Wesley, in his Short History of Methodism, gives the names of four Oxford students who, in Nov., 1729, began to spend certain evenings in a week in reading together, chiefly the New Testament in Greek. The number slowly increased and, in 1735, George Whitefield affiliated with them. " The exact regularity of their lives and studies occasioned s gen-
Government and Activities (¢ 3). Representatives and Results (§ 4). 3. The Methodist Protestant Church.4. Wesleyan Methodist Connection or Church of America.
b. The Free Methodist Church.8. The African Methodist Episcopal Church.
7. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
8· The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.
9. Minor Methodist Churches.10· In Canada end the Maritime Provinces.
Beginnings (§ 1).Division sad Denominations (§ 2). Unification (¢ 3).
V. The Doctrinal Standards of Methodism.
Doctrinal Bases (6 1). Distinctive Doctrinal Features American Position (¢ 3). Purpose and Results (§ 4).tleman of Christ Church to say, ` Here is spnmg up a new sect of Methodists.' "
1. John Wesley Early Life. The undisputed founder of Wesleyan Methodism, John Wesley (q.v.), was the great-grandson of Bartholomew Wesley, a clergyman educated at Oxford, and one of 2,000 ministers ejected from their pulpits in 1662 under the Act of Uniformity (see UNl>rox>afi'x, ACTS or). His son John also studied
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2. Early Associations. When George Whitefield (q.v.) returned from America he promptly visited Wesley. The reputation of Whitefield as the greatest of pulpit orators had spread on both continents; and as no building could contain the number who desired to hear him he resorted to the fields. Wesley found it difficult to approve this; but as he continued to preach with the terrible energy and unction of a first believer, he was not usually allowed to speak a second time in the churches: on this account and because of the crowds, he also was led to preach in the open sir. For doing the same thing the archbishop of Canterbury threatened Charles Wesley with excommunication. Wesley's Arminianism caused an estrangement from the uncompromising Calvinist Whitefield. When controversy had become intense, Wesley summed up by saying that "those who believed in universal redemption had no desire to separate, but that those who held particular redemption would not hear of any accommodation, being determined to have no fellowship with men who were in such dangerous errors; so there were now two sorts of Methodists-those for particular and those for general redemption." The break between Wesley and Whitefield lasted but a short time, but the result was the formation of two sorts of organized Methodists, "Wesleyan Methodists" and "Calvinistic Methodists." Before this separation numerous societies had been formed, but, not having proper supervision, most of them dissolved. Peter Bohler suggested to Wesley the formation of another in London, and it was established in Fetter Lane, conducted in connection with the Moravian Church. In the summer of the same year, several small companies in Bristol united under the name of the Methodist society; a similar union took place in Kingswood, and another in Bath. These received the name of " United Societies." Wesley places the time when the first of these was formed toward the close of the year 1739.*1 Dissensions arose in the Fetter Lane society. Errors were so strongly advocated that on Sunday, July 6, 1740, Wesley read to the society his objections to them. The principal heresies were "denunciation of the Christian ministry as an institution"; "opposition to all ordinances"; and the affirmation that " silence is the best substitute for the means of grace." Wesley repelled these views, and he and about seventy-five seceding members met at the Foundry instead of at Fetter Lane; and thus, on July 23, 1740, " the Methodist Society in London " was founded.
3. Bands; Class Meetings. While affiliating with the Moravians, Wesley's followers had instituted " Men's Bands" and "Women's Bands," which were to meet at least once a week to sing, pray, and exhort. They were expected to reveal the true state of their souls as they understood it, and confess their faults one to another. Wesley met the men every Wednesday evening, and the women on Sunday. Some objected on the ground that the Bands were "man-made." Wesley replied: "They are prudential helps, grounded on reason and experience, in order to apply the general rules given in Scripture according to particular circumstances." Others stigmatized them as "mere popery." Wesley answered: " Do they not yet know that the only popish confession is the confession made by a single person to a priest? ... Whereas what we practise is the confession of several conjointly, not to a priest, but to each other." Members of the "Bands " were selected from the united societies. The united
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4. Love Feasts, Prayer-Meetings, Lay Preaching. Love Feasts originated in the proposal that, on one evening in the quarter, the men, and on the next, the women, in the Bands should meet, and on a third day they should meet together. The latter Wesley called a Love Feast. In these assemblies bread Prayer- and water, partaken of by all present, are the symbols of fellowship. Prayer, singing of hymns, and testifying to experimental religion succeed each other, and in the early period of Methodism developed the greatest enthusiasm.
Public prayer-meetings were established in 1763 by two young men who introduced them in places where there was no Methodist preaching. They soon became general, for it was found that they exercised the talents of young men, training them in the various services of the church. When Wesley visited the Germans he heard Christian David (see UNITY OF THE BRETHREN) preach, was deeply impressed, and was prepared by David's career to establish lay preaching, when a suitable person should appear. John Cennick, a spiritual, and intellectually capable man was invited to hear a brother read a sermon to the colliers, but, the reader not arriving, Cennick was requested to speak to the people; he reluctantly complied, and "the Lord bore witness with his words in so much that many believed in that hour." When Wesley came many desired him to forbid Cennick to preach, instead of which he gave encouragement, and for the next eighteen months Cennick preached constantly, sometimes supplying Wesley's place in Bristol. Writers before Tyerman assumed that Thomas Maxfield was the first lay preacher; Tyerman maintains that John Cennick preceded him.
5. Origin of Conference: George Bell. As unity, direction, and instruction of the lay preachers and actively sympathizing clergymen who affiliated with Wesleyan Methodism were essential to the integrity and spirit of the movement, they were assembled for consultation. The first conference was in the Foundry in London on June 25, 1744. John and Charles Wesley, John Hodges, Henry Piers, Samuel Taylor and John Meriton, clergymen of the Church of England, were present; and four lay preachers, Thomas Rogers, Thomas Maxfield, John Bennett, and John Downs. They evolved a system of doctrine, discipline, and practise. At the third conference the country was divided into seven circuits. Copies of the minutes of the conference were to be given to those who were present, but were ordered read to the stewards and leaders of Bands the Sunday and Thursday following each confer ence. At the conferences the preachers were stationed at the various circuits: the result of their systematic and energetic labors amazed the United Kingdom. The most distinguished clergyman in sympathy with the work of Wesley, and for many years the most useful to him next to his own brother Charles, was John Fletcher (q.v.), vicar of Madeley. A Swiss by birth, a man of culture and rare gifts in speech and literary composition, he had been converted by Methodists. As in the apostolic era and in every religious movement since, excess of enthusiasm turned the heads of some, so George Bell, one of Wesley's local preachers, became a fanatic, believing that he could work miraculous cures. He became almost if not actually insane. Wesley bore with him long, Methodism suffering in reputation thereby. To the grief and astonishment of Wesley, Bell secured the support of Thomas Maxfield, who had been converted under Wesley's preaching during his first visit to Bristol, and had been ordained by the bishop of Londonderry who, in laying hands upon him, said, "Sir, I ordain you to assist that good man, John Wesley, that he may not work himself to death." Bell, whose fanaticism daily intensified, caused a panic by prophesying that the world would end on a given day, and Wesley was obliged to expel him. Many in London withdrew from the societies, exclaiming, "Blind John is incapable of teaching us; we will keep to Mr. Maxfield." Subsequently Bell lost his religious ardor, became a skeptic, and then a politician, "as ultra in his political opinions as he bad been in religion." Maxfield opened an independent chapel (A. Stevens, History of Methodism, i. 409, New York, 1858).
It was not wonderful that thousands flocked to Wesley's standard, that many societies were established and chapels reared, since he was apparently ubiquitous, traveling constantly and preaching often ten times in a week, inspiring the people by his
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|
|
Circuits. |
Preachers. |
Members. |
|
England |
26 |
75 |
22,410 |
|
Ireland |
9 |
19 |
2,8012 |
|
Scotland |
5 |
7 |
468 |
|
Wales |
1 |
3 |
232 |
|
|
41 |
104 |
25,911 |
These had endured the scrutiny and discipline of Wesley. As Wesley advanced in years the necessity for measures to prevent the dissolution of the societies became obvious, not only to the magician who had wrought such marvelous results, but to leading minds among the clergymen who affiliated with him, lay preachers, and the more astute members of the society.
