walked, and I desire no more. I am sick of opinions: I am weary to bear them: my soul loathes this frothy food. Give me solid and substantial religion; give me an humble gentle lover of God and man: a man full of mercy and good works, without partiality and without hypocrisy; a man laying himself out in the work of faith, the patience of hope, the labour of love.' As an additional security for the maintenance of good works, and to guard his followers against those wretched deceits of Antinomianism or enthusiasm, in which the human heart is too prone to entrench itself, he drew up in 1743, the Rules of the Society,' which are an admirable code of the practical obligations of Chistianity, with which every leader is expected to furnish every member of his class, and see that they actually fulfil them.

6

That Mr. Wesley considered doctrines unavailing unless enforced by the strong arm of discipline, was a lesson inculcated on him by the state of morals in the whole of Christendom. 'Is it any wonder,' he asks, 'that we find so few Christians; for where is Christian discipline? We shall briefly demonstrate therefore a vigilant regard for the preservation of Christian morals, as pervading that system of discipline and regulation which he framed for the government of his societies. And the first thing which strikes us is, that all our institutions have received their character from the superior importance attributed to the work of God in the heart.' In this peculiarity our doctrines and religious economy harmonize. There is no wonder therefore, that Lord John Russel should pour equal contempt on both. He has been silent indeed as to any evils resulting from class meetings. Our province is to enumerate the advantages. 'Prudential' as this scheme was in its origin, 'a scheme,' says Mr. Wesley, for which I can never sufficiently praise God; its unspeakable usefulness having ever since been more and more manifest,' it soon assumed in his eyes the character of a providential restoration of an apostolical usage, and became an integral and permanent part of his economy. Thus began,' says he, that excellent institution, merely upon a temporal, account; from which we reaped so many spiritual blessings, that we soon fixed the same rule in all our societies.'*

[After other remarks on this excellent institution, Mr. Sandwith thus continues:]

In no other way indeed than by a subdelegation of authority could the pastoral duties of an itinerant ministry be adequately discharged. Hence the importance of class leaders, as subordinate religious teachers, to whose care and instruction the people are assigned in numbers not too large for their faithful personal superintendence. And a medium of communication, by the interposition of leaders' meetings, at which the preachers preside, is established between pastors and their people in the absence of a direct pastoral superintendence. The pastoral functions are more fully

* Wesley's Eccles. Hist., vol. iv, p. 179.

discharged, however, by personal and social visits from house to house,* and still further by the quarterly visitation of the classes. This important branch of our discipline cannot be too vigilantly maintained. For ample scope is there given for the exercise of the utmost fidelity, minuteness, and wisdom, on the part of a Christian pastor, who is expected to inquire into the things most connected with the personal and family godliness of our members, and administer suitable advice and exhortation.'t-The primary object of class meetings was to mark disorderly walkers. 'Some of the others were desired to overlook the rest, that we might know whether they walked worthy of the Gospel.' And a leader, as an inhabitant of the same neighbourhood with his members, has the best possible opportunities for the observation of their moral conduct. An ordinary share of sagacity too will enable him to ascertain religious declension, which hypocrisy itself cannot long enable to stand the ordeal of a close and searching personal inquiry. This advantage is wholly lost in religious meetings of a more vague and indefinite character, in which a defective piety is screened from the cognizance of the church. Class meetings favor that decision and fixedness of purpose which lie at the foundation of true moral excellence. They cherish also that intimate knowledge of character among Christians which inspires mutual confidence and esteem. 'As they had daily a more intimate acquaintance with,' says Mr. Wesley, 'so they had a more endeared affection for, each other.' The warmest sympathies are thus excited in numerous bosoms, and the communion of saints is delightfully verified, whether they 'rejoice with those that rejoice,' or weep with those that weep.' Lord John Russel's remarks on band meetings demand a few words in reply. We acknowledge that the band rules, as drawn up by Mr. Wesley, are strongly worded; and to such persons as are unacquainted with the general practice of the Connexion must have a revolting appearance. But these meetings were never intended for indiscriminate use: they were never designed for unregenerate persons, who are living under the power of sinful habits; but for such as are renewed in the spirit of their minds.' Lord John Russel's illustrations of the subject from the self-convicted libeller, Mr. Nightingale, reflect no credit on his habits of historical accuracy in the selection of his authorities. The substance of them is in this case a gross libel. Dr. Southey's statement of the injurious tendency of band meetings, as quoted by his lordship, is utterly incredible. It is not possible,' he asserts, for innocence to escape

*Mr. Wesley_laid great stress on this branch of pastoral superintendence. 'March 3, 1759, I rode to Colchester, and found that out of the hundred and twenty-six I had left here last year, we had lost only twelve: in the place of whom we had gained forty. Such is the fruit of visiting from house to house -Wesley's Eccl. Hist., vol. iv, p. 228.

