METHODISM AND
By the same Author THE LOVE-FEAST
CHARLES WESLEY AS REVEALED BY Hts LETTERS THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS AND EARLY METHODISM THE METHODIST PII,ORIM IN ENGLAND TREASURE IN EARTHEN VESSELS: A PLAY By Tim STORY OF CLEETHOI{PES AND THE CONTRIBUTION OF METHODISM FRANK BAKER A CHARGE TO KEEP : AN INTRODUCTION TO THE P&OPL& CALLED METHODISTS B.A., B.D., Ph.D.
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THE EPWORTH PRESS LONDON 'I.Ji',;,;,
'}( ; ; ,. i THE EPWORTH PRESS (FRANK H, CUMlllilRS) PREFACE 25-35 City Road, London, lil.C.l
NEW YORK TORONTO THE attention of Church leaders of various denominations has i, MlilLBOURNlll OAI'lll TOWN ;;, been focused on the Agape or Love-feast as a possible medium 1 , 11 for a for1n of intercommunion freed from the difficulties associated with the Lord's Supper, At the same time there is !i!,, among Methodists a renewed interest in one of the charac terestic features of Methodis111 which is almost extinct, This interest appears to be not only antiquarian but religious--a genuine desire to understand the spiritual genius of early 11 Methodism in order that it may be recaptured in whatever Ali rtghta r&'ferved M adr, wn Groot BritMn forms prove appropriate for modern conditions. PubUshcd in 1957 I It is surprising both how little is known about the old Methodist love-feast, and how difficult it is to increase that meagre store. The standard work on the whole subject is by i: I a Methodist, the Rev, R, Lee Cole's Love-Feasts. A History of the Christian Agape (1916). Even here, however, only a I very small section is devoted to the Methodist adoption and adaptation of the agape, In Methodist Origins, by the Rev. Francis H. Tees of Philadelphia (1948), a chapter is divided I between the love-feast and the watch-night service. The ,I best brief survey, however, is that by Dr Leslie F. Church in More About the Early Methodist People (1949), pp, 237-42, The present book endeavours to present an authoritative but readable historical survey of the development and decline of I the Methodist love-feast, and to relate it to the patterns and I possibilities of modern worship. !1 ,, I am indebted to Dr Church for helpful suggestions, and 11 to the Rev. Wesley F. Swift for his unfailing kindness in candid criticism and the careful reading of manuscript and proofs. FRANK BAKER HULL, 1956 i: i 'j;,i I I !.: r '-~·'. I ,,,,, I ii CONTENTS , , I '::i..:• .. i I 1 11 l: 'I': ·I:· I I 1 THE LOVE~FEAST COMES 'I'O ENOLAND 9 1,, . ';II !i · 1 I I 2 HYMNS FOR THS LOVE.. FEAST 17 :',,:; ~ i' 3 TESTIMONY MEETING - 25 " I
4 DECENTLY AND IN ORDER 32
5 TIMES AND PLACES 41
48 I 6 THE LOVE~FEAST IN THE DAUGHTER C~URQHES . I 7 SURVIVAL AND REVIVAL 56 I
8 THE LOVE~FEAST AND CRRlSTIAN JtEUNION 63
APPENDIX. HOW TO CONDUCT A LOVE--FEAST - 72
BIBLIOGRAPHY 79
INDEX 82 :I I '
2 ! IJ·J i 1,·:t1 ;, i ;,1, f f;t I ONE • I I ''I The Love,Feast Comes to England , I :, I T WILL be remembered that in Apostolic times Christians ,, I I periodically observed a common meal known as the Agape, 1 ,,Ii I from the Greek word meaning 'love' -by which was im ',,I plied 'brotherly love', though the meaning later degenerated i'-.: i to mere 'benevolence', or 'charity' in the modern sense. That i this fellowship meal was in some way associated with the Lord's Supper is certain, but historians are not agreed on the exact relationship. Gradually the Agape became a charity7 supper, which during the third century fell into decay and I disrepute. St Chrysostom, who died in A.D. 407, spoke of itJ wistfully as 'a custom most beautiful and most beneficial; for I it was a supporter of love, a solace of poverty, and a discipline of humility'. The Agape did not entirely die, however. Some relics of it are to be found in sections of the Eastern Orthodox Church and among the Christians of St Thomas in South India. In England the only faint survival for many centuries was in the Maundy Thursday d.istributions to the poor. The same. was -, true of Europe generally until in 1727 the little colony of Moravians gathered by Count Zinzendorf at Herrnhut spon taneously reintroduced it as a common meal for social inter.. _) course and religious rejoicing. Speedily they realized that this was in fact a revival of an apostolic usage, and they took care to prevent abuses such as had eventually degraded the Agape in sub-apostolic times. Moravian missionaries and emigrants took the custom to America, and it was here on Monday, 8th August 1737-only ten years after its reintro duction--that John Wesley met with it in Savannah, recording in his Journal: 1. Pronounced a•ga-pay. 9 Aftel' evening prayers, we joined with the Germans in one of their This love-feast was attended by seven ordained clergymen, all love~feasts. It was begun and ended with thanksgiving and prayer, and of them Oxford Methodists. It struck the note of intense celebrated in so decent and solemn a manner as a Christian of the apostolic age would have allowed to be worthy of Christ. religious fellowship which was to sound for the remainder of the century, and which continued to find its fullest ex As the above quotation shows, Wesley's interest was quickened pression in the love.feast, though inevitably the spiritual not only by the pastoral possibilities of such a gathering, but temperature did not remain at quite this high level. by the fact that it was a revival of 'primitive Christianity', The Jove-feast quickly became a normal feature of the \ always a vital subject for him, but more especially at this Evangelical Revival in England, first of the Anglican Reli- \ period of his own spiritual pilgrimage. gious Societies such as that meeting in Fetter Lane, and Wesley's return from America, and his 'evangelical con .. thence of the Methodist and Moravian Societies. A month version', by no means diminished his interest, but heightened later, on Sunday the 4th February 1739, there was another _it. The spiritual awakening of 24th May 1738 was speedily love-feast at Fetter Lane, lasting from 9 p.m. until 3 a.m., followed by a lengthy visit-13th June to 16th September-to Like that on 1st January, this seems to have been for men ) the Moravian settlements in Germany, where he had further ~' On 18th February a women's love-feast was held during/ ( first-hand experience of the love-feast. On his return to more respectable hours, aided by a cup of tea-not quite so London he resumed his place in the Fetter Lane Religious inevitable then as now. A careful comparison of John Society, which he had helped to found on 1st May 1738, and Wesley's diary and Chades Wesley's Journal shows that this it is surely significant that among the many additional rules fortnightly alternation of men's and women's love-feasts cona adopted by the Society on 26th September was the following: tinued at Fetter Lane, though there were occasions when neither of the Wesleys could be present, and James Hutton I' 'That on Sunday Se'en-night following ,(the monthly day of ii general intercession] be a general Love-feast, from seven till took charge. The same process was commenced at Bristol,\, ten in the Evening.' · where the w~el)_Jield their first love-feast on 15th April, \ ' 'I ,- According to this ruling there should have been love-feasts while what=was presumably the first for the men, in the ; ! on 1st October, 5th November, 3rd December, and 31st Baldwin Street Society room, lasted from 8.30 until 10 p.m. / ,,I '~_pecember of that year. Wesley's diary makes no mention of on 29th April. Some linking up of the men's and women's I them on the first two dates, however, and on the third he love-feasts possibly arose quite early on, for both the separa• was in Oxford. The gathering for 31st December 1738 was tion of the sexes and their periodical united gatherings were; postponed to the following evening, a Monday, and was a characteristic of Moravian love-feast practice. In any easel most memorable occasion, when the 'seven till ten in the men and women would be seated (again in Moravian fashion)°' evening' rule was far exceeded. Wesley thus described it in at opposite sides of the building. his .Tournal: Strangely and sadly enough, the love-feast soon becarne a focal point of dissension. On 13th April 1740, what would Mr Hall, Kinchin, Ingham, Whitefield, Hutchins, and my brother normally have fallen to be a women's love-feast at Fetter Charles were present at our love-feast in Fetter Lane, with about sixty Lane was a joint or 'general' one, about which Charles Wesley of our brethren. About three in the morning; as we were continuing instant in-prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch wrote: that many cried out for exc'eeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement My soul was exceedingly sorrowful at the love.feast, to find so little at the presence of His majesty we broke out with one VQice: 'We love, and so much dispute. I spoke as healingly as I could. , . I praise Thee, 0 God; we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.' appeal~d to Simpson, who had confessed to me that he ha.cl di$tluad.ed 10 !I , I
such and such persons from either hearing or seeing us. Our brother cquaintance with the, Moravian Bishop, Dr Anton Seif~, Hodges next began talking' at random. . . . The women stopped his mouth. hose consecration he had witnessed in Savannah, and with •itn took part in a Dutch Moravian love-feast. By then, I The disputes-mainly on the question of 'stillness', or avoiding oweve.r, the breach was far too wide for reunion. the means of grace and all good works lest they became a !1 Benjamin Ingham, the other member of the 'Holy Club' Ii substitute for simple faith-continued. On 27th April, how ho had accompanied the Wesleys to Georgia, left some ii I ever, Charles Wesley was able to report that 'the still brethren onths before the Savannah love-feast attended by John at the love-feast were kept down'. 11.1,1· esley. He was present, however, at the momentous gathering ·1:' A breach with the quietistic Moravian element at Fetter In 31st December, 1738. Even after the division between the 1,. I Lane was approaching, and perhaps it was prophetic that at I ethodists and the Mora. vians Ingham continued to associate ii.I ( a special Kingswood love-feast on 13th July Charles We.sley I th both, though his followers eventually formed a separate I1::1 should say : 'Two hundred were assembled in the Spirit of I ct, the Jnghamites. He too laid great stress on love-feasts, Jesus. Never have I seen and felt such a congregation of ,1 least from 1749 onward, and no quarterly General Meeting faithful souls. J question whether Herrnhut can now afford the Inghamites was complete without such a celebration. I, the like.' Methodism was now rapidly drawing away from f: ii Under the new Methodist regime things continued at first I the influence of Herrnhut. At the Fetter Lane Jove-feast the ery much as they had done under the old, except t~at in ,, I following Sunday came the final break. John Wesley read a ,ondon the Foundery replaced F~tter Lane. The fo_rtmghtly \ 'I: paper defining his religious views, and then withdrew with lternation of men's and women s love-feasts remained un- ) \his supporters to the Foundery in Moorfields. Here they !ltered, though the 'general' love-feast gradually became L formed what may be called the first specifically Methodist ore frequent, and there were even combined love-feasts for ii ' ··· Society, while those who remained at Fetter Lane very soon eighbouring Societies. On 21st December ) 740 John "1-Yesley 11 became the first Moravian congregation in England, with oted in his Journal: 'At the love-feast which we had m the ) I Ii' James Hutton as their leader. Methodist and Moravian I vening at Bristol, seventy or eighty of our brethren and : i developments of the love-feast were hen,ceforth quite distinct. isters from Kingswood were present, notwithstanding the i ;, I I Under the influence of the 'stillness' teaching, English eavy snow.' A fortnight later, partly owing to the disturbed ·, Moravianism for a time lost much of its spiritual fervour. tale of the Societies, there was a similar united gathering, at I f.John Wesley gives a caustic description of one of their Jove ingswood this time. October 1741 saw the end of the feasts which he attended in 1742 ; heological disputes which had disturbed the Christian fel 'i I owship of the early Methodist love-feasts at Bristol as at : i For about an hour all were silent: no singing, no prayer, no word of ' ' exhortation, Then Mr 8-- said: 'My sisters, I was thinking in my ondon. heart how many Scripture-names there are among you.' (Might he not Soon the love-feast had settled into its peaceful stride as, ' as well have been thinking how many barley-corns would reach from typical part of Methodist order. At the first Conference in-" 11· London to Edinburgh?) ~ I 744--which was preceded on the Sunday with a Jove-feast Peter Bohler tried to heal the wound, staging a Jove-feast t which six ordained clergy were present-dates were reunion on the third anniversary of the founding of the Fetter , ppointed for the holding of mon~h!y"lov~fa'leJS, with wa.td1- Lane Society, but things had gone too far. For a generation 1ight services on. Friday_ evenings clmfog the alternate" fo,r.t: Methodists and M9ravians drifted farther apart. In 1783, Tghts. Tne"-same arrangement was maintained during the during the course of a visit to Holland, Wesley renewed his " o!l Happy the souls who first believed, Call'd to different climes away, To Jesus and each other c/e4ved, We in Christ together stay, Join' d by the unction from above, One. in spirit;, mind, and heart, In mystic fellowship of love! Parting we can never part ,I Meek, simple followers of the Lamb, (Like Paul in the incident thus described, the Wesleys fre They lived and spake and thought the same; quently held love-feasts immediately before their departure Brake the commemorative bread, on evangelistic journeyings.) And drank the Spirit of their Head. The eighteenth century produced one other well-known English hymn-writer intimately associated with both Metho On God the)! cast their .every care: dism and Moravianism--John Cennick. His several collec Wrestling with God in mighty prayer, tions of hymns {now extremely rare) are much more prolific They claim'd the grace, through Jesus given; in love--feast hymns than the more numerous productions of B)I prayer the)! shut and open'd heaven. the Wesleys. Cennick acted as a l.ty preacher under Wesley's guidance To Jesus they perform'd their vows: at Bristol in 1739, and also served as a teacher at the early A little Church in every house, Kingswood School. Dissensions arose, however, leading to They joyfully conspired to raise his expulsion from the Methodist Society by John Wesley on Their ceaseless sacrifice of praise ... 28th February 1740-1. For a time he linked himself with With grace abundantly endued, George Whitefield, though he acted also as an independent A pure, believing multitude! evangelist. In 1745 the Societies which he had formed were They a/l were of one heart and soul, officially handed over to the Moravians, with whom hence And only love inspired the whole. forth he was closely associated. His hymns belong for the most part to the Methodist period of his allegiance, and to 0 what an age of golden days! his work as a free-lance evangelist, although even then he 0 what a choiceJ peculiar race! was under Moravian influence. Wash'd in the Lamb's all-cleansing blood, In the early 1740's Cennick published three collections with Anointed kings and priests to God! •.