第51章 Disintegration(8)

Immediately on his return to England, Wesley began an active religious campaign, drawing such crowds of all kinds of people that the various churches in turn closed their doors upon him, and eight months later he followed Whitefield into open air preaching, after consultation with the Fetter Lane Society.This Society had been organized at the time of Boehler's visit to London, and was composed of members of the earlier Methodist societies, Germans residing in London, and English who had been interested in salvation by Zinzendorf and the Moravian companies bound for Georgia.

It had met in the home of James Hutton until it outgrew the rooms, and was then transferred to the Chapel at 32 Fetter Lane.

It was an independent Society, with no organic connection with the Moravian Church, and the religious work was carried on under the leadership of John Wesley, and, in his frequent absences, by James Hutton and others who leaned strongly toward the Moravians, some of whose customs had been adopted by the Society.

The Hutton "Memoirs" state that Wesley made an effort to break off intercourse between the Society and the Moravians soon after his return from Germany, but failed, and matters continued to move smoothly until about the time that Wesley began his field preaching.During the subsequent months disputes arose among the members, largely on account of views introduced by Philip Henry Molther, who at that time had a tendency toward "Quietism".

Molther was detained for some time in England, waiting for a ship to take him to Pennsylvania, he having received a call to labor in the Moravian Churches there, and being a fluent speaker he learned English rapidly and made a deep impression on many hearers.

Wesley was much hurt by the dissensions in his Society, and entirely opposed to Molther's views, and after several efforts to bring all the members back to his own position, he, on Sunday, July 31st, 1740, solemnly and definitely condemned the "errors" and withdrew from the Fetter Lane Society, adding "You that are of the same judgment, follow me." About twenty-five of the men and "seven or eight and forty likewise of the fifty women that were in the band" accepted his invitation, and with them he organized the "Foundry Society".Into the Foundry Society and the many others organized among his converts, Wesley introduced lovefeasts and "bands" (or "classes",) both familiar to him from the Fetter Lane Society, which had copied them from the Moravians.When his societies grew so numerous that he could not personally serve them all he selected lay assistants, and then "became convinced that presbyter and bishop are of the same order, and that he had as good a right to ordain as to administer the Sacraments."He, therefore, ordained bishops for America, and Scotland, and registered his chapels in order to protect them, according to the Act of Toleration.This gave the Methodist body a separate legal status, but Wesley always claimed that he was still a member of the Church of England, and would not allow the preachers of his English societies to administer the Sacraments, a right which was finally granted them by the Methodist Conference after his death.

When Benjamin Ingham returned from Georgia he commenced to preach the Gospel in Yorkshire, his native place, and at the time of his journey to Germany a promising work was begun there.From Herrnhut he wrote to Count Zinzendorf asking that Toeltschig be permitted to visit him in England, and the request was granted a few months later.Meanwhile Ingham's work prospered mightily, so that in June, 1739, he was forbidden the use of the churches, and forced to imitate Wesley and preach in the open air.

Some forty societies were formed, and in November, Toeltschig went to him, making many friends among the people, repeating his visit at intervals during the following months.

The intimacy between Ingham and the Moravians became closer and closer, and in July, 1742, he formally handed over the care of his societies in Yorkshire and Lascashire to the Moravian Church, himself going into new fields, and then giving new societies into their keeping.

It has often been stated that Ingham was a Moravian, but this is a mistake.

During these years he worked with them shoulder to shoulder, but there is no record of his having been received into their Church as a member, nor did they reordain him into their ministry.

The situation would be more strange to-day than it was then, for there was apparent chaos in England, the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters before "light shone, and order from disorder sprung," and the Moravians did not care to emphasize their independence of the Anglican Church lest it injure their usefulness.

In 1744, when England was threatened with a French invasion, a number of loyal addresses were presented to the King, and among them one from the "United Brethren in England, in union with the ancient Protestant Episcopal Bohemian and Moravian church,"a designation selected after long and careful discussion as to a true term which would avoid placing them among the Dissenters from the Church of England.

When the Moravians took over the Yorkshire Societies in 1742they established headquarters at Smith House, near Halifax, but this not proving permanently available, Ingham, in 1744, bought an estate near Pudsey, where the Moravians planted a settlement which they called "Lamb's Hill", later "Fulneck".

In 1746 and 1749 Ingham presented to the Moravians the ground on which the Chapel and two other houses stood, but for the rest they paid him an annual rent.The property is now held of Ingham's descendents on a lease for five hundred years.