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■-*1»««»»1

)

.. THE

■METHODIST U¥IO]^:

BKINO ▲

J^iitbiration of t\t €Mh\rmi of a Mmn

BETWEEN THE

METHODIST BENOMINATIONS IN

CANADA;

.^■•'

SHBwiira THE oiuoiir op Methodism and its schisms in England; irsKisB,

FBOaBESS, AND SCHISMS IN THE UNITED STATES ; THE POBMATION OV THB

CHVBCH IN CANADA, AND ITS SCHISMS; THE EVIM OF CHTBCH

DIVISIONS; IN WHAT TKUB CHBI8TIAN UNION CONSISTS ;

WHEN TENETS SHOULD BE CHANGED; HINDBANCE8

10 UNION ; HOW IT CAN BE BVFBCTBD ;

MOT. TBS TO UNION.

BY THE

REV. DANIEL POMEROY.

ttu|5.

"Together let us sweetly live-
Together let us die;
And each a starry crown receive.
And reign above the sky I"

BEIOHTON:
PUBLISHED BY H. SPENCER.

1862.

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PREFACE.

Dear Eeadeb,

Belieying that the great object of life
should be to glorify God in doing good; and
feeling the conviction that the subject of Metho-
dist Union in Canada is equal in importance to
any other to which the Canadian public has been
called, by either theological, moral, or political
writers, is my apology for presenting you with
this treatise. No other consideration could have
brought it before the public.

I have for some time been convinced of the
sinfulness of our divisions, and the necessity of
healing them. But 1 have contented myself by
impressing the truths of the subject on a few
persons in public assemblies and in friendly cir-
cles, in my ordinary pulpit and private ministra-
tions. But evidently this does not meet the
demand. If an union is brought about, not only
the hundreds, but the thousands and the tens of
thousands, must be reached, not only in public
but in their retirement.

With the hope of widening the circles of agita-
tion on this subject, I decided to publish this
work. I have no private or party interests to
subserve : but have boldly done what I, in the
providence of Qtod, felt called upon to do for the
honour of Christ and the advancement of His
cause on earth, to which I have devoted my life.

How you may receive this work is not for me to
say ; but I cheerfully submit it for your consi-
deration, being conscious that I have fearlessly
written the truth, and that the truth must live
and all error must die.

Some of the principles laid down in these pages
have been advanced by other writers of various
denominations of Cliristians. Thank God ! their
noble movements, which have not proved alto-
gether unsuccessful, bespeak a brighter day for
the Christian Church; and it is generally con-
ceded among Christians, that that day is fast

approaching. . , : .r_ :. „ r.- \, r V. r: ,

But that others agree with the sentiments in-
culcated in this volume, would afford me but little
satisfaction if 1 did not believe that they are in
accordance with the Word of God.

During the short time in which I have been
preparing this work, it has been my duty to
preach on my circuit every day, and not unfre-
quently twice and even three times a-day ; conse-
quently, it has been written at different places
and under a variety of circumstances. Hence it
will be nothing strange if many painful defects
in the style and mechanical arrangements are
discovered : for such, I ask that indulgence which
the reader would wish under similar circum-
stances.

May the great Head of the Church bless both
writer and reader, and bring them to that realm
where there are no denoniinational lines or sec-
tarian tenets dividing the children of God !

^fli lo nr'MiPJosuuhfi f.ffi Jm: /the AUTHOR.

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CONTENTS.

ji't

CHAPTER I.

Tha object and importance of thii work— The nge wa live in~It3 science —
Tlie effects of the march of truth — The friendly intercourse of Chris-
tians — Denorainatioiial names not of Qoi — War an evil — It arises
from the worst passions of men— Reiigioug disputes arise from tl»e
same source — The causes of strife neaer^sary to he understood — The
great design of the religion of Jesus Christ — His Title — The marks by
which all men were to know His disciples — All men of one family
naturally — All Christiana spiritually — Paul's opinion of the origin of
strife — Its real cause — By whom divisio»i in pevpatuated — A desire to
be properly understood — How a union can be consummated — A blusii
for the Methodiiits — A reference to tbo Weslejans — The distinct object
of this work. v. . , .

.' _. $., ,.ir CHAPTER II.

'" ' Schi&ms of the Methodist Church.

Section 1. — The orsauization of the Methodise Church in England — The
nature of the first general rules — ifiisi schism — First Confer nee —
Second schism, its causes, &o. — Other schisms.

Section 2.— Introduction of Methodism into the United States — An officer
in the pulpit — Organization of the M. E. Church — The O'Kelley
secession — The Republican Methodists — The Reform Methodists — TIk-
Protestant Methodists — ITie M. E. Church, oouth and North.

Seotion 3.— The organization of the Methodist Church in Canada and the

Fchisins that have taken place in it — Methndlstm in Quebec — Its rise iu

Upper Canada — Mr. MoCarty— Organization cf the M. E. Church—

The war of 1812 — Mr. Ryan— Bishop Asbury ia Canada — First En;,'-

lish Missionary in Quebec — Altercation betwueu the American and

English Conferences — The diinpute settled — Opf;;anization of an inde-

pendant M. E. Church in Gauada — Division in tho M. E. Church —

*■' Division in the British Wesleyans — A re-uni. n rormed— The Loyalty

', of the Methodists suspected — They reeei^'o «n admonition from Sir

• John Colbornc — They come to an undcrstatidinij with the Qovernrnt-nt

and receive Government money — True benevolance — ^The good Samar>

< itan — The motives which influenced the iJiiUah Missionaries to visit

Canada— Rer. R. Alder's lettei>— Closing recaika.

iNMHM

▼i

OHAPTER m.

Nature and Binfalneu of Ohuroh dirinoDs — Thej are dishooouraUe to the
Oharoh— Their cauie— The leal of rebela — Oreeda eatabliihed by men
— Separations alwayado harm — Mobamedaniam^Mormaniim— •Booteh
broils — Oru^ades-'Agitation of the slare qneation — Religioua schiams
eTentuated in rebellion in Canada in 188*7 — ^Theae divisions oontrary
to the Word of God.

OHAPTER IV.

Christian Union, privilege and duty — Various opinions enoountered — ^The
Bible doctrine, " Be ye all of one mind" — F^th baa a moral charaoter—
Causes of various opinions — Oneness of mind may exist with variety
of opinion — Causes of denominationalism — A quotation from Dr. Clark
not to be iufidels — Impossibility for converted and unconverted men to
unite — In what real Christian union consists — A quotation from Lord
Bacon— From Gumall — From Howe —Closing remarks.

CHAPTER V.

When Church tenets should be changed — Our common ethnology — What
prudence dictates— The Divine law of love — ^The rights of man— Man
dependant in his associated capacity — Despots produce a competition
of interest— A remedy discovered— A bond of union — Divine govern*
ment cannot be at variance with itself— A quotation from Wataon—
From Campbell — Tlie Divine right of civil or eooleaiastical govern-
ment — Summary of human rights, by H. Basoom — Examples : Peter*
Paul, Luther, and Wealey — Closing remarks.

CHAPTER VL

Objections and hindrances to a complete Methodist union — The questioD has
not been properly discussed — Wrong to compromise truth— An exam-
ination of Church polity— A three>fold order of Ministers : Deacons,
Elders, Bishops — Episcopal form of Church Government corresponds
with the civil administration of the British Empire— Methodist Epis-
copacy not spurious — Church polity should be based on the Scriptures—
Dr. Coke's ordination — Canadian Episcopacy — The Wealeyans opinion
of Episcopal ordination— Presiding Elders — Lay delegation privil^ea
of the Quarterly Meetings of the Methodist Epiaoopal Church— A lay
delegation to Conference without an object — ^The union of the Wesleyan
Methodists with the British Conference — Denominational pride-
Worst rules — Worst men — Names — Ministers — Hopelessness of

Union.

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.1 — ,-.i.'Su8 .'

CHAPTER VII.

How A UoioD can b« ooniummated— The philoiopby of polemica— Better to
have faith in God— How w« know (he eflReots of caoaca — The greatest
bleMio^— Paganism— Dr. Ohalmera — What Christianity would have
done— What aectarianisin haa doce^What we may hope from the
liberal apirita of thia age— Who moat effectually promote a Union— Oo
whom we may not depend— On whom we maj depend — The meana to
be naed — Organization — Plan — Prayer — Cooventiona — Sabbath
Sehoola— Cloaing remarka.

CHAPTER VIII.

Motivea to Uiuoo— The feelinga of true Chriatiana— General reflections— The
trifling canaea of diyiaion— The value of Union to Society— The honour
of God requirea it— The intereat of hia oauae requirea i^— Hia word
denianda it— A glimpse of eternity— Olodog remarka.

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CHAPTER r.

THE OBJECT AND IMPORTANCE OP THB WORK. '.'

That we live in a very evemful period of the world*s
history, is generally adnitted, especially by the Christian
communitv. It vvuuld be uniust unthankful, nnri nntniA.,

•BRIiATA TO FIRST EDITION

Page 27, Line 12, for dosp:){i.sin re.-nl clcposltiou,
iJ7, " 25, flir helu<nies read .^eljisius.
1(>, Ic/r iirai.M read aims,
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34, lor wilH read n.iid.
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.wTut, spirKuaiiy, moraiiy, luicucutuauj, auu pnysicaiiy.

One of the most happy offsets of the march of truth is,
the weakening, and the breaking down of the thorny
hedges of sectarian prejudice and jealously, so that the
different denominations of Christians are often found in
each other's fold, and partaking of their respective pas-
tures ; and the pure stream of which the flock drinks,
instead of being claimed as the exclusive right of one,
is considered, like the literal sea, the common property of
all Christians. , ,

This friendly intercourse hot only proves thatihein-

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CHAPTER I.

.-... -1

THE OBJECT AND IMPORTANCE OP THE WORK.

That we live in a very eventful period of the world's ,
history, is generally admitted, especially by the Christian
community. It would be unjust, unthankful, and untrue, .
not to adm't this. Discoveries have been made in the
provinces of knowledge, unreached by our predecessors.
The literature of this day is wider in its range, higher in
its aim, and more real and solid in its character than in
any former day. Astronomers search the heavens more
extensively, geologists pierce the earth more deeply, phil-
osophers reason more profoundly thin heretofore. And
law after law in the universe is being brought to light, for
which praise is due to him in whom dwells all wisdom
and knowledge.

And while the horizon of true science is becoming more
and more harmonious, the Sun of Righteousness is emit-
ting His quickening and renovating rays over the provia.
ces of the moral world. The united light of science and
religion is overpowering the shadows of scepticism, pan-
theism and atheism, and raising our race to a higher
level, spiritually, morally, intellectually, and physically.

One of the most happy effects of the march of truth is,
the weakening, and the breaking down of the thorny
hedges of sectarian prejudice and jealously, so that the
different denominations of Christians are often found in
each other's fold, and partaking of their respective pas-
tures ; and the pure stream of which the flock drinks,
instead of being claimed as the exclusive right of one,
is considered, like the literal sea, the common property of

all Christians.

• - • I - • ..... i .J

This friendly intercourse hot only proves iiiat tHe in-

fluence of divine light and grace will so soften denomina-
tional asperity, (ever destructive to brotherly love and
harmony), that this child of God need not be put in one
cage, aiid thai in another, like carniverous animals who
would bile and devour each other unless kept apart ; but
that all who are truly converted to God, as sheep, may
safely associate together in one fold^ aid under one shep-
herd. It also proves that sectarian peculiariticH without
"which the various denominational names could have no
existence, and all Christians would be one, are not essen-
tial to Christianity, consequently not of God ; and sheds a
pdwJBiful influence over the sceptical mind, favourable to '
the success of Christian union. All honest men, of sober
reflection, will acknowledge that war with all its black'
progeny of concomitant crimes, is an unmitigated evil. •
/• And that its propjgators overlook the domestip, spiritual
^^ 'ancTetefnal interests of mankind.

The field of slaughter is black with guilt ; and if there
is a scehe above all others delightful to devils, it must be
where two Christian armies are engaged in mulunl havoc
and destruction. ' ' c: ' ' ' v.. /

Such a scene is unpopular, disgraceful and abhorent to
the feelings of every Christian ; and is contrary to the
Christian obligation to love God with all the heart,
and their neighbour as themselves. ' • ' . w... i .

God made man unarmed, hut anger prompts him to lay
hold of hell invented weapons ; and even Christians have
attacked Christians, with engines of destruction fabricated
by the devil ; and sacrificed human beings to the shrine .
of anibition, pride, revenge, and other abominable lusts and
passions. But while public war, with carnal weapons, is
generally admitted by all Christians, to be the curse and ,
scourge of nations— the source of the most extended,
miseries^of the human race— jmbittering the cup of life
witll' worm wood ihd gall, and adding tenfold horrors to
the ravages of death ; it must also be admitted that the
effects of a spirit of strife, (which is the spirit of war), •
between individuals and families, between contending
sects and denominations, and between members of the

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same sect, and professors of the same creed, are the bane
of civil and domestic society.

The indulgence of the contentious passions of man, the
lusts thfit war in the members, from which all strife pro-
ceeds is the scourge of the church. Contentions here
differ little from the quarrels of nations except in the ex-
tent and fatality of their ravages ; — they arise from the
same depraved principles or passions, are urged on simi-
lar pretences, justified on the same grounds, and are often
destiuctive to the welfare, happiness, property and hopes
of thosj engaged in the contest. As all strife springs
from the worst passions of men, justly, therefore, should
it he regarded in all its forms as a monster in nature
cruel, sensual, and devilish. / ""

Only let the depraved appetites, and virulent passions
of man be suhdued by the renovating influences of the
peaceful spirit of the meek and lowly Jesus, and no man
will any longer doubt that the true children of God are
capable cf dwelling together in Christ, in harmony and
peace. ! ■ ■ r .. 'i •, .. ,•,,..!,!-!.

That the causes of strife cannot be too well understood

and that too much importance cannot be attached to the
pure gospel principles of Christian union, is evident from
the fact, that all spiritual blessings for time and eternity
are embraced in it. • ' u • Ii ; 'V - lun- -.; ,< . ! i . n

The great end and design of the holy religion of Jesus
Christ, next to reconciling men to God, was to reconcile
them to one another. While it enjoins on men to love
God with all the heart, it requires them to love their
neighbours as themselves. It subdues in them all those
unfriendly dispositions which unfit them for the social en-
joyment of those many blessings, spiritual and temporal,
of which God has made them the happy recipients.
Christianity exalts human nature by the subjugution of
ambition, pride, envy, malice, insatiate lust, and every
other unfriendly passion, and plants in the room thereof
humane and benevolent affections which in imitation of
the Lord and Saviour, disposes men to extend their love
and goodness i<j their fellow-men. The prophet Isaiah,

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styled him the Prince of Peace, long before he came into
the world. For ihis very reason, peace is spoken of as
the great nnd comprehensive blessing which includes all
manner of happiness. Heaven itself is the region as
well as the recompense of peace, and we find this the
disHnguishing mark and characteristic by which all men
were to know who were the disciples of Christ, i. e., if
they loved one another — and love thiiiketh nd ill to his
neighbour. As all men are allied together in the natural
p^ bond of brotherhood so spiritually all are members one
u ~-.„.,jii«ft another. God in his wisdom has so arranged their
spiritual interests and the advancement of his cause as to
ma*ke a social intercourse indispensable. This the
Apostle hath elegantly illustrated by the familiar resem-
blance of the natural body, wherein there are many mem-
bers and all have not the same office, but the different
faculties and operations of each are for the benefit of the
whole. The eyes see not for themselves but for the other
members, the feet seem to support and carry about the other
parts, and the hands labour for them all, yet each labors '
in its respective functions and employments, which if
peaceably discharged, arc for the harmony of the whole.
Therefore, let beloved brethren in the bowels of mercy
put' away anger and malice and evil speaking. Let them
flee all clamour and strife, let them be kindly afTectiuned
one to another, following peace with all men, and
holiness that they may see the Lord.

Again we may remark that Paul represented a tenden-
cy to strife and division, as proceeding from carnality,
and in as much as to be carnally minded is death, so ^
divisions and strife among religionTsts, will be attended
with ruin and de{ith,unles9 they are changed andbecomo
spiritually minded, which is life and peace. But not-'
withstanding all the Bible says about the sinfulness of
schisms and divisions in the Church of God, and the
necessity of unity among brethren, and notwithstanding
the churches now profess the true spirit of Christianity^
which is meekness and candor, love and courtesy, for-
bearance atCkd forgiveness. Yet with feelings of regreil

■tyimHtmi

and humility we must confess that the church is divided
into numerous spiritually proud, disobedient, intractable,
nncourteous, disorderly and sell-conceited religious cor-
poralions, each proclaiming their own orthodoxy, and the
heterodoxy of all others. And with a blush of shame we
acknowledge that these divisions contiected with the
almost invincible depravity of human nature, have formed
insuperable impediments to the progress of the cause of
Christ. It is still more abasing to confess that these de-
plorable schisms or divisions are in the main based upon
some non-essential controverted tenet, which has been
unduly magnified by designing men, who have fallen far
below the true standard of Christian charity, and who,
perhaps, for some trivial occurrence have become offended
with their brethren. Prompted by a spirit of revenge,
pride and desire for power, or to immortalize their names
by being the founders of a new religion, they ensaged
sharply in a controversial war and finding sympathy
among the credulous they succeeded in dividing the
Church. These divisions are principally perpetuated by
men of the same character, who professfdly equip
themselves as champions of orthodoxy. They labour
with great self-r?omplacency to demolish rrror, and to
make these tenets, they have set up such fountains
of light and vivicity as will quicken and multiply
the vnergies of every ameliorating enterprist , fnd (he
proper boundaries of Christian fellowship and com-
munion.

But, notwithstanding all the pretences of partizans, and
all they may say about a unity of spirit being the only
unity that God's word requires— and all that we can at-
tain unto, is a unity of spirit, and all they can say about
the Great Head of the Church, overruling evil lor j^ood ;
and on the whole thesa schisms are necessary : we
assert unequivocally that they ure of the Devil, and that
a Holy God must abhor them, and we dare not paliale
the evil or rest silently under it.

Everv candid man who is trulv born of God, overlooks
all petty distinctions and feels a IVatrrnal sympathy — an

hi«*f)nri«

1 ..

invisible glorious bond of divine brotherhood — a union
and fellowship of hearts, existing between himself and
all others who have been visited by the dove-like spirit
from on high ; and he must be fully persuaded that the
multitude of religious corporations, into which the
Christian Church is divided, is contrary to the revealed
will of God — antagonistic to the conversion of the world
and a sinful waste of our Lord's money.

And shall this war continue ? Shall the rising genera-
tion come forward with their hands and feet fettered, and
their hearts burdened with the disputes of their fathers.
Then will the tide of civil, social and religious improve-
ment be stayed, to the disgrace of their predecessors.
The Church is now barely able to ndvance to the small-
est triumphs against the march of evil. It has barely
enough moral power to resist the pr* ssure from without,
and maintain a bare existence. Each sect apparently
striving more to maintain their respective positions, and
to hold on to their adherents thiin to destroy sin, and ad-
vance the general cause of Christ. Let us go where we
will, and we come mor: or less in collision with each
other's interest, and in exact proportion our affections
are alienated from each other, and our influence lessened
upon the world. , ... . ,*,..;..

. But let us emerge from our divisions and overlook each
other's imaginary defects, and adapt each other's excel-
lencies as a band of brethren united in one holy fellow-
ship in Christ. And mirching as a united phalanx
against the powers of darkness, we will give such an
impetus to the cause of religion, and humanity and spirit
to the Church, as would secure victory and triumph over
opposing obstacles. Then a new era would dawn, the
dead receive new life, and hi tory recognize this age as
one of noble concepri(»n and Cliristian charity, j (.y i,fi|}

We would not wish to be understood here as pleading
for an association with the blaspherni( s of Socinianism,
or with the formalities of tlie Papacy. .Neither would we
recommend an amalgamation with any religion which
does not bring us jnt(> a close union with Joho\ ah him-

.'- :—- ar

wBiWrfflTin mmmmmmumm

self; we advocate no connection with a hollow religion
which merely exists in imagination, but has no place in
the conscience. Such a religion may have a fair exter-
ior but an aching heart. It may be popular in the
world but it does not purge from dead works.

It has no peace or union with God, no elevation, no
all-constraining love. We could form no union with
such, because of their discordant natures. But we do
plead for that which our Lord pleaded in his prayer on the
mountain, whon his sorrowful omniscient eye seemed to
see our many dissensions, and their unhappy effects upon
the world, — that all might he one, that the world might
have incontrovertible evidence that the Father sent him.

The desirableness and necessity of such a union is felt
by every Christian; but that any practicable scheme can
be devised to bring it about tew believe. It is generally
supposed that an attempt to promote Christian union
would only lead to the formation of new sects. Perhaps
this might be the result if such an attempt were made
under sectarian influence, and clogged with too many re-
ligious dogma!:.

Let me say here that to succeed in consummating a
union it is our opinion that we must first unite those
branches of the Christian Church, which fully and cor-
dially recognise each other's doctrines, discipline, mode
of worship, ministry and sacraments, so that the sacrifice
made will be one of feeling merely, and not of con-
science, toward God. That there are various sects who
come as near to each other as this cannot be denied.

There are various Presbyterian denominations, occupy-
ing in many places the same village, neighbourhood or
town, bearing expenses of erecting and maintaining dif-
ferent churches, and supporting different ministers, while
the points of disagreement are altogether trifling or ima-
ginary, especially in Canada. The same might be said
of the Baptists.

For the Methodists we blush to state that our celebrity
for schism is spread throughout Protestant Christendom.
The pertinacity with which we cling to bair-t^plitting

111

it'

distinctions, even to the sacrifice of the welfare of the
church, and of brotherly love and harmony, have disting-
uished us more than the self-denying efforts we have made
or the peace of the Church ; and the self-importance of
some of our ministers, has been more flattered by being the
Paul or ApoUos of our party, than by their success in the
conversion of men's souls, and the advancement of the
Saviour's Kingdom.

The inconsistency of these disagreements is apparent,
when we state that on all doctrinal and practical ques-
tions there is an exact agreement.

In preparing this work the object of the author is to
remove those unhappy divisions which have so long
estranged the children of God, and especially to pro-
mote a union among the various Methodist denominations
in Canada upon equitable and Christian principles, be-
lieving that he who does it really serves the cause of
God and of the Church.

When a writer vindicates a popular custom or opinion,
his work will be universally read and his ))remises and
conclusions will be readily admitted. Or, if a celebrated
writer presents new opinions, almost everything will pass
for solid argument.

But if a person of moderate talent summons fortitude
enough to assail an evil or popular custom, his work, if it
obtains the eye of the public, vvill not obtain credit with-
out a careful investigation. Fortunately for the Metho-
dist union, it will bear such an investigation, for the
author purposes, in the development of the great princi-
ples of Christian charity and frugality, to present evi-
ence and answer objections in a manner becoming the
great subject he discusses, hopmg to move all who love
God supremely, and their fellow christians affectionately,
to awake to Christian duty, to arrise superior to party
spirit and sectarian feeling, and cordially to unite in the ad-
vancement of the common cause of our Redeemer ; and
so approve himself to every man's conscience in the sight

of God. ,...,.. I ... .1^. ...,. r ,..:.... _.i

!>n ^® know not how this work will be received. It may

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bC) however, proper to state here, that with regard to the
particular subject conNidered in the following pages, that
soine of our readers may be unduly influenced by preju-
) dice, arising from education association, or other causes.
No man can properly investigate a subject until his
mind is free from all selfish prelerences. Prejudice will
,exert a fatal power over all our researches. How noble
; the man who completely frees himself of the tyrant, and
fiincerely and truly opens his mind and heart to the re-
ception of unbiassed truth. Allowing the importance of
the subject, and its urgency at the present time, some will
say-— where is the necessity of the present work?

Correspondents of the C C. Advocate have agitated
the subject of a union of the United Brethren, Bible
Christians, New Connexion, Primitive and Episcopal
Methodists ; and other periodicals have deplored the un-
necessary waste of means, of men, of labor, and have,
therefore, recommended a union. Bat in most of those
communications, more or less sectarian spirit has been
manifested ; and an evident delicacy to propose a union
with the Wesleyan Methodists. But this delicacy need
no longer exist, as resolutions favourable to union have
been passed by business commitlceb;, and communica-
tions have been published in the Guardian on the subject.
We rejoice to know that our brethren have taken the
initiative in this matter, and we congratulate them on the
moral eminence it has given ihem. It is a glory of no
mean order to rise above all sectarian feeling and inter-
est, and say let us be at peace, and dwell henceforth in
holy fraternity. The necessity for Ihis work is just this,
after all that has been said and written, the work is not
done. The various denominations are still separate in
sectarian interest in all things. So long as this state of
things exist, there will continue a demand for additional
effort.

The subject upon which we have entered is one of
great magnitude. To do it justice requires elaborate
discussions— discussions embracing a wide range of
topics ; reaching to the cause or causes that have efftcted

•MtMIMM

these existing divisions ; their nature and effects ; in what
; true union exacts the objections and hindrances to its

• consummation ; how it can be effected, and the motives
that sliould induce every child of God to labour to effect

-it, ,! .. I -..I . 1 * .. .

In the discussion of this subject many things might

• be said that would accord with our own personal preferen-
ces and be pleasing to a portion of our readers, but would
rather defeat our purposes. We shall therefore recognise
no particular tenets or name as the basis of union. But
give prominence to the excellencies of the various socie-
ties, leaving it for others, whose tastes prepare them for
such a work, to expose their defects. If we shall in the
least degree bringj God's people info closer fellowship,
though we may not succeed to the utmost of our wishes,
we shall feel that we have not laboured in vain. Fully
awake to the importance of our work, praying to God for
divine guidance we proceed. Looking f irward for our
reward to the day, when, having droped, with our clay,
the names and badges that sundered us, we will ffow to-
gether and be one in heaven.

i:. . :. '.

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CHAP TEll II.
, J ; Section 1.

. SCHISMS IN THE METHODIST CHURCH IN ENGLAND.

It is genprally known that the denomination called
Methodists was founded in the latter j)art ol" the year
1729, by an association of four persons, at Oxford
University, viz,: Messrs. Merton and Morgan, and John
and Chnrles Wesley, who met together for the purpose
of reading the Greek Testament, and engaging in mutual
prayer. Subsequently they were joined by the celebrated
Whitfield and others; so that in the year 17S6, the num-
ber arose to fonrleen, all of one heart and mind. On the
evening of the first of January, 1739, John and Charles
Wesley and Georsre Whitfield, with about sixty others,
attended a lovefeast, held in London. This meeting is
said to have continued all night. Here the power of God
came down mijjhtily upon them, as in the days of Pentecost,
and the people broke out in one voicp, " We will praise
Thee, O God ; We acknowledge Thee to be the Lord%'*
From thLs meeting the Wesleys and Whitfield went forth
to labour unitedly in chapels, and in the open fields, as
occasion might require ; at London, Biis'.ol, Balh, and
other places, and thousands sang a new song, even
praisps to the Lord. ,,.^<i;Mic. • i;-!). ». >,i ,. j },> ,; L

In this year the first Methodist class, s were formed,
and Mr. John Wesley drew up a few general rules for
^admitted and continued membership in the Methodist
Societies. ^ -n.iil

These rules waived all tenets and dogmas, only em-
bracing moral intention .!)d conduct. Foradmi.ssion, the
only oondiiion was a desire to flee from the wrath to

come, and to be saved from sin. For continued member-
ship, it was only required to give evidence of that desire,
by doing no harm, by doing good of every jpossible sort,
to the bodies and souls of men, and by attending on all
the ordinances of God. Upon this truly catholic plajform,
Protestant and Papist, Cnlvinist and Armenian, having
the form, and seeking the power of godliness, could unite
with one heart and mind. Each being le'"t to enjoy his
own private opinions relative to theoretic and speculative
theological questions ; only prohibited from disturbing
the peace and harmony of the Church by intruding into
the Societies those peculiar opinions which would cause
doubtful speculations. Unanimity of opinion in points
of speculative theology, formed no part of the constitution,
of the Primitive Methodist Church. But error, or heresy,
or whatever it may be termed, for it is difficult to appro-
priately name it — that fatal destroyer of brotherly love,
the refining of confessions of faith — was commenced by
Mr. Whitfield, by declaring his full assent to the doctrines
of Calvin. Mr. Wesley on the contrary, wrote and spoke
very strongly against them. The one taught that a man
believes because he is elected, the other taught that he
is elected because he believes. Tliese two great men,
forgetting that honest differences of opinion are no sins
because of those differences of sentiment separated. One
preaching in one place, the other in another, each having
his respective friends. The Methodists therefore were
divided, one part following Mr. Wesley, and the other
part following Mr. Whitfield.

Thus for a trivial cause, the first schism took place in
the Methodist Church in the year 1741, and men who
doubted not the genuine conversion of each other, became
separate in labour, separate in enterprize, separate in
houses of worship, separate in schools, separate in
societies, separate in denominational interests in all
things.

After the year 1744, Mr. Wesley called a Conference
annually of those preachers and clergymen, who by his

permission and direction, w^'nt out to preach and form
RocielieN.

The design of those Conferences \ras to bring the
itinerancy under some fixed <ml«*r and regulations, to
legislate in regard to doctrine and di^iiriplinp, and to
examine the moral character and conduct of those who
administered in lioly thingt).

Mr. Wesley claiming the right of superintending the
preachers and sucieties, presided himself at forty-seven
Conferences, and in the latter part of his life ordained
some priests and bishops for America and Scotland, two
of whom, however, never left England. Since Mr.
Wesley's death, the Methodist people have been grevously
divided. But these divisions respect discipline more than
doctrine.

Mir. Wesley's course of legislation and government not
being intrinsically consonant with the liberal spirit of
Christianity, by no means gave general satisfaction to the
people and preachers. And no sooner did the first Con-
ference, after his death, publish a declaration of their
intention to pnrsne the plan he had left, than a spirit of
inquiry was aroused in regard to the arbitrary power of
the preachers, when to many it appeared consistent
both with reason and the customs of the primitive Church,
that the people should have a voice in the temporal con-
cerns of the Church, and give their suffrages in spiritual
m«tters. Accordingly many societies sent delegates to
the Conference, held at Leeds in the year 1797, requesting
thmt the people might have a voice in the formation of
ihlert own laws, in the choice of their own officers, and in
the distribution of their own property. Two questions-
were proposed to the Conference: 1st, Shall delegates
from the circuits be admitted into the Conference 7 2ndv
Shall circuit stewards be admitted into the district
meetings? Men being more lovers of power, than of peace
aiid justice, both motions were negatived. The friends'
of religious liberty precipitately giving up all hope of a
compromise between the parties, proceeded to frame a
plan for a new Itinerancy; Thus by despotism on th»

g&%cwbiK^t^H iitVHMr'i^iiftiri***^*-?-

22^

one hand, and haste on the other, another schism took
place in the Methodist Church, which resultiid in the
formation of the Methodist New Connexion. It is not
necessary in this connection to notice that many other
schisms have taken place in England, for causes of as
little significance, and many Methodist congregations are
supplitd with ministers who are not in connection with
either the Whitfield, Wesleyan, or New Connexion
Methodists. .,'..,:

! ' ) I .

' I

-.1

Section 2.

THE DISSENSIONS IN THE METHODIST CHURCH IN THE UNITED

■■ STATES. .•'" ■ '.■■'.

Although Messrs. John and Charles Wesley visited
America as early as the year 1736, and formed societies
at Savannah, N. C, in the year 1736, and were shortly
atferward succeeded by the celebrated Whitfield, yet it
cannot be said with propriety that Methodism was per- :
manently established on this continent, until thirty years
afterwards, when Mr. Philip Embury, prompted by an i
elderly lady, commenced preaching in his own house, ^
situated in Augustus street, in the city of New York.
Shortly afterwards he was joined by Captain Webb, an
officer of the British Army, who in his regimental dress, ;
with a burning zeal, and holy boldness, preached the
gospel to his fellow colonists, in a bold and animated
manner. : tw i i

The strange anomaly of an officer in the pulpit, attired
in military apparel, attracted increasingly large congrega<<i 1
tions, who not only listened to the solemn and deeply :
searching truths which irresistibly fell from the holy lips
of that soldier of the cross; but became terrified and
alarmed at their dangerous position, and in many cases
were truly converted to God, and societies were formed. >
in the city of New York, in the year 1766. vv;n i; lo! u li

n took
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In consequence of the increase in the congrogation it
was not only necessary to change the place of worship >
for one more commodious, but to erect a chapel, which
was courageously undertnken and completed, and on the
SOlth day of October, 1765, it was de'i'>ated to the worship J
of God, a sermon being delivered in it Ly Mr. Embury, •
from a pulpit erected with his own hand^.

Nor does the work stop here. While Mr. Embury i
attended to the societies in New York, Captain Webb :
visited Long Island and Philadelphia, to preach Jesus >
Christ and Him crucified, and many through his instru-.i
metitaiity were brought to the knowledge of the truth, and'*
could testify that Christ had power on earth to forgive ^'
sinis. n, ..■ ! • f, ': '■• ■•■' ^. '• !■ - |..:.;*..v;! ■■.-•■,o',|
While Mr. Embury and his associates were being the <'
fonpdatioii of such peimanent good in New York, another
Methodist Society was organized in Maryland, through t
th^, instrumentality of Mr. Robert Strawbridge, unolher;!
local preacher from Ireland, and througU his influence >
another Methodist .Chapel was erected. About this /
perijc^d the necessity for more ministerial aid was obvious,'-'
andia desire was felt on the part of the Methodist societies.'
to place themselves more directly under the supervision >
of i Mr. Wesley. Accordingly a letter was addressed to !
him OIL the subject, soliciting his walchcare, and asking!
for a preacher from England who would be a man of
wisdom, sound in the faith^ and a good disciplinarian. ;;
Oft the reception of the letter by Mr. Wesley, the subjeeti
waslaid before the Conference, when Messrs. Richard! :
BoHrdman and Joseph Pilmore volunteered their services ;;
for, Atnerica. They landed on this bontinent, October, J
24th, 1769, with several others not deputed by Mr. I
Wesley, among whom Was Robert Williams and John
King. There was yet a great dem«ind for more preachers
and accordingly, in 177!, Mr< Wesley sent out Messrswu
Francisi Asbury and Richard Wright, > as Methodist mis-
sidniiries to the New World. > Ji ii mm; n, >. ,, i i h

Fiom this time the work of God went on with increas-
ing power tod success, until the political strife whicli

Ri8StaB3^Ui^»-af;a4-.<-

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eventuated in the declaration of the Independence of the
Colonies, rendered it expedient for those who espoused
the royal cause to return to England. • i.

