The worker and his church

Front matter

Book._

OJEYRIGHT DEPOSm

THE WORKER AND WORK SERIES

Author's Preface

Every Christian worker is interested in the church. He knows that it is due to the church more than to any other institution that he has come to know and to love Jesus Christ. He knows that the church is constantly working to bring the knowledge and love of God to men and to promote his kingdom throughout the world. He also knows that in it he often finds the very best place in which to do his own work for the advancement of the kingdom. He is himself a member of it. Because he is thus vitally concerned with the life of the church, this little book has been written to help him to understand how the Christian church came to be and just how it has developed through the nineteen centuries of its history.

Since those who will study this book are Methodists, it has been planned to explain particularly the rise of the Methodists in England and America, and the present organization and work of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In doing so, however, we are, conscious that the Methodist Church is but a part of the universal church to which all Christians belong and we shall try to see just what the contribution of the Methodists has been to that church and how they can serve it best in the present day.

We shall begin our study with a survey of the development of the church during the first seventeen centuries of its history. We shall then observe the rise of the Methodist movement in England under the leadership of John Wesley, and trace out how, from small beginnings in the American colonies, it has grown into the great branches of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. Next we shall notice the important part played by Methodism in the history of the world-wide missionary movement and the extent of its present missionary work. Finally, we shall study more closely the present organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the distinctive characteristics of Methodism, and its place in the work of the world church.

Chapter I The Beginnings Of The Church

It can hardly be said that the Christian Church was ever ''founded." No group of men ever came together and said, "Let us form a church," nor did the earliest disciples seem to understand that Jesus meant them to start any religious organization separate and distinct from that of the Jews. Like most other institutions of great historical importance, the church simply grew up under the guidance of God out of the fellowship of men of like interests and common aspirations. Yet, as we look back upon it, we see how the purposes of God have been working themselves out in it through long centuries, as men inspired by the life of Christ and conscious of his saving power have joined together to advance his kingdom.

Jesus. As we read the Gospels we find Jesus proclaiming to his fellow countrymen the near approach — even the very presence — of the kingdom of God for which, in their oppressed condition, they had been anxiously looking. But instead of describing it as an earthly kingdom of material prosperity Tie lays Ms greatest emphasis upon the spirit and life that men must have who are to inherit the kingdom. Only he that "doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven" may enter into his kingdom. Only those who minister even to the least of his brethren shall inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world.

Instead of revealing God as simply Creator, Guardian of the Jewish nation. Lawgiver, and Judge, he revealed him as before all else the loving Divine Father of his human children. In spite of the bitter hostility of the Pharisees, whose legalism and hypocrisy he denounced, and the indifference of the masses of the people, who having ears heard not, Jesus openly persisted in his teaching until his self-sacrificing life culminated in his death, in which he made plain before men the completeness of God's love for them.

The Jewish disciples. His disciples, who had come to share his belief that he was the long foretold Messiah, or Christ, appointed to bring in the kingdom, were horrified by his death, for, in spite of his warning, they had not believed that the Messiah could die. But the assurance of his resurrection brought them new confidence and conviction. They now held steadfastly to the hope that after his ascension he would soon return to "restore the kingdom to Israel," while they continued his work on earth, preparing men for the day when he should come. They did not, however, separate themselves from the Jewish worship or from the Jewish law, but continued as a loyal group of Jews, who nevertheless believed that the crucified Galilean was the Messiah. This was their central belief, this their message to their fellows. Though they carefully cherished Jesus' parables and sayings about God's fatherhood and his love for his children, they laid more emphasis upon Jesus' person as Messiah than on the message which he came to bring.

Yet their life was not quite the same as that of the other Jews about them. They had a sense of fellowship that often brought them together as one household, uniting in prayer and in conversation about the things of the kingdom, sharing their possessions v/ith one another ''according as any one had need" and eating meals together, at which, from time to time, they commemorated Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples.

The experience of the coming of the Spirit upon th^ at Pentecost set them actively at work spreading as missionaries the good news of Jesus the Messiah. Before long persecution by the Jewish authorities, beginning with the stoning of Stephen, scattered them out from Jerusalem

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH 13 into the Jewish countryside, to the coast cities, to Samaria and Cyprus, and even as far north as Damascus and Antioch. Yet wherever they went they preached their good news and many little communities of joyous believers in the gospel were soon started. Most of them were no doubt Jews, and those who were not were expected to become Jews and obey the Jewish law, if they were to have any part in the kingdom of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. For, as yet, the early Jewish Christians did not see that Jesus' message was universal and that the salvation which he brought to men was without national or racial limits.

