The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1884-12-17
METHODIsM IN AMERICA.
A CENTENARY SERMON PREACHED
BY REV. DIR. KETCHAM,
AZ the NJ. E. Church, HillsbOrO, Sum
day, December eth.
CENTENNIAL 1884.

Episcopal Church.
1t may be necessary TO explain what we
mean by the Centennial of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. We mean that one
hundred years ago it was formally organ
lied as the Methodist Episcopal Church
l. Trace the work from the beginning
in 1888, on to the organization of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in 1884. Of
the progress Of the work under Mr.. Wesley
and his coadiutors, for more than 40 years,
we may not now speak. .
It has spread over large part of Eng
land, into Ireland, and Wales, and across
the ocean to America. Most of the early
Methodists in the Colonies we're from Eng
land.
After the Revolutionary war.
1. The condition of the people was most
pitiable and needy. All disorganized and
most of the clergy had returned to Eng
land.
2. OF the Mothodists there were 81
preachers and Is, 600 members.
The preachers were not ordained and the
sacramsnts were not administered.
In this state of things many letters were
written to Mr.. Wesley asking for relief,
and that some provision be made, so that
the American Society should no longer be
as sheep having no shepherd.
In 1850 wesley applied to Bishop Lowth,
of London, cnueating him to ordain at
least one Presbytor to administer the sacra-
meuts among the American Methodists.
Lowth declined"
Wesley now turned to his own chief
couuselors, among whom were Coke, and
Fletcher of Mndelay. The latter greatly
sympathized with Wesley in his work and
with his American brethren. He had
thought of crossing the Atlantic and labor.
ing and dying among them. But his de-
olining health forbade it. Rankin, on his
return from America met him near Bristol
They walked in a garden for retired con
versation. While Rankin was describing
the condition Of the American Societies
the sanity vicar stopped him six times
under the shade of trees and broke out Will
prayer to God for the prosperity of the
American brethren. At the Leeds Confer
| ence, 1884, Fletcher aided with his counse
to bring the American question to an issue
Wesley discussed it with Coke, who wal
an ordained Presbyter OF Elder of thu
Church of England
He cited the example of the ancien
| Alexandrian Church, which through two
! hundred years provided its Bishops through
ordination by its Presbyters.
He now proposed to ordain Coke bishoI
under the unpretentious but synOnymu
term Superintendent" and to send him t,
the relief of the American Methodists
DR.. Coke hesitated, but after two month
of prayerful consideration, acceded to tn
plan; and "On Sept. 1st, 1884, Rev. JOhl
| Wesley, Thomas Coke, and James Creigh
ton, Presbyters of the Church of England
formed a presbytery and ordained Richart
Whotcoat and Thomas Vasey deacons. Ant
on the next day. by the same hands, What
coat and Vasey were ordained elders, ant
Thomas Coke, LII. D., was ordained Super
intendent or Bishop of the Church Of GOt
under our care in North America
"By this solemn measure American Meth
odism was to take the precedence of tn
) Colonial Episcopal Church in the dates 0
their reorganization after the Revolutionar
war. Methodist Bishops we're the frs
Protestant Bishops, and Methodism wa
the first Protestant Episcopal Church o
the New World" This was a wise, order
ly, and dignihed procedure to provide 70
the necessities Of the American Christians
IL has been attributed to the imbecilit
of Wesley's old age, and the ambition O
the men who were concerned in it. But
was the result of his mature Judgment. ii
- saws. Ut was a step which he had Ion
Z weighed in his mind He began his pull
3 lie career as bigoted high Churchma1
Z But he had long since OutgrOwn tn
] churchly errors of his education. Nearl
o. 40 years prior to these ordinations he ha
? read Lord Kings account of the Primitiv
Church. and renOunced the opinion tbs
there was any essential distinction Of orde
between Bishops and Presbyters. Bi5ho
SdlHngheet had proved to him that it is a
entire mistake that none but espiscOpal OF
i dination is valid. In 1856 he wrote,
still believe the episcopal form of Churc
Government to be SCriptural and ApostOl
S cal, mean, well agreeing with the practiC
t and writings of the Apostles but that it
, prescribed in Scripture, 1 do not believ
This opinion which I once zealously e.
poused, I have been heartily ashamed
ever since I read Bishop Shllingheet
e Irenicum.' I think he has unanswerab
II proved that neither Christ nor his Apostle
4 have prescribed any particular form
Church government, and that the plea
divine right for diocesan episcopacy WI
never heard Of in the primitive Church
n Twenty-nine years before the appointmei
d of Coke, Wesley said, Il firmly believe tn
'- / am a Scriptural episcopas Cor bishop
IS much as any man in England, for the uni
d terrupted succession I know to be a fabl
e which no man ever did or can prove
l- In accordance with these opinions Wesl
n at various times ordained some of his 9th
ID itinerauts for Scotland, and some for Il
y West Indies, and at last some for Englai
also.
Thus equipped DR.. Coke, Whatcoat al
b. Vasey embarked for America Sept. 19t
1854, and landed at New York, Nov. 8
after a voyage Of more than six weeks.
q They were conducted TO the house
Stepen Sands, O member and trustee Of {
u John Street Church, In which church
I'D preached on the night of his arrival
HI