The political revolution of 1776 resulted in throwing
all the American societies into confusion, and occasioned
a necessity for a change in the relation between the
American and English Methodists. There was no min-
ister of the Church of England in America who was
authorized to ordain others. Methodism was without an^
ordained minister, and viithout ordinances. American
ministers could not obtain ordination from the Bishops of
the Established Church unless hey would take the oath
of allegiance. The American Methodist preachers,
becoming dissatisfied with this state of things, began to
ordain one another and to administer the ordinances.

Against these irregularities Mr. Asbury, who had
remained in Ameiica during the war, protested, and-
referred the matter to Mr. Wesley. The latter felt fully*
convinced by Lord King^s account of the Primitive^'
Church, that in the original constitution of the Churchy^>
elder and bishop were the same oiHce. The only di»^^
tinction being conferred on the bishops by manor tHtf*'
common usage of the age. In accordance with this view
he remarked : ** I firmly believe that I am as scriptural a '
bishop as any man in En>;land or Europe.*' He thereforei
averted his right as elder or bishop to ordain others t»
administer the ordinances. These providential cireum^'
stances^ the necessity of the case, and the importunity of<>
all concerned, led Mr. Wesley, in the year lio4. to adopt
measures for the independence of Methodist societies' in*'
the United States. Accordingly on the 2nd of September^'
1764, assisted by the Rev. Thomas Coke, LL.D., ai
superintendent of the contemplated Methodist Obureh iw
America, and the ilev. Mr. Creightonj both regular elders '
in the Church of Englaiid^Mr. Wesley ordained Riohafd
-4- IVhacoat and Thomas Vasey elders over the MMhodist' '
societies in America. Dr. Coke and thetwo elders- sailed:
at once for America. Immediately on arriving, a oonfb-
leiea was convened ai> Baltimore in December <of the sams<

year, when the Method isl Episcopal Church was estab-
lished, which is a limited clerical aristocracy of the
Episcopal order. The legislative, executive, and judica-
tive powers are held in the hands of the ministry, at
whose pleasure the whole system of ecclesiastical polity
and usages can be modified or changed, except the
restrictive rules. The term bishop was substituted for
svperintendeni. The Bishops arrogated to themselves
the right to superintend the temporal and spiritual affairs
of the Church, to consecrate to orders, and to appoint the
preachers to their several circuits and stations.

In the year 1792, James O'Keliey, a presiding elder,
objected to the absolute power of the bishops in appoint-
ing the preachers to their work, and contended for an
appeal to the Conference. Not succeeding in his attempt
to limit the doubtful authority of these dignitaries, with
the flattering assurance of becoming an ecclesiastical
chief, he seceded and formed a Church called Republican
Methodists. In the year 1804 another attempt was made
to effect a change in the economy of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, so that the power of the one class of
its members be reslricted by increasing the power of
another class. But this also failed, and resulted in
another schism, and the formation of the Reformed
Methodist Church. « .^ ..//..; k.v,. ;,;- .. , ,x^<i.

Similar causes originated another secession, and the
organization, in the year 1820, of a fourth Methodist
Church, known as the Methodist Society. ^ 'f^ '• • "'i

But the spirit of radicalism on the one hand, and of
despotism on the other, were not extinguished, but were
spreading like leaven through the whole lump, producing
suspicion and alienation of feeling in the Church, and
preparing the way for a more serious secession from it..

Animated discussions on Church polity were introdu-
ced intu a periodical called the Wesleyan Repository, in
which ministerial equality was argued — the episcopacy
was objected to as spurious — the Lord Jesus Christ
being the only head of the Church — the equal rights of
ministers and laymen claimed and defended — and the

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1 i

orfgin of power defined. This discussion attracted gene-
ral altentioii, The conseqneneo was tiiC public mind '.vas
disturbed, and inany pople were intent upon future
chan<^es under the indefinite namr of ref >rm, without
knowlnrr or car iig whul their re.il grievances were, or to
what iheir course would ultimately lead. Societies were
formed fur the purpose of concentrating strength. This
liberal enthnsias^m aroused the fears and ire of the au-
ihorllies (f the Churcli .igainst those who dared to ques-
tion either their theological erudition or the justice of
their ecclesiastical power, and to free the Church from
heretics, the work of excommunication was resorted to
under the charge of inveighing against our discipline, &c.
The reformers memorialized the general corifercnce of
1828, setting forth their grievances, rights, and claims.
But that clerical body, jealous of its dignified supremacy
and and jurisdiction, refused redress. A convention of
the expelled and their friends was called. Secession
followed, which resulted in the organization of the
Methodist Protestant Church.

With the progress of chrlstiai civilizatio!i slavery
began to stand forth before the v orld in shape a mon'>
8ter, in nature despotic, cfuel, sensual, devilish. And
the opinion has obtained that while God proclaims all men
equally responsible, the principle that man can be a mere
article of property is a libellous absurdity. As early as
1835, the majority of the New England, New York, and
New Hampshire conferences were decided abolitionists.
But instead of treating the subject in a tone of christian
kindness, and charitably making use of every feasible
means for the universal emancipation of the descendants
of Ham, an angry and exciting controversy was com-
menced, harsh expressions and denunciations were used,
and ultra measures were adopted. Speeches, harangues,
lectures, and pamphlets were brought to baar upon the
public mind until, regardless of the consequences of

^y<;n

^i1*if'fr)/

such feverish excitement and ultra measares, they rushed
forward as they supposed t/o the extirpation of ihe great
evil. These excilemcnts continued to convulse the Church
until the General Conference of 1844, when the subject
presented itself in a t\0^ form. It was at this conference
made known that Bishop Andrews was connected with
slavery. This brought the whole matter to an issue. On
the one hand for the ministers of the north to allow the
episcopacy to be polluted with slavery would be deeply
humiliating, and an unmitigated sacrifice of moral prin-
ciple. On the other hand for the ministers of the south
to yield to the despotiswi of a bishop because he was a
slaveholder would be to acknowledge its anli-christian
character. The motion that Bishop Andrew should desist
from the duties of his office as long as his connection with
slavery remained, l>eing carried by vote of one hundred
and ten to sixty-eight, the southern ministers severed their
ecclesiastical connection with the Methodist Episcopal
Church and organized a Methodist Episcopal Church
south.

/ /•

1: '1

)><

Section 3.

DIVISIONS IN THE METHODIST CHURCH IN CANADA.

The object of this work being more particularly to pro-
mote a union of all branches of the Methudist family in
Canada, we come now to speak of the introduction,
progress and schemes of the Methodist church in this
province. And in order that we may not compromise
with evil or be charged with partiality towards any par-
ticular branch of the Methodist fraternity which may
have our personal preferences, we deem it most expedi-
ent to give the essential historic facts connected with this
topic in the language of the most approved authors of
Methodist history, viz. — Meacham, 0. P.Xrorrie, andjthe
Official Reports and Public Papers of this provin^ei^"

1- 1^.(41 v.if.iviiilui.ta4kUt;.^t«««^hk :

P^SBfflBS

II!

• " The first accounts indeed, which we have of Metho-
dism in Canada, was in the year 1780: when it was
brouglit into Quebec by the arrival of the British troops,
in time of the American revolutionary war. A number
of the soldiery there were, who belonged to the Wesleyan
connection in England and Ireland. Among these also,
was a gentleman by the name of Tuffey, who had been
an occasional helper with Mr. Wesley, and who officiated
as commissary of the 44lh regiment. Upon their arrival,
Mr. Tuffey, being zealous for the glory of God, com-
menced a course, which he pursued during nearly the
three years stay he made in that place : which was that
of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ as he had oppor-
tunity, to such of the soldiery and citizens as were dis-
posed to hear. Although he had not that success which
followed the labors of the pious Haime on the continent
of Europe, and although no particular society was formed,
yet the preaching of Mr. Tufl'ey, no doubt, as an inciden-
tal occurrence, proved the introduction of this wide-
soreading and evangelical comniunity, which has since,
and still continues to emit the radiant splendors of the
^n of Righteousness throughout the Canadian populace.
After the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the
American colonies was ratified, the army at Quebec was
disbanded — many of the officers and soldiers returned to
England, and others proceeded into the Upper country,
where they began to form settlements in divers parts.
Mr. Tuffey returned home ; but the most part, if not all,
of his Methodist associates emigrated to this country ;
where mingling with the general population, they soon
became scattered abroad.

" The tide of emigration from England and Ireland
commencing the same year, [1783] bore along its current
now and then, a few of the Methodists belonging to Mr.
Wesley's connection, in those countries. Their number
being quite inconsiderable compared with the multitude
that swarmed into these regions at that time, they conse-
quently became isolated, remote from each others' residence,
which rendered social intercourse, and the public means
of grace, a subject of utter impracticability.

" Having neither religious institutions or religious
teachers in the land, the profligacy of its inhabitants in
general, waxed more and more ; and those who had pro-

•muivoiit i:i:

?>'! ' 'Uj' '{ i;Mf- . f

« .'),

fessed to follow a better course, growing cold and indif-
ferent in their enjoyments, soon turned, most of tliRm, to
follies of the world. Our Saviour's prediction indeed,
seemed most strikiui^ly fulfilled, that Because iniquity
shall abound, the love of many shall vmx cold. It has
likewise but recently been observed, by one of those first
settlers, that, * For some years together, it appeared as
though there were neither law nor religion in all the coun-
try.'

*' The low ebb of the religion of the cross, even for
some lime after this, is obvious, from the conduct of some
of the clergymen of the Established Church, and the only
religious teachers in the country, excepting Mr, Lyons
and Mr. McCarty, of whom we shall speak presently. A
person who was a faithful advocate of experimental
religion, and an opposer of carnal amusements and mirth,
happening to meet with the clergymen of his vicinity,
was abruptly accosted, with ' You are a going to hell!'
* And how do you know that } ' was the reply. * Ah ! I'm
sure of it,' vociferated the clergyman : * for you run out
against dancing, card playing, horse-racing, &c., and
you'll go to hell for it.' If such indeed was the principle
and practice of their teachers in religion, what therefore
must have been the general character of the people ?

" But notwithstanding the corrupted state and profli-
gacy of the generality of the population, a few there were,
loho bowed not the knee to the image of Baal, and who
still maintained their character and dignity as christians,
and as avowed votaries of the hallowed cross.

" Being so long deprived of the preaching of the gospel
and the social means of grace, they becume exceedingly
hungry for the word of life. But residing in a new settled
country, and subject to many hardships, privations a d
toils, and separated withal from their mother country by
the Atlantic, and from the population of the United States,
by the Ontario, the St. Lawrence, and a vast and trackless
wilderness, the hopes they entertained of spiritual assist-
ance were but small, not knowing which way to look, or
where to apply for relief. But the God of the faithful,
who is ever mindful of his people, and who delighteth
not in the death of the ungodly, in commiseration to
their forlorn condition, soon opened a door whereby they
received a supply of their spiritual needs; and from
which time and circumstance arose that wide extended
community which to this day continues to hold forth the

it, ...uiHsmmmrnfHf-

ffolden sceptre to many thousands of the Canadian popu-
lace.

♦* Sometime in the year 1788 commenced the emigration
from the United States to Canada ; which consequently
opened a communication between the two countries. And
in the latter part of that or the fore part of the following
year, a young man, Mr. Lyons, who was an cxhorter in
the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States,
repaired to Canada and enga<j;ed in a school in the town-
ship of Adolphustown.

" Possessing a deep desire f r the salvation of his
fellow-men, and sympathising the wretched state of those
about him, he ventured forward in the name of his Divine
Master, and calling the people together in various
neighbourhoods, zealously exhorted them to flee the
wrath to come, and lav hold on eternal life through Jesus

Christ. * - . • :■ . T.- ,-. ,r. ipi.i

*' While the attention of some was excited by novelty
or curiosity to attend his meetings, the mnre serious and
religious portion were cooperating with him by faith and
pra\er, for a revival < f the work of God among the people.
The verity of that Divine promise, therefore, was soon
realized, ' that when Zinn tiLvails^ she shall brinfr Jorth.*
A few profligate sinners were turned to the Lord, back-
sliders were reclaimed, and declining professors were
aroused to a diligent application to christian duty. The
aspect of religious affairs was visibly changed, though no
classes or societies were formed. Mr. Lyons may there-
fore be considered as making the first introduction of
Episcopal Methodism into Canada.

*' In course of the same year Mr. James McCarty
repaired to Canada and settled in Ernestown. He was
formerly from Ireland; but remaining some time in the
United Slates, and having frequent opportunities of hear-
ing the celebrated Whitfield, when on his last mission to
America, he became a convert to the Whilfieldian cause,
and a zealous promoter of experimental religion. He
made no pretension of any union with the Methodist
connection, either in Europe or the United States ; but
professedly avowed himself one of Whitfield's followers.*

" Soon after his arrival, he began to warn sinners to
flee from the wrath to come, and to encourage such as
had tasted the comforts of religion in former days. He
preached Christ to the people of the various neighbour.

* Tliin mirrntiou we have from Mr. Robert Perry, 8«^n'i*., wlio \vn8 pcr»
■ooally kiinwiug to nil the facta here recorded lespectiug 31 r. McCariy.

f»!gmHye^*^S^g^lj

hnods, who grncrally a! tended h s rneeiings in large
numbers. Being accustonird to the inaiiners of ihe
Church of England, he read his sermons, but wilh that
deep feeling and enjjagednesp, that they produced a
happy Hnd lasting eflect on the; minds of bis hearers.
Convictions were muliiplieci, wliicii were succecdeii by
conversions ; and nuiubcrs of Meihodists that were in
the country before him, joining! l\e;j«'t and hand with him
in the work of the Lord, a jealousy was soon excited
amon|r those who were advocates fijc the lifeless forms of
the Church of Enjiland. Feaiinfj ihat Mi'tlodlsm might
become est ibli^lictl, they so n rai^e(i a persecution Hgamst
Mr. McCarty, in order to e>;tingii:sh the flame of pure
religion which had already begun to spread. There' were
three individuals who ranked arnons.^ the oflicials and
leading characters, that were by far the most active in
thai inlamous and wicked scheme. Of these were the

sheriff, Mr. L , a miliiii Captain, Mr. C ,

and I he chief engineer. Mr. L , the sheriff, often

declared boldly, itiat there should be no rdigious worship
esiah'.ishetl^ but (hat of the Church of England. But yet
the people would assemMe in private houses, and Mr.
Mcv/arly, true to liis Masti'v's w^ork, would meet with
them and preach. Greatly enraged at this, his enemies
could fix on no other allernaiive ior its abolition, than
that of b.vnishing Mr, McCarly to the United h'tates.

" An edict had been issued from the government, that
all vagabond characters slionld be banished from the
country. They therefore seized upon this advantage to
effect the expulsion of Mr. McCariy with that groundless
pretext.

'' As he was preacliing one Sanday, therefore, at the
house of Mr. Robert Perry, seni(.r, four men armed with
muskets, came to appreiiend him and take him to the jail

at Kingston.

Being conscience smitten doubtless for

jcr-

their attrocious dcsi.^n upon the Sabbath d ly, they how-
ever left their arms at the house of Mr. Percy, a ^hort
distance from the place of worship. Upon the bail of
Mr. Perry, lor Mr. McCarty's appearance at Kingston on
the following day, the men lefi him and returned. On
their arrival at Kingston the next day, Mr. P. presented
Mr McCarty to the sheriff, and demanded his bond given
the day before. But the shLr.lf relused ahsoluiely t) lake
any charge concerning him. Tney therefuri3 bid hira
good bye, and retired. The enemies of Mr. McCarty,
however, rallied the same daj' and llrust him intopris n;

::i *

iM -i

but lui was again liberated by Mr. Porry's Jntil. When
the tiln^! had expired for wiiich he had bi on hailt d, he,
wilh Mr. Perry repaired i\gi\\\\ to Kingi^toii to receive his
destiny; where, by the orders o( the ciiid" enginrer, lie
was put on board of a hoar inanaged by four French men,
who were directed to leave him on a dej<oiate island in
the St. Lawrence. This they attempted to do, but through
Mr. McCarty's resistance, they were induced to land him
on the main'shore, from whence he returned home to his
family and friends. ' '

" Prior to this, however, he had procured the friendship
of Sir John Johnson, who had furnished him with money
for the purpose of entering into prosecution against his

Kersecutors. An attorney at Montreal, likewise warranted
im a successful process, and offered his assistance in
carrying on the suit. But while on his way to Montreal,
or on his return, (it i» not ascertained which) he was
strangely and suddenly missing and has never been
heard of since. It seems improbable, also, that he should
have repaired to the United States, from the circumstance
that he had a wilie and four children, whom he dearly
loved, and who have never heard of him to this day.
The place where he was last seen was at Long Sault;
but what ever befel him or from what cause he disappeared,
is left a subject of conjecture until the great day wherein
the secrets of all hearts shall be revaleJ^ and all the hidden
things of dishonesty brought to light.
''' "The singular phenomena which eventually followed
this affair seem to denote that an overruling and inter-
posing providence was invisibly connected with the
whole transaction from first to last. On the one hand we
see the preaching: of Mr. McCarty rendered effective in
arousing the attention of the people to a subject of pure
religion, and preparing the way lor the establi>*hment of
a durable and evangelical Chnich : a?* also, the violence
and malice of his persecutors, which, instead of answer-
ing their design, only served to develop the iniquity of
their cause, and to confirm the public mind in favor of
Mr. McCarty, and the course he pursued. At the time of
his commitment to prison, indeed, Mr. Perry said to Mr.
L. the Sheriflf, * You may kill McCarty, but a hundred
more will rise at his burial, whom you and your party
cannot kill.' How fully indeed has this been exemplified,
and how striking its eventful scenes, which crowd around
us even to the present day. "' ' ' ' " ' ■'*' " ' "^

"In 1795 the Kev, Sylvanus Keeler arrived in Canada,

and travellofi tlio Hay Quinto circuit with rlir Rpv. E.
Woolspy, whili^ Mr Durham was traversing forests about
Niagara, proclaiming life and salvaiiun lo the people of
those part'^.

" At this time the societies had increased to 474 : the
Bay of Quinte circuit numbering 270, the Oswcgotchie
140, and the Niagara 64. This, indeed, was the fruit of
only about four years' labour among that scattered popu-
lation ! Nor was it other thnn a mere introduction to the
far greater prosperity of snccee(iing years : The next
ensuing, indeed, aspired to the amount of 793 ! making
an aunrmentalion of 218 souls. The Niagara alone num-
bered 140.

" From this time until the year 1800 the march of these
circuits might the belter compare with the gliding stream,
rising by moderate degrees, than with the impetuosity of
the torrent hurried onward by an overswellinij; abundance
of its watery element. Gradual and progiessive in its
course, and surmounting every barrier as it approached
in view, increasing additions to the communion of the
church, crowned the endeavours of each succeeding year.

♦* It would doubtless impart a sati>faction to many,
were a notice of those itinerant preachers who have
repaired to these climes, brought in this account as we
pass along.

" It was in the year 1796, that the friends of Zion, in
the Bay of Quinte circuit, were first favoured with ministry
of that admirable young ni;m, and eminent christian, the
Rev. S. Coate. Although a youth at that time, and having
been but two years in the itinerant work, he was an able
minister of the New Testament, and his celebrity, eventu-
ally, became surprisingly great. For three successive
years, he tarried among his Canadian friends, holding
forth the excellences of the gospel of Christ with great
zeal, universal acceptance, and glorious success.

*' No less a shining light or an example of holy emula-
tion, however, was his contemporary the Rev. Hezekiah C.
Wooster. This holy man was appointed to the Oswegot-
chie, where he laboured with great zeal and usefulness,
enduring many fatigues, reproaches and persecutions,
and where, by excessive toiling for the recovery of lost
souls, he laid the foundation of that disorder which
terminated his useful life. He remained in the country
till 1798, a part of which time he was in the Bay of Quinte
circuit, and a part of which, also, he was confined and
wasting away with the consumption.

r-^^
'. t

" In Jiim*, 179^, he returned to his father's house,
where he termiualcd his tourse, on \\\vi 6lh of Xovmiber
following, filled svith love, and an unshaken coniidence
of entering into eicrnal j«)yH. To devout minds, how
prt'fitahly |)Ioa>in<^ the. conlempiation of I he triumphant
exit of iho departed saint! The rhjilfousy s;iyH tlie wise
man, hath hopt; in his ileilh !

" But to return : The lie v. Michael Coate repaired to
Canada in 1793, iind the ilev. Jot^cph Jew 11 in 1799.
The former tarried but one yenr; hut the latter, who
received the charj^e of Pn-siditig Elder of the district,
continued in that olUee until the ye.ir 1803 ; when lie
was succeeded by the iiev. John Kobini'on, and rt tired
to the United States

"Prior to 1800, luur preaciiers were the inosit thit had
bern employed in the tiuee existing circuits, u hicli hud
aflTorded a competent f<upply. But this year seems to
have ft)rme(l an era in the history of Canadmn [Methodism:
Ttie population of the pountrv ha I so far .idvanced as to
admit the formation of an additiouid circuit, as al>o, to
require more labourers in those that had been of some
years standing. The i'ev. Daniel Pickett proceeded to
the settlements upon the bonli'rs of the Grau<l River,
where his labors proved somewhat successful, in gather-
ing souls to the communion of the church. The Ilev,
William Anson repaired to the Bay of Quinte circuit with
the Rev. S. Keelcr, Rev. James H<M'ruii to Oswegotchie,
accompanied with the presiding elder of the district, and
the Rev. Joseph Sawer entered in charge upon the
Niagara.

"Six preachers were now moving round in these
circuits, who were ardently striving to build up the
Redeemer's Kingdom.

" The appendages to the former territory occupied bv
the itinerant ministry, formed but one part of the ad-
vantages which at this time seemed gathering around
this thriving community. The public mind indeed was
yielding to her institutions, and her sublime docrinefi
were becoming more and more established and under-
stood, among those who professed no attachment to the

cause. >•■ ft,; .Ml^r '. r\,'-. . ■ V'.' ) i\

^' Revivals progressing in divers places, were likewise
gathering into the arms of tl.e church, large numbers of
worthy members, which served in an adequate pioporlion
to build up and strengthen her spiritual wads.

■»»wn)i»M^ffiia

f,W«'«irffil5Iira»iE5?'

*' At this period ihe state of Methorlism lliroughout the
Province of Uppi r Canada, stood as follows :

" Niagara Circuit

*' Bay oi Quinte -

'* Ostvvo^otchie ...

" ()lta\v'a (alias Grand River)

Total -

320

4G4

330

1,150

'1 1 :j

" We liave thus far scon in an epitomized view of a
christian cornmunily rising from ihe inosl inconsiderable
events, to become, as it were, a far famed ciiy, ( ievaied
on an eminence where ihe world cannot but behuld its
grandeur and transcendant excellencrs.

" The lapse of ten ye.irs indeeil luis thus spread these
apostolic doctrines and institutions throughout the Can-
adian populace. What hath God wrought by the weakness
of human instruments !

"Assuming an aspect far more auspicious than any
previous year, the interests of the cause bep^iin to elicit a
a recruit of gospel labourers, and the vi<i;ilant indusilry
of its friends and votaries. And fron^i this period until
the year 1812, each succeeding year, like the returning
wave, wafted the cause of Zion onward in a mnniier
which exceeded the expectations of th.^ most sanguine.
The following year, however, m:\dt5 no acquisitions in
point of numbers, but, as* behind a frowning providence,
is sometimes concealed a smiling face,' which emits the
brighter splendors when the cloui is passed, so, when
the transient gloom was o'erspreading t ha church, num-
berless blessings were gathering around to break in all
her borders. The growing prosperity indeed was such
that the returns of the ensuing year exhibiteil an amount
of 1,600 souls.

♦' It was in the year 1801, that Messrs. Samuel Draper,
Sefh Crowell, James Aikens, John Robinson, and Caleb
Morris were appoined by the New York Conference to
labor in the Canada District. And in 1S02, the Rev.
Thomas Madden repaired to the Long Point circuit,
which was now distinct from the Niagara, and which
numbered the fifth circuit in the Canada District.

" Besides Mr. Madden, were likewise three others, who
had not previously travelled in the province of Canada,
which were Messrs. Peter Vannest, Nathan Bangs, and
Nehemiah U. Tompkins.

7 T^»^ ti-;|?M-»fc^-»^y|-j|jj>^s«fM' ..-^fi^ >'?f^'3^*1f3r4|

i',!

"The follovviriir year, 1803, the numl)er of circuits was
reduced to four; which were supplied with eight preachers
and the Presiding Elder of the district. Four of those
in the former year had retired, and the vacancies of three
of whom were supplied by the appointment of Samuel
How, Reuben Harris, and Luiher Bisliop. A moderate
increase was witnessed in some of the circuits, though
the growth of Methodism in this year would in nowise
compare with that in some years subsequent to that period.

" In 1804 but one new preacher was appointed to labor
in Canada, which was the IJev. Martin Ruter, who
received his station at Montreal. Until this time the
Methodists had extended their borders no farther down
the St, Lawrence than the lower boundaries of the Os-
"wegotchie circuit.

" But not satisfied with a confinement to the precincts
of one Province, so long as a probability existed of their
winning souls to the church of Christ in other parts, they
received the stations of Montreal, and River Le French,
into the field of itinerancy, and to which latter station
was appointed the Rev. Nathan Bangs. Meeting with
little encouragement, after toiling for a year at these
stations, the preachers repaired to a more fruitful soil,
and abandoned them from their account till 1806. At
this time they were re-assumed with an appendage of the
Ottawa circuit, which together were constituted a
Presiding Folder's district, and superintended by the Rev,
Samuel Coate. From this time to 1812, Upper and
Lower Canada consisted of two separate districts, and
were both embraced within the precincts of the New
York Conference, until the organization of the Genesee,
which transpired in 1810. The district in the Upper
Province, was included therefore in the last-mentioned
conference, and that in the Lower. Province in the former.
The city of Quebec having been attached in 1806, the
Three Rivers in 1809, and St. Francis in 1810, the
aspect would at first sight appear somewhat promising
to the success of those missionaries who were toiling
for the prosperity of religion in those several stations.
But, notwithstanding the constant efforts for some years,
even of those who were renowned for their piety and
zeal, as well as splended abilities, a darkening cloud
seemed to hang about them, and their final success
proved quite inconsiderable when compared with the
population and the rapidity with which the work had
progressed in other parts. After a succession of six

■0?

SIX

years labor to establish Methodism and raise up a people
in those places, 57 souls W( re the greatest number at any
one station. The whole number of Methodists in the
Lower Province was 295, including those in the Ottawa,
which consisted of 97.

Nineteen years after the planting of Methodism in this
country, a pleasing spectacle, indeed, is present to the
mind : all that stretch of cf)untry bordering on the St.
Lawrence and the lakes Ontario and Erie, from the
capital of British America to the city of Detroit, is en-
circled in the arms of this flourishing branch of the
christian church.

" The Rev. William Case having made a missionary
excursion to the latter place in the year 1809, met with
a cheering prospect for the reception of the gospel, and a
revival of the work of God among the destitute popula-
tion. Having reared the standard of the cross, and held
forth the sceptre of mercy to such as were perishing with-
out hope, an encouraging number cast in their lots and
decidedly espoused the christian cause. Meanwhile the
work was rising in various other sections, in a degree
which augmented the number of christian communicants
to 3,495. The mission at Detroit likewise, in the follow-
ing year had so far prospered as to require an additional
labourer, and to admit of the formation of a four weeks'
circuit, which was accordingly done, and supplied by the
Rev. N. Holmes, and Rev. ISilas Hopkins. By this time
the societies had arrived to 130 in number. The wilder-
ness indeed was blossoming like the rose." ,

"In the year 1812, the last war between Great Britain
and the United States commenced, and in consequence
thereof the c *use of Methodism in these provinces suf-
fered greatly. At this time the work in the Canadas
was divided into two districts, namely, the Upper and
Lowe^ Canada districts, the former of which was attach-
ed to the Genesee Conference recently formed, and the
latter to the New York Conference. From each of these
conferences the annual supplies of preachers were sent to
the respective portions of the work. At the session of
the General Conference in 1812, the preachers were
appointed, as usual to the Upper Canada district. Be-
fore the formal declaration of war, some of the preachers
reached their appointments in safety, others, however,
after the announcement was made, abandoned the de-
sign of going to Canada, and some of those who had

already mch»cl their circuits returned to the United
Sta's. The Rev. Henry Ryan, presiding elder of the
Upper Canada district, with a few other brethren, remain-
ed at his post, and was, during the continuance of the
war, the sole director and superintendent of this part of
the work. He attended reafularly all his quarterly meet-
ings, and cal etl the preachers together each year and
stationed them as he judged best from time to time until
1815, when peace was declared to the joy of every pious
heart. Ths authority and power invested in Mr. Ryan
by the nccesp-ties of the case, no doubt laid the founda-
tion of the many troubles and dissensions which existed
for many years subsequently, in which Mr. Ryan was a
chief actor, and which finally led to his abandonment of
the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1827, and the organi-
zation of an independent body of Methodists in Canada
known by the name of " Ryanites."

*' After the close of the war of 1812-15, intercourse be-
tween the people on both sides of the line was resumed.
Preachers from the United States were again appointed
to the Canadas, and were permitted to mingle freely with
the inhabitants and preach wherever they could collect a
congregation, and as the work had suffered materially
during the continuance of the war, these preachers and
the members saw the necessity of labouring zealously to
recover what had bsen lost, and their labours were
crowned with abundant success throughout different
parts of the provinces.

" Previous to the commencement of hostilities, Bishop
Asbury in 1811, made a short visit to Canada. He, after
attending the session of the New England Conference in
Barnard, Vt., crossed the Green Mountains and Lake
Champlain, and from Plattsburgh made his way through
the wilderness known as the *' Chateauguay Woods,'' and
passing through " French Mills," (Fort Covington) reach-
ed the Indian village of St. R§gis. He, from this place,
crossed the St. Lawrence to Cornwall, and passed along
up the banks of the latter river, stopping and preaching
in different places as he went on his journey, until at
length he arrived at Kingston, where he tarried several
day* and preached in the new chapel recently erected in
that place, with great acceptability to the people. From
Kingston he crossed to Sackelt's harbour, having made a
flying visit to a colony then and since under the protec-
tion of the flag of his native country. It was fortunate
that this \iBit was made at this time, as hostilities soon

-if

..i*'

nee in
Lake
rough
'» and
each-
place,
along
ehing
ntil at
everal
ted in
From
ade a
irotec-
unate
soon

after conirricncecl and bc'fore the cessation of the same
ihe vennable bisliop was called to his rest in heaven.

" While ihi war was raging, and the Societies in Canada
were, some of them, left without ministers, the Society
in Quebec sent a request to the Mission Committee in
London to be supplied with English preachers ; accord-
ingly, in 1814, a missionary from England was sent to
them, and Quebec, in fu ure was left off from the Amer-
ican Minutes. For the same or a similar reasiin that an
English preacher was sent to Quebec, it was thought
best by Ihe Wesleyan Miss'on Committee to send Engiish
preachers to other points in the |)rovinces; accordingly,
Montreal. Kingston, and other prominent places were
soon occupied in part by Eng'ish missionaries, while at
the same time American preachers were duly stationed
among them. This siate of things induced jealousy and
bickerings, not tu\y between the niembers in the Socie-
ties in these places who favoured the ministrations of the
one or the other, but b?tween tlie preachers also, who,
unfortunately for themselves, were required to occupy
common ground. Complaints and remonstrances to the
Wesleyan Committee on the one hand, and to the Ameri-
can Conferences on the other, were m tde for a redress of
grievances. But as in the large s<>ci('tie8, especially the
one in Montreal, there were two distinrt C5lasses «.f Me-
odi sts (the English Wesleyan and th«^ American Epis-
copal), it was not an easy maitcr to effect an atljustment
of existing difficulties under these circumstances, as one
party preferred their own countrymen to preach the gos-
pel to them, and the other as tenaciously insisted for the
same reason, on having their old pastors remain among
them. At the General Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church in 1816, an affectionate letter written
by thi Wesleyan Committee was received at the hands
of the Rev. Messrs. Black and Bennett, who were ap-
pointed delegates to effect an adjustment of difficulties.
In this ielter a request was made that the Methodist
Episcopal Church should withdraw her preachers from
those places occupied in whole or in part by the English
missionaries. The General Conference, however, could
not see the way clear to relinquish ground which had
been so long occupied by them, and wrote an answer to
the committee, in which they respectfully state that they
could not consistently give up any part of the Societies
or chapels in tlio Canadas to the superintendence of the
British connection. The result of this refusal was that

.a^!i,

those Societies circumslaneed as above described were
supplied with both British and American preachers for
a number of years. This was particularly the case -with
Montreal. At the succeeding General Conference of
1820, numerous memorials and petitions were presented
from several circuits in Upper Canada, protesting against
the occupancy of the ground by the British missijnaries,
and praying for the supply of preachers t>om the United
Stales. The conference jiassed a resolution to the effect
that the bishops still continue to exercise their Episcopal
charge over the Societies in the Canadas, all except
Quebec.

•* At this conference also, was received another address
from the General Secretaries of the Missionary Society
in London, in which they respectfully express their re-
gret that any misunderstanding had taken p!ace between
the two bodies in relation to the above matter, and also
state that it never was the design of the committee to
have their missionaries interfere with those preachers
sent by the American Conferences. The committee, in
connection with the above, sent a copy of the instructions
given to each of their missionaries in relation to their acts
when brought in contact with the American preachers.
This document was sufficiently explicit to convince the
General Conference that, however any of the missionaries
or preachers had erred in judgment, the designs of the
committee and c' the British Conference were of the
most friendly and |: ; jific character, and in order that all
cause for future misunderstanding might be removed,
the Rev. John Emory was appointed by the General Con-
ference as a delegate to attend the ensuing session of the
English Conference, with full powers to negotiate a set-
tlement of all existing difficulties. In accordance wil6fci
his instructions, Mr. Emory sailed imnriediately for Eng<-
land, and attended the session of the latter body, held in
Liverpool in August, 1820. He was received with great
respect and cordiality by his English brethren, and after
due consultation, and on the recommendation of Mr.
Emory, it was resolved that all the Societies and chapels in
Upper Canada should be given up to the exclusive charge
of the American preachers, and that all the Societies and
chapels in Lower Canada should be resigned to the caro^
of the British missionaries. For the purpose of carrying
out the provisions of this plan, three ministers or preach-
ers from each conterence were appointed to meet when
and where convenient, and make the necessary transfers,

>argo
and
care-
ying
ach-

fers.

