The Penn's Grove record., 1903-06-26
JOHN WESLEY.
The Founder or A Great Religious
Society.

LO1 VAAAOO He 4
hiyersary Of the birth of John Wesley
has been celebrated in different parts @
the Country. The date Of his birth was
June II, 1908, old style, to which eleven
days must be added making the true daee
next Sunday, June 28th.
John Wesley was born in troublesome
times of low public morals and spiritual
d~epravity. England had lapsed into VIZ
tual heathenism. John Wesley was
brought up in the Church Of England,
was a college graduate, and an ordained
minister Of the gospel.
THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION.
Rev. W. Hudson Shaw, in a recent
lecture in Philadelphia said:
IF we were to endeavor to trace the
evangelical revival of the eighteenth cen
tury to its fountain head, we should prob
ably find that it originated in a book. In
the year 1927 John Wesley read for the
first time William Laws Serious Call
That book is one of the most remarkable
religious works written in the English
language. In 1929 there vas formed al
Oxford the first Methodist society. ls
real originator was not John Wesley, Du'
his brother Charles. They practiced the
strictest self-examination, met together
tor religious purposes every evening,
tasted Wednesdays and Fridays, received
the Sacrament every Monday, gave away
nearly all they had, taught in the schools,
visited the sick, and especially devoted
themselves to the inmates Of warehouses
and prisons. This was more than the
swearing, rioting tipping undergraduate
of Oxford would bear, and Wesley'ss small
society was assailed with pitiless ridlcule
and abuse. Certainly the young lads, as
most of them were, were guilty OF some
-extravagances. So have been the rel'g'
ious reformers OF all the ages from st.
Francis downward.
"John Wesley in very truth gave hls
life to the poor people OF England. Ills
influence on the rich and powerful was
directly only small; but he broke down
the spirit which had despised the poor
From his day to now the passion OF hu'
manity, of strenuous toll on behalf OF the
suffering, the ignorant and the poor ha'
gained strength year by year, and ever
those to whom his love OF God means
nothing can reverence him for his low
to his fellow creatures. What his work
has been we can dimly realize when We
compare England as it is to-day with the
awful degraded England of $50 years ago
The greatest of all benefactors of the hu
man race, the highest hero amongst men
is he who, amid detraction and hardship
and persecution, and scorning fame ane
wealth and comfort, makes it easier fol
the vast multitudes Of his brothers to live
h~onorably and to die brayely. That wa
John Wesley's work on earth"
Wesley's works in England can not b
described merely as a tremendously re
ligious revival, but it attained to the pro
portions of a social revolution, which
saved England from a bloody French
Revolution.
A NEW CHURCH.
Wesley never thought of establishing
new religious denomination when he be
gan his evangelistic work. He believed
in the forms of the established Church
and preached under its authority. The
established clergy and the reigning Of
fcials became SO prejudiced against hin
and his followers that he was refused thu
use of the pulpits of the established
churches. The organization grew until &
great body demanded a seperate organ.
ization and the first Methodist Confer
ence was called in 1744.
The Armenian doctrine Of a free and
full salvation felt by all, which be preach
ed has become the prevailing Protestant
faith of the world. Creeds and forms arr
passing away before the doctrine of the
free will of man and the personal knowl
edge of a free and full salvation.
When the Revolutionary wal broke
out the clergy of the State Church most.
ly returned to England. Thomas Coke
and Francis Asbury, the two leading
Methodist preachers remained in this
country. The Methodist Church was the
first to recognize the new and independ.
ent government. 1t itinerant ministers
with the earnestness and enthusiasm Of
the personal knowledge of a soul redeem.
ed, burned to tell the glad tidings SO the
Church has grown most rapidly and be.
come the largest body of believers of the
Anglo-Saxon Protestant World.
There are in all, according to the latest
statistics, not less than seven millions Of
members in the various branches Of
Methodism throughout the lands. If we
counted as members all those baptized in
childhood, as some other Churches count
theirs, the total of Methodist population
in the world would be at least fifteen mil.
lions. All this vast multitude has grown
out Of the work of one man, and all in
one hundred and sixty years. Truly
may we say, "What hath God wrought
Although these millions, be they six OF
fifteen, are not gathered within the doors
of one Church, they are in what might be
called the Methodist family of Churches,
a group of denominations of common
origin, uniform belief, similar systems of
organization, and, whatever may be said
of the past, now living together in amity.
There are in England and her sister isles
seven denominations regarding themsel-
yes as Methodists; and in the United
States there are seventeen.
There is the Methodist Episconal
Church, begun in 1865, and organized as
. Church in 1854, now embracing 2.948 :
173 members (nearly three millions), &C
cording to that useful little pamphlet.
which should be in the hand of every
young member, "The Methodist Year
book" of 1902. Next comes the Method
list Episcopal Church, South, which in
1901 had l,47O.52 members. Thon foI