The work is prospering in the different parts of this District. Niagara and Ancaster Circuits are rising. There is a good work in Oxford, on the Long Point Circuit, as also on the London and Westminster Circuits. The Indian Mission, on the Grand River, is progressing finely. At the Salt Springs, about thirty have been added to the Society, among whom are some of the most respectable chiefs of the Mohawk and Tuscarora nations.
Visiting them, from wigwam to wigwam, they in general appear to be thankful.--H.]
The Ryanite controversy turned chiefly on the refusal at first of the American General Conference to separate the Canada work from its jurisdiction. Rev. John Ryerson, in a letter from Pittsburg, Pa., dated May, 1828, gave Dr. Ryerson the particulars of the reversal of that decision. He says:--
A Committee of five persons has been appointed on the Canada Question.
Dr. Bangs is the chairman. The Committee reported last Thursday pointedly against the separation; declaring it, in their opinion, to be unconst.i.tutional. Dr. Bangs brought the report before the Conference, and made a long speech against the separation. William and myself replied to him pointedly, and at length, and were supported by the Rev.
Drs. Fisk and Luckey. Dr. Bangs was supported by Rev. Messrs. Henings, Lindsey, and others. The matter was debated with astonishing ability and deep-felt interest on both sides, for two days, when the question being put, there were 105 in favour of the separation, and 43 against--a majority on our side of 62. Our kind friends were much delighted, and highly gratified at our singular and remarkable triumph; and those who opposed us, met us with a great deal of respect and affection. You will, doubtless, be surprised on hearing of Dr. Bangs" opposing us as he has done, but you are not more surprised and astonished than we were; and we had no knowledge of his opposition to the separation until the morning of the debate, when he got up and commenced his speech in Conference.
But, blessed be G.o.d for ever, amidst the painful and trying scenes through which we have pa.s.sed in the Conference business, the G.o.d of David has stood by us, and has given us a decided victory.
_Nov. 22nd._--Elder Case, in a letter from Cobourg, gives a detailed account of the efforts put forth by Rev. Henry Ryan to foment discord among the societies. He says:
As in the west so in the east, Elder Ryan had induced several members to attend as delegates at his convention in Hallowell. At Matilda, George Brouse; at Kingston, Bro. Burchel and Henry Benson have been elected to go. Mr. Case then urges that a circular be issued to the societies setting forth "that the Conference, so far as they have had evidence, has laboured in every instance to do justice to Mr. Ryan, and even to afford him greater lenity, on account of former standing, than, perhaps the discipline of the Church would justify."
In a subsequent letter, dated Prescott, 27th November, Elder Case thus describes the proceedings of Mr. Ryan. He says:
On my way down, I spent a few hours at Kingston, one day at Brockville, and one here. I have learned all the circ.u.mstances of Mr. Ryan"s proceedings. At one place he would declare in the most positive manner that he would "head no division," that he "would even be the first to oppose any such work," he "would esteem it the happiest day in his life if, by their a.s.sistance, he could regain his standing in the Church,"
and that "the measures which he was now professing would prevent a division." But when he thought he had gained the confidence of his listeners, and they had entered fully into his views, he would throw off his disguise, and openly declare, as he did at Matilda, "Now, we will pull down the tyrannical spirit of the Conference. There will, there must be a split," &c. Brother, there is one very material obstacle in the way of effecting a "split," in our societies, and raising a "fog" of any considerable duration, _i.e._, the authors of this work may, by their strong and positive statements, make a people mad for a "division." But, when there is a sense of religion in the mind, they will become good natured--they can"t be kept mad long. Our people in these parts are becoming quite good natured, and now perceive their arch friend has made a fool of them.
To show how deeply the Ryanite schism had affected the Societies, and how widely the agitation had spread, we give a few extracts from a letter written from London (U.C.), to Dr. Ryerson, by his brother John, dated 2nd January. He says:--
The day I left you I rode to Oxford (52 miles), and after preaching, I gave an explanation of Ryan"s case, an hour and a half long. My dear brother, this is a desperate struggle. I am using every possible exertion to defeat Ryan. I go from house to house to see the friends I don"t see at the meetings. Could you not go to Burford and see Mr.
