ILLUMINATOR;

DESIGNED

TO EXHIBIT THE TRUE PRINCIPLES OF THE WESLEYAN CONSTITUTION; TO VINDICATE THE CHARACTER OF ITS AUTHORITIES; TO GUARD THE MEMBERS AGAINST THE ATTEMPTS MADE TO SEDUCE THEM FROM THE SOCIETY; AND EXPOSE THE SPIRIT AND OBJECTS OF THE SO CALLED GRAND CENTRAL ASSOCIATION."

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No. 19.

TO BE PUBLISHED EVERY FORTNIGHT.

LIVERPOOL, OCT. 21, 1835.

Price 2d.

AN ADDRESS TO THE MEMBERS OF THE METHODIST SOCIETIES, ON THE PROPOSALS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE ASSOCIATION.

FRIENDS!-The members of the "Grand Central," with Dr. Warren at their head, have made a tender of their services to you, in the character of spiritual guides and governors. They have not been urged, or even requested, by any considerable number of persons, to undertake this burden and service; but feeling their own competency to rule the church of God, have ventured to call upon you to assist them in subverting the present government of the Connexion, in order to make way for the establishment of their own authority. You have been told by them, in a thousand different ways, that the present constitution of Methodism is unutterably bad, and that you yourselves, whether you know it or not, are groaning under a load of oppression which is intolerable to be borne. The Societies generally, it is maintained, are reduced to a state of the most abject ignorance and slavery, through the misconduct of their ministers; but that, if they will but consent to be ruled by the Association, they will soon emerge into the most marvellous knowledge and freedom.

A very high authority has said, "By their fruits ye shall know them;" and the members of the Association are quite confident that who careany man fully considers their performances, must be convinced, beyond all possible doubt, that they are born for government, and that a church must be eminently happy which submits to their dictation. It will readily occur to your recollection that one of their first exploits was, to raise the cry of " stop the supplies," and to move heaven and earth, in order to carry that project into effect. Now, if one man was ever under an obligation to another, the Methodist Connexion were bound to support the Missionaries, who had gone into distant and inhospitable lands, with a distinct understanding that they were not to be abandoned. The great grievance of which the Association complain, and which they propose to redress, is, that the preachers have broken faith with the people by infringing on the constitution of 1797. In order, as they say, to show their just abhorrence of such iniquity, they have resolved themselves,

and are endeavouring to persuade every Methodist in the kingdom, to break faith with the unoffending Missionaries by "stopping the supplies." It is true, the naked and paplable wickedness of this proposition has ensured its rejection; for our people could not reconcile it with common honesty, to pretend to correct a breach of faith in the preachers, by committing an act of robbery themselves; and they also thought, that, should the "hire" of these "labourers" be "kept back," by such a piece of "fraud," the "cry thereof" might possibly "enter into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth." The turn which this affair has taken is, doubtless, a disappointment to "men singularly fitted for great actions;" but the Catechism says, they are not to be "discouraged by difficulties," and the authors of this most dishonourable proposition, still hope to rule over both you and the Conference.

Another great performance of the same party was, to resolve, most loudly and firmly, at the very outset of their career, in Manchester, that, however persecuted, or even expelled, they would preserve their places in the church with all the tenacity of life, and never cease to be members of the Methodist Society. Their way of carrying this resolution into effect, was peculiar; for Dr. Warren, after his suspension, proceeded, in spite of all rule and reason, to distribute tickets to the members: the people eagerly received them at his hands, but would not, on any account, accept a single ticket from any of the accredited preachers; and the obvious and unavoidable consequence was, that, in spite of the wish felt by their ministers to retain many of them, in the space of three months, every man had excluded himself from the Society. Common people, perhaps, will say that this was a piece of great simplicity; but we are not going to try them by ordinary rules, as the Catechism says they are singularly fitted for great actions."

The members of the Association connected with the Leeds-street chapel, in Liverpool, likewise declared most stoutly, that there should be no division there, for they were all members and officers of the Methodist Society, and such they would remain, in spite of the superintendent, and even of the Conference itself. In order to make good these declarations, according to the best of their judgment, they proceeded to expel the superintendent from the chair of the leaders' meeting; the following week, they left the vestry in a body, and held their meeting elsewhere; then, finally, withdrew from the chapel, and have now as much to do with Wesleyan Methodism as any of the other religious denominations in that town. It was certainly necessary that a plausible covering should be provided for such a retreat as this, and accordingly the Catechism was published, apprizing us, that these men promised so much, and did so little-swaggered so loudly, and ran away so swiftly-because they were not common people, but "singularly fitted for great actions," and born to rule the Methodist Connexion.

