The life and times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., founder of the Methodists. Vol. 1 (of 3)

METHODISM: ITS GREATNESS.

IS it not a truth that Methodism is the greatest fact in the history of the church of Christ? Methodism has now existed one hundred and thirty years. Is there any other system that has spread itself so widely in an equal period? We doubt it.

In the first two centuries of the Christian era, during a great part of which men were blessed with plenary inspiration, and miracles were wrought, the Christian religion sprung up in Judæa, Samaria, and Galilee. Churches were raised at Antioch, in the beautiful isle of Cyprus, in the neighbouring provinces of Pamphylia, and Pisidia, and Lycaonia, and Galatia, and Phrygia, and, in fact, throughout Asia Minor in general. Berea, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, and other cities in Greece, were visited with the light of truth. Christianity then spread through a large portion of other parts of the Roman empire, and reached as far as even Lyons in France.

This was marvellous success; but, as it respects geographical extent, the spread of Methodism is more marvellous. The Roman empire embraced the whole of the places above mentioned. It extended three thousand miles in length and two thousand miles in breadth, and comprised the most fertile and best cultivated part of the known world. Its limits were the Atlantic on the west; the Rhine and Danube on the north; the Euphrates on the east; and the deserts of Arabia and Africa on the south. This was a vast area; but, compared with that over which Methodism has spread itself during the last hundred and thirty years, it is insignificantly small. If Methodism does not exist in Palestine, Asia Minor, Arabia, Greece, or Egypt, it exists in Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Africa: and, passing to other regions which the Romans never trod, it has long since entered India and Ceylon; it has already won its triumphs in the flowery land of the Chinese; it has a vast multitude of adherents in Australia, and the islands of the Pacific Ocean; in the West Indies its converts are numbered by tens of thousands; while in America it has diffused its blessings from the most remote settlements of Canada in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south, and from Nova Scotia in the east to California in the west.

Take another epoch of the church’s history—the Reformation, begun by Luther, in the year 1517. This immense revival of truth and godliness, in the midst of a corrupted church, established itself in many parts of the German empire, where it continues to the present day. It was propagated in Sweden by one of Luther’s disciples, Olaus Petri. In Denmark, it was spread by Martin Reinard and Carlostadt. In France, it found a patroness in Margaret, Queen of Navarre. In Switzerland, John Calvin became famous as one of its great apostles. It made considerable progress in Spain, Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland. In the Netherlands, upwards of a hundred thousand persons were cruelly put to death because of their embracing it. In all the provinces of Italy, but more especially in the territories of Venice, Tuscany, and Naples, great numbers of people, of all ranks, were led by it to express an aversion to the Papal yoke. In Spain, not a few embraced it, and even Charles V. himself is presumed to have died a Protestant. In England, Henry VIII. unintentionally helped it forward by usurping the chair of church supremacy, hitherto occupied by his holiness the Pope; while his only son, King Edward VI., was its brightest ornament, and, in some respects, its most effectual support. In Ireland, George Brown, Archbishop of Dublin, pulled down images, destroyed relics, and purged the churches within his diocese from superstitious rites. While in Scotland, John Knox, a disciple of Calvin, launched his thunders against the Vatican, until he shook it to its base; and, at last, Queen Elizabeth, by an army, put an end to Popery in the whole of the Caledonian kingdom.

This was a glorious and wide-spread work, the blessed results of which will be felt to the latest generations. But compare it with Methodism, and say which, in the same number of years, made the greater progress, and established itself in the widest extent of country. It is no disparagement to the Protestant Reformation to affirm that, in this respect, Methodism is immensely its superior.

