Heroes of early Methodism common property — Power of the Poll-Deed in quelling and preventing liberal sentiments — The noble dead of this period — Coke's letter to the Bishop of London, 1799 — Failure of the plan — Committee of Privileges of 1803 — Lay-delegation vs.
lay-representation — Foreign Mission work of the Conference and Dr. Coke its exponent — Jabez Bunting and Robert Newton — Great revivals — Jonathan Seville; no other form of Christianity ever developed such characters — Prosperity of the Connection — "Providential" favor; but equally so with the Reform bodies.
It will relieve the mental strain of these seven years of internal strife to turn reflection upon the bead-roll of moral heroes and spiritual giants who came into view during this eventful period. They belong alike to a common Methodism. Aside from their individual biographies, where published, the deft and graceful pen of Stevens has pictured them for the admiration of the religions world and the imitation of all who would do and dare and die for Christly service and scriptural doctrine.
Limitation forbids anything but glimpses of these sainted men as they pass in review. Richard Treffry was received during this stormy period. He was an able theologian, and his standard Lives of Benson and his son and namesake, Richard, are valuable works. For near fifty years he was a devoted and successful preacher and died in the triumphs of faith. James Townley was received in 1796. He was a biblical scholar and for a number of years one of the secretaries of the Wesleyan General Missions.
He was elected President of the Conference, and ranks with Benson, Clarke, and Watson. He suffered much in his last days, but overcame all through the blood of the Lamb. Richard Watson was placed on the roll also in 1796. He was morally great and intellectually gigantic. He succeeded Coke in the management of the Foreign Missions. He became one of the greatest preachers of his day, and his vigorous intellect was fruitful in his imperishable "Theological Institutes" and "Bible Dictionary."
English Methodism never produced a nobler character. Richard Newton, Jabez Bunting, Daniel Isaac, and Gideon Ouseley were among those who entered upon the stage of itinerant and laborious life. The first rose to commanding eminence and the second was a conspicuous figure, often elected to the Presidency, with a magnetic, awesome presence which subdued the average preacher in Conference discussion; esteemed arbitrary, he moved a majestic councilor among his brethren and did more than any other man, despite this overbearing reputation, to bring the laity into official Conference recognition.
While the Conference bloomed with this promise many of the veterans were passing away. In the seven years thirty-four obituaries are recorded. As was the custom from Wesley's time a few lines often dismissed a half-century laborer of eminent usefulness and pronounced ability. "These all died in faith." Let me link together the names of Hester Ann Rodgers, Mary Fletcher, Elizabeth Fry, [1]
Sarah Crosby, Ann Cutler, and Dinah Evans, for the sisterhood of Methodism has never been a whit less noble than its brotherhood, and was honored in these days with official position, so that largely the controversy of today is but a return to ancient usage. Benson was a mighty preacher in these times, and Adam Clarke, as revivalist and writer, won a high place among his peers. His
Commentary is an imperishable monument. He was instrumental in the conversion of Joseph Butterworth, afterwards member of Parliament and the associate of Wilberforce, and enrolled with Thornton, Buxton, and Thompson as leading laymen. William Bramwell is a name known to the sacred biography of Methodism. "At one time," says Stevens, "he sympathized much with Kilham, in his projects of 'reform,' but his deep piety saved him." Comment is forborne. Extraordinary scenes attended his revivals. Samuel Hick, the "Village Blacksmith," is a memorable name in the ranks of the local preachers. His career, as depicted by Stevens and by his biographer, reads like a romance.
He died in his seventy-first year in triumph, having spent more than fifty years in labor as a blacksmith and service as a Methodist preacher and exhorter. Under such auspices the United Societies increased in these seven years from 76,968 to 108,261. The itinerant ministry increased from 313 to 399, and during the same time some 20 new chapels were erected. [2]
The eight Conferences from 1798 to 1806, being respectively the fifty-fifth to the sixty-third, were presided over in order by Benson, Bradburn, Wood, Pawson, Taylor, Bradford, Moore, and Coke.
The excision of Kilham, the retirement of Thom and others from the Conference to join him, and the secession of five thousand members left the old Conference in a condition of acquiescence in the dominant party, the Legal Hundred and their supporters. There is no question that not a few of them were in earnest sympathy with a more liberal form of government. Indeed, so widespread was the espousal of such sentiments that, but for the Poll-Deed and its entrenchment of property power with the minority, the insistence of the advocates of liberal views and the force of their logic would have prevailed. It happened, as it always will in like controversial issues, that social ties, personal pecuniary support for dependent families, the risk involved in a system yet in theory, the recusance of the timid, and the uncertainties that loom up in such a venture quelled disaffection and, at least outwardly, tranquilized the main body of Methodists. It must also be remembered that, besides the coign of vantage enjoyed by the adherents, their convictions were quite as intense, so that any innovation on the plan of Wesley meant destruction to the itinerancy and the decay of Methodism.
