VOLUME 2 — BOOK III — CHAPTER V
THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL CHARACTER OF AMERICAN METHODISM

Wesley's Abridgment of the Thirty-nine Anglican "Articles" — Its Positive Features — Its Negative Features — Papal traces effaced — The Sacraments — Wesley's Opinion of Baptismal Regeneration determined by his Articles — Distinctive Opinions of Wesley not mentioned in the American Articles — Wesley's Arminianism — His Doctrine of Assurance — "Christian Perfection" — Dr. Whedon's Statement — Doctrinal Liberality of Methodism — Did Wesley design the American "Articles" to be a Term of Church Membership? — Peculiar Theological Attitude of Methodism — The Ecclesiastical System of the New Church — Its Synodal Bodies — The General Conference — Its Early History — The Annual Conference — Its Primitive Character and Proceedings — Reading of the "Appointments" — The Quarterly Conference — Its Original Festival Character — Classification of the Ministry — The Bishop — His extraordinary Powers and Amenability — The "Assistant" or Preacher in Charge — His Functions — The "Helper" — His Duties — His severe Regimen — How a call to preach is to be determined — Ceremony of Reception in the Conference — General Ministerial Discipline — Field Preaching — Visiting from House to House — Uprooting of Popular Vices — Studies — Importance of Knowledge — Pastoral Care of Children — Fasting — Preaching Habits — Conduct toward one another — Self-denial — Circulation of Books — The Methodist Society — The Class-meeting and Class-leader — Other Officers — Symmetrical Polity of the Church — Its New Historical Position.

What were now the Theological and Ecclesiastical Platforms of American Methodism?

Wesley's abridgment of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England reduced them to twenty-four, [1] and reduced and amended several of the retained articles. The positive features of this compendium show that the Theology of American Methodism is essentially that of the Anglican Church in all things which according to that Church and the general consent of Christendom, are necessary to Theological "Orthodoxy," or the "Doctrines of Grace," unless his entire omission of the historically equivocal seventeenth article, on "Predestination and Election," be considered an exception. On the Trinity, the Incarnation, and Atonement, the Sacred Canon, Original Sin, Free-will, Justification, and Good Works, he retains the essence, and very nearly the exact language, of the Anglican Symbol. His Arminianism, so called, cannot be said to affect his essential orthodoxy according to the standards of the great bodies of the Christian world. The Greek Church fully sanctioned him in this respect, and, as we have seen, the Augustinian opinions, in modern times denominated Calvinism, have been both accepted and rejected, through considerable historical periods, by the Roman and Anglican Churches.

The negative features of these articles are, however, very suggestive, and the careful study of the document, in this respect, is necessary to a just estimation of the progress of Wesley's theological opinions. He obliterates nearly every trace of those Roman Catholic traditional opinions which the framers of the Anglican Articles retained. The third article, on "The going down of Christ into Hell," entirely disappears. The enumeration and recommendation of the "apocryphal Scriptures in the sixth article, shares the same fate. The eighth article, recognizing the Nicene, Athanasian, and Apostles' Creeds, is totally omitted; though Wesley, with Christendom generally, approved the last as a good expression of Christian doctrine, and retained it in the baptismal formula of the new Church. The twentieth and twenty-first articles, on "The authority of the Church" and "The authority of General Councils," are abandoned, as also the analogous twenty-third article, declaring "it not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching," etc., without sanction from appointed authorities. The thirty-third, on the treatment of "excommunicated persons," is unmentioned.

Wesley's opinions on the specific virtue of the sacraments, and especially on "Baptismal Regeneration," have been pronounced vague, if not contradictory. His early intimations on these subjects are favorable to the views of High Churchmen; his later, unfavorable to them. It must be remembered that he began his career a strenuous High Churchman, and, though he manfully broke away from many of his early errors, yet on the questions of baptismal regeneration and the consequent condition of baptized infant, it has been supposed that he remained ambiguous to the last. His American "Articles of Religion" negatively decide this question. The twenty-fifth Anglican article declares the sacraments to "be certain, sure witnesses and effectual signs of grace, and God's goodwill toward us, by the which he doth work invisibly in us," etc. Wesley omits the phrases "sure" and "effectual." More significant is his emendation of the twenty-seventh article, "Of Baptism," given in the seventh American article. The former declares baptism to be "a sign of regeneration, or the new birth, whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive baptism rightly are grafted into the Church; the promises of the forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed; and faith is confirmed and grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God." All this phrase after "the new birth" is omitted in the American articles, though the concluding part of the original article is retained with amendments. The omission is the more remarkable as the original article presents little or nothing that is offensive to the general faith of Protestant Christendom. Evidently the reason for this cautious change was his apprehension that it might be supposed to favor, however indirectly, the doctrine of "Baptismal Regeneration." If further proof of his revised opinions on this question were necessary, it is presented in the alterations he made in the sixteenth Anglican article. The original article is entitled, "Of Sin after Baptism;" he entitles the American article, "Of Sin after Justification." The original article reads, "Not every deadly sin willingly committed after baptism is sin against the Holy Ghost," etc. The American article reads, "Not every sin willingly committed after justification is the sin against the Holy Ghost," etc. The original article declares that "the grace of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after baptism;" the American article says "after justification."

But what is most noteworthy in the negative character of the American articles, is the fact that the opinions which are deemed most distinctive of Wesleyan theology have therein no expression, if indeed any intimation. Wesley eliminates the supposed Anglican Calvinism, but he does not introduce his own Arminianism, unless the thirty-first Anglican article on the "Oblation of Christ" be admitted to be Arminian in spite of the seventeenth article on "Predestination." In like manner We have no statement of his doctrines of the "Witness of the Spirit" and "Christian Perfection." And yet no doctrines more thoroughly permeate the preaching, or more entirely characterize the moral life of Methodism than his opinions of the universal salvability of men, assurance, and sanctification. He evidently designed the articles to be the briefest and barest possible symbol of expedient doctrines; and, as we shall hereafter see, not even a requisite condition of Church membership, though a requisite functional qualification for the ministry. He consigned his other tenets, however precious to him, to other means of conservation and diffusion, for it was not his opinion that the orthodoxy of a Church can best guarantee its spiritual life, but rather that its spiritual life can best guarantee its orthodoxy.

