The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1884-12-06

ina.ienable lights of men end the unde.
miable claims of God Sc red the attach
ments Wiz ch the statesmen and the
churchmen of the new V rid owed to the
tate and he church the old. The
/ [ lifted States Of America was now an in.
! dependent nation, but il every state the
statutes of the parliament of Great Brit.
ain passed prior to the 4th of July 1916,
50 far as they were applicable, were de.
clared TO be the law of these sta es, and
the form of government was in all re.
spects patterned after that of the mother
country, except that a hereditary ruler,
and hereditary nobility were abolished.
And so The Methodist Episcopal Church
of Anne Cd, independent of all allegiance
to the church establishment of Great
Britain, still adopted with slight modifi
cations, its articles of belief, its forms OF
worship and church government, its
modes of administering the sacraments
of the Lords supper and baptism and its
ceremony of marriage; but utterly re-
pudiating the theory that its Bishops had
any right to sit in the legislative assem-
blies of the state. or take any part what
ever in its temporal concerns. An En-,
glish state without king or mobiles,
an English church (not without bishop
but without Bishop taking any part
in the government of the state.
1t may be that belief in special provi-
dences is growing weaker among certain
classes of Cur people, but whether we
call it special personal interest which
God takes in the affairs of men and ma
lions, OF that perfect general law Of the
universe by which he ordains the means
which naturally but certainly work out
his gra nd purposes of right and truth
and human progress,-I say call it what
ever na NE you will. still no man of in
telliger &c and fairness can for moment
doubt. that this successful launching OF
the Nj thodist Episcopal Church in Am.
erica gave to the new government of the
United Stntes of America the very sup
port il needed in that trying hour of its
existence, that crucial test of its insti
buttons. What that government needed
and without which it must have been an
utter failure, was virtue and intelligence
and sobriety in the great middle class Of
its citizens. To this class melhodism
appealed. 1t discountenanced dissipa
ton, dishonesty and vice of every grade,
it stimulated sobriety, order, economy
and accumulation of moderate means; so
that the moment mar became con
verified, and escaped from he power of
the Devil, that moment he began to
r4alize that government aid law and or
ganized society were his only safeguards.
The moment he became a pillar in the
church Of cur God to go out no more
forever, at the same moment he became
pillar of the state, and of the constitu-
ton.
Brought into existence at the same
moment of time, rocked in the same era
die of adversely and opposition, drawing
their love of order and their disdain of
mere FORMS without life, from the same
sturdy arglo-saxon middle class, they
advanced together growing with each
others growth and Strengthening with
each others strength, church and state,
wholly seperate, yet lndissolubly Joined
in their grand objects--the glory of God
and the moral elevation of mankind.
To follow with anything like minute
ness the development of this infant
church would not be practicable even if
it were advisable. Figures are not en-
PERTAINING subjects to general assemblies.
But this much is certainly true, the
church kept pace with the state, indeed
the church was the forerunner of the
state The rifle and the axe of the pio-
neer settler were closely followed by the
saddle bags of the Methodist circuit
rider; and whenever half dozen log
cabins were built within a circuit of
eight or ten miles notice was sure to be
given to the occupants that there would
be preaching in one of these cabins at
early candle light. Organizing themselves
into religious societies, and then orgap-
izing these societies into conferences gave
the people taste for Organization, and
the next step was to organize territorial
governments and then state governments.
The ministers of the new church put
themselves into full sympathy with the
people Of the new nation, church for
people Perhaps no words which could
compC Sc would SO clearly set out this
idea the following extract from Stevens
History of The Methodist Episcopal
church Speaking of Bishop Roberts he
says: No sooner had he been elected
Bishop than he fixed his Episcopal resi-
dence inthe old logcabinat ;aud
his next removal was to Indiana, then
the far west, where his Episcopal palace
was log cabin built by his own hands,
| and the furniture rude fabrications from
| the forestwood, made with such tools as
he had carried in his emigrant wagon.
The first meal of the Bishop and his
family in his new abode vas Of roasted
| potatoes only, and it VS. begun and
ended with hearty thank giving. Here
he lived in the true simpl ,ity of frontier
life, toiling, at his occasi, lal leisure, in
the fields. Simple and severe as this
western life was, IL was legitemate to the
character and position of Roberts; it
comported with the new field the great
diocese of the Mississippi Valley into
which he was thrust. There was in it a
compatibility with the genius of the
country, with the circumstances of time
aud place. Such was the life for such a
field; and Roberts was he man for both
such a fed and such life."
Let me refer to one other Methodist of
J yarly times very different man from
the modest, timid Roberts, but just the
man needed for one phase of the early
history of the county. Peter Cartwright
was born 80 years ago, his mother was a
Methodist. When nine years old he
heard preaching in his fathers log cabin.
\ class was formed four miles away, his
mother walked to this class and little
Peter went with her. At 16 having
danced late into the night at a wedding
he went home a convicted sinner and
spent the greater part of the residue OF