The Methodist Quarterly Review 1869

Art. V.-METHODISM: ITS METHOD AND MISSION. THE method of an ecclesiastical system is as important to its proper interpretation as the method of a school of philosophy. Let the question be, then, how has Methodism reached its present status in doctrine, Church polity, as an experimental missionary system, a civilizing force, and an administrative power What has been and ought to be its method of obtaining truth, wisdom, and efficiency

To answer safely, a few leading facts must be carefully considered. We first ask attention to the fact that the religions faith of mankind is not, first and chiefly, a logical conviction; and the method of Methodism accepts this fact. Our people do not reach the doctrine of depravity, for instance, first by argumentation. They have felt the presence of a searching, revealing Spirit. Startling revelations have been made to the individual consciousness, and each sinner has found himself crying, "O wretched man that I am," My heart "is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." In like manner, and not by scholastic processes, justification by faith takes its place in our theological system. There is first a painful conviction for sin, then a view of Christ-not the Christ of the books but the Christ of inspiration-Christ rising, extending, stronger every moment, at length almighty to deliver; and confidence in him triumphs over timidity and conscious guilt, and thus faith in a divine-human Christ brings justification and peace with God. Henceforth adoption is matter of illuminated consciousness. Its evidence is not the dictum of a priest, but "the witness of the Spirit." Now come the keen convictions of indwelling depravity, the yearnings for purity, the manifestation of unlimited merit in the blood of Jesus, and the faith which brings the cleansing power into the soul, and the witness of perfect love. Like their great founder, Methodists accept the doctrine of holiness, not first as a part of systematic divinity, but as a great experimental fact.

So, also, the doctrines of the possibility of final apostasy, of the duty of perpetual progress, of the great truths of the uninterrupted consciousness and immortality of the soul, of the resurrection of the body, of the general judgment, of the endless happiness of the righteous, and of the eternal punishment of the finally impenitent, came to their places in the faith of Methodism not first as elements of a dogmatical system, but, like all other Bible truths, as great religious convictions, to be thoroughly examined and tested by logical appeal to the only inspired standard.

Thus by what may be termed, in some strong sense, inspiration, scrutinized by the severest logic, the Methodist Church has received the clearest, best defined, and least mutable system of theology known in the history of doctrines. This is our first indication of the general law of method for which we are searching.

In further pursuing this inquiry, let us come again to facts. In the light which' God poured into the mind of Wesley he saw the fallen state of the Church and the peril of souls. lie felt "inwardly moved" to go out and try to save them. When with his brethren he found himself in a flame of revival, and was called upon to explain, his answer was "God thrust us out td raise up a holy people." In the mean time certain laymen appeared among the people, like John the Baptist in the wilderness, announcing a message from heaven, and with tears and overwhelming power beseeching men to "flee from the wrath to come." Wesley was startled. But if the "preaching" of these plain, unordained men was not "with enticing words of man's wisdom," it was surely "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Promptly the inspired logic of his lofty-souled mother came to the help of his own, and he said, "Go and preach, for the Holy Spirit commands you. What am I that I should withstand God " Belief in the essential priesthood of the laity, and the paramount authority of a divine call to preach the Gospel, is, therefore, very primitive Methodism. If; then, it be demanded wily so many plain laymen have become powerful Methodist preachers, the answer is, With us preaching is not a profession, but a vocation. As in the early apostolic Church, "not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; that no flesh should glory in his presence." From the very first divine utterance to the soul which brings up the strange "woe is me if I preach not the Gospel," on through all the grades of the sacred office, "moved by the Holy Ghost," gives expression to the profoundest truth in the constitution of our holy ministry. This alone fully explains a remarkable fact in the history of the Methodist pulpit. The logical method evidently would be, first to learn to preach, and then preach. We preach first and learn to preach afterward. It explains also our grand itinerancy. In the logical method, ministers should be called by a congregation at a stipulated salary. But we have heard, sounding through our souls to their very depths, the call of the Master, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. lie that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned:" and we have gone, "thrust out," regardless of salaries, church calls, parish lines, and prescriptive forms, to save, if possible, some of these millions rushing down to hell. Under such inspirations our ministry arose, and hence every true Methodist preacher is a heaven-appointed missionary, and the apostolic announcement of the great-souled Wesley, "The world is my parish," becomes at once luminous and prophetic.

Questions of logical Church order follow inspiration promptly, and reason supernaturally illuminated has extraordinary clearness and power. It was felt that authority came from Wesley; men were moved to submit to it, and argument declared it reasonable. Carefully scrutinizing and rationally accepting the indications of Providence, logic in its proper place gave position, which proved to be historical, to the "Conference," the "Minutes," and the "Deed of Settlement," and ordained a reliable succession. The class meeting was an inspiration, and logic came in to help sustain, extend, and perpetuate it. The love-feast was an historical recognition. So also were an episcopal form of Church government and presbyterial ordination. General Superintendents, Presiding Elders, Quarterly, Annual, and General Conferences, came in due time to their respective positions, the Conference "Minutes" grew and changed into the form of a compact and comprehensive "Discipline," all pervaded by a vigorous life, and including a scope and perfection of organic practical power which could under no circumstances be the product of mere human reason, and yet answering promptly to the severest logical tests.

Thus a system of Church polity rises up before us most evidently vitalized by inspiration, and sustained by logic; and precisely in this way the Methodists have become the grandest organizers in the world. This is a further indication of a general law.

