THE ORIGIN 
 
 EARLY HISTORY 
 
 OP THE 
 
 Conflreaattonal JttetfjoMst 01t)urtt) 
 
 Rev. S. CMc Daniel 
 
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 Columbia ZHnittertfttp 
 
 mtljeCitpof^rtugork 
 
 THE LIBRARIES 
 
 Bequest of 
 
 Frederic Bancroft 
 
 1860-1945 
 

T „ E p 
 
 RIGIN 
 
 AND 
 
 EARLY HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 'rrajrsjidtmraJ B*%At*i i%«f4 
 
 By Rev. S. C. McDaniel. 
 
 ATLANTA. GEORGIA. 
 Jas. P. Harrison & Co., Printers and Publishers. 
 
 188.. 
 

 JLJLfr 
 
To all Lovers of the Doctrines of Original 
 Methodism, 
 
 believers in ministerial equality, and advocates 
 
 of republican government in church 
 
 as well as state, 
 
 This Little Book is Dedicated by 
 
 THE COMMITTEE. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 No apology is necessary for the appearance of this 
 volume ; Church history is always an interesting 
 subject of study. Had the history of the Congrega- 
 tional Methodist Church been written fifteen years 
 ago, much which now is perhaps forever lost to pos- 
 terity would have been preserved. 
 
 Twenty-seven years after the organization of the 
 Church but few of the first actors were left on the 
 stage, and the passing years had greatly diminished 
 the store of recollection of those who still remained. 
 This, added to the natural weakness of human mem- 
 ory, and the great political, civil and social revolu- 
 tion through which our section had passed during 
 the last quarter of a century, rendered the effort to 
 trace the events of 1852 in 1879 exceedingly difficult. 
 
 The great age and feeble health of the Chairman 
 of the Committee (Rev. H. Phinazee), caused him to 
 decline writing this history, for which he was better 
 qualified than any living man, except, perhaps, Rev. 
 J. F. N. Huddleston. 
 
6 Preface. 
 
 At the solicitation of brother Phinazee, I agreed 
 to undertake the task of compilation in pursuance of 
 the design of the Georgia State Conference. 
 
 For some time after it had been arranged that I 
 should do this part of the work, I found myself un- 
 able to start for the lack of information of the incep- 
 tion of the movement. This, however, was soon 
 supplied by a number of good brethren who were 
 actors in the movement. 
 
 In the progress of the work, however, I was des- 
 tined to meet more formidable difficulties. 
 
 One serious impediment in my way was my inabil- 
 ity to learn anything definite as to the start of the 
 Church in the State of Alabama. Again and again 
 I sought light on this point — in every known way, 
 and through all discoverable channels — but all to no 
 purpose, for I was eventually obliged, after delaying 
 the completion of the work for some weeks, to close 
 my labors without any history of the original move- 
 ment in Alabama. 
 
 Another serious trouble met me when I came to 
 treat of the Convention of the Churches, which 
 met in 1S55. Although there was doubtless a full 
 record of its proceedings kept, all my efforts to find 
 such a record were utterly unavailing, and 1 was 
 obliged to depend on the few survivors of that body 
 to furnish details of its proceedings, and with these 
 J was forced to content myself. 
 
Preface. 7 
 
 Thus circumstanced, my task has been a difficult 
 one — beyond what I had anticipated — and, by the 
 blessings of God, good health and strength, and the 
 assistance of many of my good brethren, I eventually 
 completed my task, such as it is. 
 
 I am fully aware of the many imperfections of the 
 work for which I have no other apology to make than 
 simply to say, it is the best I could do under the cir- 
 cumstances. At the hands of a charitable Christian 
 public I expect no unkindness; and if any should be 
 so unreasonable as to blame me because I did not 
 have the ability to write a better book, I have no 
 quarrel for them. 
 
MlCKELBERRY MERRIT. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 In order that this history may be better under- 
 stood, a short introduction is thought to be neces- 
 sary. 
 
 The publication of the articles in The Congrega- 
 tional Methodist ended in the spring of 1880, and the 
 design was then to have the work put in book form 
 without any delay; but no definite action in this 
 particular having been had by the Georgia State 
 Conference, the matter was delayed until the meet- 
 ing of that body in the fall of that year. At that 
 session such arrangements were made as would secure 
 the publication of the book before the sitting of the 
 General Conference in May, 1881. 
 
 In writing the history, I was desirous of showing 
 the changes which have been made from the first 
 organization until the present ; and not having one 
 of the original books of Discipline, I made inquiry 
 among my brethren for one, and found it exceed- 
 ingly difficult to find, but eventually I was kindly 
 furnished one by brother George W. Todd, of Mis- 
 sissippi ; and believing that very few of those little 
 books are now to be found, I have, upon consulta- 
 tion with brothers U. C. Fambrough and James G. 
 
io Introduction. 
 
 Phinazee (who are assisting me in the publishing of 
 this book), concluded to add, as an appendix to this 
 book, all that part of the original book of Discipline 
 which has been in any manner changed from the 
 organization of the first church to the present time. 
 The appendix contains all tne first twenty-one pages, 
 except the "Advisory Rules," which in that book 
 were placed between the articles "Terms of Member- 
 ship" and "Of Offences." The remainder of the 
 book contains the "Advisory Rules," the twenty-five 
 Articles of Religion, including the note to be found 
 at the bottom of 39th page of our present book of 
 Discipline, and as marked at the close of the XXIII. 
 Article of Religion. In addition to these the little 
 book had a form for administration of the Lord's 
 Supper; one for the baptism of infants; one for the 
 baptism of adults; one for ordination of Elders, of 
 Elder's credentials, and closing with the resolution as 
 copied in Chapter V11I. of this book. 
 
 This much of the book is given in orde'r that the 
 old landmarks may be preserved. The whole of it 
 is not included in the appendix, because it would be 
 increasing the cost of the book without increasing its 
 value. 
 
 It has been thought best to bind the book in cheap 
 binding, so as to put it within the reach of all, but 
 to print it on the very best paper to be had in order 
 that it may be preserved, and, if necessary, rebound. 
 
 It is hoped the book will give satisfaction. 
 
ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Congregational 4l|rf!i|p!list 4P inrc h. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 The causes which led to the organization of the 
 Congregational Methodist Church, like the origin of 
 all great movements, are involved in mystery to 
 some extent ; some of them, however, are known to 
 those who witnessed the first organization, and will 
 here be treated of. 
 
 Methodism in America was originally a kind of 
 missionary Church, and in its earliei days the "itiner- 
 acy" was the life-blood of the whole system, and, as 
 the people were looked after by the pioneer Meth- 
 odist circuit-rider, more on the fashion of sheep 
 without a shepherd than otherwise ; and as there 
 were but few regular churches and fewer church 
 houses, and the people in many instances as migra- 
 tory as their teachers, who changed fields every year, 
 there was not much government, except such as oper- 
 ated on the preachers themselves, and as they made 
 
12 Origin and Early History 
 
 very light demands on the membership for pay, it 
 was very natural that as they did all the work, and 
 frequently without any considerable compensation, 
 the membership should readily accord to them the 
 right to govern the Church. For a number of years, 
 about the beginning of the nineteenth century, there 
 was but one Bishop in the whole United States, and 
 he received only sixteen dollars a quarter for his 
 salary, and the rest of the clergy fared about the 
 same way, and it will not astonish any one to know, 
 that whatever Bishop Asbury did in governing the 
 Church was never complained of by the laity. As 
 early as 1816, however, the clergy began to contro- 
 vert the propriety of the Bishops having the right to 
 appoint the Presiding Elders, and in 1820, the Gen- 
 eral Conference, at Baltimore, passed a resolution 
 authorizing the Conference to elect the Presiding 
 Elders. Joshua Soule was at the same Conference 
 elected a Bishop, but declined to serve on account 
 of the passage of said resolution. Bishop McKen- 
 dree, however (not being present when the resolution 
 passed), went into the Conference and induced the 
 suspension of said resolution for four years. This 
 and kindred questions continued to excite the Church 
 until 1828, when it resulted in the formation of the 
 Methodist Protestant Church, which was composed 
 mainly of the dissatisfied members of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church. This organization differed 1 10111 
 the one from whence it originated mainly in two 
 features, viz: it had no Episcopacy, and allowed lay 
 representation in its Conferences. But as time 
 rolled on, the world advanced, and experience proved 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 13 
 
 eventually that other important reforms were needed 
 to fully adapt Methodism to a thickly settled and 
 advancing country. 
 
 About the year 1850, Rev. Lovick Pierce, then one 
 of the leading spirits in the M. E. Church, South, 
 wrote a series of very strong articles, which were 
 published in the Southern Christian Advocate, on the 
 subject of public worship, in which he showed the 
 absolute necessity of abandoning the old style of 
 week-day preaching on circuits, and the necessity of 
 Saturday and Sabbath preaching. He met stout 
 opposition from the pen of the venerable Allen 
 Turner and others, and thus the minds of the laity 
 were directed to this matter. The investigation on 
 this point led to the discovery of another defect in 
 the governmental economy of the M. E. Church, 
 South, which appeared to have been entirely over- 
 looked up to this time, viz : the degraded station 
 which local ministers were obliged to take and main- 
 tain in said Church. Although a great deal of the 
 work of the Church was done by them, they were 
 'neither allowed to exercise any governing function 
 over the thousands of converts who annually were 
 brought into the Church through the instrumentality 
 of their labors, nor to have any voice in saying who 
 should govern either their converts or themselves. 
 This truth, perhaps, was to a greater extent opera- 
 tive in the production of the Congregational Meth- 
 odist Church than any other one thing. It is true 
 the originators of this Church were opposed to 
 Episcopacy, and opposed to the government of the 
 Church being entirely in the hands of the clergy ; 
 
14 Origin and Early History 
 
 they also objected to itineracy as a system in any 
 form as being inoperative, cumbersome and unneces- 
 sarily expensive. • But the great sun and centre of 
 their system was the desire that there should be no 
 artificial, unscriptural and hurtful distinction among 
 the watchmen who had been placed as sentinels on 
 the watch-tower of salvation by the Great Captain 
 of the armies of heaven and earth. 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 In the early part of the year 1852, there lived in 
 middle Georgia, and principally in Monroe county, 
 several prominent local preachers belonging to the 
 M. E. Church, South, among whom were Rev. 
 Hiram Phinazee, then a little less than fifty years 
 old; Absalom Ogletree, near the same age; J. F. 
 Wethersbee, some few years younger, and J. F. N. 
 Huddleston and W. H. Graham, then young men, 
 perhaps about thirty years old. There were also in 
 the same section of country a number of laymen, 
 distinguished for their intelligence and high-toned 
 demeanor, as well as their piety and generosity. 
 Among the latter may be enumerated Mickleberry 
 Merritt, W. L. Fambrough, Robinson Fambrough, 
 John Ham, Jackson Bush, William A. McCune, 
 John E. Pettegrew, James R. McCord, David Ogle- 
 tree, E. White, Robert Walker, S. F. Speer, J. W. 
 McCord, John Goodrum, and many others. Of the 
 ministers above named, all were active and laborious 
 workers, and remarkably successful in their efforts. 
 They were traveling to the various churches in their 
 section, and regularly on the Sabbath days preach- 
 ing the Word, and large numbers were converted 
 under their preaching, and revivals sprang up in 
 different places. Soon the fact began to attract at- 
 tention that, although these good men did most of 
 the work in the revivals, the circuit-rider must needs 
 receive the new converts into the Church and baptize 
 them, while those under whose ministry they had 
 
1 6 Origin and Early History 
 
 been awakened and converted, stood by with folded 
 hands, without even a voice as to whether the appli- 
 cants should be received into the Church or not. 
 
 This proved an excellent eye-opener to the intelli- 
 gent laymen, who began to notice and comment on 
 this peculiar and not very admirable feature in their 
 Church government, and the airing of this part of 
 the polity of the M. E. Church, South, by the laity, 
 excited in the minds of the local ministers a spirit of 
 inquiry into their own positions, and thus the ball 
 began to roll, and the more they looked into the 
 matter the more they felt the urgent necessity of 
 some sort of reform. 
 