Look at this religious system as it now exists. The “Methodist,” or parent “Conference,” employs in Great Britain and Ireland 1782 regular ministers. Besides these, there were, in 1864, in England only, 11,804 lay preachers, preaching 8754 sermons every sabbath-day. In the same year, the number of preaching places in England only, was 6718, and the number of sermons preached weekly, by ministers and lay preachers combined, was 13,852.[1] To these must be added the lay preachers, preaching places, etc., in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Shetland, and the Channel Islands. The number of church members in Great Britain and Ireland is 365,285, with 21,223 on trial; and, calculating that the hearers are three times as numerous as the church members, there are considerably more than a million persons in the United Kingdom who are attendants upon the religious services of the parent Conference of “the people called Methodists.” Some idea of their chapel and school property may be formed from the fact that, during the last seven years, there has been expended, in Great Britain only, in new erections and in reducing debts on existing buildings, £1,672,541; and, towards that amount of expenditure, there has been actually raised and paid (exclusive of all Connexional collections, loans, and grants) the sum of £1,284,498. During the ten years, from 1859 to 1868 inclusive, there was raised for the support of the foreign missions of the Connexion £1,408,235; and, if to this there be added the amount of the Jubilee Fund, we find more than a million and a half sterling contributed during the decade for the sustenance and extension of the Methodist work in foreign lands. The missions now referred to are carried on in Ireland, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Gibraltar, India, Ceylon, China, South and West Africa, the West Indies, Canada, Eastern British America, Australia, and Polynesia. In these distant places, the committee having the management of the missions employ 3798 paid agents, including 994 who are regularly ordained, and are wholly engaged in the work of the Christian ministry. Besides these, there are about 20,000 agents of the Society (as lay preachers, etc.), who are rendering important service gratuitously; while the number of church members is 154,187, and the number of attendants upon the religious services more than half a million. Space prevents a reference to the other institutions and funds of British Methodism, except to add that, besides 174,721 children in the mission schools, the parent Connexion has in Great Britain 698 day-schools, efficiently conducted by 1532 certificated, assistant, and pupil teachers, and containing 119,070 scholars; also 5328 Sunday-schools, containing 601,801 scholars, taught by 103,441 persons who render their services gratuitously; and that the total number of publications printed and issued by the English Book Committee only, during the year ending June 1866, was four millions one hundred and twenty-two thousand eight hundred, of which nearly two millions were periodicals, and more than a quarter of a million were hymn-books.

These statistics are significant of great facts. At a moderate computation, there are at least two millions of persons regularly worshipping in the chapels, schools, etc., of the original body of “the people called Methodists.”

Leaving what is sometimes called the “Old Connexion,” we proceed to glance at the branches of the Methodist family.

The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists.—The societies of this section of Methodists were founded by Howel Harris, an early friend and companion of Wesley and Whitefield, and principally exist in Wales. At the census of 1851, they had 828 chapels, capable of accommodating about 212,000 persons, and which had cost nearly a million sterling. In 1853 they had 207 ministers, 234 lay preachers, and 58,577 church members.

The Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion.—In 1748 Whitefield became the chaplain of the Countess of Huntingdon, who, by his advice, assumed a kind of leadership over his followers, erected chapels, engaged ministers or laymen to officiate in them, and afterwards founded a college at Trevecca, in Wales, for the education of Calvinistic preachers. At her death, the college was transferred to Cheshunt, and there it still exists. Although the name “Connexion” continues to be used, the Congregational polity is practically adopted; and, of late years, several of the congregations have become, in name as well as virtually, Congregational churches. The number of chapels, mentioned in the census of 1851, as belonging to this Connexion, was 109, containing accommodation for 38,727 persons, and the attendance on the census Sunday was 19,159.[2]

The Methodist New Connexion was formed in the year 1797; the principal, if not only difference, between it and the parent body, being the different degrees of power allowed in each communion to the laity. At the Conference of 1869, the New Connexion had, at home and abroad, 260 ministers, and 35,706 church members.

The Band Room Methodists had their origin in Manchester, in 1806. Their chief leaders were John and E. Broadhurst, Holland Hoole, Nathaniel Williamson, and Thomas Painter. Of the earnestness of these godly men there can be no question; but, as in the case of many who have been called revivalists, their zeal was often boisterous and irregular, and sometimes obstinate. Their meetings were chiefly held in what was known as the Band Room, in North Street. Their chief faults were admitting persons to band meetings without showing their society tickets; having penitent benches and noisy prayer-meetings; holding cottage services; and, lastly and especially, acting independently of leaders’ meetings. The Band Room Methodists still exist; but are now called, “The United Free Gospel Churches.” They hold annual conferences; have fifty-nine churches, chiefly in Lancashire and Yorkshire; and differ from the parent Connexion, not in doctrines, but in having no paid ministers.

