Joshua Soule

Joshua Soule (1781-1867) was an American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1824.

Birth and Rebirth

Joshua was born 1 August 1781 on a farm on Broad Cove, Bristol, Maine. He was the son of a Norman-English sea-faring family and is descended lineally from George Soule (or Sowle), one of the Mayflower Pilgrims. His father was a former sea captain, and his parents were both strict Presbyterians. Joshua was converted to the Christian faith in 1797, and joined the New England Annual Conference in 1799.

Ministry

He was known as a "Boy Preacher." " He was ordained, both Deacon and Elder, by Bishop Richard Whatcoat. He was appointed a Presiding Elder at the age of 23. He also served as a Book Agent for the M.E. Church. In 1820 he was elected Bishop, but declined consecration because the General Conference had adopted a policy he could not approve. He did accept episcopal consecration upon being elected again, in 1824.

In the 1844 division of the M.E. Church, he sided with the South. At the age of 72 he was worn out with labor and travel. He died 6 March 1867 in Nashville. His body was buried first at old City Cemetery, but later was removed to the campus of Vanderbilt University.

elected Writings

*is said by Bishop DuBose ("Life of Bishop Joshua Soule") to have been "the man who at the age of 27 wrote the Constitution of Methodism."
*is said by Bishop Simpson ("Cyclopedia of Methodism") to have been the "author of the plan for a delegated General Conference."
*"Sketch of William Beauchamp" in Beauchamp's Letters on Itinerancy, published after his death.
*"Sermon on Death of McKendree," delivered at General Conference, brochure, 30 pp., 1836.
*"Christ the Author of Salvation," Akers, T.P., Sermons for the Collge, 1851.
*Sermon: "Infant Baptism," The Southern Methodist Pulpit, Vol. II, C.F. Deems, Editor, 1849-52.
*"Object and Nature of Religious Worship." Discourse at Dedication of John St. Church, N.Y.C., 4 January 1818, published 1857.
*Sermon: "The Perfect Law of Liberty," Methodist Pulpit, South, W.T.Smithson, Editor, 1859.
*Sermon in Sermons for the Home Circle, T.P. Akers, Editor, 1859.
*"Religious Experience and Happy Death of Miss Eliza Higgins," 40 pp., n.d.

Biographies

*Stevens, A., Memorials of Methodism, 1848.
*"Sketch" by L.M.L. in Deems, C.F., Southern Methodist Pulpit, 1849-52.
*Wightman, W.M., "Address in Appreciation of Bishop Soule," written manuscript, 1867, in the Methodist Bishops' Collection.
*Sketch by Tefft, B.F., in Flood and Hamilton, Lives of Methodist Bishops, 1882.
*Memorial Sermon, funeral of Joshua Soule, 1867, in McTyeire, H.N., Passing Through the Gates and Other Sermons, 1889.
*Denny, Collins, "Joshua Soule, Sketch of Life," in Armstrong, J.E., Old Baltimore Conference, 1907.
*Dubose, H.M., Life of Joshua Soule, 1911.
*Garber, P.N., "Young Man from Maine," Epworth Highroad, May 1940.

References

* Leete, Frederick DeLand, Methodist Bishops. Nashville, The Methodist Publishing House, 1948.
*Short, Roy Hunter, Chosen to be Consecrated: The Bishops of The Methodist Church, 1784-1968, Lake Junaluska, N.C., General Commission on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church, 1976.

ee also

* List of Bishops of the United Methodist Church