CHAPTER 1: PREPARATION

THE CLASS-MEETING CAME INTO EXISTENCE, not as the product of human device or invention, but as the offspring of divine providence. The way was being prepared for its institution for a considerable time before it made its appearance as a part of the economy of early Methodism. As the seed germinates and grows for a season beneath the soil before the blade appears above the surface, so the preparatory stage for the development of the class-meeting idea antedates the organization of Methodist societies, and must be looked for in connection with what was called, in derision, during Wesley’s student life in Oxford University, “The Holy Club.”

Here began, in 1729, that great revival of pure and undefiled religion out of which Methodism was born. At this period the state of religion and morals in Great Britain was deplorable in the extreme. Infidelity was widely diffused, and had taken a strong hold in particular upon the educated classes. The decay of conscience was general and lamentable, “and public morals suffered from the abandonment of religious principles and from the example of those high in authority.” While there were some notable exceptions, the clergy of the Established Church were to a large extent ignorant, and even loose