The Arminianism of Wesley has been rightly so-called. It is essentially true to the teaching of the great theologian of Holland, though not fully true to the elaborations of his system by Episcopius and Limborch, and much less to its perversions by its later eminent representatives. Wesley had the courage to place the name of Arminius on his periodical organ, one of the earliest and now the oldest of religious Magazines in the Protestant world. His Arminianism was far from being that mongrel system of semi-Pelagianism and semi-Socinianism which, for generations, was denounced by New England theologians as Arminianism, until the most erudite Calvinistic authority of the eastern states rebuked the baseless charge and bade his brethren be no longer guilty of it. [3] He taught "original sin" in the language of the ninth Anglican Article; though he taught also that both the justice and mercy of the Creator require that the human race should not have been continued, under this law of hereditary depravation, unless adequate provisions were made for it by the atonement; he preached, therefore, universal redemption. He taught with the tenth Anglican article, on "Free Will," that "the condition of man, after the fall of Adam, is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his natural strength and works, to faith and calling upon God;" that he has "no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God, by Christ, preventing" him; him he taught also that such "preventing grace" is provided for all responsible souls, and that none could be responsible without it. With the eleventh Anglican Article he taught "justification by faith" alone, "and not for our own works: and deservings;" yet he also taught that "good works follow after justification," and "do spring out, necessarily, of a true and lively faith." He taught the absolute sovereignty of God; that, like the potter with the clay, he can make some vessels for more, some for less honor; yet he also taught that, as wisdom and beneficence are essential attributes of the divine sovereignty, God neither would nor could (any more than the wise potter with his clay) make some for the gratification of a wanton caprice, in their destruction, much less in their interminable anguish.

Of Wesley's Doctrine of Assurance, founded upon the text, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God;" and upon analogous Scripture passages, I have already said that it was not a peculiar opinion of Methodism, but common, in its essential form, to the leading bodies of Christendom, Greek, Roman, and Protestant; that as a high theological as well as philosophical authority of our times has declared, "Assurance was long universally held in the Protestant communities to be the criterion and condition of a true or saving faith; that Luther declares, 'He who hath not assurance spews faith out;' and Melancthon, that 'assurance is the discriminating line of Christianity from heathenism;' that assurance is indeed the punctum saliens of Luther's system, and unacquaintance with this, his great central doctrine, is one prime cause of the chronic misrepresentation which runs through our recent histories of Luther and the Reformation; that assurance is no less strenuously maintained by Calvin, is held even by Arminius, and stands essentially part and parcel of all the confessions of all Churches of the Reformation down to the Westminster Assembly." [4] Wesley defines the doctrine clearly and modestly. "By the testimony of the Spirit," he says, "I mean an inward impression on the soul, whereby the Spirit of God immediately and directly witnesses to my spirit that I am a child of God; that Jesus Christ hath loved me, and given himself for me; that all my sins are blotted out, and I, even I, am reconciled to God. After twenty years farther consideration I see no cause to retract any part of this; neither do I conceive how any of these expressions may be uttered so as to make them more intelligible. I can only add, that if any of the children of God will point out any other expressions which are more clear, or more agreeable to the word of God, I will readily lay these aside. Meantime let it be observed, I do not mean hereby that the Spirit of God testifies this by any outward voice; no, nor always by an inward voice, although he may do this sometimes. Neither do I suppose that he always applies to the heart (though he often may) one or more texts of Scripture; but he so works upon the soul by his immediate influence, and by a strong, though inexplicable operation, that the stormy wind and troubled waves subside, and there is a sweet calm, the heart resting in Jesus, and the sinner being clearly satisfied that all his iniquities are forgiven and his sins covered." He disclaims any originality in his teachings on the subject, and says, "With regard to the assurance of faith I apprehend that the whole Christian Church in the first centuries enjoyed it. For though we have few points of doctrine explicitly taught in the small remains of the ante-Nicene fathers, yet, I think, none that carefully read Clemens Romanus, Ignatius, Polycarp, Origen, or any other of them, can doubt whether either the writer himself possessed it, or all whom he mentions, as real Christians. And I really conceive, both from the Harmonia Confessionum, and whatever else I have occasionally read, that all reformed Churches in Europe did once believe, 'Every true Christian has the divine evidence of his being in favor with God.'" "I know likewise that Luther, Melancthon, and many other (if not all) of the reformers, frequently and strongly assert that every believer is conscious of his own acceptance with God, and that by a supernatural evidence." [9]

For his doctrine of Sanctification, Wesley adopted the title of "Perfection," because he found it so used in the holy Scriptures. Paul and John he deemed sufficient authorities for the use of an epithet, which he knew, however, would be liable to the cavils of criticism. The Christian world had also largely recognized the term in the writings of Clemens Alexandrinus, Macarias, a Kempis, Fenelon, Lucas, and other writers, Papal and Protestant. Besides incessant allusions to the doctrine, in his general writings, he has left an elaborate treatise on it. [6] Fletcher of Madeley, an example as well as an authority of the doctrine, published an essay on it, proving it to be scriptural as well as sanctioned by the best theological writers. [7] Wesley's theory of the doctrine is precise and intelligible, though often distorted into perplexing difficulties by both its advocates and opponents. He taught not absolute, nor Angelic, nor Adamic, but "Christian perfection." Each sphere of being has its own normal limits; God alone has absolute perfection; the angels have a perfection of their own above that of humanity, at least of the humanity of our own sphere; unfallen man, represented by Adam, occupied a peculiar sphere in the divine economy, with its own relations to the divine government, its own "perfection," called by Wesley Adamic Perfection; fallen, but regenerated man, has also his peculiar sphere, as a subject of the Mediatorial Economy, and the highest practicable virtue (whatever it may be) in that sphere is its "perfection," its Christian perfection. An able Methodist authority has said, "Every thing which has attained the normal completeness of its own class or kind is rightly called perfect. Not after an ideal, but a normal standard, we speak of a perfect egg, a perfect chicken, a perfect full-grown fowl. There may be a perfect child or a perfect man. And everything which is wanting in none of the normal complement of qualities, in normal degree, is perfect in its class. Now the Christian who has attained to the description of our formula is at the normal standard of a perfect man in Christ. We use an abundantly scriptural term in calling this a state of Christian perfection. It is a state in which all the normal qualities of the Christian are permanently, or with more or less continuity, possessed in the proper completeness. And as this spiritual strength and power over and against sin, derived from the Holy Spirit, is sanctification, so in the completeness which we have described it is not improperly perhaps by us called entire sanctification." [8]