 At this time, Rev. Dr. McCarell Peurifoy was on 
 the Forsyth circuit, Rev. John B. Wardlaw on the 
 Jackson circuit, and Rev. John C. Simmons the Pre- 
 siding Elder. This excitement was greater within 
 the bounds of these two circuits than elsewhere. 
 The circuit-riders and the Elder were not well 
 pleased with the turn the tide of affairs were taking, 
 and began to apply their correctives like the old ad- 
 vocates of blistering in the shape counter-irritants, 
 by gravely intimating that the " least said" about 
 these imperfections in the machinery of the M. E. 
 Church, South, would be the easiest mended ; and 
 that unless the ministers desisted from the too free 
 use of their tongues, they might find their authority 
 to preach taken away, and that the laymen, unless 
 they should become more prudent in the expression 
 of their dissent to the high Episcopacy of their 
 Church, would find themselves outside of the pale of 
 the Church, 
 
Wm. L. Fambrough. 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. \J 
 
 But such threats were but idle words to such 
 men, and they heeded them as little as did Daniel 
 the mandate of the king against prayer, and were as 
 careless of the threatened harm as were Shadrach, 
 Meshach and Abednego of the rage of the monarch 
 when they refused to fall down and worship the 
 golden image which Nebuchadnezzar, the king, had 
 set up " in the plain of Dura." 
 
iS Origin and Early History 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Early in the year 1852, the feeling of dissatisfac- 
 tion referred to in the second chapter of this history, 
 became so manifest and public that it was evident 
 some kind of action was about to be taken, the cir- 
 cuit-riders on the Jackson and Forsyth works — doubt- 
 less believing harm would result from any separate 
 organization, strove hard to avert it. The Presiding 
 Elder of the district also added his most earnest en- 
 deavors to preserve the unity of the M. E. Church, 
 South, by preventing organization. But the die had 
 been cast, the purpose of the men moving in the mat- 
 ter was not a mere whim, to pass away like the 
 morning cloud. It was not dissatisfaction growing 
 out of individual wrong ; it was a deep seated, firmly 
 rooted and fixed dissatisfaction with the very foun- 
 dation stone of their ecclesiastical^?//*?///;/. And the 
 solemn alternative was presented to them of forming 
 a Church government of their own, with which they 
 might be satisfied, or of living for the balance of their 
 lives under a Church government with which they 
 never could be contented. And although it was 
 painful for these good men thus to sever themselves 
 from a Church in whose doctrines they most "stead- 
 fastly believed," and from brethren and sisters with 
 whom they had lived so long and so lovingly ; yet 
 upon their knees, with hearts uplifted to the Great 
 Head of the Church, they felt it to be their duty, to 
 sever their relationship to the M. E. Church, South, 
 and with them the voice of duty was ever heeded. 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 19 
 
 Accordingly on the cSth day of May, 1852, a meet- 
 ing was had at the house of Mickleberry Merritt, in 
 Munroe county, Georgia, for the purpose of organiz- 
 ing a Church. At this meeting there were but few 
 present save those who took part in that meeting. 
 At this late period it is impossible to state exactly 
 all who did then cast in their lots with the "little 
 flock" there assembled ; perhaps a majority of the 
 actors in that scene have passed away, while those 
 who remain are scattered abroad over the earth, and 
 from the loss of the records or minutes of this meet- 
 ing and the frailty of the human memory, the full his- 
 tory cannot now be given. This is to be regretted, 
 for the reason that to those who shall come after us, 
 especially will it be of the greatest interest to know 
 all the particulars of this small beginning. The meet- 
 ing was not so large as had been anticipated — some 
 who had intended to take part in the movement had, 
 from an unknown cause, changed their minds — and 
 when the hour of decisive action came were not there. 
 Like Gideon's army the little company, by the appli- 
 cation of the severest tests, had been lessened until 
 all the feeble of purpose and faint-hearted had been 
 left at the rear ; and it was only those who had been 
 found worthy to defy the flames of persecution ; who 
 stood at the front with purposes set, hearts fixed and 
 ears deaf to all other sounds save that of the call to 
 duty, that gathered round the cradle of the infant 
 Church to catch the first impress of its features, as 
 the wise men of the East gathered at the manger to 
 see the beauty of "The Babe of Bethlehem." 
 
 The meeting organized by calling William L. Fam- 
 
20 Origin and Early History. 
 
 brough to the chair, and requesting Rev. H. Phina- 
 zee to act as secretary. The exercises of the meet- 
 ing were opened with prayer led by Rev. William H. 
 Graham. The names of the following brethren were 
 then enrolled by the secretary as the membership of 
 the infant Church : W. L. Fambrough, Rev. Hiram 
 Phinazee, Rev. Absalom Ogletree, Rev. W. H. Gra- 
 ham, Robinson Fambrough, Jackson Bush, John 
 Flynt, James M. Flemming, George W. Todd, Mick- 
 leberry Merritt, and Travis Ivey. The meeting 
 adopted a preamble and sundry resolutions, drawn 
 wp by Rev. Hiram Phinazee, as the basis of their ac- 
 tion, and then adjourned. 
 
 The preamble and resolutions adopted at this 
 meeting are probably not now in existence ; at all 
 events I have been unable to find them. This is 
 greatly to be regretted, because what these good men 
 then committed to writing as to their desires and in- 
 tentions, would be exceedingly interesting to us, and 
 much more to future generations. The venerable 
 secretary of that meeting, who drafted these expres- 
 sions of the feelings of the meeting still remembers 
 the substance thereof. The preamble set out the in- 
 efficiency of the itinerant system, as then practiced, 
 of large circuits and generally week-day preaching 
 at country churches, declaring that the preaching to 
 walls and benches would never evangelize the mass of 
 the people. 2. The danger of a government where 
 the whole power was in the same hands. 3. The im- 
 propriety of depriving the people of a voice in their 
 own government. 4. The unscriptural character of 
 the invidious distinctions made by the laws of the 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 21 
 
 M. E. Church, South, between the itinerant and local 
 divisions of their ministers. 5. That there was no 
 reason to suppose these features of the government 
 of the M. E. Church, South, would be changed soon, 
 if ever. 
 
 And the resolutions declared the intention of 
 those taking part in the meeting to establish a Church 
 whose doctrines should be exactly Methodistic, but 
 whose government should be in accordance with our 
 civil institutions and their own ideas of propriety. 
 Thus declaring to the world and their former breth- 
 ren the motives of their conduct, they weighed 
 anchor, and spread to the breeze the sail of THE 
 CONGREGATIONAL METHODIST CHURCH. 
 
22 Origin and Early History 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The meeting at brother Merritt's on the 8th of 
 May, 1852, was indeed the "small beginning," of a 
 great work. Two characteristics of the meeting I 
 desire to notice in this number, I. There was not a 
 single one of those who then and there took the 
 important step of organizing a new Church, who did 
 so hastily — or in a spirit of envy or ambition. They 
 would have made any reasonable sacrifice, or con- 
 cession to maintain their former Church relations, 
 would have been willing to labor resolutely or wait 
 patiently for needed reform, if there had been any 
 prospect that labor or waiting would have brought 
 them about. But no such prospect appeared in any 
 quarter, and the course which they then pursued 
 presented the only course proper for them to adopt. 
 Such has ever been the conduct of reformers, either 
 in Church or State, when they have been good men. 
 Luther, Zwingle and Melancthon, were loth to sever 
 their relationship with the Roman Church, and only 
 did so because it was their their duty. John and 
 Charles Wesley, George Whitfield, and their co- 
 laborers maintained their relations with the Episco- 
 pal Church as long as possible. And so did these 
 good men in [852 reluctantly do what the voice of 
 duty demanded at their hands. 2. This action on 
 the part of these men, met with the most deter- 
 mined opposition from the Church from which they 
 separated. This also has ever been the case with 
 similar movements. To a disinterested and unbiased 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 23 
 
 judgment it would seem quite unnatural, that any- 
 Church should not willingly consent that any num- 
 ber of its members who were dissatisfied with either 
 its doctrines or polity, should " depart in peace,'' 
 but history shows that they have scarcely ever been 
 willing for their brethren to leave their fold, and go 
 where they would be better satisfied. The ministers 
 in charge of the churches and circuits where this 
 movement first to>>k root, strove hard to drown it out 
 and prevent its spread. And in doing so, did many 
 things which seemed at the time to be harsh, but of 
 this I do not complain, nor does the Congregational 
 Methodist Church ; they were good men and doubt- 
 less were honestly of the opinion that this move- 
 ment wou'd eventuate in much evil and little good. 
 But time has demonstrated that these opinions of 
 theirs were incorrect. Those men could never have 
 been of much service to a Church, whose polity was 
 so entirely at variance with their views of right and 
 propriety as that of "The Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, South," but in a Church whose polity they 
 believed in — and whose government they devotedly 
 loved, they have accomplished great good. This 
 was a very small meeting, scarcely as many persons 
 in it as were on the little fishing-boat with Peter, on 
 the night of "fruitless toil," yet this was a meeting 
 destined to exercise a powerful influence on the 
 world of Methodism. And those humble, good men 
 had perhaps as little idea of the stupendous results 
 to follow their humble action on that quiet May 
 day, as Peter had of the effect to follow his sermon 
 when he began to preach on the day of Pentecost. 
 
24 Origin and Early History 
 
 Of these men I shall write more at length when I 
 shall have closed these historical sketches of the 
 early days of our Church, but of the results which 
 have thus far been realized from this meeting I shall 
 say something, and with that close this number. 
 
 From the day when Rev. Francis Asbury, called 
 himself or allowed others to call him a " Bishop," to 
 the 8th day of May, 1852, the government of the 
 Methodist Church in its various branches, except 
 that of the " Methodist Protestant," had been en- 
 tirely in the hands of the itineracy, and the authority 
 of the Episcopacy growing stronger and stronger. 
 In no Conference was a layman entitled to a seat, 
 save the quarterly Conference, and in these only such 
 laymen took part as the itineracy chose to have there, 
 and who could be put in, and put out, of said Con- 
 ference with the care of uttering a single command, 
 and the placing them in such positions did not 
 amount to as much as the tantalization of a sailor in 
 throwing a tub to a whale, for when a whale was once 
 in possession of the tub, although he could accom- 
 plish nothing by its possession or use outside of 
 amusing himself, still he could keep it as long as he 
 chose, but these laymen could only play with the 
 tub until it was taken from them, or rather, until 
 they were taken from it. The great movement re- 
 sulting in the formation of the Methodist Protestant 
 Church nearly twenty-five years before, had not 
 changed this feature of either branch of the parent 
 Church. Hut how stands the case to-day? No 
 where in all this land, either North or South, does a 
 Methodist Conference assemble now without the 
 
ilW^ 
 
 & 
 
 -:•: # ' 
 
 Jas. M f Fleming, 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 25 
 
 laymen being there ! And these thousands of lay- 
 men who hold seats in "the General and inferior 
 Conferences (most of them being ignorant that such 
 a meeting was ever held), are indebted to the actors 
 of May 8th, 1852, for the privileges they thus enjoy. 
 Where is the week-day system of serving country 
 churches in operation prior to that time? Why are 
 nearly all supplied with Sabbath preaching? The 
 hundreds of thousands of country Methodists all over 
 this country who now have preaching on the Holy 
 Sabbath instead of on a working-day, are indebted 
 for these blessings to the good men who so manfully 
 struck for this privilege amid the opening flowers of 
 May, 1852. Why so many hundreds of good local 
 preachers now exercising all their functions as pas- 
 tors of churches to-day? Whence came these privi- 
 leges to local ministers and blessings to the people? 
 The answer is they came from the " quiet chamber" 
 at brother Merritt's house, where these good men 
 united their feelings, their prayers and theirs tears, a 
 little more than a quarter of a century ago. 
 
 And what more shall I say of the gracious results 
 which have grown out of this " day of small things.' 
 For the time would fail me to tell of the many 
 thousands, who have thus been privileged to attend 
 the Methodist services on Sabbath, of the tens of 
 thousands of faithful local ministers whose hearts 
 before that burned within them as Jesus talked to 
 them, " by the way," as they looked for an open door 
 'where they might feed the flock of God, and have 
 thus been given a door of utterance, and of the 
 great host of sinners, to whom they have success- 
 
26 Origin and Early History 
 
 fully pointed out the Lamb of God which taketh 
 away the sins of the world. Faithful and highly 
 favored little band ! ! standing in the fore-front of 
 the battle listening only to the voice of their Captain, 
 and responding to the roll call, "here am I." And 
 down in their hearts, so full of anxiety and yet so 
 full of peace, a still small voice was heard saying, 
 " fear not little flock for it is your Father's good 
 pleasure to give you the kingdom." 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 27 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 I have dwelt at some length on the history of the 
 first meeting held in the interest of the Congrega- 
 tional-Methodist Church, because I regard it as an 
 important meeting; and although the principal part 
 of the two preceding chapters has been devoted to 
 its history, I do not feel that I should dismiss this 
 part of my subject without noticing one other char- 
 acteristic thereof. 
 
 From the time of Wesley's administration in 
 America, there had been, prior to the 8th of May, 
 1852, one hundred meetings in different parts of the 
 United States, similar in many respects to the one I 
 have been writing of as occurring on that day, and 
 nearly all of them have been confined almost entirely 
 to the communities respectively where they occurred 
 and have passed away with those who took part in 
 them, and there are to-day a large number of indepen- 
 dent Methodist churches in the Southern States who 
 have no connection with each other or with any 
 other church. The Church which was formed at 
 brother Merritt's had a connexional as well as a con- 
 gregational and republican element in its form of 
 government, and to this cause may be ascribed the 
 popularity and spread of the Church which had its 
 birth in Monroe county, Georgia, on the 8th of May, 
 1852. 
 
 There is one feature of the subsequent history of 
 the C. M. Church which I desire here to notice. 
 Within a short time from the organization of the first 
 
28 Origin and Early History 
 
 church the movement had spread over several coun- 
 ties in Middle Georgia, and found foothold in the 
 States of Alabama and Mississippi, and has, from that 
 day until this, been prospering in all three of said 
 States, and has now State Conferences in six States, 
 and organizations in several others with many thou- 
 sands of members ; still, in the county where it had its 
 origin and has lived and flourished for more than a 
 quarter of a century, there are many persons ignorant 
 of the existence of such a Church and more ignorant 
 of its characteristics and doctrines. Those who de- 
 sired to impede its progress soon ascertained that 
 the best way to prevent its spread was to say notJiing 
 about it. Hence their papers (whether under the in- 
 fluence of the gag-law or not I cannot say) have re- 
 fused to publish anything about it. Its ministers as 
 a general rule receive such notice and courtesy as the 
 rules of good breeding absolutely require at the 
 hands of their ministers and nothing more. I do not 
 complain at this as unkindness or persecution, for one 
 who attempts reform in an existing Church organiza- 
 tion of an important character and does not expect 
 to meet persecution, calculates improperly and is 
 doomed to disappointment. It has ever been so, and 
 ever will be so. But in dismissing this part of the 
 subject I feel impelled to say simply this : The or- 
 gans of the M. E. Church, South, by their conduct ig- 
 nore and appear to be ignorant of the existence of 
 the C. M. Church, although their Discipline has 
 many features in it which were taken from that of 
 the C. M. Church. If we shall be true to ourselves, 
 true to our Church paper, true to our principles as 
 
( ongregational Methodist Church. 29 
 
 Christians, and true to the Great Head of the Church, 
 the time will soon come when the existence of the 
 Congregational Methodist Church will no longer be 
 ignored. 
 
30 Origin and Early History 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Having dwelt at length on the first meeting 
 of the friends of Congregational Methodism, for 
 the reasons already stated, I come now to speak 
 of the second meeting. This meeting was held at 
 Rehoboth church about the third Sunday in May, 
 1852. Between the time of they?;\sYand second meet- 
 ings the feeling had spread over a considerable sec- 
 tion of Middle Georgia, and quite a number of min- 
 isters and members from the M. E. Church, South, 
 came forward and united with the organization. 
 Among the former I can mention, Rev. J. F. N. 
 Huddleston and Rev. J. Fletcher Wethersbee, and 
 among the latter I should name John Ham, John H. 
 Phinazee, David Ogletree, John E. Petigrew, Ed- 
 ward White, and others. 
 