^c. The settlement of these difficulties in the above
manner gave very general satisfaction to both preachers
and people in the Canadas, and has been productive of
great, and we trust, permanent good, while it affords an
evidence of the Christian desire of both connections to
maintain peace and unity between the two great bodies
of Methodists.

" The number of travelling and local preachers in the
Upper Province having become considerable, a strong
desire began to be expressed on the part of many, that a
separate Canada Conference should be organized, with
authority to elect a bishop of their own, who should re-
side among them, and superintend their affairs. A peti-
tion to this effect was presented to the General Confer-
ence of 1824, and the conference so far granted the pray-
ers of the petitioners, as to erect a separate conference
for Canada, but retaining the same under the supervi-
sion of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
This disposition of the case was not, however, satisfac-
tory to all, and especially to Mr. Ryan, before alluded to,
who speedily began the work of fomenting divisions and
discord among the preachers, and especially among the
local preachers in the Canadian department of the work.
Through his agency, a convention of local preachers was
called, a conference organized, and a plan of future ope-
rations adopted. On the assembling of the conference,
however, in Hallowell, U. C, peace was measurably
restored for the time being, through the instrumentality of
Bishops George and Hedding, who pledged themselves to
sanction measures in the future for the organization of an
Independent Canada Conference. >■" ' c; > v ? .; ?

" Accordingly, in 1828, the matter having again come
before the General Conference at its Quadrennial Session
in Pittsburgh, resolutions were adopted dissolving the
compact existing between the Canada Annual Conference,
and the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States,
and authorizing the bishops to ordain a superintendent or
bishop for the Canada Conference, whenever elected by
the latter. At the next session of the Canada Conference
held the same year in Earnestown, U. C, the proceed-
ings of the General Conference in respect to the separa-
tion having been read and explained, it was resolved that
the Canada Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church " do now organize itself into an independent
Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada." The separa-
tion was thus rendered complete ; so much so, that as

I'i

soon as the resolution passed, the presiding bishop rose,
and declared that he no longer had any jurisdiction over
them, and that they must elect a president before they
could proceed to farther business ; accordingly, the Rev.
William Case was elected General Superintendent pro
iem.

"The Canada Conference, although claiming to be a
Methodist Episcopal Church, (ji(t not succeed in electing
a permanent superintendent or bishop in the interim of
the sessions of the General Conference of 1828-1833, so
that at the latter period resolutions were passed, allowing
the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the
United States to ordain a'ly such superintendent wiihin
the ensuing four years, should one be elected, but for rea-
sons which will hereafter be apparent, no such officer was
ever elected. , . t ! „ ^ i, . , .,

.. " The province of Canada being subject fo the British
crown, a jealousy had long existed on the part of its
statesmen in relation to the institutions of the United
Slates. This jealousy ripened into hatred during the war
of 1812-16, and although ni the close of the same actual
hostilities ceased, feelings of animosity still remained.
This rendered the situation of the American preachers an
unpleasant one, and led, as we have just stated, to the
final separation of the Canada Conference from the pa-
rent body. A desire to be identified with whatever is
British in its nature and origin, led the members of the
Canada Conference to seek a union with their brethren in
the English Conference. Such an^ union was formed in
1833, the Canada Conferenoe changing its title of Me-
thodist Episcopal Church, to that of the Wesleyan Metho-
dist Church in Canada In chringing their title, they
also ch mged their church polity in several respects, and
in fonninuj the union with the British Conference, they
consenied to receive their president annually from the
latter body.

" Although this union gave satisfaction to the majority of
the travelling preachers and rnernbers of the Methodist
Ctiuroh in Canada, it produced much uneasiness and dis-
satisf icfion in the breasts of many who were ardently
attached to the us iges an 1 ecclesiastical government of
the Me-tho list Ejiiscopal Church. While proposals for a
union were beng made, several conventions were held
in which it was resoK-ed, on the pari of those dissatisfied
wiih th3 contemplated arrangements, not to consent to
the union, if it should bj efiecled. The most prominent

rity of
lodist
d dis-
ently
nt of
for a
held
isfied
nt to
linent

dppo^er of the union Was the Rev. Joseph Gatchel, a
superannuated member of the Canada Conference, who,
with numerous local preachers and members, resolved to
ddhere as far as possible to the discipline and polity of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, Accordingly, in June,

1834, or about eight months after the union, Mr. Gatchel,
who refused to consent to it, and retained his name of
Methodist Episcopal minister, called an annual conference
to be held in Yonge Street. In answer to the call, seve-
ral located and local preachers met together, but no
rriember of the Wesley an Conference obeyed the sum-
mons to attend. Mr. Gatchel, claiming that the main
body had seceded from the Methodist Episcopal Church,
atid that he only constituted the Conference of the Metho-
dist Episcopail Church in Canada, proceeded in due form
to re-admit several located preachers, and receive other'
preaic hers on trial The lime and place of the next an-'.
nual conference was fixed upon, ^nd a special General
Conference was appointe I to meet in Belleville, Feb., 12,

1835, for the purpose of electing a General Superinten-
dent, /?ro <f»w/)«re. At the General Conference thus ap-
pointed, the Rev. John Keyuolds was elected to this
office, and at a subsequent General Conference, held in
June of the same year, he was elected a bishop, and or-
dained by the elders present Since the above period^
the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada has gained
many adherents and member?, so that at the present time
it may be said to be in a flourishing state, having a large
number of chapels and Societies embraced in severail
presiding elders' districts, and two stnnual conferences.

" In the meanwhile, the Wesleyan Methodist Conference
in Canada, while repudiating the afetion of the " Episco-
pals," proceeded, acording to the plan of union, in hold-
ing her annual conferences, and administering her disci-
pline, for several years, until at length dissatisfaction
arose on the part of the British Confefence, in' relation to
some of the acts of the Canadian brethren, and the ^ction
of the Canada Conference in relation thereto, which led
to a disruption betweeri the two b.)dies. In consequence
of this disruption the British Cotilerence included the ter-
ritory in the upper province within her field of miss'onary
operations, and appointed preachers to the mast impor-
tant places in Canada. This state of things could not
long continue \vithout producing the most unpleasant and
sometimes violent altercations between the adherents of
the one dr the other conferenC3, s>o that With the Canaidiati

Wesleyans, tlie British Wesleyans, the Methodist Episco-
palians, and the remains of the " Ryanite *' secession, all
in operation at one and the same time, all presenting con-
flictini? claims, all having friends and supporters, and each
branch having its bitter foes, a long-continued scene of
turmoil, contention, and strife, characterized the proceed-
ings of our Methodist brethren in Canada, which stale of
things they no doubt all deplored, but had no remedy to
heal the wounds thus made. After enduring this state
of things for some tiine, overtures were made by the
Canada Wesleyan Con erence to the British Wesleyan
Conference, for a cessation of ecclesiastical hostilities,
and the re-union of the two bodies, and in 1847 an ami-
cable arrangement was effected in London, through the
instrumentality of Messrs. Ryerson and Green, on the
part of the Canadian, and a Committee of the British Con-
ference. This arrangement re-united the two branches,
and since the period referred to, the Canadian Conference
has been presided over by a president annually appointed
by the English body." i

In addition to the above we may remark that the Me-
thodist Societies in Upper Canada, rigidly opposed
Church and State connection in the Province, and argued
that such a Connection would make Christianity a pen-
sioner upon political benevolence rather than the power
of God unto salvation — a tool of the state rather than a
bright emanation from heaven— which subjected them
to misrepresentation by the favoured clergy of the would
be dominant Church, and brought upon them the follow-
ing rebuke from His Excellency Sir John Colbome, in
answer to an address of the Conference, requesting him
to transmit to His Majesty, their address on the subject of
the Clergy Reserves. •: M .vi/U r',- ' .!

" Address of the Canada Conference of the Methodists
to Sir John Colborne.— Dated, September 8lh, 1831, as
published in the Conference Paper.

*' To His Excellency Sir John Colbome, K.C.B., Lieu-
tenant Governor of the Province of Upper Canada,
Major -Genera^ commanding His Majesty^ s Forces
therein, Sfc, Sfc, fyc.

*'May it please Youb Excellency :- -We, His

jpisco-
on, all
g con-
j each
Bne of
Dceed-
tale of
edy to
3 state
by the
sleyan
tilitieSy
m ami-
gh the
on the
ih Con-
anches,
fere nee
pointed

he Me-
)pposed
argued
a pen-
power
than a
] them
; would
follow-
t)me, in
ng him
bject of

thodists
831, as

Lieu-
lanaday
Forces

'e, His

Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjpc's the Conference of
the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada^ take the
liberty to enclose to Your Excellency an address to
His Majesty with accompanying documents^ most re-
speclfi lly requesting Your Excellency to transmit them to
His Majesty'' s Principal Secretary of State for the Col-
onies, to he laid at the foot of the Throne.

" Permit us to avail o'trsetves of this opportunity to
express our best %oish<'s for Your Excellency's spiritval
and temporal prosperity^ and to assure Your Excellency
of our sincere desire and firm determination to second
Your Excellency'* s exertions for the public srood, by doing
all in our power to promote the interests of morality and
pure religio?i^ the essential precepts of which are^ Fear
God and honor the King.

" By order of ihe Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church in Canada.

'* (Signed) W. CASE, President.
" (Signed) JAMES RICHARDSON, Secretary,
York, Sept. 8, 1831.

To which His Excellency was pleased to reply : —

"Gentlemen: — I shall not fail to transmit to the
Secretary of State your memorial addressed to the King.

" In returning my best thanks for your good wishes,
I may venture to affirm that the assurances of your desire
and determination to promote the interests of pure re-
ligion, will afford general satisfaction ; because- a very
unfavorable impression has been made from one end of
the Province to the other as regards an imputed secular
interference on the part of your preachers : an impression
I am afraid, that must tend to counteract the salutary
effects that ought to result from the active piety and zeal
of your Society. I refer with reluctance to the public
opinion formed of the doctrines inculcated by ministers
of every denomination of Christians, or the principles
which they are said to espouse : but oio this occasion I
think it right to acquaint you that alihough the character
of your ministers is probably aspersed, and although they
may not as is said, take advantage of the influence ac-
quired by their sacred office, to conduct the political
concerns of the people committed to llieir care, to be
instructed only in the words of eternal life, yet, / cannot
imagine that tf there were not some ground /or the impu-
tation, of their inconvenient attention tu secular concerns^
a desire for the return of the Wesleyan Missionaries to

r.?5ume their pastoral labors in thi% Province would not
have been generally expressed. This conclusion may be
erroneous, but 1 am in some measure ltd to il from the*
reports which I have received of the absurd advice offer-
ed by your Missionaries to the Indians, and their officious
interference ; if any reliance can be placed on the stale"
ments of the Indians themselves, the civilization of whom
the Superintendents of the Indian Department arc endea-
voring to accomplish.

" With our excellent Constitution in this Province, I
trust we shall always find a sufficient number of sup-
porters of Civil and Religious freedom, without the
interference of the ministers of the Gospel. Your preach-
ers^ whether they are brought from the United Stales, or
any other foreign country, will, 1 hope experience^ while
they act honestly and respect British Institutions, the same
protection and encouragement^ and freedom^ which all
Americans ev.joy, who have found an asylum among us^
and chcose to live under the British Government in this
Province, and securely enjoy the rights cf our own
Colonists — which are assured to every dcnominatlun,
party, sect or persuasion.

" Your dislike to any Church Establishment, or to the
particular form of Christianity which is denominated the
Church of England, may be the natural consequence of
the constant success of your own efficacious orgar^ised
system. The small number ff our Church is to be re-
gretted^ as ivell as that the organization of its Ministry is
not adapted to supply the present wants (f the dispersed
population in this new country: but you will readily ad-
mit that the sober-minded of the Province are disgusted
with the accounts of the disgraceful dissensions of the
Episcopal Methodist Church and its separatists — recrim-
inating memorials, and the warfare of one Church with
another. The utility of an Establishment depends en-
tirely on the piety ^ assiduity, and devoted zeal of its
Ministers^ and on their abstaining from a secular inter-
ference^ which may involve them in political disputes.
The labours of the Clergy of Established Churches in
defence of moral and religious truth, will always be re-
membered by you who have access to their writings, and
benefit by them in common with other Christian societies.
You will allowy I have no doubt, on reflection, that it
would indeed (with the inconsiderable population of the
Province) be imprudent to admit the rights of societies to
dictate on account of their present numerical strength, in

• i'V.Wi I'"''-' 5 ?S ■■' •>'• "'m' > '*<

■^i! " >' Si

what way the lands spI apart as a provision for the Clergy
shall be disposed of. Ample information on the question
has been laid before llie Imperial Parliament, and no
inconvenience while it is pendiiiif cin arise in re5«pect to
the occupation of these lands: for there are more acres
now offered for sale than purchasers can be found for
them.

" /w a few years (he Province loill he peopled by millions
of our own covntrymen, and many of the arrangements of
His Majesty\s Government will have reference naturally to
tha population of th^ Mother Country^ destined to occupy
the Waste Lands of the Crown.

" The system of Education which has produced the
best and ablest men in the United Kingdom, will not be
abandoned liere^ to suit the limited mews of the leaders of
Societies^ who perhaps have neither experience nor jvdiiment
to appreciate the value or advantages of a liberal Education*
But the British Government will, I am confident, with
the aid of the Provincial Legisiatur?, establish respectable
schools in every part of the Province, und encourage all
societies to follow their example.

** A Seminary f I hope, will not be termed exclusioe^
which is open to every one, merely because the classical
masters are brought from our own Universities.

"It may be mentioned, without giving offence to the
members of any church or persuasion, that there are few
individuals who think that Ministers of the Gospel can
conduct political journals, and keep themselves unspotted
from the world, and put away all bitterness and wrath,
and clamour and evil speaking, which the attacks of their
adversaries may engender, or that their avocation will
not force them to spend their time like the Athenians in
their decline, in nothing but * either to tell or to hear some
new thing,' 1 am persuaded that the friends of religion
will strongly recommend ministers of the Gospel to
labour to increase the number of christians, rather than
the number of their own sects or persuasions, to close
their churches and chapals against all political meetings,
and indeed all meetings for the transaction of secular
business, and never to permit their consecrated places to
be profaned by the party spirit of the hour."

In separating from the M. E. Church, the Wesleyans
abandoned those principles which were displeasing to
the ecclesiastical dependants of the Church of England,

■"■!.X-T« 'V'J '■I t?(»

q CK V* ■!•»•*■«•■»"**"'■' '

and the crafty politicians composing the corrupt family
compact; and such a mutual good understanding estab*
Ushed between those liberal purchasers and those minis*
ters who were ambitious for government patronage, that
a share of government money was extended to and
received by them, as early as 1833, as is proved by the
following extract from the seventh report of the Commit-
tee of the House of Assembly on grievance, 1835.

*' The ministers of these Ecclesiastical establishments
derive their ofKcial pensions entirely from the public
revenue raised within the Province, and receive besides
an income from their congregations; England pays no
part. \.

" There were paid out of the Provincial chest, without
any vote of the Legislature, in 1832, 1833, and 1834, to
the four Established Churches, £40,441, of which £16,-
284 were paid in 1834.''

METHODISTS. , , •

"The ' Canadian Wesleyan Methodist Conference* re-
ceived £800 in 1833, and £380 in 1834 ; these sums were
to be applied to the building of Chapels, 4^c.

*• The * British Wesleyan Methodist Conference ' for-
merly the Methodist Episcopal Church, received £1,000
in 1833, and £611 in 1834, to be applied (as is stated to
the Lieutenant Governor by the Rev. Joseph Stinson,)
* to the erection or repairing Chapels and School-houses,
and defraying the general expenses of the various Mis-
sions in our charge. "

** Your Committee were unable to obtain an account of
the expenditure of these monies in detail. It appears in-
seed that no such accounts had been transmitted to the
Government Office in either of these years."

« 'ff-- *•

irr

4; :.

" Government House^ Ibth March, 1833.
" Gentlemen : — I am directed to acquaint you, with
reftirence to the applications to His Majesty's Govern-

* £15,284 paid to the Clergy of 4 particular denominations in one year,
is rather at variance with a portion of Viscount Goderich's despatch, that
shewing undue preference to the Church of Eugland was at variance with
his whole course of policy, more especially as £9,602 of that sum was
given to that denomination.

i-«

ment from several religious denominations for assistance
in the present state of the Province to enable them to
build churches or chapels. The Lieutenant Governor has
been authorized to place at the disposal, this year, of
the British Wesleyan Conference the sum of £900, and
£600 at the disposal of the Canadian Wesleyan Confer-
ence, to be applied in erecting such churches or chapels
as may be required ; and I am to inform you, that on
your stating the manner in which the grunt is to be
applied, His Excellency will order the amount to be
placed at your disposal.

'* I am, &c.,

«Wm. rowan.

" The British Wesleyan Conference and )
the Canadian Wesleyan Conference." 3

Copy.

" Oovernment House ^ Toronto,
4th July, 1834.

" Gentlemen : — I am directed to acquaint you, with
reference to the applications of His Majesty's Government
from several religious denominations for assistance in the
present state of the Province to enable them to build
churches or chapels. The Lieutenant Governor has been
authorized to place at the disposal, this year, of the
British Wesleyan Conference the sum of £550, to be
applied in erecting such churches or chapels as may be
required ; and I am to inform you, that on your stating
the manner in which the grant is to be applied, His
Excelliency will order the amount to be placed at your
disposal.

" I have, &c.,

" Wm. rowan.

" The Wesleyan
Methodist Conference."

To His Excellency Sir John Colborne^ Lieutenant Gov-
ernor of the Province of Upper Canada j Commander of
His Majesty's forces therein, Sfc, Sfc.^ 8fc.

May it please Your Excellency : — I had this day
the honor of receiving through the Rev. James Richard-

son, a communication from Your Excellency, respecting
a grant of £550 to the Bnlish Wesleyan Methodist Con-
ference ; the order for which Your Excellency is pleased:
to say you will give on being made acquainted with the
manner in which the above sum is to be appropriated
during the ensuing year. While on behalf of the Britisli
Wesleyan Methodist Conference and Missionary Society,
which I have the honor to represent in this Province, I
gratefully acknowledge this pecuniary assistance, I beg
permission to inform Your Excellency, that it will be
applied to the erection or repairing of chapels and school
houses, and defraying the general expenses of the various
mission stations in our charge.

*•! have the honor to be, ' ' >^ u.v ."'

" Your Excellency's very obedient .• : J < ;•;
" Humble servant,

"JOSEPH STINSON.
*' City of Toronto, July 1, 1834."

/u.. \

..I

'J: ■ .. '-. rt

Copt, u . r. ■r^--i] _ :\it i IW'U.!

,. u .t / :, t "Government HopsE,

" Toronto, Uh Julyi 1834 ,
" Gentlemen : — I am directed to acquaint you with
reference to the applications to His Majesty's Government
from several religious denominations, for assistance in the
present state of the Province, to enable them to build
churches or chapels. The Lieutenant Governor has been
authorized to place at the disposal, this year, of the
Canadian Wesleyan Conference the sum of £350, to be
applied in erecting such churches or chapels as may be
required ; and I am to inform you, that on your stating,
the manner in which the grant is to be applied, His
Excellency will order the amount to be placed at your
disposal.

"lam, &c., •■'" . *-'

" Wm. rowan.

" The Canadian Wesleyan
Conference."

.• r

" Resolutions oj the Canadian Wesleyan Conference.

" Resolved :— That should His Majesty's Government
be pleased to grant pecuniary aid to the Canadian

■f

i'jl

.• V*

We?leyan Methodists, according to the application that
has been made to His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor,
Sir John Colborne, for that purpose.

*' If such aid shtill be restricted to the building or
affording aid in building chnpels and houses of worship,
or in paying for such as have been built and not wholly
paid for, the same is hereby directed to be applied in th^
following manner, that is to say: —

" Towards the building a house in the town of Peter-
borough — Peterborough Circuit, Newcastle District.

" For the Brick Chapel in Grantham at the Ten Mile
Creek, in ihe District of Niagara.

" For the chapel of 30 Mile Creek in Clinton, District
of Niagara.

*' Towards the building a house on the Lansdown
Circuit, in the Johnstown District, in the township of
South Crosby or Bastard.

" For a chapel in the Town of London, in the London
District, ^ ,

" To one in St. Thomas, District of London.

"To one in Vienna Village, same District.

" To one in the Town of Hallowell, Prince Edward
District. i

*' To paying for the sum due on a chapel building in
the Township of Yonge, in the Johnstown District.

" To paying for the sum due on a chapel in the City
of Toronto, if circumstances should make it necessary.

" Resolved : — That John Willson, Esquire, is hereby
fully authorized to apply to His Excellency the Lieutenant
Governor for any aid that may be granted to this Con-
ference, and receive the same, and to sign any ac-
quittances or give any receipts that may be necessary
in the premises, and to distribute the same in the manner
hereinbefore directed, and to prepare and lay before the
next annual Conference a true and faithful account of all
monies by him received on the grounds of the aforesaid
resolutions. ■ -^

" By order of the Conference,

ii.

i)j. p

" A. K. McKENZIE,
"JOHN FLANAGAN, Sec'y.

*' Hq^minouy Newcastle District, \9th June, 1834."

t ;.-,,'

True philanthropy and universal kindness is the basis
of Christianity. While men love God supremely, they
are bound to love their neighbours as themselves. Sel-
fishness has no place in the religion of Jesus Christ, and
what the broad principles of true benevolence are the
Saviour of the world beautifully illustrated to an imper-
tinent lawyer, who maliciously proposed ensnaring ques-
tions to him, by relating an instance of a man falling
among thieves and left in distress, which condition call-
ed for sympathy and generosity abstracted from all self-
ish considerations. In connection with this narative
Jesus introduces two disgraceful instances of unmitigated
selfishness, and insensibility to the welfare of others, and
one example of unselfish tenderness, generosity, and
compassion. The want of humanity was found in a
Priest and a Levite, whose pretences and teachings were
a religion of love, and in v^'hose practice there was a to-
tal disregard to its sacred principles. And this is no fic-
titious character. We often find selfishness wrapped up
in the garb of religion which noae but the truly bene-
volent should wear ; could that Priest and Levite have
secured to themselves gain and power, could they have
monopolized a large and plentiful estate, and the liber-
ties of the family of the distressed, doubtless in view of
personal interest, they would not have passed by on the
other side, but in their sanctity would have graciously
stooped to his misfortunes and relieved his distresses.
True benevolence would prompt gratuitous assistance
and not monopoly. And behold says the Saviour a Sa-
maritan passes that way, one who on the account of
national or religious difFerences held himself discharged
from all acts of kindness toward a Jew, for the Jews had
no dealings with the Samaritans. This Samaritan, free
from all thirst for power, or ^ain, or monopoly, influenced
by the noble feelings of benevolent generosity, had com-
passion on him, went to him, bound up his wounds, set
him on his own beast, took him to an inn, took care of
him, and paid the sixpence gratuitously. To drop this
narative and make an application of it to this subject.

•I

We remark that it is apparent from all that has been said,
that in Canada there existed a truly legal, orthodox, and
independent Methodist Episcopal Church before the
Wesleyan missionaries visited its shores. It is aiso evi-
dent that Mr. Wesley designed that the Methodist Church
in America should be free from all subjection to the Eng-
lish Conference, otherwise he would not have ordained
an independent Bishop for this continent. And we are
not left to mere inference on this point, for Mr. Wesley's
intention relative to the independency of the American
Methodists is plainly expressed in a letter written by
him and addressed to Dr. Coke, Mr. Asbury, and the
brethren in North America, dated Bristol, September 10th
1784, in which he declared that no one either claitped or
exercised any ecclesiastical authority over them at all,
and as the An. iican brethren were disentangled he dare
not entangle ^^ and he further remarked that they
were now at i \'. iberty to follow the Scriptures and the
primitive Church, and that he judged it best that they
should stand fast in the liberty wherewith God had made
them free. And although he sent them money and men
like the generous Samaritan, having no thirst for mono-
poly, did not. ask them for the titles of their vineyards,
dwellings and temples. But a more priestly and Levi-
tical spirit influenced the minds of his Ecclesiastical
grandsons, who visited Canada. And allow us to say
here, that, although we, in the most charitable language,
touch with reluctance, and despatch with impatience,
this delicate part of our subject, yet our conscience is
not so timorous as to provoke the censures of posterity
by shrinking from a faithful discharge of that duty we
owe to mankind, in order to shelter ourselves from the ire
of narrow-minded spiritual tyrants, and those whose reli-
gious superstitions will not allow them to think for them-
selves. In Upper Canada there was prospective wealth, a
rich and prosperous people, much property already accu-
mulated, in addition to which there was one-seventh of the
broad acres of Canadian soil, set apart by the Imperial
Government for the maintenance of a Protestant Clergy

: '■TK'ssriTaTrrsrTrR ftWiTintmiS*?? w*iiiBS Wfi

«*i»i»i!.»t{i'

in the Province. The Legislative Assembly of Upper
Canada, supported by the liberal populace, among whom
were the Methodist Ministers and members', were taking
meglsures for the secularization of the funds arising from
the sale of these lands. The mercenary Priests of the
Church of England, assiduous to retain their emoluments
in order to secure themselves against the demands and
clamours of the people, obsequiously surrendered their
exclusive claim to the benefit of the Clergy Reserve fund,
and in order to secure the assistance of all who w^ould
ignominiously sacrifice civil and religious principle and
freedom to avarice, consented that not only the Presbyte-
rians and Methodists but also the Roman Catholics should
share with them in these government endowments,
against which the Methodists had so earnestly remon-
strated. It also became necessary for the corrupt artd
crafty politicioiis forming the " Family Compact " who
were held in public abhorrence, to shelter themselves
from the indignation of a dissatisfied people, and to coun-
terbalance the power exerted against them by the liberal
part of the community, they opened the prospect of ex-
haustless treasures to those whose ruling passion was
avarice, by offering to the Wesleyanr of England pecuni-
ary aid from the Clergy reserve fund, if they would send
missionaries to this Province. To establish this assertion
to the satisfaction of our readers we quote the following
from a letter addressed by the Rev. R. Alder to Lord John
Russell, dated, Wesleyan Mission House, Hatton Garden,
London, 29th of April, 1840.

** In consequence of proposals which were made in
the yfear 1832, by the Earl of Rippon, then Prittci^al Se-
cretary of State for the Colonies, to the Wesleyan Mis-
sionary Committee, to induce them to extend their Mis-
sionary operations in Upper Canada, they resolved to do
so, and arrangements were immediately made for carry-
ing that resolution into eflfect. My Lord, the Govern-
ment of Earl Grey was induced to make this offer to
the Wesleyan Missionary Committee by patriotic as well
as by religious considerations ; and if the testimony of

9|^

'BE

Lord Seaton* and other distinguished individuals were to
be depended upon, a wiser arrangement could not have
been proposed. On ihe grounds of this arrangement an
annual grant is secured, on the faith of the Royal word,
to the Wesleyan Missionary Committee, to assist them in
meeting the expense which it necessarily involves." And
further :

" The union which now exists between the British
Conference and the Conference in Upper Canada, took
place about a year after I had — as the representative of
the Wesleyan Missionary Committee— completed, at To-
ronto, with Lord Seaton, all the arrangements connected
with the offer made by Lord Goderich to the Committee,
having proceeded Irom England to Canada for that pur-
pose.*' ' ' ' •' .1 !>'

With these strong assurances of g£^in and monopoly,
the British Conference sent to Canada the Rev. Robert
Alder, whose insatiable avarice and peculiar appetites pre-
pared him for the work, who being abetted by the Messrs.
Ryerson, men of like character and disposition, succeed-
ed in inducing the majority of the Methodist EpijscopEil
Conference to sece.ie and become a dependant branch of
the British Wesl yan Societies, carrying with them all
who were accustomed to reverence the counsels of the
Synod more than their own dignity and freedom. In se-
parating from the M. E. Church and uniting with the
Wesleyans, they submitted their former principles and
liberties to the following humiliating conditions

1st. They were to renounce Episcopacy, and that form
of Church Government to which they had so tenaciously
adhered.

2nd. They were to give up their independence as a
Church, which they had secured in the year 1828,
and receive a President from the British Conference.

Srd. They were to give up the control of the Indian
missions to the British Missionary Committee.

4th. They were to concede to the British Missionaries

* K own in Upper Canada in 1832 as Sir Jotin Oolborne, Clovernor of

KJ*rt»*r?n*i ^'rfti-

the rifrht of saying who should be members of Confer-

encc^

6th. They were ;o change the scriptural usage of di-
vers orders in the ministry to that of one. "' >

6th. They were to suppress the office of Local Preacher
to a merely nominal existence, and deprive the worthy
body bearing that office of ordination and the privileges
of administering the sacraments. <' << !' I -

The reader will perhaps be better satisfied in relation
to the correctness of the foregoing statements by reading
the following letter addressed by the Rev. R. Alder, first
President of the Wesleyan Conference in Upper Canada,
to the Lieutenant Governor, Sir John Colborne, dated,

Montreal, 27th August, 1832. . ,

" Sir, — I beg permission to inform your Excellency
that I have attended the Conference of the Methodist
Church of Upper Canada, and to state confidentially for
your information, the result of the interview with that
body — a result much more favourable than I allowed
myself to anticipate.

" They have resolved that their disciplinary system
shall be so altered as that it may be made to agree in all
its parts with British Methodism, as speedily as prudence^
and a due regard to the safety of their chapel property , will
allow. The Conference has already agreed to the aboli-
tion of Episcopacy, which was a great barrier in the way
of the entire union. They have consented to place the
whole of their Indian Missions under the exclusive man-
agement of our Missionary Committee. In addition to
these, and other concessions of importance, I have
required that no man who continues to pursue any secu-
lar calling shall be ordained to the office of the ministry ;
that the British Conference shall send to Canada such
ministers as it may seem fit to appoint ; tliat no preachers
shall be taken out in Canada without the consent of that
body; that Kingston shall be exclusively occupied by a
Missionary from the British Conference, as it is a central
station between the two Provinces ; that the propriety of
continuing Camp Meetings shall be seriously considered,
and that the Christian Gmrdian shall, for the future, be
an exclusively religious journal. The Canada Confer-
ence has appointed a representative to proceed to England,

where the whole matter will be finally settled. Rev. E.
Ryerson has been appointed to this office. This, your
Excellency, was done at my earnest request, as he and
his brothers were the most eloquent advocates for the
proposed alterations.

" From these statements your Excellency will perceive
that I have rigidly adhered to those great principles to
which I had occasion to advert during the several inter-
views with which you were pleased to honour me^ and it is
only an act of justice to the Canadian Conference to
sta'e that my frankness in stating my sentiments and
principles, and my firm adherence to them^ contributed to
procure for me, in no small degree, the confidence of a
large portion of that body, of which a strong proof is
furnished in the fact, that an unanimous request has been
addressed to the British Conference, that in the event of
the proposed arrangements being carried into effect, I may
be appointed as their first President, with the understand-
ing that 1 shall remain for two or three years, and exercise
a general superintendence over the Methodist societies in
both Provinces.

•* I feel a strong conviction that for many reasons I
should accept of such an appointment, especially as I
possess a degree of local knowledge and influence which
it would require a stranger some time to obtain. May I
venture to ask your Excellency's opinion of such an
arrangement, as it would have ^eat weight with our Mis-
six)nary Committee, as well as with myself.

" I shall return to England by the way of Halifax, in
which place I shall remain till the middle of September ;
after which my address will be, 8 Portland Street, Kings-
down, Bristol.

" I remain, &c., • ,

' « (Signed,) *' R. ALDER.

** His Excellency Sir John Colborne,

"K.C.B., &c. &c. &c." <>' > '

».'•■' !•

From the above statements we infer that the English
Missionaries did not visit our shores and insidiously guiii
authority over the Methodist community, merely to ex-
tend their Mission operations and the cause of Christ, but
becau^^e there were vineyards planted, dwellings and
temples erected, and honours and emoluments promised.
Had they sought for truly missionary fields, Lower Cana-
da was quietly surrendered, and the Hudson Bay Territory

was before them, and numerous Papist and Pagan coun-
tries in the boundaries of the Eastern Hemisphere. It
cannot be argued with the least shade of truth, that Up-
per Canada is more properly missionary ground in the
common acceptation of that term than England itself.
Neither can it be said that there are not in Upper Cana-
da ministers enough to supply the demand. Nor can the
superior talent of the English Missionaries be pleaded, in
order to palliate the intrusion. Upper Canadians are not
a barbarous people. They have schools, colleges, semi-
naries, and academies, which will compare favourably
with those of England, and the rose of Sharon has
bloomed-with equal fragrance and beauty in Canadian
soil. Canadian ministers stand as high in the scale of
intelligence, l)eneficence, strength and dignity, and every
other qualification for the work on this Continent as
their English brethren, their race, language, and govern-
ment being the same. Nor is it a mitigation of the sa-
crifice of Christian charity, honesty, and liberty; which
wa«» made in the unrighteous monopoly which we have
sparingly glanced at, connected with the schism now un-
der consideration, that some emigrants from England
had connected themselves with the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and, preferring English usage and Old Country
preachers, were favourable to the movement. Others
(with more justice) tenaciously preferred Canadian pas.
tors and usages, a. 1 their freedom. And it accords with
reason that strangers coming to our country should re-
linquish their national preferences in religious forms as
well as in other matters, and assimilate to the peculiari-
ties of Canada. • . >^ •■ ■.■ . A , t / V

But the question now arises, shall the present ministers
of the various Methodist Churches perpetuate division
and strife, engendered by the perfidious intrigues of men
whose disgraceful departure from the ministry has already
afforded a sufficient evidence of their lack of disinterest-
ed zeal for the advancement of the cause of God, and a
satisfactory proof of their perverted appetites and unsa-
tiable thirst for government emoluments and honours.

.4
-J.
■■i

an coun-
•here. It
that Up-
d in the
nd itself.
9r Cana-
r can the
eaded, in
9 are not
es, semi-
vourably
iron has
!^anadian
scale of
nd every
inent as
govern-
f the aa-
r; which
we have
now un-
England
piscopal
Country
Others
lan pas.
rds with
ould re-
brms as
eculiari-

linisters
division
of men
already
nterest-
, and a
) unsa-
lonours.

Many of the present acting ministers of Methodist
Churches were not bom at the time of these deplorable
separations, and many others were of tender age and have
been brought into their respective Churcises more by ac-
cident than by choice, and they cannot m any sense be
accountable for the guilt or shame of thf:s«$ schisms. They
now ail occupy in one point of liberty and justice equal
ground, and they are positively all one, that is, if they are
born of the Spirit. And shall they attach each to them-
selves the guilt and responsibility of schism by perpetu-
ating it ? In closing this chapter we pray that all unholy
thoughts and suggestions, all unhallowed reasoning and
clamour, and unsanctified desires and confusion of ton-
gues, which is hurtful and unprofitable may cease, and
that all who truly desire the highest religious results, may
learn to recognize their relationship as brethren, being
the true sons of God, and commence to live in peace, so
that as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, the
God of peace may be rqund about his people.

