METHODISTS 



159 



account of the origin and earlier development of 

 Methodism, see articles on the brothers WESLEY 

 and on WHITEFIELD ; \ve confine ourselves here 

 to a brief notice of its organisation, doctrine, and 

 present condition. 



(1) Organisation. This appeal's to have been 

 partly improvised by Wesley to suit the exigencies 

 of his position. It was not a theoretical and premedi- 

 tated, but a practical and extempore system. In the 

 Rules of the Society of the People culled Methotlists, 

 drawn up by himself, he says : ' In the latter end of 

 the year 1739 eight or ten persons came to me in 

 London, who appeared to Ije deeply convinced of 

 sin, and earnestly groaning for redemption. They 

 desired (as did two or three more the next day) 

 that I would spend some time with them in prayer, 

 and advise them how co Hue from the wrath to 

 come, which they saw continually hanging over 

 their head.s. That we might have more time for 

 tliis great work, I appointed a day when they might 

 all come together, which from thenceforward they 

 did every week viz. on Thursday, in the evening.' 

 Tlii.s he calls 'the first MethoJist Society.' Its 

 numbers rapidly increased, and similar 'societies' 

 were soon formed in di Hi: rent parts of England 

 where the evangelistic labours of the Wesleys had 

 awakened in many minds 'a desire to tlee from 

 the wrath to conn, and be saved from their sins' 

 the only condition required of any for admission 

 into these societies. In order to ascertain more 

 minutely how the work of salvation was progress- 

 ing in individual cases, Wesley sulxlivided the 

 societies into 'classes,' according to their respec- 

 tive places of abode, each class containing aliout 

 a dozen persons, under the superintendence of a 

 ' leader,' whose duties are partly religions and partly 

 financial. He has ( 1 ) to see each person in bis 

 i.-ier; a week, 'to inquire bow their souls 

 prosper,' and to encourage, comfort, or censure, as 

 the case may require ; and (2) to collect the volun- 

 tary contributions of his class, and pay them over 

 to the 'stewards' of the society. Each society has 

 its stewards, who take charge of the moneys con- 

 tributed in the classes and congregation, and who 

 see to their proper distribution. The leaders and 

 stewards are the local church-council, which is 

 invested with disciplinary functions. A circuit is 

 .'in aggregate of the sureties for a particular neigh- 

 bourhood ; and, arrording to its sixe, having from 

 one to five ministers appointed for a period of not 

 less than one or more than three years. The senior 

 minister is superintendent of the circuit. The 

 administration of the spiritual affairs of each society 

 is vested in the leaders' meeting, ami that of the 

 general business of the circuit in the quarterly 

 meeting, composed of the ministers, stewards, local 

 preachers, leaders, and trustees. These bodies 

 invite the ministers, fix their stipends, approve or 

 reject candidates for the ministry, review all the 

 interests of the circuit, send memorials to the 

 district meeting or Conference, have the right to 

 ap|ioint a court of appeal from the findings and 

 verdicts of a leaders' meeting in certain < 

 discipline, and to suspend for one year the o[>eration 

 of any new Conference law intended to be binding 

 on the circuit or societies, until it shall have been re- 

 considered by the Conference. The annual assembly 

 which governs the whole Connection is called the 

 Conference. Down to 17S4 it consisted of such of 

 Wesley's preachers as he chose to call together 

 to take counsel with himself; but in that year 

 he gave it a legal constitution defining its rights 

 over the chapels, the disciplinary control of the 

 ministers, and their appointments. Until 1877 the 

 Conference was eom|K>sed of ministers only ; but in 

 that year a scheme of lay representation was 

 adopted, and was brought into operation the year 

 following. So now the Conference is in part an 



assembly of co-pastors, exercising mutual discipline 

 and taking mutual counsel on all subjects specilic- 

 ally pastoral, and in part an assembly of 240 

 ministers and 2-10 laymen convened to deliberate 

 on the general interests of the Connection. The 

 pastoral session extends over a fortnight, while the 

 mixed session finishes its business in a week. ' The 

 legal Conference ' is a body of one hundred min- 

 isters constituted and perpetuated by Wesley's 

 Deed of Declaration, which as a matter of neces- 

 sary legal form adopts and endorses all that has 

 been done in the general Conference. 



Intermediate between the Conference and the 

 circuit are the district meetings, which are in effect 

 provincial synods. Like the Conference itself, 

 during the transaction of pastoral business they are 

 oompOMd of ministers only, while for all other 

 business they are mixed assemblies, the ministers 

 being joined by the circuit stewards and the lay- 

 men who have charge of foreign missions, home 

 missions, education, chapel, and temperance affairs. 

 In the district meeting a searching inquiry is made 

 by the pastors into the character and administra- 

 tion of each, candidates for the ministry and pro- 

 bationers are examined, the spiritual and financial 

 condition of the circuits is considered, and sug- 

 gestions or recommendations on the points which 

 come under review are sent up to Conference. All 

 new legislation is sent down by the Conference to 

 the district meetings, nor can it become law for the 

 Connection till it has been ratified by a majority of 

 the district meetings. The district meetings are 

 also courts of appeal from the circuits. 



(2) Doctrine and Worship. Under this head not 

 much requires to be said. Methodism is regarded 

 hy its friends as a revival of primitive Christian 

 doctrine, fellowship, and discipline. In the begin- 

 ning it set itself to combat Calvinism on the one 

 hand, and tne doctrine of baptismal regeneration 

 on the other. Its founders held that the predes- 

 tinarian element in Calvinistic divinity is opposed 

 to the experimental theology of primitive Christi- 

 anity. The Methodist preachers taught a full, 

 free, and present salvation as the glorious privilege 

 of every man a theology at once experimental 

 and evangelical, quite unlike the theology of the 

 decrees. They taught, moreover, this conscious 

 renewal and sanctitication through faith alone in 

 Jesus Christ. The Methodist doctrine of regenera- 

 tion is through ' repentance towards God and faith 

 towards our Lord Jesus Christ' (not through 

 baptism); sanctilication is through the saving 

 truth spiritually received and applied by faith 

 and obedience. The Wesleyan Methodists are 

 evangelical Arminians. Holding the freedom of 

 the human will, and the responsibility of man, 

 they also maintain bis total fall in Adam, and his 

 utter inability to recover himself. They believe in 

 the universality of the atonement, and that a 

 dispensation of the Spirit is given to enlighten 

 every man that cometh into the world. They 

 insist on the necessity of men who profess to 

 be Christians feeling a personal interest in the 

 blessings of salvation i.e. the assurance of forgive- 

 ness of sins and adoption into the family of God. 

 This, however, is not to be confounded with a 

 certainty of final salvation. They believe the 

 Spirit of Gou gives no assurance to any man of 

 that, but only of present pardon. In harmony 

 with this view, they reject the doctrine of the 

 necessary perseverance of the saints, and hold that 

 it is fearfully possible to fall from a state of grace, 

 and even to perish at last after having ' tasted of 

 the heavenly gift,' and having been 'made par- 

 takers of the Holy Ghost.' They also maintain 

 the perfectibility of Christians, or rather the possi- 

 bility of their entire sanctilication as a privilege to 

 be enjoyed in this life. But Wesley 'explains' 



