History (§ 1).
Agencies and Activities (§ 2).
III. In Japan.
IV. In America.
1. Methodist Episcopal Church. Beginnings (§ 1).
Dissensions; Wesley's Device (§ 2). The New Organization (§ 3). The General Conference (§ 4). Slavery and the Church in the
South (§ 5). Lay Representation (§ 6). Female Representation (§ 7). Government (§ 8). Missions (§ 9). Brotherhoods (§ 10). Other Agencies (§ 11). Notable Representatives (§ 12).
2. The Methodist Episcopal Church
South. Organization (§ 1). Property and Development (§ 2).
John
Government and Activities (§ 3). Representatives and Results (§ 4).
3. The Methodist Protestant Church.
4. Wesleyan Methodist Connection or Church of America.
5. The Free Methodist Church.
6. The African Methodist Episcopal Church.
7. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
8. The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.
9. Minor Methodist Churches. 10. In Canada and the Maritime Provinces.
Beginnings (§1). Division and Denominations (§ 2). Unification (§3). V. The Doctrinal Standards of Methodism. Doctrinal Bases (§1). Distinctive Doctrinal Features
(§2). American Position (§ 3). Purpose and Results (§ 4).
tleman of Christ Church to say, ' Here is sprung up a new sect of Methodists.' "
The undisputed founder of Wesleyan Methodism, John Wesley (q.v.), was the great-grandson of Bartholomew Wesley, a clergyman educated at Oxford, and one of 2,000 ministers ejected from their pulpits in 1662 under the Act of Uniformity (see Uniformity, Acts of) . His son John also studied
RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Metcalfe Methodists
in Oxford, became a clergyman, and, like his father,
for being true to his principles, was expelled
from his parish. He was the father
1. John of Samuel Wesley, also an Oxford Wesley; scholar, and the father of a large and
Early Life, notable family, including John and Charles Wesley. Their mother came of an intellectual, devout, and non-conformist ancestry. The spirit of independence was hereditary, and the environment was favorable to its expression. During the childhood and youth of John Wesley everything relating to religion " except morals " received attention in England, and from early manhood his life was a continual protest against the prevailing religious laxity and immorality. He took his master's degree Feb. 14, 1727; and from August of that year to Nov., 1729, having been ordained deacon and priest, officiated as his father's curate at Epworth. Soon after his father's death Wesley became a missionary to Georgia, and, accompanied by his brother Charles, who was secretary to James Oglethorpe, founder of the colony, arrived Feb. 5, 1736, expecting to be pastor to the English and missionary to the Indians. Upon the ship were certain devout Moravians, who, during a fearsome storm, manifested a degree of calmness and faith in the face of death beyond that possessed by Wesley, and he ever after acknowledged his indebtedness to them. In Georgia he met a Moravian, Peter Bohler, who told him to preach faith until he experienced it. His career in Georgia was disappointing. The whites in that colony would not endure his asceticism. His government of the parish was imperious, though none impeached his motives.. Social relations impeded his work; a combination was formed to drive him from the colony; the civil law was invoked against him, and he determined to return to London and submit his grievances to the authorities. On the voyage homeward his mind was wholly occupied in the search for a self-sustaining faith, fortified by the witness of the Spirit. After his return to England he spoke frequently in small societies, consisting chiefly of members of the Established Church seeking for clearer spiritual life. The crisis came on the evening of May 24, 1738, while he was listening to the reading of Luther's preface to the epistle to the Romans. His own account is: "I felt my heart strangely warmed, I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." In that moment Evangelical Methodism was born.
When George Whitefield (q.v.) returned from America he promptly visited Wesley. The reputation of Whitefield as the greatest of pulpit orators had spread on both continents ; and as
2. Early no building could contain the number Associa- who desired to hear him he resorted to .
tions. the fields. Wesley found it difficult to approve this; but as he continued to preach with the terrible energy and unction of a first believer, he was not usually allowed to speak a second time in the churches : on this account and because of the crowds, he also was led to preach in the open air. For doing the same thing the
archbishop of Canterbury threatened Charles Wesley with excommunication. Wesley's Arminianism caused an estrangement from the uncompromising Calvinist Whitefield. When controversy had become intense, Wesley summed up by saying that " those who believed in universal redemption had no desire to separate, but that those who held particular redemption would not hear of any accommodation, being determined to have no fellowship with men who were in such dangerous errors; so there were now two sorts of Methodists — those for particular and those for general redemption." The break between Wesley and Whitefield lasted but a short time, but the result was the formation of two sorts of organized Methodists, " Wesleyan Methodists " and " Calvinistic Methodists." Before this separation numerous societies had been formed, but, not having proper supervision, most of them dissolved. Peter Bohler suggested to Wesley the formation of another in London, and it was established in Fetter Lane, conducted in connection with the Moravian Church. In the summer of the same year, several small companies in Bristol united under the name of the Methodist society; a similar union took place in Kingswood, and another in Bath. These received the name of " United Societies." Wesley places the time when the first of these was formed toward the close of the year 1739.* Dissensions arose in the Fetter Lane society. Errors were so strongly advocated that on Sunday, July 6, 1740, Wesley read to the society his objections to them. The principal heresies were " denunciation of the Christian ministry as an institution "; " opposition to all ordinances "; and the affirmation that " silence is the best substitute for the means of grace." Wesley repelled these views, and he and about seventy-five seceding members met at the Foundry instead of at Fetter Lane; and thus, on July 23, 1740, " the Methodist Society in London " was founded.
While affiliating with the Moravians, Wesley's followers had instituted " Men's Bands " and " Women's Bands," which were to meet at least once a week to sing, pray, and exhort. They were
expected to reveal the true state of
3. Bands; their souls as they understood it, and
Class confess their faults one to another.
Meetings. Wesley met the men every Wednesday
evening, and the women on Sunday. Some objected on the ground that the Bands were " man-made." Wesley replied: " They are prudential helps, grounded on reason and experience, in order to apply the general rules given in Scripture according to particular circumstances." Others stigmatized them as " mere popery." Wesley answered: " Do they not yet know that the only popish confession is the confession made by a single person to a priest ? Whereas what we practise
is the confession of several conjointly, not to a priest, but to each other." Members of the " Bands " were selected from the united societies. The united
* Thomas Jackson, author of The Centenary of Wesleyan Methodism (London, 1839), says: " From that time Wesley distinguishes what he sometimes designates the United Societies, and at other times the United Society, from all religious associations with which he had been previously connected."
Methodists