eighteen years his family remained in Manlius, Onondaga, while he himself was itinerating from Cape Cod to Ohio. About ten years ago he removed to Cape Cod, Mass., at which place he has laboured since that time, and where he still resides, in the 77th year of his age, though capable of sustaining a pastoral charge. He has frequently remarked, that preaching was to him a healthful exercise. This is owing, no doubt, to the natural, easy mode of speaking which he had acquired, and the self-control he had obtained over himself; so that he was always cool and collected, his zeal the effect of the flow of spirit, and not a laboured effort for effect, against the impulses of his own heart. He is emphatically a man of integrity, and steady devotion to God.

Rev. Wm. Lake, soon after the community was dissolved, removed to the town of Granby, N. Y., where his family still resides; and from this central point travelled extensively, and was eminently useful in planting and watering the Reformed Methodist societies in this state. He was unlike the Rev. E. Bailey in the temperament of his mind and gifts; but for several years, when the providence of God opened the way for them to labour together, they most harmoniously drew together, as true yoke-fellows, and scarcely did they strike a blow, but that a powerful revival attended the effort. He was indeed "a son of thunder," whose powerful appeals touched the most stony heart.

"

Failing in the community" project, tended no doubt to subserve the cause which they had so nearly at heart. They were scattered, and in their scattered condition have accomplished more than they would have done if confined to one spot as a centre of operations. This attempt to build up a permanent community was an unwise move, and is now universally so regarded by the persons interested. So the fathers think; and some of their sons, now that property associations and communities are heralded as the sovereign panacea of the ills of human society, look back to that time with an instinctive dislike to such schemes for human improvement.

Reformed Methodism was planted in Upper Canada by the Rev. Messrs. Wm. Lake and E. Baily, some time in 1817 or 1818. Here they soon found faithful co-labourers in the persons of Rev. Messrs. Robert and Daniel Perry. The history of the revival which followed their first labours in this province would be most instructive, affording one of the most interesting instances, of the conversion of hardened sinners, found in modern history of revivals. Instances of slaying power were common. Infidels feared and trembled in view of the manifest tokens of the divine presence.

In the state of New York, worthy co-labourers soon came to the aid of "the fathers," whose piety and devotion have placed them high in the affections of the people with which they stand connected. But our limits will not allow us to notice them particularly.

The Reformed Methodists, up to the year 1837, laboured under the inconvenience of having no periodical organ. In the year 1837 the "South Cortland Luminary" was started, edited by the writer. This paper was started by the New York Conference, but was soon made the organ of the whole church. The press in the year 1839 was removed to Fayetteville, N. Y., and took the name "Fayetteville Luminary," edited as before. In the fall of 1841, an association was formed between the Reformed Methodists, Society Methodists, and local bodies of Wesleyan Methodists, the object of which was to aid each other, without merging the various bodies in one church. By the terms of this association, the name of the Luminary was changed to that of "Methodist Reformer," the Reformer to be the organ of the association, but still the press to be the property of the Reformed Methodists. The Reformer was started in Fayetteville, but removed to Utica, in the fall of 1842; and after the organization of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, May, 1843, by an arrangement between the Reformed Methodists and the Wesleyans, on the association principle, the Reformer subscription list was transferred to the True Wesleyan, published at Boston, Massachusetts, as a preliminary step to a union of the two bodies. Six years only of the time of the existence of the Reformed Methodist body, they had the advantages of the press. Rev. E. Bailey had, however, written two works, one " Bailey on the Trinity," and "Thoughts on Government," previous to this.

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The Reformers are still distinct in their organization, but bound to the Wesleyan Methodists by the ties of sympathy in principle and mode of church polity, and likewise by an association which secures mutual advantages, and it is contemplated that at no distant day, they will be lost in the Wesleyan Methodist Church.

Such is but a meagre outline of the history of this body of Methodists. It has often been tauntingly said, "Why, you Reformers have done nothing!" We have, truly, nothing of which to boast. But considering the material with which they commenced, the number, men, want of schools and an educated ministry, the opposition which a body must meet that has the plainness to intimate that the Methodist Episcopal Church needs reforming, and the actual opposition, to say nothing of outright slander from that quarter: the wonder is greater that they have done as much as they have. The actual number in a denomination is not the true standard of the good they are

accomplishing. The Reformers have been the instruments of the conversion of thousands who, in consequence of their itinerant habits, have sought a home in other churches. One whole conference went off in Ohio, and joined the Methodist Protestant Church. Some ten years since, more than one half of the ministers of the Massachusetts Conference, and several societies, seceded, and joined the Protestant Methodists. Then, again, it requires some humility and attachment to principle to induce men to stand long with a small and persecuted people. Reformers have had seceders from them-I will not call them apostates-and all these things taken into the account, we have abundant reason to thank God that our labour has not been altogether in vain.

