The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-15

revival of vital piety in the church of
England. Macaulay said, The history
of England is not complete without
John Wesley Her singing and her zeal
has been copied by all the other
churches and multiplied thousands of
members of our sister churches were
converted at Methodist affairs. She has
led unnumbered to the skies, as the
Methodist church has never been as
anxious to get names upon her records
as to get souls saved from sin.
But what are the results as we see
them? Commencing amid the retreats
of Oxford, in college closters, with
earnest aspirations for personal holi-
ness, with few students, it has spread
on till to-day. One has tersely said,
'Methodism was college born, but not
college bound When the Wesleys and
Whitef1eld were driven from the
churches they went to the open fields
and the common people heard them
gladly, and soon the doctrines preached
spread through England and Wales and
Ireland and Scotland and crossed the
sea to the colonies of America, and be-
fore generation passed beside the
church you would see the Wesleyan
chapel 1t has gone on spreading till
to-day there is scarcely a nation on the
globe where the Methodist church is not,
Nowhere in all the world have the seed
taken root and grown more than on
American soil. Pardon me for dealing
in statistics to some extent. One hun
dred years ago there were in the Unit
ed States $4,000 Baptists 10000 Congre-
gationalists, 10000 Presbyterians, 10000
Episcopalians and 4900 Methodists. To-
day there are 4,250G00 Baptists, $780, 900
ongregationalists, 1.450 900 Presbyter-
ians, 667 900 Episcopalians and 5,735, 900
Methodists. So, you see, from being
one of the smallest of all the bodies
she has grown far beyond the largest
body in this country.
In 1865 there We're but two Method
lists known to be in the colonies, and one
of these was backsder local preacher,
but from those two what host to-day.
Embury, who was the local preacher,
| reclaimed by the other Methodist, Bar
bara Heck, built the first church. on
John street, New York. While building
the church gentleman asked him What
he was doing, and he said I am build
ing Methodist church. 'Pshaw!' said
the man. Pointing to a corn crib, he
| said That corn crib will hold all the
Methodists that will ever be in this
| country Was his prophecy fulfilled ?
All the corn cribs that Joseph built in
| Egypt will not hold a 1.-THE of the Meth
| odists this country has produced. What
| is the explanation of this amazing
| growth? Many theories have been
| brought forward, but all agree it is a
| great power Many have said it is a
| revival wave and will pass away. DR..
Bellew, of Christian commission fame,
said 40 years ago. 'Methodism had a
mission, but its mission is about ended.
| Yet it has done more since then than it
| had done all the time before this.
| Il. 1t is the power of an appeaseless
| soul hunger. No husks of theology or
| empty ceremonials have ever been suffi-
cient to satisfy the ordinary Methodist
congregation.
| "2 1t was new method of evangeli-
cation, not carefully prepared, pressed
out and dried out homilies but sermons
red-hot from the hearts of the preachers
direct to the hearer
So The Methodist church has always
taken bold stand against wrong. She
has been fearless church, and has
never pandered to public tastes MOI
| toadied to great men, so-called. A non
| political church, she has always ex-
pressed herself in opposition to ma
tional, social, political or individual
wrongdoing. She would suffer a divis-
| ion rather than compromise on slavery
Her stand for the union in '61-65 is an
other proof. She has never beer
|
| posing the liquor traffic in all Of Its
phases. 1t is fair to say that Methodisn
has never been a temporizing church
The vast hosts of its converts have not
been won by pandering to their preju'
| dices or vices From the first she has
been thorough, outspoken and uncom'
| promising. There has never been q
moral or a political issue involving
principle before the people that she has
| not been bold in her allegiance to the
right. She has invariably taken the
highest ground and stood in the from
| rank No cause Of doubtful nature has
ever looked for her support. Her testi
mony and her laws have ever been un'
equivocal regarding the theater, the
dance and every form of gambling
Against intemperance she has been G
burning wrath. No public or private
sin has ever escaped her scourge. Mere
Journalism she has unsparingly de
nounced. She has demanded a thor,
ough- paced, spiritual experience and