debts; an appeal which is equally unpleasant to us and you, painful to our Ministers, and discreditable to the Circuit. We would, moreover, take this opportunity further to remind you, that no revival of religion is likely to be permanent among us except this important financial regulation is CONSCIENTIOUSLY observed; because it is evident that that amount of ministerial and pastoral care cannot be afforded which is necessary to feed and edify the church..........In conclusion, we especially request the co-operation of the Leaders of classes and the Stewards of the different Societies. We are only anxious that the whole financial economy of Methodism may be carried out; and we particularly recommend the Leaders to a uniform observance of our rules, which require them to see each person in their respective classes once a week at least, in order to inquire how their souls prosper, to advise, reprove, comfort, or exhort, as occasion may require; and to receive what they are willing to give towards the support of the Gospel. "Men of Israel," help in every way according to your ability to promote the work of God. "The time is short; work while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work: whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest."

The reader must be left to judge of the consistency-to say nothing more-of a person who can allow himself, in so short a period, to fall into such grievous and palpable errors and contradictions as those in which he now is found. Let it be distinctly understood that no alteration whatever has taken place in Methodism during this period. Its "Rules" and "regulations" are substantially the same now as they were then. It is to be feared, that many simplehearted persons have been led astray by the bold falsehoods and glaring sophistries now put forth, and that they have sustained thereby great spiritual loss. May the Lord in mercy speedily rescue them from such an evil course!

NOTICES OF PUBLICATIONS.

Brief Remarks on a certain Topic much agitated in the Year 1850, addressed to Wesleyan Methodists. Barnsley. Printed by J. Elliott.-This is a well-written and conclusive two-leaved Address, in which the writer shows the uselessness and the impracticability of the proposals now made by disaffected men. We have not space for more than the following brief quotation: "1. Why is this cry raised? Is it to induce the Conference to make some alterations in Methodist law? If so, it is perfectly useless. The Conference was not paid a certain price to enact the regulations which now exist, and it will never rescind them in consequence of a pecuniary threatening. The Conference is not to be frightened. No attempt to alarm it has yet been, or is likely to be, successful. But if the Conference were to yield to the party who now stop their supplies, and alter the laws as much as they wish, how useless would it be ! for the very next year another and a far more important section of the Societies might stop their supplies, and demand that the alterations should be all erased, and the laws made to stand as they did before. Thus, if the Conference were to bend to such an agitation as this, the stability of its laws, the usefulness of its administration, and the honour of its character would be at an end."

To Wesleyan Reformers, by a Reformer who hates bamboozling. This is a telling Letter, by a shrewd inquiring man, demanding from the parties who have made so much stir concerning Mission- House Reports, &c., some Report of the use and distribution of the various sums supplied to them by their misguided supporters, but of which they have hitherto given no account whatever.

LONDON-PRINTED BY JAMES NICHOLS, HOXTON-SQUARE.

THE

WESLEYAN VINDICATOR

AND

CONSTITUTIONAL METHODIST.

EDITED BY THE REV. SAMUEL JACKSON,

AND A SUB-COMMITTEE.

FEBRUARY, 1851.

INTRODUCTORY LETTER TO YOUNG MEN. (No. I.)

YOUNG MEN OF METHODISM,-A deep sense of the peculiar importance of your relation to the church of Christ, and of the danger in which you are placed by the discordant influences of our time, moves me to address you. Some lingering sympathies with the youthful character may also be judged to dispose me towards this step, seeing that but a few years have elapsed since I could with propriety have classed myself among you. With the freshness of recent experience I can, therefore, recal the delightful impressions received by the youthful mind and heart, during our first association with God's people. Like yourselves, I have a vivid and grateful remembrance of early spiritual joys amid the scenes and services of Methodism, and can, like yourselves, picture anew the young and holy emotions felt in many a class-meeting, lovefeast, and watch-night, or under the ministry of some venerable and beloved servant of Christ,-as if all were but the happy experience of yesterday. Memory and sympathy of feeling are thus powerful to draw my heart towards you.

But the weighty consideration of your special and peculiar importance in Methodism, more cogently moves me to address you. The youth of the present generation will be the men of the future. The most holy and important offices of the church will have to be filled by some of their number; and from them Wesleyan Methodism will take its complexion and character in years and generations to come. This consideration becomes of incalculable importance, if the position held by Wesleyan Methodism among the churches of Christendom, and the numerous and increasing agencies which it employs in the colonies

LONDON: PUBLISHED BY JOHN MASON, 14, CITY-ROAD;
AND SOLD AT 66, PATERNOSTER-Row.
C

and throughout the world, be remembered. In our own country its position is one of singular advantage. It stands as a kind of moderator between high and exclusive Ecclesiastics on the one hand, and lax or latitudinarian religionists on the other. In any struggle which affects the country religiously, Methodism by this, its intermediate position, often succeeds in drawing one of the powerful contending parties to itself, and thus determining the contest according to its peculiar convictions. On this account it is often viewed with jealousy alike by Churchmen and Dissenters; and hence the hard things said of it by the more violent men of both parties.

Nor less important are its foreign relations. Long lines of auxiliary agencies are seen stretching out in all directions, from Methodism in our own country to the most distant parts of the earth. In some instances, these are forming civil codes, and moulding the social institutions as well as the religious character of tribes and nations of men, who, heretofore, had been known only as lawless savages. Wesleyan Missions now form the largest evangelising agency employed by any section of the church of Christ. This grand agency has brought many thousands of the Heathen to a saving acquaintance with the Redeemer; and, should it retain its Gospel character, and advance in means and influence at a rate commensurate with its growth in the past, it cannot fail to prove one of God's mightiest and most successful instruments for the overthrow of the empire of sin and Satan.