We are now prepared to examine the unprecedented successes of Methodism. Large numbers, of themselves, prove nothing good or valuable. But it should be considered that the vast multitudes of Methodism have been gathered, not by any recognized natural laws. Proselytes have not been made by any proffered pleasures, affluence, or honor. No covert corruption has appealed to the lower passions, or promised "indulgence" for money. We have dropped into no strong popular worldly current to float with the masses. Upon the contrary, from the very first, with holiness for our great central idea, we have sought to arrest the cherished sins of the people, thrown every possible obstacle in the way of their carnal gratifications. and [FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXI..-16] denounced, in language of scathing rebuke, all forms of private and popular wrongs, whether in high places or low. By the plainness of most unwelcome truths, and the thoroughness of fearless exposures, we have provoked the bitterest opposition. We were a handful of the poor and despised amid countless numbers of enemies, rich and powerful as, well as unscrupulous and vulgar. By all laws of human forces, we should have been overwhelmed and annihilated. But instead, we grew rapidly. We made converts of our enemies, high and low, in astonishing numbers; converts, be it observed, from trust in "things that are seen " to faith in the. invisible; from a moral condition most natural and universal to one most dreaded and restricted in its natural gratifications. We demanded that men and women should leave the "broad" and enter "the narrow way "-from license to law. We made no pretensions to a "liberal" Gospel. We resisted all temptations to popularize the message. True, it did contain much that was tender and compassionate, but it was solemn, awful, severe ! How strange, how contrary to nature! And yet multitudes were won by it. It was again the marvel of apostolic times. Under the teaching of a few despised men, these multitudes came to love the things they once hated and to bate the things they once loved. Thus has arisen a large, powerful organization for the promotion of holiness; and the movement increases in momentum beyond all precedent, the Methodist Episcopal Church alone rolling up its hundred thousand and more net increase a year.

To explain these extraordinary results is the problem. The reasons assigned must not be those which would apply equally to the. other excellent Churches, much older in organization than ours, which we have left far in the rear.

Let it be first observed that the grand power which is to convert the world is not logic, but inspiration.. This is a divine adjustment of the Gospel of salvation to the Gospel of creation. The minds of men are not first and chiefly logical, but sensitive. They have reason in various degrees, but in development the logical consciousness is much later than the sensitive. This is true of all classes of mind, but most conspicuous in the masses. It follows that an emotional Christianity arrests and impresses more promptly and successfully than a form in which the intellectual predominates. This would be an easy and rational explanation of the popular influence of Methodism. We are warm, energetic, and nearly ubiquitous. We are subdued, melted, moved. Our whole system of worship and action is instinct with a joyous contagious life. The people, therefore, like us. We sprang from them, and remain in intimate sympathy with them. Our Gospel of freedom strikes them at once as being true. Our ministers, coming from the people, have generally had the good sense to remain among them. "The Church of the people" is, therefore, our most naturally suggested designation.

The apparent limitations of this reasoning are not, however, reliable; for true religious convictions in all classes of mind, and all true regenerations, are from the Holy Spirit. This agency in the efficient work of saving men must not be assigned a' subordinate or mediate, but a primary and independent office-as independent when acting through instrumentalities as without them. Let it therefore be considered settled that there is absolutely no conversion without inspiration, and that this work of the Holy Spirit must antedate all other influences, and prepare the soul for them. Now this period of conviction for sin is no time to settle theologies, no time for an appeal to the logical consciousness. The soul must see, not argue. All other things being equal, therefore, the services most spiritual, conveying with the greatest certainty and the least delay the purest inspirations, will be most successful in producing true faith and true conversion. Warm, fervent, powerful prayers, which call down the Spirit's baptism; clear, earnest instruction, coming from sound beliefs and souls dissolved in love, and singing full of melting pathos and glowing inspirations, move thousands into the arms of Jesus, while the cool, intellectual processes of cautious logic, in the same period of time, bring comparatively small numbers into the light.

The connection between true Methodist fervor and spiritual efficiency is not therefore accidental nor temporary, but real and necessary; as clearly a necessity to such minds as those of Patrick Henry and Andrew Jackson, who were powerfully converted under its influence, and became Methodists late in life, and the late Judge M'Lean, early, and to the moment of death, a glowing Methodist, as to the general masses of men. We insist that spiritual earnestness-receiving and imparting divine inspirations-is the legitimate method of evangelical power. Scholars, therefore, who have conceded to us a high degree of spirituality, and assigned us an important pioneer mission, but predicted our decline after this work is done, are in this unscholarly. They have based their judgment on the assumed temporary character of demonstrative religious fervor, and not upon the great law of spiritual adjustments. Under this law people of all grades of mind become Methodists in spirit, first by conversion, and not by indoctrination; and as inspiration from God is the efficient force employed in conversion , we see here at once the grand secret of our power and the method of our progress. This has been tested in action upon souls in a great variety of circumstances. Dead scholastic formalists, haughty infidels, and vulgar persecutors, who have resisted all logic, have been melted down and brought into "the kingdom of Christ" by the inspirations received through the most humble teaching and simple pleadings of faith in prayer. In our great missionary work we have not depended, first and chiefly, upon education, or any other secular civilizing agencies, but upon the power of the Spirit, accompanying a spiritual Gospel, and exalting to supernatural force our humble spiritual services. Chinamen high in scholarship as well as those lowest in caste, Mohammedans and Pagans of different grades in India, dark degraded minds and princes in Africa, as well as polished Europeans and Americans, have been born again by the power of the Spirit; and whole conferences of ministers, missionary and native, have risen up in each quarter of the globe. Methodist songs and prayers, exhortations and sermons, and shouts of joy are ringing in the ears of the people, and rising up to heaven in the most splendid languages and barbarous dialects of earth. Now, these stupendous results are not given in any philosophical development, by any logical method, however scientific or perfect. They are absolute recreations upon a vast scale, and hence of God alone. Human power could be instrumental in; their production only as energized by inspiration truly divine. We are, therefore, prepared for the statement that

Inspiration is the primary vitalizing force of the great experimental missionary system of Methodism. It is hence thoroughly alive, sovereignly aggressive, tending rapidly to universality. This is the third indication of our general law.

