USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > History of the Wesley M.E. Church of Brooklyn, L.I. > Part 20
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RECEIVED AND DISBURSED FOR CURRENT EXPENDITURES.
First year, ending March 31, 1866 $2,229 68
Second year ending March 31, 1867. 3,405 07
Third year ending March 31, 1868 3,611 29
Fourth year, ending March 31, 1869 4,905 17
Fifth year, ending March 31, 1870. 5,114 50
Sixth year, ending March 31, 1871. 5,144 28
Seventh year, ending March 31, 1872 5,156 25
Eighth year, ending March 31, 1873 5,187 86
Ninth year, ending March 31, 1874. 5,205 36
Tenth year, ending March 31, 1875 5,212 18
Total current expenditures $45,171 64
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HISTORY WESLEY M. E. CHURCH.
RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS FOR BUILDING, FURNISHING AND REPAIRS.
Building Tabernacle $1,012 94
Furnishing Tabernacle. 345 28
Furnishing Parsonage. 1,213 50
Building lots and legal expenses 3,275 50
Building Wesley M. E. Church
31,154 30
Furnishing Wesley M. E. Church.
4,284 84
Building chapel or school-house
8,785 68
Furnishing chapel or school-house 2,456 50
Repairing and painting church and chapel.
2,954 36
Aggregate for building, furnishing, and repairs $55,482 90
Aggregate current expenditures 45,171 64
Aggregate expenditures for ten years $100,654 54
BALANCE SHEET FOR MARCH 31, 1875.
ASSETS.
Real estate, estimated value $50,000
Church furniture and fixtures 4,000
Chapel furniture and fixtures 1,850
Parsonage furniture 1,250
Harmoniums for church and chapel 550
Books for Sunday-school library
250
Total assets
$57,900
LIABILITIES.
On bond and mortgage.
$25,500
Floating debt. 2,300
$27,800
Surplus over liabilities $30,100
We think that the foregoing financial statement, con- sidering the numerical strength of the Society and the formidable obstacles it has had to contend against dur- ing the entire decade, furnishes cause for congratula-
281
FINANCIAL RECORD.
tion and thanksgiving, as well as affords encourage- ment to the trustees, the members of the Church and congregation, and all who may feel disposed to cast in their lot with them, to persevere and go forward with the good work, trusting alone in the Lord for His con- tinued blessing and benediction upon their labors in helping to sustain the cause of Christ, remembering while so doing they are helping to support a society, a member of the great Methodistic family, whom God has rised up and blessed and honored for upward of one hundred and thirty years, and whose spiritual chil- dren can now be numbered by millions, and are to be found on every quarter of the globe, and millions more who have safely crossed the river of death and are now singing the song of the redeemed :-
" Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and hon- or, and glory, and blessing, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. Amen."
APPENDIX. THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND HER ECONOMY.
BY HON. E. L. FANCHER.
THE time has arrived when the Methodist Episcopal Church can, with confidence, point to her history and to the promise of her advancing career as satisfactory proofs that she has, through divine favor, become one of the prominent religious organizations, and that she has just claim to be recognized as a true Church of Christ. From her earliest foundation she has exhibited every characteristic of a growing and powerful Church. In her Articles of Religion she embraces the great truths of Christianity. Her government is adequate and effective ; her membership is numerous and intel- ligent ; her ministry is learned and powerful ; her benevolent work is wide-spread and flourishing ; and she has become more a Church of the people than any other evangelical organization in the country.
What made her what she is save the divine blessing, the discipline of Christianity, and her admirable econ- omy ? No ancient treasures have contributed to her wealth ; no secular advantages have stimulated her growth ; nor have any national or political ties effec- tuated her development. No one would now dream of attributing her wonderful expansion to any morbid overflow of religious enthusiasm. On the contrary, the springs of her strength flow "fast by the oracles of
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THE M. E. CHURCH AND HER ECONOMY.
God ;" and whatever is pure and permanent, in the spiritual forces of Christianity has taken deep root in her heart, and exhibited healthful life in her bosom.
