sorts of Methodists, each claiming an equal right to be called successors of John Wesley, while at the same time from Whitfield his former companion and friend, there have arisen two different communities in addition-making altogether among the Methodists of every kind-no less than nine varieties of Schism. The differences between Wesley and Whitfield have already been related, turning on the cardinal points of the doctrines of Election and Free Grace. They had separated irreconcilably long before the death of Wesley, and their followers were called respectively, as distinguishing their tenets from each other, Arminian and Calvinistic. We shall return to the followers of Whitfield or the Calvinistic Methodists when we have considered in the first place the followers of Wesley, and have pursued their history into the various schisms and divisions into which in the progress of time they were driven.

The last Conference at which Wesley presided was in the year 1790; he died in the year 1791. At that time there were no fewer than 108 Circuits and 295 Preachers, while the Members of his Societies throughout the United Kingdom amounted to about 72,000. This was a large body to be wielded and governed by a scheme of mere human device. The Conference assembled the year after Wesley's death, and proceeded to their work as usual. Wesley had left the government of his Society in the hands of one hundred of his principal Ministers. These hundred Ministers legally constituted "The Conference" "being preachers or expounders of God's Word in connection with John Wesley," and were invested with the whole power of governing the Society. They were to elect their successors themselves, when vacancies occurred by death or otherwise; and made by a deed of law of plenary authority to direct and manage all the affairs of the Society, appoint the circuits, manage the funds, and ultimately to ordain and appoint the Ministers. From hence it appears that the Conference which thus consisted solely of Preachers virtually possessed the whole power of the Society, while the laity, so to call them the ordinary people of every class were deprived of all voice in the regulation

of their affairs. The government was that of a Monarchy while Wesley lived, for he himself guided and ruled the Conference, but thus became an oligarchy after his death. But it was not according to the genius of the English people to submit contendedly to a form of government in which the majority had no voice. It seemed an assumption even more than in the Church herself, that the Preachers or Clergy should be superior to the people, and was an imitation of the Priestly power out of which they had been delivered when they separated from the bosom of the Church. For what purpose had they escaped from one set of Clergy, if they were only to be submitted to another. This was the universal cry, and it was the key-note to all the Schism which ultimately took place among them as will presently be seen. It arose from that inherent tendency to democratic government as opposed to the oligarchic which ever prevails in this country, and which runs through every institution and society from the House of Commons down to the lowest debating club, or Mechanics' Institute.

The

The Conference which first met after Wesley's death was, as before said, in 1792, and was held at Manchester. Preachers or members of this Conference published a declaration that they would "adhere to the plan left to them by John Wesley." But this determination was immediately opposed, and the majority of the Society openly demanded that greater "Religious Liberty"-(the usual watchcry of Schism), should be afforded to the "people." Several preachers came forward and by their speeches and writings paved the way for a kind of compromise which was at that time called "The Pacification." By this it was resolved that in every place where there was a threefold majority of class-leaders, stewards, and trustees-there the plan which John Wesley had left them should not in its strictness be adhered to, but that on the contrary, they should hold their assemblies in Church hours, and administer (so to call it) The LORD's Supper in their meeting-houses, and also baptize their children-acts of Religion, which Wesley had expressly forbidden. Here was the first triumph of the popular voice, and at the same time the first step of positive Schism;

