For this particular lecture we’ll cover the rest of the highlights, namely, lay preachers, number six, the Wesleyan conference, and number seven, ministry to the poor. So we’re just trying to present here highlights that would give us a good sense of the shape of early Methodism in England. And so going to the lay preachers we need to understand that by 1741, one innovation that would emerge within Methodism in England would be the emergence of lay preachers. This innovation came really as more of an accident as a result of a necessity, most particularly at the Foundry. And at the middle of this beginning was Thomas Maxfield who was one of the first converts to Methodism in Bristol in April 1739. If you may recall what had happened on April 1739, this was the beginning of John Wesley’s field preaching when he decided to be “more vile” that same month. Thomas Maxfield was one of those who had a violent conversion during this revival, during these meetings in Bristol. And so later on he became a very helpful personal worker at the Foundry. But on one occasion most likely according to most scholarly accounts, most likely in 1740, with the absence of John Wesley, Maxfield found a necessity to preach to the congregants who attended the meeting at the Foundry. And so when Wesley found about this, he was quite displeased and he was reported to have replied, “Thomas Maxfield has turned preacher!” But as he complained about this, his mother Susannah who was there when Thomas preached, said: Fortunately for Maxfield, Susannah was there. And so with this advice to her son, Wesley went and heard Maxfield preach on one occasion and after hearing him preach, he was satisfied and he said: In other words, “Who am I to stand against what God is doing here.” This basically was the beginning of lay preachers in Methodism and Thomas Maxfield was the first male preacher and the one that was first authorized by John Wesley to do so. And so given this beginning this was not, however, welcomed by the established church, meaning the Anglican Church, most particularly, the clergy in the Church of England. And so it was not uncommon for John Wesley and his societies to hear criticisms from the established church regarding their usage of lay preachers. And often, these preachers were accused of being so-called “unlettered,” meaning unschooled, meaning, uneducated. In one occasion Wesley replied to this accusation, most particularly in his writing, A Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion So these are very strong words of defense from John Wesley. And so, Thomas Maxfield was just the beginning of this long line of persons who would find themselves preaching later on or found themselves engaging in this work as a result of their work in the classes and in other discipleship structures of the societies. Other well-known preachers during this period would include, for example, John Cennick who was appointed by Wesley to take care of the school at Kingswood near Bristol but later he would find himself also expounding and preaching to those assembled coal miners there at Kingswood. But later Cennick left the Methodists and went with the Moravians. Another example was John Nelson. John Nelson was converted to John Wesley’s preaching at the Moorfields in London at the height of the revival and later he would become a preacher. And one of the highlights of his career in Methodism was he accompanied Wesley in his preaching tours in Cornwall. Again, another obvious example was Silas Told, the same guy we mentioned in the previous lecture when we were talking about Free Grace. Silas Told acted like a chaplain to those who were condemned at Newgate Prison. He was a permanent fixture there but before that, he used to work as a crew in the slave trade (slave ship) just like John Newton. Remember John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace? But later Silas told was converted through the preaching of John Wesley in Bristol and then quickly became a preacher afterwards. There are so many examples that we can cite here, of men who were converted powerfully in the revivals and later on finding themselves preaching the gospel to the masses. But this enterprise of lay preaching was not a monopoly of men s it was a natural progression within the movement. As the example of Thomas Maxfield, we find the same case happening among the women leaders in the Movement. As you may recall from the chart that I showed in the previous lecture you’ve seen there like these different discipleship structures within Methodism and some of these would include class meetings, band meetings and these meetings were sometimes segregated. And so, it was not uncommon to see women who were leading these meetings to go to the next level, take their leadership roles to the next level. First, they would just lead in the study of scriptures but then later on they would find themselves exhorting. Then afterwards they would find themselves preaching to much bigger crowds in the societies due to circumstances which they would always say beyond their control. It was because there was a necessity, there was a need for someone to preach on those occasions. And so, a very good example of a woman leader who would go to that progression was Mary Bosanquet. Mary, by the way, was later married to John Fletcher, an Anglican clergy and also known as the theologian for the Methodist movement. But Mary was a class leader but later on in what she would call an extraordinary situation or extraordinary case which led her to preach on one occasion. And so, she was troubled by what happened to her and so she wrote John Wesley and inquired regarding that situation. Let’s read this letter that John wrote Mary on June 13, 1771. You need to understand this was later in the movement but this is just an example by the way. John wrote: So as you can see here, Wesley found their progression into preaching as a result of an “extraordinary call” and, by the way, that terminology “extraordinary” came from Mary herself. Wesley just echoed that in this letter. Wesley realized that the movement that Methodism was an extraordinary dispensation anyhow and so it would not surprise him to find these extraordinary situations and circumstances happening within the movement. Another example was Sarah Crosby who also was a class leader, who began exhorting, and then later preaching in the society. Another much later one was Sarah Mallet who Wesley authorized to become a preacher. Actually, Wesley wrote a note endorsing Sarah Mallet, a young woman, extending the right hand of fellowship in the Methodist Connection. And so, I