THE ECLECTIC REVIEW FOR AUGUST, 1846. Art. I.-1. An Exposition of the Laws of Conference Methodism; as enacted by the Conference in 1835; proving them to be contrary to the Concessions granted in 1797 : in a Letter, explanatory and expostulatory, to the Rev. W. M. Bunting; containing the true Reasons of the Author's Separation from the Conference Connexion; and a Defence of the Wesleyan-Methodist Association. By the Rev. Robert Eckett. 8vo. pp. 64. Pearson, London. 1846*. 2. The Round Preacher; or, Reminiscences of Methodist Circuit Life. Small 8vo. pp. 364. Taylor, Bradford. 1845*. THE unreflecting multitude are slow to recognise new combinations of power and influence. Methodism was a hundred years old, before it had impressed the public mind as a material * The author of the Exposition of the Laws of Conference Methodism' is a minister in the Wesleyan-Methodist Association, and editor of the monthly magazine published by that body of Christians. He was provoked into print by the conduct of the Rev. W. M. Bunting, who endeavoured to prevent his name from being placed on one of the provisional committees of the Evangelical Alliance, by alleging that he had been 'deservedly excommunicated from the Wesleyan Connexion.' Although Mr. Bunting failed in his object, yet Mr. Eckett felt, that, after a statement so prejudicial to his character, he had no alternative but to give to the world his own version of the circumstances under which he was separated from the original body of Methodists, and united to the most recent of its numerous off-shoots. The Wesleyan Conference have to thank the temerity of Mr. Bunting for the publication of a pamphlet which places their policy in no very favourable light. In 1835, they promulgated a sort of code of new laws, in many important respects at variance with another code adopted element in computing the several forces of the community. And, even now, when its adherents are too considerable to escape the notice of the most indifferent, it is a thing of which and promulgated by the Conference of 1797, and by which the Connexion was governed from that time till the year 1835. Mr. Eckett, who entered the Connexion, and filled simultaneously the offices of leader, local preacher, steward, and trustee, under the regime of 1797, had strong objections to the new regulations, as virtually a repeal of the old, and, being prevented by those very regulations from expressing his objections in a constitutional manner, had recourse to means of doing so open to him as the inhabitant of a free country. For this, he was summoned as a private member of the Wesleyan society before the authorized tribunal; and, his violation of the rules of 1835 having been proved, he was formally expelled by the fiat of his superintendent, and, in being expelled, was degraded from all his offices. Thus excluded from the parent body, he aided in the formation of the Wesleyan-Methodist Association, of which he may be regarded as one of the founders and most distinguished members. 'I acted,' he observes, ' in the way that Dr. Candlish, and other ministers of the Free Church of Scotland, more recently adopted to make known their differences with the church of Scotland, from which they have separated. Many respected ministers, both Independents and Baptists, willingly lent the dissenters from Conference Methodism their chapels, to hold meetings for the exposition of their sentiments and grievances: in like manner, many Conference Methodist superintendents have allowed Methodist chapels to be occupied by the ministers of the Free Church of Scotland. It is also worthy of remark, that the principles inculcated in both cases are somewhat similar. The Wesleyan-Methodist Association objected to the absolute authority claimed by the Methodist Conference to rule the societies according to the laws of 1835, and contrary to the laws of 1797; asserting that the lay officers of the societies should have an effective voice in the administration of discipline over the members of the societies: and the members of the Free Church of Scotland objected to the setting aside of the Veto Act, and claimed for the people the right of having an effective voice as to the appointment of their ministers. Let it therefore be remembered by Mr. Bunting and his brethren, that whatever measure of displeasure they may think themselves justified in manifesting towards me, they are equally entitled to receive equal displeasure from the ministers of the established church of Scotland. The same reasons which will justify the public exposure of the differences in the Scottish church, will justify the public exposure of, in my judgment, the not less serious evils contained in the present laws of Conference Methodism!' By the clearest and strongest evidence, Mr. Eckett proves,-that, on the death of Mr. Wesley in 1791, the preachers attempted to exercise over the people that absolute authority which had seldom been disputed to him; that the people resisted the attempt; that, in 1794, the preachers were obliged to make a show of concession; that, in 1795, further concessions were wrung from them; that, in 1797, the people, still dissatisfied, compelled the Conference to declare a sort of constitution; that, in 1828, a question arose between the preachers and the people as to the right interpretation of some of the articles in