and what was thus decided as to religious matters, was soon followed by a similar advance in temporal matters, and general legislation. It was said that the custom of the primitive Church was that the Laity should join with the Presbytery in all matters connected with the common body in the administration of funds, in the election of Church officers, the care of the Churches, the appointment of ministers, and indeed even in spiritual matters of every kind. Upon this, an agitation was commenced which led to a rupture in the Conference at Leeds, in the year 1797 delegates came from all parts of the Kingdom, to the number of 70, who were instructed to say, that "the people requested a voice in the formation of their own laws, and the administration of their own property.” The Preachers in the Conference accordingly proceded to discuss in order these two propositions -1. Shall delegates from the societies be admitted to the Conference? 2. Shall circuit stewards be admitted into the district meetings? Both these propositions after much debating were negatived. It was then proposed that there should be in every Conference, "an equal number of preachers, and of delegates chosen as representatives of the people." But the Conference rejected this also, and it seemed that although in spiritual matters which might widen the breach between the Church and themselves, they cared not to give way, yet in those matters which affected the legislative character of their own authority, the Conference was not likely to concede an iota. But what was the result? The majority, being the democratic power, rebelled. They at once forsook the Parent Society founded by Wesley, and just as he had himself foreseen and foretold; they set up a division, and being principally led by a Preacher of the name of Kilham, they were called by the name of Kilhamites, but more generally to this day are known by the name of THE NEW CONNEXION. At first they had but seven preachers, seven circuits, and 5000 members, but following the doctrine and plans of Wesley in all respects save that of his Conference; and having the popular voice with them they soon made advance, and in the year 1814, they had 23 circuits, 101 chapels, 207 societies, and 8,292 members -also 44 circuit preachers, and 229 local

preachers. According to the census of 1851, they have at present 300 places of worship, and about 40,000 persons who are attached to their community. *

In

It will be seen at once that the difference between the New Connexion Methodists, and those of the Old Connexion or John Wesley's, lay simply in the constitution of the Conference. the former, the voice of the people is brought to bear on the legislative, as well as the executive character of the Society, their Conference consisting of an equal number of itinerant preachers and of lay delegates both subject to the choice. of the people, whereas in the Old Connexion or first Wesleyans, the Conference consisted of none but Preachers, while the people had no voice in the management of their affairs. Both these Societies continue to this day in much the same condition as we have depicted them, and have never made any step towards reconciliation.

About ten years passed away, and then a second Schism burst forth. There arose a body of persons among the Old Connexion desirous of a return to what they called the Primitive form of Methodism established and practised by John Wesley himself. They desired the tone of their public worship to be restored to something like the form in which he left it; more frequent prayer-meetings; more freedom in indulging in loud exclamations in times of worship; and other similar display of feeling; preaching by females; assemblies in the open air; and the separation of the Society into smaller devotional bands or classes according to their religious attainments. All these were certainly marks of the first Methodists under John Wesley, and it cannot be denied but that the advocates of their restoration had reason on their side. The fact was, that the Conference and its members, its tone of worship, and its meeting houses had become too aristocratic for the poorer orders. It was not John Wesley's way, they said, to confine himself to such orderly and cold methods either of worship or of preaching-let them return to the primitive habits of their great founder. Such were the opinions which gradually arose in the year 1808-but did not fully

Census of Great Britain.-Religious Worship.
by Horace Mann, Esq.
N 2

develope themselves until the year 1820; at which period the advocates of these measures were cut off from the Old Society, and were formed into a separate body of their own, under the somewhat opprobrious name of RANTERS-but they gave themselves the name of PRIMITIVE METHODISTS. In 1838 their members amounted to more than 60,000. At the present time, according to the Census of 1851, they have 2,039 places of worship, and 229,646 persons attached to their community.

Their discipline, if it may be so called, consists in perfect liberty. They have meeting-houses in which to worship, but their great assemblies are held in the open air, in camp-meetings where they continue sometimes for a whole day in the most intense religious excitement, preaching and singing and praying. Quick animating tunes-loud vociferations -rapid movements of the body accompanied with gesticulations-these and other such devices of excitement produce in their meetings indescribable clamour and confusion, by which they are wrought up into similar scenes of enthusiasm to those which have been already described in the earlier scenes of Wesley's life. It may be conceived that their members are principally derived from the poorest ranks of life, and their ministers or preachers are of the most illiterate and ignorant kind; totally deficient, in most instances both of talent and of education. The fluctuation of this society is therefore considerable-they rise and fall in number seemingly by accident, without any definite principle or system of government.

