by
Woodrow W. Whidden

The primary aim of this article is to assess the impact of holiness theology on the eschatology and social involvement of four important mid-nineteenth century Methodist figures. The crosscurrents between these factors can be very complex.1 Our central aim, however, is not merely to assess the impact of eschatology on social involvement. The major burden is to analyze how soteriology might affect eschatology and then how both appear to have influenced social involvement.

Phoebe Palmer

Phoebe Palmer (l807-l874)2 was the most important figure in the Holiness Movement during the middle decades of the nineteenth century. We will not rehearse here the dynamics of her "shorter way," or "altar theology," except to observe that her religious ethos was overwhelmingly typified by concern for personal salvation and individual reformation, rather than transformation of the present social/political order.³

While Palmer's "shorter way" was quite controversial in some quarters of the Methodist Church, she did enjoy great influence with many ministers and bishops (including Nathan Bangs and Bishops Hamline and Janes). These three were particularly supportive and, while Bangs had some reservations regarding her views on "the witness of the Spirit,"⁴ the soteriology of these three cannot be distinguished from hers.

While Palmer left relatively few comments on eschatology and no direct treatment of a millennium, she did leave enough to suggest strongly that she was a believer in a literal, visible, cataclysmic second coming of Jesus Christ.⁵

One of the intriguing matters in this area is Palmer's relationship to the Millerite Movement. While she wrote nothing publicly about this movement during its heyday, she did manifest an interest. She was friends with a well-known "holiness" Presbyterian, Millerite preacher Charles Fitch,⁶ and wrote to Methodist Adventist G. F. Cox asking information about the eagerly anticipated Advent. She expressed to Cox the caution that Millerite eschatological speculations were drawing away from Christ as Savior and hurting the church's missionary program (White, 154-55). Regarding eschatology, her main reservation with Millerism apparently was not its emphasis on the second coming as literal, imminent, or pre-millennial, but its date-setting speculations. As she neared the end of her life, Palmer's hope in the second coming of Christ seemed to grow. While she clearly said the date could not be set, she wondered if 1866 might not be the year. Her first editorial in 1867 opened with the admission that the Lord had not come in 1866 (White, 155).

Her clearest statement on the second coming is found in an 1873 publication in which she clearly expressed no sympathy with date setters, but said that "for thirty years we have unwaveringly believed that in the most emphatic sense 'the end of all things is at hand.' "By reliance on the Word⁷ and "observance of the signs of the times" it was said that the believer could "know when the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, and is even at the very door." She added that this "truth" is "too palpable to require comment" (Wheatley, 513-14).

Another aspect of Mrs. Palmer's eschatology was her concern for the Jews (White, 155-56). Her most extensive statement of such a burden is found in her little pamphlet entitled Israel's Speedy Restor-ation and Conveinsion Contemplated or Signs of the Times in Familiar Letters printed in 1854. While this document did not mention the second coming or the millennium and seemed to display no proto-dispensationalist (my term) sentiments, it was flavored with a dash of prophetic anticipation. The return of the Jews to Palestine was certainly understood to be a "sign of the time" (a phrase which had clear ~₅chatological significance in the I 850s). Furthermore, in commenting on Paul's discussion in Romans 11 of the relationship of Israel to the fullness of the Gentiles, she said:

The apostle's meaning is, that a general conversion of the Jews will take place before the end of the world, and will afford to the Gentiles the completest evidence of the truth of the gospel.

Indeed, so many prophecies refer to this grand event, that it is surprising any Christian should doubt of it (13).

The most striking aspect of this statement is the expression "the end of the world." It is clear that, in view of her reading of Biblical prophecy, she saw the fate of the Jews as a "sign" that the "end" was near, implying that if Christians would take up the work of Jewish evangelism, the end would be hastened. Please observe, it is the "end of the world," not the beginning of an earthly millennium of peace.⁸

Since I have characterized Palmer's views on the second coming as personal and cataclysmic, and since this was in contrast to the views of her "circle," I have offered this four-point argument for such a contention:

1. She did manifest an interest in the Millerite movement, even admitting that she "would love to embrace the doctrine" (White, 154);

2. Her literalistic hermeneutic for Scripture seemed much more susceptible to a literal view of the second coming than the reigning postmillennial views;

3. Her anticipation that the Lord would return in 1866 and her disappointment in this regard expressed in early 1867 lends strong evidence for a literal view:

4.     Her poem, set to music in the well-known Adventist hymn "Watch Ye Saints" is filled with terminology and concepts that would have been familiar to any Millerite, not to mention that it was penned in 1844 (Froom,4:537-38).9

Therefore, though we cannot classify Mrs. Palmer as a pre-millennialist in the explicit sense of the term, the evidence clearly indicates her belief that the Lord's second coming was to be personal, visible, cataclysmic, and imminent.