Paul. The first leader who really grasped the universal significance of Jesus and made that the foundation of a special mission to the Gentile world was Paul. Though a zealous Jew and a violent persecutor of the Christians, he had been deeply converted by the appearance of- the risen Christ to him on the road to Damascus. By this experience and by his reflection upon the meaning of Christ's death and resurrection, Paul became convinced that Jesus was not only Messiah, but also the Saviour of men. By the presence of his conquering Spirit in man the power of the fleshly nature is driven out, man is freed from sin and saved to eternal life.

This presence of the Spirit seemed to Paul such a power for righteousness that conformity to the Jewish law was no longer necessary and he devoted the many years of his strenuous life to preaching the new gospel to the Gentiles. From time to time some of the Jewish Christians attacked his work and endeavored to undermine it because he did not require of his converts adherence to Jewish customs. But Paul vigorously resisted these attempts and the strength of Jewish Christianity gradually waned as the number of Gentile Christians increased.

In Paul's letters and the book of the Acts of the Apostles we have a vivid record of his work. After an unsuccessful attempt at Damascus and a visit to Jerusalem, Paul began systematic evangelization in the Roman provinces of Syria and Cilicia, using, as a center, Antioch, where a church had already been started and where the disciples were first called "Christians.'' After eleven or more years of quiet activity in these provinces, preaching in synagogues, gathering converts and instructing them in the Christian life, Paul began to carry the gospel to other parts of Asia Minor and to the mainland of Europe, to the provinces of Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia, and Asia. As a result of his pioneering and of the enthusiasm which he aroused in others Christianity gained a firm foothold in Asia Minor.

Not only was Paul a great missionary, by preaching and exhortation building up communities of Christians and holding them fast to their new faith, b/ut through his letters he has remained a mighty influence in the church.

The growing church. Paul and the early Jewish Christians were not, however, the only missionaries. In many of the little Christian congregations there were men who gave up their entire time to traveling from place to place, spreading the good news and encouraging the Christians whom they found on their journeys. But the expansion of Christianity in the first two centuries was really due not so much to those who might be officially named "apostles'' as to the evangelistic fervor of the ordinary Christians. To their friends, to those who entered their shops, to those whom they met on their business trips, they told the story of the one God who created the world, who established the same moral law for all men, and who sent His Son to save men from their sins to an eternal life In the kingdom to come.

We can name over forty cities in which by the end of the first century of our era there were Christians and there must have been at least as many more which we cannot name. Among these were such centers as Antioch, Smyrna, Ephesus, Corinth, Alexandria, and Rome, strategic points from which Christianity could expand along the great trade routes to every part of the Empire.

In none of the cities was the number of Christians very

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH large and all the Christians in one city were still considered as belonging to the same congregation. Usually a room in a private house served as the place of meeting. The older men of the congregation were its natural leaders and those who had gifts of prophecy or of teaching freely took part. The necessity of correcting the disorderly, of strengthening the weaker brethren, of collecting and distributing the alms, and of directing the worship of the congregation gradually led to the appointment of fixed officers for these duties. At first various titles were used, but **episcopos," the Greek word meaning **overseer'* or "bishop," came into general use for the leading ofiicers of each church. Before many years it was found wise to have but one bishop and several elders, or presbyters, associated with him. This practice, starting in Asia Minor about 110, became general in the Christian churches by 200.

As yet, however, there was no general organization which ofiicially united and governed all these churches or any groups of them. But the strong bonds of common Christian faith held them together. They all thought of themselves as belonging to one fellowship, abiding in the Spirit of God until the day of Christ's coming.

TTie New Testament.

Rail, H. F., New Testament History,

McGiffert, A. C, The Apostolic Age,

Fisher, G. P., History of the Christian Church, Period I.

Rowe, H. K., Landmarks in%Christian History, Lessons 1-5.

Cowan, H., Landmarks of Church History, Chapters I, II.

1. What is meant by "founding of the Christian Church"?

2. What was the message of Je^s? How did it contrast with the thought of the Jewish people? Read one of the Gospels with these questions in mind.

3. In what respects are the life and activity of your local church like those of the earliest Jewish disciples? In what respects different?

4. What experiences caused the church to spread beyond Jerusalem? Find the record of these in the book of Acts. Who were some of the persons who helped to spread the "good news"?

5. State the message of Paul and illustrate your statement with passages from his letters.

6. What features of the life of churches in the cities of the Roman Empire do you find in your church to-day? What features are lacking?