 Quite a number of those who had allied them- 
 selves with the new movement were members of the 
 M. E. Church, South, at Rehoboth; indeed nearly 
 the whole of the membership at that place went with 
 the C. M. Church, and this was probably the reason 
 why they felt like they had the liberty to use the 
 church-house at Rehoboth to meet in. But they 
 were not permitted to occupy the house — the same, 
 under the economy of the M. E. Church, having been 
 deeded to the Georgia Annual Conference, and its 
 officers not being willing for "the seceders," as they 
 were called, to use it. 
 
 By way of parenthesis I will here say: This refer- 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 31 
 
 ence to the persecution which the pioneers of Congre- 
 gational Methodism met with, is not lugged in here 
 to excite any sympathy for the C. M. Church, nor to 
 cast reflections on the M. E. Church, South, but it is 
 done in the discharge of the duties of the historian, 
 who, if he does his duty to posterity (for whose ben- 
 efit he principally writes), states transactions just as 
 they occured, leaving the reader to draw his own 
 conclusions. 
 
 Not being permitted to hold their meetings in the 
 church-house they withdrew to the arbor of the 
 camp-ground near by, and there held their meeting. 
 The business of this meeting consisted principally (so 
 far as its secular affairs were concerned) in the appoint- 
 ment of a committee of three to prepare a book of 
 Discipline, with rules and regulations for the govern- 
 ment of the Church. That committee consisted of 
 Revs. H. Phinizee, A. Ogletree, and J. F. N. Hud- 
 dleston. And here again " these good men and 
 true" committed themselves and commended the 
 cause of the infant Church in prayer to the Great 
 Head of the Church, with abiding confidence in the 
 propriety of the step they had taken, and in grate- 
 ful remembrance of the partial success which had at- 
 tended them thus far in their unabated zeal in devo- 
 tion to duty, and humble reliance on Divine assis- 
 tance and guidance in the future, they parted with "the 
 benediction" of peace. Rev. Allen Turner, a good old 
 man of the M. E. Church, South, who was present 
 to forbid the use by the new organization of the 
 church-house, was requested to pray in the meeting. 
 He led in prayer, asking fervently that if the move 
 
32 Origin and Early History 
 
 was not of God it might come to naught ; but if it 
 was of God that it might prosper, and all the brethren 
 said " amen," and the prayer has been heard and an- 
 swered. 
 
Wm. H. Graham. 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 33 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The meeting at Rehoboth church, as before stated, 
 appointed a committee to prepare a book of Discip- 
 line, and report to the next meeting. When and 
 where this third meeting was held, I have been un- 
 able to ascertain, and I regret my inability to now 
 state, what would be of great interest, and which 
 perhaps may never be known hereafter. It is, how- 
 ever, pretty certain that it was not long after the 
 second meeting, as the book of Discipline was pub- 
 lished and given to the world early in the month of 
 August, 1852. The character of the book, as reported 
 by the committee and adopted by the Church, I 
 shall now notice, only so far as to refer to the pre- 
 face, as embodying some of the leading features of 
 the Church. 
 
 The Rev. H. Phinazee, of the committee above 
 stated, was the author of the above preface. The 
 book was a small pamphlet of 48 pages, published 
 by A. G. Murray, Griffin, Ga., and in order that the 
 reader may fully understand the same, I here insert 
 that preface just as it there occurred : 
 
 " In appearing before the public, we deem it due to ourselves, 
 our old brethren, and the world, to set forth in a distinct man- 
 ner some of the reasons that led to our separation. We were 
 not influenced by prejudice or ill-will towards one minister or 
 member of the M. E. Church, but we love them yet as brethren, 
 and look upon them, in the main, as good and holy men. 
 
 " 1. We think that the itinerant system, as carried out in this 
 country, has mainly lost it efficiency, and failed to meet alike 
 the wants and wishes of the Church and world. This, we think, 
 3 
 
34 Origin and Early History 
 
 is owing to the policy of week-day preaching, which gives to 
 all other churches that are congregational in their form of wor- 
 ship greatly the advantage of us. It also requires us to pay 
 large sums to have the Gospel preached to the walls and benches 
 in our churches. We think these evils have been augmenting 
 every year, that the friction of the machinery is increasing, and 
 that the good accomplished by it is not and will not be in pro- 
 portion to the sacrifices required. Therefore, we believe that 
 the day is here, when the tabernacle should be located — circum- 
 stances justify it— the people demand it. 
 
 "2. We object to the government of the M. E. Church, be- 
 cause it possesses not the elements of a republican form of gov- 
 ernment. It discards the representative principle, shuts out the 
 people, and confides to the same hands the executive, legislative 
 and judicial powers; and yet those hands are not the represen- 
 tatives of the people. 
 
 " 3. We objected to said government because we were taxed 
 without representation, legislated for without a constituency, 
 and large amounts of money .and Church property are controlled 
 by the traveling preachers alone ; and they, in this matter, are 
 beyond the control of the membership. A government so un- 
 congenial with, and contrary to, the spirit and genius of our 
 civil institutions, we think to be wrong in theory and practice. 
 No power possesses so great a principle of increase and accumu- 
 lation as an ecclesiastical power. Its facilities for multiplica- 
 tion and reproduction are many and fearful. They should, 
 therefore, be vigilantly guarded against by all/who consider the 
 image of God closely connected with the rights of man." 
 
 With this declaration of the foundation of their 
 action, the Congregational Methodist Church took 
 its place among the ecclesiastical organizations of 
 the country, trusting to the correctness of its princi- 
 ples and the purity of its motives for that success 
 which was afterwards to attend it. 
 
 Thus we have presented the history of the com- 
 pletion of the organization of the first individual 
 Church, the nucleus around which all in the future 
 
Congregational MetJiodist Church. 35 
 
 were to gather. Less than tliree months had been 
 consumed in perfecting this machinery, and the en- 
 during character of the work thus done, declares 
 most emphatically that it was well done, as the lead- 
 ing features of the original Discipline are preserved 
 to the present time by the C. M. Church, and many 
 of its peculiar features have been adopted by other 
 populous members of the great Methodist family. 
 
 The body of the Discipline was written by Rev. 
 J. F. N. Huddleston, and when reported by him to 
 his two fellow-committeemen, was adopted by them 
 with very slight alteration, if any at all, and was 
 adopted by the Church as it came from the Com- 
 mittee. 
 
36 Origin and Early History 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The first Congregational Methodist Church consti- 
 tuted was called Rocky Creek, its membership princi- 
 pally were formerly members of Rehoboth, the name 
 of this church was afterwards changed, as we shall 
 see hereafter. Between the 8th of May and the 1st 
 of August, other organizations had been effected. 
 Mount Hope, in Spalding county, Rock Spring, in 
 Monroe county, Pleasant Grove, in Butts county, 
 New Market, in Monroe county, New Hope, in Pike 
 county, and Providence, in Monroe county, making, 
 in all, seven churches, and all in the same section of 
 country. 
 
 As the Discipline provided for District Confer- 
 ences, these seven churches, on the 1 2th day of August, 
 1852, by their delegates, held their first District Con- 
 ference, at Rocky Creek Baptist church — that church 
 kindly tendering to said body the use of their church- 
 house. Upon the assembling of the Conference, the 
 following named delegates, with proper credentials, 
 came forward and had their names enrolled, viz : 
 
 From Rocky Creek church, A. Ogletree, J. F. N. 
 Huddleston, and H. Phinazee from Mount Hope 
 church, Robert Walker and Joshua Sheptrine, from 
 Rock Spring church, Allen Reeves from Pleasant 
 Grove church, George W. Barber and William A. 
 McCune, from New Market church, J. F. Wethersby 
 and Benjamin Davis, from Providence church Wil- 
 liam H. Graham, from New Hope church Daniel 
 Carroll. Rev. J. F. Wethersby was elected Presi- 
 
Congregational Method is t Church. 37 
 
 dent, and Rev. H. Phinazee, Secretary. The Pres- 
 ident opened the Conference with prayer. At the 
 organization of the first church at brother Merritt's 
 house, we have seen the little company gathered ? 
 bowing reverently before their Great Head, and heard 
 the voice of ascending prayer for Divine protection, 
 and now when we behold the first District Conference 
 we see them bending the knee to God and begging 
 for Heaven's direction, their hearts in unison respond- 
 ing in the language of Scripture, "Without me ye 
 can do nothing." 
 
 This was the first District Conference ever held by 
 any Methodist body, and therefore a center of curi- 
 osity. So far as history shows, this was the first 
 Conference ever held by any Methodist body, except 
 Quarterly Conference, which was composed more 
 largely of laymen than of ministers, and the first 
 body of Methodists, which was purely a representa- 
 tive body, and whose members all held their seats 
 only by the choice of their brethren. This Confer- 
 ence was therefore clearly an experiment ; but the 
 developments have shown that it was a success. The 
 thousands of District Conferences and District Meet- 
 ings which have been since held among Methodists 
 of this country declares that a District Conference 
 is a success. The President of the Conference had 
 once been an itinerant of note, and had frequently 
 been a member of Conferences, and in case of Quar- 
 terly Conferences, some times its presiding officer, I 
 suppose ; but there were two new features to him, 
 even in this assembly. 1. He was there on a perfect 
 equality with every other member (except what priv- 
 
58 Origin and Early History 
 
 ileges were conferred on him by his election to the 
 Presidency), and 2. He was there by the election of 
 his brethren. Hitherto he had held seats in Confer- 
 ences, where some of the members were on a shelf 
 above him, some on the same shelf with him, and some 
 on the shelf below him, but here all the members were 
 on the same platform. .Before that time he had held 
 his seats in Conferences because he was an itinerant, 
 here he held his seat because he was the choice of 
 his brethren. 
 
 None of the other members of this Conference 
 had ever been members of any Conference before, 
 save Quarterly Conferences, and when we consider 
 that a majority of them were laymen we will very 
 naturally suppose they felt a little awkward, having 
 belonged, some of them, for many years where they 
 had no right guaranteed by their Discipline of voting, 
 much less of holding office, save as put in office by 
 the preacher in charge, and not even owning any 
 interest in the houses in which they worshipped. 
 Hut inexperienced as they were, the duty was upon 
 them of putting in operation the new machinery of a 
 new organization, and well and faithfully did they 
 nt themselves. 
 
 1 >ne of the first things done by the Conference after 
 inization was to recognize the license of brother 
 Carey Cox, a licentiate from the M. E. Church, 
 South, and to pass a resolution that all ministers com- 
 ing from other orthodox denominations be received 
 ueli in our Church, upon presentation of their 
 credentials in proper form. The Conference then 
 license to brother John Ham, 
 
Congregational Methodist Church, 39 
 
 Daniel Carroll and Travis Ivey, they all having been 
 duly recommended for such license by the churches 
 to which they respectively belonged. 
 
 The Conference being impressed with the belief 
 that a Church paper was essential to its prosperity, 
 lost no time in looking to this important interest, and 
 after discussing the matter at length, in which a free 
 interchange of opinions were had among all the dele- 
 gates, the Chair, upon motion, appointed a Com- 
 mittee of five "to take into consideration the subject 
 of establishing a press, and report to the Church as 
 early as practicable, for their ratification." That 
 Committee consisted of brother J. F. N. Huddleston, 
 W. L. Frambrough, Mickleberry Merritt, Absalom 
 Ogletree and John Ham. 
 
 And here I may remark (by way of parenthesis) 
 that this subject has ever been before us as a Church, 
 but at no time in our history have we been suf- 
 ficiently alive to its importance, and have too often 
 contented ourselves with the passage of resolutions, 
 or the "appointment of a committee," as to what 
 the Church, in its then novel and untried condition, 
 needed. I am not in any wise competent to say, 
 but, now we need something more tangible, more 
 real, more substantial than resolutions or committees 
 of investigation, we need money, subscribers, con- 
 tributors for the paper. My dear brethren, pardon 
 me for exhorting you throughout our connection to 
 wake up, work for our paper among the people, write 
 for the paper, encourage our worthy editor, and don't 
 leave him neglected to do so much work for us, but 
 lend him a helping hand. 
 
40 Origin and Early History. 
 
 The Conference, before adjourning, adopted the 
 following resolution, then found at the close of the 
 book of Discipline: 
 
 '•Resolved, unanimously, .That in view of the great 
 importance of this work of reformation, upon which 
 we have voluntarily entered, the hasty manner in 
 which it has been thus far prosecuted, and the imper- 
 fections which may consequently be found in it, we 
 reserve to ourselves the right and will do ourselves 
 and the cause we advocate the justice to call a con- 
 vention of delegates from all the churches in our 
 connection ; and that said Convention shall appoint 
 a committe, whose duty it shall be to revise this 
 work throughout critically, after which it shall be put 
 up permanently. Said Convention will be called as 
 soon as practicable." 
 
 The Conference appointed next District Confer- 
 ence to be held at Mt. Hope church, Spalding 
 county, Georgia. 
 
 This session of the Conference lasted three days, 
 and w r as a remarkably quiet and harmonious session. 
 It did much work and did it well, setting a worthy 
 example to the many similar Conferences to come 
 after it. 
 
John Goodrum. 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 41 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Having in the last chapter related the history of 
 the first District Conference, I propose here to follow 
 up the history of the District Conference at its vari- 
 ous sessions up to the formation of different District 
 Conferences and a State Conference in Georgia. 
 The idea of what the term " District " signified seems 
 at first to have been construed as indicating a Con- 
 gressional District ; accordingly, the heading of the 
 minutes of the first and second District Conference 
 designates the body as " the District Conference of 
 the Congregational Methodist Church for the Third 
 District of Georgia." After the third session, it was 
 no longer designated as of "the Third Congressional 
 District," but simply as " the District Conference of 
 the Congregational Methodist Church," and they 
 were certainly entitled to be called the District Con- 
 ference, as there was at that time no other organized 
 District Conference in the known world. All the 
 churches organized in Georgia, and even some in 
 Alabama, were connected with this District Confer- 
 ence. 
 
