The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1903-07-31
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
q BIOGRAPHICAL DISCOURSE BY
PRES. STRIKER. OF HAMILTON.
An Eloquent Tribnte 10 John Wesley and
the Influence of His freaehing- Stands
Out supreme Above All Men Of His
Age as a Religious Leader.

Out supreme Above All Men OF HIS
Age as a Religious Leader.
NEW YORK CITY.-Union services OF
the LAFAYETTE Avenue Presbyterian and
Clinton Avenue Congregational churches
began Sunday morning IN the edince OF the
first named. The Rev. DR.. Nj. w. Stryker,
President OF Hamilton College, Clinton, \.
Y, spoke on John Wesley" but used no
text As will be seen, ne paid an eloquent
tribute to the influence of his preaching.
DIR. S,ryker said
Upon June IL, l7Os. that is, 200 years
ago, was born az Epworth, Lincolnshire-
100 miles from London, and az about the
east centre of England man whose IN
fiuence stands out supreme above all the
men of his age. Eighty-eight years old, on
the I'd of March, 1871, he died. Thus his
life eompassed nearly the whole OF the
eighteenth century, and under God II was
the most fertilizing and redeemlng agency
toward the moral forces and accomplish
ments OF the nineteenth And still the
world is debtor, and will ever be, 20 the
convictions and consecrations, the energies
and the efficiency OF that one man-John
Wesley. A mighty impulse and a potent
organization attested and attests his SIM
gular and recreative purpose and achieve
ment. We may well reckon with such
personality in considering the movement of
the modern world. Even the barest outline
records wonder and furnishes a corrective
to hundred superficial PHILOSOPHERS and
thousand shallow neglects. While Wes-
leyans and Methodists in all lands are recit-
ing that story, let Us all. with them, who
share a like precious faith recall and re-
joice, ponder and hope. For the elements
Of 1t are as deep as the first principles OF
the Christian religion, and the fame and
forces OF lt are the common possession OF
all who hail the kingdom OF the Son OF
God
fH
life in an age that hated anything more
than formal religion was exceptional. The
mother that nurtured him was that Susan
nah Wesley OF whom Adam Clark said that
he never saw her equal. His ancestry was
of that Puritan stock and stuff whose fiber
of conscience had affirmed the real Eng.
land; its vigors and rigors had been super.
Stuarts, but, though ignored, il had not de.
parted, and in him and by him Il spoke
again and bore its second harvest.
Wesley began his work in the Estab-
lished and Episcopal Church, and though
by 1t he was soon despised and rejected he
loved IL always and cherished its better
part. For two years he wrought in Geor-
gia, but the Grand Jury OF that colony in.
dicted him. There he uttered that notable
word, II hope to learn the sense of the gos.
pei by preaching it," He came into close
touch with Moravians here and in Eu.
rope. Had that little body done nothing
else than directly TO deepen and by it's re-
a mighty work. But their narrowness he
escaped, while retaining their intensity
Over the deep and critical experiences OF
his inner heart, with It's unusual combina.
tion OF sensltveness and decision, we will
not pause. They were basal. In them he
found the Light he followed TO the end
See HIM at Oxford. He was a student
intensely so. Specially and always of logic
and language. He found in these an ample
discipline; Tor language rs organized
thought. An able master of five tongues
he learned compass anu discrimination. In
his life he wrote or edited $50 volumes
At Oxford he was the centre of little
group OF which his brother Charles, and
soon Whitfield, were others. They began
10 live by rule and made their protest and
example of pure life. They served God
by method--all of them at this time jealous
and even ultra Episcopalians. They were
called the Cody Club"-"Bble Moths'-
Methodists." Oppr, br...m easily finds de-
rislvc names. A hundred years. and more
earlier this same devotion had been called
Puritan"
Consider that eighteenth century into
which they came. 1t was a ieculent and
rowdy age. Read Thackeray's -Four
George" Lecky's ample treatment
who SAYS "all the dazzling episodes of the
10
portance" 10 Methodism. Hear Bishop
Butler C736). 1T ia come to pass that
many assume Christianity to be purely fcti.
tlous and no longer a subject of inquiry"
The general sentiment OF the church was
benumbed, torpid, stagnaat-drv essay ser.
mons were the vogue. .anguid and luke
warm moderation held sway, ready TO hate
whatever molested its sodden Indifferent
ism. Look into the cartoons of Hogarth
and see If the times he pictured did not
need the winds of God! Consider the We
neers of Chesterfield and reckon IL that
stilled and padded and fostering society
did not demand the breath OF reality Pub
lie life was debauched by the coarse and
frank corruption OF the ministry of Robert
Walpo.e. 1t was Wesley more than all
others who reused public conscience TO
rally about the stern and aggressive hon.
esty of Pitt--Pitt, who rescued India. and
Germany, aud America. IL was Wesley
who under God broke the moral drouth-
struck an artesian well far into the sub.
stratum beneath the morass OF the desert
led the great reaction which made posi-
bic the reform and the power Of modern
England made possible the revival OF the
nineteenth century-Heber, and Nartyn
and keble. and Liddon. lie became an in
huence so incalculably fertile and difFusive
that 10 no other man OF modern times save
Luther, TO no other Englishman save Wv
elf. does the world owe so much 1t
pleased Matthew Arnold with an lev Phi.
lstlnlsm, TO heeF at Wesley and to dispar.
age him as "a third-class mind" But by
what token this frosty estimate? In that
drunken, unclean. insolent century. IVES
Iey's is the brightest name, whether his
work - Judged by its width or its depth
whether by Its immediate or its permanent
results
When conformity and nonconformity
were alike morlbund, he renewed the ndi.
vidnalism of the gospel message, personal.
Ized It's appeal and rediscovered mankind
DO not forget that this starting point OF
modern religious history was within the
walls OF 4 college, and lay in the devoted
ness and relentless aggressiyeness of few
men.
The work began in the open air. Whit.
field, with his lively and unselhsh charac-
ter and that wondrously emotional voice.
led the way among the golfers of Kings
wood in Cornwall England was full OF pa.
gan poverty, and this new departure 20.
ward the submerged" and the forgotten
this human compulsion OF zeal that ate up
neglect and is embitterments, broke once
Tor ali with the traditions of apathy. Thei,
John Wesley stormed Bristol town Little
did men know, little did these men know.
what a chord they had struck az their in.
domitab!e fcrvor and unintermittent az
gression hurled out Of their way the things
that would have obstructed them and once
more reached after the soul Of the common
man. IL was a radical return 10 the sim.
pbcity OF Christ, and il had 20 face the
frown and scoffings OF those who do always
resist the spirit OF what is real and uncoTn-
promising. The harvest was white and hal
long been uninterrupted. The work was
bora under the sky baptized IL the tears
81 the lowiy, hailed by the new songs of
tens OF thousands under the dome Of Cod
Y rss.s - rfa sl l.. -