. i

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-' ■.'Ii 'i* .

'>' ' • -^ CHAPTER m. ' c;-^'>'> •'

NATURE AND SINFULNESS OF CHURCH DIVISIONS

''■' In our calm mortieilts of reflection we behold with
mingled feelings of horror, indignation, pity and shame,
the various branches of the church of Christ Who acknow-
ledge each other to be evangelical, having the sarhe God,
the same spirit, the same worship, divided by distinctions
of such inconsiderable significance ! And it is truly pain-
ful for us to Confess the real cause of our strange and
fatal divisions, which are contrary to the trUe principles
of our holy religion, dishonourable to Christianity, and
form insuperable impediments to the conversion of the
world. No man can candidly examine the origin of all
the various schisms of the evangelical Church, but he
must be convinced that they have been provoked on the
one hand —

First, By an attempt of the authorities of the Church to
deprive its members of the rights of intellectual freedom
and private judgment, and to confining them to creeds
and confessions established by the wisdom of the synods.

Secondly, By the despotism exercised by the clerical
dignitaries of the Church, according to their ecclesiastical
rank.

Thirdly, By an attempt to amalgamate Church and
State, and ministers reaching, both in Church and
State, after honours and emoluments to satiate their
rapacious ambition and avarice.

Fourthly, By the authorities of the Church (instead
of healing differences in the spirit of Christianity) mak-
ing their severest censures rest on those who presumed
to follow the dictates of conscience far enough to
deviate from their superior wisdom, which censures

SS-

(

Id with
shame,
icknow-
rhe God,
tinctionw
ily paih-
nge and
'inciples
ity, and
ti of the
in of all
but he
1 on the

lurch to
reedom
creeds
synods,
clerical
liastical

ch and
ih. and
e their

instead
f) mak-
esumed
ugh to
ensures

only produced a spirit of discord and inconsistency.
On the other hand, these divisions were provoked
by the loose wandering imagination of ciedulous
aspirants and spiritual rebels, whose zsalous obsti-
nacy was prompted by motives of ambition or avar-
ice. The actions of this class of men being more
controlled by passion than subjected to reason, their
enthusiasm is always indefatigable in the cause they
espouse, and finding themselves soon supported by men
of like disposition of mind, whose stern fanaticism prepare
them to second any measure supposed to be hostile to
imaginary oppression, they rush forward courageously,
frequently taking the advantage of the ambiguity of
words, not to reconcile differences, but to enflame the
minds of the people. And it is impossible for us to de-
termine how far the zeal of such prevail over their good
sense and love for the cause of Christ. Systems of
religion and Church government established by men,
whatever their excellences, and with however great
complacency they may be regarded by their adherents,
are always imperfect. These defects being discovered
by the designing and taken as specimens, the whole
system is judged and pronounced upon accordingly.
Hence the establishment and rigid enforcement of exten-
sive ecclesiastical laws and restrictions, although pro-
fessedly designed as securities against error and schism,
have rather created it and caused divisions. And when
we turn over to history to find the fruit of these discords,
we have to lament over the well-attested evils and dis-
orders which thicken and multiply on the pages, that are
the natural effects of religious divisions, and which have
disturbed the peace and dishonoured the triumph of the
Church. Oh how humiliating to confess that the Church
which should be the representation of heaven on earth
has been converted by discord into the image of hell
itself ! The apparent enmity that existed between pro-
fessing christians has surpassed, at times, their enmity
against sin ; each claiming all virtue and orthodoxy for
himself, and ascribing all guilt and heresy to his brother,

tfk-^

,< i KHafiiSCui&SiKiu.

fiiiiiKjuiiiiiiJirr.ijkt

who professed the same pure and peaceable religion.
The philosophic tendency of snch a course of conduct,
on the part of those who are styled by the gospel the
lights of the world, is to lead unregenerate men to
regard them as monsters, while they profess sanctity,
and to drive the world to infidelity.

These separations among christians have never done
any good but much evil. No one can deny that a very
fruitful source of apathetic indifference, scepticism and
infidelity is the wrangling and strife among the pro-
fessed followers of Christ. Numerous cases might be
given of those who have turned from the authority of the
Scriptures, avowedly in consequence of the acrimonious
contentions engendered by party strife, and the mot-t
potent truths and eloquent appeals fail to dissipate that
apathetic indifierence, scepticism and infidelity, which is
the natural fruit of the animosities and disunion among
those who should co-operate in their opposition to sin and
advocacy of virtue.

Men are the same, God's word is the same, and His
spirit is the same now, as they were when hundreds
yielded to Jesus Christ from the influence of a single
sermon. But God's people are not the same. Then
they were altogether and all spake the same thing. Now
every man " seeks his own," and contradicts his brother
to keep his peculiar views of difficult questions before
the people. The religious views of the ungodly are
generally drawn from such exhibitions of religion as
force themselves upon them, and when the unconverted
see those who profess religion repelling others who
equally profess it, declaring them to be entirely wrong,
while they in turn vociferate the same arrogance to their
assailants, it is no marvel if they should turn from all
these controversialists, and philosophically resolve to eat,
drink, and be merry in this life, and take the chances for
the next. And it may be safely affirmed that Omnipo-
tence itself cannot bring so much good out of these
divisions that prevail among christians, as would natu-
rally arise from the exhibition of that union and love

religion,
conduct,
3spel tiie
men to
sanctity,

ver done
at a very
ism and
the pro-
night be
fy of the
imonious
he tnohi
>ate that
nrhich is
n among
> sin and

and His
lundreds
a single
Then
Now
3 brother
s before
)dly are
gion as
onverted
rs who
' wrong,
to their
Vom all
e to eat,
ices for
)mnipo-
of these
Id natu-
md love

which the word of God enjoins, and which christians
pretend to cherish. Again, divisions among Protestants
is a great bulwark to Popery. The votaries of the Papacy,
whose minds are not in a proper condition to form
clear views about the finely spun theories which divide
Protestants, conclude that Protestantism cannot be the
true religion, because its contentions and divisions
demonstrate it rather to be of the devil than of God. And
how can we expect the world to be converted by such a
disjointed instrumentality ? Oh that Protestant Churches
who denominate each other evangelical w^uld remove
the non-essential, denominational lines v/hich divicie
them ! Oh that they would not allow their prejudices to
gain so complete a mastery over their judgment and love
of Christ, as is manifested in that sectarianism which has
excluded a large portion of the christian world ^rom
Christianity ! Oh that they would cultivate humili'/ Ai\d
be willing to allow that they may themselves be guilty of
as great errors as those of which they accuse their
brethren, or of an error even of a nature more heinous in
the sight of God ! Oh that christians would fee' the
weight of responsibility which rests upon them to cultivate
the spirit of Christ ! , . ; i w ,

We mourn over the superstitions of Mahommedism,
but what created them? Mahommed discovered the
divisions, corruptions, and superstitions v'iichtheJews
had introduced into their religion. And being satisfied
that a religion emanating from one God should be one
body and one spirit ; he formed the scheme of founding a
new religion, or, as he expresses it, of replanting the only
true and ancient one, which consists chiefly in the wor-
ship of one God.

With sorrow we have witnessed the rapid advance-
ment of Mormonism. Its founder tells us that when he
examined into the claims of the various religious denomi-
nations, and discovered such confusion and contradictions
among them, that he turned from all of them in disgust.
Then, he adds, he determined to put into practice the
advice of St. James, ** If any man lack wisdom let him

iS00

ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth
not, and it shall be given to him." In the fulfilment of
his resolution he declared that he was visited by two
glorious personages, who informed him that all the
existing sects were in error and had wandered from the
truth. ."'i::,.^ t,ii-\A\ ■ '!<'■ >ui'; : '^i'' '>-y ,'/-,■'> '^r
Whoever may have been in the right or in the wrong
in the theological controversies which have convulsed the
Christian Church, ^or however harmless or monstrous
the errors combatted, it is to be doubted whether the
complete history of the infernal spirits could contain any
thing more to be deplored or more abominable thanhas been
connected with these religious discords. They have,
during the last fifteen centuries, given rise to some of
the most dreadful scenes of slaughter that devils ever
delighted in. Our limits will not allow us to speak in
detail of the bloody Crusades to the Holy Land, where
the numbers slain are computed at more than six hundred
thousand Moslems, and one hundred thousand christians I
And of the savage cruelties of Popish or Mormon wars,
where thousands have fallen as if they were brutes, blind
to death, judgment and eternal] happiness, agitated by
infernal passions and covered with blood, to settle the
disputes of priests to whom was commiited the care of
their souls. But we turn to Protestant countries and
churches. We see in Scotland two enlightened, reason-
ing, patriotic Protestant Christian armies so deluded as
mutually to offer prayers to the same benevolent God for
success in their attempts to butcher each other. Mobs
were raised, worshipping assemblies were attacked,
racks, thumb-screws, and instruments of torture were
used by these austere fanatics to settle a religious con-
troversy of the most trifling weight. Merely because the
Scotch held holidays in disgust, and hated Episcopacy*
and the English observed the one and loved the other.
Though they were ready to compromise their political
differences, their ecclesiastical diffierences admitted of no
compromise, and armies would have met armies for
successive generations, and to this day the fields of

eason-
ed as
od for
VIobs
eked,
were
con-
3e the
pacy»
other,
itical
of no
9 for
ds of

Scotland would have remained barren moors and sheep
walks drowned with human blood, and her seaports,
fishing hamlets to this day, had not the irrevocable doom
been pronounced of those religious institutions which they
regarded with religious aversion and abhorrence. The
feverish discussions of the clergy on the slave question,
and the separation between the Methodist Church, South
and North, was a prelude to the bloody work now going
on in the United States, which is enough to make heaven
weep and hell triumph. Both southern and northern
pulpits have been filled by sacred orators haranguing the
masses and indiscriminately bestowing epithets, invokin<?
heroism, patriotism and piety, until every human and
christian feeling is so blended with pride, ambition, hatred
and revenge, that it is almost regarded by American
christians as a religious merit not to value the lives of
their adversaries, and they measure each other more by
the standard of worldly honour than by that Christian
charity that worketh no ill to our neighbour.

Every man acquainted with the history of Canada
must be convinced that the clergy come in for a share of
the shame and guilt of the Canadian civil war of 1837.
The establishment of rectories was deeply humiliating to
a large portion of the Canadian populace. Religious
periodicals had diffused. a spirit of enquiry in relation to
the exclusive right of the Church of England to the
advantages of the Clergy Reserve fund. Ministers of
the other churches (the Methodist Church not excepted)
sought for an increase of funds and repeated government
donations. This provoked a quarrel between the mer-
cenary clergy and the aspirants to the same emoluments,
and in a degree efi^ected the separation between the
Wesleyans and the M. E. Church. This thirst for riches
and power seduced many ministers of the Methodist
Church to prostrate the dignity and sanctity of their
office to interference in politics and elections.* Hand

* Political preachers neither convert souls, nor build up believers in
their most holy faith. One may pique himself on his loyalty, the other
on his liberality and popular notions of government ; but in the sight of

„.-M

bills were circulated by thom, and in the pulpit and at
firesides, affectionate requests were made to the people to
waive conscience and cast their votes for candidates
pledged to support their respective church endowments.
This course of conduct disgusted a people distinguished
for conscientiousness, and a spirit of religious and civil
liberry. They therefore resented this unholy interfer-
ence of government sycophants who would fawn where
thrift will follow fawning, and their zeal being a little
embittered by persecution, an appeal was unwisely made
to arms. And though men may plead their pure inten-
tions to support the institutions of the Church, and thereby
try to dignify their avarice with the specious names of
piety and patriotism, yet in their calm retirement they
must deplore the effusion of Canadian bio >d, and secretly,
if not openly, confess that that sin and scandal are in
part to be imputed to their account. ' -: ' ;• .h

And when with interested vigilance we examine the
statistics of the various churciies which demonstrate the
expenses attending these ecclesiastical divisions, the
question assumes a grave importance, not lesis political
than moral. Our limits will not allow us to notice all the
countless facts which we could collect from all directions ;
but briefly to examine the expenses attending Methodist
divisions in Canada. We find .in towns, villages and
country places, where the Methodist congregations could
all conveniently assemble in one house, and attend the
ministrations of one clergyman, two, three, and four lean,
scattered, and jealous groups, vyhose points of disagree-
ment could scarce be discovered by a strong polemical
microscope, bearing the expense and outlay of erecting,
repairing, warming and lighting churches for themselves.

the great Head of the Church, the first is a sounding brass, the second a
tinkling symbal,

Both stubborn Htatesmen, both with skill inspired

To scold or bluster as their cause required.
When preachers of the gospel become parties in party politics, religion
mourns, the Church is unedified, and religious disputes agitate even the
faithful of the land ; such preachers, no matter which side they take,
are no longer the messengers of glad tidings, but the seedsmen of
confusion and the wasters of the heritage of Christ.— j^r. Adam Clarke.

:oiid a

ligion
m the
take,
■len of
'larke.

The Methodist Episcopal Church alone, since the
separation of 1832, huir accumulated Church property-
amounting to more than two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars, the yearly interest of that sum is fifteen thousand
dollars, to which we may add ten thousand dollars for
incidentals, such as fuel, light, &c., and add still to that
amount the seventy-five thousand dollars paid annually
to our ministers. And allowing that the Methodist New
Connexion, Primitive Methodists, and Bible Christians
combined, would in expense equal the Meihodist Episco-
pal Church, there is in Canada an annual waste of wo
hundred thousand dollars. We admit that there may be
some places occupied by some of these ministers not
occupied by others, but there are other places occupied
by three and four preachers to counterbalance these soli-
tary cases, and the people would as readily receive the
truth from one class of Methodist ministers as another, if
there were no other ministers to fsed their jealousies.
Had we space to examine more particularly into unques-
tionable evidence, these facts would stand out in bolder
relief. Thus on all sides we are supported in the assertion,
that two hundred thousand dollars annually is wasted,
worse than wasted, by the several Methodist societies in
Canada, thereby the personal aggrandisement and ambition
of a few of our clergy is maintained at a dear rate.
With the same money ministers could be supported and
edifices for the worship of God could be erected among
the heathen where they are pressingly needed. If there
was no demand upon the Church beyond the hmils of
Canada, its guilt in bearing this useless expense, so
contrary to christian economy, might be palliated, but the
conviction forces itself upon the mind of every Bible
reader that the true ambition and duty of the Church is
not to employ her ministers in kindling the embers of
controversy by the breath of passion, prejudice and pride,
by magnifying the absurd conclusions that might be
extorted from the principles or creeds of their fellows, but
to plant the standard of the cross in all lands and to
evangelize the world. And if ever there was a period in

.^*#;wM«»n«rtI#(^t|r.7tj;H'jp4|*j|i^jiJjg

the world's history when chrisiians should employ all
their means and powers it is the present. ' '"

The superstitions of Brahminism with its reformation
in Buddhism are now shaking from centre to circumfer-
ence, and their idols, who made not the heavens and the
earth, could easily be swept from under these heavens
and off this earth by the pure and unpolluted breath of
the gospel of Christ, if a united effort were made by the
Churches. Mahommedism has lost its power of exciting
and interesting its adherents, and the wise and learned of
those nations acknowledge that the religion of Christ is
superior to that of Mahoinmed. Romanism, the scourge
of earth and spawn of hell, has come to a place where
it is impossible to recede — dangerous to stand — ruinous
to fall ; it is tottering and must crumble into dust. In
every direction millions of hands are stretched out, and
voices raised, asking for the bread of life and the way to
heaven. • . ■; iv.' ->; nn- ' .i -. ••'•.' ^-i-^jr.

And now we ask who can tell the guilt of wasting the
means of the Church while these auspicious signals loom
up in the distance ? And instead of going in at once to
possess the land from which God is driving out the enemy
fromhisstrongholds, is it not intensely culpable, aye, sinful,
to spend the energies of the ministry, and the wealth of the
Church, in setting up denominational tenets and dogmas,
which are the legitimate offspring of arrogance and folly ?

Would it not be more worthy of the profession of the
Church to employ its benevolence in maintaining mis-
sionaries in heathen lands, than in supporting ministers
in establishing doubtful church politics or in eradicating
or silencing the adherents of an obnoxious sect ? With
the money that is wickedly wasted in Canada^ without the
additional liberality which such an enterprise would
secure, fifty ministers could be maintained in China, fifty
in India, and fifty in Turkey. Let the various branches
of the Methodtst Church give to the liberal people of
Canada unmistakeable evidence that all spiritual hos-
tility should now cease, and that those men who were
not needed in Canada would " count not their lives dear,"

and were ready to brave all dangers to establish the
standard of the cross in any and every land where the
hand of God would open the door, and donations would
be found to flow into the treasury of the Church in an
astonishing and gloriously overpowering abundance.
We weaken our own energies by divisions and discords.
Unity of faith produces unity of action. The amounis
received at present by our benevolent insiitutions, fall far
short of what they would be if there was a union
amongst our contributors. This would give life, activity
and interest to our relations to one another, and to the
world, and would show the superiority of the christian
faith over that selfishness which is nurtured in all false
religions. And that these divisions are contrary to the
Word of God and sinful is apparent when we consider
the following scriptures ; " Every kingdom divided against
itself is brought to desolation ; and every house divided
against itself shall not stand," Mai. xii. 23. *' If a king-
dom be divided against itself l!)at kingdom cannot stand,'
Mark iii. 25. " For as we have many members in one
body, and all members have not the same office ; so we,
being many, are one in Christ and every one members
of one another," Rom. xii. 4, 5. " Now we beseech you
brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye
all speak the same thing, and that there "be no divisions
among you ; but that ye be perfectly joined together in
the same mind and judgment," 1st Cor. i. 10. " For
whereas there is among you envying and strife and
divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men ? for while
one saith, I am of Paul and I of ApoUos, are ye not
carnal?" 1st Cor. iii. 3, 4. " Endeavouring to keep the
unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace .?" Ephes. iv. 3.
" There is one body, and one spirit, even as ye are called
in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one
baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all, and
through all, and in you all," Ephes. iv. 4, 6. " Stand
fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the
faith of the gospel," Phil. j. 27. These declarations of

toj:^«'iH

God's Word are so plain that they need no comment, and
they clearly prove that the present prevailing systems of
denominationalism are repugnant to the revealed will of
God. >..:

* - • > J 1 1

•■'i ■ V

«t.

'* ?,r^

CHAPTER IV.

CHRISTIAN UNION A PRIVILEGE AND DUTY.

The subject indicated by the heading of this chapter
is obviously important, contemplated in whatever light it
may be viewed. To every lover of Christ, it muAt be
invested with peculiar interest.

In the discussion of this subject of all-engrossing mo-
ment we may encounter various opinions whose errors
and differences we will discriminate, as in our opinion,
will most contribute a satisfactory discovery of the
truth. •^'-. ^' ' I--.:. :..-'-. n ■ ^ '

, Some suppose that Christian union consists in having
the same views and opinions on every subject connected
with religion, and therefore egotistically separate from all
whose religious sentiments might happen to differ from
their own. - - . '' '

Now we grant that the Bible teaches, ** Be ye all of
one mind." But we do not understand that injunction to
signify that the impressions received by all ninds from
all Divine communications should be identical. Is it not
rather with spiritual manifestations as it is with natural.
A few obvious truths of essential importance stand out
so plain that even the way-faring man can discover them
while there is ample room for the speculation and con-
jecture of the highest mind.

We do not wish here to be understood as denying to
faith moral character, because upon a man's faith de-
pends the actings of the will and affections, hence with-
out a proper faith, the man is without a due guidance
and direction.

But the faith in the gospel, for which we hold such a

|*«j--wwi-rTiT'jitrfl*ii? *<*fWT*TT?'^'*»f^if'rt5'i^^,****r***r

p«nr<&r xcn-Frt-.wiTci

fearful respoosibility, relates to those first unequivocal
iruihs in relerence to wliicli tiie various Methodist deno-
minations have always substantially agreed, such as the
Divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. The right of
private judgment in the interpretation of the Scriptures.
'1 he unity of the Gol-head, and Trinity of Persons there-
in. The utter depravity of man by the fall. The atone-
ment by the incarnation of the Son of God and his me-
diatorial intercession and reign. The freedom of the
human will to choose good or evi). The justification of
the sinner by faith alone. The regeneration and sanctifi-
callon of the soul through the spirit. The immortality
of the soul, the resurrection of the body. The judgment
of eternal life to the righteous, and eternal damnation to
the wicked. These essential principles of the gospel
stand out so plain, that all see them alike. Still, seen
from different stand points, and viewed under varied
angles of vision, they produce mental variety. Hence
a difference of opinion in non-essential speculative theo-
locrical questions with essential sameness is a natural re-
sult — a privilege and a blessing.

It is however easy to see, that the injunction to be all
of one mind refers to something vastly of more impor-
tance than exact unity of opinion on every religious sub-
ject. The oneness of mind in the exhortation, may
exist with great variety of opinion. In Phil. II., 2, we
have with the command to be of one mind the explana-
tion " Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus." Now the mind which as o him was a lowly
condescending mind, a mind emptied of self and devoted
to the glory of God. This lowly condescending mind,
filled with zeal for the glory of God and overflowing with
benevolence toward man is doubtless the mind which the
Bible enjoins. Accordingly the Apostle Paul remarks,
Rom. VIII., 9, "Now if any man have not the spirit of
Christ, he is none of His." Supposing allj who profess
Christianity to have the spirit of Christ, they must be all
of one mind, that is, the mind of Christ. Where this

i:.l ti*< IVjfiS;/ "ttir

■;*'' {h i^uzl i>\''' i }ti

mind is, there must be unity. Color, ia!)guage, creed,
mode of wor.shi|), will not, cannot prBvent it.

It is asked, why then the prevalence of denominalion-
alism ?

Without giving the full answer lo this question we
reply, that it exists more in depravity Uian in ignorance.
Sin is the essential element in discord. It not only
makes man hostile to God, but arms ( le man against
another. It divides, separates, confusa.i, distresses ihe
whole human family. Pride, strife, revuuire, hatred, and
avarice, are the roots of bitterness from which spring up
all the quarrelling among cliildren, to discoru among fa-
milies, the broils among neighbour?, ihp boxing among
bullies, the dudlingsamong modern gentlemen, ihe wars
among nations, and the rancorous contentions which con-
tinue to distract the Church. The Gospel dispensation
is one of peace. Its great author is called the Prince of
peace. His Kingdom is called a Kingdom of righteous-
ness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Its grand
law is love, and the Scriptures represent the man who
hates his brother as a murderer, because that spirit of en-
mity is in his heart which tends to murder, so wherever
and in whomsoever enmity or strife shews itself there is a
spirit of murder, which is the spirit of the devil, who is
called a murderer. And however covered and sophisti-
cated by figures of speech and softened by Christian titles,
it is in direct opposition to the true spirit of Christianity,
which is essential to the salvation of the soul. And
shall Christians put on the garments of the devil to serve
God in, or rather shall we drive out of our hearts the
spirit of Christ by acting under the influence of the spirit
of the devil. The spirit of Christ which is a spirit of
unity, can no more exist with the spirit of the devil
which is a spirit of discord, than light and darkness can
exist together, the one must give place to the other.
** Give not place to the devil." While we preach a gos-
pel of peace and indulge in or practise discord and dis"
union, we may deceive ourselves and our fellow-men but
we cannot deceive God, who searcheth the heart, or the

HH(i«iii<« i'.m ?; w ft iiy«'

74.

devil who knows too well how to suit his temptations to
our lusts whf-ncft come strife and tumult amonp^ men. If
we atlhcro to Christ as the light, th « truth, and ihe way,
let us valk as he aI.»o walked, and lovo ono itnothor
as he also loved us. And Paul cxhorls in writing to tho
Ephesians, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bonds of prace, irom which we learn that if there
are diflerences of op'niun existing between Christians,
even in important matters, that instead of separating they
should strive to heal those differonccs, which cannot be
done by division or schism. Separation invariably mag-
nifies diff( rences of opinion, each of the separated parties
naturally augments the import;ince of his peculiar view
of the question, and walking on the stilts of their own
pre-conceivcd superior excellence, the breach necessarily
and rapidly widens. How different would be the pre*
sent slate of the Church if disputing Christians had
treated each other in the true spirit of humility, forbear*
ance and love, and thereby endeavoured to keep the unity
of the spirit in the bond of peace. " • •

With the foregoing sentiments Mr. Wesley fully agreed;
the first division which took place in the Methodist So-
cieties to him'Svere truly painful, and regarded by him
as unnecessary and sinful. When asked by Mr. Arcourt
whether his people held that a certain number were selec-
•ted from all eternity, and that these must and shall be
saved, and that the rest ot mankind must and shall be
damned. Mr. Wesley replied, I never asked them whe-
ther they held it or not ! We proscribe no man foi
his opinions. Only let him not trouble us by disputing
about them. He was reluctanr, to separate from Mr.
Whitfield, and subsequently attempted a reunion with
him. He proposed a Conference at London, between
himself, his brother Charles, and Mr. John Nelson, on tho
part of the Armenians, and Mr. Whitfield and such of
his friends as he might invite on the part of the Calvin-
ists. That a reunion might be eff"erted he was will'.ng to
go to the utmost extent of liberaHty. In the concessions
he made to Mr. Whitfield thei^e appears an approach to

Calvinism. But liis libTal propo<<'fions wrr* not nccnpt-
ed by tlit* other ))i»rly, const qufiitly no r()nr«T(Mioo was
held. The Christian standard with Mr. VVenley was real
piety.

If iho heart wns cbans:ed he reqnirod not n, chanj^e of
opinions of ;iny man befor." ho Wduld give him his hand
of fcih)W9hip. Dr. Adam Ciiirk toachcs, that it is dan-
gerous lor youii;^ converts to go into the oo ii|);:ny, not
cnly of the ungodly, but of iho-'c who are f^iven to doubt-
ful disputatitns. And it is generally admitted lliut no
eel of religions dorjmas or opin'ons were rnado the
boundaries of Christ inn fellowshij) and commnniDn dur-
ing the first three centuries of thi; Christian Church, dur-
ing which period <^reater inroads were made- on th.» king-
dom of darkness than in all the fifteen centuries that have
since elap'^ed.

Variety is the law of the universe, and quite accords
with general unity. The rays of light are formed of
every colour of ttie rainbow. The various stars all pre-
sent the splendor of one firmamcmt. The various gases
all combine in one atmosphere. Various o'.jects are
to be discovered in the landscape. And several features
are displayed in the same countenance, yet there is unity
in all. And what two minds can look out upon any of
these and not receive a few essential truths a'ike, and a
variety of impressions different from each other. Now
come suppose bee \us3 thir? is the case, and because Paul
has said '* Let every one be fully satisfied in his own
mind." That Christians should make extra liberal con-
cessions and be willing to forego any view of truth, and
in their liberality associate with all classes of men even
infidels for the sake of visible harmony. But they forget
that the spirit that makes men one is one spirit and a
spirit of truth. Latitudinirianism cannot produce a
unity, because of its diversified elements. Neither can
the Holy Spirit produce an indiffi^rence to error unless it
can be shewn that it is Latitudinarian and equally indif-
ferent to error.

It is strange that men with the Bible in their hands,

^haonia

cannot see that while the text quoted will aIlo^\' . iLe
Christian Church variety with unity, that it does r/ ;r3-
▼ent its separation from the world.

To huddle unrec;cneraled men into the Churcli would
n«)t make them one with Christians or one with one an-
other, but wou!d afford them an opportunity to more
fiercely bite and devour each other. Having no invisible
union with such characters the Church should vis*ibly se-
parate froa) them. In accordance with this sentiment
Paul, in writing to Titus, commands that Christians
should " avoid foolish questions, genealogies and conten-
tions and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable
and vain ;'* at the same time he adds ** A man that is a
heretic after the first and second admonition, reject,**
and in Thess. ii. 3, 6, we read ** Now we command you,
brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye
withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh
disorderly, and not after the tradition that he received
from UP,*' verses 14 and 16, "And if any man obey not
our word by this epistle, note that man and have no com-
pany with him that he may be ashamed, yet count
him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.*'

The plain lessons which we learn from these scriptures
are, 1st. That it is not only preposterous and unreason-
able but sinful, for Christians to repel each other and
visibly separate, because they differ in judgment respect-
ing Church polity, or how some thing should be done, or
on some other point of as little significance, while invi^-
bly their unanimity and agreement is complete. fn -u

2ndly. That no man has a right to claim the privileges
and immunities of Church fellowship without furnishing
ample satisfactory proof to its members that God has re-
ceived him. This God demands, and the Church that
accepts of less is recreant to its trust, dishonours God and
our holy religion, eternity will reveal the immense injury
Churches have entailed upon themselves and upon the
Christian world by tolerating the membership of uncon-
verted men. (-,■> iwii't:
A We come now to contrider in what real Christian union

iUtf

ould
) an-
more
isible
\f se-
ment
3lians
>nten-
liable
t is a
jecl,"
d you,
hat ye
alketh
ceived
►ey not
o com-
t count
roth^r."
ripture»
ireason-
ler and
respect-
done, or
e invisi-

ivileges
rnishing
i has re-
iTch that
God and
se injury
upon the
if uncon-

lian union

cons>iflts. And as we have advanced in the contempla-
tion of the theme every step becomes more and still more
important and interesting. No lonq^r is the reader a
mere querist but a serious nnti concerned party. Oh
may we be led to right conclusions, that we m;»y put up
our sword of controversy.

Christian union is not an abstract principle as some
have supposed, not a mera cessation of quarrelling, and
formally bidding each other God speed, but a living, holy
active, operative, indwelling principle in the soul of man,
a divine regoneratin<,' and soul-transforming cha ige, em-
bracing H union with God the fountain of all happiness,
life and felicity. When this union is effected belweeii
God and the soul, the soul knows but one object and that
is God, an;! has but one feeling, and that is love. All
natural and unsanctified desires, arms and purposes biding
alienated, the conversation U with God, and after God's
manner, and not after the manner of men. Thero is a
constant flowing and reflovving of affection, love going
op and love coming down. Then the soul can say em-
phatically, his left hand is under my head and his right
hand doth embrace me. He brought me to his banquet-
ing house and his banner over me is love. Selfvvill, the
great evil of fallen nature, being eradicated and subdued
the soul forms a union with the Divine will by a subjec-
tion of the human will. Tlien the human will ceasing
from all its rebellion, constantly harmonizes with God's
purposes. The Spirit of God producing in the heart,
God-like, heavenly, forgiving atid benevolent disposi-
tions — love to God and love to man, and an utter detesta-
tion of all strife, variance and contention — a desire to
promote mutual good will among men, especially among
the children of God, becouse he is U!iited to God and
transformed to the Divine nature, and he that is joined
to God is one spirit, 1st Cor. vi., 17, " Hence all who
are one with God, are one with one another: and all
who are at peace with God are at peace wiih one an-
other.

The Spirit of God effects this work, and where it

S?0ii»S

dwells among Chrislianstlipre cannot but bo union. They
havintj all coiu'^ as Ijv iiig slones to the living and chief
corner st'-nr;, find comparted into an liabilaiion for God
ihroneh ilie vSpirii, ail such are one in Chrii^t Jesus. And
the fundaiDcnial argument for Christians being one, is
the oiirnes:^ of the Spirit who dwells everywhere in them
they having been made to drink into one spirit. Hence
the A])o.'ile ye are inlo one body. The Spirit of God
alone can knii the hejirts and minds of men togetherunto
permanent peace and love.

Of this the Prophet speaks distinctly. And righteous-
ness '/nail be the girJle of his loins and f;^ithfulness the
girdle of his veins. The wolf also shall dwell wiih the
Iamb and iho leopard s'lall lie down with the kid, and
the calf ami the youni; lion and the f:i ling together, and
a little child shall lead them. They shall not hurt or des-
troy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full
of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the
sea. 'V. ,•-.''...,

An() Jrsns especially designed to accomplish this that
is to turn the people to the J^ord their God, and at the
game lime to turn the hearts of the fathers to the cUldren,
to make them friends to God and friends to one ano-
ther. ■ . ; ^ s "c ; , ' ■ . -

The whole scriptnies propounds a redundancy of
poweifnl arguments in favour of this idea of Christian
peace and union, whieh must appear evident to any
man who seriously considers the following passages.
That they may be one even as we are one, I in them
and thou in me, that they may be made per ect in one,
that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast
loved them as thou hast loved niie, John xvii., 22, 23.
As we have many members in our body, and all the
rnembers have not the same oflif'e, so we being tnany are
one body in Christ, and every one members of one an-
other, Hom. xii., 4, 5. For as the body is one and hath
many members in one body, so also is Christ. For by
one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we
be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, ^nd

^tifM^'

have been all made to drink inio one spirit even as ye
are called in one hope of your calling. One God and
Father of all who is above all, and through all, and in
you all. From whom the whole body fitly joined toge-
ther and compacted by that which every joint snpplielh,
according to the effectual working in the measure of
every part, makoih increase of the body u.ito the edify-
ing of itself in love. And be ye kind one to another,
tender-hearted, forgiving one another even as God, for
Christ's sake forgave you, for ye are members of his body,
of his flesh, and his bones, Ephesians, iv., 3, G, 16, and
v., 30. The phiin doctrine taught by these scriptures is
Istly, One body, 2ndly, One spirit— the same Holy spirit
that quickens all saints, and is to the whole what the
natural sun is to the solar system, the centre, the light,
and the life. But, notvvithsrandmg all that the revela-
tion of the great will of the Eternal expresses in relation
to the oneness of God's people and their unity as a body,
or on schisms, and divisions, it is humiliating to confess
that the grievous and sinlul schisms which are found in
ihe Church in this enlightened day, are popular, and are
pleaded for by many as necessary. But with such a re-
ligion we cannot see what is to prevent the union of all
Christians. Allowing that creed of our brethren more
erroneous than our own, does it make paramount the
vital truth we have been considering. Let the question
do they breathe the spiritual life of love? be answered
in the affirmative, and we cannot refuse to love what
God has made lovely. If despite the errors in tlK^ tenets or
notions of Church polity of our sister Churches, G( d has
regenerated iheirmembers, shall we in the strait- jacket of
sectarianism say, " Not so, L )rd, f >r I have never eaten
anything common or unclean." The truth is, th.it all
who have the Holy spirit dwelling in them, have a bond
of union slrong^r than the walls round about Jerusalem.
And having the invisible why not the visible union.
Having a spiritual union, why weaken by sectarian tech-
nicalilies and denominational jealousies.