The Primitive Methodists sprang up in Staffordshire in 1810. The doctrines they teach are precisely similar to those of the original Connexion. At the conference of 1868 they had, at home and abroad, 943 ministers, about 14,000 lay preachers, nearly 10,000 classleaders, 3360 connexional chapels, 2963 rented chapels and rooms for religious worship, 3282 Sunday-schools, above 40,000 Sunday-school teachers, 258,857 Sunday-school scholars, and 161,229 church members.

The Bible Christians, sometimes called “Bryanites,” were founded by William O’Bryan, a Wesleyan local preacher, in Cornwall, in 1815. They principally exist in Cornwall and the West of England, but also have mission stations in the Channel Islands, the United States, Canada, Prince Edward’s Island, and Australia. Like the parent Connexion they have class-meetings, circuits, district-meetings, and a Conference. Their statistics, for 1869, are about 700 chapels and 300 other preaching places, 254 ministers, 1759 lay preachers, 44,221 Sunday-school scholars, 8913 Sunday-school teachers, and 26,241 full and accredited church members.

The Primitive Methodists in Ireland seceded from the parent body in 1817. At that time the Irish Conference, at the urgent request of many of the Irish societies, agreed that the ministers in full connection should administer the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper, in circuits making proper application to that effect. This occasioned great commotion. A number of leaders and local preachers assembled at Clones, in the beginning of 1817, and formed themselves into a separate Connexion, the only difference between them and their quondam friends being, that their ministers should not administer baptism and the Lord’s supper, but should leave their societies at perfect liberty to partake of those sacraments in the churches to which they respectively belonged. In 1816 there were in Ireland 28,542 members of society; but in two years, and in consequence of this senseless schism, that number was reduced to 19,052. The new body took the name of Primitive Methodists, and still continue a separated people on the one principle already mentioned. In 1861, they had in Ireland, 61 circuits, 85 ministers, and 14,247 members of society.

The United Methodist Free Churches are an amalgamation of three different secessions from the original Connexion, 1. The Protestant Methodists, who were formed into a distinct body in 1828, when upwards of 1000 members separated from the Leeds societies, because of the proceedings of the special district-meeting convened to settle the disputes arising out of the introduction of an organ into Brunswick Chapel. 2. The Wesleyan Methodist Association, which sprung out of the controversy in 1834, concerning the then proposed Theological Institution. 3. The Reformers, who were expelled, or who seceded, during the terrible agitation which occurred in 1849. These amalgamated bodies have, in 1869, ministers, 312; lay preachers, 3445; chapels, 1228; Sunday-scholars, 152,315; church members, 68,062.

The Wesleyan Reform Union consists of those Reformers of 1849 who refused to amalgamate with the United Methodist Free Churches. In 1868, the Union had 20 ministers, 608 lay preachers, 276 chapels and preaching places, 580 classleaders, 18,475 Sunday-scholars, and 9393 church members.

The above comprise all the Methodist bodies now existing in the United Kingdom. Some others have occasionally sprung up, such as the Tent Methodists, the Independent Methodists, etc.; but they are now either extinct or incorporated with other churches. Not reckoning the Band Room Methodists, nor the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion, and making a moderate estimate of the Sunday-school scholars belonging to the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists and to the Primitive Methodists in Ireland, we arrive at the following results.

Marvellous, however, as the success of Methodism has been in the United Kingdom, it has been far more marvellous in the United States. There it holds and preaches precisely the same doctrines as are held and preached in England. There, as here, it is intensely loyal; and, during the late terrific war, sent a hundred thousand white, and seventy-five thousand, black troops into the field of battle under the loyal flag. It is dotting the whole of the vast American continent with its church edifices, and has perhaps the most powerful religious press of which the world can boast. Let the reader ponder the significance of the following statistics for the year 1869, taken from the New York Christian Advocate, and referring exclusively to the Methodist Episcopal Church North.

