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j:-a^Svs

COUNSELS

YOUNG CONVERTS.

ABRIDGED

From Dr. IVise^s " Convbet's Counselloe.**

REV. A. SUTHERLAND,

TORONTO:

PRiyTED AT THE WESLEYAN CONFERE

isn.

,f*.v.

i I 1 t

■rri. -■;^-

PREFACE.

This little volume is intended to meet
a common want. It is intended to supply
those who have been led to Christ through
the instrumentality of Methodism, with
wholesome counsel in regard to their church
relations, and, at the same time, to meet
some of the objections to Methodism so
freely made use of by those who are always
anxious to proselyte members from her
communion.

The book of which this is an abridge-
ment, has been in circulation for many
years; but its usefulness, so far as this
country is concerned, has been hindered

PREFACE.

by two circumstances : 1. Its size ; and 2.
The large quantity of matter in its pages
applicable only to Methodism in the United
States. With a view of adapting it to
general circulation in Canada, this abridg-
ment has been made. Everything essential
to the line of argument and illustration
has been retained ; but enough has been
omitted to bring the volume into moderate
compass, and to place it, as regard? cost,
within the reach of all.

A. S.

May, 1871.

COUNSELS TO YOUNG CONVERTS.

CHAPTER I. *

DUTY OF CONVERTS TO JOIN THE VISIBLE '

CHURCH.

Christian reader, will you give me your
attention, and permit me to commune with
you awhile, in the spirit of a friend and
fellow disciple ? We are strangers to each
other in the flesh, but are we not united in
holy brotherhood, through our mutual faith
in Jesus ? Do not our hearts beat in hal-
lowed sympatliy, as we bow together, in
spirit, at the feet of Him whose death was
our life, whose love is our consolation, whose
promises are the light of our steps ? Accept,
then, my hand, with a brother's heart in it.
Give me your confidence. You are a young
pilgrim just entering the way of life. I en^

DUTY OF CONVERTS

tered that sacred path in my youth. For
nearly twenty-five years I have journey e(!
in it. I have mingled much with men, havo
seen life in many phases, have enjoyed
much, suffered much. I know somewhat,
therefore, of the human heart, and have gath-
ered some of the fruits of experience. View-
ing you as a convert just entering upon
novel experiences,subjected to manifold temp-
tations, doubtful of yourself, anxious to do
right, yet liable to be misled, I feel my heart
warm toward you, and am desirous to give
you such counsels as I hnmo will benefit
you, if you accept and follow them. Will
you, then, give me your attention and confi-
dence ?

I address you as recently converted, but
as undecided concerning your church rela-
tions. You have been led to Christ, I will
presume, through the instrumentality of
Methodism. If left to your own unbiased
judgment, you would unhesitatingly unite
with the Methodist church. But your asso-
ciates, relatives, or personal friends are per-
haps hostile to Methodism. Perhaps you

TO JOIN THE VISIBLE CHURCH.

reside in a community where Methodism is
despised by proud, influential, sectarian men.
False views of Methodism, the offsprings of
a prejudice which is willingly ignorant of
its true character and spirit, are whispered
in your ears. So much is said to you, by
persons you have ever esteemed, that your
mind is perplexed and unsettled. You
hesitate and wait. You do not feel entirely
free to relinquish Methodism. You are too
deeply indebted to it to turn from it readily ;
yet in consequence of what has been said to
you l)y others, your mind is not satisfied
with respect to your duty to enter into
church relation with it. Like a weaver's
shuttle, you are tossed to and fro, and amid
these perplexities, you are tempted to join
no church at all.

Permit me, my dear young friend, to be
plain with you at this point. The sugges-
tion to join 710 church is from the great
adversary of your soul. The friends who
harass you that they may alienate you from
Methodism, are responsible for so disturbing
your wonted serenity as to fit you for the

DUTY OF CONVERTS

solicitations of the teiiii)ter. ]3ut you must
resist him, nevertheless. You must join
some branch of the visible church of Clnist.
Not to do so is to peril the safety of your
soul.

Some time ago, a bold but reckless sea-
man determined to attenqit the passage of
the Atlantic alone in an open boat. It was
a daring thought, but lie was strong in pur-
])0se, and lie made the trial successfully.
Alone in his frail bark, he crossed the
mighty deep, braved all it dangers, outrode
its storms, and landed safely on the ojipo-
site shore.

Since then, a noble steamship, like levia-
than for size, like the eagle for swiftness,
like behemoth for strength, while attempting
the same passage, rushed upon an unseen
vessel. The concussion opened the steam-
er's gigantic bosom to the waves, and like
a dead monster of the deep, she sank, wdtli
scores of her affrighted voyagers, to the
invisible caverns of the seas.

Thus a voyage Avhich was safely made by
a solitary seaman in an open boat^ proved

TO JOIN THE VISIBLE CIIlTvClI.

fatal to scores who attempted it in a noblo
steamship. But wouhl yon, therefore, prefer
the open l)oat to tlie steamer if you were
about to cross the ocean ? ? .*

You would not. lieasoning upon these
facts, you would say, that the seaman in the
open boat was foolhardy. The probabilities
were all against liini. His exploit is not tit
to be imitated, for it could liardly be re*
]ieated l)y liimself or any other man. Of
the steams] lip, you would say the few wlio
perished l)y her fatal mishap were excei^tions.
Most who cross tlie seas in such vessels do
so with safety, and, therefore, the steamship
is infinitely preferable to tlie open boat.

Do you not perceive the application of
these illustrations to the question wliich now
perplexes you ? Do you tliink of sailing
over the sea of life alone, without the fellow-
sliip of the visible church ? Behold the
folly of such a purpose in the rashness of
that daring seaman. Like him, you may,
after many frightful experiences, land safely
on the bright shore beyond. But alas, all
the probabilites are against you. You are

DUTY 019 CONVERTS

more likely to be wrecked beneath some
treacherous wave, than to outsail the perils
of the voyage. Thus reason points you
toward the church. Experience directs to
the same path. Of the many who have at-
tempted a voyage to heaven out of the
Christian church, nearly all have lost their
way, while yet almost in sight of the point
of their departure. On the contrary, though
some who join the visible church, do, like
"Hymeneus and Alexander," make ship-
wreck of faith, yet the far greater number
outride every storm, and land safely on the
shore beyond the flood. All experience de-
clares in favor of the safety of seeking
heaven by way of the clmrch : it shows the
attempt to reach it independent of the
church to be perilous in the extreme.
Hence your desire to make your salvation
as sure as possible, if guided by the voices
of reason and experience, will lead you to
imite with some branch of the Christian
church.

The existence of the visible church,
erected and preserved by Christ himself, is

TO JOIN THE VISIBLE CHURCH.

■i

.si

a divine proclamation, that through its sa-
cred portals the only safe path to heaven
runs. Would Jesus have founded it, joined
his first disciples to it, called it his " body,"
" loved it," and preserved it, as by a per-
petual miracle, even against the "gates of
hell," if it were not necessary to the salva-
tion of his followers ? Did its institution
spring from the suggestions of caprice, or
w^as it the outgrowth of his wisdom and
love ? Yoic will surely acknowledge it to
be the latter. How, then, can you neglect to
join yourself to it, without despising his
wisdom, exhil*;-lng a measure of self-will
utterly unbecoming in a disciple, risking
your salvation, and exposing yourself to tJie
fate of him whose scornful rejection of the
wedding garment overwhelmed him with
speechless shame, when he was arraigned at
the tribunal of his offended Lord ?

Nor can you refuse to join the visible
church without at least a show of luikind-
ness, utterly inconsistent with that love for
Christ which you profess. It is the nature
of love to yield itself to the wishes of its

DUTY OF CONVERTS

object. Love is obedient. It does not hes-
itate to do, to suffer, or to die, if need be, to
please its l)eloved. What a poor starveling
your love will appear, if you decline to sub-
mit to the undoubted will of Christ on a
point which, while it requires no real sac-
rifice, is almost absolutely necessary to your
salvation. Your refcjsal must at least ex-
pose your profession of love to merited
suspicion.

Besides, if you stand unconnected with
the visible church, how can you " eat the
body " and '' drink the blood " of Christ ?
'' Do this in rcmemhrance of me!' is not a
mere request : it is a coUmgnid, If it were
only a whispered wisli, your affection for
Christ should lead you to regard it as an
imperial law. Biit it is more than a wish.
It is an unconditional command, invested
with peculiar sacredness, because given on
the eve of that awful hour, which witnessed
the dying agonies of your Saviour. A wish
to evade it i^ treason to Christ. Yoit cannot
therefore desire to neglect it, But how can

TO JOIN THE VISIBLE CHURCH,

yoii obey it unless you become a member
of the visible church ? for it is not a secret
commemoration of his death that he re-
quires, but an open partaking of its emblems
in the company of his disciples. Are you
not therefore bound to become a member of
the visible church, by the command which
bids you partake of the holy supper ?
. It is not uncommon for converts, harassed
as I suppose you to be, about their church
relation, to })e tempted to say : " I would
join the church if their was only one de-
nomination. But I am confused because of
the multitude of sects, claiming to be
churches of Christ; therefore, I will join
none."

Fallacious conclusion ! Behold its folly.
Yonder is a man intending to cross the seas.
Seeking a ship, he finds the wharves crowded
with every variety of craft — scliooner, brig,
sliip, clipper, and steamship. The owners
of each insist on the superiority of their
particular vessel. After hearing their pleas,
the intending voyager exclaims, " Thei« are

DUTY OF CONVERTS

SO many vessels, I am confused. I know
not which to select. I will sail in neither of
them. I will sivim across the seas alone !"

Now, I know you pronounce this resolu-
tion absurd in the highest degree— too ab-
surd for any sane man to adopt. Common
sense, you think, would teach such a man
to select that craft which his judgment,
after due examination, most approved.
Exactly so. Go then, beloved convert, and
follow the dictates of sound common sense
with respect to the multitude of sects £^round
you. Their number and variety result from
the necessary diversity of hmnan opinions ;
and, constituted as the human mind is,
their multiplicity is probably a good rather
than an evil. Let not this fact stumble
you, therefore, but after a due investigation
of their respective claims, select the one
which your judgment can best approve, and
join yourself to its communion. Eemember
your safety, your duty, your obligations to
Christ, all bind you to become a member
of the visible church.

TO JOIN *liE VISIBLE CHtlBCIl. 19

"And THE Lord added to the chi^rch
daily such as should be saved"

*' / had rather he a door-keeper in the hottse
of my God, tlum to dwell in the tents of
loickednessJ*

CHAPTER II.

METHODIST CONVERTS SHOULD JOIN A METHODIST

CHURCH.

I HAIL you, dear reader, as a child of
Methodism. Your parents may have edu-
cated you in a different faith. Your past
associations may have been with the fol-
lowers of another creed. Your personal
friends may worship at other altars. Never-
theless, having been converted to Christ
through Methodist instrumentalities, you
are a child of Methodism ! God sent Meth-
odism to you, as he sent Ananias to Saul of
Tarsus, that it might become your spiritual
parent. It found you a poor unawakened
sinner. It alarmed you, persuaded you, led
you to the cross, taught you how to believe,
encouraged your first acts of trust, and led
you, with the solicitude of a mother, through
the earliest steps of your experience in the

METHODIST CONVERTS, ETC.

/is.

-3-

way of faith. Under God, yoii owe your
spiritual life to it. Are you not, then, one
of the children of Methodism ? Is not the
Methodist church your spiritual mother ?

Did it ever strike you that there is a
lirovidcncc in this delightful relation be-
tween you and Methodism ? It must be so,
for so important a fact as your spiritual pa-
rentage could not have been left to chance.
As a Christian, yoit utterly eschew the
notion of chance. You recognize the guiding
hand of God in every event, both great and
small, from the upholding of the spheres to
the fall of a sparrow. You must, therefore,
concede that providence was directly con-
cerned in bringing you into your very in-
teresting relationship with Methodism. Per-
haps a little reflection, on the various steps
l)y which you have l)cen led, will unfold
to your mind immerous combinations of
events, all tending to this result, and de-
monstrating the presence of an invisible but
Almighty agency. Can you explain the
facts of your recent history on any other
principle ? If you deny it, are they not

22 METHODIST CONVERTS SHOULD JOIN

mysterious and inexplicable — a tangled
labyrinth which yon cannot explore ? But
if you admit it, everything, though wonder-
ful and overwhelming, is at least intelligible
and plain. Ought you not, then, to consider
that the providence of God made you the
spiritual child of Methodism ?

But does not this fact teach its lesson ?
May it not shed some light on the question
of your church relation ? Is there no indica-
tion of the divine will in these mysterious
leadings of his providence ? Why did your
Heavenly Father select a Methodist preacher
to be the instrument of your awakening,
and a Methodist altar to be the scene of
your conversion ? He could have led you
within the sphere of other, perhaps nearer,
instrumentalities. Wliy then did He lead
you rather out of their way, and bring you
into spiritual relationship with the great
Methodist family, if not to teach you that
your spiritual interests could be better pro-
moted within its bosom than elsewhere ?
I will not positively affirm that this is the
lesson of the fact, because I can conceive

A METHODIST CHURCH.

of exceptional cases, in which it would not
be proper for a convert to join the church
of his spiritual parentage; but I do sincerely
submit this question to your judgnxent : Do
not these providences which brought you
within the influence of Methodism, give at
least an intimation, that it i« the divine
will you should fix your spiritual home
within its enclosures? I beg you to re-
solve this question on your knees.

By uniting with the church which has
been the instrument of your conversion, you
will meet with a spiritual sympathy such as
you can hardly expect to find in another
denomination.

As a young convert you stand in special
need of the sympathy and aid of spiritual
minds. This need will continue until your
experience matures, and you acquire strength
through conflict and endurance. Yoiir faith
is weak and vacillating — a reed shaken by
the wind. Your love, though glowing, is
wavering — a flame flickering in a draught
of air. In strength, you are a lamb shiver-
ing in the chilly atmosphere of an ungenial

24 METHODIST CONVERTS SHOULD JOIN

spring. In skill to resist the Tempter, you
are as an inexperienced youtli walking
amidst the snares of practiced wickedness.
Thus feeble and harassed, you often sink
into "great deeps" of despondency, where
a "horror of great darkness," like that which
fell on the patriarch Abraham, encompasses
your trembling spirit. Then you challenge
the reality of your conversion, and are
ready to "cast away your confidence." Then,
like a frightened child, you need to be folded
in the warm breast of Christian sympathy,
that your fear may he calmed, your heart
cheered into a renewal of your acts of faith,
by the whispers of a tender and patient
brotherly afiection.

Now, where will you be so likely to find
this sympathy as with those who regard
you as their spiritual child ? They have
M'itnessed the process of your conversion,
entered into your feelings, mingled their
tears with yours, struggled with you in the
agonies of your penitential hour, soared
w ith you on the wings of faith to the Me-
diator's feet, and blended their voices with

A METHODIiiT CHURCIL

yours in the first songs of praise which
broke from your renewed heart. Hence,
they love you as the cliild of their hibors
and affections. Tliey have confidence in
your profession of faith. They are eminently
titted to sympathize with you, to weep over
your sorrows and to rejoice over your joys.
Is it prudent to tear yourself away from
such sympathy ? Is it safe ?

I do not affirm that you cannot find genu-
ine Christian sympathy in a church of anotlier
name, because wherever there is true piety
there is more or less of sympathy with the
lambs of Christ's flock. But I do seriously
doubt the probal)ility of your finding such
sympathy as you now enjoy in the house of
your spiritual parentage. Eemember, that
l)eing a child of Methodism, you will be but
an adojyfcd child in any other brancli of
the Christian church. You will feel this fact
painfully, if you leave your true liome. So
long as you are tlie object of a zealous prose-
lytism, the confidence and sympathy of
those who seek to win you to their ranks
will appear strong and deep. But when you

26- METlIOT)li=iT CONVERTS 8H0ULP JOlN*

liavc once crossed the Rul)icoii, and stand
among them as a candidate ibr church meni-
l)erslii]), a change will l)e visible in the
spirit of your new friends. Having lured
you from Methodism, they will seek to
divest you of every shred of the Metliodistic
gannent, and to shape the manifestations of
your experience in their own denominatir lal
mould, lliey will scrutinize your conversion,
and challenge its genuineness, because it wa,s
obtained among the Methodists. It will l>e
well if they do not lead you to cast it aside
as mere excitement, and leave you to gro]ie
through mist and unbelief after new light,
so that, after all, you may date your new
birth from the period of your connection
with them, and thus lose your sense of obli-
gation to yoiu' true si)iritual parent. But if
^()U should escape so severe an ordeal, you
,ill, at least, be speedily taught by signifi-
cant shrugs and chilling glances, if not by
direct rebuke, that allusions to your indebt-
edness to Methodism are regarded as a mark
of bad taste, as an offence, as a sign of dis-
loyalty to your new friends. In a word, you

A MlCTllODIST CHURCH.

will have to i»i[uore your spiritual parentage
or be regarded as a speckled l)ird, an oddity,
to be endured but not received to tlie entire
confidence of the church.

I'erhaps you tliink these renuirks are the
outtlo wings of ])rejudice on the part of the
writer. I assure you they Jire not. I love
and res2)ect every Iminch of the Christian
clnn'ch, and believe that multitudes among
ihem would scorn to do such tilings as I
have described. But facts are stul)born
things ; and they prove that the animm of
not a few denominations is decidedly un-
friendly to Methodism — so unfriendly as to
l(jok upon it with a certain aflectation of con-
tempt, and to speak incredulously, if not
with absolute doubt, of the genuineness of
its religious experiences.

How, then, can you, who are a Methodist
con\ert, go among them watliout having the
soundness of jjonr conversion doubted i
without being subjected to a suspicious
scrutiny Avliich it is painful to an honor-
able mind to endure? How, under such
circumstances, can you hope to find that

- "in

28 METHODIST CONVERTS SHOULD JOIN

Spiritual sympathy in their communions
which is one of the great wants of your
renewed life ? Plainly you cannot. Are
you, then, at liberty to put your salvation
in peril by rushing from the warm atmos-
phere of love and sympatliy which now
surrounds you, into one of cold and unsym-
imtliyzing scrutiny and suspicion ?

A poet has given beautiful expression to
the desire which carries an inexperienced
youth to sea, and wliich is succeeded by a
desire to return home a thousand fold more
intense, in the following lines :

" See how from pert the vessel glides,
With streamered masts o'er halcyon tides :
Its laggard course the sea-boy chides,

All loth that calms should bind him ;
But distance only chains him more
With love-links to his native shore,
And sleep's best dream is to restore

The home he left behind him. "

In my walks as a pastor, I have met
with many persons wliose experience in the
matter of tlieir churcli I'elation resembled
that of the poet's *' sea-boy." When they

A METHODIJ^T CHURCH.

were yoimg converts, the attentions of influ-
ential men, the appeal to their vanity which
was conveyed in the attempt to proselyte
them, the idea of finding a cnltnre or a
social status superior to Methodism, filled
them with desire, like that of the sea-boy,
to leave the sunny port of Methodism,
w) ere they were converted, and to enter
another church. But once away from their
true spiritual home, like tlie sea-hoy, they
missed its genial spirit, its warm, hearty
sympathies, and yet felt bound to it by
"love-links" they could not break. Tliey
regretted what they had done, yet did not
feel free to retrace their steps. They were
unsatisfied and ill at ease in the relation
they had chosen, and longed for a fair op-
portunity to return to their true spiritual
home. And such, beloved reader, miiy be
your experience if you suffer yourself to be
beguiled from your true spiritual home by
any motive lower than a conviction of duty.
I have said that Providence, by giving
you your spiritual parentage in the house
of Methodism, indicated its will concerning

80 METHODIST CONVERTS SHOULD JOIN

■Irv

your true church home. I say indicated
hecause tliere may be circumstances which
would render it im^jroper for a convert to^
unite with the church which led him to
Christ. Should that church, for example,
hold doctrines which he does not believe,
it could not be his duty to join it. To
profess faith in dogmas which the under-
standing rejects, is a violation of the law of
truth. Wlioever does so, corrupts liis moral
nature and offends God. Hence, in de-
termining your church relation, you are
solemnly bound to consider the question of
creeds. Should you deliberately piofess a
creed which you do not heartily believe,
you would certainly peril, if not assuredly
forfeit, your peace of mind. You must ))«
honest before God.