Chapter II

THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE 100-500 A. D.

In the first chapter we saw how Christianity spread in the first century among many of the towns of the Roman world. As time went on this expansion became more and more rapid. The varied population of the empire was deeply interested in religion. Men were seeking salvation. Other new religions sprang up, seeking to satisfy those who were dissatisfied with the old gods and who found no personal comfort in the religion of the state. But Christianity proved itself stronger than all, though in its conquest it borrowed from them many new elements foreign to its earliest form.

Popular opposition. The expansion of Christianity met with opposition from other quarters than those of its rivals. For some time it was regarded as an obscure Jewish sect; the neighbors of the Christians looked at them askance. They were clannish and exclusive. Their private meetings gave rise to malicious rumors about their morality. Their opposition to idolatry drew down upon them the hatred of the trades dependent upon it. They were even regarded as atheists, for they had no temple and no image which they worshiped. Thus from time to time popular feeling would rise up in mobs against the Christians, especially when some calamity such as an earthquake or a great fire had occurred, showing, so people thought, the anger of the gods at the impiety of the Christians.

As the increasing numbers of the Christians brought them more into public notice, Jewish and pagan writers attacked them, some with satire and slander, others with arguments and charges of disloyalty to the state. The replies of the Christian "apologists," as they were called, not only criticized searchingly the morality and beliefs of the pagan religions, but also helped the Christians to define their own faith.

Persecution by tlie state. The severest opponent of Christianity, however, came to be the Roman state. The general policy of the empire was tolerant, but, as Christianity appeared to be atheistic, and as the Christians refused to show their patriotism by sacrificing before the emperor's statue, it was declared a "prohibited religion." Upon refusal to recant the Christians were to be banished, deprived of rank, or put to death. Yet except for occasional repression in one province or another the government took no radical action for many years. Marcus Aurelius in 180, Septimus Severus about 210, and Maximinus in 235 each ordered more stringent measures, which, though they caused scattered persecutions, were not systematically enforced. In the many years of peace which intervened the church grew rapidly.

The climax of the struggle came in two general persecutions. In the first, in 250, Decius endeavored to force all Christians to perform the state religious ceremony. Many indeed did so, but thousands refused and paid the penalties. The unusual growth of the church in the four peaceful decades which followed justified Tertullian's terse phrase, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." The final persecution, begun under Diocletian in 303, was the most violent and bloody of all. In the West its severity was lessened by the policy of Constantine, who saw the strength which the supj)ort of the Christians might bring to the empire, but in the East for eight years the horrors of torture, imprisonment, and death pursued the Christians. At last the emperors were forced to issue a limited edict of toleration, which was made complete by Constantine in 313.

External prosperity as the state religion. The edict of Constantine ended the persecution of the Christians once

THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE 19 and for all. More than that, his policy of showing favor to the Christians brought new advantages to the church. He not only made Christianity legal as a religion, but gave it the right to hold property in its own name. He recognized the church and gave special rights to the clergy. He also showed it marked personal favor by generous contributions and by systematic efforts to settle controversies which arose within it. Constantine himself made no efforts to destroy paganism, but his successors at once began its suppression. The church that had been persecuted in turn became the persecutor.

The final triumph of Christianity, however, was not yet reached. With the support of the aristocracy and the literary classes, the Emperor Julian endeavored to restore paganism to its former power, but the strength of Christianity made his efforts futile and his successors even more vigorously continued the suppression of paganism.

The final step in the victory of Christianity was its establishment as the state religion under Theodosius in 380. Catholic Christianity was declared the law of the empire and the acceptance of the Nicene Creed was made necessary for citizenship. Still more vigorous measures, such as the destruction of temples and edicts against pagan sacrifice, were inaugurated and in many towns mobs of monks aided in carrying out the decrees. '

By its establishment Christianity had gained the protection of the state, unrivaled prestige, and unusual wealth. Its gains, however, were not all to its advantage. It was now directly under the control of the state and always remained so in the East. Moreover, the influx of great numbers of unworthy and untried members lowered its ideals and standards and greatly hindered its spiritual life. The church seemed hardly to realize the magnificent opportunity to capture the world for Christ which its new position gave it and was quite unprepared to promote systematically God's kingdom among men.

Dissension within the churcli. One reason why the churcli was unprepared for this conquest was the growth of dissension within it. As men of different types of thought came into the church, they brought with them conflicting ideas about Christianity. Those opinions which the church rejected and condemned were called heresies. The first great heretical movement was that of Marcion (about 150) and of a group of philosophers called Gnostics. They asserted that the God of the Old Testament was not the Christian God and that Christ being Divine could not really have died. The church objected to the thought of two Gods and to a denial of Christ's humanity and began to take measures to refute and then to exclude the heretics.