I might have added, under the head of "articles of religion," that the Reformed Methodist Church has always had an article against war, offensive and defensive. I add it here, for I have aimed to give every "radical" as well as "fanatical" trait in the history of this people. For if the public have any interest in the history of this branch of the Church of Christ, they are most interested in those portions wherein they differ from others. And surely, we need be ashamed of nothing but our sins. And I must add another fact: it might be expected that a body formed upon the democratical principle of the Reformed Methodist Church would be anti-slavery in its character. The Reformed Methodists have from the beginning had Mr. Wesley's general rule with respect to buying or selling, men, women and children, with an intention to enslave them," and not that spurious interpolated one now in the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church; and when the recent anti-slavery discussion sprung up, this body was prompt to respond to this effort to rid the church and country of this "sum of all villanies." They soon added an article to the Discipline, excluding apologists for this sin against "God, man, and nation," from the church. And we are happy to add, that they have great harmony on this question.

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In conclusion, Mr. Editor, I shall thank you for allowing space in your History of the whole Church, for transmitting to posterity the brief record of this body of Christians which I have furnished; but the haste with which it has been written, and amidst the pressing cares which at present devolve upon me, and the want of statistics and records, I must beg to urge as an apology for deficiencies.

TRUE WESLEYAN METHODIST CHURCH.

BY REV. J. TIMBERMAN,

TASTOR OF THE FIRST TRUE WESLEYAN METHODIST CHURCH, CITY OF NEW YORK.

THE polity of the original Wesleyan societies rested upon the principle that their illustrious founder had a right to control every minister and preacher, and every member of his societies, in all matters of a prudential character. As he himself states, he had the exclusive power to appoint, when, where and how, his societies should meet; and to remove those whose lives showed that they had no desire to flee the wrath to come; and this power remains the same, whether the people meeting together were eight hundred or eight thousand. He exercised a similar power over the preachers, to appoint each, when, where and how to labour, and to tell any, "If I see causes, I do not desire your help any longer." Mostly, the members of these societies were members of the Church of England; some were members of the dissenting churches. Mr. Wesley was a minister of the Church of England, and as such he died; and with very few exceptions, his preachers were laymen. He was their tutor and governor. He was the patron of all the Methodist pulpits in England and Ireland for life: the sole right of nomination being vested in him by the deeds of settlement. He was also the patron of the Methodist societies in America, and as such, he is acknowledged by the Methodist Episcopal Church as its founder. That he is the author of the Episcopacy of that church, is questioned by some for the following reasons: 1st. It was not until some years after the institution of Episcopacy in 1784, that Mr. Wesley's authority was alleged as its basis. But without any mention of Mr. Wesley, the itinerant preachers declared in their first minutes: "We will form ourselves into an Episcopal Church," &c. 2d. Mr. Wesley alleged no other authority than himself to ordain ministers, but his right as a presbyter. 3d. He solemnly forbid Mr. Asbury to assume the title of bishop in his letter to Mr. Shinn, dated London, Sept. 20th, 1788, in which he says: "One instance of this, your greatness, has given me great

concern.

How can you, how dare you suffer yourself to be called a bishop? I shudder at the very thought. Men may call me a man, or a fool, or a rascal, or a scoundrel, and I am content; but they shall never, with my consent, call me a bishop. For my sake, for God's sake, for Christ's sake, put a full end to this." Signed, John Wesley. 4th. Some of the first symptoms indicative of dissatisfaction with the new economy were evinced by those preachers, who were well acquainted with Mr. Wesley's sentiments on this subject, and had themselves been made to feel the tremendous power of this economy among Methodists, namely, Episcopacy. On no question have they been so equally divided. No changes, however, have been effected. The Episcopacy still maintains its prerogatives in their original integrity. In 1824, memorials and petitions were presented to the General Conference, complaining of the government being so constituted and administered, as to exclude the local preachers and the lay members from every sort of participation in their own government, as Methodists. But some of these petitioners were satisfied with the plea of expediency; still the most of them took the ground of right. All of them claimed a representative form of government. The Conference replied, that they knew no such right, nor did they comprehend any such privileges. From that time the controversy assumed a new character, the result of which was the call of a convention of all Methodist families, to a representative form of church government, to be held at Baltimore, Maryland, in November, 1828. Here, a provisional government, under the formal articles of association, was adopted, to continue for two years; after which, another convention was also held in Baltimore, and continued its sessions from the 2d to the 23d of November, 1830. One hundred and twelve persons were elected as members, eighty-one of whom attended. A constitution and discipline were adopted; called, "the Constitution and Discipline of the Protestant Methodist Church." In this, much contemplated by Reformed Methodists was gained, and prosperity greatly attended said church. But many things contemplated by True Wesleyans were not yet gained; for the true founder of Wesleyan Methodism was not only opposed to the Episcopal form of church government, as it exists in America among the Methodists, but also to slavery as it exists in this country. And yet this vile system is cherished by both Episcopal and Protestant Methodists; therefore, both churches are still agitated by those who were not one in sentiment upon Episcopacy and slavery. True Wesleyans and some of the chief men are engaged in this latter reform with Mr. Hervey, who calls this system of slavery the vilest system ever seen beneath the sun. In the Me