WESLEY AND AMERICAN METHODISM PRIOR TO 1766.
THE real advent of Methodism into America is a subject demanding special
consideration. It has been generally supposed that its first
introduction was in 1766 by Barbara Heck and Philip Embury, who
inaugurated religious services at that time in the city of New York. But
it has always seemed to us that Methodism was introduced much earlier.
There had been no less than five members of the "Holy Club"--the Oxford
Methodists' fraternity--preaching in America prior to 1766, namely, John
and Charles Wesley, Benjamin Ingham, Charles Delamot, and George
Whitefield. Whatever may be said of the four former, it is certain that
George Whitefield was here, from 1740, preaching as a flaming Methodist
evangelist from Maine to Georgia. These men all accepted Wesley as their
leader, and looked to him for counsel.
Mr. Whitefield's first visit to America was undertaken with the express
purpose of assisting Wesley in his great work. But Wesley had left the
field before he arrived. George Whitefield was an Oxford Methodist, a
member of the Holy Club, and possessed an undying love for Wesley. He
was known in Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New
England as a Methodist, and until, in after years, he drew away from
Wesley for a time, on some doctrinal question, he was in fullest accord
with him. Whatever he did in America during his first and second visits
was done as a Methodist. It must be confessed that Whitefield did a
marvelous work in all parts of the country years prior to 1766. He was
known in New England as a Methodist, and the first Methodist chapel ever
erected in this land was built in Boston, the land of the Pilgrims.
Charles Wesley stopped in Boston several weeks, on his way from Georgia
to England, and preached several times in Dr. Cutler's Church on Salem
Street, known as Christ Church, and also in King's Chapel. He also was
known as an Oxford Methodist. When Whitefield first entered New England
he had not separated from Wesley. He had been to England since his first
visit, and had been led, like the Wesleys, into the experience of
salvation. He at once entered into their labors, and had inaugurated
outdoor preaching at Bristol. It was not until he had visited New
England a second, perhaps a third, time, and had adopted the views of
Calvin as held by New England divines, that he drew away for a time
from Wesley. In Pennsylvania, in New Jersey, and in New York God wrought
wonders by this flaming Methodist evangelist.
The Puritans, who first settled New England, held orthodox views on the
subject of justification by faith and regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
This was their faith for more than half a century. But when they began
to decline, legal forms were substituted for spiritual power. The
"halfway covenant," as it was called, was introduced, and under it
persons became members of the Church without conversion, and it was not
even deemed an essential qualification for a minister of the Gospel that
he be converted. The Church and State were united, and the courts by
legal enactments compelled every man, no matter what his religious
faith, to sustain a Church whose creed he did not believe. The same
state of things existed in Virginia, where Episcopal rule obtained. The
whole land seemed a "valley of dry bones." There was one light in New
England. In the obscure town of Northampton Jonathan Edwards was
preaching with marvelous effect, and his influence was felt all along
the valley of the Connecticut; but it had not reached Boston. There was
one man in Boston who waited for the salvation of Israel--Rev. Benjamin
Coleman, pastor of Brattle Street Church. He had heard of the work in
Northampton, and also of Whitefield, the youthful evangelist in the
South, and longed to witness the like in Boston before he went hence,
for he was now seventy years of age. He wrote to Whitefield at Savannah;
the latter, anxious to visit the land of the Pilgrims, came in the
demonstration of the Spirit, and such a revival as attended his ministry
New England had never witnessed. A writer of some note gives the
following description of his coming: "At the close of a beautiful autumn
day, in 1740, Whitefield had arrived within full view of the city of
Boston. Its spires were gleaming in the rays of the setting sun. Its
neat, white dwellings were reflected from the mirror surface of the
quiet waters, which nearly surrounded the whole site. Its attendant
villages loomed up around the whole horizon. Withdrawing his eyes from
the first glance at the city, which lay in full view from the hill on
which he stood, he looked down the road before him, and saw a multitude
of people--officers of the government, ministers of the Gospel,
citizens, ladies, and children--who had all come forth to meet the
accomplished stranger, and conduct him, amidst smiles and blessings, to
the city. It must have been an interesting hour to the youthful hero of
the cross. Three thousand miles from his native land, among entire
strangers, he was welcomed to the renowned city of the Puritans with
demonstrations of honor which Alexander, or Caesar, or Napoleon might
have coveted. He was coming among them, not the gray-haired veteran hero
of a thousand battles, not the brave warrior from the fields of victory,
not the monarch with patronage and power in his hand, but the
sincere-hearted, pure-minded, and eloquent-tongued Methodist missionary,
who had drank from the pure fountain of evangelical truth, and had now
come to lead the thirsty Pilgrims of New England to the garden of the
Lord,
"'Where living waters gently pass,
And full salvation flows.'"