The same sentiments are eloquently expressed in the

■*<^t■»ht^pT.■

following paragraph from the pen of that strong thinker
Lord Bacon :

" Religion being the chief bond of human society, it
is a happy thing when itself is well contained within the
true bond of unity. The quarrels and divisions about
religion were evils unknown to the heathen. The reason
was, because the religion of the heathen consisted rather
in rites and ceremonies, than in any constant belief ; for
you may imagine what kind of faith theirs was, when the
chief doctors and fathers of their church were the poets.
But the true God hath this attribute, that he is a jealous
God ; and therefore his worship and religion will endure
no mixture nor partner. We shall therefore speak a few
words concei ning the unity of the church ; what are the
fruits thereof; what the bonds; and what the means.

" The fruits of unity (next unto the well-pleasing of
God, which is all in all) are two; the one towards those
that are without the Church, the other towards those
that are within. For the former, it is certain that here-
sies and schisms are of all others the greatest scandals,
yea, more than corruption of manners ; for as in the
natural body a wound or solution of continuity is worse
than a corrupt humor, so in the spiritual : so that nothing
doth so much keep men out of the church, and drive men
out of the church, as breach of unity ; and, therefore,
whensoever it comelh to that pass that one saith, ' Ecce
in deserto' — ['Lo! it is in the desert'] another saith,
* Ecce in penetralibus '— [' Lo I it is in the sanctuary '] —
that is, when some men seek Christ in the conventicles
of heretics, and others in an outward face of a church,
that voice had need continually to sound in men's ears,
' Nolite exire * [' Go not out.'] The Doctor of the Gen-
tiles (the propriety of whose vocation drew him to have
a special care of those without) saith, 'If a heathen come
in, and hear you speak with several tongues, will he not
»ny that you are mad V and certainly, it is little better :
wiien atheists and profane persons do hear of so many
discordant and contrary opinions in religion, it doth avert
them from the church, and maketh them 'to sit down in
the chair of the sorners.' It is but a light thing to be
vouched in so serious a matter, but yet it expresselh well
the deformity. There is a master of scoffing, that in his
catalogue of books of a feigned library, sets down this
title of a book, 'The Morris-Dance of Heretics:' for,
indeed, everv seel of them hath a diverse

every

posture

cringe, by themselves, which cannot but move derision in
worldlings and depraved politics, who are apt to con-
demn holy things.

" As for the fruit towards those that are within, it is
peace, which containeth infinite biessinjjs ; it establisheth
iailh ; it Uindleth charity ; the outward peace of the
church distilleth into peace of conscience, and it turneth
the labours of writing and readiniij controversies into
treatises of mortification and devotion.

" Concerning the bonds of unity, the true placing of
them imporfeth exceedingly. There appear to be two
extremes; for to certain zealots all speech of pacification
is odious. Ms it peace, Jehu ?' ' VVhat hast thou to do
with peace ? turn thee behind me.' Peace is not the mat-
ter, but following and party. Crnirariwise, certain
Laodj^.eans and lukewarm persons ihinic they may
ac .oinmodate points of religion by middle ways, and
taking part of both, and witty reconcilements, as if they
would make an arbitrament between God and man.
Both these extremes art^ to be avoided ; which will be
done if the league of Christians, penned by onr Saviour
himself, were in the two cross clauses thereof soundly
and plainly expounded : ' He that is not with us is against
us ;' and njzain, ' He that is not against us is with us ;'
that is, if the points fundamental, and of substance in
religion, were truly discerned and distinguished from
points UDt merely of faith, but of opinion, order, or good
intention. This is a thing may seem to many a matter
trivial, and done already ; but if it were done less par-
tially, it would be embraced more generally.

" Of this I may give only this advice, .jiccording to my
small model. Men ousfht to take heed of rending G d's
church by two kinds of controversies ; the one is, when
'^e matter of the point controverted is too snail and
lignt, not worth the heat and strife about it, kindled only
by contradiction ; for, as it is noted by one ot the fathers,
Christ's coat indeed had no seam, but the church'v^ vesture
was of divers colours ; whereupon he saith, ' in veste
varietas sit, scis^ura non sit ' — [' In the garment let there
be .variety, but no rent '] they be two things, unity and
uniformity; the other is, when the matter of the point
controverted is great, but it is driven to an over-great
subtilty and obscurity, so that it heeotneth a thing rather
ingenious than substantial. A man that is of judgment
and understanding shall sometimes hear ignorant men
differ, and know well within himself, that those which

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so differ mean one ihing an;] yet they themselvps vvouW
never agree : and if it come so topai«s in that distance of
jud^nnent which is between man and man, shall we not
think ihat God above, that knows the heart, doili not
discern that frail men, in some of their contradictions,
intend the same thing and Mccepted of both ? The nature
of such controversies is excellenlly expressed by St. Paul,
in the warning and precept that he giveth concerning the
Same, ' Devitu jjrofanas voc;um novitates, et oppositiones
Jaisi nominis scienlia) ' — ['Avoid prof no and vain bab-
blings, and oppo-ilions of science falsely so called.']
Men create oppositions which are not, and pnt them into
new terms so iix«'d ; as whereas the meaning ought to
govern the term, the term inelfect governelh tiie meaning.
There be al>o two TmIsc peaces, or unities: the one,
when the peace is geounded but upon an implicit igno-
rince ; for all colours will agree in the dark: theoiher,
when ir, is pieced np upon a direct admission of contraries
in fundamental points ; for truth tmtl falsehoo;! in such
things are like the iron and clay in the toes of Nebu-
chadnezzar's image — they may cleave, but they will not
incorporate.

" Concerning the means of procuring: unity, men must
beware that, in the procurini; or munitmg of religious
unity, they do not diss<,lve and deface the laws of charity
and of human society. There b; two swords amongst
Christians, the spiritual and the temporal, and both have
their due oflice and place m the maintenance of religion;
but we may not take up the third sword, which is Maho-
met's sword, or like unto it — that is, to propagate religion
by wars, or by sanguinary persecutions to lorce consviences
— except it be in cases of overt scandal, bliispliemy, or
intermixture of piactice against the state ; much less to
nourish seditions ; to ;uilhorize conspiracies and rebel-
lions ; to put, the sword into llie people's hands, and the
like, tending to the subversion of all government, which
is the ordinance of God ; for this is but to d'";!i the first
table, against the second; and so to consider men as
Christians, as we forgit that they are men. Lucretius,
the poet, when he beheld the act of Agimemnon, that
could endure the sacrificing of his own daughter, ex
claimed :

" ' Tantiirn religio potuit suadcre malorum.*
*• ['So many evils could religion cause.']

What would he have said, if he had known of the mas-

sacre in France, or the powder treason of England ? He
would have been seven limes more epicure and atheist
then he was ; for as ihe temporal sword is to be drawn
wiih great circumspection in cases of religion, so it is a
thing monstrous to |)ut it into liie hands of the common
people; let ihat be left unto the Hn^haplists, and other
furies. It was great blasphemy when the devil said, * I
will ascend and he like the hiuhesl;' but it is greater
blasphemy to personate God, and bring him in saying, ' I
will descend, and be like the prince of darkness:' and
what is it better, to make the cause of religion to descend
to the cruel an;l execrable actions ot' murdering princes,
butchery of people, and subversion of states jmd govern-
ments? Suiely this is to bring down the Holy Ghost,
instead ol the likeness of a dove, in the shape of a vul-
ture or raven ; and to set out ol the bark of a Christian
church, a flag of a bark of pirates and assass'ns: there-
fore it is most necessary that the church, by doctrine and
decree, princes by their sword, and all learnings, both
(^hri^tian and moral, as by their mercury rod to damn and
send to hell forever, those facts and opinion-; tending to
the support of the same, as hath been aheady in good
part done Surely in councils C( ncerning leligion, that
counsel of the apostle would be prefixed, 'Ira hoininis non
implet juslitiam Dei ' — [' Man's an<.rer satisfies not the
justice of Gild]'; and it was a notable observation of a
wise father, and no less ingenuously confessed, thai those
which held and persuaded pressure of coiscienees, were
commonly interested therein themselves lor iheir own
ends."

In perfect accordance wiih the foregoing views, wc
quote the following from Gurnall, who wrote about two
hundred years ago :

** Now the Gospel is a Gospel of Peace if taken in
this notion also, which we shall- briefly speak to, viz.;
The Gospel and only the Gospei can knit the hx^arts and
minds «)f rnen together, In a s lid peace and love, tnis next
to reconciling us to God, is especially designed hy Christ
in the Gospel, and truly without this the saint's ha|'piness
would be sndly defective, except God shoidd make a
Heaven for every one to live b; himself in. John Bap-
tist's ministry wjii! the preface lo the Gospel divided into
these two heads, — I. To turn many of the children of
Israel to the Lord their God ; and 2. To turn the hearts of

PiiiP

the fathers to the chil Iran, to n:ake ihem friends with God
and one another ; this is its natural effect, to unite and
render the hearts of men and women in love and peace ;
this is tiie strange metamorphosis of which the prophet
speaks, Isa. xi. v. 8., ' The wolf shall dwell with the
lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, &c.'
And how is all this, see v. 9, * for the earth shall be full
of the knowledge of the Lord.' Indeed it is in the dark
that men fight and draw upon one another in wrath and
fury ; if gngppj light comes savingly in, the sword will
soon be put up, the sweet spirit of love will not suffer
these doings where he dwells, and so peculiar is this bless-
ing to the Gospel, that Christ has made it the badge by
which the\ should not only know one another, but should
be knovvn ay strangers from all others, John xiii. 3.^, If
we would see the effects of this love, U-t us gaze with
ndmiiaiion on the display of it in the case of those who
tjrv< embraced and professed the Gospel in sincerity, and
I'hcn glance by the eyc^ of faith at this beauteous flower
full i;>*ovvn and diffusing its celestial fragrance in an
unchani;i=ig atmosphere of love. Among the primitive
saints how sweet was the harmony and peace; those who
had been enemies now living and loved as if each one's
heart had forsaken its former abode to creepinto his brother's
bosom; they parted with their estates to keep their love
entire, wit' the bread out cf their own mouths to feed
their brethren in want — were more merry in emptying
their bai-s in charity than in filling them with gain — and
did eat their bread with gladness and singleness of heart ;
and if we look at the state of things in heaven when the
hearts of saints sh-ill be fully GospelizeU and all the
promises be accomplished, then above all the peacd of
the G ispel will appear ; here it is put out and in like a
budding flowe ■ in the spring ;if a warm day opens it, a
cold one follows, an I it's soon (dosed again. The silence
in this lower heaven is but for the space of half an hour.
Rev. viil. 1.

'•• But this Gospel propounds powerful arguments for
peace and unity such as are found no where else; cords
of love that were never wove in nature's loom, being all
supernatural and of divine revelation, Eph. iv. 3 ; and
how does the Apostle persuade them to keep the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace: P'irst, one body, such a
one as philosophy tieals not of; again, one spirit, the
same holy Spirit which quickens all true saints, and is to
the whole, number of them what the; soul is to the whole

man, and is as it were a prodigious violence to the law of
Nature, for the members by iniestine war among them-
selves to drive the soul out of the body, so much more is
it lor Christians to force the Holy Spirit from them by their
contentions ; and hov^r can they open a wider door for him
to depart. But again he presseth unity from the one hope
of our calling ; there is a day coming when we shall meet
lovingly in heaven and sit at one feast without grudging
what lies on another's trencher. Full fruition of God
shall be the feast and peace and love the sweet music that
shall for ever accompany and augment the harmony and
the blessedness."

With the subjoined from the able pen of John Howe,
We dismiss this chapter, feeling that any farther argument
to prove the positiveness of the invisible connexion and
oneness of all Christians, and the necessity of visible
union would be a mockery, a taunt, to aggravate the
shame of those who perpetuate sectarianism :

" That it is the work of God's own Spirit to eflfect
such a union, and consequently that when it shall be
generally poured forth such a union must be realized ;
this is typically represented by the precious ointment
shed upon Aaron, diffused upon his jrarments ; referring
doubtless to the anointing of the Holy Ghost eminently,
and in the first place upon our Lord Jesus Christ, and
thence diffused to all the members of his Body — the
Church.. Hence also the unity in what degree soever it
doth obtain is called the unity of the Spirit ; and Christ-
ians also because of its unspeakable importance, and the
dangers attending the breach of it are admonished to
endeavour to maintain it in the bond of peace. That
also which is the subject of such a union is the habita-
tion of the indwelling Spirit, which implies that it hath
great influence on this union, that where it dwells
among all living Christians there cannot but be some
union in the main and principal things, they having all
come as lively stones unto the living and chief corner
stone, and compacted into an habitation of God through
the Spirit ; all such are of the Church of God, and there-
fore should be recognized as such, for we are all one in
Christ Jesus : and iurther, the very cause of this union
amongst Christians, so far as it does prevail, is the one-
ness of the Spirit who dwells everywhere in them all for
this very end and purpose ; for there is one Body and one

Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling.
The reason why tlie members of the Body, thf)Ui>;h many
are yet bnr one Body, is, beojiuse by the one Spirit they
are all baptized inio one Body, and have been made to
drink into ono Spirit; as il it had been said yon are so
little one iipiin any other account, that only as one Spirit
hath dillusod itself among you and cemented you toge-
ther will this desirable object be ohtainfd — without; this
the Body of Christ would be no more one than a rope of
sand; there would b^ no cohesion of par s ; for the parts
of a man's body, as the prirts of the Church, are a con-
tinual ilux ; there is a continual wear and waste, a con-
stant succession of new |)arts to make up for those which
have passed aw<iy, and yet there is but one man still,
because he hath still but one soul. So also is the Church
one and the same thing because it hath one Spirit; and
as it is the office and business of the soul to iinimate and
enliven the body in its several parts, which it can only
do by retain inn them in union with itself and one ano-
ther ; the case is manifestly so here as the members of
the body share its privileges in community, as for instance
that of peace, and the communion which it includes.
So aaith the Apostle, ye are called into one Body; or
speaking of the peace of God he says — to which also ye
are called in one B idy, the Spirit doth not animate, but
as it unites this plaiidy argues it to be the work of the
Spirit to effect and maintain this union; you know the
rest of the world are divided about blessedness, or where-
in the chief good consists; there are no less than two
hundred and eighty-three opinions among the- heathens
about it now, how came all sincere Christians to agreein
this — to hope for blessrdness all in one thing in that state
of life and glory that is hereafter to be enjoyed, and that
they all, in all times of the world, should have met in
the same one hope of their calling ; all this must be ow-
ing to one cause — must proceed from one principle; they
have all one faith, are all of one religion ; as to its essen-
tials all come under one title, all give up and denote
themselves under the bond of God's covenant — are the
children of God by faith, arid the one God and Father of
all; in this all sincere Christians meet, and how come
they so to meet ? By chance ? No, certainly not. But
by one designing cause that worked them all one way.
How else should such numbers agree in one thing, and
design to be all for God in a world that is revolted and
apostatized from him, it must be the result of one com-

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mon nnitive principle, ihe efTcct of his j»iacions influen-
ces, who is ihe Spirit of holirioss, poacv, and lovo ; our
divisions ;ire indeed n sad indicittion Ihat ihe Spiiit is in
a grejil measure withdrawn, and th^il but liiiie of his
work is to ha seen among Christians in our dny in com-
parison to whnt has been ;ind what may be lioped for in
time to come, to which we may revert more particularly
hereafier.

"There arc two further inquiries deserving special no-
tice relating to this important subJRct.

" 1st, What kind of union this s!inll be wbi -It wo mav
expect the Spirit poured forth to accomplish.

'• 2nd, In what way we may expect it to he accomplish-
ed. As to its nature, it will be such a union as shall
combine within itself the duty, and much of the hiippi-
ness of the Church : such a one as will contribute fnuch
to its felicity ; such as will beautifully illustrate the faith-
fulness of God to His promise, and the Church's obedi-
ence to h(^r Divine f^ord. But as we neither expect the
Church of God on earth to be perfectly sinless or perfect-
ly happy, we cannot expect this union to be p;^rrcct. Nor
shoulil it be thought requisite, in order to this union, that
the spirit should be, as thus poured out, an infallible
spirit, thus as some have thought necessary, conferring on
men a Sj)iril of Infalibility, in onler to union, whilst the
question as to the seat of it would still remain unsettled.
Besides, as a union in holiness is as necessaiy for th«
Church of God, as in truth we might as reasonably ex-
pect an impeccable as an infiillible spirit, the pretenders
to which have been so notoriously vicious and vile that
we may justly say that if such a spirit had indeed exist-
ed among them it was unfitly lodged in the midst of such
horrid impurities, and did no more become them than a
jewel of gold in a swine's snout. But we pass on to in-
quire, — Isr, what a union we are not to expect, — 2nd,
what union actually exists among all living Christians, —
3rd, what union are we further to look and hope for. 1st,
We are n'»t to expect that all shall agree in the same
measure of knowledge, and, as the consequence, an iden-
tity of apprehcD ion. Every man that thinks difTerently
from another, does so either truly or falsely ; and on
which side soever the error lies, there lies so much igno-
rance ; and whilst here we all know but in part. Nor
can we reasonably expect that all will attain to the same
pitch in holiness, no one more spiritual and heavenly
than another ; nor will all feel the same sensations of di-

vine pleasurp, the sumo iiialli)ns of holy and spiritual
aftrolion-!. (K'lii,'lit and Joy, mnoli of vvliicli may depend
on t)odiIy tempiTanifint, in which it is obviously in vain
to seek for unilbrmity, as it is also in rank, order, station,
and work — where, if indeed it existed, it would not bo the
perfection of union, but the union of imperfection. 8ijch
a union then, we are not to expect. But, 2nd, Ceri;iinly
there is amonu: all sincf^re and living Christians such a
unon as that vvhereof I am now discoursing— a union n
those great and substantial things referred to in Kph. 4 :
8, 4, which, having been noticed before, may be briefly
summed up as follows : Christ is the head of his body, the
Church : all the members of this b )dy do from him par-
take of that one and the same spirit; it is He who has
opened heaven to ihem — who has brought life and immor-
tality to light before their eyes ; they are called by him in
that one hope ot their calling. He is the Mt;di-itor of
that covenant of redemption which comprehends them
all. It is He that reduces and restores and re-unites them
to God, and sets all things right between Him and them;
herein is the sum of their unions. Great has been the
controversy about the distinction of the essentials and
extra essentials of Chri.-tianity. But let men cavil as
long as they will, it would manifestly be a most absurd
thing to deny the distinction, for to such a one I would
say, what part of the distinction would you deny, — that
Christianity iias essential parts or that it has extra essen-
tial parts ? If it has no essential parts, it has no being,
or certainly that is nothing to which nothing is essential,
and to say that there are no extra essential parts is to say
that a man cannot be a Christian unless he knows every
thing of truth, and punctually performs every thing of
duty, whether he understands it or not ; which is like
saying he could not be a Christian unless he certainly
did know the meaning of the number six hundred and
sixty-six, and a thousand difficult passages of scripture
besides. This then is in effect to deny the existence both
of Christianity itself and of Christians themselves; for
it must be obvious that if the system has nothing essen-
tial it has no being, and also that no Christian knows
and does every thing that belongs to the Christian reli-
gion. The Apostle gives us a summary of Christian doc-
trine and practice, 1 Cor. viii., 6: — "To us there is but
one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in
him ; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, and we by him," —
where we have the gi ;at object upon which religion le>

ike

inly

and

but

ler-

minates— God considered as the end ond Christ the Me-
diator, the way to that end, whiUt in Mat. xxviii., 19,
we are pointed to the Father as the end, the Son as the
way, and the Spirit as the great principle ot life and en-
ergy, moving souls towards that end through ihnt way.
In these things all sincere Christians unite and agree.
Yet, 3rdly, it should be lamented that with this union,
there is still much disunion — such as is high'y dishonour^
able to God, scandalous before the world, and a most
grievous obstacle to the happiness and prosperity of the
Church, as might be the case in a living man, — the soul
and body still united, and the several parts, but all in a
most languishing condition, and nigh unto death, and it
may be, one member falling foul of 'her. The union
we should expect, pray for, and aim , is that for which
the Lord Je^U8 so earnestly prayed, and it is also pro-
mised in Jer. xxxii. and xxxix; to t^ffect which there
must be a pouring forth of the Spirit copiously, to subdue
and attemper the i<ouls of men to the mind of Christ,
raising their minds to higher and nobler aims in seeking
to know and do his will, so that self-will and the mere
love of party be not as it now is amon*^ professing Christ-
ians, the common rule ; but each aiming to walk in the
steps and imbibe the spirit that was in the Lord Jesus,
endeavoring to walk by the same rule, and raind the
same things, may be assured that if any thing they be
otherwise minded (or still deficient, which is here impli-
ed) God shall reveal even this unto them.

" We proceed now to inquire in what way the Spirit of
God poured forth, may be expected to effect ithis union,
and there is no doubt but it will be by the same means by
which religion itself shall be revived and recovered, of
which we have so largely spoken, for that which makes
the Christian Church a living Church, iwill make it One,
that is, in that higher and more eminent degree, whereof
we have been speaking. It is but one and the same
thing, or is done by the same operation, the making the
Church more holy and the making one, that which brings
Christians nearer to God, and Christ will infallibly and
at once bring them nearer to each other, whensoever the
Spirit of God poured forth shall make men agree in hav-
ing the Lord for their God, saying, this God is our God
Cor ever and ever. When men shall become more sin-
cere and thorough Christians, they will certainly find
that the things in which they are agreed are far more
momentous than any about which they may differ, to

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t|iis effect is the promise in Jer. xxxii., 38-3d. '* They
sh/tU be my people, and I will be their God ; and 1 will
give thpm one heart and one way." We are told that
God is Light, and also, that he is Love. Were the image
of God in these two things more generally and vividly
impressed upon men, this would do the whole business,
this would make them all one. How blessed then would
the union of Christians be. The effect of such a pouring
out of the Spirit it may be oxpected will be — 1st, an in-
crease of light and knowledge among Christians generally,
as to things necessary to union ; 2nd, greater measures
of grace, rendering them more patient and forbearing
towards each other; and 1st, By an increase of light and
knowledge, I mean such as lies in the next immediate
tendency to holiness, the knowledge of the truth which
is after godliness, and which doth attemper and dispose
the minds of men for the reception of truth as sanctify-
ing, truth as it is the transformative of the sOul into d
holy and godly frame ; otherwise there wants the cemenl
that should hold hearts together. Whenever the Spirit
of God doth that blessed work in the world, to revive
true Religion, it will unite Christians, by curing the ma-
ladies and distempers of mind, which prevent them from
receiving sound gospel knowledge ; for if this be not
done it will be impossible there should be union, unless
men should agree only in being diseased, or which would
be equally absurd, agree all to be in one disease, which
surely would be a most unhappy union. But, when the
Spirit of the living God, shall create the Christian world
a region of light, then shall be realized the happy union of
which we have spoken. 3rd, By making Christians more
patient of dissent from one another in less necessary
things^ for then there will be a greater ability to distin-
guish between troths that are of Scripture revelation and
those that are not, and to judge more correctly of theif
relative importance; and also, among revealed trntbs
men will be enabled to distinguish between those which
are more or less necessary, and being also more spiritual,
they will be more apt to be taken up with the great things
of religion. Be more holy, less opinionative and humoolr-
some, and have less of the knowledge that pnffeth up.
Then Christians will maintain a reverential subjection to
God'g own prescribed roles of, and terms of Christian
Communion, not daring to make terms, limiting the com-
munion of Christians, as such, which Christ never an-
tfaoriied and will never own, under this devout sobjection,

«H>*ttfit

to the authority of Christ, and influenced bv a due regard
to his new commandment, Christians will extend their
communion to all those to whom he extends his, for this
IS the import of the Apostle's words, Romans xiv., I 10
and a so chap, xv., 7 ; here is a principle more broad
and solid, and better adapted as a basis of Christian com-
munion, and as a specific to cure the diseases of the
Church than any squaring op adjusting of the external
lorms whilst the internal conformity of the minds of its
members to the mind of Christ in meekness, gentleness,
and love, are lost sight of." '

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CHAPTER v..

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' " "WHEN CHURCH TENETS SHOULD BE CnANGEp.,!^J'j,*""

The plain doctrine of the last chapter, that all men
who are united to God in love, are united to one another
in sympathy, which strictly signifies harmony, or union of
feeling. There must be two or more person* who are
the subjects of this common feeling, and some common
object, in reference to which this common feeling is exer-
cised, hence the commandment " That he who loveth
God, love his brother also, for love is of God, and every
one that loveth, is born of God and knoweth God," and,
"If any man say he loveth God and hateth his brother,
he is a liar," 1st John iv., 7, 20.

Love then is the basis of all true religion. If Chris-
tians then truly love one another, h follows as a necessa-
ry result that they harmonize with every thing which con-
cerns each others interest. This doctrine leads us to
believe that our common ethnology would naturally pro-
duce a removal of all those denominational badges and
sectarian lines which prevent an amalgamation of those
between whose characteristic peculiarities there is so
complete an assimilation, and Parthians, and Medes, and
Elamites would meet together with one accord in the
same temple, to declare the wonderful works of God.

Prudence will dictate that Church tenets long estab-
lished, should not be changed or discarded for light and
trivial causes. But when it is made evident that such
tenets have divided the Church into sects, some things
cut off separated some things incompatible with the body
of Christ, and the prayer of our Redeemer, that all his
people should be one, and productive of infidelity, and

unauthorized by GoiVs word, it is right, it becomes duty
to change or give up such tenets.

And that such is the nature and tendency of the dog-
mas that now divide the Church of Christ has been abun-
dantly proved in the preceding pages by God's word
and the history of the Church to which we have ap»
pealed.

There are soms aspects of the subject now before us
which cannot be fully appreciated without bearing in
mind the perpetual harmony of the requirements and pro-
hibitions of God. What he now requires and prohibits
he required and prohibited in the past, and will in the
future. And every thing which is intermediate, corres-
ponds with the beginning and the end. And he cannot
be discordant with himself, and we read, God is love»
Jehovah is the only supreme unoriginaled being, every
thing else is a dependency. From him all things come,
and to him, as the originator and governor, all things are
in subjection. Prior to any human compact or law, there
was a compact and law, which is the Divine law of lovip,
existing in the universe, which cannot be dissolved or
altered by any human legislation either ecclesiastical or
civil. Man, as a created being, can take no other posi-
tion but that of a recipient, and in that position he is
bound to submit to the supreme guidance. His right we
humbly conceive to be the privileges bestowed on him in
his probationary state by the moral governor of the uni-
'verse. But as a God of Love, to be consistent with him-
self, can only give man the privilege of doing what is
consistent with that principle. And no human jurisdic-
tion, either civil or ecclesiastical, has a right to interfere
with any preclusion or obligation enjoined. '
'• Privileges bestowed implies gifts. The rights of man
are the gifts of the God of Love, and designed by him to
answer a purpose worthy of himself. To treat those pri-
vileges with indifference, is to undervalue them, to un-
dervalue the gift, is to undervalue the giver and to trewi
him with a degree of contempt, and to prevent man from
accomplishing the noble purposes for which he was de-

mmmm

■ 1

signed by his Creator, and to violate nls moral obligations
to the Most High, who, as righteous Judge, will call him
to an account and reward him according to the deeds
done in the body. The giver of every good and perfect
gift has made man free and independent in his individual
capacity to enjoy life, liberty, property, private judgment
and happiness, and the exercise of that freedom is enjoin-
ed upon him. Consequently one man is not accountable
for another. 3ut in his associated capacity he is bound
by his Creator to yield conformity to the moral law of
love, which would prohibit any course of conduct hurt-
ful to society, and requires what would promote the hap-
piness of others. Hence we conclude that all law, civil
or ecclesiastical, enacted by man, ought in justice to ba
made in conformity to this pre-existing moral law of love
otherwise it encroaches on the rights ol others and causes
confusion in society by creating animosities, strife, and
contentions among the lapsed and fallen family of Adam,
God made all nations of one blood to dwell upon the face
of the earth, their distinctions of colour, language, and
manners notwithstanding ; yet, the cold, cheerless spirit of
selfishness, in ambitious princes, has disturbed the gene-
ral harmony of nations, by the enactment of laws which
produced a competition of interest, thence provoking
pride, bitterness, hatred, and enmity. Enmity, which is
continually bursting in storms of venejeance upon each
other, laying cities in ashes and covering fields with hu-
;: er hlyid, onderr.ivliig Yiitii io loruives aLd despotically
.£ ijslaving the offspring of God. In this view of the per-
nicious laws of rjuiers, and practice of the inhabitants of
the earth, deep gloom oettles upon the societies of men,
and apparanlly a long rneiancligiy nigh over spreads the
world, and we dijspairingiy ask, shall the fetters ever fall
from the hands oi' the bounn, shall liberty and joy ever
.entej the poor man's dwelling and the mother cease to
weep for her children, torn from her arms to swell the
jhosts of a tyrant and be '' sacrificed to the blood-thirsty
jMoloch of war m the valley of slaughter.'' But whijo
.W9 asliy these questions we hear voices from the upper

*9%¥%*%*%rw fm^nvm^ntt

sanctuary which break tho silence of night—*' Glory to
God on high, peace on earth, and good will to all men."
The gloom of this moral night is dispelled by the gloriouR
rays of tho sun of Righteousness, aud a bright prospect,
and animating consolation is revealed to the wretched
sons of Adam.

By this light a remedy is discovered equal to the dis-
order.— The great truth that all men are brethren, and
that God, as the great Parent of the family, confers his
favours on the whole ; causing his sun to rise and his
rain to descend equally on the just and unjust, and that
man should imitate this universal benevolence by love-
like universal. In the exercise of this divine principle
be should suffer injury without resistance, and return
good for evil, blessing for cursing— forgiving those who
trespass against him, as he wishes his father who is in
heaven to forgive him. And that law, civil or ecclesias-
tical, which is not based on this Divine universal law of
love, is impious and should be repealed.

And those ecclesiastical authorities who establish dog-
mas or tenets, which are calculated to produce a compe-
tition of interest or separation between the true children
of God, dry up the fountains of greatness in the human
90ul. They disolve all the obligations and charities of
life, and extinguish the majesty and sanctity of the reli-
gion of Jesus Christ. They raise a pestilential vapour,
more appalling to mankind than the arms of the usurper.
Their guilt is not the common guilt of tyrants, against
the wealth or liberties of men, but against all that man
holds dear, sacred and holy; not only against the bodies
but against the souls of the enslaved, not qply against
the oppressed but against the altar at which wretched hu-
man nature weeps and is comforted, and wrings again
the wild but thrilling cry from heaven " I am Jesus whom
thou persecutest." One of the peculiarities of the child-
yen of God, is to follow their great example Jesus, in ex-
tending benevolence to all beings. They have been
made partakers of the Divine nature, namely, love. The
law of love, which is the eternal rule of moral rectitude
and right, is written on their hearts. This law in its

mighty power works out the problem of universal har-
!nony, constituting a bond of union reaching all, encir-
cling all, beautifying all, reviving faith, awakening hope,
iind unfettering charity, which will hasten the day " when
all nations shall rest in secure habitation and in quiet
resting-placrs. and when there shall ba wars no more,''
and, " they shall b.^ my people and I will be their God.
And I will ^ive them one heart, and one way, that they
may fear me for ever, for the good of them and their
children afier them.'' We bend in thankfulness before
the promises of our faith, and with warm emotion to the
God who gave them, and pray *"■ Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earlh, as it is done in heaven."

It nmst be admitted that if any particular set of tenets
or mode of Church government is of Divine prescription,
it cannot be determined by the word of God. Hence we
c(»nclnde that the government of the Church is left to its
own discretion, and the exigencies of attending circum-
stances. But any rule, law% or organization, which in
the least is calculated to narrow down the benevolence
of Christians to a select few, is egregiously inconsistent
with the Divine law of love, as revealed in the sacred
8cri})tures, and who that has seeing eyes can fail to dis-
cover that the dividing the Christian Church into sects,
by professions of faith, and exact external ceremonies,
not essential to salvation, but fabricated by designing
men and based upon priestly pride and usurpation, will
produce mortifying uncharitableness towards all who
dissent from them. The adherents of each particular
creed being convinced of the orthodoxy of their own
dogmas and the Divine right of their Church polity, they
regard it important for others to embrace precisely their
opinions and to support their associations in order to be
Christians, worthy of their fellowship and sympathy,
otherwise they esteem them as strangers and aliens,
however distinguished by piety, ability, and usefulness.
The doctrine that these external ceremonies and usages*
which have created controversies are of God, represents
the Divine Government to be at variance with itself, con-
founds good and evil, discord and harmony, strife and

peace, enmity and lovo togellier, and God as the indis.
criminate author of all. A doctrine involving such con-
sequences and contradictions, however excusable in the
dark ages is a disgrace to the ninjteenlh century, the li-
dicule of sensible men, an-l needs few remarks, as it
contains its own refutation within itself.

In thrse opinions we are sustained by many eminent
authorities of various sections of the Christian Church.
Mr. Watson, in his theological Institutes, Vol. 2, p. 585,
quotes the following language of Bishop Tomline, " No
Church can exist without some fiovernment ; but though
there must bo rules and orders, for the proper dischame
of the offices of public worship, though there must be
fixed regulations concerning the appointment of ministers
and though a subordination is expedient in the highest
degree, yet it does not follow that all these things must
be precisely the same in every Christian country; they
vary with the other varying circumstances of human so-
ciety, with the extent of a country, the manners of its
inhabitants, the nature of its civil government, and many
other peculiarities which might be Jr'pecified. As it has
not pleased our Almighty Fnther to prescribe any parii-
cuhir form of civil government for the security of tempo-
ral comforts to his rational creatures, so neither has he
prescribed any particular form of ecclesiastic -il polity as
absolutely necessary to the attainment of eternal happi-
ness." In keeping with the foregoing. Dr. Campbell
forcibly remarks "That no Ibrm of polity can plead
Buch an exclusive charier as that phrase, [Divine Right]
in its present acceptation, is understood to imply ; that
the claim is clearly the offspring of sectarian bigotry and
ignorance. This we may say with freedom, that if any
particular form of polity had been es'^ential to the Church
it would have been laid down in a different manner in
the sacred book.

