Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-09-27
The Peril of MetIiodIsm.

the hermifs cell to become one of the
great pioneers Of Professionalism, and
what the German reformersdid for the
peasant class in Germany the English
preacher did for the middle class in Eng
land and America. The Methodism
which grew out of Wesley's preaching
is the middle class religion of the Pro
testant world. 1t cut a wide swath
through English society during the latter
half of the eighteenth century, and
reached the class always least amenable
10 rellglous teaching and always consti-
tutng the active propelling force in great
practcal movements 1t reached Ameri-
ca at the moment when the struggling
English colonies achieved their indepen-
dence, and was the only religious body
that understood how to carry the GOSPEL
on horseback and in saddlehags through
the sparse settlements inland from the
seaboard which were within a century to
become the seats of empire. The move
ment had a place within the En-.
glish Church, and in some sense has
always had tender relations with the ma
ternal heart In this country it has been
compelled to develop freely, with no
huge organization overshadowing its col
lective forces. Here it counts fourteen
millions of adherents; in England those
in connection with the Bristol Confer
ence number about five millions. Its
growth has been almost without prece-
dent in religious history, and the Ecu
menical Council now assembling in Lon.
don at the historical quarters of its early
beginnings, though it will be represent
ed by some twenty different religious
70 vrh fn Inh
their spiritual father, brings to focus
the great interests for which Methodism
stands, and is rightly regarded as a nota-
BILE event in the religious world.
Methodism has achieved vast and i'm
portant results in the conversion of souls.
1t is to-day one of the great forces of the
religious world. But, none the less. il ia
church by accident Wesley intended
to be sort of "fourth estate" in the
Church of England, and in this country
nothing more is brought forward than its
Episcopal parentage. The Englshwo-
man who defined her Wesleyanism as
justification by faith and penny a
week, was not far out of the way. The
Methodist theology is nothing but the
Thirty-nine Articles of the English
Church eliminated of their sacra-
is Wesley's shrewd attempt at organiza-
ton with the Papal system as model.
The entire make up of Methodism
is due to borrowings here and there.
which are admirably fitted into one an
other as working system, and which,
under Wesley's genius as their first inn
pulse, have for century admirably
served their purpose It has been
q xxrhi i01 hac
with his disciples and carried Methodism
as a working force to the ends of the
earth. 1t has overrun the world like
Mohammedanism. 1t has done and is
doing a service of the greatest import
ance TO humanity But this should not
render its leaders blind to the fact that
the system is without any proper theo-
logical or historical basis, and that only
its cohesive Church polity and its en-
thusiasm for the CHRIST hold its con-
glomerate masses together. Here lies
its danger. 1t is always controlled in
its directions by the religious body
which is the strongest. In England it
develops af1nities with Anglicanism; in
this country it is Presbyterian, Episcopal.
or Congregational, as the case may be,
but it is almost never a self-determining
agent, with large ethical purposes of its
own which must be carried out at all
hazards 1t is the genius of the system
to cling to something else.
Out of this characteristic arises diff.
Guilty, not difficulty in the ecclesiasti-
cal system or pOlity so much as an ethi-
cal difficulty. 1t has not the same power
TO keep people that it has to win them.
This difficulty is partly social because
the middle is always rising in the case of
individuals into the higher class, but it
is also theological or moral, and arises
from the fact that Methodism is a
church by the accident of position, or
as an after-thought. This is disin-
tegrating force which stands out more
clearly as MethOdism aspires to be the
church of the future. 1t has too much
top for its base, and the pur-
pose which it served when there was
pioner work to be done along the skirts
of the American wilderness is not the
same which it is called to serve to day in
American society. 1t best suits the new
soil and the fervors of fresh life II can
hardly be said to flourish along the At
lantic seaboard as it does in the sunny
South or the distant West This de-
feet is supplemented by all sorts Of
educational appliances, but these only
lead the body further and further away
from primitive Methodism. 1t will be one
of the problems of the approaching Coun-
Gil to solve the question whether Method
ism, pure and simple, can exist upon the
basis of broad and liberal education.
This is suggested, not because we wish
the system i'll, but because it is perhaps
the one rock of danger or difficulty
which begins to loom up in the near fn-
ture. The increase of wealth among the
Methodists, both in this country and in
England, is attended with changes which
essentially subvert their early methods
and turn them into strange caricatures
of Wesley's disciples. The question is
how the life of Methodism, as a great
Christian force, can be saved to its mem.
bers when it has no more worlds to con-
quer, and nothing can prevent the ask.
ing of this question again and again as
time goes on.
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