CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



Oxford, who were in the habit of assembling 

 together on particular nights of the week chiefly 

 for religious conversation, the term Methodist 

 was selected in allusion to the exact and method- 

 ical manner in which they performed the various 

 engagements which a sense of Christian duty 

 induced them to undertake, such as meeting 

 together for the purpose of studying Scripture, 

 visiting the poor, and prisoners in Oxford jail, at 

 regular intervals. Subsequently, it came to be 

 applied to the followers of Wesley and his coad- 

 jutors, when these had acquired the magnitude of 

 a new sect. In 1735, John Wesley was induced 

 to go out to Georgia with General Oglethorpe, to 

 preach to the Indians and colonists. His inter- 

 course with Moravians, who were his fellow-pass- 

 engers to America, and afterwards his fellow- 

 labourers in the colony, tended to stimulate his 

 religious zeal. Having returned to England in 

 about two years, he maintained an intimate con- 

 nection with the Moravians in London, and on 

 May 24, 1738, at a meeting of a Society in Alders- 

 gate Street, he experienced such a change, that, 

 notwithstanding all his previous zeal, he ever 

 afterwards regarded this as the time of his con- 

 version. After visiting the Moravian Brethren in 

 Germany for a short time, he became associated 

 with his former college-companion, Whitefield, 

 and following his example, commenced, in 1739, 

 the practice of open-air preaching. In 1740, he 

 separated himself from the Moravians. In the 

 course of Wesley's endeavours to initiate and 

 carry on an efficient scheme of evangelisation, 

 that system of Methodism was developed, which, 

 though like some other important schemes, ex- 

 temporised to suit the occasion and the exigences 

 of existing circumstances, exhibits a theoretically 

 complete and masterly organisation. By-and-by, 

 ' societies,' consisting of persons anxious to know 

 about salvation, were formed in different parts of 

 England, where the. evangelistic labours of the 

 Wesleys had awakened in many minds ' a desire 

 to flee from the wrath to come, and be saved 

 from their sins' the only condition required of 

 any for admission into these societies, which 

 Wesley subdivided into classes, under the super- 

 intendence of leaders, whose duties were partly 

 religious and partly financial. For preaching pur- 

 poses, the societies were aggregated into ' circuits,' 

 each circuit now generally including a town, and 

 a rural circle of ten or fifteen miles, and having 

 two, three, or four ministers appointed to it, one 

 of whom is styled the 'superintendent.' Here 

 they labour for at least one year, and not more 

 than three. Still larger associations are the ' dis- 

 tricts,' composed of from ten to twenty circuits. 

 General ' circuit meetings,' composed of ministers, 

 stewards, leaders of classes, lay preachers, &c. are 

 held quarterly, and ' district meetings' once a year. 

 The supreme Methodist assembly is the ' Confer- , 

 ence,' which is exclusively clerical, and which now 

 consists of 100 ministers, mostly seniors, who hold 

 their office according to arrangements prescribed 

 in a Deed of Declaration executed by John Wesley 

 himself, and enrolled in Chancery. But the re- 

 presentatives elected at the district meetings sit 

 and vote usually as one body, the 100 confirming 

 their decisions. 



Wesleyan Methodists claim to be considered 

 orthodox, Protestant, and evangelical. They 

 accept the Articles of the English Church, but 



410 



believing these Articles to have been framed on a 

 basis of comprehension, they consider themselves 

 at liberty to accept them in an Arminian sense. 

 They are not, however, out-and-out Arminians. 

 While rejecting the Calvinistic doctrine of pre- 

 destination, which they conceive to be incom- 

 patible with the universality of the atonement, 

 as held by them, they maintain the total fall of 

 man in Adam, and his utter inability to recover 

 himself. They give prominence to the necessity 

 of men who profess to be Christians feeling a 

 personal interest in the blessings of salvation, or 

 assurance by the Spirit of present pardon, and 

 hold in a modified form the perfectibility of 

 Christians in the present life, but reject the doc- 

 trine of the necessary perseverance of the saints. 

 In their religious services, the Wesleyan Method- 

 ists use more or less the English liturgy. They 

 observe a 'watch-night' on the eve of the New 

 Year ; and at the beginning of the year, they hold 

 a ' covenant service,' at which congregations 

 solemnly vow to serve the Lord. But even the 

 ordinary religious services, in some places, are 

 frequently marked by an ebullition of fervent feel- 

 ing on the part of the audience, which has a very- 

 singular effect upon a stranger. 



The success of Wesleyan Methodism has been 

 very great, whether looked at as a vast ' home 

 mission,' as originally intended, or in its foreign 

 missionary enterprise. When Wesley died (1791), 

 his 'societies' had spread over the United King- 

 dom, the continent of Europe, the States of 

 America, and the West Indies, and numbered 

 80,000 members. Since then, they have largely 

 increased, and, according to the latest returns, 

 about 13 millions of people, including Sunday 

 scholars, are under Methodist influence and 

 teaching in all parts of the world : the member- 

 ship being 2,900,000. 



The Wesleyan Methodists first established 

 themselves as a religious society in the United 

 States of America in 1766, under the name of 

 the Methodist Episcopal Church, which, at the 

 termination of the revolutionary struggle, num- 

 bered 43 preachers and 1 3,740 members. Up to 

 this time, the American Wesleyan Methodists laid 

 no claim to being a distinct religious organisa- 

 tion. But the American revolution rendered the 

 foundation of an independent society inevitable ; 

 whereupon, Wesley, who considered that, in the 

 primitive church, a presbyter and a bishop were one 

 and the same order, differing only as to their 

 official functions, assumed the office of the latter, 

 and set apart and ordained as bishop of the 

 infant church the Rev. Thomas Coke, D.C.L. 

 September 2, 1784, who was unanimously re- 

 cognised by the Conference held at Baltimore in 

 the December following. In 1830, a secession 

 took place, comprising those who were dissatisfied 

 with the Episcopal form of government, by whom 

 a new organisation was formed, called the Meth- 

 odist Protestant Church, whose numbers at the 

 seventh general Conference (1858) amounted to 

 90,000 members and 2000 preachers. Two other 

 secessions took place on the question of slavery : 

 one in 1842, resulting in the formation at New 

 York, in 1843, of the Wesleyan Methodist Connec- 

 tion of America, whose members in 1858 

 amounted to 20,000, and its preachers to 300 ; and 

 another in 1844, originating the Methodist Epis- 

 copal Church, South, which in 1859 had 2661 



