History of Methodist Reform. Vol. 1

471 Pages·1.51 MB·English

by  Drinkhouse Edward J.

W H Library
ESLEYAN ERITAGE
M. E. Church History
History of Methodist Reform
Volume I
By
Edward J. Drinkhouse, M.D., D.D.
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without
which no man shall see the Lord” Heb 12:14
Spreading Scriptural Holiness to the World
Wesleyan Heritage Publications
© 1998
HISTORY
OF
METHODIST REFORM
Synoptical of General Methodism
1703 to 1898
With Special and Comprehensive Reference to
Its Most Salient Exhibition in
the History of the
METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH
By
Edward J. Drinkhouse, M.D., D.D.
(Eighteen Years Editor of "The Methodist Protestant")
Ad astra per aspera
"Till it be proved that some special law of Christ hath forever annexed unto the clergy alone the
power to make ecclesiastical laws, we are to hold it as a thing most consonant with equity and reason
that no ecclesiastical laws be made in a Christian community without consent of the laity as well as
the clergy." — Bishop Hooker
"He who has no right to the thing he possesses cannot prescribe or plead any length of time to
make his possession lawful." — Dr. Barrow.
The equity of all history is: Hear the other side. — The Author
The Board of Publication of the Methodist Protestant Church
Wm. J. C. Dulany, Agent, Baltimore, Md.
F. W. Pierpont, Agent, Pittsburgh, Pa
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1899,
By Edward J. Drinkhouse,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D.C.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co.— Berwick & Smith
Norwood, Mass. U.S.A.
VOLUME I — PART 1
(Volume I, through Chapter 10)
*************************************
METHODIST REFORM
Edward J. Drinkhouse, M.D., D.D.
PREFACE
The writing of a History of the Methodist Protestant Church was first suggested to me by the Rev.
W. C. Lipscomb in the autumn of 1877. Bassett's History had just been issued from the press.
Written from the point of view of "The Methodist" (Protestant) Church of the North and West it was
found quite unsatisfactory to the East and South, not so much from what it stated, as from what it
failed to state. Hence this suggestion to me, then editor of The Methodist Protestant, Baltimore, Md.
It was a surprise and not entertained. I had been a close student of Methodist history since 1850.
More mature reflection led to the conclusion that it might be my providential task, if proper leisure
and apt environment ever came to me, It led to a painstaking collection, often at considerable
personal expense, of all the sources and authorities bearing upon general Methodism and of the
Methodist Protestant Church in particular, through intervening years of exacting editorial toil down
to 1892. Then came retirement from official position and leisure for the work. It has been diligently
pursued through five years as an uncompensated labor of love and from a settled conviction that "the
truth of history" demanded the work at my hands. The result is before the reader in these octavo
volumes.
The Reform movement in the Methodist Episcopal Church during the decade of 1820-30, never
contemplated a separate Church organization. This was made a necessity by the Expulsions of
1827-30, as a concerted action of the authorities of that Church. Nor for a decade of years after 1830,
did the expelled and their seceding friends of governmental Reform in Methodism abandon the hope
that their quondam associates would become amenable to reason and the sense of restitution on terms
of reinstatement such as Christian manhood could accept. In consequence, inadequate care was taken
to preserve historical documents and the local story of Reform movements. Apart from the records
of its periodical press no attempt was made to embody the facts until 1843, when a twelvemo volume
was issued by Rev. James R. Williams, of Baltimore, Md., the cradle of Reform as it was of
Methodism. It covered succinctly the period to 1842. The small edition was soon exhausted, but it
was never republished, and fugitive copies are all that remain of this initial History. It was
unsatisfactory to North Carolina and the circumjacent territory as dealing too sparsely with the
movement in that section. Dr. J. T. Bellamy gathered material and wrote a History, but for
unexpressed reasons during his last illness ordered his son to burn it. Rev. Dr. John Paris, also of
North Carolina, in 1849, issued a twelvemo volume of more inclusive character and historical
analysis. Like the History of Williams, it answered the demand of the period, but was never
republished, and scattered copies only are to be found among our preachers and people. About
1855-60, Rev. Dr. Dennis B. Dorsey, Sr., then resident at Fairmont, W. Va. prepared a skeleton of
a Church History and had largely filled it in, but his decease cut short the work and it never appeared.