It must be remembered that this most remarkable man was but twenty-six
years old, and yet England and America had been thrilled by the power of
his unexampled eloquence.
The next day he preached in Brattle Street Church, then in other
churches, hoping to afford the people an opportunity to hear. But the
multitudes were so great that no church could accommodate them, so he
resorted to the open field, as usual. Boston Common was thronged with
thousands, while three times each day he preached to them with an
eloquence which Boston had never before heard. Hundreds were won to
Jesus, and many ministers were aroused and made clearly conscious of
their need of salvation. He visited some of the adjacent towns,
especially Cambridge. His eloquent appeals aroused Harvard College from
its sleep of a century, and there occurred in that institution what
never happened before or since--a genuine revival of religion. It was a
wonder then; it would be more so now! Dr. Coleman, a graduate of
Harvard, wrote at the time: "The college is entirely changed. The
students are full of God, and will, I trust, come out blessings to their
generation. Many of them appear truly born again, and have proved happy
instruments of conversion to their fellows. The voice of prayer and of
praise fills their chambers; and sincerity, fervency, and joy, with
seriousness of heart, set visibly upon their faces. I was told yesterday
that not seven out of the hundred in attendance remained unaffected."
"That was," says one writer, "a strange day for Harvard."
This was the introduction of Methodism into New England, and Whitefield
at the time was a Methodist evangelist.
We have said that the first Methodist chapel ever erected in America was
built in Boston. Where is the proof? We submit the following facts:
While attending the Methodist Ecumenical Conference in London, in 1881,
Rev. Dr. Allison, of Nova Scotia, had occasion to examine the archives
of the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,"
under whose auspices both Wesley and Whitefield came to America. Dr.
Allison tells us that, in the course of his examination, he found
letters written by John Wesley while in Georgia. He discovered, also, a
most important letter written by Dr. Cutler, of Boston, dated "Boston,
Massachusetts Bay Colony, July, 1750," in which he says: "There are in
Boston at this time fourteen independent chapels and one or two
churches." He further adds: "There is, in an obscure alley, a Baptist
chapel, _and just now there has been built a Methodist chapel, a form of
religion which I think will not soon die_" (Conference report, p. 93).
But who was this Dr. Cutler who wrote the letter from Boston in 1750? He
was Rev. Timothy Cutler, first rector of Christ Church, Salem Street,
Boston. He was president of Yale College as early as 1720. In 1722 he,
with six others, mostly Congregationalists, withdrew, and united with
the Episcopal Church. He immediately sailed for England, where he
received Episcopal ordination and the title of Doctor in Divinity, and
was sent by the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts" as a missionary to Boston. It was under his ministry that Christ
Church was erected, and it was in this church that Charles Wesley, an
Oxford Methodist, preached in 1736 several times, during his detention
here while on his way from Georgia to England. He speaks of preaching
in Dr. Cutler's church as well as in King's Chapel.
[Illustration: ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH AT EPWORTH.]
[Illustration: EPWORTH MEMORIAL CHURCH AT CLEVELAND, O.]
Here is this Episcopal rector, in 1750, eighteen years before a
Methodist chapel was erected in New York or Sam's Creek, Maryland,
reporting there was then a Methodist chapel in Boston! Dr. Cutler says
it "had been built."
Who built this chapel, whether English Methodist soldiers or some of
Whitefield's followers, who might have been pressed out of the dead
churches, we do not know, but it was a _Methodist_ chapel. It might have
been the former; it may have been the latter. We admit the work did not
abide. But that was not the first time that Methodism failed in Boston.
Boardman came to Boston, and is said to have formed a class here in
1770, or near that time. But when Freeborn Garrettson visited Boston, in
1787, no trace of Boardman's class could be found. When William Black
came, a few years later, he found no trace of Freeborn Garrettson's
work; and though Mr. Black had a great revival, when Jesse Lee came, in
1798, no fruit of Mr. Black's labors were found. It still remains true,
on the authority of Dr. Cutler, who wrote from personal observation,
that there was a Methodist chapel in Boston in 1750; and, if so, it was
the first ever erected in America.