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 CÆsar, 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.
drawing of church ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH AT EPWORTH.
Photo of Epworth church 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.