Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-10-12

mind evenly balanced. at once legislative and
judicial; an intellect enriched from the
treasures of ancient and modern. of sacred and
prolane learning; memory capacious and
suggestive; an understanding minute vet all
comprehending. it was like the tent in story
fold 1t and it was a toy in the hand of n lady:
spread It. and the armies of the Sultan might re-
pose beneath Its ample shade: with an imacina-
ton that borrowed its light from heaven eterna
sun: Will whose decisions we're like the ever
Lls,inS nils; courage that was never blanched
"lth Tear; fortitude that never wavered: a
gentleness tender as a woman's: a diligence
that knew no cessation save death and no
limitations save the boundaries of earth and
tine, with an oratory enhancing it was ap-
palnne that could raise rhetoric into logic and
metaphor Into argument and thrill the most
Gebased with the convictions of the truth:
pleiy sincere as il was exemplary and love
all embracing. Behold. the man, The cearest
oil thinkers. the wisest Of philosophers, the
most accurate of historians, the most versatile
OF scholars. the most astute OF logicians. who
never quailed before foeman: an accom-
piished linguist. who could say with Paul: Il
thank my God. l speak with tongues more
than ye all" the most incisive and voluminoua
OF writers; statesman in the disguise of
ecclesiast;c; philauthi opist who sympsthized
with human nature rather than with human
condition; an evangelist who knew the letter
and caught the spirit of the gospel, the burden
OF whose message to mankind was: without
holiness no man shall see the Lord" and the
Christian who had passed through all the
stages of personal experience, from the depth
OF penitence to the height of perfect love. who
had translated the sermon on the mount into
life and character more fully than any other
man slice apostolic times became the saintliest
OF men. Surely There was a man sent from
God whose name was John" He illustrated
the exalt;itlon of purified individuality the
reforming, controlling, cOnquering force in
the world rather than church organization,
with creed and litugyr and imposing cere-
monials living Christ in contrast with dead
Jewish church sanctifed and consecrated
Wesleyan in contrast with the overshadowing
eccleslasticism of Rome and the powerless
formality of the Church of England. This is
the mightiest thought and the browning glory
OF the esleyan movement
THE THREE REFoRMATIoNs
Time is an essential element in unfolding the
plans and purposes of Jehovah. The consum-
nation of great result is not the work of a
day. Such is the constitution of mind, such
the composition of society, such the operation
of immutable law, that the ages are
necessary to reach vast conclusion.
Vast conclusions require ages for their consum-
nation. Jehovah takes a step today and one
hundred years hence the advance is apparent.
He steps on the SUBMITS of the centuries.
There are silent centuries in which He acts, but
never speaks. At such times He hides Himself
and anon He drops the drapery of His invisi-
blllty. His naked arm appears and His hith-
erto hidden hand writes upon some palace wall
Meme. meme. Tekel. Upharsin.' He deals
with empires the instruments of His power
Kings most esteemed by men are the dust i'll
the balance to Him. He writes His DEGREES of
hingdom in the waste book of temporary
events, but in His lmperishable ledger He re-
cords The progress of .he kingdom. of His Son.
The times and seasons are IT. His hand. Never
hurried. never tardy. always on His throne.
He ever h2ids II the hand of His
sovereign sway the calendar of the
centuries and that dread register
He nOtches the epochs of veal and woe III our
mortal historv. With Him thousand years
are as yesterday. when it is passed. He calls
Abraham TO found Messianic nation. and 400
Years thereafter the chosen Moses leads forth
the organized nationality. After zoo years of
judges AMI wars. prophets and Inconsistencies
solomon ascends the throne of his father
David. millennium of years come and 60.
regcnerated people return from their exile the
voice o. the las. of the prophets is hushed the
silence of 500 years Is broken by the song of
angels and the Messiah appears-"the de-
sire of the nations" Three and half cen
turtles are necessary to conquer nation Of
l2O, .OUO of people. whose vast dominion
Is from the Euphrates to the western
ocean and from the wall of Antonimes to
the Mountains OF the Moon. and Christianity as
cends the throne of the Caesars, with the royal
diadem upon her head and the royal purple
upon her shoulders. giving laws from that very
tribunal where she had been dragged as a Grim
inal and condemned a malefuctor. Twelve
hundred years of decline, darkness and silence
are numbered with the ages agone when the
the church calling the world to penitence and
faith Two hundred years of preparation
ensue and Wesley comes forth, the apostle Of a
new era of purity and love.
The three great centuries Of the Wesleyan
movement are the sixteenth seventeenth and
eighteenth and the three conspicuous characters
are Luther. Cranmer and Wesley. Each of
these immortal heroes had his peculiar mission
Zach did a work demanded by his times. Sub
stitution impossible. Luther was not the
man for the eighteenth century; Wesley was
not the man for the sixteenth century: Gran
mer was not the man for the place of either the
one or the other.
Behold the record of history: Four hundred
years from Abraham to Moses; five hundred
years from Moses to solomon: a thousand years
from solomon 10 Christ; three hundred years
from Christ to Constantine the Great when
Christianity assembled the throne OF the
Caesars with the royal diadem upon her
brow and the royal purple upon her shoulders.
giving laws from the very tribunal where jesus
had been dragged rs a criminal and condemned
as a malefactor: twelve hundred years from
Con-tan tine to Luther and two centuries from
Luther to Wesley.
satisfact ton with the present must seize
the people like an invisible power; the social
d
potters vessel; then comes the grand crisis and
society moves forward to a better future
The sixteenth. the seventeenth and the eigh
teenth are the three centuries embraced in the
great Wesleyan movement, and the three con-
spicuous individuals OF those mighty epochs are
Luther. Cranmer and Wesley. The three re-
formations are parts of one great whole.
WESLEY SPECIAL MISSION.
How much Wesley contributed to this grand
result let history declare.
Methodism is not break IN Christian his
tory. The continuity of evangelical truth
through the ages. through multiplied errors
through accumulated corruptions of faith and
practice, through declensions and contentious
wars and prosecutions, through Episcopal
treacheries and lay apostocies is a sublime fact
In Providence and ceaseless inspiration to the
faithful and the holy.
There are no breaks In the history Of the ad-
ministration of Almighty God. There NAV be
declensions in numbers, but there are no
retrocessions in His canse. His is a perpetual
kingdom. The continuance of His church is
without cessation. In all the ages. the darkest
and the worst His saints, men and women,
have walked this earth in white, whose CONVEX
satIon has been In heaven and whose sanity
lips have testified for Jesus. The church of
God. greater than the papal. greater than the
Greek. greater than the English. is composed
OF the faithful of all creeds, of all liturgies and
IN all the centuries.
Christ always has a tomorrow. Paul was the
hereafter of Christ, Athanasius the hereafter
of Paul, Wycliffe the hereafter of Athanasius,
Luther the hereafter of Wycliffe, Wesley the