He had so proclaimed years before his departure. The title of all property must vest in the Conference; there must be an absolute and unquestioning obedience to its behests in all matters, specially that of the appointments, or ruin impended to the societies despite the vitality of its doctrines and the piety of its members. The potential element was the machinery. That nothing of the kind happened in the New Connection body and the other offshoots in England, in the Methodist Protestant Church and other offshoots in America, served to dispel the illusion, and demonstrate that, when leaders are wedded to power, they are blind and deaf, not to the logic of theory only, but to the logic of facts as well. Much had been conceded, however, as has been found, and more probably would have been but for the imperatives of the Poll-Deed, thus evidencing the truth of one of the fundamentals, that it was responsible, directly or indirectly, for all the divisions in English Methodism.
At least two important events took place between 1798 and 1806 in the Wesleyan Conference history, which must receive passing notice as outcroppings of the quiet struggle which still went on between the men of extreme views within it. On the 29th of March, 1799, Dr. Coke, having conferred with his confidential friends, and secured their approval, wrote to the Bishop of London one of those remarkable letters which remind us how thoroughly hierarchal he was in his convictions of church polity, and how little value he attached to his third ordination by Wesley. The full text is found in Drew's biography of Coke, pages 284-286. See Appendix B. The address is of the highest
consideration for his Lordship and the deepest humility for himself. The gist of it is the necessity, as he saw it, of "securing the great body of Methodists in connection with the late John Wesley to the Church of England." Various considerations are urged. The increasing number of the Methodists, their dissatisfaction with receiving the ordinances from clergy not spotless in their moral reputation, yet friends of the liturgy and the episcopacy. He asks for ordination at the hands of the Bishop of a sufficient number of the preachers to administer the ordinances, or universal separation will take place from the Established Church. Dr. Coke feels sure that he commands the situation as to the Conference. At the same time his confessions are naive and diplomatic. He had become, he says,
"warped in his attachments to the Church of England, in consequence of my visiting the states of America, but, like a bow too much bent, I have again returned. But I return with a full conviction that our numerous societies in America would have been a regular Presbyterian church, if Mr. Wesley and myself had not taken the steps which we judged necessary to adopt." He suggests an interview with the Bishop, etc. In a short time he received an answer to the effect that he would turn it over and consult the archbishops. In a few weeks the Archbishop of Canterbury gave final answer, which was a simple rebuke to Coke for insinuating that any of the clergy were immoral, with his regrets that he had nothing to suggest. The correspondence never came formally to the notice of the Conference.
Much of the zest of Dr. Coke's movements in directions like this depended on secrecy, the assumption of responsibility: he loved to surprise his friends by discoveries of his adroitness; but every one of his ventures ignobly failed except his organization of the Methodist Societies in America as an Episcopal Church, of an anomalous type, with the aid and concurrence of Francis Asbury. The methods then employed will receive full attention in regular course.
The Wesleyan Conference of 1803 was notable for the first appointment of the Committee of Privileges. As Methodism spread in the English realm and ramified through the colonies, there was frequent interference by the civil authority with the missions and the rights of worship among Dissenters, with whom the Methodists were politically classed. It was found necessary to protect the rights of the denomination from encroachment. The first Committee of Privileges consisted of Dr.
Coke and Benson, with six of the principal laymen.
Stevens gives the names of three, Butterworth and Bulmer of London, and Thomas Thomson of Hull. A general solicitor was also appointed. The committee was named annually and was to be consulted before resort to lawsuits should be made. This preponderance of laymen was the result of Bunting's effort to bring this element, so long repudiated and neglected of recognition, to the front.
Stevens, commenting on this advance in liberal principles, says, The innovation was destined to go on peacefully, but successfully, until Wesleyan Methodism should virtually have the fact, without the theory, of lay-representation." The expression is vague with a confusion of terms. It is understandable how a theory may exist without the fact, but the fact can obtain only by the materializing of the theory. What was conceded by the Conference was a lay-delegation. A lay-representation can only be by the election of such by the same class. It is this differentiation that constituted the very ideal of representative Methodism. It has not lay-delegates selected by the suffrages of another class, the ministers; but it has lay representatives elected by the suffrages of their own class. This essential difference remains in the Methodisms the world over. Neither in Wesleyan Methodism, nor in the Episcopal Methodisms, north and south in America, notwithstanding the advances made, is there lay-representation, and they simply juggle with words, or labor under a confusion of ideas who make the contention for them. Not until lay-representation is a fact in these[3]
parent bodies will the mission of the liberal Methodisms on this line be accomplished. At the Conference of 1803 the question "Should women be allowed to preach?" was revived. Without denying the right, restrictions were placed upon them which guarded the privilege from possible abuse.
The mission work of the Conference from 1799 onward received increasing attention. In its management and enlargement Dr. Coke shines with zealous splendor. In meeting his personal expenses and in liberal contributions to this cause he expended all of his private fortune of 1200 or
$6000 a year. In labors he was abundant, in sufferings he endured hardness. He was practically the originator of the West India missions. After thirteen years, from 1799, 11,000 communicants were reported with 50,000 or 60,000 islanders under instruction. In 1801 he was appointed treasurer of the Mission Fund. He overlooked the work in Ireland and Wales. In 1804 the first missionary committee was appointed, Coke's single agency not being sufficient to compass it, unflagging as he was in his efforts and attentions. The collections were made permanent and annual. Coke was made superintendent of all the missions. The financial support of the ministry, a kindred interest, received special consideration. Laymen like Butterworth, Bulmer, Marriott, and others devised The Preachers' Friend Society. It was begun, says Myles, "without solicitation from the preachers, and has been attended with the happiest effects."