We may now direct attention to the stimulating, expanding effect of this method of power upon mind and its activities. The great work of spiritual re-creation and illumination must, from the unity of mind, produce marked intellectual effects. The desire to know, under this quickening impulse, advances promptly to earnest longings after truth of a]l kinds. For the purposes of study the first great necessity of mind is, to be thoroughly aroused. This certainly occurs in the inspirations of the new life; and the yearnings for spiritual science naturally produce yearnings for all science. Scholars, therefore, who profess to be amazed at the powerful and really unprecedented growth of educational ideas and institutions in the Methodist Church are in this also unscholarly. It is in our system, as all discerning men ought to see. The grand inspirations upon which Methodists depend for prompt regeneration and aggressive missionary power quicken the whole man and the whole mass, and give rapid development and vigorous movement to every thing.

One of the first results ought to have been, and was, an unusual degree of self-help, and the production of a large number of self-taught men, who would be powerfully felt in every community where Methodism appeared. This explains the result of the rudeness and rashness with which they were attacked. Men of books and schools, in large numbers, turned to look with astonishment at the rough granite-men they had dashed against; and tried, with noticeable confusion, to comprehend the power by which they had been vanquished.

But this self-developing force would naturally lead to scholastic training, and bring back to itself a large infusion of science from common sources. Hence appeared the pushing influence of Methodists as citizens in organizing and carrying forward the great common school system, especially in the newly-settled portions of the republic. Hence the promptness with which our Conference academies arose and moved to the front in numbers and popular power. Hence the enthusiasm in multiplying "colleges and universities," too frequently indicating inspiration in defiance of logic. But soon stern reason would sit in judgment on these impromptu creations; and, in numbers, location, and resources, they would come to order so promptly that invidious criticism would wonder where the thing was which it was about to ridicule.

This whole argument applies equally to the kindred development of literature. The forces which have produced our periodical and volume press, our immense publishing houses and literary commerce, are to a good degree occult, and especially unknown to our rivals and envious critics. It is safe to say, that no adequate explanations can be found in any argument which would show their necessity or attempt to estimate their importance. No great master-mind has ever contrived these schemes, produced their constituent elements, or adjusted them to each other, in their present completeness and reach of organized power. Like our general intelligence and enterprise, our seminaries of learning, and our great societies for the propagation of the Christian faith, they are the growth of the Church. All our presses, periodicals, and volumes; with our millions of money invested, and our hands, and brains, and hearts employed, are the direct product of the life-power of the Church. They are of the Church, in the Church, and for the Church. They feed the life which produced them, and every day increase its power to produce other larger, mightier outgoings for the conquest of the world to Jesus, "the life, the truth, and the way." We will now candidly say that these vast publishing interests are not merely Christian in the ordinary sense. No common Christian enterprise could have produced them. They are Methodist institutions, born of the very providence and potent with the very energy which has produced Methodism. Methodism could not have existed without producing them. They could not have existed without Methodism. Their potentiality and dependence are organic and inseparable. Neither the spirit of thought, nor the pathos of style, nor the business energy of this heart-earnest aggressive Christian literature, can be explained without the inspirations which have every-where taken the lead in the constitution of Methodism.

We now advance to say, that so far from being a suppression or degradation of logic, the spiritual philosophy of this movement has been most favorable to its development. It may be safely affirmed that from Wesley and Fletcher down to Bangs and Fisk, no more trenchant logicians or masterly disputants have ever appeared in the field of dialectics than the Methodist Preachers. They were regarded at first as innovaters upon established Church order, and at length as invaders of Calvinistic orthodoxy, to be met and repelled, first by authority and denunciation, and then to be overwhelmed with logic. The former failed, as must always man against God; and as to the latter the challenge was promptly accepted. Our spiritual warriors, plain and polished, battled over the whole field of theological and moral truth with a " cleverness" and success which have amazed both antagonists and friends, demonstrating the fact that "logic on fire" arises directly from inspiration, honored in the advance.

We here come to a most noticeable fact. It is, that wherever these warm controversialists began, they went straight to the point of personal liberty and responsibility. Three grand impediments to the providential mission of this free republic rose before them, and their masterly power in dealing with each of them is slowly advancing to historical recognition.

They first encountered the limitations of the will, which in every form firmly antagonized human freedom, and by a strict logical necessity released man from responsibility. They, therefore, attacked and drove this grand usurpation from its imperious dogmatic position into biblical exegesis and philosophical criticism, whence, after successive defeats on its own chosen ground, it at length seems nearly content to make its last retreat into old books, and defunct formulas', henceforth not to be depended upon to furnish a practical Gospel for any class of people, nor allowed to interfere with 'its development of power. In this the citizens of the Great Republic generally coincide, for, with characteristic common sense, they say if the will is not free there is no freedom any where. This battle the Arminian Methodists fought nearly alone.

The next grand impediment to American liberty appeared in the limitations of conscience. In the first period of this contest the Methodists joined the Baptists, who were by many years their heroic pioneers. As the result, puritanic and prelatical bigotry gradually lost their dominant power in the East and South, and their last hope of becoming national on this continent passed away. Both went down under the crushing blows of inspired logic. Religious toleration first, and at length pure religious liberty, became the grandest, most potential fact of national life in America.

From despotic governments abroad a religions despotism has been imported to this country, and with this form of the attempt to limit. and virtually destroy the rights of conscience the battle continues. But the progress of freedom, under the guidance of true inspirations, firing and strengthening the logical consciousness and power, has accumulated from all denominations able defenders of the soul's most sacred rights; and the will, emancipated from the thraldom of prescriptive dogma, is combining one grand Protestant phalanx against this menacing usurpation; while from its relative numbers, organic compactness, and vigorous life, in its own characteristic method, Methodism moves in the van of this noble army of religious liberty,, and the decisive victory is already historically indicated.

The final form in which personal rights were antagonized here was African, and at length American, slavery.. The fiery. logic of Methodism rushed upon this monster despotism with really reckless energy. Profound, however, in its reach, and formidable in its resources, its assailants were staggered, and the victory awaited successive assaults, and the gathering of providential forces, bringing on the grandest crisis of modern history, and then it was overwhelming. Recognizing as we do the noble heroism of our brother warriors of every Church in which throbbed the great heart of liberty, it is yet most agreeable to know that the Methodist spirit, true to its early inspirations, rallied again and again to the battle, and had its just position at the front in the last great conflict, when the monster fell to rise no more.