The practical implication of Mrs. Palmer's eschatology was not that the millennium's nearness called for believers to get busy with the transformation of the world, but that believers should encourage as many people as possible to be ready to greet the Lord in holiness and peace at His literal appearing. Her ethos was personal salvation, not social transformation.

Palmer was an avid humanitarian and did engage in social relief (White, 207-229; Raser, 211-226). Even so, she could not be classified as a social reformer (in the sense of seeking fundamental changes in the social order through political means). While she did oppose slavery, she, along with a host of prominent supporters in the Methodist Church, valued church unity more than a radical witness against slavery. 10

Nathan Bangs

Nathan Bangs (1778-1862) was a venerated elder statesman of Methodism at the time when Phoebe Palmer and the Holiness movement were rising to prominence. He had had a long career as a pioneering evangelist, pastor, editor,¹¹ missions promoter (he founded the Methodist Missionary Society), educator, historian,¹² and polemicist for Methodism (especially in opposing the predestinarians).¹³

Experiencing entire sanctification early in his Christian life, Bangs became a life-long advocate of a holiness emphasis (Stevens, 345-37) and was closely associated with Mrs. Palmer's Tuesday Meeting. He had known her since she was a child and had given hearty support for her holiness advocacy (Stevens, 350-53, 368).14

Bangs left considerably more published material on eschatology than did Palmer. He was always very optimistic about the future, the prospects of the Methodist Church, and the Christian cause generally (Stevens 349; Janes 27). He was, however, not very optimistic about Millerism. It was too pessimistic for his optimistic view of what God was doing through the church. To his death Bangs was firm in a postmillennial outlook that eschewed a literal and visible coming of Christ before the millennium and promoted instead a temporal, real, but spiritual rule of Christ (not physically present) on the earth during the millennium.¹⁵

Bangs was quite forthright in expressing the relationship between his views on the dynamics of sanctification and the inspiration to benevolent and missionary efforts (Bangs 231, 241). Sanctification not only gives a proper sense of priorities about truth, but for the believer these "essential truths" penetrate "the depths of his soul, burn within him like 'fire shut up in his bones,'" and "he is impelled forward in the grand work of conquering the world to Jesus Christ" (Bangs 271). The sum total of Bangs' concept is that the "conquering of the world to Jesus Christ" is largely a matter of personal conversion to Christ, rather than primarily the subjection of the social order to Christian ideals (the latter would come, but as a result of the former).

This personal salvationist mode of "conquering" through a sanctified church was negatively reflected in the less than positive attitude of Bangs towards social reform. He admitted the need to purify the social order from evil (slavery, intemperance, etc.), but his references to "abolition" were almost always negative-using such pejorative expressions as "the abolition excitement" (Bangs 20).

The impression is that Bangs was much more concerned about the unity, spirituality, and numerical prosperity of the church than the moral tragedy of slavery. He could affirm that the disputes between the North and the South were "a deleterious influence upon the interests of true religion" and not utter a word in this context about the evil influence of slavery on the "interests of true religion."¹⁶ Social reform was clearly not very high on his priority list. The benevolent fruition of sanctification did not necessarily include strong moral opposition to social evil in its systemic manifestations.

So, for Bangs, there were great millennial events in the imminent offing, but the path to this dream society was through the workings of the Lord for personal regeneration that would somehow bear fruit for the rule of Christ on the earth. It was a very activist mode, but a personal salvationist mode, not a collective, political one in its ultimate thrust.

Bishop L. L. Hamline

Bishop L. L. Hamline (1797-1865) was best known as a Methodist editor and promoter of holiness. Elected a bishop at the 1844 General Conference, he took a leading role in the debate over the case of Bishop James Andrew which led to the North-South schism of American Methodism. He remained a bishop until resigning because of poor health in 1852. The rest of his days were spent as a semi-invalid in retirement. 17

Hamline and his second wife (Melinda) had a very close relationship with Phoebe Palmer and his election to the office of bishop (along with Edmund Janes, another holiness advocate) in 1844 greatly increased the influence of Palmer in the Methodist church. She carried on a continuing correspondence with the Hamlines until her death (White 40).18

Hamline experienced "entire sanctification" in 1842 and promoted the experience and the doctrine the rest of his life (Hibbard, 1880, 104-05). His views on entire sanctification seem to be almost totally identical with Palmer's (Hibbard, 1880, 101 ff.). His views on eschatology and the millennium were fairly well developed, though not extensively elaborated (neither "dogmatic" nor "wrought into a perfect theory") (Hibbard 272).

