History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

nothing else save the Arminian Magazine, 688 pages, much of it his own composition. An extract
shows that he had drifted away from all narrow views of what constituted a church: "Two or three
Christian brethren united together are a church in the narrowest sense . . . the catholic or universal
church is all the persons in the universe whom God hath called out of the world, etc. . . . the part
inhabiting any one kingdom may be called a national church, etc." [10]
1787 and Wesley at eighty-four. He kept on ordaining, as has been shown, and he kept on
resisting with all his power those, either among the preachers or the people, who were agitating for
separation, thus persevering to the end in his illogical position as an Episcopalian. He wrote: "They
that are enemies to the Church are enemies to me. I still think, when the Methodists leave the Church
of England, God will leave them." The poor of London and elsewhere were much upon his heart, and
he spent days begging for money to relieve them. At Bristol he was grieved to discover that out of
a membership of sixteen hundred only a dozen hearers formed the five o'clock morning service. He
admonished them on their indolence, and during his stay the number rose to some three hundred, but
even the fame and authority of Wesley could not bring them out at this unreasonable hour as a
permanent service. He meets with Howard the philanthropist, kindred spirits. He held his Irish
Conference.
The forty-fourth Conference was held at Manchester, July 31. The statistics of every class showed
great improvement. At this Conference he ordained Mather, Rankin, and Moore, not by joining with
him in the service two of his own ordained preachers, but two presbyters of the National Church. Did
he by this express doubt of his own ordinations even of presbyters, or did he do it to keep in all
things as near the Church as possible? Probably the latter; but at his age and the mixed nature of the
whole ordaining business, it is impossible to affirm. Stevens says: "The reordination of Mather as
a bishop was significant." It was indeed, and when a man has committed himself to a strained view
of a transaction, he easily juggles with words. Party bias in Methodism insists that superintendent
and bishop, as Wesley understood it, are one and the same sequel of these pages will show that
nothing is more untrue. Wesley makes no mention at all of this Conference in his Journal. Thomas
Taylor, in charge at Leeds, only fifty miles from Manchester, and one of the hundred named in the
Deed of Declaration, was not invited to the Conference for the only apparent reason, — he was in
favor of separation. He loudly complains in his manuscript Journal: "Mr. Wesley has sent his special
summons to each preacher whom he wished to attend Conference, and has expressly forbidden any
one else to go. I am unbidden, and think I am ill used . . . I'll venture to go, let the consequences be
what they may." He had ordained Pawson for Scotland several years before who went to his work
putting on bands and gowns, and Wesley addressed him as "Reverend." He was brought back to
England, and now he was compelled to doff his canonicals and be addressed as "Mr." He was
indignant, but submitted; his piety was greater than his love for sacerdotal robes. He wrote to a
bosom friend: "Even the Pope himself never acted such a part as this. What an astonishing degree
[11]
of power does our aged friend and father exercise." These things give us an inkling of the kind
of peace the Deed of Declaration and the Ordinations engendered. Yet never was Methodism more
prosperous. The net increase for the year in England alone was near four thousand. The doctrines and
means of grace were more and more potent, under the blessing of the Lord, with the people. There
are not wanting those who couple Wesley's discipline and major proceedings as the cause. It is
submitted that proceedings that bring not peace but a sword cannot minister to real prosperity. The
Sunday-school work was magnified and the children taught to sing, and their presence in the chapel