Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-09-13

the pastors to whom they are accustom
ed-men who look with little favor, and
sometimes with open contempt, on "pol.
ish )" who look with suspicion on the
mater where an excess of attention is
paid to the matter: men whose style in
the pulpit is much like that of the poll
tician on the stump. The Americans,
on the other hand, and especially the
western ones, are not easily produced
on English soil; they do not
flourish in the English atmosphere; nor,
il transplanted from America, would
they be very acceptable here. They ex-
ist in England, and they are utilized as
lay preachers and as evangelists, but
they are
Not Selected a. Representative Men
to be delegates in ecumenical councils.
Yet the off-hand readiness, the enthusi.
asm, the disregard for forms and cere.
monies and conventionalities that have
been, and still are, largely the character
istics o. the Methodist preacher, were
exported to America from Eng.
land. Evidently there has been
great change, in forms at least, IN
English Methodisn. When Methodist
preachers were .s6cially outcasts, they
cared nothing for society. Ashley be-
come admitted to society, as in this
country, or as society grows up around
them, as in the United States, the
Methodist preachers begin to take
little interest in their dress, their educa.
ton, their manners, their language.
The Methodist preachers who are dined
by Lord Mayors, and entertained in
Episcopal palaces belonging to the es-
tablishment are not in their outward
appearance like those who were sent
out by John Wesley to plant the seedso
spirituality in the souls OF Journalists,
and the difference is in part the cause,
but in a greater degree the result, Of
such receptions. The effect OF this con-
tact with the social world on the Meth
odist system will be watched with inter-
est by the students of religion and social
evolutions. That spiritual communism
which is the Methodist ideal can be
maintained with difficulty, il at all, in
societies whose members differ radically
in wealth, taste, occupation, and social
status. Those frank confessions OF error
lOT MlllCu luc Cldob-ulCtlihR CAloto
are almost impossible TO secure
when the class meeting consists OF forty
or fifty individuals not intimately ac-
quainted with each other, and widely
sundered in business and society. The
large Methodist church OF London, New
York, or Chicago, is not, and apparent
ly cannot be made, the spiritual family
which John Wesley and the pioneers Of
American Methodism had little difficult
ty in organizing out Of small numbers OF
neighbors of about the same grade OF in.
telligenCe and wealth, OF rather the lack
OF them. There are some indications OF
even
Desper Changes Than Those Of Dress
and Language.
As the Methodist theology is formu-
lated, accusations OF being too Calvan.
istic are made against some OF the most
eminent founders OF the Church, and
it remains TO be seen il the Methodists
are 80 different from all other Christians
that they can be brought into intimate
contact with society, and with the great
currents of thought in theology and
philosophy, without experiencing
changes OF substance as we'll as surface.