†See Rev. Jabez Bunting's able 'Sketch of the Character of the late Rev. Josephi Benson,'--Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, N. S. vol. i, 1822, p. 77,

Wesley's Eccl. History, vol. iv, p. 192,

Mr.

contamination.' So writes the Poet Laureate in his closet. Wesley, on the other hand, who studied their effects in real life, has recorded, 'The good consequences of their meeting in band, I know; but the very bad consequences, I know not.' Mr. Watson also, in his reply to Dr. Southey, asserts, 'It is a sufficient answer to all the fears which the author has expressed as to the effect of these meetings, that among the most eminently holy of our people are those, generally, who observe the bands. It is allowed, that their benefits altogether depend upon the prudent use made of them; but they are not capable of the abuses which Mr. Southey anticipates; for they are not at all to the taste of trifling and undecided persons.' As in his lordship's objections to the doctrine of 'justification by faith,' so in the contemplation of this subject also, he wholly overlooks that security against a perversion of the institution which is to be found in the state of the heart. From so superficial a view of the matter, of course, all its moral advantages lie concealed. But profounder thinkers, like Dr. Jeremy Taylor, have recommended the practice of mutual confession to 'some spiritual person,' as a means to multiply the motives which restrain from evil, and impel to higher attainments in piety. Nor will any choose to expose themselves to the flagellations of so harsh a 'rod of spiritual discipline,' but the most decidedly devoted Christians. Dr. Hammond strenuously recommends mutual advice and reproof among Christians. One important benefit of this practice he states to be, the bettering our judicative faculty in general, which is much betrayed and decayed by loneness; and is most naturally improved by comparing ourselves with other men, hearing their undisguised opinion of our thoughts and actions.'+ The ingenious Mr. Foster, in his 'Essay on a Man's writing Memoirs of Himself,' comes to an analogous conclusion, as to the advantage of a mutual ingenuous acknowledgment' of our faults. In this confidential communication,' he observes, 'each will learn to behold the other's deviations fully as much in that light in which they are infelicities to be commisserated, as in that in which they are also faults or vices to be condemned; while both will earnestly endeavour to improve by their remembered improprieties. The Apostle seems to encourage such a confidence, where he says, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another."' But his lordship, limiting his views to the flagitious, can see in such confessions little else than an excitement to the commission or repetition of sin.' And he quotes the vulgar ribaldry of Nightingale, to abuse the public mind by representations which are based on wilful falsehood. He borrows an absurd illustration of the subject also from 'licentious novels,' and the profligate readers of them. But if all 'narratives of repentant frailty' are to be classed with licentious novels,' the sacred Scriptures themselves must be subjected to the blasphe

*Holy Living, chap. ii, sect. 4. Works, vol. i, p, 292, edit, 1684 Foster's Essays, p. 82.

my of so sweeping a libel. The candour of the inspired writers, however, was employed for far other and holier purposes than catering to the depraved tastes of corrupt readers. The possibili ty of abuse nevertheless did not withhold their pens. Neither a man's private memoirs of himself, therefore, in which he has traced his failings with a faithful hand for the inspection of an intimate friend, nor his confidential confessions of error, as in the institution denounced by Lord John Russel, are justly chargeable with the evils which their possible perversion and abuse might foster. His lordship's futile remarks on watch-nights and love-feasts are those of a person wholly unacquainted with the subject. For a further defence of our religious doctrines and discipline, and a demonstration of their moral tendency and effects, we refer his lordship and the public to Mr. Wesley's incomparable writings at large.

