WESLEYANS
941
WESLEYANS
structions for the establishment and perpetuation of a Methodist Church, and he sent them also an abridged liturgy for their use.
Sunday-schools were systematically commenced by the Methodists about the year 1784. Mr. Wesley him- self had conducted a Sunday-school in Georgia, America, as early as 1736. In 1769 Hannah Ball, a young Meth- odist lady, conducted a Sunday-school ten years before Mr. Kaikes began the work in Gloucester. ]Mr. Wesley early approved of the system, and one of tlie earliest letters written by Robert Kaikes was published in the At-niiniaii Mar/azine for .January, 1785. That led the way to their general adoption bj' the Methodists. In 1812 the number of scholars in Methodist Sunday- schools was about 60,000; in 1880 the number was 787,113, with 119,911 teachers, in England, and a union was established for the Connection.
The action taken by Mr. Wesley in 1781 in ordaining Dr. Coke as superintendent or bishop to officiate in America, and ordaining Richard Whatcoat and Thom- as Vascy to act as elders or deacons, was repeated in the following year, 1785, when he ordained John Paw- son, Thomas Manby, and Joseph Taylor to administer the sacraments in Scotland. In 1786 he ordained Joshua Keighley, Charles Atmore, William Warrener, and Will- iam Hammett; the two latter were for mission stations abroad. In 1787 Duncan McAllum, Alexander Suter, and Jonathan Crowther were ordained by him; and in
1788 John Barber and .Joseph Cownlej' were ordained elders, and Alexander IMather a superintendent. In
1789 Henry Moore and Thomas Rankin were ordained to have special charge of the London, Bath, and Bristol societies, and to administer the sacraments. Mr. Moore's parchment of orders was long in the possession of the writer. Mr. Rankin, five years previously, had con- A'ened and presided over the first Conference of Meth- odist preachers in America. These acts of ordination were strongly opposed by Charles Weslej', but such a proceeding on the part of John Wesley was justified by the surrounding circumstances of the time. It was one of those pacificatory measures which prevented what threatened to be a separation and loss of members. The conferences after Mr. Wesley's death did not recog- nise the "orders" thus given as conferring anj' superi- ority of position to the preachers thus ordained, except- ing that some of them were permitted to administer the Lord's supper before other preachers could do so. Mr. Moore maintained his supposed rights to the end of his days, but the Conference did not regard them. The Conference began to ordain preachers by the imposition of hands in 1836, but Mr. Moore was not invited to take part in the ceremonial. The three ministers who first laid hands on the heads of young men received into full connection in 1836 were Jabez Bunting, president of the Conference; Richard Reece, ex-president ; and Rob- ert Newton, secretary of the Conference. Ordination in this way has been continued at every subsequent Conference, the officiating ministers being the president and secretary of Conference, the ex -presidents, some chairmen of districts, and occasionally the father, if a minister, who has a son to be ordained. The president, in giving a copy of the Bible to each, says, in substance, "Take thou authority to preach the word and adminis- ter the sacraments." This takes place not till after four years' satisfactory probation, and a thorough examina- tion.
During the life of Mr. Wesley, preaching by the Methodists was held at five and nine in the morning, five in the afternoon, and eight in the evening, so as not to prevent any from attending service at Church. The Conference of 1786 gave consent to hold ^Methodist services in church hours when the minister was a wicked man or preached Arian doctrines, or when the churches could not contain half the people, or when the cluirch was three miles distant. In such cases the preacher was directed to read the Psalms, Lessons, and [lart of the Church Prayers. All this was changed soon
after IMr. Wesley's death, and more liberty was given to the preachers.
IMarch 29, 1788, was a memorable day in the history of Methodism ; Charles Wesley, the poet, entered into rest. He had no disease; ''the weary wheels of life stood still." He was born in December, 1707, conse- quently was aged eighty years and three months. He wrote fully six thousand five hundred hymns and poet- ical pieces, but left his widow in such moderate circum- stances with her three children that William Wilber- force, the Christian philanthropist, sent her yearly the sum of £60 as a gratitude-ottering for the soul-com- fort he had derived from her husband's hymns and sermons, and this was continued till her death, in De- cember, 1822, at the age of ninety-six years. The death of Charles Wesley was more deeply felt by the founder of Methodism than any other event in the history of the Connection.
At the Conference following the death of his brother, Mr. Wesley took a review of the fift\'- years that had passed since his conversion, which event he considered to be the real beginning of Methodism. The sum of a long conversation was that the Methodists, in the course of fifty years, had neither premeditatedh' nor willingly varied from the Church in one article, either of doctrine or discipline. That out of necessity, not choice, they had slowly varied in some points of discipline, by preaching out-of-doors, using extemporary prayer, em- ploying lay preachers, forming societies, and holding annual conferences. These were all commenced as Providence opened the way.