its peculiar ecclesiastical machinery, Wesley must have felt the probability, and practical certainty, that after his death English Methodism would not consider that it owed any allegiance to the national Church. Indeed, the very fact that he so carefully made these arrangements when he had reached such. an age that he knew he could not much longer be with them, leads to the inference that he believed they would be separate, and that after his departure he desired them to be distinct. However, we are hardly left to conjecture, for Charles Wesley, in a letter, written August 14, 1785, to his brother John, says to him, “You told me they would separate by and by." So that, on the testimony of his own brother, John Wesley had foreseen that the Methodists would be a separate body. But the most remarkable fact is that he, who, from the time of reading Lord King, had believed he had as much power to ordain as any bishop in England, did at last put that power into operation, and did ordain a number of ministers; thus providing for the administration of the sacraments, and so giving the Methodists all that was considered absolutely necessary for a church organization. He, therefore, not only provided for the perpetuity of the organism, but also provided ordained ministers, giving the Methodists power to have the sacraments among themselves and independently of the clergy of other Churches.

John Wesley, on the 19th of August, 1785, reply

ing to his brother's letter from which we have just quoted, would not admit that he had separated from the national Church, and said: "I have no more desire to separate than I had fifty years ago. I still attend all the ordinances of the Church, at all opportunities; and I constantly and earnestly advise all that are connected with me so to do. When Mr. Smyth pressed us to separate from the Church he meant, Go to church no more.' And this was what I meant twenty-seven years ago when I persuaded our brethren not to separate from the Church."

But Charles pronounced the act of ordaining to be practical and actual separation from the Church of England, and the celebrated jurist, Lord Mansfield, said, "Ordination is separation.'

After Wesley had ordained some of his preachers, it was suggested that this would lead to separation. In meeting the suggestion that the Methodists might entirely separate from the State Church after his death, he quotes the question and gives his answer as follows: "But, for all this, is it not possible there may be such a separation after you are dead?' Undoubtedly it is. But what I said at our first Conference, above forty years ago, I say still: 'I dare not omit doing what good I can while I live, for fear of evil that may follow when I am dead.""+

*Tyerman's Life of John Wesley, vol. iii, p. 447.

+ Methodist Magazine, 1786, p. 678; Tyerman's Life of Wesley, vol. iii, p. 442.

He does not deny that that is the tendency. He does not deny that that will be the result. He admits that undoubtedly it is a possibility. The whole answer carries with it the inference that he recognized the probability of Methodist independence, and yet he took the steps that tended in that direction because they seemed to him to be his present duty, and he did what he thought was his duty without regard for the consequences. He sees the possibility, and does what tends to make it an actuality.

In view of the foregoing facts it seems plain that Wesley foresaw that the Methodists would be a distinct organization, and hence made provision for the perpetuity of the Methodist organism, and also provided for the administration of the sacraments by their own ministers; for, if he had not desired them to be thus distinct, it would seem natural that he would not have made any such provision.

CHAPTER IV.

WESLEY'S RELATION TO THE EPISCOPATE OF AMERICAN METHODISM.

HE Rev. George Whitefield, one of the earliest

THE

associates of Wesley in the evangelical movement called Methodism, made a number of evangelistic tours through the British colonies extending along the Atlantic coast, from 1738 until he died at Newburyport, Mass., in 1770.

This graduate of Oxford University and regularly ordained clergyman of the Church of England brought to America a new type of liberal Christianity. Though a clergyman of the Established Church, he was at the same time a Methodist evangelist, and had fellowship with Christians of all denominations; affiliating just as readily with Presbyterian ministers as he did with the episcopally ordained clergy of the national Church. He co-operated with Christian believers no matter what their name. Though he did not plant, he was the forerunner of Wesleyan Methodism. He was the John the Baptist who prepared the way for the Methodist body which was to take permanent possession. He did not organize the results of his labors, but he prepared the people of the colonies, and especially in the middle and south

ern sections, for the occupancy of the country by the organized Methodism which had taken form under the executive genius of the Rev. John Wesley.

Wesleyan Methodism in America had its origin at least as early as 1766. Then the colonies were sparsely settled, but the rapid movements of the itinerant preachers, so well suited to the conditions then existing, soon carried the practical teachings of Methodism to the very outposts of American civilization. Wesley had sent preachers from time to time, and had governed or directed the work in America through one whom he appointed, and who was called a general assistant. Under this superior officer were other assistants, who had immediate direction of the rest of the preachers.

At one time Francis Asbury occupied the position of general assistant, and at a later day Mr. Wesley sent Thomas Rankin to fill the place. These general assistants exercised a power in America similar to that which Wesley exerted in England, but they acted in subordination to him, and all the Methodists in America cheerfully recognized Wesley's authority and promptly obeyed his commands.

When the War of the Revolution broke out direct relations with Wesley were for a time broken, but the American Methodists still retained their allegiance to him. Some of the Methodist preachers of English birth returned to England, but Francis Asbury, though an Englishman, remained. Among those