In South Carolina. 587 



lieved that these preachers understood every thing about religion, 

 and whenever they made out a case, the hearers were so intent that 

 they were motionless, scarcely winking their eyes ; and if they could 

 believe that they came up to the high standard described, when the 

 preacher concluded, they said each one for himself, " I have it ! I 

 have it ! " and then shout after shout went up, and sinners fell like 

 ripe wheat before the mower's scythe. Originally the practice in 

 Methodism (in the South Carolina Conference) was a broad and 

 full observance of all its rules of practical godliness. The General 

 Rules were sacredly observed, and all wayward disregard of them 

 was disciplined at once up to excommunication, if not cured. In 

 other days the ministry was regarded as holding by divine right the 

 keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and the result of my observation 

 is, that just as far as the Church has become a religious democracy, 

 just that far has discipline lost its divine power. The Church is 

 the kingdom of heaven ; her laws are divine ; and the enforcement 

 of them must be certain, because their use is the defense of moral 

 virtue. Every man and woman that I knew in the Methodist 

 Church in that day felt shut up to the rigid observance of all the 

 rules of holy living contained in the General Rules of the Church; 

 and they were constantly taught, and meekly received the teaching, 

 that they could not be consistent members of our Church unless they 

 walked in all godliness and truth. And the very day that any 

 man or woman became a little wayward or self-willed, and showed 

 contempt of the authority of the Church, they were arrested and 

 put upon their trial ; and unless their cure was secured, they 

 were, in all cases, excommunicated. Then it was that all men and 

 women in the Church knew that, with a very little trouble, they 

 could break up the connection, because discipline was strict and 

 certain. 



In 1834 the Conference adopted the following reso- 

 lutions to secure uniformity in the administration of 

 discipline : 



Resolved, That this Conference will cooperate with the bishops 

 in the following measures for promoting uniformity in the adminis- 

 tration of discipline : 



1. The preachers in charge are to converse or correspond freely 

 with their respective presiding elders on the points of adminis- 

 tration and discipline ; to consult them in all cases of doubt or 

 difficulty; and to report to them, in writing, at their respective 