Admitting such a theory of perfection, the most important question has respect to its practical limit. When can it be said of a Christian man that he is thus perfect? Wesley taught that perfect Christians "are not free from ignorance, no, nor from mistake. We are no more to expect any man to be infallible than to be omniscient ... From infirmities none are perfectly freed till their spirits return to God; neither can we expect, till then, to be wholly freed from temptation; for 'the servant is not above his Master.' But neither in this sense is there any absolute perfection on earth. There is no perfection of degrees, none which does not admit of a continual increase ... The proposition which I will hold is this: 'Any person may be cleansed from all sinful tempers, and yet need the atoning blood.' For what? For 'negligences and ignorances;' for both words and actions, (as well as omissions,) which are, in a sense, transgressions of the perfect law. And I believe no one is clear of these till he lays down this corruptible body." Perfection, as defined by Wesley, is not then perfection, according to the absolute moral law; it is perfection according to the special remedial economy introduced by the Atonement, in which the heart, being sanctified, fulfills the law by love, (Rom. xii, 8, 10,) and its involuntary imperfections are provided for, by that economy, without the imputation of guilt, as in the case of infancy and all irresponsible persons. The only question, then, can be, Is it possible for good men so to love God that all their conduct, inward and outward, shall be swayed by love? that even their involuntary defects shall be swayed by it? Is there such a thing as the inspired writer calls the "perfect love" which "casteth out fear?" (1 John iv, 18.) Wesley believed that there is; that it is the privilege of all saints; and that it is to be attained by faith. "I want you to be all love," he wrote. "This is the perfection I believe and teach; and this perfection is consistent with a thousand nervous disorders, which that high-strained perfection is not. Indeed, my judgment is, that (in this case particularly) to overdo is to undo; and that to set perfection too high is the most effectual way of driving it out of the world ... Man," he says, "in his present state, can no more attain Adamic than angelic perfection. The perfection of which man is capable, while he dwells in a corruptible body, is the complying with that kind command, 'My son, give me thy heart!' It is the loving the Lord his God, with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind." Such is his much misrepresented doctrine of Christian perfection. [9] Wesley taught that this sanctification is usually gradual, but may be instantaneous; as, like justification, it is to be received by faith.

Such are the general and such the special theological characteristics of Methodism. It has in its Anglican Articles a general, though a very brief; platform, consisting of the leading dogmas of the Universal Church. Aside from this, it preaches, especially, Universal Redemption, Assurance, and Perfection. The latter are special to it, not so much as opinions, (for they are still, more or less, common to the Christian world,) but by the special emphasis with which Methodism utters them. They are the staple ideas of its preaching, of its literature, of its colloquial inquiries in its class-meetings, prayer-meetings, and in the Christian intercourse of its social life. Though, as has been stated, the success of the denomination cannot be explained apart from its disciplinary system and its spiritual energy, yet unquestionably its spiritual life and its practical system could not long subsist without its special theology.

An important and very interesting question, respecting the dogmatic attitude of the new Church, remains to be considered. Of few things, connected with Methodism, does Wesley speak oftener or with more devout gratulation than of its doctrinal liberality. "One circumstance," he says, "is quite peculiar to the people called Methodists; that is, the terms upon which any persons may be admitted into their Society. They do not impose, in order to their admission, any opinions whatever. Let them hold particular or general redemption, absolute or conditional decrees ... They think, and let think. One condition, and one only, is required — a real desire to save their souls. Where this is, it is enough; they desire no more; they lay stress upon nothing else; they ask only, Is thy heart herein as my heart? If it be, give me thy hand.' " "Is there," he adds, "any other Society in Great Britain or Ireland that is so remote from bigotry? that is so truly of a catholic spirit? so ready to admit all serious persons without distinction? Where is there such another society in Europe? in the habitable world? I know none. Let any man show it me that can. Till then let no one talk of the bigotry of the Methodists." When in his eighty-fifth year, preaching in Glasgow, he wrote: "I subjoined a short account of Methodism, particularly insisting on the circumstance — There is no other religious society under heaven which requires nothing of men, in order to their admission into it, but a desire to save their souls. Look all round you; you cannot be admitted into the Church, or Society of the Presbyterians, Anabaptists, Quakers, or any others, unless you hold the same opinions with them, and adhere to the same mode of worship. The Methodists alone do not insist on your holding this or that opinion ... Now, I do not know any other religious society, either ancient or modern, wherein such liberty of conscience is now allowed, or has been allowed since the age of the Apostles. Here is our glorying, and a glorying peculiar to us. What society shares it with us?" The possible results of such liberality were once discussed in the Conference. Wesley conclusively determined the debate by remarking: "I have no more right to object to a man for holding a different opinion from me, than I have to differ with a man because be wears a wig and I wear my own hair; but if he takes his wig off; and begins to shake the powder about my eyes, I shall consider it my duty to get quit of him as soon as possible." "Is a man," he writes, "a believer in Jesus Christ, and is his life suitable to his profession? are not only the main, but the sole inquiries I make in order to his admission into our Society." Did he design the new American Church to be equally liberal? As the "General Rules," used in England, were retained, after the Christmas Conference, in America, as the "only one condition" of membership, and the "Articles of Religion" are not mentioned in these Rules, but placed apart in the Discipline, are not the articles to be considered rather as an judicatory than an obligatory dogmatic symbol — an indication to sincere men, seeking an asylum for Christian communion, of what kind of teaching they must expect in the new Church, but not of what they would be required to avow by subscription?