In connection with its schools, there are libraries containing more than two millions and a half of books. Its Book Concern has about thirty cylinder power-presses in constant operation; and about 2000 different books on its catalogue, besides tracts, etc., and 14 periodicals, with an aggregate circulation of more than twelve millions every year. It also has a great Missionary Society, with prosperous missions in China, India, Africa, Bulgaria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and other places.

The returns for the Methodist Episcopal Church South, in 1869, are 2581 ministers, 3951 lay preachers, and 535,040 church members.

The Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada has 216 ministers, 224 lay preachers, and 20,000 members.

Besides the above, there are other Transatlantic Methodists, as:—1. The African Methodist Episcopal Church, which, in 1867, had 14 annual Conferences, 673 chapels, 509 travelling preachers, 727 local preachers, 130,950 members, 33,134 Sunday-school scholars, and 40,716 volumes in Sunday-school libraries. 2. The Methodist Protestant Church, with about 90,000 members. 3. The American Wesleyan Methodists, with above 20,000 members. 4. The German Methodists, with 46,000 members. 5. Three or four smaller sects, which need no further notice. The aggregate membership of these several Methodistic bodies may be fairly estimated at about 300,000, and their ministers and preachers at 5000.

These are startling figures; put together in an abbreviated form, they stand as follows:—

Some of these figures are estimated numbers, and are so given; the others are statistics officially reported. Put the matter in another form. Is it too much to calculate Methodist hearers only at the rate of twice the number of Methodist church members? If not, the estimated result is as follows:

We thus make a total of more than twelve millions of persons receiving Methodist instruction, and, from week to week, meeting together in Methodist buildings for the purpose of worshipping Almighty God. The statement is startling, but the statistics given entitle it to the fullest consideration.

But rightly to estimate the results of Methodism during the last hundred and thirty years, there are other facts to be remembered.

Who will deny, for instance, that Methodism has exercised a potent and beneficial influence upon other churches: Episcopal, Presbyterian, Independent, and Baptist churches have all been largely indebted to Methodism, either directly or indirectly, for many of the best ministers and agents they have ever had. It is a remarkable fact that, during Wesley’s lifetime, of the 690 men who acted under him as itinerant preachers, 249 relinquished the itinerant ministry. These 249 retirers included not a few of the most intelligent, energetic, pious, and useful preachers that Wesley had. Some left him on the ground of health; others began business, because as itinerant preachers they were unable to support their wives and families; but a large proportion became ordained ministers in other churches. In some instances, the labours of these men, and their brother Methodists, led to marvellous results. To give but one example,—David Taylor, originally a servant of Lady Huntingdon, was one of Wesley’s first preachers, but afterwards left the work. Taylor, however, was the means of converting Samuel Deacon, an agricultural labourer; and the two combined were the instruments, in the hands of God, of raising up a number of churches in Yorkshire and the midland counties, which, in 1770, were organised into the New Connexion of General Baptists; and that Connexion, seventy years afterwards, in 1840, comprised 113 churches, having 11,358 members, a foreign missionary society, and two theological academies.[3]

Sunday-schools are now an important appendage of every church, and have been a benefit to millions of immortal souls; but it deserves to be mentioned that Hannah Ball, a young Methodist lady, had a Methodist Sunday-school at High Wycombe fourteen years before Robert Raikes began his at Gloucester; and that Sophia Cooke, another Methodist, who afterwards became the wife of Samuel Bradburn, was the first who suggested to Raikes the Sunday-school idea, and actually marched with him, at the head of his troop of ragged urchins, the first Sunday they were taken to the parish church.

