USA > Arkansas > History of Methodism in Arkansas > Part 2
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CHAPTER II.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTRY-CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE-A DEFINITION OF, METHODISM.
In order to understand the nature of, and appreciate the results of any great moral and religious force in its operation upon society, we must know something of its theater of action-the geography of the country where the recorded events transpired, the nature and character of the people among whom these moral forces were at work, the instru- mentalities employed, together with the results that were ac- complished by them.
In writing a history of Methodism in Arkansas, it will be necessary to define and briefly describe the terms employed.
METHODISM IN ARKANSAS.
The separate existence of different ecclesiastical organiza- tions is not of necessity an evil. Each one of the great ecclesiastical bodies of the country may have a mission to fill and a work to do that no other organization can so well accomplish. Needless divisions and sub-divisions should be avoided, so that every separate organization should stand for some distinct idea, and clearly represent some great prin- ciple. Methodism is such an organization. It stands for and represents a system of doctrines and polity peculiar to itself. Its methods of work are different from all other bodies. In doctrine it is a modified system of Arminianism, as distinguished from Calvanism. It lays peculiar stress upon the doctrine of the universality of the atonement, made by Christ. While there are some minor bodies of Christians who hold the same views of the atonement, to the Methodist Church belongs the credit of laying special emphasis upon this great central truth of religion.
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As a system of spiritual teaching, it lays special emphasis on the doctrine of spiritual regeneration, and the witness of the spirit to our adoption into the family of God.
· As a system of church polity it stands equally removed from the assumptions of High Churchism on the one hand and Congregationalism on the other.
As to its methods of Church work, they are peculiar to itself in its plan of supplying the people with regular preach- ing by the system of an itinerant pastorate.
Methodism is a growth and not a system of ecclesiastical machinery devised by human skill. The different parts of the system were introduced as the necessities of the work demanded, and as a result of this fact it is adapted to every condition of society. When properly understood and ad- justed, it meets the conditions of society as they exist in the largest cities, and in the most sparsely settled portions of the country. It meets the demands and makes provisions for the most cultured communities and the most illiterate of our population. It is equally at home in the elegant city church and in the rude log meeting-house on the Western frontier. American Methodism is something distinct from every other form of organized Christianity, and has its dis- tinct work to perform and its sublime mission to fill in the. development of the spiritual resources of the country.
TOPOGRAPHY OF ARKANSAS AND EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
Arkansas is situated between the parallels of 33° and 36°, north latitude, and nearly midway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Its area is 53,850 square miles, and its ex- tent from north to south is 240 miles, and from east to west 250 miles. It is bounded on the north by Missouri, east by Tennessee and Mississippi, from which it is separated by the Mississippi River, south by Louisiana and west by Texas and the Indian Territory.
Our historians inform us that the celebrated Spanish ex- plorer, Hernando DeSoto, crossed the Mississippi River in
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1541. The authorities are not agreed as to the place where he crossed the river. Some say the lowest "Chickasaw Bluff" (Memphis), some a little above the mouth of White River. Others claim that it was below the mouth of the Arkansas River. He was the first white man to enter this territory. He is said to have traveled west of the high lands of White River and thence south by way of the Hot Springs to the Indian village of Autamque on the Ouachita River. He then followed that stream to its confluence with the Red River, and thence down that stream to where it empties into the Mississippi River.
The first white settlement was made in 1686, by a com- pany who formed a colony near or at the Arkansas Post. The celebrated John Law obtained a grant of four leagues of land lying on the Arkansas River, and settled a body of French and Germans upon it as a part of a colony of 800. Some authorities date this settlement in 1721. All agree, however, that the first white settlement in Arkansas was at the Arkansas Post.
Arkansas was originally a part of that vast tract of country known as the Province of Louisiana, which was purchased · from the French in 1803. From the first settlement of this territory until it was purchased by the United States it was under French and Spanish control, and was exclusively occu- pied by French and Spanish settlers.
The Roman Catholic Church was the only form of religion that was tolerated by law during this period. Among other regulations for the government of this territory we find the following: "They shall not be molested in matters of reli- gion, but the Apostolic Roman Catholic worship shall alone be publicly permitted." As it is the boast of this Church that it never changes, it is pertinent to ask, if it had the power, would any other form of worship be tolerated in this State at the present time ?
As the Territory of Louisiana was at different times under
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the dominion of France and Spain, the first white settlers were of these nationalities. The following description of the early French settlers in Missouri will equally apply to these settlers in Arkansas, for they were the same type of people :
"In their intercourse with the Indians, by whom they were surrounded, the early French settlers were peculiarly fortunate. While other colonists were almost continually involved in mutually destructive hostilities with the red men, they possessed a gentleness and adaptability which never failed to win and preserve the confidence and friendship of these children of nature. In all their explorations to the remotest rivers and hunting grounds they associated with the Indians as the common children of the Great Spirit, adopted many of their customs, and often amalgamated with them in blood. It is doubtful if history gives the record of a people who in modern times were more plain and simple in their manners, more cheerful in their dispositions, or better ad- ministered individually to their own wants than did the early French settlers. They lived mainly in villages, which were usually laid off in long, narrow streets; the houses simple, plain, uniform, and partly or wholly surrounded by sheds or galleries."
