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NOT GOOD METHODISM

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 14, 1880

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 6, No. 38.

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NOT GOOD METHODISM.

THE Cincinnati Daily Times of May 29, 1880, speaking of the late session of the Methodist General Conference in that city contained the following:—
The law of the M. E. church, as amended at the present General Conference, reads as follows: When a minister or preacher disseminates, publicly or privately, doctrines which are contrary to our articles of religion or established standards, let the same process be observed as in cases of gross immorality; but if the minister or preacher so offending does solemnly engage not to disseminate such erroneous doctrines, in public or private, he shall be borne with, till his case be laid before the next annual Conference, which shall determine the matter.
The words "established standards," as used above, refer to sermons and notes of John Wesley, and possibly to certain writings of other early Methodists, which, by the recent action of the General Conference, are made the infallible interpreters, to the denomination, of the Bible.
The Times then proceeds to the inquiry whether the faith of modern Methodists on the subject of the punishment of the wicked is according to the "established standards." And to determine this it quotes a sermon from Wesley "On Hell," in which the literality and eternity of hell-fire is insisted on in the very strongest terms, after which the article continues as follows:
Whatever Methodist preacher disseminates, publicly or privately, a doctrine contrary to the above "established standard," must be treated as if he had committed theft, adultery, falsehood, murder, or any other gross immorality. Observe that the doctrine need not be contradictory to the established standard; it need not be a denial; if it be only contrary to, i. e., other than, and divergent from, the established standard, its dissemination, publicly or privately, even in the most confidential discourse in the most intimate friendship, must be inquired into, as was recently done in a Methodist ministerial trial, and treated as a case of gross immorality, subjecting the offender to expulsion from the ministry and membership of the church. It may be mentioned incidentally that the above "established standard" was actually quoted by the counsel for the church at the trial above referred to, and divergence therefrom in private and public utterances was the caput criminis which resulted in expulsion from the ministry and membership of the M. E. church.
The uncompromising heresy-hunter of the Times, having a few unwonted moments of leisure Thursday, started to run down a rumor that there was a certain member of the General Conference who was disseminating doctrines not only contrary but contradictory to the established standard above quoted.
He accordingly laid in wait, auribus arrectis, with pencil and paper in hand, for any Methodist preacher who should wander into the lobby of the hall where the Conference sessions are held. To all such he propounded the following question: "Do you believe there is material fire in hell to torment the wicked?" The answers were as follows:
E. Q. Fuller, D. D. (Georgia Conference) editor of the Methodist Advocate at Atlanta—I do not.
C. H. Payne, D. D., President of the Ohio Wesleyan University, and a member of the Cincinnati Conference—I do not. I don't know of more than two men of the Methodist Episcopal church that do, and one of them is dead.
Rev. Dr. W. H. Ferris (Northern New York Conference)—I do not believe in the punishment of the wicked by material fire, but I do, of course, believe in the punishment of the wicked.
O. H. Warren, D. D., editor of the Northern Christian Advocate and member of the Central New York Conference, said, "I believe it will not be a material fire. My belief is very positively negative on that point."
J. W. Thompson, D. D., of the Troy Conference—No, I don't believe a word of it.
Rep.—Do you preach to the contrary?
Mr. T.—Oh, yes; I denounce the idea of material fire.
Rev. Dr. William Bush, D. D. (Austin Conference)—I do not believe in it, and nobody else does nowadays.
A. S. Graves, D. D. (New York East Conference)—Oh, pshaw; nobody believes that.
R. M. Hatfield, D. D. (Rock River Conference)—I do not know what it is, but I don't believe it consists in material fire. The language of the Bible, both in regard to Heaven and hell, is figurative, designed to indicate that the first is a state of blessedness and the other is a state of misery, both to the very last degree.
Charles C. Stratton, D. D., President of University, San Jose, California—Oh, no, I don't believe in material fire.
R. S. Rust, D. D. (Cincinnati Conference)—No, sir.
Rev. Dr. A. Wheeler (Erie Conference), editor of the Pittsburg Christian Advocate—No, sir; I don't believe in material fire.
C. O. Fisher, D. D. (Savannah Conference)—I would not say outright that there will be material fire in hell, yet I see nothing in the way of it.
Rev. Dr. J. P. Newman (New York Conference)—No, sir. I don't think there will be material fire in hell. I believe as Milton says of the devil: "Where'er I am is hell, Myself am hell." I think the same idea is conveyed in the Scriptures in the words: "Where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." I believe that hell is in a man.
Rev. Dr. Abijah Marine (North Indiana Conference)—No, sir; I do not.
A. Webster, D. D. (South Carolina Conference)—No, oh, no; I do not believe in material fire in hell. I think that and the golden pavements and the pearly gates are all figures. Fire is that which burns in the soul,—the fire of remorse.
J. A. Price, D. D. (Baltimore Conference)—I don't hold to the materiality of the fire, yet I would not dispute it.
Rev. Dr. W. McK. Hester (Indiana Conference)—I don't believe there is any literal fire in hell. The punishment is more like the smitings of the conscience while living. It is the eternal remembrance of guilt.
The reporter ran across Bishop Haven in the lobby, and stopped him with the question,—
"Bishop Haven, do you believe that there is material fire in hell?"
"Well, I rather think not," said the bishop, with a bland smile.
H. B. Ridgaway, D. D., pastor of the Walnut Hills M. E. Church—I have always regarded the language as figurative, though it is impossible to fully determine it.
Rev. Dr. J. C. Hartzell (Louisiana Conference), editor of the Central Christian Advocate, St. Louis—I do not believe in literal hell-fire. These are all figures to express to us the intensity of the suffering there. I don't believe in this furnace business. I do not believe that God runs a furnace anywhere.
B. St. James Fry, D. D. (St Louis Conference)—I don't think anybody holds that idea. It used to be preached. I heard J. B. Finley preach it when I was a boy, and it frightened me so that I hardly slept for a week, thinking of how I was going to be scorched. But now nobody preaches it.
Rev. Dr. J. G. Eckman (Wyoming Conference)—No, I do not believe it. The punishment is expressed in the most painful things we can find in material things to express it. Therefore, I conclude that the punishment of the wicked is the most painful which it is possible for us to endure.
Rev. Professor C. H. Payne of the Syracuse University—I do not know anything about it.
Bishop Harris—That's too hot a subject to discuss to-day, I think. Don't you?
J. D. Hammond, D. D., of Nevada—No, I do not believe it. I present the view of separation.
Rev. Dr. A. R. Bartlett (Detroit Conference)—No, I don't think it is a material fire.
Horner Eaton, D. D. (Troy Conference)—I don't believe in material hell-fire, but I believe in something worse.
J. S. Smart (Detroit Conference)—No, sir. I do not.
It may be said to all such heretics, It is only the forbearance and indolence of the church which permits you to remain; for not long ago a powerful Conference of the M. E. church fired out a member for a less heresy. He did not deny the materiality of the terrible physical torment of the wicked, but only its eternity, while the arch heretics mentioned above deny even its existence.