The Articles and the General Rules are both parts of the organic or constitutional law of American Methodism; but the General Rules prescribe the "only condition" of membership, without an allusion to the Articles. Conformity to the doctrines of the Church is required by its statute law as a functional qualification for the ministry; but Church members cannot be excluded for personal opinions while their lives conform to the practical discipline of the Church; they can be tried and expelled for "sowing dissensions in the Societies by inveighing against their doctrines or discipline;" that is, in other words, not for their opinions, but for their moral conduct respecting their opinions. They cannot be expelled for anything short of defects, which "are sufficient to exclude a person from the kingdom of grace and glory." [11] And at what would Wesley himself have more revolted than the assumption that opinions, not affecting the Christian conduct of a member of His Society, were "sufficient to exclude him from the kingdom of grace and glory?" This interesting historical fact is full of significance, as an example of that distinction between indicatory and obligatory standards of theological belief which Methodism has, perhaps, had the honor of first exemplifying among the leading Churches of the modern Christian world.

The ecclesiastical system of American Methodism, as reorganized at the Christmas Conference, has been mostly prefigured in the course of our narrative. It was prescribed in Wesley's "Large Minutes," and in the special enactments of the American Minutes, these now continued to constitute the Discipline of the Church, with such modifications as were necessary to adapt it to the new Episcopal organization. It may be expedient, nevertheless, to review it summarily at the present historical crisis of the denomination.

The specially clerical or ministerial bodies of the denomination were now the General, the Annual, and the Quarterly Conferences, the last, however, including its official Laymen.

The Christmas Conference was the first General Conference; that is to say, all the Annual Conferences were supposed to be there assembled. It was, therefore, the supreme judicatory of the Church. It was not yet a delegated body, but the whole ministry in session. It made no provision for any future session of the kind but for some years legislative enactments were made, as heretofore: every new measure being submitted to each Annual Conference by the superintendents, and the majority of all being necessary to its validity.

Another General Conference was held, however, in 1792, no official minutes of which are extant.[12] The third session was held in 1796, a compendium of the minutes of which was published. Thereafter a session has been held regularly every four years, and the minutes of each preserved. In the session of 1808 a motion was adopted for the better organization of the Conference as a "delegated" body. In 1812 it met in New York City as a "Delegated General Conference," under constitutional restrictions, which gave it the character of a renewed organization. The year 1812, then, will be the appropriate period for the consideration of the peculiar character and functions of the General Conference.

Until the appointment of stated or regular General Conferences, the Annual Conferences continued to be considered local or sectional meetings of the one undivided ministry, held in different localities, for the local convenience of its members, every general or legislative measure being submitted, as we have seen, to all the sessions before it could become law. Down to 1784 there had been but two regular sessions a year announced, though more were sometimes irregularly held. The enlargement of the denomination now required more annual sessions; three were appointed for 1785: one in Maryland, one in Virginia, and one in North Carolina. These sufficed till 1788, when six were held. The next year they increased to eleven, and in 1790 to fourteen, two being held beyond the Alleghenies.

The Annual Conference was therefore still the supreme assembly of the Church, except when, by its appointment, a General Conference, that is to say, a collective assembly of the Annual Conferences should intervene.

These annual assemblies became imposing occasions. A bishop presided; the preachers, from many miles around, usually including several states, were present; hosts of laymen were spectators. There was preaching in the early morning, in the afternoon, and at night. The daily proceedings were introduced with religious services, and were characterized by an impressive religious spirit. They continued usually a week, and it was a jubilatic week, gathering the war-worn heroes of many distant and hard-fought fields, renewing the intimacies of preachers and people, and crowned alike by social hospitalities and joyous devotions. They had their particular regulations prescribed in the Minutes or Discipline. "It is desired," say their Rules, "that all things be considered as in the immediate presence of God; that every person speak freely whatever is in his heart. How may we best improve the time of our Conferences? While we are conversing let us have an especial care to set God always before us. In the intermediate hours let us redeem all the time we can for private exercises. Therein let us give ourselves to prayer for one another, and for a blessing on our labor."

The proceedings of the Annual Conference were conducted in the form of questions and answers, as follows: "What preachers are admitted? Who remain on trial? Who are admitted on trial? Who desist from traveling? Are there any objections to any of the preachers? Who are named one by one. How are the preachers stationed this year? What numbers are in the Society? What was contributed for the contingent expenses? How was this expended? What is contributed toward the fund for the superannuated preachers, and of the widows and orphans of the preachers? What demands are there upon it? How many preachers' wives are to be provided for? By what circuits, and in what proportion? Where and when may our next Conference begin? How can we provide for superannuated preachers, and the widows and orphans of preachers?" [13] The presiding bishop made out the appointments to circuits, for the next ecclesiastical year, of all the preachers within the territory of the Conference. He had no "cabinet" of presiding elders, for this office was yet unknown in the Church; as the new elders, ordained at the Christmas Conference, were appointed only to administer the sacraments. At the close of the Conference, after singing and prayer, he read to a crowded house, and amid breathless stillness and deep solemnity, the "list of appointments;" most if not all the appointed preachers having had no previous knowledge of the fate thus assigned them for the ensuing year. Many of them were torn up by it from endeared localities and sent to distant, often to hostile and perilous fields. The reading of the list was like the announcement of an order of battle. It was heard by the militant itinerants with ejaculations of prayer, with sobs, and shouts. Few, if any, revolted. The post of greatest difficulty was considered the post of greatest honor. The list ended, the Doxology, sung to Old Hundred by preachers and people, rung through the church, and reverberated through the neighborhood; the apostolic benediction was pronounced, and, usually, before the sun went down; but sometimes at the midnight hour the itinerant band and their bishop, after many an affecting leave-taking, were in the saddle, hastening to their new fields of combat and triumph. Few or no scenes of early Methodism were more heroic or more affecting than its Annual Conferences.