Such is a brief description of the habits and customs of the early settlers of Arkansas. The descendants of these old French families are still to be found in some parts of the State. Such names as Pyeatte and LaFevre, of Pulaski County ; Barraque and Vaugine, of Jefferson County ; Fabre, of Ouachita County ; Notrebe and Roderique, of Arkansas County, and many others that might be named, indicate their descent from the old French settlers.
Among the early settlers of the State we must not forget another class of men of Anglo-Saxon origin. To quote from the same author :
"There was yet another class; one that loved the silent woods and the unmarred face of nature, with a deep and
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passionate devotion that led them far beyond the sound of the woodman's axe, or the sight of cultivated fields. They were the grandest type of the old frontiersman. Learned in the science of the woods, and altogether superior to the savage on his own ground, and with his own weapons, they loved to contend single-handed with difficulty and danger, and to feel in the depth of the forest that they were the dreaded masters of all its wild forces. Passionately fond of hunting and trapping, they loved peace because it allowed them the undisturbed gratification of their tastes, yet they were not averse to war. The whoop of the savage stirred their wild, fierce blood to its depths and gave them a stern pleasure. These were the protectors and defenders of the more quiet class." (" Methodism in Missouri : " McAnally.)
From these quotations the reader can have a very fair idea of the class of people to whom the early Methodist preachers brought the messages of the gospel. It will readily be seen that a population having so little affinity for each other as these French and Spanish settlers, with all their attachments for the Roman Catholic Church, and their opposition to every form of Protestantism on the one hand, and the rough, bold hunters, trappers and miners scattered over a large extent of territory on the other hand ; and when we further consider the great differences in nationality, religion, man- ners and customs, we will more fully understand the diffi- cult task that confronted these early pioneers of Methodism. A study of the men and the peculiarity of the work they were called to do, will give us more enlarged conceptions of the wisdom of the plan of itinerancy, that enabled the Church to so admirably adapt the agencies at command to the great work to be accomplished by their labors.
CHAPTER III.
ORIGIN OF METHODISM-JOHN WESLEY-AT OXFORD- HIS CONVERSION-ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETIES-LAY HELPERS.
In writing the history of any movement it is impossible to obtain a clear insight into its nature without some knowl- edge of its origin. If we would fully understand the history of Methodism in Arkansas, we must know something of its origin and previous history. What is Methodism? What are, some of its distinguishing features ? In what does it agree and wherein does it differ from other existing forms of Christianity ? An answer to these questions would give us some idea of the nature of Methodism. It is usual for our writers on Methodism to say that the Rev. John Wesley was under God the founder of Methodism. John Wesley was the second son of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth in Lincolnshire, June 17, 1703. His father was a learned and pious minister of the Established Church of England. His mother was one of the most remarkable women of any age of the Church, and was peculiarily quali- fied for the proper training and education of her children. At the age of eleven he was placed at the Charter House under the able tuition of Dr. Walker. He entered college at the Oxford University at the age of 16, and soon gave evidence by his progress in his studies of that acute- ness of intellect and sternness of virtue by which he was afterwards so eminently distinguished. He was ordained Deacon in September, 1725. He took his degree in 1827, and in 1728 was ordained a Presbyter in the Church of Eng- land. In 1729 he attended the meetings of a small society which had been formed at Oxford, in which were included
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his brother Charles and Mr. Morgan, for the purpose of assisting each other in their studies, and consulting how they might employ their time to the best advantage. The order and regularity which they observed in their studies and efforts to do good to others caused some of the wits at Oxford to give them the nickname, by way of ridicule, of Methodists, a name by which Mr. Wesley and his followers have ever since been distinguished. They were also called, in derision, the Holy Club, and finally they were called Sacramentarians, on account of the frequency with which they commemorated the sufferings of their divine Master. Such was the origin of the term Methodist.
It was not until May 26, 1738, that John Wesley found perfect peace by trusting in Christ for salvation. He says that " in the evening he went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate street, where a layman was reading Luther's preface to the Romans, and while listening to Luther's de- scription of the change which the spirit works through faith in Jesus Christ, 'I felt my heart strangely warmed.'" From that time he began to preach with great zeal and earnestness the doctrines that had brought so much peace and comfort to his own heart. His brother Charles and Mr. Whitfield and others began to preach the same doctrines; until they were expelled from the pulpits of the Established Church. They then went to the societies they had organized, and to the hospitals and prisons, and preached wherever a congrega- tion could be assembled to hear them. Societies were formed in London and various other places in England, and continued to multiply so rapidly that Mr. Wesley had to or- ganize a band of helpers. There were a few clergymen of the Church of England associated with Mr. Wesley in his work. These with his lay helpers were assembled together for counsel to review the work of the past, and lay their plans for the future.
