The

connected with the Wesleyan Societies, having created no slight commotion by holding what are called camp meetings, and such meetings being disapproved of by the Wesleyan authorities, a collision took place, the consequence of which was that several individuals were excluded from the old Connexion, and became the founders of the sect now under consideration. This exclusion began as early as the year 1808, and separate societies were formed a short time after its commencement; but it was not till the year 1820 that the body assumed the compactness of form in which it now appears. camp meetings arose from certain religious views, which characterise the whole system of this community, and by which its members were held together for some years, without a regular system of church government. Hence its extraordinary success. Religion, according to these notions, is mainly dependent upon sudden and powerful excitement, to be produced by external causes. The means of excitement usually employed are singing, frequent public prayermeetings, loud exclamations, the preaching of females, long-continued religious services, congregations assembled in the open air, and the separation of worshippers into different smaller communities, according to their professed religious condition. A camp meeting itself is an attempt to employ all these means at once, and in the highest state of energy. It is held out of doors; prayer and preaching succeed each other with scarcely any interruption for a whole day. Those who show themselves

to be desirous of salvation are divided into classes, and dealt with apart from the rest, by means of prayer and exhortation, until they are supposed then and there to receive the blessings which they want. Quick and animating tunes are sung throughout all these proceedings; mingled vociferations, of almost all kinds, create indescribable clamour and confusion; and the people are generally wrought up to the utmost pitch of enthusiasm. Such meetings are held more frequently, and conducted with still greater excitement, among the Methodists of America, than even among the Ranters of this country. As may be expected, Mr. Wesley's doctrines of the "Witness of the Spirit," and "Christian Perfection," are held and applied by these people, in their most unguarded and excessive forms; and the least defensible practices of the first followed as a matter of principle. they call themselves "Primitive Methodists." The rudest of the lower classes are well prepared for a system of religion of this nature; and among them it has spread itself very extensively, though to them it is entirely confined. At the same time, no one can reasonably doubt, that upon this portion of the community it has had a beneficial influence which belongs to no other system The Primitive Methodist scheme of church government is, where it differs from the Wesleyan, of a very loose and democratic character. The ministry constitutes, perhaps, the most subservient description of its officers; and the peculiarities of what is called its church government

Methodists are On these accounts

can scarcely be reduced to any definite principle. The consequence is, that the preachers are very deficient both in talent and in education, and the body is subject to constant fluctuations. It 1836 it had, according to the Report of Conference, 62,306 members. The history of this sect has been written by Hugh Bourne, who is regarded as its principal founder. This book, and "The Primitive Methodist Magazine," contain the most authentic accounts of its character and progress.

It would be tedious to describe some other smaller bodies which have broken off from "Wesleyan Methodism,"such as the "Independent Methodists,”

the

Bible Christians," the "Arminian Methodists," the "Bryanites," &c.; and it would also be useless to enter into detail, as they differ but little from some one or other of the divisions already noticed, the principal part of them approaching most nearly to the Primitive Methodists. It may, however, be observed, that there is in Ireland a body of Church Methodists, who consider themselves to be, in all respects, merely auxiliary to the Establishment; and that attempts have been made, with very little success, to form a similar body in England.

CALVINISTIC METHODISTS.

The most distinguished of Mr. Wesley's coadjutors in the establishing of Methodism, was the Rev. George Whitfield. His father kept the Bell-Inn at Gloucester, and there he was born in 1714. In his own account of himself, he states that his childhood

was marked by every petty crime, and that there was "nothing about him but a fitness to be damned;" yet he says, even then he had "certain gleams of grace," which were tokens of what he was afterwards to become. In the 18th year of his age, he was entered a servitor at Pembroke College, Oxford, where, joining himself to other young men who were under the influence of religious impressions, he soon displayed that warm enthusiasm of spirit by which his preaching was afterwards so eminently characterised. He describes himself as "lying whole days and weeks prostrate on the ground, in silent or vocal prayer, leaving off the eating of fruits, choosing the worst sort of food; thinking it unbecoming a penitent to have his hair powdered, wearing woollen gloves, a patched gown, and dirty shoes, to acquire a habit of humility." He was ordained by Dr. Benson, Bishop of Gloucester, in 1731. Such was his style of preaching, that after his first sermon at Gloucester, a complaint was made to the Bishop of his having driven fifteen people mad; on which the. prelate observed that he hoped the madness would not be forgotten before the next Sunday. The topics upon which he constantly dwelt, were of the kind calculated to work upon the minds of the common people; he roused the careless by alarming representations of "the terrors of the Lord," and consoled sinners who were awake to their danger, by setting before them the doctrines of regeneration and justification by faith. Soon after he began his ministerial career, he was in the habit of preaching in the open

P

fields to the colliers at Kingswood, near Bristol. His uncommon and striking mode of address collected around him vast multitudes of these people, on whom his discourses produced a most extraordinary effect. "The first discovery of their being touched," he observes, was to see the white gutters made by their tears, which fell plentifully down their black cheeks, as they came from their coal-pits."

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His

Eventually his religious influence, both in this country and in America, was almost equal to that of Mr. Wesley himself. His intellectual qualities were well suited to the task which he undertook. learning was inconsiderable; and "he was a writer only for his own sect." His peculiar characteristic was a powerful awakening eloquence, and this secured to him a popularity beyond example. He was

inferior to Mr. Wesley in the talents which enable the man who possesses them to be the ruler of a community. All his time and attention were devoted to preaching.

A separation took place between him and Mr. Wesley in the year 1741, occasioned by a difference of sentiment respecting the points of the Calvinistic controversy: Mr. Whitfield holding the doctrine of unconditional predestination and its necessary consequences. He encountered Mr. Wesley literally on his own ground, by building near his chapel in Moorfields a shed, which received the name of "the Tabernacle," and which afterwards became a spacious edifice; he also renewed his field preaching, with wonderful success, in different parts of the country.