From Methodists to Methodists - 1839
Bishop Robert Richford Roberts opened the Methodist conference.
Introduction
Bishops and delegates of the Methodist Episcopal Church assembled in Baltimore, Maryland, on 1 May, 1840 for a conference. Bishop Robert Richford Roberts opened the conference with Scripture and prayer. Among the items the conference considered was a letter from the Wesleyan Methodists of Great Britain, dated this day, 16 August, 1839 and delivered by the hand of Rev. Robert Newton. The letter expressed pleasure in the growth of American Methodism, rejoiced that the Methodist movement was now celebrating its first centenary, and brought up the painful issue of American slavery.
Quote
“Address of the British Conference to the Bishops and Members of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America
“Very Dear Brethren,—We gratefully avail ourselves of this opportunity to renew the tokens of our fraternal intercourse with you….
“It has afforded us great satisfaction to hear from different quarters of your continued prosperity….
“On a review of the hundred years which have now reached their termination, we humbly acknowledge and adore the mercy of God, who marvelously raised up our ever-revered fathers as the instruments, in his hands, of so extensive a revival of primitive Christianity….
“But while we freely indulge in sentiments such as these, we cannot forget that on one subject especially—the subject of American slavery—you, our beloved brethren, are placed in circumstances of painful trial and perplexity. We enter, with brotherly sympathy, into the peculiar situation which you are now called to occupy. But, on this question, we beg to refer you to what occurs in our address to you from the conference of 1836, a proper copy of which will be handed to you by our representative as also to the contents of our preceding letter of 1835. To the principles which we have affectionately but honestly declared in these two documents we still adhere, with a full conviction of their Christian truth and justice.
“The time which has elapsed, and the events which have taken place, since the preparation of the above-mentioned papers, serve only to confirm us yet more in our views of the moral evil of slavery. Far be it from us to advocate violent and ill-considered measures. We are, however, strongly and unequivocally of opinion that it is, at this time, the paramount Christian duty of the ministers of our most merciful Lord in your country to maintain the principle of opposition to slavery with earnest zeal, and unflinching firmness. May we not also be allowed, with the heart-felt solicitude of fraternal love, to entreat that you will not omit or qualify the noble testimony which we have extracted, in a note to our address, from your Book of Discipline, but that you will continue to insert it there in its primitive and unimpaired integrity.
“And now, very dear brethren, we commend you to the protection and mercies of the ‘only wise God, our Saviour,’ with united prayers that you, and all who labor with you in the word and doctrine, with the multitudes who are happily brought to share in your Christian fellowship, may enjoy a richer effusion of the Holy Spirit’s promised unction, and may at last be ‘presented faultless before the presence of our common Saviour’s glory.’ To Him be ‘glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.’
“Signed, by order of the conference,
“Theophilus Lessey, President."
Elliot, Charles. The Life of the Rev. Robert R. Roberts; Quote from Bangs, Nathan. A History of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Vol. IV. New York: T. Mason and G. Lane, 1839.