• the same title-Sacred Hymns for the Children of God, in the 20 21 days of .their pilgrimage. In the first of these (printed by . Already_ in the 1739 liym~s and_ Sacred Poems the Wesleys B. MUies of London in 1741) one hymn is entitled 'The Love ad provided the MethodISts with some metrical graces feast' and others are obviously intended for similar occasions, · ncluding 'Being of beings, God of love' (Met ho dist Iiymn'. ) In the second (printed by John Lewis of London, with no book, No, 383). A few years later they published a penny date) a whole section is given over to loveRfeast hy111ns, Nos. amphlet containing eleven 'Graces before meat' and fifteen 45 to 56. Seven of these are general in character, but tl1e •: or after mea_t '. These also seem to have be~n produced others refer to various stages of the service-'At uncovering 1th the symbolic ~ea! of the love-feast in mind, though one the Bread', 'At wanting Bread', 'At wanting Water', and r two are more smte_d to the family than the society. They 'At covering the Things'. The sixth general hymn is 'Children ere frequently reprmted, and love-feas~ in Wesley's day of the heav'nly King', still sung by Methodists (as Hymn nust often have resounded to such strains as these : No. 696 in the Methodist Hymn-book) with little knowledge of its original purpose. Other love-feast hymns are found in 0 God of all Grace, Cennick's Sacred Hymns for the U,·e of Religiom Societies, Thy Bounty we praise, Parts I and II, first published in 1743. And joyfully sing, On pp. 75 and 76 of Cennick's earliest volume of hymns Poor Beggars admitted to feast with a King ... occur those famous gr.ru;&.s which have become iecond nature to almost e,fe;:ygeneration of Methodists, whether sung at Iiow royal the Chear the official love-feasts for which they were almost certainly When Jesus is here! written, or at what have become their unofficial substitutes, The scantiest Meal the 'tea-meetings' : Is Feasting indped when his Favour w, feel ... Thee, Saviour, to know Grace before MEAT Is lleaven below, Thy Witnesses we Be pre,ent at our Table, LORD; That Heaven is found in the Knowledge of Thee: Be Here, and Ev'ry Where ador'd; Thy Creatures bless, and grant that we Thee, Jesus, we taste; May feast in PARADISE with Thee. But oh let it last, This Sense of thy Love, Grace after MEAT Till with all the Assembly we banquet above. We bless Thee, LORD, for this our Food, But more for JESU's Flesh and Blood; ·This was one of the instances, however where custom died The Manna to our Spirits giv'n, ard. ~ennick coul~ 1:ot b_e ousted, e:en by Wesley. The ethod1sts-and Christians m general-have taken Cennick's The Living Bread sent down from Heav'n; ~ Praise shall our Grateful Lips employ, graces to their hearts, even though we have learnt to vary While Life and Plenty we enjoy; ne or two of his phrases, and to omit altogether the second Till worthy, we adore thy Name, art of his grace 'After Meat'. While banqueting with CHRIST, the LAMB. So much did Cennick's graces become embedded in Metho- 22 23 3 dist tradition that a writer in the Wesleyan Methodist Maga• ; Similarly he speaks about a London love-feast, in 1785 : I I could not but observe the manner wherein several of them spoke one after another. Not only the matter, but the language, the accent the tone of voice, wherewith illiterate persons, men and women1 younfJ and old, spoke;, were such as a scholar need not be ashamed of Who teacheth hke Him? · For an actual example in which Wesley figures we turn to Alexander Strachan's Life of Revd. George Lowe. In the 24 25 SUl)llllet of 1769 Lowe went to hear WC'!ley preach at Man. More reliable is the simple account of a young man pre.ent chester, and the occasion is thus described : at an Irish gathel'ing : (-He commenced the service at six o'clock in the evening; and, after LPreac;hing, held a love-feast. Many spoke their experience with sirn .. The love-feast was held in an uppei· room of a private dwelling. It plicity, and a deep hallowed feeling pervaded the congregation. was the first I had ever attended, and I was excited, and greatly Toward the close of the love.feast, an old man, from Ashton-undera wondered at the speaking of the people; but I could only sigh and Lyne, nearly ninety years of age, stood up and said: 'Friends, it is mourn._ A woman now burst into tears, and requested Mr Wesley to upwards of half a century since God convinced me of sin. I remained pray for her. She and I kneeled down, and the venerable servant of God p;ayed .m~st earnestly for us both. I arose happy, full of joy and a long time in bitterness of· soul; having no friend to whom I could 1 open my mind. There was not then a Methodist in the world. One peace m behevmg. day, while I was wheeling turf in Ashton-Moss, I was reflecting on my guilt and mise1·y, and sinking into despair1 when it occurred to me to go to Christ as I was: a.nd while I was repeating, "Lord, I George Shadford tells how his sister 'sunk down as if she believe, help Thou my unbelief!", I felt my faith strengthened and was dying' under the influence of pent~up emotion at a love~ the " love of God shed abroad in my heart". I threw down the wheel-. barrow, clapped my hands, and literally danced for joy, From that feast conducted by a local preacher at Epworth, about 1765, day to this, I have been enabled to "walk in the light, even as God is Smith's History of Wesleyan Methodism gives an example of in the light'\ and now I feel that the "blood of His Son cleanseth a converted soldier so overcome that he had to be supported me from a11 sin".' · .· · When the old disciple sat down, Mr Wesley rose up and said: by his comrades. The story is told of two drunkards con- 11-Iere is an example of primitive piety and consistency, which you verted at a Congleton love .. feast, one jumping to his feet Manchester Metliodists \\'ill do well to imitate.' during prayer, and shouting : 'Glory be to God I My sins Or read the notes made on the spot by Adam Clarke as are forgiven I' One of the landmarks in the conversion of another uneducated man testified how he was convicted of that great commentator Adam Clarke was a love.feast held sin and sought salvation : at Coleraine in 1778, . . . John Wesley's Journal describe, a love-feast at Birstall on Upon awakmg one mornmg I felt ashamed to look. at tlle daylight; ' Sunday evening 19th July 1761 which Wl)S to be remem• much more so, to look at God. I roared for t_he d1squ1etude of my : . ' , ·, • ' soul. At last I tumbled me out of bed and prayed with all my ,oul. I I hered m the West R1dmg until the end of the century: then drew o~t tny three little children: told them to go down on their _ ·__ knees, and say their prayers for their father. Many were surprised when I told them 1The very design of a love:--\ feast is free and familiar conversation, in which every man, yea, and There is poetry implicit in an old man's account (related in i woman, has lib,erty to ·speak what~ver ~ay be to t11e glory of God". . , , . . . Several then did speak, and not m vam; the flame ran from heart Nightingales Portraiture of Methodism) of his recovery from to heart, especially while one was declaring, with all simplicity the a dangerous illness ...... 'As I drew near the swelling floods, I manner wherein God, during the morning sermon (on those w'ords, tho ht I felt Jordan cold to my feet and I shrunk back.' 'I will, be thou clean') had set her soul at full liberty. Two men •!so \ ug . '. i spoke to the same effect; and two others who had found peace wtth (, SmaH wonder that heightened ·emotions, renewed vows of G?d. We !hen joyfully poured out our souls before God, and praised 2 I dedication, and even conversions, were frequent at the love~ H1m for His marvellous works. . 1 \ feasts. James Lackington, the well-known bookseller, writes l Proce,diiigs of the Wesley Hi.stodcal Society, II: 138-9. c.- in unfriendly vein in his Memoirs: 2 cf. W. W. Stamp's Histori'cal Noti'ces of Wesleyan Methodism in Bradford and its vicinity (1841), p. 42, where he describes it as 'the At these times the spirit is supposed to be very powerfully at work first love-feast witnessed in the West Riding', apparently on the basis amongst them; and such an unison of sighing and groaning succeeds, of Wesley's opening words: 'It was the first of the kind which had that you would think they had all J.pst their senses. . . . In this frantic been there.' John Bennet's journal, however1 quoted above, p. 16, state, many apply tq themselves such texts of scripture as happen 10 shnws that there had been a love~feast at Birst~ll at least as early as come into their heads. 1749. 26 i1 One of the most remarkable Jove-feasts during Wesley's Sun~af, 13th A,pril, about which Mather wrote to the later ministry was that held at Burslem in March 1787, which Armtntan Magazme: Wesley himself thus describes: Many of the new converts stood up before the congregation, and gave a clear and satisfactory account of the work of God upon their hearts. While the two or three first spoke, the power of God so fell uport all The meeting continued till five o'clock, and it was then with reluctance that were present, some praying, and others giving thanks, t~at their, that they departed. voices could scarce be heard: and two or three were speakmg at a time till I gently advised them to speak one at a time; and they did so, with amazing energy. Sotne of them had found peace a year ago, At Birstall on the following Easter Sunday a love~feast was some within a month or a week, some within a day or two; and one the occasion for fifty more conversions. A revival at Sheffield of them, a potter's boy, told us: . • 'At the prayet~meeting I found myself dropping into hell; and I m 1794 also began and contmued at love-feasts. ~ried t? the Lord, ,_and He showed me He loved me. But Satan, came Nor was this movement of the Holy Spirit confined to the. 1mll'!ed1ately, and off~red me a bag of money as long as my arm; but North as may be seen from a letter by Adan1 Clark abo t I said, uGet thee behmd me, Satan".' ' · • . . e U Several also testified that the blood of Christ had cleansed them a London revival m 1795 : from all sin. Two declared, after bitter cries, that they knew their sins were just then blotted out by the blood of the Lamb; and I doubtl Last night we had our Love,.feast; for about half an hour the people not but it will be found upon inquiry that several more were either spoke; when all was ended in that way, we then exhorted and prayed justified or sanctified, ' ' with many who were in great mental ·distress; we remained four hours in these exercises. You might have seen small parties praying in , . , d . h separate parts of the chapel at thC same time. . • . We who prayed _ The same kmd of thmg was true after Wesley s eat • In circulated throughout the whole chapel, above and below adapting fact during the 1790's a renewed wave of spiritual awakening our prayers and exhortations to the circumstances of the ~ourners: spread through many areas, particularly in the Midlands. many were pardoned; to others strong hope was vouchsafed. John Fawson tells how in the Halifax area in 1792, Similar scenes took place in the much inore staid atmosphere a ve1•y remarkabl.e revival of the work of God began at a love-feast, of Queen Victoria's day, thus described by the officiating which was held 1~ Greetland chapel; the power of G~d came down/ minister Rev. Robert Young six months later: upon the people m a very extraordmary manner, while Mr LomaB. ' ' · was engaged in prayer; ther~ was a general cry for mercy hear~I On the evening of Christmas Day, 1842, a love-feast was held in t~rough the w~ole congregation, and many were brought mto thel Hinde Street Chapel, at which about nine hundred people were hberty of the children of God. / present. Thirty-four persons spoke with_ ~uch propriety and power; twenty-five of whom gave a clear and delightful account of the grace w·n· Bram ell wa t the same time finding the love- of entire sanctificat!on, which ,th~y pro!esJed to ½ave rec<:_ntly received, l iam W S a . When the hour arrived for brmgmg this mterestmg meetmg to a close, feast -a very powerful weapon of revival in the Dewsbu I the officiating Minister made some remarks on the blessing so frc Circuit, and on removing to Birstall in 1793 witnessed fifty quently alluded toi gave a few plain directions for its attainment; , f Ch • D h h h presented to the mmd several clear promises; exhorted the pf'ople at conversions at a love- east on nstmas ay--:t oug t er I once to seek for it; and then called upon two persons to engage in were those arnonp; the leaders who at first objected to the prayer. During the prayer of the first [Mr Thompson] an indescribable apparent confusion of such an uproarious assembly. Alex..l: awe rested _upon the asseplhlY: . . . When the se~ond-'Father' Jones- • I pleaded with God, an mtelhgent and sober.minded young man [Mr antler Mather describes how on the same day (a Wednesday) James Richardson] who felt as he afterwards declared great objection the very strong reA"ar.d for decorum which he judged wa to excitement and noise in the house of G_od, cried with a loud ·voice: reventing a revival at Hull was broken down. Another love jl -have got .it 1 _I have got it I' In a moment the whC!le assembly P appeared as tf convulsed. Such a scene as rtow presented it.self cannot feast at Beverley on 24th March 1794 acted as a preparato be adequately described.. , • Every few seconds, the affectln~ cries of warming up for a remarkable love-feast at Hull on Pa penitence were lost amid the bursting Joy of triumphant fa1!:h, ••• 28 29 For ten ~inutes this glory filte(hhe temple, during which period man ewn West Riding wisdom in a love-feast 'experience'-'All obtained the spirit of adoption, and not fewer than one hundre y religion ligs [lies] i' three letters: L.U.V.-LUV..'' Of persons, according to their subsequent profession, received the blessin of entire sanctification. . . . Our net increase of members, taken i ven more recent vintage is a testimony recalled in Shirley March, as the result of this gracious visitation, is two hundred an edfern's Methodist Journey: 'The devil had me hedged fortyaseven. n on all sides, and I couldn't get out nohow, until I remem red there was a way out at t'top. My friends, the devil's The infectious excitement often prompted words good hedger, but he's a rotten thatcher !' actions both undesigned and undesired. A good· witness t this phenomenon is old Father Barnett of Marlborough, wh thus describes his conduct at a love-feast at Wesley's Chapel Oity Road, London, in the middle of last century : From the commencement there appeared to be a good influence. On person obtained mercy, and this caused such feeling that four wer speaking at one time. The preacher seemed bewildered, and could no control the people. I had thought: 'I must not speak today, for this is London, arnon the great people.' But so irresistible was the influence that I sprang t my feet irt the front of the gallery, and shouted, 'I am a countryman!\ when immediately all were quiet and sat down. 'I am from Marlborough,' I went on, 'we have had a blesse revival throughout our circuit. God has not only pardoned me, but He has cleansed rpe from all sin.' I felt such a power at the time that shouted, 'Glory!', three or four times, and there w:is a general res ponse. I sat down, overwhelmed with the Saviour's presence, an unable to utter another word.a Homely humour, both conscious and unconscious, ofte11 enlivened the proceedings. Dr Ben jam in Gregory tells of th first love-feast at Oxford Place Chapel, Leeds, where ~ Yeadon pedlar's 'experience' was capped by a local mine/, accustomed to heaping slack on his kitchen fire so that i , would burn all night--'raking' it, as the practice was ,calledJ The pedlar had said : 'I'll tell you, friends, how I manage~ to keep t'fire t'luv o' God burnin' bright i' my 'art, I ollu1 tak's care to leet up a reet dahn guid fire t'fust thing 'i t'moming.' . 'Ay, lad, that's it!' nodded many of the listeners. But th~\ next speaker said : 'I knaws a trick wo'th tew o' Johnny'fi I o!lus rakes my fire over nee!!' To Dr Gregory we owe also the classic example of rough- • Meth"'1ist Recorder (Winter Nuntber, 1896), pp, 49-50, '1 W,sle1a11 M,thodist Maga,/ne (1891), p. 58, so ii 11 _11'."' :.1,;1 1\\ i f tho fanatia;, desire is often indulged without restraint, '1:'. :.!,: . ecause it is thought to contribute to the perfecting of the • • , ::! :··'.· FOUR mts m love. !·\:'.; It w'."' against such a !3ackground that Wesley made stri,ct--J li\,:i·~' Decently and In Order gulat1ons for safeguardmg the good name of the '.'1ethod1st \!l;:,1: ve-feast. Class leaders and local preachers might play- 1j['L: rominent parts in the spiritual leadership of Methodism, but ti''::, HE EXTRACTS given above, showing t~e kind of thing th e would not entrust to them th.e .re.sponsi.bility of condu~~ng ii / happened at love-feasts even when wJSe and level-head e-feasts. These were.J;&J;1L$!uCt!.}'. .. 1!!1-Jkr..• J:htLlliP.Srv1!10~ T 71n, 1 I" ;: ' ministers were leading them, underline the necessity f f the Asii~taJltS. or Superint,e1.,cl~1,LM1!:i~ters,, who were / .. / :{: I keeping the em~tional potentialities of such gather_ings i }r.e9tl)::._remQmible to _'\-Yfc!J!J'__ \Jl!llfil:.IL This rule was occa- ..J ' !:'fi:,! I lil;i';". ~heck, _Wesley hi~s_e(f was well aware of the grave dJSrepu 1onally evaded, as might _be expected, but after. ~esley's 1 mto which the pnm1t1ve A~ape had eve?tually fallen, and eath ~he Conference felt 1t necessary to re-enforce it, and i'/ i,f was the more careful to shield Methodism from scandal. he Minutes of 1796 read: 'Let no Local Preacher keep {:",, _The very name 'Love-feast'_ invited abuse, and comparisoov~-feasts .'''.'rithout the_ ~ppointrnent of the Supe~intendent.' lt:•I 1th the decadent days of its prototype. Nor was abu hJS cond1t10nal penmssion was relaxed further m 1797 by :ii',h 1 eking. ~ne of a series of scurrilous_ and obscene attac he substitution .of 'conse~t' for 'appointment'.. An ex:imple i·:'i;!I[.·: on Methodism as late_ a<: 1778 w~s entitled The Lov~-feast f Wesley's habit ?f keepmg a firm hold on ~,s own d1gm_ty, {}: A Poem. Its frontispiece depicted the consecration nd thus preventmg a love-feast from runnmg away with h' 'Reynardo' (Wesley) hy 'the Goddess Murcia' (Venus). tself, is given in Strachan's Life of Revd. George Lowe. At a ''[, sample of the poem's innuendo is its description of suppos acclesfield love-feast, after several people had testified to HI: love-feasts at the Foundery, London: aving achieved entire sanctification, Wesley was somewhat \i1! 1 aken aback by a steward who asked point-blank for their ,i,'.•.1!.