Matthews, as he has a great deal of influence in Burford and the Governor"s Road? Egerton, by all means, try and go, even if you have to neglect appointments. Though I know it is hard for you, I am sure the approbation of your conscience, and the approbation of the Church, will afford you an ample reward. It will also be necessary for you to keep a look out about Ancaster. Write to Rev. James Richardson, and tell him to look out, and also write to Rev. S. Belton, and Rev. A. Green. Don"t fail to go to Burford and, if you can, to Long Point also, and hold public meetings on the subject.[21]
_Nov. 26th._--At the Conference held this year (1828), at Switzer"s Chapel, Ernestown, Bishop Hedding presiding, resolutions were adopted organizing the Canada Conference into an "independent Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada." Subsequently, Rev. Wilbur Fisk, A.M., Princ.i.p.al of the Wilbraham Academy, U.S., was elected General Superintendent, or Bishop, of the newly organized Church. Dr. Ryerson was deputed to convey the announcement of this election to Mr. Fisk, which he did on this day, as follows:--
The Canada Conference of the M.E. Church have taken the liberty of nominating you for our General Superintendent, agreeably to the resolutions of the General Conference. I take the liberty, and have the pleasure of observing that the nomination was warm and unanimous; and I hope and pray, that while our wants excite your compa.s.sion, our measures, in this respect, will meet your cordial approbation and receive your pious compliance. Although writing to a person whom I have never seen, yet the pleasure and profit I have derived in perusing your successful apologies in favour of the pure Gospel of Christ against the invasions of modern libertinism, remind me that I am not writing to an entire stranger; and your able and affectionate appeal to the late General Conference in behalf of Canada--of which my brothers gave a most interesting account--emboldens me to speak to you "as a man speaketh with his friend." Rev. Dr. Fisk"s reply to this letter is as follows:--
The deep solicitude I have felt, to weigh the subject well, to watch the openings of divine providence, and decide in the best light, have induced me to deliberate until this time [April]. All my deliberations upon this subject have resulted in a confirmation of my earliest impressions in relation to it--that it will not be prudent for me to accept of the affectionate and flattering invitation of the Canada Conference. I feel, however, the influence of contrary emotions. My high sense of the honour you have done me, is enhanced by the consideration that "the nomination was unanimous and warm." I highly appreciate, and cordially reciprocate those warm and concurrent expressions of confidence and affection. The information I have of the character of the Conference, joined with my personal acquaintance with some of its members, convinces me, that whoever superintends the Canada Church, will have a charge that will cheer his heart, and hold up his hands in his official labours. Equally encouraging and inviting, are the growing prospects of your country and your Church, and especially of your missionary stations. These to a man of missionary enterprise, who loves to bear the banner of the cross, and push its victories more and more upon the territories of darkness and sin, are motives of high and almost irresistible influence. And they have so affected my mind, that although my local attachments to the land of my fathers, and for that branch of the Church where I was, and have been nurtured, are strong; although my aged parents lean upon me to support their trembling steps, as they descend to the tomb; although I might justly fear the influence of your climate upon an infirm const.i.tution; yet these considerations, strengthened as they are by a consciousness of my own inability, and by the almost unanimous dissuasives of my friends, would hardly of themselves have induced me to decline your invitation, were it not that I am connected with a literary inst.i.tution that promises much advantage to the Church and to the public, but which, as yet, will require close and unremitting attention and care on my part for some time to come, to give it that direction and permanency which will secure its usefulness.[22]
_Nov. 28th, 1828._--Mr. H. C. Thompson, of Kingston, who had charge of the re-printing in pamphlet form of Dr. Ryerson"s recent letters on Archdeacon Strachan"s sermon, writes to him to say:--It lingers in the press, merely for the want of workmen, who cannot be procured in this place.[23] He adds:--The changes which have recently taken place in the two provinces cannot fail to gratify every lover of his country, though the party in power will no doubt hang their heads in sullen silence. I am highly pleased with the Methodist Ministers" Address to the Governor, and the reply thereto,--Strachanism must seek a more congenial climate.
_March 19th, 1829._--Dr. Ryerson had, at this time, met with an accident, but his life was providentially spared. Elder Case, writing from New York, at this date, speaking of it, says:
Thank the Lord that your life was preserved. The enemies of our Zion would have triumphed in your death. May G.o.d preserve you to see the opponents of religious liberty, and the abettors of faction frustrated in all their selfish designs and hair-brained hopes!
