METHODISTS
METHODISTS, the name originally given, about the year 1729, by a student of Christ-church, to the brothers Wesley, and several other young men of a serious turn of mind, then members of different colleges of Oxford, who used to assemble together on particular nights of the week chiefly for religious conversation. The term was selected, it is believed, in allusion to the exact and methodical manner in which they performed the various engagements which a sense of Christian duty induced them to undertake, such as meeting together for the purpose of studying Scripture, visiting the poor, and prisoners in Oxford jail, at regular intervals. Subsequently it came to be applied to the followers of Wesley and his coadjutors, when these had acquired the magnitude of a new sect; and though their founder himself wished that ‘ the very name,’ to use his own words, might never be mentioned me, but be buried in eternal oblivion,’ yet it has finally come to be accepted by most, if not all of the various denominations who trace their origin mediately or immediately to the great regions movement commenced by John Wesley. For an account of the origin and earlier development of Methodism, see articles on the brothers WESLEY and WHITEFIELD. We confine cursives here to a brief notice of its organization, doctrine, and present condition.
1. Organization.—This appears to have been partly improvised by Wesley to suit the exigencies of his position. It was not a theoretical and premeditated, but a practical and extempore system. In the Rules of the Society of the People called Methodists, drawn up by himself, he says: ‘ In the latter end of the year 1729), eight or ten persons came to me in London, who appeared to be deeply convinced of sin, and earnestly groaning for redemption. They desired (as did two or three more the next day) that I would spend some time with them in prayer, and advise them how to flee from the wrath to come, which they saw continually hanging over their heads. That we might have more time for this great work, I appointed a day when they might all come together, which from thenceforward they did every week, viz., on Thursday, in the evening.’ This he calls ‘the first Methodist Society.’ Its numbers rapidly increased, and similar ’societies’ were soon formed in different parts of England, where the evangelistic labors of the Wesleys had awakened in many minds ‘ a desire to flee from the wrath to come, and be saved from their
sins’—the only condition, we may remark, required of any for admission into these societies. In order to ascertain more minutely how the work of salvation was progressing in individual cases, Lesley subdivided the societies into ‘classes,’ according to their respective places of abode, each class containing about a dozen persons, under the superintendence of a ‘ leader,’ whose duties are partly religious and partly financial. 1. He has to see each person in his class once a week, ‘to inquire how their souls prosper,’ and to encourage, comfort, or censure, as the case may require. 2. To collect the voluntary contributions of his class, and pay it over to the ‘ stewards’ of the society, and to give the ministers all necessary information regarding the spiritual or bodily condition of those under his leadership. For preaching purposes, on the other hand, the societies were aggregated—a certain number of them constituting what is called a circuit. This now generally includes a town, and a rural circle of ten or fifteen miles. To each circuit, two, three, or four ministers are appointed, one of whom is styled the ’superintendent;’ and here they labor for at least one year, and not more than three. Every quarter, the classes are visited by the ministers, who make it a point to converse personally with every member; at the termination of which a ‘circuit-meeting’ is held, composed of ministers, stewards, leaders of classes, lay-preachers. &c.
The stewards (who are taken from the societies) deliver their collections to a circuit-steward, and the financial business of the body is here publicly settled. At this quarterly meeting, candidates for the office of the ministry are proposed by the president, and the nomination is approved or rejected by the members. Still larger associations are the’ districts,’ composed of from ten to twenty circuits, the ministers of which meet once a year, under the presidency of one of their number, for the following par-poses: 1. To examine candidates for the ministry, and to try ‘ cases’ of immorality, heresy, insubordination, or inefficiency on the part of the clergy. 2. To decide preliminary questions concerning the building of chapels. 8. To investigate and determine the claims of the poorer circuits to assistance from the general funds of the body. 4. To elect a representative to the committee of Conference, whose duty is to nominate ministers for the different stations for the ensuing year—their appointments, however, being subject to the revision of Conference. In all the financial, and other purely secular business of the districts, laymen (such as circuit-stewards and others) deliberate and vote equally with the clergy. The supreme Methodist assembly is the ‘ Conference.’ The first was held in 1744, when John Wesley met his brother Charles, two or three other clergymen, and a few of the ‘preachers’—men whom his zeal and fervor had induced to abandon their secular employments, and devote themselves to the message of the Gospel. The purpose for which he called them together was, he says, ‘for the sake of conversing on the affairs of the ” societies” ….. and the result of our consultations we set down to be the rule of our future practice.’ In the course of his life, Wesley presided at forty-seven of these annual assemblies. The Conference now consists of 100 ministers, mostly seniors, who hold their office according to arrangements prescribed in a Deed of Declaration, executed by John Wesley himself, and enrolled in Chancery. But the representatives previously mentioned, and all the ministers allowed by the district committees to attend—who may or may not be members of the legal Conference —sit and vote usually as one body, the 100 confirming their decisions. In this assembly, which is exclusively clerical, every minister’s character is subjected to renewed and strict scrutiny, and if any charge be proved against him, he is dealt with accordingly; candidates for the ministry are examined both publicly and privately, and set apart to their sacred office; the entire proceedings of the inferior courts (if we may so call them) are finally reviewed; and the condition, requirements, and prospects of the body are duly considered.
