162 THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 



In the recent ecumenical conference in Washington, 

 Bishop Fowler is reported to have said he thanked God 

 that "Methodism never whipped a Quaker, nor burnt a 

 witch, nor banished a Baptist to Rhode Ishmd." 



This is a very striking statement. It has a ring to it. 

 It sounds well. Probably, when it was written, it "brought 

 down the house." Let us examine it a little. I do not 

 propose to raise any question as to its truth. Surely, also, 

 the triple statement is creditable to that excellent denom- 

 ination of Christians. Several things, however, may be 

 noticed about it : — 



1. Methodism had no existence till well along in the 

 eighteenth century, say about 1730. The banishment of 

 Roger Williams, the persecution of the Quakers and the 

 New England witchcraft, all occurred in the seventeenth 

 century. Methodism, therefore, could not very well have 

 anything to do with these occurrences. 



2. New England never burnt a witch. 



3. Roger Williams, when ordered to leave the Bay 

 Colony, was not a Baptist, had no intention of becoming 

 one, and did not become one till at least three years sub- 

 sequent to his founding his settlement in Rhode Island. 



The well-known S. S. Cox, in a speech defending the 

 South, once spoke of witches having been burnt in Mass- 

 achusetts. Senator Vance, of North Carolina, only a year 

 or two ago in a speech alluded to Massachusetts as having 

 burnt witches at the stake. 



Now, so far as I know, the only witches ever burned at 

 the stake in this country were burned at the South, and 

 that long after the Massachusetts Bay Colony had set the 

 example to the world of o[)ening the jail doors, and set- 

 ting free all persons who had been charged with witch-, 

 craft. 



The law of King James I, "against conjuration, witch- 