Now, I take it for granted that in doctrine
vou are a Methodist. You believe in tlie
great truth of universal atonement. You
l)elieve that Jesus *' tasted death for every
man ; " that grace, quickening and saving,
is tendered to every man, rendering every
man morally able to accept the Saviour;

A METHODIST CHUHCH.

that freedom froBi the guilt and dominion of
sin, is attainable in this life, and that a truly
converted man may so fall away as to finally
perish. Believing these truths, I do not see
how you can join any but a Methodist
church without incurring the guilt of a
])erpetual lie !

You must, above all things, maintain your
integrity. Depend upon it there is safety
in the imth of duty only.

•■tii

[4! ? I

CHAPTEK III.

MEANS OP GRACE PECULIAR TO METHODISM.

When the ancient Cnisader, inflamed witli

desire to rescue the Holy I^iid from tlie

sceptre of the Saracen, consecrated himself

to that romantic enterprise, he at once threw

his whole soul into the work of preparation.

llegarding his pilgrimage as the grand object

i " his lite, he sacrificed everv other interest

and affection at its slirine. He forsook his

dearest friends ; sold his domains ; alienated

his rights of sovereignty ; and lavished his

gold that he might contribute to the success

of the crusade. In making preparation for

his military duties, he p\^ ^chased armor of

]3roof, weapons of truest temper, steeds of

highest mettle; he selected for his leaders

men of true courage and sagacity, and chose

a route most likely to lead him speedily and

safely to the scene of conflict. Thus h^

MEANS OF GRACE, ETC.

sun^eiidered everything to the claim of his
souFs ideal of duty and glory.

May you not, beloved convert, learn a
lesson from the Crusader's spirit ? Does
not his action exhibit, in bold relief, the
principle whicli sliould guide you in deter-
mining your church relation ? Like him
you have consecrated yourself to a great life
work — an infinitely gi^eater work than liis.
His object was to stand a conqueror on the
spot of liis Lord's crucifixion ; yours is to -
stand victorous before the throne of your
Saviour's glory. If this ideal led him to
make stern sacrifices, and to adopt a course
of self-discipline adapted to the end he had
chosen for himself, ought not yours to bind
you to similar sacrifices and discipline ?
Ought you not to sulyect all your actions to
the demands of your purpose to reach
heaven ? Ought not all your voluntary re-
lations to society to be determined by the
question of their fitness to contribute to
your great life aim ? Above all, should not
your church relation be settled by the adap-

I'r '1

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Ni^i

MEANS OF GRACE

•!' :^

■I

tation of the particular clmrcli you may se-
lect to promote your salvation ?

If to these interrogatories you respond
affirmatively, you are hound to select a
church home with that hody of Christians
wliose spirit, usages, and institutions are
best htted to aid you in working out your
salvation. Tlie social status, the wealth, the
culture of a church, are inferior and subordi-
nate questions; though too many converts,
to their gxeat spiritual loss, have allowed
them to be controlling and decisive. I hope
better things of yoiL I take you to be an
earnest convert, to whom " all things " are
" loss," if you may Imt " win Christ.'' You
will, therefore, be governed by the question,
Which church is best fitted by its peculiar
institutions, doctrines, and spirit to help me
to lieaven ?

Now if you take this principle for your
guide, I have no doubt of its leading you
into the Methodist Church. Witliin her en-
closures, in addition to all that is valuable
in the preaching and ordinances common
to all Christian denominations, you will hnd

PECULIAR TO METHODISM.

I*'

some precious advaiitan;es, which you can-
not find outside the pale of Methodism. J
will name some of them.

You will find in Methodism such a decree
of direct and habitual culture of the great
elements of the Christian life, as is found in
no other denomination.

The Christian life consists chiefly in the
exercise of right afiections toward God. I
do not affirm that it includes nothing more
than lo\^e, because an enlightened under-
standing, a submissive will, and an obedient
life, are essential to it, and are, in fact, in-
cluded in it. But I do not assert that love
to God, as manifested in Christ, is the prin-
cipal element of the Christian life. " Love,"
says AVesley, " is the end, the sole end of
every dispensation of God, from the be-
ginning of the world to the consummation
of all things ;" and the apostle John ob-
serves, " Every one that loveth is born of
({od, and knoweth God." So that he who
loves has spiritual life. He who loves not
is a stranger to that life, is dead to God, is
not born of God, has not spiritual vitality.

^. , "1

■j^'j.

MEANS OF GRACli

P;!

it!

; i:

But this love is the ottspriug of I'aitli, de-
l)ends on laith, grows or declines, as faith is
stronger or weaker. The triitli whicli faith
grasps is tlie germ of love. Tlie divine
message which faith receives, the^ glorious
facts to which it gives credence, constitute
the food which stimidates love and secures
its OTOwth. Without faith, love could not
liave birth or growth in the human soul.
Hence, faith and love are the two grand
elements of the Christian life. He who
believes most earnestly, and with the most
simplicity, will love most. He who has the
strongest faith and the warmest love will
liave the most spiritual vitality, will grow
most rapidly to moral power and beauty.

Now, if you look carefully into the his-
tory of Methodism, you will find that it has,
from the beginning, given singular attention
to the cultivation of these two grand ele-
ments of the Christian life. 1. In its
preaching, its literature, its hymns, in its
devotional services, in the lives of its
founders and representative niinds^ it has
always urged the duty of an earnest, un-

TKCULIAB TO METIIODISxM.

(loiil)tiiig reception of tlie trutli, with sin-
gular intensity. Its preaching has entrenched
itself in the religious consciousness of its
hearers, to which it has invariably appealed
with an authority which has proved itself
irresistible, and commanded^ so to speak, the
belief of men in the inspiration of the word
of (lod. An unshrinking faith in the divine
word, accompanied l)y a simple, unrestrained
personal arfection for God in Christ — '' an
individualized spiritual life" — has been the
most striking characteristic of its teachings,
from the day of ^I-r. Wesley's conversion
until now. 2. Wliile it has not neglected
to instruct its disciples in those great
theological truths whicli enlighten the un-
derstanding, and teacli men to conceive
right views of divine things, it has given
especial attention to the culture of religious
experience — of emotional piety. Other de-
nominations liaA^e trusted chiefly to the
effect of doctrinal and ethical disquisitions,
without seeking to stimulate their hearers
to the exercise of faith and love by direct
exhortation and personal persuasion. Metli-

•f *

l)0

MKANS 01' CrKACK

I I' . t '

odisiii does both. It unfolds the truth. It
also habitually enforces it with tears, en-
treaties, exhortations. Tt strug«^les to re-
lieve men of their doul)ts and fears, and
lu'ges them to cast their lieljdess s])irits
fearlessly ui)on (rod in (-hrist, as on the
bosom of a Fatlier, wlio is not merely
willing, but infinitely anxious to save. The
result of this has hitherto ])een a stronger,
more clieerful faith, a more marked ex-
perience, a deeper religious emotion, stronger
affection for Clod, than have l)een common
in other bodies of Christians.

The peculiar doctrines of Methodism
have also a direct tendency to stinudate
the Christian life, and thereby to promote
its growth. •

By using the phrase " peculiar doctrines
of Methodism," 1 do not wish it to be un-
derstood that Methodism has introduced
any novelties into her theology. No. The
doctrines of Methodism are as old as the
gospel. Jesus taught them. So did his
apostles and their successors, tlifough the
purest period of the history of the church.

PECtLIAU to ^lETIIODLSM.

Many of tlie " lieforiiiers," also, Ijoth in
England and (Jennany, were able advocates
of her characteristic doctrines. They are
not novelties, therefore ; though viewed in
relation to the chnrches which follow the
theological system of Calvin, and to their
distinct, earnest enunciation, many of tliem
arc now peculiar to Methodism.

These peculiar tenets have a beautiful,
Scriptural fitness to ])rouiote faith and Ioac
in the hearts of men. By teaching tlie death
of Jesus to be the price of the gracious pro-
bation, granted to the human race for the
express purpose of restoring to righteous-
ness as many as would consent to be re-
generated l)y the Divine Spirit, Methodism
exhibits the character of God in a light so
just, so impartial, so loving, so earnest to
save, that men have little ground left to
cavil or to doubt, and none to presume ;
while they are powerfully moved to love
and seek God, who is seen to be at once
lK)th good and just. By its clear enuncia-
tion of the doctrines of justification by faith
only, of the ^^itness of the Spirit, of the

I >

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MKANS OF GRACK

ijf

possibility of iiomplete victory over sin, it
awakens the hopes, satisfies ihe aspirations,
and encovirages "he efforts of such as reek
to be Christians indeed. By its theory of
the possibility of falling from grace so as
to finally perish, it erecc:^ a strong l)arrier
against the return of a believer to his old
sins. Thus its views of trutli give it an
immense advantage over those cliurchea
whicli teach the dogmas of Calvin. The re-
sult of this advantage is seen in her su-
perior growth. Her peculiar doctrines
being peculiarly scriptural, are peculiarly
efficacious in bringing men to Christ and
leading them to heaven.

The peculiar institutions of Methodism
are also eminently fitted to develope the
elements of the Christian life.

Tlie Christian life, like life in all its
forms, is active. Its tendenc} is to activity.
It always seeks to expand its forces in its
legitimate sphere. Ilepel this tendency,
check this force, and it will roll back upon
itself and die. To be healthfully developed
it must be permitted to flow out in tit ex-

PECTJLIAR TO METHODISM.

pression, in praise, in acknowledgment, in
acts of obedience, in works of benevolence,
in the performance of duty. This is its law,
and it must be obeyed.

Methodism has always recognized this im-
portant principle It is incorporated into
its very organization, and its peculiar insti-
tutions are therefore admirably fitted to de-
velop the spiritual life of its members.
Look at its class meetings, and love feasts :
how they educate the believer to form the
habit of giving expression to the conceptions
of faith, and the raptures of love! How
they lure him to obey that first prompting
of the religious life, to attempt the salvation
of others, of which every true disciple is
conscious ! How suggestive, too, of social
duties are those meetings, providing as they
do an opportunity for the confession of
faults, the utterances of desire, and the ad-
monitions of wisdom ! So, also, the Method-
istic prayer meeting is an arena for the
development of the spiritual life. It is a
battle-field, in which every member is taught
to win souls, to fight for the extension of

MEANS OF GRACE

Christ's kingdom. Lay preaching is also
productive of much enlargement to the
spiritual life of Methodism. By introducing
thousands of valuable minds into spheres of
activity, it develops their life, and leads to
the increase of that life in others. Nor is
the itinerancy of Methodism without its
influence in this direction* By the frequent
introduction of new pastors into its pulpits,
it ensures the constant, varied, energetic
enunciation of those great fundamental
truths of our holy religion, which, applied
by the Divine Spirit, become the germ and
nutriment of the divine life to those who
receive them.

We doubt if the constant preaching of
these great, central, saving truths is possible
to a settled ministry, which is compelled to
distribute general truths, and occupy itself
with single points, to avoid sameness and
repetition. But the itinerancy of Methodism
keeps them before its congregations, the
same in substance, but in ever varied forms
oi expression and diverse modes of illustra-
tion, and thereby becomes a powerful means

PECULIAR TO METHODISM.

of stimulating the growth of the spiritual
life. Thus, all that ia peculiar to the Metho*
distic organization, is strikingly — m^j I not
add philosophically? — ^adapted to develop
the Chi'istian life.

In its provision for the cultivation of the
highest forms of Christian fellowship, Meth-
odism stands peerless among the churches.

One great purpose of Christianity is to
unite mankind in bonds of holy fellowship
with God and with one another. Sow beau-
tifully and tenderly this idea is brought to
view in the sa6erdotal prayer of Christ,
where he asks for his disciples, " Thai they
all may he ONE ; as thovb. Father ^ drt in me^
and I in, thee, thai they also may he ONE IN US
♦ ♦ ♦ Thai they may he one, EVEN AS WE
ARE one! I" X

The fellowship portrayed in this passgige
is no cold, formal, heartless unity, but oom-
muDion and sympathy in the highest pos-
sible degree, — such communion as exists
between the Father and the Son, " Thai (hey
may he one, EVEN AS WB are one." What
ineffable, delightful fellowship is this ! " It

^Mi

MEANS OF GRACE

implies," says Foote, in his School of Christ,
" sympathy, oneness of mind, mutual under-
standing and agreeiaent, familiar and friendly
intercourse, the responsive beat of heart to
heart, soul answering to soul, as face answers
to face in water" — " a fellowship of love to
an unseen Saviour, a fellowship of joys,
hopes, and fears, that lie quite beyond the
circle of a natural man^s experience."

This prayer of Christ finds constant and
universal utterance in the spiritual aspira-
tions of his true disciples. One of the first
desires of the converted mind is for such
fellowship. " ! " it exclaims, " that I had
some one in whom I might discern the re-
flection of my own soul, and from whom I
might receive back again the expression of
my own confiding affection ! " It was this
aspiration, unchecked by cold suspicion,
which led the primitive converts to Chris-
tianity to seek that affectionate communion
which is so glowingly described by the
annalist of the apostles. " Knit together in
love," they met in bands, " continuing daily
with one accord in the temple, and breaking

PFCULIAR TO METHODISM.

of bread from house to house, did eat their
meat with gladness and singleness of heart."
They spoke to each other in *' psalms, hymns,
and spiritual songs," rejoiced with those that
did rejoice, and wept with those that wept.
They "exhorted one another daily," bore
"ione another's burdens," confessed their
" faults one to another," and prayed " one
for another." Thus they enjoyed the com-
munion of saints" in a very high degree ;
and, by their practice, illustrated the method
of the spiritual life, wherever it is permitted
to unfold itself unhindered by unscriptural
prejudices and unevangelical customs.

If you consult the biography of deeply
pious men, of any sect, you will find them,
when in their healthiest state of mind, seek-
isb^ this sort of intercourse with their fellow
Gi r ^rtans. Mr. Wesley, shortly after his
con\crsion, was so anxious for the fellowship
of experienced Christians, that he actually
made a journey from England to Germany,
that he might enjoy it with the followers of
Count Zinzendorf, at Hernhutt. His

"?';■

MEANS OF GRACE

motiyes are stated in his journal in these
words : —

" My weak mind could not thus bear to be
sawn asunder. And I hoped the conversing
with those holy men who were themselves
living witnesses to the full power of faith,
and yet able to bear with those that are
weak, would be a means, under God, of so
establishing my soul, that I might go on
from faith to faith, and from strength to
strength."

The same desire led Br. Chalmehs to
fom^ a very close spiritual intimacy with his
friend, Mr. J. Anderson. With this gen-
tleman Dr. C. enjoyed a very intimate re-
ligious fellowship. Their intercourse aimed
at the very thing which the Methodist class
meeting is designed to accomplish, — the
communication of religious experience. Dr.
C. was led to practice it at first, by the im-
pulses of his spiritual life. In the following
passage he defends it with the skill of a
philosopher.

" I am very much interested in the pro-
gress of your sentiments. This, in the

PECULIAR TO METHODISM.

language of good but despised Christians, is
called the communication of your religious
experience. There is fanaticism annexed to
the term ; but this is a mere bugbear ; and
I count it strange that that very evidence
which is held in such exclusive respect in
every other department of inquiry, should be
so despised and laughed at when applied to
the progress of a human being in that
greatest of all transitions, from a state of
estrangement to a state of intimacy with
God ; from the terror of His condemnation
to an affecting sense of His favor, and
friendship, and reconciled presence; from
the influence of earthly and debasing affec-
tions, to the influence of those new and
heavenly principles which the Spirit of God
establishes in the heart of every believer.
This is what our Saviour calls * passed from
death unto life/ My prayer for both of us
is, that * it may be made sure,' and that
* hereby we may know that He dwelleth
in us and we in Him, that he hath given
us of His Spirit/ "' — Meimirs of JOr. ChaU
mers, vol. i., p. 255.

] 1

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MEANS OF GRACE

! !;•

■. f

l*>.

i 1

It was to meet this want of the spiritual
life, that Mr. Wesley introduced the class
MEETING into the organism of Methodism.
He knew that the spiritual life of believers
could not be healthfully developed unless
they enjoyed constant fellowship with each
other, and he knew also, that the cultivation
of such fellowship is a scriptural duty. To
provide opportunity for its culture, and to
prevent its neglect by his followers, he estab-
lished this meeting. He did not pretend to
claim divine authority for it; for, in the
" minutes," he classed it with "prudential"
and not with " itistUuted " means of grace.
But it stands so intimately related to, and is
so necessary to the proper growth of the
spiritual life, that regular attendance upon
it has always been one of the regulations
which the Methodist Church has required
her members to observe.

There can be no doubt, that the piety of
Methodism owes much of its characteristic
fervor and animation to the influences of its
class meetings. The peculiar feature of the
class is the provision it makes for the free

PECULIAR TO METHODISM.

communication of religious eayperience. Its
members, in a spirit of frank, affectionate sim-
plicity, unfold the workings of the divine
life as developed in their several experiences.
They are thus led to discover the. identity of
the work wrought in their hearts by the self
same Spirit If one is depressed, tempted,
or crushed, he learns that his temptations
are not peculiar to himself. Others have
felt, resisted, conquered them ; why may not
he? If one is elevated, he finds his joy
reciprocated; while his happy experience
encourages his companions to seek like en-
largement of heart. If one has erred, the
persuasive sympathy of his brethren melts
him to penitence ; their prayers aid him to
return to the waiting Shepherd of his souL
Thus, the ignorance of one is instructed by
the knowledge of another. The strong
impart their vigor to the weak. The un-
wary learn caution from the wisdom of
experience. The halting are rebuked-*
Those who run well are confirmed and en-
couraged to persevere.

Besides the class meeting, Methodism has

I''.

MEANS OF GRACE

^ij

I !

its " Love Feasts/' which are also intended
and calculated to cultivate spiritual fellow-
ship. The love-feast, though now peculiar
to Methodism, is as ancient as the Christian
Church. "It is certain," says Coleman, in
his Ancient Christianity, " that the feast of
charity was celebrated in the earliest period
of the Christian Church. See Acts ii. 46.*'
It was celebrated at first in connection with
the Lord's supper, and consisted of a social
meal, accompanied with religious exercises
and expressions of brotherly affection. As
the Primitive church lost its purity, the
love-feast lost its original significancy ; abuses
became associated with it, and it was finally
abolished by the Council of Laodicea in the
middle of the fourth century. Mr. Wesley,
in imitation of the Moravians, adopted it
with its present simple form, and strictly
religious character, for the spiritual benefit
of his societies. It remains, a cherished and
delightful institution of Methodism and is
eminently fitted to promote Christian fel-
lowship.
Thus, you see some of the spiritual advan-

PECULIAR TO METHODISM.

tagC3 of Methodism. It cherishes with direct
and habitual effort, the great elements of the
Christian life ; its doctrines are pre-eminently
suited to feed the flame of that life; its
peculiar institutions haye the same tendency ;
it provides^ as no other church does, for the
cultivation of Christian fellowship. In one
word, the whole system is organized for the
special purpose of developing deep, earnest*
active, glowing piety. It offers no induce-
ments to the spiritual sluggard, the formalist,
the half-way Christian. It seeks the sincere
lover of Christ, and offers itself to him as a
helper to the attainment of the highest forms
of the divine life. Are not these great ad-
vantages? Ought you to sacrifice them
lightly ? Are they not just what yon desire
in your holiest moments? Why then do
you hesitate ? Away with the suggestions
of those who seek to proselyte you to other
altars. Go, give yourself to your true spiri-
tual mother, saying, in the simple language
of the dutiful Kuth : " Thy people shaU be
my people ; and thy God my God T

I'M

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Ill

■i

CHPATER IV.

OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST PECULIASITIES

CONSIDERED.

In one of the European picture galleries,
there is a fine portrait of Jea.n Paul Ritcher,
surrounded by floating clouds, which, when
examined closely, resolve themselves into
beautiful angel faces. But so soft and shad-
owy are those angelic images, that to be
discerned they must be beheld from a close
standpoint, and studied with an attentive
eye.

This picture embodies a truth in Metho-
dism; for its peculiarities, if viewed at a
distance and by a prejudiced mind, appear
like impenetrable clouds. Their beauty and
value are not fully apparent until one draws
nigh to them, and examines them with an
appreciative mind. Then they disclose them-
selves. Then they stand forth full of spi-

liii

PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED.

ritual attraction and power. But inasmuch
as many persons, who only view them from a
distance and with envious feelings, have set
themselves up as their critics and judges,
you will not be surprised to learn that nu-
merous objections have been brought against
those very peculiarities which are at once
the true ornaments of Methodism and the
chief sources, under God, of its wonderful
usefulness. You may meet with some of
these self-constituted critics. Let me guard
you against their misrepresentations. I will
begin with their objections to the class
meetivg.

It is sometimes said the class meeting is
a mere confessional This is not true. The
class meeting is not a confessional, but a
place for the communication of religious ex-
perience. It is the duty of the class leader
to draw out such communication by inquiring
of his members " how their souls prosper" —
a question which covers the entire range of
religious experience. It may lead to con-
fession, or it may not. That depends very
much on the spiritual health of the persons

w ■

1 m\-

ORIECTIONS TO METHODIST

\>*

present It generally leads to acknowledg-
ments of the divine goodness, and descrip-
tions of the various phases of the inner life
which have characterized their recent experi-
ences. Hence, the assumption that confession
is the sole, or even the chief business of the
class meeting, is false. And it is especially
false to allege, as some have done, that when
there is confession, it is unaccompanied by
contrition ; for the class meeting is the very
last place to which an impenitent person
would be likely to resort

It has been asserted by a certain writer*
that the class meeting is a '^ mitigated form
of the Romish confessional" Your own in-
telligence will teach you that this is a lame
and vulgar appeal to prejudice, because there
is not the least analogy between the class
meeting and the confessional You know
that the Romish confessional is a private
boic, where the worshipper makes secret con-
fession of aU his sins to a prie^^ with a view
to his absolution. It is a means by which
the Romanist penitent performs the sacra^
ment of penance. But a class meeting is a

PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED.

meeting of Christian people who openly con-
verse with one of their number on the
subject of religious experience, for the pur-
pose of being assisted to "work out their
own salvation," It needs no priest to carry-
it on. Its leader is a layman. It pretends
to nothing sacramental in its character. It
exacts no confessions of sin. It knows
nothing of priestly absolution. Its type is
not the Romish confessional, for it has no
one feature which bears the smallest resem-
blance to that unscriptural ii stitution. It
is simply a meeting for the enjoyment and
promotion of Christian fellowship, such as
God*s ancient people cherished, when, ac-
' cording to Malachi, "They that feared the
Lord, spake often one to another ; and the
Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of
remembrance was written before him for
them that fear the Lord, and that thought
upon his name : ' and such as is required by
the apostle James, where he says, " Confess
your faults one to another, and pray one for
another, that ye may be healed." ^-

Again, the same inconsiderate author

r»

'■f' I

OBJECTIONS TO METHODiaT

f'V.

aJBSrms that the class meeting tends to
" promote insincerity and a habit of hollow
pretences/* because the weekly relation of
experience it requires is " a temptation to
tread a beaten track of recital, in which
actual experience does not run; or to rely
somewhat upon invention for the materials
of a story that will make a good appearance
before the class,"

This argument is both uncharitable and
fallacious. Uncharitable, because it brings a
charge of hypocrisy and falsehood againsii
Methodists generally : fallacious, because it
proceeds on the supposition that a sound
religious experience cannot furnish material
for such weekly inquiries and relations as a
class meeting implies, and therefore it must
lead to false pretensions. But suppose the
spiritual life is so active, so varied in its
development, so surrounded by hindrances,
and so subject to conflicts as to present innu-
merable phases and shades of experience,
it must then be conceded that the class
meeting is precisely fitted te meet its wants,
because it furnishes stated opportunities to

PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED.

express its joys and griefs, and to obtain
encouragement, instruction, and stimulus*
Now this is the Methodistic view of the
Christian life. And on this view, which I
believe is the true one, class meetings stand
firmly and securely built. Those who think
the Christian life is dull and stagnant — 3,
still half-putrid pool of subsided feeling — ^will
readily believe that a Christian cannot have
enough of " internal history *' to furnish
material for weekly communion, and that
the class meeting cannot be sustained except
by falsehood and hypocrisy. But you, be-
loved reader, do not hold such low views of
the Christian life. You know, too, that the
class meeting has stood the test of more than
a century, and that millions of pious souls
have been wonderfully blessed by it. You
will not, therefore, be likely to be drawn
away from Methodism by such objections*

It may interest you to know that while
some sectarian writers are assailing the
class meeting, others, of more intelligence,
candor, and piety, are recommending its in-
troduction into their own ecclesiastical

< i>.

OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST

organisms.

A recent article in the ^pis-
copal Recorder recommends the institution
of class or band meetings by the Protestant
Episcopal Church. It says that from the
" class meetings the great Methodist revival
drew its strength, and had they been legiti-
mated in the Church of England, she would
have remained in fact, as well as in name,
National." It mentions two or three in-
stances in which meetings conducted like
our class meetings were signally blessed —
and concludes with the remark : — " And it
is not too much to say, that by the adoption

I of such meetings in future, the church [Pro-
testant Episcopal] would be taking the means,

iof all others the most efficient, for throwing
off the spiritual sluggishness with which she
is now oppressed."

Not long since, the pastor of a Congrega-
tionalist church in Massachusetts, in conver-
sation with a Methodist preacher stationed in
the same town, lamented that the converts
pf a recent revival in his church, did not
manifest that vigor in their spiritual life

B"whiQh was desirable. He complained parti-

PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED.

cularly of their backwardness in religious
meetings. He then asked his Methodist
brother : " How do you manage to secure so
much activity as is manifest in your con-
verts ? "

" Sir," replied the Methodist preacher,
" that results not so much from what I do,
as from the influences of our system, especi-
ally of our class meeting."

" What is the nature of your class meet-
ing ?" inquired the other.

The preacher explained the manner and
design of that meeting to him. After hear-
ing liis statement, the Congregationalist pas-
tor looked up very earnestly, and with great
emphasis remarked :

" Such a meeting must have a most benefi-
cial influence both on old Christians and
young converts. It is just what WE need!"

That pastor spoke honestly. He would
doubtless have been glad, if the oider and
public sentiment of his denomination had
permitted, to establish class meetings in his
own church.

[A similar remark was ii^ade hj the late

tl;

^IF

OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST

lamented Dr. Bums, of the Canada* Presby-
terian church, a few years before his
death. — Ed.]

A kindred conviction of the value of this
means of grace is also working its way into
the minds of candid observers in England,
as wiU appear by the foUowing facts.

A committee of the English Convocation
having recommended to the Episcopal Church
the formation of religious fraternities within
its bosom, for the benefit of converts, and a
High Church writer, in advocating the
measure, having ignored the existence of the
Wesleyan class meeting, a scholarly critic in
the North British Review calls attention to
this feature of Wesleyanism. After quoting
the disciplinary description of class and band
meetings, this critic says : "Now we think
that there are great doubts whether the effect
upon the mind of this practice of confession,
which prevails in this closest association,
(the hand) would, in most caseSj be salutary
or no ; but it seems evident that it is the
sort of confession recommended in St. James'
Epistle, being, like it, mutual — directed, not

PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED.

to a priest, but to a righteous man, real or
supposed- — and with a view to obtaining the
benefit of his prayers ; and it supplies a
want of the soul, which, although perhaps
morbid, is a real and frequent one."

This writer then goes on to state what he
" regards as the fault of the Wesleyan sys-
tem," namely, " that the connection with a
class is made an indispensable term of com-
munion." " The whole thing," he adds,
" should be optional ; and then the system
would be free from all objections, and might
continue, as it is at present, a great meaTis of
strengthening and holding the convert, and a
great support and comfort to a large class of
minds.^*

You will observe that the approval here
given to class meetings is reluctant and
qualified. The writer evidently shares in
those prejudices which even candid and noble
minds may innocently possess, against insti-
tutions with which, from the nature of the
case, they cannot be practically acquainted.
But this only renders the measure of appro-
val which is given more valuable, for it

I- i-'<

'11

S. 1

f!''"

ifwiffw

OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST

Iff

shows that the writer applauds no more than
his gravest and most mature judgment com-
pels him to do. His praise is a concession
made to his prejudices, in obedience to the
demands of his reason.

In the above quotations you will observe
that this writer admits : 1. The scriptural
character of the class meeting. 2. Its adap-
tation to supply a " real want" of the soul.
3. That it is a ** great moans of strength-
ening and holding the convert," a "great
support and comfort to a large class of
minds."

These admissions are important, coming as
they do from a highly educated Presbyterian,
through the columns of a British Eeview.
They show that the best mind in the Chris-
tian church is beginning to recognize a fitness
and an effectiveness in the ecclesiastical
organism established by Mr. Wesley, wliich
more shallow and bigoted minds have hitherto
refused to see. They also indicate a ten-
dency in other Christian bodies towards
Methodist usages. They point to a period
in which tardy justice will be done to Mr.

PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED.

Wesley's sagacity by the general adoption,
with various modilications, of the leading
features of his system, by the evangelical
churches of Christendom.

Such testimonies as these confirm what I
have said in illustration of the value of the
class meeting. They also show you that
others, besides Methodists, concede its scrip-
tural character, its necessity, and its fitness
to supply a positive demand of the spiritual
life. Be assured, then, that in entering the
pale of Methodism, you will find in its in-
stitution such a help to the "communion of
saints," and to growth in grace, as you can
find in no other branch of the Christian
Church. No other church provides in its
organism for the culture of Christian fellow-
ship.

It is related of a certain Spaniard that he
was accustomed to put on spectacles when
he ate cherries, that they might appear large
and tempting to his eye. I have no doubt
you will find persons among those seeking
to proselyte you, who are wont to put on
spectacles when they examine the peculiari-

i :<*

,, I

iiJ

OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST

:*m

ties of our church. Such spectacled critics
will point you to numerous imaginary evils.
Perhaps they will try to convince you that
Methodist prayer-meetings are marked by
practices which are contrary to the true
order of the church of God. They may tell
you, for instance, as a late writer has done,
that our practice of relating experiences
tends " to promote insincerity and a habit of
hollow pretences.*' In support of this charge
they may refer to this redoubtable gentle-
man, who gravely relates that he once heard
"fifteen professed converts giving their ex-
perience," who "repeated always the ideas
and most often the words of the first." This
convinced the critic, that their " experience
was nothing more than the recital of a lesson
from memory." Your spectacled informants
may then add, that these converts were
schooled into this hypocrisy by our system,
and that consequently you had better for-
sake it as quickly as possible.

But you already know enough of Meth-
odism to perceive the utter falsity of this

'^■i

PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED.

charge, which, by the way, carries its own
refutation on its face. Just look at it.

1. It is not customary in public Methodist
prayer-meetings for converts to relate their
experience at length. They merely make a
general confession of their newly-found faith
in Christ. 2. The fifteen converts evidently
did not do it, for the time usually occupied
in a public meeting, would be insufficient for
fifteen persons to give their experience, " in
all Us forms aitd minuteness!*

Now, if they were not relating the details
of their experience, but only making a
general confession of their faith, what be-
comes of this argument ? It surely will not
be affirmed to be a thing " incredible,'* that
fifteen persons should have had a genuine
religious experience so substantially identical
as to find true expression in ideas and ver-
biage very nearly similar ? Is not the expe-
rience of every Christian in substance the
same ? Does not the difference in Christian
experience, lie chiefly in mode, circumstance,
and detail, rather than in substance? If
not, why do the writings of David and Paul

I ,!J

I'l;

OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST

|**f

'"■!

■ 1;

furnish the best possible language by which
to express the experience of modern believers ?
Why then is the sameness of verbiage and
ideas employed by fifteen converts to express
a general confession of an experience which,
in order to be genuine, must be substantially
identical, tortured into an argument against
their sincerity ? Is there not a correspond-
ing sameness in the general profession, which
converts in other churches make in their in-
quiry and conference meetings ? Do they
not all speak of " indulging a hope," of trust-
ing in "God's covenanted mercies," and of
hoping in the " sovereign grace of God," and
kindred " stereotyped" phrases ? What then
becomes of this argument ? It falls to the
ground, a glaring sophism, which you will
shake off as easily as Paul shook the viper
from his hand on the island of Melita.

The Methodist prayer meeting is objected
to by some, because of its " noise," its altar
for penitents, its seeming ex)nfusion, and, m
seasons of revival, and at camp-meetings, its
scenes of earnest excitement. These things
have been wickedly ridiculed by some, who

PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED.

in the true spirit of infidelity, call them a
" religious comedy," " comic operations," &c.,
which are encouraged by our ministry, not
because of their intrinsic rightfulness, but
because they " promote Methodism."

I very much mistake the temper of your
piety, dear convert, if this objection has the
weight of a feather in your estimation. You
are an earnest Christian. You believe in an
earnest Christianity. You could not endure
to see men laboring to save immortal souls
from unending death, with the cool gravity
of a Turk sipping coffee. You believe that
coldness and formality are never more out of
place than at a prayer-meeting. You will,
therefore, treat this objection with the con-
tempt it justly merits. Provided the earn-
estness of Methodism does not degenerate
into extravagance and fanaticism, it will be
to you its highest commendation, that at
its altars the penitent is not forbidden to
exhibit the intense emotions of iiis awakened
soul ; no, not if they lead him to come
"trembling," and "falling down," like the
Philippian jailor, and crying, "Sirs, what

-ill

^*^:

OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST

must I do to be saved V* Nor, will you be
kept from Methodism because its ministers
and members are quick to sympathize with
such intensity of feeling, ready to pour out
their souls in strong desire for seekers, and
to lift up their voices in fervent praise when
God pronounces tliem forgiven.

Now what is there beyond this in the
ttsual manifestations of Methodist prayer-
meetings ? Occasionally, and in some places,
it is true, the tides of feeling may overflow
the banks of rigid propriety. But are such
exceptional breaches of the ordinary propri-
eties of life so unbecoming as to merit the
title of " comic operations ?" I have read
that a Czar of Russia once saw a peasant
struggling for life in the waters oi a river.
The sight appealed to his humanity. The
Czar was forgotten in the man. He tore oft*
his coat, leaped into the river, brought the
half dead peasant to the shore, and stood
dripping and disordered among his astonished
attendants. Doubtless his aspect was very
"comic," very unsatisfactory in the eyes- of
brainless etiquette. But who, with a man's

PECl'LIAUITlEt^i G0N8IDKUKD.

heart in his bosom, could ridicule him ? So,
too, there may be in a Methodist prayer-
meeting, such struggling for the "life" of
sinking souls as gives rise to ** strong cries
and tears," to demonstrations which are un-
courtly, and contrary to the laws of a finical
etiquette ; but who with the soul of a Chris-
tian, can find it in his heart to ridicule such
things ? I would not, to be sure, encourage
them. They are not sought for or cherished
in the Methodist church, generally. But I
cannot understand how any man, whose
heart has learned to agonize for the " birth of
souls," can mock at them when they do occur.
I shrink from such a man, as I would from a
French dancing master, who should stand
beside the stake of a dying martyr and criti-
cise him because his postures were not
altogether secundum artem, I have little
doubt that, if such as he had witnessed the
excitement which followed the discourse of
Peter on the day of Pentecost, they would
have pronounced it a "religious comedy."
But I need not dwell on this point. You,
beloved reader, are too earnest a Christian

:|!

^(I'TI

OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST

fc^i

\::\

to be moved from Methodism by assaults
upon its activity, intensity, and ardent sym-
pathy for human salvation.

Another usage of Methodism, which is often
bitterly assailed by its enemies, is the Chris-
tian liberty it allows to woinen. Believing,
with an apostle, that in " Christ Jesus '*
there is neither " male nor female," it does
not reduce woman to a cypher, or restrict her
power to do good, by depriving her of the
privilege of offering prayer, or of declaring
the goodness of God to her soul, in class and
prayer meetings. Woman's equality in the
rights, privileges, and blessings of the gos-
pel is practically declared in Methodism, by
her admission to these privileges. If the
reader is a woman, this fact must commend
Methodism to her esteem. She may not wish
to use these opportunities herself, for she
may possess so sensitive a nature as to
shrink from public observation. Still, she
can but feel the honor done to her sex by a
usage which so distinctly recognizes its
equality. She can but acknowledge that

PECULIARITIKS CONSIDERED.

Methodism has an especial claim on woman's
gratitude for this most excellent custom.

But is this usage scriptural ? Many per-
sons affirm that it is not. They heap un-
stinted censures on the Methodist church for
allowing it ; claiming that it is forbidden by
the apostle, in these words : " Let your
women keep silence in the churches ; for it
is not permitted unto them to speak." —
il Cor. 14: 34.

If this were the only text in which women's
privileges were referred to by the apostle, it
might settle the question. But fortunately
the mind of the Spirit is elsewhere expressed,
and that too, in favor of the usage of Metho-
dism, and the dignity of women. In 1 Cor.
11 : 5, the apostle recognizes the right of
women to speak and pray in the church, by
prescribing the manner in which those duties
are to be performed. "Every woman that
piayeth or prophesieth with her head un-
i covered, dishonoreth her head." Again, in
verse 13 ; "Is it comely that a woman pray
unto God with her head uncovered ?" That
you may see the force of these texts, I will

f. n

OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST

quote Dr. Adam Clarke's comment upoti
verse 5th :

" Whatever may be the meaning of praying
and prophesying in respect to the man, they
have precisely the same meaning in respect
to the woman. So that some women, at
least, as well as some men, might speak to
others to edification and exhortation, and
comfort. And this kind of prophesying or
teaching, was predicted by Joel 2 : 28, and
referred to by Peter, Acts 2 : 17. And had
there not been such gifts bestowed on women,
the prophecy could not have had its fulfil-
ment. The only difference marked by the
apostle was, the man had his head uncovered,
because he was the representative of Christ,
the woman had hers covered, because she
was placed, by the order of God, in a state
of subjection to the man ; and because it
was a custom, both among the Greeks and
Eomans, and among the Jews au express
law, that no woman should be seen abroad
without a veil."