The Quarterly Conference was a still more local body, held, in accordance with its title, on each circuit once in three months, and was composed of the preachers of the circuit, its local preachers, exhorters, leaders, stewards, and later, its Trustees and Sunday-school superintendents. It had, subordinately to the Annual Conference, jurisdiction over all the interests of the circuit: its finances, the authorization of its local preachers and exhorters, and later, a class of judicial appeals, and the recommendation of candidates for the Annual Conferences. Its exercises were largely, mostly indeed, spiritual. It continued in session about two days, during which there were almost continual sessions, sermons, prayer-meetings, or love-feasts. The Methodist families of the circuit, often from the distance of many miles, assembled at it, making it a great religious festival. The town or village was crowded with people, horses, and carriages. It was an occasion of lavish hospitality, of social and religious rejoicing and gratulation. The chapels could seldom accommodate the people; the religious services were often held in groves. "Revivals" of religion were the generally expected result; the unity, the hospitality, and social intimacy of the Methodists of the circuit were the invariable result. Aged Methodists have not ceased to regret the decay of these primitive festivals, not considering that it has been the normal effect of the prosperity of the Church, by which it has become necessary to divide and subdivide the circuits, thereby diminishing the range and importance of their respective Quarterly Meetings. Camp-meetings have served somewhat to continue the social and spiritual festivities of the old Quarterly Meetings.

The ministry now consisted of bishops, (instead of the former "general assistant,") "assistants," and "helpers;" for though the new titles of elders and deacons appear in the Minutes of the next year, the ordained men amount to but twenty-four, out of a hundred and four. These were designed to supply the sacraments to the Societies, as far as practicable; subsequently the elders were placed in charge of districts comprehending several circuits, and thence arose the permanent office of presiding elder, not for the administration of the sacraments, but for many and important executive functions, as we shall hereafter see. In time, all preachers on their admission to the Conference as members were ordained deacons, and, in two years more, elders. The titles "assistants" and "helpers" were then dropped.

The functions of the bishop have been mostly defined. His powers were extraordinary, almost plenary; but he was subjected to an extraordinary amenability. Besides presiding in the Conferences, he made absolutely the appointments, or annual distribution of the preachers, having yet no "cabinet" of presiding elders, a species of council which usage has since established, though it has no recognition in the Discipline. In the intervals of the Conference he could receive, change, or suspend preachers. He decided finally appeals from both preachers and people. Ordinations depended upon the vote of a majority of the Conference; but the bishop had a veto power over any such vote. He could unite two or more Annual Conferences, and appointed the times and places of their sessions. [14] But he could be deposed, as we have seen, and expelled from the Church not only for crime, but for "improper conduct," a liability to which no other preacher, nor the lowliest private member, was exposed. He had no higher salary than his ministerial brethren; he was allowed no local diocese, but must travel through the denomination.

The "assistant" was really the "preacher in charge" of the circuit, as he was subsequently called. He was esteemed the assistant of the bishop, and had charge of the other preachers on the circuit as his "helpers." His duties were minutely enumerated in 1784. He was "to see that the other preachers in his circuit behave well and want nothing; to renew the tickets quarterly, and regulate the bands; to take in or put out of the Society or the bands; to appoint all the stewards and leaders, and change them when he sees it necessary; to keep watch nights and love-feasts; to hold Quarterly Meetings, and therein diligently to inquire both into the temporal and spiritual state of each Society; to take care that every Society be duly supplied with books, particularly with 'Kempis,' 'Instructions for Children,' and the 'Primitive Physic,' which ought to be in every house; to take exact lists of his Societies, and bring them to the Conference; to send an account of his circuit every half year to one of the superintendents; to meet the married men and women, and the single men and women in the large Societies once a quarter; to overlook the accounts of all the stewards; to take a regular catalogue of his Societies as they live in house-row; to leave his successor a particular account of the state of the circuit; vigorously, but calmly, to enforce the rules concerning needless ornaments, and drams; [15] as soon as there are four men or women believers in any place, to put them into a band; to suffer no love-feast to last above an hour and a half; everywhere to recommend decency and cleanliness; to read the rules of the Society, with the aid of his helpers, once a year in every congregation, and once a quarter in every Society."

All preachers, except the bishops and assistants, were called "helpers," whether members or probationers of the Conference. The Christmas session defined the duties of a helper to be, 1. To preach. 2. To meet the Society and the bands weekly. 3. To visit the sick. 4. To meet the leaders weekly." It was added, "let every preacher be particularly exact in this, and in morning preaching. If he has twenty hearers, let him preach. We are fully determined never to drop morning preaching; and to preach at five A.M., wherever it is practicable." The helper was not allowed, "on any pretense," to administer the Lord's supper; nor to "read the morning and evening service" in the congregation, except when authorized by a written direction from a bishop. As all the preachers belonged to the class of Helpers in the outset, the ministerial regimen enjoined upon them may be considered as that of the ministry in general. It was prescribed by Wesley, and is singularly minute. The "rules of a helper" were, "1. Be diligent. Never be unemployed. Never be triflingly employed. Never while away time; neither spend any more time at any place than is strictly necessary. 2. Be serious. Let your motto he, 'Holiness to the Lord.' Avoid all lightness, jesting, and foolish talking. 3. Converse sparingly and cautiously with women; particularly with young women. 4. Take no step toward marriage without first consulting with your brethren. 5. Believe evil of no one; unless you see it done, take heed how you credit it. Put the best construction on everything. You know the judge is always supposed to be on the prisoner's side. 6. Speak evil of no one; else your word especially would eat as doth a canker. Keep your thoughts within your own breast till you come to the person concerned. 7. Tell every one who is under your care what you think wrong in his conduct and tempers, and that plainly, as soon as may be; else it will fester in your heart. Make all haste to cast the fire out of your bosom. 8. Do not affect the gentleman. You have no more to do with this character than with that of a dancing-master. A preacher of the Gospel is the servant of all. 9. Be ashamed of nothing but sin: not of fetching wood (if time permit) or drawing water; not of cleaning your own shoes, or your neighbor's. 10. Be punctual. Do everything exactly at the time. And do not mend our rules, but keep them; not for wrath, but for conscience' sake. 11. You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work. And go always, not only to those that want you, but to those that want you most. Observe: It is not your business to preach so many times, and to take care of this or that Society; but to save as many souls as you can; to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance, and with all your power to build them up in that holiness without which they cannot see the Lord. And remember! a Methodist preacher is to mind every point, great and small, in the Methodist Discipline! Therefore you will need all the sense you have, and to have all your wits about you! 12. Act in all things, not according to your own will, but as a son in the Gospel. As such, it is your part to employ your time in the manner which we direct; partly in preaching and visiting from house to house; partly in reading, meditation, and prayer. Above all, if you labor with us in our Lord's vineyard, it is needful that you should do that part of the work which we advise, at those times and places which we judge most for his glory." These were the famous "Twelve Rules" of the helpers. Others were added, among which were the following: "When they meet let them never part without prayer. Let them beware how they despise each other's gifts. Let them never speak slightingly of each other in any kind. Let them defend one another's characters in everything, so far as consists with truth; and, let them labor in honor each to prefer the other before himself."

