The Savannah morning news., 1903-06-26


time that he read and accepted, in 1746
the views of Lord King, he always
maintained that the uninterrupted
succession was a fable which no man
ever did or could prove and that the
office of bishop was originally one and
the same with that of presbyter, ana
it resulted in his claiming the same
right to ordain as any bishop in the
church.
Naturally, he was denounced by pull
pit and press as a dissenter and
schismatic, with no part or right with
the church, and was as completely and
substantially out of it's pale as If he
had enrolled himself as a dissenter.
He was not actually tried and expelled
by any technical judgment of expul-
sion. This may be, because of the rea-
son assigned by his brother Samuel
Wesley, in a letter written to their
mother in 1889, just before the death
of Samuel in which this earnest
churchman denounces, with great
warmth and freedom, the irregularities
and schism of Jack and his followers
saying, among other things they de-
signed separation. They are already
forbidden all the pulpits in London, and
to preach in that diocese is actual
schism. In all likelihood, it will come
to the same all over England, if the
leave off the liturgy in the fields
AS I told Jack. 1 am not afraid the
| church should excommunicate him
discipline is at too low an ebb), but
that he should excommunicate the
church. 1t is pretty near it,
1t is mistake to suppose that these
Methodist societies, which existed for
fifty years under Wesleys guidance
and control, supplied by Methodist
n ay1ssx ki<,v,e
within the established church. They
were entirely independent of that
church. They and their members were
never at any time under the control of
any bishop or other representative of
the Church of England. A considera BILE
per cent. of them had never been mem
bers of the Church of England, were
technical and avowed dissenters, and
their dissent was no bar to their adj
mission or obstacle in the way of their
full fellowship.
Wesley Was Its Father.
1T is true that few clergymen of
the Church of England were connected
with these societies, but they were not
| members by virtue of their orders AS
clergymen of the church, they had no
authority over the societies. Wesley
| encouraged them to go to the Parish
Church, when they were allowed to do
| so, but he did not assume to require
this, or make their attendance a test
of their loyalty to the societies. An in
creasingly large proportion of them
abstained from going year by year.
| Many years before Wesleys death
Methodism was completely organized
| in England as we'll as in America, and
| Wesley was its acknowledged father
and head.
Before he had sent Coke to America,
there was as completely Methodist
Church, in England as there is to-day,
Wesley generally, but not always, call
ed the organizations societies. The
mere name, however, cannot be sign1-
| cant. He more than once referred to
| them as a church. At the time of his
death there were in Great Britain, the
| Isle of Man and the Channel Islands,
| nineteen circuits, 227 preachers and
| 51,562 members. In Ireland there were
| Twenty-Five circuits, siXty-seyen
| preachers and 14006 members. There
were also eleven mission circuits in
| the West Indies and British America
nineteen preachers and $500 members
The number in the United States was
supposed to ha 1926. These constituted
| no inconsiderable church, and. with
absolute unanimity, Wesley was re-
| garded as their leader. their father in
Israel and their founder. The Church
of England had no more jurisdiction
| or authority over them than the
/ Church of Rome
| "A superficial view of the case might
| convict Wesley of being unstable and
| inconsistent because of the expression
| or variant and lrreconcilable views in
| his journal This is true, not because
ne was nslncere or inconstant, but
because his mind was for years in a
| formative state and he was struggling
| (unWlttingly) against the logical re-
| suits OF his convictions and changes of
opinion. Let it be always borne in
mind that he was born and bred an
| intense churchman and Tory He
chung to national church persistently.
even stubbornly. Anything that bore
| the name of dissent caused his pre-
JUDGES to revolt, and yet he ceased to
BE- churchman in the Church of
England sense of the word soon after
| his return to England from America.
| although still calling himself a church.
| man. do not attach much Importance
to mere name. A man born and bred
a Democrat and intensely devoted to
the party name would cease to be a
Democrat if he held and professed dis
| tlnctively Republican and anti-Demo-
cratic principles, although he might
insist upon the name.
1
sition of opposition to a technical sep
aration, Notwithstanding the substan-
tial separation which had taken place
as to the necessary result of his course.
| was not logical. Hear his notable
words, contained in letter to his
| brother Charles, written as far back
as 1855: My conclusion, which 1 can
not yet give up-that it is lawful to
| continue in the church-stands, l know
not how, without any premises to
bear its weight. 1 know the original
! doctrines of the church are sound. I
know her worship is, in the main, pure
| and scriptural. But if the essence of
the Church of England, considered as
| such, consists of her orders and laws
| (many of which l can myself say moth
| ing foD and not in her worship and
doctrines, those who separate from
| her have a far stronger plea than T
| was ever sensible Of" While this is
| true, it is also true that even in Eng
| land where the jurisdiction of the Es-
tablished Church existed that (usi1g
the words of another), Wesley not
| only pointed but paved the way to all
| that has since been DONE and that the
utmost divergence of Methodism from
the Church of England at this day is
| but the prolongation of a line the he
| ginning of which was traced by Wes-
ley's own hand"
Wesley's Expectations,
A careful study of his utterances
| from time to time on this subject will
show that when he advised against
separation he had in mind formal
and collective act by the conference