Thus matters went on until the year 1828. No further Schism of any moment occurred until that period, when on the same principle as that upon which the New Connexion was formed, another division arose. It occurred at Leeds, and was caused by an adverse decision made by the Conference, relating to an organ which had been erected in one of the Chapels by the direction of the local authorities of the Circuit. The dissentients headed by a body of itinerant preachers amounted to about a thousand persons. Others joined them from different parts of the kingdom, and they formed themselves into a distinct commu

* Religious Census, by Horace, Mann, Esq.

nity, under the title of "WESLEYAN PROTESTANT METHODISTS."

But a still larger and more important division took place in the year 1834, which ultimately embraced the Protestant Methodists, and absorbed them into one body. There was a law of the Conference to this effect:

"Let no man, nor any number of men in our Connexion, on any account or occasion, circulate letters, call meetings, or attempt to do anything new, till it has been first appointed by the Conference."

A wise law, and one evidently necessary for the preservation of unity in a religious body, but one savouring too much of the "priestly intolerance" at which the ideas of Protestants are sure sooner or later to rebel. It happened that a preacher by name Joseph Stephens, advocated openly the separation of the Church from the State. It was an opinion which might well excite the denunciations of "the Powers that be" against those clergy of "the Establishment," who might dare to maintain it, but one would have thought that among Wesleyans, the enunciation of such a principle would have been already recognized by practice. But so it was that

Mr.

This

Stephens was excluded from the Society of the Wesleyans, and he accordingly formed a community of his own, on Independant principles at Ashton, under-Lyne. This gave great offence throughout the whole Wesleyan body, and it paved the way for further difficulties. Mr. Gordon, another itinerant preacher, voluntarily retired on account of the proceedings in Stephens's case, and he was followed by a number of persons from the towns of Dudley and Stourbridge, who joined in arraying themselves in a body against the Conference. was followed by the case of Dr. Warren, a preacher of great eminence, and considerable authority. He was brought to trial for publishing a pamphlet against a theological seminary, lately established by the Conference, He was suspended from the Ministry, and ultimately expelled by the Conference of 1835, upon which he conformed to the Church, and eventually received holy orders. these sentences and expulsions, as they were evidently of a very strong and arbitrary character, and seemed to aim at a more than just power, in the coercion of reli

But

gious liberty, gave great offence on all sides. At Manchester and Liverpool, and many other of the principal circuits an agitation commenced, which ended in a junction of about 20,000 persons, under the new name of the WESLEYAN AssoCIATION or Association Methodists. Their government, discipline, and doctrine, remained much the same as that of the New Connexion. According to the Census of 1851, their places of worship amount to 340, and the number of their adherents 40,170.*

We now come to the year 1848, when another great Schism broke out-which seemed at one time to threaten by its violence the whole system of Wesleyanism. The source of the mischief in this instance was precisely the same as on the former occasions,-an undue exercise of power on the part of the Conference watched and commented on by certain of the Preachers in a natural jealousy and unwillingness to submit to over-strained exactions. This jealousy had vented itself in anonymous papers bearing the name of Fly-sheets. The papers declared that the members of the Conference were the slaves of a few leaders-that the funds of the Wesleyan body were perverted to uphold a system of favouritism and oppression-that gross extravagance marked the pecuniary transactions of the whole body, and in short, that the Wesleyan Society was suffering under a system of general corruption; requiring an immediate Reform. was the usual history of oligarchical power, and the result of individual ambition, jealous of supposed inflictions of wrong-and the whole contest was carried on in the same spirit, each party fighting its own way with its own weapons. The President appealed to the Conference, and urging that the Conference was the highest power in the Society, demanded of them to aid him in crushing the rebellion with a high hand. Conference responded to the appeal, and. proceeded to call before them five ministers suspected of being the authors of the anonymous slander in the Fly-sheets. It seemed that the Conference exercised the power of demanding the presence of any suspected preacher and putting to

Religious Census, by Horace Mann, Esq.

It

The

him any question in a matter wherein he might be thought culpable. This was done in the present case. A" Brotherly question" was put to them touching their connection with the Fly-sheets, and all refusing either to criminate or to clear themselves, they were punished accordingly. One being an aged man, was admonished, one was reproved and disqualified, and the other three, being Mr. Everett, Mr. Dunn, and Mr. Griffith, were summarily expelled the Connexion.