Some emendations were early made in this singular code. About two years later the severely disciplined helper was permitted to change his daily morning service from five to six o'clock in winter. Wesley's favorite rule of early morning preaching was never successfully enforced in America; in 1789 it appears significantly ambiguous: the helper is "to preach in the morning where he can get hearers;" and in 1804 this early service is only "recommended." In 1786 the sentences relating to the "character of a gentleman," a "dancing-master," and the "cleaning of shoes," disappear; and in 1789 that about "fetching wood and drawing water" are consigned to the same oblivious limbo.

The Conference adopted Wesley's rule respecting the authorization of "those who think they are called of the Holy Ghost to preach." "Inquire, 1. Do they know God as a pardoning God? Have they the love of God abiding in them? Do they desire and seek nothing but God? And are they holy in all manner of conversation? 2. Have they gifts (as well as grace) for the work? have they (in some tolerable degree) a clear, sound understanding? Have they a right judgment in the things of God? Have they a just conception of salvation by faith? And has God given them any degree of utterance? Do they speak justly, readily, clearly? 3. Have they fruit? Are any truly convinced of sin, and converted to God, by their preaching? As long as these three marks concur in any one, we believe he is called of God to preach. These we receive as sufficient proof that he is 'moved thereto by the Holy Ghost.' " The reception of a helper, or new preacher, as a probationer in the Conference was attended with severe questions and some ceremony. The day was observed by the Conference with fasting and prayer. "Every person proposed shall then be asked (with any other questions which may be thought necessary by the Conference) the following, namely, Have you faith in Christ? Are you 'going on to perfection?' Do you expect to be 'perfected in love' in this life? Are you groaning after it? Are you resolved to devote yourself wholly to God and to his work? Do you know the Methodist plan? Do you know the rules of the Society? of the bands? Do you keep them? Do you take no drams? Do you constantly attend the sacrament? Have you read the 'Minutes of the Conference?' Are you willing to conform to them? Have you considered the rules of a helper; especially the first, tenth, and twelfth? Will you keep them for conscience sake? Are you determined to employ all your time in the work of God? Will you preach every morning at five o'clock wherever you can have twenty hearers? Will you endeavor not to speak too long or too loud? Will you diligently instruct the children in every place? Will you visit from house to house? Will you recommend fasting both by precept and example? Are you in debt? We may then, if he gives satisfaction, receive him as a probationer, by giving him the 'Minutes of the Conference, inscribed thus: 'To A. B. You think it your duty to call sinners to repentance. Make full proof hereof; and we shall rejoice to receive you as a fellow-laborer.' Let him then read and carefully weigh what is contained therein that if he has any doubt it may be removed. After two years' probation, being recommended by the assistant, and examined by the Conference, he may be received into full connection, by giving him the 'Minutes,' inscribed thus: 'As long as you freely consent to, and earnestly endeavor to walk by, these rules, we shall rejoice to acknowledge you as a fellow-laborer.' Meantime let none preach or exhort in any of our Societies without a note of permission from the assistant. Let every preacher or exhorter take care to have this renewed yearly; and let every assistant insist upon it."