In the sweeping away of these three formidable limitations of liberty in this country one great question is, we believe, settled forever. Let it be asked, What will be the religion of the people which will inspire and control the civil life and destiny of the Republic The answer, given in clear historic revelations, is, It will not be necessarian Calvinism, it will not be Roman Catholicism, it will not be slave despotism; it will be, in whatsoever form and by whomsoever represented, " Christianity in earnest."

We are now entitled to claim that inspirations from God, wielded by severe logic, have imparted to Methodism as a grand civilizing force the broadest, loftiest spirit of enlightened justice. In this it has availed itself of a power absolutely indestructible, and destined to become universal. We have here, then, the fourth indication of a general law.

We come next to consider the adaptation and adjustability of administrative to missionary Methodism. Let us refer again to the announcements of Mr. Wesley, "to spread scriptural holiness over" all lands, "the world is my parish." The claim of universality included in these commanding propositions embodies the words of Jesus, and "they are spirit, and they are life;" "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth;" "Go ye into all the world and preach my Gospel to every creature." Now the Church which in its fullest sense obeys this high behest will be "the Church of the future." The problem, therefore, is, Channels every-where for the outflow of the spirit of Christianity, provisions for the certain delivery of Christ's "Gospel to every creature.

To be thoroughly prepared to meet her proportion of these responsibilities it is evident that the Methodist Church must not only receive frequent and powerful Spirit-baptisms, but must realize the unobstructed action of the Holy Ghost. Her logic must be spiritual in its life, wide in its grasp, and practical in its tendencies. Thus under direction of both rational inspiration and inspired logic she must advance rapidly to the completion of her unity, the first fact of which will be to render available to the largest practicable extent her spirituality, wisdom, wealth, and business ability. This she is candidly attempting. To succeed she needs to see distinctly that a thoroughly practical division of labor does not imply, nor admit of; organic separation, either nominal or real. Whatever is essential to Church vitality is common to all, and must never in any part of it be excluded from any vitalizing work. We take the word spirituality to represent the first and largest indivisible element of aggressive vitalizing Church power. This soul-life of the Church is from the Holy Spirit, and is self-propagating; it must, therefore, live, pray, sing, give, speak, and vote for the salvation of souls. It follows that to bring us to the highest unity, all the spirituality of the Church must be brought to bear upon all her deliberations and work for the extension of the Christian life. Any practical measure from which the spiritual power of any portion of the Church is excluded is just so much the less potential. Now to combine the spiritual power of the Methodist Episcopal Church in, her great acts of legislation under the Master, she must bring forward that vast amount of it included in the laity, and avail herself of its renovating influence and inspiring love, its spiritual insight and missionary zeal, in all the "rules and regulations" made to render free and rapid the outflow of the life of Christ into this dead world. It is evident that the first great want of our law-making deliberations is spiritualization; and we record it as our profound conviction that a vast accession of this vital force is available, and is moving up from the laity to take its place in the highest, most responsible working body of the Church. Further, in all deliberations which affect the status of Church members, and the propagation of the faith, (and we have no other,) wisdom, next to spirituality, is the great demand. But the line which distinguishes the ministry from the laity does not indicate in the slightest degree any boundaries or limitations of this high requisite for safe or aggressive legislation. It lies largely upon both sides. It is one of the pervasive forces of the Church. To dispense with it as it exists in either the ministry or laity is so far to diminish the power of this indispensable agent of Church development.

Now the grand material agent which is available to spiritualized wisdom in carrying out its plans may be represented by the term wealth. This, from the largest to the smallest sums, is scattered throughout the laity and the ministry. It is required in every enterprise for the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom. It gets its position of power not by force or authority, but by Christian beneficence. To call out in largest amounts the immense treasures which God has intrusted to individual Christians for the evangelization of the world, the influences which inspire confidence must reach to the extremities of the Church, and the combinations which produce unity of purpose in the appropriations of these funds, and the highest, broadest responsibility in their administration, must comprehend the givers. Wealth is one of the universals of the Church. It is neither of the ministry nor membership' as such, so neither will its use be in completed unity.

One other great practical force which we must mention may be termed business ability. The Church has become a vast business organization. She must not, however, secularize her Christianity, but Christianize her secularity. The business talent of the Church is not restricted nor indicated by classes. Now let this power in the ministry and the laity be spiritualized, and meeting at all points, blend in the largest, most energetic unity. The ecclesiastical business functions of the ministry received, from necessity, an earlier development than that of the laity, and it may be admitted that the inspirations of the ministry have in this field carried them beyond the supports of their logic, while the Church business inspirations of the people are behind their logic. The retiring of the former to their logical supports, and the corresponding advance of the latter to their logical demands, are necessary to the realization of the most commanding business unity; and as both these are the conspicuous and inevitable tendencies of the age, the party-form of our problem is rapidly dissolving. Our outward differences are being thrown off by the healthy growth of our inward vital unity.

Now it is evidently the design of Providence in its control of us to send out the laborers every-where, thoroughly imbued with all the vitalizing power, and in command of all the practical forces, common to the whole Church. We are, therefore, acting in harmony with Providence when we are seeking to combine into one grand working unity all the spirituality, wisdom, wealth, and business ability of Methodism. But as this cannot be done by aggregation it must be by completed representation. Men coming up from the people to our ecclesiastical bodies must bring into them for use there, and render available for missionary power, all the great moral forces which have developed in our growth. Plans for the realization of this grand result have been submitted with great unanimity by the ministerial representatives of these four unifying forces to the laity of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Let them be promptly accepted in June next, and our representative unity in spirituality, wisdom, wealth, and business ability will be thus completed.