During the eight years under consideration, the obituary column of the Conference was greatly enlarged. The notices, as was the vogue from Wesley's time, were short and pithy. William Hunter departed in 1798, in his seventy-fourth year. He was a favorite with Wesley. His labors were marked with success and his departure singularly triumphant. In 1799 William Thompson was sainted after forty years' labor. His death was painful, but victorious. In the seven years' controversy he was the balance-wheel of the Conference. Also, John Murlin and Thomas Olivers had deceased. The former, a gritty Methodist preacher, the latter an able controvertist with a genius for poetry and music. A number of his lyrics will never cease to be sung while Methodism and piety live. Alexander Mather passed away in 1800. He had been ordained by Wesley superintendent for Scotland with probably the same form and with the same purpose as he had ordained Coke superintendent for America jointly with Francis Asbury, but he did not carry a bishop's bee in his bonnet, and even opposed Coke's episcopal scheme at the Lichfield meeting, though a superintendency he believed both wise and expedient. He was universally respected, and died after much suffering the death of the righteous. He received the longest obituary notice ever inserted in the minutes to this time. In 1802 Christopher Hopper, a noble veteran, was added to the eminent dead. Many others, old and young, died in the faith, whose record is on high, if well-nigh forgotten among men. During these eight years no less than 213 were received by the Conference, an average of twenty-six for each year, as Stevens summarizes. Edward Hare was entered upon the roll in 1798, and after twenty years' service died in the flush of manhood. He was esteemed the ablest controvertist of English Methodism. 1799 two names were added to the probationary list of the Conference which shine as bright particular stars in its firmament: Jabez Bunting and Robert Newton. The former was a prince in Israel, a master spirit, of marvelous personal magnetism and authoritative force for nearly sixty years. He was the first man elected by the Legal Hundred to fill a vacancy, was made Secretary of the Conference ten times, and President four times. After the death of Coke he was the chief representative of Methodist missions. He was President of the Theological Institution for a series of years. While he was intensely conservative, he did more than any other man to bring the laymen into recognition through
much opposition from the elders of the Conference. He was a master debater, and when he rose, after all had expended their logic, he swept away the cobwebs and brought into such powerful relief the salient points as to carry the body with him, almost invariably. His literary abilities were of a high order. Stevens says, "Adam Clarke excelled him in learning, Newton in popular eloquence, Watson in theological analysis and sublime and speculative thought, but he surpassed them all in counsel, in administrative talent, in varied practical ability." His leadership was supreme. Robert Newton was of fine physique, commanding a musical voice, deeply spiritual, he swayed his audiences with an air of sanctity and power difficult to describe. He was the popular platform speaker of his day in Methodism. For forty years he was known all over England by the crowds that gathered when he preached or delivered addresses. He labored nearly fifty-five years and died in triumph. Add Watson and Clarke, and you have a quartet who brought Methodism into singular eminence. Other historic names may be added — Joshua Marsden, Daniel Isaac, Thomas Jackson, and Gideon Ouseley. Great revivals took place, some of extraordinary power. On the Penzance circuit more than two thousand were added in the course of a year. Stevens says: "Kilham's secession had devastated some of the societies on Nottingham circuit. They had lost a chapel and three hundred members in that town. A new edifice was erected in 1798, and Bramwell's ministrations the next year repaired the entire loss of members." This really means that another form of Methodism was demonstrating its right to exist and was prospering under the same doctrines and means of grace.
Smith relates that during 1805 there was a most remarkable outpouring of the Spirit on Bradford circuit. There were immediate conversions under almost every sermon preached. For nearly three months the doors of the chapel were seldom closed, day or night. The house was filled by anxious, worshipping crowds by turns as room could be made for them. Love-feasts were held in the open air.
About nine hundred persons were received during the year. Some of the lay-preachers were prominent in these revivals. William Dawson, a Yorkshire man, and typical of his class, had a career of marvelous power and usefulness. Jonathan Seville was another of these immortal names. He was a poor cripple, cruelly treated by his trade-master in his youth; he survived to be a shining light among the lowly. His more than abject slavery is a sad commentary on indigent life at a period when Wilberforce and others were pleading the cause of the black slave in British colonies. Stevens' depiction of his treatment makes the blood run cold, and much deserved space is given to his memory. He developed into a genius, a marvel of piety and intellect whose name is as ointment poured forth in a large section of rural England. Perhaps no other form of Christianity ever created such characters. The societies under the Wesleyan Conference increased at an average of four thousand a year for this period. Much importance is attached to this prosperity by those who see a smiling Providence in it over the Wesley regime now so largely amended, as has been seen; but the Providence thus rightly recognized did not discriminate, but favored the New Connection Methodists, with whom extensive revivals also occurred and strong personalities were developed not inferior to the best of the old Connection. It contributed to the history of a common Methodism much that will never die.
*************************************