 The second session of this body was held at Mount 
 Hope church, Spalding county, about four and one- 
 half miles east of the city of Griffin, on the nth day 
 of December, 1852. A temporary organization was 
 effected by calling Rev. J. F. N. Huddleston to the 
 chair, and upon examination it was found that the 
 following delegates were present, with proper cre- 
 dentials to take their seats in the Conference, viz: 
 
42 Origin and Early History 
 
 From Rocky Creek— J. F. N. Huddleston, W. L. 
 Fambro, M. Merritt and H. Phinazee ; Rock Spring — 
 A. H. Reeves, Theo. Williams and C. G. Harper ; 
 Providence — W. F. Mapp ; New Hope — Daniel Car- 
 roll ; .Mount Hope — S. F. Speer and Thomas 
 Thrower. An election being held for permanent 
 officers, resulted in the election of William L. Fam- 
 bro as President, and Rev. Hiram Phinazee as Sec- 
 retary. 
 
 Brother Fambro, although a layman, had been 
 called to preside over the first meeting of the denom- 
 ination at brother Merritt's house, as before stated, 
 and was now called on to preside over the District 
 Conference, composed, in a large proportion, of min- 
 isters and the best talent in the young Church, and 
 such was the ability and zeal which he brought to 
 the discharge of his duty as a presiding officer, that 
 he was not only elected to preside over District 
 Conferences thereafter, but was the presiding officer 
 of the first State Conference ever organized, and 
 subsequently presided with ability over the General 
 Conference of the C. M. Church. I shall have more 
 to say about this good man hereafter, when I shall 
 have finished these historical sketches, and come to 
 present some pen portraits of the founders of Con- 
 ditional Methodism. 
 
 Four new churches sent delegates to this Confer- 
 ence, who were received and seated, viz: From New 
 Prospect, in Monroe county — Carey Cox and P. D. 
 Pringle ; .Mount /ion, Carroll county — J.C. Pearson; 
 Antioch and Mount Pisgah, in Alabama — James M. 
 Adams. In addition to the duly elected delegates, 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 43 
 
 as before stated, there were a large number of visit- 
 ing brethren, who were duly invited to seats as 
 honorary members of the body. Also, William 
 Griffin, John Bass and Isaiah Wallis, fraternal mes- 
 sengers of the Methodist Protestant Church, and 
 Rev. Mr. Reddingham, from the Lutheran Church. 
 Two-thirds of the members of this Conference were 
 laymen, showing a larger proportion of the lay ele- 
 ment than the Conference which had preceded it. 
 
 I suppose if some of the advocates of the theory of 
 the ministry governing by divine right, or some of 
 the opposers of lay representation, could have beheld 
 this Conference entering on their duties, they would 
 probably have adopted the language which a colored 
 preacher once said Adam used when he awoke up 
 out of his deep sleep, and " put on his specks and 
 looked at Eve," "This is a bad job." 
 
 Nathaniel was a good man, yet when approached 
 by one of his friends who informed him that the 
 promised Messiah had been found and he hailed 
 from Nazareth, asked with much of honest doubt, 
 
 II Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ?" So 
 in like manner those who had been educated to be- 
 lieve that the governing power of right rested in the 
 hands of the ministry, and that the laity had neither 
 the right nor the capacity to share in the government 
 of the Church, had serious misgivings of the success 
 of a government where the laity had the balance of 
 power. But their doubts were as unfounded as were 
 those of Nathaniel. And although there were not a 
 few who looked on at the part the little new Church 
 was taking in the battle of the ecclesiastical world 
 
44 Origin and Early History 
 
 against the power of darkness, and predicted its 
 early downfall and signal failure, the long and event- 
 ful years which have since intervened — eventful as 
 they have been — have left us a record of the labors 
 of these laymen in Conference, which demonstrates 
 that the confidence of their brethren was not mis- 
 placed when they chose these laymen to represent 
 them in Conference. 
 
 The time had now come when the world was to 
 have a demonstration of the fact that the masses of 
 Methodists were as capable of transacting the busi- 
 ness of their Church as the masses of other denomi- 
 nations, and the idea that nothing could be done 
 except by the ministry was now to be exploded, and 
 the great truth was to be discovered by both preach- 
 ers and people, that the function of the minister 
 would in chief be exercised in the pulpit, while the 
 layman was to labor in the peiv and in the govern- 
 ment of the Church. Christ was to be the Head 
 
 ♦ 
 
 and both the laity and the clergy were to be co- 
 workers, each in his proper sphere, doing the allotted 
 work, showing that one was not to exist without the 
 other, and that neither was independent of the 
 other, nor exalted above the other, but formed sepa- 
 rate parts in the grand and glorious whole, wherein 
 all things work together for the glory of God and the 
 good <>f 1 lis people. 
 
 The Conference was entertained by fraternal greet- 
 in gs between the representatives of the other sister 
 churches and those of the C. M. Church, and the 
 best and kindest of feeling prevailed. Theo. Williams 
 having been properly recommended for license to 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 45 
 
 exhort, was duly licensed as an exhorter by the Con- 
 ference. 
 
 J. C. Pearson, James M. Adams, J. F. N. Huddles- 
 ton, Robert Walker and W. A. McCune were ap- 
 pointed fraternal messengers to the next Conference 
 of the Lutheran Church in Georgia. The next 
 meeting of the Conference was appointed with the 
 church at Rock Spring, Monroe county, beginning 
 on Friday before the third Sabbath in May, 1853. 
 
 And thus ended the second session of the District 
 Conference. Seven months and three days had 
 passed from the meeting at brother Merritts to the 
 meeting of this Conference, and eventful months and 
 days they had been — months of watching, weeping, 
 praying and hoping on the part of the movers in this 
 " departure ;" months of persecution, bitterness and 
 distrust on the part of its enemies, and months of 
 anxious curiosity and speculation on the part of the 
 outside world. But the fathers of Congregational 
 Methodism took their cause " to the Lord in prayer," 
 and prosperity and advancement attended them, and 
 now the fire had spread until eleven churches came 
 from different sections of Georgia, and even from 
 Alabama, and stood by the side of the twelve indi- 
 viduals who joined hands at brother Merritt's, say- 
 ing, " Your God shall be my God ; where you dwell, 
 there will we dwell ; where you die, there will we 
 die, and there will we be buried." 
 
46 Origin and Early History 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 I come now to speak of the organization of the 
 first Congregational Methodist Church in the State 
 of Mississippi. In the fall of the year 1852, there 
 lived in Richmond county, Georgia, a local elder 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, by the 
 name of Henry T. Jones. During the fall of that 
 year this minister was attending a camp-meeting at 
 a camp-ground in the county of Jefferson, called 
 " Mt. Moriah." This camp-ground was within the 
 bounds of one of the districts of the Georgia Annual 
 Conference, of which Rev. John W. Glenn was the 
 Presiding Elder, who was present at the camp-meet- 
 ing. One day during the meeting Rev. H. T. Jones 
 had preached, and after preaching retired to the 
 preachers' tent <and was lying down resting, when 
 the Presiding Elder and a minister by the name of 
 Dunn, entered the tent, sat down near where Mr. 
 Jones was lying and began conversing on the subject 
 of general Church matters. During the conversation 
 the Presiding Elder said to Rev. Mr. Dunn that 
 "brother Ogletree and a number of others had with- 
 drawn from the Church and gone into a separate 
 organization." This much of the conversation Rev. 
 Mr. Jones accidentally heard, the tone and manner 
 of the conversation indicated to him that it was in- 
 tended to be private or confidential, and he did not 
 seek to hear more of it. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Jones had never been fully satisfied with 
 the government of the Church to which he belonged ; 
 
Congregational MctJwdist Church. 47 
 
 but it. came nearer to his standard of a Church — 
 all things considered — than any Church of which he 
 knew anything. Being a believer in the doctrine 
 of an unlimited atonement and free salvation to all 
 who would accept the terms of the gospel, the 
 Calvinistic creeds of the Baptist and Presbyterian 
 Churches forbade his identifying himself with them. 
 And believing in personal, heart-felt piety, and the 
 known power of experimental religion in the soul, 
 the formalism of the Episcopalians forbade his 
 uniting with that Church, while the government of the 
 Methodist Protestant Church was even more objec- 
 tionable to him than that of the M. E. Church, 
 South. Hence he had been waiting and watching 
 for some Church to make its appearance whose polity 
 as well as doctrines he could fully indorse, and 
 when this little fragment of information floated 
 across his path, like a little cloud across the sky, he 
 felt a longing desire to know more of it. But small 
 as the revelation was it told him two things : 
 1st, That a portion of the members of the M. 
 E. Church, South, in Georgia, had left that 
 church. And 2d, that brother Ogletree was one of 
 the members of the new Church. But still other 
 things must be known before this information would 
 avail him anything. 1. He did not know where the 
 new movement originated or was located. 2. He 
 did not even know the given or Christian name of 
 the only member of whom he had any information, 
 to-wit, brother Ogletree. 3. He knew nothing of 
 the character of the Church. But having long felt 
 the necessity of certain reforms in the government 
 
48 Origin ana 1 Early History 
 
 of the M. E. Church, South, and knowing that the 
 new Church was composed, in part, at least, of 
 others, who had become dissatisfied with said Church, 
 he fancied it was probable that they might have 
 shared his objections, and formed the new Church 
 with a view of meeting them. 
 
 At all events he wanted to learn more of this new 
 organization, but how to find out was the difficulty. 
 The tone and manner of the Presiding Elder in the 
 conversation before stated indicated that he spoke 
 of the matter confidentially, and hence he felt a del- 
 icacy to make inquiry of that functionary, and he 
 did not know any one else from whom the desired 
 information could be obtained. Shortly after this 
 Dr. Lovick Pierce, then stationed in the city of 
 Savannah, wrote a piece in the Southern CJiristian 
 Advocate in reply to certain charges which had been 
 laid at his door about the new organization, in which 
 he stated the name of the new Church, and that 
 those who took part in it lived in "a county above," 
 and were composed of a number of local preachers 
 and others of good name. 
 
 This additional information increased the desire of 
 brother Jones to know more of " the Congregational 
 Methodist Church and those local preachers and 
 others in a county above," etc., but still he desired 
 4< more light." 
 
 In the fall of that year brother Jones removed to 
 
 Jasper county, Miss., and while passing through 
 
 irgia, made diligent inquiry as to the post-office 
 
 address of brother Ogletree, and finally succeeded in 
 
 finding one man who could tell him where brother 
 
H. T. Jones. 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 49 
 
 Ogletree lived. After reaching his new home and 
 settling down he found some of his neighbors of the 
 same mind with himself as to a church organization, 
 combining all the elements of Methodist faith and 
 republican government. Brother Jones, therefore, 
 In the spring or early summer of 1853, wrote to 
 brother Ogletree at Forsyth, Ga., for information 
 about the Congregational Methodist Church, and in 
 reply brother Ogletree sent him several copies of the 
 little book of Discipline, with all other information 
 desired about the organization of the Church, etc. 
 Upon the receipt of these books brother Jones and 
 his neighbors, a few in number, finding in the new 
 movement the very features for which they had so 
 long looked and hoped, met at the house of L. J. 
 Jones, on the 29th day of July, 1853, and there or- 
 ganized with eight members the first Congregational 
 Methodist Church in the State of Mississippi, and I 
 beg leave to close this chapter by exhibiting a copy 
 of the preamble and minutes of that meeting as fur. 
 nished me by one of those who took part in the same. 
 It is as follows : 
 
 "A number of members of different branches of the Christian 
 Church, believing that the itinerant system, as at present carried 
 out by different branches of the Methodist Church, has alike 
 failed to meet the wants of the Church and the world, and be- 
 lieving the Congregational form of worship to be more in accord 
 with the Holy Scriptures, and more efficient in feeding the flock 
 of Christ as well as the spread of Scripture holiness, met at the 
 house of Lazarus J. Jones, Esq., on Friday, July 29th, 1853, 
 for the purpose of organizing a Congregational Methodist 
 Church. After reading the Scriptures and prayer by Rev. 
 James S. Terral, on motion brother Tcrral was called to tbe 
 chair, and brother L. J. Jones was requested to act as Secretary 
 
50 Origin and Early History 
 
 The following names from different denominations were then 
 enrolled as members : Rev. Jas S. Terral, Rev. Henry T. Jones, 
 Lazarus J. Jones, George W. Ryan, Seaborn W. Jones, Pleas- 
 ant Morris, Francis M. Jones and Mary S. Jones. 
 
 The Church was then organized by the election of Rev. Henry 
 T. Jones, Elder, brother S. W. Jones, Leader, Pleasant Morris, 
 Steward, and L. J. Jones, Clerk. The Church next proceeded 
 to adopt the Constitution and government of the Congregational 
 Methodist Church extant in the State of Georgia, 
 
 The third Sabbath in August and ihe Saturday before was the 
 time appointed for the next church meeting. After prayer by 
 Rev. H. T. Jones the meeting was dismissed. 
 
 Jas. S. Terral, Chairman. 
 L. J. Jones, Secretary. 
 
Coyigregational Methodist Church. 51 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The third District Conference held its session at 
 Rock Spring Church, Monroe county, beginning on 
 the 13th of May, 1853, the C. M. Church being then 
 one year and five days old. Nine churches were 
 represented at this Conference, Mt. Zion, in Car- 
 roll county, Georgia, and Mt. Pisgah and Antioch 
 churches in Alabama, having become connected with 
 District Conferences nearer home, sent no delegates 
 to this Conference. Providence church had changed 
 her name, and was enrolled among the churches this 
 session under the name of " High Falls." New 
 Prospect, having also changed, appeared under the 
 name of Sand Hill, the rest of the churches still re- 
 taining their former names. Liberty Hill, Jackson, 
 and Pleasant Grove, were admitted into the District 
 Conference and their delegates seated. The delega- 
 tion present was — from High Falls, W. P. Fambro ; 
 Jackson R. Shepherd, Jas. R. McCord ; Pleasant 
 Grove, D. P. Carson ; Liberty Hill, J. E. Potts; Mt. 
 Hope, S. F. Speer and Robert Walker ; Rock Spring, 
 Joshua Sheptrine, Theo. Williams, Robert Letson, 
 Jr.; Sand Hill, W. H. Bankston, P. D. Pringle ; 
 Rockey Creek, M. Merritt, and H. Phinazee. James 
 R. McCord was chosen President temporarily, and J. 
 F. N. Huddleston, temporary Secretary. Upon or- 
 ganizing permanently, Rev. H. Phinazee was elected 
 President, and James R. McCord, Secretary. Before 
 the close of the Conference, John Carriker, as a dele- 
 gate from Union church, Pike County, presented a 
 
}- 
 
 Origin and Early History 
 
 petition for admission into the Conference. The pe- 
 tition was granted and he was duly seated as a dele- 
 gate, making the aggregate number of churches in 
 the district ten. 
 