6. The Deed of Declaration. To meet the emergency, in the year 1784 Wesley gave to the conference " a legal settlement." From an early period the deeds of chapels and preachers' houses or parsonages had conveyed the said buildings to trustees for the use of such the preachers as John or Charles Wesley should send, and, after their death, as the conference should appoint. Thomas Coke, a wealthy clergyman, educated for the bar, who had devoted his time and possessions to Methodism, advised Wesley to consult the civil authorities; and he ascertained that the conference could not be recognized unless more precisely defined, and that, as things then were, it could not claim control over the pulpits. Wesley reported this to the conference, which requested him to "draw up a definition of its character and powers." Under the guidance of the best legal counsel he executed a deed of declaration, in which the names of one hundred preachers were recorded, to constitute a legal conference after his death. He deemed this number sufficient to secure the property and insure the unity of the body, and also as many as could wisely be withdrawn annually for a week or more from pastoral work. Wesley recorded that "in naming these preachers, as he had no advisers he had no respect to persons, but simply set down those which according to the best of his judgment were most proper." The deed provides that the conference meet once a year at London, Bristol, Leeds, or any other place which the members should select. The sessions were never to last over three weeks, nor less than five days, and the conference was empowered to fill vacancies. To give validity to any act or vote, forty members must be present, with the exception that if the legal hundred should by death or other cause be reduced, those present might conduct business. In order to secure attendance, any member who should remain away from two successive annual sessions forfeited membership, unless he appeared on the first day of the third session, or was voted exemption. It was forbidden to appoint to any of the chapels a preacher not a member of the Methodist connection. "No appointment could be made for a longer term than three years, except in the cases of ordained clergymen of the Church of England." The conference had power to commission members of the body to represent it in any part of the earth, their "official acts being recognized as acts of the conference." The life estate of John and Charles Wesley in the houses and chapels of the connection was not to be affected by this deed. As there were 191 members of conference, the names of ninety-one were not included in the deed and they were not allowed to participate in the conference on equal terms with their brethren. Controversy ensued, and several preachers left the connection. Those who remained were permitted to vote, and such as had been members a given number of years were allowed to vote for the president in nomination, for the confirmation of the legal hundred.
7. Events after Wesley's Death. After the death of Wesley serious contests arose and continued for several years. Influential laymen and ministers proposed to adhere to the Church of England, and a few attached themselves to various dissenting bodies. The conference of 1791 expressed its views equivocally, and that of 1792 cast lots to determine whether the sacraments should be administered in the ensuing year. Eventually the following rules were enacted:
"No ordination shall take place in the Methodist Conneotion without the consent of the Conference. "If any brother break the above-mentioned rule by ordaining or being ordained without the consent of the conference, the brother so breaking the rule does thereby exclude himself. The Lord's Supper shall not be administered by any person among our societies in England and Ireland for the ensuing year on any consideration whatever except in London."
In 1793 the conference resolved that:
"Where the Societies desired it they should have it, and that there should no longer be any distinction between ordained and unordained preachers, that no gowns, cassocks, bands nor surplices, nor the title of Reverend should be used."
Neither party was satisfied. The substance of the plan adopted in 1795 was that where the sacraments were being peaceably administered they should be continued; but that they should not be administered elsewhere unless a majority of the trustees and of the leaders and stewards concurred in desiring it; not for many years was the practise of laying-on of hands in ordination adopted.
8. Polity. Wesleyan Methodism is a form of Presbyterianism, yet, "strictly speaking, it is neither Episcopal, Presbyterian, nor Congregational," but has characteristics of each. Wesleyan Methodism denies a radical distinction between teaching and ruling presbyters, but reserves for the presbyters or pastors the determination of questions of doctrine and discipline. When the society developed into a church, the leaders and stewards became the local church council. There is a distinct local preachers' quarterly meet ing, over which the superintendent minister of each circuit presides. There are also lay officials, formerly called general, but now circuit stewards; these receive the moneys from stewards of the societies in the circuit. Such society and circuit officers are appointed to office by the ministers, and chosen by the members of the meeting into which they are to
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9. Eminent Officers and Representatives. The conference confers great power on its president; but, in general, the presidents have been both defenders and guides. The most dominating ruler was Jabez Bunting (q.v.), four times president, and, whether in or out of that office, for more than a third of a century the controlling spirit. Robert Newton, a chaste orator, was also four times president. and Adam Clarke (q.v.), oriental scholar, vigorous preacher and Biblical commentator, three times; and Thomas Coke (q.v.), Joseph Bradford, John Pawson, Thomas Taylor, Thomas Jackson, historical and connectional book editor; John Hannah, John Scott, Richard Reece, Joseph Entwisle, Henry Moore, one of the appointed biographers of Wesley; John Barber, James Wood, George Marsden, John Farrar, George Osborne, and James Harrison Rigg (q.v.) each twice filled the chair. The last-named was one of the most eminent in the list, in force of character and clearness of mind, who was long connected officially with public education. There is one living ex-president, who has served twice, Charles H. Kelly, beloved as a personality, and useful in high connectional offices. Several of the most notable men in the presidency served but once. Of these, perhaps the greatest was William Arthur (q.v.), conspicuous for fifty years throughout the religious world. Hugh Price Hughes (q.v.), of the modern type, was known as an evangelist and promoter of enterprises for uplifting the submerged classes and popularizing the Christian religion and church. Among the noteworthy men that Wesleyan Methodism has produced are Richard Watson, William B. Pope, theologians, and William Morley Punahon (qq.v.), the orator; from the beginning laymen have increased in influence, many being as well known and as useful as the most distinguished of the clergy.
10. Education and Missionary. Wesleyan Methodism has always placed a high estimate upon education. The views of Wesley on this subject were in some particulars unendurably ascetic, but mingled with these were principles of permanent value. In 1836 the conference took up the subject of education in general and a Wesleyan Educational Committee was appointed. Week-day and infant schools were established in 1843. In 1851 a training-college at Westminster was opened, and in 1872 a second training-college for female teachers. Houses for the Wesleyan schools are held in trust for the connection. The conference of 1875 approved the Education Committee's plan for establishing middleclass schools, of which there are ten or more. The first great movement in the direction of higher education was the establishment of Wesley College, Sheffield; the next, the institution now known as Queen's College, Taunton. A theological institution was established in 1834, and there are four branches, situated respectively at Richmond, Didsbury, Headingley, and Handaworth. Besides these are the Methodist College at Belfast, Ireland, the Westminster Training School and the Leys School at Cambridge. Missions to the heathen were not undertaken until 1786, when Thomas Coke started a mission to negro slaves in the British West Indies. At his instigation a mission to West Africa was begun in 1811, and in 1813 another in Ceylon. In 1815 missions were opened in Australasia, in Germany in 1830, in Switzerland in 1839, in Italy in 1860. Many of the missions established are now independent. The missions under the immediate direction of the British conference are: in Europe: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, and Malta; in Africa, Cairo; in South Africa, Transvaal, Swaziland, Rhodesia; in West Africa, Sierre Leone, Gold Coast, Lagos; in Asia, Ceylon, India (north and south), and China; in the western hemisphere, the Bahamas, Honduras, and the West Indies. In general, Wesleyan Methodist foreign missions have prospered greatly. Home missions are reduced to a most efficient system. The Wesleyan Methodists report for 1909 in Great Britain, 520,868 communicants; foreign missions, 143,467; French conference, 1,675; South African, including English and native, 117,146.
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The report for 1909 is 246 ministers, 621 lay preachers, 421 church buildings, 1,606 other preaching-places, 25,969 communicants.