The Church had now grown in the West and North with a record of its own and on lines of
separation from the adhering conferences, and a demand was made for a history from its point of
view. It was furnished as already suggested by Rev. Dr. A. H. Bassett in a twelvemo volume, issued
in 1877. It was afterward enlarged and amended, and for a score of years has been the dependence
of the reunited Church. This triangular supply of data needed a central and unsectional array with
the addition of a logical connection and philosophical treatment. It was this task the writer undertook
under the extreme advantage of many years' residence in Baltimore, the Methodist center of historic
data. How well he has performed the work it will be for the reader to decide.
The sources and authorities cited in this History, with rare exceptions noted, are in the author's
possession to be preserved intact, and held accessible for verification under any reasonable request,
inasmuch as many of its allegations are at variance with the received historical statements; and a
whole class of facts is disclosed heretofore minified or suppressed by, or unknown to, historical
writers on both English and American Methodism. The writer has been careful of the ground so that
a challenge is hereby recorded of successful contradiction of its averments as to matters of fact. His
inferential positions may at times be strained or erroneous and these he submits to such controversial
questioning as may be possible.
It is the custom of most historians to prefix to their work a bibliography of the sources and
authorities consulted in its preparation. Such a compilation is not only helpful but necessary, when
citations have been made without such references. In this work all citations are verified as to source
and authority in the numerous foot-notes of the current narrative, so that a bibliography would be
but a repetition of these titles. Sometimes the bibliography as a porch is more imposing than the
structure, and carries the semblance at least of pedantry. Its absence in this work is not a loss.
The writer discovered when midway in his preparatory investigation that a History of the
Methodist Protestant Church, logically stated and philosophically treated, could not be prepared
without an enlargement of its original purview so inclusive as to comprehend at least synoptically
the whole history of Methodism. The germinal principles incorporated in its Constitution and
Discipline were disclosed in the governmental Reform movements during Wesley's life and since
in English Methodism. And it is a remarkable fact that, without cooperation or knowledge of each
other's movements, under the instigation of a common hierarchic rule, thoughtful Methodists both
of the ministry and laity on either side of the ocean were working on independent lines to the same
end of governmental Reform. The writer therefore found it necessary to give a broader title to his
work as "The History of Methodist Reform," with his own denomination as the objective. The
discriminating reader will discover that there was nothing new in the Methodist Reform movements
from the tentative ones of Gatch, Dickins, O'Kelly and others in Virginia as early as 1778; of
O'Kelly, McKendree, Rice Haggard, Hope Hull and others in 1792; the more effective ones of
Snethen, Emory, Stockton and others in 1820-24; and later of Shinn, Jennings, Brown, Dorsey,
McCaine and others for 1824-30. The objections they formulated and the protests they entered
against the Paternal system of Asbury and the hierarchic features embodied by his pliant followers
in the "Rules and Regulations" of the Methodist Episcopal Church of 1784, are all to be found in the
seed of kindred objections and protests made by Wesleyan Methodist preachers and laymen from
quite an early period of English Methodism down to the climacteric movement of 1849, which shook
the parent body to its foundations.
Another great advantage of this historical method is, that it furnishes our own denominational
readers succinctly all of Methodist literature without recourse to historians and monographists whose
coloring is unfavorable to liberal views. As common property it is, therefore, appropriated for
information as to the rise and progress of doctrinal Methodism and its spiritual agencies, called
"means of grace," touching which perfect unity has been preserved among our coreligionists the wide
world over; as well as for contrast of governmental methods, equal prosperity attending diverse
polities, and thus demonstrating that it was primarily due, not to any particular system, but to the
doctrines and means of grace formulated by the Wesleys out of the Scriptures and the needs of the
period. As collateral to this method and an irrefragable corollary from the facts of history, one of the
fundamentals of this work is submitted as proven; to wit, that the dominant system on either shore
of the Atlantic is responsible directly or indirectly for all the divisions of Methodism, and that in
consequence organic unity is an impossibility, even if it could be shown politic, until the divisive
elements in the dominating systems are eliminated.