I have seen a letter from the Rev. Richard Reece, dated London, 19th January, to Mr. Francis Hall, of the New York _Commercial Advertiser_ and the _Spectator_, in which he says:
I am of opinion that the English Conference can do very little good in Upper Canada. Had our preachers been continued they might have raised the standard of primitive English Methodism, which would have had extensive and beneficial influence upon the work in that province, but having ceded by convention the whole of it to your Church, I hope we shall not interfere to disturb the people. They must, as you say, struggle for a while, and your bishops must visit them, and ordain their ministers, till they can do without them. He speaks of being highly gratified at the conversion of the Indians in Canada.
FOOTNOTES:
[21] Rev. Henry Ryan was born 1776 entered the ministry in 1800, and died at his residence, in Gainsborough, on the 2nd September, 1833, aged 57 years.--H.
[22] The post-office endors.e.m.e.nt on this letter was as follows:--Paid to Lewistown, N.Y., 25c. postage; ferryage to Niagara, 2d.; from Niagara to Hamilton, 4-1/2d.; total, 36 cents postage, for what in 1882 costs only one-twelfth of that amount.--H.
[23] The t.i.tle of this pamphlet (in possession of the Editor) is: Claims of Churchmen and Dissenters of Upper Canada brought to the test in a Controversy between several Members of the Church of England and a Methodist Preacher. Kingston, 1828. pp. 232. (See note on page 80, and also Chapter viii.)
Rev. Dr. Green, in his _Life and Times_, thus speaks of the effect of the publication of these letters upon Rev. Franklin Metcalf and himself:--The sermon was ably reviewed in the columns of the _Colonial Advocate_, in a communication over the signature of "A Methodist Preacher." Mr. Metcalf and I took the paper into a field, where we sat down on the gra.s.s to read. As we read, we admired; and as we admired, we rejoiced; then thanked G.o.d, and speculated as to its author, little suspecting that it was a young man who had been received on trial at the late Conference (1825). We read again, and then devoutly thanked G.o.d for having put it into the heart of some one to defend the Church publicly against such mischievous statements, and give the world the benefit of the facts of the case. The "Reviewer" proved to be Mr. Egerton Ryerson, then on the Yonge Street Circuit. This was the commencement of the war for religious liberty, pp. 83, 84. (See also page 143 of Dr. Ryerson"s "Epochs of Canadian Methodism.")--H.
For specimens of Dr. Ryerson"s controversial style in this his first encounter, see the extracts which he has given from the pamphlet itself on pages 146--149, etc., of "Epochs of Canadian Methodism."--H.
CHAPTER VIII.
1829-1832.
Establishment of the "Christian Guardian"--Church claims resisted.
Dr. Ryerson takes up the Story of his Life at the period of the Conference of 1829. He says that;--
At this Conference it was determined to establish the _Christian Guardian_ newspaper. The Conference elected me as Editor, with instructions to go to New York to procure the types and apparatus necessary for its establishment.[24] In this I was greatly a.s.sisted by the late Rev. Dr. Bangs, and the Rev. Mr. Collard, of the New York Methodist Book Concern.
The hardships and difficulties of establishing and conducting the _Christian Guardian_ for the first year, without a clerk, in the midst of our poverty, can hardly be realized and need not be detailed. The first number was issued on the 22nd November, 1829. The list of subscribers at the commencement was less than 500. Three years afterwards (in 1832), when the first Editor was appointed as the representative of the Canadian Conference to England, the subscription list was reported as nearly 3,000.
The characteristics of the _Christian Guardian_ during these three eventful years (it being then regarded as the leading newspaper of Upper Canada) were defence of Methodist inst.i.tutions and character, civil rights, temperance principles, educational progress, and missionary operations. It was during this period that the Methodist and other denominations obtained the right to hold land for places of worship, and for the burial of their dead, and the right of their ministers to solemnize matrimony, as also their rights to equal civil and religious liberty, against a dominant church establishment in Upper Canada, as I have detailed in the "Epochs of Canadian Methodism," pp. 129-246.
The foregoing is the only reference to this period of his life which Dr.
Ryerson has left. I have, therefore, availed myself of his letters and papers to continue the narrative.
_June--August, 1830._--With a view to correct the misstatements made in regard to the Methodists in Canada, and to set forth their just rights, Dr. Ryerson devoted a considerable s.p.a.ce in the _Christian Guardian_ of the 26th June; and 3rd, 10th, 24th, and 31st July, and 14th August, 1830, to a concise history of that body in this country, in which he maintained its right to the privileges proposed to be granted to it under the Religious Societies Relief Bill of that time.[25] He pointed out, as he expressed it, that--
His Majesty"s Royal a.s.sent would have been given to that bill had it not unfortunately fallen in company with some ruthless vagrant (in the shape of a secret communication from our enemies in Canada) who had slandered, abused, and tomahawked it at the foot of the throne.
