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Untitled Article
may the good which every candid mind will acknowledge to have accrued from Methodism , ' prove the forerunner of innumerable evils . To do something towards precluding this possibility is our object , in the pursuit of which we can hope , in several statistical statements , only to approximate to the truth ; for though we have given some little attention to the matter , we have succeeded only in part in procuring statistical information . The
number of Methodists m Great Britain , Ireland , and America , including several seceding branches , can hardly be less than one million of souls . Out of this number , there were last year under the direction of the English Conference about three hundred and ei ghty thousand . To these and to their priesthood we shall limit our attention . These three hundred and eighty thousand are all " in society , " as it is termed ; that is , they are " the church , " to use the language of the Calvinists—persons admitted to the enjoyment of
religious privileges , ot which the congregation , as a congregation , is destitute . Over these there are captains of tens , and captains of twenties , and captains of hundreds—in other terms , class leaders , local preachers , itinerant preachers , superintendants , and finally Conference , each subordinated to his superior in regular ascent till you arrive at the summum imperium ; and subordinated in such a way that the opportunities of religious improvement , of social intercourse , the exercise of moral influence , the preservation of a
good reputation , and , to no small extent , success in business and comfort in life , depend upon obedience to the superior ' s will . This representation will make it clear to all , that the Conference possesses a wide and extensive channel , down which they may pour whatever principles they please ; and that , supposing each part of the constitution to discharge its functions , they sway a power of no ordinary magnitude . But their influence rests not here . It is not easy for us to say what is the proportion which the members of the
Methodist body bear to the audiences which attend their public services . It can hardly , we think , be more than one-third . Assuming this , about a million of persons are in this kingdom under the influence of the Conference . It is true that those who are not " in society , " are not in bonds so numerous as are the initiated ; but many of them are probationers for admission ; all of them ( speaking generally ) approve the principles taught in the pulpits ; and the majority of them are under that degree of moral influence which always
arises when men are brought into close connexion one with another : so that the English Conference , which is the supreme dictator , has an influence more or less direct , and of greater or less magnitude , over a million of the inhabitants of this country . We pass over the fact that more than a million of persons in America feel somewhat , and about sixty thousand in Ireland a
considerable portion , of its power . Out of the million of persons in Great Britain , how many there may be who are masters of families we have no means of ascertaining ; but it is evident , that if we suppose a fourth of these to have children and servants under their controul , and to infuse into their minds the principles which they themselves take from their spiritual guides , the number of souls under the influence of the Conference will be
considerably increased . In addition , the children who are educated in their Sunday-schools are , to a great extent , imbued with the peculiarities of their system . Their number we do not know , but have reason to believe it not less than a hundred thousand . From these data , we may , we think , infer , that about two millions of persons , young and old , are at the present moment subject to influences from the English Conference . These influences relate not merely to matters purely religious , but to moral and political
Untitled Article
290 Power of the Methodist Conference .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1830, page 290, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2584/page/2/
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