 The fourth session of this Conference was held at 
 Jackson, Butts county ; all ten of the churches were 
 duly represented, and the Conference began its ses- 
 sion on the 9th day of September, 1853. Rev. J. F. 
 Wethersbee, was chosen temporary President, and 
 Rev. H. Phinazee temporary Secretary. 
 
 The following delegates were present with proper 
 authority, and took part in the organization, viz.: 
 From Union church, Uriah Fincher ; New Hope, 
 Daniel Carroll and L. P. Culpeper ; Jackson, Isaac 
 W. Smith and John W. McCord ; Head's Academy, 
 (formerly Liberty Hill), John P. Hunt ; Fredonia, 
 (formerly Sand Hill) Carey Cox, M. Goodman and 
 Jackson Bush ; High Falls, J. F. N. Huddleston, and 
 Edward White ; Pleasant Grove, George W. Barber, 
 D. P. Carson and Thomas J. Giles; Rock Spring 
 Joshua Sheptrine and Robert Letson ; Mt. Hope, S. 
 F. Speer, V. Fish and Robert Walker; Mt. Zion 
 (formerly Rockey Creek), David Ogletree and H. 
 Phinazee. Rev. H. Phinazee was elected permanent 
 President, and Jas. R McCord, Secretary. John P. 
 Hunt, from Head's Academy, and Daniel Carroll, 
 from New Hope church, having been properly 
 recommended by their respective churches for li- 
 cense to preach, were examined by a committee ap. 
 pointed for that purpose by the Conference, and 
 e, in pursuance of the report and recommenda- 
 tion of thai committee, duly licensed by the Confer- 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 53 
 
 ence to preach. The licenses of brothers Uriah Fin- 
 cher, Travis Ivey, and John Ham as exhorters, were 
 renewed by the Conference, and brother Frederick 
 Pearce from Pleasant Grove, having been duly re- 
 commended by that church, was licensed to exhort. 
 
 The reports from the various churches sent up to 
 this Conference, showed that they were in a healthy 
 and growing condition, one church only reported the 
 same number of members as at the preceding Con- 
 ference, all others had increased their numbers. 
 Pleasant Grove, under the pastoral care of Rev. J. F. 
 N. Huddleston, led the van, her membership having 
 increased from twenty-five to sixty-five, while Fredo- 
 nia, under the pastoral care of Rev. Absalom Ogle- 
 tree, followed close behind with an increase of thirty- 
 one members, raising its former number of thirty- 
 eight to sixty-nine. Rock Spring from sixty-five had 
 reached ninety-three. Mt. Hope had received twenty- 
 three new members. New Hope eighteen, and all the 
 rest of the nine had increased more or less, the aggre- 
 gate increase in the district being one hundred and 
 sixty-one. 
 
 The first district Conference for the year 1854, 
 met at New Hope church, in Pike county. Rev. H. 
 Phinazee was temporary President, and John B. 
 Thurman temporary Secretary. The proceedings of 
 this session were quite interesting and perfectly har- 
 monious, the reports showed continued prosperity 
 and growth among the churches. This Conference 
 was in March, 1854, and was the last Conference 
 held during the third year of the existence of the C. 
 M. Church. And although the birth-day of the 
 
54 Origin and Early History 
 
 Church was "a day of small things, the Church now 
 represented by the delegates to this Conference, 
 showed that the hand of God had guarded them and 
 prospered them in their way. 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 55 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The progress of God's work is sometimes rapid, at 
 others very slow. Within less than seven months from 
 the organization of the first Congregational Metho- 
 dist church in Midle Georgia, the seed had sprung 
 up in the State of Alabama, whither they had been 
 wafted by favoring breezes, but it never gained a foot- 
 hpld in Florida until near the close of 1871, more 
 than 19 years from the time of the first meeting at 
 the house of brother Mickleberry Merritt. But such 
 has ever been the history of the Church, and proba- 
 bly the future will not differ from the past in this 
 particular. 
 
 In the year 1871, there lived in Alabama an old 
 minister by the name of Virgil Nichols, who was a 
 member of the C. M. Church. He was then very old 
 and poor, his family consisted of his aged wife, a 
 widowed daughter, Mrs. Eliza Morgan, and her three 
 little girls, Emma, Sarah and Rebecca. In the latter 
 part of 1 87 1 father Nichols conceived the idea of 
 moving to West Florida. And after making what 
 arrangements he could, started to move between one 
 and two hundred miles, with his helpless family and 
 all his earthly goods in an ox-cart, drawn by one ox. 
 Without stopping to speak of the privation, expos- 
 ure and fatigues of his long, slow and disagreeable 
 journey, I will content myself on this point by say- 
 ing, he reached the end of his journey near Portland, 
 Florida, about the 20th of December. Sick himself 
 with fever, his wife with rheumatism, and two of his 
 
56 Origin and Early History 
 
 little grand-daughters also sick, — without provisions, 
 without money — a stranger in a strange land. Here 
 was the first representation of the C. M. Church in 
 " the Land of Flowers." What a picture ! Here was 
 poverty, old age, widowhood, orphanage, and sick- 
 ness, under the same roof. And under that roof was 
 the hope of the C. M. Church for the future in that 
 sunny land, where the birds sing all the year round, 
 and the flowers bloom every month in the year. Rea- 
 der, do you see this picture? Look at the shadows 
 gathering about it. But lest you should not see the 
 light as well as the shade, let us drop the curtain for 
 a time and look at another picture. Near by this 
 place there lived a gentleman who, although a mar- 
 ried man, might be called a young man, financially 
 he was "well-to-do " in the world. Socially he was 
 beloved of his neighbors, morally he was in many res- 
 pects a model, but religiously he was deficient. From 
 what little I have learned and seen of him, I am in- 
 clined to the opinion that he had been converted 
 probably years before, but had not joined any Church. 
 I [is mother, who was a very good woman, had been a 
 member of the M. E. Church, South, but having look- 
 ed into its government and economy, became dissatis- 
 fied, and when she removed from Madison to West 
 Florida, took her letter and never would unite with 
 that Church again, and but for the organization of a 
 C. M. Church near where she lived, would, probably 
 never have united with any Church again. This man's 
 name wa II. Berry. 
 
 Shortly after father Nichols arrived, as before sta- 
 ted, the rumor that an old preacher and his family 
 
Rev. George H. Berry, 
 
 OF FLORIDA. 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 57 
 
 who had recently moved into the neighborhood were 
 sick, and in need, came to the ears of Mr. Berry, and 
 in obedience to the promptings of his heart, he went 
 to see them, little dreaming of the new chapter in 
 the Book of Life, which was about to begin with him. 
 In my imagination I see him enter that humble home, 
 and stand bewildered at the evidence of his eye- 
 sight. Upon his lowly bed he beheld the aged and 
 wasted servant of God, poor in earthly goods but 
 rich in faith, unconscious of the fact that this feeble 
 old man who was in need of food for his body, was 
 ere long to minister to him in spiritual things, and that 
 it was to be through such an humble instrument that 
 God was to bless him, with the full enjoyment of 
 the bread spiritual which cometh down from Heaven. 
 There is a world of glory and brightness in Gods 
 manifestations. These two men thrown together 
 by circumstances, seemed the counterpart of each 
 other, neither able to do much by himself, but each 
 possessing the special qualification which the other 
 lacked, like the blind traveler and the lame beggar, 
 unable to travel separate, but exactly suited to go to- 
 gether, bearing each others burdens, and thus fulfill- 
 ing the law of Christ. Mr. Berry supplied the wants 
 of the destitute and afflicted family as far as he could, 
 received the thanks and gratitude of their hearts, and 
 went back to his home followed by their payers and 
 blessings, leaving the family profoundly impressed 
 with the care which God takes of his children. 
 While Mr. Berry felt not only a sense of a duty dis- 
 charged, but also a mysterious interest in that old 
 man upon his sick bed, and perhaps wondering, like 
 
58 Origin and Early History 
 
 Cornelius when he saw a vision at what all this should 
 portend. The old and suffering saint had told him 
 he belonged to the "Congregational Methodist 
 Church." Mr. Berry had never before heard of such 
 a church; there was something like a charm in the 
 name to him. Question after question about its 
 doctrines, its usages, its government, where it origi- 
 nated, etc., came crowding into his mind, but the suff- 
 erer was too feeble and to much in need of rest to an- 
 swer them now, hence he must wait. 
 
 And now, reader, when for the third time we look 
 into that humble home, we see a little light mingling 
 with the shade, and yet, perhaps, you may ask can 
 anything considerable come from such feeble instru- 
 mentalities? To which I answer, come with me to 
 the sequel and you shall see in the next chapter, and 
 learn that 
 
 " God moves in a mysterious way, 
 His wonders to perform 
 
 He plants his footsteps in the sea 
 And rides upon the storm." 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 59 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The acquaintance between father Nichols and his 
 new friend grew with each visit of Mr. Berry to his 
 house. Rest and kind attention cheered, comforted 
 and strengthened the aged Christian. As soon as 
 his returning strength would permit, he began to 
 preach whenever and wherever opportunity was 
 offered. His preaching created considerable stir. 
 Some objected to him because he was what they 
 called a new light ; others said he was too old to 
 preach, while others became interested in his 
 preaching. Father Nichols seemed to have a special, 
 earnest desire for the salvation of Mr. Berry, and 
 frequently approached him on the subject of religion, 
 but met with little encouragement. But one day he 
 handed Mr. Berry a copy of the C. M. Discipline, 
 and specially requested him to read it. This Mr. 
 Berry consented to do. The perusal of that little 
 book was attended with great interest in the mind 
 of Mr. Berry. In it he found the good old Meth- 
 odist doctrines, which had been taught him by his 
 good mother, and a government so just, evenly bal- 
 anced, and Republican in every feature, that his 
 judgment at once indorsed the whole thing, as com- 
 bining the best faith and government he had ever 
 seen, and soon afterward he gladdened the heart of 
 father Nichols by telling him that whenever he 
 joined any church it would be the C. M. Church. 
 
 Father Nichols now began to try for an organiza- 
 tion, but difficulties gathered about him, which 
 
60 Origin and Early History 
 
 would have deterred many a younger man, and indeed 
 any man whose heart was not "fixed" and although 
 he perhaps felt almost like Elijah in the desert, he 
 nevertheless pressed forward, resolved to succeed if 
 possible. Finally he determined to make the ven- 
 ture. He accordingly made a visit up into middle 
 Alabama, and while passing through Louisville, 
 called on Dr. D. A. Murdock, a minister of the C. M. 
 Church ; also brother Haines, of New Topia, and in- 
 duced those good brethren to promise to visit the 
 community where he lived and preach. From what 
 father Nichols had told them, these brethren felt 
 peculiarly impressed that it was their duty to go. 
 Accordingly they wrote to Mr. Berry (whose address 
 had been furnished them by father Nichols), request- 
 ing him to give notice at his mill that they would 
 begin a meeting at a church nearby, called " Union," 
 on Saturday before the third Sunday in October, 1 872. 
 As the appointed time drew near for these brethren 
 to leave home and start on their long journey of 130 
 miles, difficulties began to gather about them, and 
 the nearer the day came the more and greater were 
 the obstacles in the way. Dr. Murdock said it really 
 seemed that lie could not go, and still the Spirit im- 
 pressed him that he must go. Finally the time to 
 start came, with a heavy practice and several patients 
 seriously sick ; he resolved to leave all in the hands 
 of God, and go in obedience to the Macedonian cry, 
 the echoes of which they heard coming from Florida, 
 "Come and help us." They reached their destina- 
 tion in good time, began the meeting at the time 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 61 
 
 designated, and had a glorious meeting, and before 
 they left organized the first C. M. church ever con- 
 stituted in Florida, consisting of seven members — 
 two males and five females, and included in that 
 number was George H. Berry. This little flock 
 organized October 20, 1872, and called father Nichols 
 as their pastor. 
 
 From the day that father Nichols landed in Florida, 
 he had watched and waited to see the Church which 
 he loved so well planted in that State, and from the 
 day that George H. Berry came like " the good 
 Samaritan " to visit the afflicted and feed the hun- 
 gry of his household, he had not ceased to pray that 
 he might enter fully into that service, for which he 
 believed he would be so well fitted, if his heart was 
 only full of God's love. And now, like good old 
 Simeon waiting for the consolation of Israel, wan- 
 dering in the temple one morning and seeing the 
 promised "Child Redeemer," felt that life's labor 
 was ended, so father Nichols, having seen the C. M. 
 Church established in " the Land of Flowers," and 
 his kind friend Berry taking his stand as a member 
 of that Church and a servant of God, looked com- 
 placently for life's sun-set to come and put a period 
 to his labors and trials, and soon it came. On the 
 24th of December, 1872, the Great Captain, under 
 whose command he had so long and so faithfully 
 fought, called him back from the face of the foe, and 
 the old soldier, scarred, weary and wasted with life's 
 long conflicts, stacked his arms and laid down his 
 well-worn armor on life's last and brightest battle- 
 
62 Origin and Early History 
 
 field, and went home a conqueror, while the angel 
 choir sang — 
 
 "Soldier of Cbrist, well done." 
 
