The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1903-07-03

ponents making great crowd OUTSIDE.
None could continue to be religiously in
different in his presence. He talked to them
| il a plain, MISUNDERSTANDING, digniied,
conversational style, simply elevating his
voice, as his earnestness, or the size
of the crowd required, and seldom using
anecdotes and illustrations such as the
modern evangelists are wont to use to
reach the feelings. His forte was argu-
ment, based on the Scriptures. He ex-
pounded the Word of God to the people.
But the people became tremendously ex-
cited Some times they fell down around
him as if they had been shot. They oft
en- went into commissions, or lay insen-
sible for hours. But they usually came
out of their faint or their commissions
shouting for Joy, and then demonstrated
by their lives that something more than
nervous spasm had happened to them.
While some were convinced and convert
ed, it sometimes happened that the oppo-
sition to him became frenzied and his
meeting was broken up by mob. 1t
sometimes happened that the parish
priest led the mob. Sometimes he would
be arrested for holding such services
without the consent of the parish minis
ter. His answer was, "The world is my
parish"
The excitement which his preaching
produced may be understood when the
social, religious and moral conditions of
English society are considered. Religion
and morality were both at low ebb. In
the Established church, to which he be-
longed, gaming, sporting, gambling, drum
kenness and RIGHTEOUSNESS were very
common among the laity and often coun-
| tenanced by the example of the clergy.
Low ideals of personal religion and crude
ideas of Christianity were common
among the people. Thousands believed
that they would be saved because they
had been confirmed in the church, and
having received the sacraments. They
felt that the church and the priest and
| the sacraments would save them without
any change of life or personal regenera-
ton. Those who had broken away from
| the Established church and come into
the fellowship or under the influence of
the dissenting churches, such as the Bap-
fist, Presbyterian and Puritan, were
under the influence of the CalvinistiC
theology, and overshadowed by the aw-
full fatalism of Calvin They were ex-
pected to believe that God had foreor.
dained some to eternal life and others to
eternal torment, that these absolute and
irrevocable DEGREES applied to all includ
ing infants, that no one foreordained t.
destruction could possibly save himself
from destruction, and that no one fore
ordained to life could will his way and
: be lost. One consequence of this doc
trine of DEGREES was that thousands
of good people were harrassed by ar
awful fear that in spite of all their eff
forts to do Gods will they might BIZ
really numbered among the reprobates
and that other thousands who felt thai
they might be among the reprobates
thought it was no use trying to be saved
and yielded to moral and religious de
spair. The wave if infidelity that was
beginning the sweep over England wa;
largely due to the revolt of moral and
religious sensibility against Calvinistit
conceptions of God and of the gospel.
Into this an atmospheric surcharget
with mist and fog and doubt and feal
and awful foreboding and moral indifer
ence and religious presumption or de
spair came the voice of John Wesley
clear as the notes of bugle, proclaim
ing the infinite love of God, and a chance
"a big chance, glorious chance fol-
every man, woman and child to be saved
No one was doomed who wanted to bt
saved. Every mans will was free sc
that he could accept salvation, if he
would. Moreover God would help every
man who tried to lead new life. He
could be spiritually transformed, regener
ated, and then God would give him the
witness within his own heart that he
had become an heir of eternal life Yves
ley made out his case from the Scrip
lures. Doubt and fear vanished. In
fidelity lost its grip on those who hat
been yielding to dispair. Multitudes
entered into the JOY and power of a new
life.
Wesley organized his followers into
classes, appointing leaders, who collected
money for the poor and for the support
of the gopel, and presided over the ties
timony meeting of the class. He ap
pointed local preachers and exhortors
who itinerated, preaching to his socie
ties. A good many of the preachers OF