The major features of Hamline's millennial views were summarized by Hibbard and supported by a number of citations from Hamline's own works. Hibbard reported that it was in "the period of active labors and most vigorous manhood [that he] more frequently [recurred] to the millennium and the Second Coming of Christ" (Hibbard, 1880, 271). This observation fits well with Hamline's advocacy of holiness and the clear relationship he saw between holiness and his views on eschatology.

Although Hibbard is reserved in his characterization of Hamline as a post-millennialist, it is quite evident that his views were of this kind. This conclusion arises out of his explicit views on the state of the world during the millennium and its relationship to Methodist sanctification. Commenting on Isaiah 2:1-5, Hamline asked:

What is the millennium? I will not say it is a period in which Christ shall visibly and personally reign on the earth. But I will say it is a period in which he will spiritually and solely reign, maintaining dominion over all human affections. The millennium has, in my opinion, been unwarrantably viewed as a state of very partial improvement. I believe, and I see no reason why we, holding the doctrine of sanctification as we do, should not believe, that it is a state bordering on perfection (Hibbard, 1880, 276).

The relationship between his holiness doctrine of sanctification and the state of the world during the coming millennium was explicit: the "doctrine of sanctification" the Methodists hold should lead to "a state bordering on perfection."

Elsewhere he declares that "after a few more generations, ours will become a sanctified race" (Hibbard, 1869-71, 1:374). Such a sanctifying work of transformation would be gradual, not instantaneous¹⁹ and it would be accomplished through Bible knowledge attended by the Holy Ghost who would "transform" the earth "into holiness and beauty" (Hibbard, 1869-71, 1:377).

The specific instrumentality for the regeneration of the world would be the "ministers of Jesus" and "the members of his militant church" (Hibbard, 1869-71, 1:378). Hamline was greatly encouraged that the world, for so long averse to Scriptural truth, was now displaying "a craving appetite for its teachings and its blessings" (Hibbard, 1869-71, 1:377) and such a craving was understood to be a sure sign of the near advance of the millennium when "the earth shall be like heaven" (Hibbard, 1869-71, 1:378).

For Hamline, the near approach of the millennium was to be an inspiration, above all else, to preach the gospel (not to engage in a lot of eschatological conjectures):

Whether the millennium or the judgment is coming I know not, nor am anxious; but God has come forth in his power among the people.... I am looking for great wonders and for woes from heaven. But in the midst of all, as a minister of Jesus, I hear nothing but "Go ye and preach the gospel... our days are passing away, and we shall soon be in the grave, in heaven or in hell. 0, that the blessed Jesus may prepare us for our final state! (Hibbard, 1880, 274).

As with Bangs and Palmer, for Hamline the main issue in eschatology was personal preparedness for eternity. The millennial rule will come on the earth, but it will come as a result of personal preparedness resulting from the power of gospel sanctification preached by the church. As with Palmer and Bangs, eschatology inspired an activist mode, but it wasn't socially activist. Hamline was one of the architects of silence that tried to keep peace in the Methodist church-eschewing thorny social issues in favor of spiritual unity.

Gilbert Haven (1821~1880)20 was the most politically and socially radical Methodist leader of the mid-nineteenth century. He not only advocated abolitionism, but also preached social equality and inter-racial marriage. In addition to his racial concerns, he was "an early defender of civil rights, advocate of prohibition, women's suffrage and equality, and lay representation in the conferences of the church" (Harmon, 1:1094).

He began his pastoral career during 1851 in New England and spent the next ten years pastoring in Massachusetts. It was during this period that he began his strong abolitionist advocacy, which was quite at variance with the Northern Methodist policy.

In 1861 he answered Lincoln's call for troops and volunteered as a chaplain with the Eight Mass. Regiment. In 1867 he was elected editor of Zion's Herald and was a member of the General Conferences of 1868 and 1872. At the latter conference he was elected Bishop and assigned to Atlanta, Ga. "His radical abolitionist views and his association with Negroes on the basis of equality made him unpopular with Southern people" (Harmon, 1:1094).