Had the fathers of the Church possessed the foresight of inspired scers they could scarcely have laid her foundations in a different manner than they did. Had they, in enthusiastic anticipation, looked from the be- ginning to the consummation of the present day, it is not possible that the foundation stones and the outer walls of the glorious edifice could have been more se- curely laid. The world may never be enriched with another ecclesiastical fabric of such power, nor will any other Church system achieve such results where there was less fault in its builders. The founders of the M. E. Church were eminently men of God. They were deeply versed in the Holy Scriptures, and pro- foundly convinced of the supreme importance of spir- ituality and religion. They were no time-servers ; their cherished ambition was to gain the heights of holiness, and to incite others to scale the mount of converse with God. Such men do not live or die in vain.
The present generation of Methodists, who have so largely entered into the benefits of their labors, and profited by their sacrifices and devotion, may wisely look back to the steps which they approved, and to the pathway which they chose ; for surely the smile of God has fallen thereon, and those ways, like paths of the just, have brightened more and more unto the per- fect day. What man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man, were never more plainly , taught than by them ; nor was there ever a Church established of more scriptural soundness as to its constitution and government. The ordinances
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HISTORY WESLEY M. E. CHURCH.
of God are set forth with due precision and obliga- tion ; and the office-bearers in the Church are ap- propriately assigned to their several spheres of duty, so that the plan of a Christian Church in conso- nance with the teachings of Christ and his apostles stands prominently in view. The house of God and the gate of heaven is everywhere in the earth where true worshipers kneel and supplicate the Father ; yet Christ has founded his visible Church, and has appointed a ministry therefor, and ordinances to be observed therein ; so that to secure the great ends for which it was established, and for the union and edifica- tion of believers, it is requisite that some form of Church constitution be adopted.
There was no ecclesiastical establishment in America at the time of the treaty of peace in 1763, when this boundless continent began to be apportioned among men as the abode of civilization. No protestant pre- late had set foot on these shores. In many of the charters afterward granted to the colonies the " propa- gation of religion " was mentioned among the reasons for planting them. Twenty years later, when the na- tional progress commenced, the growth of the popula- tion was so great as imperatively to demand the relig- ious privileges of a Church. Christian sacraments could not be administered for want of consecrated ministers, and Mr. Wesley, in view of the emergency, was requested to take such measures as, in his wis- dom, would afford suitable relief. In the next year, 1784, he sent over three ordained presbyters, with Dr. Coke, whom he had set apart for the episcopal office. Dr. Coke was instructed to ordain Francis Asbury to the same office ; and these chief officers of the new
285
THE M. E. CHURCH AND HER ECONOMY.
Church Mr. Wesley preferred modestly to style super- intendents.
In this simple and providential manner was the epis- copacy of our Church begun. The facts show that, on the one hand, there was no claim to apostolic suc- cession, nor, on the other hand, any denial of the expe- diency of scriptural ordination to the office of an over- seer or bishop of the flock. The churches founded by the apostles consisted of societies organized with an ordained elder as presiding overseer, superintendent or bishop ; and the members of cach Church became thus mutually bound together in the same faith and spirit, under a chief pastor, and by supreme relation to the one divine Head. It is the prelacy of the great Head · of the Church which makes valid such an organization, and he has promised to meet with its assemblies when- ever two or three are gathered together in his name.
Our blessed Lord never gave to St. Peter supremacy over the other apostles ; nor were the powers of St. Peter the only powers of ordination exercised among * the apostles, or transmitted to succeeding generations. " Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." It is He who transmits all power and authority to his Church. " He gave some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the cdifying of the body of Christ." Eph. iv.