Another exploit performed by these men was Dr. Warren's famous law suit. That is to be considered as the act of the Association, inas

much as it was the fruit of their united knowledge and sagacity. It was known indeed to the great body of the preachers, that the whole case of the plaintiff rested upon a paltry legal quibble, which every lawyer must infallibly detect. However, being headed by a Doctor of Laws, and very desirous to give a proof of their abilities to govern Methodism -to law they went, and, as a matter of course—— -lost their cause! Still, confident that such people as themselves could not be mistaken, they said the mistake was with Sir Lancelot Shadwell, and determined to appeal from him to the Lord Chancellor. They did so, and accordingly lost their cause a second time, but under still more humiliating and confounding circumstances: but the worst was, that these men, singularly fitted for great actions," were obliged to end this law suit like common people by paying the expenses! It is well known that this trial was intended to upset Methodism as it is, by destroying the power of the Conference; but, in fact, it has rendered both as fixed and permanent as the laws of England can make them. When men thus defeat their own intentions-do good against their will, and build up what they had resolved to pull down-it must be admitted, that they are not "fitted," either for government or any thing else, in the ordinary way, but must be “singularly fitted for great actions.'

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Another achievement of the "Grand Central" was the getting up of the meeting of delegates, recently held in Sheffield. This was pompously proposed in the Lantern during the early part of the year, and powerfully seconded in the Advocate. After being long the subject of much flourish and parade, it was at length preceded by the preparatory meeting, held in Manchester, which was said to be most numerously and respectably attended a perfect Hercules in its cradle, which, when of age, and full grown, at Sheffield, would crush the Conference with a vengeance, and revolutionize the Connexion. The delegates assembled in due time and form, and what have they done? They promised to beard the Conference on its own floor, and to wring from its reluctant hand such concessions as they had agreed to demand. What have they performed? They debated several days, imitating O'Connell, to the best of their ability— sent two or three notes to the Conference, and received as many answers in return; in one of which they were told, very plainly, what the Conference thought of them and their projects. The effect of this communication upon the delegates, we must leave to the conjectures of our readers. The notorious fact is, that they have redressed no grievancethey extracted no concession-they never even met the Conference at all! It is true, they collected a miscellaneous mob, in one of the Kilhamite chapels erected that mob into a court of justice, and summoned several preachers to come and take their trials before this court. The poor court, however, was treated with utter contempt, for nobody paid any regard to its orders. So after blustering, and abusing the whole body of the preachers, during two successive evenings, having made themselves sufficiently ridiculous, they departed every man to his own house. Somebody has said

"The king of France, with twenty thousand men,

Marched up the hill, and then marched down again."

If so, then it would appear that French soldiers, as well as English delegates, may be "singularly fitted for great actions," without performing any.

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Yet, it must be allowed, there was one good thing which the delegates did at Sheffield; which was, to start a subscription in favour of the Advocate. For, notwithstanding the prodigious profits resulting from the great sale of that paper, as agitators are not easily satisfied, so the smallest sums, it appears, in the way of gratuity, are not unacceptable. The friends of that journal in the country have placed some confidence in the truths of its statements, but the initiated, in London, appear to entertain a different opinion. A few months ago, the same Advocate stated that Mr. Eckett, of the Queen-street circuit, attended the Manchester meeting, and delivered a speech there. In the report of a trial which appeared a few weeks since, we find this same Mr. Eckett maintaining that such a statement was no evidence" of his being there in reality; and a large meeting of Methodist officers generally acquiesced in this opinion, and acted accordingly. Now, we are quite sure, that Mr. Eckett is no enemy to the Advocate, or to the Association, for he has long been very wishful both to mend our discipline, and to get something from the Chapel Fund; and the members of the meeting, who concurred in his opinion, were generally actuated by the same feeling. It may be some little comfort to the Methodist preachers to know, that although the same paper has said many things about them, as well as about Mr. Eckett, yet in the judgment even of its friends, this is "no evidence" that such things are true, and, therefore, no wise man will believe them, without further confirmation. All this, at the same time, goes to prove the doctrine of the Catechism; because, if some men have said things so often, and in such a way, that their saying them is "no evidence" that they are true, they must be "singularly fitted for great actions" in their own line.