 The little church so recently organized, so few in 
 numbers, and feeble in earthly resources, with only 
 six members — five of these females, and three of the 
 females widows and one an orphan — found themselves 
 without a pastor and 120 miles from the nearest 
 church of their ''faith and order," and to make their 
 condition more unhappy, the devil had kindled the 
 fire of persecution around them on every side. But 
 this only served to bind them closer to each other, 
 and to make them feel more intensely their utter 
 dependence on the hand of their Heavenly Father, 
 and, like the disciples who were gathered together 
 praying for the deliverance of Peter from prison, 
 this little band prayed continually that God would 
 send them help. They petitioned the nearest Dis- 
 trict Conference for a preacher, but no answer came. 
 Finally God moved upon the heart of brother Berry, 
 who began, under the promptings of the Holy Spirit, 
 to conduct meetings for the little flock, and finally, 
 in May, 1873, when the General Conference met at 
 Mount Jefferson, Alabama, brother Berry was there 
 (having been properly recommended for ordination), 
 and on Sunday, the 1 2th day of May, was solemnly 
 ordained to the office of Elder in the Church of God. 
 
 Immediately upon his return the little church of 
 Jlvr wonun called him to be their pastor. He ac- 
 cepted, and entered upon his duty "trembling" but 
 trusting. 
 
Congregational Methodist Church, 63 
 
 God has greatly blessed and prospered his labors, 
 and the little church has increased until there are to- 
 day in West Florida six churches with 240 members, 
 three ordained ministers and seven exhorters, and 
 the good work goes on. And many there are all 
 over that country who bless the day when father 
 Nichols came to make his home in that section. 
 
64 Origin and Early History 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Second District Conference in Georgia for 
 the year 1854, met with the church at Pleasant Grove 
 on the first day of September. S. F. Speer, of Mount 
 Hope church was elected as temporary President, 
 and J. R. McCord, of Jackson, temporary Secretary. 
 The following delegates were reported present 
 with proper certificates, viz : From Pleasant Grove, 
 Thomas J. Giles, David P. Carson and John B. 
 Thurman ; Mount Zion, Absalom Ogletree, Travis 
 Ivey, Hiram Phinazee and Wm. L. Fambrough ; 
 New Hope, Jas. Lefsey and Daniel Carroll ; Union, 
 Uriah Fincher; Jackson, J. R. McCord and Caswell 
 Ethridge ; Fredonia, William E. Potts, Jas. A. 
 Means and Jas. Brazier; Rock Spring, Joshua Shep- 
 trine, Robert Letson, Peter Nicholson and Wm. P. 
 Sheptrine ; Mount Hope, Robert Walker, Washing- 
 ton Warren and Simeon F. Speer; Providence, J. F. 
 N. Huddleson and W. F. Mapp ; Mount Pleasant, 
 Jesse Waddell; and Liberty, W. A. Walker. The 
 election of permanent officers resulted in the choice 
 <>f Rev. Absalom Ogletree, President, and Jas. R. Mc- 
 Cord, Secretary. J no. Bass, C. S. Leseur and Mc- 
 Kendree Tuckei*, were present as fraternal messen- 
 gers from the Methodist Protestant Church. Rev. 
 John A. Hurst and Peter M. Roland, were present 
 as visiting brethren from the C. M. Church in Ala- 
 bama. 
 
 At the time of this Conference I was a youth of 
 seventeen, and a member of the church where the 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 65 
 
 Conference was held, and will here record some of 
 my recollections of the visiting and fraternal breth- 
 ren. 
 
 My recollection of brother Leseur of the fraternal 
 delegates M. P. Church is limited, I remember but 
 very little, indeed, so little, that I can only say I 
 thought him a very proper person to be sent on such a 
 mission. Brother John Bass was a layman, grave and 
 dignified in manner, and noble and commanding in 
 appearance, he was indeed a fine specimen of the 
 elegant, cultivated, Christian gentleman, his conver- 
 sational powers were very fine, and I then felt it 
 would be a privilege hard to be valued, to associate 
 with him. Brother McKendree Tucker was a minis- 
 ter, then in the prime of life, and at the zenith of his 
 usefulness. I remember to-day distinctly, how I sat 
 with delight and listened to two sermons from him 
 during that meeting. In the beginning of his dis- 
 course those not accustomed to his preaching, would 
 be impressed with the idea that his capacity was quite 
 limited. During the first ten minutes after an- 
 nouncing his text, he would proceed as though his 
 subject had not been digested, and it would seem 
 that he was entering upon a rambling talk, rather 
 than a well arranged sermon, and even his voice ap- 
 peared to be not subject to control ; but as he ad- 
 vanced he seemed to catch inspiration, and the longer 
 he preached, the deeper he plunged into his subject, 
 and the higher he soared in his illustrations, clearer, 
 louder and sweeter his clarion voice would reach 
 every corner, and impress every ear in the house ; 
 you could but seldom see anybody asleep while 
 
66 Origin and Early History 
 
 brother Tucker was preaching, nobody could afford 
 to sleep on such an occasion. And when he would 
 take his seat, you would rarely hear any objection 
 urged to the sermon, except that it was too short. I 
 never saw brother Tucker until that meeting, but I 
 learned to love him much then, and I have been ever 
 since learning to love him more. 
 
 Brother Hurst was an old man, white haired and 
 venerable, he appeared to grace the sacred stand 
 as much as any man I ever saw. He delighted in 
 his Master's work and loved nothing else so much as 
 duty. His sermons were plain and practical and 
 pointed. He never gathered flowers of fancy to 
 weave into the web of his discourses, but he could 
 tell, with wondrous power, the old, old story of the 
 Cross. And sometimes when he would come to 
 speak of the Heavenly Canaan, he would impress 
 his hearers with the heavenly brightness which ap- 
 peared that morning when Moses stood alone upon 
 Pisgah's summit, and feasted his eyes upon the earthly 
 Canaan until he had been prepared to look upon the 
 matchless beauty of the Heavenly Land. He was 
 indeed a grand old man, and a noble preacher. 
 Brother Rowland was then quite a young man, and 
 I believe had not been licensed to preach ; he was in 
 appearance tall and awkward, and yet he seemed to 
 have a kind of personal magnetism about him, that 
 made everybody who came in contact with him love 
 him. Brother Rowland is still living, and is one of 
 the most useful ministers belonging to our Church. 
 I have not space to say more of these brethren now, 
 
Congregational Methodist CJiureh. 
 
 but I hope to be able to write more at length about 
 some ^ if not all of them, before a great while. 
 
 A resolution calling a Convention at Mount Ziun 
 in the spring of 1855, was adopted by this Confer- 
 ence. The Church now having taken root in the 
 three States of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, it 
 was thought advisable to call a Convention of all the 
 churches to revise the Discipline. By another reso- 
 lution the Methodist Protestant Church was invited 
 to send delegates to that Convention. And Revs. 
 H. Phinazee, A. Ogletree, J. F. N. Huddleston, and 
 John P. Hunt, with brothers O. P. Willis, M. Merritt, 
 and W. A. McCune, of the laity, were appointed 
 fraternal messengers to visit the next session of the 
 Georgia Annual Conference of the M. P. Church. 
 
 And thus closed the last Conference for the third 
 year of the existence of the new Church, and the 
 ''little flock" "thanked God and took courage." 
 
68 Origin and Early History 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 From 1852 to 1872 no organization under the 
 Congregational Methodist Discipline had even been 
 effected in the State of Missouri ; indeed prior to 
 that time, the news of the origin or existence of such 
 a Church, even, does not appear to have reached that 
 State ; so studiously had the publication of what had 
 started in Georgia and spread to Alabama, Missis- 
 sippi and other States been avoided, that the good 
 people of this growing young State had not so much 
 as heard that such an organization existed at all. 
 
 There lived in 1873, near Marquand, Missouri, a 
 minister of the M. E. Church, South, who belonged 
 to the local ranks, and was a man of some promi- 
 nence in that Church, by the name of Reuben Watts. 
 Brother Watts had long been dissatisfied with the 
 episcopacy and itineracy of his Church, but did not 
 know of any organization where he could be better 
 suited, and therefore had made the best he could of 
 his unpleasant position as local preacher, and sub- 
 mitted to the snubbing and slights which usually 
 fall to the lot of that class of good men in that 
 Church, believing that what could not be cured must 
 needs be endured. 
 
 At the time referred to brother Watts was a sub- 
 scribe'- to the Christian Advocate published in the 
 city of St. Louis, and then edited by Dr. McAnnally. 
 In May, 1873, tnc editor of the Advocate gave in the 
 shape of an editorial, a brief outline of the form of 
 ernment of the different branches of the Metho- 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 69 
 
 dist Church, and among the rest the form of govern- 
 ment of the C. M. Church. As the eye of brother 
 Watts fell on this outline of the Congregational 
 
 Methodist Church government, he at once recog- 
 nized the features of government in a Methodist 
 church which he had long since endorsed, and which 
 were in full accord with his own views. 
 
 There were quite a number of ministers and mem- 
 bers of the M.E. Church, South, in the same com- 
 munity, who were not satisfied with episcopal power 
 and itinerant rule, as indeed there are in every 
 community (almost) where they have an organi- 
 zation. To some of these brother Watts commu- 
 nicated the information gathered, as before stated, 
 from the Christian Advocate. Among the latter 
 may be mentioned Rev. Wm. Watts and Rev. L. P. 
 Yount. By some means (I cannot exactly say how) 
 brother Yount ascertained that Rev. Eppes Tucker 
 of Opelika, Ala., was then publishing the CONGRE- 
 GATIONAL Methodist, the organ of the C. M. 
 Church, and wrote to him for some copies of his 
 paper. These were forwarded, and a careful perusal 
 of the same resulted in a more earnest desire to know 
 more of the Church ; hence brother Yount wrote to 
 brother Tucker for three copies of the C. M. Church 
 Discipline. These were promptly forwarded and 
 duly received. Earnestly searching for a Methodist 
 organization with whose government they would be 
 satisfied, but unwilling to take any hasty or unad- 
 vised step, these good men carefully studied and 
 closely scanned every feature of the C. M. Church 
 Discipline. Finally, after long and patient study 
 
JO Origin and Early History 
 
 and much earnest prayer to God for direction, they 
 declared their convictions one to the other, that the 
 C. M. Church was the long looked-for thing — "a 
 church with Methodist doctrines and republican gov- 
 ernment. 1 * 
 
 This feeling was not confined to one community,but 
 the three little books were passed from house to house, 
 and from neighborhood to neighborhood, and large 
 numbers of Methodists became enlisted in the move- 
 ment which was about to begin in that State. Finally 
 during the first month of the year 1874, the Mis- 
 souri brethren resolved to take action in the pre- 
 mises, and on the 31st day of January of that year 
 brother Reuben Watts organized the first Congrega- 
 tional Methodist Church in Missouri, at Patton, Bel- 
 linger county, with eleven members. Four days 
 later he organized a second church at Rock Point, 
 with sixteen members, and the following week he or- 
 ganized the third one at Pleasant Valley, with a 
 membership of twenty-four. 
 
 On the 2 1 st of July, 1879, brother R. Watts, then 
 upon his bed and near the shore of eternity, wrote 
 me in reference to the condition of the Church as 
 follows; referring to the first organization of the C. 
 M. Church in Missouri, he said: " Since which time 
 we have most gloriously prospered, amid all the hard 
 ayings and persecutions that a Christian people 
 ever underwent." 
 
 Rev. Eppes Tucker visited Missouri not long after 
 the first start of Congregational Methodism there, 
 and did -nme effective work for the Church there. 
 Prosperity has attended the labors of our ministry, 
 and they rejoice in the blessings of "peace." 
 
( ongregational Methodist ( 'kurch. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The first District Conference for the year 1855 
 met with the church at Providence, in Monroe county, 
 Georgia. 
 
 The following were the delegates in attendance : 
 
 From Providence — John Ham, John E. Pettagrew, 
 William Scarborough, B. M. Huddleston and H. B- 
 Fletcher. 
 
 From Jackson — R. F. Gilmore. 
 
 Pleasant Grove — F. M Wise, Stephen Moore, D. 
 P. Carson, T. B. McCune and S. C. McDaniel. 
 
 Mt. Zion — Wm. L. Fambro, George Edwards and 
 David Ogletree. 
 
 Fredonia — W. H. Bankston, Cary Cox and P. D. 
 Pringle., 
 
 Rock Spring — Absalom Ogletree, Theo. Williams, 
 A. Hodge and C. G. Harper. 
 
 New Hope — Lewis Culpepper and Daniel Carroll. 
 
 Mt. Pleasant — Jesse Waddell and John Roper. 
 
 Union — William H. Graham. 
 
 Liberty Hill — James Potts. 
 
 Rev. Cary Cox was elected President, and David 
 Ogletree, Secretary. 
 
 Mt. Carmel C. M church, located in Crawford 
 county, made application for admission into the Con- 
 ference. The church was duly admitted, and brother 
 M. Ogletree, her delegate, seated. 
 
 Brother Jesse Waddell having been properly recom. 
 mended by his church (Mt. Pleasant), was granted 
 license to exhort. 
 
J 2 Origin and Early History 
 
 The aggregate membership of the district now 
 reached nearly six hundred. 
 
 This Conference met on the 23d day of March. 
 
 The next District Conference met with the church 
 at Fredonia, Monroe county, on the 7th of Septem- 
 ber, 1855. The following delegates attended: 
 
 From Fredonia — Carey Cox, Jackson Bush and 
 W. H. Bankston. 
 
 From Mt. Zion — H. Phinazee, W. L. Fambro and 
 Mickelberry Merritt. 
 
 From Providence — Edward White and J. F. N. 
 Huddleston. 
 
 From Rock Spring — Absalom Ogletree. 
 
 From Mt. Hope — W. Warren and W. Orear. 
 
 From New Hope — Daniel Carroll and Lewis Cul- 
 pepper. 
 
 From Union — Uriah Fincher. 
 
 From Philadelphia (formerly Liberty Hill) — J. E. 
 Potts. 
 
 From Mt. Pleasant — Jesse Waddell. 
 
 From Pleasant Grove — John B. Thurman, John S. 
 McDaniel and George W. Barber. 
 
 From Jackson — Lory Goddard. 
 
 From Mt. Carmel— W. V. Gordon. 
 
 W. L. Fambro was elected President and H. Phin- 
 azee, Secretary. John S. McDaniel of Pleasant 
 Grove, and Uriah Fincher, of Union, having been 
 recommended by their respective churches for li- 
 cense to preach were duly examined by the Confer- 
 ence and received license. 
 