2. Doctrine and Worship.—Under this head, not much requires to be said. Wesleyan Methodists claim to be considered orthodox, Protestant, and evangelical. The propriety of the last two appellations will probably not be disputed, but a rigid Calvinist might object to the first. They accept the articles of the English Church, but believing these articles to have been framed on a basis of comprehension, they consider themselves at liberty to accept them in an Arminian sense. It must not, however, be supposed that they are out-and-out Arminians. Their great distinguishing doctrine is the universality and freedom of the atonement; hence they reject the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination (which they conceive to be incompatible with the former), but while they maintain the freedom of the will and the responsibility of man, they also maintain his total fall in Adam, and his utter inability to recover himself. If these two appear to the human understanding to conflict, it is nevertheless asserted that the Bible teaches both; and it is objected to high Calvinism, that in its anxiety to be logical, it has shown itself unscriptural. Prominence is also given by the Wesleyan M. to certain points of religion, some of which are not altogether peculiar to them. They insist on the necessity of men who profess to be Christians feeling a personal interest in the blessings of salvation—i. e., the assurance of forgiveness of sins and adoption into the family of God. This, however, is not to be confounded with a certainty of final salvation. They believe the Spirit of God gives no assurance to any man of that, but only of present pardon. In harmony with this view, they reject the doctrine of the necessary perseverance of the saints, and hold that it is fearfully possible to fall from a state of grace, and even to perish at last after having ‘ tasted of the heavenly gift,’ and having been ‘ made partakers of the Holy Ghost.’ They also maintain the perfectibility of Christians, or rather the possibility of their entire sanctification as a privilege to be enjoyed in this life. But Wesley ‘ explains ‘ that’ Christian perfection does not imply an exemption from ignorance or 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.” ‘ He regards the sins of a ‘ perfect’ Christian as ‘ involuntary transgressions, and does not think they should be called ‘ sins’ at all, though he admits that they need the atoning blood of Christ. The Wesleyan Methodists in their religious services use more or less the English liturgy; the morning service being read in many of their chapels, and the sacramental offices being required in all. They observe a ‘ watch-night’ on the eve of the New Year, on which occasion the religious services are protracted till midnight, and their chapels are generally crowded to excess; and in the beginning-of the year they hold a ‘ covenant-service,’ at which congregations stand up to a man (though this form is not invariable), and solemnly vow to serve the Lord. But even the ordinary religions services in some places are frequently marked by an ebullition of fervent feeling on the part of the audience, which has a very singular effect upon a stranger.
3. History.—The history of Methodism is for many years the history of Christian effort to evangelize the neglected ‘ masses’ of England. The labors of Wesley, and of those whom he inspired to imitate his example, were of the noblest description, and met with remarkable success. The reformation of life which his preaching produced, for example, among the Kingswood colliers and the Cornwall wreckers, is a testimony to the power of religion which cannot be too highly estimated. The zeal which has inspired the body in regard to foreign missions, although in the highest degree honorable, is only the logical development of their efforts at home —for they originally regarded their society in England as simply a vast ‘ home mission,’ and neither Wesley nor his followers desired to consider themselves a ’sect,’ a new church, in the common usage of the term, but were warmly attached to the old national church, and considered themselves among her true children. When Wesley died (1791), his ‘ societies’ had spread over the United Kingdom, the continent of Europe, the States of America, and the West Indies, and numbered 80,000 members. Since then they have largely increased, and, accord ins; to the Report of the First (Ecumenical Methodist Conference (1881), the number of Wesleyan Methodists belonging to the United Kingdom was 596,528; other British Methodists numbered 336,011; together they had over 5000 ministers, and 52,644 local preachers. The number of adherents over the world was estimated at about 19,-000.000. The annual contributions for purely Methodist purposes in Great Britain average 2-J millions.
