THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
BIBLE CHRISTIANS (BRYANITES).
William O'Bryan (§ 1).
Early Organization and Growth (§ 2).
Dissension (§ 3).
Extension to America and Australia (§ 4).
Union with the Methodists in Canada (§ 5).
Union in Australia and England (§ 6).
Bible Christians or Bryanites are popular names of a body of Christians officially known as the Bible Christian Connection. The designation " Bryanites " is from their founder, William O'Bryan; that of " Bible Christians " was due to the persistent use of the Bible in private devotions and public services by a peasantry in general but scantily provided with the book, and to the consistent practise of its precepts by their early ministry. The sect has usually been classed with the Methodists and is now united with them.
William O'Bryan, the founder, was born in
Gunwen (near Lostwithiel, 23 m. w. of Plymouth),
Cornwall, England, Feb. 6, 1778. He was the son
of a yeoman, was possessed of a vigorous mind and
retentive memory, and, having a good elementary
education, was, intellectually, con-
i. William siderably above his class. His home
O'Bryan. influences were devoutly religious
and resulted in his conversion at
eighteen, when he began at once to exhort. He
was licensed shortly after as a " local preacher "
with the hope of entering the Wesleyan itinerancy;
meanwhile he engaged in business.
Serious illness (1804) reawakened in him a profound conviction of his call, which delay and opposition had weakened for a time. For five years more he was content to work on the Bodmin circuit as a local preacher of the Wesleyans, while still in business. His fine presence, courteous manner, great magnetism, and above all his fervent godliness gave him much popularity as a preacher. In his keen hunting for souls, he grew restive under restraint, overstepped the boundary of the circuit and plunged into the " wild wastes of Cornwall and North Devon," where the voice of Methodism had never been heard.
This in the mind of the Wesleyan authorities was a " dangerous irregularity " of method, against which Mr. O'Bryan had been cautioned, and, when he appeared at the district meeting as a candidate for the itinerancy, caused his " first " rejection; the financial responsibility which would be incurred by accepting a married man, as he now was, was named as the " second " cause for his " final " rejection. He at once entered unoccupied fields in a new campaign. His unquestioned moral uprightness, indefatigable labors, and unsparing self-sacrifice made his evangelical message remarkably successful ; and the generosity which prompted him to urge all his converts to enter the Church that had rejected him from its highest office of ministry compels admiration. A tendency to despotic rule, to which by nature and force of circumstances he was inclined (see below, § 3), led to a separation in 1829 from the Connection which he had founded, and in 1835 to his emigration to the "United States with residence in New York City. He revisited his spiritual children more than once
and was heartily welcomed. A generous pension was provided for his support by the body. He died in Brooklyn, Jan. 8, 1868, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
The germ of the Bible Christian denomination consisted of twenty-two persons, converts of Mr. O'Bryan, who were organized into a society on Oct. 9, 1815, in the house of John Thome, Shebbear, Devonshire, England. Within a year this number became eighteen ministers and 1,500 membersand at the sixth year seventy-eight ministers and 6,200 members. To carry forward a work extending so rapidly, Mr. O'Bryan adopted 2. Early John Wesley's plan and " chose and Organiza- appointed " both men and women as tion and itinerants. The proportion of women Growth, was large in the early history of the Church, and their work was eminently successful; yet their number steadily declined and ultimately none remained in the itinerancy. With this working force evangelism was extended into Devonshire and Cornwall, the Scilly and Channel Islands, and later by emigration (1820-30) to America.
Organization into societies and circuits required meeting-places and chapels — at first preaching was mostly in the field, the village green, in hired halls, and in houses — and all property acquired for such purpose was held in Mr. O'Bryan's name. He also presided over the conference, the first being held at Launceston (1819), and composed of ministers only. To all this absolutism, there 3. Dis- was serious objection, and an effort sension. to secure an amended deed by which all property should be held in trust for the Connection was begun in 1826. A crisis was reached at the eleventh conference (1829), when opposition to Mr. O'Bryan's expressed intention " that if all the conference were opposed to his views, his single vote was to determine every case," resulted in his adjourning the conference, and withdrawing with comparatively few sympathizers. The conference refused to recognize his authority, elected Andrew Cory president in his stead, and proceeded with business. It was resolved " that the conference be the organ of government; its membership, ministers and laymen; and its next place of meeting annually fixed." The conference thus declared against an episcopacy, as it also decided against ecclesiasticism by admitting laymen to church government in equal numbers with clerical members. Eight years later these separatists negotiated terms of reunion, but Mr. O'Bryan never again united.
Many members of the infant Church emigrated
to the colonies and the United States. In 1S31
the Missionary Society of the Bible Christians in
England sent John Glass and Francis
4. Exten- Metherall as missionaries to Canada
sion to West and Prince Edward Island
America respectively. They also organized
and Aus- missions (1846) in the States of Wis-
tralia. consin, Ohio, and Michigan. In 185(1
James Way and James Rowe were
sent out to Australia, and later work was begun in
New Zealand. For the next quarter of a century