^ This interpretation accords with the prac-
tice of the primitive church, as shown in

PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED.

various portions of the New Testament.
Did not a woman make the first proclama-
tion of the resurrection of Christ to the
apostolic college ? Did not Priscilla in-
struct Apollos in the meaning of the Scrip-
tures ? Di\.- not Paul greet her as his
" helper in Christ Jesus ? " Did the no
"thank her" for her services, and declare,
that " all the churches of the Gentiles
thanked " her also ? (See Eomans 16 : 4.)
Did he not also send salutations to Try-
PHENA, Tryphosa, and the " beloved Persis?*'
Of the first two ladies he says, they " labor
in the Lord :" of Persis, that she " labored
much in the Lord." What this labor was, I
wiU permit Dr. Clarke to state. In his note
on Komans 16 : 12, he says of Tryphena and
Tryphosa : —

u " Two holy women, who, it seems, were
assistants to the apostle in his work ; pro-
bably by exhorting, visiting the sick, &c,
Persis was another woman, who, it seems,
excelled the preceding ; for, of her it is said,
she labored much in the Lord. "We learn
from this, that Christian tvomen, as well as

*e.

(

OBJECTIONS To METHODIST

:■' !■

men, labored in the ministry of the word.
In those times of simplicity, all persons,
whether men or women, who had received
the knowledge of the truth, believed it to be
their duty to propagate it to the uttermost
of theii power. Many have spent much use-
less labor in endeavoring to prove that these
women did not preach. That there were
some prophetesses, as Well as prophets in the
Christian church. We learn ; and that a
woman might prai/ or prophecy , provided
she had her head covered we know ; and that
whoever prophesied spoke unto others to
edification, exhortation, and comfort, St. Paul
declares, 1 Cor. 14 : 3. And that no preacher
can do more, every person must acknow-
ledge ; because to edify, exhort, and comfort,
are the prime ends of the gospel ministry.
If women thus prophesied, then women
preached. There is, however, much more
than this implied in the Christian ministry,
of which men only, and men called of God,
are capable." ' " '

But how can these facts and interpretations
be harmonized with the command to " keep

PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED.

silence," quoted above ? There is but one
way to do this. The prohibition must be
understood to apply to speaking under par-
ticular circumstances, not to speaking and
praying in general. This is Dr. Clarke's view.
He says of the words, " Let your women
keep silence in the churches :" * ♦ ♦ *< It is
evident from the context, that the apostle
refers here to asking questions, and what we
call dictating in the assemblies. It was per-
mitted to any man to ask questions, to object
to altercate, attempt to refute, &c., in the
synagogue ; but this liberty was not allowed
to any woman. St. Paul confirms this, in
reference also to the Christian church. He
orders them to keep silence, and if they wish
to learn any thing, let them inquire of their
husbands at home, because it was perfectly
indecorous for women to be contending with
men in public assemblies on points of doc-
trine, cases of conscience, &c. But this by
no means intimated that, when a woman re-
ceived any particular influence from God, to
enable her to teach, she was not to obey
that influence ; on the contrary, she was to

lown directions

'* it •

. I

obey

apostle layj

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED.

V ■

I ■ i

IT'
A

in chap. 11, for regulating her personal ap-
pearance when thus employed," &c.

Accept this explanation and all is clear.
There is then no contradiction between the
precepts themselves, nor between the pre-
cepts and the practice ^ of the apostle.
Deny it, and the precepts oppose each other :
the apostle is guilty of the inconsistency of
tolerating and praising a practice in one
place, which he condemns in another. I
know you will not accept this latter conclu-
sion. You have then but one alternative.
You must believe that the Methodist usage
of permitting women to speak and pray is
sanctioned by the practice of the Apostolic
church, and by the word of God.

Such are the chief objections urged against
our leading peculiarities. You see how
readily they dissolve when touched by the
Ithuriel spear of examination. It is so
with all the objections which are coined so
plentifully in the midst of our enemies. The
fact is, they do not understand Methodism,
and you have but to compare their assertions
>yith the real facts, to see them melt into air.

CHAPTER V.

DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM.

" Opinion is mistress of the world," says
the Italian proverb. And is it not so ? Is
there not a close relationship between the
actions and opinions of men? Does not
doctrine mould character and give color to
action ? Find a nation with a false theology,
and do you not also find it corrupt in affec-
tion and wicked in practice ? Did not the
cruel, unchaste, bloodthirsty deities of Greece
and Rome beget cruelty, lust, and strife in
their worshippers? Has any race of men
ever attained to rectitude of character through
faith in debasing falsehoods ? Has any sect
ever attained to a Christian standard of
experience and morals while denying truths
fundamental to Christianity? Never! How,
then, can you reasonably hope to grow up

.-^^:^

' i, ■

I'?

^•' li^ i

''${ >i

78 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM.

to the maturity of a sound and healthy
Christian character without attaining correct
views of the doctrines of Holy Writ ? You
cannot. The thistle will not bring forth
figs. Beauty will not spring from deformity.
Neither will error produce heavenly affec-
tions, nor unscriptural doctrines eliminate a
holy life.

If, therefore, beloved convert, you would
attain to a comfortable experience, a right
state of heart, and a pure' life, you must
cherish sound doctrines — ^you must study
to conform your creed to the teachings of the
Divine Word. You must place yourself in
communion with that church whose pulpit
enunciates the purest forms of truth ; whose
creed is nearest to the Bible.

If you are guided by these principles, I
think you will not hesitate to enter the pale
of Methodism; for in its creed you will
find doctrines which commend themselves
to your enlightened reason, which harmonize
with the Word of God, and which are emi-
nently adapted to support and develop a
vigorous religious f xperience.

DOCTRINES PFX'UiJAPw TO METHODISM. 79

I cannot in this little volume enter into a
thorough exposition and defence of the doc-
trines of Methodism. All I can do, is to
throw out such hints and suggestions as may
strengthen your confidence in those doctrines
which I presume you to have already em-
braced; and to fortify your mind against
such objections as your proselyting friends
may whisper in your ears.

I wish you to note first, that the funda-
m^Ti/aZ doctrines of Methodism are in strict
harmony with the faith of the evangelical
church of all ages and in all countries.
Methodists hold, in common with Calvinists,
the doctrines of human depravity, the deity
of Christ, the atonement, justification by
faith only, regeneration by the Holy Spirit,
the future punishment of unbelievers, the
inspiration of the Scriptures, and their suffi-
ciency for salvation. Hence, you perceive,
that the evangelical character of Methodism
cannot be truthfully denied, because it teaches
those great cardinal truths which have ever
distinguished evangelical from non-evan-
gelical bodies, ^

80 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM.

.V-

The leading doctrines maintained by the
Methodists you will find stated, in general
terms, in the twenty-five articles of religion
contained in the " Discipline." These arti-
cles, with the exception of the twenty-third,
were abridged from the "Thirty-nine Arti-
cles" of the Church of England,* by Mr.
Wesley. They were first printed in what
was called the " Sunday Service ;" but, in
1790, they were incorporated into the body
of the Discipline. That you may know how
they are interpreted by our church I will
quote the Kev. Richard Watson's statement
of those points in them for the defence of
which Methodism has always been distin-
guished :

"Methodists maintain the total fall of
man in Adam, and his utter inability to
recover himself, or to take one step towards
his recovery, ' without the grace of God pre-

* These articles were originally forty-two in number. They
were first framed by Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Ridley, in
1551. After bein{? approved by the Convocation, they were
published in English and Latin, in 1553. In 1562, they were
revised and reduced to thirty-nine, and approved by the Con-
T cation.

;

DOCTKINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 81

venting him, that he may have a good will,
and working w4th him when he has that good
will/ They assert that ' Christ, by the grace
of God, tasted death for every man.* This
grace they call free, as extending itself freely
to all. They say that ' Christ is the Saviour
of all men, especially of them that believe ;'
and that, consequently, they are authorized
to offer salvation to all, and to ' preach the
gospel to every creature.* They hold justi-
fication by faith. 'Justification,* says Mr.
Wesley, ' sometimes means our acquittal at
the last day, Matt. 12:37 ; but this is alto-
gether out of tlie present question ; for that
justification, whereof our Articles and Homi-
lies speak, signifies present ' forgiveness,
pardon of sins, and consequently acceptance
with God, who therein declares his righteous-
ness, or justice, and mercy, by or for the
remission of sins that are past, Eom. 3 : 25,
saying, I will be merciful to thy unrighteous-
ness, and thy iniquities I will remember no
more. I believe the condition of this is faith,
Rom. 4:5, &c.; I mean, not only that without
faith we cannot be justified, but also that as

^i-

82 DOCTKINES I'ECt;LlAU TO .MKTUUDISM.

soon as any one lias true faith, in that moment
he is justified. Faith in general, is a divine
supernatural evidence, or conviction, of things
not seen, not discoverable by our bodily
senses, as being either past, future, or spiri-
tual. Justifying faith implies, not only a
divine evidence, or conviction, that God was
in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
but a full reliance on the merits of liis death,
a sure confidence that Christ died for my
sins ; that he loved me, and gaA^e himself for
me ; and the moment a ]>enitent sinner be-
lieves this, God pardons and a])solve3 him/

" This faith, Mr Wesley affirms, * is the
gift of God. No man is able to work it in
himself. It is a work of Onniipotence. It
requires no less power thus to quicken a
dead soul, than to raise a liody tliat lies in
the grave. It is a new creation ; and none
can create a soil anew but He, who first
created the heavans and the earth. It is the
free gift of Gcd, which he l)estows not on
those who are worthy of his favor, not on
such as are previously holy, and so fit to be
crowned with all the blessings of his good^

WCT^

fECULlAR TO METHODISM. 83

11688; but on the unj^odly wnd onholy, on
th(»80 wlu), till that hour, wi*iiJ fit only for
eveihiHtinfc di'Hiniotioii; tliuHi* in wliom is
no gooii thing, and whuiii) ohly plea was,
God he merfifnl t(i ni«^ a niiiner ! No
merit, no p;oodiumM in nmn, precedes the
Ibii^iving h>ve of (iod. 11 (m pardoning mercy
supposes nothing in \is hnt a sense of mere
sin \\\\i\ misery; and to all who see and feel
and own their wants, and ntter inahility to
remove them, God freely gives faith, for the
sake of Him in whom he is always well
pleased. Good works follow this faith, Luke
6:43, but cannot go before it ; much less can
sanctification, whicli implies a continued
coui-se of good works springing from holi-
ness of heart/

" As to repentance, he insisted that it is
conviction of sin, and that repentance and
works meet for re])entanee, go before justi-
fying faith ; but he held, with the Church of
England, that all works, before justification,
had, * the nature of sin ;' and that, as they
had no root in the love of God, which can
only arise from a persuasion of his being

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84 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO MTTIIODISM.

reconciled to u^, they could not constitute
a moral worthiness preparatory to pardon.
That true repentance springs lix)m the grace
of God, is most certain ; but, whatever fruits
it may bring forth, it changes not man's re-
S lation to God. He is a sinner, and is justi-
fied at such ; ' for it is not a saint, but a
sinner, that is forgiven, and under the notion
of a sinner.' God jiistifieth the ungodly, not
the godly. Repentance, according to his
statement, is necessary to true faith ; but
faith alone is the directand immediat;e instru-
ment of pardon. They hold also the direct
internal testimony of the Holy Spirit to the
believer's adoption. ' • ^^ ^ < ^ r^-

" They maintain, also, that by virtue of the
blood of Jesus Christ, and the operations of
the Holy Spirit, it is their privilege to arrive
at that maturity in grace, and participation
of divine nature, which excludes sin from
tho heart, and fills it with perfect love to
God and man. This they denominate
Christian perfection. On this doctrine Mr.
Wesley observes, ' Christian perfection does
not imply an exemption from ignorance or

DOCTKINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 85

mistake, infirmities or temptations ; but it
implies the being so crucified with Christ, as
to be able to testify, I live not, but Christ
liveth in me. Gal. 2 : 28, and hath purified
their hearts by faith. Acts. 15:9.' Again:
*To explain myself a little farther on this
head : 1. Not only sin, properly so called,
that is, a voluntary transgression of a known
law ; but sin, improperly so called, that is,
an involuntary transgression of a divine law,
known or unknown, needs the atoning blood.
2. I believe there is no such perfection in
this life as excludes these involuntary trans-
gressions, which, I apprehend,to be naturally
consequent on the ignorance and mistakes
inseparable from mortality. 3. Tlierefore,
sinless perfection is a phrase I never use,
lest I should contradict myself. 4. I believe
a person filled with the love of God is still
liable to these involuntary transgressions.
6. Such transgressions you may call sins, if
you please ; I do not, for the reasons above
mentioned.'"

With respect to the doctrine of "Final
Pe]:*severance,^ the Methodists hold " that

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86 DOCTllTNES PECULIAR TO METIlODISISr.

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God gives to the truly faithful, who are
regenerated by his grace, the means of pre-
serving themselves in ' this state ; yet the
regenerate may lose true justifying faith,
forfeit their state of grace, and die in their
sins." See Ezek, 18 : 24, and 33 : 18, John
15:6. HeK 6:4-6.

These doctrines, though taught with pecu-
liar emphasis and distmctness by Mr, Wes-
ley and his followers, did not origiiiat^ with
him. As I have already observed, they are
as ancient as Christianity. The oppo«^"te
tenets, now known as Calivnism, were un-
known to the primitive church. All the
Fathers, down to the time of AuGUbTiNE, an
African bishop, who flourished in the latter
part of the fourth century, taught the truths
which now distinguish the Methodists from
their Calvinistic neighbors. For Calvin
himself admits, that none of the Fathers,
either Greek or Latin, before Augustine, give
countenance to his peculiar theology. And
even Augustine, in his later works, teaches
op.aions which are more in harmony v^ith
tbe theory of universal redemption and its

DOCTIJINES PECULIAU TO METHODISM. 87

consequents, than witli the scheme of pre-
destination and limited atonement, which
he had invented at an earlier period of his

career. ■■- -•• — - -■■-

> Now if Calvinism is taught in the Bible,
how came it to pass that the contemporaries
and immediate successors of the apostles,
kn3W nothing alx)ut it ? Why is it that its
first appearance in the written theology of
the primitive churcli, is in the writings of
Augustine the African ? Does it appear
probable that such important doctrines as
unconditional election, limited atonement,
irresistible grace, and the necessary final
perseverance of the elect, would have been
forgotten or overlooked, and that their con-
traries would be universally received, for
over three hundred years after Christ, if
his apostles had taught them to the church ?
Your common sense will answer in the nega-
tive. Your reason will teach you that this
silence of all the Fathers before Augustine,
is strong presumptive proof that the church
knew nothing of those unscriptural theories,
until the philosophic bishop of Hippo evol-

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DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM.

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ved them in his controversies with Pelagius
the heretic. While the opposite fact, that
they all taught an unlimited atonement, con-
ditional election, &c., affords equally strong
presumption, that these latter doctrines were
received by them from the apostles. These
things being so, it is clear that Methodist
doctrines are as ancient as Christianity —
that, in fact, they include all that is contain-
ed in Christianity, and are the doctrines of
Holy Writ. ^ ■- - . n

The doctrines now taught by Methodism
were also taught in Germany during the
palmiest days of the Eeformation. Melanc-
THON held them. Luther toward the end of
his life endorsed them. The greatest lights
of the Eeformation in England also main-
tained them ; while in Holland, they were
nobly upheld by Arminius. Mr. Wesley
revived them, and they are now received by
the majority of living Christians. •

You are aware that the doctrines of Meth-
odism are often called Arminianism.. They
are so named after Jameb Arminiub, of whose
history I will give you a brief sketch.

DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 89

' D*AUBIGNE has eloquently and truly re-
marked that " Men, like stars, appear on the
horizon at the command of God ! " James
Arminius was one of these stars. By his
light, God saved his church from the gloom
and darkness of the stern and unscriptural
theology of John Calvin, ^ ' ' ^ '

Like most great men, James Arminius
sprung from the people, and not from the
titled ranks of society. His father was a
mechanic, ingenious and respectable, but
comparatively poor. James was born in
1650, at Oudewater, in Holland, and was
bereft of his father while yet an infant. A
learned clergyman kindly received him under
his roof, and superintended his education.
When fifteen years of age, Arminius was
deprived of this friend by death. But his
extraordinary talents attracttjd the -attention
of one of his townsmen, n learned man, who
took him to Marpurg, in Hessia, and caused
him to enter the university. While here,
our young theologian, now converted to God,
was deprived of his mother, brother, and

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, 90 DOCTKINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM.

v. *

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sister. They perished in the overthrow of
Oudewater by the Spanish army.

In 1575, Arminius removed to Leydenand
entered the university just established at
that place by the Prince of Orange. Here
he continued six years ; when the municipal
authorities of Amsterdam assumed the ex-
pense of his future academic studies, on
condition that his ministry should be exer-
cised in that city, and that he should dispose of
his services only as they xuigl t approve.
.:. We find him next at Geneva, for a brief
period ; then, at Basle for a year ; and then
for three years again at Geneva. His acade-
mic studies concluded, he made a short tour
in Italy ; tarried awhile at Padua ; and then,
returning to Holland, he was ordained pastor
cf the Dutch Church in Amsterdam, in
1588. In 1603, he was elected Professor of
Divinity in the University of Leyden ; and
on the nineteenth of October, 1609, he died
a calm and peaceful death, at the age of
forty-nine years. -,..|. ., . . ^^-^^ w.

. Arminius was held in very high estima-
tion, for his attainments and genius, while he

DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 91

was a student ; and his success and popular-
ity as a minister and professor fully justified
the high opinion formed of him by his tutors
and fellow-students. But the latter years of
his life were embittered by the hostility of
his Calvinistic adversaries, whose malevo-
lence, it was thought, contributed to render
the disease of which he died, fatal. > ^^ ' •

His controversy with the Calvinists was
brought about by a request of tlie ecclesiasti-
cal senate of Amsterdam, that he would
refute the alleged errors of a pious minister,
named Coornhert, who had assailed the
opinions of Calvin on Predestination, &c.,
some nine years previously. Applying his
mind to the fulfilment of this request, he
was led to such an examination of Calvin's
dogmas as resulted in a conviction that they
were unscriptural, and in the adoption of
those opinions to which his name has since
been attached. The violent assaults of the
Calvinistic party on himself, and on his
opinions, led to the writings which constitute
his "works."

After the death of Arminius, his followers

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192 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM.

were cruelly persecuted by the Calvinists.
A synod was called at Dort, in 1618, by
which the Arminians were pronounced here-
tics, were excommunicated, driven from
their churches, imprisoned, fined, and ban-
ished. Their name became a by- word and
reproach among their enemies. And it has
been a favorite practice among Calvinists,
from that time until now, to call almost
every form of doctrinal error Arminianism*
*' If a man hold that good works are neces-
sary to justification ; if he reject the doctrine
of original sin ; if he deny that divine
grace is necessary for the whole work of
sanctification ; it is concluded that he is an
Arminiau. But the truth is, that a man of
such sentiments is a disciple of the Pelagian
school To such sentiments pure Armin-
ianism is as diametrically opposed as Cal-
vinism itself.*V , .. ,, ,

There is yet another misrepresentation of
Arminianism which your proselyting friends
may use to excite your prejudices. They
may tell you, in the words of a recent
writer, that Bomanism has its " basis in the

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DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 93

'.i'

Arminian doctrines.*' " Eomanism/' they
may say, " like Methodism, denies the
doctrines of election, of efficacious grace, of
perseverance ; it inculcates the existence of
sinless perfection, and even more, of works
of supererogation; that is, becoming more
than perfect. And with tJiese Methodist doc-
trines Komanism has wrought with fearful
power."