The Wesleyan M. have three theological colleges for the training of ministers—one at Richmond Hill, Surrey, a second at Didsbury, South Lancashire, and a third at Headingley, in Yorkshire, besides the establishments at Sheffield and Taunton; two schools for the education of sons of Wesleyan ministers (New Kingswood School and Woodhouse Grove School); and two for the daughters, one at Clapton and another at South port. The boys receive a six years’ and the girls a four years’ course of instruction. They have also interested themselves in elementary education, and for their schools received in 1879 a government grant of £96,700. The Methodist Book-room is situated in the City Road, London, and issues hundreds of thousands of religious publications (tracts, &c.) monthly. The newspapers and other periodicals professedly in connection with the body include four quarterlies and about 150 journals in English and other languages. Among the more eminent Methodist authors may be named the two Wesleys, Fletcher, Benson, Clarke, Moore, Watson, Drew, Edmonson, Sutcliffe, Jackson, Treffry, Rule, Nichols, Smith, and Etheridge.
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, the name given to the Society of Wesleyan M. in the United States of America, where the first members of that body—immigrants from Ireland—established themselves as a religious society in New York in the year 1766. In the course of a year or two, their numbers had considerably increased, and they wrote to John Wesley to send them out some competent preachers. Two immediately offered themselves for the work, Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor, who were followed in 1771 by Francis Asbury and Richard Wright. The agitations preceding the War of Independence, which soon afterwards broke out, interrupted the labors of the English Methodist preachers in America, all of whom, with the exception of Asbury, returned home before the close of the year 1777; but their place appears to have been supplied by others of native origin, and they continued to prosper, so that, at the termination of the revolutionary struggle, they numbered 43 preachers and 13,740 members. Up to this time, the American Wesleyan M. had laid no claim to being a distinct religious organization. Like Wesley himself, they regarded themselves as members of the English Episcopal Church, or rather of that branch of it then existing- in America, and their ‘preachers’ as a body of irregular auxiliaries to the ordained clergy. ‘Episcopal churches,’ we are informed, ‘ are still standing °in New York and elsewhere, at whose altars Embury, Pilmoor, Boardman, Strawbridge, Asbury, and Rankin, the earliest Methodist preachers, received the holy communion.’ But the recognition of the United States as an independent country, and the difference of feelings and interests that necessarily sprung up between the congregations at home and those in America, rendered the formation of an independent society inevitable. Wesley became conscious of this, and met the emergency in a manner as bold as it was unexpected. He himself was only a presbyter of the Church of England, but having pursuaded himself that in the primitive church a presbyter and a bishop were one and the same order, differing only as to their official functions, he assumed the office of the latter, and, with the assistance of some other presbyters who had joined his movement, he set apart and ordained the Rev. Thomas Coke, D.C.L., of Oxford University, bishop of the infant church, September 2, 1784.