that constitution; that this question was from time to time debated with increasing bitterness; that, in 1835, the Conference terminated the controversy with new enactments, directly opposed to the view taken by the people of the disputed portions of the laws of 1797; and that, while the latter, fairly interpreted and acted upon, secured the just rights and liberties of the people, the laws of 1835 were entirely subversive of the most observant know but little more than its existence. Our present design is to diminish an amount of ignorance so strange and culpable. those rights and liberties, 'requiring such submission to ministerial authority as is inconsistent with the usages of all other protestant communities, and with the teachings of the Holy Scriptures.' These conclusions are sustained with an amount of proof perfectly irresistible. Mr. Eckett is master of his subject, and has treated it with a calmness that inspires confidence, and a perspicuity that promotes conviction. We are tolerably well versed in the controversy, and we know of no other publication in which it is so luminously illustrated. It forms an instructive page in the ecclesiastical history of the nineteenth century, though a page, in many respects, more suited to the fifteenth. But, while we thank Mr. Bunting for having provoked a publication so valuable and interesting, we (like its excellent author) 'must be permitted to say, that, unless such proceedings are carefully avoided, the movement now making for promoting Christian union, will tend to aggravate sectarian controversy and encourage the spirit of sectarian persecution." not The author of The Round (or circuit) Preacher,' professes to give 'a faithful picture of the state of modern Methodism,' his moral being 'the dreadful evils which arise from schism.' But for one circumstance, we might suspect him to be the son of a Wesleyan minister, solicitous to prove the sincerity of his new-born churchmanship by reviling his father's religious connections. The circumstance referred to occurs in the 'Appendix, note A.', where we are told, My father was suspected of sympathising with a disaffected party at Leeds. The leader of this party was a Mr. Kilham, a travelling preacher. The introduction of an organ into one of the chapels at Leeds, was used as an occasion for the outbreak. They petitioned Conference for the removal of their grievances. And when they could obtain nothing more than their slight mitigation, they left the body, and, forming a new sect, assumed the name of the Methodist New Connexion.' A writer who knows no better than to confound the origin of the Methodist New Connexion in 1795, with the Leeds schism in 1827-8, which issued in the formation of the body called 'Protestant Methodists,' afterwards merged into the Wesleyan-Methodist Association of of 1835,-must expect to be regarded as giving 'faithful pictures of the state of modern Methodism.' Of his competency in other respects, we may judge from the first two sentences of Note B.' 'The term of probation lasts four years. When ended, the novitiates are received into full connexion by the imposition of hands.' It is evident the writer is, himself, a 'novitiate,' and will always remain a 'novitiate.' This ignoramus reminds us of a certain popular evangelical clergyman who entered the Church in revenge for being voted incompetent to the functions of a Wesleyan local preacher! At page 56, we have a sample of his Cambridge lore, where he describes a flashy local preacher 'with rings on his fingers, and chains crossing his waistcoat at triangles; and a huge bunch of seals and keys suspended to a black watered ribbon!" 'The Round Preacher' is a vulgar caricature, purporting to contain the autobiography of a superfine son of a Wesleyan, who, before he had ceased to be a 'novitiate,' grew disgusted with the associations of his office, and seceded to the Established Church. The selection of characters is made with a view to accumulate upon the head of Wesleyanism every thing mean, base, sordid, grovelling, and ludicrous. Such traits may, no doubt, be found within the Wesleyan body; but they equally occur in all bodies: even the Church of England has its Gathercoles. The Round Preacher' allows to Wesleyanism no alloy of good, We shall not enter into the history of the rise and progress of Methodism; for that would carry us far beyond the limits prescribed. Nor shall we be tempted to treat the subject controversially; which would be attended with a like result. Our simple purpose is, to furnish a succinct description of METHODISM AS IT IS, drawn from personal knowledge and observation, and from other sources of undeniable authenticity. The supreme governing authority in the Wesleyan body, of which we now speak, is the Conference, at once the legislature and the high court of appeal.