But you must not permit such a statement
as this to influence your action, because it is
utterly groundless. By looking at the ele~
venth article of religion in the Discipline
(p. 4) you will see that it denounces works
of supererogation thus : " A^oluntary works*,
besides, over and above God's commandment,
which are called works of supereroga. i^on^
cannot he ta/ught mtJiout arrogance and im-
piety**

With respect to " sinless perfection," Mr.
Wesley says it is a " phrase I never use.'*
It has never been taught by the Methodist
Church.

Nor is it itm that Eomanists are generally
Arminians. They have always had no in-

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94 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM.

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considerable number of believers in the
dogmas of Augustine in their communion.
Says Mosheim, (vol. 3, p. 106,) " The Do-
minicans, (the most powerful of the monkish
orders) the Augustinians, the followers of
Jansenius, and likewise many others, deny
that divine grace can possibly be resisted,
* * * deny that there are any conditions

* ''^ annexed to the eternal decrees of God res-
pecting the salvation of all men, and other
kindred doctrines ; " in other words, these
orders and sectaries of the Eomish Church
teach the views of high Calvinists. And
when Luther and his coadjutors taught the
^ opinions which entered into the scheme of
Arminius, the Romish Church, says Mosheim,
approved " Augustine's sentiments," which
are substantially identical with Calvin's.
The truth is, the views which distinguish
both the Arminian and Calvinistic schools

^ % have always been largely represented in the

Papal Church, and so long as both parties
were otherwise faithful to her claims, she has
tolerated both. It cannot be said of Eo-
manism that it has been or is Calvinist or

DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 95

Arminian. It has been, and still is, both,
and neither scheme of theology is respon-
sible for its errors. 3'

Thus, you see, this attempt to identify
Methodist doctrines with Romanism is futile.
It stands on assumptions which are histori-
cally false, and cannot therefore command
your credence.

Hold fast then, beloved convert, to Metho-
dist doctrines. They are scriptural, reason-
able, full of comfort, full of power to meet
the demands of your spiritual nature. Under
their inspiration the primitive church
spread itself over the world. They begat
holy courage in the confessor, and heavenly
heroism in the martyr, during the heroic age
of the church. They gave life to the best
period and the best advocates of the Refor-
mation. Their proclamation by Wesley and
his coadjutors woke the slumbering church
of the lasi century to new life; and gave
birth to a spiritual quickening which saved
Christianity from the death which threat-
ened it, and which is felt to this day all
over the Christian world. Supported by

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96 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM.

them, millions of holy souls have success-
fully solved the awful problem of their
probation, have triumphed in their conflict
with death, and have departed to reign with
the Great Teacher by whom they were re-
vealed. Hold them fast, therefore, and they
will guide you to their Author's throne.

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CHAPTER VI.

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

"i ' .

The Orientttl world produces a singular
tree, which,ii]i several of its oharaoteiistics,not
unaptly illustrates the rise and growth of
Methodism. This tree is called the Banyan
Tree, it has a woody stem, branching to a
great height and vast extent. Every branch
throws out new roots, which descend to the
earth, strike in, and increase to large trunks,
from which new branches grow, and new
roots are again produced. This progression
continues until the original tree literally
becomes a forest. In like manner, Metho-
dism, beginning with a single society, threw
out branches with dependi ig roots. These
roots, striking into new portions of the com-
munity, gTew into new churches. These
again were reproductive. Tliis progress has
steadfastly continued. It continues now.

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THE FOUNDER OF METHOFISM.

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Little more than a century has elapsed since
it threw up its first shoot ; yet, rooted in every
quarter of the globe, it already bids fair to
cover the earth with its branches, and to fill
the world with its influences.

The creation of this great spiritual fellow-
ship, numbering in all its branches nearly
three millions of communicants, in so short a
period, is a phenomenon unparalleled by any
fact in the history of the Christian Church
since the apostolic era. Who can study the
simplicity of its beginnings, the rapidity of
its growth, the stability of its institutions,
the amazing power of its influence on Chris-
tianity in general, its present vitality and
activity, its commanding position, and its
prospective greatness, without exclaiming in
a spirit of astonishment and gratitude,
'' What hath God wrought ? "

I have already pointed out numerous
spiritual advantages, which you may person-
ally enjoy in the fellowship of Methodism.
I now wish you to take a broader view — to
stand like a traveller upon a mountain's peak,
and survey the system from its beginning

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H'j!

THE FOUNDER OF MFTHODISM.

until now, — to study the character of its
founders, mark the hand of God in its sur-
prising development, examine its vast spirit-
ual results, and convince yourself that, of all
existing churches, it is the most highly
honored of God, the most beneficial to the
world. Let us glance first at the man by
whose piety, labors, and genius it arose.

Methodism, considered as an organization,
is of recent date. It sprang, as you know,
from the pious labors of the two Wesleys
and their devoted compeers. John Wesley,
however, must be regarded as its true found-
er. But for him, though there might have
been a powerful revival of spiritual religion,
there would, in all probability, have been no
Methodist church. He alone possessed the
faculty of organization and government,
which was necessary to gather up, combine,
and construct the spiritual results of the
revival into a church. He led the great
Methodistic movement, and stamped the
image of his own mind upon it. He devised
the simple institutions, organized the min-
istry, and governed the societies, which, in

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100 THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

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their development, grew into the various
Methodist churches now existing in different
parts of the world. It will, therefore, be
proper to give you a brief sketch of his life
and character.

John Wesley was bom in the rectory of
Epworth, England, June 17, 1703. His
father, Samuel Wesley, the rector, was a
scholarly, pious, sternly energetic, indepen-
den man, — a true man and a faithful min-
ister. His mother, Susanna Wesley, was a
woman of extraordinary intelligence and
force of mind, of correct judgment, vivid
apprehension of truth, and ardent piety.
Under their training, Wesley passed his boy-
hood up to his eleventh year, his mother
paying peculiar attention to the formation
of his character, because of his singular
escape, when a little boy, from his chamber,
when the rectory was destroyed by fire. He
was educated, first at the Charter House, then
at Oxford. He was ordained a deacon in the
Church of England, 1725. The next year
he was elected a "Fellow" of Lincoln College,
and in 1728 was ordained a priest.

''\m

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

101

For a few months, he acted as curate for
his father at Kpworthv But being strongly
urged to become the tutor of several young
gentlemen at Oxford, he returned thither in
1729. His first act, almost, was to form a
society composed of himself, his brother
Charles, Mr. Morgan, and Mr. Kirkham. The
object of this society was "to promote each
other's intellectual, moral, and spiritual im-
provement" To accomplish this, they spent
*Hhree or four evenings a week together,
reading the Greek Testament, with the Greek
and Latin classics. On Sunday evenings,
they read divinity." They also adopted
various rules for the better government of
their lives, and the improvement of their
time. They visited the sick, relieved the
poor, circulated the scriptures, fasted much,
prayed much, denied themselves of every
sinful amusement and indulgence, attended
the means of grace very strictly, and sought
to reach the highest possible spiritual attain-
ments.

This strict course of life, so unusual
among the inmates of the college, soon

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102 THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

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brought down an avalanche of persecution
upon their heads. Scorn, rebuke, insult, fell
upon them abundantly, from all quarters.
Their fidelity to their sense of duty cost
them the good opinion of most of their col-
lege companions, who stigmatized them with
such titles as the ** Holy Club," the " Godly
Club," the " Enthusiasts," the " Keforming
Club," ** Methodists," " Supererogation men,"
and so on. But, like their Master, they stood
undaunted in the presence of persecution.
Its only effect was to stimulate their zeal,
quicken their devotion, and increase their
numbers.

You will observe, my dear reader, that
although these young men were termed Meth-
odists at Oxford, by way of ridicule, yet
Methodism proper was not yet organized.
That band of young men did not constitute
a "Methodist Society." Its members were
only styled Methodists by way of reproach,
just as spiritually minded men had been
called "Methodists" in a sermon preached
at Lambeth a hundred years before, and at
several other times and places. The first

«i

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

103

Methodist " Society," properly so called, was
not formed until 1739, when Mr. Wesley
organized " the United Society," at the Foun-
dery, in London. This, says Thomas Jack-
son, in his life of Charles Wesley, p. 179,
** was the rise of the United Societies which
now constitute what is usually called the
Wesleyan Connexion." The rules for their
government were drawn up in 1743, by
Wesley, when he divided the Societies into
classes.

After spending nearly six years as a tutor
at Oxford, Mr. Wesley, having refused the
rectorship of Epworth, made vacant by his
father's death, sailed with his brother to
Georgia, hoping " to raise up a holy people
in that distant land." He was not very suc-
cessful in his labors. The loose manners of
the colonists called forth his sternest rebukes,
which, with the strictness of his own life, and
the stringency of his ecclesiastical discipline,
excited great opposition. A fitter persecu-
tion, headed by a worthless of&cial named
Causton, arose against him. The colony
resounded with the outcries of his adversa-

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104 THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

ries. They propagated all sorts of slanders
about him, and finally presented hira to the
grand jury. This jury, which was packed
with his avowed enemies, brought in two
bills containing ten counts, nine of which
related to his ecclesiastical administration.
The whole, if true, did not affect his moral
or religious character in the smallest degree.
But they were all either false or frivolous,
as was shown in a paper sent to the trustees
of the colony, by twelve of the jurors who
dissented from the majority. After seeking
in vain to obtain a hearing before the court,
and seeing no opportunity for further useful-
ness in Georgia, Mr. Wesley, having given
public notice of his intention, left Savannah,
and returned to England, where he arrived,
in February, 1738. i^fter his departure the
true character of his chief persecutor, Mr.
Causton, became apparent. That worthy
had already left England, in disgrace, for a
fraud on the Government. Detected in a sim-
ilar peculation in the colony, he was deposed
from office by the Governor. And such was
the reaction of public feeling in Mr. Wesley^s

THE FOUNDEU OF METHODISM.

105

favor, that when Mr. Whitefield visited Sa-
vannah, a few months after Wesley's depar-
ture, he wrote thus : — " The good Mr. John
Wesley has done in America, under God, is
inexpressible. His name is very precious
among the people I**

The only fault committed by Mr. Wesley
in Georgia, was his perhaps too rigid enforc-
ment of the canons of his church. His
moral character was unspotted. His re-
ligious life was strict, almost ascetic. For
these things worldly-minded professors, and
world-seeking colonists, hated him. Meth-
odists have no need to blush for that part of
their founder's life spent in Georgia.

Up to the time of Wesley's return to
England, he had not enjoyed a clear consci-
ousness of faith in Christ. His religion
was that of the legalist, consisting in im-
ceasing devotion to the duties, unaccompa-
nied by the consolations, of an Evangelical
faith. His voyage to America had intro-
duced him to the Moravians. What he saw
of their experience convinced him that his
own religious life was defective, and prepared

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106

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

him to listen to his learned friend Peter
BoHLER,* through whose instructions he was
led to trust in Christ alone for " the right-
eousness which is of faith." On the 24th of
May, 1738, while listening to a discourse on
Christian experience, he says ; " I felt my
heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust
in Christ, Christ alone for salvation ; and an
assurance was given me that he had taken
away my sins, even minet and saved me
from the law of sin and death." He was
then thirty-five years old.

With an overflowing heart Mr. Wesley
now began to proclaim the doctrine of
salvation by faith, first in the churches, and
then, at the suggestion of his friend White-
field, in the open air. The effect was in-
stantaneous and wonderful. He seemed
girded with power from above. Wherever
he preached men were pricked to the heart.
Streams of blessings poured from heaven
upon his labors. His brother Charles, his
friend Whitefield, and several other clergy-

'^ Pronounced BayUr.—%r>,

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

107

men of the church of England, were equally
successful. Men and women were converted
by thousands. The expiring dissenting
churches of the day were quickened. New
life impregnated British Protestantism. The
infidelity of tlie age was rebuked. Hundreds
of men were thrust out into the ministry.
Societies were formed in all parts of the
kingdom. A conference of ministers was
organized, and, at length, a powerful con-
nexion established.

These results were not accomplished with-
out great toils, great sacrifices, great suffe.
ings. To achieve them, Mr. Wesley preach-
ed forty thousand sermons, and travelled two
hundred and twenty thousand miles. He,
with his coadjutors, also endured much per-
secution. I know it has been tauntingly
said, that Methodism " cannot boast of the
honors and unmistakeable characteristics of
Christ's church — the loss of one drop of
blood, a beheaded saint, persecution, a flight,
or having been hid from the rage of enemies
for a season." "And that no Methodist was
ever beheaded for his attachment to the

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108

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

truth ; never persecuted to death or
fiighty for his religion."

These statements are slanderous. A man
who would make them, would affirm that
light is darkness, if it suited his purpose.
Methodism never persecuted ! Alas ! how
ignorant or depraved that writer must be
v/ho so affirms 1 Methodism never perse-
cuted ! What is the history of its infancy,
but a record of persecutions ? — aye, of per-
secutions as thrilling and severe as those
recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. True,
the fact of its rise in a Protestant and
nominally Christian country, prevented its
confessors from sealing their faith on the
scaffold. But if it be persecution to suffer
the loss of reputation, the spoiling of goods,
personal violence, judicial accusations, im-
prisonment, fines, and to be put in constu,nt
peril of life, then the early Methodists have
suffered persecutions abundant, and the as-
sertion of the writer referred to is as false as
his favorite dogma, that the Baptist is the
only true church of Christ on earth.

in order to refresh you with a few pictures

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

109

of the unsurpassed heroism of the early
Methodists, I have brought together a few
facts from the history of the Wesleys.

I* have already told you how the Wesleys
were persecuted by their college associates
at Oxford, and how John suffered for his
religious strictness in Georgia. But when
the devoted brothers broke away from the
order of the church, and began their extra-
ordinary career of evangelism, the outcry
against them was so loud and general as to
put them outside the pale of respectable
society. They were excluded from the pul-
pits of the Church of England, denounced by
nearly all, regarded as enthusiasts and mad-
men, and treated as the " filth and offscour-
ing of all things." So strong did the cur-
rent of prejudice run against these great
and good men, that he who dared to defend
them, periled his own reputation. "How
notorious is it," says Wesley, " that if a man
dare to open his mouth in my favor, it needs
only be replied, ' I suppc^se you are a Metho-
dist too,' and all he has said is to pass for
nothing !" A fact or two, selected at ran-

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dom from their memoirs, will show that this
expression was far from being hyperbolical.

At St. Ives, the rector of the parish
church publicly denounced Charles Wesley
and the Methodists, as enemies of the
church, seducers, troublers, scribes and phar-
isees, hypocrites. At Wednock, the curate,
Charles Wesley being present, delivered
himseH of such a " hotch-potch of railing,
foolish lies, as Satan himself might have
been ashamed of" During his first visit to
Cornwall, the " clergy preached against him
with great vehemence, and represented his
character and designs in the worst possible
light." At Cork, in Ireland, the grand jury
found " Charles Wesley to be a person of ill
fame, a vagabond, and a common disturber
of his majesty*s peace," and they prayed that
" he might be transported /" And at BirstaU,
in 1744, a charge of treason was preferred
against him, and a warrant issued summon-
ing witnesses to appear against him !

If a good man's reputation is next in value
to the purity of his character — if it be a
jewel of higher value than the diadems of

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

Ill

princes, dearer to a man of a high sense of
honor than even life itself, then it is clear
that the early Methodists demonstrated their
fidelity, when they cast it away for Christ's
sake. To say that a people who purchased
their ecclesiastical existence with the loss of
their reputation were never persecuted, is to
drivel, not reason.

But the early Methodists did not escape
with the loss of reputation alone. They were
persecuted to the spoiling of their goods, to
flight, to stoning, to suffering, and even to
death, as the following facts, selected at ran-
dom from a multitude of similar events, will
abundantly prove.

For crossing the field of an enemy to re-
ligion to meet his congregation at Kensing-
ton Common, Charles Wesley was fined
fifty dollars, with costs amounting to as
much more.

At Nottingham, the rabble of the county
laid waste all before them that belonged to
the Methodists. Two of the brethren lost
a thousand dollars* worth of their property.

At St. Ives, while Charles Wesley was

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preaching, the people beat their drums,
shouted, stopped their ears, ran upon him,
and tried to pull him down. With a fear-
less spirit the heroic reformer retreated from
these " lions' whelps," and escaped unhurt.
At MoRYA, just as he named his text, an
army of rebels broke in upon his meeting,
threatening to murder the people. They
broke the sconces, dashed the windows in
pieces, bore away the shutters, benches, poor-
box, and all but the stone walls. Several
times they lifted their hands to strike Mr.
Wesley, but a stronger arm restrained them.
They beat and dragged the women about,
particularly one of great age, and " tram-
pled on them without Toercyy At Wednock,
the mob, says Charles Wesley, assaulted us
with sticks and stones, and endeavored to
pull me down. Ten cowardly ruffians I saw
upon one unarmed man, beating him with
their clubs till they felled him to the ground.
Another escaped by the swiftness of his
horse. At St. Ives, again, the mob threw
eggs in at the windows. Others cast great
stones to break what remained of the shut-

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

113

ters. Others struck the womeUy and swore
they would puU the house down.

During one of his tours in Ireland, Charles
was riding with several brethren from Tyr-
rell's Pass, to Athlone, when he was beset
by a company of Papists. One of his com-
panions was knocked from his horse by a
stone, beat in the face with a club, and
would have been kiUed with a knife but for
timely aid. Another was struck on the head
with a stone. Wesley received a violent
blow in the back. But for the timely arri-
val of a company of dragoons from Athlone,
the whole company would, in all proba-
bility, have been murdered. This murderous
assault was planned and instigated by Fa-
ther Ferrill, a Catholic priest.

At Cork, the Methodists were sorely per-
secuted. Many of the baser sort, from time
to time, cut and beat both men and women,
to the hazard of their lives. It was danger-
ous for any member of the society to be seen
abroad.

At Wednesbury, in October, 1743, Mr.
John_ Wesley was greatly maltreated by a

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THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

mob, which was instigated to drive him out
of the county by the incessant denunciations
of the vicar of the place, the Curate of Wal-
sal, and the Vicar of Darlastan.

After preaching at Wednesbury, Mr. Wes-
ley retired to write at the house of a friend.
The mob surrounded the house, shouting : —
" Bring out the minister ! We will have the
minister !" After some parleying, Mr. Wes-
ley showed himself at the door, and asked to
go with them to a magistrate. It was now
dark and raining. But they dragged him to
Bentley Hall, two miles distant. From
thence they took him to Walsal. At last
they concluded to conduct him back to Wed-
nesbury ; but on their way met another mob,
and fell to fighting among themselves. As
they re-entered Wednesbury, Mr. Wesley,
seeing the door of a large house open, at-
tempted to enter, but one of the mob caught
him by the hair of the head and pulled him
back into the middle of the crowd. They
then carried him the entire length of the
town. Seeing another door half open, Wes-
ley made toward it, but was forbidden to

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115

enter by the owner, lest the mob should pull
it down over his head.

Wesley now confronted his foes, and ask-
ed, " Are you willing to hear me speak ?"

" No ! No ! Knock his brains out ! Down
with him ! Away with him, kill him at
once ; tear off his clothes ! Drown him !
Hang him on the next tree ! Throw him
into a pit !" yelled the mob, waxing increas-
ingly furious.

" Nay, but we will hear him first !" cried
others ; while others again said, " Don't kill
him here, carry him out of the town ! Don't
bring his blood upon us !"