Thus originated what is known in Methodism as the Con-
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ference, and out of which has grown the system of confer- ences that has proven to be such an effective agency in the promotion of the kingdom of Christ.
It will be seen from this brief statement of the origin of Methodism that it was a growth rather than a formal organ- ization. Nothing could have been further from Mr. Wesley's intention at the beginning of his labors then to organize a separate ecclesiastical organization. He was led step by step to adopt the various measures that characterized his work, until it had grown into a great ecclesiastical body. Unlike the great majority of other ecclesiastical bodies that have been organized, there was no violent breaking away from older churches. There never was any formal separa- tion from any other body of Christians. Methodism was neither a doctrinal nor ecclesiastical reformation, except as these were incidental to the great spiritual reformation that was effected by its agency.
Mr. Wesley never did repudiate the thirty-nine articles of the Church of England, and to the day of his death was loyal to the ecclesiastical order of that Church. Method- ism, as it exists in its system of doctrines, government, cus- toms and forms, is a growth, and not a formal, fixed structure. A growth under the guiding hand of God, being led by the Holy Spirit. It was a great spiritual movement, a revival of spiritual religion in the Church, as contrasted with a dead, cold formalism. As one has very aptly expressed it, " Methodism is Christianity in earnest."
The doctrines upon which Mr. Wesley and his co-laborers laid so much stress, were not new or novel discoveries ; they were old doctrines which he claimed were taught in the hom- ilies of the Church of England. He only claimed to lay stress upon doctrines that had been neglected and in too many instances forgotten and even denied by those who had solemnly promised to teach them. In the great Lutheran reformation of the sixteenth century, the emphasis was laid
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on the doctrine of justification by faith. In the great Wes- leyan reformation of the eighteenth century, the emphasis was laid on the doctrine of the witness of the Holy Spirit as a privilege of the children of God.
An excellent writer has truly said that "the strong feat- ures of Methodism were Bible study and Bible experience, and Christian activity." Methodism was a revival of Bible study. The early Methodist preachers were the most in- tense Bible students of that age. "To fit themselves for this work they read the Bible daily, thoroughly and many of them on their knees imploring Divine light. To help them, Mr. Wesley published outlines of Greek and Hebrew grammars and notes on the New Testament ; but his emphatic decla- ration was, 'Have a Bible always about you.' As these men were of the masses, their spirit spread to those around them, and hence promoted Bible study. The institution of the class-meeting, had a direct tendency to promote the study of the Holy Scriptures. As it was the duty of the class- leader to converse freely with the members of his class, and give spiritual advice to such as had need of correction, reproof or encouragement, he must study the Scriptures to do this successfully. Hence many of these old class-lead- ers were remarkably apt in quotations from the Bible."
The opposition which Methodism encountered compelled its early members to study the Bible in self-defense. Their doctrines were bitterly assailed. Antinomianism had taken possession of a large portion of the pulpits, and of the public mind, and its votaries opposed with great earnestness, the ·doctrines of a full and free salvation. Believing, as these early Methodists did, that a full atonement had been made for all men, they felt constrained by the love of Christ to. study the Bible so as to be able to present its truths in the clearest manner, to save the souls of their hearers.
Methodism was a revival of Bible experience. With them it was more than a system of doctrines for the enlighten-
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ment of the intellect; it was a conscious experience of par- don, peace, and approval of God. Although this doctrine of the conscious witness of the Holy Spirit had been clearly taught by the early reformers and founders of the English Church, it had in a large measure been obscured by the spirit of worldliness, and scepticism, that had entered the Church; so that when Wesley and his co-laborers revived this scriptural doctrine, they were branded as enthusiasts and fanatics, and denounced as disturbers of the peace, and quiet of society.
That the moral and spiritual condition of England de- manded such a revival of spiritual godliness, is the universal testimony of divines, statesmen, and historians. "The higher classes laughed at piety, and prided themselves on being above what they called fanaticism; the lower classes were grossly ignorant and abandoned to vice, while the Church enervated by a universal decline was unable longer to give countenance to the downfallen cause of truth." (Stephens).
Bishop Burnett, of the English Church, is quoted as saying : " I cannot look on without the deepest concern when I see the imminent ruin hanging over this Church, and by conse- quence, over the whole Reformation. The outward state of things is black enough, God knows ; but that which heightens my fears rises chiefly from the inward state into which we are unhappily fallen."
Archbishop Secker said : "In this we cannot be mistaken that an open and professed disregard is become through a variety of causes the distinguishing characteristic of the present age."