2. Calvinistic Methodists: After the death of Whitefield, the Calvinistic Methodists divided into three sects. The first, known as Lady Huntingdon's Connection (see HUNTINGDON, SELINA HASTINGS, COUNTESS of), observed strictly the liturgical forms of the Church of England, and instead of an itinerant ministry instituted a settled pastorate. As practically a congregational .polity was adopted, many of the congregations became associated with the collection of Congregational churches. The second division was the Tabernacle Connection, or Whitefield Methodists. As each society considered itself independent, they soon disappeared as a distinctive denomination, most of them affiliating with the Congregationalists or Independents. The third was the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists (see PRESBYTERIANS), organized in 1743. They have prospered, extending principally in Wales and reaching the United States by way of immigration. They are influential and vigorous, at times experiencing revivals of such intensity as to attract the attention of the Christian world. After contributing for many years to the London Missionary Society, the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Foreign Missionary Society was founded in Liverpool in 1840. Its first attempts were in India, where persevering faith has been rewarded. There are more than 500 preaching-places, 450 day schools, 6,000 communicants, and nearly 20,000 attendants.
3. The Methodist New Connection: Alexander Kilham, born in Epworth, 1762, of Methodist parents, became a local preacher, and in 1785 Wesley received him into the regular itinerant ministry. As he grew in influence he proposed various alterations. Three years before the death of Wesley, Kilham made known his design of petitioning the conference "to let us have the liberty of Englishmen, and to give the Lord's Supper to our societies." He sent petitions to the conference of 1791, and submitted a new system of government for the connection. As discussion progressed he grew more determined, appealing to God "to destroy everything that belongs to despotism wherever it appears." At the conference of 1796 he was put upon trial. After hot debate the conference unanimously adjudged him "unworthy of being a member of the Methodist Connection." Soon afterward he began the formation of the Methodist New Connection. In places where the Wesleyans would not allow him to preach in their chapels, dissenters opened their houses of worship. To disseminate his views he established, at Leeds, a periodical called The Monitor. In Leeds 167 class-leaders and other officers, and sixty-seven delegates from the trustees of the connection appeared at the conference of 1797, calling for changes in the government. The spread of sympathy with Kilham's projects within the pale of the Wesleyan connection caused alarm.
The conference of the Methodist New Connection was constituted upon the representative system, laymen having an equal voice with the clergy in the government of the church; while in doctrine and general us" they did not differ from the old connection. This church at first gained rapidly, and later at a slow but steady pace. At the first ecumenical conference, held in London, 1881, it was reported to have 31,652 members.. It took the first step in mission work in 1824, and soon after established missions in Ireland. It began a mission in Canada in 1837, and thirty-eight years after,
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4. Primitive Methodists: The Primitive Methodists arose in 1810. Lorenzo Dow (q.v), an eccentric American Methodist preacher, with a spark of genius, visited England and Ireland and there introduced camp-meetings. The story of the remarkable meetings in the western forests of the United States recalled to older members the marvelous open-air triumphs of Wesley and Whitefield. Dow was master of a weird eloquence and absorbed by his conviction that the Lord had sent him to England to revive the spirit of the ancient days. A few regular Wesleyan preachers permitted the camp-meetings to be held within the bounds of their circuits, and attended them; but the conference denounced this as highly improper. About this time young Hugh Bourne was passing through an experience in some respects similar to that of John Wesley. When he was twenty-seven years of age he read The Life of Fletcher, several of Wesley's sermons, Alleine's Alarm, and Baxter's Call to the Unconverted, and these works seemed to meet his spiritual needs. He joined the Wesleyans and zealously sought the salvation of certain rough Iumbermen in his employment. In May, 1807, assisted by several Wesleyans, especially by William Clowes and Thomas Cotton, he held a camp-meeting at Mow Cap, "a border-line between Staffordshire and Cheshire." The next summer special meetings of like character were held. The Wesleyan preachers of the circuits adjacent to Mow Hill, fearing the spread of a fanaticism which might bring scorn upon true religion, issued hand-bills repudiating the movement. At the next session of the Wesleyan Methodist conference the following resolution was passed: " It is our judgment that even supposing such meetings to be allowed in America, they are highly improper in England and likely to be productive of mischief; and we disclaim all connection with them." Thereafter, most of the leading Methodists held aloof from the camp-meeting. Bourne and a few others persisted and, securing recognition of their meeting by the civil authorities, were enabled to preserve order. The Wesleyan conference would not endure what it described as Bourne's "insufferable contumacy." Bourne and Thomas Clowes were expelled from the connection, which naturally made them yet more zealous. In 1809 Hugh Bourne and his brother James hired James Crawfoot, noted for piety, to preach in neglected places for three months, the salary being ten shillings per week. " This is generally looked on as the commencement of the Primitive Methodist ministry." In the spring of 1810 those converted in meetings held by Hugh Bourne were formed into a class, which was offered to the Burslem circuit (Wesleyan), but the authorities declined to accept its members " unless they pledged to sever their connection with Hugh Bourne." Bourne took the class under his personal charge as a distinct society, Sept., 1810; and this is considered to be the birth of the connection. The name " Primitive Methodist " was formally assumed in 1812. Two years later a comprehensive body of laws was adopted. The form of church government is in substance Presbyterian, but with a larger mixture of the lay element than is found in Presbyterian, or, even at this day, in other Methodist denominations. The general conference convenes yearly, and consists of twelve " deed poll " members, four persons elected by the previous conference, and delegates chosen by the district meetings, in the unusual proportion of two laymen to one traveling. preacher. In 1829 a deed poll was "enrolled in chancery " to make more effectual the deeds, leases, etc., and to render donations and trusts secure; it was also valued as a permanent statement for the settling of controversy. An appeal isallowed from court to court to the final arbiter, the conference. This communion has paid much attention to education. One of the foremost scholars of to-day, Arthur Samuel Peake (q.v.), is associated with other accomplished persons on the staff of the Hartley College of this church, located at Manchester, England, and named after the philanthropist, W. P. Hartley, who has given munificently for its endowment. Famous preachers such as James Macpherson, William Antliff, Samuel Antliff, James Travis, and John Flanagan have been among the leaders of this enterprising and growing section of the Church of Christ. The Primitive Methodist Church is by far the largest of those which follow Wesley in Great Britain, with the exception of the original Wesleyan body. It has constantly grown; in 1881 it had 185,316 communicants, 1,150 ministers and more than twelve times as many local preachers, the majority preaching every Sunday. This denomination formed a foreign Missionary Society in 1844, opening missions in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. These missions were affiliated with the other Methodist bodies of those countries. It also carries on energetic missions in Africa among the natives. Statistics for 1909 show 212,168 members, 5,148 church buildings at home and 5,018 members and probationers in foreign missions.
5. The Protestant Methodists: The Protestant Methodists, who in 1828 organized themselves into a separate body, resulted from irreconcilable differences of opinion in the society over the introduction of an organ into the largest chapel in Leeds. Until 1820 trustees of chapels could obtain this "risky innovation " only by direct application to the conference. In this case the conference had prematurely consented, and a local preacher convoked unauthorized assemblies for the purpose of agitation. When, at the appeal of the superintendent, he would not desist, the latter sentenced him to three months' suspension from his office. Thereupon seventy local preachers made common cause, and refused to preach, affirming that they would sit in silence with him. He was expelled, and a futile attempt made to secure pacification. A large number seceded, assuming the name of nonConformist Methodists (popularly called "NonCons."). This name they changed for that of Protestant Methodists.
