Methodism and the Temperance Reformation Author:Henry Wheeler Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. ACTION OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH ON TEMPERANCE FROM 1784 TO 1812. 1784. When the War of the Bevolution was ended and the Colonies were acknowl... more »edged as free aud independent, it was deemed proper to organize the societies as a Church, ecclesiastically independent of John Wesley and English Methodism. Accordingly, the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in the city of Baltimore in the year 1784. Mr. Wesley's rules were adopted by the new organization, and, as before, continued to be the fundamental moral code for Church members. This, of course, included the rule on temperance, so that the temperance idea is incorporated in the organic law of the Church, and the Church has been from the first one great temperance society, with well-defined principles and purposes. The original rule of 1743, the rule of 1780 against distilling grain, and the rule adopted by the conference of 1783, were all in force when the societies became an organized Church. In. 1784, the rule for preachers was as follows: " Question. May our ministers or traveling preachers drink spirituous liquors?" " Answer. By no means, unless it be medicinally." This was certainly a good record with which to begin. The Church was guarded at every point, both in its ministry and membership. Making, vending, aud using spirituous liquors were positively prohibited in the Methodist Episcopal Church. It would have been better for the peace and purity of the Church if these laws or rules had never been changed. The. above question and answer, put into the Discipline in 1784, were expunged in 1786, for what reason we can not tell. It is hardly possible that there was any laxity at this point among the preachers, at this time, though the testimony of Jesse Lee, as quoted in the preceding chapter,...« less