The theory of the Roman Church, and of the Anglo- Catholic Church, that an apostolic succession is the only chain along which the valid power of ordination has been transmitted is utterly baseless. The apos- tles left no successors. They were a class by them-
286
HISTORY WESLEY M. E. CHURCH.
selves. With the exception of Matthias no one of them was ordained to the apostleship. The apostles ordained several "elders" in every Church which they organized, and if such ordinances constituted the subject of them apostles or prelates, then every Church should have several of them as office-bear- ers. There is no higher order than that of "elder" or "presbyter." Theirs is the duty to preach the Gos- pel and to administer the sacraments. That bishops, elders, and presbyters are but different names for the same order is clear from numerous passages of the New Testament. Notice some examples : "From Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the Church." Acts xx. 17. In verse twenty-eight of same chapter we read : "Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers." The same persons are thus called by both names ; and the word "overseers " is elsewhere translated "bishops," and could have been properly thus rendered in the text quoted. Paul wrote to Titus : " I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee." Titus i. 5. "For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God." Verse 7. Thus Paul used bishop and elder as conver- tible terms. St. Peter did the same : 1 Peter v. 1, 2 ; see also, 1 Thess. v. 12 ; Tim. v. 17.
Without doubt Dr. Coke, Francis Asbury, and all succeeding bishops of the M. E. Church, were duly and scripturally ordained, and all of them, with be- coming ceremony were set apart to their high office- no one of them has ever made any pretension to pre- lacy or apostolic succession. The High Churchmen,
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THE M. E. CHURCH AND HER ECONOMY.
seemingly aware that they have no solid ground of Scripture or reason for the support of their peculiar dogma, attempt to give it aid as an article of faith. Read these surprising passages from the Oxford Tracts :
" Who are at this time the successors and spiritual descendants of the apostles ? I shall surprise some people by the answer I shall give, though it is very clear, and there is no doubt about it : The bishops. They stand in the place of the apostles as far as the office of ruling is concerned ; and whatever we ought to do had we lived when the apostles were alive, the same ought we to do for the bishops." " This is faith-to look at things not as seen, but as unseen ; to be sure that the bishop is Christ's appointed representative as if we actually saw him work miracles as St. Peter did." " Why should we talk so little of an apostolic succes- sion ? Why should we not seriously endeavor to im- press our people with this plain truth, that by separat- ing themselves from our communion they separate themselves from the only Church in this realm which has the right to be quite sure she has the Lord's body to give his people." (! ! ! )
All this is to arrogate a power at variance with the plain teachings of the New Testament. At the era of the Reformation none of the Reformers believed that episcopacy was an order of divine institution, and they did not adopt it for their Churches. It was adopted in England for political considerations, and because it seemed to be adapted to the genius of the English Con -. stitution. But the English Reformers, including Arch- bishop Cranmer and his colleagues, were all of the opinion, and did not hesitate to express it, that bishops and presbyters were one and the same at the
288
HISTORY WESLEY M. E. CHURCHI.
beginning of Christianity. When, in the apostles' day, the great question of the Gentiles' privileges arose, it was referred to the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. The latter took part in the deliberations, and the deci- sions given are stated as "the decrees that were or- dained of the apostles and elders." Acts xvi. 4. Ac- cording to the doctrine of the Oxford Tracts the apos- tles were in error in not setting forth their high and exclusive prerogatives.
While the episcopacy of the M. E. Church is not pre- latic, neither is it sectional or diocesan. It is appropri- ately styled " our general superintendency." The bish- ops are officers of the Church at large. Wide as the extended field of the Church is their expanded realm. No invisible line between political States limits their authority. No mountain ridges or rolling rivers divide their territory. The office they bear is touched with a sublime dignity from its important functions and from the mighty sweep of its sacred authority, while the unity which characterizes the Church is strengthened by the harmony and oneness of its general oversight.
It is certain that Mr. Wesley believed in the scrip. tural parity of bishops and presbyters, and also in the scriptural example of ordination to the episcopal office. His preparatory consultation with Dr. Coke, the ordina- tions at Bristol, and his letter sent by Dr. Coke to the American Conference, are proofs of his sentiments on the points mentioned.
The American founders of the Methodist Episcopal Church were of the same belief. The Minutes of the General Conference at Baltimore declare that they had " followed the counsels of Mr. John Wesley, who recom- mended the episcopal mode of Church government."
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THE M. E. CHURCH AND HER ECONOMY.
