.
of the people, are the rulers of the United States of
America, according to the division of power made to
them by the Constitution of the United States, and by
the constitutions of their respective states. And the
said states are a sovereign and independent nation, and
ought not to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction.*
XXIV. OF CHRISTIAN MEN'S GOODS.
The riches and goods of Christians are not common,
as touching the right, title, and possession of the same,
as some do falsely boast. Notwithstanding, every man
ought, of such things as he possesseth, liberally to give
alms to the poor, according to his ability.
XXV. OF A CHRISTIAN MAN'S OATH.
As we confess that vain and rash swearing is forbidden
Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ and James his
apostle; so we judge that the Christian religion doth
not prohibit, but that a man may swear when the magistrate requireth, in a cause of faith and charity, so it be
done according to the prophet's teaching, in justice,
judgment, and truth.
o As far as it respects civil affairs, we believe it the duty of Chris.
tians, and especially all Christian ministers, to be subject to the supreme
authority of the country where they may reside, and to use all laudable means to enjoin obedience to the powers that be; and therefore it
is expected that all our preachers and people, who may be under the
British or any other government, will behave themselves as peaceable
and orderly subjects.
283 
284  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
No. III.
CENSUS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
IN THE UNMTED STATES.
(BY STATESS.)  ]PROM THllE M NTS  Ol 1864.
-~ ~  ~ ~ ~~ebr                                                                    a rah  au  fChrhSna- 88
STATES & TCERITORIES.
Arkansas..............
California.............
Colorado Territory.....
Connecticut...........
Delaware..............
District of Columbia...
Illinois................
Indiana...............
Iowa..................
Kansas................
Kentucky.............
Maine.................
Maryland.............
Massachusetts.........
Michigan..............
Minnesota.............
Missouri................
Nebraska..............
Nevada Territory......
New Hampshire.......
New Jersey............
New York.............
Ohio..................
Oregon................
Pennsylvania..........
Rhode Island..........
Vermont..............
Virginia...............
Washington Territory..
West Virginia..........
Wisconsin............
Total.............908,889 5.743 9.922* $26,614,085 18,0204 853,471
I Including those on trial and excluding superannuates. t Including parsonages.
249
4,179
287
18,150
12,289
3,534
87,961
86,399
37,599'
5,462.
2,677
22,978
45,987
30,185
31,434
7,681
9,259
1,829
271
10,051
45,307
159,342
121,376
2,629
104,765
8,225
14,444
868
278
15,033
23,161
P.-h
1
77
6
117
22
14
548
429
266
57
23
170
168
230
273
89
63
27
13
87
237
1,101
592
30
619
20
135
7
9
74
239
Ch.eh... V.1- f Ch-h
P-P.,ty.t
"-d, -
_y
.h.
1
112
9
169
125
18
1,422
1,162
675
104
28
268
. 415
250
713
180
80
37
10
110
514
2,278i
1,847
45
1,485
23
208
10
8
174
50
S. S.
&h.l...
60
5,674
409
13,305
8,792
2,802
83,914
66,984
$6,105
3,907
1,695
16,216
26,805
33,195
34,841
6,449
4,592
1,449
388
10,225
43,706
155,031
125,467
2,017
115,472
8,932
13,766
719
890
8,829
26,335
i3w,,6ii
2:500
808,000
203,225
148,700
2,147,185
2,134,160
628,525
58,640
53,320
522,987
1,128,345
1,672,425
789.4.50
94,275
199,485
23,500
60,700
268,450
1,702,625
5,948,028
3,273,081
66,650
8,134,710
185,200
385,375
57,000
10,100
201,475
469,980
'ii
1
171
119
16
896
1,160
271
34
38
1981
514
226
260
70
79
12
4
90
380
1,5981
1,
30
1,148
20
170i
14
4
223
234 
No. IV. UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES.
I'                     I                     Students, 18*5.
Name.                    Locati.                  Preident.             e                         Al  
All     4          1  0
g   Classical Sientific others..            ~'3
Albion Co~~~~ege~~..........Albion, Michigan.. G. B. Jocelyn...........1860    6  10  58:    168          $59,000  2,000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Albion College'.............
Alleghany College...........
Baker Universityt...........
Baldwin UniversityO..........
Cornell Collegeo.............
Dickinson College............
aalesville University~......
Genesee CollegeO t...............
German Wallace Colleg        e.....
Hamline Universityo.........
Illinois Wesleyan University.. 
