Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/421

* METHODISM. 385 METHODISM. frequently presided over the conferences. In January, 1818, the Primitive Weslcyoii Methodist Socii'lii was formed under the leadersliip of the apostolic Adam Averell. whose banner was "The Sacrament from the Established ('lunch." The regular Jlethodist Church in Ireland declared for independence. In 1S78 the two united. SfOTL.iXD. ^^'esley found Scotland stony ground. He received an attentive hearing, but not much response. Yhitefield told him plainly that he had "no business in Scotland." But he persevered and established his societies. The Rev. 1). Butler has recently shown in two inter- esting studies the inlluence of Wesley on Scot- land and tlie debt which Wesley himself owed to Scougal's Life of (lod in the Soiit of ilaii (1071). a book that he had reprinted in 1744. Consult Butler. Wesley and Whitefield in Scot- land 1 Edinburgh. 1898) : Henry hScougal and the Oxford Methodists (Edinburgh, 1899). Fraxce. English soldiers carried ^Methodism to .Jersey, in the Channel Islands, as early as 1779, and Robert Carr Brackenbuiy, a wealthy layman, who could speak French, was sent there in response to their converts. Wesley himself spent a fortnight in the islands in 1787, preach- ing and e.)iorting from house to house. In 1790 the mainland was invaded, and from that day to this Jlethodism has always had a foothold in France. In 1818 Charles Cook began his min- istry there. Cook died in 1858 and left his two sons to carry on his work. In 1852 France was made a separate conference, and the full super- vision of the mission was left in her own hands. Some notable men have wrought their lives into French evangelization — Cook and his two sons, Eniile F. and Jean Paul, Giallienne, Hocart, and Gibson. One of the best lives of Wesley ever written we owe to this mission, that bv J. W. LeliJvre 1 1868, trans. 1871, new ed. 1900). Gebsiaxt. a young Wiirttemberger, C. G. Miiller. went to London in 1805 on business, was converted, became a local preacher, in 1830 re- turned to South Giermany, became a missionary of the Wcsleyan Conference, and when he died in 185,S left 07 preaching places, 20 local preach- ers, and 1100 members, chiefly in Wiirttemberg. In 1S49 Ludwig S. .Jacoby went out from Amer- ica, and for fifty years English and American Methodism labored in different sections of the German Empire. In 1898 England handed over to the Methodist Episcopal Church her missions in Germany, and a union was eft'ected. Italy. In 1852 the French Jlethodists sent M. Rostan to the Piedmont valleys, who estab- lished several stations. In 1801 the Wcsleyan Methodist Conference in England sent Green and Piggott to Florence, and they soon had flourish- ing missions in North Italy." In 1872 Leroy M. Vernon began his work in Bologna as represent- ing the Methodist Episcopal Church. Further particulars as to European Jlethodism will be found uniler Missions. America. Tlie first Jlethodist society in the' New World was recruited from the German refugees to Ireland driven out of the Palatinate by Louis XIV. Two of these. Philip Embury and Barbara Heck, had been converted in Ire- land, and upon arriving in New York, in 1700, the.v began preaching. Thomas Webb, an army captain and local preacher, also preached in New York and elsewhere, and about the same time (176G) Robert Strawbridge, another Irishman, started the work in Maryland, where he was as- sisted by Robert Williams, who was the apostle of Virginia, In 170!) Wesley sent out Richard Broadman and Joseph Pilmoor, and two years later Francis Asbury and Richard Wright, In 1773 their first Conference was held — 10 min- isters with 1100 members. In spite of the dis- astrous infiuence of the Revolutionarv War, at its end they had 80 preachers and nearly 15,000 members. Slost of the Episco[)al clergv- had fled, and Wesley tried to get a bishop in England to ordain one of his preachers for America. Failing in this, he concluded that he himself had au- thority. The societies in America, Wesley said, "are' now at full liberty to follow the Scriptures and the primitive Church, and we judge it best that they should stand fast in that liberty where- with God has so strangely made them free." He accordingly ordained, September 1, 1784, Vhat- coat and Vasey as deacons, on the next day elders, and Coke superintendent. He furnished them with a liturgy an<l collection of psalms and hymns, articles of religion abridged from the Thirty -nine Articles of the Churcli of England, and told them to organize the American societies into a church. This was done at the celebrated Christmas Conference in Lovely Lane Chapel, Baltimore, December 24, I784-.January 2, 1785, where Asbury was ordained deacon, elder, and superintendent, the societies taking the name of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The catholicity of the new Church was shown by ^'esley's method in regard to both doctrine and discipline. Ever-thing of a sectarian nature was stricken out of the Thirty-nine Articles, so that as they left Wesley's hands they could be sul>- scribed to by almost any evangelical Christian. Nor did he insert any of his own teachings. His design was to provide a generous platform on which all who loved the Lord could rally. As to discipline, no mode of baptism was made obliga- tory, and even rebaptism of such as had scruples of their baptism in infancy was allowed, and although kneeling was recommended on the re- ception of the Lord's Supper, it was distinctly allowed that it might be received standing or sitting. Nor was it necessary for people to give up membershi]) in their own Church in order to become Methodist : so long as they 'complied with our rules' they were to have full liberty of at- tending their own churches. On the other hand, no one could be admitted to communion but mem- bers of the society, or such as had received tickets from the preacher. Members who neglected their class-meetings were liable to expulsion, and also members who married 'unawakened persons' — rules that have gone by the board long since. During the national period the growth of Methodism has been extraordinary. Its polity is vigorous yet elastic, and provides for close suiicr- vision of all parts of the field. Tliis it does by reviving the apostolate or apostolic episcopate, and adapting it to present day needs. Itineracy has given it the opportunity to meet the im- migrant face to face while establishing bis family in their new home, and it has thus been able to proclaim the Gospel ever vhere on American soil. But this would have been impossible with- out a band of preachers alert, brave, consecrated, self-sacrificing, ready to go anywhere with the message of salvation. Perhaps historj- has never seen a truer type of home missionary than the itinerant preachers of Methodism. Ready to obey