He then spoke for a quarter of an hour,
till his voice failed. The mob then renewed
its shouts, threatening him with violence.
At length, three or four stout fellows, one of
whom was the ringleader, moved by a sudden
impulse, resolved to rescue him. After much
struggling and hustling, they got him out of
the town, on to the meadows. When the
crowd, wearied with its own violence had
retired, these men conducted him to his lodg-
ings. His clothes were torn to tatters ; he

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had been struck at repeatedly, and many bad
tried to puU him down.

During this frightful scene the members
of the society, excepting four who kept with
him ready to die with him if they could not
save him, had fled for their lives. Yet the
mob threw one woman into the river, and
broke the arm of a young man.

Commenting on his remarkable deliver-
ance from this mob, Mr. Wesley refers to
similar hair-breadth escapes from the " sons
of Belial," in the following language : " Two
years a^o a piece of brick grazed my shoul-
ders. It was a year after that a stone struck
me between the eyes. Last month I re-
ceived one blow, and this evening two ; * *
one man struck me on the breast with all
his might and the other on the mouth, with
such force that the blood gushed out immedi-
ately r

When the ringleader of this furious mob
was converted, as he was a very few days
afterwards, Charles Wesley asked him what
he thought of his brother. " Think of him !"
he replied, " that he is a mon of God, and

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

117

God was on his side, when so many of us
could not kill one mon ?

At Dudley, says C. Wesley, the Meth-
odist preacher was cruelly abused by a mob
of Papists and Dissenters. Probably he
would have been murdered but for an ho-
nest Quaker who helped him to escape with
his broad hat and coat.

At Darlaston, rioters broke into the
houses of the Methodists, robbing and de-
stroying; and papers were sent round to
the adjacent towns inviting all the country
to rise and destroy the Methodists !

"At Nottingham," says C. Wesley, "I
called at Bro. Saut's, and found him just
brought home for dead. The mob had
knocked him down, and would probably have
murdered him, but for the cries of a little
child. It was some time before he came to
himself, having been struck on the temples
by a large log of wood."

Up to 1744, the magistrates had generally
refused to act, and had left the Methodists
at the mercy of violent and cruel men.
Then they interfered, and endeavored by an

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THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

abuse of their power, and the perversion of
law, to crush a defenceless people.. This
made their condition worse.

Another species of indignity to which the
early Methodist preachers were subjected
was their impressment into the British
army, on the pretence that their occupation
was irregular, and their lives vagabondish.
Among those who suffered in this way, were
John Nelson, Thomas Beard, Mr. Downes,
and Mr. Maxfield. These devoted breth-
ren were torn from their families, shut up
in prison, and compelled to do military
duty until their friends procured their de-
liverance by application to the heads of the
Government, or by procuring substitutes.
But poor Thomas Beard found deliverance
through death only. He was too delicate
to endure the fatigues of a soldier's life.
He sank beneath the burden, and died as
truly a martyr to Christianity as Paul or
Peter.

But I must cease my citations. I could
fill this volume with the details of the per-
secutions endured by the first generation of

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

119

Methodists for the Gospel's sake. No his-
toric fact is more certain than that Mr.
Wesley, with most of his early preachers
could adopt in substance, the language of
the persecuted and laborious Paul, and say,
" Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I
stoned. * * In journeyings often, in
perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in
perils by mine own countrymen, in perils
in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in
perils amongst false brethren, in weariness
and painfulness, in watchings often, in hun-
ger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and
nakedness."

Having endured "hardness like a good
soldier," and having reached the green old
age of eighty-eight, John Wesley died,
March 2nd, 1791. His death was as beau-
tiful as his life was active. He retained
his vigor to the last, and died almost on
the field of battle, exclaiming, as he pre-
pared to cast aside his mortal robe : " The
BEST OF ALL IS, GoD IS WITH US. He causeth
his servant to lie down in peace. The Lord
is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.

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111 praise. I'll praise ! Farewell." And
thus, with the song of a conquerer on his
lips, he ascended to heaven.

Before calling your attention to the spir-
itual structure founded by this great re-
former, I will point out some interesting
resemblances between him and the hero
of the " Keformation," Mart; Luther.
Though somewhat episodical, I know you
will not object to it, because you are anxious
to attain a true conception of the founder
of our church.

To begin with their birth, I find Luther
born and nursed in the lap of respectable
poverty. Wesley had a kindred origin.
For, although the family at Epworth could
boast a higher lineage and a superior social
grade to that of the German miner, yet, it is
questionable whether the pecuniary straits
of the good rector, Wesley's father, at Ep-
worth, were not as pinching as those of
Luther's peasant parents at Eisleben. And,
if young Luther, after the fashion of poor
German students, sung songs at Eisenach
for bread, young Wesley, like many other

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

121

English scholars, obtained his education
from the munificent provisions of the Char-
ter House, and from a foundation scholar-
ship at Christchurch ; and at which places
he doubtless endured more from the merci-
less despotism practised upon a poor " fag "
in those days than Luther ever suffered in
his peregrinations as a beggar student.

Intellectually y they appear to have be-
longed to the same high grade of minds.
They were both master spirits, "large in
heart and brain ;" yet, perhaps, neither of
them can properly be classed with the very
highest order of philosophic intellects, the
splendor of whose genius places them in un-
approachable grandeur, far above the ordi-
nary level of mankind. Still, they were
great men, and men of extraordinary powers.
To both, the acquisition of learning was
easy; and, as in their youth both led a
scholastic life, they became superior scholars,
thoroughly versed in the classics, well read
in general literature, in theology, and par-
ticidarly in the Holy Scriptures. Both had
remarkably ready and retentive memories ;

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large powers of perception and comparison ;
and hence, they both became admirable
dialecticians. In original imaginative power,
I incline to give the palm to Luther ; while,
in everything relating to taste, the lanrel
must be placed on the brow of Wesley.
They both appear to have possessed the
power of realising truth in an unusual de-
gree. To them, their ideas were as living
presences, in whose reality and truthfulness
they believed as firmly as in their own con-
sciousness. Hence proceeded that wondrous
vigor which characterized their preaching
and writing; which made their thoughts
glow with the energy of life, and gave their
words a force that was irresistible and
overwhelming.

In their early religious experience, we
find some points of dissimilitude. Luther,
though always bearing an unstained moral
character, was not serious in his childhood
and youth. He relished the facetious and
military amusements so beloved by German
students ; and his mind turned with strong
aversion from the serious aspects of the

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

123

priesthood, and even from the gravity of the
law. A sudden judgment— the death of a
companion, struck down at his side by a
flash of lightning — first turned his mind to
sober thoughts of spiritual things. That
catastrophe, acting upon his impulsive na-
ture, led to a sudden revolution in his pur-
poses. It sent him to the monastry at
Eefuri. It made him a priest.

But Wesley was always serious. His
pure life knew no episode of frivolity or
worldly folly. At the age of eight years
he partook of the sacrament, and was grave
and prayerful from his boyhood to his tomb.
Yet had they this in common : they both
struggled for a long time in darkness,
through ignorance of the great doctrine of
justification by faith. Both sought for
peace on the ascetic principle — ^by works. *
Bitter tears did Luther shed in his lonesome
cell, cruel penances did he undergo, long
fastings and weary watchings did he endure,
in the vain hope of finding relief. And by
severe self-denial, by long and frequent
prayers, by self-sacrificing acts of bene-

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volence, Wesley toiled to secure intercourse
with Heaven. Of course they both failed.
But in the conflict the monk of Erfurt suf-
fered more than the " fellow " of Oxford ;
for his mental agonies well nigh cost him
his reason. This was partly owing to the
solitude in which he lived. His mind had
no relief through contact with the world.
It was shut up to its own reflections. Had
Wesley, with his almost equally intense
mind, been confined, like his great proto-
type, he had doubtless suffered with equal
anguish. But he, while unresting and sad
at heart, found some relief for his feelings
in the ceaseless, self-imposed activity of
his life.

Luther penetrated the gloom which envel-
oped him, unaided by man. By profound
reflection on the Word of God, illuminated
by the Divine Spirit, he discovered the
sweet doctrine that man is justified by faith
alone. This delightful truth broke in upon
his long, dark night of grief, like a bright
and beautiful star, and it guided him to a

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

125

peace so delightful that he declared it was
like entering the open portals of Paradioe.

It was otherwise with Wesley. He was
led to the discovery of this cardinal truth
by the guidance of human minds. To me it
is one of the most wonderful facts in history,
that a mind so clear and logical, so well
read in the homilies of his church, and the
writings of the Eeformers, so conversant
with the Bible, so sincere, so earnest in its
seekings after truth, should miss of find-
ing this simple doctrine. What is it but a
singular illustration of human blindness in
spiritual things, without the light of the
Holy Spirit ? Perhaps it was necessary to
lit the learned Oxonian for his mission, that
his steps should be directed to Christ
through the instrumentality of the simple-
hearted Moravians.

But these great spirits resembled each
other in that utter unselfishness and purity
of intention which are the essential elements
of the mart3a*-spirit. Luther's worldly in-
terests were on the side of silence towards
the abuses of the papacy. Had he sought

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to secure them, there is little question that
he might have worn a mitre. The same is
true of Wesley. But the history of both
men shows that, in their respective move-
ments, they ignored all selfish considerations,
and deliberately placed wealth, reputation,
and personal safety on the altar of duty.
Wedded to truth, they were dead to all
other voices and charms. Hence, Luther,
with all his greatness, lived in poverty, and
died leaving only a house and a legacy of a
thousand florins to his beloved Catharine,
and her children. Wesley, too, though con-
siderable sums of montj passed through his
hands, died comparatively a poor man, owing
to his systematic and princely benevolence,
having no property except his publications,
which he bequeathed to the Connexion.

Again, I see a marked agreement between
them in their habit of acting independently,
and from their own self-determinations.
Neither of them despised the counsels of
other men, but neither acted from mere ad-
vice. Their decisions were made from the
depths of their own minds, after a calm and

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

127

careful survey of the path to be trodden, and
prayerful application to heaven for light.
Thus, Luther's first denunciations of Tetzel,
his burning of the papal bull, his appearance
before the diet at Worms, his marriage with
the nun, Catharine Von Bora, with all his
great movements, proceeded from his own
purposes independently formed, and carried
out on his own personal responsibility. The
same things are equally true of Wesley. His
own mind always chose the path he trod,
and chose it distinctly as being its own
choice — its own view of duty. Eminently,
therefore, did these great men possess the
quality of self determination.

In courage^ too, they were equally heroic
and sublime* They both stood firm and
undaunted in danger; immovable and un-
changeable in difficulty. Luther's courage
is unquestionable. The man, who, with the
fate of Hyss before his eyes, with the dust
of unnumbered martyrs floating on the winds
over every part of Europe, could stand up
and strike a blow for which they had per-
ished, who dared to smite a foe which, Bki-

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ARius like, could stretch forth a hundred
arms of power, and whose voice made mon-
archs tremble in their palaces — that man
was no coward ! Without the loftiest cou-
rage how could he have stood undaunted in
the German Diet, before nearly three hun-
dred dignitaries, to assert truths which, for
a thousand years, men had not dared to
speak ? The brave knight, George Frunds-
BERG, did not over-estimate his peril, when
he said to him as he entered the Diet : —
" Monk ! look to it ! you are about to hazard
a more perilous march than we have ever
done !" But he did hazard it, with more
than knightly courage: and his bravery
stands unimpeachable.

Nor was Wesley less courageous than
Luther. True, he never threw himself on
the bosses of the papal buckler, for he had
no occasion; nor did he ever confront a
royal Diet ; but he did frequently do that
which demanded equal-self-possession, and
equal heroism. He stood unappalled in the
midst of furious mobs which clamored for his
life, and threatened to tear him in pieces.

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am FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 129

The man who could do this, could have de-
nounced the Vatican, or stood unmoved in the
halls of kings, had circumstances required.
His courage, like Luther^s, grew out of an
absorption in the great object of his mission,
so complete as to make him superior to
every sign of personal danger. As in the
Koyal Diet, Luther forgot himself in his de-
sire to give utterance to truth ; so, in the
mobs of England, Wesley's heart burned
with a desire to save his angry enemies, so
earnest, it excluded all thoughts of himself.
The courage of both rested on moral prin-
ciples, for neither of them possessed that
natural courage which led Nelson to say
he " never knew fear ;" and which rendered
him perfectly indifferent amid showers of
cannon balls. The terror of Luther at his
companion's death, and Wesley's fear of
death in the Atlantic storm, show that their
natural courage was not uncommon. Theirs
was a moral heroism, sustained by moral
forces, and not by mere animal stoicism.

In zeal, in moral energy, in unceasing in-
dustry, they were both examples. Luther

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did the duties of a university professor, of a
preacher, and an author. His writings, like
Wesley's, are a library in themselves ; while
the amount of travel and of preaching per-
formed by Wesley almost exceeds belief.

As writers, they are alike distinguished by
the nervousness, vigor, directness, and bold-
ness of their style. Luther is the better po-
lemi'j of the two ; Wesley the more spiritual
and apostolic ; Luther is diffuse ; Wesley is
concise and epigrammatic ; Luther uses the
most rhetoric, but it is sometimes rude and
coarse ; while Wesley, rigidly simple and un-
adorned, always writes with purity, and
even delicacy. Both are distinguished for
their habit of deferential appeal to the
Scriptures as the source of all authority, and
the only standard of truth.

Viewing their religious character, we give
the preference to Wesley. His repose on
Christ was more calm and abiding than that
of the great German. Luther was subject to
tormenting mental conflicts, and to seasons
of deep depression. Wesley rested in calm,
almost^ undisturbed, composure upon Godi

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

131

■

Luther was less meek, less patient, less gen-
tle than Wesley. He dealt more harshly
with his adversaries, and displayed a temper
and stubbornness, at times, which mar the
beauty of his piety. Wesley, on the contra-
ry, was mild and gentle, even toward his ene-
mies. Though he exercised a vast amount
of power over his societies, toward the last
of his life, yet he never used it harshly or se-
verely. He regarded his societies as his
family, his children, beloved in Christ ; and
his authority was that of the mildest and
most tender parent. But it ought not to be
forgotten that Wesley's early training, by
his excellent mother, gave him the advan-
tage, in matters of self-discipline, over
Luther. Besides this, the manners and
spirit of Luther's times must be considered!.
He had to do with headstrong and fiery
minds, and to endure harrassing trials ; he
had to watch against an intriguing priest-
hood, who thirsted, like wolves, for his
blood. In fact, his public life was mostly
passed in a whirlpool of tumultuous human
passions. That he should, under such cir-

132

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

cumstances, yield, at times, to the natural
impetuosity of his temper, is not surprising.
Had he, however, possessed the clear, tri-
umphant faith of Wesley, he might have
won a more perfect victory, and have be-
come a more complete example of the truth
he taught.

Other points of comparison crowd upon
me, but I forbear ; and close with a glance
at their respective labors. Yet who can
either estimate or compare the labors of
these two reformers ? To estimate the
value of their work is impossible ; for it is,
as yet, incomplete. They still live. Their
spirits still animate society, and not until
the last judgment will it be possible to
measure the extent and value of the work
they wrought.

But their labors may be compared. Thus
viewed, the reformation of Luther appears
to have prepared the way for the Wesleyan
revival Luther's mission was chiefly to
emancipate thought — to set mind free from
the chains of authority — to teach ecclesias-
tical and civil rulers, that they have no

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133

control over the human conscience. The
means by which he did this, was the simple
assertion of evangelical doctrine in oppo-
sition to papal heresies. He affirmed every
man's individual right to judge of all ques-
tions of truth and duty, independently of
priest, pope, or council. By thus establish-
ing the param.ount authority of conscience
and Scripture, he paralyzed the arm of the
Papacy, he freed vast numbers from its
bondage, and taught them to exercise the
right of private judgment, and of freedom
to worship God. In the performance of this
great work, the truths he uttered became a
seed of spiritual life to many ; but, mainly,
his reformation was rather a reformation of
opinion — ^a declaration of religious liberty —
than a spiritual revival.

In this mixed form the "reformation"
found its way to Great Britain, where it
produced the Scottish Covenanter and the
English Puritan. By their sturdy fidelity,
and by their swords, the great idea of the
Lutheran Eeformation — ^religious liberty —
was firmly established in British institu-

134 THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

tions ; but its spiritual element, when Mr.
Wesley appeared, had well nigh exhausted
itself, and spiritual religion was almost ex-
tinct there, and throughout the world.

Wesley's mission was, therefore, to revive
the spiritual element of the Lutheran Eefor-
mation. But for Luther, he would have
had to do Luther's work. But that being
done, the doctrine of religious liberty being
understood and established, it was given to
him to spread a new religious life through-
out his country and the world. This, by
the grace of God, he accomplished. His
voice woke the reformation from its slumber,
roused it to an evangelic vitality — such as
^it never previously enjoyed; and which has
since spread itself through many lands.
Thus while Luther's work prepared the way
for Wesley, Wesley p:it new life into the
Lutheran Eeformatio^i, and pushed it to
glorious spiritual results. And now that
the Christian life, evoked by their instru-
mentality, flows on, in one widening, deep-
ening, branching stream of blessedness, to
all parts of the earth ; ere long, all nations

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 135

shall hail it with joy ; and, v. hen aU have
tasted its blessedness, the world will do equal
honor to both, as great, good, and mighty
men of God, entrusted by him to do a good
work, and as having proved faithful in the
execution of that high trust. May their
spirit live and abide in the church forever.
Amen I

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CHAPTER VIL

RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM.

As from the smitten rock in the wilder-
ness, the abundant waters flowed at the bid-
ding of the Almighty, to quench the thirst
of a feverish and fainting people, so did
Methodism flow forth to give fresh life to
the expiring Christianity of the age. Its
birth was from above, and its author was the
Holy Ghost. The Wesleys, Whitefield, and
their coadjutors, were only the instruments
of its propagation. On being powerfully
converted, those holy men, following the im-
pulses of the spiritual life, went forth preach-
ing the truth, and seeking to spread scrip-
tural holiness over the land of their birth.
The idea of founding a church did not enter
into their conceptions for many years ; and
when it appeared necessary to the spiritual
welfare of his societies that they should be

lUSK AND GllOWTH OV METHODISM. 137

organized into churches^ Mr. Wesley accepted
the idea as d, necessity, and provided for its
realization with manifest reluctance. He
had no ambition to be the founder of a sect.
That honor "Was awarded him by the Provi-
dence of God.

I have attributed the rise of Methodism
to the Spirit of God. Am 1 hot right?
Whence did it come, if not from the work-
ings of that Holy Being ? It certainly did
not spring from the English Episcopal
Church, for that church did not give the
Wesleys a clear conception of the cardinal
doctrine of justification by faith only. They
were indebted for their perception of that
truth to Peter Bohler, and the Moravian
brethren. Hence, the human instrumental-
ity through which the spiritual life of Meth-
odism flowed was not the Episcopal, but the
Moravian Church. But the Moravians were
only instruments. The life of Methodism
came from heaven, when, on the evening of
May 24, 1738, God "strangely warmed *'
John Wesley's heart, and gave him assur-
ance that he " had taken away " his sins.

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138 EISE AND PROGRESS OF METHODISM.

