MKTIII'\ 



VETHODISM. 



fiery 

 middle 



meteors, the production of which is the first vUble result of the ex- 

 plosion. Men as projected upon the tail of the parent meteor ; either 

 becaus*. M U evidently the (act in many inUanoes, they were really 

 nreJoeed in the flame* composing it. or on account of the blending 

 upon the retina of the observer of part and actual appearances. The 

 fiery sword dipped in blood is tbe meteor iu iu normal form, at tin 

 '.< court*, the distant part of the tail chining w 



;t, being cooled down to the temperature of simple ignition, an 

 ady indicated. - In a similar manner, the bull's heads, flying eagles, 

 and other monstrous appearances, may be consistently explained, care 

 being taken, when the authorities permit, to identify them with the 

 actual meteor otherwise recorded. The biasing and interlaced serpents 

 moving in the air may be explained by reference to the actual pheno- 

 mena of the persistent tracks or trails already described, as witnessed 

 in various ci/-cs by Pictet and others, as well as by the published 

 representations of the meteor of January 7th. 135ft. One instance may 

 be cited, in which a large and beautiful luminous serpentine train 

 continued for some minutes after the disappearance of a meteor which 

 threw down a stone at Angers, in 1S'2'J. The ensanguined tresses 

 attached to blazing stars are evidently the trails under another phase, 

 and in their later condition, emitting red light only, but retaining their 

 linear or band-like form. The Lam/iada ralaxlt* and Dracouet r l<int<j 

 of former ages may be similarly understood, by reference to other 

 characters and phenomena of meteors ; one of tbe contemporary figures 

 of the fire-ball seen in London on November 13th, 1803 (described 

 under o her phases by Dr. Finninger, in the ' Philosophical Magazine ' 

 for the following year), exemplifies the particular configuration of the 

 meteors to which the latter appellation was given : it is contained in 

 Nicholson's ' Philosophical Journal' for 1804. 



METHIOXIC ACID (C,U so .-HO), nitiilplometl.oHc Add. 

 This acid is obtained by heating cyanide of methyl with concentrated 

 sulphuric acid : 



C,H,Cy + 4(80, HO) = C,U,8,O,., J1IO + 2CO, + NH.O SO, 



Sulphate of 



We Hi ionic acid. 



It is only of theoretical importance. 



METHODISM, a very memorable word in the English vocabulary, 

 as the thing signified is also very memorable in the history of the 

 Christian church, and especially of that part of it which consists of in- 

 habitants of the British Isles. 



The people of England have been described by foreign writers as 

 being beyond all other nations reliyumttimi, or very strongly devoted 

 to religious thoughts and exercises. The success of Christianity on its 

 introduction into this island is one proof of it ; but still more is the 

 great encouragement given to the religious orders, and the multitude 

 of churches which were erected in the very earliest periods. A few 

 centuries later, we have the proof which is afforded by the great 

 encouragement which the different orders of friars received, who were 

 a species of Mt thodiat preachers of the middle ages. 



Each century seems to have had iu schism arising in this national 

 characteristic. In thu 15th there were the l.,JI -. 

 put down by the Church; in the 1'Uli. U i, who. having the 



court with tilt-in, l.r.mght about the Reformation; in thu 17th, the 

 Puriiami. who were for a short time trinmph-nit. but who we; 

 reduced to the several drmmiinations of dissenters still existing, thu 

 PrtJijima*, the ImtUpatdtut, the Buptitt, and the ynoirrj. In the 

 8Ui century, whei not only the Church but the several dU- 



odies were thought by many to have lost much of the spirit and 

 jy*"; f religion, there arose the Mrtkvlut,, who, being allowed to 



KJceed unmolested, have prwfooed, without having attempted to over- 

 turn th Church, no small change in it, in modifying its ministrations, 

 in calling back attention to the supposed doctrines of its founders, and 

 in rousing its ministers to more strenuous exertions. 



. is interesting to observe the various forms in which Methodism 



.."**! ',*, more 8triki "P 1 y >n the various sects 

 which are called the Methodist sects, and wliich are in fact so many 



fcrent cLuses of person* who collectively are called Methodists 

 There are : - 1. the Wedeysj, Methodic . _. iirts of Lady 



Huntuig.lon s Connexion ; 3. the U .f the New Connexion ; 



J,jr-' i Tr M ^ odU t! .* WUt Chrirtians; 6, Prx.te.Uut 

 JJUhedisU; J Association Methodists, now united with a portion of 

 fee Wesleysn Reformers, under the deugnation of the " United Metho- 

 -. the Inghamites; 9, the Wcsleyan Reform 



iton, oompnaing those Reformers who declined to form part of the 



2!Z2hfi^?iff* ft" c '!"' reh , Therc u ** a Ul c ^'J <>f i* 01 ". 



JT *t"; 2 B ^?T?' I 2" M**** Methodic, who are not 

 incloded in what is called Lady Huntingdon's Connexion. 