The last thing we shall request you to notice, respecting the Association, is, its recent resolution to change its name. The title, "Grand Central," we are told, is to be dropped, and that of Wesleyan reformers to be taken up in its place. The philosophy of the custom of changing names is to be found in Locke's doctrine of the association of ideas.— When a man is so circumstanced that his name cannot be heard without reminding people of certain dishonourable transactions in which he has been engaged, he deems it expedient to change it. Now the name of "Grand Central" cannot be pronounced without leading people to think of many acts of egregious folly-of a chapel which has been sold, at Dudley, in a way which may pass in the dark, but which will hardly bear the light-of the stolen book and money, so often mentioned in this work, with other things, equally discreditable; and, therefore, the party do wisely in dropping it as soon as possible. This was accordingly attempted at Sheffield; but the thing was done so clumsily that the Conference detected and exposed the paltry trick. But as the Catechism says, that men fitted for great actions are not "discouraged by difficulties," they will most probably try again, and hope to succeed better with more ignorant and credulous people.

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And now, Christian friends, if you are convinced, by a careful perusal of these statements, that these men are born to rule the Methodist Connexion, that is more than can be said of the men themselves. They have tacitly admitted that the demonstration of the point is not yet complete. Hence they tell us that, in the year 1836, they will do something worthy of themselves-make the Conference feel their power, and rise to

their proper station. In the mean time, they are resolved to agitate; which means, that, with such credentials as they can produce, they will offer themselves to the Societies, as their future governors-invite them to quarrel with their preachers-to submit to the Association, under a new name, and to put their trust under the shadow of its wing.

THE ROCHDALE CASE.

The evidence of some truths, though extremely clear, is often so painful as to cause long hesitatation in the avowal. This has been the case with regard to oure selves, and certain feelings produced in us, respecting the moral obliquity of the proceedings of the Wesleyan reformers. Indeed, we have lived long enough in the world to be convinced, that, in both church and state, the man who begins the occupation of reformer and demagogue, as a profession, does so, because he is bankrupt in character or fortune, and often both. But though this conviction rested on our minds as a general truth, we were unwilling to admit its applicability to the parties now agitating the Wesleyan Connexion. A hope has been lingering in our minds-growing fainter and fainter, it is true, by the progress of events, but there it has been-that the disturbances and riot going on amongst us, did not rest in any foul, feculant state of moral feeling, on the part of the radical faction, but arose out of the excitements of passion, and would soon work off, as reason and religion regained their right position.

It is with extreme grief we record our conviction, that now the evil lies deeper than a heated and frenzied brain. From unfaithfulness, disingenuousness, slander, and falsehood, the parties are plunging themselves headlong into absolute fraud and dishonesty. This is sufficiently painful in itself; but ten-fold more so, when we recollect that this state is symptomatic of other evils. No man can act dishonourably towards his fellow men, till every noble sentiment is buried in his bosom, and a nest of mean and despicable reptiles have been generated in its place; and no man can be guilty of fraud and dishonesty, till the law of truth and holiness is thrown beneath his feet, and trampled upon as a common thing. In substantiating our charge, we pass by many minor offences, and fix on the attempts made to wrest the chapels, in several places, from the Connexion. Before proceeding to our proof, we premise two or three general remarks.

The first is, that the office of Trustee is only administrative. The provisions of the Deeds, fix in law, the duties and rights of Trustees; and all they can claim is, the power to hold the property for the purposes specified. Every person is acquainted with this fact when he takes the office, and also, that his functions are limited to the duty of administering the affairs of the chapel, according to the provisions of the Deed. Whim, change of opinion, private judgment, and independent action, are out of the question; and every man is bound, in law, faithfully to adhere to the conditions of the trust he has taken upon himself.

Another consideration is, that the property invested in chapels, is not the property of the Trustees, in any sense of the word; but is supplied by public benevolence, with the understanding, that it shall be appropriated to specific purposes. A chapel has lately been erected in Leeds, at a cost of eight thousand pounds. No doubt, the generous Trustees contributed their individual share; and the rest of the money, to the amount of their subscriptions and collections, was given by the public, with the clear understanding that it was to support a Wesleyan Methodist chapel. This being the express and well-understood engagement by all parties, it follows, that the Trustees have no legal or moral right to alienate this property from the purposes for which it is given.

Finally, in all Wesleyan chapels, the Conference is a party. The power to appoint ministers, in regular succession, is part of the compact. With the ministers, so appointed, rests the privilege of administering the word of God, and the ordinances of religion, according to certain covenants provided for in the deed. All these very obvious principles have been grossly violated in the case of Dudley; and now, we grieve to say, attempted at Rochdale.