The first British Bible Society that existed, “The Naval and Military,” was projected by George Cussons, and organised by a small number of his Methodist companions. The London Missionary Society originated in an appeal from Melville Horne, who, for some years, was one of Wesley’s itinerant preachers, and then became the successor of Fletcher as vicar of Madeley. The Church Missionary Society was started by John Venn, the son of Henry Venn the Methodist clergyman. The first Tract Society was formed by John Wesley and Thomas Coke, in 1782, seventeen years before the organisation of the present great Religious Tract Society in Paternoster Row—a society, by the way, which was instituted chiefly by Rowland Hill, and two or three other Calvinistic Methodists. It is believed that the first Dispensary that the world ever had was founded by Wesley himself in connection with the old Foundery, in Moorfields. The Strangers’ Friend Society, paying, every year, from forty to fifty thousand visits to the sick poor of London, and relieving them as far as possible, is an institution to which Methodism gave birth in 1785.

Building churches is one of the great features of the age. Unfortunately, England has had no religious worship census since 1851; but even then, according to the tables of Horace Mann, Esq., Methodism had, in England and Wales only, 11,835 places of worship, with 2,231,017 sittings. In America, according to the census of 1860, Methodism nine years ago provided church accommodation for 6,259,799, which was two and a quarter millions more than was provided by any other church whatever.

The public press is one of the most powerful institutions of the day. England has four Methodist newspapers; Ireland, one; France, one; Germany, one; India, one; China, one; Australia, two; Canada and British America, five; and the United States about fifty.

Let the reader think of twelve millions of people at present enjoying the benefits of Methodist instruction; let him think of Methodism’s 21,875 ordained ministers, and of its tens of thousands of lay preachers; let him think of the immense amount of its church property, and of the well-nigh countless number of its church publications; let him think of millions of young people in its schools, and of its missionary agents almost all the wide world over; let him think of its incalculable influence upon other churches, and of the unsectarian institutions to which it has given rise; and then let him say whether the bold suggestion already made is not strictly true, viz., that “Methodism is the greatest fact in the history of the church of Christ.”

Here we have an immensely ramified church organisation, everywhere preaching the same momentous doctrines, and aiming at the same great purpose. A day never passes without numbers of its converts being admitted into heaven; and without many a poor wayward wanderer being brought by it into the fold of Christ on earth. Thousands of its temples are daily open; and “prayer,” by its churches, in one quarter of the globe or in another, is “made continually.” It has belted the entire planet with its myriad agents, who—in English, French, Dutch, German, and Italian; in the various dialects and tongues of Africa, India, and China; and in the newly formed languages of the Feegee and the Friendly Islands—are calling to the nations, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

In England, it has had much to do with the almost incredible changes that have taken place in English society during the last hundred years. In Ireland, with Popery so rampant, a people so poor, and emigration so vast, it has some five or six hundred chapels, besides having many hundreds of small congregations in cottages, court-houses, market-places, and village-greens. In Australia, it has more church sittings than any other Christian community, the Church of England not excepted; and has, at least, one twelfth of the colonists attending its places of religious worship. In America, it has become the dominant popular faith of the country, with its standard planted in every city, town, and almost every village of the land, and is building chapels at the rate of nearly two every day.[4] In the early period of its history, it had its fair share of persecution, and was, to an extent sufficient one would think to satisfy its founders, pelted and hooted by vulgar mobs, mistreated by magistrates and courts, reviled by religionists, and assailed by swarms of pamphleteers; it has had no national endowments, and has had no favour from parliamentary legislation; it has had no assistance from the State, and has been looked upon with supercilious contempt by what, in England, is called “the Church;” and yet despite all this, there is hardly a nation where its influence has not been felt; and instead of finding it maimed and lame and injured by fighting its past battles and winning its past victories; or weak and palsied and inactive on account of approaching age, it has never been more vigorous, by the blessing of God, than it is at present; and is putting into motion an amount of machinery the ultimate results of which no man’s mind can grasp.

Is all this concerning Methodism strictly true? We believe it is, and hence we believe that the life of Methodism’s founder is a subject well worth knowing. Who was he? What was he? Who were his companions? When and where and how did he pass his time? We will try to show.