Again ; Dr. Bangs says : " No specific form of Church
government is prescribed in scripture, and therefore it is
left to the discretion of the Church to regulate these mat-
ters as the exigencies of time, and place, and circum-

IMHH

mmmm

stance, shall diclale to be most expedient, and likely to
accomplish the greatest amount of good ; always avoid-
ii^g any and every thing which God has prohibited. Mr.
Wesley, a ver;^ prudent person, and one careful to avoid
innovation, and one not ignorant of the doctrines of the
Bible or afraid to defend them, remarks, ''This opinion
which I once zealously espoused, I have been heartily
ashamed of, ever since I read Bishop Stillingfleet's Iten-
tcum I think he has unanswerably proved that neither
Christ nor his Apostles prescribe any particular form of
Church Government." The doctrine thus supported by
good authority, namely, that no particular forms of Church,
government or dogmas, is prescribed in the scriptures,
but are Icfi to the discretion of the Church ai\d the exi-
gencies of circumstances, must be obvious to all who are
familiar with the New Testament.

The doctrine of Divine Right, either of civil or eccle-
siastical jurisdiction, to interfere, either to restrain or to-
lerate Church polities, the exercise of devotion, or the
performance of any moral duty, either to God or man is
contrary to the germs of Christianity and perniciously
retards its progress. What the Divine right of both civil
and ecclesiastical rulers and subjects is, H. B. Bascom,
D.D., of the M. E. Church, beautifully sets forth in the
following summary of human rights explanatory of the
reasons and principles of government :

'^Article \st. God, as the common Father of mankind,
has created all men free and equal, and the proper equality
and social freedom of the great brotherhood of the human
race, in view of the gifts and grants of the Creator, are to
he inferred from all his dispensations to men. Every man
by the charter, of his creation, is the equal of his contem-
poraries ; — the essential rights of every generation are
the same. Man, as the child of God's creation, continues
man immutably, under all circumstances ; — and the rights
of ancestry are those of posterity. Man has claims,
which it becomes his duty to assert, in right of his exist-
ence, such as the infeasible right of thinking and acting
lor himself, when thought and action do not infringe the
right of another, as they never will, when truth and
justice are made the basis of human intercourse. These

rights common to llio great family of mnn, cannot be
abolished by concession, statnt^, precedent, or positive
institution ; and vviien wrested or withheld from the
jnultitude of mankind, by their rulers, may be reclaimed
by the people, whenever they see proper to do it.

'* Art, 2nd. Man was created for society, his natural
rights are adapted to the social slate, and under every
form of society, constitute properly, the founduiion of his
civil rights. When man becomes a member of civil
society, he submits to a modification of some of his
natural rights, but he never does, he never can, relin(|ui>-h
them. He concedes the exercise of these rights, for his
own and the general good, but does not, cannot, cast
them off. His rights receive a new direction, but Ho not
terminate ; and that government which deprives man of
rights, justy claimed in virtue of his creation, and inter-
woven with the constitution of his nature, and the
interests of society, denies to him the gifts of his Creator,
and must be unjust. God can be the author of no
government, contravening the wisdom of his arrangement*,
in the creation of men,

" Art. Srd. In every community there is a power, which
receives the denomination of sovreignty, a power not
subject to control, and that controls ail subordinate powers
in the government. Now, whether this power be in the
hands of many or a few, it is indubitably certain, that
those members only of the community are free, in whom
the sovereign power resides. The power of a community
is essential to its freedom, and if this power be confined
to a few, freedom is necessarily confined to the same
number. All just goverment mu>t be founded upon the
nature of man, and should consult alike the natural
rights, civil wants, and moral interests of his being. All
rightful authority is founded in powt r and law; all just
power is founded in right, and as one man's natural right
to the character of a lawgiver, is to all intents as good
'as another's, it lollows, that all legitimate law must have
its origin in the expressed will of the many.

" Art. 4th. As all men are essentially equal in their
rights, wants, and interests, it follows trom these, that
representative government is the only legitimate human
rule, to which any people can submit. It is the only kind
of government that can possibly reconcile, in any consist-
ent way, the claims of authority, with the advantages of
liberty. A prescriptive legislative body, making laws
without the knowledge or consent of the people to b?

100

ffovcrnod by llieni, is despotism. LofjfislatDia without
conslituenls, or poers and fellowH depuling ihern, as tlieir
rei)rei»ent.'itiv('.s and nctors — thus constitulin^ thcrnseivos
a lefjislaluro beyond tiu; control of the people, U an
exiiibilion of tyranny in one of its most dan^fM-ous forms.
In ill*' momentous aifairs of government, nothing should
be made the exclusive property «d* a few, wliich, by
right, behmgs to all, and may be safely and advantageous-
ly used by the righlfui proprietors. The justice of every
government depends essentially upon the original con-
sent of the people;— this privileize belongs to every
community, in right of the law of nature ; and no man
or multitude of men, can alter, limit, or diminish it
Conslilutifinal law is an expression of the will of the
.))eople, and their concurrence in its formation, either
jiersonally, or by reprcj^entation, is essential to its legiti-
mate authority.

'Mr/. 5th, No community can be said, without mockery'
to have a constitution where there is a eonsolidatif>n of
the difitMent powers of government in the hands of the
same men, and the remaining portion are left, of course,
without any security for their rights. Such a case pre-
sents an absolute government; a government of men,
not principles. A constitution is not the creature of
government ; the nature of things renders it impossible
that it should be an act of government. In strict propriety,
it exists anterior to government ; — government is based
npon, proceeds from, and is the creature of the constilii-
tio!i. A constitution contains the elements ^nd principles
of government, and fixes the natiire and limits of its form
Hnd operations, but is an instrument distinct from gov-
ernment, and by which government is controlled. It is a
preliminary act of the people, in the creation of govern-
ment. It ^ustains to government the same relation that
laws do to the judiciary ; the latter is not the source of
of law, cannot make laws, or annul them, but is subject t6,
and governed by law. A constitution recognizes tho
rights of the people, and provides for their assertion and
niaintenance. It settles the principles and maxims of
government. It fixes the land-marks of legislation. It
is the sovereign voice of the people, giving law and
limit to themselves and their representatives.

*' Art. Qlh. A government uniting the legislative, judi-
cial, and executive powers in the hands of the same men,
is an absurdity in theory, and in practice, tyranny. The
executive power, in every government, should be sub-

I i

101

ordinate to tho ler»i,slalivp, and llie jndicirtl iiidcporidfiit
of both. Whcnover, lliLTclorc, il litppons. lli it ilursn
throe departincnis of ^ovcrninciit aro in the h;ui(ls of the
Siinie body of iiu-n, and lliesir idimi iii*t the ro|)p scniativcs
if the people, HimI uiidviiiu; I lie hiws, then cxrciUmg tlinn,
Hiid finally tiio Hide judgi s of tiipir own acts, ther«? is n«>
liberty, the people are virtually tH.-^laved, atnl liable to bo
ruined at any time. In a governtneut, civil or erelt siasti-
cal, vvhere the same men are icf^islutors, adininis'ti* .tors,
and judges, in rehilion to all the laws, nnd every po>.sil)lo
application of them, the peofde, whether well or ill-
liealed, arc in fact slaves; for the oaly remedy against
.«i>uch a despotism is revolt. i\o eonstiiutiori can be pre-
ftunmed a good one, embodying the principles of correct
government, which does not siutliciently p^uard .T^jainv-;
tiie ciances and possibility of nial-adminislrarioii. All
absolute governments owe tl.eir chantcter to the manner
in which they are administered, whereas, in n representa-
tive government, with proper checks and balances, ,t is
the interest, even if the vicious, to j)rumote the general
welfare by conforming to the laws. The greater the
equality established among men by governments, the
more virtue and happiness will prevail; for where the
voluntary consent of the governeii is the basis of govern-
ment, jnterest and duty combine to promote the common
we a!.

" Aii. 1th. Every community should be the asserter
and guaidian of its own rights. No government can be
administered to the advantage of the governed for any
considerable length of time, unless the people retain sut-
licient power in their own hands to compel their rulers
to act correctly. When a government is so constructed
that its acts are final, and preclude remedy by appeal to
the people, its principles are unjust, and its administra-
tion cannot fail to be injurious; a virtuous administration
can never change or redeem the vicious principles of u
government. And whenever the subjects of a govern-
ment, whose legislative, executive, and judicial functions
pertain to a few, independent of the choice of the people,
,find themselves aggrieved and oppressed by the conduct
of their rulers, without any constitutional remedy for the
iedressof existing evils, it then becomes the duty, and is
the imprescriptable right of that people to control their
rulers by exlra-judicial measures. ' .. .*

** Art. Slh. Where all the power and forms of govern-
ment are held and managed by a few, who act without

102

delegated right by consent of the people, the authority of
the rulers is absolute, and the people are enfranchised of
all right in the various relations existing between them,
as subjects, and those who hold the reins of government.
Such a government must always lead to mental debility,
will depress the moral vigour of the people, and necessarily*
abridge the liberty of reasoning and investigation. In alf
governments of this kind, right is the creature of fortune,'
and the slave of caprice. Those who live under a gov-
ernment which denies to the people the right of repre-
sentation, bli'-ily engage to submit to the will of others,
right or wrong, and must continue to do so, or else
deprive themselves of all the advantages of the com-
munity in which they live, in order to get rid of its evils.
The enactment of all laws and rules, therefore, should be
with and by the consent of the people, and their executiori
strictly under their control.

" Art 9th. The right to be represented, where law iii
made to govern, is not only essential to civil freedom, but
is equally the basis of retigious liberty. Civil and reli-
gious liberty are intimately connected, they usually live
and die together ; and he who is the friend of the one,
cannot consistently be the enemy of the other. If liberty,
as is admitted on all hands, is the perfection of civil
society, by what right can religious society bfeqonie
despoiled of this crowning excellence of the social state ?
The New Testament furnishes the principles, but not the
forms of church government ; and in the adaptation of
forms to these principles, Christian bodies should be gov-
erned mainly by the few facts and precedents furnished
in the apostolic writings. The will and mind of the
Great Head of the church, on this subject, so far as
clearly revealed, whether by express statute, or fair
implication, cannot be contravened without impiety;
but in relation to the variety of topics connected with the
internal police, and external relations of the church, on
which the Scriptures are silent, it is left to every Christian
community to adopt its own regulations, and the same is
true of nations. Ministers and private Christians, ac-
cording to the New Testament, are entitled to equal rightii
and privileges — an indentity of interests implies an
equality of rights. A monopoly of power, therefore, by
the ministry, is a usurpation ot the rights of the people.
No power on the part of the ministry, call deprive the
people legitimately of their elective and representative
rights; as the ministry cannot think and act for the

103

people, in matters of principle and conviction, so neither
can they legislate for them, except as their authorized-
representatives.

^^ Art. XOth. The government of every Christian church
should be strictly a government of principle, in relation
to the governed ; and every private Christian is as
deeply and reasonably interested^asthe ministry. Domin-
ion over conscience is the most absurd of ail human
pretensions. The assumption that absolute power in
the affairs of church government, is a sacred deposit in
the hands of the ministry, libels the genius and charities
of the New Testament. Whenever a Christian people
place themselves under a ministry, who claim the right
of thinking and deciding for them, in matters of faith
and morality, they are guilty of impiety, however uniil-
teniional, to the Great Head of the church, inasmuch as
it is required of every Christian to reflect and determine
for himself, in all such cases, and the duty cannot be
performed by another. And those ministers who aim at
a principality of this kind, in the personal concerns of
faith and practice, are plainly guilty of usurped dominion
over the rights and consciences of the people.

" Art. Wth. Expedience and right are different things.
Nothing is expedient that is unjust. Necessity and con-
venience may render a form of government useful and
effective for a time, which afterward, under a change of
circumstances, and an accumulation of responsibility,
may become oppressive and intolerable. That system of
things, which cannot be justified by the word of God,
and the common sense of mankind, can never be expedi-
ent. Subm^ission to power, gradually and insidiously
usurped, should seldom or never be received as proof of
the legitimate consent of the people to the peculiar form
of government by which they are oppressed ; as such
submission may be the result of principles, attachments,
and energies, which owe their existence to causes foreign
from the government, which is supposed to produce them.
Peaceable submission by the people to a system of gov-
ernment, can^never be construed into a proper approval
of it, as one of their own choice ; for as men by birth and
education, may become the subject of a form of civil
government they do not approve, so thousands may be
born into the kingdom or God, and nurtured in his
family, under forms of ecclesiastical polity, materially
inconsistent with the lights and notices of revelation on
this subject. The continued sufferance and submission

i^mmamtimui'

104.

of the people, so far from proving the divine ri»iht of
those who govern^ does not even furnish proof of any
ri«ht at all, except the claim which arises from mere
fofbearance.

" Art. \2lh. Without insisting upon these portions of
the New Testament, which go direcHy against the right
of the ministry, to exclusive rule, the well-known in-
definileness of its language, on the subject of church
f»overnment, should admonish the cla'mants of such power
jhat their pretensions cannot bo sustained. Nevertheless,
in all ages since the apostolic, and in all parls of the
world, with but few exceptions, a large majority of those
calling themselves Christian ministers, have shown a
disposition, both in ecclesiastical and civil affairs, to
maintain an influence in matiers of government, indepen-
dent ot the people, and to suppress the right of inquiry,
and freedom of discussion. And this is readily accounted
for, by adverting to the fact, that the liberty of thinking
and acting, and especially the free expression of opinion,
have always lessened the influence of ministerial preten-
sions, and abridged the claims of an aspiring ministry,
to irresponsible domination. It is lamentabiy true, that
in a thousand instances, in the various divisions of papal
and protestanl Christendom, oppression has been exercised
under pretence of duty, and professed veneration for the
dead ; and their doings, and an earnest contention for
pre-existing customs, have been urged as sufficient reasons
for withholding the rights of the people, and lording it
over God's heritage.

*• Art. \3th. It is true, to a great extent, that through-
out all the divisions of the Christian world, intellect has
taken but comparatively little hold of the subject of
religion, and still less of the subject of church govern-
ment ; and this affords the ministry an opportunity of
misleading the people on the subject of their rights, and
in but too many instances, they resign themselves the
passive subjects of their religious teachers, without once
inquiring whether in doing so they do not dishonour the
Great Head of the church, in his members. Christian
ministers are men of like passions with other men, they
are equally liable to err, and become depraved ; they
should not be watched with an eye of malignant jealousy,
i;>ut their errors, oppressions and usurpations, should be
met and resisted by the people with confidence and
firmness. The people should teach their rulers, that they
will find them alike free from the spirit of faction and the

•u4n)(n raAVttwiKHjij*

106

lameness of servility. They should let them know that
witli every disposition to render proper obedience, they
are determined not to be oppressed.

** Ari. Mth. Whenever the memb?rs of a church resign
the right of suffrage, and of discussing freely and fear-
lessly the conduct of their rulers, whether it be done by
direct concession, or indirectly by attaching themselves
to, and continuing within, the pale of a church where
such a system of polity obtains, they renounce to a fearful
extent one of the first principles of the Protestant religion,
and bring dishonour upon its name. Whenever spiritual
rulers attempt to check a perfectly free communication of
thoughts and feelings among the people, — when the lips
and the pensof the laity are interdicted, without their over-
sight and license ; when they attempt to repress honest
convictions and free enquiry ; when their disapprobation is
shewn to all who do not support them, and their displeasure
incurred by the diffusion of intelligence among the people,
not calculated to increase their power and reputation ;
then it becomes the duty of the people to decline their
oversight, as men unworthy to rule the church of God.
The rock on which the church has split for ages, is that
the sovereign power to regulate all ecclesiastical matters,
(not decided by the Scriptures, and which of right belongs
10 a Christian community, as such,) has by a most mis-
chievous and unnatural policy, misnamed expediency,
been transferred to the hands of a few ministers, who
have been in part the patricians of the ministry, and the
aristocracy of the church. . > . « .i^ i

" Art. \5th. Government, as a fixed and stable cause
in the progress of human affairs, is finally productive of
a large amount of good or evil ; it is strictly in its
operation, a moral cause, in the formation of character ;
for it necessarily presents circumstances and considera-
tions in the light of reasons and motives which lead to
results in trie formation of character, that become habitual
and permanent. The good of all concerned, therefore,
should be the object proposed in the adoption of any form
of government ; and when a system of government is
adopted which calls the attention of the governed from
the general welfare, by depriving them of all control in
the enactment and execution of the laws, the natural and
unavoidable tendency of a government of this descrip-
tion, is vicious and demoralizing ; and such are the
character and influence of all non-elective governments.
The members of a community, who place themselves

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under the exclasive control of a few irresponsible persons,
as their sole masters in matters of government, thus
tamely depriving themselves of the right of representation,
and even of existence, except by expatriation, betray a
criminal negligence of their best interests, and great in-
attention to the general welfare; and all governments
recognizing such a distinction, contravene necessarily
the influence of enlightened conviction and independent
inquiry.

"ilr<. 16//<. Any government that does not allow the
people to meet, deliberate, and decide upon matters that
concern themselves, is evidently oppressive. For those
who are not the representatives of the people, to make
laws for them, and then deny them the freedom of candid
inquiry and honest animadversion, is a measure, as ir-
rational as it is unjust. The maxim which assumes that
the ministry have a right to rule and dictate exclusively
in the great concerns of religion, is the fruitful source of
implicit faith, which tamely and without inquiry receives
instruction at the hands of men, as authoritative and final
— impiously receiving * for doctrines the commandments
of men, and perverting the oracles of God.' When the
ministry judge and determine for the people, without
their legitimate concurrence, as matter of right, con-
formity becomes a question of policy, instead of resulting
from conscience and principle. A government which
denies to the governed the right to inquine, remonstrate,
and demand withheld justice — which from its structure
and operation is calculated to darken the understanding
and mislead the judgment — and thus compel obedience to
its measures, in the g/eat interests of right and wrong,
must be essentially unjust, and ought not to be submitted
to.

" Art. nth. No power possesses so fatal a principle of
increase and accumulation in itself as ecclesiastical power.
Its facilities for reproduction and multiplication are many
and fearful, and should be vigilantly guarded against' bv
all who consider the image of God as closely oonnectecl
with the rights of man. And whenever the growth and
manifestation of this power, in any of its innumerable
loims and modes of operation, shall clearly amount to
an invasion of christian rights, the injured and oppressed
should resist the encroachment with manly decision and
unyielding remonstrance. In every church, where the
principle of representation is excluded, in the affairs of
its govexnmcnt, t^e right of private judgment becomes a

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nullity, and faith and practice are, necessarily, to a great
extent, the offspring of prescription. The right of deciding
what are the will and mind of God in n.atters of faith
and discipline, by prescriptive interpretation, is conceded
in the scriptures to no man or body of men exclusively:
of course, the right of judgment belongs to all, equally
and inalienably ; and when the ministry avail themselves
of the indifference, inattention, or ignorance of the people,
brought under their charge from time to time, to constitute
themselves their legislative masters and executive guard-
ians, they usurp the dominion of conscience, and, although
never complained of, are de facto religious tyrants, because
they assume and exercise rights that do not, and cannot
in the nature of things, belong to them. It should not
be overlooked, moreover, that when the ministry are
considered by the laity, as the sole judges and deposi-
tories of faith and discipline, the people lose the only
powerful motive, the only direct incentive they can
possibly have, to inquire and decide for themselves, in
the infinitely momentous concerns of truth and duty.
Such a monopoly of power by the ministry, tends directly
to mental debasement, consequent indecision of character,
insincerity, and misguided zeal.

" Art. \^th. That form of ecclesiastical polity, under
which the revenues of the church proceed from the
people, when they have no participation in the enact-
ment of its laws, furnishes no proper constitutional
balance of power ; for the legislative council of the
church, consisting of the ministry alone, have it in their
power at any time, to render the contributions of the
people to an amount sufficient for their competent supply
and even their affluence, not a voluntary service, but a
condition of membership, when such government ceases
to be free, and necessarily becomes tyrannical. Any
government which places the public property of the gov-
erned in the hands of its rulers, so that it must proceed
from their gift exclusively, without any constitutional
negative in its approbation on the part of the people, is
unjust and vicious in its nature. Property is dominion
held in right of power, and if in the hands of a few, the
balance of government is destroyed, by enabling them to
control the destiny of the whole. As it is the duty of
every community to support those who are only called to
the administration of its affairs, so it is plainly a matter
of right that the will of the people should determine the

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necessary amount of supplies and the mode of their
assessment and colleclion.

f ^^ Art. ^9th. Punishments should never be inflicted in
any community, except when strictly necessary, and
plainly called for by the public good ; and, in all cases,
the infliction should be according to law. All punish-
ments proceeding from the regular administration of
constitutional law, should be submitted to without resist-
ance.

•* Art, 20th. The subjects of all governments, have a
right td know the official acts and doings of their agents
and officers, and to demand their publication accordingly.

" Art. 21s^ The vindication of an injured people, in
a contention for their rights, is furnished by the shameful
denial of their existence. ; ; , ,

" Art. 22nd. Any movement by the oppressed, to recover
Jheir lights, wiil be resisted by tnoa-e who have oppressed
them ; but suffering and persecution, in a cause which
the love of God and man requi»'es, should bo fearlessly
met and resolutely borne." ,..•,,

The Divine liight of Ecclesiastical legislatures is evl
denlly to adopt and establis^h those Chiirch polities which
will secure the nriu.lual rights of the ministers and mem-
bers of the Church, and will diffuse and strengthen th©
true spirit of tht Christian religion, which is to love all
men, and live peaceably with them, and a& will produce
a perfectly free communication of thoughts and feelings
among the brethren. And whenever the legislature be-
comes insensible to that tranquility and peace which
should pitvail dtrcug rhn,4ian^', wb^ should be the most
pacific people in the world, and for the purpose of secu-
ring a kind of sovereignty for themselves, establish
Church polities which interfere with the social freedom,
or disturb the peace of the great brotherhood of the
Christian Church, by producing a proud and haughty
spirit of denominational superiority, which prompts
Christian belligerents, who should be brethren, to envy
and revile each other in different ways — assailing each
other with words, as with darts and spears — ministers in-
veighing against ministers — people rising up against peo-
ple — mutually inflaming each other with strife, quarrels,

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threats, rivalship, hypocrisy, and dissimulation, to the
greatest height of malignity so common amongst the
Methodist Churches, those polities should not be submit-
ted to. But by all who respect the image of God they
should be with manly determination remonstrated against
as impious, until so corrected that the following of the
mild and gentle Jesus shall bo as brethren assembled in
the same house of worship, without distinction. ''

Let us take a few examples as illustrations of this po-
sition. Although the doctrine of salvation was no new
or strange doctrine to those who were familiar with the
literature, piety, and righteousness of the Hebrew nation,
the learned in Hebrew doctrines obviously knew the
anointed of God, as he appeared unto Abraham, com-
muned with Isaac, spoke to Jacob, and the prophets after
them. But it is evident that there were many things
connected with the benevolent diffusion of tho gospel,
which appeared as new and contrary to the polity of the
Jewish Church.

God in, the fulfilr.ient of his gracious pfomise, that,
" When he shall become a great and mighty nation, in
him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed," gave
a divine vision to Cornelius of Cesarea, commanding him
to send for Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, which
would render him obnoxious to the superstitions of his
country. This was something new. For a Roman sol-
dier to send fur one who regarded him as unclean, a man
of violence and plunder, and the murderer of Jesus
Christ, who lately had been crucified. Surely it is an
unpardonable innovation upon established usages. But
Cornelius, though entangled by circumstances from
which it was not easy to free himself, was a man of
piety and benevolence. Hence a suitable associate for
all the benevolent. But Peter, who so tenaciously ad-
hered to the usages of the Jewish Church, as " to be
blamed," needed instruction on this subject. He regard-
ed it as sinful for an Apostle of Jesus Christ to associate
with a sinner of the Gentiles — and still more criminal to
worship with a Roman soldier, who had enslaved his

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country, whom he had been taught to esteem no better
than a dog. And when he went to pray, he " saw hea-
ven opened, and a certain vessel descending upon him,
as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners and
let down to the earth, wherein were all manner of four-
footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping
things, and fowls of the air, and there came a voice to
him. Rise Peter, kill, and eat. But Peter said, not so.
Lord ; for I have never eaten any thing common or un-
clean. And the voice spake unto him again the second
time. What God has cleaned call not thou common.
According to the Jewish customs, it was unlawful for a
Jew to associate with one of any other nation ; but in
this vision God taught Peter not to call any man common
or unclean whom he had cleansed. Peter changed his
dogmas of exclusive privilege, and went over to a con-
gregation of unoircumcised Gentiles, and preached wi^h
boldness — That God is no respecter of persons, but in
every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteous-
ness is accepted of Him. And when his conduct was
suspected as a violation of the law of God, he justified
himself in a manner so perfectly satisfactory to the other
disciples and brethren, that they rejoiced and magnified
the grace of God, that had granted repentance unto life
to the Gentiles also. • • <

Again we may speak of the Apostle Paul, who in re-
gard to faith was a rigid Pharisee, and confined salvation
to the Jews alone, and proselytes to their faith, and that
salvation was siscured to them meritoriously by the ob-
servance of Jewish rites, traditions, and ceremonies. He
utterly rejected Jesus Christ as an impostor, believing
that his crucifixion was but a righteous retribution of his
blasphemy, and that his followers deserved a similar fate
for the same cause. And he ** verily thought that he
ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus*
of Nazareth, and believing that it would be more meri-
torious service to God and his fellow men, to rid the
world of this pestilential heresy of the Nazarenes, he

Ill

consented to their death, and persecuted them into ntrange
cities. And having obtained letters from the high priest
to go to Damascus, where many had fled toshelter them-
selves from persecution, in the blindness of his zeal,
under the influence of a bigoted religion, Paul, distin-
guished for great powers of intellect and unbending re-
gard for integrity, with all good conscience towards God,
commenced his journey to that famous city, said to be
founded by Abraham himself, on a mission of cruel per-
secution. He probably had arrived within sight of the
city, and was flattering himself with a speedy opportu-
nity to display his infatuated zeal for God, when he was
arrested by a light from heaven, similar to that of the
Shechinah or sacred glory, which generally accompanied
the Divine presence. At the same time a voice from
heaven " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me." He in-
stantly fell to the earth and trembling said, *^ Lord who
art thou ?" — ** I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest," was
the reply. Paul being convicted of his wrong, did not
confer with flesh and blood, and delay for a moment, but
obeyed with a practical faith. His submission was not
only a humiliating defeat of his most sanguine plans and
purposes, but perfectly mortifying to his ambition and
pride. To be led a suppliant to the feet of one of those
he came to persecute, in that very city where he had ex-
pected to enter by authority, and spread terror and dis-
may among the disciples of that Lord whose mercy he
now implored. But Paul being convinced, changed bis
faith, renouncing Judaism, he received Christ without
delay, and, instead of persecuting the Christians, he
confounded the Jews that dwelt at Damascus, proving
Jesus was the very Christ — the true Messiah. -

> With the history of the Reformation before us, we see
the atrocious superstitious vices and usurpation of«the
Roman Church — religion aggrandized — a theocracy es-
tablished, of which the Pope, as Christ's vicegerent on
earth, was the head — society a prey to whatever he judg-
ed necessary to his policy, without any regenerating or
preserving principles, and Martin Luther, a holy and

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irreproachable monk bending to papist maxims. But
one day in particular, wishing to obtain an indulgence
pron^ised by the Pope to any one who should on his
icnees ascend what is called Pilate's staircase, the poor
Saxon monk was slowly climbing those steps, which
ihey told him had been miraculously transported from Je-
rusalem to Rome. But while he was going through this
meritorious work, he thought he heard a voice like thun-
der speaking to his heart ; The just shall live h\j faith.
These words which already on two occasions had struck
upon his ear, as the voice of the angel of God, resound-
ed instantaneously and powerfully within him. He
started up in terror on the steps on which he had been
crawling; he was horrified at himself; and, struck with
shame for the degradation to which superstition had de-
based him, he fled from the scene of his folly. This was
the decisive epoch in the life of Luther. From that hour
he gave up his former religious tenets and dogmas. He
left Rome and returned to VVittemburgh, full of grief and
indignation. Turning away from the superstitions of
Popery he embraced the light and liberty which the Holy
Scriptures offers to the human family.

And now, instead of submittmg to all the vain practi-
ces which the superstitious Church enjoined, in order o
purchase the remission of sins, he put Christ in the
place the priest had usurped, and felt himself born again
as a new free man, and introduced into the paradise of
God. Allow us to introduce one more example on this
point.-' ' ] ■<' ^ fr*'^''" • • • •■ ' ^ —■ '<•*''■ ..rii ,.,.ww; .-I .;mo»

A little more than a century ago, a relaxation of pure
and undefiled religion apparently threatened to impede
the progress of future ages. A desolating torrent of
worldly honours, ease, and pleasure, was overwhelming
the Church. An element of corruption lay hidden in
its bosom, almo:<t as if it had returned to the faith of
Rome. The torch of Christianity, which emits from its
flame light and life, was going out in darkness. At the
period of which we are speaking, when a revival of re-
ligion was so pressingly needed in one of the most aria-

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tocratio universities in the world, might have been found
a young man named John Wesley, iinbihing rigid hi;j;h
Church principles and superstitions, of which subsequent-
ly he was '' heartily ashamed." This may S3em strange
to some, who are not familiar with his life, hut is histori-
cally true. Divine Providence, liovvever, opened his eyes
to see that if sinners were saved they must be saved by
grace, not in form only'but in power, whether in the
Church or in the open field ; an I that the doctrine of
Apostolic succession, as claimed by high Churchmen
was contrary to the genus of Christianity, the succes-
sion depending, not upon any personal transmitted virtue
or authority, hut upon divine aud inward call, and the
appointment of his providence. This change in his sen-
timents provoked a fierce persecution against him. The
pulpit of the established Church to which he belonged
was closed and guarded. But the unflinching Wesley,
contrary to his former dogmas, resorted to the fields nnd
commons, to the highways and hedges, to preach un-
shackled the gospel of Christ, which sanctifies and en-
nobles men, and raises them to a holy oneness, by the new
and living principle it communicates to them, and as his
field of usefulness extended to Scotland and America, be-
yond the means of supplying it by the few ordained men
at his command, he ordained assistants from among those
of his brethren whom persecution and bigotry had left
him. If then there be any force in the sentiments we
have ventured to express and the examples produced, it
is evident that if the trifling tenets which at present di-
vide the Methodist Church have originated in ecclesiasti-
cal tyranny and ecclesiastical corruption, and engendered
ruinous animosities, contrary to the law of love, it is
not only our privilege but imperative duty to make such
alterations as are indispensable to secure the peace, har-
mony, and welfare of tiie Church, by bringing together
in the closest bonds of brotherly fellowship, all living be-
lievers who seek above all things else the glory of God,
and the spiritual welfare of one another. '■ ^ ^ ^

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I .■ ■

CHAPTER \I.

7 ;:

" . \

OBJECTIONS AND HINDRANCES TO A COMPLETE METHODIST

UNION. , , . 'I

. To the doctrine taught in this work there are some
seeming ohjections, which we propose to notice in this
chapter. These objections are apparently weighty and
serious, and however logical and scriptural our reasoning
upon this subject may appear to us, the work is not done
until these objections are clearly, candidly, and complete-
ly answered. And one cause of objection to a union of
the various Methodist denominations, is that the ques-
tion has been heretofore discussed in a practical aspect,
proportioned to its importance. A union has been as-
sumed unattainable, and no practical scheme has been
devised and submitted for the consideration of the Me-
thodist community. And antagonists to this scheme, of
respectable numbers, talents, and piety, have presented
opposite argumentative proofs. They regard it as impos-
sible for the various Methodist denominations so fully'
to understand each other as to harmoniously co-operate in
the advancement of the cause of God in the earth. It is
due to our opponents, it is due to our readers, it is due
to the Church of Christ, that we give some attention to
these objections. And although they are of sufficient
importance to demand attention, they are not sufficiently
invincible to cause us to abandon our purpose, or leave
our opposers with excuse.

A trivial objection, yet one that has no little weight
with some against all such efforts as we now advocate
is this : That the union of the various Methodist deno-
minations into one incorporation might be accomplished

115

without promoting the object for which such union i» de-
sirable ; and that such an nmnlganialion mli^ht be pro-
ductive of evils, more than counffrbalau^Mi t? any good
results that might flow from i! It in afg^'ied, that if all
the Methodist denominalions in C^mada were nniied into
one vast Church there would be set up in Canada as in
Roman countries, an ecclesiastical despotism in com-
parison with which our present divisions would be toler-
able. And therefore our divisions are necessary to keep
Christians from corrupting themselves with the world,
and that God blesses ihem to that end. Hut we ask is it
necessary for God to adopt the policy of the corrupt poli-
ticians ot Canada, who create conflicting interests
among their constituents, so that they can play oflf one
against the other in order to preserve their own rule.
Do we find any such policy tnught in the word of God.
Was Israel more pure when the tribes separated, or was
the primitive Church, when all were united, more worldly
than in these days of divisions. God needs no schisms
which are sinful, to preserve His Church from corruption.
These jealous rivalries ralher create world ly-mindedness,
corruption, and usurpation, than holy love to God and to
one another.

We do not say that Church organizations cannot be
fearfully used as worldly engines to advance the usurpa-
tion of either spiritual or political scheming despots.
We frankly acknowledge that worldly men, seeking
worldly advancement, have bribed the leaders of eccle-
siastical bodies in Canada, and thereby have produced
more disastrous political dissensions in our country, and
vital godliness declined in exact proportion. We know
that when the primitive Church forgot that Christ's king-
dom was not of this world, political and ecclesiastical
corruption and tyranny grew up side by side, and Christ-
ianity was left with but the name. But the Methodist
denominations are composed in the main of living belie-
vers, having a common faith, and whose differences are
regarded by each other as non-essential. They all agree
in this important point, that the Church should not as-

116

sume the bad^j^e of any political party, and if she does so,
in order lo secure government favours, she, like Judas,
betrays her Lord and master for pieces of silver. t r •►.

Hence the union for which we plead, is not to unite
the cold and hot — the enlightened and the bigoted — the
saint and the sinner — the worldly and spiritual, but to
unite living believers, who desire above all things else,
the jjflory of God and the welfare of their fellow-men.
The evils we have referred to, could not arise from such
a union, but on the contrary, it would be a powerful an-
tidote by wiiich they would be destroyed. Never again
let our separations be mentioned as a political advantage
when they should humble us in the dust, n;; . . .• -

A second objection is that it is wrong to compromise
what we hold lo be truth.