That experience was Mr. Wesley's Pente-
cost. Three days before, Charles had expe-
rienced a similar baptism. By the self-same
Spirit, the brothers were made new men in
Christ Jesus. Hitherto, they had been ser-
vanta ; now they were children. From this
time, as with the Apostles after their Pente-
cost, a divine energy attended their preach-
ing. Vast multitudes were awakened and
converted. These new-born souls, attracted
to their spiritual parents and to each other,
by the affinities of their new interior life,
met, like the disciples in the primitive
church, for prayer and spiritual fellowship.
They desired Mr. Wesley's advice. For the
sake of convenience and order, he formed
them first into societies, and then into classes.
When these societies multiplied he drew- up
" rules " for their government. When the
Holy Spirit moved numbers of the converts
to preach the gospel, Wesley employed them
with manifest reluctance at first, to call the
nation to repentance. When these preach-
ers increased, and God had abundantly own-
e4 their labors, he was fully satisfied that

risp: and progress of Methodism. 139

their vocation was from above ; and, there-
fore, in 1744, he formed them into a Confer-
ence. Thus he proceeded, step by step,
wisely providing for exigencies as they arose,
but never anticipating the progress of events.
His aim was strictly a spiritual one. His
personal wish was that his societies should
remain in connection with the Established
Church. But God overruled that wish, and
he was compelled, at last, to give them the
only remaining thing necessary to constitute
them churches of Christ, viz., the privilege
of having the sacraments administered by
their own preachers, and in their own houses
of worship. When this was yielded, they
ceased to be mere societies in a church — they
became churches of Christ, having within
themselves all the elements which went to
make up the apostolic church, viz., an inte-
rior life derived from the Holy Spirit, the
preached Word, the ordinances of the gospel,
meetings for Christian fellowship, govern-
ment. In one word, they were essentifidly
identical with the first church at Jerusalem,
which is described as receiving the *' word,"

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140 RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM.

the ordinances, and as continuing in " fel-
lowship" and in prayers. See Acts 2 : 41,
42.

Such, in brief, was the rise of Methodism
in England. Small in its beginning — a
cloud no bigger than a man's hand — it grew
with wonderful rapidity. It throve in spite
of the scorn of the rich, the contimiely of
the proud, the persecutions of the ministry,
(the dissenting clergy not excepted,) and the
barbarity of mobs. Like the chamomile, the
more it was trampled upon, the more it flour-
ished. Hence, when Mr. Wesley died,//if^-
tioo years after he organized the first Metho-
dist Society, properly so called, his societies
in Great Britain alone, included upwards of
eighty thousand souls.

In America, the rise of Methodism was
also distinctly marked by the finger of God.
His providene provided for its existence on
this Continent through several instruments.
To New York he directed the steps of Philip
Embury, a local preacher from Ireland, who
arrived in that city in 1765. The absence of
spiritual help, and the irreligious influence

RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 14i

of the time, caused Mr. Embury to neglect
his soul, and to grow worldly. To revive
him, God led an elect lady, Barbara Hick,
with her family, from Ireland to New York.
In her heart the fires of grace burned glori-
ously. Her rebuke awoke the backsliding
local preacher to a sense of duty. He re-
turned to his Eedeemer, preached the gospel
in his own house, formed a class, hired a
room for public worship, and thus laid the
foundations of the Methodist temple on this
Continent.

But if these emigrants at New York had
failed to plant the good seed of Methodism,
Captain Webb, converted under Wesley, a
" man of fire," was residing in Albany, faith-
fully cherishing the life of God, and ready
to embrace the first opportunity to sow the
living seed of truth. But Embury was be-
fore him in the work ; and him the Captain
greatly assisted while in New York on a
visit, and afterwards when he became a resi-
dent of Jamaica, L. I. By their mutual
labors, Methodism was planted in New York.
In 1768 it sent out its utterances from its

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142 RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM.

first American chapel on Golden Hill, in
John street.

Still another instrument for its propaga-
tion rose up in Maryland, in the person of
Robert Strawbrigde, also a local preacher,
from Ireland. He brought a warm heart
over the Atlantic, and, like a faithful man,
began preaching in his own house, as soon
as he was fairly settled. His success was
such that a society was formed, and a log
chapel built, about as early as the chapel in
New York.

Thus you see how God cared for Metho-
dism in America, by directing these local
preachers to three different points, and by
guiding the steps of a pious matron to the
doors of the slumbering Philip. Was ever
event more signally marked by the finger of
God?

I cannot detain you to watch the growth
of this " mustard seed," as it grew into the
great tree which it has since become. It is
enough to state, that in the brief period of
little more than a century from its original
planting, it has become the largest, fairest,

RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 143

statliest of ecclesiastical trees ; its branches
overspread the earth, its fruit imparts life to
nearly three millions of communicants, and
its doctrines are preached to probably not
less than twelve millions of the human race !

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CHAPTER VIII.

SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM.

,'5»

' !-3'

To understand the spiritual results of
Methodism, my dear reader, you must first
glance at the religious condition of England
and America; at the epoch of its rise.

What was the spiritual state of England
prior to the appearance of the Wesleyan
evangelists ? I do not exaggerate when I
say that it was in the lowest possible con-
dition of religious torpor and indifference.
The shadow of an almost starless night
spread over the land. The clergy of the
Established Church were mostly uncon-
verted men, teachers of a Pelagian theology,
and sadly lacking in that high purity of
life which is so essential to ministerial in-
fluence. The Presbyterian clergy were
mostly floating in the putrid sea of a self-
indulgent Antinomianism, or gliding in

SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 145

luxuriant ease down the smooth waters of
a self-complacent Socinianism. The dis-
senting clergy, generally were lethargic, for-
mal, dead. Doddridge, Watts, and a few
others, were bright exceptions; but their
influence was limited to narrow circles ;
their light scarcely relieved the general
gloom.

As it was with the clergy, so it was with
their flocks. The churches seemed under
the power of a Lethean draught. They
mostly slept, as if oblivious of the caUs of
duty, the warnings of retribution, and the
woes of humanity.

As a consequence, irreligion stalked over
the land with a haughty, philosophic skep-
ticism at her right hand ; a course, bluster-
ing infidelity at her left; and a host of
blear-eyed immoralities in her train. The
nobles, the statesmen, the literary men of
England, did not scruple to deride evan-
gelical religion with their lips, and to insult
its moralities in their practice. " There
was no thinking at that time," says Isaac
Taylor, " which was not atheistical in its

146 SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM.

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tone and tendency." The middle classes
were immersed in the sea of avarice; the
lower orders were abandoned in the grossest
vices. " The moral and religious defection
which obtained," says Dr. Morrison, " was
extraordinary and almost imiversaU^ "The
higher ranks of society," says Dr. Corbett,
" viewed the ordinances of religion with in-
difference, and the poorer classes had sunk
into the grossest vices." In Calvinistic
Scotland, the case wa^ no better. Eev.
James Kobie, of Kilsyth, in 1740, said:
"For some years past there hath been a sen-
sible decay as to the life and power of god-
liness. Iniquity abounded, and the love of
many waxed cold. Our defection from the
Lord, and backsliding, increased fast to a
dreadful apostacy. While the government,
worship and doctrine, established in this
church ARE retained in profession, there

HATH been an UNIVERSAL CORRUPTION OF

life, reaching even unto the sons and
daughters of God."

Was the spiritual condition of America
any better when Whitefield, glowing with

SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 147

Methodistic life, visited its coasts ; and
when, subsequently, Philip Embury raised
the banner of Methodism in New York ?
Let Mr. Tracy, the historian of the " Great
Awakening," answer. Eeferring to the
period of Whitefield's labors, he says :

" The doctrine of the * new birth * as an
ascertainable change, was not generallg pre-
valent in any communion when the revival
commenced."

" The difference between the church and
the world was vanishing away. Church dis-
cipline was neglected, and the growing lax-
ness of morals was invading the churches.
And yet never, perhaps, had the expectation
of reaching heaven at last, been more general,
or more confident. Occasional revivals had
interrupted this downward progress, and the
preaching of sound doctrine had retarded it
in many places, especially in Northampton ;
but even there it had gone on, and the hold
of truth on the consciences of men was
sadly diminished. The young were aband-
oning themselves to frivolity, and amuse-
ments of dangerous tendency, and party

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148 SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM.

spirit was producing its natural fruit of evil
on the old"

Again he says (in 1740), "A large majority
in the Presbyterian church, and many, if
not most J in New Unyland^ held that the
ministrations of unconverted 7)ien, if neither
heretical in doctrine nor scandalous for im-
morality, were valid, and their labors
useful"

Of the churches in Rhode Island, in 1740,
Whitefield, as quoted by Tracy, says : "All,
I fear, place the kingdom of God too much
in meats and drinks, and have an ill name
abroad for running of goods."

Again he says, while in Boston, " I am
verily persuaded the generality of preachers
talk of an unknown and unfdt Christ ; and
the reason why congregations have been so
dead, is because they have had dead men
PREACHING TO THEM." Again : " Boston * ♦
has the form kept up very well, but has lost
much of the power of religion, I have not
heard of any remarkable stir in it for these
many years."

In 1743, Eev. Messrs. Messenger and Ha-

SriltlTUAL KESULTS OF METHODISM. 149

veil, of Natick, say : " For a long time past
the power of godliness has been evident but
in comparatively few instances!*

Rev. John Porter, in 1743, says of Bridge-
water, Massachusetts, "Experimental religion
and the power of godliness seemed to have
taken their flight from Bridgewater. The
greater part of the people who thought of re-
ligion at all, rested in various duties short of
a saving closure with Christ."

Rev. N. Leonard, of Plymouth, Mass.,
writing in 1744, says : " Tt pleased God to
cast my lot in the iirst church and town in
the country, twenty years ago. Religion
was then (i.e. in 1724) under a great decay ;
most people seemed to be taken up princi-
pally about the world and the lusts of this
life, though there appeared some serious
Christians among us who bewailed the
growth of impiety, profaneness, Sabbath
breaking, gambling, tavern-haunting, in-
temperance, and other evils, which threat-
ened to bear down all that is good and
sacred before them. We were sensible of
an awful degeneracy. * * Iniquity pre-

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150 SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM.

vailed, and we were in danger of losing the
very form of godliness."

Kev. Samuel Davies, of Virginia, writes
in 1751 : " Keligion has been, and in most
parts of the colony still is, in a very low
state. * * Family religion is a rarity.
* * Vices of various kinds are trium-
phant, and even a form of godliness is not
common."

Eev. Jonathan Dickenson, of Elizabeth-
town, New Jersey, says : " Keligion was in
a very low state, professors generally dead
and lifeless, and the body of our people
careless, carnal, and secure. There was but
little of the power of godliness appearing
among us until some time in August,
1739, when there was a remarkable levival
at Newark."

Of the Presbyterians throughout the land,
in 1740, Mr. Tracy says they admitted *' to
the full communion of the church, persons
who gave no evidence of regeneration. The
doctrine of the new birth ceased to be re-
garded in the adminstration of the ordi-
nances ; * * as a natural consequence,

SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 151

it practically slipped from the minds both of
preachers and hearers"

Kev. S. Blair, of New Londonderry, Penn*
sylvania, in 1744, says : " People were very
generally, through the land, careless at heart,
and stupidly indifferent about the great
concerns of eternity. There was very little
appearance of any hearty engagedness in re-
ligion. * * It was sad to see with what
a careless behaviour the public ordinances
were attended."

The eloquence and piety of Whitefield
kindled a bright light in this hour of gloom ;
but being . fed with Calvinistic theology
only, it soon lost its brilliancy. The bones
of that apostolic man were scarcely de-
posited in their sepulchre at Newburyport,
before another fearful apostacy spread the
pall of death over the churches of America.*

If!

* ** With all the accession of strength," says Mr. Tracy, " that
religion received from the revival, it did but just stand the aJiock,
(of the revolution), and for a long time, many of the pious feared
that everything holy would be swept away/ / Strengthened by so
many tens of thousands of converts, and by the deep sense of
the importance of religion produced in other tens of thousands,
both in and out of the churches, religion survived, in time ral-

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152 SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODLSM.

So that at the advent of American Meth-
odism, the moral and spiritual condition of
this country was scarcely better than that
of the Fatherland when Wesley arose.

Thus, in both lands, Methodism rose like
a bright, particular star, in an hour of deep
and fearful gloom. What did it accomplish ?
In general terms it may be replied that it
was the instrument, in both countries, of a
revival of spiritual religion, which for depth,
intensity, extent, permanency, duration, and
humanitarian influences, has no parallel in
the History of the Christian Church since
the apostolic age.* Its results are not to be
estimated by the numerical strength of the
Methodistic body. Wonderful as is the cre-

lied and advanced, and is marchiug on to victory." {Great
Awakening, p. 421).

The Puritan Recorder of August 81, 1854, describing the state

of religion at the epoch of the revolution, confirms Mr. Tracy.

It saj's: '*It is well known how disastrous to religion were the

influences attending that war, and what wide spread religious

declension followed"

* Methodism gained more members to its own communion in
its first century, than the apostolic church during its first cen-
tury. At the end of the first century of the Christian era, there
were 600,000 Christians ; at the end of its first century, Metho-
dism had 1,423,000 communicants— a number nearly three times
greater.

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SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 153

■M-]

ation of such a body of spiritual people in so
brief a period, its results outside of i ts own
membership are yet more vast and astonish-
ing. Did it not break up the formalism of
existing churches, and impregnate them
anew with that divine life which not only
saved them from extinction, but Virhich also
started them on a career of progress that
continues to the present hour ? Did it not
stop the march of infidelity, aTid thereby
save England from the revolutionary vor-
tex which swallowed so much of the blood
of France ? Did it not awaken that spirit
of evangelical activity, which led to the
conception and inauguration of the mis-
sionary and other ideas, now embodied in
our various benevolent organizations ? I
do not claim that it did all these things
directly ; but I do claim that they have -all
grown out of the life to which it gave birth-
They cannot be traced to any other cause.
We can find their germ nowhere else but
in the Methodistic revival: but for which
one trembles to think what fearful moral
desolation would have overspread the earth.

154 SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM.

Ih.';i*'i

That you may see how this view is sup-
ported by large-minded men of other de-
nominations, I will insert a few extracts
jfrom various sources below.*

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* Dr. Momiisoir says : " The Church of England received a
mdghty md 'hallowed impulse frcMn the organization of Metho-
^sm. * * * In refeiTing to the influence of Methodisfm upon
Pisseaty it wHl be frankly conceded, by all competent jiidgcs of
passing erents, that it has told with prodigious effect upon its
internal organizatios, and upon all its moTements for the good
of maokfnd. * * Methodism did much to bring on the great
missiooary crisis d the church * * It was the glory of Metho-
dism tiMit it seized with a giant grasp this great principle of the
apostolic mimstey."— DT. Morrison'^ Fathers anhd Fowjwier* of the
London Missionary Society,**

Ray. RiCHABD Cicib says : ''They (the Methodists) have la-
bored and not fainted in planting the gospel amongst the poor,
and that with the moet surimsoig success, even in the most diark
and inroffigate places. * * Multitudes of genuine Christians could
attest that under whatever denonrinatico they now proceed,
tbey owe their Gist serious impressions to the labors o£ these
men.** — OkH's Memoirs of Cadogan.

Dr. Cbalmbra says : ** Methodism is ChrlstiaDfty in earnest.*'

RoBKKT Hall says ; WhiteiMd and Wesley ** will be hailed by
posterity aa ta>e Second Eeformers of Engicmd.**'

Sir Pbibr Laukis, a British magistrate, in a speech, said :
** I would much rather see a Methodist diapel than a station-
house. I would that all the country m%ht embrace your senti-
ments and emulate your moral diaracter; for then, indeed, no
police would be beard of.'"

Similar testimonies abound with respect to American MethO'
dism. I will quote a few.

The following paragrai^ is from the pen of Dk. Baiad', a gen-
tleman whose extensive travel, and dose and long-continued
observation on the various religious systems of the country, en-

SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 155

Nor has the spiritual life of Methodism
yet begun to show sj^mptoms of decay. Hav-

d a

title his opinion to the Very highest reflect. He says : " No
American Chfistian, m^o takes a comprehensive view of the
progress of religion in his country, arid considers how wonder-
fully the meaijs atid instrumentalities employed are adapted to
the extent and Wants of that community, can hesitate for a mo'
ment to bless God tot having, in his mercy, provided them alL
Nor will he fail to recognize, in the Methodist econoirty, as well ns
in the 2eal, the devoted piety, and the efficiency of its ministry,
one of the most powerful elements in the religious prosperity of the
Vnited States, as well as one of the firmest pillai's of their civil
and political institutions.** — Religion in America, p. 249.

Rkv. Dr. TrNa, in an address in London, before the Wesleyail
Missionary Society, in 1842, said : ** I come ffom a land where
we might as well forget the proud oaks that tower in our forests,
the glorious capitol we have erected in the centre of our hills,
or the principles of truth and liberty Which we are endeavoring
to disseminate, as foiiget the influence of Wesleyan Methodism,
and the benefits ive haDe received thereby. * * The Wesleyan body
in our country is what the Wesleyan body is throughout the
World. * * Standing, I was going to say, manfully,— but I check
the spirit, and say humbly,— at the feet of Jesus, laboring for
Mm, and accounting it its highest honor if it m/iy but bear the
cross, while he, in all his glory, should be permitted to wear the
crown.**

The next extract is from a writer in the Presbyterian Christian
Herald, quoted in Clark*s Memoir of Bishop Hedding : " No pio-
neer gets beyond the reach of Methodist itinerants. Though he
pass the Rocky Mountains, and pursue his game to the Pacific,
he soon finds the self-denying, unconquerable, tmescapeable Meth-
dist minister at his side, summoning him to the camp-meeting,
and winning his soul to Christ ! Thousands upon thousands of
pioneers, scattered like sheep and almost lost from the world, in
those far-oflf wilds of the West, have blessed God for raising up
Wesley and the Methodists.**

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166 SPIEITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM.

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ing lifted other sects up towards its own
standard, its superior vitality may not be so
apparent as when they were shrouded in
formality; yet it is as real and robust as
ever. A recent writer in the North British
Beview^ whose objections to some features of
the Wesleyan system prove him to be not of
it> says: **We believe that the Wesleyan
body contains hy far the largest per-centage of
irite religion and moral life of any sect in
England,"

A Congregational clergyman of Massaohu-
«etts, naively confessed this fact recently in
a conversation with a Methodist preacher.
He said: "We" (the Congregationalists)
*' always look to the Methodists to lead in a
revival. I advised the pastor of a Congre-
gational church in a town where the church
was large and wealthy, but had not enjoyed
a revival within the memory of its oldest
member, to secure, if he could, the organiza-
tion of a Methodist church there, because
such a church would certainly exert a most
beneficial influence on the general spiritual
interests of the town; and particularly on

vn
so
in
as

SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 157

the spiritual life and vigor of that Congrega-
tional church." Thank God, Methodism re-
tains the life God gave it when he converted
the Wesleys ; and if the culture of your
spiritual life is the great object you seek in
forming a church relation, you will regard it
as the first of privileges to be permitted to
enter its fellowship.

But the enemies of our church seek to
divert attention from these wonderful and
glorious facts, by pretending that in building
up itself, Methodism inflicts injury on society.
It brings, they assert, vast numbers of per-
sons under the influence of religious excite-
ment, and induces them to make spurious
professions of conversion. One unscrupu-
lous writer has said that of the number pro-
fessing conversion at Methodist meetings,
^'nine-tenths of the whole are found to be
spurious, after a longer or shorter trial!'*
Strange assertion ! It carries its own contra-
diction on its brazen brow. It is even afe-
sitrdly false. To be true no less than one
million two hundred thousand persons, must
have professed conversion in Methodist

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158 SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM.

churches, in Ontario and Quebec alone, for
they contain about one hundred and twenty
thousand communicants within their pale !
A statement resulting in a consequence so
manifestly impossible cannot be true. It is
unworthy the serious attention of a sane
man.

