whom Wesley had ordained and their brethren should cease.
In the minutes of conference for 1818 “Rev.” appears before
the names of preachers who were members of the Missionary
Committee. Jabez Bunting (q.v.), who had become the acknowledged
leader of the conference, wished to have its young
ministers set apart by the imposition of hands, but this scriptural
custom was not introduced till 1836.
Meanwhile, Methodism was growing into a great missionary church. Its work in the West Indies was firmly established in Wesley’s lifetime. In 1786 eleven hundred negroes were members of the society in Antigua. The burden of superintending these missions and providing funds for their support rested on Dr Coke, who took his place as the missionary bishop of Methodism. In 1813 he prevailed on the conference to sanction a mission to Ceylon. He sailed with six missionaries on the 30th of December, but died in the following May in the Indian Ocean. To meet these new responsibilities a branch Missionary Society had been formed in Leeds in October 1813, and others soon sprang up in various parts of the country. The Centenary of the Missionary Society falls in 1913, but Methodist Missions really date from 1786 when Dr Coke landed at Antigua. The area of operations gradually extended. Missions were begun in Madras, at the Cape of Good Hope, in Australia, and on the west coast of Africa. Two missionaries were sent to the Friendly Islands in 1826, and in 1835 a mission was undertaken among the cannibals of Fiji, which spread and deepened tiU the whole group of islands was transformed. The work in China began in 1851; the Burma mission was established in 1887. The rapid progress of the Transvaal and Swaziland missions has been almost embarrassing. The Missionary Jubilee in 1863–1868 yielded £179,000 for the work abroad. As the growth of the missions permitted conferences have been formed in various countries. Upper Canada had its conference in 1834, France in 1852, Australia in 1855, South Africa in 1882. The missionary revival which marked the Nottingham Conference of 1906 quickened the interest at home and abroad and the Foreign Field (monthly) is prominent among missionary periodicals. The Women’s Auxiliary, founded in 1858, kept its jubilee in 1908. It supports schools and medical missions, homes and orphanages. In 1828 the erection of an organ in Brunswick Chapel, Leeds, led to a violent agitation and a small body of “Protestant Methodists” was formed. A more formidable division was led by Dr Warren, a preacher of ability and influence, who was disappointed because no place was found for him in the newly-formed Theological Institution. He tried to awaken general opposition to the Institution scheme, and being suspended from his office as superintendent by a special district meeting, appealed to the law courts, which sustained the action of the district meeting. He was expelled from the conference and joined the Wesleyan Methodist Association in 1836, but shortly afterwards became a clergyman in Manchester. In his first conference in 1744 Wesley asked, “Can we have a seminary for labourers?” The answer was: “If God spare us to another Conference.” Next year the subject was broached with the reply: “Not till God give us a proper tutor.” The idea was not realized in his lifetime, but Wesley did everything in his power to train his preachers. He gathered them together and read with them as he had done with his pupils at Oxford; he urged them to spend at least five hours a day in reading the best books. He made this challenge, “I will give each of you, as fast as you will read them, books to the value of £5.” In 1834 Hoxton Academy was taken as a training place for ministers; and in 1839 the students moved to Abney House, Stoke Newington. Didsbury College was opened in 1842, Richmond in 1843. Headingley was added in 1868, Handsworth in 1881.
The Centenary of Methodism was celebrated in 1839 and £221,939 was raised as a thank-offering: £71,609 was devoted to the colleges at Didsbury and Richmond; £70,000 was given to the missionary society, which spent £30,000 on the site and building of a mission house in Bishopsgate Within; £38,000 was set apart for the removal of chapel debts, &c.
Methodism was now recognized as one of the great moral and spiritual forces of the world. Its progress was rapid, but in 1849 there came a disastrous check. There was much jealousy of Dr Bunting, the master mind of Methodism, to whose foresight and wisdoni large part of its success was due. Fly-sheets were issued attacking him and other eminent ministers. James Everett, Samuel Dunn and William Griffith were expelled from the ministry, and an agitation began which robbed Wesleyan Methodism of 100,000 members. Those who now left the Connexion joined the reformers of 1828 and 1836 and formed the Methodist Free Churches. In 1852 the constitution of the Quarterly Meeting was clearly defined, and the June Quarterly Meeting obtained the right to approach conference with memorials. Various other provisions were made which increased confidence. It was not till 1856 that the Connexion began to recover from the loss caused by this agitation.
