Excerpt from Wesleyan Vindicator and Constitutional Methodist

We must also be allowed to demur to the application of the epithet Wesleyan to the heterogeneous assemblies which have recently been held in various places, whether for the purpose of expressing sym pathy with the expelled Ministers, or for the more comprehensive object of promoting what is called a Reform in Methodism. To be entitled to that designation, and to the consideration claimed for the conclusions therein adopted, those meetings ought, of course, to have been constituted of Wesleyans only. And if the agitators had been willing to exhibit fairly their real strength in point of numbers, they would in all cases have qualified their gatherings by this condition. Instead of opening their doors with a broad welcome to all comers, especially in those instances in which the question of a reform in Methodism was to be the order of the day, -they would have limited the right of admission to such persons only as were bond fide members of the wesleyan-methodist Society. This limitation, reason able as it was, and necessary for the purpose of giving to the proceed ings of their meetings a properly Wesleyan character, has not (except, perhaps, in a few instances, of which we have no knowledge) been judged to be expedient and for a very obvious reason. To the extent to which strangers were actually present at these meetings, the de monstration aimed at would, on the supposition of their having been excluded, have proved a failure and the comparative nakedness of the entire cause which such demonstration was designed to serve, would have been, in the majority of cases, humblingly apparent; and with this risk before them, as to the sort of impression and efl'ect designed to be produced upon the public mind, they were not in circumstances to afford the loss, or absence, of that multitudinous but very question able aggregation of outside supporters, which the more liberal and wholesale method of admittance brought to their assistance. Consider ing the constitution of those meetings, and the very large proportion in which strangers from all parties were generally present, we are neither to be coaxed nor terrified to the admission of their having any claim to be regarded as Wesleyan meetings; and we must needs consider all resolutions passed at meetings thus heterogeneously constituted, as altogether wanting the conditions indispensable to their being treated as legitimate expressions of Wesleyan feeling and opinion, and as deserving only such attention from the Conference and the Wesleyan public, as might be expected to be given by the Government and the public of the country to resolutions or memorials, on subjects touching the British Constitution, from meetings composed of persons of all nations.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.