This was at a time when the English Establishment had been dissolved in this country, and before the Protest- ant Episcopal Church had been organized here ; so that the original Episcopal Church in America is that found- ed by the Methodists. There are many reasons why the early fathers of the M. E. Church loved their form of epis- copacy, and we are not, therefore, surprised to find that when the ministers of the Church in 1808 concluded to change their general convention of traveling preachers for a delegated General Conference, they took care to provide a constitution with restrictions, one of which was that the delegated General Conference should " not change or alter any part or rule of our goverment so as to do away episcopacy or destroy the plan of our itinerant general superintendency."
Thus was the sublime work achieved for this western world of founding an ecclesiastical organization after the scriptural and simple model of the Primitive Churches of Christianity. A century of growth and stability has made it venerable, while its unpretentious dignity and adaptability go along with its marked suc- cess to commend it to the present and the coming mul- titudes of our free land. Is there an officer or a member of that Church who does not say :
"For her my tears shall fall, For her my prayers ascend : To her my cares and toils be given, Till toils and cares shall end."
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HISTORY WESLEY M. E. CHURCH.
ANNIVERSARY OF THE M. E. SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION.
RESOLUTIONS ON THE " ABSENCE OF CHILDREN FROM PREACHING " AND "HOME RELIGION."
AT the anniversary meeting of the Sunday-School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held in Bos- ton, December 4, 1875, the subject of the non-attend- ance of children on the preaching services of the Church came under discussion, and a committee con- sisting of Revs. A. M'Keown, D.D., S. L. Gracey, and William R. Clark, D.D., being appointed to give utter- ance to the views of the convention on that point, re- ported the following preamble and resolutions, which were adopted unanimously, with the request that the papers of the Church publish the same, and that the pastors read them to the people, with comments :
Whereas, The non-attendance of our Sunday School schol- ars on public worship and the divinely instituted preaching of the Gospel is a serious evil, the children have come, by some means, largely to entertain the sentiment that their religious duties of attendance on Sabbath worship are all discharged when they have been to the Sunday School, and are thus growing up in the habit of neglecting the house of the Lord; therefore,
Resolved, That this convention implores, with one voice and heart, parents, pastors, and superintendents and teachers to unite in persistent and unyielding efforts to secure the faithful attendance of children on the public worship of God; and es- pecially do we entreat that parents shall use the authority which God and nature have put into their hands to secure to their children the blessing of the performance of this duty.
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ANNIVERSARY OF THE M. E. SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 291
The convention also adopted the following resolution on " Home Religion," and made the same request in re- gard to it :
Whereas, Many parents, it is to be feared, have allowed themselves to feel that they may be excused from faithfully attending to the religious instruction of their children at home because of what is done for them in Sunday School, thus per- verting the use of the school-for nothing can compensate for the loss of religious home instruction-therefore,
Resolved, That we implore parents not to remit the religious instruction of their children wholly to the Sunday School teacher, but, going with them themselves to the Sunday School as often as practicable, they then take them with them to the preaching of the Word; and especially that they teach them the fear of God and the knowlege of his truth amidst the endearments of home, the family circle, and the family altar, whose memories never die.
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HISTORY WESLEY M. E. CHURCH.
RELIGIOUS PROGRESS IN AMERICA DURING THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.
PROF. J. LEWIS DENIAN, of Brown University, recently read a paper on the Religious Progress in America during the last hundred years, in which he pays a com- pliment to the aggressive spirit of Methodism in the part it has taken in bringing about this extraordinary religious development. He says :
"In contrasting American Christianity a century ago and now, we cannot but be struck with its enormous strength and growth. In 1777 the number of Churches was less than 950; by the census of 1870 the number was 72,000. Churches have multiplied nearly thirty-seven fold; population, eleven- fold. In 1870, religious societies owned $354,000,000 worth of property. The most extraordinary increase has been among Methodists and Roman Catholics. A century ago, the Congregationalists were largely in advance; Methodists were hardly known by name. Now Methodists are the largest or- ganization in the land. One hundred years ago the more im- portant religious bodies were reckoned in the following order : Congregationalists, Baptists, Church of England, Presbyterians, Lutherans, German Reformed, Dutch Re- formed, and Roman Catholics. In 1870, by Methodists, Bap- tists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, Christians, Luther- ans, Congregationalists, and Protestant Episcopal. The zeal of American Christianity has nowhere expended itself with such force as it has in founding schools and colleges, and precisely at this point the Roman Catholic Church merges into significance. It ranks now as the fourth in population, and second for the value of church property."