(i There Saints, new-born, lascivious Orgies hold, 1 1 eader's own experience. Wesley-who was never known to i'11::•. Meek Lambs by Day, at Night no Wolves so bold. I ake a personal claim to entire sanctification--extricated i , ,,! There the New Adam tries the old one's Fort, i Ii. 1 , imself very neatly. At the same time he administered a . !',: , And Children of the Light in Darkness sport . . . • I1 Pure Souls are fir'd by Love's divinest Spark, efbGuked bly the bhrev,Ity of, his enigmatic reply-'By the grace ,;,,f' . . 'd . th D k ,o , am w at am . . ,1· A nd P ara dtse ts open in e ar . Th I I d bl · · b k' h h. d 1.:i'e'a' y t • e apparent au a e practice of rea m~ e rea or ,:J,, 1 ...... un with one's neighbour was discouraged. The Minutes of ;'iii( Ig-norant or malicious criticisms contmued, and m 1807 Josep he 1765 Conference read. l;:[I Nigh!ingalef,l while in dmanyd rfespdectsh ridicu!ing Meth?d' [ t' l Sh ld th I .b k h k h th I 1 1•.•'.',:,,·,_,,'.•.;:·:•'· practices, et compe 11 e to e en t e 1ove-feasts, saymg ues ion. ou e peop e rea t e ca e Io eac o er aI a ove- : -:; 'No branch of the Wesleyan church-discipline has been mo fea, t ? I · ak l ' d b [nswer]. By no means. That silly custom, invented by James Wheatj !j\(:: 1n1st en, or more gross y m1srepresente , y persons ignoran ley, creates much confusion, , of the subject, than this.' In particular he took up ar !di' '.. ,.'1:·.:•···••. I ag~inst Robert Fello"'.es's Relig_ion. Without ~ant (1801), i n the 'Large Minutes' of 1770 and later, this became a ?,:-.. which the author ser10usly mamtamed that In the agap peremptory 'instantly stop all breaking the cake with one J':' 1-.,1'1:'; 32 38 --t,,··:, l'tf:.'·: ,'If'\ 11:(·1'1!i ,,, another'. According to Joseph Nightingale the chief re ght be admitted. Accordingly, on 9th Decembe.1· 1759, \ was that people would clatter down the aisle, or even scram ~sleY, held 'for the first time, a love-feast for the wh~le over the pews in orde to har th • , d "th . 1cty at the Foundery. Soon membership of the Methodist , r s e eir ,oo w1 some par . b • "bl b th d · f l cular friend· · Such a p ·cti"c b · d ciety, to e VIS!. y proved y e pro uct1on o a £11SS• • rn e wou Id o v1ous 1y 1en d - d · fl' · ---- disorder ~~J,._an not necessan1 y a b~~__ J1cl.rn_t, was su 1crnnt war .. Another check on possible abuse was to keep the love-fea ·,1 for admission to a _love-feast anywhere, It h~d, how~ver, thin. reasonable bou_n~~_2.f tim_!'.,., The first few Fetter La be a ~urrent class-tlcket, and the date or serial lette1 fo~ gathermgs had lasted into the small· hours of the mornin t partlcular ~uarter had to_ be .shown to the doorkeepe,. After August 1739 there is no record. in Wesley's diary ere was a d1ffer1:nce of opm1on as to whether proof of one lasting beyond 11 p.m. Usually they commenced abo ¥ular attendanced m_ clas~ shouIdd also beh demanded_, budt 7 pm and lasted on! ho t th h . I."• was not presse , smce 1t wou 1 great1 y ave_ comp1 1cate . . y an ur or wo, oug occas1ona f d , · ·Th · I h they were protracted , thr· f h W'th tl e arrangements or a m1ss1on. e story 1s to d t at on 101 r ee or even our ours. 1 . W 1 h" If f d d · · l increasing proportion of 'general' love-feasts to those for O e occasion even es ey 1mse_ was re use ~ mISsion to ( sex only, regulations on this matter were even more necessar love-feast because he co':'ld display .no class-tlcket 2to the and the 1765 Conference decided the issue thus : . a!ous ~tewa:d,_ whose fid~hty he heartily co?'mended. T1:e -·- gham1tes s,m1larly felt 1t necessary at the,r Conference m rQ. How long should a love-feast last? 55 to make a ruling 'that no persons should come to the l A. N,ever above an hour and half; every one should .be at home ve Feasts or Society meetings but those who are Members --·-··· nme. Candidates unless they have leave given by the G[eneral] These restrictions, a, sign of Wesley's maturing wisdom verseer] [thi.e. ~~gdham ~i'!'self] or tickets from those Preachers · h h 'h .. oareau onz to owe. thoug h h e was a Iso wise enoug to treat t em wit e1 asbc1 . . Q - • , ) on exceptional occasions----proved irksome to some enthusiast V1S1to~and ~ember~ "."hose class-tickets had b~n llllS·, A young Irishman wrote home from London in : ,d-m,ght obtam , adm1Ss1on by means of a specia( Note 1789 m the preacher m charge. On at ]ea,t one occas10n, at We had a Love-Feast at West St last Sunday but did not like it ne 'stol in 1767 Wesley threw open the door to the whole as well as the Dublin ones; the whole lasted about ¾ hour, so th 'r" ar 8 oc';ty.1 there was scarce time for half a dozen people to speak.l ' a lV • !permitted all of Mr Whitefield's society that pleased to be present at Another necessary precaution was to restrict such intima e love-feast that followed. I hope we shall 'not know war any more', sharing of .spiritual experience to those who might reasonabI less with the world, the flesh, and the devil. be expected to profit from it. In 1750 John Wesley wrote ot that the understanding about 'members only' was uni- I .admit none but those to our love-feasts who have. 'the Jove of Go rsally observe-..d, or why need Wesley write to Thomas already 1shed abroa~ in their he:trts', beoa1;1se all the psalms an arlill at Brecon in 1777 : ( prayers and exhortations at that time are smted to them, and the · ~: alone. ear Tommy I commend you for letting none but the members of the Society stay ,· c·Originaily this meant· that only members of the inner circl en the Society meets, and more particularly at the love~fea.sts. the b~nds, could be present. At the 1758 Conference, how 2 J, Hacken, Brief History of Wesleyan }.tethodism in the Grimsby ever, 1t was agreed that o~-a .l'~"'!_ othey_l'!_~ers ..nf Societ ·.cuit (1839), p, 44; cf. Wesleyan Methodist Maga.,ine (1864), p. . l Proteedings of the Wesley Historical S~~iety, XXIII. 103. 2· 35 34 The- 1789 Conference made it a Standing Order that 'N iiddle of the nineteenth eentury we wo11ld recommend In person shall be admitted into the Love-feasts without ethodist Byways, a series _of thinly disguised aut9bfo .. Society-ticket, or a note from the Assistant'. These notes aphiqil studies by w·. Hargreaves Coope~. The ~hapter admission seem to have been fully written out at first, but i 'His First Love-feast'-at the age of ten, 1s full of mter:'t, later years slips were printed in which there were blanks e climax being the 'experience' of the doorkeeper, which be filled up. One is preserved in the Keig?ley Museu1 ntained. the complaint about (p:esui_nably) you1;1g C?oper printed '183 / Admit / Preacher' and filled m by hand , d the girl who was to become hJS wife, at the tnne s1ttmg follows : ith burning ears in the gallery : Deer. / 5th 183 41 ut while I've known what it is to meet with stout-hearted sinners Admit the Bearer ong adults, I never met in all the long years of my life with such to the Love-feast ,erversity amongst the young as my eyes and ears have been called to Josh. Cusworth Preacher. · itness this day. Little lasses now come with boldness to our love asts, hoping to get in under cover of their mothers' tickets, and little About the middle of. the nineteenth century this form W ds tell us bqldly in our vestries and in the very presence of our surJJlanted by a fully printed slip, of which I possess a spec inisters that they've no int~ntion or desire to surrender their hearts men, containing simply the words, 'Admit the Bearer to t · God. __ Love•Feast', within a decorative border. Before these we There is little doubt that in earlier days, when there wer~ issued, however, the would-be visitor must go to the. vest w public entertainments, love-feasts bec,.me very popular, I~ interview t~e minister, "."ho thus had _a~ oppartn~u.ty f articularly, of course, with the religious public, A writer p10us exhortations appropriate to the spmtual cond1t1on the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine for 1836 spoke of the the ,a pp!icant: . . . . 'the most popular and exciting of our social_ meeti~gs', and 1he practical d1fliculty of s1ftmg the congregal!on aft en William Myles, in his sober Chronological History of a preaching-service was solved in the earlier days by a co e People called Methodists, could describe a love-feast as plete exodus, followed by the re-entry of those who co religious entertainment', produce tickets. . . Small wonder that expedients were found for avoidihg the Fr~m the late eighteenth cent~ry to the middle years. gulations, in particular by borrowing a class-ticket. One the mneteenth centnry, however, it was normal for the serv1 the virtnes claimed for that long-suffering preacher John ( to be held on a Sunday afternoon. Eventually it agai alton was that 'he would not allow , . . any member to became an addendum to the evening service, and discipli nd a ticket to other persons to enable them to obtain admis lapsed, so that a writer in the Wesleyan Methodist Magazi on into the love-feasts; as this was silently telling the for 1864 recommended ' a return to the afternoon love-feas ewards at the door a double lie-"This is my name; I am when admission by ticket could be enforced', 1:he Wesley the society"'. In 1808, however, the Wesleyan Conference•] Conference of 1889 suggested that when worshippers stay lt compelled to amplify its Standing Order on the subject: behind for a love-feast ' the Stewards shall pass from pew . . . . s • h b dmi d t L , . . I o person not w1 11mg to JOm our -oc1ety s a11 e a tte o a ove• pew to see the Tickets, or m some other way ascertam t 1 ast more than once, nor then without a Note from a Travelling only qualified persons are present'. By that time, ·howeve ..eac~er ..We entreat b?th our Preachers and our Stewards to observ_e the thing had gone too far for any mass return to rigi 1s direction; and let 1t b7 also . understood that any _person. who ia . , . oved to have lent a Society Ticket tQ another not m Society, for d1sc1plme. e purpose of deceiving the doorkeeper, shall be suspended fQt three For a fascinating first-hand picture of conditions in onths. 36 ''y•,.·· i!j;i'./ 1/M Some fish, at any !"ate, were caught in the door-keepers Once within, Ulowcs carefully 'IPed the · behaviou_r of . the ''ji'l'i1 1 nets. Matthew Lumb, one ?f the twenty-seven preacher thers present in order to escape discovery, by standmg, Sing- i/l'!'i, ordained by John Wesley himself, became a member O ·ng, and kneeling when they did. Eventually, since no one /ii!\\ Society. so that he might attend a love-feaSt. ~hen t~ lse refused, he felt compelled to receive the bread and water !1;·i,, redoubtable Jabez Bunt!ng was fifte~n he was den~ed ad~i~ as they were distributed, under the firm impression_ tharl 11}:i sion to a love-feast. His mother pomted out that it wa~ hi this was the Sacrament. His conviction that if he smned) ,,1 ·:, -1, !/ir//,'. ~~hf:~~~ ir!~::?.o~.~:;~; !:':i'::i~ ~;~.·~1w%t!o~~e-~h,nfte~is·thi~0:::r~i~~ b\~::ng:ryt:~uegt~~n~u;;s i~:!~~ •~:;.. Wesleyan Methodist Magazine for _1864: .'1:he first senou. ounder with Clowes of the Primitive Methodi$t Church, also l'fi' 15 impressions of more than one emment mm ter date fro, lowed his conversion to a love-feast which he attended by 1·, ii his exclusion from the love.feast.' !means of a borrowed class-ticket, i':/';;' 1 Others providentially slipped through the meshes, of whon~ Some years later a method had to be 4evised to circum- iiff.J}.,.', William Clowes is perhaps the best example. A borrowe vent those good folk who quarter after quarter expected to \IJi!'i' class-ticket led to his conversion. The story, as_ rel~ted b/be able to obtain notes of admission to the love-feast, but l'F!f himself, ha_s its ai.".'using side. O~e Sunday evenmg 10 180l ere not prepared to shoulder the responsibi)ities of m~mber- fii;I, he _crept with a friend_ after dark mto the chapel at Burslemship. An article in the Wesleyan Met~odist Magaz_ine for !}/:: a httle ashamed of gomg to hear a sermon. 1831 pointed out the success of an experiment made m some Ii,,\;,, After preaching was concluded ..• it was announced that there wo.ul circuits where, in addition to the minister's searching ques- iilr.r.:: 1: 1 be a love-feast immediately and that the ~ember! of t~e S~ciet tion,,; to the applicant, his name and address were taken down, l'j';·i; .. i ~o~~-tC::t!~~s. to the meeting by presentmg then- Society ticket and his home subsequently visited. The results were tabulated ,,f./,i.,'.i 1,, , thus : ,, 1 Clowes's co~panion _asked if h~ would like to go,' an~ offere' In one year seven Love-feasts were held in the two chapels of a llijiJ his mother~mnlaw'_s ticket for his use. Clowes writes · Circuit town, The names of two hundred and fifty-five persons were 1 1,/" So feeling inclined to see tlns· meeting,· an d my (:Unos1ty· · bemg · th \\I recorded. Of these there were , f,., _..iii ex~ited I took the ticket, and with it dir~otions ~ow to a~t, in orde- Persons of improper <:har~ctcr 8 ·.',:.!,.·'f,',,:i•:.:! 1 to air: admission. The person told me, m show mg the ticket to th1 Handed to another Cir<:u1t: . . . . . 20 , doo~-kee er J wruJ to cover the name written upon it with my thum _ Not to be found according to ~he ad~ess given . ... 32 l!/l~·; ..i: and just 1e't him see the alphabetical letter, and thus I should b Persons who faile~ to fulfil their promise to meet m class 94 !': ! 1 11 allowed to pass on into the chapel. Accordingly, we both went up tj Induced to meet 1n class 91 Vh[11"! the chapel door, and ~y companion, observing that. the door-keepe\ Persons who had already begun .. • 10 i,1: I instead of giving a rapid ~lance at the pres~nted tickets~ took the~ fl ~ out of the hands of the individuals, and ex~umned them mmu~elf, sa1 255 11,'ii,,1 to me . 1come we must go home: I see neither of us can get In. B~ • . I1 I q ,1 at the· mome~t, I neither felt any disposition .to r~turn, n?r to g1 1Qn the basis of these figures 1t was obviously necessary to , '.i1)i1 \1 my friend his ticket back; and, just as I stood m this undecided state eep a check on those who attended love:-feasts merely out , /•'fjl1 , ' ff f wi d came and blew the door•keeper's candle out. 1n . . th h f t t if; r,) 1 ~ pu nto I pr~sented l~im my ticket• but on taking it into his hand, h of a gadding cur10sity, even oug as many as or Y per ~en~ ijO\ ,; 11, calkd f~r another light, and just ;s he r'as going to r~ad the ticke f the strangers appear to have become members, of Society. 1j~ { l another puff came, and awar went the _hght a second t11;Del. Tihe ma At the same time wth the 'Church Idea' growmg stronger 11'i,} ~ b · fl te ed and disappomted hastily pushed the tic cet nto ' h t 111 ~ h:1::£ s~in;: 'Here, here, move'on.' So I passed into the gallery ithin Methodism, it was even more nec~sary to ensure t a (':iili the chapel. everything should be done decently and m order. Probably f,i, , 38 39 4 1'/l/! '. //,~),1111 the ten ppjnts of Jorwthan Edmondaon's advice Qll CQ!ldllcli love.feasts (in his Essay on the Christian Ministry, publishe 1828) reflected the official attitude of the day: FIVE The best method of conducting theso meetings may be summed u in a few par•ticulars -: · Times and Places First, admit no improper person. The society have a right to b present; and. occasionally other serious persons may_ be allowed t :tttend, ,after careful ll'lq~iry into their chara~ter; but no person wh WAS partly because of Wesley's 'method .. ism' that the u only mflucmced by cunos1ty should be admitted. IT · · · . . . . , early Conferences had arranged the exact dates when Secondly, begtn and end exactly at the appomted tune. , 1 , ts h ld b .h Id Th .·d f h" I t r ove~Leas $ ou - e e . e ev1 ence o is a er :hirdly, countenance no wild irregul'.'"iti:•· . . . imaries (1782-91), though somewhat difficult to interpret, ' I• ourthly, urge the people to speak with sun. p. Jic1ty and brov11y. .tems to show that something like the same routine of I Fif~ly, the_ Minister should make ob,ervatioru on special an onthly love-feasts, with a general love-feast once a quarter, pe'":'har experience,. . . 1as still kept up in London. The 'Large Minutes' of 1763 Sixthly, urge the aged Christian Lead~rs, and Lo~al Preacher, th1 d assumed that the Assistants throughout the country were speak; for they, generally, speak to the pomt, and enlighten the youn a , . , . . and the inexperienced.• 1 nductmg monthly love-feasts for the bands, with one twice Seventhly, never allow more than one speaker at a time. f. year_ for all the Society'. By 1780, however, this assump- Eighthly,, let statements be made, in few words, by the Minister;o•tion had ceased, and. the quarterly, half-yearly: or .ann~al the prosperity of God's work jn general. neral love-feast was. m n1ost places the only survival. Durmg Ninthly, give some short account of those who have died, in th\the years covered by his later diaries Wesley only twice men- societyJ smce the last meeting, litions a love~feast in Bristol, both occasions being Sundays _Tenthly, allow. '?o man either. ~o give out a hymn, or to pra}{\~i• nmediately prior to. settin.