The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-18
Large Audience Heard Dis : tinguiShed Speaker.
Spoke at Court Street Methodist Church on "The First of Eng Nshmen"-The Bishops
 Cannot Come.

Rev. John J. Tigert, D. D., of Nash Vile. Tenn, book editor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, delivered an address on The First of Enslishmeu'' at the Court Street Methodist Church last night, when the first of a series of ser vices celebrative of the bi-centenary anni- versary of the birth of John Wesley was held.
 Dr. Tigert will deliver at the same church tonight an address on '"rhe Flu ture of Methodism." and on Sunday night another service, for which the program has not been announced, will be con- ducted.
 Dr. Tigert was the speaker last night in- stead of Bishop Hoss of Dallas, Tex, who was unable to attend the celebration, and tonight he will supply the place of Bishop Smith of Virginia. who was been pre- vented from coming to Montgomery by serious illness.
 Rev. A. l.. Andrews, D. D., pastor of the Dexter Avenue Methodist Church. conducted the services last night, which were begun with the singing of the hymn, "All. Hail the Power of Jesus's Name"
 Welcomed by Dr. Andrews.
 Dr. Andrews introduced pr. Tigert to the congregation. which was large. Dr. Andrews welcomed the Methodists and the members of other religious denomina- tions to the celebration of the birth of the founder of Methodism and spoke briefly of the significance of the occasion.
 In presenting Dr. Tigert to his auditors, Dr. Andrews said that the speaker, who was to address them on Wesley, his life and his work, on The First of English men," was known in Montgomery by personal friends, and was known through out the world as a man of deep erudition and high scholarship.
 "If there Is any one man," said Dr. An drews. who knows more than another on this subject, 1t is the distinguished minister who is to address you this even- ing-Dr. Tigert."
 Before making his formal address. Dr. Tigert made a preliminary speech in which he expressed his regrets that the congregation had been deprived of hear ing Bishop floss. and paid tribute to Bishop Hoss and to Bishop Smith, who were to have preached.
 Speaking of Bishop Hoss, he said: 'I cannot stand in his place; but I shall. as well as I can, put before you briefly and pointedly, the chief facts in the life of John Wesley and the lessons to be drawn from them.'
 Dr Tigert on Wesley.
 The academic world, said Dr.. Tigert. which seldom troubles itself with so se- rious and weighty matter as religion, ever and anon wakes to a consciousness that John Wesley was the most widely useful and influential and, therefore, his- torically the most important and conspic- uous parsonage in England of the eigh- teenth century. The Spectator. most au- thorttative of English critical journals, in comparing Shakespeare with Wesley had given evidence that It's possibilities of comparison are exhausted; but even in the judgment of The Spectator, Dr. Tigert said, John Wesley may be set down as the first of Englishmen. No oth- CT man has so affected English life and welfare as had John Wesley; even more widely had He influenced America, through the chu1ch he founded.
 When our horizon is thus enlarged" asked Dr. Tigert, '-is 1t too much to say that. with the possible exception of Mar St. Paul had done so much for the re- vival and extension of Christianity and the welfare of mankind" ' After alluding to other recent criti- cisms of Wesley Dr. Tigert spoke of the reformer's admirable exertion; how he arrested the moral and spiritual decline of England; how he wrought a mightier | and more enduring work than scholars, philosophers and poets, soldiers and | statesmen, especially than prelates and princes; a work partly religious and ec-
 
 "The British empire. in its present state," said $he speaker, may in no un- | important sense be counted among the | monuments of Wesley
 The Mother of Methodism. | Wesley's activities, his prolonged exer- | ton. his sustained enthusiasm, the organ | iZation an dthe system he created, the | view of life he promulgated, argued him | a remarkable man.
 l Wesley was the son of John Wesley, | rector of Epworth, and of Susanna Annesley, and was one of nineteen chill dren, ten of whom reached maturity. Dr. | Tigert gave an interesting account of his progenitors. many of whose traits were | inherited by the great Methodist. To | Wesleys mother, especially, he paid high | tribute for her godliness, her intelligence, | education and refinement, and her inn l mense decision of character; and this | unique woman was the counsellor of her | son, truly the Mother or Methodism.
 Wesley lived eighty-eight years; as an | itinerant Methodist preacher he travelled more than 25O,O00 miles, chiefly on horse back, through Great Britain and Ire- | land; he preached about 5000 sermons in the course of a ministry of more than | sixty-ive years, and he fully organized Methodism At the last conference be- | fore his death there were 10000 members of hls society in England and America. Wesley's conversion from the ascetic, high church Methodism of the Holy Club at Oxford ito the true evangelical Method ism, was the religious crisis of his life and was interestingly treated in the ad- dress last night. Both John and Charles Wesley owed their conversation to Mar tin Luther, each having been moved by Luther's writings. Of his own conver- sion John Wesley left an account in his | journal
 Conversion of Wesley. pr. Tigert said that # the Day of Penticost be accepted ss the birthday of the Christian Churca and the Acts of the Apostles as the beginning of the record of the churcrs history, it would proba- bly, he agreed that the four most note- worthy conversions within the Christian era were those of St. Paul, St. Augustine. Martin Luther and John Wesley They have been pivotal for Christian life and for Christian extension. The four con- versions were not dissimilar; those of St. Paul and of John Wesley were much | alike in tho oaSa of each victory over