 The license of Daniel Carrol and John P. Hunt 
 were renewed. Pleasant Hill, C. M. church, of 
 
IBfr'V 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 73 
 
 Upson county, made application and was admitted 
 into the Conference. 
 
 The next session of this body met at New Hope 
 church, in Pike county, March 7, 1856, and was 
 composed of the following delegates : 
 
 Jackson Bush, W. H. Bankston, P. D. Pringle, T- 
 W. Moye, Daniel Carroll, L. P. Culpepper, Theo. 
 Williams, M. Byrd, Edward White, Wm. P. Fambro, 
 W. L. Fambro, W. H. Graham, William Gregory, 
 S. C. McDaniel and Bolden Brown. 
 
 William L. Fambro was elected President and 
 Thomas W. Moye, Secretary. 
 
 Among other regular business this Conference 
 elected and ordained Daniel Carroll an Elder, he 
 having been properly recommended by New Hope 
 church of which he was member. And after going 
 through with the regular order of business the Con- 
 ference resolved itself into a State Conference re- 
 taining the same officers. 
 
 The President appointed a committee of seven 
 viz: Carey Cox, W. H. Graham, Theo. Williams, 
 W. T. Fambro, T. W. Moye, L. P. Culpepper and 
 B. Brown to divide the churches into districts. 
 
 The Committee reported that they recommend 
 that the churches be divided into two districts to 
 be called the Towaliga and Flint River Districts. 
 That the churches of New Market, Pleasant Grove, 
 New Providence, Rock Spring, Philadelphia and Mt. 
 Zion compose the Towaliga district, and the churches 
 of Mt. Pleasant, Pleasant Hill, New Hope, Mt. 
 Hope and Mt. Carmel, Fredonia and Union com- 
 pose the Flint River district. 
 
74 Origin and Early History 
 
 The report of the Committee was adopted. 
 
 The Conference then elected the following dele- 
 gates to the General Conference to be held at Mt. 
 Zion, Monroe county, Georgia, in May of that year, 
 viz : H. Phinazee, A. Ogletree, C. Cox, W. A. Mc- 
 Cune, W. I... Fambro W. P. Fambro and M. Merritt. 
 
 And now having traced this movement from its 
 inception to this point, I shall not follow it further. 
 I shall take one step backwards to notice the Con- 
 vention of 1855 and then leave the matter to some 
 abler pen to write the regular history of the Congre- 
 gational Methodist Church. 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 75 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 I now come to write of one of the most impor- 
 tant incidents in the history of our Church, to-wit: 
 the Convention of 1855 I however approach tin's 
 part of my duty more reluctantly than I have any 
 other part of it in this matter, for the reason that I 
 do not possess sufficient information about the com- 
 position or the action of that august and important 
 assemblage, to write about it in a manner at all cred- 
 itable. More than once I have almost determined 
 to say nothing about that Convention, fearing that 
 an effort to write about such a Convention without 
 more information than I have been able to gather, 
 would be worse than no history at all. But having 
 started, I feel now that it would be manifestly im- 
 proper to close my labors without referring to the 
 Convention of 1S55. 
 
 It will be remembered that the first district Con- 
 ference ever held, passed a resolution stating in sub- 
 stance that from the hurried manner in which the first 
 book of Discipline was gotten up, a Convention of all 
 the churches would be called as soon as circumstances 
 authorized it to revise the Discipline for permanent 
 use. Accordingly in 1854 when the Church had 
 taken hold in different parts of Georgia, Alabama, 
 and Mississippi, the district Conference in Georgia 
 passed a resolution calling such a Convention to 
 meet at Mt. Zion, in the spring of the next year. 
 And in obedience to this call, the different churches 
 throughout the entire conection elected delegates to 
 
j6 Origin and Early History 
 
 said Convention which met on the day of 
 
 1855. William L. Fambro, who had been the Presi- 
 dent of first district Conference and one of the " orig- 
 inal" movers in this direction, was in every way an 
 appropriate person for the Presidency of this impor- 
 tant body of Christians, to which he was unani- 
 mously called by his brethren. 
 
 One of the most important committees appointed 
 by this body, was the Committee on Revisals. That 
 Committee consisting of nine members, was filled 
 with three of the ablest delegates from each of the 
 three States of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, 
 viz: J. F. N. Huddleston, Absalom Ogletree and 
 William A. McCune, of Georgia ; John A. Hurst, 
 James M. Adams and Robert D. Kennedy, of Ala- 
 bama, and L. J. Jones, Henry T. Jones and Willis 
 Windham, of Mississippi. Tnis able Committee 
 after patient, earnest, laborious effort as the result of 
 their labors, reported to the Conference the follow- 
 ing seven paragraphs as embodying the foundation 
 principles of the C. M. Church, as a distinctive de- 
 nomination of Christians. 
 
 1. "The fundamental doctrines of the Christian Church, 
 while they do not furnish the form, maintain the principles 
 which should serve as the basis of all church governments. 
 Therefore, as Methodists, we believe that so far as the chances 
 of the human family for eternal happiness is concerned, we are 
 equal by creation, equal by preservation, and equal by redemp 
 tion, and that all, from the highest to the lowest, who are 
 broughl to a saving knowledge of the truth, arc: upon a princi- 
 ple of equality required to comply with the same terms and con- 
 ditions. 
 
 2. "If the responsibility of carrying out the great command, 
 •Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. yy 
 
 creature,' devolves upon the membership in general, justice to 
 them, as accountable beings, demands that they should be left 
 free to discharge their moral responsibilities in this respect, 
 according to the light which God may impart to them, and not 
 be compelled to adopt such plans as may be suggested or dic- 
 tated by those who falsely claim to rule and govern them by 
 divine right. 
 
 3. "We regard the doctrine that the ministry rule and govern 
 the Church by divine right, as not only unauthorized by the 
 Word of God, but that its general dissemination among the 
 people, and especially among the youth of our land, is well cal- 
 culated, if not counteracted, to pervert their views of govern- 
 ment generally, and might end, in time, in a desire on their part 
 to apply the principle to our civil institutions— for it is difficult 
 to maintain, with even a show of consistency, that a principle 
 inculcated by the Bible, and which works well in the Church 
 government, would be either wrong, or work injuriously in the 
 affairs of State. 
 
 4. "The doctrine that ihe ministry rule and govern the Church 
 by divine right, we regard as wholly irreconcilable with a gov- 
 ernment composed of itinerant ministers only; for it is admitted 
 by all who maintain the truth of such a doctrine, that it is 
 through their call to the ministry that they receive this right 
 to rule and govern; and yei these same denominations have 
 had the hardihood to contravene the discharge of the duties 
 imposed by this divine authority, by the adoption of such reg- 
 ulations in church polity as to exclude all excepting regular 
 itinerants, not only from the right to rule and govern, but even 
 from taking the pastoral charge of churches. We regard such 
 degrading distinctions between regularly ordained ministers, 
 as not only unauthorized by the Word of God, but highly det- 
 rimental in feeding the flock of Christ. 
 
 5. "A Church government, one branch of which is perma- 
 nently vested in the ministry and placed beyond the reach and 
 control of the people, we regard as maintaining the divine right 
 doctrine in a modified form; for if the Bible makes it essential 
 that a minister should hold a seat in all the organizations of the 
 Church, by virtue of his office as such, he evidently holds it by 
 divine right. 
 
 6. "The itinerant system, as at present carried out by differ- 
 
78 Origin and Early History 
 
 ent branches of the Methodist Church, we regard as an unsafe 
 reliance in the preservation of the doctrines of our beloved 
 Methodism; for it has long since become manifest, that the 
 people cannot be induced to attend preaching on week-d ty ap- 
 pointments, to any considerable extent, and therefore impossible 
 to keep Methodist doctrines before them; and but for the inter- 
 vention of our Church, which adopts Saturday and Sunday 
 preaching, many communities would be left under the influences 
 of doctrines which we regard as detrimental to their spiritual 
 prosperity. 
 
 7. "The plan at present provided for in our Book of Discip- 
 line, of sending out missionaries, in our own as well as foreign 
 lands, we think all the itinerancy necessary to enable us, as a 
 denomination, to occupy all the ground; a duty which we 
 think devolves upon every branch of the Christian Church. 
 
 This able report was written by a layman viz : L. 
 J. Jones, of Mississippi, now the editor of " The 
 Congregational Methodist." The substance of the 
 report having been agreed on by the Committee, 
 brother Jones, at their request, put it in shape — and 
 when he presented it to the Committee they were 
 so well pleased with it that they adopted it without 
 a single change. 
 
 The report of this Committee was approved by 
 the Convention, and with these fundamental princi- 
 ples thus adopted and settled, as the basis of the 
 distinctive features by the representatives of the 
 Congregational Methodist Church, that humble 
 Church, the child of so many prayers, of so many 
 prayers and tears, of so many good men, took its 
 stand among the Christian denominations, to take 
 part in the great battle for religion and right. 
 
 And with these fundamental doctrines thus adop- 
 ted, the C. M. Church has ever since been satisfied. 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 79 
 
 Seven out of nine of the good men who composed 
 that Committee, have ended their mortal strife, and 
 now rest from their labors, two alone remain. But 
 their work still lives to-day, twenty thousand Con- 
 gregational Methodists delight in the record of that 
 Committee on Revisals, and many who do not be 
 long to the C. M. Church indorse every word of 
 those seven paragraphs. Methodism has been plan 
 ted where an Episcopal or a semi Episcopal Method 
 ist church could not have lived, many useful ministers 
 who would never have submitted to the degrading 
 distinctions in other branches of the Methodist 
 Church, are doing valiant service for God in the 
 ranks of the C. M. Church. And still the good work 
 goes on. But my task is done, imperfectly done 
 though it may be. 
 
CONSTITUTION 
 
 — OR 
 
 SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 1. This Church shall be called the Congregational Methodist 
 Church, and all the churches in her connection shall be congre- 
 gational in their system of worship. 
 
 2. Christ, only, is the Head of the Church, and the Word of 
 God is the only rule of faith and conduct, 
 
 3. A Christian Church is a society of believers in our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and is of Divine institution. 
 
 4. No person who loves God, and obeys the Gospel of Christ, 
 ought to be deprived of Church membership. 
 
 5. Every man has an inalienable right to private judgment in 
 matters of religion, and all have an equal right to express their 
 opinions in any way that will not violate the laws of God, or 
 the rights of man. 
 
 6. Church trials shall be conducted on Gospel principles, only, 
 and no minister or member shall be excommunicated, except for 
 immorality, propagating unscriptural doctrine, or the neglect of 
 duties enjoined by the Word of God. 
 
 7. The Pastoral or Ministerial office and duties are of Divine 
 appointment, and regularly ordained ministers in the Church 
 are equal. 
 
 8. All power necessary in the formation of rules and regula- 
 tions of government and discipline is inherent in the ministers 
 and members of the Church; but so much of that power may be 
 delegated from time to time, by representation, as the Church 
 may judge necessary and proper. 
 
82 System of Government 
 
 9. The Church has the right to make and enforce such rules 
 and regulations only as are necessary and proper, and which 
 shall accord with the Holy Scriptures, in the maintenance of the 
 great system of practical Christianity. 
 
 10. It is the duty of all ministers and members to maintain 
 godliness and to oppose all moral evil. 
 
 11. It is obligatory on ministers of the Gospel to be faithful 
 in the discharge of their ministerial and pastoral duties, and also 
 on the members to esteem them highly for their work's sake, 
 and to render them a righteous compensation for their labors. 
 
 12. No person shall be received into the Church without the 
 consent of a majority of the members present. 
 
 13. The Church shall have the right to elect her own officers 
 annually, which shall be an Elder, Class-leader, Deacon or 
 Steward, and Clerk; and also to convene her membership at 
 pleasure for the purpose of transacting her own business; and 
 such body, when convened, shall be denominated the Church 
 Conference. 
 
 14. The Church Conferences shall be held monthly, and on 
 Saturday before a certain stated Sabbath which may best suit 
 the views and interests of the congregation, unless important 
 business render a called session necessary, in which case, the 
 Church may meet in conference at pleasure. 
 
 15. The Church Conference shall have the right and power to 
 inquire into the moral conduct of her members— to call before 
 her offenders, and witnesses competent to testify, and also to 
 procure such other evidence as may be necessary in the final 
 settlement of any case; to admonish; to rebuke; to suspend; to 
 expel from the Church; to receive members into the Church; to 
 recommend suitable persons for license to preach or exhort; to 
 elect delegates to the District Conferences; to issue appeals and 
 make references to the District Conferences when necessary; 
 and to watch over, as well as pray for, the well-being and pros- 
 perity of Zion. 
 
 16. Corresponding and visiting brethren shall be entitled to 
 seats in Church Conference, and may deliberate and advise, but 
 cannot vote in the decision of any case or question. 
 
 17. It, shall be the duty of the Conference to keep a full and 
 fair record of its proceedings, and to send up to the District 
 Conference all appeals and references properly authenticated, 
 
Congregational Methodist Church, 83 
 
 together with a report of the number of accessions, expulsions, 
 deaths, and numb 3 r of members in society, and any other infor- 
 mation that Should come before that body at each session or 
 term. 
 
 18. The Elder or pastor of the church shall preside as < hair- 
 man or Moderation at each Church Conference, unless some- 
 thing hinder or forbid, in which case, the Conference .shall ap- 
 point a presiding officer for the occasion. 
 
 19. Each session shall be opened and closed by prayer. 
 
 Of District Conferences. 
 
 1. The Church being necessarily divided into many individual 
 congregations or small bodies, it being necessary to maintain 
 soundness in Doctrine and regularity in Discipline throughout 
 the entire connection, and each and all alike needing mutual aid 
 and counsel, render a Conference of the churches necessary. 
 
 2. The delegates duly elected and authorized by the churches 
 in the district shall compose the District Conference; and each 
 church shall be entitled to one delegate for every twenty mem- 
 bers in her communion, but no church shall be without the 
 right to a representation. 
 