Haven's relationship to and experience of entire sanctification was much different than that of Bangs and Hamline. He sought the blessing intermittently until after the war (Smith, 1957, 220). While pastoring in Northampton he gave himself to the reading of "Edwards on the Affections" and this reading inspired a serious consideration of perfection:

I am inclined to believe in a conscious cleansing of the heart from its foulness by the power of Christ. I do not feel clear upon the point as yet; if I did, I should not rest until I had entered that state (Prentice, 107).

There is no evidence that he ever claimed the blessing.

As to his relationship to Phoebe Palmer, there is no evidence that the two ever had anything to do with each other.²¹ As of this writing, I have been unable to locate any place where he advocates the holiness experience or the movement's goals. In fact, it seems that the movement's lack of social and political activism left him cold.

In 1876 students (apparently African-American students) at Fisk University in Nashville were turned away from meetings by Major Whittle and D. L. Moody. Haven "turned away in disgust from such spurious piety which did not overcome caste nor issue in ethical action and social service" (Gravely 230). "Not sanctification raptures in Northern campgrounds and churches, but devotion to these, Christ's children in captivity and contumely, is to be the real test in that day of the Christ-like condition of the believer" (Gravely 230).

The most definitive statement on Haven's eschatological and  millennial views is found in the sermon "The War and the Millennium (Haven 373-39z'). Though Haven gave no personal testimony to holiness experience, he couched his millennial vision in sanctificationist terms: "The plunge was through Satan unto sin, the deliverance must be through Christ unto holiness. The perfected deliverance is the Millennium" (Haven 375). Yet it is not sanctification in simply personal terms, but it is God "sanctifying every part of every soul, and making them communities of holiness, centers of sacred life, sweeping away the crime of civil and social life until the 'statelier Eden comes again' to a long-degraded and ruined world" (Haven 375). Haven envisioned this triumph to be imminent as the opposition of human rebellion was soon to die out (Haven 378-79, 382). America was to be the vehicle that would unite all in a world of democratic equality: "If America is lost, the world is lost" (Haven 380-82).

Haven was somewhat equivocal as to whether the rise of the millennium would be gradual or instantaneous, but he leaned toward the gradual (Haven 384, 386-7). The millennium would not come until racial equality was achieved, and this great achievement was anticipated to be real and visible (Haven 387-88). The vision of triumph over slavery would lead to a great outbreak of personal morality (Haven 390). This millennial kingdom would definitely be earthly. Another means to its attainment would be the granting of woman's suffrage (Haven 627).

One of the most provocative of Haven's eschatological views was his conviction that the Civil War was a providential means and a prelude to the purification of society which would lead to a social millennium (Haven 379-80).22

It is striking that Haven could take the sanctificationist terminology and apply it with a social/political/collective perspective. It is not just personal holiness that leads to social justice, but such social victories (as the triumph over slavery) would lead to personal morality (Haven 390, 627).

For Gilbert Haven, the millennium would come on gradually when Christian believers would rouse themselves to not only personal holiness, but also social righteousness, and he was not afraid to get involved in the ~essy business of politics to bring it about.²³ He was definitely a post-millennial activist, but in stark contrast to the post-millennial leanings of Bangs and Hamline. He was a social/political activist with a "bang" (but without Bangs' reticence)!

Eschatology,  Soteriology, and Social Action

While Phoebe Palmer viewed the second coming of Jesus in personal and cataclysmic terms, Bangs, Hamline, and Haven were all postmillennialist- giving little evidence of agreement with Palmer's eschatology. But, while these three contemporaries of Palmer were clearly postmillennial- they viewed the moral implications of such eschatology in markedly contrasting ways. Even though all three were activists in promoting moral transformation, their activism could be classified in two ways: (1) activist in an evangelistic, personal ethics sense, with a strong accent on personal salvation from all sin (Bangs, Hamline, and Palmer) and (2) a more political agenda--promoting collective salvation from social or systemic evil (Haven).

What accounted for this difference in activist application? Timothy Smith asks: "Did the proliferation of Pentecostal²⁴ rhetoric signal the beginning of a spiritual retreat from the rational and the ethical concerns that since Wesley had characterized the proponents of sanctification?" Smith thinks not. Even so, in the case of Palmer and her "near" circle of intimates who shared her holiness convictions, there was a qualified "spiritual retreat from. . . ethical concerns" (Smith, 1979, 40).

