Religion and Violence in Early American Methodism: Taking the Kingdom by Force

INTRODUCTION

Soldiers of Christ Arise, and put your armor on, Strong in the strength which God supplies thru his eternal Son; Strong in the Lord of Hosts, and in his mighty power, Who in the strength of Jesus trusts is more than conqueror. —Charles Wesley, “Soldiers of Christ Arise” Early Methodist leader Charles Wesley originally, and quite appropriately, set the tune of this hymn to Handel’s March. We know the hymn today as “Soldiers of Christ Arise.” Its origins stretch back to a much longer poem, sixteen verses in all, that Charles composed no later than 1742. The selection has appeared in Methodist hymnals for two and a half centuries, sung by everyone from poor farmers in tiny clapboard churches to the world’s elite. Unlike many hymns that have failed to stand the test of time, “Soldiers of Christ Arise” has become a classic that continues to enjoy a place in the official United Methodist hymnal. But if hymns of similar content indicate important themes and values within a religious community, “Soldiers of Christ Arise” now stands out awkwardly. Though Methodists, like many other Christians, can still open their hymnals and loudly sing “stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross,” ask in the words of Isaac Watts “am I a soldier of the Cross?” or bellow “onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before,” there are Introduction 2 Religion and Violence in Early American Methodism few other hymns in the United Methodist hymnal that overtly refer to Christians as soldiers or to some aspect of the Christian life as a battle. Two of these hymns, including “Soldiers of Christ Arise,” are more than two centuries old, and their presence is fading.1 The relative absence of hymns of military glory and epic battle in today’s mainline churches in America masks a much more vibrant past. In fact, “Soldiers of Christ Arise” is the last remaining song in the United Methodist hymnal that also appeared in a curious section of the famous A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists, compiled by Charles Wesley’s older and more renowned brother John in 1780. The elder Wesley intended his Collection of Hymns to be inexpensive, widely disseminated, exhaustive, and highly adaptable. He organized the hymnal around various experiences of the Christian life, with the section of twenty-eight hymns that included “Soldiers of Christ Arise” tucked neatly between seventy-four hymns Wesley labeled “For Believers Rejoicing” and eleven hymns labeled “For Believers Praying.” Wesley provocatively named the section in between “For Believers Fighting.”2 The preacher also utilized “Soldiers of Christ Arise” in another significant early Methodist publication. In 1742, John Wesley appended all sixteen verses of Charles’s poem, then known as “The Whole Armour of God,” to the end of his seminal document Character of a Methodist. Wesley used the document to define and defend the growing British Methodist movement against confusion and criticism. Wesley firmly established the character or mark of a Methodist in experiential terms: “one who has ‘the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him’” and affectionate terms as one who loves both God and neighbor. The Methodist, insisted Wesley, not only puts these experiences and affections into practice by obeying God’s commandments, praying without ceasing, and performing good deeds, but she also attains a form of sinless perfection that Wesley defined as sanctification.3 Through a dramatic rhetorical shift, Wesley cast aside the language of intimacy evoked through his repeated use of terms such as “love” and “joy” and closed the Character of a Methodist with his brother’s now famous call for “soldiers of Christ” to arise, stand “against your foes,” and “wrestle, fight, and pray.” Wesley might have used the body of his essay to define Methodists as ones who experienced the love of God and expressed that love to humanity, but his conclusion left no doubt that his followers were also warriors prepared for battle, strong, powerful, and confident in victory. Introduction 3   Wesley’s followers responded to his call to battle in profound ways. Wesley ’s chief lieutenant, John Fletcher, warned Christians about failing to see the necessity of fighting. To view the Christian life in any way other than a battle was “the grand device of Satan” to deny humans their salvation (emphasis...