“But some may say, ‘Our own service is public worship.’ Yes, in a sense; but not such as supersedes the church service. We never designed it should. We have a hundred times professed the contrary. It presupposes public prayer, like the sermons at the university. Therefore, I have over and over advised, use no long prayer, either before or after the sermon. Therefore, I myself frequently use only a collect, and never enlarge in prayer, unless at intercession, or on a watchnight, or on some extraordinary occasion.
“If it were designed to be instead of church service, it would be essentially defective; for it seldom has the four grand parts of public prayer; deprecation, petition, intercession, and thanksgiving. Neither is it, even on the Lord’s day, concluded with the Lord’s supper.
“The hour for it on that day, unless where there is some peculiar reason for a variation, should be five in the morning, as well as five in the evening. Why should we make God’s day the shortest of the seven?
“But if the people put ours in the place of the church service, we hurt them that stay with us, and ruin them that leave us: for then they will go nowhere, but lounge the sabbath away without any public worship at all. I advise therefore all the Methodists in England and Ireland, who have been brought up in the Church, constantly to attend the service of the Church, at least every Lord’s day.”
This is a remarkable utterance—Wesley’s own. Methodists are urged to attend the service of the Church of England. Why? Because Methodist service was defective. But why was it defective? Not by accident, but of set purpose. It was meant to be a mere supplement to the more perfect devotional service of the church. Was this right? We doubt it. Wesley was no advocate for short prayers, resembling collects, except upon the ground that they were understood to be a sort of supplementary prayers following the more elaborated prayers of the Church of England. Those who quote Wesley, as recommending short prayers in all public worship, mistake his meaning. Wesley might be wrong,—we think he was,—in advising and sanctioning such abbreviated and imperfect devotion as was evidently practised in the public worship of the early Methodists; but he adduced a reason,—an inadequate reason,—for it; and, under the altered circumstances of the present age, would have been the last to approve of many of the short prayers which some ill instructed Methodists are now so fond of praising.
The second point on which Wesley expressed himself was one of vast importance. He was the autocrat of Methodists. As was natural, some of his preachers, and probably not a few of the people, reasonably or unreasonably, objected to this, and wished to share in Methodist legislation and politics. Hence it was, that Wesley found it desirable to defend his authority, as he did, at the conference in Leeds. He writes:
“But what power is this, which you exercise over all the Methodists in Great Britain and Ireland? Answer. 1. In November, 1738, several persons came to me in London, and desired me to advise and pray with them. I said, ‘If you will meet on Thursday night, I will help you as well as I can.’ More and more then desired to meet with them, till they were increased to many hundreds. The case was afterwards the same at Bristol, Kingswood, Newcastle, and many other parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland. It may be observed, the desire was on their part, not mine. My desire was to live and die in retirement. But I did not see that I could refuse them my help, and be guiltless before God.
“Here commenced my power; namely, a power to appoint when, and where, and how they should meet; and to remove those, whose life showed they had no desire to flee from the wrath to come. And this power remained the same, whether the people meeting together were twelve, twelve hundred, or twelve thousand.
“In a few days, some of them said, ‘Sir, we will not sit under you for nothing. We will subscribe quarterly.’ I said, ‘I will have nothing, for I want nothing. My fellowship supplies me with all, and more than I want.’ One replied, ‘Nay, but you want £115 to pay for the lease of the Foundery; and likewise a large sum of money will be wanting, to put it into repair.‘ On this consideration, I suffered them to subscribe; and, when the society met, I asked, ‘Who will take the trouble of receiving this money, and paying it where it is needful?’ One said, ‘I will do it, and keep the account for you.’ So here was the first steward. Afterwards I desired one or two more to help me as stewards, and, in process of time, a greater number. Let it be remarked, it was I myself, not the people, who chose these stewards, and appointed to each the distinct work wherein he was to help me, as long as I desired. And, herein, I began to exercise another sort of power; namely, that of appointing and removing stewards.
“After a time, T. Maxfield, T. Richards, and T. Westall severally desired to serve me as sons, and to labour when and where I should direct. Observe, these likewise desired me, not I them. But I durst not refuse their assistance. And here commenced my power, to appoint each of these, when, where, and how to labour; that is, while he chose to continue with me; for each had a power to go away when he pleased; as I had, also, to go away from them, or any of them, if I saw sufficient cause. The case continued the same when the number of preachers increased. I had just the same power still, to appoint when, and where, and how each should help me, and to tell any, if I saw cause, ‘I do not desire your help any longer.’ On these terms, and no other, we joined at first; and on these we continue joined. But they do me no favour, in being directed by me. I have nothing from it but trouble and care, and often a burden I scarce know how to bear.