There is a history of social involvement in both the pre- and post-millennialist traditions. Charles Lippy insists that pre-millennialists "were and still are not cut from a single cloth" (2:832). It nonetheless appears that social activism has been much more likely to occur among postmillennialists. Yet, having said this, how do we account for the relative lack of social/political involvement on the part of Palmer, Bangs, and Hamline in contrast to Haven's political calls for the transformation of the social order?

I argue that there are elements inherent in the personal salvationist ethos that preclude a more radical social activism. The issue has to do less with one's view on the millennium and more with one's view of the primacy of personal salvation.²⁵

Inherent in the personal salvation mentality is a strong sense of personal moral responsibility and decision. Palmer and company sensed that such moral "holiness" was best promoted by revivalism. Yet revivalism is not the bedrock of the issue: it was only an efficient (though controversial) means to the end of personal salvation from personal moral evil.

It is striking that such seemingly disparate groups as the revivalistic and Arminian Holiness Movement and the more staid Old Princeton Calvinists (Charles Hodge and others)²⁶ were both reticent to get involved in social activism.²⁷ By contrast, the more "processive"²⁸ the soteriological views (such as Haven's views on holiness), the more inclined One might be to social/political activism. Is it possible that the more concerned one is with the working of God in personal salvation, the less likely one is to be socially active? The contrasts between Haven and the Palmer holiness group (and Old Princeton) suggest a positive answer.

Yet there are troubling exceptions that make such a seemingly obvious conclusion problematic. What about the social activism of Charles Finney, for instance, who held views on sanctification very similar to Phoebe Palmer's and yet was outspokenly active in opposition to slavery and other social evils?

First, it needs to be stated that there should be a clear distinction between social relief and social/political activism. Certainly Phoebe Palmer engaged in social relief and was socially concerned. But hers was an activism that took the form of personal relief primarily, rather than attempts to directly change the social order by political action.²⁹ But again, what is to be said about the more radical social advocacy of such figures as Finney?

A closer look reveals more commonalties than differences between the social views of Palmer's near circle and the Oberlin perfectionist circle. James Moorhead's incisive analysis of Finney's social activism concludes that Finney's views of "benevolence" demanded that any social reform "must always remain an 'appendage' of spiritual regeneration," avoiding any "preoccupation" that would "divert attention from the overriding duty to promote revivals."³⁰

Closely related to Finney's guarding the interest of the personal salvationism inherent in revivalism was his understanding that all reforms were to be shaped by "a vivid sense of personal accountability and self-discipline." Furthermore, while his undergirding views on social theory provided a "powerful instrument for exposing statutory inequalities they - tended to hide more covert forms of oppression," making it "difficult for I class or economic grievances to be enunciated clearly."³¹

The evidence strongly suggests that the only difference between Palmer-Bangs-Hamline and Finney³² was the level of their rhetoric, not their base philosophy. Social evils were certainly recognized and opposed, but it was essentially a vision of individualistic transformation rather than a political, frontal attack on systemic evil.³³

By stark contrast, Haven was less concerned with personal holiness and had a more powerful view of social evils in their systemic settings.³⁴ It seems that his differing soteriology was more decisive for his activism than his millennial views.

In conclusion, I argue that any system which concentrates on personal salvation is more likely to be reticent to devote time and energy to a war on systemic evil. Soteriological concerns seem to impact more than eschatological visions on the resulting level and types of social action.

Notes

¹For an excellent analysis of the relationship between these issues in the nineteenth century, see James H. Moorhead' S "Social Reform and the Divided Conscience of Antebellum Protestantism," Church History 48(1979), 416-430 and "The Erosion of Postmillennialism in American Religious Thought, 1865-1925," Church History 53(1984), 61-77. A good introductory overview of millennial currents in American history is given in Charles Lippy's article "Millennialism and Adventism," in Charles H. Lippy and Peter W. Williams, eds., Encyclopedia of American Religious Expei~ience: Studies of Traditions and Movements, 3 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988), vol.2, pp.831-844.

²For further biographical background see Richard Wheatley, The Life and Letters of Phoebe Palmer (New York: W. C. Palmer, Jr., 1876). There are two relatively recent scholarly biographies: Charles White's The Beauty of Holiness: Phoebe Palmer as Theologian, Revivalist, Feminist, and Humanitarian (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986) and Harold E. Raser's Phoebe Palmer: Her Life and Thought (Lewiston/Queenston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987).

³See Melvin E. Dieter, The Holiness Revival of the Nineteenth Century (Metuchen, N.J. & London: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1980), pp.27 ff., for a succinct summation of Palmer's "altar theology."