Ilndiana Asbury Universityt.. 
Iowa Wesleyanl Universityo t.
Lawrence UniversityO t......
M'Kendree College..............
Mount Union Collegeo..........
Northwestern University....
Ohio Wesleyan University...
University of the PacificO t... 
Upper Iowa University.....
Valparaiso Colleget.........
Wesleyan University.........
Wallamet Universityt           S........
Garrett Biblical Institute....
Methodist General Bib. Inst..
Methodist General Bib. Inst.. Conoorci, N. H.........................1847    8                                  51                        20,000      9,000   8,500
* Open to both sexes. tCircclars, asking fey statistics, were sent to these insilintisne, to cemmen with cthers,hnt ne retsrns heing received we are cempeUed te
tbOpe  to botb see.t Cill-ul-r, ksi-g for.t
get the  tatistics from other sour.es, and cannot vouch fer their
N.   B.-Th. cbo, tible it defCoinctd  th   e eolumn  ho      w
am..d~ Bibbaol Intitute At Co.C~d  Newr Hampbio.
N,lo....ith  othor, but no atwn  beig reMd.. sr.  compolled to
pmn gaurting aoung.
tBiblicalmtituf,* b not includ~ or Dthelte sob rptiom for tho Methodist
I
~0
1860
1815
1858
1856
1857
1783
1859
1849
1864
1854
1850
1837
1854
1848
1834
1858
1855
1843
1851
1858
1859
1831
1853
1855
1847
6
7
6
9
8
7
5
5
4
7
6
8
5
8
6
8
7
8
5
7
6
7
7
8
8
$59,000
70,000
100,000
28,000
47,000
75,000
20,000
53,000
12,986
10,000
80,000
95,000
20,200
120,750
86,500
97,250
154,873
87,608
25,000
85,000
23,500
109,051
41,000
91i000
2,000
10,000
500
1,000
600
24,715
2,300
3,500
300
2,000
1,000
10,000
1,000
6,50
6,500
1,6BO
4,000
11,316
500
800
400
14,400
600
2,500
8,500
10
51
24
16
15
98
6
102
4
25
23
71
24
48
35
82
39
119
12
24
49
112
23
57
51
58t
'i4
80t
22
84
4
30
12
53
96
,46
18
60
"i
40
168
91
164
195
386
810
183
128
100
248
139
192
94
246
122
856
264
.. 
$150,000
33,000
70,000
70,000
35,000
92,000
23,217
20,000
25,000
70,000
80,000
85,000
22,000
130,000
15,000
247,861
llO',OOC
20,00c
klbion, Michigan..
!Ieadville, Pa......
Baldwin City, K~an.
Berea, Ohio.......
~t, Vernon, Iowa..
Jarlisle, Pa........
alesville, Wis.....
Lima, New York...
Berea, Ohio.......
Red Wing, Minn...
Bloomington, Ill...
[reencastle, Ild.
Mt. Pleasant, Iowa
.ppleton, Wis.....
Lebanon, Illinois...
MountUnion, Ohio.
Evanston, Illinois..
Delaware, Ohio....
3anta Clara, Cal....
Fayette, Iowa......
Valparaiso, Ind....
Middletown, Conn.
Balem, Oregon.....
Evanston, Illinois..
Concord, N. H.....
G. B. Jocelyn.............
George Loomis, D.D.......
L. L. Hartman, A.M......
John Wheeler, D.D........
William F. King, A.M......
Herman M. Johnson, D.D..
George Gale, LL.D........
J. W. Lindsay, D.D........
William Nast, D.D........
Jabez Brooks, A.M........
Oliver S. Munsell, D.D.....
Thomas Bowman, D.D.....
Charles Elliott,D.D., LL.D.
George M. Steele, A.M.....
Robert Allyn, A.M........
O. N. Hartshorn, LL.D....
Henry S. Noyes, A.M......
Frederick Merrick, A.M...
Edward Bannister, D.D...
Wm. Brush, A.M..........
E. H. Staley, A.M.........
Joseph Cummings, D.D....
T. M. Gatch, A.M.........
.........................
.........................
itic., -er...t to these istitut
accuracy, ~t A fou,
Gurett's legacy to the Garel 
286  CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.
SXMINARIES, FEMALE COLLEGES, AND ACADEMIES.
' Stdenti.
Name.                       Loation.                   Principal.           9 
a  Male. Fern.
Amenia Seminary.........
Baltimore Female College.
Battle Ground Institute...