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6. The Wesleyan Methodist Association: The Wesleyan Methodist Association began in the determination of the Wesleyan conference to establish a theological seminary. Two days before the conference of 1834, a number of ministers and laymen met to discuss the project of such an institution, to be presided over by Dr. Jabez Bunting. In the progress of the controversy, Samuel Warren found himself in a minority; and as soon as the conference adjourned he began a general agitation. The Manchester district meeting suspended him, and Robert Newton was requested to undertake the superintendency. Warren applied to the court of chancery for an injunction against Newton and the trustees of the Oldham Street Chapel. The vice-chancellor sustaining the district meeting, Warren appealed to Lyndhurst, the lord chancellor, who, after a thorough review of the Methodist polity, as established by Wesley's deed of declaration, and of the chief events in the history of the conference, affirmed the decision of the vice-chancellor. Warren was expelled, as were two others on charges of lawlessly abetting him. Circulars had been distributed denouncing the action of the conference, as well as the leaders who directed the acts. All who had anything to do with the distribution were under censure, and others under suspicion. The disruption of 1849 began with the expulsion of James Everett, Samuel Dunn, William Griffith, James Bromley, and Thomas Rowland, suspected of connection with the "fly-sheets." No formal and general secession took place until after the conference of 1850. Within five years after that date the original Wesleyan connection was depleted by 100,469, and "some of the fairest and most fruitful circuits in Methodism were laid waste." But, less than half of those who left the Wesleyan connection entered the new denomination.
7. The United Free Churches: The Protestant Methodists, the Wesleyan Methodist Association, and the "Wesleyan R-formers " (the title taken by those who organized after the expulsion of Everett and his companions), certain societies calling themselves " Arminian " Methodists, and others styling themselves Welsh Independent Methodists, united in the year 1857 under the name of the United Free Churches. This body at once became the third in numerical importance of the Methodist denominations in England. When consolidated it had 39,986 members and 2,152 probationers. At the end of twenty years the church included 72,997 members and 6,984 on probation. The government is democratic. The home circuits are divided into districts, but district meetings are not possessed of remarkable powers; the annual assembly controls only matters of connectional interest. The connectional officers are the president of the assembly, elected annually, the connectional secretary, treasurer, and the corresponding secretary. The church has shown commendable interest in foreign missions, continuing those which came in with the union, and establishing others in the West Indies, Africa, and China. Among the most eminent of British Methodists in his day was Marmaduke Miller, heard on religious and civic questions with great interest. At the end of 1907 it had 84,464 members and probationers at home, and in the foreign field 18,739 members and probartioners.
8. Bible Christians: The denomination known as "Bible Christians " originated in Cornwall. William O'Bryan was one of its founders, and in May, 1810, was formally excluded from the Methodist society, "in the chapel of which he had given the freehold beside one-half the cost of the building, for no crime except irregular attempts to save souls." In 1814 he retired from business in order "to be ready to go whithersoever providence directed his steps." He sought out parishes in which there was no evangelical preaching and wrought much good. After a few years of independent action he reunited with the Methodist society, but subsequently his "ticket " was withheld on the ground that he had not been excluded, but that he had excluded himself. He then began to form his own plan of appointments, and a new society resulted. James Thorne was an associate founder of the "Bible Christians." During 1815 and 1816 throngs were converted, O'Bryan being so active that the converts were characterized as "Bryanites." Societies were formed in various parts of England and adjacent islands. The first conference consisted of twelve of the itinerant brethren. Every circuit was empowered to send one of its stewards to the annual district meeting, "and, to prevent priestly domination, every fifth year additional representatives were to be so appointed as to make the number of the itinerant preachers and representives equal." A contention began in 1827 as to the authority of conference, and O'Bryan developed a spirit similar to that of those Wealeyans who had disfellowshiped him. In the struggle both O'Bryan and those who formulated their demands used the iron hand without the velvet glove. In the end O'Bryan migrated to America and had no further connection with the Bible Christians. The work had spread throughout the outlying provinces of England. The first chapel was built in 1818; in 1859 the connection occupied 453 chapels at home, and in 1900 the number had increased to 607. Between the years 1851 and 1860 separate conferences were established in Canada, South Australia, and Victoria. The enterprising spirit of the society was apparent in the fact that, in 1821, a missionary society was established for sending missionaries into dark parts of the United Kingdom and other countries, "as divine providence might open the way." In 1831 two missionaries were sent to British North America; and in 1850 James Rowe and the devout James Way were set apart to open a mission in South Australia, which prospered exceedingly and extended into the neighboring colony of Victoria. Missions were established later in New Zealand, Queensland, and China. In the report to the ecumenical conference in 1881 its number of communicants had reached 31,542. At home it had long maintained a force of missionaries working among the lowest stratum of London's population, and in other parts of England. See BIBLE CHRISTIANS
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Methodism in Great Britain and Ireland now consists of three large bodies, Wesleyan Methodists, the Primitive Methodist Church, and the United Methodist Church.
Besides these are two smaller societies, the Wesleyan Reform Union, 8,489, and the Independent Methodist Churches, 9,442. There are in all these bodies 969,078 members, exclusive of members of the foreign missions.
II. In Australasia:
1. History.:The Rev. Samuel Leigh, the first Methodist preacher to go to Australia, arrived in Aug., 1815, and began his work in New South Wales. By Mar., 1816, an address of the Methodist societies in New South Wales was sent to the Wesleyan mission committee in London. The history of his subsequent work and that of his successors is as interesting as the civil and personal history of the country and its inhabitants. Thirty years after Mr. Leigh began his work, the Primitive Methodists appeared; and later the Bible Christians, United Methodist Free Churches, and the Methodist New Connection planted missions. The Wesleyan spread among the English in the seven colonies, and established missions in Fiji, Tonga, and New Guinea. The Primitive Methodists were also at work in all the colonies save West Australia. The Bible Christians labored in South Australia, Victoria, and New Zealand, maintaining a few circuits in New South Wales. The United Free Methodists were represented in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and New Zealand. The Methodist New Connection had established but two circuits in Australia. About 1888 these circuits were incorporated with the Wesleyan and Bible Christian churches. In 1895 the Wesleyan Methodists had in Australasia 51,702 members, and there were in the missions 34,691 members. According to the number of members at that time the Bible Christian denomination was twice the size of the United Methodist Free Churches, and the Primitive Methodist body double the size of the Bible Christians. These smaller bodies were two-fifths the size of the Wesleyan Church in Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, and one-fourth that of Wesleyan Methodism in the whole southern world. Methodist union in Australasia was agitated for a long time before effective steps were taken. In New Zealand, after prolonged negotiation, the ministers and members included in the Wesleyan conference, the United Free Methodist Churches, and the Bible Christians formed a union in the year 1896. The only section of Methodism in that island which declined to enter into the union was the Primitive Methodist. Two years later a union of the denominations was effected in Queensland. The Primitive Methodists and the Bible Christians in South Australia came together, and later the Methodist New Connection; and in 1900 the Wesleyan Methodists, the Primitive Methodists, and the Bible Christians, joined by the United Free Church, were consolidated into one body in South and West Australia. By this time preparations for the complete union of all Methodists in Australia reached a culmination, and from Dec. 31, 1902, Methodism became one in Australia, a continent nearly as large as Europe, and almost one in New Zealand, about as large as the British Isles; there was, therefore, a united Methodism throughout Australasia, except the Primitive Methodists in New Zealand, who represented only one-eightieth in numbers of the Methodism of Australia.