These reasons must be the author's plea for occupying the entire first volume in what is really a
preparation for the History of the Methodist Protestant Church. No apology is therefore offered for
the extended space given to the vindication of the two men who have been most vilified and
misrepresented, — Dr. Whitehead of the Wesleyan Methodists and James O'Kelly of the Asburyan
Methodists. In both cases much new information is furnished; and while no effort is made to
condone their errors of temperament and judgment, earnest, and it is believed successful, effort is
made to rescue their memories from unmerited obloquy. It will also be discovered that nowhere in
current Methodist history can such a running biography of Francis Asbury be found, portraying every
side of his wonderful character and meting out with an even hand the merits and demerits of an
unique system, of which he was the father, in emulation of the methods of John Wesley, the founder
of it. Biographically it is believed that valuable new information is furnished, and fuller extracts
made from Asbury's Journal than has been essayed by any other historiographer.
In discussing and narrating the so-called "Radical" controversy of 1820-30, the writer claims
exceptional advantages, and if he has come short of the occasion, it has not been for want of a mass
of material never before in large part at the disposal of a historian. he has endeavored, prayerfully
and reflectively, at every step to hold an even balance between the contending parties. It cannot,
however, be reasonably expected that a History of the Methodist Protestant Church could or should
be written by him from the point of view apologetic and excusatory of its historical foes. The
defensive task has been abundantly performed by a large number of partial and able writers in
England and America. It has never been performed on the behalf of Reformers in any such
exhaustive pleas, unless the present work shall be accepted by impartial readers as equal to the
subject. The writer believes indeed that nowhere else can such a collocation of records of those
troublous times be found in continuity of presentation. But passing mention need be made of the
class who ruefully deprecate the revival of "dead issues," as they call the contentions of this History.
All history consists of dead issues, but it is the truth of them that demands their resurrection, and the
vindication of the truth can never be untimely. If anywhere, after careful revision, he has been
betrayed into sharpness of language or purposeful imputation of motive as to individuals, he will
express regret and make amends if possible, or in palliation direct attention to the severity of average
animadversions of the Reformers as found in the standard histories and fugitive monographs of
Methodist literature. He has felt it, however, his first duty to set himself vigorously to the vindication
of the fathers of American Methodist Reform, and to do this a restatement of the old controversy was
inevitable.
In the progress of the work, in the second volume, he found himself confronted with two difficult
performances. First, a determination to rescue from a swift-coming oblivion the Reformers of
1820-30. Many of them sleep in unmarked graves, and more of them have no historical embalmment.
It has been a great labor to incorporate these biographical mentions, from a line or two to a page or
more, as the judgment of the writer dictated or the material at command made possible. these
interjections may seem to the critical reader to mar the flow of the narrative, but they often contain
important facts, and no careful reader will pass them over. Many worthy men, for lack of obituary
notice in the periodicals of the Church, or by inadvertent oversight, are no doubt unmentioned,
despite the diligence of the writer to avoid such omissions. Then, in covering that section of the
Church history from 1858 to 1877, marking the division and reunion of the denomination, that the
author might be impartial, a double history has been written. He has not knowingly omitted any fact
or argument for either side, and if his personal convictions anywhere appear, the feature is
inseparable from an historical work, not a simple summary of naked figures and facts. The personal
equation of a historian ought not, and indeed cannot, be excluded from his work. He has assurances
from some who have read the History in manuscript, that this period will not prove unsatisfactory.
