The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1881-09-22
The Methodist Gcumen1cal Council.

The Toronto, Canada, Mail says of the
Methodist conference or council, now in
session in LOndOn-It was fitting that the
great Methodist communion, which has
extended its spiritual usefulness so widely
throughout the English speaking world,
should follow the example Of the Anglican
and Presbyterian Churches, and assemble
by representation in council Only Il
hundred and forty years ago, or therea-
bouts, the WeSleys, John and Charles, be
gan to form their societies, and to-day,
according to Whitaker's Almanac, there
are fourteen millions and a half Of Metho-
dists in the British Empire and the Unit
ed States. They constitute, in fact, the
second in point of numbers OF all the
Churches, and are spreading everywhere
with a zeal and fervour unprecedented
save in times of 4 religious upheaval al
most revolutionary.
mike the great historic Churches,
Methodism owes nothing either 10 tradi
tional weight on the one hand, or politi-
cal needs on the other. The little band
Of oxford students who between l729 and
l13J met together to pray, to eXhort, and
help each other, sought no aid from flesh
and blood. They knew but this, that re
ligion was asleep, and needed spiritual
awakening that worship had legenerat-
ed into Journalism; and that the faith once
delivered to the saints had fallen upon
evil times England had a Christian
name to live by, and yet was dead, wrap
ped in the cere-c cloths Of Il stiff and bar
rem moraliZing. Deism did not 50 much
alarm the spiritual minded as the frlgidi-
ty, the bloodless, the sickly pallor of Il
taithess Church. The enemies Of relg-
ion were chiefly those Of its own house
hold
1t was INTO the midst of this spiritual
decay that John Wesley burst with his
eyangel. He had been in America, he had
caught fire from the Morayians of Ger
many, and the mystic power which had
lain dormant for generations was once
more to do its reviving work. There was
nothing revolutionary in Wesley's aims
he varied neither against Church nor
State, but fought only against carnality,
Journalism, and spiritual death. And if
ever there was a man obviously marked
out for his appointed work Wesley was
that man. He was one, says Macauay,
"Whose elOquence and logical acuteness
might have made him eminent in litera-
ture, whose genius for government was
not inferior to that of Rchelieu." Whit
field might excel him in imprisoned
oratOry, but he possessed what was more
permanently valuable, not only the spirit
ual ferv0ur which seizes upon the hearts
and consciences of the masses, but the Or
ganiZing ability which binds them togeth-
er. The great preacher is only a memory
Wesley was the founder of vigorous and
powerful Church. 1t is not too much to
say, humanity speaking, that it was the
form as we'll as the spirit Of Methodism
which has given it vitality. The class
meeting, which is its distinctive feature,
was a mastery devised agency. not mere
" for keeping up brotherly sympathy,
but for the stimulus it gave, and contin-
ueS to give, to the spiritual circulation of
the communion.
Nor was the work of Wesley confined
to the Church he founded almost with
out intending it, The impulse of the
movement was not confined to the socie-
ties. 1t spread into the Church Of Eng
land, and ditfused new life there, and if
the nineteenth century opened upon a
better and more active religious world,
the credit Of it must be given to the once
despised and prosecuted Methodists.