Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

BIBLE CHRISTIANS

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 905 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

BIBLE CHRISTIANS , one of the denominations now merged in the See also:United Methodist See also:Church (see UNITED METHODISTS), so called because its See also:early preachers appealed solely to the Bible in See also:confirmation of their doctrines. The See also:denomination arose in the agricultural districts and fishing villages of See also:north See also:Cornwall and See also:Devon; a See also:district only slightly influenced by See also:John See also:Wesley and the See also:original Methodist See also:movement. The founder was See also:William O'See also:Bryan (afterwards See also:Bryant), a Methodist See also:lay preacher of Luxillian, Cornwall. Finding that the See also:people had no evangelical See also:preaching he began an itinerary to See also:supply the need. The coastmen were See also:expert smugglers and wreckers, the agriculturists were ignorant and drunken, the See also:parish See also:clergy were slothful, in many cases intemperate, and largely given to See also:fox-See also:hunting. Only in a parish or two was there any approach to religious See also:ministry. O'Bryan commenced his labours in north Devon, and in 1815 a small society was formed at See also:Lake See also:Farm, Shebbear. The movement had the seeds of See also:great vitality in it. In 1819 the first See also:conference was held at See also:Launceston. There were See also:present besides O'Bryan one accepted minister—James Thorne—fourteen ministers on trial and fifteen See also:women preachers, a class that was always conspicuous in the denomination. At that conference the See also:work had spread from See also:Ring's Ash in Devon to Morrah, a lonely and desolate parish in See also:west Cornwall. In 1820–1821 See also:Kent, See also:Northumberland, the Scilly and See also:Norman (i .e.

Channel) Islands appeared on the See also:

list of stations. Then came a serious break. In 1829 there was a severance between the larger See also:part of the new See also:body and O'Bryan, who had claimed to be perpetual See also:president, and to have all See also:property vested in him personally. He tried to establish a See also:separate conference, but failed, and in 1836 there was a re-See also:union. O'Bryan See also:left See also:England for See also:America, where he remained for the See also:rest of his See also:life, and his contingent (numbering 565 members and 4 ministers) returned to the original conference. The growth continued. In 1831 agents were sent to See also:Canada and See also:Prince See also:Edward's See also:Island, in 185o to See also:South See also:Australia, in 1855 to See also:Victoria, in 1866 to See also:Queensland, in 1877 to New See also:Zealand and in 1885 to See also:China, so that the original O'Bryan tradition of fervid evangelism was amply maintained. On O'Bryan's departure, See also:James See also:Thorne, the first fully recognized See also:minister, at whose See also:father's farm the connexion started, became its See also:leader. Although reared as an See also:ordinary farm lad, he proved to be a See also:man of singular devotion and spiritual See also:genius. He laid the See also:foundations broadly in evangelism, See also:finance, See also:temperance and See also:education, See also:founding in the latter connexion a See also:middle-class school at Shebbear, at which generations of ministers' sons and numerous students for the ministry have been educated. James Thorne was five times president of the conference and fifteen times secretary. He died in 1872.

In this See also:

period there was much persecution. Landowners refused sites, and in the Isle of See also:Wight the people worshipped for many months in a See also:quarry. The preachers were sometimes imprisoned and many times assaulted. The old Methodist body even excommunicated persons for attending " Bryanite " meetings. Partly co-operative with James Thorne and at his See also:death independently, the Church was favoured with the See also:influence of See also:Frederick William See also:Bourne. He was a minister for fifty-five years, and served the Bible Christians as editor, missionary treasurer, See also:book steward and three times president of conference. With him will always be associated the name of Billy See also:Bray, an illiterate but inimitable Cornish evangelist, a memoir of whom, written by Bourne,exerted a great influence in the religious life of the de-nomination. In See also:doctrine the Bible Christians did not differ from the other Methodists. In constitution they differed only slightly. There was an See also:annual conference with full legislative See also:power, and ability to hold and dispose of property, composed of an equal number of lay and ministerial representatives See also:meeting together. The See also:local churches were grouped into circuits governed representatively by a quarterly meeting. The quarterly or See also:circuit meetings were in turn organized into twelve districts, eleven in England and one in China.

In 1906 the See also:

statistics showed 218 ministers, 32,549 members and 652 chapels, with 47,301 scholars in See also:Sunday-See also:schools. These figures include nearly 1400 full and probationary members in the China See also:mission, the first-fruits of two years' labour amongst the Miao tribe. In the various colonial Methodist unions the Bible Christians have contributed a See also:total of 159 ministers, 14,925 members and 66o chapels. The community supported a See also:regular ministry from the beginning. Its members have been keen evangelists, trusting largely to " revivals " for their success, staunch Radicals in politics and total abstainers to a man. Both ministers and people entered with See also:interest and sympathy into the See also:scheme for union between them-selves, the Methodist New Connexion and the United Methodist See also:Free Church, which was successfully accomplished in 1906.

End of Article: BIBLE CHRISTIANS

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
BIBLE 		[next]
BIBLE SOCIETIES

Site © 2006 - Net Industries