BENEFITS

     From the foregoing account it will be seen that the purpose for which class-meetings were instituted was twofold: first, as a means of providing systematically for the financial aid of the work of God; and second, as a means of quickening, culturing and perfecting the spiritual life of believers. Of course the latter is the more important of the two, and is mentioned last only because the economic end was first in the historical order. At first the institution of classes was wholly a financial measure; but, in the providential way heretofore described, the class-meeting came at length to have for its higher and ultimate aim the spiritual welfare of its members and of the Methodist societies generally.

     Nor did any institution ever answer its ends more effectually than has the class-meeting during the one hundred and sixty-five years of its history. Through its simple system of finance Wesley was enabled to pay off all his embarrassing chapel debts, and maintain a well-replenished treasury for his societies, from which to draw at all times for numerous religious and benevolent purposes. The arrangement made all the members of his societies, except such as were known to be too poor to give anything, regular contributors for the general support of the work; and, if we could know the aggregate amount realized from his "penny a week" system of contributions, no doubt it would at first appear wholly incredible. Not that the early Methodist offerings in general were limited to one penny a week, for there were many other offerings than this, as the work grew and its financial demands were increased; but a penny a week was the least amount any were to give, except the very poor, whose contributions were paid by their leaders and others as a voluntary matter.

     Through a somewhat similar system, adapted from that of primitive Methodism, later Methodism, in all its branches, has been able to this day so to distribute its financial burdens among its entire membership and provide for weekly, monthly, or quarterly, contributions from all, that even small and poor societies have usually been able to maintain in decency and comfort efficient pastors, and to be in other respects self-supporting; while the same system has also provided liberally for the general religious and benevolent funds of the respective Methodist bodies, the aggregate annual amount now realized being many millions of dollars.

     As a means for culturing the spiritual life and edifying believers in all that makes for holy character and efficient service, the class-meeting as a prudential means of grace is unexcelled. Through it the members of Methodist societies generally are brought into closer touch, acquaintance and sympathy with each other, and under more direct, constant, and therefore helpful spiritual oversight and leadership than would otherwise be probable, if possible. When properly maintained and wisely conducted, the class-meeting, like the inspired Scriptures, "is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (II Tim. 3:16).

     Mr. Wesley's estimate of its value in the earlier period of its history is recorded as follows: "It can scarce be conceived what advantages have been reaped by this little prudential regulation. Many now experienced that Christian fellowship, of which they had not so much as an idea before. They began to bear one another's burdens and naturally to care for each other's welfare. And as they had daily more intimate acquaintance, so they had a more endeared affection for each other. Upon reflection, I could not but observe this is the very thing which was from the beginning of Christianity. As soon as any Jews or heathen were so convinced of the truth as to forsake sin and seek the gospel of salvation, the first preachers immediately joined them together, took an account of their names, advised them to watch over each other, and met these catechumens, as they were then called, apart from the great congregation, that they might instruct, rebuke, exhort and pray with them and for them, according to their several necessities."

     Notwithstanding some pro and con discussion, and some differences of opinion, among English Methodists the class-meeting is still considered so important and beneficial a part of their economy that attendance upon it is made a condition of membership in a much stricter sense than it is in American Methodism. Regarding its importance in the land of its origin, it is said, "The character of the class-meeting cannot be lowered, or the glorious, soul-refreshing and powerful vitality of the church will cease to exist." Also that "the value of this integral and essential part of Methodist economy was never more appreciated and valued than it is now, with the experience of nearly [more than] a century and a half." ^[1]

     American Methodist churches, while less severely conditioning membership on attendance upon the class-meeting exercises than does British Methodism, appreciate none the less the great benefits derivable from this institution, and so make it one of the most prominent adjuncts of their church work, enjoining attendance upon its weekly sessions as the duty of all their members, and making gross dereliction in this matter a sufficient ground for disciplinary action.

     Speaking of the value of class-meetings the "Cyclopedia of Methodism" says: "They have been a peculiar feature of Methodism, and have accomplished a vast amount of good; both inciting to a higher personal experience and in accustoming the members to religious conversation and labor. They are agencies to develop earnest and active Christian workers. Whenever regularly attended, the entire membership of the church are brought into fellowship with each other, and the experience and the counsel of mature Christians becomes of great service to the younger and less experienced members. As a bond of union their influence can scarcely be overestimated."

     Quite in keeping with the foregoing is the following, from John Faulkner, D. D., Professor of Historical Theology in Drew Theological Seminary, in estimating the value of the class-meeting in Methodism's earlier days: "The class-meeting, where Christians speak to each other of the things of God, trained multitudes for effective service, -- even women not a few became known for their rich experience, lofty faith and appropriate public utterance. The portrait of Dinah Morris in 'Adam Bede' is typical of many. As the medieval abbots utilized laymen for large service so Wesley restored the private Christian to the place he had in the first age of the Church; when the believers went everywhere preaching the gospel (Acts 8:4). After Wesley, laymen were the founders of Methodism. It was their preaching, their sufferings, their heroism, which turned the tide of immorality and irreligion, and as Lecky well says, saved England from a French Revolution." ^[2]

     The helpfulness of the class-meeting in the culture and development of the spiritual life is attested with one voice by all faithful attendants upon its weekly exercises. Here those uninstructed in the things of the Spirit have had "the eyes of their understanding enlightened, that they might know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe," etc. (Eph. 1:18-23). Here also the timid have been enabled to fulfill the injunction, "Add to your faith courage" (II Peter 1:5), and to develop into such sturdy moral heroes as sing,

     "Then I can smile at Satan's rage,

     And face a frowning world."