·g out on his travels-in March without the perm,,.1on of the pre11dmg Preacher. , 1787 and 1789. On the corresponding Sunday in 1783 he Iwas ill, but in 1784, 1785, 1786, and 1790 he conducted ·,Society meetings instead. There are long periods during the 'autumn of these years when a reference to a monthly love /feast would surely have occurred in Wesley's diary if the custom had still obtained. The silence suggests that in Bristol 1 1at any rate the love-feast was by this time held less fre. :quently. Even at Wesley's Chapel in London the first love-) 1feast in the year was spoken of in 1790 as the 'annual' love_:) feast.l Throughout much of the nineteenth century, from the evidence of circuit plans, love-feasts continued in many s Th" · ch d b ·, • th· l•y n Meth a· M g • places to be arranged quarterly, though this was increasingly 1s1se oe yawrxerm e wcsc;a ois1 aazin , I . 'L f , for 1836: •If aught be wanting to make the love-feasts of the presen restncted to the eadmg churches only. for Love ea.!;t was day as interesting and edifying _as those of primitive times, it is tha a familiar abbreviation and instructions such as the following OUr aged and influential members should take a more prorninent par ' in the solemn service.' 1 Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, XXIII.133. 40 41 qmte· common : '1~ he Preachers who are at the places t 'ad attracted. people from great. distances, as, hWesley 11otedh · S d b f th L rd' S · b d · · t ed f .an occasion at Bradford m 1765, when t e preac mg un ay e ore e o s upper. is 1o e a mm1s er , ouse was filled with those that came from far'. They Love-feast to be held, or a Collection to be made, are part d . h • ht b 11 d · 't al!'es usually ( cularly requested to publish the same for the followin eve 1';'P 0 h mto . w aht mhig b e ca ~ clilrc1;i r 1 r' the out ' · · G h W eld m t e mam c urc , ut occas1ona y m 0 ne 0 ~ . Sunday. The 1837 Sprmg plan for the ates ead esleya J h B . h • f • t 't•· t i · bi'ographer Circmt· · (from wluch· t h e above quotation· comes) is· typical• osts · . o . n . ra1t . wa1te •or ms ance ' wn ..,s o us the period. The main church (High Street) had an afternoo obert Die1 nnson m 1807 · love-feast planned, commencing at 2.30 p.m., on 26th Marc t M d we held a l<>ve-feast in the country, We were three and 25th June, in place of the usual service. The ministe ::ach:Sn p~~;ent With our wives. Three coaches full 'Yent from Hull, were planned in the morning and evening of these days, an esides several people on foot. It was oJ?-lY seven m1!_es from town. were therefore ready on the spot to take charge of the lov ur heldold veteranin the ~hapel. Mr Bradford ' preached m the street, the love--feast feast. A subsidiary Gateshead church (Pipewellgate) had •• 2.30 love-feast led by the minister· on 30th-April, as ha r Joseph Beaumont's first impressions of Buxton, where he Gateshead Fell on 19th February. About half of the othe as stationed in 1824, underline the fact that many love twenty-eight places seem to have had a love-feast about one east habitues were spiritual gypsies---'We had about 70 in six months--some of thein less frequently-while th ersons at a love-feast on Sunday afternoon, and out of the ( remainder had none at all. Some had a love-feast and n peakers there were but two or three Buxton members'• / Lord's Supper, some a L?rd's Supper and no love-feast. Th. Particularly was this likely to be true if th~ gathering was general attitude at the time was probably summed up by eld at some time similar to the two mentioned above, a writer in the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine for 1836: . onday evening or a ,Sunday afternoon, when it was !•ss In our economy of church fellowship, love~feasts may be regarded 'kely to clash with other services. Through?ut Wesley's lifem stimulants; and, to be permanentli useful, they must not be mad ime the love~feasts both in London and Bristol seen1 almost too common. The. propnety of hol ing them quarterly, in our smalle • bl t have been held on Sunday evenings following chapels, may be fairly questioned. nvaria Y O f N 1 ( h reaching--services. The same was true o ewcast e w ere By the middle o~ the century the exponents o,f the annua harles Wesley conducted the first love-feast in 1743) and love-feast had gamed much ground, . and !ew, 1£ any, q':'ar'./,f the other main centres of Meth?dism. w_e have a_lready ·) terly observances seem to have survived mto the twenllet'.~een however that in the early nmeteenth century 1t had century. Vec<,'me norm;] for an independent service to be held during . One of tl1e objections raise~ against the quarterly celebraia Sunday afternoon, commencing at ho'.1rs varying fr01": I to / )1011 · ?f love-feasts. by the. "'.riter _last. ~uote_d was that thej~ p.m. Later still the love-feast agam became an after no1;nshed a gaddm~, goss1pmg .d1spos1t10n, '.n such as prefetr1eeting' for a Sunday evening. excitement to seclus19n, and the opportumty of makmg 1 Wh W as ·n an area for a few days only how- h h ..1 f h . , Tl 1,1 en es Iey w 1 , . speec to t e pnv1 ege o earing a sermon . 1en- were1 t'10 wa sometimes made so that the oppor- many loyal and eager Methodists like the Yeadon pedlar o/fve'.·• afn excelp ~ st s nder his leadershlp might not be Jost. 'd 'J h , f !tuntty or a ove-1ea u . whom Dr Gregory sa1 : o nny s area o Love-feas\t . h' tr el therefore we find him conducting love- . . h h' b di h . urmg 1s av s, , attend ance was co-extensive wit 1s eat as a pe ar, avmg_ d f the week even Saturdays-thou_ gh the . . f l ·1 d h' " • ,, • easts on any ay o , a rad ms o at east twenty m1 es; an 1s experience was ted • this case (at Redruth in 1785) was on the "a standing dish".' From t~; earliest times such meetings xamp1 e no 111 43 occasion of a Quarterly Meeting. Weeknight Jove-feasts Such was the one at York ('in addition to the four usuttlly nevertheless, were comparatively rare. held'), commenced by resolution of the Quarterly Meeting·· ft Various special events of the Methodist year were sig on 1st January 1771-'A Yearly Love-feast shall be on every ,l,nalized by Jove-feasts. The first Conference, in 1744, ha Whitsun-Tuesday at York'. This was suggested by a local been heralded by one. We read of a love-feast at the 1783 preacher as a counter0 attraction to the undesirable features ,r Conference, and another was held during the Irish Con, of the local fair, and it soon e't ference of 1787. It seems probable, indeed, that love-feas~1 t' were held in connexion with many Conferences during acquir~ a wide1y-extendcd popularity; persona flocked to it from a Wesley's.lifetime. In the Ja.ter Wesleyan Methodist Churcl, great dIStan<;e, and the chapel was gene,ally densely _crowded. For . . J many yearG 1t was the great annual Festtval from which few of the a Con.ference Love-feast was an annual event untll _qmtj members were willing to be absent. Often as many as fifteen hundred recently, and this feature was revived at the Bradford Con!· persons were present,. a_ncl many were the glorious. testimonJes given to ference in 1950. The early Primitive Methodist Conference the po':'er of !he Divme gracej many t!te bless~ngs received or the . . conversions which followed . ... After being continued more than one were usually occasions for a Camp Meetmg followed by ~ hundred years the love-feast was finally given up in 1876. love-feast, and well into the second half of the nineteenll\ century love-feasts continued to be normal accompanimentl A love-feast has similarly been held regularly since about both of Conferences and District Meetings. 1890 as a counter-attraction on 'Race Sunday' at Denton 9'1":'"~ .. M.e~ti11~ als~ provided popular occasions fo. Burn, near Newca~tle.. • . love-feasts, one example bem.g that. at Redruth in 1785, men1 Nor were tl1e Fesllvals of the Christian year forgotten,) tioned above. Other examples have been noted, in Sheffielq though here a love-feast was naturally a very poor second (1786), in Ireland (1787), and in York (1798), where. thj to the Lord's Supper. When Easter Day, Whitsunday, or circuit plan arranged for 'Q.Meet•·, Love-feast, & Band' on Christmas Day fell on a Sunday which according to the 8th October. The fog~amites had long looked u_Pon thei\l normal rota was due to be celebrated. by a love-feast, there quarterly 'General Meetings' as the most appropriate occa, would usually be a memorable gathermg. Wesley seems to : sions for such fellowship; they would hold a love-feast to) have made no real effort to associate the Jove-feast with these \ the Society in the morning, a public preaching-service in thj seasons in other years. In 1740, for instance, when Easter \afternoon, and the Lord's Supper for the preachers in thi fell on 6th April, love-feasts were conducted both at Bristol evening. Quarterly Meeting love-feasts achieved particularJii and London on the following Sunday. On Whitsunday that great importance in the United States of America, for in thai,year both brothers held love-feasts, John at Bristol, Charles vast continent greater distances made circuit fellowship sj:·•· at the Foundery; but the following year John held one on much more difficult to secure. In fact, in American Me tho i the Sunday preceding Whitsunday, when he might easily dism love-feasts seem at first to have been almost confine , have postponed it for a week. The last eight complete years to the Quarterly Meetings, which were really minor ConJ/of Wesley's diary show that during that period he conducted ferences, lasting two or three days. Amo,:,g the disciplinaryllJ Holy Communion on seven ~aster Spndays, and a love-feast Imeasures of the Illinois Conference in 1829, for example, wasj on two; Communion on three Whitsundays, a Jove-feast on the resolution that 'it shall be inquired concerning each pre); four (these latter in four successive years, 1783-6; the years siding Elder, has he uniformly held love-feasts at his Quar.l 1788-90 had neither type of celebration); and Communion terly Meetings'. I on seven Christmas Days as compared with love-feasts on Other special events sometimes called forth a love-feast! two. We have noted one love-feast held on Good Friday, 44 45 and one on Easter Eve, both in Dublin, but not one oni~n overflow meeting in the open-air at Kingswood in 1804 Maundy Thursday, ,is thus described in Mary Blacker's manuscript journal : Christmas Day however does seem to have met with . • · ' ' · went to Kmgswood School to the Love-feast. There has been an pecial treat.ment. The love-feasts recorded by the Wesleys_extraordinary revival of the work of God, which attracted hundreds n 1749 and 1785 could be explained by the fact that in any~rom Bristol and the surrounding country. It was estimated that case 25th December was in those years one of the regularfbetwccn two and three thousand persons were present. 4s the chapel , · ~could not accornmodate half the number, a second meetmg was held dove-feast Sundays. On at least two oth~r occas10ns, how.. f\lnder the trees in the patch. The artless narratives of the colliers in ever, in 17_65 and 1787, we know that the London Society!;their native ,dialect I?a.de a deep impression on the ll;ssemblies . . _.. I ' 'S d Iy' · I · d l b Ch · 10ne man, m descnbmg the struggle through whieh he passed b 1;>te its un ays on rue lll or e: to ce e rate .r:i5tmas_;i revious to the exercise-of faith, electrified the whole congregat10n by with a love-feast, Of the 1765 occas10n, a Wednesday, John t•ying: 'I cried out, Lord, I sol believe, if Thou dost damn me for Valton wrote in his journal: !believing. The Lord bore with my impudence, and zot my zowl at ;Jiberty.12' · This morning I rose early, and met the society at four o'clock. At night, we had buns, after the manner of the London love-feasts, and For the most part, however, love-feasts seem to have been God blessed us together. eld only within chapel walls on the normal quarterly occa The paucity of evidence does not allow us to claim that ions, which gradually became the normal annual occasions. Christmas Day Jove-feasts were a regular institution, but the ecause of this Wesley himself does not seem to have con probability of this is confirmed by the fact that both Alex- ructed many love-feasts, even during his visits to provincial antler Mather and William Bramwell record Jove-feasts on 1centres, During the years 1782 to 1'/91, when we have the Christmas Day in 1793-which was a Wednesday. The Uetailed evidence of his diary, he paid eleven relatively short Christmas Day love-feast at Hinde Street, London, in 1842, ~isits to Manchester, but mentions only one love-feast--on a which led to such a remarkable revival (see p. 29 above), was ~onday, During six visit, to the Leeds area not one is on one of the occasions when Christmas Day fell on a Sunday. recorded, and only one at Oxford for seven visits. Sheffield In the nature of the case love-feasts were usually held in.had two (on Monday and Tuesday) during four visits, and. chapel, and a love-feast was looked upon as the naturail!whitby also two for four visits (on Wednesday and Sunday). ~chapel-warming' for a new erection. (Benjamin Ingham had!)'rom 1783 to 1786 Macclesfield had an annual love-feast led regularly arranged a love-feast to accompany a stone-layingih Wesley, but this was omitted during his visits from 1787 ceremony.) Other buildings were occasionally used for tbe!ito 1790. A list of the towns where he is known to have ( purpose, however-barns, private houses, and even mansi_onsi\conducted love-feasts, however, at least proves their wide . like the Old Hall at Gainsborough, where Wesley conducted 'acceptance, particularly when we realize that these events •. n impressive love-feast in l'/80. Though su.ch a course was ;were not a normal feature of a visit by Wesley. ( normally to be avoided, there were even love-feasts in the i open air. At an Irish Quarterly Meeting in 1787 Wesley preached in the castle-yard at Charlemont, adding : Immediately fol.lowed the love-feast. But the preachingvhouses would not contain one half of the people; so we borrowed the Green in the I Fort, and let the people through the wicket one by one. They then I sat down on the &"rass, being full as private as in the house; and many spoke their expenence quite freely. But the rain obliged us to break off our meeting sooner than we intended. 2 Meaiodist Recorder (Winter Number, 1901), p. 68. 4fj 47 j!l;:j.irn:!\ :1,::1:11: 1,',:1·1,1,1:1 Something of the Irish enthusiasm for the love-feast may be II Ii ! I , : ~ ;;I 'I 'I: 1 ,:,, ,11•' seen in the letters of Hester Ann Rogers. Such was the ','.',1·.l·.''.1'. ·1 ·.'.'1''.·_:.111 SIX fervour that her husband James Rogers felt it expedient to ,,1,1,.J·1· ,:, 'I'' relax the discipline of entry a little, giving notes of admit :1,·1,,:,,,1,·,, ,,,_,,, The Love,Feast in the Daughter Churches tance 'to many who were not as yet members of society, but ·_,, 1111'1· ,,ll,·, ! l appear( ed) desirous of salvation'. The risk was justified, she I iii'... ,,1·• /i claimed, for 1 11 N vmw of the widespread English adoption of the love. 1 :1_ ·11:1:_i • i • • th h · · th Not one remained unaffected, and we have since found that seven 1::1:·1_:1:/ I f east it s not surprrnmg · at t e practice grew up m e were justified at that time: arQ.ong whom was one that got a note of admittance the morning: several 'i''illl''l:,i,1 junior branches of ·Methodism, both at home and over.. in and who came only with a faint ,:,!:·1! seas. The parallel Methodist movement in Wales under desire, were deeply convinced of sin. ''1·1·1,._,,1.·.·_,I Ii'- :j'I l Howell Harris and Daniel Rowlands qui_ckly adapted the And so it went on for some years, love-feast and revival,/ i11JI: 1··11'.: love:feast t? its own needs, Harris's dia~y fo'.· 13th July 174~ revival and love-feast. ·11111., ll' readmg: We had ye first Lo~e-feast m th1s Part _of Wales In the United States, also, love-feasts found a very con !lll/:,_l:![i,li' 1 11 -probably Watford. Wesley himself was present wit~ several genial soil, to which they were transplanted by Joset>J,__ Pjl:_ 1·,11,,1111 I,,··111 1 1 1 other clergymen at a memorable love-feast he'.d on 1 hursday moor..even before the arrival of Francis Asbury. Pilmoor ·'1. 1·1 1'.·.' :'I' 111 'I'',,,i 24th Augus_t 1769 at Trevecka--the first apm':'ersary day of ;rot~ in his journal : :l:1l'11U1/ the theological college there, as well as the b,rthday of the! !l''.'l'·'"l,,,_,11 ::11Jil1, I Countess of Huntingdon. The Welsh Wesleyan Methodists· Friday, March 23, 1770, in the evening, we _had our first American \ 1111::1:j:, I d d · th t he f nst· t ndf LoveufeaSt m Philadelphia and it wa~ indeed a time of Jove, The ! l O I 1_,•1','ll_,_',.11 were ho rn an reare m e a mosp re co an .a I people behaved with much propriety and decorum as if they had been --- )1_1_,'l·•.