The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-18
SEATTLE. SUNDAY, OCT. rs.
A GREAr CHURCH.


comprising this great conference, repre-
senting church membership of 100000
and upwards of twenty-five millions of
intelligent, law-abiding people, 300 are
American Methodists, of whom 126 belong
to the Methodist Episcopal church and Ga
to the Methodist Episcopal church, South,
the remaining 110 being distributed among
the smaller Methodistical sects in proper
ton to their relative strength. The re-
naming 200 delegates are subdivided
among seven British Methodist sects be-
sides the Irish Methodist church, the
Australasian Methodist communion, the
South African Methodist church, the
West Indian Methodist body, and the
Methodist church of France. The British
churches of Wesleyan origin, unlike the
American Methodist bodies, do not give
any of their ministers the title of bishop.
In this council for the first time in the his
tory of Methodism women sat side by side
with men.
John Wesley, who founded the Method
list church, was gentleman, scholar,
High Church man, a presbyter of the
English church, the son of the vicar of
Epworth, and fellow of Oxford college,
yet when he revolted from the methods of
the established church he was denounced
by its clergy, and his revival of the relig-
ion Of vital piety against that of effete
scclesiasticism had to make its way
against the deadly and brutal opposition
alike OF the so-called respectable and re-
iigious classes and of the rude and ignor-
ant multitude. When he died in 1871 he
had built up church in less than sixty
years 10000 strong, which today is over
5000, 900 strong in America alone. Reforms
SON etimes languish, not for want of
formal work, or organized effort of the So
cial and pretentious sort. There were
plenty of pulpits, plenty of preachers in
England when Wesley began to preach his
protest against the religious dead body
of ecclesiasticism, and his wonderful sue
cess proved that If any great and good
cause moves with tagging pace, 1t is for
the want Of something that money cannot
buy, much less respectable resolutions
passed solemnly by respectable societies
lift into life, and this is simple. unaffected,
unselfish earnestness. This is the spirit
in which the first disciples of Loyola,
Xavier, Dominic, st. Francis and Wesley
worked, and this spirit explains the Won
derful and lasting popular success of
the Roman Catholic and the Methodist
church. The capacity for enthusi-
asm that endures up to and through
ha IF
survive within these great churches today,
and as long as it does survive they will be
vital churches against which no human
disasters viii prevail. Think how many
times in the great wars and revolutions of
Europe the Church of Rome has seemed
TO be on the brink of decay and disorgan-
ization, but has always come out safely at
last, for it never loses its firm hold on the
imagination, If not the heart, of the
humble masses of the people. The same
is true in an equal degree of the Methodist
church alone of Protestant denomina-
tons. AS long as this is true these two
great popular churches will be among the
most potent and conservative influences
for the peace and order of society.
In close touch with the people, this great
democratic church has always been the
voice of the hard working and the poor,
and the bulwark of temperance reform,
and was the first church to protest agains t
human slavery. During the whole I25
years of the church's life in America, since
Philip Embury preached the first Meth
odist sermon in 1866, the most glorious
page in its history is its famous revolt
against slavery in 1874. Bishop Andrew
had acquired property in slaves after his
ordination, and the general conference in
New York city, after a debate of ex-
traordinary eloquence, declared that the
bishop should lay down his sacred Office
until he ceased to be STAKEHOLDER. The
church at once split into two; the year fol-
lowing the Methodist Episcopal churches
of the South formed an organization of
their own, and ever since. though united
In theology. the two bodies have been
under distinct discipline and gov
eminent. When the Methodist church
divided on the slavery question il was
far In advance of every other church in
America, and the influence Of its action.
and that of the Baptist church, which Sec
onded it in swelling the rising wave OF
snti-slavery agitation, was immense. The
courage of the attitude of the church be-
comes apparent when We remember that the
Congregational church in New England, the
Protestant Episcopal church. and even the
Unitarian denomination at that date were
not only non-aggressive and silent, but in
conspicuous pulpits were the apologists,
and not seldom the defenders of human
slavery. Rev. DIR. Nathan Lord. president
of Dartmouth college, Bishop John Henry
Hopkins, Rev. DIR. Vinton, Rev. DIR.
Hawks, Rev. DR.. Nehemiah Adams, Rev.
DIR. Oryille Dewey, Rev. Hubbard Wins
low. Rev. DIR. Lyman Beecher, Rev. DR..
Leonard Bacon and Rev. Edward
Everett are names of Northern cler-
rymen who made themselves infamous by
their subserviency to the slave power. and
their defence OF slavery from the Bible
and their bitter denunciation of all anti