knowledge through the succession of generations, and to transform for the better the opinions of the new ages." He adds: "Later times have in some points corrected Aristotle, and greatly extended his discoveries; and this extension will proceed even to the end of the world, because in human inventions there is nothing perfect or complete."* The idea contained in these extracts is not original with the admirable doctor;" it is found in the Natural Questions of Seneca, which were in his hands,† and were a common text-book in the Middle Ages. It had been the common-place of philosophers before the times of Lord Bacon; for the reformation of philosophy had already become, not merely a vague anticipation, but the avowed object of numerous tentatives. If it should be discovered that Lord Bacon has borrowed or imitated the utterance, the sentiments, the style, the expressions, and the doctrines of the Franciscan monk, it would be still easier to prove that he had levied heavy contributions, without acknowledgment, upon the other reformers less remote from his own times.§ This point we may have the opportunity of illustrating incidentally.

ART. II.-BRITISH METHODISM AND SLAVERY:

AN HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE INFLUENCE OF METHODISM IN EFFECTING THE CHRISTIAN WORK OF EMANCIPATION.

By WILLIAM J. SHREWSBURY, Twenty Years a Wesleyan Missionary.

METHODISM has been characterized by an eminent Scotch divine as "Christianity in earnest." The justness of that high eulogium cannot fail to be manifest to every one who candidly examines the labors of the Wesleys and of their coadjutors, whose lives

Opus Majus, Pars II, cap. viii, p. 27.

† Opus Majus, Pars III, p. 36. "Et nos sumus filii et successores sanctorum et sapientum philosophorum, ut Boethii, Seneca, Tullii, Varronis, et aliorum sapientum usque ad hæc ultima tempora."

So Henry Cornelius Agrippa, De Incertitudine et Vanitate Scientiarum, eap. C: "non solum hæ scientiæ et artes, sed et hæ litteræ et characteres quibus utunur peribunt, et resurgent aliæ, et fortasse jam sæpius extinctæ fuerunt, et sæpius iterum resurrexerunt." Vide Seneca, Nat. Quæst., lib. VIII, c. xxv, §§ 4, 5; c. xxx, § 5.

§ Morhofius, Polyhistor, Ps. I, lib. II, cap. iv, § 14, tom. I, p. 345, says: "non pauci etiam barbara illa ætate fuerunt, quibus his similia, quæ Verulamius proponit, in mentem venerunt."

were spent in spreading, not unimportant theories or systems, but Scriptural holiness," throughout the world. That was their avowed object; and in prosecuting it they considered themselves as "debtors both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise;" and when Providence set before them an open door, they sought alike the salvation of the bond and of the free. Nor would it be difficult to show that there is a striking agreement between the rise and progress of Christianity in the beginning, and of Methodism in later times, as to their principles, operations, and results. For Methodism is simply Christianity revived, and adapting its agencies and appliances to the existing moral necessities of mankind. Spiritual in its principles and direct aims, it carries along with it energies that produce collateral and consequential benefits and blessings on the civil condition and temporal interests of men. In no part of its history is this more apparent than in its bearing on the great work of elevating from slavery to freedom the hereditary bondmen of the British empire.

It is well known how early Christianity brought its healing balm to the slaves of ancient nations, and became to them, as "to all people, glad tidings of great joy." Paul and his fellow helpers gathered them into the Church of Christ; and effectually, yet unostentatiously, and without offense, acknowledged them as a part of the Christian family, and as equal members of its spiritual rights and privileges. Their successors were of the same spirit. Ignatius, one of the fathers, has a striking passage, showing how sacredly the slave population were cared for, especially in regard to marriage, a point in which modern slavery is awfully criminal. Describing the duty of a bishop, Ignatius says, that "it is required of him to speak to each member of the Church separately, to seek out all by name, even the slaves of both sexes, and to advise every one of the flock in the affair of marriage." By thus infusing Christian principles and laws throughout the minds of men of every rank and condition, and by laying a good foundation in domestic virtue, Christianity prepared the way for universal freedom; and gradually, but successfully, abolished the degradation of serfdom in various regions. In like manner, Methodism first proclaimed salvation from sin to all men, bond or free; and having by that means, with other churches, prepared the way, with them it then wrought out the magnificent scheme of emancipation, and restored the slave to the common rights of mankind.

In tracing this matter historically, it will be seen that at the beginning, and for a considerable period after, the action of Methodism on slavery was indirect, and not positive or legislative; and

.

that civil freedom was rather the result than the design of those who "preached the gospel to the poor." Their great aim cannot be better expressed than in the glowing missionary language of Dr. Coke, in his work on the West Indies :

"To meet, in a world of spirits, thousands of our negro brethren, who shall have happily escaped from the corruptions of their own hearts, and the miseries which result from guilt, through the merits of that Saviour whose infinite love we have been made instrumental in communicating, must be a source of joy which we have not language sufficiently energetic to express, and which will submit to no description. The arduous task imposes silence on me; and my powers are absorbed in the pleasing contemplation. I anticipate the scene with an ecstasy that overwhelms me. I sink beneath the pressure of that glory which is too exalted to be told, and too dazzling to be pursued; and humbly join my prayers to yours who are friends to this mission, that we may be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as we know that our labor shall not be in vain in the Lord.""