The next form of the question of unity is one of administration. Methodism was expected to prove itself unsound in doctrine because it did not formally, at first, announce a creed; erratic in movement, because it would not be governed by traditions from the dead past; and temporary, because it was not robed in apostolic vestments. But in its receptive and demonstrative liberty were the hidings of its power. So far from becoming latitudinarian in its faith, by allowing the truths it would grasp to move freely among themselves, claim their affinities, and record their own definitions, it was in this way only that it received the clearest, best defined, and most 'in-changeable system of doctrines known in ecclesiastical history. While, therefore, it is true that Wesleyan Methodism as an organized spiritual movement in the Church of England demanded no subscription to an inflexible creed as a condition of membership in its societies, it is unhistorical to say that the 'Methodist Episcopal Church has no binding definitions of faith in which her members ought to agree. For the very reason that our doctrines have been received and identified by the method of inspiration, and tested, compiled, and published by the severest logic, they are fit to be the acknowledged standards of all Christians, however spiritual or intellectual. Methodism is "Christianity in earnest" for the defense and propagation of all forms of fundamental truth, dogmatical as well as experimental. This is historically settled as included in our providential mission; and for this very purpose our system of doctrine has been produced by our providential method. We dictate no faith, but we teach and recognize faith. We repudiate hereditary visible Church membership because it would be involuntary, and reject contentious heterodoxy because it is disturbing to Church order and ruinous to souls. We guard the soundness of our ministry by test examinations from probation to ordination, solemnly pledging them. to "banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines," because they are indoctrinating teachers of responsible disciples. We have an undoubted right to question all candidates for Church membership as to their belief in our doctrines because successful organization must be of homogeneous elements.

It must, however, be admitted that we have been unfortunate m one of our questions. ["Do you believe in the doctrines of Holy Scripture, as set forth in the Articles of religion of the Methodist Episcopal Church "-Discipline, 1865, p.155.] Our "Articles" are chiefly an expression of our Protestant and free-will faith against Popery and Calvinism. They make no pretensions to be an exhaustive statement of " the doctrines of Holy Scripture," as taught by "the Methodist Episcopal Church." They are alone neither historic-any; legally, nor popularly the standard of Methodist doctrine. Candidates are confused, rather than relieved, by the restricted form of the question, many of them showing that they have never mastered the phrase "Articles of Religion." Ask them directly and simply, "Do you believe in the doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal Church" and they will all answer promptly and heartily, "Yes;" for they do. Let this more appropriate, comprehensive question take the place, as soon as practicable, of the much too technical and scholastic question we now have.

This, however, by the way. The truth is to be firmly seized that the providential growth and informal exposition of the fundamental faith of Methodism the more (not the less, as has been claimed) entitle us to ascertain the essential correctness in belief of those whom we admit to full fellowship in the constitution, of our Church unity, and in the great work of extending the truth as it is in Jesus; to remove disturbing innovators and opposers from our membership; and especially to depose ministers who insist upon the right of misleading our people by teaching "erroneous and strange doctrines," which they have solemnly covenanted to "banish and drive away:" let these men join other branches of the Christian Church if any are willing to receive them, with the understanding that they intend to take in with them the right of being "carried about by every wind of doctrine," the right of irresponsible agitation and revolution, which they have been calmly and religiously denied in the Methodist Episcopal Church. This claim rises directly out of the method of our faith. If it were to be settled first and chiefly by logic, then "debates" would have much more plausible ground for the right to be endless.

We go further, and affirm that the great system of ethics and practical Christianity known as "the General Rules," is, seen from the same stand-point, to be of binding force, and to furnish a proper basis of Church discipline. They are not speculative or optional. They come of inspiration, and our members must observe them or forfeit their standing among us. "These are the General Rules of our societies; all which we are taught of God to observe, even in his written word, which is the only rule, and the sufficient rule, both of our faith and practice. And all these we know his Spirit writes on truly awakened hearts. If there be any among us who observe them not, who habitually break any of them, let it be known unto them who watch over that soul as they who must give an account. We will admonish him of the error of his ways. We will bear with him for a season. But if then he repent not, he hath no more place among us. We have delivered our own souls."

It is, in the same light, seen to be an error to presume that because our Church polity and government became not in form matters of direct revelation, they are therefore not of binding force. God has made us responsible for the use of illuminated reason in the settlement of discretionary Church order, and our "Rulers and Regulations" when made, or as amended or constitutionally changed, are of the nature of a sacred covenant between members and the Church, and are binding as the legitimate rests of responsible liberty. The Church has therefore authority in its high discretion to require its members to meet in class, not because this particular form of religious conference and worship is named in the Scriptures, but because to her is committed the watch-care of souls, and because the special mode of doing this effectually is left in some respects to her discretion. If this were otherwise, then nothing in prudential church order is binding. But the apostolic command is, "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief." Let this law become a nullity, and schism and disorder are inevitable and without remedy. Let our Twenty-second Article define the duty of loyalty and the highest wisdom in church prerogatives. "It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in all places be the same, or exactly alike, for they have been always different, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's word. Whosoever, through his private judgment, willingly and purposely doth openly break the rites and ceremonies of the Church to which lie belongs, which are not repugnant to the word of God, and are ordered and approved by common authority, ought to be rebuked openly, that others may fear to do the like, as one that offendeth against the common order of the Church, and woundeth the consciences of weak brethren." They argue erroneously, therefore, who claim discretionary license for Church members in regard to Church order in prudential matters. A wise paternal discipline, based upon the principle here distinctly brought out, has been for years the accumulating want of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Let the fact that class meetings were instituted by Providence, and have been sustained by broad and invigorating historical power, indicate the wrong and danger of negligence in regard to them, either by members or administrators. They are the result and means of our most distinguishing inspirations. If it be assumed that we have grown to such immense proportions as to render our former administrative unity impracticable, I allege exactly the contrary. Never in our history could we with so much strength and safety as now, m this and all other respects, prudently, but firmly, return to the Discipline. By no other standard, in no other way, can we be one in administration or marked in efficiency.

