The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1904-01-21

[
gard the rules and practices of early
MethodiSm as binding and applicable
even under the changed conditions of
society brought about in the past
hundred years. The Wesleyan move
ment had much of its strength and
peculiar triumphs from the doctrine
of itineracy, and its most glowing and
thrilling page is that wherein we read
of the labors and sacrifices of the cir
cuit-riders, the Napoleons Of the Cross,
the preachers on horseback" The
its illustrious first apostle, whose dust
rests in Mount OliYet, spent the whole
Ct his career as an itinerant, and,
from the flush of manhood until old
age, rode the rounds of the increasing
societies from New England to the
Carolinas, until, at last, in Virginia,
he went from the saddle to his death
bed. Wesley began the itineracy
when turned from the church of his
fathers and of his own faith, he took
1.-THE world for his parish, "and became
travelling preacher.
In the dawn of the Introduction of
Methodism into this cou ntry-when
its stronghold was Maryland and the
adjacent. territory-the preachers
were changed two, and sometimes
three, times year on the stations"
DR.. Abel Stevens says that then THE
itineracy was under a stern regimen,
and was priced as not only afford
ing variety of ministerial gifts to the
societies, but as a sort of military drill
to the preachers. 1t kept them ener-
getic by keeping them in motion. No
great captain has approved of long
encampments. The early Methodist
itinerants were an evangelical cavalry
they were always in the saddle;
mode of life which conducted not Il
little to that chiYalric spirit and hero
ic character which distinguishes them
as class" At length the preachers
came to remain as long as three years
on charge, and at the General Con
| ference held at Baltimore in 1904 it
enacted that two years on one APP
pointment should be the time limit.
There was a great controversy oyer
the matter, and Bishop Asbury, in
| his journals, notes that in 1906 he
| Of
! land such condition of affairs as to
render the Methodist future there I'M
promising: "The peoples minds are
agitated about stationed preachers,
some for and some against. The devil
would rather they woulddo something
worse than disagree: but this to him
is better than nothing. Sixty years
after the Baltimore Conference of 1904
the time limit of two years was eX-
! tended to three, and in 1888 the max
imum of pastoral service at one APP
pointment was made five years. AT
the last General Conference the time
limit was removed altogether.
1t is evident, however, that, not
outstanding the expunging from
the Church statute book of the time
limit, the hold of the doctrine of the
itineracy is still strong,upon "Old-side
Methodism." The proportion of long
term pastors in the Baltimore and
every other annual conference of the
Church is surprisingly small In fact,
most of the oppositions to the timer
acy as a cardinal rule of the Church
is found in the large cities, in which
wealthy and aristocratic congrega-
tions have, from time to time, practic
ally detied the time limit rule and set
at naught the once all-powerful die
tum of the bishops. The early Meth
odist bishops were, with all their he
roism, kindness and fiery enthusiasm
the strictest disciplinarians. The
Methodist Professionals Church is the
outgrowth of .rebellionT gainst Epis-
copal tyranny" Even now the
word of the Bishop is supposed to be
law; he sends the preachers wherever
he listeth. and it is rebellion of the
deepest ecclesiastical dye to question
his wisdom or refuse to receive his
appointees. This was being done,
however, with such frequency and
effect that it was perhaps thought
best to let the congregations have
their own way in the matter of re-
tanning favorite pastors. it was recog-
nized, too, that local conditions in
many of the large cities were such as
to handicap in his work the pastor
: whose term of service was limited
But the concession appears to be far
from meeting with the approval of a
large proportion of the preachers and
laymen, who fear that departure
from the foundations of American
Methodism will ultimately produce
more evil than good to the Church.
Baltimore News.
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