to urge all his converts to enter the Methodist Church that had rejected him from its highest office of ministry compels admiration.”“’

The rejection of William O’Bryan by the Methodist Church had taken place in May, 1810 in the chapel in Gunwen for which O’Bryan had given a plot of land besides one-half the cost of building. His opinion was that he had been rejected “for taking the Bible as my Rule, Christ as my example, and for no crime except irregular attempts to save souls.” Such phrases as these were to become significant in a few years when O’Bryan was to become the founder of a new sect of Methodists, to be known as Bible Christians.

3. REV. WILLIAM O’BRYAN: FOUNDER OF THE BIBLE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

In 1814, O’Bryan gave up his business in order “to be ready to go whither- soever Providence directed by steps”. He sought out parishes in which there were no evangelical preaching and accomplished much good.

His travels took him as far as the county boundary and to the area around Stratton, Cornwall where Methodism had been recently introduced. His preaching ability there brought him as much success as it had in other parts of Cornwall, and he gained much popularity. He offered his services to the Circuit Superintendent and, in company with his friend, Richard Spettigue, the Wesleyan Circuit Steward, made proposals to the Circuit Quarterly Meeting to accept William O’Bryan as an evangelist in good standing in the circuit as well as to permit O’Bryan to continue with his independent, itinerant missionary work. O’Bryan and Spettigue waited patiently for an answer to their requests but already had drawn up a contingent set of plans for preaching if they were rejected by the members of the Circuit Quarterly Meeting. The momentous event which occurred next was recorded by O’Bryan: “On Saturday, the 30th, I came to Bridgerule, Cornwall, and found how the affair stood, and the next day, Oc— tober the lst, 1815, entered on my circuit at Week St. Mary and Hex, Cor- nwall”. O’Bryan had now become a church founder, a position, which like that of Rev. John Wesley, he accepted reluctantly. Each man had struggled unsuc- cessfully to secure reforms within his own denomination, and only in his frustra— tion did he resolve that the only solution was in a new body of Christians. The Wesleyan Methodists had originated because the Church of England had become more interested in the fashions of society and pleasures of life rather than in the religious and spiritual work so desperately needed in England. The Wesleyans soon became so blinded by their concern for church rules and procedure that they were unable to provide for the spiritually destitute. In this hour of need, as has hap- pened in other critical periods of history, God provided in the person of Rev. William O’Bryan, a leader for a great religious revival.

49 “Bible Christians”, The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (1953 ed.). Vol. 2, pp. 84-85.

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