And you, my dear young brethren, are to be the heritors of this

great system for blessing the nations, which has grown up to its present spiritual might under the special favour of the Most High. Who, then, need apologise for feeling anxiety lest you should be turned aside from the "old paths" in which the fathers walked and prospered? Let me, at once, proceed to my purposed work,-that of endeavouring to assist in the confirmation of your faith, by setting forth for your closet reflection the scriptural character and practical efficiency of that great system of religious means and agencies which you have, in early life, espoused.

It may be, from what you have seen and heard of late, that you are ready to conclude there is something essentially wrong either in the system or the administration of Wesleyan Methodism. But let me remind you that such may be a hasty and unwarrantable conclusion; for history and experience prove that the most equitable and most effective systems, both civil and religious, may be violently assailed and extensively denounced, through the suspicions excited, and the clamours raised, by dissatisfied and aspiring men. Your own observation of what has transpired in your own country, in times of political excitement and riots, must have convinced you of this, as to the assaults that may be unreasonably made upon civil governments. And it is so with respect to established rule and order in Christian churches. They may be disturbed and divided by discontented and envious

persons. Who has ever been more sincerely devoted to the cause of Christ, and the best interests of mankind, than the Apostle Paul? and who has ever been more successful in evangelical and ministerial labours than that great primitive Missionary of Christianity? And yet it is plainly evident, from his inspired letters to the numerous churches which he had planted, that there was scarcely one of them that had not been agitated and rent asunder by self-interested individuals, who confederated together to oppose and denounce his authority and conduct. Some of the churches which he collected, and which he left large and prosperous, were, by such means, wholly turned away from their affection and obedience to him. In Galatia, for instance, he was denounced as an enemy of the people, because he told them the truth; though previously, as he states, they were ready, from ardent affection for the instrument of their conversion, to pluck out their eyes and give them to him. (Gal. iv. 15, 16) How this change of feeling towards him had been produced, may be gathered from the following verse, as well as from the introductory parts of the Epistle. False teachers had gone through those churches, misrepresenting the authority and motives of the Apostle, and systematically corrupting them. His Epistles to Timothy and Titus were obviously written to direct those eminent Evangelists and Pastors how they should behave themselves towards disaffected and unruly members of the churches over which they had been placed. He mentions some of the most notorious and mischievous offenders by name; saying, "Of whom is Hymenæus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme."-" And their word will eat as doth a canker of whom is Hymenæus and Philetus." (1 Tim. i. 20; 2 Tim. ii. 17.) In another part of his Second Epistle to Timothy, he sorrowfully complains that all Asia had been turned away from him: "Of whom," says he, Phygellus and Hermogenes." The same facts, as to the disastrous effects produced upon apostolic churches by the malignant opposition of self-interested agents, are declared in the inspired writings of other Apostles. Even the tenderly-affectionate John thus laments the evil consequences of the men who opposed themselves to him and his brethren: "I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the pre-eminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church." (3 John, 9, 10.)

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In like manner Mr. Wesley and his successors in the ministry have been assailed and denounced; and several of the Churches, or Societies, which they collected out of the world, have been disorganised and scattered by men who desired to have the pre-eminence. Mr. Wesley had repeatedly to defend himself against the false charges preferred publicly against him, of "an unwarrantable assumption of power," of

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making himself a Pope," of "shackling free-born Englishmen ;" and then, as in the present day, demands were clamorously made for a free Conference, wherein all things should be determined by the most votes." In some instances, through wide-spread disaffection, Mr. Wesley had to dissolve entire Societies, and then re-construct them of persons who declared themselves willing to observe the published Rules of Methodism. And since his death, and more especially in times of political agitation,-Methodist Ministers have been similarly assailed; and some of the Societies which, under God, they had collected, have been divided and scattered. In 1795 and 1797,-the period of the French Revolution, when the cry arising out of political disturbances was heard reverberating through the continent of Europe, of "Down with priestcraft!"-demands were made for revolutionary changes in Methodism; and, notwithstanding the concessions made by what is called "The Plan of Pacification," dissatisfied Methodists, to the number of five thousand, separated themselves from it, and formed themselves into a distinct community, under the name of "The New Connexion." In 1827 and 1834,-times of national restlessness and disturbances, Methodism was again agitated by men who brought accusations against the Conference, of despotic and tyrannical rule. Illegal meetings were held, the most venerable and most beloved Ministers and lay-officers were publicly denounced, "Grand Central Associations" were formed, and extensive separations took place. Yea, so fully do the present disturbances resemble those of the years I have named, both in their general character and particular circumstances, that the publications then issued might serve for these times. And yet, with all these wounds which Wesleyan Methodism has received in the house of its friends, it has lived and greatly prospered. Like a healthful body which has been wounded, or a vigorous tree which has been shorn, it has shown that, when injured, it possesses inward life by which it can renew its parts.

Nor is Methodism singular, in regard to inward assaults and disturbances, among the churches of the present day. Being a "Connexion" of Christian Societies, and not divided into separate churches with independent rule and government, its sympathies extend themselves closely over the whole body, as do the nerves of the human frame; and, consequently, when one Society, or one member, suffers, the other Societies and members suffer with it. This strong pervading sympathy leads to the speedy transmission of what is passing in one part of the Connexion to another. Reports of what takes place in Methodism pass from one end of it to another, like the mysterious agency on the electric railway-wires; so that disaffection and disturbance in it are much more readily and extensively made known than among separated and independent churches. The Annual Conferences, held each year in July and August, to review the state and conduct of the Societies, also, make their circumstances more public. But, apart from these external manifestations, Wesleyan Methodism