Beaver Female Sem.                            T. 
Musical Institute.....
Bordentown Female Col...
Brookville College........
Brunson Institute.........
Central Ohio Conf. Semr....
Church Hill Institute.....
Clark Seminary...........
Coolville Seminary........
Cumberland Valley Instit.
Dansville Seminary........
Danville Academy..........
Danville Seminary........
Des Moines Con. Seminary.
East Genesee Conf. Sem...
East Maine Conf. Seminary
Eau Claire Wesleyan Sem        r.
Emory Fem. College......
Epworth Seminary........
Evansville Seminary......
Falley Seminary..............
Female Collegiate Institute
Fort Edward Institute.....
Ft.PlainSem.&Fem.Col.In.
Fort Wayne College......
Genesee Wesleyan Sgem....
GouverneurWesleyan Sem.
Grand Prairie Seminary..
Hedding Sem'y & Uentral }
Illinois Female College
Hillsborough Female Col..
Illinois Female College....
Irving Female College....
Jonesville Academy.......
Maine Wesleyan Semin'y
and Female College.. 
Middlet'n In. & Prep. Sch'l.
Moore's Hill Collegiate In..
Morgantown Fem. CoL In..
Napa Collegiate Institute..
Newbury Seminary and
Female Collegiate In.. 
N. H.'Conf. Sem.& Fem. Col.
New York Conf. Serm. and 
Female Col. Institute. }
Northwestern Female CoL.      l..
7
12
6
14
12
5
5
121
i
64
78
1 is
20
166
31
so
114
116
80
50
76
180
80
98
239
108
67
248
107
149
100
56
754
45
189
116
90
96
120
130
260
147
90
107
22
6
166
51
...
117
98
120
75
90
195
56
20
70
152
235
67
197
107
106
366
178
87
101
210
2w
72
4c
845
89
55
80
m
146
70
100
Amenia, N. Y...
Baltimore, Md..
BattleGrInd,Ind.
Beaver, Pa......
Bordentown,N.J
Brookville, Ind.
Point Bluff, Wifi.
Maumee City, 0.
New Canaan, OL
Aurora, Illinois.
Coolville, Ohio..
Mechaniesblg,Pa
Dansville, N.Y..
Danville, Ind.
Danville ][IL...
Indianol, Iowa.
Ovid, N. Y.....
Bucksport, Me..
Eau Claire, Wis.
Carlisle, Pa.....
Epwortb, Iowa..
Evansville, Wis.
Fulton, N. Y....
Santa Clara, Cal.
Ft. Edward, N.Y.
Fort Plain, N.Y.
Fort Wayne, Ind.
Lim,% New York
Gouverneur, N.Y
Onarga, Ill......
Abingdon, Ill...
HiRsborougb, 0.
Jacksonville, Ill.
Mechanic8b'h,Pa
,Jonesville, N. Y.
Readfield, Maine
Middletown, Ct.
Moore'sH!ll,lnd.
Morgantown,Va.
Napa City, Cal..
Newbury, Vt....
ganb'n Br., N. H.
Charlot'v'e,N.Y.
Evanston,
N. G. Spalding, A.X..
N. C. Brooks, LL.D....
D. Holmes, D.D.......
R. T. Taylor,,&M.....
J. H. Bmkelev, A.M...
W. R. G-odwin, A.M..
G. W. Case, A.B......
T. M. Searles, A.B....
J. L. Gilder, A.M......
G. W. Quereau, A.M...
J. P. Spahr...........
Oliver Ege t Sons....
Joseph Jones, A.B.....
0. H. Smith, A.M.....
H. L. Dickinson, A.B..
Orlando H. Baker, A.M.
J. J. Brown, A.M......
Jas. B. Crawford, A.M..
S. M. White, B.A.....
R. D. Chambe A. M.
R. W. Keeler, A.M....
H. Colman, A. X......
.T. P. Griffin, A.M.....
D. Tuthill, A.M.......
Joseph E. King, D.D..
B. 1. Diefendorf, A.X.
R. D. Robinson, A.M...
C. W. Bennett, A.M..
George G. Dains, A.M.
W. T-aplin, A.B........
JohnT.Dickinson,A.M.
A. T. Thompson.......
Charles Adams, D.D...
A. G. Marlatt, A.M....
Fenner E. King, A.M..
H. P. Torsey, LL.D...
Daniel H. Chase, LL.D.
J. A. Beswick, A.M....
T. Dougherty, A.M....
W. S. Turner, A.M....
George C. Smith, A.M.