But though emancipation was not contemplated, or even thought of, by the earlier missionaries, yet, as a consequence, it was inevitable; for the gospel of Christ will produce its own fruits in every land. The eloquent remarks of the late Rev. Richard Watson are pertinent on this subject:

"Christianity found a great portion of society in the civilized world, to which it was first communicated, in a state of absolute servitude; but it neither sanctioned the practice of slavery, nor directly abrogated it. It taught men duties suitable to the circumstances in which it found them. It gave no plans of civil government, nor systems of political regulation. It taught all men mercy, justice, peace, sobriety, diligence, and brotherly love; and left those great principles gradually to work that amelioration in the civil state and relations of society in which all would be equally interested. By this model the Methodist missionaries have been directed to conduct themselves in the West Indies; and if, indeed, the indirect and ultimate effect of the Christianity they preach should be the same as (that of) the Christianity of the first ages, with which they hope it accords; if there should be in it a principle averse to slavery, and in its issue destructive of it, a position which the friends of missions do not affect to deny; yet it is to be recollected, that the modern missionaries are not, on this account, any more than the primitive preachers of Christianity, political characters; that their objects are still purely religious; that any objections to them on probable ultimate results, lie with equal force against Christianity itself, and against all missionaries who teach it, to whatever denomination they may belong."Defense of Missions.

66

Elsewhere he says:

Christianity must destroy modern bondage, as it destroyed the slavery existing in ancient Europe. For though, in states very partially Christianized, slavery may continue, as one of many evils not yet fully reached by the remedy; yet, when the mass of a community is leavened by its influence, the subjection of man to man, as a slave, must cease. The reason of this is, that our religion, on the principle of its own two great social laws, to love

our neighbor as ourselves, and to do to others as we would have them do to us, makes it an imperative duty to render every man's condition as felicitous as the present mixed state of things, where the rich and the poor must still exist, and toil and suffering cannot be excluded, will allow. Slavery is a blot which cannot remain amid the glories of Messiah's reign.”

For the sake of distinctness in our review, it may be well to divide Methodism into three periods. The first may be reckoned from its origin to the formation of the first negro societies; then, to the abolition of the slave-trade; and finally, from that abolition to the extinction of slavery. The first period reaches from 1739 to 1760; the second from 1760 to 1807; and the third from 1807 to 1834.

First period. Mr. Wesley dates the rise of Methodism from "the latter end of the year 1739, when eight or ten persons came to him in London, who appeared to be deeply convinced of sin, and earnestly groaning for redemption." Their number soon increased, and in two or three years, many in a similar state of mind were collected together in several other places. For their benefit and guidance, a few simple rules were published so early as May 1, 1743, and signed by the two brothers, John and Charles Wesley. Though simple and brief, they are very complete and efficient; and, in fact, they are the basis of Methodistic legislation in every part of the world. Nothing is sound in the economy of Methodism that is inconsistent with the spirit or letter of those comprehensive rules; which is to be attributed, not so much to the wisdom of the framers, as to their piety, in adhering closely to the written word. "These," say they, "are the General Rules of our societies; all of which we are taught of God to observe, even in his written word, the only rule, and the sufficient rule, both of our faith and practice." Now slavery is a system inimical to those rules; you cannot consistently graft it on any of them, whether classed under the general heading of "doing no harm, avoiding evil of every kind;" or, of "doing good, being in every kind merciful after our power;" such rules, honestly observed, would work out the extinction of slavery. This is a great truth, and a mighty Methodistic argument; it is not the less forcible because it is incidental, and was never so applied before. We must not lose sight of this starting point in reviewing the influence of Methodism on slavery; for these rules will never tolerate it, unless men be so circumstanced as to be unavoidably prevented from extricating themselves at once from all connection with so complicated a system of evils. But even while it lasts, as masters and servants in the Methodist societies, as was the case in the West Indies, being placed under the same code of laws, the rules, to some

extent, exerted an ameliorating influence, and practically prepared the way for freedom; and they remain the permanent laws for all parties now that emancipation is accomplished. Mr. Wesley's rules supposed freedom, and were made for free men; there never was a separate slave code in Methodism.

But prior to the existence of those excellent rules, to the spirit and bearing of which our entire ecclesiastical arrangements in our conferences must be conformed, in order to their being constitutional, we find the Rev. John Wesley himself actually an instructor of slaves. On his way to Georgia he heard something of the condition of negro slaves from Bishop Nitschman, who had been concerned in the establishment of a Moravian mission among the negroes. We may suppose that this occurrence was the first thing that drew his attention to that afflicted race; although, as his special mission was to the Indians, he had no opportunity of immediately preaching to them the Gospel of the kingdom. But in his Journal of July 31, 1736, he writes as follows:

"We came to Charleston. Next day about three hundred persons were present at the morning service, when Mr. Garden, the minister, desired me to preach. I was glad to see several negroes at church; one of whom told me she was there constantly, and that her old mistress (now dead) had many times instructed her in the Christian religion. O God, where are thy tender mercies? Are they not over all thy works? When shall the Sun of Righteousness arise on these outcasts of men with healing in his wings?"

Here we have the first Wesleyan prayer on record in behalf of slaves! How tender, how pathetic! It was connected, too, with preaching the Gospel to them. What a foreshadowing of the care of Methodism for men in bonds! Nor should the date be unnoticed. John Wesley preached his first sermon to slaves on the first of August, and it was in that same month, and on that same day of the month, ninety-eight years after, Britain bade her slaves be free. Then his prayer was fulfilled, and on that morning "the Sun of Righteousness arose on those outcasts of men with healing in his wings."

Shortly after, we find Mr. Wesley a private teacher, we might almost say a class-leader, to a negro. He says on the 23d of April, 1737:

"I met with a young female negro at Carolina, born in Barbadoes. The attention with which this poor creature listened to instruction is inexpressible. The next day she remembered all, readily answered every question, and said that she would ask Him that made her, to show her how to be good."

Next we find him itinerating, that he might preach, not in a church, but on a plantation: