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 OUR OWN CHURCH 
 
 JOHN H. VINCENT 
 
 Bishop Methodist Episcopal Church 
 
 NEW YORK: HUNT &> EA TON 
 CINCINNA TI: CRANSTON &> STOWE
 
 Copyright, 1890, by 
 
 HUNT & EATON 
 
 New York.
 
 PREFATORY. 
 
 rpHE words which fill the pages of this little volume are for 
 -■" young Christians — for young Methodist Episcopal Chris- 
 tians — and have been written to promote among them a 
 thoughtful and lively and growing interest in their own Church, 
 its history, doctrines, government, polity, and usages. 
 
 We want a Church made up of Christlike and loyal Chris- 
 tians, who first of all love and worship and serve Christ; who 
 at the same time truly love all who love Christ, whatever their 
 denominational lines, and who also love well, loyally, and 
 always their own denomination, and stand by it and stand up 
 for it ; being true to it when it is popular, and just as true 
 when, for any reason, it does not meet the favor of the mul- 
 titude. 
 
 Young Methodist Episcopalians must be broad, liberal, gen- 
 erous, and catholic-spirited, while they are firm, fervent, steady, 
 and uncompromising in their devotion to the Church they 
 belong to — the Church which, to be at its best, must as fully 
 as possible reproduce the doctrines, spirit, usages, and conduct 
 of the Church of the first century. A Methodist should aim 
 to be a " first century Christian " in this period of history 
 which witnesses the closing of the nineteenth and the opening 
 of the twentieth Christian century. 
 
 John H. Yincent. 
 Episcopal Residence, 
 Buffalo, N. Y., 3Iarch 21, 1890.
 
 OUR OWN CHURCH. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 '' I believe in the Holj Catholic Church, the Communion of 
 Saints." — Apostles' Creed. 
 
 HEEE are words of greeting, welcome, and 
 counsel to the candidate for membership 
 in the Methodist Episcopal Church ! 
 
 You have " joined the Church." You are 
 now a " probationer." In six months, if you 
 and the Church agree, you may become a " full 
 member." By a gradual process you thus ap- 
 proach that great and divine institution — the 
 Church — which God, who made the earth and 
 the heavens, established ; the Church — com- 
 posed of souls redeemed by the precious blood 
 of Christ ; the Church — which begun in the 
 early days of the race and has continued through 
 all the ages; the Church— the "house of the
 
 6 OuK Own Chukch. 
 
 living God," wliicli lie built and blesses, and 
 where he abides : the CnrKCH — " the pillar and 
 ground of the truth," upholding, proclaiming, 
 distributing, defending, and administering that 
 truth for the good of men and the glory of God. 
 
 You have joined the "Holy Catholic Church." 
 In the Creed you professed at "your baptism you 
 say : " I believe in the Holy Catholic Church." 
 Remember, this is not the Roman Catholic 
 Church. It is the "Holy Catholic Church." 
 And there is a vast difference between the 
 two — all the difference that there is between 
 a gayly decorated Christmas-tree and the old 
 oak that grows by the way-side, deep-rooted, 
 wide-spreading; giving shade in the summer; 
 holding a heart of life in the winter that no 
 frosts can destroy; with nesting-nooks for birds, 
 and perches for their hours of song; the old oak 
 that takes firm hold of the soil and that sw^eepa 
 the heavens ; the oak with dew and song and 
 sunshine on it, with memories of the long ago, 
 and with promise for the centuries to come. 
 
 Never let the gewgaws and glimmer and 
 sweets of the Christmas-tree delude you. There
 
 The Holy Catholic Church. 7 
 
 may be, indeed, beautiful green leaves on it. 
 The life has not all gone ; but its doom is cer- 
 tain. The Roman Catholic Church is a relic of 
 paganism and of tyranny, with some good doc- 
 trine in it, but so overloaded with tissue-paper 
 and candles and glass baubles that one who knovrs 
 what the living tree is grows tired of the dead, 
 and longs for the life and strength and beauty 
 of the grand old oak of the ages — "the Holy 
 Catholic Church," where are blossom and shade 
 and fruit and blessing. 
 
 The Holy Catholic Church embraces every 
 thing that is " true " in all the ages of Christian 
 history, in all the phases of Christian worship, 
 in all the schemes of Christian theology, in all 
 the plans of Christian work. 
 
 The Holy Catholic Church embraces all the 
 truly good Christians of all ages, of all the 
 schools, of all the nations, and of all the denom- 
 inations. The real martyrs of the early centuries 
 in Rome, Asia, and Egypt ; the true preachers, 
 and the so-called "priests" of the Roman and 
 of the Greek Churches, who sincerely served 
 God ; the faithful few in the household of
 
 8 Our Own Chukch. 
 
 Caesar, among the valleys of Switzerland, in tlie 
 monasteries of England, or in the mountains of 
 Scotland; the honest servants of Jesus Christ 
 among all the numberless " communions " — the 
 Presbyterians, the Protestant Episcopalians, the 
 Pomanists, the Greek Catholics, the Peformed 
 Churches, the Baptists, the Methodists of all 
 classes — these, and all who every-where else, in 
 the best way they can, worship God in the name 
 of Jesus Christ, are members of the Holy Cath- 
 olic Church. The patriarchs and the prophets 
 of the Old Testament, the apostles and saints of 
 the ]^ew, the real saints of the early and the 
 middle and the later ages, the Augustines and 
 the San Bernards and Savonarolas, and the Cal- 
 vins and Luthers, the Knoxes and Wesleys — 
 these, all of them, were members of the Holy 
 Catholic Church. 
 
 And beyond, in the realm above, where apos- 
 tles and martyrs are, where Jesus is made mani- 
 fest and his people serve him, where "mother" 
 is, and dear old "father" and the "children," 
 where " before the throne they serve their 
 Maker day and night," and sing halleluiahs —
 
 The Holy Catholic Church. 9 
 
 there, too, is a part of the Holy Catholic Church 
 of which you are now a member. 
 
 Glorious body of Christ ! strong and true ; apos- 
 tolic and universal ; full of charity and good-will ; 
 resplendent in liistory with deeds of heroes who 
 counted not their lives dear unto them so that 
 they might win Christ ; radiant with the glory of 
 his presence who dwells among liis jDcople, giving 
 them peace and filling their hearts with love. 
 
 Into this noble fellowship you have come, 
 for in joining the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 you join a branch of the Holy Catholic Church 
 which recognizes the whole body of Christ, and 
 seeks to bless and help all, and enjoys commun- 
 ion and fellowship with all. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church has no 
 " canons " which exclude true ministers of Jesus 
 Christ of other Churches from its pulpits. It 
 has no dogma of " apostolic succession " which 
 limits the privileges of the ministry to a small 
 and exclusive class. It has no ^'regulations" 
 which render it impossible or difiicult to frater- 
 nize in Church service and Church work with 
 other Christians. Its members belong to the Holy
 
 10 Our Own Church. 
 
 Catholio Church — the broad, large, full, liberal, 
 great-hearted Church that Christ established. 
 
 Take the Protestant Episcopal Church, in con- 
 trast — a Church organized after the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, and with a much smaller 
 membership ; a branch of the Church in which 
 there are, indeed, devout and faithful Christians. 
 But, with singular pretentiousness, it claims to 
 be the Church. Its canons refuse to allow cler- 
 gymen of other denominations in its pulpits. It 
 gives instructions to its young people which cul- 
 tivate in them a spirit of exclusiveness which we 
 believe to be opposed to the teachings of our 
 Lord. I do not impeach the perfect sincerity of 
 those who thus believe and teach, but I depre- 
 cate it. 
 
 Read, for example, the following questions 
 and answers taken from the Catechism prepared 
 by Dr. Morgan Dix, of ]S'ew York, of Trinity 
 Protestant Episcopal Church. These will give 
 you a specimen of the teachings of that com- 
 munion. True, there are men and women in 
 the Church who do not accept these extreme 
 views ; but they submit to them, and dare not
 
 The Holy Catholic Church. 11 
 
 call the rector to an account ; and, moreover, 
 they obey the canons which embody the spirit of 
 the Trinity Catechism, and do not even seek to 
 repeal them. They live b}^ them, even if they 
 do not believe them. 
 
 Question. Does it, then, make no difference if we 
 belong to some independent Cliurch or sect, and not 
 to a true branch of the Catholic Church ? 
 
 Ansicer. It makes all the difference between obey- 
 ing and disobejing Christ. 
 
 Q. What is necessary to make any particular Church 
 a true branch of the Catholic Church ? 
 
 A. It must hold to the Creed of the Church, to 
 the Apostolic Ministry, and to the Apostolic Sacra- 
 ments. 
 
 Q. Is it, then, enough to keep only the doctrine of 
 the apostles ? 
 
 A. No; we must be also of the apostolic /<?Z?o?rsAip. 
 
 Q. How do we stay in the apostolic fellowship ? 
 
 A. By staying in the fellovvshijD of the bishops, 
 their successors. 
 
 * * * * * * 
 
 Q. By whom, then, were sects founded ? 
 
 A. By erring men ; not by Jesus Christ. 
 
 In contrast with the Dix-Trinity Catechism, 
 I quote from a little Catecliism j^ublished by 
 the Methodist Episcopal House, showing how 
 much broader our own dear Church is in its 
 views concerning the other branches of the 
 Church of Christ:
 
 12 OuK Own Church. 
 
 Question. Is there more than one true Church of 
 Jesus Christ ? 
 
 Anstcer. There is but one true Church. 
 
 Q. Who belong to it ? 
 
 A. All who believe in and love the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. These constitute the Holy Catholic Church. 
 
 Q. What does Paul call it ? 
 
 A. "The whole family in heaven and earth." 
 Eph. iii, 15. 
 
 Q. Has this one true Church more than one out- 
 ward form ? 
 
 A. It has many outward forms, usually called " de- 
 nominations," such as the Baptist Church, the Con- 
 gregational Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 the Presbyterian Church, the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church, the Reformed Episcopal Church, and many 
 others. 
 
 Q. With which denomination or branch of the one 
 Church of Christ are we connected ? 
 
 A. With the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 Let us love all branches of the Holy Catholic 
 Church, and let us cultivate charity toward 
 those whose views so widely differ from our 
 own. And let us faithfully defend the faith 
 delivered unto the saints and make our own the 
 ardent loyalty of the poet : 
 
 " Beyond my highest joy 
 
 I prize her lieavenlj^ ways, 
 Her sweet communion, solemn vows, 
 
 Her hymns of love and praise."
 
 The Antiquity of Methodism. 13 
 
 TI- 
 THE ANTIQUITY OF METHODISM. 
 
 " Among all nations . . . beginning at Jerusalem." 
 
 METHODISM is now nearly nineteen hun- 
 dred years old. It began with the life of 
 the Christ, whom it worships, and whose teachings 
 and work in tlie world it perpetuates. We are 
 not to be understood, of course, as claiming that 
 the formal organization of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal branch of the Holy Catholic Church took 
 place nineteen centuries ago, although we believe 
 that the earliest form and life of the Church 
 were more nearly like that of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church of to-day than of any other 
 branch of the Church now existing ; but it is 
 not of the outward form we speak. Method- 
 ism is a spirit and a doctrine. Methodism is 
 Christianity. Dr. Chalmers said, " Methodism is 
 Christianity in earnest." It is that or nothing. 
 There is nothing in it that was not in Christian- 
 ity in the beginning. There w\as nothing essen- 
 tial in Chi'istianity in the beginning that is not
 
 14: OuK Own Chuech. 
 
 in Methodism now. Its doctrines are the doc« 
 trines of Christ and of Paul. Its S23irit is the 
 spirit of Pentecost. Its methods are the methods 
 of the apostolic Chnrch — practical, far-reachiDg, 
 wisely adapted to all peoples, the outgrowth of 
 sound doctrine and of experimental piety. 
 ' Methodism, as we now consider it, is not a 
 " sect," nor is it a " form," but a spirit. It is a 
 life informing and employing a body of doctrine. 
 See what New Testament doctrine, spirit, and 
 activities are, and you have Methodism. Dr. 
 Chalmers was right. 
 
 Methodism has existed through all the ages 
 in those elements which constitute the individ- 
 uality and power of the Church. It has not 
 always been called Methodism, but it has always 
 been Methodism. The ecclesiastical forms 
 which it assumes depend upon the exigencies 
 of society, and upon the practical wisdom of 
 the leaders who attempt to meet these exigen- 
 cies. Spirit, doctrine, and service may find 
 place in old institutions, or they may develop 
 new institutions. The reality, is not, however, 
 in the institutions, but in the essentials of truth
 
 The Antiquity of Methodism. 15 
 
 and spirit bj wliich the institutions are, for 
 which they are, and without which they need 
 not be. Fountains, with ample basins, jets, and 
 decorations, are nothing without water. They 
 are because of the water. Telegraphic posts 
 and wires are worthless without the electric cur- 
 rent. Ecclesiastical organizations are dead and 
 useless things without doctrine and life. 
 
 Now Methodism makes little account of 
 Church forms and Church government. It 
 leaves it to the decaying ecclesiastical stone and 
 brick and bronze fountain-forms of Rome and 
 Canterbury to glorify such things. Methodism 
 is doctrine and spirit — the essential, the perma- 
 nent, the ancient, the apostolic, the divine ele- 
 ments of the Church. 
 
 Therefore Methodism is the most ancient life 
 of the Church. Its continuity has never been 
 broken. Its lines of descent are not corrupted 
 by foul priests, profane and licentious bishops, 
 the outrages of hierarchical power, the murders 
 of inquisitions, the banter and sale of place and 
 grace. Its succession is in the divine love and 
 peace and strength which have come into hum-
 
 16 Our Own Church. 
 
 ble and devout hearts — plebeian, priestly, and 
 princely-^who have yielded to the indwelling 
 grace of God. False doctrine and foul hearts 
 break the succession, the basis of wliicli is not 
 human or dependent upon the will of popes, 
 bishops, and kings. The basis of the true suc- 
 cession is in the spiritual life — in the deep-flow- 
 ing river of divine Love, and is independent of 
 scepter and miter, of sword and coffer, of coun- 
 cil and Vatican. Such is the glorious unim- 
 peachable, imperishable, apostolic succession — 
 this Christly succession of Methodism. 
 
 The true Church — " Christianity in earnest " 
 — is a river flowing through all the centuries, 
 spreading its healing waters in many streams all 
 over the earth. How glorious was its success 
 in the first century — how broad and deep and 
 beautiful ! Those were the days of a successful 
 and jubilant Methodism. Read the records. 
 Hear the shouts of triumph ! See the ingath- 
 ering of souls ! Rejoice in the reports of those 
 grand revivals! I^o swinging "censers," ele- 
 vated " host," or lighted candles in those days ; 
 no elaborate ritualistic ceremonies, discussions
 
 The Antiquity of Methodism. 17 
 
 about " absolution," quarrels ov^er cut and color 
 Tof cassock, gown, and altar cloth. In those 
 days the " word " and the " power " were all 
 our Church cared for. People w^ho emphasized 
 in those days forms and successions and "end- 
 less genealogies " ridiculed the spontaneity, in- 
 tensity, informality, and "confusion" of the 
 abounding life. They called these primitive 
 Methodists " fools " and " fanatics ;" but the 
 grand movement marched forward. 
 
 A century or so later formality gained ground. 
 Later still the main current of that first out- 
 bursting stream sank out of sight in the arid 
 deserts of ritualism, temporal ambition, greed 
 of gain, and growth of hierarchical pretension. 
 It swept on, indeed — an unbroken stream in 
 hearts of unchurchly saints, hermits and monks, 
 merchants and housewives — true souls, who de- 
 spised the sham of the " Church," and rejoiced 
 in the " shame " of the Gospel. And in later 
 ages the grand river broke forth again, in the 
 days of Luther, and in deeper, broader, stronger 
 current in the days of Wesley. " Christianity 
 
 in earnest " — the old Church force, the ori2:inal 
 2 ""
 
 18 OuE Own Church. 
 
 apostolic Church life again blessed the world. 
 It filled the old channels, poured into some of 
 the old fountains, washed their dust away, and 
 caused them to flow and shine in crystal bright- 
 ness and refreshing power. So full was the 
 outbursting stream of the old Church life that 
 it formed new channels and new fountains. 
 The limitations of English Church prejudice 
 and bigotry and worldliness, that refused to rec- 
 ognize the new outpouring of the old stream, 
 could not restrain it. It gained daily and swept 
 widely, and blessed every hamlet and city, and, 
 in spite of the Established " Church," cut out 
 new channels in England and America and the 
 world over for its divine waters. All the Chris- 
 tian channel beds of the globe are fuller and 
 deeper and wider to-day because of that new 
 outburst of Methodism. 
 
 Old or new, every thing depends upon the 
 stream. The new is, because of it, as old as the 
 old, and the old is new again. But the ancient 
 thing is the stream — not a few stones laid here 
 and there through the centuries — not even the 
 channels through which the stream flows, for
 
 The Antiquity of Methodism. 19 
 
 the best channels of old streams are often the 
 new ones cut out by their resistless currents. 
 Methodism is doctrine and spirit — Christianity, 
 '' Christianity in earnest," and is the most an- 
 cient element in the Church of Christ on the 
 planet to-day. 
 
 All these things have been said of that Holy 
 Catholic force — Methodism, and not of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, which is only one, 
 a very large one, to be sure, but only one of 
 the many channels divinely formed by the pow- 
 erful stream of " Christianity in earnest." The 
 Methodist Episcopal Church is one development 
 of Methodism — large, practical, spiritual, suc- 
 cessful, and full of catholic spirit, aiming to do 
 good to all, and ready to pour its waters into 
 other fields to irrigate them, and into other 
 streams to augment them. 
 
 Let its broad, apostolic, beautiful, and benign 
 ministry continue, and let its members rejoice 
 in the antiquity and divinity of its doctrine, 
 spirit, and methods ! 
 
 Our Church glories, therefore, in its apostolic 
 and Pentecostal antecedents, and in its divine
 
 20 OuK Own Chukch. 
 
 succession. It lias no sympathy with the dogma 
 of a literal " apostolic succession," ^ as that 
 theory is held and advocated to-day by repre- 
 sentatives of a " visible Church" which claims 
 to have the episcopacy as a third '' order " from 
 the apostles. We repudiate it. 
 
 Our " succession " is a stainless, spotless, un- 
 broken succession of truth and grace — God's 
 truth, God's grace — a succession that flows on 
 uncorrupted through the ages, independent of 
 popes, bishops, and councils ; flowing from " the 
 river of life," flowing on and ever. Glorious 
 succession ! Glorious Church ! Let us be glad 
 and grateful that our lot is cast among a people 
 so free from bondage to ecclesiasticism and ritual- 
 ism and vain devices of evil men, who, in dark 
 ages, wore robes and miters, and ruled souls of 
 men with rods of iron. 
 
 * See Appendix
 
 The Chukch and the Wokld. 21 
 
 III- 
 THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 
 
 '"Come out from among them, and be ye separate." 
 
 ONE of the temptations to which, in these 
 days, our young Methodist Episcopal people 
 are exposed, is the attempt to allure them from 
 their own communion by the specious and carnal 
 arguments based upon social standing, ecclesias- 
 tical antiquity, and aesthetic service, in certain 
 other Churches. They are invited to the " so- 
 ciables." They are called upon and shown 
 marked attentions by " society " people. Tliey 
 are invited to parties where the laxities of fash- 
 ionable life, under most genial guise, are 
 brought into contrast with the more limited 
 provision for amusements in conscientious and 
 strict Church society. They hear mild jokes at 
 the expense of " Methodists " who " oppose fun 
 and fashion and frolic, and who would turn 
 parlors into prayer-meeting rooms." This social 
 sarcasm has its influence. Our young people
 
 22 Our Owx Church. 
 
 feel it, and sometimes full under it. Or the 
 venerable character of " the Church " is quoted, 
 and its splendid service, its "wealth" and 
 " taste " and " best society " j^raised. All these 
 considerations have their weight with young 
 people. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church is, in our 
 judgment, the best representative on earth to- 
 day of the original apostolic Church founded by 
 Jesus Christ. Therefore we belong to it. It is 
 a Church of Christ, an integrant part of the one 
 Ho]y Catholic Church. It recognizes all com- 
 munions which recognize Christ as their Head. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church is apostolic 
 in its origin, in its doctrines, in its government, 
 in its usages, in its spirit, in its work, in its 
 success. It is established to spread scriptural ho- 
 liness — scriptural holiness, not vagaries, flights, 
 fanaticisms —but the holiness enjoined in the 
 "Word and illustrated by the saints. 
 
 Methodism embraces all classes of society. It 
 began in the most cultured and honored circles 
 of English society. It enrolls shepherds, fish- 
 ermen, colliers, nobles, princes, and presidents.
 
 The Church and the Wokld. 23 
 
 It has found its way into palaces and into coal- 
 pits. Refined and cultivated women have de- 
 voted themselves to its holy work, and enjoyed 
 in elegant parlors delightful spiritual fellowship 
 as they conversed on the things of the divine 
 kingdom. Many eminent scholars, orators, 
 statesmen, scientists, as well as plebeians, have 
 been devoted Methodists. At its altars bow the 
 lowly and the lofty — lowly all as they recognize 
 the one God who is Father of all, the one Christ 
 who is Saviour of all, the one Holy Spirit whose 
 grace, like the sunlight, rests on lofty palm and 
 cedar, and yet gives whiteness and fragrance to 
 the lily of the valley. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church glories in 
 the profound philosophy, wisdom, and script- 
 ural authority of its doctrines, in the wideness 
 of the mercy it proclaims, and in the power of 
 the grace it upholds. It forgets mere circum- 
 stance in its estimate of the worth of souls. It 
 looks upon the lowliest of mortals, and remem- 
 bers his immortal destiny. In humble places 
 it visits and helps the poor and neglected, see- 
 ing, by the eye of faith, the day not far distant
 
 24 Our Own Church. 
 
 when the garb of poverty shall be exchanged 
 for the robes of the eternal city. Like its 
 divine Founder, the Lord Jesus Christ, the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church places great stress 
 upon souls — souls that outweigh gold — souls 
 that outshine diamonds — souls that outlast 
 thrones — souls that shall live on when the stars 
 perish. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church holds up 
 high standarxis of Christian life. It believes that 
 the spirit of the world is opposed to the spirit 
 of Christ. It believes that the society of the 
 world is hostile in temper and tendency to the 
 true society of the Church, whicli is the society 
 of heaven among men. It, therefore, disap- 
 proves of w^orldly amusements, the associations 
 and tendencies of which are downward. It re- 
 quires all loyal communicants to deny them- 
 selves ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live 
 soberly and righteously and godly in this present 
 world. The command, ''Come out from among 
 them, and be ye separate," is, with the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church, a real command, and 
 means what it says. While, on the one hand, it
 
 The Chuech and the Would. 25 
 
 denounces asceticism and the nonsense of the 
 monastery and nunnery, it forbids indulgence 
 in the follies of worldly society, and seeks to 
 turn the thought of its members toward tlie 
 higher realm of spiritual taste, true culture, 
 Christ-like refinement, and literary attainment, 
 in subordination to moral heroism, divine aspi- 
 ration, and Christian joy. It distinguishes be- 
 tween sensuous society and rational society. 
 The radical idea of the one is fleshly gratifica- 
 tion, that of the other culture and character. 
 It distinguishes between selfish society, which 
 seeks " a good time," regardless of example and 
 influence, and Christian society, which seeks the 
 well-being of others, and makes large sacrifices 
 for the good of others. 
 
 All this is, indeed, against " the world," and 
 it is also* against the spirit of those Churches 
 (if such there be) and those social circles calling 
 themselves Christian who care more for the 
 world than for Christ. 
 
 In the days of the Son of man his disciples 
 were exposed to precisely the same assaults of 
 scorn and contempt which now greet those who
 
 26 Our Own Chukch. 
 
 seek truly to follow him. The principles which 
 influence men do not chano^e. Truth is al- 
 ways the same. There is always an antag- 
 onism between truth and error, between right 
 and wrong. It requires as much self-sacrifice 
 now to be a Christian as in the early days 
 of Christianity. The same old enemies exist 
 and assail. The same old arguments are 
 used. The same old courage is necessary. 
 Times and fashions may change, but principles 
 are eternal. 
 
 I imagine that I hear a young Jew of one of 
 the "best families" in Jerusalem, in the days of 
 the apostles, remonstrating against the devotion 
 of young Christian disciples. " Ah ! " says our 
 young Jewish Churchman, " our system is sus- 
 tained by the rich and the great. The old fam- 
 ilies with good blood and much gold and wide 
 renown come to our services. Your Jesus was 
 followed by beggars and represented by fish- 
 ermen. He lived in a desert, had no resi- 
 dence on the best street, and no access to the 
 best families." 
 
 So be it. And whether in the first century
 
 The Church and the World. 27 
 
 or the nineteenth, the disciple of Christ must 
 stand with him, even if the rich and great and 
 noble are to be sacrificed. 
 
 I imagine I hear my Jewish ecclesiastic con- 
 tinue : " Our system is old ; it dates back to the 
 days of Levi and Aaron; the succession is unbro- 
 ken. It is so grand to think as you look at the 
 priest at the altar that he belongs to the ancient 
 order ! As for your Jesus, who is he ? Have 
 the high-priests ever recognized him ? Has the 
 oil been poured on his head? Does he wear 
 priestly robes ? Is he in the succession ? " Just 
 as old Jews talked in the days of Christ some 
 of his nominal followers talk to-day. They talk 
 about " priests " and " altars," " robes " and 
 "ritual," "ancient usages" and exclusive pre- 
 rogatives. They say, "We are the true Church. 
 The rest of yon are only ' sects.' Yon have no 
 ordinations that are valid. We are the only 
 people of God." 
 
 So be it. And in the nineteenth century, as in 
 the first, the disciple of Christ must stand by him 
 even if the figments of apostolic succession and 
 ancient orders are utterly ignored. There is no
 
 28 Our Own Church. 
 
 greater nonsense in all Church history than the 
 claim of apostolic succession made, for example, 
 by the Romish Church and by the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church ; and it is well that our 
 young people understand, at the very outset, 
 the very absurdity of it. Let us be followers 
 of Christ instead of Aaron, followers of Christ 
 instead of Judas, followers of Christ instead of 
 Peter. 
 
 I imagine I again hear the young Jewish 
 Churchman of the first century making his plea 
 with the humble disciple of Christ : " Our sys- 
 tem is liberal and free. You may stand well 
 with us, and yet dance and play and live as 
 you please. If you keep passover week, and 
 observe the feast days, what does the rest of the 
 year matter? In following the E"azarene you 
 are limited and hedged in, required to deny 
 yourself, and made a bondsman, to conscience 
 and duty. Your Jesus says : ' Strive to enter 
 in at the strait gate, for strait is the gate and 
 narrow is the way that leads to life eternal. 
 Deny thyself, and take up thy cross, and follow 
 me.' But we have no such absurd restrictions.
 
 The Church and the World. 29 
 
 We go to the temple ; we observe the services ; 
 and then we live as we please. We don't let 
 the doctrine or law of the Church interfere with 
 our self-indulgence." 
 
 So be it. And in the nineteenth century, as 
 in the first, the disciple of Christ must stand 
 by him, even if the dance, the card-table, the 
 theater, and the wine-glass must be given up, 
 and the lines sharply drawn between the world 
 and the Church, between those who live for 
 present sensual gratification and those who live 
 for the life eternal. 
 
 Again I hear the Jewish trifler, whose religion 
 is an ideal and a form, exclaiming: "Our service 
 is so elegant ! We have no poor grammar in our 
 prayers. Our chants are exquisite and rendered 
 by trained musicians ; our services according to 
 ancient usage. We violate no law of taste. We 
 conform to the highest standards. We are not 
 interrupted by impertinent mendicants and 
 lepers and lame men whose cries rend the air 
 and mar the service. Your Jesus entered the 
 city and came toward the temple the other day 
 riding on an ass, and the common people and
 
 30 Our Own Chcjrch. 
 
 even the children shouted in iinliturgical order 
 at his passage. In our service we have no such 
 deviation from propriety." 
 
 So be it. And in the nineteenth century, as 
 in the first, the disciples of Christ must stand 
 by him even if noise and excitement and earnest 
 desire sometimes break the silence of a public 
 service, or afflict the morbid sensitiveness of 
 people who care more for mode than matter, for 
 taste than truth. We are not of this world. 
 We must not be ruled by it. 
 
 Better the Church which brings the Gospel to 
 souls longing after the life eternal ; the Church 
 founded by the Son of God, who came to give 
 life eternal ; the Church inspired by the Spirit 
 of God, who is the source of life eternal, than 
 a Church made up of nobles, princes, rich men 
 and social magnates, to whom ministers dare not 
 preach the plain words of the Gospel lest they 
 lose place, salary, and reputation. 
 
 Better the Church that has its present con- 
 nections with the exhaustless fountains of life 
 eternal, yielding fresh supplies to-day from heav- 
 enly reservoirs, than a Church basing its claims
 
 The Chukch and the World. 81 
 
 upon broken arches, dilapidated and waterless 
 aqueducts stretching from empty reservoirs to 
 dusty cisterns. 
 
 Better the Church that reiterates the words 
 and retains the standards of the Lord Christ 
 about self-denial, self-resistance, abandonment 
 of the world and its lusts and pleasures, about 
 love of God, love of men, and entire devotion 
 to Him, than a Church that, for the sake of re- 
 taining giddy youth in its communion, justifies 
 all indulgence, requires no self-sacrifice, chants 
 sweet music and preaches " lovely sermons," 
 utters aesthetic and classic prayers, thus uniting 
 Christ and Belial — the kingdom of darkness and 
 the kingdom of light. 
 
 Better the Church that rings with the cry of 
 beggars at the beautiful gate, of souls aglow 
 with the divine life at Pentecost, of souls that 
 know their sins forgiven, than a Church that, to 
 serve propriety, sacrifices piety, and rebukes, 
 as did the Pharisees of old, the hosannas of the 
 children in the temple, or the halleluiahs of the 
 disciples when the tongues of fire fell from 
 heaven upon their heads.
 
 32 OuE Own Church. 
 
 Of this one thing you may be certain : 
 You cannot make the " Church " and the 
 *' world" one. You cannot have all the strength 
 and faith and hope and joy of living for others 
 in the Christly way, and at the same time enjoy 
 the pride and sensuality and scorn for the hum- 
 ble, and abandonment to pleasure, which charac- 
 terize the world. 
 
 You must make a decision. You must stand 
 up valiantly for the Church-life as against the 
 w^orld-life! You cannot play and feast under 
 the enemy's flag and be accounted loyal soldiers 
 of the great King. 
 
 Choose promptly. Put yourself into positive 
 relations with Christ, and let the world under- 
 stand you. Let your prayer be : 
 
 " Arm me with thy whole armour, Lord, 
 
 Support my weakness with V y might ; 
 Gird on my thigh thy conquering sword, 
 
 And shield me in the threatening fighl;; 
 From faith to faith, from grace to grace, 
 
 So in thy strength shall I go on, 
 Till heaven and earth flee from thy face, 
 
 And glory end what grace begun."
 
 Bkoad and JSTakeow. 33 
 
 xtn 
 
 BROAD AND NARROW. 
 
 " Give hoed to . . . thy doctrine." 
 
 YOUNG Christian people are met in these 
 days by the objection to the Evangelical 
 Churches — Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, 
 and others — that they are rigid and severe and 
 narrow in their doctrines. To this objection I 
 wish to give some attention. 
 
 It is easy to denounce positiveness of con- 
 viction, and the consistency of action which 
 follows it, as unworthy and narrow; and it is 
 equally easy to glorify laxity of faith and gen- 
 eral indifference to doctrine, both in theory and 
 policy, as broad, large, and noble. 
 
 The expulsion by the Conference of the Rev. 
 
 Dr. from the ministry of the Methodist 
 
 Episcopal Church, some years ago, was the occa- 
 sion for many harsh utterances by people, in and 
 
 out of the Church, on the subject of " breadth " 
 3
 
 34: OuE Own Church. 
 
 and of ''narrowness," of "liberality," "free- 
 dom of opinion," " freedom of speech," etc. 
 Many honest souls were then, as they always 
 will be, misled by specious and beguiling talk 
 about " advanced ideas," " a new era," and " a 
 new theology." 
 
 The writer of these lines gave at the time, 
 through the columns of the New York " Inde- 
 pendent," a view of the whole question, as sug- 
 gested by the case — a view so highly commended 
 by wise and good men in and out of the Church, 
 that he has yielded to the suggestion to put the 
 article into more permanent shape. 
 