 3. The District Conference shall have the right and power to 
 receive appeals, references, etc., from the churches, and to 
 issue and make appeals and references to the State Conference; 
 to examine all persons duly recommended by their church, and 
 to ordain or license them to preach or exhort; and. also, to renew 
 license; to review the Church records and to approve, or dis- 
 approve, as the nature of any such document may require; to 
 resolve questions touching doctrine or discipline, when duly 
 proposed; to condemn opinions and practices contrary to the 
 word of truth and holiness; to visit offending or implicated 
 churches and ministers, as far as possible, in the spirit of the 
 Gospel, ascertain their state, redress existing evils, and restore 
 harmony; also, to procure testimony, and, if necessary, bring 
 the implicated party or parties before the District Conference 
 for trial; to admonish; to rebuke; to suspend; to expel from 
 the Conference; to elect their own Chairman or Moderator and 
 other officers; to provide for the spiritual wants of any church 
 in the district that may be unable to procure a preacher, and 
 
84 System of Government 
 
 that may have petitioned the District Conference for aid in the 
 matter; this aid shall be afforded as far as facilities will warrant; 
 to receive newly constituted churches petitioning for admission; 
 to elect delegates to the State Conference; and, in faithfulness 
 and moderation, to consult and order whatever may pertain to 
 and promote the peace and spiritual welfare of the churches in 
 the District In the absence of a District Conference, or when 
 it may not be in session, if necessary, two or more Elders may 
 ordain other Elders. 
 
 4. It shall be the duty of the District Conference to keep a full 
 and fair record of its proceedings, and to send up to the State 
 Conference all appeals and references that it may make to the 
 State Conference, duly authenticated; together with a report of 
 the number of churches, accessions, expulsions, ordinations, 
 licenses, deaths, etc. ; to elect delegates to the State Conference. 
 
 5. The District Conference shall meet once in every six 
 months, or twice in each year; time and place of meeting sub- 
 ject to the decision of the preceding Conference. 
 
 6. Visiting brethren shall be received, etc., as in Church Con- 
 ferences; and, likewise, prayer in the opening and closing of each 
 session. 
 
 Of State Conferences. 
 
 1. It being wholly impracticable for large districts, such as 
 States and Territories, to meet in one body by direct delegation 
 from the churches, and unity of faith and practice being alike 
 necessary in large as well as small bodies, render the formation 
 and perpetuity of State Conferences necessary. 
 
 2. The delegates elected and duly authorized by the respective 
 districts within the bounds of the State shall compose the State 
 Conference. 
 
 3. The State Conference shall have the right and power to re- 
 view the records of the District Conferences; to receive and de- 
 cide upon all appeals and references from the District Confer- 
 ences by approval or censure, as the case may require; to redress 
 whatever may have been done contrary to the rules and regula- 
 tions of the Church; to take special care that the District Con- 
 ferences, observe and keep the constitution of the Church and 
 Conference inviolate; to change or form new districts as neces- 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 85 
 
 sity inay require; to supply destitute sections of the State with 
 preaching, as far as facilities will warrant; to resolve questions 
 
 touching doctrine and discipline that may be properly proposed ; 
 to elect their own chairman and other officers, and also deleg 
 to the General Conference; to propose to the General Conference 
 the adoption of such measures as will promote the general or 
 common interests of the whole Church; to consult and order 
 whatever, in faithfulness, it may judge necessary to the peace 
 and welfare of the districts and churches in the hounds of the 
 State; provided that nothing so ordered shall violate the consti- 
 tution or the word of God. 
 
 4. It shall be the duty of the State Conference to keep a full 
 and fair record of all its proceedings, and send up to the General 
 Conference all decisions on appeals and references touching doc- 
 trine and discipline ; together with a report of districts, churches, 
 ministers, members, ordinations, licenses, missions, accessions, 
 expulsions, deaths, etc., with such other information as should 
 properly come before that body. 
 
 5. The State Conference shall meet annually; the time and 
 place always subject to the previous conference. Each session 
 shall be opened and closed by prayer. 
 
 Of the General Conference. 
 
 1. In order to pronounce the same object, and for the same 
 reasons why District and State Conferences should be formed, 
 the entire denomination of Congregational Methodists should 
 unite their interests and efforts throughout the United States of 
 America. The body assembled to represent that Union shall be 
 denominated the General Conference. 
 
 2. The General Conference shall be composed of delegates 
 elected and duly authorized by the State Conferences. 
 
 3. The General Conference shall have the right and power to 
 receive and review the records of the State Conferences; to judge 
 or decide on the correctness of decisions on appeals, references, 
 etc., npproving or censuring as the case may require; to decide 
 on controversies respecting doctrine; to receive new State Con- 
 ferences that may apply for admittance; to establish foreign 
 missions; to correspond with foreign churches; to establish and 
 circulate periodicals and books and other facilities necessary in 
 
86 System of Government 
 
 spreading religious knowledge and establishing the kingdom of 
 Christ in the world; to consult and order, under God, whatever 
 may pertain to the peace and spiritual welfare of the whole 
 Church and accord with the constitution and the word of God. 
 4. The General Conference shall have power and the right to 
 make ganeral rules and regulations for our churches, under the 
 following limitations and restiictions: 
 
 1. The General Conference shall not change nor alter any part 
 of our constitution, so as to do away wilhor destroy our system 
 of worship. 
 
 2. It shall not change, revoke nor alter our articles of religion; 
 it shall not establish any new standards of doctrine contrary to 
 our present existing and established standards. 
 
 3. It shall not do away with the privileges and rights of our 
 ministers and members to trial by the church or committee; and 
 also of appeal. The above restrictions shall remain inviolate. 
 
 4. And whatever al'eratious, additions or amendments it may 
 make, shall be done, only, as follows : First The measure must 
 be recommended by two-thirds of the State Conference. Second, 
 It must be voted for by two-thirds of the members of the General 
 Conference. Third, That vote must then be ratified by two-thirds 
 of the District Conferences. 
 
 5. The General Conference shall meet quadrennially or once in 
 four years; time and place determined by the previous Confer- 
 ence. 
 
 6. The present boundaries of the Congressional Districts in 
 the State of Georgia shall be the boundaries of the District Con- 
 ferences in said State; and all the Conferences shall be bounded 
 by the limits of the State in which they may be formed. The 
 General Conference shall be bounded only by the ulterior limits 
 of the United States and territories. The rights and powers not 
 delegated to the several Conferences by this Constitution, and 
 which are properly connected with the churches, are hereby re- 
 served for the churches respectively. 
 
 Of License to Preach and Exhort. 
 
 When any brother feels impressed with a sense of duty to 
 preach the Gospel, the church of which he is a member, may 
 recommend him to the District Conference for license to preach. 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. 87- 
 
 And, if upon examination, he be found to possess gifts, graces 
 and usefulness in the candid judgment of the Conference, so that 
 the Conference regard him called and qualified to eoter upon the 
 duties of the Holy Ministry, license shall be given him to do so . 
 And if any church call for the sei vices of such licentiate, as her 
 pastor, or if he be required to enter at once on afield of mission- 
 ary labor, he may be ordained according to the provisions of 
 the constitution. 
 
 "Whenever any church shall be satisfied with the qualification 
 and usefulness of any brother in the exercise of the gift of ex- 
 hortation, the same steps may be taken to procure license for 
 said office as for the Holy Ministry. 
 
 Of Witnesses. 
 All persons competent and credible are suitable to testify in 
 any case of trial, excepting a husband or wife, who shall not be 
 compelled to testify against each other before any tribunal. The 
 capacity, integrity and credibility of witnesses is left to the judg- 
 ment of the committee or Conference, as the case may be. 
 
 Of References. 
 
 1. A reference is a representation of a case from an inferior to 
 a superior tribunal, being not decided as yet— the representation 
 thereof always to be in writing. 
 
 2. All cases which are without precedent, of peculiar delicacy, 
 of great difficulty or division of sentiment of the inferior tribu- 
 nal, or on which for any reason the decision of the next higher 
 tribunal is necessary for the peace, satisfaction and harmony of 
 all concerned, are proper subjects of reference. 
 
 3. References are either partial or entire. A partial reference 
 is that in which the tribunal referring; suspends its decision for 
 information and advice on certain specified points to aid them 
 in making a proper decision. An entire reference is that in 
 which the case is sent up to the next higher tribunal for final de- 
 cision and trial. 
 
 Of Appeals. 
 1. An appeal is the removal of a case already decided, from an 
 inferior to a superior Conference, by an aggrieved party, having 
 submitted to a regular trial at an inferior tribunal. 
 
88 System of Government 
 
 2. The proper grounds for an appeal are, irregularity in the 
 proceedings of atrial, a refusal of constitutional rights to a party 
 on trial, the rejection of proper and important testimony in 
 whole or in part, manifest prejudice, mistake, or injustice to the 
 party in the prosecution and decision of the case. 
 
 3. An aggrieved party appealing from the decision of any tri- 
 bunal, shall give written notice of his intention within ten days 
 thereafter, by lodging in the hands of the clerk of said tribunal 
 a statement of his reasons, as the grounds of his appeal. The 
 tribunal appealed from shall send up by their delegates to the 
 tribunal appealed to, all the testimony and documents relating 
 to the matter of the appeal. The judicatory appealed to, in her 
 regular session, shall read the decision, or part? of the decision 
 or parts of the decision appealed from, with the assigned reasons 
 of the appellant in the case, with a full and fair presentation of 
 the whole proceedings of the inferior Conference, including all 
 the testimony and their decision. The original parties shall have 
 a fair and impartial hearing, the representatives of the Confer- 
 ence appealed from shall have full privilege to state the reasons 
 and grounds of their decision. After all parties shall have had 
 an impartial hearing and defense, they shall retire from the Con- 
 ference, and the Conference shall proceed to action as in other 
 cases of importance. 
 
 4. The decision of the Conference may confirm the decision 
 of the inferior Conference, if it appear correct; but if it appear 
 incorrect, may reverse and send back for amendment, or for a 
 new trial, as occasion may require ; which decision shall be 
 final. 
 
 5. If an appellant fail to prosecute his appeal after the same 
 has been entered, it shall be considered as abandoned, and the 
 first decision in his case shall be final. 
 
 6. Delegates from the Conference appealed from cannot vote 
 in the Conference appealed to, on any question touching the 
 case. 
 
 Of bringing Elders, Preacliers and Exhorter* to trial. 
 
 When any Minister, Preacher or Exhorter is under report of 
 being guilty of some crime expressly forbidden in the word of 
 God as an unchristian practice, sufficient to exclude from the 
 kingdom of grace and glory, let the church to which the of- 
 
Congregational Methodist Church. S9 
 
 fender may belong (or a committee, as the accused may prefer,) 
 bring the accused and the accuser face to face in terms of the 
 law. If the person be clearly convicted, he shall be suspended 
 from all official service in the church till the forthcoming Dis- 
 trict Conference, at which his case shall be fully considered and 
 determined. If the accused and accuser cannot be brought face 
 to face, and the supposed delinquent evade trial, it shall be re 
 ceivcd as presumptive proof of guilt; and out of the mouth of 
 two or three witnesses he shall be condemned; yet, even in that 
 case, the District Conference shall reconsider and determine the 
 whole matter. The same rule to be observed in other respects 
 as already defined. 
 
 Terms of Meinhership. 
 
 1. There is only one condition required of those who apply 
 for membership in said Church, namely, a desire to flee from 
 the wrath to come and be saved by grace through faith in our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, with an avowed determination to walk in 
 the commandments of God blameless. But those who may con- 
 tinue therein must give evidence of their desire and determina- 
 tion by conforming to such rules of moral discipline as the 
 word of God requires. 
 
 2. There shall be a probationary state, in which persons shall 
 be held as candidates for full membership, by a compliance with 
 the terms thereof. The terms of probation shall be six months, 
 but all ministers and members coming fr^m other orthodox 
 Churches in good standing, shall be received into full connec- 
 tion. No person having been expelled from any other orthodox 
 Church shall be received, until the applicant first become recon- 
 ciled to the Church from whence they were expelled, or have a 
 committee of not less than three appointed by the Church, to 
 examine into their case and report to the next Conference. 
 
 Of Offenses. 
 
 1. All offenses condemned by the word of God as being suffi- 
 cient to exclude a person from the kingdom of Grace and Glory 
 shall subject ministers, preachers and members to expulsion 
 from the Church. 
 
 2. The neglect of duties required by the word of God, or the 
 
90 System of Government. 
 
 indulgence of sinful words and temper, shall subject the offen- 
 der to admonition, and if persisted in, to expulsion. 
 
 3. For preaching or disseminating unscriptural doctrines 
 affecting the essential interests of the Christian system, minis- 
 ters, preachers or members shall be liable to admonition, and, if 
 incorrigible, to expulsion; provided always that no minister, 
 preacher or member shall be expelled for disseminating matter 
 of opinion alone, except they be such as are condemned by the 
 word of God. 
 
 4. Privileges of accused ministers and members. In all cases 
 of accusation the accused shall be furnished, by the proper au- 
 thority, with a copy of the charges and specifications, at least 
 ten days before the time of trial. The accused shall have the 
 right to challenge and privilege of examining witnesses at the 
 time of trial, and making his defense. 
 
 5. The making, selling, buying or drinking of ardent spirits 
 as a beverage, shall subject church members to be dealt with by 
 the Church 
 
 Officers of a Church. 
 
 The officers of a church are an Elder, one or more Class- 
 leaders, a Steward or Deacon, and a Clerk. 
 
 1. The duty of an Elder shall be to preside as chairman in 
 Conference, to take the pastoral charge of the church, and to fur- 
 nish the same with preaching at the stated appointments. 
 
 2. It shall be the duty of the Class-leaders to hold church - 
 meetings as often as may be thought proper, to cite offending 
 members to trial, and to seat the congregation. 
 
 3. It shall be the duty of the Steward or Deacon to attend to 
 the financial affairs of the church, to provide the elements of 
 the Lord's Supper, to see that the church house be kept decent, 
 and to have the same furnished with lights on all proper occa- 
 sions. 
 
 4. It shall be the duly of the Clerk to attend all Conferences 
 of the church and to minute its proceedings in a book to be 
 kept for that purpose, and register in the same the names of 
 all members, distinguishing, by separate columns, the time of 
 joining, deaths, removals by letter, expulsions; write and sign 
 all communications for the church. 
 
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 0035521481 
 
 
 938.6 
 
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 The origin and early h: story of 
 
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