It is enough, that our system secures the allegiance of the heart to scriptural principles, and watches over the development of their practical results with a sleepless anxiety. No Christian church can do more; few do so much. Nor is it any answer to say, that 'the bad passions which you dam up in one place will burst out in another.' Methodism as an experiment, has been long enough in operation to furnish his lordship with verifications of his assertion, if any are to be obtained. But these, to be conclusive of its empiricism, should be both indisputable, and numerous enough to outweigh the evidence of those examples to which we confidently appeal in proof of its moral efficacy. We have already adverted to the proof deducible from the personal history of her disciples, who are her epistles known and read of all men.' We have briefly descanted also on some of the collateral benefits of Methodism, which accompanied Mr. Wesley's earlier career. And they are still felt and seen after the lapse of nearly a century, which has served only to mature the fruits of that moral harvest of which society at that time presented but the hopeful verdure. The moral wastes then reclaimed from a state of savage barbarity,* still, in proportion to the prevalence of Methodism, blossom as the rose.' Now as we wish to avoid vague and declamatory statements, we shall adhere to matters of undoubted history, and infallible observation. And any single fact, which is decisive of the moral efficacy of our principles, will suffice to confirm our assertion. We appeal therefore at once to the loyalty of our members in the manufacturing districts, when Radicalism was at its height, only eleven years ago. And it is a fact of the utmost value, be

* Mr. Wesley frequently put on record in his Journals facts illustrative of those moral renovations of a whole neighbourhood, which were effected by his preach. ing. Thus, in describing its effects in the west of Cornwall, he writes as follows: And that scandal of humanity, so constantly practised on all the coasts of Cornwall, the plundering vessels that struck upon the rocks, and often murdering those that escaped out of the wreck, is now well nigh at an end.'--Wesley's Eccl. Hist., vol. iv, p. 185.

[ By 'loyalty' in this passage, we understand Mr. Sandwith to mean that firm

cause nothing could more surely tend to dissipate a counterfeit religion than the political excitement of that period. That Methodism should have struck its roots deep in the manufacturing districts, may be considered on many accounts a great national benefit. We have shown its influence in counteracting a spirit of disaffection. Politicians have also laid great stress on it as speculatively a valuable accompaniment in the introduction of cotton manufactures into Ireland. For no system is more inimical to the Roman Catholic superstition.* Methodism operates beneficially in the manufacturing districts in another way. It is the inevitable tendency of the manufacturing and commercial system to cherish a covetous and worldly spirit. This spirit, so incidental to the industrious and frugal habits which accompany the progress of religion in the middle classes, Methodism has had to contend with from the beginning. It gave Mr. Wesley more anxiety almost, than his ordinary care of all the churches.' Nevertheless the system possesses within itself a strong counteracting power to moderate the spirit in question. Besides being based on the voluntary supplies of its members, it cultivates and calls forth a spirit of liberality, which has its widest sphere of exercise in the promotion of the objects of an elevated philanthropy. These objects are numerous, and, in the shape of various distinct funds, relate to the spread of the Gospel both at home and abroad, the support of worn-out preachers, the education of the preachers' children, and the assistance of the poor and the standard of liberality is steadily advancing among us. We possess one institution, the Benevolent or Poor and Strangers' Friend Society, which demands a few words in illustration of its value, because the Christian Remembrancer has uncharitably said, "Speaking from experience, we deny, that as a body "they (the Methodists) have extensively mitigated the distresses of the poor." It is well known that in all cities and in numerous towns, our societies have an eleemosynary institution of this kind attached to them, which is in constant operation, especially in winter. It is true, their funds are not wholly derived from the Methodists; nor, on the other hand, are the charitable contributions of the Methodists restricted to sectarian objects. In London the Benevolent Society is nearly half a century old; it gives adherence to constitutional law and order, in opposition to anarchy and riot, by which Methodism has always been distinguished. This is a principle of the last importance to the stability of a republican government, equally with that of the limited monarchy of England. It is at the utmost distance, however, from a spirit of passive obedience to any tyrannical subversion of the constitution, on the part of the government itself:-a spirit of abject servility which true patriots in England no more include within the term loyalty, as used by them, than we do in America. The present government of England itself is, in fact, based on a diametrically oppo site principle.--AMERICAN EDITORS.]

* Earl Mount Cashel, in his place in the house of lords, truly asserted, that 'the Wesleyan Methodists were a most useful body of persons; and there could be no better soldiers to fight against the Pope and his party. This had been long expe rienced in Ireland. Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, part xvii, sess. 1829, p. 1311.