The Indianapolis journal., 1884-05-12

!
/ being the general religious tone of the age. 1t
/ requires higher pitch, even the full
| kingdom of heaven in the souls of her people,
! If MethodiSm has nothing to offer beyond its
contemporaries in the fulness of its spirituality,
! it has lost its vantage ground, and its leverage
on society IS well nigh extinct. Methodism can
| only renew lis youth and gather fresh elements
! of strength by M influx of converted people.
| y concouS conversion The witness of the spirit,
an attainable and retainable holiness, and growth
! in grace constitutes the warp and woof, the
/ hymn and the music of Methodism. 1T Is be
! cause of the proclamation of full and free sal
| vation to all that we have had access to the
! hearts Of the people. There is no record in &C.
| cleslastical history of such trnmphs as ours,
! and doubtless much of this depends upon the
! unity and connectonal bond of sympathy which
! in all parts of the world ;nto one great
! familyhood of love and the labor of love;
The economy of the Methodist Episcopal Church
is most wisely and effectually adapted to this
end. There have been some changes and modif-
cations Of church machinery and other in
novations are likely to follow. bat rest assured
that MethodiSm will never be without methods
the very best methods-for evangelizing the
world and Of promoting her great correctional
interests Our societies. circuits stations, dis
tricts annual and general conferences are lndis-
solubly united and held together by our great
connectional spirit and supervision which is
characteristic. distinctive feature of Methodism.
The class smeeting has been one of the prominent
features of Methodism. Certainly no one who
is familiar with the history of our church can
deny that very much of the energy unity and
stability of Methodism is due to the class system
But perhaps the most unique and distinctive fea-
ture of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is her
itinerancy. 1t has many advantages over "a
settled pastorate,' but chiefly in this, that it
seems to each church pastor at all times, and
to every effective travelling minister a charge; be
sides it gives to each church the benefit of the
varied endowments of many ministers. Very
few men combine in themselves all the qualifica-
tions desirable in a minister. Most men are one
sided in native character, one-sided in acquire
ments, one-sided by habit One man is a rea-
soner, another declaimer onea preacher, another
| pastor One preacher stirS up the sinners and
has revival, while another builds up the church;
and so, in our system of itinerancy, we
give to our churches the combination of
all the essential qualifications of ministerial
success in the course of time In the early his
tory of American Methodism. with the eX-
| ception of our superintendent and compare
| lively few Others our ministers were unedu-
Gated, or rather elf-educated; but they were
men of fervent piety and indomitable courage.
| Whatever else men may have, whether varied
culture and scholarship energy, ambition, or
splendid native abilities, if they lack true moral
courage their lives may be written in a paren-
! thesis. The pioneer preachers of MethOdism
were men of strong convictions. 1t made no
difference to them whether they We're confronted
with perls or dangers, whether they saw oppo-
sition and trials circling round them, and the
ascension robes of martyrdom before them,
ply because God was with them. God
thrust them out into the ministry
which he supplemented by the presence and
power ofthe Holy Ghost. 1t was not because of
! their poverty and priyatiOn, not because they
had been converted, not because they were ilit-
crate and obscure, that the founders of our faith
went steadily to the 'front.' but because they
were called of God to proclaim to lost and dying
men, full and free salvation. They climbed
the steep and rugged mountains, they threaded
forests where the pathway was bazed on the
trees by the hardy pioneers; they followed the
meanderings of rivers, uncertain where they
would lead them, in the vast wilderness, and
wherever they saw the blue smoke curing up
| from some settlers cabin they went there and
| planted an alter and preached the gospel to the
poor, without a thought of compensation.
No thought of wealth filled their hearts, social
position and the amenities that make life happy
were forgotten, while the love of Christ con
| strained them, and burning words Of truth
| flowed on their lips. They were prosecuted but
this only kindled the holy fire in their souls, and
II Is largely to this splendid courage and daunt-
| less heroism that owe our Unprecedented
| growth on this continent. To-day we have
educated ministry with superb facilities for the
education of our preachers The curriculum of
our theological institutions is second to none,
but as ii respects those high and noble traits of
courage, fidelity and heorism, we can but pray
that the mantles of our fathers may fall upon
us, and above all, tn at endowment of power
which is from on high. General Cass once said
of Methodist minister:
Whatever they may say of you Methodists they
never deprive you of the honor of having laid the
foundations of aChrstian civilization in this Western
country. Without churches, without salaries, with
out people the Methodist preachers went forth
pilgrims and strangers in strange land to proclaim
the unsearchable riches of Christ They did in
augurate system of proseyting from other churches
They sought the great object of their mission the
conversion of the people from their sins Thousands
Of their converts found their homes in other com
munions and they scattered broadcast the seeds of
our Christian civilization.
On one occasion President Harrison paid a
beautiful tribute to the Methodist ministry. He
said
WHO and what are theyl I answer, entirely COM
posed of ministers, who technically denominated
circuit riders body of who for zeal and fidelity
in the discharge of the duties they undertake are not
exceeded by any other in the whole world I have
been witness of their conduct in the Western coun-
| try for nearly forty years They are men whom
labor tires no scenes disgust, danger frghtens in
the discharge of their duty. To gain recruits for
their masters service they sedulously seek out the
victims of vice, in the abodes Of wretchedness The
of poverty is not taken by these men, but their
conduct is precisely such as it would have been had
they take one If traveller the Western frontiers
had met stranger urging his course through the
ntrioacies of tangled forest his apparel plain and
| his countenance indicating that he in search of
some object in which his feelings were deeply inter
ested he might almost be certain that the stranger
Methodist preacher hurrying on to perform his
daily task of preaching to distant and widely sepa-
rated congregations of eight ten persons gathered
in solitary and unfnsh cabins
Cass and Harrison were not Methodists but
they knew how to appreciate the character and
work of a Methodist preacher
/ can not in this sermon give you the micro
cosm of a century, but there are three things in
the history of American Methodism to which
every member of the church can refer with ad-
mration, namely our position the slavery
! question, our relation to the Temperance reform
and our loyalty to the union. As early as 1772
the Baltimore Conference delivered proclama-
ton of liberty to every man held in bondage
and, although rent and torn by schismatic ten
denotes which finally eliminated in the separa-
ton of the church on the subject of slavery the
Methodist Episcopal Church has stood firmly and
uncompromisingly by her anti-slavery princi-
piles, Our record as it relates to the temper
ance reform is open to inspection, 1t is clean
and scriptura, and today we stand,
as a church, committed to total
! ahc and constitutional rrobihtio,,