Cardinal Manning, of the Roman Catholic Church, said in his sermon on the anniversary of the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England : "Had it not been for John Wesley, and his preaching of justification by faith, no man could tell to what a depth of degradation England would have sunk." ' (Bishop Simpson.)
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Methodism was a revival of Christian activities. Mr. Wes- ley himself set the example of an intense activity in the ser- vice of Christ. But few men have been able to perform the amount of labor that he did. If we think of him simply as a preacher we are amazed at the number of sermons he was able to preach, and when we read of the books, tracts, pam- phlets and sermons that he published, we wonder that any man could perform such a prodigious amount of work; and then, in addition to this, the amount of travel that he did was as much labor as an ordinary man could have per- formed; and this intense activity was continued to the end of life. The example of Wesley was followed by his helpers to such a degree that one of the causes of the bitter oppo- sition from many of the Established Clergy was that their in- difference and slothfulness was put to shame by the superior zeal of these Methodist preachers. Some of them actually, complained that the preaching of the Methodists had sent such vast numbers to the Communion that their labors were greatly increased to wait upon them at the Communion table. This intense activity upon the part of the preachers had its effect upon the membership of the Church, and resulted in the establishment of a number of agencies for the promo- tion of personal piety, and the salvation of the masses. Out of this grew all those peculiar agencies of Methodism, such as the class-meeting, the love-feast, the conferences, quar- terly, annual and general; the local and itinerant ministry that have contributed so largely to the success of Method- ism, both in England and America.
ECCLESIASTICAL TERMS IN METHODISM.
While many of the terms employed by Methodists to des- ignate the ministry and other officers of the Church, are used in the same sense and with the same meaning, attached to them by other denominations, there are some terms that have a meaning peculiar to Methodism. The term Deacon, for instance, designates an order in the ministry, while the
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same term among the Baptists and Presbyterians designates a lay officer in the Church. While every Methodist is sup- posed to be perfectly familiar with all the terms employed, there may be some of our readers who are not familiar with the different shades of meaning which Methodists attach to these terms, and for their benefit the following explanations are given :
THE MINISTRY.
The ministry of the Methodist Church is divided into two classes-the traveling and local, or as sometimes expressed, the itinerant and local. A traveling preacher is one who holds his membership in some Annual Conference, and is subject to removal from one pastoral charge to another, and is amenable to the Annual Conference for his Christian character, and the faithful performance of his duties.
Local preachers are not subject to removal, but choose their own field of labor. Secular pursuits are not incom- patible with the amount of service they are expected to render. They are responsible to the Quarterly Conference for the faithful performance of their duties.
There are three orders in the Methodist Ministry-Bish- ops, Elders and Deacons. The more generally received idea, however, is to say that there are but two orders-Eld- ers and Deacons-the Bishop's position being of the nature of an office rather than a distinct order in the ministry.
This division prevails among all Episcopal Methodists.
The Bishops are elected by the General Conference, and hold their office for life.
The Elders are elected by the Annual Conference, and ordained by the Bishop and Elders, and by virtue of their ordination are invested with all the rights and privileges of the ministry. The term Elder is synonymous with the term Presbyter.
The Deacons are elected by the Annual Conference and ordained by the Bishop, and are invested with all the rights
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of the ministry, except the administration of the Lord's Supper, in which they may assist the Elder.
A licentiate is one who has received a license to preach from a Quarterly Conference.
A Presiding Elder is an Elder who has been placed in charge of a district.
A preacher in charge is the pastor of a circuit, station or mission by appointment by the constituted authority. He may be a traveling Elder or Deacon, an ordained or unor- dained preacher on trial, or a local preacher as a supply.
Where two preachers are appointed to the same pastoral charge, one of them is called the senior preacher, and the other is called the junior preacher. The junior preacher was formerly called the "helper."
An exhorter is one who has been licensed to exhort. His business is not to sermonize. It is less formal. He may read a scripture lesson, and make a practical application of its leading sentiments to the congregation.
The stewards have charge of the financial affairs of the congregation.
A pastoral charge may be either a station, circuit or mis- sion.
A station is a single congregation constituting a pastoral charge.
A circuit is a pastoral charge composed of a number of congregations.
A mission is a pastoral charge receiving aid from the missionary board.
A preacher " on trial " is a probationer who has not been received into full connection in the Conference.
A preacher " in full connection " is one who has passed his probation, and has been formally received into the memn- bership of an Annual Conference.
An effective preacher is one who is able to do full pastoral service.
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A supernumerary preacher is one who is partially disabled by personal affliction from doing the work of the ministry.
A superannuated preacher is one who is thoroughly dis- abled by age or affliction from doing any pastoral work.
THE CONFERENCES.
The term conference is peculiar to Methodism as a desig- nation of the official and business meetings of the Church.
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