Let the question of completed unity be now much further extended. The equilibrium between the aggressive power and receptive capacity of the Church is of the highest moment. For instance, when the missionary force brought to the last General Conference Annual Conferences from the four quarters of the globe, the representative Church looked amazed at her trophies, asked where to put them, hesitated, debated, decided, and they moved to their organic position, to be instantly felt not as a burden, but as an augmentation of aggressive power. The grandest fact of that great assembly was the clear demonstration of the exact equilibrium, up to that period, of the conservative and progressive forces of the Church.

This brings us naturally to the great question which, from our large increase and extension must soon force a solution, How can one General Conference be composed of delegates from all parts of the world, and one administration reach and keep in order ten millions-twenty millions-of members, and seventy-five thousand-a hundred and fifty thousand-traveling ministers, of peoples so diverse and remote There is undoubtedly a strong historical relief in the statement, that fifty years ago, the question, Can one administration manage seventy-two Conferences and a million of members in America, Europe, Asia, and Africa would have been scarcely less startling. We venture the additional statement, that if the unobstructed movement of the Gospel requires one universal Church, bringing to the highest available power at any given point all general spiritual agencies, then our historical equilibrium of discipleship and government may be extended to this result as easily as it has been perfectly preserved in a rapid progress of a hundred years directly toward it.

But to grapple with this great question in its most formidable aspect, let it be stated that all our ecclesiastical bodies are adjustable in number, constitution, periodicity, and jurisdiction. Let us now suppose a Quarterly Church Conference, an Annual District Conference, a Biennial State Conference, a Quadrennial National Conference, a Sexennial Judicial Conference, and an Octennial General (Ecumenical) Conference.

As this plan is intended only to show that the grave question before us admits of a practical solution, I do not propose to encumber it with details. The following suggestions, however, may assist those who are inclined to give it a candid and thorough examination:

1. This would concede the now tolerably well settled fact that, our Annual Conferences must be, composed of districts not strictly conformable to State lines, their limits being determined by business and religious associations and unalterable physical geography, while it would give us all the advantages of complete adjustment to all the civil divisions of the earth.

2. The General Conference would of course observe strict fidelity to the Discipline in constituting these several bodies and defining their powers. It would, therefore, be not revolution, but simple development.

3. I would retain the present disciplinary membership in the Quarterly and Annual Conferences, and also make the Bishops ex-officio members of the General Conference. The Judicial Conference would of course be composed only of the peers, of the parties going up to it for justice; but, with the Bishops, it should be made our Constitutional Judiciary. Then the delegated membership in all the other bodies should be a full impartial representation, with adjustable pro rata numbers.

4. The functions of our ecclesiastical bodies might be very much simplified by admitting suggestions in regard to each, coming from territorial limitations, and by a natural distinction between legislative, judicial, deliberative, and executive assemblies. The General Conference would be relieved of appeals and constitutional questions, of all corrupting elections, and of much detaining local business, and become, as it ought to be, the depository of ultimate power for the conservation of doctrine, the enactment of laws, the unification and efficiency of administration, and the spread of the Gospel. The State and National Conferences would be deliberative, and could conveniently take charge of such business matters, in connection with our great educational, publishing, and other interests, as should be referred to them. The Annual Conferences, relieved of anniversaries and many inconvenient business details, could become more efficiently executive, and more deeply spiritual. :

5. Let the idea of a ubiquitous "general itinerant superintendency" be fully realized. This does not require a large increase of the number of Bishops, which for economical and connectional reasons will generally be admitted to be inexpedient; nor diocesan episcopacy, which would destroy our itinerancy. Let our Episcopacy remain in jurisdictional authority entirely indivisible, as though it were in one universal Bishop. The genius of our Church polity requires it, and there is absolutely no other way of realizing administrative unity in unlimited extension.

There is, however, a power for good, partly personal and partly of office, which appertains to the Episcopal presence and labors which ought to be fairly distributed, and which, like all other pastoral functions, absolutely demands assignable limits for its most effective application. This is inevitably localized, and its area largely determined by the residence of the Bishop. Let, then, the General Conference divide our [FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXI.-1 7] whole territory into as many districts as there are effective Bishops, and direct that one shall reside in each district, to exchange within a prescribed period, leaving jurisdiction and the distribution of administrative labor precisely as they now are. This, with a pro rata increase of numbers, and a provision for honorably relieving from the office all who, for any reason, are incompetent to perform its duties, that they may return to the body of the eldership to which they belong, in such Conference as they may choose, will raise the Methodist Episcopacy to its highest practicable efficiency, and preserve intact the principles on which it rests.

Then let the Presiding Eldership be extended in its scope and exalted in its personnel so as to be, in the "general itinerant superintendency," the' exact complement of the Episcopacy. Thus that completeness of official supervision will be secured, which is attempted by the Protestant Episcopal Church by the multiplication of Diocesan Bishops-officers in practical rank, more analogous to the Presiding Elders than to the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a fact which will be more evident when their status is further defined by the ordination of Metropolitans above them.

This completes one attempt to show that our capacity for homogeneous assimilation and governmental unity may be kept exactly equal to our extension, in fulfillment of our great commission to go into all the world and disciple all nations. Let us now advance to another.

The spiritual is the vital, indestructible element of the Church. So far as it is material, secular, or economical, it is adjustable; but in its divine life it is like God, and can neither be destroyed nor changed. Precisely here appears the grand mistake of many religions propagandists. They seek to render forms immutable and universal. In these attempts the moral exhausts itself and fails, and prerogative, vainly endeavoring to supply its place and accomplish the impossible, pushes itself into force, and fails also. There is no infallibility nor universality in forms, and yet in forms large portions of even the Christian world are still struggling to realize them. The Latin and the Greek Churches are notable examples of this stupendous folly. Protestantism, so far as it attempts to follow them is, like them, " a failure." Of this the Ritualists of the Episcopal Church in England and America are just now the most conspicuous and mournful instances.