This

took place at the Conference of 1849. Great excitement, as might be expected followed this determined act of discipline and many sided with the expelled ministers. Public meetings were held at Exeter Hall-subscriptions entered into for the expelled Ministers, and Committees formed in their defence. At the Conference of 1850, an application was made by the Remonstrant party in the persons of Mr. R. S. Stanley, and J. Massingham. They were described as secretaries of a committee of Privileges appointed at a meeting of delegates proposing to meet the Conference on the subject of the laws of Methodism. The Conference deliberated some time on the question of receiving these secretaries, and ultimately decided against so doing. The secretaries were described as appointed at a meeting which had no authority to make such an appointment,' and it was said, that "the existence and actions of a committee so appointed were a deliberate and flagrant violation of the discipline of Methodism," that "the objects which it was desired to accomplish by means of such a committee were totally at variance with the great principles and positive regulations on which the Wesleyans depended for the due maintenance of order and the edification and peace of their Society”—and it was moreover said, "that it was the determination of the Conference, not to hold communication with any association, confederacy, or committee, organized on divisive and disorderly principles like those which characterized the proceedings of the parties with whom they (the secretaries) were unhappily identified." This determination coupled with various further expulsions which occurred on all sides, specially at Manchester, Exeter, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Bristol, terminated in

an organized and complete division. The Conference leaders took every oppor'tunity, and used every means to crush 'the rebellious spirit of the people," but the people were no wit daunted by the anathemas of the preachers, and the organs of their party betook themselves readily to the surest mode of warfare in such a case-the stoppage of supplies. The expelled party very soon as in the preceding cases, appointed their preachers, built their chapels, organized their funds, and became a new sect at present known under the name of THE WESLEYAN REFORMERS. The number of MeetingHouses is at present 177, and their adherents amount to 44,286.*

Such is the last great Schism of the Wesleyan or Arminian Methodists. It would be needless to refer to some three or four minor divisions, such as "The Bible Christians"-"The Independent Methodists"-"The Bryanites," &c. Though gaining names as those of a party, they differed in reality but little from those larger sections which have already been described.

We must now revert to the Calvinistic Methodists, or followers of Whitefield.

an

* Census of 1851, by Horace Mann, Esq.

in her opinion, in accordance with the teaching of S. Paul, she attached herself to him in preference to Wesley, and gradually loosened her hold on the more orthodox teaching of the divines of that day. She opened her house in Park Street for the preaching of the Gospel, and her kitchen was every day filled with the poor of the flock who came thither for instruction. Thus she became the open and avowed patroness of Mr. Whitefield and other clergy of the like opinions with him, and by degrees, from a room in her own house, the transition was easy to a chapel, and from a chapel with clergy of the Established Church, the transition was easy in those days to ministers of her own appointment, whether with holy orders or without. She built and endowed meeting-houses in many of the principal towns, and laymen of piety and zeal became her preachers. She endowed a College in Wales for the education of her ministers, which was transferred after her death to Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, where it still exists. Articles of Religion were drawn up, and Trustees, a President, and Students, systematically appointed. But as Lady Huntingdon's Connexion mainly depended on a private individual's support, and did not differ in doctrine from Whitefield, whose disciple she became, it never assumed any very great importance. Her followers were a quiet and unostentatious community, occupying about fifty places. of worship in England and Wales, and perhaps as many ministers. The meeting houses of this sect amount now to ninetyeight, and her adherents to 19,966.*

But the sect out of which Lady Huntingdon's Connexion sprang, "the Calvinistic Methodists," were in themselves a very powerful and influential body, and spread with very great rapidity throughout Wales, and the adjoining counties. Mr. Howell Harris, a gentleman of private fortune, had begun to preach in different houses and to gather around him great multitudes of the poorer orders, when in 1739 he met Whitefield at Cardiff. Joining with him, and gathering together some other clergy of the Church who adopted similar views, he instituted schools and built meeting

Census of 1851, by Horace Mann, Esq.