2. Agencies and Activities. The Methodist Missionary Society of Australasia supports missions in Samoa, Fiji, and New Britain. Tonga was formerly connected with the board of missions. The latest mission is that to Solomon Islands. The list of native ministers is long, and includes such names as Philemon Waqaniveitagavi, Ananias Tagavi, Tychicus Noke, Moses Mamafainoa, and Zephaniah Bilavucu. The Fiji district synod has reached such a degree of development that the conference resolved that the principle of lay representation be brought into operation in 1908. It is also under contract to accept from the Wesleyan Missionary Society of England a definite field of work in India, and a complete plant in one of the presidencies in that country. A recent conference recorded its gratitude to God for the signal success which he has given to its missions in the South Seas; for the islands which have been won from savagery and cannibalism and that are now Christian; for the thousands of men and women savingly converted to God, and for the native ministers, local preachers, and teachers raised up, by whose labors, in conjunction with those of the missionaries sent from England and Australia, so great a work has been done. These incontestable statements constitute a pillar of defense against attacks upon missionary effort in behalf of the uncivilized races. The Australasian Methodist Church is devoting itself to education. It supports a theological college and other institutions for training purposes and a number of high and village schools. The progress of Australasia, though unequally distributed in the various colonies, of recent years has been extraordinary, and not only the British Empire but all leading nations have watched with interest its various experiments in legislation which have dealt with the burning questions of the age. As in other continents Methodism has shown in Australasia its ability to stem a dangerous tide or swell a beneficent one. Many able ministers and
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III. In Japan: The Methodist Episcopal Church established a mission in Japan in the year 1873. In the same year the Canadian Methodist Church began a similar work in that country. Twelve years later, the Methodist Episcopal Church South also sent missionaries there. The work of the Methodist Episcopal Church has expanded into two annual conferences, and that of the Canadian Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church South into two more. As the same doctrines were taught, and the same spirit infused, a sentiment arose in favor of a union of the Methodist Churches in Japan. The churches in America appointed commissioners to effect a union and, in July, 1906, they unanimously agreed upon a plan. In accordance therewith, a general conference was convened in Tokyo, Japan, on May 22, 1907, composed of delegates, previously elected by the four annual conferences of the three uniting churches in Japan, and the Nippon Methodist Kyokwai was formally organized. A system of government was adopted, and went at once into effect, the first general conference under the same being held in June, 1907. The relation of the churches in the United States and Canada to the Methodist Church of Japan is cooperative. The missionaries from America hold their conference relation in their home conferences, and are supported by them; but they are entitled to the rights and privileges of membership in the annual conference to which their work of the preceding year has been related, except when the character or relations of Japanese preachers are under consideration.
IV. In America.-1. Methodist Episcopal Church:
1. Beginnings. Philip Embury (q.v.), an Irish Methodist local preacher, accompanied by his wife, Paul Heck, Barbara, his wife, and several others, emigrated in 1760 from Limerick to New York. Five years later came five families, some of whom were related to Embury. In 1766 Barbara Heck, finding several of them engaged in card-playing, expostulated, and begged Embury to sound a note of warning. He opened his house for a meeting, preaching there to Mrs. Heck and four others who had responded to her invitation. Those present at this first service were enrolled in a class. Numerous conversions followed and additional classes were formed. Embury was strongly reinforced by Thomas Webb (q.v.). a Wesleyan local preacher and captain in the British army, and soon it was necessary to build a church. While Embury and Webb were preaching in New York a similar awakening was creating excitement in Maryland. Robert Strawbridge (q.v.), an Irishman, had emigrated to Maryland, and, as he was persuasive in private, convincing in public, and ever active, many accessions resulted from his labors. The society in New York continued to prosper, and Thomas Taylor, a layman, besought Wesley to send over a preacher of wisdom, sound in faith, and a good disciplinarian. The twenty-sixth annual British conference, held in 1768, sent to the church in New York City fifty pounds, also passage money for two missionaries, Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor. In 1771 came Francis Asbury (q.v.), as devoted and untiring as Wesley, who, in Oct., 1772, appointed him "assistant superintendent." Pilmoor and others objecting to his methods as a disciplinarian, Wesley appointed Thomas Rankin (q.v.) "superintendent of the entire work of Methodism in America"; and with him sent George Shadford, who received a letter from Wesley which reveals the vastness of his imagination and expectations, all of which have been more than fulfilled. ". . . I let you loose, George, on the great continent of America. Publish your message in the open face of the sun, and do all the good you can. I am, dear George, Yours affectionately, John Wesley." Asbury came to America to stay, determined to identify himself fully with its people and their institutions; Rankin was full of notions and emotions of loyalty and government, and so magnified authority that those who had thought Asbury's hand iron found that of Rankin to be of steel. The first American conference was held in Philadelphia in 1773; ten preachers were present. It acknowledged the authority of Wesley and the Wesleyan conference; resolved that the doctrine and discipline of Methodism, as contained in the minutes, should be the sole rule of conduct; and that the members of the conference should " strictly avoid administering baptism and the Lord's Supper." Strawbridge had administered the sacraments before any of Wesley's regular missionaries arrived, and would not comply. Asbury explained that the rule was adopted with the understanding that "no brother in our connection shall be permitted to administer the ordinances at this time except Mr. Strawbridge, and he under the particular direction of the assistant." But Strawbridge refused to administer under such direction. At the second conference there was sharp conflict between Rankin and Asbury. The latter records, "My judgment was stubbornly opposed for a while, but at last submitted to." Unable to take the test-oaths or to sympathize with the colonies, Rankin left the country, and Rodda, another English preacher, also fled. Finally, Asbury of all the European Wesleyan preachers was left alone. The conference of 1778 showed a loss of 873 members; but in 1779, extensive revivals having occurred in those parts of the connection not directly affected by the war of the Revolution, the loss was made up with a gain of 1,600.
2. Dissensions; Wesley's Device. The first serious controversy occurred in 1779 the preachers in the South having determined toy secure authority to administer baptism and the holy communion. A committee was chosen by those thus minded, who ordained themselves and others, and to the satisfaction of most of the Methodists in that region began at once to administer the sacraments. The preachers north of Virginia
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3. The New Organization. Coke and his companions landed in New York on Nov. 3, 1784. On Sunday the 14th, by appointment, he met Freeborn Garrettson at the residence of Judge Bassett of Delaware, and in a neighboring chapel preached to a multitude, administering the Lord's Supper to more than 500. At this service sixteen preachers, including Asbury, learned the purpose of the commissioners in coming to this country. A special conference was opened Dec. 24 of the same year, and about sixty preachers agreed to organize themselves into a Methodist Episcopal Church "in which the liturgy (as presented by the Rev. John Wesley) should be read, and the sacraments administered by a superintendent, elders and deacons, who shall be ordained by a presbytery, using the Episcopal form, as prescribed in the Rev. Mr. Wesley's prayer book." Asbury was ordained deacon by Coke, assisted by Vasey and Whatcoat; on the following Sunday was ordained an elder, and on Monday consecrated superintendent. Before receiving ordination Asbury was unanimously elected superintendent, having stated that he could not serve as he had hitherto done, merely by Mr. Wesley's appointment. Coke also was elected superintendent. Several days were spent in perfecting a code of rules, selecting preachers to receive orders, and in ordinations. The first Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church was adopted by this convention. The prayer-book which Wesley had prepared and printed for the use of the church in America was entitled, A Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America, with Other Occasional Services. The articles of religion of the Church of England were reduced from thirty-nine to twenty-four, and those retained were so altered as "to eradicate all traces of Romanism, High-church ritualism, and the distinctive points of Calvinism." The church now formed consisted of 18,000 members, 104 traveling preachers, as many local preachers, and twice as many licensed exhorters. There were sixty chapels and 800 recognized preaching-places. Coke went everywhere baptizing children and administering the Lord's Supper, as did Asbury wherever opportunity offered. In the mean time the general superintendents at their own initiative assumed the title of bishop, asking the conference to approve it, not to the exclusion of the name general superintendent under which they were ordained, but for brevity's sake, as its equivalent and alternative.
4. The General Conference. By the year 1789 it became necessary to hold eleven conferences. A plan was devised by Bishops Coke and Asbury, which involved the establishment of a council to be invested with extraordinary powers, and to consist of general superintendents (i.e., bishops) and presiding elders. The council met that year, and a second was convened in 1790, which boldly claimed general additional power. Its proceedings Conference. created such dissatisfaction that the plan was abandoned, and it was decided to provide for a general conference. The annual conferences unanimously authorized the bishops to call such an assembly to meet in Baltimore the first of Nov., 1792. The most important event was a conflict between Bishop Asbury and James O'Kelly (q.v.), a strenuous elder, who presided over a wide district. He proposed that preachers not satisfied with their appointments might appeal to the conference. The motion was lost by a large majority and O'Kelly and several other preachers seceded. The second general conference met in Baltimore in 1796, and the subject of slavery was discussed at length. An earnest debate, concerning the relations of Coke to the Methodist Epispocal Church, occupied two days. Jesse Lee—a powerful debater and preacher—and others, who opposed
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By 1828 the astonishing increase in members became a topic of public discussion. The increase in the next quadrennium was thirty-three per cent., and placed the membership more than 13,000 beyond the half-million mark. In 1836 the church established an annual conference in Africa, and plans were made to enter China.
