The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-02-26

: of the elect scattered over all the world
Fhe Anabaptists, who were bent on puri
flying the character of the Church, ant
who sought to make the initial rite
more rational act, and the Quakers, VIII,
4 believed in the abolition of all ontwart
rites, set themselves against the nev
movement. They still lived on, and los
but few OF their adherents, but they wol
no new ones. Only the young sectof the
i Unitarians, so entirely creation of tht
last century, grew and flourished; thi
was, however, Of necessity, only a eresG
A for the cultured, and could not become
a national religion even in this century
OF enlightenment. For it required, a.
an essential feature, the complete eman-
cipation of the Church from all obliga-
tSons which could in any way limit the
doctrinal liberty of the clergy; and reli
gion, a national religion, can not exist
under such conditions.
/ 1t was otherwise with Wesleyanism,
which did not at first identify itself with
Dissent. but, like pietism in Germany,
made its ann to renovate the National
Church through the feelings and by a
spiritual regeneration. 1t therefore
formed lay societies and associations
Within the Church, and required manifest
conversion and the personal reception of
revealed truth by every Individual; it
even introduced Moravian institutions,
and Wesley himself was in direct connec-
ton with the Moravian body. He wished,
however, to remain in the compunion of
the Established Church. Such a COM
promise could not, of course, be lasting,
but he had, so to speak, to be turned out
by the shoulders. Loug after lie and his
apostle, Whitfield, had transferred their
activity from the Church which had
driven them out, to other and freer fields,
they declared themselves to be true
members of the Established Church.
First, in 17S5, and more positively in
1895, the Evangelical movement" as it
was at first called, was consolidated into
the Methodist sect, which now numbers
in England alone a million Of members,
(some say 2,400,000,) and in America
100000.
Nevertheless, it began from that time
to decline, for although powerful re-
Iigious movements always emanate from
the classes which are inaccessible to
philosophical culture, they are neverthe-
less doomed to become unfruitful unless
they are capable Of assilniIating some
philosophical element" (Leslie Stephen
This ulffruitlulness must be understood,
however, only Of Methodism as sect.
Wesleyanism, as a historical fact, was
abundantly fruitful. 1t gave new life
to the State Church, ror.ed it to resist
ance, and discovered 10 it it's own weak
points. Such movements, however, aris
H., out of ceiling, always produce in the
end a reactionary effect, as, had already
been shown in the ease of German
pietism, while, on the other hand, ration
allstlc movements are, Of necessity, al
ways progressive. The tractitrianism,
Puseyisin, Ritualism of the present cen
tury, which would never have arisen but
for the impulse given by Wesleyanism,
are thoroughly reactionary in their ma
ture.
Thus has this much-calumnated
eighteenth century, which produced
such fair flowers and noble fruits on The
Continent, lett deep and beneficial traces
also III Ling land. 1t was an era, of in-
creased political liberty, of revival in lit
nature. and Of remarkable religious devel-
'pment. This should he remembered by
he Radicals, advanced thinkers. and
dlgh Cnurchmen, who are wont to look
'ack with 80 much contempt on the age
+ their grandfathers. A century ia
which England twice, at the commence ,
aant and at the close, defended Europe
n Independence against schemes of uni
ersal monarchy, and built up and per-
ected its own internal Constitution; an .
&c which produced, from "Gulliver'' to
Halloween" series of literary master
leces such as no other nation =
the world possesses; an age which ex-
rcised the most complete religious tol-
ration the world has ever seen, with
ut falling a prey to religious marasmus
such a century need not shrink from
with any other period of the {
lorlous annals Of English history. G