Here let us gratefully acknowledge the manner in which God bath made us to differ from all other Churches. -The Roman Church, by setting aside the illimitable, and devoting its paramount energies to the necessarily limited, has proved historically that it can never become catholic. The Methodists at the very first firmly grasped the illimitable, and hold on to it, assigning the limited and the variable to its adjustable position. Successional Episcopalianism, substituting tradition for history, undertook to realize universality in an illiterate mistake. Methodism rejected the inevitably limitating error, and accepted an adjustable, and therefore an effective Episcopacy. Presbyterianism grasped the true apostolic ordination, but rejected all Episcopacy, and thus missed an indispensable unifying direction. Methodism accepted presbyterial ordination, and thus became historical and flexible, while it received Episcopacy without its fictions, and is hence commanded, in a unified spiritual efficiency, unparalleled in the history of the world. Congregationalism made a center of the localizing idea. Methodism seized the connectional idea, and adopted the itinerancy, and thus became the fullest and most vitalized embodiment among men of the grand apostolic commission. The Baptists, guided by an exegesis, unsustained by the criticisms and historical reading of a large majority of the Christian world, made adult modal baptism a controlling idea; restricted communion followed, and all rational hope of universality was sacrificed. The Methodists took the water emblem to symbolize the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the "one baptism," and thus reached catholicity in both the sacraments.

Finally, while nearly all other evangelical denominations, adopting limiting principles of exegesis, became Necessarians in theology, and were logically driven either to a limited atonement and a partial salvation or the irreconcilable contradictions of responsible freedom and absolute foreordination, thus compelling the extensive rejection of their scheme by the common sense of the people, the Methodists were conducted by broad general principles of interpretation to personal liberty, and a "free and full salvation," all of which the common judgment of mankind declares ought to be true-is true.

In view of the whole we are compelled to admit, and we should do it with trembling, that Methodism alone has become capable of practically demonstrating the universal prerogatives and destination of the visible Church in one organic body.

Advancing from her present position in the honest endeavor to fulfill her great mission, Methodism will find her larger unities. Her inspirations must proceed with their organization. Her forms separate her activities-her spirit must combine them. This spirit is not wholly the divine, nor 'wholly the human, but the resultant of both. The Infinite Vitality acts upon the finite in regeneration, and develops a mixed life-a very live thing called Methodism. Now as the human predominates we divide, as the Divine predominates we unite. We do not, therefore, direct attention first to logical efforts, but to the inner spiritual force, to effect larger organic combinations. Hence we say our inspirations must go on with their organizations. The truly Methodistic soul of Methodism, giving fuller, freer scope to the Divine, must work out the human-namely, ignorance, selfishness, and prejudice-and realize its external from its internal unity. This is not speculation, but providence, history, and prophecy. The identity of the Methodist spirit throughout the world is moving her numerous bodies cautiously but evidently toward each other, and at no very distant day this vital progressive power will inevitably master geography and caste, and we shall reach organic unity for our mission to "all nations "in one grand -representative council, and a practically unified administration. The discovery (uncovering) of one broad potential fact heretofore hardly known to exist, will hasten this grand consummation: we mean the real identity of Methodist executive authority, in all its forms, throughout the world. That identity consists in the complete responsibility of personal liberty to connectional authority. This, in some of its various ways, commands the ministry, and gives the Gospel to the people; and it is the only form of executive authority on the globe which reaches this result with absolute certainty. Now whether this administrative authority is ostensibly in a bench of Bishops, distributed and surrounded by a council of Presiding Elders, or in an Annual Presidency and Stationing Committee, -whether preparatory representation. and measures are from the people through Quarterly Conferences or District Meetings, the great facts are every-where the same, a willing people, a loyal ministry to obey, and somebody to command them. The result is a ubiquitous, live itinerancy. In this all Methodist executive authority culminates. Its forms are equally adjustable to local civil institutions and to connectional demands, and this is all that organic unity requires. The best of its forms must be that which, under discipline, is most effective in molding, concentrating, and using the intelligence and will of the people, anticipating their wants, and promptly overcoming all the obstacles which human sin and folly have thrown in the way of their full supply. This will probably be found to be full representation, and a powerful responsible Episcopacy. But we do most confidently submit that whatever may be its form, the fact that it is even now essentially one in principle and result greatly simplifies all our problems of organic unity.

Let us now step out a little further. Passing beyond external organisms into the Christian life, and losing our denominational egotism in the soul of our common Christianity, we find our brethren of the catholic faith every-where advancing to meet us in one holy mission of "peace on earth and good-will to men." Here we have a unity, vitally organic, of immense working power; and it is charming to sec how grandly this inward unity is, in our day, developing in outward harmony and aggressive labor. In the fires of the Spirit how rapidly sectarian bigotries are dissolving, theologies simplifying, and great souls combining to grapple with giant iniquities, and spread every-where the power of a free and a full salvation! It is not necessary for us to identify and claim the Methodist spirit in the warm, joyous outgoing freedom of the live Churches of to-day. Our brethren and history will accord us all that our humility will bear. It is only necessary here to say, that if God shall make us in any sense "the Church of the future," it will be through and by all other Churches. Let us, therefore, draw them more closely to us, and with loving justice acknowledge and honor their evangelical power.

Looking carefully over the whole field we may clearly see, and 'without reservation say, that whether in one organization or several, by attracting other ecclesiastical bodies to herself or pouring her life current through them, the mission of Methodism is to demonstrate the universal prerogatives and destination of the spiritual element in religion. But we have found administrative Methodism perfectly adjustable to this grand and glorious mission, and therefore capable of embodying this vital element, and rendering it objective and sovereign in every form of life, in every place, over the globe. This is its prerogative, this its destination.

We now venture nothing in asserting that this really super-natural adaptation is the result of inspirations from the All-vitalizing Infinite Power. It could never have been produced by human reason, though the severest logic vindicates it.