Abundant and characteristic, not only of Wesley, but of the primitive Methodist ministry in general, are the rules of ministerial life scattered through the Discipline of the Christmas Conference. They are historical exponents of the Methodism of the times, and to no small extent afford a solution of the problem of its great success. "We are raised up," they said, "to reform the continent and to spread scriptural holiness over these lands." Therefore they resolved to maintain "field preaching," "because our call is to save that which is lost. Now, we cannot expect them to seek us. Therefore we should go and seek them. Because we are particularly called, by 'going into the highways and hedges,' 'to compel them to come in.' Whenever the weather will permit, go out in God's name into the most public places, and call all to repent and believe the Gospel; every Sunday in particular; especially where there are old Societies, lest they settle upon their lees." But they ask, "What avails public preaching alone, though we could preach like angels? We must, yea, every traveling preacher must, instruct them from house to house." And, "Let every preacher, having a catalogue of those in each Society, go to each house, and deal gently with them, that the report of it may move others to desire your coming. Do this in earnest, and you will soon find what a work you take in hand in undertaking to be a traveling preacher!" Do not Sabbath-breaking, evil speaking, unprofitable conversation, lightness, expensiveness, or gayety of apparel, and contracting debts without due care to discharge them, still prevail in several places? How may these evils be remedied? 1. Let us preach expressly on each of these heads. 2. Read in every Society the 'Sermon on Evil Speaking.' 3. Let the leaders closely examine and exhort every person to put away the accursed thing. 4. Let the preacher warn every Society that none who is guilty herein can remain with us. 5. Extirpate smuggling, buying or selling unaccustomed goods, out of every Society. Let none remain with us who will not totally abstain from every kind and degree of it. 6. Extirpate bribery, receiving anything, directly or indirectly, for voting in any election. Show no respect of persons herein, but expel all that touch the accursed thing." "As often as possible rise at four. From four to five in the morning, and from five to six in the evening, meditate, pray, and read, partly the Scriptures with Mr. Wesley's Notes, partly the closely practical parts of what he has published. From six in the morning till twelve (allowing an hour for breakfast) read in order, with much prayer, 'The Christian Library,' and other pious books. Why is it that the people under our care are no better? Other reasons may concur; but the chief is, because we are not more knowing and more holy. But why are we not more knowing? Because we are idle. We forget our very first rule, 'Be diligent. Never be unemployed. Never be triflingly employed. Never while away time; neither spend any more time at any place than is strictly necessary.' Which of you spends as many hours a day in God's work as you did formerly in man's work? We talk, or read history, or what comes next to hand. We must, absolutely must, cure this evil, or betray the cause of God. But how? Read the most useful books, and that regularly and constantly. Steadily spend all the morning in this employ, or, at least, five hours in four and twenty. 'But I have no taste for reading.' Contract a taste for it by use, or return to your trade. 'But I have no books.' We desire the assistants will take care that all the large Societies provide Mr. Wesley's Works for the use of the preachers. In the afternoon follow Mr. Baxter's plan" of pastoral visitation. "Then you will have no time to spare; you will have work enough for all your time. Then, likewise, no preacher will stay with us who is as salt that has lost its savor. For to such this employment would be mere drudgery. And in order to it, you will have need of all the knowledge you can procure. The sum is, Go into every house in course, and teach every one therein, young and old, if they belong to us, to be Christians inwardly and outwardly. Make every particular plain to their understanding; fix it in their memory; write it on their heart. In order to this, there must be 'line upon line, precept upon precept.' What patience, what love, what knowledge is requisite for this! But what shall we do for the rising generation? Who will labor for them? Let him who is zealous for God and the souls of men begin now. l. Where there are ten children, whose parents are in Society, meet them at least an hour every week. 2. Talk with them every time you see any at home. 3. Pray in earnest for them. 4. Diligently instruct and vehemently exhort all parents at their own houses. 5. Preach expressly on education. 'But I have no gift for this.' Gift or no gift, you are to do it; else you are not called to be a Methodist preacher. Do it as you can, till you can do it as you would. Pray earnestly for the gift, and use the means for it. Why are not we more holy? Why do not we live in eternity; walk with God all the day long? Why are we not all devoted to God; breathing the whole spirit of missionaries? Chiefly because we are enthusiasts; looking for the end without using the means. To touch only upon two or three instances: Who of you rises at four or even at five, when he does not preach? Do you recommend to all our Societies the five o'clock hour for private prayer? Do you observe it, or any other fixed time? Do not you find, by experience, that any time is no time? Do you know the obligation and benefit of fasting? How often do you practice it? The neglect of this alone is sufficient to account for our feebleness and faintness of spirit. We are continually grieving the Holy Spirit of God by the habitual neglect of a plain duty! Be sure never to disappoint a congregation, unless in case of life or death. Begin precisely at the time appointed. Let your whole deportment before the congregation be serious, weighty, and solemn. Always suit your subject to your audience. Choose the plainest texts you can. Take care not to ramble; but keep to your text, and make out what you take in hand. Take care of anything awkward or affected, either in your gesture, phrase, or pronunciation. Sing no hymns of your own composing. Print nothing without the approbation of one or other of the superintendents. Do not usually pray extempore above eight or ten minutes (at most) without intermission. And let young preachers often exhort without taking a text. Always kneel during public prayer. Everywhere avail yourself of the great festivals, by preaching on the occasion. Beware of clownishness. Be courteous to all. Be merciful to your beast. Not only ride moderately, but see with your own eyes that your horse be rubbed and fed." "Do we sufficiently watch over each other? We do not. Should we not frequently ask each other, Do you walk closely with God? Have you now fellowship with the Father and the Son? At what hour do you use? Do you punctually observe the morning and evening hour of retirement? Do you spend the day in the manner which the Conference advises? Do you converse seriously, usefully, and closely? Do you use private prayer every morning and evening? if you can, at five in the evening; and the hour before or after morning preaching? Do you forecast daily, wherever you are, how to secure these hours? Do you retire at five o'clock? Have you a New Testament always about you?" "Do not you converse too long at a time? Is not an hour commonly enough? Would it not be well always to have a determinate end in view; and to pray before and after it? Do you deny yourself every useless pleasure of sense, imagination, honor? Are you temperate in all things? instance in food; do you use only that kind and that degree which is best both for your body and soul? Do you see the necessity of this? Do you eat no flesh suppers? no late suppers? Do you eat no more at each meal than is necessary? Do you use only that kind and that degree of drink which is best both for your body and soul? Do you drink water? Why not? Did you ever? Why did you leave it off? If not for health, when will you begin again? today? How often do you drink wine? every day? Do you want it?" "Be active in dispersing Mr. Wesley's books. Every assistant may beg money of the rich to buy books for the poor. Strongly and explicitly exhort all

Besides this system of ministerial assemblies, functions, and regimen, American Methodism consisted, first, of local or individual societies, composed of members and probationers, divided into classes of twelve or more persons, and meeting weekly under the care of a class-leader for religious counsel and the contribution of money for the support of the Church according to the General Rules. [16] The leaders were met at first weekly, afterward monthly, by the preacher. Each Society had its trustees holding the chapel property; its stewards having charge of its other finances; and, in many cases, its licensed exhorters and local preachers, men who pursued secular avocations but labored as public teachers whenever they found opportunity. The exhorter usually graduated to the office of local preacher, and thence to the traveling ministry. This, in fine, was the recruiting process of the Annual Conference. Secondly, of circuits composing a group of many local Societies, extending in some cases five hundred miles, requiring from two to six or more weeks to travel around them, and supplied by an "assistant" and two or three "helpers," who were aided by the local preachers, the class-leaders maintaining a minute pastoral oversight in the Societies during the absence of the itinerants. Thirdly, (though at a somewhat later date,) of districts comprising several circuits and superintended by a Presiding Elder.