But I need not lead you through the fog
with which its enemies seek to obscure the
glory of Methodism. You will not be de-
ceived nor turned aside from it, I feel assur-
ed. You cannot fail to see that God is with
it. Kis grace is its garment. His arm its
power. His strength its protection. His
love the pledge of its perpetuity. His ap-
proval the diadem of beauty which crowns
its brow. Go, then, beloved ; go, kneel at
its altar ; enter its fellowship; drink deep of
its spirit ; emulate the zeal and purity of its
master spirits ; and thereby learn the truth
of the dying words of its great founder — the
best of all is, God is with its.

CHAPTER IX.

METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT.

Did you, my reader, ever visit the Haxtz
Mountain, in Germany ! If so, you heard
at least of ' the celebrated spectre which
haunts its summit. Perhaps you saw it^ —
a colossal figure crowning the summit of the
Brocken, bending and moving, as if in imi-
tation of your own gestures. If you stretch-
ed out your arms, the spectre did the same.
If you bowed, the spectre returned the com-
pliment ; and you were thrilled with aston-
ishment at the phenomenon. Yet you were
not alarmed. Your scientific knowledge
taught you that the gigantic image before
you mas merely the shadow of yourself, pro-
jected on dense vapors or fleecy clouds,
which had the power to reflect light freely.
Yet such was the impression it made upon

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160 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT.

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your mind, that you were not surprised at
the marvellous stories to which it had given
rise among the peasantry of the adjacent
region. You could readily understand how
superstitious ignorance could invest that
spectre with the terror with which the im-
agination delights to clothe supernatural
beings.

Now it is a curious fact that the adversa-
ries of Methodism, whenever they turn their
eyes towards its government, affect to see a
spectre resting upon its dome. They take
strange delight in harping upon what they
are pleased to call its despotism. Its
government has been called a " naked cleri-
cal despotism." Others take up the same
cry, and our adversaries assail us with this
charge of despotism for their battle-cry. We
think it possible some of them may be
ignorant enough of Methodism to believe
their own assertions.

But the charge is false. Methodism is
not a despotism, any more than the spectre
of the Brocken is a reality. Like that figure
the charge is proven to be a shadow — the

METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. IGl

reflection of the thoughts of those who make
it — having no substantial existence. True,
its ecclesiastical forms were not cast in a
republican mould. The democratic idea is
not very legibly written in the letter of its
discipline. A superficial observer, gazing on
some of its arrangements, without taking
into account the numerous checks which are
everywhere thrown around those to whom it
conveys power, might easily misconceive its
principles, and misjudge its spirit and prac-
tical operations. Wliile, to those who write
in a bitter spirit, nothing is easier than, by
exaggerating some features of the system,
and suppressing others, to make out the
plausible semblance of a strong case.

But there is a strong, and, as we think, un-
answerable a 'priori argument against this
charge, in the fact that those who are in the
Methodist Church are utterly unconscious of
the pressure of this alleged despotism. No
Methodist feels oppressed by it. Methodist
ministers and laymen maintain as much
self-respect, feel as free in spirit, and are as
unconstrained in their action, as the minis-

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162 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT,

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try and laity of the most ultra Congregation-
alist church in the land. No despotic arm
terrifies them. No irresponsible authority
oppresses them. No arbitrary inflictions
gall them. How is this ? How caa this
consciousness of freedom exist and flourish
unchecked, if Methodism is such a system
of despotism as its enemies declare it to be?
It wUl not do to say that our people are not
fiufSciently intelligent to distinguish between
liberty and freedom ; for we hesitate not to
assert that the (werage culture of our people "
is eq[ual to that of any otlier large denomin-
ation in the land. How is it, then ? There
is but one answer. The despotism does not
exist, save in the disturbei^ imaginations of
our enemies.

What is despotism ? It is absolute au-
thority, irresponsible to constitutions, laws,
or tribunals. But Methodism knows no such
authority as this. Every man — minister or
layman — upon whom it confers power, is
controlled by rules, and held responsible to
proper tribunals for the right exercise of his
authority. Every ofificer's duties, from a

METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 163

class leader to a President, are specifically
defined ; and the greater the power bestow-
ed, the more strict is the responsibility which
is exacted. While such restraints upon its
authorities as these exist, Methodism cannot
be considered a despotism. The grand fun-
damental element of despotism — absolute,
irresponsible authority — is not found in the
system.

Again I ask, what is despotism ? It is
irresponsible authority reposing upon force.
The appeal of the despot is not to the con-
sent of the governed, but to force. His au-
thority is built, not on the enlightened affec-
tion of his subjects, but on the bayonets of
his warriors. His arguments are chains,
prisons, scaffolds. To talk about a despot-
ism without force, is to drivel, not reason.
There can be no despotism where there is no
power to coerce obedience.

Still our enemies say Methodism is a
" naked clerical despotism, that its ministers
reign absolute over the whole body." Where
then is its coeixive power ? Where its means
of enforcing obedience ? It has none, abso-

164 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT.

lutely none. It reposes not on force, but on
the opinions and choice of its members.
This is its corner-stone. Eobbed of this, it
would dissolve like the " fabric of a vision.'*
So entirely does it rely on the affectionate
and voluntary support of the people, that it
formally absolves them from legal obligation
to render it that pecuniary aid which is
essential to its operations. If the allow-
ances needful for the support of its ministry
are not forthcoming, there is no power by
which the people can be coerced into giving.
Bid the world ever hear of a despotism
throwing itself so completely on the affec-
tions and choice of its subjects ? Never.
How then can Methodism be despotism ?

Biit, it may be alleged, Methodism gives
the power of excommunicating the laity to
the clergy, and this ghostly power is equivo-
cal to coercion in its influence over the mem-
bership. Such an allegation at this is sheer
nonsense. To an enlightened people, excom-
munication without jttst causCy has no terror,
because it cannot affect the spiritual rela-
tions of the sufferer. Such excommuni-

MTTHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 165

cation in this country is at most but an
annoyance, and is not even dreamed of
among Methodists as a motive to hold them
to its communion.

But even this power is not lodged abso-
lutely in the ministry of the Methodist
Churchs Before excommunication can take
place, a layman must be formally tried and
condemned by a committee of laymen. He
can appeal from a wrong verdict to a Quar-
terly Meeting, composed chiefly of laymen.
He can finally procure the arrest of his
pastor for mal-administration, at the bar of
the Conference. Hence, if there was terror
in an unjust excommunication, our laity are
pretty effectually guarded against it. The
ministry cannot use the power of excom-
munication as a means of coercing the sub-
mission of the people. To what, then, does
all the power actually lodged in the hands
of the ministers of the Methodist Church
amount ? Kestrained on every side by
checks and accountability, it cannot be arbi-
trarily exercised without bringing censure
or deposition upon him who is weak or

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166 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT.

wicked enough to abuse it. Keposing upon
the affections and consent of the people, its
abuse would be its destruction. How, then,
can Methodism be a depotism, when it is
manifestly lacking in the fundamental ele-
ments of a despotic power ?

A third element of despotism is central'
ization, A despotism seeks to " concentrate
the whole administration of the government
in its own hands/* It abhors the municipal
idea. It frowns upon all local authority
which is not responsible to itself, and de-
pendent upon its will. For example, free
municipalities are unknown in the confes-
sedly despotic government of Eussia. Their
existence is little better than nominal, in
despotically governed France. They flourish
only in such countries as enjoy a limited
monarchy, like England, or republican insti-
tutions, like the United Sta1.es. But despot-
ism eschews them. It loathes all local au-
thority which is not dependent on itself.
Centralization is its law, and wherever it
exists all authority proceeds from it, is re-

METHODIST CHURCH GOTERNMENT. 167

sponsible to it, and exists only by its per-
mission.

But is Metliodigim a system of eentraliza"
Hon I Does it hold its members in bands of
iron responsibility to a single central power ?
7>oe8 any g-upieme authority restrain the
liberties of individual societies^ and deprive
local churc;hes of their proper freedom ? If
so, where is that central power ? If, as our
enemies sfiy, Methodism is a despotism, let
that overg^hadowing, all-controlling authority
be named ? It cannot be done*

If such a power exist at all, it must be
found in the Confererhce, But I affirm that
it is not there.

What are the powers of the Conference ?

1. It has legislative authority — " full powers
to make rules and regulations for our church,"

2. It has a c^tain measure oi judicial au-
thoity — it is a high court of appeals from
the J idicial decisions of District Meetings,
&c. 3. It possesses executive authority. It
can elect its own officers. It confers admin-
istrative powers on chairmen, stationed
preachers, stewards, and class-leaders. These

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168 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT.

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are large powers, we confess. Viewed apart
from their limitations, they wear a despotic
aspect. But it is neither just nor truthful to
so regard them. They are not ahsohite and
irresponsible powers ; but they are so envi-
roned by restrictions and limitations, that
notwithstanding their formidable appearance,
they are not inconsistent with the liberties
of both preachers and people.

Note, then, the limitations of these powers.
1. The restrictive rules remove several
most important subjects from the sphere of
its legislative jurisdiction. By forbidding
it to change the doctrines and " General
Kules," they deprive it of power to afflict the
conscience of the church by forcing new opin-
ions upon it, or to create any lav/ for the gov-
ernment of its life, which is not already
recognized in principle by the General
Eules. Thus the religious faith and the
moral duties of the church are not placed in
the keeping of the Conference, and may not
be altered by its authority. The principle
of Methodism is, that God has determined
these great matters, and that ecclesiastical

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METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 169

legislation can rightfully expound His teach-
ings, and no more. The Methodistic expo-
sition of them is in our articles of faith and
General Eules, and the Conference is for-
bidden to alter it except with the consent of
two-thirds of the Quarterly Meetings through-
out the connexion. Hence the sphere for
legislation by our Conference is mostly
limited to disciplinary regulations.

2. The judicial power of the Conference
is also limited. It cannot interfere directly
with the action of the lower courts. With
the "society," or its court of appeal, the
Quarterly Meeting, it has no means of in-
termeddling. The decisions of the latter
body are final and conclusive, imless excep-
tion can be taken to the administration of
the preacher presiding at the trial In that
case, his administration is subject to exam-
ination by the Conference, and may there be
finally determined. As a matter of fact,
Methodist laymen are responsible to their
peers only. They are not held judicially
responsible to Conference.

With these facts I submit the question to

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170 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT.

your good sense: — Can a Conference so
Kmited, by constitutional restrictions, in the
range of its legislative functions ; so depen-
dent for the enforcement and administration
of its disciplinary regulations on tribunals
and administrators not judicially responsible
to itself, and whose action is in a great
degree independent of it ; so almost utterly
deprived of coercive power, — can such a
Conference be that centralized authority
which men are wont to call a despotism ?
Was ever government with such limitations
J)ronounced a despotism before ? Never.
So long as it is powerless to impose a
hew dogma on the belief, or a new rule of
life on the conscience ; so long as it cannot
arraign, try, or expel a single layman ; so
long as the enforcement of its regulations
depends on tribunals which it cannot coerce
or control ; so long, it must be monstrously
unjust and manifestly false to call it
" a naked clerical despotism."

Thus, my reader, you see that none of the
elements essential to a despotism can be
found in any part of the system of Metho-

METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 171

dism. The government of the Methodist
Church is not a despotism. Neither can it
ever become such, so long as its existence
depends on the consent and voluntary con-
tributions of its members. Should it ever
become oppressive, it would fall to pieces
like a rope of sand. The people have but
to withold pecuniary support, as they would
and ought to do, if treated with injustice,
and the fabric would tumble into fragments.
Deprived of the support of the people, the
dependent pastors would be compelled to
vacate their pulpits, for the Conference has
no funds or other property with which to
support them. So long as the ministry is
thus directly and absolutely dependent on
the people, there is, there can be, no possi-
bility of the Methodist Church becoming a
despotism.

It is sometimes said that the Methodiat
ministers either own or control the churches
and parsonages erected by the people ; th^t
though this property is held by trustees, they
are, in fact, appointed by and subject to the
will of the pastor in office at the time. This

172 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT.

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is another misrepresentation. Our ministers
neither own nor control church property, as
you may see by turning to that part of the
Discipline of the Methodist Church which
describes the duties of ''the Trustees." That
discipline provides, 1. That the minister may
create "a new board of trustees," to hold
property for the Methodist Church.

2. When a vacancy occurs in a board of
trustees, it is the duty of the minister to
nominate another person to fill the vacancy.
The appointment of the new trustee, how-
ever, is with the trustees. If they are
equally divided, the preacher has the casting
vote.

3. Our ministry, either in their individual
or associated capacity, have never claimed,
nor do they hold, in law, any title to any
chapel or parsonage by the deed of settle-
ment. The fee of the land is vested in
trustees, who hold the property in behalf of
the connexion. The Conference claims
merely the right to supply the pulpit, by such
means as it shall elect, with duly accredited
ministers and preachers of the Methodist

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METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 173

Church, " who shall preach and expound
God*s holy word therein."

From these facts it is obvious that the
assertion stated above is utterly groundless.
Our trustees are not " appointed by the pas-
tor in office," (except when a new hoard is to
be appointed.) They are not subject to the
will of the pastor in office, for they are not
responsible to him, nor can they be in any
way controlled by him. The only right
which Methodist ministers can legally en-
force in our church property is that of
preaching in the pulpits of our churches,
and occupying our parsonages according to
the intention of those who contributed
moneys for their erection. Can any man
show the injustice, or even the impropriety
of such a claim ? It cannot be done.

To comprehend and appreciate the govern-
ment of the Methodist Church, you must
view it from the same standpoint as they
who constructed it. From that point alone,
can you rationally expect to see it in its
beauty, fitness, and excellence. If you study
it from any other position, it will only per-

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174 METHODIST CIIUllCII GOVEUNMExNT.

plex and confound you ; l)ecause you will
fail to discover the motives and aims which
it embodies. Those motives and those aims
are the keys which unlock its gates, and
unfold its wonderful adaptions to all candid
beholders. Only seize them, and like Chris-
tian and Hopeful with their key of faith in
the castle of Giant Despair, you will escape
from the dungeon of perplexity in which
those who assail it without understanding it
would fain lock you up forever.

What, then, are the moti v js and aims in-
corporated in it ? You have but to refer to
the life of Wesley, and the answer is yours.
What great motive roused him to abandon
the cloisters of Oxford and to devote himself
to the work of an Evangelist ? Did he not
say, like Paul, the love of Christ constraineth
me ? That was his motive — the love of souls
proceeding from the love of Christ. What
was his object ? To spread scriptural holi-
ness over the land and the world ! To these
ideas, he and his coadjutors conformed the
ecclesiastical system which they constructed,
both in England and America. They regard-

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METHODIST CHUKCIf GOVERNMENT. 175

ed it as an organization for the propagation
01 the gospel and the culture of piety in the
individual heart. They took its laws from
the Bible, which is tlie great constitution and
statute book of Methodism. They framed
its discipline, rather as a code of by-laws to
provide for tlie execution of the divine
statutes, tlian as a book of legislative canons.
Hence» nearly everything in the discipline
relates to the constitution of a series of
eooectitive bodies and officers charged with the
execution, not of Mr. Wesley*s laws, but of
the precepts of Christ. The classes, love
feasts, and prayer-meetings are for the fullil-
mentof Christ's law of Christian fellowship;
the Board Meeting, the Quarterly Meeting,
and the Annual Conference,, are chiefly to
secure wholesome discipline, and to make
such secular and other provisions as may be
necessary to the maintenance of a visible
organization of Christians. The Conference
is a legislative body, only so far as it deter-
mines for the church what moral practices
the precepts of Christ require it to enforce,
and what to reject ; and what executive me-_

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176 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT.

thods are best fitted to accomplish the grand
end of the organization. In fact, many of
its provisions under the latter head are
merely advisory ; for their observance is
enforced by no penalty. All its ritnils ; its
rules on preaching, on visiting from house to
house, on the employment of time ; its direc-
tions concerning public worship, singing,
band societies, dress, marriages, &c., fall into
this category. Thus its discipline is, is the
name imports, more a book of provisions for
the enforcement of the laws of Christ and the
propagation of the gospel, than a code of
legislative canons for the direction of the
life. He who reads it aright will see its
grand purpose to engage the whole church
in unceasing effort to evangelize the world,
standing out in bold relief on every page.
He will see this purpose applied, with little
regard to individual interests, tastes, or pre-
ferencos. Xo provision is made for the tol-
eration of indolence, ambition, or any other
form of selfishness. Everything is made to
yield to the demands of the spiritual nature

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|tKTlI.»lJlST CHtTHCII UOVERNMENT. 177

and the re(\uiroiniiuta nf ii vigorous gospel
propagaiulism.

How iHMUitifiiUy Isdils illustrated in its
iHmravcy! Obmivii^' iti tlie history of the
primitive chun^h, that It wa« most pure and
most successful, W'he\< itrt ministry contained
a lar^o corps of cVim^/i'hsfH ; and that when
evangelists generally became pastors, they
|i)st both their piety and efficiency, Mr. Wes-
ley seized on the idea of a ministry com-
posed entirely of evangelists or itinerants.
He saw that such a ministry would require
great personal sacrifices on the part of the
ministry, and severe trials of feeling on the
part of the churches. The former must
abandon the idea of a permanent and real
home on earth ; must consent to the syste-
matic disruption of the social affections ;
must resign the quiet opportunities for in-
tellectual culture and social influence which

the permanent pastorate so abundantly pro-
vides; must expose their families to the

social and educational evils inseparable from

a pilgrim life ; must accept, in a word, a life

of incessant labor, unrest, and change. The

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178 METHODIST CHUKCH GOVERNMENT,

churches, too, must be sorely tried in feeling
by such a system, though their trials are
nothing when comparea to those of the min-
istry. Mr. Wesley saw all this. But he
also saw, that all these evils were outweighed
by the superior vitality, activity, and spirit-
ual results likely to proceed from it, and,
therefore, he adopted it and recommended
the American Methodists to do the same.
Thus far, the result has justified his expect-
ation. The Methodist itinerancy has been
the most successful body of ministers known
to the church since the day of Pentecost.

Some persons will tell you, it would be
better if Methodism admitted the laity to
a more direct participation in the govern-
ment of the church than it now does. Per-
haps it would. Practically, there is no
church which furnishes freer scope for the
activity, or defers more to the choice, of its
laymen than ours, t r thi - r^.-r ^

I have now shown you that the govern-
ment of Methodism is not a despotism ; that
it cannot become so without self destruction,
because its principal support depends on the

METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 179

purely voluntary contributions of the laity j
% ' that its ruling motive, object, and results
justify its peculiarities ; and that though it
does not yield so much power in theory to
laymen, as some other systems, it actually
concedes much in practice. These views
will, I hope, satisfy you, that the attacks of
;^-| our enemies are founded more in ignorance
or malice, than in truth and fact. It would
^ be easy to meet ; 11 their specific allegations
in detail, but it is unnecessary in your case.
What I have said is sufficient to convince
you, that you have no • possible risk of per-
sonal oppression in the Methodist Church ;
that the only pressure you can ever experi-
ence from its government, will come in the
form of effort to promote your holiness and
usefulness, which is precisely what you desire.
Hence, to you its government will be as
acceptable, as its doctrines are precious.

And now, beloved convert, adieu ! Though
strangers to each other, in the flesh, I trust
we now feel one in spirit. This being so,
you will follow the advice of my unpretend-
ing book, and become a willing member of

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180 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT.

the great Methodist Communion ; in which
case, I trust, we shall remain fellow travellers
in the way of holiness, until we meet in the -
world of spirits. Should it then appear that
my advice contributed to your glorious des-
tiny, we will rejoice together, returning
thanks to Him whose spirit led me to write :.
and you to I'ead. Until then, fare thee well. >.

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