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RELIGIOUS INCORPORATIONS.
NEW YORK LAW RELATING TO RELIGIOUS INCOR- PORATIONS.
AN ACT RELATING TO RELIGIOUS INCORPORATIONS.
Session 36, Chapter 60. Passed April 5, 1813.
[THE following sections of the Act relate to the Election and Duties of Trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church in common with other denominations, but such as have refer- ence exclusively to the Protestant Episcopal, and Dutch Re- formed Churches are omitted.]
SECTION 3. " Andbe it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the male persons of full age, belonging to any other church, congregation or religious society, now or hereafter to be established in this State, and not already incorporated, to assemble at the church, meeting house or other place where they strictly at- tend for divine worship, and by plurality of voices, to elect any number of discreet persons of their church, congregation or society, not less than three, nor ex- ceeding nine in number, as trustees, to take charge of the estate and property belonging thereto, and to tran- sact all the affairs relative to the temporalities thereof, and that at such election, every male person of full age, who has strictly worshiped with such church, con- gregation or society, and has formerly been considered as belonging thereto, shall be entitled to vote, and the said election shall be conducted as follows : The min- ister of such church, congregation or society, or in case of his death or absence, one of the elders or deacons, church-wardens or vestry men thereof, and for want of
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HISTORY WESLEY M. E. CHURCHI.
such officers any other person being a member or a stated hearer in such church, congregation or society, shall publicly notify the congregation of the time when and place where the said election shall be held, at least fifteen days before the day of election ; that the said notification shall be given for two successive Sabbaths or days on which such church, congregation or society, shall meet for public worship preceding the day of election ; that on the said day of election two of the elders or church-wardens, and if there be no such offi- cers, then two of the members of the said church, con- gregation or society to be nominated by a majority of the members present, shall preside at such election, receive the votes of the electors, be the judges of the qualifications of such electors, and the officers to re- turn the names of the persons who, by a plurality of voices, shall be elected to serve as trustees for the said church, congregation or society ; and the said returning officers shall immediately thereafter certify, under their hand and seals, the names or the persons elected to serve as trustees of such church, congregation or so- ciety, in which certificate the name or title by which the said trustees and their successors shall forever thereafter be called and known, shall be particularly mentioned and described, which said certificate, being proved or acknowleged as above directed, shall be re- corded as aforesaid, and such trustees and their suc- , cessors shall also thereupon, by virtue of this act, be a body corporate, by the name or title expressed in such certificate ; and the clerk of every county, for record- ing every certificate of incorporation by virtue of this act, shall be entitled to seventy-five cents and no more.
295
RELIGIOUS INCORPORATIONS.
SEC. 4. " And be it further enacted, That the trustees of every church, congregation or society herein above mentioned, and their successors, shall respectively have and use a common seal, and may renew and alter the same at their pleasure, and are hereby authorized and empowered to take possession and custody of all the temporalities belonging to such church, congregation or society, whether the same consist of real or personal estate, and whether the same shall have been given, · granted or devised directly to such church, congrega- tion or society, or to any other person for their use ; and also, by their corporate name or title, to sue and be sued in all courts of law or equity, and to recover, hold and enjoy all the debts, demands, rights and pri- vileges ; and all churches, meeting-houses, parsonages and burying places, with the appurtenances, and all estates belonging to such church, congregation or so- ciety, in whatsoever manner the same may be held, as fully and amply as if the right or title thereof had originally been vested in the said trustees ; and also, to purchase and hold other real and personal estate, and to devise, lease and improve the same for the use of such church, congregation or society, or other pious uses, so as the whole real and personal estate of any such church, congregation or society, other than the cor- poration of the ministers, elders and deacons of the Re- formed Protestant Dutch Church of the city of New York, and the First Presbyterian Church of the city of New York, and the rector, church-wardens and vestry-men of St. George's Church, in the city of New York, and of the minister, elders and deacons of the Reformed Dutch Church, in the city of Albany, shall not exceed the annual value or income of three thousand dollars ;
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