METHODISTS, CAMP
187
METHODISTS, FREE
Methodists, Camp, is a term of reproach which ill the days of early JNIethodism was fastened upon those Methodists in the Western States of North America who, with a view to promote revivals of religion, adopted camp-meetings, at whicli religious services were con- ducted. Now that camp-meetings have become popu- lar, in this country the term is no longer employed.
Methodists, Dialectic, or Romish, as they have also been called, flourished near the middle of the 17th century. Tiiey were priests of the Church of l\omc, wlio attempted, by ingenious sophistry, to refute the arguments employed" against them by the Protestant (Huguenot) party. Mosheim (^Eccles. Hist. vol. iii) ar- ranges these " Methodists" under two classes. Accord- ing to his classitication, the one party in their contro- versies urged their opponents to adduce direct proof of their doctrines by an appeal to the statements of the Holy Scripture. The other party refused to encounter the Protestants liy arguing with them on the various disputed points. Imt sdught to overcome them by ad- ducing certain i;r(at |iiiuciples involving the whole sub- ject. Thus they insisted that the Cliurch which was chargeable with changing or modifying its doctrines could not have the Holy Spirit for its giiitle.
In England the term J/ct/wdist is frequently applied to a person who becomes religious, witliout reference to any particular sect or party, and especially to ministers of the Church of England who are evangelical and zeal- ous in their preaching.
Methodists, Free (properly '-Tiir Fiskk :\rETii- ODiST Church"). This body, the young. sI of tin' ^ktli- odist family, an offshoot of the Metlinili^t Miiismpal Church, dates its existence from Aug. ':■'<. IMHi. when it was organized at a convention held at I'ekin, Niagara Co., N. Y., composed of laymen and ministers who were then or had been of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
I. Or '((/ill, < Ic. — The causes for the establishment of this independent body were manifold. Most prominent, however, were a desire for primitive IMethodist simplic- ity, and more faithful adlierence to the doctrines and usages of Wesley and his associates. Its organizers were ministers expelled from the " jiaiH iit" liody because of their course in opposing what tiny callrd innovations or departures from the rules of tlie Discijiline. It was and is claimed by those engaged in the Free Methodist movement that the Methodist Church has declined in spirituality since their early history, and that in the rapid progress made by the Church in adding numbers, acquir- ing property, etc., sufficient care has not been taken to guard its purity, and preserve its primitive power and spiritual efficiency— the toh ration of many worldly prac- tices, and a departme from correct doctrine on several im- portant points. In proof of this it is asserted that widely divergent and contradictory teachings are heard from the pul|)it on the doctrine of entire sanctitication without official rebuke, some preachers claiming sanctitication as a work done concomitantly with justification, others re- garding it as a result to be reached by a gradual process of spiritual growth, and yet others preaching it as a sec- ond distinct attainment to be received instantaneously by faith. The Free Methodists also hold that hearty and thorough repentance, evinced by honest confession, and complete abandonment of all sin, is practically not enough insisted on, and that many are accepted as con- verts who are not even scripturally awakened ; that a merely intellectual belief, born of human reason, is al- lo\\ ed to take the place of the supernatural faith taught by Paul and Wesley ; that the direct witness of the Spirit is not now enjoyed by multitudes of professed Methodists; that power over all sin is not experienced; that entire sanctitication is even jirofessedly a rare at- tainment; that the execution of discipline is so neg- lected as to become difficidt, and in many societies im- possible; that Methodists generally have abandoned jdaiuness of dress, and are as fashionably attired as the world itself; that they are allowed and coimtenanced
in the transaction of unscriptural business enterprises, and transact lawful business on worldly principles; and especially that secret and oath-bouncl fellowship with societies composed in large part of unsaved men is tol- erated and encouraged; and that the relaxing of the rule requiring attendance at class is especially fatal to spirituality. It is also further asserted that other evi- dences of the spiritual decline of the Church are exhib- ited by the partial and frequent abandonment of the free-seat system in its houses of worship ; and in the substitution of choir singing and instrumental perform- ances for congregational praise; by the reading instead of preaching of sermons; by the building of extrava- gantly costly churches, and resorting to improper modes of Clmrch support, such as Church fairs, picnics, dona- tion parties, etc.
The movement for the organization of this indepen- dent body had its commencement within the bounds of the Genesee Conference (N. Y.) of the Methodist Epis- copal Church. A number of ministers of that body liad written and spoken against these alleged deijarimcs from the primitive faith of Methodism. By tln' year 1855 a state of feeling had been engendered which re- sulted in acrimonious disputes, accusations, Churth tri- als, etc., and finally, in the year 1858, in the cxjiulsidn of the Kev. B. T. Roberts and the Kev. Joseph Jl-Creery on a charge of contumacy. Mr. lioberts had been tried the previous 3'ear by his Conference for alleged "im- moral and unchristian conduct." (Said conduct con- sisted in publishing an article in the Northern Indepen- dent entitled "New-school Methodism," in which the writer set forth views such as have been recited above, and wliich he offered to retract and confess as publicly as they had been promulgated if proved untrue or in- correct.) His article was assumed to be slanderous, however, and he was found guilty, and was sentenced to be rebuked b}' the bishop. The contumacy charged against him in the following j'ear consisted in publish- ing and circulating a second edition of New-sc/iool Methodism, and a pamphlet signed by George W. Estes, which gave a short account of the trial of the year preceding. On this charge (which was disproved as to the ptiblishinf/), and on the testimony of one ivit- ness (whose veracity was impeached) as to the circula- tion, Mr. Itoberts, in connection with one or two col- leagues, was expelled from the Genesee Conference and the Methodist Episcopal Church. This proceeding was regarded as a measure of high-handed persecution by many ministers and laymen of the Church, and during the ensuing j'ear one hundred and ninety-five promi- nent laymen met in convention at Albion, Orleans County, N.Y., and passed resolutions expressing their entire and unabated confidence in the expelled preach- ers, and recommending them to continue to labor for the salvation of souls. This sympathy of the laymen was shared by many of the ministers of the Conference, and this was so publicly expressed that at the ensuing Con- ference four of them were expelled on charges of " con- tumacy," while two others were located for the same cause. A large number of tlie lay members were also excluded from the Church. The ensuing General Con- ference, held at Buffalo in 1860, was respectfidly pe- titioned b}' fifteen hundred members of the Methodist Episcopal Church within the bounds of the Conference from which these expulsions had taken place to inves- tigate the judicial action of said Conference in relation to these matters. A committee was appointed for this purpose ; but W'as finally discharged. B. T. Roberts had appealed from both of the decisions of the Conference in his case. The first only Avas entertained, and on tliat, •'The verdict of reproof," the appeal committee stood equally divided. The other appeal was not entertained. Tlius these ministers and members were shut out of the Church. As they believed that the causes which had led to their expulsion existed more or less in all the other churches bearing the Methodist name, they felt com- pelled to organize a new denomination, that would, in