5. Slavery amd the Church in the South. Notwithstanding several petitions, the conference refused to change the section on slavery, or to countenance the agitation on the slavery question then assuming the aspect of a crisis. Perplex-ing questions presented themselves in 1840. A resolution was adopted " that it is inexpedient and unjustifiable for any preacher among us to permit colored persons to give testimony against white persons in any state where they are denied that privilege in trials at law." To quell the commotion which this created, explanatory resolutions were passed. The material and spiritual progress of the denomination is indicated in part by the election of four book-agents, editors of the Quarterly Review, Christian. Advocate, Western Advocate, Christian Apologist, Ladies' Repository, Southern Christian Advocate, Richmond Advocate, and theSouth-Western Advocate; and the fact that, in addition to the main centers, depositories were appointed at Charleston, Pittsburg and Boston. The subject of slavery came up with explosive force in the conference of 1844. The Baltimore conference had expelled a member for holding slaves through his wife. He appealed to the general conference, which affirmed the expulsion by 117 to 56. The numerous petitions for the enactment of laws to exclude slave-holders from the church might have been dealt with to the pacification of a majority; but a fatal element entered with the knowledge that Bishop James O. Andrew had become a slaveowner by inheritance and marriage. A motion was made that he be asked to resign. Efforts to reach a peaceable solution were futile, and the conference finally declared, by a vote of 111 against 61, "That it is the sense of this conference that Bishop Andrew desist from the exercise of his office so long as this impediment remains." The southem delegates presented a protest " in behalf of thirteen annual conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and portions of the ministry and membership of several other conferences, embracing nearly 5,000 ministers, and a membership of nearly 500,000 constitutionally represented in this general conference." A plan of separation was passed, and a prominent member, Leonidas Lent Hamline, educated to the law, maintained that the only point in it which touched the constitution related to the division of the funds of the Book Concern, and that was the only one to be sent to the annual conferenore. On a test resolution there were 135 votes in the affirmative, and fifteen in the negative. After ten months of excited discussion throughout the country, the
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6. Lay Representation. The second vote for lay representation had failed, but in the interim the Methodist Episcopal Church South had admitted lay delegates, and sentiment speedily changed throughRepresen. out the whole church. Nearly all the members of this conference were ready to concede this long-deferred boon, but there were differences of opinion concerning the modus operandi. The plan adopted provided for a lay vote, and, should there be a majority for the innovation, the annual conferences were to vote to change the constitution so as to enable the ensuing general conference, after ratifying that action by a vote of two-thirds, to admit laymen provisionally elected. The required three-fourths were obtained, and on the first day of the general conference of 1872, the lay representatives were seated. The conference selected episcopal residences, and prescribed a method of residential assignment. A law was passed, that the general conference should declare "who of the bishops are effective, and who are non effective." In 1876 the election of presiding elders was strongly advocated, but being opposed on the grounds of unconstitutionality and inexpediency, the proposition was lost. The body also refused to approve the licensing of women to preach, and allowed conferences having both white and colored members to be divided on race lines "when it shall be requested by a majority of the white and also a majority of the colored members; but in no case where it is not clearly to be seen that such division would improve the work," etc. When the general conference of 1848 refused to receive Lovick Pierce as delegate from the Methodist Episcopal Church South, he announced that, should there ever be official fraternal relation, the Methodist Episcopal Church would be obliged to initiate it. Such preliminary steps having been taken by the Methodist Episcopal Church, the first fraternal delegates from the Methodist Episcopal Church South were welcomed with every demonstration of satisfaction, and their message augmented the spirit of fraternity. From that time the relations between the two churches have been increasingly friendly. The conference of 1880 is notable for having revised the ecclesiastical code. In 1884 William Taylor (q.v.), already the most renowned world-exploring voluntary missionary, was elected missionary bishop for Africa. The general conference also adopted and ordered inserted as a preface to the "Form of Consecrating Bishops," the following:
"This service is not to be understood as an ordination to a higher Order in the Christian Ministry, beyond and above that of Elders or Presbyters, but as a solemn and fitting Consecration for the special and most sacred duties of Superintendency in the Church."
7. Female Representation. At the conference of 1888 several women presented credentials of election, but their right to seats was challenged on the ground of sex, and by a small majority they were denied admission. It was maintained that the constitution did not allow women to act as representatives; therefore the conference sent the issue to the annual conferences that there might be a lay and clerical vote as
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8. Government. The general conference is the supreme legislative, judicial, and executive body, having "full power to make rules and regulations for the church," with certain constitutional restrictions. It can not do away with episcopacy, nor destroy the plan of itinerant general superintendency. This plan excludes diocesan bishops, gives the power of ordination to the bishops, makes them presidents in the annual conferences, and gives them authority to decide questions of law when presiding there, subject to appeal to the general conference. To them belong the power and duty of appointing the preachers and district superintendents, and to transfer pastors. Each annual conference is divided into districts, of which, in the absence of a bishop, the district superintendent has the charge. The quarterly conference is the ultimate body in the local church. The annual conference has substantially the function of a Presbyterian synod, except that, as a conference, it has no legislative function. It is the sole decider whether candidates for the ministry shall be received on trial, and, if so, who among them shall be ordained deacons and elders. Appointments are in the power of the bishop in charge and of his agents the district superintendents. Deeds to church property contain the provision that the pastors sent by the general conference through a bishop (and such only) shall be received. A bishop presides in the general conference, but in the absence of a bishop, the conference can elect one of its members president pro tempore. As an appeal can be taken from the presiding officer's decisions on parliamentary law direct to the conference, and he has no right to make decisions of law or interpret the constitution before the general conference, his functions are strictly those of a moderator. But the veneration felt for his office as bishop adds moral influence to his office as president, and it is rarely that his parliamentary decisions are contested. The bishop is amenable to the general conference. It can superannuate him, as annual conferences do their members, and can order the manner of his trial, and expel him if, in its judgment, this be just and necessary. From its decision there is no appeal. The rights of members and ministers to trial before a committee and to an appeal are guarded. The profits of the Book Concern and chartered fund are restricted to the purposes specified in the constitution. The general rules can be changed only as the constitution provides, and the ratio of representation is to be determined in the same manner. The doctrines of the church are protected by a double constitutional guard. They can not be changed by the general conference, nor by the constitutional methods which apply to other protected subjects. The method of change must itself be revoked before the doctrines, as embodied in the " Articles of Religion," the Sermons of Wesley, and his Notes on the New Testament, can be modified in the least degree.
