The Savannah morning news., 1903-06-29

to the best calculations, the birthday
anniversary of John Wesley, and in
the programme for the Bi-centenary
celebration provision was made for al
most a continuous day of exercises. Be |
ginning with the Love Feast at Wes- .
ley Monumental Church at o'clock,
there was next a series of services con- |
Quoted by distinguished visiting divines |
at IL o'clock. At o'clock an address |
was delivered at Wesley Church by
Hon. j. c. C. Black.
Last night, in the Park Tabernacle,
in the presence of probably 1000 peo-
pie, Bishop Gambler delivered a forcible
and eloquent address on the subject,
The Man Wesley" 1t was the first
time during the celebration that the
weather had permitted the use of the
tabernacle. and the people came out in
great numbers and made the occasion
memorable.
During the evening a subscription
was raised, to aid in placing an assist
ant pastor to work under the direction
of Trinity, and to act as missionary in
|
ment was started in the Methodist
churches at the morning services, and
about $1,000 was pledged, to be paid
yearly for three years. The subscrip-
ton raised in the tabernacle amounted
to about $500.
The services last night were opened
With prayer, at $50 o'clock, by Rev.
| 'JeSuS
Lover of My Soul by Charles Wes-
ley.
Bishop Gamblers Address.
Bishop Warren A. Gambler of Geor-
gia, was then introduced by Bishop
Galloway of Mississippi, and addressed
the assemblage, speaking, in part as
| follows:
There was man sent from God
whose name was John" If the dis
course appointed for this hour were
cast in sermonic form it would not
be irreverent or inapt to use these
words as the text.
John the Baptist was not more per-
fectly described by them than is John
Wesley. Both were divinely COM
| parts of the same great work-the
establishment of the Kingdom of
God upon the earth. Both sprang
| from a priestly line and both lost
| their sacerdotal functions by absorp-
ton in the Hottest labors of the
prophetic office. To both multitudes
| went out into the open air to hear
under Gods clear sky the messenger
of heaven, turning away from al
tars upon which the fires were burn
| ing low to heed the call to repentance
| preached with the power of the Holy
Ghost sent down from heaven. Both
revived faith in a faithless genera
It IL
| religious era and wrought national
reformation. The career of one was
brief, the revival he brought to pass
was of a short duration, and his min
| istry ushered in the long expected
Messiah. The other lived above four
score years, produced under God a
| revival which has continued for more
than a century, and which promises
to continue until the Lord comes
again without sin unto salvation, full
| filling the ardent hopes of Perronet
the devout vicar of Shoreham, who
said: 81 make no doubt that Meth
odism, notwithstanding all the wiles
of Satan is designed by divine Provi-
dence to introduce the approaching
millennium"
wesley, God-sent.
Wesley, the man, was a God-sent
man. This is true in a sense of every
man. Every life is a plan of God,
alas! too often a marred and frustrat-
ed plan!
But there are epochal lives OF which
it is specially and signally true that
they are God-sent. They fall into
their places like the stones in the tenn
pie of solomon, hewn aforehand with
reference to the space they We're too
fill and the superstructure they We're
to support. They are so loyal to the
divine will, so sensitive to the di-
vine influence so responsive to the di-
vine Providence, and so charged with
the divine power that they make plain
to the dullest vision the design of
God in themselves, and shed a light
behind and before which reveals the
holy succession to which they belong
The odor of their amounting fills their
lives with a heavenly perfume and
sweetens all their days.
These epochal lives are the visible
links of an unbroken chain of spir-
itual forces which holds together in
one continuous movement the un-
Fastening, unwearying and unfailing
purpose of God which through the
ages runs.
Such was John Wesley finding his
heart strangely warmed while one in
Aldersgate street read from the pref
ace of Luther's commentary on the
Romans and going forth to bring back
heavens glad springtime to his own
and other lands, upon which the
gloom of doubt and the chill of faith
lessness had rested like an arctic win
ter all too long. He belongs to the
high order of heaven-sent men. who
in a holy line stretch from Abel'S al
tar a the gate of Paradise to our
own times, and who rule the spirits
of men not by the power of the her-
archs of a prelatical succession. but
by the priestly authority of lofty souls
whom God has anointed with fresh
oil.
That this elevation of him to a seat
among these heroes of faith
in all the ages may be
justified let us consider some of the |
salient features of his life in connec-
tion with those characteristics by
which the great Providential leaders |
of men are always certified to the rec
ignition Of mankind.
Genius for Goodness.
With talents OF the highest order,
with learning the most extensive, with |
prominent and promising position IN
the scholastic and ecclesiastical world. |
he deliberately Intentionally. turned |
ava -from every earthly good that |
men OF the world hold dear. and de- |
voted himself wholly TO Cor aud re. |
ligiOn. Or. Samuel Johnson did bur |
state the simple truth when he said
Wesley thought Of religion only |
Matthew Arnold states the same truth
in different phrase when be anirms |
fhat Wesley had genius Tor godl- |
uesf"