F. Enthusiasm and its Discontents
2. Limits and Quarterly Meetings
religious enthusiasm. Cooper recounted that in the midst of this controversy,
“…a work of religion broke out among us, which the others opposed with much severity, and endeavored to make it be believed that it was a delusion, etc.”175 After the wealthy members had exited the society, the revival began again.
Cooper recounted, “…as to the work of religion, it went on gloriously.”176
Methodist societies. The public worship included the normal Sunday worship. In 1791, Bishop Thomas Coke estimated that for a normal worship in Methodist churches there were approximately five non-members for every member in attendance.177 And, quarterly meetings and camp meetings were full of instances of public worship.
Quarterly meetings had substantial instances of private worship, as well.
Nowhere was this more prominent than in the love feast. The love feast practiced by the Methodists was based on the Moravian derivation of the agape love feast, which was a staple of early Christianity. Love feasts were not synonymous;
instead, they were a time of worship, fellowship, and the sharing of some light food (often water and bread or a sweet bun), which emphasized love and harmony. A typical love feast was organized in the following way: “hymn, prayer, eating of bread and water, testimonies, monetary collection, hymn, prayer, and benediction.”178 The love feasts were almost always held in closed spaces (whether it be a barn, home, or meetinghouse), in order to better control the number of participants. Love feasts were normally limited to members of the Methodist Episcopal Church; only select outsiders were permitted to attend.
Like the preaching services, the testimonials given at the love feasts often elicited a powerful, emotive experience from listeners. The testimonials were, invariably given by those common persons in attendance at the quarterly meetings. The testimonies were normally a reflection from an individual on the manner in which God had transformed their lives and been the source of their
177 Thomas Coke, “Letter to Samuel Seabury, Philadelphia, 14 May 1791,” in A Letter to a Methodist, 4th ed. (Baltimore: George Lycett, 1869), 44. Ruth, 35.
178 Ruth, 106.
salvation. After listening to love feast testimonial on August 9, 1789, Ezekiel Cooper reflected, “Surely the Lord sent the angel of his presence, with a living coal from the altar, and applied it to every heart and tongue.”179
Many listeners appreciated the lack of pretences characteristic of the
testimonies. Certainly, official representatives of the Methodist Episcopal Church dominated the preaching services. However, the love feast testimonials normally came from persons lacking theological training and, in many cases, social
standing. This lack of polish was deeply moving to many listeners. One wrote,
…where I hear men, women, and youth, most of whom make no pretension to eloquence or learning, speak in artless language, or broken accents, of God’s goodness to them, and it is still interesting, affecting, and as it were, new to me every Sabbath.180
However, the quarterly meetings also allowed for more controllable public worship spaces than their camp meeting counterparts. The events were, generally, attended by all of the preachers, exhorters, and class leaders in a given circuit. For that matter, preachers from other areas often traveled to attend the meetings. And, finally, the bishops did their best to attend as many quarterly meetings as possible in a given year. This abundance of preachers and exhorters made possible the creation of many smaller, simultaneous worship services.
Similarly, love feasts and worship services were often held at the same time for the same reason. In a Delmarva quarterly meeting, for instance, those in
attendance were divided between an Episcopal church and a Methodist
179 Phoebus, 95.
180 Elbert Osborn, Passages in the Life and Ministry of Elbert Osborn, an Itinerant Minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, illustrating the Providence and Grace of
meetinghouse for worship services.181 In some cases, even the outdoors was used if an appropriate venue was not. During an 1808 meeting, Seth Crowell preached from a wagon while a love feast was going on inside the meetinghouse.182
Not only did quarterly meetings allow a clearer divide between public and private worship, they were also somewhat easier to supervise than camp meetings and many other major public worship events. This substantial
attendance by church leaders allowed for greater supervision of the more chaotic elements of the revival. In camp meetings, quarterly meetings, and other public worship services, there were constant disruptions. The disturbances ranged from annoyances to more threatening behavior. For instance, drunkenness, laughter, brawling, attempted whipping of black members, and the stoning of Methodist meetinghouses were some of the many problems that broke out around public worship events. Persons seeking to forcibly remove relatives or friends from the worship sessions also occasionally interrupted the event.
Many preachers and lay leaders among the Methodists became adept at dismantling and controlling the disturbances at both camp and quarterly meetings. A Methodist in southwest Ohio named Ezekiel Dimmitt gained a reputation for his physical strength and his willingness to use it to suppress disturbances.183 And, in other cases, preachers used the disturbances as an occasion to gain converts. Peter Cartwright recounted with pride that at one
181 Henry Boehm journal, 2 July 1815. See also, J.B. Wakeley, The Patriarch of One Hundred Years; Reminisces, Historical and Biographical of Rev. Henry Boehm (New York: Nelson & Phillips, 1875).
182 Seth Crowell, The Journal of Seth Crowell; containing an Account of His Travels as a Methodist Preacher for Twelve Years (New York: J.C. Totten, 1813), 82.
183 Ruth, 52.
camp meeting he preached recounted that one father was very suspicious of the camp meeting. His daughter wanted to attend and the father consented under the provision that he would accompany her. The father “…said I must be a very bad man, for all the women in the country were falling in love with me.”184 He hoped that by attending the camp meeting he might gather the proof he needed to justify a public flogging of Cartwright. Cartwright wrote, “The trumpet sounded for preaching; I mounted the stand and preached; this man came and heard me. I saw clearly from his looks, that he was convicted, and had a hard struggle in his mind.” At the end of the preaching service, “my gang of rowdies fell by dozens on the right and left, my special persecutor fell suddenly, as if a rifle ball had been shot through his heart.” 185