The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-06-21

pulpit the simplicity and tenderness of
Lat;mer and Bunyan, and it gave to the
fl ontiers of America preachers of whom
the country was not worthy. Some OF
khe latter had been his helpers and
knew him personally; all respected and
most of them reverenced him. The di-
rectr.ess, the originality, the simplicity Of
this homespun preaching was after his
own heart. and it was determined to no
small extent, the character OF the Ameri-
can pulpit 1t appealed boldly to the sense
of responsibility, to the awakened con
science. TO that human love which where
ever it exists responds promptly to the
declaration of the love of God in Jesus
Christ: it appealed just as boldly to the
consciousness Of Immortality. And great
were its triumphs
The passing of Calvinism in its more re-
pugnant forms was accomplished, to be
sure, by the union OF influences, of which
the preaching of Wesley and his Armln-
ians was only one. So, too, the exaltlng
Of the living Christ to the throne OF mod
ern religious society
AS Hegel remarks, the great man IS he
who best embodies the constructive spirit
of his age, who best accords III his ac-
Invites with the forces that arc shaping
the new epoch And this is Wesley S
glory. He purified and simplified existing
theology; he made it reconcilable with
the only conception Of God tenabe in an
enlightened. and sympathetic age. He
came not with subtleties of exegesis but
with the plain sense of the New Tesla
ment not with paradoxes of metaphysics
but with appeals of the eternal love of
God and. instead of ethical platitudes
and doctrinal opinions, he offered life to
the dead and joy to the unhappy. He
urged not a maximum but minimum
credeudum and yet he sought for the
maximum of spiritual power This he OBJ
tanned rather by the diligent proclama-
ton and application of a few cardinal
truths than by the exposition of perfect
ly articulated theoretical system. Herein
Re disclosed his affinity with minds like
Newton he made the doctrines of spirit
ual energy as brief, as simple, as produc-
tive. as Sir Isaac's principles of motion.
And the enthusiasm" that alarmed and
cxasperated his contemporaries IS the
heart of modern religion. From earnest
souls of every type comes the cry, II
God has ever revealed himself to mortal
men, surely he is willing to do so now"
And the inward witness that Wesley was
driven to proclaim under the open sky IS
the boon of a great multitude who are
"practicing the presence of God"
Organized Methodism is imposing in
numbers in wealth, in machinery. 1t
has developed differently in England and
in America, but wherever it is powerful
it displays its characteristic genius; in
sistence upon immediate decision for
Christ and upon the truths of the Gospel
which are verifiable in human experience
and productive of divine life in men and
In communities Whatever Wesley might
disapprove, he would delight to find
among his descendants thousands who are
answering Gibbons malignant Indictment
of Christianity, as he did, by invoking and
employing for the transformation of So
ciety the energy that the historian ar
raigned as the destroyer of the ancient
civilization. And this is the mission OF
Methodism. The character of the age
requires that it be conceived grandly and
prosecuted divinely. Methodists will for
felt the name they have made splendid,
if they cannot devise methods equal to
the emergencies and opportunities of their
development and environment. But to
sacrifice blood to bulk, central energy to
peripheral disploy are the temptations
that beset such colossal organizations
From these the renewed study of John
Wesley. of his ideals and his methods,
NAV help TO deliver us.-The Congrega-
tionalist.