·1 enthusiastic love-feasts. At the first, on 24th November 1800J for many years acquainted with t1w economy of the Methodists. fer• fk,, call were on fire, clapping hands &c and ready to jl,lmp like! haps this favorable, beginning will encourage the people· to wish for l1·,IM11il · · t M th d' t , d th t' d.d 1 such a season agam and may help to prepare them to eat bread 1 the W e Is h C a1 vrn1s e o 1s s , an e mee mg 1 no~1 together in the Kingdom of God. 111111, 11,111 I 11111,, break up until midnight. The infection spread. New ___ _ 111,,::,,, societies were formed, new chapels built, to be opened wit Actually it has been claimed that the first American love-] 1_11_1,11,·,_111·.'i'! more midnight love-feasts, and still more conversions. feast was held in New York a year or so earlier. This on the i:I, 1_1_1,,, ·1;,,j ,11 ~ The love-feast was also taken up with great enthusiasm in basis of a supposed 'Love-feast Ticket' written by Robert I!p,.,1,:1 1 l Ireland. Both in Dublin and other centres it seems to have Williams; The ticket in question, however, appears to have 1 ! 11·.:l_l._',111 i_',1!1'' become a regular feature quite soon after the introduction been a normal class-ticket. In America, however, the main 11,,11 ·1· of Methodism in 1747, and some love-feasts in 1762 were purpose of class-tickets became--to quote the words later 1 1 1" ii spiritual landmarks in a widespread revival. We are able, printed upon them-'for the admission of members into the ,1,,,,,1•,1l_ll.;,_l!',•1•1·.,1·1·.I 111·11 1i11,•,, to follow Wesley's Irish round of love-feasts most clearly inl love-feast', So much was this the case that Bishop Matthew 1•,,,,,,i,J1,;,I,',' 1785. We see him commencing with one at Dublin (after al Simpson's Cyclopmdia of Methodism (1878) contains no refer. 1··:]11,:,,1 crowded Communion service at St Patrick's), then going on ence to class-tickets, only to 'Love-Feast Tickets', I 1ilii''i,i,. i 1 to love-feasts on most of the following Sundays, at Waterforci, The protracted Quarterly Meetings of early American \ / l1•:_1I_1:_l 1',i,,,I '''II]',,,, Cork, Limerick, and again at Dublin before leaving. Others Methodism became great spiritual occasions, combining ordi- 11 1 1,111_ 1•,_iii'i' were held on the intervening weekdays, including three on nations, Lord's Supper, love-feasts, watchnight, and preach- 111 1,'ii:,1 1 1 ! l·H'l1 I: three successive days, at Coleraine, Ballymena, and BelfMt. •ing, in addition to a multiplicity of bwines$ affairs, ln 1773, 1 M 8 1,111, ,H [111,:1111!:{[1 ,1,1/1111,1 1 l)lt••I._';''.11·.. 1.j_! __ ', for instance, Asbury recorded a notable love-feast at the 'You no. k1low what maIJ.u.miBpion paper be, !Ytass~ Mi&iiona1·y? Susquehanna Quarterly Meeting. He went on to relate how Why, it be in de eighth chapter ob de Romans, and de sixteen verse one of the few rules made at the first American Conference "De Spirit Himself do bear witness wid me spirit, dat me be child of God"; dab be me manumission paper, massa. '.l in July of that year was that 'No person shall _he admi:ted The same kind of thing seems to have been true elsewhere, more than once or twice to our love~feasts or society p1eetmgs particularly with dark-skinned natives. The Namaquas of without becoming a member': Not that Jove-feasts were quite South Africa at once entered into the spirit of the service. confined to the Quarterly Meetings. Thomas Rankin Barnabas Shaw thus desc;ribes the first Jove-feast held among describes in his journal one held in New York on a May them, in 1817 : Sunday in 1774 : Peter Links said: 'I was formerly an enemy to Missionaries, and when some wished to have one, I opposed it; but I am now thankful for the We concluded the evening with a general love-feast, in which meeting Word, and love it. It has taught me that I am a great sinner. When the .Lord's presence was powerfully felt by many persons. Man_y I felt this, I wandered about, eating bitter bushes, hoping thereby to declared with great freedom of speech, what God had done for their make atonement for my sins; but I never found peace till I heard that souls. S~me of the poor black people spoke with power and pungency Jesus came to save the lost.' · of the Iovingkindness of the Lord. Adam.•-'It sometimes appears as if a cloud rested on me; but the Sun of Righteousness breaks out aiain, and drives it away/ In the West Indies also the negroes welcomed the love Alexander Strachan gives a vivid account of a love-feast held feast, as Dr Thomas Coke pointed out : at Auckland, New Zealand, in 1844: In the love-feasts and band-meetings in St John's in Anti~ua, Bas~e Many of the natives were quite melted down to \YCeping and sobbing. Terre in St Christopher's, Kingston in St Vince1;1t's,·. Kmg~ton m Several powerful chiefs, fresh from the battle~fieldJ 'Yere seen 1,~ruggling Jamaica, &c., I have been charmed_ with the testimony whi?h the! in the pangs of godly sorrow, while the tears flowed down their _tat believing Negroes bore for Jesus Christ_, One. after anot~er, with the1 tooed, but manly, faces .... One said: 'While Samuel preached, I utmost order, they gave an account, m their Negro dt~lect, of the: fell from my seat, God showed me the greatness of my sins, _Hell work of grace upon their souls in its different stages, with as much opened before me, and I prayed all day. For three days and nights my clearness and perspicuity as any believer in Europe, heart would not rest, or its trouble subside. Whilff praying, on the following Friday, I heard the Spirit say my sins of theft, lying, adul~ Dr Robert N. Young describes a West Indian love-feast in tery, and fighting, were all forgiven. The water of my eyes flowed abundantly. Great is the pain of my heart for the love 1 feel to the vivid words : souls of my relations. Thus my experience qontinues," A brother rose to speak and as many as twenty more with him; we , A similar example of simple native eloquence comes in a letter have no waiting there. 'He said : 10 Massa Missionary, you be one , good flint; de Bible be one good steel; and my heart be one good ;of 1840 from the Revd John Waterhouse in the Fiji Islands: tinder-box.' 1 T W h d · 1 f h. k ·th 1y w1 0 u must explain to me what you mean.' : wo p.m.- e a our native ove- east; t 1rty persons spo e 'Why,' said the brother, 'you get into de pulpit, and strike de Bible1 !great fluency. , : . . • . · . d d s arks fl dis way and dat way and set my heart all ablaze, 1 J.1os~s Towlat, who once earned terror among ~11 ht.s enemies, satd: 1 and e P Y1 11 through, :1 \ 'This ts what I have to say. I was once buned m mud. I- was an A v::~rYi."/~~diy negro ,...;oman, who had been waiting, said: 10 Isurrounded by ~ees. ~ was full of darkness; t_he eyes of my heart were M M" · d Massa Jesus bah pardon'd all me 1,in and make 1closed by the dirt of sm; they were full of evtl, and could not see; but m:Sf:el s~shoanpa;;, he~e (laying her hand on her heart). U~ big debil i I heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I prayed to. him, but I did J?0t . . "It be all nothing II Me say• "Massa Jesus hab !See the badness of my heart. One whole year I cried to Jesus Chnst, come, an d htm say· · ' t h t t h t I" b t h d'd t ardon'dallmesin!" Himsay''No!" Whatmedo,Massa? Megd,,·uo Jesus,co~e omy ear,come omy ear. u e 1 ~o-. ~nd fetch manumission paper (a slave's pledge of liberty)1 and me say1 ]come; for I did _not yet see that my whole heart wa~ full of sm, "L oo k h ere, M r Dcbil !" and him no like clat , and h''skulk away".' ·!Another year I cried, and anotherj and then I saw how 1t was. I saw 11 ' Ma11umission.paper." What do you mean by t at, , 1Methodist Recorder (Winter Number, 1892), p. 16. 50 51 ,1::j;;,;j;:::! 1·;C 1·1:11·: 1:1 '•11','j1111, ;''.''''l'•iil '1''''1,ii'-l':1•:•,, 11•·11,!:,, that my heart wo.a desper~tely wicked; and I cried to Je,w to take Jam~s Steel<;, and the breach had afr.,..dy been opGued eadie;· l ,,;• 'I· 1 away my old heart, and give me a ,new one. Then my he~rt bee•~• that year when at a Burslem love.feast James Nixon had i'.':. ·1[t11 ::. light· then I believed on Jesus Christ; and now my heart lS happy Ill , , d h Iii h ; , :11:: : 1Jti is to ,,,11.tlh. belie~ing in Jesus, for he alone my ~aviour; and my word all my str1ppe t e trave ~g preac er~ -a remmc;ler t~at contr~ ,r1, ! people present is, to believe strongly m Chrnt Jesus. Thllli ends my versial matters sometimes crept mto the fellowship, as they ·1'1,1ut,,,1 speech.' . . , . had done in the early days at Fetter Lane and Bristol. Love. l1 !, i1d:!: The love-feast testimonies of the Fijians and other nativ . feasts also helped to spread the flame of revival. i'1Ji1l'i,i,:1,,··1,,,, peoples have, indeed, proved a major source of historical Cl<1wes was wise enough both to follow the Wesleyans in ,-1·,,1 •1li1' evidence for later missionaries. Another example can bt rules governing admissiou to the gatherings, and also to ,, ,·,·1r given from Canada, where an Indian medicine man, Pete1 remember how in his own case the flouting of those rules had ,,;11,11t,1·.·1';. ,,,,,,,,1.li' Salt, testified during a love-feast to the influence of the Rev. proved a great blessing. The first Primitive Methodist iove ,,1111 111,\1,: James Evans in the St Clair Mission: feast held in Yorkshire, in 1819, took pl,u:e in a Hull factory, j ,, ,,.,, ''l'.',I'.''; Brethren and Sisters I will tell you what the Great Spirit has don, which was packed with people from far and wide. Clowes I." I' , I' 'I k:, for· me. You all kno'w what I was before I heard about Jesus. I wiu[ describes how 1 a gr~t prophet and doctor among you, and many of you w~mld come 1'l''i'I::r·.·1111[ to ,me to get life and health of me~ and many of you believed thatr One respectable woman and her son came up and wished to enter j!'III''1 1 1 you would have beeo dead long ago 1£ I had not curnd you, You use~: without a note; but the door~keeper was firm m his duty, They then 1 , 11:··, :11,:11.:1: to give me plenty of venison, elk's meat, tobaccoJ goods, fire watcti expressed their surprfae at this regulation, for they thought anybody ',l,',1,11.,,.. 1:1 I'.. •I and many other thingi in order that I _might buy th½ power of thos, might go into an old fa«~tory to a Ranter's Iove*feast, The son spirits, the power to heal, and though I got so much g1v7n to me I wru; departed; the mother would not retire. The door~keeper asked my 1..!1111,1; l1 very poor and drinking the fire water made me very 1.11ck, Evans th~ opmion on the case. I admitted her; and quickly her views were ,!11'1111•11 I teacher the good news caine along, and Thomas Magee, and changed rcspectin8" the pe_ople she had come to see and _hear. She 11_,:,jl,,.'''·.·' /··.'·I!', df 1 though I would not go to meeting the. y visited me in my wigewau~ and her husband soon johied the society, and became helpers of the 1 and began to tell me about the great day of judgment and that the work. '!: 11.l.i1.·.,1111 world would be burned. I then began to think that the Apungishim-/:1 1,,;1,1 !I ''','Ii,'' moog [great pll\ce at sunset] would b~ de~troyed and th~r~ 1:'V.~iuld h~.j'From this case', added Clowes, 'I saw it was necessary to be no place for me after J because I the Great Spmt mad .,1 • d" • h h die: believed 6 J' • b' • . · . thiswor, Id and th'tspace, 1 then I was very sick in my heart and. though 1, rm, 1n 1sc1ph' me, T ut, m certamd cases, not to t1g ten t e ''i:1!l1Ii1,,I --about my Spirits., that they could !1ot ever cure my s1ck~ess ilrem~ too muc . ow::i.rd the en of the year the new chapel h~art. And so I came to meetmg and did as those good n:i,en_ said, anul(iat Hull was available for a love~feast, and Clowes describes got happy in a few days , When I first felt the happiness of Jes i, h . l f II 'Th , 'd 11,1111!1·1·.:,,l•I,1\1,: j,',1 I thou ht I Would live. for ·ever, and not die. My heart feels ve~11ts ~nt usiasm ~ most rue ·u y-- e speak.mg _was .so rap1 ·111 1t,,, warmJ ~·!during the service, that I had not an opportun1ty to tell the ,:1l';!il,·1,1•1·.,. iii, • The da~ghter churches of Wesleyan Methodism in Englan .:people my own experience.' , . also took the love-feast wholeheartedly into their system1,, Almost every Camp M_eetmg m the early years was _fol-) ·l•1•'l,jll'1:1,,,1:1'.1.1,l,1';.'l1: • th" f p un' • · e Methodi'sm The fa". .lowed by a love-feast, wh.1ch ended up as a prayer meeting, 1 P artlcuary1 1 was 1s 1rue o r 111 v . , "': . . . . :1 11111w,1 that both Hugh Bourne and William Clowes owed their con!:the latter harvestmg the ~rmt, of co_nvers1on which had been •11'1,,1,!•',,,11,1,,,1,,, , 1'1111·11 version to love-feasts has already been mentioned. The thirl.i'°wn at the camp meetmg •?d ripened at the love-feast. ''' I t a Jove-feas'f,Such sequences were almost msepatable from the annual ,.1,HI" great I ead er, J ames Stee Ie, w as al sO Converted a , : f I h l',1·1,1,111•·111 0 , 1804 I 1805 Cl s met Dani.el Shubotham at a lovjl; on erences. t was at t e 18 2 8 Conforence love-feast that ',,I t)~i 'II' !1,,i m • n owe. 'CI ' k [h' ] · d · h f th d' f feast. A love-fea5t conducted in a kitchen by Clowes o 1·1 .oVi:es spo e is . m1~ wit re erence to e sen mg o a. 1•l·lj11 Good Frida 1811 formed the prelude to the expulsion o,:misS1onary to Amer~ca;, . , , . 1•. :'1l1·',1l/'i' Y, • , . . · A well-known Pr1m1tive Methodist m1mster, Ambrose K1rk- :'II,, l'I' • The Bulletin of the Committee on Archives of the United Churel land told how at a Camp Meeting in 1829 'I decided to start 1 of (1954), jl li11ili,ll,:1· Canada, Number Seven p. 13. · ' . -, 11 ,1l,!1 11 1:l1I, 5i N , ,11,1 ,q ·,1,,1,1•,1·1'l'l.i,1"' :'ri,,,,111·.. 1 l.1l.,1:_l 1Ji, for Heaven, and at the Love--feast i11 the l,vening 1 obtah1e 11ieans of grace the original telationship to the still observed the blessing of pardon and was made happy in Christ'." · and Meeting was hinted at: The Primitive Methodists seem to have continued regul . . . . · . I.,ove4emts are a sort of quarterly Band Meetmg for the whole Church. quarterly love~feasts m their mam chapels even farther mt, They are. usually held on a Sunday afternoon or after a short Publi.c 6he second half of the nineteenth century than did the We, Service on Sunday evenings; and arc presided over by one of the leyans. In some areas they took the form of , ProtractC ,. preachers, it~erant or local. These s~rvic,es are ~eld in imitation of • . , _ what the Scriptures call 'Feasts c;,f Chant)", Like Class and Band Meetmgs' for two successive Sunday mormngs, followed by t Meetings, they begin with singing and prayer, Bread and water are love-feast on -the .second Sunday evening. In Braithwait 1given to. all present,· aud a collection is made ~m b~a!f of the yoor. Keighley a love-feast was being regularly planned even i After this the members of the Church relate therr Chnsban expenence, _ , I and endeavour, as they may be able, to provoke one another to love 1912. . and good works. 11 The Methodist New Connexion also kept up the Wesleya, Th next nd 1 t ed"ti f th" H d-B k bl" h d · ( I 00 tradition. William Baggaly's Digest shows that in 1876 · e and ae asd F oMn °th d.'ts Man l ' pu 's e d ~n "ll h · 1899 r name ree _e o is anua , was so a 11ere m was sh true t at panI t h at t hi s section· was onntte· d , but that the love-feast wa'i Love-feasts are appointed on the plan, and held in every prindp,not quite dead is shown by the Manual's first sentence about place in a Circuit, once a quarter, Any seriously disposed person ca) th d tie f p St els . 'T th d be admitted on produc_ing a no!e from the Preacher, or from som e u s O oo~ ewar • o secure e ue announce- other brother duly appom.ted to• give the same. Jtnent of the Lord s Supper and the Love-feast, and to make . . , . . . . . suitable provision for the same.' A S1m1lar D,g~st lSSucd by the Bible Chnstians m 19D2 sho I As a token of the way in which the loveafeast took root the 7ame trad;tt~nal pattern even then, though a little moi even in the minor off-shoots •of Methodism we may cite a detailed desci:11:t:on was necessary on account of the man[ double-handed mug preserved in the Wilberforce Bouse who were umnitiated: . Museum, Bull. On one side is the word 'Lovefeast ', and Love-Feasts are held. in imitation of the feasts of charity mentioned ill on the other 'Independent Methodists, Hull, 1849. William the New Testament, and are ge!lcrally a very pr?fitab~e means. o MacConkey Pastor'. · grace, when the members speak briefly and to the pomtJ without los1~ · ' time· by waiting one for another. After commencing in the regul way by singing and prayer, bread and water are hand_ed round as 1 token of Christian affection. A collection is made which is applied ~ meet the expenses, the surplus, if any, to be applied to charitable an, religious uses. The friends then relate their Christian experience, th Preacher occasionally giving out a verse of a hymn to give variety the meetin1p, Some time is then spent in earnestly pleading with Go for a blessing, suited to the wants of those present. Several shou \ pray, and the meeting close in about an hour. The United Methodist Free Churches, in their Hand-Bo first published in 1877, claimed that they were truly Meth. ( dist in their ordinances, 'having all the means of grace co mon to the other branches of Methodism', among which wa, · specified the love-feast. The second edition, in 1887, repeat this claim, with amplifications. In describing the vario 3 Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, XXIV.113. · 54 with a few seekers, into a public meeting"-and even a public SEVEN spectacle. A handful of potential critics from 'the world' might well be absorbed by it, particularly in times- of great Survival and Revival spiritual enthusiasm, but saturation point was ,soon r.eached, with the result that speakers became inhibited and the , . , . spiritual temperature hardly rose above normal. This was HE FACT that detailed mstruct10ns were thus necessar~ ]early realized by a writer in the Wesleyan Methodist T at the beginning of the twentieth century is an indicati~n Magazine for 1864: . that Jove-feasts were then regarded as somewhat quaint . , . . · h ti I f f h h • · Some persons go to the love~fcast to pass criticisms upon the experience survivals rat er ian as norma eatures o c urc activity, f simple-hearted individuals who know nothing of the refinements of So far as we have been able to discover, this wa,s true of all ~ducation. This hampers the timid, irritates the devotional, and greatly se_c.tions of Methodism throughout the world. The Wesleyan detrac~s from the value and spirituality o{ these de,sirable gatherings. Methodist Conferences of 1912 and 1913 endeavoured to The process of decay was inevitably hastened-perhaps we ( revive the fel1owship of 'our distinctive institution~ of th should say 'reached its consummation'-when the symbolism· · Class Meeting, the Society Meeting, and the Love-feast', I of the common meal was Jost, so tl1at a Jove-feast became ; actual .. fact, however, ~ove~feasts __ yv.