A History of the Methodist Church, South, in the United States (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1894. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... WITHDRAWAL OF THE WESLEYANS. I 3 The action of the General Conference of 1840 marks the furthest limit of concession to the views and sentiments of the Southern section of the church. It was more than the abolition wing of the church could stand. They prepared to secede, and in 1842-43 they did secede; and at a convention held in Utica, N. Y., in May, 1843, they organized the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America, with non-slaveholding as a condition of membership. Within about a year and a half they had enrolled a total membership of fifteen thousand. This secession produced a reaction. A great awakening occurred in the church generally, resulting in some localities in Methodist conventions. One of these declared that "slaveholding is sin," and that "the Methodist Episcopal Church is responsible for slavery in its pale." Another one declared that " the only way to prevent an entire dissolution among us, as a church, is an entire separation from the South." ] Prior to 1843 no Annual Conference was allowed to say that all slaveholding was sin. Subsequently no form of expression was objected to by the presiding officer of an Annual Conference. Dr. Whedon, in the "Quarterly Review" for October, 1865, says: "The secession of the Wesleyans, as we believe, saved our church in 1844 from accepting a slaveholding bishop." It was the opinion of Bishop Thompson, expressed in 1866, that the Wesleyans by withdrawing from the church in 1843 constrained a development of antislavery activity in the church, which they could not have accomplished by remaining in it. This reaction was shown in the vigorous controversywhich was at that period carried on in the. Methodist journals of the time, North and South. On the other hand, the legislation in the General Conferences of 1836 and ...