Methodism began its work for popular education in a very modest way. In 1837 it had nine infant schools and twenty-two schools for elder children. A grant of £5000 was made from the Centenary Fund for the provision of Wesleyan day-schools. The conference of 1843 directed that greater attention must be given to this department, and a committee met in the following October which resolved that 700 schools should be established if possible within the next seven years, and an Education Fund raised of £5000 a year. In 1849 the Normal Training College for the education of day-school teachers was opened in Westminster, and in 1872 a second college was opened in Battersea for school-mistresses. Westminster provides for 120 and Southlands for 110 students. They supply teachers not only for Wesleyan, but for council schools all over the country, and no colleges have a higher reputation. Besides its day schools, Methodism possesses the Leys School at Cambridge, Rydal Mount at Colwyn Bay and prosperous boarding-schools for boys and girls in many parts of the country.
Methodism has from the beginning done much work in the army. Dr William Harris Rule (1802–1890), who was appointed chaplain at Gibraltar in 1832, won for it fuller recognition from the authorities. Charles H. Kelly, his colleague at Aldershot, and R. W. Allen had a large share in the struggle by which Methodist work both in the army and the navy was developed. Capitation grants have made it possible to organize the work at every station at home and abroad. No homes for soldiers and sailors are more efficient or better liked by the men. The service done by Methodist chaplains in war time, and especially in the Boer War, won the warmest recognition from the authorities.
In 1878, laymen were introduced into the Wesleyan conference. They had been members of the committee appointed in 1803 to “guard our privileges in these perilous times,” and had gradually taken their place on the missionary and other committees. Circuit stewards had attended the district meetings before 1817 but in that year their right to attend was established. The Financial District Meeting of which they were members was created in 1819 and the financial business of each district soon came under its control. Out of the Annual Home Missionary gathering sprang a system of committees of review which, in 1852, James H. Rigg suggested might be enlarged and combined into a kind of diet composed of ministers and laymen who should consider reports from the various departments. The time was not ripe for such a scheme, but in 1861 the principle of direct representation was introduced into the committees of review. The Representative Session which met in 1878 consisted of 240 ministers and 240 laymen. The Pastoral Session of ministers met first to deal with pastoral affairs. In 1891 the Representative Session was sandwiched between the two parts of the Pastoral Session. In 1898 it met first and its numbers were enlarged to 300 ministers and 300 laymen. In 1892 the district meeting became known as the District Synod, and in 1893 the circuits began to choose representatives to the Synod in addition to the circuit stewards. The great advance in organization made with such peace and goodwill was commemorated in 1878 by the Thanksgiving Fund which reached £297,500. Dr Rigg, the president of that year, put all his strength into the movement, and every department of Methodist work at home and abroad shared in the benefits of the fund.
The Forward Movement in Methodism dates from that period. A bolder policy won favour. Methodism realized its strength and its obligations. In 1885 the Rev. S. F. Collier was appointed to Manchester and the Rev. Peter Thompson was sent to work in the East End. Next year the Revs. Hugh Price Hughes and Mark Guy Pearse began the West London Mission. Every succeeding year has witnessed development and growth. Large mission-halls have been built in the principal towns of England, Scotland and Ireland. Great congregations have been gathered, and the work done for uplifting the fallen and outcast has earned the gratitude of all good men. The Manchester mission is regarded as one of the glories of that city. The Forward Movement will always be associated with the name of Hugh Price Hughes (q.v.) . Village Methodism shared in the quickening which the Forward Movement brought to the large towns. Chapels which had been closed were reopened; an entrance was found into many new villages. Weak circuits were grouped together and gained fresh energy and hope by the union.
No work has been dearer to Methodists than that of the National Children’s Home and Orphanage founded by Dr Bowman Stephenson in 1869. Its headquarters are in Bethnal Green, but it has branches in various parts of the country and an emigration depot in Canada. It cares not only for waifs and strays, but for cripples and delicate children. Orphans of respectable parents have a home at Birmingham,
