far beyond its limits. The Kingswood colliers before their evangelisation by Whitefield were wont to spend their nights in the public-houses; afterwards they gathered in their schoolroom and spent one night in the week in prayer. This was reported to Wesley, and he was asked to put a stop to it. With his usual caution in dealing with popular movements, he considered it carefully, and, after he had compared it with the customs of 'the ancient Christians,' he gave his consent for the meetings to be continued; and the vigil of Latin Christianity became the watchnight of Saxon Methodism. The practice is now accepted in churches that have more sympathy with Catholic ritual than with the watchnights of converted colliers. But Wesley was many-sided; he was content with connecting his societies with the past by the revival of primitive customs, and justifying the use of his prosaic tickets' by the Apostolic ἐπιστολαὶ συστατικαί; yet he must boldly borrow from a Puritan divine the most impressive Methodist function. This divine, Richard Alleine by name, had composed an extended form of vow to be taken by individual Christians, as a species of Puritan equivalent to the rite of Confirmation. This Wesley adopted, and it is now as peculiar to Methodism as the Commination service is to Anglicanism. On the first Sunday of the year the members of society, and those specially admitted by the minister, gather together for what is termed the ' renewal of the covenant.' The hymns chosen are solemn in their matter and in their music. In the most profound silence portions of this Puritan document are read, containing the strongest denunciations of self, couched in the figurative language of that day. An appeal is made to act as if God were visibly present.' The whole congregation kneels and repeats the words of the covenant.' The stringency of the terms would be considered sufficient in the case of a religious order. A hint is given, of which many avail themselves, that the promise may be made in these or the like words;' but when the form is concluded assent is signified by all who are present originally by standing up, but now mentally in most cases. The silence is broken by the singing of Doddridge's hymn, O happy day that fixed my choice,' or some other specially adapted to the occasion. The celebration of the Eucharist completes the impressive rite. We are not aware that the devotional aspect of the older Puritanism is presented so clearly in any Dissenting service as this; but, even here, we are at one with an anonymous Wesleyan essayist. Without 'doubt there is much that is exquisitely beautiful in that 'service, but there is an unfortunate mixture of what is faulty

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in expression, and unbecoming to Christian lips.' Despite all drawbacks, this service has produced much true religious life. When Methodists erected a tablet to their founder's memory in their mother chapel in London, they called him the patron and friend of lay preachers, by whose aid he extended the 'plan of itinerant preaching through Great Britain and Ireland, the West Indies, and America with unexampled suc'cess.' The words are not more reticent than we expect to find in epitaphs, but we gather from other sources that the patron of lay preachers witnessed their advent with anger. It required his mother's common sense to reconcile him to their existence; and, though he gladly availed himself of their assistance, he kept them within the narrowest limits of authority. In one of the last sermons he wrote, on The Ministerial "Office,' he flames with indignation against unauthorised intruders into the office of the priesthood. . . . They had 'presumed to administer the sacraments when he had not ap'pointed them.'

...

However, patrons have always had their humours, which clients have condoned for the sake of doles; and Wesley's preachers, ignoring his illogical theories, took the position he assigned them, and on their dead selves stepped to higher things. The lay preachers fell into two classes-the itinerant, who now receive Presbyterian ordination and go from circuit to circuit; and the 'local' preachers, who are simple laymen. In times of chaos after Wesley's death lay preachers administered both sacraments, and considered themselves entitled to rank equally with itinerants. Gradually but surely Wesleyanism broke down that assumption; and in the person of the second great legislator Methodism has known, Dr. Bunting, the itinerants claimed, when put on their trial, to be tried by their peers.' These were the members of their own order, and from that time forward all aspiring to greater dignities while they remain laymen must seek their fortunes amongst minor Methodist bodies. In Wesleyanism the superintendent minister nominates every local preacher, presides over the periodical examinations of their characters, and appoints them to such chapels as he sees fit. By the labours of these laymen Methodism is maintained in the rural districts. According to the historians of Methodism, local preachers have been of various grades in social life. Country gentlemen, members of Parliament, representatives of the learned professions, substantial tradesmen, mechanics, and farm labourers have figured amongst them. Ex-local preachers are to be found in unexpected places. They have harangued Chartist mobs, organised

secularist associations, directed trades' unions, ministered in fashionable Nonconformist chapels, and found a home in the priesthood of the National Church. At present the work of lay preachers seems rather endured than valued; and while the Church is anxious to promote the resuscitation of a lay diaconate, Wesleyanism is apparently supplanting its irregular agents by its trained ministry.

In former days women preached amongst Methodists; and the figure of Dinah Morris, modelled by the most sympathetic of modern novelists, rises before the mind at the mention of these female preachers. However admirable they may be in a novel, they were not acceptable in Methodism. Some assailed them with banter, as witness this extract from a sermon of the time: 'Balaam,' said the preacher in a funeral oration, was converted by the braying of an ass, Peter by the crow'ing of a cock, and our lamented brother by the preaching of a 'woman.' Others appealed to apostolic prohibition, but the women preachers did not withdraw at the command of venerable men. At this juncture the highest authority in Methodism deliberately forbade their ministrations. The grounds were clear, and ought to have been convincing: (1) because ' a vast majority of the people are opposed to women's preaching; (2) because there is a sufficiency of preachers whom God has accredited.' Unabashed by this judgment, they finally took refuge with the Primitive Methodists.

