The Savannah morning news., 1903-06-26


NSHurch. These minutes were in H.
mesiey hands some months after
, M Us ana were published in England.
~ word of reputation or dis
ailirInance is heard from him as 70
~ as done or said, save only that
- letter, written by him several
o oHGis afterwards, he showed that he
TiEJeeoteu 10 Asbury, calling himself
mo-, ooHie expressions from him
conti, e elteo which indicate that he
oIistI u ls 10 De opposed to the Meth
oalsts of England, separating IRON, tho
ESstapilshed Church. or the National
Shurcn, (as he understood separation1
III, ~ nothlng can be found from him
'Ion SHOWS or suggests that he. for
IloIheht, questioned the fact that
1ailerican Methodism was a separate
church, or INDUCED the expectation thar
.nese Methodists would come back TO
.he church of England. Unless he had
4usl MS mind, he could not have
thought mat they remained a part of
cue Church OF England and had to sep
tinot AGAIN In order to become a dis
tlnct organization.
Advice He Gave.
ADVICE to American Methodists. aft
ct TINS conference, against separation
would have been as idle and meaning
less as similar advice to Baptists or
res oyterians He took Asbury sharp
~ 10 10 TASK several years afterwards for
ealllng himself bishop. He thought
9 9oiLe intehoent was the proper term
tour bishops are now known as our
general SUPERINTENDENT But the
name is not important The truth is
that Tor years previous to this formal
organization as a church it had exist
ed IN America as Episcopal Church
with the complete approval of Wesley.
When Coke was attacked in a news
paper Tor what he had done, his reply
declared, through the press, that he
, hao done nothing but under the di-
rection of Mr.. Wesley"
THE correctness of this public state
ment was never challenged or denied.
so that even if Coke had gone beyond
mis- authority in establishing the Meth
odlst Church in America (of which
mere is not syllable of evidence) Mr.
wesley fully ratified what he did. IN
deed, he, in terms, declared. after full
knowledge of the facts, I believe DR..
Coke as free from ambition as from
coVetousness. He has done nothing
rashly that l know q ought to state,
in all candor, that 1 fear that DR.. Coke
did not deserve the commentator as
| to freedom from ambition, but this
| personal weakness in his character
does not affect the purpose of Wesley
or what he did in pursuance of his in
| structions) Certain 1t is that Mr.
| wesley intended that a separate church
be established in America, and it was
established at his instance and under
| his direction, and this fact was thor
oughly known and recognized by all
parties concerned at the time.
! In letter written Feb. 25, 1855, to
Inlnra
foundland, before he had received a
report from DIR. Coke, he writes Last
autumn DR.. Coke sailed from England
and is now visiting the flock in the mid
die provinces of America and settling
them on the New Testament plan, to
which they all willingly and joyfully
conform, being all united as by one
| spirit, so in one body" 1t was in this
letter that he assured Stretton that his
preacher will be ordained.
| In his letter addressed by him to the
| REV. Freedom Garrettson, of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in Amer
ca." dated June 16, 1855, Garrettsons
name being the first in the minutes as
an elder ordained by Coke at Balti-
more, he supposed he was writing to
a minister of a regular church, and, in
this letter, he tells him you want
nothing which he can give referring
to the Episcopal bishop and the orders
from that source. This letter to AS
| bury, written Sept. 20, 1885, wherein
| he takes him sharply to task for call
! ing himself a bishop instead of a SUI
perintendent, is sometimes quoted to
| indicate that Coke went farther than
| Wesley intended, but there is nothing
! in the letter to suggest this, and it ap-
pears that all he objected to was that
Asbury called himself a bishop.
This very letter shows that he was
! then aiding Coke in collecting supplies
for the American Methodists, the very
people who had, in terms, formed
themselves into a separate and distinct
| church In this letter he thus writes,
There is indeed a wide difference be-
| tween the relation wherein you stand
to the Americans, and the relation
wherein l stand to all the Methodists.
You are the elder brother of the Amer
lean Methodists; I am, under God the
father of the whole family. Therefore,
l. naturally care for you all in man
ner no other person can do"
WesIey's Impression.
Evidently Mr.. Wesley was under the
impression that he was the father or
| founder of the Methodists. OF course,
| he may not have known what he was
| talking about. The Methodists of his
| day and time may have been under a
! strange hallucination. The present day
! churchmen are much better Informed
| than Wesley and all of his followers
could have been. Their position for
accurate information is obviously more
! advantageous The fact, too, that all
histories, religious and secular, which
deal with Methodism or Wesley, all en-
cvclopedias and all biographies refer
to him as the founder of Methodism,
counts for naught.
A few Daniels who occasionally
"come to Judgment" brush all this
himsv evidence aside and calmly and
modest1y inform us that we have no
right or title to Wesley. Among the
many blunderers on this question,
may refer to Bishop Stevens, the author
of the History of Georgia, the Episco-
nal Bishop of Pennsylvania, who, In an
address delivered in Christ Church, In
This city. in 1873, devoted to the early
| history of the church in Georgia, has
| thus expressed himself John Wesley
in his writings distinguished the origin
| of Methodism into three periods. Inc
! first rise of Methodism he says was IN
! 1900 when four of us met together IN
| oxford. the second was in Savannah In
| 173s. when twenty or thirty persons met
! ar NV house. The last was at London
| on this day, May l, 1913, when forty
or fifty of us agreed to meet together
| every Wednesday evening, thus TINS
! citv and this church is connected with
! the most marked religious event of the
eiohteenth century. This historical re-
| Sa9ionsbin the founder of Methodism