~~ .. -...... ~!.~e···a_dy .!Il~r. ibund1I no more than a testimony mee. ting, as frequently happened j ';'~\yrs_to... the. reduced"emo.(ignal ~onte11t .o.f Methodf~t..!~-1in the early twentii,th century.' . , --...1 g10.. u. •. e. x.... 12.-f.£1.• C .. 11%_,u!,dt~.'!n mcreas1?g reluctance.to sp~a.~_<:_\i Nevertheless, there. have b_een a few_iurv1~als from the that. exp.ede1.ic.e, It might be claimed that thIB fact wa/. good old days'--regular survivals, •that 1s, qmte apart from recognized by the complete omission of any mention of thJ the occasional Jove-feasts arranged as special events. Perhaps love-feast in the Deed of Union of the Methodist Churc!,f the most well known is that held iu the old barn at Alport, ) p932), but the Covenant Service was also omitted-and thitl near Cas~lcton, Derbyshire, o~ the first ~und~y in July eac~ is by no means defunct! · J year, which has been so movmgly described m Dr Church s Some of the steps in the decline and fall of the Methodis!lMore Abottt the Early Methodist People, This 'Woodlaqds Jove-feast during the Victorian era have already been men-I' Love-feast' has maintained its glow for over two hundred tioned. The •decreasing fre.9]J.eru:.y, from monthly to quar, years. Pilgrims from miles around still fill the old barn to terly, and from quarterly to annually, was rather an effec~ the hayloft, still join in a simple meal of plum-cake and than a cause, and in itself might quite conceivably have le water, and still forget the hard seats in the fervour of testi- to a revival in _spiritual efficacy, had ?ther conditions allowed , mony and song. Another famous annual love-feast is held in ) ,-h The greatest smgle cause of the declme was the fact that th,, Yorkshire, at Berry Brown, near Huddersfield. It was esta- ; love-feast in its traditional Methodist form was a produc/1 blished by a local preacher, Abraham Lockwood, familiarly / -c· and an instrument of revivalism, When, therefore, as almos1!1known as 'the Bishop of Berry Brow'. This should really be inevitably happened, the revival atmosphere was snlfusel,described as a revival, however, for it has only recently. been with, or even replaced by, what we may call the 'churc .i recommenced after the lapse of some years. Other ~lli!J atmosphere', the love-feast was bound to suffer, love-feasts survive at Dallowgill in the Ripon Circuit, and A contributory cause was undoubtedly the relaxing ol in Horsehouse, Carlton and Scrafton in the Wensleydale Cir discipline which resulted in the love-feast's being gradua11 cuit, Still others are \1eld at Denton Burn, near Newcastle, tnUlStormed from an intimate festival of the saved, togethe 1 See J. Robinson Gregory's History of Methodism> 1.48. N 57 our time which certainly present serious obstacles to such a at seven in the morning ?n 'Race_ Sunday', ~he th_ird _Sunda_Y revival, ~bstac!e,; far outweighing the advantages of improved in June, and at Farndale lil thcKirby Moorside Circmt. Th facilities for communication and transport, latter is somewhat unusual in that it is held on the Monda There can be little doubt that the normal Methodist . morning following_ the Overseas Missions Anniv_ersary., , approach to religion has greatly changed duri~g the last 'fe:(: All these gathenngs are attended ?Y Method1Sts so _co~dt, hundred years, whether for better or w. orse we will leave an tioned' to the love-feast th~t there is seldom any hesitation open question. The spiritual experience of the _average in the offering of testimomes, so that an hour or an hour modern Methodist is both wider and shallower than that of .and a half speedily passes. A!l use the old 11,ving-c':'p, ~roni his great-grandfather. We of the mid-twentieth century are I, which the worshippers take a sip of water before passmg it on certainly more accustomed to regard the whole field of human I to their neighbour. Biscuits seem to have become the normal consciousness as being within the purview of religion, and are \ substitute for bread o;: cake. Jess likely rigidly to eschew certain experiences as 'worldly'. , Tbe Farndale observance reminds one of the 'Missionary On the other hand our roots of prayer and faith and dedi• Breakfast Meeting' familiar in Victorian days. This seems cation have not penetrated so deeply as was the case wit~-, to have been an off~l1-~<>.t of the regular love•fe!!fil• A success, I our forefathers, Modern psychology has tended to make a I ful (though temporary) attempt to revive the love-feast along! rarity of the spiritual abandon so common among former / these lines was made at Wesley's. Cha1;el: London, . at t~e I generations. The 'first, fine, careless rapture' of early Metho,J Jubilee of the Wesleyan Methodist Miss10na:Y. Soci.ety ml dism has gone. The psychologi~t~ have be~n unable to 1864, when all the _speakers were returned ";'"'10':'aries; "!1/ persuade most of us that our spmtua! expe:ience ~an be opportunity being given for spontaneous \Cs!imom~. This 'explained away', but they have succeeded m ':"al;mg us became an anmlal event, though the restnct10n agamst un-1 somewhat self-coriscious about it, so that we are mclmed to briefed speakers was soo':1 lifte~. It is interesting to ~ote that 1 stand on one side and view ourselves and o.ur emo.tions ':°~ne• the Moravian, were domg thIS half a century e~rher; To 1 what quizzically, as if they were rather mterestmg chmcal ( this day, indeed, Moravian love-feasts have very little lil the specimens. Just as the amused critics permitted to attend \ way of personal testimony, though there is conversation on Victorian love-feasts served to damp down the enthusiasm, the domestic issues of the church's life or on missions, in so the semi-amused self-criticism common in religious circles addition to an address by the minister. . . today militates against a successful re-introduction of the It will have been observed that the surviving love-feast, old-fashioned love-feast ...... noted are all in villages-not.ably conserv. ative i~ their custom, Quite apart from this, Methodists have ~!most lost the a~t] -and in out-of-the-way northern moorland vill~g;s ~t that, of being vocal in public, and even in private, about their long admired for their robust home-spun religion. The religious experience. In spite of all the noteworthy advances question naturally presents itself : 'Is it possible to revive made in modem Methodism, such as our youth work and the the love-feast in town and city Methodism, and in villages more careful ordering of our worship, in the matter of spon where the traditio~ h~s co1;1pletely died out?' So~e will taneous spiritual utterance there has be_en no.thing but dee.line undoubtedly add, Is it desirable? Before attemp~i~g any -in extempore prayer, in prayer meetmgs, m band me_etings answer it will be well to consider the changed conditions of and class meetings and society meetings, and of course, m the 2 It is an interesting fact that these northern viIIages have also }ove--feast, Perhaps this is partly due to retic:n.ce, partly to preserved for us the oldest Methodist chapels in continuous use as such, fear of criticisn:t) and largely to a. horror of g1vmg o~lves including the oldest, at Newbiggin, in Teesdale, and the oldest Octa• gon~ at Yarm. 5g 58 ¾·_ ---••·-~- ~w~y-for we have all become _more conscious of our inhibi., ated from 'Why I am a Methodist' to 'My most moving \ tions since we learned the word by which. they might be experience' or 'AnSwerS to prayer', until it becc:1,me possible degcribed. The mai.n reason, however, is the cha-pged atmo~ for members to testify on 'What Christ means to me'--which sphere of our religious life. is, after all, the essential theme of a love-feast proper. u The whole spiritual climate of Methodism has changed. One very practical problem faces us, however. Not the 'f- Improved social conditions and compulsory education have question of food-we shall probably decide on buns or smoothed out the differenecs between the various social biscuits-but that of drink. It comes down to this: Dare we groups. Temperance reform and the Nonconformist con use the common cup? One of the old two-handled loving science have lessened spectacular crime, and we have too cups can usitally he obtained, or a similar modem vessel may often learned to wink at the misdemeanours of respectability. be available. But dare we use it? Modern views on hygiene The physical breach between Church and World has widened have driven the common cup into almost total banishment as the moral and spiritual gap has narrowed. Conversions from the Methodist Communion, and they would almost almost the backbone of the old-fashioned love-feast-have certainly engendel' some qualms about its introduction at a become seemingly less necessary, certainly fewer and less love-feast, even with the doubtful precaution of a cloth with I·f spectacular, even though this has been offset by an in which the stewards could wipe away from the rim the. obnox• creasingly careful preparation of our young people for Church ious germs left behind at each sip. In both observances the membership. Methodism has in fact changed from a group disuse of the common cup is a real spiritual loss, and some of revivalist societies to a Church, albeit a Church conscious would question whether this is really compensated for by of an evangelical mission. the hygienic gain. In Ireland the love-feast seems to have) I.. Any revival of the love-feast can only be successful when fallen into abeyance largely because doing away with the /_,:~ this is taken into account. Where the tradition and common cup served to weaken the idea of a symbolized com general spiritual atmosphere is congenial it can be introduced munal meal. This need not necessarily follow, however. If withont great difficulty in much its old form. This is often the use of an old loving-cup is really going to prejudice the true of our Central Missions, At Grims~y, for instance, a issue, far better to use cups of tea instead. love-feast has within recent years become an established and Nor must this be regarded simply as a matter of regrettable valued feature of the Mission Anniversary. Granted a real expediency. There is a very real sense in which a Methodist demand, there should be no serious obstacle facing any tea is the lineal, or at least the collateral, successor to the gathering of devoted Methodist leaders who are able to spare Methodist love-feast. Here the same graces are sung, here is the time from other pressing duties. Thus there might the same sharing of food and drink and fellowship without occasionally be love-feasts at the District Synod or the Circuit respect to distinctions of social ranks, here are evidenced Quarterly Meeting, comparable to that reintroduced at Con similar joint concern and conversation about the Church's ference. In many individual churches, however, the requisite spiritual welfare. The things missing are the elements of atmosphere for spontaneous testimony and prayer may only self-conscious testimony, and the feeling th_at it is an ordered be attained very gradually, and in some it will seem almost 'service'. W. F. Slater, in his Fen1ley Lecture, Methodism impossible to achieve. In such cases a meeting within the in the Light of the Early Church (1885), wrote with a scholar's more limited fellowship of Guild or Christian Endeavour wistfulness about the decay of the primitive Agape : might pave the way with several short addresses, prepared A reference to commentators will show that something had been lost or spontaneous, on set themes. These themes might be gradu- out of the Church which had made it impossible to under$tand what 60 61 ,,~ the apostolic 1'oinOnia or fellowship was. . . . This relic of apostolicity ... has been bequeathed to the Moravians and Methedists. Churches which boast of their antiquity celebrate their Eucharist with wonderful pOmp, but have little that would remind a Chrfatian of the catacombs il!GHT of the primitive koinOnia. • Now although Slater was thinking of the dying love-feast, we The Love,Feast and Christian Reunion might reasonably speculate that a catacombs visitor going the rounds of the Christian churches in this country at the present HE METHODIST love.feast was a revival with a difference of day would probably find himself nearest to the apostolic Ta rite of the early Church, the Agape, a rite symbolizing koinonia as he sat at tea in a Methodist church. Christian unity, both vertically with our Lord and His When all that has been said, however, Methodist teas and Apostles, and horizontally with each other. It arose spon 'At Homes' are for the most part the mere vestigial social 1 taneously out of the rich spiritual fellowship of the early remains of their eighteenth-century forerunners. There seems , Church. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, instituted by room for a self-conscious readaptation of the love-feast in j our Lord Himself, carried similar implications, in addition some form or other. Perhaps the time is opportune for a I to its primary purpose of making the Crucified and Risen bold liturgical adventure--.to reintroduce the love-feast with a Lord a living personal reality to all His followers. In the drastic change of emphasis. We would suggest an increase early Church, Agape and Eucharist (using the shorter term in order and decorum, with a reduction in the time given to for the Lorcl's Supper, but with no 'higher' view of it there spontaneous testimony and prayer; in other words, less of a fore implied) were intimately connected, though their exact ( revival atmosphere and more of the spirit of reverent worship. relationship in all its details has not yet been convincingly \ After all, the really essential thing about the love-feast is not demonstrated. It is a fact of history that the Agape fell into that it provides an opportunity for religious testimony, valu- , disrepute because its spiritual symbolism was overlaid by too able though that has been during the Methodist chapter of great an emphasis upon the physical symbols themselves. It ___..its long history. The essence of the. Agape is that it is a ! is also a fact of history that the Eucharist, because of pas ~l common meal symbolizing the u. nion of Christians with their 'sionate though sincere disagreements about the physical Lord and with each other. Any re-introduction of the love elements involved _in achieving its primary purpose of uniting -feast would be undertaken against the background of recent the worshipper to his Lord, has for long centuries foregone experiments made with it as a focal point for Christian its secondary purpose of making one family of those wor Reunion. shippers, Recent years have witnessed closer. co-operation between the divided Members of the Body of Christ, but have underlined the •Crucial differences which mar our funda mental unity. 'Crucial' is undoubtedly the word. The crux i is the Cross, a.s symbolized in the Eucharist. The real stumbling-block is our wide differences over the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and over the closely related subjects, the Church and the Ministry. Even granted goodwill on all sides, every effort at Christian Reunion has met with deadlock here. It does seem at least 62 63 possible, however, that some of our difficulties might be by intended; nor do they meutlon the Agape in the comments 18 passed by a revival of the Agape on an interdenominational on 1 Corinthians 11 ·"', John 211-2•, 2 Peter 213. In the ( level as a symbol of fundamental Christian unity. The last passage Wesley read, with the Authorized Version, Eucharist is fenced about with tradition, restriction, pre .. 