⁴We will elaborate on this disagreement further when we consider Bangs' theology.

⁵While Palmer's view might be characterized as pre-millennial, it would probably be better, technically, not to speak of her in such terms since she never explicitly addressed the issue of a millennium.

⁶Fitch had preached "holiness" themes and such advocacy had cost him his position and standing in the Presbyterian Church. Cf. Leroy Edwin Froom's The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Vol. IV (Washington: Review and Herald Publishing Assoc., 1954), pp.533-45.

7Mrs. Palmer's hermeneutical literalism is one of the best evidences for her belief in a literal, visible second coming. See White, pp.106 ff.

⁸Though the argument is from silence, the silence is impressive in contrast to what her influential friends were saying about the consummation

⁹Watch, ye saints, with eyelids waking:

Lo! the powers of heaven are shaking;

Keep your lamps all trimmed and burning,

Ready for your Lord's returning.

Kingdoms at their base are crumbling,

Hark! His chariot wheels are rumbling;

Tell, 0 tell of grace abounding,

Whilst the seventh trump is sounding.

Nations wane, though proud and stately;

Christ His kingdom hasteneth greatly;

Earth her latest pangs is summing;

Shout, ye saints, your Lord is coming.

Sinners, come, while Christ is pleading;

Now for you He's interceding;

Haste, ere grace and time diminished

Shall proclaim the mystery finished.

Note the allusion to the parable of the ten virgins of Matthew 25 ("Keep your lamps all trimmed and burning") which was the great theme passage of the later stages of the Millerite movement. In fact, the last time-setting stage was called "The Midnight Cry." This poem is suffused with themes of urgent imminence and notes of cataclysm ("Kingdoms at their base are crumbling" not at their height are transforming!). Also the expression the "seventh trump is sounding" was a reference to the seven trumpets of Revelation 8-11 and the seventh trump was understood by the Millerites to be the trumpet of the "Last Trump." The expression "the mystery finished" was clearly understood to refer to the time when the voice of the seventh trumpet "blast ends with the voice of the archangel at the end of the world" (cf. Froom, 4:723-24).

Froom contends that Palmer and her husband were believers in the "Advent truth," but apparently he did not investigate the matter beyond citing her poetic raptures about the Advent. While his characterization of the Palmers as "accepting" the "Advent truth" must be qualified, Froom is correct that they were at least distant fellow-travelers in the hope of the Lord's soon, personal, and visible return.

¹⁰Timothy Smith relates that "her fast friends, Bishop Edmund Janes and Leonidas Hamline, were the architects of the policy of silence which later became the regret of Northern Methodism. George Peck and Jesse Peck, Nathan Bangs, Alfred Cookman, and a host of her other admirers supported it fully. .

Although early to take part in the relief of the widowed, orphaned, and imprisoned or in any other task which required the exercise of compassion, her New York and Philadelphia coterie were laggards in whatever demanded stem attacks on persons and institutions" (Smith 1957, 211-212).

¹¹He is credited with starting the system of maintaining official church journals (cf. Nolan B. Harmon, ed. Encyclopedia of World Methodism, Nashville: The Methodist Publishing House, 1974, vol.1, p.214).

¹²For a list of major publications, see the article on Bangs in Harmon, ed., Encyclopedia of World Methodism.

¹³Ibid., pp.213-214. So far there has been no major scholarly treatment of the life and work of Bangs. The best work on his life and a ready source of much important Bangs material is Abel Stevens' Life and Times of Nathan Bangs (New York: 1883).

¹⁴His support was somewhat qualified. On March 15, 1857 he records specifically attending the Tuesday Meeting "to speak against certain theories which have sometimes been broached there" (Stevens, 396). It is clear that Bangs opposed not the actual concept of entire sanctification, but how the dynamics of the experience works in the believer's awareness that the "fact" of it has happened. Said Bangs: "We must, therefore, be sanctified, and have an evidence of it before we have any scriptural authority to believe it; so it appears to mc, for the existence of the fact and its evidence must precede our belief in their reality" (Stevens, 399).

In this disagreement Bangs probably had the better of the argument, but the difference was not serious enough for him to repudiate the overall thrust of Palmer's teachings and work. In his last years he often attended and even presided over the renowned Tuesday Meeting and there is not one negative word recorded about him in Palmer's letters or published documents (and she was not above correcting what she felt were serious threats to the view of entire sanctification (cf. White, 113 ff.). Their agreement on the work of entire sanctification was, for all practical purposes, quite complete.

