AMERICA. The first Methodist 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 1760, . they began preaching. Thomas Webb. an army captain and local preacher, also preached in New York and elsewhere, and about the same time (1766) Robert Strawbridge, another Irishman, started the work in Maryland. where he was as sisted by Robert Williams, who was the apostle of Virginia. In 1760 Wesley sent out Richard Broadman and Joseph Pihnoor, and two years later Francis Asbury and Richard Wright. In 1773 their first Conference was held-10 min isters with 1160 members. In spite of the dis astrous influence of the Revolutionary War, at its end they lied 80 preachers and nearly 15,000 members. Most of the Episcopal clergy had fled, and Wesley tried to get a bishop in England to ordain one of his preachers for America. Failing in this, be 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, What coat and Vasey as deacons, on the next day elders, and Coke superintendent. He furnished them with a liturgy and collection of psalms and hymns, articles of religion abridged from the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England. and told them to organize the American societies into a church. This was clone at the celebrated Christmas Conference in Lovely Lane Chapel, Baltimore, December 24, 1784-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 Wesley's method in regard to both doctrine and discipline. Everything of a sectarian nature was stricken out of the Thirty-nine Articles, so that as they left Wesley's hands they could be sub 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 he received standing or sitting. Nor was it necessary for people to give up membership 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 super vision of all parts of the field. This 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 his family in their new home. and it has thus been able to proclaim the Gospel everywhere on American soil. But this would have been impossible with out a hand of preachers alert, brave, consecrated, self-sacrificing. ready to go anywhere with time message of salvation. Perhaps history hes never seen a truer type of home missionary then the itinerant preachers of Methodism. Ready to obey orders like the Jesuits, strung to preach like the Dominicans, they have gone everywhere, thread ing forests, fording and swimming rivers, making friends with Indians or with chance settlers, traveling through parishes a hundred miles or more in extent, meeting their appointments with the regularity of a machine, running the gauntlet of all kinds of dangers. These men of the first generations of Methodists revived the earliest traditions of Christianity. The emphasis put on preaching has been another cause of suc cess, Necessarily deficient in learning, the preachers made up for that by study (a course of study was early prescriloed ). reading, and con tact with men. But they learned above all to be preachers—ready, powerful, interesting extempo raneous preachers. Emphasis on religious ex perience, personal knowledge of Christ. aml vic tory over aii sin, gave both preachers and people a buoyant, triumphant life, and this sense of reality and power invested the pulpit with au thority and fascination. and its people with a vitalizing influence over others. At a time when the prevailing type of Christianity was Cal vinistic. the Methodists canoe with the Gospel of a free, full and present salvation. whicli they preaehed with tremendous earnestness and with out philosophical refinements. Methodism has therefore been a revival Church.