'deceiving-s' (apatais) instead of 'love-feasts' (agapai.s), with the conception, and even prejudice. With the Agape we are not Revised Version which he so often anticipated. Only under) thus hampered; we can make up the rules as we go along. the parallel passage in Jude did Wesley refer to the Agape: Admittedly such a revival would probably need to be regarded 'v, 12. These are spots-blemishes. In your feasts of love as a short-term policy, for we cannot claim for the Agape antlently observed in all the Churches.' the full spiritual blessings of the Eucharist. Such an interim In view of this confusion in the minds of the Wesleysj~ form of Christian fellowship, however, with a sacramental then'Iselves, it is no marvel that the love-feast was sometimes atmosphere about it, might well enrich the necessary 'growing regarded as a Sacrament, both among Moravian, and Metho together' process, and even bring nearer the complete inter .. dists. Even though the Moravians had eschewed wine at communion for which we long. their love-feasts because of the obvious sacramental implica It is rather strange that in spite of his zeal to bring about a tions, the two celebrations were still held in association with rebirth of 'Primitive Christianity', John Wesley seems t(J have each other. That something of sacramental significance concerned himself hardly at all with the semi-sacramental undoubtedly clung to the bread and water reverently un aspect of the Agape, even though on occasion he did confuse covered at the love-feast may be seen from the third of the the two symbolic meals. 1 For instance, in _his Plain Account four verses of Cennick's hymn, 'The Love-feast' : of the People called Methodists (1748) he interpreted Acts 248 ('brealdng bread . , . with gladness and singleness of heart') Jesus, the Lamb, for Sinners slain, as a reference to the Agape, but in his &planatory Notes The Saints Eternal Food; upon the New Testament (1755)he took it to mean 'receiving Give us thy Flesh to eat today, the Lord's Supper'. Nor has Charles Wesley's attractive And let us drink thy Blood. versification of Acts 246•7 any specific love-feast content, but Come, Prince of Peace, in Glory come, only a general reference to 'every meal a sacramenf. All Prejudice remove; Nevertheless, his awareness of the historical significance of 0 come, and all our Hearts J,repare the Methodist revival of the Agape is shown by references To keep the Feast of Love! in .his ]ournal to a 'primitive love-feast', and a 'primitive assembly'." On the other hand Charles Wesley's poem on When and where it was possible, the early Methodists also Acts 201-11 makes it quite clear that in this instance he kept up this same close association. A love-feast frequently regarded 'breaking bread' as a love-feast; and in this inter followed Holy Cmmnunion earlier in the same day, particu pretation he was surely correct. John Wesley's Notes, how larly at the great festivals of the Church Year. One of many ever, treat the Eutychus incident as if the Eucharist were examples is seen in Charles We~ley's Journal for 16th September 1750: 'A great number of _communicants per• l It should perhaps be noted that one of Wesley's main authorities for the life of the early Church dealt with the Agape parenthetically ceived the Lord present. He gave us His blessing at our during the course of a discussion of the Eucharist. See William Cave's love-feast also.' The further important element of preaching Primitive Christianity (4th edn, 1682), pp. 343-5, was often emphasized simultaneously. We quote Charles 1()h•rle, Wesky, 7011rnal, I.156, II.126, 179. Wesley again ; 'In the word, and sacrament, and love-foast 64 65 the Lord made our souls as a watered garden.'3 These three complementary means of grace were also inseparably inter while the collections at Loth gatherings went auke to the woven into the Quarterly Meetings of early American fund which those stewards administered. True, in a sermon Methodism. preached and printed in defence of Methodist practices, When Methodists were repelled from the Lord's Table, or Samuel Bradburn had boldly claimed that love-feasts 'have when their isolated position made Communion extremely no relation at all to the Lord's Supper, ... the design being difficult, the love-feast could almost become a substitute for simply to testify our Christian love to each other', and his Holy Communion. This process was forwarded by the fact statements were quoted approvingly in Disney Alexander', that there was no ecclesiastical obstacle to prevent laymen Reasons for Methodism. .For the ordinary Methodist, how like Wesley's Assistants from conducting love-feasts, though ever, the two were related, even if different. This may be they were long prevented from administering Holy Com seen from a remark quoted by a corre,pondent in the munion. As Dr Church has written in More About the Methodist Magazine for 1812 (though he believed that it was Methodist People: not generally true) : 'A Methodist would rather go to a Love-feast than to a Sacramental-feast.' Where Holy Com During the first· fifty years, since· the sacrament of the Lor~'s Supper was not celebrated in Methodist chapels, and many hesitated, for munion was observed infrequently or with insufficient rever~ various reasons to make their Communion at the parish church, the ence-by no means a rarity-there was certainly much truth love~feallt grew' in importance. . . . There was in the Iove~fea~t !10, in one of the trumpet-blasts of the Tractarian controversy, question of consecrated elements or any priestly act of s~~16ctal offering but in so far as it was a common meal whose part1c1pants Dr E. B. Pusey's Letter to the Bishop of Oxford, 1839: gave th~nks 'to God and to f:Iis Son Je5us Christ thr~:mgh_. whom they knew their present salvation, it was probably some satisfaction to m!lny In the thoughts of many Wesleyans, at least, 'means of grace' will who felt themselves debarred by circumstances from Holy Communion, signify not the holy eucharist, but their own peculiar discipline, their 'class~~eetings1 or their 'love-feasts'. With a ministry 'not of the :mm Nevertheless, where attendance at Holy Communion cele of Levi' they have 'ordained a feast' also, 'like unto the feas~ which is in Judah', and have come to think their own feast, which they h~d brated by a clergyman could be secured without conSCien 'devised of their own heart', to be as acceptable to God, and as nch m ( tious scruples the love-feast was regarded as a supplement blessing to them, as that 'ordained by Christ himself'. rather than a~ a substitute. This was certainly the Wesleys' own position. The association of Agape and Eucharist, both in early The rank and file of the Methodists could not be expected Christian practice, in the Orthodox Church,4 and in more to be quite clear on an i;sue on which their leaders were recent Moravian and Methodist worship, has its dangen,, but not always consistent. It seems likely that there were many also suggests great possibilities. Provided that it is not re like William Clowes at his first love-feast in 1805, who garded as an equivalent sul;,stitute for the Lord's Supper, the) thought, 'This is the sacrament!' and to?k the bread an? love-feast as a common meal of denominationally divided water with corresponding awe. Impressions such as th1s Christians may be a .source of real blessing-a genuine would not altogether be dispelled in those mar~ accustomed communion, if not 'Holy Communion'. to Methodist practices. That there was some lmk, however Conferences and similar gatherings which bring together tenuous, between the two, would be confirme~ by the fact Christians from different traditions are becoming more fre~ that the preparation of the tables for both Lord s Supper and quent. Almost always the question of united worship pre love-feast was the duty of the same men, the Poor Stewards, sents difficulties, and that of common access to the Lord's 3 Journal, II.IS. Table insuperable difficulti\!S. The Agape offers at least a 66 4 cf. Appendix, note 9. 67 ------~----~ ~,, j 1:1!!1'.'./ 1i'...·1.'.11' ;emporary and partial escape from this impasse. '111is has Methodist rmnister, the Rev. John Lawson. V arlous tradi I~ .been found, for instance, at the Ecumenical Institute organized tions were again drawn upon-prayers from the primitive 11:1:11i: l ',1:.,1. by the World Council of Churches at the Chateau de Bossey Didache and from the Agape of the Greek Ortho/!ox Church, in Switzerland. Here the last meal of the course is regarded and part of the Litany representing the Roman and Anglican l'I as an Agape, and the participants endeavour (as the dupli tradition. Methodism contributed its love-feast hymns and cated order urges) 'to express, by a symbolical act, the reality an opportunity for testimony and extempore prayer. On this [Ii of our unity'. occasion water was drunk from an old Methodist loving-cup, ,,,,I Of perhaps more immediate significance to those who are but only by representatives of the participating groups. This closely concerned with the relations between the Christian O_rder was produced with some degree of formal_ity (though Churches in Great Britain is the experiment which took place with no desire to stereotype the service) and was made avail a few years ago in the parish of Hilgay, Norfolk. The rector able for those interested. Fuller details are given in the of Hilgay, the Rev, G. I. F, Thomson, after securing the appendix, but part of .the prefatory note may be quoted here consent of his Bishop and the full co-operation of the local since it concerns the general approach to this revival of ti,; Methodist minister, the Rev. W. Morley Waite, held a joint love-feast : Agape for Anglicans and Methodists. (The venture was This Orde_r is not an Office for Holy Communion, nor is it intended' simplified by the fact that only these two denominations as a substitute for the true Sacrament of Unity, To make use of it existed in the parish,) Throughout months of careful pre implies no particular judgement upon questions of ministerial Order in t~~ Church. It is ~ re~urn to the family meal of that ancient and paration, he had in mind, not only or even chiefly the local und1v1ded Ch~ch which is the Mother of us all. Upon this common situation, but the significance of such an experiment for all ground there 1S here a union of the traditions Qf worship of our divided Churches. Christendom. Archbishop Germano,, the official head of the Orthodox Church in this country, gave encburagement and With the removal of the Anglican rector the experiment advice. rested. The repercus$ions have continued, however, even to The first Agape in Hilgay took place on the evening of a brief mention in the monumental History of the Ecumenical Maundy Thursday, 14th April 1949, in the Anglican church Movement, by Ruth Rouse and S. C. Neill. The issue was of St Mark in the hamlet of Ten Mile Bank. Both the rector taken up by tl1e 'Friends of Reunion', aired in successive and the Methodist minister took part, and the broken bread issues of their Bulletin, and carefully discussed at their Con, was distributed by an Anglican church.warden and a Metho. ference in January 1950. Correspondence flowed in to the dist local preacher. On this occasion bread alone was used participants from all continents. The Rev. Ian Thomson as the symbol of a common 1neal; it had been made in a described the experiment and its aims in An Experiment in large flat loaf composed of miniature cubes readily broken Worship, published by the S.C,M. Press in 1951. He claimed up by the officiants. While simple in outline, the form of that it was 'a serious attempt to break a deadlock that has service contained elements from all the major groupings of long existed between separated churches', and justified it as the Church-Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Lesser Eastern, an 'interim step' pointing in the direction of the time when Reformed, Anglican, and Free Church. the full unity of Christendom will be expressed in the On Wednesday in Holy Week, 1951, another Agape was Eucharist, 'the true Christian meeting-place'. Comments held at Hilgay, again in the hamlet of Ten Mile Bank, but varied from the highly enthusiastic to the frankly sceptical. this time in the Methodist Chapel. The order of service was The Manchester Guardian thqught that 'the deadlock that drawn up jointly by the rector and the newly-appointed has hitherto. existed may now be pierced aµd lifted'. Dr 68 ~9 in fact have some sacramental associations and implications-, A•. Findlay, writing in the British Weekly, was much more J. but we leave to abler minds the complicated task of assessing bold: the. ?'erits and determining the limits of the theological I have long thought that the way out of the present impasse might be validity of the modern Agape as a form of intercommunion. found by separating once again the Agape and the Eucharist . . . by spontaneous action of members of the rank and file of v.arious Churches This book contains au attempt to provide a trustworthy meeting on neutral ground, with or without their ministers ... and ~eth?dist background for their labours, an attempt to present drinking the loving~cup and breaking bread together in remembrance h1Storical facts rather thau to press theological arguments. of the Lord's death. Nor do we expect a speedy or universal adoption of the In the London Quarterly and Ho/born Review for April 1950 Agape as a means of leaping the theological barriers which he left no doubt that he gloried in the Sacramental implica have for centurie_s denied us intercommunion. Yet as Metho tions of the Agape, maintaining that 'any scheme of inter dists we shall be profoundly grateful to Almighty God if in communion is better than none' : His Providence it transpires that our traditional love-feast I deprecate the suggestion that a service of this sort. should not be has. he!ped to provide (whether by the pro/Ilise or the threat thought of as sacramental in the broader sense; it should not be a of its imperfect offer of intercommunion) a significant step 1love~feast' in the Methodist sense, for it becomCs only another friendly along the road to Christian Reunion. gesture, if the connexion with the death of our Lord as the link which binds all Christians togetl1er is not kept in the foreground. A writer in the Ecumenical Review for Summer 1949 felt unable to wax really enthusiastic over what he nevertheless felt bound to entitle 'a possible first step' toward inter communion. He pointed out the danger of the possible con fusion of the Agape with the Eucharist; and in effect con demned such experiments as escapist : How do we best help our Lord to fulfil His will in the visible unity of His Church? Is it by putting ourselves in situations where we may gloss over or minimize the reality of our divisions? Or is it by deliber ately accepting the po,sition in which those divisions are starkly accep ted in all the reality of their divisiveness, and in which we are exposed to the full force of the shame and scandal of our sel?aration f:ro:m one another. The Rev. E. C. Dewick in the Modern Churchman for March 1950 speaks perhaps the summarizing word for the time being. In discussing the fear that the Agape might come to be regarded as a substitute for the Holy Communion he also answers other criticisms such as the last : While this indicates the need for care in the revival of the Agape, it certainly should not hinder further experiments along this line of Christian co-operation. We have seen that the traditional Methodist love-feast did 70 '/1 6 ·, \! .1: i! 'I ii:! ·'1' .i !,I I 11'1'[:I minutes ?r even longer without any undue sense of strain. ,11, :'1 There might be a separate opportunity for brief extempore ilf'I' -·-- APPENDIX prayer, 'or 'chain prayer'. Where conditions are favourable more freedom might be given. From the 'What's Puzzling '''. How to Conduct a Love,Feast You?' feature of the Methodist Re·corder for 18th September 1'I: 1947, I quote part of my answer to a question on reviving J i"li · the love-feast : I.' HE QUESTION is often asked : 'How do we set about j! · · I f ?' Th The second half of the service might then resolve itself into a cross T arrangmg a ove- ~ast. e answer obviously depends on bet~een a te~-table conference, an Oxford Group 'house-party', and ii '1 whether the questioner envisages a celebration within the th~ conversation on the work of God' at a Methodist Synod. During I· family fellowship of Methodism, or as an expression of inter.. 1 this any member should feel at liberty to offer prayer to start up the denominational unity. Whichever is intended however we verse of a hymn, .or to speak of his Christian experiellce. The leader . , , needs t.o keep ~ts finger on the pulse ::,f the meeting, prompting Ii are wise to acc~p.t as our rule: '~deration in all things.' speakers, or as~mg for someon~ to lead 10 prayer, and also keeping The early Christian Agape founderea6ec-atrse-of....exeess-.We the happy medium between cuttmg short a promising conversation and . . . -. prolonging a meeting that has dried up·. conv1viahty. An undue emphasis upon revivalistic tendencies eventually led to the natural decay of the traditional Metho- Suggestions for introducing this element of spontaneous testi• ( I dis~ )ove-~east.. If a modern revival of the Agape assumes mony gradually by way of Christian Endeavour or Guild are ?