We answer, we do not advocate such a compromise,
but we urge as duty on all, for the sake of peace, a sacri-
fice of those prejudices which are not conscientiously
held as of Divine obligatton. If one denomination re-
gards some thing of Divine authority, and the others do
not, and can give no .'-criplural objections against receiv-
ing it, they would commit sin, if for peace sake, they
would not make the sacrifice. Now with these views
before us let us examine the essential difference of Church
polity, which divide the Methodist denominations.
With regard lo the articles of religion, there is no differ-
ence in the various disciplines. The only real difHculty
in the way of union seems lo be in the order of ihe min-
istry. The Episcopal Methodist hold to a three-fold
order of ministry. But they do not undertake to pro-
nounce on the validity of any other, form of ordination.
That God in His word has expressed no certain form of
Church Government our ablest writers have admitted.
The lowest sacred office in the Methodist Episcopal is
that of deacon. There is none but readily admit that
this ofHce existed in the primitive Church, but the ques-
tion arises, was the office lay or clerical. In giving th*»
true answer to this question allow us to quote the fol-

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lowing paTagraph from Wa1son^s Institutes. " Much
light is thrown upon the conslitulion of the primitive
Churches by recollecting that they were formed very
much upon the model of the Jewish synacroguc .s." The
officers of the synagogue were rulers, elders or presby-
ters, and ministers or servants. The office of deacon
corresponils with lliat of servants or deputy to the elders.
It was the duty of the deputy to nourish and support the
congregation, and to take charge of the sacred books.
The scriptural references to the ofllce of deacon we think
sustain the position that it was a subordinate part of the
regular ministry.

The mode of their appointment is proof in point. They
were set apart to their office by prayer and the imposition
of hands. Their qualification for ofHce implies the same
thing. The} were not only to be men of honest report,
BO necessary for the faithful discharge of responsible tem-
poral duties ; but they were to be men full of the Holy
Ghost and wisdom, a qualification for preaching the
gospel.

Accordingly we find Stephen, one of the seven deacons,
being full ot faith and the Holy Ghost, preaching the
truth, not only before the council, but disputing with the
Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and Silicians, for which he
suffered martyrdom. These primitive deacons adminis-
tered baptism, and cast out devils. Philip "went down
to Jerusalem, and preached Christ even to them," and
*' the people with one accord gave heed unto the things
which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the things which
he did, for many unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice
came out of many which were possessed of them.*' And
•* When they believed, Philip, preaching the things con-
cerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus
Christ, they were baptized, both men and women."
Again we read of his baptiaing the Ethiopian eunuch.
That they were a different order and inferior in rank to
that of elders, is evident from the instructions relative to
their ordination given by Paul to Timothy. That having

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118

*' used the office of a deacon well, they purchase to them-
selves a good degree," That is most probably the office
of an elder. That the primitive Church sets us the ex^-
ample of such an office, our sister Churches do not deny.
That it is not enjoined by the scriptures we admit. We
have the office, copying the example of the primitive
Church and as an expedient means of good order in the
administration of ecclesiastical business. Other Metho-
dist denominations have no deacons, not deeming the
office necessary. Any Church can have them or not,
particular forms of Church government not being essen-
tial to the validity of the Church. Hence no one branch
of the Methodist Church can have conscientious scru-
ples with regard to this office ; we are satisfied with it;,
but we should sacrifice it if the concession would relieve
the Church from the fearlul sin and evils of disunion.
With regard to the office of elder, presbyter, or minister,
there is no disagreement.

But whether the office of Bishop was a distinct and
superior order of ministers to that of elders, holding by
Divine right the exclusive powers of government and or-
dinatidD, so that no man has a right to execute any of
the functions of the ministry, except he hath had Episco-
pal consecration and ordination, has been sharply conr
.tested since the reformation.

As far as the Bible, which must be the great arbiter
in all matters of religious controversy, gives us informa-
tion, there is no exclusive power given to Bishops over
elders. The terms elder, presbyter, and Bishop are ap-
plied in scripture to the same individual. This position
is clearly proved by Watson in the following quotation
from his Institutes. '* When St. Paul, for instance, sends
for the ' elders,' or presbyters of the Church of Ephesus
to meet him at Miletus, he thus charges them, ' Take
heed to yourselves, to all llie flock over the which the
Holy Ghost hath made you overseers," or Bishops. That
here the elders or presbyters are called Bishops cannot be
denied, and the very office assigned to them, to feed the

119

". » . . .

Church of God, and the injunctions to " take heed to the
flocit " shew that the office of elder, or presbyter, is the
same as that of pastor in the passage just quoted from the
Epistle to the Ephesians. St. Paul directs Titus to " or-
dain elders (presbyters) in every city," and then adds, as
a directory of ordination " a Bishop must be blameless,"
&c., plainly marking the same office by these two con.
vertible appellations. Bishops and deacons are the only
classes of ministers addressed in the Epistle to the Philip-
pians ; and if the presbyters were not understood to be
included under the term Bishops, the omission of any no-
tice of this order of ministers is not to be accounted for.
As the Apostles, when not engaged in their own extraor-
dinary vocation, appear to have filled the office of stated
ministers in those Churches in which they occasionally
resided for considerable periods of time, they sometimes
called themselves presbyters. "The elder" (presby-
ter) " unto the elect lady, 2nd John i., 1. "The elders,"
(presbyters) *' which are among you I exhort, who am
also an elder, (presbyter) and from what follows, the
highest offices of teaching and government in the Church
are represented as vested in the presbyters." Mr. Wat-
son here proves, that presbyter and bishop is identical in
order, although the intrinsic power of order, and conse-
quently of ordination, was equally in presbyters and
bishops, yet by mutual consent, to prevent confusion, it
could be intrusted to a bishop, president, or superinten-
dent, not of Divine right, but by the delegation of power
from the body of elders. Mr. Wesley remarks on this
subject, that the plea of the Divine right of episcopacy
was never heard of in the primitive church. And we
have already established that there can be no intrinsic
importance to any form of Church government, only as
the times, places, and circumstances would justify. And
it seems reasonable that the external form of Church
government in any country, should approach as much as
possible to the form of the civil administration of that
country. In British dominions we have combined in

120

our civil governmen< a limited monarchy, a limited ar-
ismcracy, and a limited democracy, the three forms ol
government blended, without the abuses of either ; a
tbree-fold cord that is not easily broken. And u'hen we
compare our permanency as a nation with the divided
stale of the savage tribes where there is unlimited demo-
cracy, every man meeting around the council fire, or with
the constant convulsions of republics, (as seen at the
present in the United States,) where there is an attempt
to blend democracy and aristocracy without the third ce-
menting element, we must express the conviction, that
the episcopal form of Church government being copied
from the primitive Church and corresponding with our
civil administration, h most suited to Methodists in Bri-
tish dominions. And we might with safety add, that a
large portion of the protestant world is either nominally
or really episcopal. Many of our Wesleyan brethren
with whom we have conversed, approve of that form of
government. And probably corrupt churches could best
be approached, having that church policy and ordination
which they, in common with ourselves, retain, and which
corresponds with the civil administration to which they
are attached.

If our brethren adopt the episcopal form of Church
government, however modified, the only hindrance to
complete union, so far as we are concerned, would, we
think, be removed. It is argued, how«ver, that the Me-
thodistEpiscopacyis a spurious episcopacy. In answering
this objection it should be remembered, that Church
government, though it may be modelled after that of the
state, should be neither monarchical, aristocratic, or de-
mocratic, but based upon the scriptures and the actual
wants of the times. The Methodist Episcopacy was the
result of providential circumstances. Mr. Wesley, as
we have shewn in the second chapter of this work, went
out preaching to the masses in the high-ways, private
houses, and open fields. Multitudes were converted to
God, whom he formed into classes or bands, and provi*

121

ded such helps as persecution and providence had left
at his command, not knowing what form of consistence
the societies he was collecting would assume, only con-
sulting llie openings of present duty ; some of those as-
sistants proved to be men of deep piety, sound sense,
and strong natural powers. As the field of their opera-
tions enlarged, it became necessary for these assistants to
supply a plurality of appointments, and then arose the
itinerancy. When Methodists who had emigrated to
America applied to Mr. Wesley for preachers he sent se-
veral, among whom was Francis Asbury, who acted as
superintendent in America, performing the same func-
tions that Mr. Wesley did in England, but not without
the concurrence of his brethren. In the minutes for
1782, is the following item :

Question 19. — ^"Do the brethren in Conference unani-
mously choose brother Asbury to act according to Mr.
Wesley's original appointment, and preside over the
American Conferences, and the whole work?
Answer. — Yes."

But was Mr. John Wesley an Episcopalian ? We give
the answer in his own words, in a letter to Clarke,
Works, vol. 7, p. 285. As to my own judgment, I still
believe the episcopal form of Church government to be
scriptural and apostolic. Did he establish our episco-
pacy ? He most assuredly established the methodist
Episcopal Church of the United States. If we examine
the minutes of 1785, we will find the following item.
" Following the counsel of Mr. John Wesley, who re-
commended the episcopal mode of Church government,
we thought it best to become an episcopal Church."
These minutes were published in London under Mr.
Wesley's eye, without any disapprobation.

But did Mr. Wesley ordain Dr. Coke to the episcopal
office ? Let the following facts answer. We learn from"
Drew's life of Coke that Mr. Wesley proposed to Dr.
Coke his ordination to this office six or seven months be-
fore he received it. The Doctor was startled at the pro-

— — •^"■wW^uHnrtRT ■■

122

position, doubting Mr. Wesley's authority to ordain him,
as he was not a bishop. Mr. Wesley recommended him
to read Lord King's Primitive Church, and gave him
time to reflect. Subsequently, the Doctor accepted the
appointment, and was ordained to the office of Bishop by
the imposition of hands, by John Wesley and other pres-
byters of the Church of England. Now if Coke was
not ordained bishop, what was the nature of his office,
he being a presbyter of the Church of England previous
to this ordination. A little light will be thrown on this
subject, by the following extract from Mr. Wesley's cir-
cular letter on Dr. Coke's appointment, ** For many
years I have been importuned from time to time to exer-
cise this right, by ordaining part of our travelling preach-
ers ; but I have still refused, not only for peace sake, but
because I was determined, as little as possible, to violate
the established order of the national Church to which I
belonged. But the case is widely different between
England and America. Here there are Bishops who
have a legal jurisdiction. In America there are none,
neither any parish ministers, so that for some hundred
miles together there are none, either to baptize or admin-
ister the sacrament. Here therefore my scruples are at an
end. Now if Coke's ordination was not to some sacred
office, it could not have been regarded as an interference
with the established usages of the established Church.
Again, when Wesley was charged with impropriety, he
defended himself by appealing to Lord King and the
Alexandrian Church. And further, when his brother
Charles, who was a high Churchman, remonstrated
against Dr. Coke's ambition and rashness, John Wesley
in his reply utters not a word of denial in relation, either
to the titles used or the form of government, but sim-
ply vindicated the necessity of the course and the char-
acter 01 Coiie in iheji. \701Js : " I bcli'jve Dr. Coke as
free from ambition as covetousness. He has done no-
thing rashly that I know." Again, Charles Wesley in
hi? letter to Dr. Chandler speaks of his brother having

123

" assumed the character, ordained elders, and consecra-
ted a bishop."

Hence the episcopacy of the United Stales may be con-
sidered as expedient, providential and scriptural, and by
the eader referring again to the 3rd section of the 2nd
chapter of this work he will be convinced that an inde-
pendent Methodist Episcopal Church was established in
Canada, equally providential, expedient, and scriptural.
Now if there be no conscientious hindrances on the part
of our brethren with regard to the validity of Episcopal
ordination, why not embrace it. But if they conscien-
tiously regard Episcopal ordination as utterly opposed to
the mind and will of Christ, and in no shape to be re-
ceived, on pain of his displeasure, then of course we
should not ask them to receive it. The opinion, however,
of the Wesleyan Conference we have on this point. They
receive ministers, having received Episcopal ordination
without re-ordination.

, But should our brethren conscientiously regard a mo-
derate Episcopacy as sinful, so that by no means they
would receive it, it remains for us todccide if we will re-
ceive their ordination, which we acknowledge to he
scriptural. Now if our brethren cannot receive our
Church polity we can receive theirs without any sacrifice
of conscience. And we ought to do it, if it will restore
what God requires, the unity of the Church.

But it may be objected that we should not disparage
our own ordination by receiving another. We say that
it can be received hypothetically. In this way we can
respect our ordination and yet satisfy the scruples of our
brethren. Like as a duplicate check of the one is re.
ceived the other adds nothing to it or takes nothing from
it. While no one would object to receiving both, wheite
pecuniary interests are involved no Christian should ob-
ject to a similar course where a greater treasure, the
unity of the Church, is concerned. Another supposed
hindrance to a union is the office of presiding Elder.
We just remark, in short, that many of our own minis-

■^ii^AsmoA

12di

ters question the propriety of any part of our ministers
remaining for a period of four years, or less, without
pastoral care. And although it is urged by some, espe-
cially these SUB-BISHOPS, that the management of the va-
rious circuits in their respective districts, with their tra-
velling and local preachers, exhorters and stewards, with
all financial and other interests, come under their quar-
terly examination, yet by every thinking man the office,
in its present shape, must be regarded as worse than use-
less. There is no circuit business but can be managed
by the stationed minister, and it is properly his work as
pastor. And these quarterly examinations of the presi-
ding Elder are an unrigiiteous interference or meddling
with other men's matters. And it is not uncommonly
the case that the presiding Elder, who preaches but
twice in three months, and sometimes not that, will sap
out of the quarterly Conference an amount nearly equal
to that paid to the travelling preacher, who, perhaps, has
preached every day, and not unfrequently oftener during
the whole quarter.

Hence that office could readily be substituted by a
chairman as is the present usage in our sister Methodist
Churches. In relation to our practice of ordaining local
preachers, we should remark that it would be necessary
to allow those already ordained to retain their office, and
no wrong would be done to any man by refusing to or-
dain him to sacred orders while he pursues a secular call-
ing. '• ' ' '. • '.ti'l >■' :, ':■ .?.M-,' ■,■ . ■;,,..

Another hindrance to a complete union, is the lay de-
legation of the Methodist New Connexion Church. The
only question of difference on this point is not whether
the laity should have any voice in the control of the
Church, for the Methodist Episcopal and Wesleyan
Churches concede this at once, but whether this control
shall be put into a representative form by a lay delega-
tion to the Conference. ^^;' ;;. ii !< ; : ' / d

We know that some Methodist writers take very high
despotic ground in this matter, and say that " the Metho-

125

dist polity is based on a surrender of all personal riglits "
because a connexion with the Methodist Church is vo-
luntary. This sentiment is taught in the following quo-
tation from Dr. Poond.

*'The rights which a Methodist possesses, as such, are
purely conventional. They are not natural, but acquir-
ed rights, and they are determined by the articles of as-
sociation, contained in our book of Discipline. The
Church is a voluntary association, entered into for reli-
gious purposes. Whoever enters into its communion is
entitled to all the immunities which the articles of asso-
ciation hold out to him and no more. If he finds, upon
experiment, that the religious advantages he acquires do
not compensate him for the sacrifices he is required to
make, he has an indefeasible right to withdraw from the
community ; but he has no right to demand of the Church
to change her economy for his accommodation.*'

Now if the Methodist Church is the Church of men,
there would be some plausibility in the Doctor's argu-
ment. But if the Methodist Church is the Church of
God, which she professes to be, then the rights of its
members are natural, and not acquired. God has made
it man's imperative duty to connect himself with the
Church, for *• the Lord added to the Church daily, such
as should be saved.'' It is therefore evident that it i»
the will of God that men should be united to the Church
hence obligatory. Our connexion with, and privileges in
the Church, or our obedience to its laws, does not depend
upon our own choice, advantage, or immunities, bu
upon the will of God. And we cannot throw off the
obligations he lays upon us by voluntarily dissolving our
connexion with the Church. Nor are our rights as
Church members based upon any certain human rules or
human compact, but on the relation we hold to God and
his people. There arises therefore, from the nature
that relation and its necessary obligations, a right as
members of the Church to participate in the enactment
of those laws by which we are to be governed. And that

iiCtViA

126

class of ecclesiastics who would deprive the members of
the Church of their natural and scriptural privileges by
attempting to bind them to any set of rules they have es-
tablished or may in their wisdom establish, truly merit
the charge of usurpation and tyranny ; and that tyranny
is more aggravating when it is remembered that the
membership is constantly investing large amounts oi
money in the erection of churches, parsonages and schools,
and according to the scriptures is depended upon for the
maintenance of the ministry ; and although such invest-
ments and support are free and voluntary benefactions,
and does not secure to the donors legal property, or are
not made the terms of membership, yet righteously they
do secure to the givers a right to legislate in reference to
the distribution or control of such property.

But allowing the right, we question the necessity, ex-
pediency, or practibility of a lay delegation in either the
General or Annual Conferences. In order to come to a
proper understanding of this subject, we should consider
on what particular questions the laity should have a
voice.

. 1st, They have no right to legislate on the articles of
religion. That these are based on the word of God, all
agree, therefore should not be changed either by ministers
or by members,

2nd, They have no right to legislate on the general
rules ; for these we are taught of God to observe, even
in his written word, which is the only rule and the suffi-
cient rule both of our faith and practice. And all these
we know his spirit writes on truly awakened hearts.
These being in accordance with the gospel, the Church
did not make, and therefore should not alter.

3rd, They have no right to legislate on the forms of
receiving or ordaining ministers, because according to
the scriptures this pertains to the ministerial office.

Laymen can claim no right to legislate in the Church
only in reference to the temporal economy, and matters
which concern themselves. And not one-tenth of the

127

business of either of the Conferences of this nature. And
further, the quarterly meeting Conferences of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, which are composed almost en-
tirely of laymen, limit the action of the Annual and
General Conferences in these respects, by the following
restrictions. " They " the general conference *' shall not
do away the privileges of our ministers or preachers, of
trial by a committee and of appeal. Neither shall they
do away the privileges of our members, of trial before
the society or by a committee, and of appeal.

They shall not appropriate the produce of the Book
Concern to any purpose other than for the benefit of the
travelling, supernumerary, superannuated, and worn-out
preachers, their wives, widows, and children ; provided
nevertheless, that upon the joint recommendation of
three-fourths of the Quarterly Meeting Conferences
throughout our Church, (Mission stations excepted,) the
question being carried in each by a majority of three-
fourths of the members present, then the General Con-
ference shall have power, by a majority of three-fourths,
to alter any matter or point embraced in the foregoing
restrictions, according as the same may have been recom-
mended afore-mentioned. No new rule or regulation, or
alteration of any rule or regulation, now in force, res-
pecting our temporal economy : such as the building of
meeting-houses, the order to be observed therein, the
allowance to the ministers and preachers, their widows,
and children, the raising annual supplies for the propa-
gation of the gospel, (the missions excepted,) or the
making up the allowance of the preachers, &c., shall be
considered of any force or authority until such rule, re-
gulation, or alteration shall have been approved of by
three-fourths of all the Quarterly Meeting Conferences
throughout the connexion. Nor shall any new rule, re-
gulation, or alteration respecting the doctrines of our
Church, the rights and privileges of our local preachers
and members — such as the receiving persons on trial
and into full connexion ; the conditions on which they

128

shall retain their membership; the manner of bringing
to trial, finding {:?uilty, and reproving, suspending, or
excluding disorderly persons from society and Church
privileges ; have any force or authority until laid before
the Quarterly Conferences and approved as aforesaid.

We see therefore from the above quotation from our
Book of Discipline, that the General Conference cannot
authoritatively levy taxes upon the laity, or make any
pecuniary contribution the condition of Membership in
the Church, or interfere in temporal matters. The larg-
est amount of the business of the conference is to make
rules and regulations tor the more cfTectual prosecution of
the great work of the evangelization of the world, which
scripturally belongs to the ministerial office. Perhaps
the following extract from the Report of the General
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the
United States for 1828 will give some light on this sub-
ject, it says: — *' We arrogate no authority to enact any
laws of our own, either of moral or civil force. Our
commission is to preach the gospel and to enforce the
moral discipline, established by the one lawgiver by those
spiritual powers vested in us, as subordinate pastors,
who watch over souls as they that must give an account
to the Chief Shepherd. We claim no strictly legislative
power, although we grant the terms legislature and legis-
lation have been used, even among ourselves. In a pro-
per sense, however, they are not strictly applicable to
our General Conference. A mistake on this point has
probably been the source of much erroneous reasoning,
and some consequent dissatisfaction. Did we claim any
authority to enact laws to affect either life or limb, to touch
the persons or to tax the property of our members y they ought
unquestionably to be directly represented among us. But
they know we do not. We certainly, then, exercise no
civil legislation. As to the moral code, we are subject,
equally with themselves, to one Lord. We have no
power to add to, or take from, to alter, or to modtfy a
single item of his statutes. Whether laymen or minis-

129

lers be llio anlhori?:*»ff expounders and adtninislratora of
those laws, wncaii confijlently rely on the trood Christian
sense of the y^rcixt body of our brethren to Jiul«Tfe. These
•well know, also, thitt whatever exposition of ihern wo
apply lo o'.iicrs, \hr same are applied ('([nally to oursel-
vef, and, in sonne Listances, with peculiar slricUness.

Again, hiy representation is not needed in the annual
conference of the Methodist Epi.^copal Church, at least
for its business, except a few judical itenis relating alone
lo travelling and local preachers, is entirely executive
and concerns no class of Church members, cxcej)! the
preachers."

It is obvious from the foregoing remarks, that a lay
representation, for which some are very tenacious, is
almost without an object. Thero is certainly no obji^et
sufliclent to compensate for the inconvenience, trouble,
and extra expense. If delegates are sent, some one must
hear the expense, either the delegate or his constituents.
If the delegate bears his own expense they must be men
of wealth and leisure, for no business man, either far-
mer, tradesman, physician, merchant, or lawyer, can be
found who can give that attention to the duties of a de
legale which the office requires. This would make ricli
idle men necessary to us, and idle men would not be the
best representatives to the Church Legislature. If the
constituents pay the expense they must provide a fund
for that purpose. This would require a tax in some way.
To levy a tax is to suppose a law which will enforce it,
and no other law could enforce it but such as would ex-
communicate those that would not comply with the re-
quisition : this would make a pecuniary consideration,
the condition of membership, which is contrary to the
word of God. Again, if such tax is levied, it must
either be by an assessment on property or by a poll-tax.
The first would be attended with trouble, and endless
disputes and vexations ; the last would be unjust and
oppressive ; either appears absurd and impracticable.
Perhaps it may be raised by subscription in some divi-

130

sions, but in others again it would fail, perhaps for the
want of means. Then poor districts would be deprived,
by poverty, of the privileges of the Church which would
be enjoyed by their wealthier brethren. This scheme
would be equally absurd and impracticable ; so far then
from there being advantages derived from a lay delegation
in the Conference there would be a sacrifice of many pri-
vileges which the members of the Church now enjoy.
And it is to be feared that such a representation would
speedily bring about a dismemberment of any ecclesias-
tical union, there being an impossibility to have a pro-
portionate number of ministers and laymen, or a general
representation of laymen from the remote districts with-
in the boundaries of the various Annual Conferences.
One of the leading ministers in the Proleslant Metho-
dist Church in the United States in an admonitory letter
to his brethren on this subject, declared that "they had
no little difficulty in keeping their denomination from
being scattered to the winds by a loose and deplorable
spirit of anarchy. But for the purpose of meeting the
feelings of all, in the promotion of a union we could have
no objection to, having a limited business Committee to
be appointed by the various Quarterly Meetings on some
practical plan, whose duty it should be to make sugges-
tions to the Conference relative to temporal matters, allow-
ing still the prerogatives of the Quarterly Meeting Con-
ferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church."

Another trivial hindrance to a complete Methodist
amalgamation, is the connexion of the Wesleyan Metho-
dist with the English Conference. And on this subject
we shall guard against stultifying ourselves by allowing
our prejudices to gain so complete a mastery over our
judgment and love of unions as to say that that union is
an insurmountable barrier in the way of complete Me-
thodist union. Whatever may be said of the origin of
that connexion or its present humiliating subjection to a
foreign body, all must confess that the Wesleyan Church
is composed of truly converted men and evangelical

131

the
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ation
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y had
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ng the
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ittee to
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mgelical

ministers, who are our brethren. And what some call a
foreign yoke is more tolerable than our present divisions.
The one or the other we must have. Now which ; of
the two evils choose the least. But, perhaps, what ap-
pears to some to be monstrous despotism, is far less op-
pressive and injurious than their prejudices will allow
them to believe. Considering the growing wealth of our
(iounlry and the intelligent character of its inhabitants,
we unequivocally say, that if Canadian Methodists
would cease their domestic broils and unite as a mighty
phalanx against the powers of darkness, they would need
wider fields of labour than Canada can afford. Then a
connexion with our English Methodist brethren, who are
establishing Missions in almost every part of the world,
would be an advantage. Our limits will not allow us to
multiply argument here, but we will candidly express
the conviction that if we believe that our brethren in
England are true followers of Christ, that no spirit but
an evil one could influence us to refuse a connexion with
them on the pain ot those sinful divisions which are pro-
ductive of incalculable evils to the Church, and dishonor-
able to the very name of Christianity.

And if we, as Christians, would cultivate the humble
Spirit of Christ, and as assiduously examine our own de-
fects as we watch the defects of other denominations,
these little differences in Church polity would not long di-
vide the Methodist societies, between whom, in all doc-
trine and practical points, there is almost an exact agree-
ment. Oh may the day soon come when true Christians
will give this subject, which involves consequences
affecting the highest interests of the Redeemer's Kingdom,
a prayerful consideration. Oh may that glad hour soon
arrive, when the Methodist family, instead of glorying in
separate organization, and separate action, and occasion-
al rivalry and interference with each other, will glory in
Christian unity and fraternal love.

But if that day ever arrives, there will be greater diffi-
culties and hindrances surmounted than is found in Church
polity.

132

1st, Denominational pride, bloody mouthed idol ! which
boasts great things, trumpeting self-laudation and dispar-
agement of others ; and probably all have to plead guilty
in this respeet. This Spirit is as old as the days of the
Apostles, when one said, I am of Paul and another I of
Apollos. And it has strengthened with its age, so that
now it causes the PmuIs and ApoUos to part entirely
asunder. But how inconstant is this spirit, when after all
we must confess that none of us have a perfect system,
whatever may bf said of its excellences, and that we
are guilty of error or defect equal in magnitude to that
of which we accuse our brethren, or of a nature more
heinous in the sight of God. None will deny, that when
God shall build up his truly triumphant Catholic Church,
it will probably be from materials gathered from all.

Another hindrance to union is, judging each other's sys-
tems by their worst features as they are magnified by some
extremist, and taking these exaggerated points as samples
of the whole system it is at once rejected without a dis-
covery of its excellences. Having touched, perhaps in
H stormy day " the shore of our neighbour's possession,
and finding there sand, and rock, and foaming breakers,
we conclude all is naught and barren, while further up
there may be a beautiful region of verdure, and quiet and
pleasant abodes."

Another obstacle in the way of union is the judging
each society by its most prominent men, we are apt to
forget that men most unfaithful to God are apt to be the
greatest sectarian ists and worldlings. They being devoid
of the true spirit of humility easily become ultraists, ec-
centric denominationalists, who will attract great atten-
tion and comment as the leader of his party, and although
his procedure may be so disgraceful as to make the truly
pious hold down their heads in shame and sorrow, yet,
finding countenance among the weak-minded sycoph-
ants of his denomination, he is reported to be the leader
of the whole and the whole Church is judged by him.

Another elevated barrier in the way of the union of all
Methodists, is the name. • . ; \ry.

133

On the account of the mere n ime Methodists freqnent-
.y unblushingly exclude each other from their fellowship.
These names Episcopal, Wesleyan, New Connexion,
Primitive, and Bible Christian, have embalmed, perpe-
tuated, and stereotyped divisions. And all unauthorized
by God's word though made sacred by his people. Now
drop these distinctions all off, and retain the term Me-
thodist, and ail could come together ; add them on again
and each denomination becomes like a fortress bristling
with weapons which must be defended, and they are so
multiplied in Canada that they resemble petty clustering
principalities, hindrances to the traveller on the King's
highway, where he must shew his passport at every step or
be turned back on his journey and become obstacles to
growth, consolidation and prosperity.

Again we will find more of the spirit we have been
describing ariiong ministers, than among the laity ; we
blush to acknowledge that the sin of these deplorable
divisions must be set to the account of those who are
commissioned to preach that Christ prayed, " That they
may be one, even as we are one, I in them and thou in
roe ; that they may be mr.de perfect in one, and that
the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast
loved them, as thou hast loved me." Too many minis-
ters love to dwell upon controverted points, and shew
their skill in demolishing a man of straw they have set
up to represent some monstrous evil which they have dis-
covered in some sister Church. And self-seeking has
more to do with their course than the love they bear
either to Christ or his people.

The people look at all these matters in a more charita-
ble light. They wonder at the sharpness of ministerial
disputes : they find members of other denominations en-
joying and exhibiting true piety, and regardless of the
warnings and expostulations of their respective sectarian
preachers, they cannot refrain from fraternizing with
them. Let a revival of religion take place in any city,
town, or country place, and we will soon have untnis-

r'^'^'^^^^mmmmmmmmmmmm

134

takeable evidence that the masses could easily be brought
into a loving union if the preachers would let them.
The truth is they cannot be kept apart, for when the heart
is right division is regarded as the worst of heresy, and
every man who loves God loves his brother also. But
back-slidden polemics are the last to consent to bring
back the King in peace to undivided rule.

With the following from the pen of a presbyter of the
Episcopal Church, United States, we will close this
chapter.

" The seeming hopelessness of a union is another ob-
stacle in our way, scarcely a Christian can be found but
will say we ought to unite, and that it is exceedingly
desirable to do so, but the greater paTt will add, it is
hopeless to dream of such a thing. We have no right to
speak thus. Is the union desirable? Will God bless
the effort to bring it about ? Are our divisions sinful ?
Would Jesus Christ, if He were now to come among us
command us all to be one ? Would Paul repeat his ear-
nest remonstrances against schisms. What is right ?
What is the will of God ?

These are the questions we are to ask, atid if it is cleat*
that God wills us to be one, then if a great deep were
before us we are to go forward and attempt to cross it,
and it would open ; if a mountain were in our way, faith
would cast it into the sea or make it become a plain.
Better to break the broken limbs again, and set them to-
gether aright, especially when we have so great a physi-
cian 16 bless the operation with his oversight and skill,
than to hobble on in this crippled way for evet. The at-
tempt has never yet been fairly and fully made. There
has never yet been a general congress for peace in ihe
Church. Partial efforts have indeed been put forth, and
treaties formed, which were ndt based upon any real
unity, but never have we bad a representation from all
Protestant Churches convened to seek for some plaii of
mutual agreement. Shall the sWoid devour for ever.
We want a deeper conviction of the sin and evils of dlvi-

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135

sions. We must give up laying the flaflerinj? unction io
our souls, that oneness ol' spirit is all the unity God de-
mands or that we can attain unto; that our divisions are
overruled for good and on the whole necessary. Read
all that God's word says on schisms on loving as brethren
on divisions and unity, and God's mind will so plainly ap-
pear, that we will not dare to palliate the evil. We have
days of fasting and prayer for the conversion of the world
— we need them far more for conversion to one another.
Were our efforts for union to be preceded and attended
by days of general humiliation fasting and prayer through-
out all the Churches, when we should abase ourselves
before God for our dissensions and ask him to forgive,
there would be hope. Oh that some men of peace in the
various branches of Christ's Church would move upon
the people to keep such days until the answer of prayer
was given."

■ '. I*.

i.r

•«■ 4

J 4 -.t. ,

n\ I

CHAPTER Vll.

HOW A UNION CAN BE CONSUMMATED.

The conjectures and philosophy of polemics regard a
complete union of all the Methodist Societies as imprac-
ticable and hopeless, and in the language of one minister
it never will take place while the world stands. There
is, however, in their theology, more of their own wisdom
and inferential reasoning than the word of God. Because
ihey cannot devise any scheme to suit their own minds
they despair of its being brought about. But we feel
that it is belter to have faith in God and his word, than
to have faith in their logic. God*s word is truth, but
man's inferences from circumstances may be very falla-
cious. True, we may infer the probability of what will
be from a knowledge of what is or has been. '* The
thing " says the wise man, •' which has been is the thing
which will be." But Jehovah often accomplishes things
unknown in the annals of eternity. He has never con-
sulted human wisdom in the arrangement of either natu-
ral or moral causes. We know some of the effects of
causes. But how do we know them ; by reasoning or
anticipating how they should be done ? No, we have
seen the operation, and we may conjecture that the same
cause would produce the same effect under another set
of like circumstances. And human wisdom can no
more deny that the religion of Jesus Christ, which pro-
duces a union between a few Methodist classes, will
work a universal union, than it can deny that the same
force which makes an apple fall holds the universe
together.

137

same
jr set
in no
pro-
wiU
same
iverse

i Our God has transcended the wisdom of man in the
constitution of the material universe, and (equally so in
the constitution of society. Man's depraved prejudices
preferences, and impressions, are sure to produce a logic
contrary to the scriptures and the will of God. Every
cosmogony but that of Moses has proved to be fallacious ;
man has ever made egregious blunders in describing how
things must be done by the Almighty ; but when Lord
Bacon, who was regarded by his contemporaries as an
infernal being, and is now looked back upon as a su-
pernal one, arose to disenthrall the human mind, he
shewed that, except in the department of abstract truth,
as in mathematics, evidence, not intuition, must be our
guide. Human reason, without any testimony from God,
is palpable ignorance in regard to how God ought to
or did make a universe, or how he should or does govern
it. If the human reason is so far short of the truth in
relation to material causes, why shall we trust it against
the testimony of scripture in the highest departments of
truth. The Bible presents a truly Catholic Religion as the
greatest blessing heaven can bestow upon our race ; Pa-
ganismitself, once the common Religion of mankind, justly
received the merit of being the great pacificator among
the nations of the earth. Christianity, besides the light
it sheds upon the present and future destinies of the soul,
is designed by God to strengthen the cords that bind man
to man in love and peace. Dr. Chalmers, speaking of
the doctrines of the Bible, denominated it, a '' prophecy
of a peace as universal as the spread of the human race,
and as enduring as the moon in the firmament, will meet
its accomplishment ; but it will be brought about by the
activity of men. It will be done by the philanthropy of
thinking and intelligent Christians. The subject will be
brought to the, lest of Christian principle, and will unite
to spread a growing sense of the follies and enormities
of war over the countries of the world, and the public
will be enlightened by the mild dissemination of gospel
sentiment through the land, and the prophecy contained

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138

in this book will pass into ofTect and accomplishment by
no other in/lunnoe than the influence of its ordinary les-
sons on the hearts and consciences of individuals ; and
the nieasurc will first be carried in one country by the
control ot general opinion, and the sacred fire of good
will to the children of men will spread itself through all
climes and through all latitudes — and thus by scriptural
truth, conveyed with power from one people to another,
and taking its ample spread amongst all the tribes and fa-
milies of the earth, shall w^e arrive at the magnificent re-
sult of peace throughout all its provinces and security in
all its dwelling places."

