The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-05-18
FOUNDER OF METRODISM
LIFE OF JOHN WESLEY FURNISHES
INSPIRATION FOR SERMONS.
Bicentennial of Wesley's Birth OBJ
served I'm Many of the City's
Churches-Dr. Hyde's Address.

Episcopal churches yesterday. In many
there we're special musical programmes.
The services were largely attended.
At the Fletcher-place NJ. E. Church DR..
NJ B. Hyde's sermon on Wesley was as
follows:
'It is very fitting that we should occa-
sionally stop and consider the chief char
acteristics of men long dead whose lives
became factors in shaping the destinies OF
men and nations We know that We may
linger long enough to get to the danger
point in some cases and become hero wor-
shippers. But this is not probable. 'Ahe
| greatest study of man Is man.. If TO study
| God is better, will get better knowl-
edge Of God by close study of man. Car
| lyle says worship of a hero is transcendent
| admiration of a great man, say great men
are admirable. 1 say there Is at bottom
nothing else admirable. This is rather
strong language, but 1t Is not far from the
| truth
"Be that as 1t may. we have reached the
| bicentenary of the birth of one Of the great
men of earth. John Wesley. If, as Carlye
| true, then We have found subject, If not
worthy of worship, certainly of great adj
miration. AS Methodists we love Mr.. WeS-
| ley because he was the worlds benefactor
| through the founding of the great Meth
odst Episcopal Church. The name was
originally Wellesley. a name memorable in
English history. especially ecclesiastical
history. The chief branches of this family
extend backward for about 500 years. Ar
thur, the Duke of Wellington. came from
this family.
John Wesley was born at Epworth, Lin
colnshire, England, June IT. 1903. His
father, Samuel Wesley, was rector at Ep-
worth. Johns mothers name was Susan
nah, a most remarkable woman. She was
| the mother Of nineteen children. She had q
strong intellect and she he used her intellect
nal duties. Without exception 1 believe
she impressed her beautiful character on
each of her children. perhaps upon Charles
= N N W.
Through the influence of the Duke of Buck
ingham John was admitted to the Charter
AT the age of sixteen he was placed i'm
Christ Church College, Oxford. At the age
of twenty-three he was made fellow of
Lincoln College for his reputation as
| classical scholar, polished writer and a
| skillful logician.
CALL TO THE MINISTRY.
HE did not enter the ministry without
much hesitation and grave msapprehen-
sion as to the outcome. Like Gideon Of old.
he must be reassured that the call was
| from God. Accordingly he was ordained a
! deacon in 1725 and as priest in the estab-
lished church in 1928. In 1875 he came to
| America in company with General Ogle-
| thorpe as a missionary to Georgia. While
| his work was beneficial, to his mind 1t
| lacked that productiveness that was neces-
| sary to satisfy the mind of Mr.. Wesley.
Hence, after little more than two years
| stay in Georgia, he returned to England.
Up to this time nothing had occurred in
/ his life to indicate that he was to become
| a man whose fame would become world
| wide, the luster Of which would increase
| with the years.
| There came into his life deep religious
| experience, the result of the baptism of the
| Holy Ghost that revolutionized his whole
| life and sent him out with conviction, the
| offspring Of faith and love, which became
/ the germinal principle of organic Method
ism. Such was his intense earnestness, his
| theory of instantaneous conversion through
| faith and the overmastering results of that
preaching that the rectors and Wears of
| the church denied him access TO their pull
| pits. and so he turned to prison chapels,
| hospitals and to open fields, where he
| preached to thousands. When refused the
pulpit at Epworth he stood on the tomb
stone of his. father and preached to vast
| concourse of people. This was all the more
/ significant when we remember that his
| father had preached at Epworth for about
| forty years. We must also remember that
| he had occupied his fathers pulpit for
| the three years that Immediately followed
| his fathers death.
referring to this event in after life Mr.
| Wesley said: L am well persuaded that I
/ did more good to my Lincolnshire parish
| oners by my preaching the three days on
| my fathers tombstone than / did in his
| pulpit during the three years.
i THINGS HE ACCOMPLISHED.
mo fair-minded man can study this life
| and fail to see that Mr.. Wesley was no
i
| ALL his equal has existed since the days of
the apostle Paul. For fifty-four years he
| travelled annually 5000 miles on horseback.
This equals 10000 miles-a distance equal
| to twelve trips around the globe. During
these ffty-four years of his ministry he
| averaged fifteen sermons a week. That is,
| in all, he preached 2,4G0 sermons, besides
| numerous addresses. He read 200 vol
| umes.
His biographer says of him that he
| wrote and published grammars of the He
brew, Greek, Latin, and the French and
editor of a monthly periodical of fifty-six
| pages. He wrote and abridged, revised
| and published a library of fifty volumes.
He published an abridgment Of 'Mosheim's
| history of England in four volumes, a COM
pendulum of natural philosophy in five vol
1 umes. moral and sacred poems in three
| volumes. commentary on the whole Bible
| in four volumes, dictionary of the Eng
lish Language. a history Of Rome. wrote a
work on electricity SSo and, and many Others
1T would be very natural that We as
Methodists should think and say. good
things of Mr. Wesley, since he sustains the
relation Of founder of our truly great Meth
| odism. We will be content to-day I'm let
| ting others talk Of his greatness and of
| the tremendous force that he put in mo-
Episcopal Church and all the various
| branches Of the Methodism of the world
| Methodism that reaches many millions Of
| members, own church alone reaching
| nearly 100000.
SOUTHEY ON WESLEY.
"Southey, the poet laureate, wrote a most
interesting and yet severely critical life of
| Wesley. He has little patience with wes-
leys enthusiasm or his alleged ambition.
| Yet he says: L consider Wesley as the
| most influential mind of the last century,
the man who will have produced the great
est effects centuries or perhaps millenni-
ums hence, If the present race Of men shall
continue so long. There may come
| time when the name of Wesley will be
| more generally known and TO remoter re-
or Catherine, his contemporaries. For the
| works of such men survive them, and con-
tinue to operate when nothing remains OF
worldly ambition but the memory of its
vanity and its guilt
Green, an English clergyman. is known
as the most attractive of our recent histori-
| ans. His tribute to Wesley and the Meth
odist revival is unequivocal:
THE MethodiSts themselves were the
| least result OF the Methodist revival. Its
action upon the church broke the lethargy
| of the clergy and made the fox-huntine
| parson and the absentee rector at last i'm
possible. In Walpole's day the English
the world In the nation at large appeared
| a new moral enthusiasm. healthy in its So
| cial tone, and whose power was seen in the
disappearance OF the profiigacy which hsd
| disgraced the upper classes and the fond
| ness which had infested literature ever
since the revolution. A yet nobler result
of the religious revival was the steady at