9. Missions. The Missionary Society was founded in 1819, having the compound title of " The Bible and Missionary Society." The next year the title of " Bible " was eliminated, and the society made entirely missionary. It was adopted by the church in 1820, and dealt at first strictly with the home field. Foreign fields were entered in the following order: Africa, in 1833; South America, 1836; China, 1847; India, 1858; Bulgaria, 1857; Japan, 1872; Mexico, 1873; Korea, 1885; Malaysia, 1885; Germany, 1849; Norway, 1853; Sweden, 1854; Switzerland, 1856; Denmark, 1857; Italy, 1871; Finland, 1884; France, 1906; Russia at St. Petersburg, 1907. The missions in Scandinavia, Germany, and Switzerland received their initial impulse by citizens of those countries migrating to the United States, coming
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10. Brotherhood. The origin and organization of the Methodist Brotherhood is as follows: In 1877 Dr. A. B. Kendig organized a group of men in the church of which he was pastor, which he styled the Mizpah Brotherhood. He continued to organize such societies until 1898. Bishop T. B. Neely, independently of this movement, organized in the churches of which he was successively pastor what was termed a Wesley Brotherhood. The first of these was organized in 1890. Meanwhile societies of men in local churches had been springing up. Some of these were called the International Brotherhood of St. Andrew and Philip (see ANDREW AND PHILIP, BROTHERHOOD OF). Besides these there were Oxford Clubs and Brotherhoods, Embury Brotherhoods, etc. In 1896 Dr. F. D. Leete organized in his church the Brotherhood of St. Paul. In the succeeding two years the Wesley Brotherhood and the Brotherhood of St. Paul began to spread. In 1898 Dr. Neely invited representatives of all local and general brotherhoods to a convention. There was a union of several, and those bodies that united took the name, first, of the Brotherhood of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which later was changed to " The Wesley Brotherhood-the Brotherhood of the Methodist Episcopal Church." This was its legal title. As the Brotherhood of St. Paul had not affiliated with this body, there arose in the church two distinct movements, and this brought about the wide-spread organization of independent brotherhoods. In Nov., 1907, the first real convention of the Wesley organization was held at Louisville, Ky. At the convention of the Brotherhood of St. Paul, and at the instance of Bishop Berry, a resolution was adopted calling for union with the Wesley Brotherhood. Commissions were appointed by each body and the joint commission of unification met in Buffalo Mar. 11, 1908. The two brotherhoods then went out of existence and the Methodist Brotherhood was formed. The Methodist Brotherhood memorialized the general conference of 1908 for recognition and adoption, which was granted. In these later movements from the year 1905 Mr. William B. Patterson, corresponding secretary of the Wesley Brotherhood, was very influential, and he was elected general secretary and still holds that position.
11. Other Agencies. In the Methodist Episcopal Church, almost from the beginning, education has been in the front rank of denominational enterprise. The official list shows that the church sustains 173 institutions of learning: 26 of these are theological institutions; 54 universities and colleges; 27 classical seminaries; 8 institutions exclusively for women; 55 foreign-mission schools; and 4 missionary institutes and Bible training-schools. Wesleyan University was founded in 1831. It is the first institution of its grade established under distinctively Methodist auspices. The Northwestern, Syracuse, Boston, and Wesleyan universities have the largest endow ments; and the first three the largest number of students.
The first theological institution established by American Methodists was located at Concord, N. H., in 1847. Its corporate name was the Methodist General Biblical Institute. After Boston University was established, the Institute was transferred from Concord, and became in 1871 The Boston University School of Theology. The Garrett Biblical Institute, incorporated by the legislature of Illinois in 1855, situated in Evanston, Ill., was endowed by the philanthropic woman whose name it bears. Drew Theological Seminary, formally opened in 1867, at Madison, N. J., was made possible, furnished with buildings, and endowed by Daniel Drew. The value of the property held for the church by the trustees of these institutions is twenty-six million dollars, and the sum total of the endowment twenty-four million dollars. In addition to the Missionary and Church Extension societies, the church supports a Board of Education, a Board of Sunday-schools, and a peculiarly interesting Board of Freedmen's Aid. It has, in the southern and neighboring states, 217,011 communicants of African descent. Vast sums have been expended in aiding them to maintain churches and schools. To an intelligent and sympathetic appreciation,
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12. Notable Representatives. The episcopacy has been the most potent personal force in the development of those bodies in which it exists. After Coke and Asbury, the most representative directing and constructive bishops were William McKendree, Joshua Soule (q.v.), and Elijah Hedding. Since 1844, Edmund S. Janes (q.v.), who was most efficient for more than thirty years, Edward R. Ames, who was a dominant factor for a quarter of a century, and Matthew Simpson (q.v.), who combined administrative skill with unsurpassed persuasive oratory, were the most notable. The last-named probably did more to popularize his denomination in the United States, and other countries, than any other of its bishops. In higher education, Wilbur Fisk (q.v.) occupies the first place in time and value of influence. In the organization and promotion of foreign missions, John Price Durbin (q.v.) stands forth most clearly; and among the missionaries whose work is done William Butler, William Taylor, and Robert Samuel Maclay (qq.v.) will be recognized as leaders. The relation of William Nast to his countrymen in Germany, and in this country, is similar to that of the men who, having migrated from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark to this country and falling under the influence of Methodism, have returned and laid the foundations of that form of Christianity in those countries.
The whole number of communicants in the United States at the close of 1909 was 3;159,913; and the number of communicants in the foreign missions of the church, 313,818—a total of 3,473,531 members.
1. Organization.
2. The Methodist Episcopal Church South: The separate history of- this body, the second in number of communicants in the Methodist world, begins with the close of the fourteenth general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The momentous proceedings of that body are recorded above. It adjourned at midnight June10, 1844. The next day the southern delegates met to determine what course should be pursued. Wisely they suggested to their constituents that nothing be done till "all the conferences represented " could assemble in a general convention. It was decided to meet in Louisville, Ky., May, 1845. In the interim the quarterly conferences, stations and circuits, and annual conferences discussed the subject and concluded that "dire necessity" was upon them to be freed from the jurisdiction of the northern conferences. All recommended strict adherence to the Plan of Separation adopted by the general conference. The convention assembled, and a committee on organization was instructed to consider events and influences which had a bearing on the possibility of maintaining the " unity of Methodism under one General Conference jurisdiction, without the ruin of Southern Methodism." It reported that ninety-five per cent of the ministry and membership in the south deemed a division of jurisdiction indispensable, and on May 17, by a vote of ninety-four to three, the convention adopted a report which declared:" The jurisdiction hitherto exercised over said Annual Conferences by the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church entirely dissolved; and that said Annual Conferences shall be, and hereby are, constituted a separate ecclesiastical connection under the provisional Plan of Separation aforesaid, and based upon the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, comprehending the doctrines and entire moral, ecclesiastical, and canonical rules and regulations of said discipline, except only in so far as verbal alterations may be necessary to a distinct organization, and to be known by the style and title of the Methodist Episcopal Church South."
The first general conference (under this plan of withdrawal and organization) met in May, 1846, in Petersburg, Va., and its successors were to convene in the month of April or May, once in four years successively. There Bishop Soule formally declared his adherence to the Methodist Episcopal Church South, upon which, by a unanimous rising vote, he was received as one of the bishops of that church. A permanent Board of Missions was organized, and an agent chosen to establish a Book Concern. Three commissioners were elected to confer with a similar body from the Methodist Episcopal Church concerning the division of the property of the Book Concern. Lovick Pierce (q.v.) was elected fraternal delegate to the ensuing general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. William Capers and Robert Paine were elected bishops, and ordained by Bishops Soule and Andrew. The pastoral address, sent out to the conferences, declared:
" No recognized principle of the Methodism of our fathers has been in any way affected by these changes. All the doctrines duties, and usages, the entire creed and ritual of the Church before the separation, remain without change of any kind."
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348 |
|
|
Traveling preachers |
1,519 |
|
|
Local preachers |
2,833 |
|
|
White members |
327,284 |
|
|
Colored members |
124,961 |
|
|
Indian members |
2,972 |
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Total |
459,589 |
2. Property and Development. In 1849 the Methodist Episcopal Church South entered suit, in the United States courts of New York and Ohio, for a pro rata part of the property of the Book Concern. That brought in New York was decided in 1851 in favor of the claimants on every matrial point; that in Ohio was, in 1852, decided adversely to them and the commissioners appealed to the supreme court of the United States, when the judgment was reversed by a unanimous decision. The conclusions of the court are thus stated:
"The division of the Church as originally constituted, thus became complete; and from this time two separate and distinct organizations have taken the place of the one previously existing. ... We entertain no doubt that the General Conference of 1844 was competent to make it; and that each division of the Church, under the separate organization, is just as legitimate, and can claim as high a sanction, ecclesiastical and temporal, as the Methodist Episcopal Church first founded in the United States. The authority, which founded that Church in 1784, has divided it, and established two separate and independent organizations, occupying the place of the old one. ... As a division of the common property followed, an matter of law, a division of the Church organization, nothing short of an agreement or stipulation of the Church South to give up their share of it, could preclude the assertion of their right; and it is quite clear no such agreement or stipulation is to be found in the Plan of Separation."