This they did first by gradually forming the list, or **canon," of authoritative apostolic writings which we have in the New Testament. They then set up a standard statement of doctrine or "creed'' which explicitly affirmed the points which the Gnostics denied. This we have in part in the so-called "Apostles' Creed." Their final step was to assert that the apostles had committed to the bishops, as their appointed successors, the final authority to interpret Christian doctrine and the sole power to guarantee the orthodoxy of the interpretation. This was the beginning of the theory of "apostolic succession" still held by many churches. As a result of this process the church accepted Cyprian's word — as the Roman Catholic Church still does — that "outside of the church no one can be saved."

The second great "heresy," Montanism, arose in the latter half of the second century. Though quite orthodox in belief, its leaders protested vigorously against the loss of the presence of the Spirit in the church and its growing worldliness. The church rejected Montanism because it regarded its excessive enthusiasm as out of date and because it attacked the organization of the church at a time when that organization was needed to protect the church against Gnosticism.

The setting up of a standard of doctrine was made of still more importance when the church began to try to

THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE 21

state its beliefs in terms of Greek philosophy. Two great streams of Christian experience came to a conflict here. The one endeavored to exalt Christ by identifying him with God; the other emphasized his human life as a great example for men. In spite of the efforts of Arius and his humanizing party, the Nicene Council in 325 adopted a creed that expressed the deity of Christ, though in phrases that many found unsatisfactory. A later council worked out a form that included both the human and the Divine aspects of the personality of Christ. Though this was finally accepted by most of the church, severaj provinces in the East broke off from the empire, and in them were formed what are now the Armenian, Coptic, and Abyssinian churches. Indeed, it was in the East that these controversies were most intense. Political aspirations and underhand methods of gaining party success provoked bitterness and strife that greatly weakened the church.

Only one theological controversy seriously disturbed the West — that of the contrasting views of man's sin and God's grace held by the great theologian, Augustine, on the one hand, and Pelagius, a British monk, on the other, early in the fifth century.

Bishops and councils. In spite of the dissensions produced by these doctrinal controversies, the church still believed in its fundamental unity, but this unity found expression not so much in the spirit of Christian fellowship, which had marked the primitive church, as in the power given to the bishops as a class and in the development of even more centralized organization. Gradually the bishop of the chief town in a province came to hold a rank higher than that of the other bishops, settling disputes between them and summoning the provincial synods.

Soon the bishops of great metropolitan centers gained authority over a number of provinces and finally the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria were recognized as the heads of the church. Similarly, general councils, supposed to represent the entire church, came to have authority over the provincial synods and in the church as a whole, though the Bishop of Rome often refused to recognize the decision of the Eastern councils-

Fisher, G. P., History of the Christian Church, Periods II and III.

Rowe, H. K., Landmarks in Christian History, Lessons 6-9. Cowan, H., Landmarks of Church History, Chapters III and IV.

QrE??Tioxs FOR Thought xVxd Discussion

1. What are the differences between the attitude toward Christians taken by people in the second and third centuries and that taken now?

2. In w^hat respects does the treatment of Christians by modern governments differ from that by the Roman Emperors? How do you account for the difference?

3. Do you think the church fulfilled its Christlike mission better under persecution or prosperity? What was the effect of the latter?

4. What measures were taken to exclude heresy from the church?

5. Trace the rise of the bishops from New Testament times to the rise of the papacy.

Chapter III The Rise Of The Papacy And The Conversion Op The Barbarians

The change in the sacraments. While Cliristianity was expanding and becoming more highly organized, its services of worship were greatly changed, in part by the influence of pagan religious ideas. The freedom and spontaneity of the worship described in PauFs letters, in which the Christians expressed themselves as the Spirit moved them, had to yield to more formality for the sake of orderliness. More than that, the very meaning and character of the services changed. The singing of psalms and hymns, the offering of prayer, and the preaching were still parts of the services.

But the central feature — and in a sense the center of the life of the church — was the solemn sacrament of the Lord's Supper. No longer was it the common meal shared in remembrance of Christ by all the fellowship present, but a ceremonial rite — in theory a repetition of Christ's sacrifice upon the cross — performed by the clergy with the congregation as spectators. Only by sharing in the mysterious benefits of this great propitiatory sacrifice, when performed by a priest who had been ordained by a bishop in the apostolic succession, could the believer be saved.

