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Ford, Jack, in the Steps of John Wesley

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Ford, Jack, in the Steps of John Wesley In the Steps of John Wesley The Church of the Nazarene in Britain The Church 0/ the Nazarene in Britain by JACK FORDt B.D. t Ph.D. A thesis accepted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology in the University of London Printed by NAZARENE PUBLISHING HOUSE Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A. COPYRIGHT 1968 BY NAZARENE PUBLISHING HOUSE FIRST PRINTING, 1968 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Dedication To my wife Munel and the Holiness People Preface Not only for the sociologist but also for the church historian the microcosm of the sect has special value. Factors and trends too complicated to be easily discerned in the great and ancient communions stand out sharply in the select society. In the study of the three movements which are the subject of this thesis, the Church of the Nazarene in Britain, the International Holiness Mission and the Calvary Holiness Church, causes of division can be learned afresh, familiar patterns of faith and order emerge, the evolution of the sect into a denomination and towards a church takes place, but with particular modifications which warn us not to make our categories nor our rules of development too rigid, and the desire for unity, given momentum by the pressure of internal and environmental forces, bears fruit in their uniting in a larger denomination. The history of these three movements is drawn from primary sources and fully annotated. Their origin is traced back to the British Holiness Movement of the latter part of the nineteenth century, which is shown to owe a real debt to the American Holiness Movement. Their faith and church order is analysed, their attitude to the world indicated and explained and the doctrine of Holiness to which they give special emphasis is defined and discussed, with special ref­ erence to John Wesley's teaching of entire sanctification. An attempt is made to compare their belief in Holiness and its expression in church life and towards the world with move­ ments and individuals in Christian history holding a similar belief. A short summary of conclusions is given concerning factors in their origin and features in their development. Criticisms of their doctrine are considered and its value is indicated, and suggestions are made concerning their con­ tribution to society and to the Church. -J.FORD Abbreviations SPECIAL BIDF British Isles District (of Church of the Nazarene) Files. CHCDCM Calvary Holiness Church Delegates Con­ ference Minutes CHCECM Calvary Holiness Church Executive Council Minutes. HMJ Holiness Mission Journal. IHMECM International Holiness Mission Executive Council Minutes. MBDMPPC Minute Book of Deacons Meetings of Parkhead Pentecostal Church. MBIDCN Minutes of British Isles Dis t ric t of Church of the Nazarene. MBIDPCN Minutes of British Isles District of Pen­ tecostal Church of the Nazarene. MBPCS Minute Book of Pentecostal Church of Scotland. PBIDCN Proceedings of British Isles District of Church of the Nazarene. PCS Pentecostal Church of Scotland. GENERAL ERE Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. James Hastings. Wesley Where "Wesley" appears alone, the ref­ erence is to John Wesley. Contents PART I: HISTORICAL CHAPTER 1. Introduction 11 CHAPTER 2. The Church of the Nazarene in Britain 35 CHAPTER 3. The International Holiness Mission 90 CHAPTER 4. The Calvary Holiness Church 139 PART II: ANALYTICAL AND COMPARATIVE CHAPTER 5. Their Faith and Church Order 185 CHAPTER 6. Their Attitude to the World 205 CHAPTER 7. Their Special Emphasis: Holiness 222 CHAPTER 8. Their Relationship to Holiness Movements in Christian History 243 CHAPTER 9. Conclusion 270 PART I HISTORICAL CHAPTER 1 Introduction THE ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE The American Holiness Movement To understand the British branch of the Church of the Nazarene, which is the subject of this thesis, it is necessary to consider in some detail the rise of the Church of the Nazarene in America. This had its origins in the American Holiness Movement! as the British part of it owes its rise to the British counterpart. Warfield traces the beginnings of mystical perfectionism in America to the Quakers. They preceded the Methodists by almost a century and becoming respected members of the community in some measure prepared the minds of the people for the Wesleyan message.2 But beyond doubt it is Methodism which has made the main contribution to the doctrine of perfection in America, and all its outstanding exponents have either been Methodists or in a greater or lesser degree been indebted to Methodism. The leaders of the Oberlin School, C. G. Finney and Asa Mahan, were influenced by Wesley's Plain Account of Christian Perfection, although in some 11 12 • In the Steps of John Wesley respects they deviated from it.3 Thomas Upham, to use his wife's expression "was begotten in the Gospel" by Mrs. Phoebe Palmer, and Mrs. Upham herself was brought into the