     Here, too, weak and wavering souls have been "strengthened with might by God's Spirit in the inner man," and after much of vacillation and discouragement, have become "steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." Through this precious means of grace thousands of wounded spirits have been soothed and calmed into holy restfulness, and made every whit whole; thousands of despairing hearts have been given "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;" thousands of despairing hearts have been begotten to "the full assurance of hope," and made to "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Here multitudes of penitent sinners have found forgiveness of sins, and "the peace of God that passeth all understanding;" and even greater multitudes of justified believers have been sanctified wholly, and thereby enabled to enter and inhabit the Canaan of Perfect Love. If "by their fruits ye shall know them" is as true in application to religious exercises and ordinances as in its application to individual moral character, (and who can deny it?) then the class-meeting would seem to be second to no other among all prudential means of grace in helpfulness and value.

     Nor should the value of the class-meeting as a means of church discipline be overlooked. Wesley was as remarkable for efficiency in discipline as he was for skill in organization. From the beginning he "recognized," says Dr. Dobbin, as quoted by Tyerman, "the scriptural distinction between the Church and the world. The men who possessed religion, and the men who possessed it not, were not for a moment confounded. They might be neighbors in locality, and friends in good will; but they were wide as the poles asunder in sentiment. The quick and the dead may be placed side by side; but no one can, for ever so short a period, mistake dead flesh for living fiber. The church and the churchyard are close by, but the worshippers in the one and the dwellers in the other are as unlike as two worlds can make them. The circle within the circle, the company of the converted, Wesley always distinguished from the mass of mankind, and made special provisions for their edification in all his organisms." ^[3]

     As we have already seen, he was looking for some way to keep his society purged of dead branches, and was sorely oppressed by the ineffectiveness of all other means tried to keep out unworthy applicants, and to detect and put away those already in his various assemblies who departed from the way of righteousness and would not be reproved, when the institution of class-meetings for economic purposes disclosed to him the very thing he had been looking for. His system of class-leaders and superintendents was at once decided upon, and thereby he introduced a method of disciplinary oversight and regulation which has never been excelled as a measure for prompt, simple and effective administration of wholesome church discipline toward those who, by negligence and disorderly walking, dishonor Christ and tend to infect with their own plague the whole body of which they form a part.

     There was need, too, among the early Methodists for just such simple and vigorous discipline as this system provided. Good as they were generally, they were not all good. "Then as now some were defective in their attendance at the weekly class," says Mr. Tyerman. "In certain instances ... some were guilty of the crime of smuggling. Others, in moderation, were addicted to taking drams, and others opium; and it often happened that the oldest societies were the worst offenders. In 1776 both London and Newcastle were thus tainted; and Wesley was determined, with a strong hand, to purge them." ^[4] This work he enjoined upon Joseph Benson, then stationed at Newcastle, in one of the most vigorous of all his admonitory letters, but which is too long to be quoted here. Benson expelled a smuggler, and Wesley wrote, in strongest terms and at some length, commending him for his promptness and firmness, and insisting that he must "tear up this evil by the roots." The class-meeting, with its responsible personal oversight of the individual members by the leader, was the means by which offenders were most readily detected, and then called to account by the preacher in charge and required to amend their ways or separate from the society. In some instances Wesley himself took this matter in hand, saying, "I will either mend or end them," and excluded unworthy members at the rate of dozens and scores at a time from some of his societies. In all subsequent Methodist history the class-meeting has been an invaluable aid to the administration of wholesome discipline in the church.

     "It is not claiming too much," says Dr. O. P. Fitzgerald, "to say that to the class-meeting Methodism was indebted more than to any other agency for the vigor of its discipline, the purity of its membership, and the permanence of its acquisitions. It was at once a means of grace and a test of sincerity. It made every class-leader a drill-sergeant in the army of the Lord. By it the church recovered its lost gift of utterance, and where surpliced [surplice n. a loose white linen vestment reaching the knees, worn over a cassock by clergy and choristers at services. -- Oxford Dict.] state stipendiaries [hirelings] had mumbled printed prayers to sleeping auditors or empty benches, the voices of tens of thousands of men and women, rejoicing in the liberty wherewith they had been made free, were heard telling the wonderful things of God. As in apostolic days, believers exhorted, comforted and edified one another. It was a resurrection of apostolic power and the restoration of apostolic usages." ^[5]

     Unspeakably great, then, are the benefits that have accrued to the Church through the institution of class-meetings. Nor has the time come when such meetings should be superannuated or declared out of date. Methodism can never dispense with them and still be Methodism. They are an integral part of its life and effectiveness. Moreover, if Methodism needs the class-meeting it is because individual Methodists in all branches of the Methodist family need it. Upon their fidelity to it and to its claims upon them largely depend the freshness, vigor and fruitfulness of their Christian experience. In its holy and helpful fellowship they should find a most congenial, spiritual sphere of activity, development and fruitfulness, and, "speaking the truth in love, grow up into Him in all things who is the Head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love" (Eph. 4:1, 16).

1 Simpson's "Cyclopedia of Methodism."

2 "The Story of the Churches," Volume on "The Methodists," pp. 35-36.

3 "Life and Times of John Wesley, Vol. I, p. 381.

4 Life and Times of John Wesley, Vol. III, p. 215.

5 "The Class-Meeting," pp. 40-41.