Henry Lummis, A.M..
S. G. Gale,
L. H. Bugbee, M.A.....
3
3
9
2
3
6
4
5
4
6
6
3
4
4
6
10
9
16
5
9
10
6
6
5
10
12
5
6
9
8
6
6
5
8
7
9
7 
APPENDIX.
BMNARES, FEMALE COLLEGES, AND ACADEMIES.-CONTINUED.
N'ame.                      Location.                  Principal.   Students.
Male. Fem.
Park S. Donelson, D.D. 10
Nelson Hawley....... 5
A.  S. Graves, A.M..... 9
Ohio Wesleyan Female CoL
Olney Male and Fem. Col..
Oneida Conf. Seminary....
Pennington Seminary t    }
Female Col. Institute.
Perry Academy...........
Pittsburgh Female College
Portland Academy........
Providence Conf. Sem. & I
Musical Institute..... 
Ripley Female College....
Rockport Collegiate Instit.
Rock River Seminary.....
Santiam Academy.........
B. Illinois Female College..
Spring Mountain Acad'y..
Springfield Female College.
SpriDngfleld Wes. Sem'ary
and Female CoL Instit.
Springville Academy.....
Stockton Female Institute.
Stockwell Colleg. Institute
Thorntown Academy......
Umpqua Academy........
Waterloo Academy.......
Wesley Academy.........
Wesleyan Academy.......
Wesleyan Female College.
Wesleyan Female College..
Western Reserve Seminary
West River Classical Instit.
Whitewater College......
Williamsp'tDickinsonSem r.
Willoughby Collegiate Inst.
Wyoming Seminary.......
'.v..,,.'   1.G..,m,.,1.  /'!,..1......
Xei  FeaeClee..ei,Oi..WlimSin.M. 9 3   9
SUMMARY.-TWzNTY-THREE Colleges, TWO Biblical Institutes, and SlVEzNTY-SzvEN
Seminaries, Female Colleges, and Academies.  These tables are very deficient.
THE END.
I
287
Delaware, Ohio.
Olney, Illinois..
Cazenovia, N. Y.
Penningt'ri, N.J.
Perry, N.Y.....
Pittsburgh, Pa..
Portlaiid,Oregon
E.Greenw'h,R.1
Poultiiey, Vt....
Rockport, Ind...
Mt. Morris, Ill..
Lebanon,Oregon
Salem, Illinois
SpringMount.,O.
Springfield,Ohio.
Springfield, Vt..
Springville, N.Y.
Stockton, Cal...
Stockwell, Ind..
Thorntown, Ind.
Wilbur, Oregon.
Waterloo, Wis..
Wesley, Ind.....
Wilbraham,Mas:3
Cincinnati, Ohio
Wilmington,Del.
W.Farmingt'n,O
West River, Md.
Centerville, Ind.
Williamsport,P&
Willoughby, 0. -
Kingston, Pa....
Xenia, Ohio.....
'ii
278
135
92
ii
164
306
77
257
51
99
419
115
16S
20S
90
12S
40
152
39
114
271
118
58
92
157
50
67
59
2 3'->.
131
165
156
iii
260
192
D. C. Knowles, A.M...
M. R. Atkins, A.M....
I. C. Pershing, D.D....
0. S. Frambe-s, A.M...
J. T. Edwards, A.M...
9
5
22
5
12
11
6
6
5
5
1
6
10
6
5
4
5
4
ohn Newman, D.D...
William S.HooperA.M.
W. T. Harlow, A.M....
L. T. Woodward, A.M.
M. H. Corrington, A.M.
J. B. Selby...........
J. H. Herron, A.M.....
A. M. Wheeler, A.M...
David Copeland, A.M..
H. W. Hunt, A.M.....
H. G. Jackson, A.B....
0. H. Smith, A.M. - - - -
T. F. Royal...........
A. M. Stephens.......
J. H. and A. Orear....
Edward Cooke, D.D...
Richard S. Rust, D.D..
John Wilson, A.M.....
J. M. Leonard, A.M...
R. G. Chaney, A.M....
W. H. Barnes, A.M....
T. Mitchell, D.D.......
J. B. Robinson, A.M...
Reuben Nelson, D.D..
William Smith, A. M - -
'ii
162
65
,i6
105
100
21
77
124
60
48
97
286
120
75
iii
73
290
37
4
3
10
15
11
8
3
6
10
9
15
9