¹⁵His most important eschatological and millennial statements were made in his 1850 publication. While Bangs had rather pronounced views on eschatology, he was not overly dogmatic, allowing great "liberty to enjoy... opinion" (Bangs 315-16). This tolerant attitude is probably one of the reasons that he and. Palmer could work together so closely for the promotion of holiness and entire sanctification and yet have some varying views on eschatology. His views can be summarized as follows:

1) Millerism was a serious, "frenzied delusion. .. by which many weak but honest minds were maddened by the wildest speculations that ever bewildered and bewitched the human soul" (Bangs 17,187). He confessed that he once had indulged in some prophetical, chronological speculations inspired by the works of Faber, Fleming, and Wesley, but came to largely consider all such efforts as "baseless conjectures." While he did not completely discount such prophetic study (Bangs 196), he concluded that "wisdom would seem to dictate the propriety of waiting patiently for time to develop the hidden meaning of those prophecies which is now wrapped up in that symbolic language which is hard to be understood" (Bangs 187-90).

2) But the overriding truth to be affirmed was that "the signs of the times, which now appear in the political and religious horizon, seem to indicate the near approach of that day, when the kingdom of the Lord Jesus shall extend from the river even to the ends of the earth . . . when the great God shall establish his kingdom universally among men" (Bangs 190-91). Bangs reviewed all of the wonderful things that were going on involving Christian missionary and benevolent endeavor and optimistically concluded that the "universal" rule of Christ among men was "nigh, even at the door, if it be not indeed already begun" (Bangs 191-195; cf. 207-08).

3) As already intimated, his millennial concept was that the thousand year period was "near at hand, if indeed it has not already begun"; yet it may be a "long time, as we measure time in progress. . . . But whether the time be long or short, and whether the spiritual reign of Christ on this earth be a thousand or ten thousand years, it is most manifest that a great work remains to be done before that happy consummation shall be fully realized (Bangs 197).

For Bangs, the millennium would be a spiritual rule of Christ on the earth which will be brought on through the agency of the Church (inspired and empowered by the Holy Spirit), not a visible and literal bodily presence of Christ on the earth. This millennial period would then be followed by the literal and visible appearing of Christ at the "great white throne" judgment to put down all final opposition to His rule (Bangs 193-94; cf. 308-316).

4) Although Bangs saw many hopeful signs of Christian effort throughout the world, he clearly implied that the Christian United States was to be the key player that would usher in the spiritual, millennial rule on the earth. Though many ugly realities in the United States remained to be conquered (Bangs 206), and he admitted his patriotic "partiality," he could "presume to say that there is not, nor ever has been, any country so favorable to the spread of the Gospel, and for the establishment of Christian and benevolent institutions, as the United States" (Bangs 205).

¹⁶Bangs 20-22.

¹⁷Harmon, Encyclopedia of World Methodism, Vol. I, p.1063. There has been no full-scale critical work done on Hamline, and Hibbard's Biography of Rev. Leonidas L. Hamline (Cincinnati: Hitchcock and Walden, 1880), along with Walter Palmer's Life and Letters of Leonidas L. Hamline, D.D. (New York: Carlton and Porter, 1866) are the only detailed sources of biographical information available. He was not overly prolific in publishing, but there is a two-volume edition of his works edited by Hibbard and entitled Works of the Rev. L. L. Hamline, D.D. (Cincinnati: Hitchcock and Walden, 1869-71).

¹⁸In Wheatley there are probably more letters to the Hamline's than any other persons. Later, Walter Palmer edited (authored?) Life and Letters of Leonidas L. Hamline, D.D., Late One of the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

¹⁹1t is interesting that it was anticipated to be instantaneous for individuals, but gradual for the world.

²⁰Haven has received considerable scholarly attention. Will Gravely provides an excellent, selected bibliography of both primary and secondary works in his Gilbert Haven: Methodist Abolitionist (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1973), pp.258-263.

²¹Charles White (1986, 97) incorrectly says that the Palmer's spent the night with their old friends Dr. and Mrs. Gilbert Haven. It was actually his cousin, Bishop Erastus 0. Haven (who at the time of this incident was President of the University of Michigan), with whom the Palmers spent the night at Ann Arbor. See Wheatley (1876, 425-428).

²²1t should be noted that this sermon was preached on Thanksgiving Day, Nov.26, 1863; the Battle of Lookout Mountain had been fought on Nov.24 and the Battle of Missionary Ridge on Nov.25. Haven is consciously reflecting on these events for a providential understanding of the war.

²³Such political maneuvering was mainly ecclesiastical, but it also involved seeking to influence secular government.

²⁴1n this citation Smith uses the term "Pentecostal" in its emerging Pentecostal or pneumatical sense to describe the experience of holiness.

²⁵1t certainly must be recognized that there are factors other than doctrine that play into how individuals or movements relate to social reform. Such matters as familial role-modeling and the overall impact of one's culture of origin could be much more decisive. It is probable that the reason for Gilbert Haven's much greater involvement in social reform was the example of his public-spirited father and the broader influence of the New England Puritan vision of society as a Holy Commonwealth. The work of cultural historians is significant. One such recent study is David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989) which demonstrates strong cultural persistence by tracing the British roots of four American folk traditions. Another helpful discipline focuses on systems theories, including the way new members are incorporated into the existing struggles of the churches and the denominations they join.

²⁶Again, one must move with caution in assessing such a figure as Hodge. It could be that his literal Biblical hermeneutic played a greater role in the way he viewed the church and collective social concern than his soteriology did. Hodge simply could not find the kind of straight-forward mandate for radical social reform in Scripture.

²⁷It is interesting to note that both the holiness people and the Princeton Theology advocates saw God as working very powerfully in the soul to bring about salvation, even though they differed over (1) synergism and (2) the extent to which sin would be cleansed out of the life this side of glory. Compare Phoebe Palmer's The Way of Holiness (New York: Palmer and Hughes, 1867, pp.63, 126, 130, 136-37,139, 149, 157) with Charles Hodge's Systematic Theology, vol.2 (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1978, pp.650 ff.) on the "Vocation of the Spirit."

28I use the term "processive" in the sense of nineteenth century liberalism's distrust of "sharp discontinuities in the spiritual life" in favor of "continuous maturation and of the natural unfolding of religious experience" (Moorhead, "Erosion of Postmillennialism.. ." p.69).

²⁹In this regard, writers such as Timothy Smith have been somewhat amorphous in their definitions of social reform. Did Smith's antebellum aggregates of revivalism, perfectionism, and millennialism promote real collective, structural social reform or a certain type of consciousness where an aggregate of individuals will create a moral society based on white, middle class, Victorian, Protestant norms? (I take no personal credit for these insights. They were generated during discussions in a doctoral seminar on American millennial themes taught by James H. Moorhead at Princeton Theological Seminary in the Spring of 1987).

³⁰Moorhead,"Social Reform and the Divided Conscience of Antebellum Protestantism," p.424. Moorhead, however, has suggested caution in treating Finney and that a further look at his political views after the Civil War needs further analysis. For instance, Finney, in contrast to Mahan, was a strong supporter of the Radical Republicans (observations made by Moorhead to Whidden in recent personal conversations).

³¹Ibid., p.428.

³²Here it is appropriate to ask about the views of Finney's Oberlin colleague, Asa Mahan. Despite disagreements between them on ontology and utility in ethics, both shared views of the will that, in the context of the urgent demands of revivalism, called for immediate moral decision and active response in a life of benevolence. Although Mahan advocated many social reforms (abolition, temperance, peace, women's rights) and was considerably more politically active than Finney (even running for Congress in 1872 on the Liberal-Democratic ticket), he devoted the last fifteen years of his life almost exclusively to the promotion of holiness, "the tie that bound all the chapters of his life into a coherent whole" (Edward H. Madden and James E. Hamilton, Freedom and Grace: The Life of Asa Mahan, Metuchen, N.J. and London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1982, p.184). The ultimate passion that finally seemed to swallow up all else was personal salvation.

³³In this regard, the observations of Lippy are quite trenchant: "Some (pre-millennialists) have indeed been concerned with social issues, though more with an eye to protect the righteous remnant from contamination than to transform the very fabric of society" (Lippy and Williams, Vol.2, p.832).

Whether the "remnant" is the "Holiness" movement, the powerful, up-and-coming Methodism of the nineteenth century, Jerry Falwell's Israel (or little boys and girls in the public schools that need prayer and fetus souls in mother's wombs needing protection), or Seventh-day Adventism's apocalyptic vision-the issue has almost always been the seizing of issues that benefit the remnant primarily rather than the eradication of systemic evil from the large, collective body politic.

³⁴He was certainly a prototype of the figures who would strongly promote social activism in later nineteenth and early twentieth century Methodism (could we call Haven a proto-social gospeller?).

Edited by Michael Mattei for the
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