experience of entire sanctification by the testimony of a Methodist.4 Rev. and Mrs. W. E. Boardman5 and Mr. and Mrs. Pearsall Smith,6 who exercised such an influence in America and Europe through their writings and preaching, had fertile contacts with Methodism. And in the words of W. E. Sangster all the Holiness denominations stem-down from the founder of Methodism.7 What is usually regarded as the American Holiness Move­ ment began in the period following the Civil War. Prior to the war Finney and Mahan and other members of the Oberlin School had preached Holiness all over the country, and for twenty years Phoebe Palmer's "Tuesday Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness" had been a means of leading hundreds of Methodist ministers, including two bishops and three prospective ones, to claim the experience of entire sanctifica­ tion. Boardman had published his Higher Christian Life in 1858, the year of the mid-century revival which reaped a harvest of between 500,000 and a million converts. 8 Then came four years of fratricide. The Holiness Movement was both a reaction against the bloodshed and a participation in the mood of post-war reconstruction. The first general Holiness camp meeting held at Vineland, New Jersey, in 1867, from which came the National Associa­ tion for the Promotion of Holiness,9 was predominantly Methodist though professedly interdenominational in char­ acter.l0 Others came into being as a result of its success and in the early days received the support of the Methodists. Prominent Methodists like Dr. and Mrs. (Phoebe) Palmer, John S. Inskip, James Caughey, J. A. Wood, Daniel Steele and Bishops Hamline, Matthew Simpson, Thomas A. Morris, and Jesse T. Peck played an important part in the promotion of the movement. In 1886 Bishop Mallalieu wrote that more than at any time in the history of Methodism, God's people were seeking the blessing.l1 But so far from being confined to one denomination the movement overflowed to the other churches where a way had been prepared for it by the Oberlin School· and the writings of Boardman. Congregationalists like Finney, Mahan and A. M. Hills; Presbyterians like Boardman Introduction • 13 and Pearsall Smith; Quakers like David B. Updegraf and Professor Dougan Clark; Baptists like A. B. Earle, A. P. Graves, George Morse and E. M. Levy; and the Episcopalian layman, Dr. Charles C. Cullis, gave breadth to the movement. Lewis R. Dunn declared in the Methodist Quarterly Review in 1873 that Episcopalians, Quakers, Presbyterians and Bap­ tists were forsaking sectarian controversy to proclaim with their Methodist brethren the purifying grace.I2 A spate of literature bore forward the Holiness message. In 1888 at least four publishing houses were engaged exclusively in the publishing of Holiness journals, and twenty-seven Holiness periodicals were circulating. By 1892 the periodicals had increased to forty-one.Is Yet it would be false to suggest that there was unanimous support for this proclamation of Holiness. In the Methodist Church itself there was always a hard core of resistance to it, which increased as the century moved to its close. The fact that the ministers were divided in their attitude meant that members who were led to claim entire sanctification by one minister could encounter opposition from his successor, as was the case with F. A. Hillery and his associates in St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church in Providence.14 Then there was the fear on the part of the officials that the as­ sociation of their members in Holiness bands and camp meet­ ings might lead to the creation of cliques and issue in schism.I5 Between 1792 and 1881 there were at least thirteen schisms from the Methodist Church. Two were on the issue of language, like that of the Evangelical Association; five were racial, resulting in the creation of coloured Methodist groups; and of the other six two were related to Holiness: the Wes­ leyan Methodist (1843), obliquely, and the Free Methodist (1860), directly. But almost all of them gave a new promi­ nence to Holiness when they were separated from the parent body.I6 In such circumstances the official caution was under­ standable. Moreover, while many leading advocates of Holiness were loyal and responsible churchmen, some of the Holiness evangelists were irresponsible extremists who sought to precipitate Holiness sects without cause or even taught that no church order was necessary at all.I7 Some of the bands lapsed into fanaticism and repelled sensible and spiritual observers.Is On the other hand, adherents of the Holiness 14 • In the Steps of John Wesley movement saw much in the churches which disturbed them: worldliness, formality and, towards the close of the century, a denial by denominational scholars of what they regarded as Christian fundamentals and by some Methodist professors a repudiation of the Holiness doctrine which they treasured as the founder's grand depositum.19 The last ten years of the nineteenth century witnessed the rise of about the same number of separate Holiness groups.
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