By this decision the Methodist Episcopal Church South secured the printing-establishments in Richmond, Charleston, and Nashville. "To them were transferred the debts due from persons residing within the limits of their annual conferences, and in addition $270,000, in cash, the defendant also paying the cost of the suit." The second general conference, held in 1850, showed an increase of 60,000, of which four-fifths were white. Two years before the meeting of this conference, California was ceded to the United States. The bishops, urged by southern emigrants, sent missionaries "to unfurl their banner in that distant and interesting portion of the great republic." Another large increase of membership was noted when the general conference of 1854 convened. New conferences were required, and Drs. Pierce, Early, and Kavanaugh were added to the episcopacy. The general conference of 1858, in session at Nashville, Tenn. , permanently located the publishing-house in that city. This "determined the future rank of Nashville as the ecclesiastical center of Southern Methodism." The general conference provided the organization of the Rio Grande Mission Conference, recommended the establishment of a mission in Central America, and requested the bishops and Board of Missions to organize a mission at such point in Africa as should he deemed expedient. New Orleans was chosen as the place for the conference of 1862. The historian Gross Alexander says "Little did the delegates dream of the events and changes that were to take place in the interval." During the war "halls were vacated, schools deserted, endowments swept away, hundreds of schools as well as churches burned or dismantled by use as hospitals, warehouses, or stables; mills destroyed, plantations and farms laid waste." "In April, 1862, New Orleans was in the possession of the Federal Government, which was represented there by General Butler." Delegates were appointed, but it was impracticable to hold a conference at that time and place. Not till 1866 was a general conference held, which met in New Orleans. The Baltimore conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church at the time of the separation had adhered to that church, but in 1861 a large part of it withdrew from its jurisdiction and maintained a separate existence. Now it was received into the Methodist Episcopal Church South. The statistics showed a loss of 246,044 members during the Civil War, "practically a threefold decimation." The Missionary Society of the church was $60,000 in debt, and the publishing-house practically in ruins. Of the 207,776 colored members in 1860, in the southern body, there remained at the close of the war only 48,742. Attendance upon class-meeting was made voluntary, and the rule requiring a probation of six months before membership, set aside. The pastoral term was extended from two to four years. The reconstructive spirit of this conference and the statesmanship manifested in the introduction of equal lay and clerical representation into the general conference, and a limited representation of the laity in the annual conferences, was a prophecy that the ravages of war would soon he repaired.
3. Government and Activities. The government of the Methodist Episcopal Church South is still, in most respects, in agreement with that of the undivided church, but the general conference of 1870 initiated a constitutional change of vital import, which the annual conferences confirmed. It was, that when any rule is adopted by the conference which, in the opinion of the bishops, is unconstitutional, they may present their objections in writing, and if the general conference shall by a two-thirds vote ad here to its action, the rule shall take the course pre scribed for altering a restrictive rule. The bishops' veto, therefore, in any case, delays the consummation for four years. In the first instance, if the conference should not by a two-thirds vote adhere to its action, it is made by the objection of the bishops null and void. Another feature of the government is that when a bishop decides a question of law in an annual conference, it controls for that time and place; but is not binding elsewhere unless the college of bishops approves it. The making of and dealing in intoxicants is treated unequivocally and laconically as follows: " If any preacher or member shall engage in the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors to be used as a beverage, let the discipline be administered as in cases of immorality." From 1845 to 1860 the church, as its members had been from the beginning, was much occupied with the instruction and conversion of the slaves. When the Civil War began, there were "207,776 negro
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4. Representatives and Results. No small elected body has included a larger majority of competent men of different types than the college of bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In its early period Bishops Soule and Andrew and William Capers sentatives and Robert Paine were the most revered. H. B. Bascom, already renowned, died less than six months after he was elected. The oratorical fame of Bishop George Foster Pierce spread throughout the United States, and he lived to diffuse it more than thirty years after his election. No more potential bishop arose in that body than Holland Nimmons McTyeire (q.v.), legislator, administrator, historian. John Christian Keener (q.v.) was for half a century un usually influential in several spheres. The sage Lovick Pierce, who survived to be appointed fraternal delegate to the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Nathaniel of the church, and John Berry McFerrin, the rejuvenator of every embarrassed enterprise, were pillars amidst the changes of their times. In all the diverse and increasing modes of Christian effort upon which Methodism, in Europe and America, has been so ready to enter, the Methodist Episcopal Church South is energetically working, being rewarded by a constant increase of members and liberality. The tendency to federation, if not to union, between the two great divisions of Episcopal Methodism is shown in their copartnership in the publishing-work in China, a common catechism, and a common hymnal, compiled by joint commissioners, authorized by the general conferences and introduced to the congregations by the signatures of the bishops of both communions.
The membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church South was computed at the end of 1909 to be 1,780,778, and in the foreign missions over 15,000, making a total membership of about 1,800,000.
3. The Methodist Protestant Church; William S. Stockton, an influential layman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, began, in 1821, the publication of the Wesleyan Repository, its contributors being ministers and members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. "Church polity" was criticized in successive numbers by Nicholas Snethen (q.v). As its circulation increased, its utterances became more aggressive, and it encountered wide opposition, but on account of an announcement in the Methodist Magazine of 1823 that its editors would not admit "subjects of controversy which act to disturb the peace and harmony of the church," the Wesleyan Repository gained a large patronage.
While the general conference of 1824 was in session in Baltimore a convention of reformers was held there. It consisted of local and itinerant ministers, several of whom were members of the general conference, and numerous laymen. To take the place of the Wesleyan Repository this convention established a periodical entitled The Mutual Rights of the Ministers and Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and made preparations to organize union societies in various parts of the country. The Methodist Episcopal Church, considering this movement revolutionary, took steps to suppress it. Dennis B. Dorsey, a member of the Baltimore conference, was excluded from the church for refusing to pledge himself to desist from "spreading incendiary publications." W. C. Pool was similarly dealt with, and within thirty days eleven local preachers and twenty-two laymen were expelled in Baltimore; they took an appeal. When the general conference of 1828 drew nigh, the reformers adopted a memorial to be presented to that body and also issued an address to the public. Thomas Emerson Bond, a physician of Baltimore and a local preacher, issued a powerful appeal to Methodists in opposition to the changes proposed by the reformers; these were the elimination of the episcopacy and the presiding eldership, and the admission of laymen to the general and annual conferences. The general conference confirmed the expulsion of Dorsey and Pool. Prior to this a number of expelled members and their sympathizers formed themselves into a society named Associate Methodist Reformers. Its members were. most numerous in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, and Cincinnati. A book issued by one of their number, Alexander McCaine, which proved peculiarly irritating, was chiefly devoted to attacks upon episcopacy as a form of government, and upon the
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"If we are true to it [the pure, unmixed question of representation], if we are not ashamed of it, if we glory in it, it must finally prevail, and proselyte every Methodist in the United States. They may, indeed, remain episcopal Methodists, but so sure as we are not moved away from our high calling, the whole lump will be leavened into representative Methodists."
Its government is the embodiment of the representative principles for which it contended. In no period of its existence has it failed to be represented by men of rare ability. Among those of the middle period was Thomas Hewlings Stockton (q.v.), who had few if any superiors as a preacher. Another was Dr. Alexander Clark, orator, author, editor, traveler, no mean poet, and the principal compiler of the Voice of Praise, the hymn-book of the denomination. This communion has always been interested in education, and maintained useful institutions. For many years it aided the foreign mission work of other denominations. The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society was formed in 1879, and the Board of Foreign Missions in 1882. Its work has been chiefly in Japan and China.
The membership in 1909 numbered 188,806, a gain of over sixty per cent since 1892.
4. Wesleyan Methodist Connection o