Coke immediately sailed for America, and appeared, with his credentials, at the Conference held at Baltimore, December 25 of the same year. He was unanimously recognized by the assembly of preachers, appointed Asbury coadjutor bishop, and ordained several preachers to the offices of deacon and elder. Wesley also granted the preachers permission (which shows the extensive ecclesiastical power he wielded) to organize a separate and independent church under the Episcopal form of government: hence arose the ‘ Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America.’ Nevertheless, there was not a few who were dissatisfied with the Episcopal form of government. This feeling grew stronger and stronger, until, in 1830, a secession took place, and a new ecclesiastical organization was formed, called the METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH, whose numbers, according to the returns for 1881, amounted to 113,405 members and 1314 preachers. In 1842, a second secession took place, chiefly on the question of slavery —the seceders pronouncing all slave-holding sinful, and excluded slave-holders from the church membership and Christian fellow ship; and in 1843, a meeting was held at Utica, New York, where a new society was constituted and named the WESLEYAN METHODIST CONNECTION OF AMERICA, whose members, according to the returns for 1881, amounted to 25,000, and its preachers to 250. But in 1844 a far larger and more important secession took place on the same question, when the whole of the Methodist societies in the then slave-holding states, conceiving themselves aggrieved by the proceedings instituted at the general conference of New York (1844) against the Rev. James O. Andrew, D.D., one of the bishops, and a citizen of Georgia, who had married a lady possessed of slaves, resolved to break off connection with their northern brethren. Hence originated the METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH, whose members in 1881, were as follows; Traveling-preachers, 4004; local preachers, 5832; and members, 840,000, including whites, colored, and Indians. To these must be added 391,044 members forming the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and 323,921 of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. In 1869, a movement (unsuccessful) began in favor of the re-union of the northern and southern Methodist Episcopal Churches, slavery, the main obstacle in the way, having been finally abolished. It may here be stated that the members of the Northern Methodist Episcopal Church amounted in 1881 to 1,743,000.
Returning to the English Wesleyan M., we now proceed to mention the various secessions from the parent body in the order of time.
1. THE METHODIST NEW CONNECTION.—This society detached itself from the older one in 1797. Its doctrines and order are the same; the only difference being that it admits one layman to each minister into the Conference, and allows them to share in the transaction of all business, both secular and spiritual. These laymen are chosen either by the circuits, or by ‘guardian representatives ‘ elected for life by the conference. In 1881, the numbers of the New Connection were : members, 31,652; preachers, 183. There were in addition a large number of members on probation.
2. PRIMITIVE METHODISTS, vulgarly designated RANTERS, were first formed into a society in 1810, though the founders had separated from the old society some years before. The immediate cause of this separation was a disagreement as to the propriety of camp-meetings for religious purposes; and also upon the question of females being permitted to preach. A third point of difference is the admission to their conference of two lay delegates for every minister. In 1881, their numbers were : members, 15,600; preachers, 1150.
3. INDEPENDENT METHODISTS, who separated in 1810. They are chiefly distinguished by their rejection of a paid ministry, and number in England and Scotland : members, 4000; preachers, 290; scholars, 6000.
4. BIBLE CHRISTIANS, also called BRYANITES, were formed by a local preacher named Bryan, who seceded from the Wesleyans in 1815. The only distinction between them and the original body appears to be that the former receive the eucharistic elements in a sitting posture. In 1881, their numbers were: members, 31,542; preachers, 302.
5. UNITED FREE CHURCH METHODISTS have been recently formed by the amalgamation of two sects of nearly equal numerical strength. The older of these, called the WESLEYAN ASSOCIATION, originated in 1834 in the removal of one or two influential ministers from the original connection. Points of difference subsequently appeared with regard to the constitution of the conference.—The younger sect, called the WESLEYAN REFORM ASSOCIATION, took its rise in 1849 through the expulsion of several ministers from the parent body on a charge of insubordination, and being founded on the same principles as the last-mentioned community, arrangements were entered into for their union, which was subsequently effected. Church independency, and freedom of representation in the annual assembly, are two of the most prominent distinctive traits in the organization of the United Methodist Free Church. Their united numbers in 1881 were: members, 79,756; ministers, 432; local preachers, 3403.— The Wesleyan Reform, Union consists of about 18 ministers and 1745 members, who have not amalgamated with the Methodist Free Churches.
This is perhaps also the most convenient place to notice the WELSH CALVINISTIC METHODISTS - They are not a secession from the followers of Wesley, but originated partly in the preaching of his friend and fellow-evangelist, Whitefield, and partly in that of Howel Harris, a Welsh clergyman of the Church of England. Whitefield was a Calvinist; Wesley, as we have seen, was on some points decidedly Arminian. A difference arose between them on the subject of election. Henceforward their paths lay in different directions. Whitefield, however, did not form a religious sect; and after his death (1769), his followers, being left without any distinct bond or organization, either followed the leading of the Countess of Huntingdon (q. v.), or became distributed among other denominations, a large portion, especially in Wales, becoming absorbed in the new society gradually forming itself through the preaching of Howell Harris and his coadjutors. This body, however, was not formally constituted a religious society till the beginning of this century.