It was a part of the original design of the work to include in appendices brief histories of the
several annual conferences, but it was found impracticable and was abandoned. The appendices
which have been furnished are essential and invaluable, and the writer earnestly requests every reader
and critic to make a careful perusal of them in their close connection with the running text, as
indispensable to a right understanding of the subject. Brief histories of the Book concerns as such,
as well as of the official colleges — Adrian, Western Maryland, and Kansas University — have been
omitted, for the reason that they have been largely incorporated in the running text, and more
extended data are easily obtainable. The appendices for Ministerial Education, the Women's Foreign
Missionary Society, the Foreign and the Home Missionary Boards, etc., have all been added to the
first volume, though properly belonging to the second, in order that the relative size of the two books
may in this way be preserved.
The principal claim of this History is, that it discloses and verifies a whole class of facts not
heretofore given their proper accent by Methodist historians because not in alignment with the
received opinions and traditional views of the great actors in the evangelistic movement, on both
sides the ocean, called Methodism. It also places these received opinions and traditional views in
other lights than those reflected by such historians, keeping in mind the great equity of all history:
hear the other side.
Many portions of the first volume, dealing as it does with general Methodism, are rigidly
condensed, while in the second volume the critical reader, especially if not denominationally
connected with the Methodist Protestant Church, will discover minutiae of detail not always
consonant with the dignity of history. Much of this period is within the memory of participants in
it, and for the latter half within the personal recollection of the Author, so that many things are
named by reason of an importance thus exaggerated.
The numerous illustrations were largely an afterthought, and are the best that could be secured at
considerable expense and much labor. The likenesses of early Reformers and some others are given
with as much regard to sections and conferences as was possible. The writer regrets that no portrait
of W. W. Hill, A. G. Brewer, Adjet McGuire, and others could be obtained. No living men appear
for a reason that must be obvious, however worthy.
No pretension is made to literary style, and while indulgence is not asked of the critics as to fact
and argument, forbearance is solicited when failure is exhibited in perspicuity or elegance of diction.
The writer will find his reward if the readers shall discover that he is not without the "historic sense."
The Author,
Baltimore, Md., November, 1898
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METHODIST REFORM
Edward J. Drinkhouse, M.D., D.D.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
Origin of this History — Its predecessors — Method of this work — Synoptical of universal
Methodism as a logical necessity and as furnishing its literature without recourse to other sources
— Special difficulties of the author — Obituary sketches of the early Reformers, lay and clerical —
Special claim of this work is that it discloses and verifies a whole class of facts heretofore minified
or suppressed by, or it may be unknown to, other Methodist annalists — The Appendices and their
importance to a right understanding of this History
CHAPTER 1
Introductory — Purview — Paternalism of Wesley and Asbury — Bird's-eye view of Methodist
history from 1703 to 1898 in England and America a necessity of a logical and philosophical
treatment of Methodist Protestantism — Fundamentals on which the conclusions of this History are
based
CHAPTER 2
1708-1788 — The career of Charles Wesley outlined and his consistency vindicated as drawn
from his Journal and Whitehead's "Life" — His proper place in early Methodism — Contrast of his
character with John — Their differences — His triumphant death
CHAPTER 3
1703-1743 — John Wesley — Early history, life in Georgia, beginning of Methodism — A leader
of men — Whitefield and Wesley First Society — "General Rules," Moravians — Lay-preachers —
Wesley's mother — Chapels and growth of Societies down to 1743
CHAPTER 4
1744-1764 — The first "Conference" and subsequent ones — Wesley's loves — Break with
Charles — John a born autocrat — Apology for him and philosophy of the situation — Of the three
leaders, Whitefield, John and Charles Wesley, John was the only organizer — Reflections
CHAPTER 5
1765-1771 — Trustees of chapels, but property vested in Wesley — What led to it — Open to
abuse — The Salvation Army plan under General Booth and the probable outcome — The subject
considered — The first missionary collection at Newcastle, 1767 — The property question must be
settled — Deed of Declaration as conceived by Dr. Coke — Asbury for America in 1771
CHAPTER 6
1772-1782 — Wesley attacks the principle that "the people are the source of power" — His book
business — Irregularities discovered — Concord by submitting to his will — Dr. Coke comes upon
the scene — Various estimates of him — Dominating idea ambition — Wesley bends to save a break
in the Societies — Charles retires — Whitehead aspersed — Property question again
CHAPTER 7
1783-1784 — The climacteric year of Methodism because of the ordinations and separation —
The "people called Methodists" — Coke and the Deed of Declaration — Review of it — Fletcher
no party to it — Coke's so-called ordination — What it was and how brought about — The "Sunday
Service" for the Americans
CHAPTER 8
1785-1790 — Ordination of Mather — Was it or was it not the same as Coke's? — Rare London
pamphlet on Wesley — The Poll-Deed causes secessions — Dr. Coke father of missions — Charles
Wesley's death — Wesley an autocrat to the last — The preachers outwit him — His last testimony
against separation
CHAPTER 9
1791-1792 — Methodism outside of the British islands — Wesley's last letters, sermon, illness,
and Dr. Whitehead — Pen-pictures — Eulogies — A lost chapter as to his obsequies — Whitehead's
sermon — Secret reasons for Whitehead's persecution by the Conference party — A full vindication
in Appendix A.