wish if you have more time you look this name up and find out more about the stories behind these women preachers in Methodism. Another highlight was the emergence of the Wesleyan conference. We need to understand that as early as June 1740 Wesley decided to unite all the different forces within the evangelical revival. By this time in 1740 there were already two groups in existence, namely the Moravians and the Wesleyan Methodist. Wesley tried to consolidate these two different groups by calling for a conference but then no one came from the Moravian side in what could have been a uniting conference. But later on, as you may recall, in 1741, a year later, Wesley would have this split with George Whitefield and so others who were of the Calvinistic in vent within the movement joined George as part of this Calvinistic wing of the revival, thereby continuing to split the revival into three: from the Wesleyans, the Moravians, and the Calvinistic Methodists under the leadership of George Whitefield. But in 1744, Wesley was able to organize a conference. However, the two other factions did not join in this conference. And so, this first conference was held at the Foundry in London with Charles Wesley, four other Anglican clergy, and four prominent lay preachers. As you can see on the slide, you see this engraving portraying Wesley leading this conference. But what is interesting and let me just show you the next slide, out of this meeting came ‘The Minutes of Some Late Conversations between the Reverend Mr. Wesley and Others.’ As a result of this meeting, this first conference, came the minutes. Today, we still continue this practice in the United Methodist Church and in Methodism in general with the use of the annual conference journal. But this was effectively the first annual conference journal. And so, if you look at the first page of this minutes, it says Monday 25th of June 1744, so that’s when they did this conference. And it says here: So, before we go to what was the agenda of the meeting, let me just backtrack a little bit on those names that were mentioned. You need to understand that Methodism was not just a network led by Wesley and a number of lay preachers. With this movement were also Anglican clergy who were supportive of the movement. Actually, it was the Anglican clergy, like for example, John and Charles, they were Anglican clergy—they were the ones who helped John keep order at the circuits in the absence of John. They were the ones who would help bring order in some of the societies and conduct quarterly meetings. And since the lay preachers were not allowed to do the ordinances or the sacraments, they need the help of these network of Anglican clergy to provide the sacraments to the members of the societies. And so now, going to the actual agenda of this first meeting, well it was divided into three. First, what was the agenda? What to teach? Second, How to teach? And third, What to do? How to regulate our doctrine discipline and practice. So basically, the conference, this first conference dealt with the issue of what? Doctrine, discipline, and practice. Okay? If you look at number one, what to teach, that talks about doctrine. If you look at number two, how to teach? That talks about discipline. And third, what to do? It talks about practice. And so, just looking at the background behind what to teach, okay, we will not look at all the three, but just looking at number one, what to teach? They dealt with the question of doctrine. First, it is not hard to understand because this was in light of the different doctrinal differences that were emerging during the revival. This was essentially the first attempt by Wesley and the others to make a concerted effort to really draw doctrinal lines, to define what do we really believe as a movement? The evangelical revival begun five years earlier had already broken up into different doctrinal stances or differences. Again, there was this controversy with the Moravians and second, this controversy with Whitfield in 1741. And so, on its first page, you see right away the answer to number one. It says say we began considering the doctrine of justification. The questions relating to the substance of the answers given there were as follows: What is to be justified? Answer. to be pardoned and receive into God’s favor into such a state that if we continue therein, we shall be finally saved. Here, the first question was justification but later on they would also talk about regeneration. They would also talk about sanctification. If we’re going to summarize what emerged from this conversation regarding that first question we can summarize into five major themes. That is, one, the fall, meaning the problem of sin. Second, repentance. Third, justification as we mentioned a while ago. Fourth, regeneration. And five, sanctification. So what can you get from these five major themes? Well, this brings to light Wesley’s understanding of salvation. Going back to that chart I showed in the previous lectures, this same chart, Wesley’s basic understanding of salvation, they were trying to define the Wesleyan understanding of soteriology—how one is saved. So, what can we deduce from this five major themes? It is basically the way of salvation, God’s saving grace. This is what was central to the practice of early Methodists. The movement was highly soteriological. Everything they did revolve around this theme and as I’ve shown you a number of times in the previous lectures. And so, aside from the emergence of the Wesleyan Conference, another highlight to the development of Methodism in England, and I think it’s one of the important things that we should note, was its preferential option for the poor or ministry to the poor. This was part of their identity and it blossomed in the societies from the 1740s up to the 1780s. In fact, it is in the societies where works of mercy was thought as a means of grace. We always say that means of grace most often refers to spirituality. It has something to do with the ordinances. But also for John, it is also a means of grace. For example, in John’s sermon, “On Zeal”: So this is one of the examples where Wesley makes a case for the importance of works of mercy or ministry to the poor in the societies and you’ll find a lot of this in other writings of Wesley. Another way that this has blossomed and taught in the societies was that they also encouraged the sacrifice of goods among the members of the societies, and this is captured most specifically in the hymns of Charles Wesley. Charles supplied the societies with hymns for them to sing and in this hymns were attached theology or understanding about the Christian faith. A good example was his collection of hymns titled, ‘Hymns on the Lord’s Supper.’ Let me just cite two examples from this collection of hymns: Methodists during this period have a good grasp of the concept of stewardship and that ministry to the poor, helping the poor, giving to the poor is a form of sacrifice. Another way this has blossomed was through deed-based evangelism. Methodists were not simply to wait unto the poor until the poor came to them but they were also encouraged to seek them out. Wesley longed for a church that exhibited charity in all its forms. So, he leads his friends and his flock to beg for funds, provide soup kitchens, collect clothing and blankets, gather stocks of coal for fires, set up medical clinics, form literacy classes, open lending libraries, visit prisoners and their families, including prisoners of war, tutor children, organized Sunday schools, set up employment services, provide loan funds, and establish homes for orphans, unwed mothers, and the aged. You know, they have all this long list of different ministries geared toward helping those who cannot help themselves. Although most Methodists work in jobs when they had jobs, where the pay was below the poverty line. Nevertheless, they bring their penny a week, okay, not just for the maintenance of the buildings, the preaching house, but also so that this will be used to help the poor to assist those who are in even more desperate straits than themselves. So, in other words, we find the poor ministering to the poor. The society were not societies were the middle class gathered, it’s mostly poor people. Another interesting thing that blossomed in the societies was that they were centers for providing health care to the communities where they are located. So Wesley address the health care crisis in his time, so just like in our time today, when the rich have good medical care and the poor have none. Well, Wesley tried his best to address that problem, like for example, here we find a engraving of Wesley opening up a dispensary at the Foundry in London. So, the Foundry was not only a preaching house, it was also a clinic. Actually, it was the first free public medical dispensary in London whereby the poor are given access to free medicine. Wesley also later opened similar health care clinics at Newcastle and Bristol. Sadly, all closed within a decade for lack of donations to keep up with the demand. Another example was in 1747 when Wesley compiles the most popular family medical manual of the 18th century in England, and this popular manual was ‘Primitive Physic or An Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases.’ About two dozen editions were published during his lifetime. This just shows us how popular this book was. In other words, Wesley was trying to make health care accessible to the poor. Inside this Primitive Physic you will find some of the advice Wesley gives for certain ailments which would fall in the category of folk remedies. Let’s just look at this number 76. Burning eyes. apply a thick apple pairing lying down in bed. Number 78 is a good one, I think. Blindness is often cured by cold bathing or by electrifying and then he puts there the word, “tried,” meaning, he already experimented on this. This has cured even Gutta Serena. So, he had a patient. And then I’ll show this later, Wesley had an electric convulsive machine at the Foundry and experimented on electricity to heal different ailments. Number 218, for example. To prevent the tooth ache. Wash them out with cold water every morning. Tried. Or rub the teeth with tobacco ashes. Or number 219. To cure the tooth ache. Be electrified through the tooth. Tried. Or rub the cheek a quarter of an hour. Or put a clove of garlic into the ear. Or parsley much bruised with a little bay salt. And so, talking about electricity, Wesley wrote a book anonymously titled, ‘The Desideratum or Electricity Made Plain and useful by a Lover of Mankind and of Common Sense, referring to himself of course! And Wesley had this electroconvulsive machine in London and he would have patients basically hold these two levers one if you see, the one with the ball, and other one attached to a battery, and Wesley would crank it, as you see, there’s a crank here to generate electricity and this was most likely acquired in 1747. And so a quite interesting, I think, way of Wesley to be able to make health care accessible to the poor. Aside from the society’s being a center that provided health care, in the societies were also organized what you would call ‘visitors of the sick’ and “stewards.” So these visitors of the sick, they were tasked to dispense medicine and offer prayer to those who are sick in the community. Not only that, the stewards, on the other hand, would also go from house to house, and they would disperse financial help to those who would be in need of help. A good example of a visitor to the sick is found in a letter written by Abraham Jones on December 12, 1742. Abraham Jones, by the way, was a visitor to the sick at the Foundry Chapel in London. He had been appointed in the first of 23 districts which were Wesley divided for visitation. So, this is what Jones writes in his letter to Wesley: So, here’s an amazing example of someone who was engaged in visiting the sick. Another way, it is found in the design of the Methodist chapels this emphasis on ministering to the poor, it’s also ingrained in the architecture of those chapels. When Wesley has a chapel built, he directs it to be plain and simple and with free seats. During this time pew rents or pew rentals became a standard way to raise funds to support the building of a church but Methodists resisted that at least during that period. As we know later on, even in this country, in the United States in the 19th century, some Methodist churches would also capitulate to that practice of pew rentals. But during the time of Wesley seats were for free. There were no pew rentals. The intent was not to make the poor feel oppressed or disjointed by the opulence of the wealthy. And so that’s why if you look at Methodist chapels during that time, a good example, is on the slide. This one is the New Room in Bristol and you see how plain it is and I was told when I was there that even these columns were not there when they built this chapel or at least they were not adorned as they’re adorned now. But they were kept very simple. And that is to be able to free up resources to help the poor. So this is a common pattern if you look at other early Methodist preaching houses or chapels during that time.