Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1881-09-15
City Road Chapel.

Tomorrow morning the Methodists
Of the world will organize their Ecu
menical Conference in City Road Chapel,
This unpretentious name belongs to al
editice in London, which will be during
this week the most conspicuous ecclesi-
astical point on the globe. 1t is the
oldest existing. temple of Methodism,
and Methodism goes mp FROM all the
continents to worship and to fraternize
at the venerable shrine, Although City
Road Chapel is not Mecca or Rome,
it is place hallOwed by so many pious
memories that it must have perma-
nent place in the religious history of
mankind. There Wesley completed the
organization of Methodlsm; from that
spot went forth a-sacred impulse which
is still gathering force. When the Amer
lean Methodists-who are four-fifths of
the entire body-proposed to hold a
Pan-Methodist Council in the old chapel,
their English brethren approved of the
meeting, bat preferred that it should be
held in the United States. The Ameri-
cans had their own way, and the family
assemblies in the old homestead. Care
less philosophers may lind in this Incl
dent proof that Wa Americans are es-
peeially reyerent towards historical as
sociations; but the incident probably
proves nothing of the sort. 1t is safe
to say that the American Methodist
does not, as rule, when he visits Lon
don, go to say his prayers in City
Road. He is a very practical person
with no nonsense about him. If John
Wesley were preaching in the old chapel
this American Methodist would take
great pains to hear him; but accepting
the'world as he finds it, he actually goes
to hear Mr.. Spurgeon or the next great
est living London preacher. The selec-
tion of City Road Chapel for the Confer
ence indicates no relapsing of Method
ism into pilgrimages. 1t pleased "the
gushers" we may thus shortly de-
scribe an enthusiasm which is not at
all general-to go to London; to the
main body of the Americans it mattered
little where the Conference should
meet, If only some real and last
ing good were gotten through its delib-
erations. Methodism does not and never
did, express its life in special or popular
forms of enthusiasm; but the few who
shouted and stormed always had abund-
ant liberty. If philosophy will count
noses, it will learn that, while few
Americans were anxious to make a pill
grimage, the many were solicitous only
concerning the fruits of this gathering
of their whole people.
And yet the City Road homestead is
one of the sacred spots on the earth. If
it be possible to pour into an ecclesiast-
ical pile vitality Of enduring force, the
Wesleyan Chapel and grounds must pos
sess this mysterious power. If it be
only the imagination and the emo
tions that serve themselves with such
material expression, it is still duty as
well as pleasure to study these sacred
spots in order to discover by what his
torical mechanics the human heart
makes out of brick and stone voiee~for
its feeling. There is some room for the
play of the historical Imagination in the
fact that Moorhelds (now Finsbury) lay
without the gates of the City of London,
and that the foundling of this City Road
Chapel, on April 81. 1777, may. well be
taken to mark the actual separation of
Wesley and his followers from the Es-
tablished Church. They had opened
preaching places forty years before.
Wesley had reached his seyenty-feurth
yaar and had already founded Method
ism; ! but this chapel was q conspicuous
sign of its distinct character. The stu
dent of history may well find an uncon-
scious declaration of independence in
the text which Wesley used at the dedi-
cation, November /, l77s. 1t was taken
from Solomon's prayer at the dedication
of the Jewish Temple. l8ls =
This temple of Methodism now usual
ly means both the Chapel and the Wes-
ley House. The Chapel has been several
times renovated and enlarged; but it
has not now large audience room, and
some fears have been entertained that it
will not contain, in addition to the four
hundred delegates, all the unofficial pill
grims. The Wesley House, adjoining
the Chapel. remains as nearly as possible
in the same state as when John Wesley
breathed his last within its pain walls.
Here the visitor. whether reverent or
curious, sees the things which Wesley
daily handled, his substantial chair, his
plain table, the narrow bed on which he
died, and even the china kettle which he