- rigidly_ hturg1cal form we have little hesitation in prophesy- given above (p. 60), We believe that this note of spontaneity 11: mg that 1ts term of usefulness also will be short-lived. What is should not be completely missing even from an inter 'I ' needed is a. balanced combination of 'all three : a token meal denominational Agape, where its theme would normally be -but only a token; some measure of Sj><>ntarieliy··intlie Christian Reunion. At the second Hilgay love-feast the 1 11,1L matter of spiritual 'sharing'-but spontanelty.confii:ied within opportunity was taken for brief testimonies, and these were !1 F ~arro~ limits and not allowed to run riot; and thirdly, some felt to be a definite enhancement of the gathering's spiritual 11·. 111, :, hturg1cal .. Patter_n linking each celebration to past centuries impact on the worshippers. !l'I'' a_nd to the wliole of modern Christendom-yet at the same The order of service also will vary considerably with cir I' llme a pattern which can readily be adapted to changing cumstances. It would .seem desirable, however even where :/,·!, needs. the traditional Methodist form is followed, to in.;,,rporate one We have discussed above (pp. 61-2) the question of the or two features from the ancient liturgies so as not to lose I'I" ' food and drink, and have recommended using the common sight of its broader implications. We give below (a) a sug• -, :,:l-1-) ~u~ ~herever worshippers have the courage to do so, but with gested order for a Methodist love-feast conducted along ; mdIVIdual cups of tea as an alternative. Or as at the second traditional lines, and (b) the salient features of the second j Iii Hilg~y Agape, the sharing of the comm~n cup could be Agape at Hilgay. · i restricted to a few representative individuals. Another alter- ,'1, . f · th (a) SUGGESTED ORDER FOR A METHODIST LOVE·FEAST ,1: na! 1ve, o course, 1s at originally followed at Hilgay of 1,, 1 sharing broken bread only, in token of a common meal'. Hymn No. 745 : 'All praise to our redeeming Lord.' 'Ii·:I . The element of spontaneity will vary considerably with 1 Many alternative hymns might be suggested for the various stages I,!1//i· circumstances. In purely Methodist gatherings 'testimony' of the service. Most of these will be found readily enough among 1,11 of some kind or another might well occupy up to twenty those by Charles Wesley between Nos, 709 and 750 in the Methodist 1i:;• Hymn-book. "'I 72 73 'I''1ill liJI 111 Scripture reading : John 626•35• The Lord's Prayer. Chain prayer, or prayer by leader, followed by Lord's Hymn No. 718: 'Jesus, we look to Thee.' Prayer. 0 Holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, three persons and one God; Hymn No. 720: 'Christ, from whom all blessings flow.' have mercy upon us miserable sinners, Address by leader. Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the offences of our forefathers, neither take thou vengeance of our sins : spare us, good Lord, spare Distribution of bread or biscuits by the stewards, during thy people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood, which an offertory is taken for the Poor Fund or some and be not angry with us for ever. specified charitable cause. Spare us, good Lord. The singing of Grace.• From all blindness of heart, from pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy, from envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness, The fellowship of eating together, in silence, Good Lord, d~liver us. The circulation of the loving-cup to all or to represen- By the mystery of thy holy Incarnation, by thy holy Nativity and tatives. circumcision, by thy baptism, fasting, and temptation, Hymn No. 748: 'Come, and let us sweetly join.' Good Lord, deliver us. By thine agony and bloody sweat, by thy cross and passion, by thy Opportunity for testimonies. precious death and burial, by thy glorious resurrection and ascension, Hymn No. 712 : 'Blest be the dear uniting love.' and by the coming of the Holy Ghost, Blessing. Good Lord, deliver us. In all time of our tribulation, in all time of our wealth, in the hour of (b) ORDER FOR A LOVE-FEAST OR AGAPE, BEINO AN death, and in the day of judgement, EXPRESSION OF FELLOWSHIP BETWEEN THE DIVIDEl) Good Lord, deliver us. CHURCHES OF CHRISTENDOM We sinners do beseech thee to hear us, 0 Lord God, and that it may please thee to rule and govern thy holy Church universally in the right Hymn No. 969: '0 Lord of heaven and earth and sea.' way, Psalm No. 145, said responsively, or sung.• We beseech thee to, hear us, good Lord. Portions of the Litany, said or sung.4 That it may please thee to give to all thy people increase of grace, ,2, Most people will probably prefer Cennick's well-known verse or to hear meekly thy Word, and to receive it with pure affection, and verses. An excellent alternative is the following by Charles Wesley, to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, sung to the tune NEARER HOME (No. 568) : We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. Father of earth and heaven, That it may please thee to bring into the way of truth all such as have Thy hungry children feed, erred, and are deceived, Thy grace be to our spirits given, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. That true immorta·l bread, Grant us and all our race That it may please thee to forgive our enemies, persecutors and slan In Jesus Christ to prove derers, and to turn their hearts, The sweetness of Thy pardoning grace, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. The manna of Thy love. 8 That it may please thee to give us true repentance, to forgive us alt our This psalm is regularly used in the Agape of the Eastern Orthodox sins, negligences, and ignorances, and to endue us with the grace of Church, thy Holy Spirit, to amend our lives according to thy Holy Word, 4 This represents the Roman and Anglican tradition. The following We beseech. thee to hear us, good Lord. prayers and responses were used at Hilgay: Son of God : we beseech thee to hear us. 0 Holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, three persons and one God; have mercy upon us miserable sinners. Son of God: we beseech thee to hear us. 74 75 -·•> ,-,-,~- -., '·>:':· --~- ' ! The Lesson. One or more of the following : Exodus Sermon. I 11 1 13 35 35 I !6 • 5, Isaiah 55, Luke 24 • , John 6/'6- , John 171-u. ' Hymn No. 748: 'Come, and let us sweetly join.'6 i 1a~20, 1 Peter 21~10, :11 .. 1 ::, 1 Prayers from the Didache. i. Hymn No. 713: 'Let us join ('tis God commands).'" The breaking of the bread, he who breaks the bread saying : 0 Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, 'Blessed art Thou, 0 Lord, God of the universe, who 8 Grant us thy peace. dost bring forth bread from the earth. Amen.' 0 Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, Distribution of the bread. 9 Have mercy_ upon us. 6 This hymn is a selection of verses from the poem 'The Communion 0 Christ, hear us. of Saints', noted above. 0 Christ, hear us. 7 The Didache, compiled about A.D. 100, represents the ordered Lord, have mercy upon us. worship of the ancient Church. The prayers used at Hilgay were: Christ, have mercy V,pon us. Thou, Almiqhty Master, didst create all things for Thy name's sake, and didst give food and drink unto men for enjoyment, that they 5 Only two of the verses used at Hilgay are actually included in might render thanks to Thee; but didst bestow upon us spiritual food Hymn No. 713, the others coming from Charles Wesley's 'Lov~~feast' and drink and eternal life through Thy Son. poem, which altogether contains twenty-two eight-line verses, As an Thine is the glory for ever and ever. alternative for ecumenical gatherings where orders of service are being duplicated, we suggest the use of two of the verses included at Hilgay, We give Thee thanks, 0 our Father, for the life and knowledge which h', I toðer_ with one from an associated poem on 'The Communion of Thou didst make known unto us through Thy Son Jesus. I Samts', which followed 'The Love-feast' in the 1740 Hymns and Thine is the glory for ever and ever. Sacred Poems: As this broken bread was scattered Upon the mountains, and being !/ 1. Come1 Thou high and lofty Lord, gathered together became one, so may Thy Church be gathered 1. Lowly, meek, incarnate Wordj together from the ends of the earth into Thy Kingdom, Humbly stoop to earth again, ii! Thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Chrift for ever ,,I Come, and visit abject man. and ever. ,.1., Jesu, dear expected Guest, ,, Thou art bidden to the feast; The Lord cometh. ,, For Thyself our hearts prepare, Amen. Come, and sit, and banquet there. i ;, I 8 This is the Grace which in all probability our Lord used at the i'·' 2. Jesu, we the promise claim, Emmaus meal and on similar occasions. We are met in Thy great name : r ' In the midst do Thou appear, 9 In the Orthodox Church the bread used is divided jnto nine Manifest Thy presence here; squares, the centre square being put on one side as the consecrated Sanctify us, Lord, and bless, element for Holy Communion, while the remainder is distributed as 111:. the token meal of the Agape. A similar method of preparing a flat ii Breathe Thy Spirit1 give Thy peace, ,I,! Thou Thyself within us move; cake already marked into sections was followed at Hilgay, though r i Make our feast a feast of love. without the portion kept on one side for the Lord's Supper_. Balls of ,Ii 3. Build us fu one body up, dough about one inch in diameter, each marked with a cross, were ii' ' placed close together in rows, and were baked together to form a Call'd in one high calling's hope; square. One the Spirit whom we claim; /i/,i One the pure baptismal flame; The joint leaders of the service each broke the bread and gave a One the faith, and common Lord; portion to the other. Next they gave the broken pieces on salvers to /ii: the two stewards who had come forward to the communion rails One the Father lives_, adored, 111, Over, through, and m us all, during the singing of the preceding hymn. The stewards then distri God Incomprehensible. buted to the congregation, who received the bread standing, and sat :.!i to eat. 76 77 ~II', 111 Taking up of the cup, with the words: 'Our Lord Jesus ;i I Christ said, "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I II I' I shall give him shall never thirst".' l,1 11 ii'I' '1· Distribution of the water.10 , Returning of thanks. 11 Bibliography Opportunity for testimony to the goodness of God, and to i! OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS USED '!: the redeeming power of the Gospel, and for prayer II, extempore. /i Arminiam Magazine, 1778-97, espe_cially 1794, 1796. I Hymn No. 720: 'Christ from whom all blessings flow.' Askew, Edwin, and R. Abercrombie, Free Methodist Manual (1899). 1[ The Blessing. Baggaly, William, A Digest of the Minutes, Institutions, Doctrines, and· 'j Ordinances of the Methodist New Connexion (2nd edn, 1876). II 10 This followed a similar pattern to the distribution of the bread, ' Batty, W., 'Ohurch History, collected from the Memoirs of the Rev. except that it was sipped in turn from the single loving-cup by repre Mr Ingham aiid the Labourers in connection with him' (from a sentatives only gathered at the communion rails. copy in the Lamplough Collection of the original manuscript 11 dated 1779). H The following was the Hilgay rubric: Benham, Daniel, Memoirs of James Hutton (1856). 'When the bread and the cups are returned to the table one shall then Bett, Henry, The Spirit of Methodism (1943). say: Bishop, John, Methodist Worship (1950). ';Blessed be God, who is merciful, and who nourisheth us from our Boyden, Wi1liam, and Edwin Askew, Hand-Book of the United Metho youth up, and who is the Author of all sustenance. Fill our hearts with dist Free Churches (1877, 1887). j()yfulncss, that in Thy bountiful providence we may serve Thee in Burdekin, Richard, Memoirs of the Life and Character of Mr Robert every good work, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with The~ Spe-nre, of York (1827). and the Holy Ghost be all glory and power, honour and worship, both Cave, William, Primitive Christianity (4th edn, 1682), now and for evermore. Amen.' Cennick, John, Sacred Hymns for the Children of God, in. the days of their Pilgrimage (1741, 151 hymns). 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Conferences of 1744-8' (1896). Peirce, William, The Ecclesiastical Principles and Polity of the Wes- Wesleyan Methodist Magazine (1822 onwards, especially 1831, 1836,.. i leyan Methodists (3rd edn, 1873). 1840, 1841, 1864, 1865, 1866, 1889, 1891). :1 i' Rawlinson, A., History of Wesleyan Metho·dism in Swinton (1910). Williams, A.H., Welsh Wesleyan Methodism, 1800-58 (1935). Redfern, Shirley, Methodist Journey (1950). Woodhead, D. W., Buxton Wesley Chapel (1949). Seed, T. A., History of Norfolk Street Wesleyan Chapel, Sheffield :: : (1907). Sheffield Confer,nce Handbook (1940). : :I Sigston, J~mes, Memoir of ... William Bramwell (3rd edn, 1821). ! Simon, John S,t.fohn Wesley and the Religious Societies (1921). John Wesley and the Methodist Societies (1923), Summary of Methodist Law and Discipline (5th edn, revised to 1923 by John Elsworth), Simpson, Matthew, Cyclopaedia of Methodism (1878). Slater, William F., Methodism in the Light of the Early Church (1885). .,, : Smith, George, History of Wesleyan Methodism (~th edn, 3 vols, 1866). ' ' Stevenson, G. J., C#y Road Chapel, London, and its Associations ;; : (1872), !i' '. 80 81 . i INDEX Lord's Supper and the Love Orthodox Church, 9, 68-9, 77-8 feast, 90 39, 42_, 44, 45, 48, Overseas Missions, 58 Alport, 57 Cooper, Rev. W. Hargreaves, 37 55, 63-l, 69-71 Oxford, 47 America, 9-.12, 44, 49-50, 53, 66 Love-Feast: A Poem, 32 Anglican-Methodist co-opera- Dallowgill, 5 7 Love-feasts : Pilmoor, Joseph, 49 tion, 68-70 Denton Burn, 45, 57 Admission, 34-40, 49-54 Plans., Circuit Preaching, 41-2 Agape, survivals of, 9, 63-4 Dewick, Rev, E, C., 70 Collections, 16, 54, 67 Primitive Methodism, 38-9, 44,, Apostolic Church, 9-10, 14-15, Dewsbury, 28 Criticism of, 32-3 52-4 20-1, 61-5 Decline of, 56 Pusey, Dr E. B., 67 Ashton-under-Lyne, 26 Ecumenical Institute, 68 Disciplinary regulations, 32- _Axminster, 2·5 Edmondson, Jonathan, 40 40, 49, 56-7 Rankin, Thomas, 50 Entire Sanctification, 28-30, 33 Drink, 11, 15, 22, 55, 58, 61, Reunion, Christian, 62-71, 74-8 Band Meeting, 14, 25, 55 Epworth, 27 65, 72 78 Revivals, 28-30, 48•J, 56, 60 Beaumont, Dr Joseph, 43 Evans, James, 52 Duration, 10-11, 34, 54 Rogers, James and tt, A., 49 Bennet, John, 16, 27 Food, 15, 22, 33, 57, 58, 68, .Berry Brown, 5 7 Farndale, 58 ,2, 17 Scrafton, 5 7 Bible Christians, 54 Fiji Islands, 57 Frequency, .13, 41-3 Shadford, George, 27 Birstall, 16, 27, 28, 29 Findlay, Dr J. A., 70 'General L-F', 11-14, 41 Shaw, Barnabas, 51 .Bohler, Peter, 12 1Friends of Reun19n,' 69 Hymns, 17-24, 40, 65, 69, 76 Sheffield, 29, 47 Bossy, Ecumenical Institute, 68 Loving-cup, 55, 58, 61 South Africa, 51 _Bourne, Hugh, 39 Gainsborough, 46 Modern revivals, 58-62, 72-4 Steele, James, 52-3 Bradburn, Samuel, 67 Gateshead~ 42 Occasions for L-Fs, 36, 41-2 Bradford, 43 Germanos, Archbishop-, 68 Order of service, 15, 22, 69, Thomson, Rev. G. I. F,, 68-9 Bramwell, William, 28, 4·6 Graces, 22-4, 74, 77 72-8 Trevecka, 48 Bristol, 11-13, 21, 35, 41, 43, 47 G1dmsby, 60 Prayers, 28-9, 40, 53, 54, 69, Bunting, Dr Jabez, 38 73 United Methodist Free Burslem, 28, 38, 53 Harris, Howell, 48 Separation of sexes, 11 Churches, 54-5 Buxton, 43 Halifax, 28 Survivals, 57-8 Hilgay, Norfolk, 68-/0, 73-8 Testimonies, 25-40, 47, 50-4, Valton, John, 37, 46 ·Camp Meetings, 44, 53 Hull, 28, 43, 53, 55 57, 59 72-3 ·Canada, 52 Hutton, James, 11-12 Visitors, 3_!t9, 42-3, 50, 53, Waite, Rev. W. M., 68 -Oarlill, Thomas, 35 Hymns, See Love-feast 56-7 Wales, 48 Carlton, 57 Lowe, Rev. George, 26 Waterhouse, Rev. John, 51 -Oennick, John, 21-4, 65 Lumb, Matthew, 38 Watford, 48 Chapel-openings, Love-feasts at, Ingham? Benjamin, 10, 12, 46 Wesley, Charles, 11-12, 19-21, 46 Inghamites, 35, 44 Macclesfield, 33, 47 43, 64-5, 74, 76 ,Christmas, 28-9, 45-6 - Ireland, 27, 34, 44, 46, 48-9, 61 Manchester, 26, 47 Wesley, John, 9-10, 12, and Circuit Preaching Plans, See Marlborough, 30 passim Plans Kingswood, See Bristol Mather, Alexander, 38-9, 46 Notes on N.T., 64-5 Circuit Quarterly Meetings, 44, Kirkland, Rev. Ambrose, 53-4 Methodist New Connexion, 54 Wesley Historical Society, 27, 46, 49, 60 Moravians1 9-12, 21, 58, 65 34, 41, 54 ,Clarke? Dr Adam, 26, 2·7, 29 Lackington, James, 26 Myles, William: Chronological West Indies, 50 Class-tickets, 35, 37-9, 49 Lawson, Rev. John, 69 History, 37 Whitby, 15, 47 ·Clowes, William, 38-9, 52 Leeds, 30, 47 Whitefield, George, 10, 21, 35 Coke, Dr Thomas, 50 Links, Peter, 51 Negroes, 50 Woodland Love-feast, 57 Cole.I Rev. R. Lee, v, 15 Local Preachers, 33, 40, 57, 69 Newcastle, 43, 45 World Council of Churches, 68 '(:lonterences, Methodist, 13, 44, London, 25, 29, 43, 46 New Zealand, 51 53, 60 City Road Chapel, 30, 41, 58 Nightingale, Joseph: Portrait York, 4·5 MinutBS, I(!, 33-4, 36, 37-8, 41 Fetter Lane, 10-12 ure, 18, 19, 26, 32, 34 Young, Rev. Robert, 29 >Congleton, 2'1 Foundery, 12, 32, 35 , Nixon, James, 53 Young, Dr Robert N., 50 •Conversions at love-feasts, 26- Hinde Street, 29-30, 43 30, 39, 45, 49, 53-4 West Street, 34 82 83