rights of membership
in the Church. I refer to attendance upon class-meeting--without
attendance at which no person is acknowledged as a member of the
Wesleyan Methodist Church, however sincerely and cordially he may
believe her doctrines, prefer her ministry, and support her
institutions, and however exemplary he may be in his life.

I believe the class-meetings, as well as love-feasts, have been and are
a means of immense good in the Wesleyan Church, and that both should be
employed and recommended as prudential and useful, means of religious
edification to all who may be willing to avail themselves of them. But
attendance at love-feast is known to be voluntary and not to be a
condition of membership in the Church; so I think that attendance at
class-meeting should also be voluntary, and ought not to be exalted into
an indispensable condition of membership in the Church; I am persuaded
that every person who believes the doctrines, and observes the precepts
and ordinances enjoined by our Lord and His Apostles, is eligible to
membership in the Church of Christ, and cannot, on Scriptural or
Wesleyan grounds, be excluded from its rights and privileges upon the
mere ground of his or her being unable to reconcile it to their views to
take a part in the conversations of class-meetings.

The views thus stated, I have entertained many years. After having
revolved the subject in my mind for some time, I expressed my views on
it in 1840 and 1841.... But since my more direct connection with the
youth of the country at large, and having met with numbers of exemplary
persons who prefer the Methodist Church to any other, but are excluded
from it by the required condition of attending class-meeting, besides
thousands of young people of Wesleyan parents and congregations, I have
become more deeply than ever impressed with the importance of the
question, to which I referred in remarks made at the last and preceding
Conferences. I had intended until within a short time to defer any
decision on the step I now take until the next annual Conference, and
until after bringing the question in the form of distinct propositions
before the Conference; but, after the best consideration in my power, I
have thought it advisable to resign my office in the Church at the
present time--fearing the revival and results of unpleasantnesses from
my bringing the question formally before the Conference, ... and from a
deep conviction that I should no longer