_Oct. 11th._--Being desirous of availing himself of his brother George"s educational advantages and ability in his editorial labours, Dr.
Ryerson, under this date, wrote to him in his new charge at the Grand River. He said:--
I am glad to hear that you enjoy peace of mind, and feel an increasing attachment to your charge. It is more than I do as Editor. I am scarcely free from interruption long enough to settle my mind on any one thing, and sometimes I am almost distracted. On questions of right, and liberty, as well as on other subjects, I am resolved to pursue a most decided course. Your retired situation will afford you a good opportunity for writing useful articles on various subjects. I hope you will write often and freely.
_Nov. 1st._--Another reason, which apparently prompted Dr. Ryerson to appeal to his brother George for editorial help, was the fear that the increasing efforts of the influential leaders of the Church of England to secure a recognition of her claims to be an established church in Upper Canada might be crowned with success. He, therefore, at this date wrote to him again on the subject, and said.--
The posture of affairs in England appears, upon the whole, more favourable to reform than in Upper Canada. We are resolved to double our diligence; to have general pet.i.tions in favour of the abolition of every kind of religious domination, circulated throughout the Province, addressed to the Provincial and Imperial Parliaments, and take up the whole question--decidedly, fully, and warmly. We must be up and doing while it is called to-day. It is the right time. There is a new and Whig Parliament in England, and I am sure our own House of a.s.sembly dare not deny the pet.i.tions of the people on this subject.
Nature of the Struggle for Religious Equality.
During this and many succeeding years the chief efforts of Dr. Ryerson and those who acted with him were directed, as intimated before, against the efforts put forth to establish a "dominant church" in Upper Canada.
A brief _resume_ of the question will put the reader in possession of the facts of the case:--
The late Bishop Strachan, in his speech delivered in the Legislative Council, March 6th, 1828, devoted several pages of that speech (as printed) to prove that "the Church of England is by law the Established Church of this Province." This statement in some form he put forth in every discussion on the subject.
The grounds upon which this claim was founded were also fully stated by Rev. Wm Betteridge, B.D. (of Woodstock), who was sent to England to represent the claims of the Church of England in this controversy. These claims he put forward in his "Brief History of the Church in Upper Canada," published in England in 1838. He rests those claims upon what he considers to have been the intention of the Imperial Parliament in pa.s.sing the Clergy Reserve sections of the Act (31 Geo III., c. 31) in 1791, and also on the "King"s Instructions" to the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada in 1818. He further contended that the "Extinction of the t.i.thes Act," pa.s.sed by the Upper Canada Legislature in 1823, inferentially recognized the dominancy of the Church of England in Canada as a Church of the Empire. Beyond this alleged inferential right to be an Established Church in Upper Canada, none in reality existed. It was, therefore, to prevent this inference,--which was insisted upon as perfectly clear and irresistible,--from receiving Imperial or Provincial recognition as an admitted or legal fact, that the persistent efforts of Dr. Ryerson and others were unceasingly directed during all of those years.
Few in the present day can realize the magnitude of the task thus undertaken. Nor do we sufficiently estimate the significance of the issues involved in that contest--a contest waged for the recognition of equal denominational rights and the supremacy of religious liberty. All of these questions are now happily settled "upon the best and surest foundation." But it might have been far otherwise had not such men as Dr. Ryerson stepped into the breach at a critical time in our early history; and if the battle had not been fought and won before the distasteful yoke of an "establishment" had been imposed upon this young country, and burdensome vested interests been thereby created, which it would have taken years of serious and protracted strife to extinguish.
As the fruits of that protracted struggle for religious equality have been long quietly enjoyed in this province, there is a disposition in many quarters to undervalue the importance of the contest itself, and even to question the propriety of reviving the recollection of such early conflicts. In so far as we may adopt such views we must necessarily fail to do justice to the heroism and self-sacrifice of those who, like Dr. Ryerson, encountered the prolonged and determined opposition, as well as the contemptuous scorn of the dominant party while battling for the rights which he and others ultimately secured for us. Those amongst us who would seek to depreciate the importance of that struggle for civil and religious freedom, must fail also to realize the importance of the real issues of that contest.