We thus conclude our search for the method of Methodism. We have found that, in some high and important sense, inspiration has been first in order of time, and alone as a vitalizing force, in giving to Methodism a pure system of doctrines, a wise Church polity, an experimental missionary energy, a broadly-just civilizing power, and an administrative ability capable of indefinite expansion and indissoluble organic unity. We are therefore entitled to our conclusion:

THE METHOD OF METHODISM IS INSPIRATION, IN DISTINCTION FROM LOGIC.

let us here, in a few words, fix our sense of the term inspiration. The inspiration of authoritative revelation for the race was pure truth, accompanied by a miraculous suspension or control of the imperfect human, while the inspiration available to all good men is pure truth, without miraculous suspension or control. It follows that the one is subjectively infallible and objectively true, while the other remains subjectively fallible and may be objectively untrue. Hence the clearness of Divine wisdom in holding the fallible judgment subject to the infallible revelation. Here also appears the value of one of our most sacred precedents. Our venerated founder, though a man of the broadest scholarship and the purest inspirations, became at length, in submissiveness and docility, "homo unius libri," a man of one, book.

Concerning the future our method and our history teach us soundly. Recognizing inspiration as first in time and rank, we must have the Holy Ghost in renovating, sanctifying, directing power always, every-where. Without this we shall be worldly, dead. We must also give ample scope to the power of logic. Without this our zeal will become fanaticism. Illuminated reason must sit in judgment on the promptings of our souls, deeply moved by the Spirit of God. It must be henceforward more thorough in its scrutinies and impartial in its judgments. It must retrace our history, to remind us constantly and forcibly that not numbers, or wealth, or popular influence, but spirituality, humility, holiness has been the measure of our power. If we dare to lay aside our humble trust in the Redeemer alone, for self-seeking and worldly glory, it should thunder in our ears the rebuke of Paul to the Galatians: "Are ye so foolish Having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh" We know that our inspirations, directed by logic, have built schools and colleges, driven the press, founded missions, erected churches, and organized Conferences; but our spirituality lost, no amount of wealth, numbers, or popular influence could restore it. We therefore know absolutely that we cannot reverse the method by which we have risen to greatness as a Christian power. We are commanded by the voice of Providence to pass on into the future with it unchanged.

We are a large and rapidly-increasing number of the most prosperous citizens of this Republic, and marked increase in wealth and cultivation must be inevitable. How strong, therefore, the temptation to extravagance in every thing, and especially in church building. There is certainly no sin in the beauty of form or color. It is not even human, but evidently divine in its creation, and in the refined sensitiveness which renders us susceptible of esthetic enjoyment and expression. But there are limits to the proper use of money in the adornments of our persons and houses, the expensiveness of entertainments, and the splendor of church architecture. We must check our extravagance, or in our oncoming future exchange a spiritual for a material Christianity. All Christian culture and social accomplishments belong as legitimately to Methodists as to other people, but our method and history forbid us to advance a step in the direction of balls, theaters, operas, cards, the cup, or any of their kindred "pleasures." In themselves or associations they arc historically shown to be of the nature of sin, the chosen indulgences of unpardoned sinners, including the vilest of men and the most degraded of women. We cannot use them "in the name of the Lord Jesus;" we therefore cannot use them and be' Methodists. We are to teach a joyous, but self-denying, heavenly-minded Christianity. We were raised up "to spread scriptural holiness over all lands." We must prudently, but firmly, arrest our tendencies to worldly conformity, or fail to accomplish this mission. We shall continue to build magnificent churches, endow institutions of learning, and pass up into positions of high trust and responsibility; but from our method of development we can see clearly that our only safety in all this will be in taking with us our original power, to inspire the worship offered in our most splendid as well as humblest church edifices, to give purity to our motives, breadth to our principles, and elevation to our leadership in Church and State. Migration is not progress. We could become neither great nor strong by leaving the frontier for the city, the poor to take care of the wealthy, or our primitive simplicity for learning. But to retain all our humility, and reach, with the power of resurrection, the very lowest and poorest of men, while we rise to the highest heights in scholarly wisdom and esthetic culture, advance with the foremost in business energy and success, and gather in the highest in social position, is progress. We must therefore go on as we began, to preach the Gospel to sinners wherever we can find them, in private rooms, in barns and school-houses, in the streets and in the groves, as well as in more convenient and superb edifices. We should give due attention to the call of the Church and the order of discipline in the appointment and ordination of men to the sacred office, but we must not wait for this before we try to save sinners. We should recognize, and hail with tears of gratitude and joy, the Gospel entreaties of the young convert when in broken accents he begs his companions to come to Jesus. We must multiply our Exhorters, Local Preachers, and itinerant Ministers by thousands, pushing them into every open door to proclaim to the vilest and poorest as well as to the highest and richest of men the "unsearchable riches of Christ;" and we must include a meaning deeper and higher every year when we ask our candidates for holy orders, "Do you trust that you are moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you" this sacred office With this we should urge forward our ministers, young and old, in all scholarly attainments. Our theological schools -few, let us trust, but strong and very spiritual-will perform a high function in preparing men for the whole field. Ii, however, we make them supersede our historical method of inspiration they will not be addition or progress but change, in the direction of narrowness and not of breadth. While our population is rushing up and outward in such bewildering numbers, and sinners in countless thousands are sinking to hell, we cannot, will not wait for conventional training nor the reaching of high scholastic standards before permitting our young men to cry," Behold the Lamb!" In other acts of holy worship we must go on to do as we began. We must pray first and then learn to pray. We must sing first and then learn to sing. We must teach our young converts by no means to wait for study of speech or forms of prayer, but with glowing love and conquering faith to begin at once to plead with God for the conversion of souls. Our singing must not be limited to science nor restrained by instruments, but our joyous melodies and ringing choruses must roll out from warm, gushing hearts, sending the inspirations of spiritual life and power thrilling deep down into the hearts of common sinners, moralists, formalists, and infidels alike. Then let the highest culture increase the breadth and discrimination of importunate prayer, and give accuracy and taste in musical science and art. This is the method of inspiration, and it is, we insist, as exact Methodism. as apostolic Christianity to say truthfully, "I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also."

Let us then move forward in our own method to the accomplishment of our mission, thus rendering illustrious and true for his apostolic successors, scattered abroad every-where, but one and inseparable, the heroic announcement of Wesley, "The world is my parish."

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