It L^ J"".!!^ . n f i ? lCTwi ?' tbe time m * wllich M thodism began, 

 not mtendcd in this article to give a biographical notice ofthe 

 wlnr ..| H<.tli,.liMn. Tlu will 1 found in iu more appropriate 

 ft* ("' Dnr.] I'nder the word WH.TKH 



it'ii! rftir ""! T 1 ^ f aeorge w| ""i'i. """" 



xford. who j,, lllc .l the Wesleys in 1782, and who had a 

 large share wol, them in laying the foundation of Methmlinn. It may 



U> ! to "' T l , *"" WeJfi y an<1 Wi"M, instead 

 l coum, of clergymen, in settling down on livings. 



after studying in the univcrrity, undertook the wider duty of rousing 

 their countrymen generally to a higher tune of devotional feeling, and to a 

 regard to the doctrines of tbe Church, to which there was then, owing 

 in a great measure to tbe writings of the Lit itudin irian divines, 

 and other writers, a growing indifference. Many were of <; 

 that tbe all in-all in Christianity was the doing justly, loving mercy, 

 and walking humbly, looking for that blessed hope and (.! 

 appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, when every man 

 should receive according to his works. Wesley went forth proclaiming 

 that be came to call men back to vld Clinrrh of Enyland /<>< 

 This was his favourite phrase, as appears by many passages 

 journals, and this object (at first, at least) was what lie himself con- 

 sidered the chief purpose of his mission. What he meant was : 

 sin, regeneration, the atonement by the blood of Christ, the influence 

 justification by faith, freedom of the will, accountability, 

 i-ii.il reward or suffering; Whitefield added to these the eternal 

 decrees, the extreme doctrines of Calvinism. 



The object of neither of them was to be founders of sects out of the 

 Church, but to produce a change within the Church. It was soon 

 however manifest that their end could not bo attained by remaining, 

 even outwardly, conformable to the rules of the Church in re,- 

 its ministers. The doors of the parish churches were soon closed 

 against them, and the meeting-houses of the dissenters Were closed 

 likewise. They then preached wherever a congregation could lie 

 gathered together, in rooms or in the open air, and preaching with the 

 zeal and energy of the Apostles, it was in vain, with a population like 

 the English, to attempt to prevent them from making a deep : 

 Mnii. Such energy of preaching had not been witnessed since the time 

 of the old I'urit.ms. The effect indeed may be described as marvellous. 

 The cry. " What shall I do to be saved 1 " from many voices 



wherever they had an audience ; sometimes this cry was accompanied 

 by dreadful shrieking* and fatntings. The accounts given by I 

 and enemies ore in respect of this the same. Many well -m 

 persons regarded it only as a mischievous enthusiasm By th< \ 

 the preachers were not unfiequently assaulted, nnd their lives placed 

 in jeopardy, lint many were soon found ready to assist them il 

 work, either by forming into societies persons convinced by them, and 

 erecting chapels for their assembling together, or by taking upon them- 

 selves the office of teacher, and following in the track which their 

 masters had trod. There were at the same time a few persons who 

 were ministers in the Church, and who did not leave the parishes in 

 which they were settled, who seconded the 1 men. 



Such were Fletcher, Scllon, 1'erronett, Dickinson, Venn, Uiirnshavr, 

 and others. . 



Whitefield died early, worn out by his extraordinary exertion. He 

 was the founder of the Calvinlstic suction of Methodists. Of this sect 

 of Methodists the original' chapels have become, not adopting any 

 connexional bond. Independents ; but from it arose two separate sects, 

 the Countess of Huntingdon's connexion, and the Welsh CaU 

 Methodists. The first has an endowed college at Cheshunt f. 

 education of its ministers, with 101) chapels (accommodating 

 persons, at the census of 1 bfil I, in many of wliich the ritual of the church 

 of England is used in a mo li lied form. On S-.i-iday, .Mar.-h ''!. l>."il,tho 

 inos w.-is, in the moriiin,- L'l.HKt; afternoon, -1380; and in the 



evening l!l.l. r .!l. The \Vel.-h ' :,t tile Kill; 



chapels, with accommodation for 'Jl 1 'uLuico 



was, morning, 7V.728 ; afternoon, .W.lJii; evening. l.':..Jll. In 1853 



' 1 'Jo; minii-ten., i34 hy preachers, and 5S.S77 communicants. 

 The life of Wesley WM prolonged to his eighty-seventh year; and 

 wh n he .li. d. which was in March, 1791, he had been sixty-live years 

 in the ministry, and fifty-two years an itinerant preacher : lie lived also 

 to see in Great Britain and Ireland about three hundred itinerant 

 preachers and a thousand of what are called local preachers -, 

 up from the mid-t of hi- own people." and eighty thousand person- in 



mistaken. He had ]>n. \ided (a< far a.s human means go) for its 

 perpetuity by binding uji his mcm'iers in a church, with a frame and 

 it ion as strong as could be given to it by subordination 

 authority, rules, common Intarwt and the bond of common pn.pertv 

 i^hly regardless of accumulating personal wealth, the oontribu- 

 tions of the members of his societies, which had Ion- far exceeded the 

 expenses, enabled him to transfer to the body ..i ] i, M, hers, in whom 

 as iu an assembly of presbyters, he vested it . whatevi r im 

 in a multitude of chapels in every part of England, and a large surplus 

 fund; and this property, it is understood, has gone on year by v,. u - 

 constantly increasing, notwithstanding the vaM which have 



been made in the erection of chapels, schools, and other buildings, the 

 Mipi>ort of an additional nunib-r of preaeher . :ind iu iui sionary 

 exertions among tl i . uas iu 



! that the first M. -thud^t society won formed liv Wesley himself on 

 iis return from ilernhut in (iermany, and in 1 7:!!i there were several 

 :hapels in London, the principal one being in Keller Lane. In 1 7 in 

 NVIllt< ' tl ' them. In 1 743 the rules, wliich Btill continue 



n force, were drawn up for the London and other societies, especial I v 

 those of Uristol and Kingswood, the pirt of the kingdom in which, at 

 the beginning of bis ministry, Wesley had chiefly labom 



