The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-07-29
John WESLEY"
An Eloquent Sunday Sermon By Presi.
dent Stryker, Of Hamilton.
Tribute to John Wesley and the Influence Of
His Presehlng-S Stands Ont Supreme
Above All Men Of His Age.

NEW York CITY-Union services OF
tbe Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian and
Clinton Avenue Congregational churches
besan Sunday morning in the edifice of the
frat named The Rev. DIR. NJ. w. Stryker,
President of Hamilton College, Clinton, N.
Y. spoke on John Wesley" but used no
text. As will be seen, he paid an eloquent
Il Upon pom June II, 1903, that is, 200 years
AGO. was born at Epworth, Lincolnshire
l6O miles from London, and at about the
east centre OF England-a man whose in
auence stands out supreme above oil the
the I'd of March, l79l he died. Thus his
life compassed nearly the whole of the
Siehteenth century, and under God it was
the most fertilizing and redeemng agency
toward the moral forces and accomplish.
ments of the nineteenth. And still the
world Isl debtor, and will ever be, to 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 sin
Qlar and recreative purpose and achieve
ment. We may well reckon with such a
personality in considering the movement of
The modern world. Even the barest outline
to hundred superficial PHILOSOPHERS and a
thousand shallow, neglects., While Yves.
eyans and Methodists in all lands are recit.
ng that story, let us all, with them, who
share like precious faith recall and re.
joice, ponder and hope. For the elements
the Christian religion, and the fame and
| forces of 1t are the common possession of
all who hail the kingdom Of the Son Of
God.
This man was born into home when
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.
ceded by the recrudescence of the livid
Stuarts, but, though ignored, it had not de-
parted, and in him and by him it spoke
again and bore its second harvest.
Wesley began his work in the Estab
lshed and Episcopal Church. and though
by it he was soon despised and rejected he
loved it always and cherished its better
part For two years he wrought in Geor
dicted him. There he uttered that notable
word, 81 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 its re-
action to enlarge, John Wesley, it had done
mighty work. But their narrowness he
escaped, while retaining their intensity.
Over the deep and critical experiences OF
his inner heart, with its unusual combina.
ton OF sensitiveness 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
and language. He found in these an ample
discipline; for language is organized
thought. An able master of five tongues,
be learned compass and discrimination. In
his lie 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
to 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 Episcopalans. They were
called the Cody Club"-"Bible Moths
r;set Methodlsts." os opprtbr. easily finds de-
Puritan"
Consider that eighteenth century into
which they came. 1t was a feculent and
nfcwdy age. Read Thackeray's -Four
Georges'-read Lecky's ample treatment
who SAYS ''all the dazzling episodes of the
gortance" to Methodism. Hear Bishop
Butler Q795), '.It is come. to pass that
many assume Christianity to be purely ficti.
Mous and no longer a subject of inquiry"
Inc general sentiment of the church was
oenumbed, torpid, stagnaat-drv essay ser
warm moderation held sway, ready to hate
whatever moested 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 ve-
neers of Chesterfield and reckon if that
IxIz1 -..A..
lld not demand the breath of reality! Pub
nc llte was debauched by the coarse and
Tank k corruption of the ministry of Robert
Malpole. 1t was Wesley more than all
others who reused a public conscience to
nlly about the stern and aggressive hon.
eGsly OF Pitt-Pitt, who rescued India, and
1ermany, and America. 1t was Wesley
who under God broke the moral drouth--
struck an artesan well Jar into the sub
stratum beneath the morass of the desert
,r,led the great reaction which made posi-.
pe the reform and the power of modern
England; made possible the revival of the
nineteenth century-Heber, and Martyr
ntuenee so inealculably fertile and ditfusive
fShat to no other man Of modern times save
Luther, to no other Engliahman save Wy.
slll, does the world owe so much II
Pleased Matthew Arnold. with an icy Phil
stlnlsm, to feer at Wesley and to dispar-
''iih Us a lniTu-cldbs iniHu nut ny
xnat token this frosty estimate? In that
lr9hken, unclean, inso.ent century, Wes
icy IS the brightest name, whether his
WORK Is Judged by its width or its depth
whether by its immediate or its permanent
results.
When conformity and nonconformity
were alike moribund, he renewed the indi
suaalism OF the gospel message, personal
~1S Its appeal and redscovered mankind!
70 not forget that this starting point o
modern religious history was within tht
nan "alis OF college, and lay in the devoted
men. 90
Inc work began in the open air. Whit
,,s", with his lively and unseltish charac
M MsI and that wondrously emotional voice
~ me way among the colliers OF Kings
WOOD IN Cornwall England was full OF pa
gan poverty, and this new departure to
,nsrd he Submerged" and the forgotten
nus human compulsion OF a zeal that ate VI
sseseSt and its embitterments, broke onc
III al with the traditions of apathy. Thel
SI S,p men know, little did these men know
Snat chord they had struck, as their in
sniiable fervor and unintermittent ag
Hesslon hurled out of their way the thing
saat would have obstructed them and one
more reached after the soul of the commo
nan. 1t was a radical return to the sim
Snclty OF Christ, and 1t had to face tn
mown ,a'i and scofings OF those who do alway
n,n ,sst the spirit Of what is real and uncon
aaUmissing. aUn The harvest was white and ha
png been uninterrupted The work wa
oen under the sky. baptized by the tear
~ the lowly, hailed by tine new songs {
''as OF thousands under the dome Of God
,nI1 went with Christ after the lost sheeI
ii.u swept the very dust for the lost Jewell