* Ministers and members have no alternative but to do its bidding. It is composed exclusively of the clergy. No private member, no layman, is admitted, even as a spectator. It sits with closed doors, jealously guarded. The legal Conference consists of a hundred ministers, vacancies being filled up partly by election, and partly according to seniority; but all who have been received into full connexion (alias, ordained) have the privilege of a vote; except that only those who have been fourteen years in the ministry, can join in the election of the president and the secretary, and in elections to fill upthelegal hundred: even the youngest minister, however, may be present. The votes of the Conference at large, which generally numbers from four hundred to five hundred ministers, subsequently receive the formal ratification of the legal Conference, the constant presence of forty of whom is necessary to render the acts of the Conference valid. The sittings are annual, in July and August, usually occupying from two to three weeks, and are held in rotation in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Sheffield, Leeds, Birmingham, and Newcastle-on-Tyne. By means of almost unexampled order and industry, and of a well-digested scheme of preparatory committees, a vast complexity of business is transacted with equal exactness and dispatch. Of what is done, no more transpires by authority than it is deemed expedient to insert in the published selection from the 'Minutes.' For example: 'Are there any complaints against any of our preachers? Answer: They were examined one by one*.' The most important and difficult business of the Conference is the stationing of the ministers. But this work is facilitated by the appointment of 'representatives,' representatives, not of the people, but only of their brother ministers in various localities, who constitute 'the stationing committee,' and submit their rough draft of the stations for final revision by the Conference. The people, in their several circuits, are indeed permitted to petition the Conference for this minister or against that; but their petitions are not always regarded, and they have ultimately no choice but to receive and support such ministers as it may please the Conference to send them. This unique body reigns equally supreme in all other connexional concerns; enacting new laws, or repealing old; determining finally every question of doctrine, discipline, or finance; appointing to every ministerial office; and, in short, exercising a sovereign-sway in all the affairs of the community†. represents rare instances as common characteristics, magnifies every real defect, introduces upon the scene the pure creations of the author's distempered fancy, and spoils those few passages which approach to 'a faithful picture,' with dashes of gross calumny and exaggeration. 'The preaching couple' is, for the most part, a sheer fabrication. The preaching of women is discouraged, and not, under any circumstances, permitted, without the joint approval of the superintendent and the quarterly meeting. We doubt if there is now a single voucher in the Connexion for the Rev. Mrs. Sleekface.' The author designs the feigned conversion of her daughters to reflect discredit upon the mother, and to excite sympathy for the amiable and oppressed hypocrites; whereas the effect is exactly the reverse: the mother's previous anxiety and subsequent joy make us forget her sordid temper and Caudle-like ebullitions; while the deliberate deception practised by the daughters excuses, if it does not vindicate, the severity of the maternal rule. The description of a love-feast is one of the truest things in the book, especially the speech of the little old woman who pinched herself to pay her class-money, making sure she should never be a loser for't i' the end, as the preachers allas tells us:' but even this is marred with many improbabilities. The attempts to hit off Dr. Newton, the late 'Billy Dawson,' and some other platform speakers, under slight changes of name, are miserable failures; but the doings of 'Mr. Rivers, the converted squire,' though, through the native incapacity of the artist, wanting in graphic force, are by no means over-drawn. The volume terminates with three colloquies between the author and John Wesley's ghost, introduced to make him eat his own words against the exclusive claims of episcopal ordination, condemn modern Methodism as wholly alien from his design, and encourage the interlocutor in conforming to the Established Church. How particularly well qualified Mr. 'Sparks' is to give verisimilitude to such scenes, will be apparent to those who know that Mr. Wesley was of Zacchean stature, when we mention that he describes the apparition as 'a tall personage coming towards him.' In one word, 'The Round Preacher' is a pointless Parthian arrow ! * An appeal to any civil jurisdiction is a violation of an established rule of our society, as well as of the law of the New Testament; and he who takes such a step, forfeits his right of appeal to the Conference.'Grindrod's Compendium, p. 30. The Conference is itself, however, subject to rule-the rule of one of its own members. In every deliberative assembly there will naturally arise leading minds--individuals whose superior talents, knowledge, wisdom, judgment, or discretion, are gene * Minutes of Conference, de anno in annum. † We learn from Mr. Grindrod (note, pp. 9-10) that the Conference affect a parliamentary verbiage.' The speakers used to say, 'this house,' and 'this or the other side of the house; but they have lately substituted this Conference.' The members still addict themselves to audible expressions of applause and disapprobation, which Mr. Grindrod censures with all the unction of a vicar-apostolic. One of the authorised rules of debate is, 'Be quite easy, if a majority decide against you!? |