And this Christianity would have done long before this
day had not ambitious and wicked men perverted it from
its natural tendency. The excellencies of its doctrines,
its precepts, and examples has a tendency to make men
virtuous, charitable, and peaceful, ^11 are addressed to our
hearls to win them to these purposes. But as the religion
of Christ was not intended to work upon men by force,
but by moral suasion, which sets good and evil before
them, so that if they wickedly abuse the power of choice
in practising evil, the natural effects of that abuse can-
not be avoided. As the detestable results of their ambi-
tion and wickedness the head has been substituted for
the heart. What men agree to believe seems to these to
be of more importance than loving as brethren. This
disposition established the laws of heresy in the old Ro-
man Church. It was this that constructed the wrecks
and gibbets of the middle ages ; it was this that reared
the horrible inquisition, and buried alive its thousands
in the darkness of that Martyr's Sepulchre — freedom's
tomb. It was this that unsheathed the sword of St. Bar-
tholomew, and deluged the fields of France with Chris-
tian blood. This lighted the fires of Constance, and
Smithfield, and consumed to ashes the bodies of the true
saints in the flames of the auto-da-fe. This has followed
the footsteps of every sincere Reformer ; shut against
him the temples of the living God ; roused the b^ood-

le true
lowed
gainst
Wood-

139

hounds of human wrath, and has set them on his track ;
and hunted him through the world as the most ravenous
of beasts. Protestantism itself is now whole centuries
farther back than it would have been had this wicked,
narrow and most hateful of all heresies, never seen the
light." How absurd to withdraw from the fellowship of
true Christians and send them as incorrigible sceptics
loaded with anathemas down to the regions of despair,
merely because we disagree on some tenet of little weight.
But we expect to recover the true Catholicity of our
common faith through the assistance of divine grace.
The liberal spirits of this age, men of sound learning,
large views, and deep piety, we believe are ready to aid
in obliterating the denominational lines which have so
long divided the Church. And when we look back to
the Reformation of the sixteenth century or to the Wes-
leyan Reformation and see what the people of God have
wrought under the Divine blessing, we should courage-
ously go to work and patiently toil until it be accom-
plished.

It is now quite natural to ask the questions, if such a
union is consummated, by what means will it be effected
and who can most effectually promote it ? We will an-
swer the last of these questions first. And doubtless
many are ready to say that a pious, faithful, and intelli-
gent ministry can most speedily and efTectually bring
about a union. This is undoubtedly correct; the gospel
ministry is a divine institution, and should have the
glory of God, and the peace of the Church for its general
object. The nature of the duty which it devolves is
zealously, affeotionately, and constantly to spread a
knowledge of the revealed will of God. The first quali-
fication for this high and holy office is a religion of love,
free from party spirit and respect of persons, that they
may feed the whole flock of God as a good shepherd.
Such a religion would lead the ministry to avoid occasions
of division, to heal them when they occur, and cultivate
a spirit of lore and peace, it being good and pleasant for

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140

brelhren to dwell together in unity. But it is to be la-
mented that some ministers have often given way to
superstition and wild disorder, and instead of manifesting
this amiable spirit of piety, brotherly love, and careful-
ness to preserve the body in the beauty and order of the
gospel, have been the first to produce controversies,
rivalries, and divisions, and will be found to be the last
to advocate a reconciliation. True they will manifest a
willingness to agree, to disagree and force intercourse,
hypocritical hollow truces, patched up treaties of peace,
Christian alliances, and exchange of pulpits, where there
is no real and substantial agreement, where all retain
their distinctions, and the evil be not ended but rather
increased ; but a real and substantial agreement which
will end all distinctions that made them the Paul or
ApoUos of their party they will rigidly oppose.

There is however another class of society to which we
look with confidence, this is the membership. The en-
tire superstructure of the Church is based upon it. It
is a false fiction that rulers, either in church or 3tate, sup-
port their subjects. The reverse is the truth. In a mon-
archy power does not come from the King and proceed
downward. The Emperor, however despotic, derives
his authority from his subjects. And it is only because
they allow him to be, that he isa tyrant. Kings and
rulers only represent in one capacity, the embodied will
of the millions ; they do but very little in shaping either
their own or the destinies of their people. But go to the
towns, villages, and hamlei.', and learn who edit the
periodicals, instruct the youth, harangue the masses, and
create the public sentimeilt of the empire. So in Church-
es, the Ministers do not bear the members but the reverse.
And when the Church becomes corrupt and desperate,
the members must produce useful revolutions. " Society "
says a certain writer, " is a grand pyramid. The so call-
ed lower Orders, the toiling millions, are at the bottom,
the chief spirit, whether King, prince, or president, or it
may be some orator, author, or transcendent scholar, at

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141

the top. Botvvfien theso are tho various intermodialc
sections into which mankind has been divided ; each su-
perior is supported by its next inferior, and all by the
broad and powerful base. Now, if this splendid struc-
ture, this pyramid of men, gets ruinous, falls down, and
requires rebuilding, what is the natural method to be pur
sued in doing it? Shall we begin with the apex, trusting
to that to carry the work of reconstruction downward ?
Does the apex support or is it only supported ? Or if we
wish to build one with new materials what is the me-
thod? Do we no* begin at the bottom? What architect
what philosopher — rather, what child, would give us any
other answer ? And this is not a law of art, but of ne-
cessity, of nature. No superior portion can have support,
consequently existence, tdl all below it is properly built
up. All motion, all labour, all improvement, is from
lower to the higher." Hence we find, turning to what-
ever point \V3 may, that society is shaped, directed, and
supplied by the common people. When they speak min-
isters and princes must obey. It is because they give the
consent of silence that these divisions exist, sound rea-
soning, therefore, designates the membership, as the class
ijvho can restore the peace of the Church. All they have
to do is to say, we will no longer maintain divisions
therefore let there be peace or we will stop the supplies,
and there will be peace. There are few ministers who are
sufficiently audacious as to advocate and perpetuate sec-
tarianism in the face of a decidedly peaceable people.
Again the membership will more readily give up these
points of difference, though highly valued, which are not
conscientiously held as of Divide obligation than the
ministry. They are not so accustomed to teach without
opposition, and can bear contradiction more easily than
those ministers can who have so long shewed their skill
in controversy. And further they have no official ho-
nours to guard or pecuniary advantages to protect. It
will therefore be comparatively more easy to bring the
membership to take measures for a union, than many of
the clergy.

142

We como now to notice tli(j measures to bo taken to
accomplish tho design. Past efforts have been in a great
degree failures, because they were partial, reaching only
to a courteous recofjnition of each other, an occasional
meelinj,' on some common plailbrm, but this did not comfi
up to the gospel requirement, it did not reach the root of
the evil or draw down the blessing; of God. He could
not be deceived; and he saw no real reconciliation in
his family ; but a standing right where they were. But
it is necessary for Christians to form such a combination
that there will be no rival standard in the field, an alli-
ance offensive and defensive against a common enemy
and every minister the minister of tlie whole body, sup-
ported as freely by one as another. Then there will be
no pariicular object for ministers to retain their distinc-
tions. In order to form such an alliance it is necessary
to remember that whoever, with the heart, believes unto
righteousness, is that moment fully and completely con-
stituted a child of God, through the renewing iniluence
of the Holy Spirit; and at the same moment he is fully
and completely incorporated into the Body of Christ, the
Church of the living God. Hence all true Christians,
are one with one another, members of the same body,
irrespective of minor opinions. We cannot expect whil«
men's minds preserve their individuality and liberty, that
they should think alike upon all points, and it is neither
necessary or desirable. Having one Lord — Jesus Christ ;
one faith — belief in his atoning merits; one baptism —
that of the Holy Spirit, Christians should exercise
charity and forbearance in relation to mere opinions.
An alliance of some kind is absolutely necessary for mu-
tual recognition and assistance of the friends of such
union. There has never been any great work done by
community without organization. All efforts must prove
like a rope of sand without it. What would the Tem-
perance Society have accomplished had the friends of
temperance never organized. All human transactions
between man and man require some mutual recognition

113

and coiifirrnalion, iind would he foundulionlcss williDUt
il. lltncc, if ever a union between the various Mellio-
(iist Societies is efl'ecteil, it is very important that the
Iriends of .such union unite together by nonie common
bond of brotherhood, wliieh will prevent further division
and at the same time contribute to heal those now in ex-
islence.

JJut who will invent the scheme or lay the plalfwrm
on which all Methodists can cordially unite. The dis-
coverer of a plan that will bj adopted by all, will merit
greater honour than Columbus, who discovered a new
world. But probably, as in all great inventions, pro-
gressive steps and hints from various quarters, will work
out the tlifiicult problem. Thus does God humble the
greedy ambition of man by making great discoveries, the
providential leadings of many minds, and lucky accidentH
rather than the wisdom of individuals. Being a firm
believer in the above sentiment the writer more readily
presents the followin<^ plan for the accomplishmeiu of the
great design. And although he flatters himself with the
conviction that it will be a commencement, yet he does
not elevate it to the standard of perlection or of all that
may be necess;ary ; but rather " as the drift wood from a
distant, happy land, pointing some thoughtful observer,
as he looks wistfully over the dark waters of strife, to
the existence of such a world, once known, perhaps, in
old traditions, long lost sight of, but destined to be reach-
ed, and prompting him to seek a pathway to its shores."

Let companies be formed in every neighbourhood, who
will unite together weekly in earnest lervent prayer to Al-
mighty God to hasten the peace of the Church ; also let
there be county and provincial conventions held under the
following or some other regulations, viz. : Inasmuch as the
Methodist Church in Canada, which should be one, is
now divided into various incorporations, without any im-
portant differences, either doctrinal or practical, and a
union into one body is indispensably essential to the in-
terest of the cause of God, and inasmuch as a solemn

h&t!mnm:ii!SXis&:i\ ;;^u:]!l«S«a^iC

ttia<aaaueiiii'»='r>4i

conviction of duty urges to united action, we, whose
names are hereunto annexed form ourselves into a lea-
gue, known as the Canadian Methodist Alliance, adopt-
ing the following as the present Articles of our constitu-
tion and agreement. •• .'. • . ...

1st. That all converted or regenerated men and women
who will subscribe to these articles of union, or such
other articles as may be legally hereafter provided, shall
form this Methodist alliance. ^ '• •

2nd. That this alliance shall be divided into compa-
nies as their places of residence shall dictate. One of
each company shall be elected by the company as dele-
gate to a county convention, whose duty it shall be to call
his company together weekly for mutual earnest prayer
to Almighty God for his blessing on their efforts for the
peace of the Church. ' . *

• 3rd. That there shall be quarterly conventions held in
each county composed of the delegates elected by the
several companies and all the Methodist Ministers sta-
tioned in the County who may please to attend. '

4th. There shall be a semi-annual provincial conven-
tion held, to be composed of one delegate from each
county, and forty ministers of the Wesleyan Conference,
and twenty ministers of the Episcopal Conference, ten
ministers of the Methodist New Connexion Conference,
ten ministers of the Primitive Conference, and five of the'
Bible Christian Conference, if such ministers please to
attend, they being appointed by their respective Confer-
ences or otherwise.

5th. That the object of this alliance in all its meetings
and conventions shall be : 1st, To produce increase and
preserve brotherly love and friendly intercourse between
the various Methodist denominations ; 2nd, To promote
by united exertion a complete union of all the various
Methodist Societies into one body, and to discountenance
schisms in community ; 3rd, To instruct the youth in the
evils of Church divisions.

(ith. In order to carry out more fully the third particu-

■3

■>*^WIW«**'

145

Jar of oui object, the alliance pledges' itself to connte-
nance and support Union Sabbath Schools, as far as
possible.

7th. That the objects of this Alliance, as set forth in
this constitution, being fundamental principles of this
league, the power of altering the constitution in this res-
pect is hereby renounced. But in other respects an)*
changes in the constitution may be made by any of the
semi-annual conventions.

We advocate mutual prayer for Methodist union, for
many reasons. A few only will our limits allo.v us to
notice. First, it will make Christians honest in their
pretensions to peace. Church divisions, if fairly consi-
dered, have in no ages arisen so much from want of liirht
as a want of disposition, to follow the light which God
has imparted. The law of love written in the hearts of
the truly converted, is clear and expressive enough to
properly direct Christians to bo one, and avoid schism ;
did they not suffer their passions more forcibly to direct
them otherwise. But when they come to hold commu-
nion with that God who has commanded them to suppli-
cate blessings upon their enemies and taught ihera to
pray to he forgiven as they forgive, they become honest
in their desires for peace with their fellow men. When
we are exercised in prayer for fellow Cln-istians, our
affections and sympathies become very tender towards
them and we not only pant for a closer union with them
on earth but also a reunion with them in heaven. Assu-
redly an exercise which cements the affections, assuages.
the passions, purifies the motives and imparts a snnctity
to our efforts is worthy of the interest attached to it by
the Apostle, who " exhorts therefore that first of all, sup-
plications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks,
be made for all men, that they may lead a quiet and
peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.''

Again, Christians should be like their Lord in manners,
dispositions, and mind ; and when we look at the exam-
ple of meekness he set, who had every opportunity to es-

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■f».«4i**%*Wi- ' iTil »#

146

lablis«h a worldly character of superior graatness and
power, being free from all ambition for vain glory, he
declined worldly praise and honours which occasions in-
vited him to, and in the only instances of public honours
he permitted, that the scriptures might be fulfilled, in the
Hosannahs of the multitude as their King entered Jeru-
salem, he manifested humility, meekly receiving tiiose
honours silting upon an ass.

In his humble choice of f.imily and friends and his
conduct among them, rather as a servant than a master,
even washing the feet of his disciples, he learns his peo-
ple to be meek and lowly of heart, for he was meek and
lowly. And further, that life in which he manifested
constant humility was ended by his humbly submitting
himself to the death of the cross, the death of a malefac-
tor — dragged to Calvary without opposition or complaint,
"as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep dumb before
his shearers, he opened not his mouth," from which we
learn to lay dow^n our lives for our brethren, rather than
to separate from them. The will of Jesus Christ in rela-
tion to the oneness of his people is plainly expressed in
hrs prayer, " Neither pray I for these alone, but for them
also wiiich shall believe on me through iheir word ; that
they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in ma, and I in
Thee, that ihey also may be one in us, that the world
may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory
which thou gavest me I have given them, that they
may be one, even as we are one, I in them and
thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one,
and tiiat the world may know that thou hast sent
me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me." Now
it is the experience of every Christian that nothing
more cultivates a meek and humble spirit, and keeps
down pride, than fervent, effectual, and energized prayer
considered only in its philosophical influence on oursel-
ves. And farther sympathy with Christ, in his prayer
that his people may be one, nowhere gains on the heart
as in earnest pleading and supplication for its final ac-
com|)lishnient.

147

We are in favour of conventions ; first, because ihey
would be composed of Ihe truly liberal of all denomina-
tions who are actuated by a spirit of universal and im-
partial benevolence, and who by associaticn would be-
come mutually attached to each other. Hence it would
become more easy for them to make those sacrifices of
feeling: so necessary to be made if all come together ;'
secondly, being designed for the union of all they would
become the great centre of Catholic feeling.

The more our acquaintance extends with men of this
character the less our prejudices become ; in proportion
as we associate with our fellow Christians, our hearts
enlarge, our obligations increase towards them, and we
learn to respect their opinions ; secondly, conventions
for the purposes specified would afford an opportunity
for a mutual exchange of thought and feeling, which
woulc ; *lrce unanimity, harmony, and mutual confi-
dence, j ji i Dm that satire and raillery so common in
theological discussions, by which sectarianism is devel-
oped and made strong ; thirdly, an incomparable influ-
ence would be exerted by an association of men of
strong sense, deep piety, and Catholic spirit, against that
brainless, heartless monster, sectarianism, which is be-
gotten of ignorance and pride.

Again, we are in favour of Sabbath-schools, because
it is on the rising generation that the Church depends for
its future glory and stability ; and it becomes our duly
to carefully instruct the young in the relation they hold
to Christ and His people and its consequent duties and
obligations. God made 't the imperious duty of the
Israelites to instruct their children into the nature and de-
sign of the obligations of their institutions as a peculiar
people. *' Thou shall teach them diligently to thy chil- .
dren, and talk of them when thou sittest in thy house,
and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest
down, and when thou risest up."

We advocate union schools because the adopting a
denominational name would either exclude many from

WPipiipiPfppiiii

14g

the school or awaken among parents of different faith,
suspicion of proselytism. It is natural to suppose that
the teacher of a denominational school would draw his
scholars with him to his own Church. Then will come
rumours, evil surmisings, back-bitings, whisperings,
tumults, and perverse disputings, to the injury of the
school and Church. But let a union school be establish-
ed, in which the cardinal doctrines of the Bible are taught,
and in these all agree, and sectarianism there must die.
It cannot live in the light of the gospel, which proclaims
a law of love. A union school is organized for the be-
nefit of all who choose to avail themselves of it, and
without requiring a conformity to anything more than is
reasonable for its proper government ; it seeks the wel-
fare of all and awakens in the minds of the children no'
prejudices against the religion of their parents ; it dis-*
countenances proselytism, sectarianism, and bigotry, and
establishes that Catholicity which will not limit its use-
fulness to the narrow bounds of anv one Church, but
gives an invitation that all denominations can accept
with confidence, and secures to the school a permenancy
which no denominational name can give. And here let
it be observed, that where children associate together
from Sabbath to Sabbath under the pure example of
liberality, and fervent, earnest prayer for the peace of the .
Church, and daily study the life of Jesus, whose spirit
and conduct, whose parables and prayers, and death of
agony all speak through and through universal and im-
partial love, it is impossible for them to become theore-
tically or practically sectarianists, and retain their own
self-respect.

To elevate and exhibit all the good that can be produ-
ced and cherished favourable to union in the Sabbath
school would require a more comprehensive m in than
I possess.

Then let us go to work like Christians, in one of the
most surprisingly great and grand enterprises which ever
filled mortal hands. And the blessings we will confer

ililti'iPiTXliiHrMt-ffi*^

149

on our race and the Church will perhaps never be known
until the books that contain the records of the worlds his-
tory are read in the light of the judgment fires, while
earth, heaven and hell listen.

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CHAPTER, VIIL

MOTIVES TO UOTOX.

We pvocaed now to ])resv^nt a icw motives to union,
for the fjpecial consi'leralion of Christians ; but few
others we prcsame, will be sufficiently interested to give
this subject atti^ntion. Others rnay read this work and
carelessly throw it aside, with a passing remark, either in
favour or against our object, but will not deeply feel its
!ropo*(.\nc? The trt^'^ Christian however, will punjrently
feel the importance of Methodist union; the more pun-
gently in proportion as he feels interested in the advance-
ment of the Redeemer's Kingdom on earth.

Various are the topics which this subject suggests.
Motives which should influence the various Methodist
denominations to be one, we find on every hand. What
is unholy society on earth but a fearful development of
the mournful degeneracy of our race ; breaking forth in
envy, distrust, personal and social rivalries, tyranny,
wars and bloodshed ? What are the scriptures but a
continual sermon against strife, discord, schism, and divi-
sions? What should the Church be but an exhibition of
peace, harmony, and unity among brethren, resulting
from faith in a common Father ? What will the judg-
ment be but an awful disclosure of the evils of discord?
What will hell be but the fearful abodes of the conten-
tious ? What will heaven be but the constant home of
peace and harmony ? In short, the voices which come
from within and without, from above and beneath, from
time and eternity, from heaven and hell, admonish breth-
ren to live together in unity.

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In further consideration of this subject it is proprr for
us to drop these general remnrks and bring to the notice
of the reader some particular motives of practical im-
port nnce.

1st, The sinfulness of the causes of these divisions is
an argument in favour of healing them.

There arc now in the world two kinds of Christianity,
the one dogmatical, the other evangelical.

Gospel Christianity is the reception of the life of God
in the soul by the " renewing of the Holy Ghost : which
he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Sa-
viour.'* And the believer who is "fill-d with the Spirit "
becomes God-like, having a transfusion of the mind of
Christ into his mind, from which spring love, joy, long-
Buffering, gentleness, goodness, and that clrarity which
covers a multitude of faults. Dr. Cumnniings represents
the christian as acting " the part of the painter who was
called on to paint Alexander the Great. Alexander had
a scar upon his forehead which he had received in the
course of his Macedonian battles, and the painter was
perplexed to find a way by which to escape shewing this
deformity. At last he hit upon the happy expedient of
representing the Monarch, sitting in his chair, his head
leaning upon his right arm, and the forefinger covering
the scar upon his brow."

Dogmatical Christianity has its origin in the very
worst passions of men. Because some carnal ministers,
instead of being the humble agents, under God, in the
conversion of sinners, prostrated their energies to ad-
vance the selfish interests of scheming politicians ; or
because some worldly ministers, who sought their own
honour or gain, failed in the accomplishment of their
designs while connected with the Church, for the purpose
of success in their darling schemes, separated from the
Church and framed new dogmas, true ministers of God's
word have allowed themselves to be divided. The ten-
dency to division and strife in the Corinthian Churches,
proceeded according to the Bible, from carnality. So the

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present existing divisions and strife* proceed from carnal-
ity. And inasnnuch as to be carnally minded is death,
our divisions will be attended with death and ruin, un-
less we, under ihe influence of the spirit, become so
spiritually-minded as to live in love and peace. Then,
in view of the sinful causes of our divisions, let us yield
an obedience to the will of God, live in peace on earth
ihat we muy not be filled with sorrow and vain regrets
through eternity.

2nd, We urge as a motive, the value of union to so-
ciety. No truly Christianized mind can read the history
of either churches or nations, but must mourn the absence
of that bond of brotherhood, which should bind man to
man. Man as a selfish being is antagonistical to God
and his neighbour ; seeking his own and not the things
which are Christ's or his neighbours. The Rev. Tobias
Spicer remarks : *' Sin has entered into our world, and
death by sin. Every man has turned his hand against
his brother. This world is a slaughter-house, literally
an Aceldama, a field of blood. And why is this ? Be-
cause men have forgotten that God is their Father, and
that they are all brethren. If all would strive 'to dwell
together in unity,' the state of society would be wonder-
fully changed : tyranny and oppression would entirely
cease, and the oppressed would go free, flnurders, robber-
ries, and tL fts would be known no more, and men would
enjoy their lives and property without molestation ; dis-
honesty and fraud of every kind would cease through all
the wide family of man. Then would prisons and
houses of correction, with which our, world abounds, be
needed no more ; instruments of warfare would be con-
verted into implements of agriculture and husbandry,
and the ancient prophecy would be fulfilled, — * The wolf
shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down
with the kid ; they shall not hurt or destroy in all my
holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the know-
ledge of the Lord.' Oh, blessed state of society, how
much to be desired ! when will it be realized in all its

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glory ? — When all men shall be regulated by ihe pure
precepts of the gospel ! Then shall brethren dwell to-
geiher in unity" ; ' ,» ; • . -•

One of the principles in the organization of civil or
religious society is a spirit of independance which es-
tablishes personal interests, consequently there are fre-
quent collisions. Nations, blinded by passion, dashing
against nations, man against man, and sect against sect ;
producing a series of sorrows and crimes arising out of
national ambition, personal interest, and priestly pride.
But Christianity in the fulfilment of its benevolent pur-
poses will put an end to this state of things. And its
work on earth is not finally accomplished as long as strife
exists. " The most prominent feature," says the above
quoted author, " of the Christian religion is love, uni-
versal love to God and man. When the Apostle had
enumerated several Christian graces, he introduces cha-
rity, which is but another name for love, and although
these Christian graces were excellencies not to be found
in any other religion under the sun ; yet he says, * The
greatest of these is charity ' for ' charity never faileth.'
In the early ages of Christianity, Christians were remark-
able for * dwelling together in unity,' insomuch that their
enemies wfere constrained to say, * See how these Chris-
tians love.' "

Church institutions, which are closely connected with
the fulfilment of the purposes of the religion of Christ,
should have for their everlasting basis universal benevo-
lence, which would cause a cessation of personal and
soci&l rivalries. And when persons and societies be at
peace, nations would be at peace also. The same Di-
vine law which secures the one, would bring about ihe
other. When social strife ceases, the occasion for nation-
al strife no longer exists, for the God of individuals, and
social institutions, and Church unions, is the God of na-
tions. We attach value to wealth, learning, good name,
happiness. It is well. These are all desirable ; but how
less than dust in the ballance are they compared with

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iove and pence. Better is a dinner of herbs where love
is, than a stalled ox, and hatred therewith. It is these
which spread Joy all over the celestial regions, and
awakens the song of heaven. If this be so, we are cor-
rect when we say, that the value of union to society
should be a powerful motive to influence us to labour to
brins it about. *• - .;i(

3rd, The honour of God requires it.

If we analyze this subject closely, we will find, that
when there is a union of man with God, there is a union
with all who are united to God, God in all, and all in
God; the Father in Christ, and Christ in those who are
begotten of him ; mutually bound together and living in
each other ; no more separated in fact, or capable of
being separated from each other, than the rays of the
light are separated, or capable of being separated from
the natural sun. God created man at the first, in his
own image, and although man lost that image, yet,
through the mediatorial agency of Christ that image
can be restored. The Saviour in speaking of himself, re-
marks: "1 and my Father are one," and praying for his
people, says : *' That they all may be one ; as thou, Father^
art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us,
that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." And
St. Paul, speaking of the religion of Jesus, describes
it as being, Christ in us the hope of glory. Hence we
see that the religion of Christ reproduces the divine image
in the human soul; and the Christians life should be as
God's life inhumanity. God, therefore, is honoured by the
peaceable life of his people ; and to promote his honour
should beour highest ambition. God is jealous of his ho-
nour. When the Israelites sinned in the wilderness, he said,
'1 would scatter them into corners, I would make the re-
membrance of them cease from among men, were it not
that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversa-
ries should behave themselves strangely I wrought for my
name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the hea-
then." God was so jealous of his honour that he would

155

bear with the insult of that people rather than the hea-
then should say, *• The Lord is not able to carry his peo-
pie through." How carefully then should Christians be
in their conduct toward each other/v\ hen his honour is at
stake. When Christians live in peace and are united,
they give to the world unmistakeable evidence of the
Divinity of their religion. ** By this '' says Jesus, •* shall
all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one
another, and by this we know that we have passed from
death unto life, because we love the brethren." Whrn
Christians, who should set forth dclighttul views of the
Divine perfections, indulge in hatred, variance, wrath,
and strife, they commit a fraud on the universe, and bo-
come living libels on the moral character of God. We
argue, therefore, that the honour of God demands a
union.

4th, The interest of the cause of Christ requires.

** What is the chief end of man ? '* enquires a certain
catechism, and answers, ** to glorify God and enjoy him
for ever. But how can we glorify Ggd without entire
conformity to his will ; and while Christians are divided
the Saviour's prayer has not been fulfilled. There is still
something more necessary ; and that defect not only dis-
honours God, but prevents us, who are styled the lights
of the world, bringing our fellows to Christ. The world
in this day has too sharp an ey^^o be deceived ; they will
take knowledge of us and then draw their conclusions.
They understand that " the wisdom that is from above,
is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreat-
ed, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and
without hypocrisy; and the fruit of righteousness is
sown in pecae of them that make peace ; and it is no
marvel that when they find among us division and strife,
that they conclude that we are devoid of the spirit of
Christ, and " earthly, sensual, devilish, for where envy-
ing and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work,
Jas. iii., 16, 17. And when we come to Icok at the cir-
cumstances which surround us, and the opportunities we

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are favoured with to draw many after us, to brighten our
crown of rejoicing for ever ; we say, let there be peace.
They that are wise, shall shine as the firmament, and
they that turn many to righteoueness for ever and ever.
We in our divided state may do something; but infinitely
greater will be our efficiency if we are united as a mighty
phalanx against the common enemy. But we come more
closely to look at our advantages and opportunities of
doing good ; and we believe that since the creation there
were never more favourable circumstances ofTered to any
people than is this moment presented to the Canadian
Methodist.

A great harvest is ripe, waving with world-wide ex-
panse, demanding sturdy reapers, men who will abandon
self, and with quenchless love make universal eiTort for
the salvation of men. With propriety we can adopt the
language of a certain writer of the United States, and
say, God is sending the old world by millions to our
Sjhores. , In one of our valleys alone we could victual the
whole population of the earth, and God only knows how
soon we shall have to do it ; hither come the rich to in-
vest capital ; the poor to seek bread ; the wise to impart
knowledge ; the silly, they scarce know why ; the timid,
to escape revolution: the bold, to seek adventures.
Whence do they come ? From all the earth, but chiefly
ftrom the dominions of Romanism. Welcome, thrice
welcome ; they come to seek refuge — mf^y they find sal-
vation ! But that they may, we must bestir ourselves ;
we must send ministers by thousands through the valleys
of the West ; we must station them by hundreds on the
mountain tops, in the wilderness, and along the shores
of the Pacific, This we owe to ourselves, to Jesus
Christ, to perishing souls. , ,; . . ..-. . .t ...r

Egypt, Persia, Turkey, and the Islands of the sea,
are taking their stand among civilized nations, are oflTer-
ing inviting fields of Christian labour. India is whiten-
ing to the harvest of salvation. China has relaxed her
unsocial exclusiveness, and opened her paths to the foot-

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157

step of the evangelist. Africa, so long known only to
geography, is accessible at both her extremities and along
the eastern and western borders. The mountains of Asia,
the valleys of the Nile, the Niger, the Senegal, and the
Gambia, the snowy peaks of Greenland, and the volcanic
summits of intertropical regions cry out to us for help.
Ten thousand missionaries would not satisfv the demand
of the present hour. What shall we do ? " Pray ye the
Lord of the harvest, that he would send forih labourers
into his harvest." And while we pray let us act consis-
tent with our prayer, and not wasle our energies and neu-
tralize oi^r eflbrts, by labouring lo establish conflicting
interests. Better be ciphers in the world than .o strike
the friends of G(,d. Oh, that we could see and feel vue
mighty work w^hich is to be done and done at once, be-
fore the opportunity rushes past, and make that combined
eflbrt which becomes the sons and daughters of the Most
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5th. Not only does the honour of God and the interest
of his cause demand a union ; but in the Bible his au-
thority commands it. And when God speaks let heaven
and earth stand in awe. He has established harmony in
the kingdom of nature, and equally so in the dispensa-
tions of his grace in the salvation of men ; and therefore
be commands his people to be one ; and who ever resis-
ted his commands and prospered. And now dear reader
look again through this work and review ali ih? quota-
tions from the Bible against divisions and in favour of
union, and do not hastily throw them aside ; or go to
the Bible for yourself, and do not treat it with contempt,
but feel that it is God speaking to you, and when he com-
mands his people to be one, will you refuse ? Settle that
question with the eye of God full upon your soul, and
see that you refuse not him that speaketh from heaven ;
and when he says, *• Let brotherly love continue " and,
" Let there he no divisions among you," will you stick
for sectarian peculiarities, and dogmatically draw deno-
minational lines between those who reflect your Father's

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158

imaLre, who possesses a family likeness; rather by your
influence and prayers, drive away the demon of discord
which has so long crippled our efforts, and let us unitedly
hasten the answer of the Redeemer's dyiiij; prayer, that
a brighter Hay mHy dawn on the Christian Church.

6ih. We urge as a motive to Methodist Union, that
life will soon be over, and then bigotry and sectarian jea-
lousy will be at an end, and all Christians will dwell to-
gether in perfect harmony in the Kingdom of heaven.
And when we weigh our dogmas, which are the subjects
of our warmest contentions, in the ballances of eternity,
how trifling they appear; and everything beneath the
sun is transient,* like shadows they vanish, "the fading
glories disappear, the short-lived beauties die away.
But from these fleeting scenes we will awake to things
more real and substantial. And we are on the very con-
fines of Eternity ; soon we shall be its incumbents.
There is but a step between us and death, *' From whose
bourne no traveller returns." But what is beyond?
Would you live without union with your brethren here;
you cannot there. There all Christians in the presence
of Christ and the holy angels, unite in a great multitude
which no man can nun. her; gathered from the East and
West; from the North and ^>outh ; and dwell in unity be-
fore the thr«)ne, and brightening under the smile of Godi
mutually join in the triumphant song of " salvation to
our God who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb
for ever." If so, what an impressive motive to union.
Why shall we be divided on earth when we hope to be
united in heaven. Theise motives might be enlarged with
profit, so as to increase their weight, and many others
not inferior in force might be added ; but we leave the
subject for reflection, and expect to see some good result
in the coming judgment. And in disfnissing this subject
with tiur eyes on the judgment, and all the realities of
eternity standing out in bold relief before us, we feel
inexpressible solicitude. We look into the future and
ask what will be the result of our toil. What efliect it

159

will produce upon our race we know not ; but this we do
know, Ihfit soon the writer and his readers will meet in
eternity. The hand that penned these lines will be cold
and motionless in the grave ; and your eyes that now
read them will be sealed in death ; and we will agree
then on the necessity of Christian union on earth.

•

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PROSPECTUS

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THE METHODIST UNION will be published in Canada
"West, in monthly numbers of sixteen pages each, at the low
price of Two Shillings and Sixpence a Tear. The object of
this Periodical is to promote a Union of all the Methodist De-
nominations in Canada upon equitable and Christian principles.

This work will recognize no particular tenets as being the basis
of union, but will give prominence to the excellencies of the
various Societies, leaving others, whose tastes prepare them for
such a work, to expose their defects.

Being fullypersuaded that the multitude of corporations' into
which the Methodist Church is divided is contrary to the reveal-
ed will pf €rod, antagonistical to the conversion of the world,
and "a sinful waste of Our Lord's money, the Editor will devote
much space to the development of the great principles of Chris-
tian charity and frugality, hoping thereby to move all, who love
God supremely and their brethren affectionately, to rise superior
to party spirit and sectarian feeling, and cordially unite in the
advancement of the common cause of our redeemer.

The Editor humbly solicits contributions for the Union from
the wise and good of all denominations ; at the same time he
pledges himself not to admit anything into its columns which is
not calculated to heal the unfortunate divisions which have so
long estranged the children of God, but will endeavour, by
Diyne help, to present evidences, and answer objections, in a
manner becoming the great subject he discusses, and so approre
himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

■Bgia^sor.''^'''^''''''™''''^'

Editor,

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