CHAPTER 10
1791-1797 — Distractions in Methodism after Wesley's death — Coke's return to England —
Analysis of his character — Rev. Alexander Kilham's expulsion — Rev. William Guirey, a new
witness against Coke — Organization of the New Connection Methodists — Individual force against
automatic paternalism — Forerunner of the Methodist Protestant Church
CHAPTER 11
1797-1805 — Heroes of Methodism — The Poll-Deed quelling liberal sentiments — Coke's letter
to the Bishop of London — Failure of his plan to be a bishop — He leads the Foreign Mission work
of the Conference — Lay-delegation vs. lay-representation — Leaders and heroes of Methodism —
Prosperity of the Reform Methodist bodies
CHAPTER 12
1805-1815 — Modifications of the Poll-Deed extorted — Lorenzo Dow, Clowes, and the Bournes
— Expulsions — Origin of the Primitive Methodists in 1810, a direct result of paternalism —
Marvelous success of the new movement under liberal principles
CHAPTER 13
1815-1825 — Common property in Methodist heroes — The Wesleyan system not akin to
American Methodist Episcopacy — Affiliation claimed — Dr. John Emory's fraternal visit to
England — Coke and Asbury in contrast — The former's letter to Wilberforce and the bishopric of
India — The Indian mission — Voyage thither and death — Irish Primitive Methodists — Rise and
decadence
CHAPTER 14
1825-1839 — The centenary of English Methodism — The hierarchal and liberal systems
contrasted — Perpetual warfare of the two — Dr. Warren's defection — Clerical pretension of
English preachers — What a hundred years of conflict has accomplished for the priesthood of the
people
CHAPTER 15
1839-1849 — Glance at Wesleyan Methodism from 1840 to 1890 — The Reform of 1877 — The
Bible Christians — Expulsion of O'Brian, 1809 — Coalition of secedent bodies, Methodist Free
Churches — Expulsion of Griffith, Everett, and Dunn — Origin of Free Methodists in 1849
CHAPTER 16
1760 or 1766-1773 — Methodism in America — Robert Strawbridge and Philip Embury —
Priority fully considered — Captain Webb and other early preachers — Asbury the monumental man
— Arrival in Philadelphia, 1771 — Jealousies of Boardman, Rankin, and Asbury — Shadford's place
CHAPTER 17
1773-1774 — First American Annual Conference, July, 1773 — The Rankin-Asbury contention
— Principles of the Revolution and the Methodist polity in conflict — Character of Asbury, a full
sketch — His celibacy and its effect on the preachers and the people — Rev. William Otterbein and
Asbury — Close friendship
CHAPTER 18
1774-1779 — The conferences of 1774 and 1775 — The Revolution — Asbury as a loyal Tory
retired to Judge White's in seclusion — Council of preachers to act in his absence — Memorable
preachers from 1774 to 1779 — Effect of Asbury's course on the preachers — Sketch of Asbury