The Oxford Methodists

by L. Tyerman

The incorporation of this Society for foreign missions hardly satisfied the yearnings of many of its members, principally on the ground, that, the British plantations, colonies, and factories beyond the seas, were chiefly in America.

The American colonies were of great importance; but others, besides them, needed sympathy and help. Hence, these godly and earnest workers in the cause of Christ, still continued to carry on, by distinct and separate efforts, other designs for the honour of God, and the good of the human race. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was chartered and designated on June 16, 1701. At the end of the same year, the parties making the distinct and separate efforts were called, “The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.”

The original designs of the latter Society were two-fold. 1. “The dispersion, both at home and abroad, of Bibles, Prayer-Books, and Religious Tracts.” 2. The promotion of “Charity Schools in all parts of the kingdom; in which, besides receiving religious and useful instruction, the children of the poor might be inured to industry and labour, so as to make them, not only good Christians, but loyal and useful subjects of the realm, and willing, as well as fit, to be employed in trades and services, in husbandry, navigation, or any other business, that should be thought of most use and benefit to the public. With these views, the Society printed and circulated a set of rules for the good order and government of such schools,—rules which had been approved by the archbishops and bishops, who directed that the same should be observed within their respective dioceses.”

“Besides these general designs, the Society undertook, in 1710, the management of such charities as might be put into their hands, for the support and enlargement of the Protestant Mission, then maintained by the King of Denmark, at Tranquebar, in the East Indies, for the conversion of the heathen in those parts.” In the prosecution of this work, the Society assisted the Missionaries, at Tranquebar, “with money, a printing press, paper, and other necessaries.” In 1728, they commenced a new mission, for the conversion of the native population at Madras; and, subsequently, another at Cudulore, an English settlement near Fort St. David; a third at Calcutta; and a fourth at Tirutschinapally, the capital of the kingdom of Madurei, an inland country in East India.

In 1720, the Society extended their work to the Greek Church in Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and Egypt; and, by a special fund, towards which King George I. contributed £500, printed, in Arabic, and, by means of correspondents in Russia, ultimately dispersed in the aforesaid countries, 6000 Psalters, 10,000 New Testaments, and 5000 Catechetical Instructions, with an abridgment of the History of the Bible annexed.

In 1725, when workhouses began to be instituted, for employing the poor and their children, the Society used its influence to promote the extension of such establishments, by publishing an account of those already in existence, and by urging, that, “a particular regard ought always to be had to such an education of poor children, as might, by bringing them up in the faith, knowledge, and obedience of the Gospel, prove the most effectual means to make them good men, and useful to their country.”

In 1732, the Society, hearing the melancholy account of the sufferings of the Protestants in Saltzburg, issued two publications on the subject, and raised a fund, out of which, “besides many large remittances to Germany, they sent to the colony of Georgia, in 1733, 1734, 1735, and 1741, four transports, containing more than two hundred of those poor, persecuted Protestants; who, with two missionaries and a schoolmaster, were settled at Ebenezer, and there lived contented and comfortable.”

This brief outline of the ordinary and special work of the Society brings us down to the time when Broughton was made Secretary. The following are extracts from the manuscript Minutes of the Board of Management:—

“Bartlett’s Buildings. Tuesday, June 28, 1743. Agreed, that, the Rev. Mr. Thomas Broughton and Mr. Watts jointly perform the office of Secretary to this Society during pleasure.

“Agreed, that, Mr. Broughton come immediately to reside in the Society’s house, and open, and give proper answers to, all letters concerning the Society,” &c., &c.