Similarly, baptism, instead of remaining a symbol of the baptized person's renunciation of his sins and of his entrance into the community of the followers of Jesus, became, in the thought of the church, the actual process by which sins were blotted out. This led to the postponement of baptism to some time late in life, until a new sacrament called penance appeared, which consisted of the performance of pious acts — prayers, fastings, pilgrimages — at the direction of the priests, as punishments for sin.

Monasticism. With the complicated church organization

and the sense of the peculiar sacredness of the services came the feeling that those responsible for them — the officers of the church — should be set apart as holier than the rest of the Christians. They were not to marry nor to engage in secular or worldly callings, but to be devoted solely to the work of the church. Through them alone could salvation come to the people. No matter how faithful a follower of Christ one of the laity might be, he could not be as holy as a priest.

A somewhat similar class of sacred persons grew up in reaction against the increasing worldliness of the church. Stirred by iheir ideals to renounce worldly living, and finding it increasingly difficult to live a Christian life in the church and in society, many men sought the wildernesses and lived apart in meditation and solitude. In the middle of the fourth and early in the fifth century several leaders, of whom Benedict was the most famous (529), gathered such men as these into communities or monasteries under the threefold vow of eternal chastity, poverty, and obedience.

As time went on, these monastic orders^ came to play a very influential part in the life of the church and society, for they fostered scholastic learning and many of the practical arts in the centuries when the decay of civilization in Europe was marked. They also made much of ministry to the poor. Many of the orders became immensely wealthy and powerful. Some of the most famous leaders of the church — scholars, theologians. Popes, missionaries — came from the monasteries.

The rise of the papacy. In western Europe, where monasticism had its greatest development, the church became the most extensive and powerful single organization. The center of this organization was Rome. Here,

1 An "order" in this sense consists of aU the monks living under the same set of rules in various monasteries and usually traces its origin to an individual founder.

THE PAPACY AND THE BARBARIANS 25 in the greatest city of the Roman Empire, had grown up the largest community of Christians. The practicalminded bishops of this church, being without rivals in the west, began early to extend their authority. By the end of the fourth century Rome was given priority of honor over the other metropolitan centers. A few years later a bishop of Rome, Innocent I, asserted that all the western bishops and synods were subject to his executive and judicial authority. A little later Leo the Great (440-461) declared that the grace of salvation came to the bishops and thus to the church only through the Bishop of Rome, the successor of the chief of the apostles. These claims might have come to nought, had it not been that many of the Bishops of Rome, or Popes, as they have come to be called, were men of great ability and skill, losing no opportunity of making the practice of the church conform to their claims and of extending their prestige in secular as well as in church affairs.

The coming of the Barbarians. While the church was thus developing, conditions in the empire were changing in a way which vitally affected the life and work of the church. For many generations the tribes on the northern and northeastern borders of the empire, living in what are now the Balkans, Hungary, and France, had been drifting into th<? empire. But late in the fourth century hordes of Asiatics, driven by famine, began to press into Europe and push the ''barbarians" of Central and Eastern Europe down upon the empire. In the conflicts between the invaders and the invaded the old political unity of the empire was badly shaken and finally broken. For a time the Pope at Rome stood as the sole representative of the political greatness of the empire.

These new peoples seem to have stirred afresh the missionary zeal of the church. Some of the tribes which settled in Italy had earlier been converted to the Christianity of Arius by missionaries, notably Ulfilas (c. 350), from Constantinople. The Christians of Italy under the leadership of Rome began the task of leading these "heretics" into the form of faith held in Rome, called the "Catholic" faith, a task which was the less difficult because the Christianization of these tribes had not taken very deep root.

In this they were aided by the rise of a ne^v kingdom in what is now France, that of the Franks, whose barbarian leader, Clovis, having won a battle after prayer to the God of his Catholic wife, had himself baptized with his entire army (496). He then proceeded, by the might of his sword, to compel his neighbors to become Catholic Christians and incidentally to join their lands to his kingdom! By this process was built up a kingdom extending, under Clovis's successors, over nearly all of France, Belgium, Netherlands, southwestern Germany, and western Bavaria, nominally, at least, related to Roman Christianity and traversed by its emissaries.

Missionary activity. Not all the conquests of the church at this time were won by the swords of ambitious princes. The traveling traders and soldiers of the earliest Christian centuries had planted Christianity in Britain and it had remained there even after Britain had ceased to be a part of the Roman empire. From these British Christians Christianity spread to Ireland, and an Irish monk, Columba (b. 521), in the latter half of the sixth century carried it to Scotland.