Thus had the new Church assumed an organic form: its series of synodal bodies, extending from the fourth of a year to four years, from the local circuit to the whole nation; its series of pastoral functionaries, class-leaders, exhorters, local preachers, circuit preachers, district preachers or presiding elders, and bishops whose common diocese was the entire country; its prayer-meetings, band-meetings, class-meetings, love-feasts, and almost daily preaching; its liturgy, articles of religion, psalmody, and singularly minute moral discipline, as prescribed in its "general rules" and ministerial regimen. Its system was remarkably precise and consecutive, and, as seen in our day by its results, as remarkably effective. Down to the Christmas Conference it had been for nearly a score of years in its forming process. I have deemed it expedient, therefore, to trace with much detail this important period of its history, for, its foundations and early interior structure being ascertained, its superstructure, as it rises and extends over the land, will be the more readily measured.

American Methodism is now to enter a new historic career, a career of unparalleled success. From its very birth till near the present date it has been struggling, advancing, or retreating, amid the agitations and obstructions of the American Revolution. Its whole history, before the arrival of Coke, wears an aspect of vagueness, of uncertainty. Its dim and incoherent events, interesting though they may be, as antiquarian reminiscences, fail of higher interest by failing of more intimate mutual relations, and of more historic proportions. Hereafter it is to proceed with a definitive and more historic scope. Asbury and other men, heretofore only occasional or irregular leaders, rise into the character of heroes of the scene; great measures, great triumphs, great men crowd it — a series of apostolic bishops, not a few extraordinary "pulpit orators," missionaries to the savages, the slaves, to foreign nations, an unequaled publishing agency, provisions of education, with academies and colleges in most, if not all, the multiplying states of the Union; the advance of the denomination into New England, into Canada, over the Alleghenies, through the length and breadth of the Valley of the Mississippi, over the Rocky Mountains, to the shores of the Pacific; foreign evangelization, reaching to many of the ends of the earth, and unequaled numerical growth. We have passed through about eighteen years, and the statistics of the forming denomination show less than fifteen thousand members, and about eighty preachers; in the next score they are to advance to more than a hundred and thirteen thousand members, and four hundred preachers; and the one Conference, with its two annual sessions, is to multiply into many, extending from Maine to Georgia, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. In some single years, within this period, the increase of members is to equal the whole numerical force reported at the close of these years of preliminary labor and suffering. The important event which is to secure to the new denomination such results, the "Christmas Conference," forms the appropriate conclusion of our present period, and the legitimate starting-point of all the remaining history of American Methodism.

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ENDNOTES

1 There are, however, twenty-five articles in the Methodist Discipline; one, "Of the Rulers of the United States of America," being added by the Christmas Conference. Wesley inserted in his Liturgy a prayer for the "Supreme Rulers of the United States," but probably judged himself incompetent to frame a suitable article respecting the complicated civil system of the country at that time.

3 Prof. Stuart, of Andover. See Introduction.

4 Sir Wm. Hamilton: "Discussions on Philosophy," etc., pp. 508, 509. London. 1858.

5 History of the Religious Movement, etc., ii, 415, et seq.

6 Plain Account of Christian Perfection. Works, vol iv.

7 Last Check, etc. Works, vol. ii.

8 Rev. Dr. Whedon in "The Bibliotheca Sacra," April, 1862, an article to which the reader can be referred as one of the ablest expositions of Methodist theology, especially in its relations to the Calvinistic controversy.

9 History of the Religious Movement, etc., ii, p. 412.

10 Discipline of Methodist Episcopal Church, Part I, chap. 8, paragraph 4.

11 Such, it will scarcely be questioned, is the right of communion possessed by a person already in the Methodist Episcopal Church; but it has sometimes been a question whether doctrinal opinions are not required for admission by the administrative prescription adopted since Wesley's day, (Discipline, Part I, chap. 2, paragraph 2): "Let none be received until they shall, on examination by the minister in charge before the Church, give satisfactory assurances both of the correctness of their faith and their willingness to keep the rules." It may be replied, 1. That, according to Wesley's definition, above, of the faith essential to a true Church, there could be no difficulty here. 2. That, as the requisition is merely an administrative one for the preachers, and prescribes not what are to be "satisfactory assurances," etc., the latter are evidently left to the discretion of the pastor, and the requirement is designed to afford him the opportunity of further instructing the candidate, or of receiving from him pledges that his opinions shall not become a practical abuse in the society. 3. If the rule amounts to more than this, it would probably be pronounced, by good judges of Methodist law, incompatible with the usages and general system of Methodism, an oversight of, the General Conference which enacted it, and contrary to the "General Rules," as guarded by the Restrictive Rules. 4. It would be a singular and inconsistent fact, that opinions should be made a condition of admission to the Church, but not of responsibility (except in their practical abuse) with persons already in the Church. (See history of the Religious Movement, etc., vol. ii, p.448.)

12 The Minutes of the General Conference of 1792 were never printed, to my knowledge, nor can I find the original copy." Dr. McClintock's preface to the collected "Journals of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church," vol. i, p. 4. New York. 1855

13 The "Large Minutes," the original form of this outline, significantly says here, "those who can preach four or five times a week are supernumerary preachers."

14 So at least the next General Conference (1792) declared. The Annual Conferences were at this time called District Conferences. The power to appoint the places (but not the times) of the session was given to the Conferences in 1804.

15 Wesley's rule included snuff and tobacco; but this was too strong for the American preachers, many of whom (including Asbury) used the weed.

16 See the "General Rules, the fundamental moral code for Church members. (Dis., p. 27, 1864.) "Bands" were also common in the Church at this early day, but have become obsolete. They were similar to the classes, but designed for more intimate spiritual counsel.

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