At all events the preaching was mighty, and led to great religious revivals, which were another sign of the stability mentioned. It has not abandoned, not lowered, the class meeting, the lovefeast, the prayer meeting. It has been too old-fashioned to eliminate its peculiarities on the plea of catholicity. The reason for the existence of a church or system of any other kind is to be found in its peculiarities, as also the secret of its power. It is in them you find the reason for being a Methodist rather than a member of some other Church.
Organic unity obtained by the surrender of specific differences is a loss.
The great excellence, of which all else is the basis, is in the specific difference rather than the genus, as the logician would contend. It should be added that the relations of Methodism to the Established Church have been friendly and catholic, though nonconformist. In the early times, as elsewhere, the two were not so distinct and separate. At the same time, there was a separate organisation. But, on both sides, things have tended to change.