The buildings in which Methodist services are held were originally called preaching-houses; chapels is their usual style in this country, but in America and the colonies they are termed churches. The first Methodist preaching-house was built in Bristol in 1739; but the first opened was in Moorfields, London, being a disused foundry altered for the purpose. The description of it, given in Tyerman's Life of Wesley,' affords an interesting glimpse of early Methodist practices. A bell summoned the people to early preaching at five o'clock in the morning, and again at nine for family prayers, as several persons had rooms in the foundry. There were no pews in the chapel, but a dozen seats for women had backs. Free seats were under the front gallery for them, and also the front gallery. The men were consigned to side galleries. Classes met in a room behind the chapel, and prayers were read on the Wednesdays and Fridays. One end of this room was a school; at the other Wesley's books were sold, over it were his apartments, and in a dwelling-house by the side were the domestics and assistant preachers. Wesley laid down strict laws for his preaching-houses, including their shape, the way their win

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dows were to open, the absence of all pews, Chinese palings, and tub pulpits.' The men and women must sit separately, according to the practice of the Primitive Church; and if I 'come,' he says, into a new preaching-house, and see the men ' and women sitting together, I will go out.' He drew up a plan of legal settlement for his chapels, and issued the peremptory order, Not a stone shall be laid till the house is settled ' on the Methodist plan verbatim. N.B. No lawyer is to alter one line, neither need any be employed.' But even in Wesley's days the division of the sexes was overthrown, and his act of uniformity was speedily inoperative. At present the chapels of every Methodist sect must be as ecclesiastical as an architect of the nineteenth century, chosen by a committee after open competition, can contrive to make it.

In reading the architectural reports on Wesleyan chapels, we are struck with the fact that very minor modifications in the majority of cases, and no modification at all in very many, would render the buildings perfect for the celebration of most advanced Ritual. Nor does the desire for expensive and ornate chapels confine itself to Wesleyans; all Methodist bodies appear to yield to the same impulse, till we come to American and Canadian Methodism, where the churches vie with the architecture of the most ecclesiastical of their neighbours. The aestheticism of the age has proved too strong for the vaunted plainness of the Methodist precisians.

Contentions for power to appoint preachers to these chapels and to have the legal possession of them arose at an early stage. The first deed was drawn in accordance with the provisions of the old Presbyterian meeting-house settlements. It was the shrewdness of Whitefield, strange to say, that drew Wesley's attention to the dangers of this mode of settlement, and, after his alarms had been excited, he consulted three eminent counsellors.' By their ingenuity a legal form was prepared that steered clear of all the difficulties. The crucial point was grasped clearly by Wesley; for he says: "If you give trustees powers to eject ministers, their power will be greater than the king's. Where he is patron he can put in a preacher, but he cannot put him out.' The Conference was first strictly defined, and then to it was given full power over all appointments of preachers, with the proviso that its power was not to be operative as against Wesley during his lifetime. During that period and afterwards, the trustees contended for the forbidden domination. They were gradually defeated, partly because in some cases their pretensions were illegal, and were so declared by the civil courts;

partly because the general feeling of the Methodists resented the power of trustees; and most of all because the preachers, believing that their autonomy was essential to the well-being of the societies, resolutely set themselves to break their power, and to reduce them practically to a position in which they hold the legal right to the property without great capability of affecting the religious policy of the denomination. A very strict oversight is maintained over each chapel, its income, its expenditure, and its capacity. Statistics on these points are carefully compiled every year, and they are collected and preserved under the direction of a special office. These statistics are all read over at an annual meeting of the trustees of each chapel, and are verified by the signature of the minister in charge of the circuit.

In deciding on the conflicting claims of the Conference and of trustees, Cæsar has frequently decided upon things which extreme religionists are not usually content to give to Cæsar. The most important case which Methodism ever submitted to the decision of the civil courts came before Lord Lyndhurst in 1835 on appeal from Vice-Chancellor Shadwell. The cause of the dissension appears to have been that proposals had been made to found a theological college for the better training of candidates for the Wesleyan ministry. The project met with considerable opposition; for though Wesley had endeavoured to impress upon his preachers the necessity of reading, and taught his people to pray, Unite the pair so long disjoined, 'knowledge and vital piety,' a large section of the community entertained a strong objection to the regular training of the ministry. By some oversight, Dr. Warren, an apparently able man, and of more than ordinary culture, was omitted from participation in the arrangements. He became the chief of the opposition, and gathered round him many adherents who were by no means congenial companions. A satirical poem published on the Conference side termed them the radicals, shirtless and thin.' The quarrel assumed larger dimensions, and it was evident that the exclusive power of the ministry over spiritual affairs was the real grievance. In the course of the conflict, Dr. Warren was suspended by what was really a committee of the Conference. He persisted in occupying chapel in Manchester. The trustees were divided, some siding with the Conference and some with Dr. Warren. In the course of the trial, which turned upon the course pursued in Dr. Warren's suspension, the discipline of Wesleyanism and its regulations were put in as evidence, and reviewed by the Lord Chancellor in his judgment.

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