 This is done without the slisihtest desire to re- 
 
 fleet upon the character of Dr. himself, for 
 
 whom, indeed, tlie writer has much respect and 
 admiration, nor to revive an old Conference dis- 
 cussion, which would, certainly, be an unworthy 
 aim ; but to state, for the benefit of our intel- 
 ligent young Methodist Episcopal people, who 
 hear so much in these days about ''liberality" 
 and " breadth," the true philosophy of denomi- 
 national opinions and administrations ; to show 
 who the truly " broad people " are, and to enter
 
 Broad and Xaeeow. 35 
 
 protest against the frivolous and absurd claim 
 that people " without fixed opinions " are the 
 only progressive and liberal people of the age. 
 
 With this introduction I reproduce the letter 
 with the humble hope that it may be of service 
 to the numerous thinking youths of our great 
 and growing Church : 
 
 Dr. has been expelled from the ministry 
 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The min- 
 isters, his peers, did it. They did it after a 
 careful "investigation" by the presiding elder 
 and after a complete "trial" by the Conference, 
 They did it after years of patient waiting and 
 forbearance. Tliey did it legally, according to 
 the presci'ibed regulations of the Church. They 
 did it kindly, with no malice or bitterness, and 
 with much generous sympathy for the offender. 
 They gave him time, counsel, and the right to 
 challenge every one of the fifteen jurors who 
 constituted the "select number" before whom 
 he was tried. There was nothing cruel or 
 that savored of persecution ; nothing bigoted 
 or narrow in the act, or in the motive and 
 manner thereof. It w^as done openly, for "good
 
 36 Our Own Church. 
 
 and sufficient cause," in the spirit of love for 
 the brother, and of loyalty to the cause of 
 Christ. 
 
 This act of the Conference does not 
 
 silence Dr. as a preacher of his own 
 
 views. It does not close his lips as a public 
 teacher. It does not deprive him of a "living." 
 It does not impoverish him or his family. It is 
 to him a great financial gain. It does not aim 
 to " bring him to terms," or to modify his opin- 
 ions ao-ainst his own free-will. It does not seek 
 to make him disloyal to his convictions. It 
 simply denies him the right officially to repre- 
 sent the Methodist Episcopal Church. There 
 is in this no " persecution " by the Conference. 
 If there be persecution in the case at all, it is on 
 the other side ; for he who caricatures and thus 
 misrepresents the doctrines of a party or a 
 Church, holding them up to public contempt, 
 is himself the persecutor. 
 
 The action of the Conference is a protest 
 against the publication, under Church author- 
 ity, of vague and unsettled opinions, and of 
 personal doubts concerning the fundamentals
 
 Broad and Narrow. 37 
 
 of evangelical theology. Every thoughtful man 
 has doubts and anxieties concerning every ques- 
 tion that touches human destiny and the relatioi? 
 of man to God. Personal assurance of diving 
 verities is won only after struggle with doubt. 
 But the Conference believes that the parading 
 of private doubts by the pulpit is unwise and 
 injurious. It believes that there is positiv*^ 
 truth, on which the soul may rest implicitly 
 even where the philosophy eludes its grasp. 
 There is an evangelical school which accepts the 
 whole Bible as from God, and believes in it a& 
 a supernatural revelation. Methodism believes 
 this, and believes, moreover, in the easy possi- 
 bility of a personal religious experience, and in 
 the all-sufficiency of grace for all souls. Her 
 distinctive usages — the class-meeting, the itin- 
 erant ministry, and the connectional scheme of 
 government — are but outgrowths of her broad 
 individual and experimental doctrines. She 
 commissions her ministers to proclaim certain- 
 ties and not doubts, doctrines and not specula- 
 tions. Her ministers may privately struggle 
 with the problems they encounter. They are
 
 38 OuK Own Church. 
 
 compelled to discuss these problems with iuquirT 
 ers who submit them ; but they have no right 
 publicly to disseminate them. To do so is either 
 weak or wicked. As Prof. Kobertson Smith 
 w^isely says : " I never introduce such questions 
 into the pulpit. Positive truth — truth which 
 can be proved, illustrated, applied — can be found 
 sufficient to occupy all a minister's time in pub- 
 lic instruction, and employ all his abilities in its 
 illustration. Such positive truth, and such only, 
 has power to turn men to righteousness, and to 
 confirm and edify them therein." 
 
 Abraham Lincoln had, undoubtedly, many 
 misgivings as to the prospects and policy of the 
 administration, military and civil, during the 
 Civil War. He spent many an anxious hour, 
 and considered many a serious question which 
 he never gave to the i3ublic. Indeed, to have 
 published a tithe of his fears would have been 
 
 "worse than disloyalty. Dr. seems to be 
 
 uncertain and unsettled. Instead of waiting, 
 reading, thinking, conversing with his peers 
 and superiors in private, he publishes his theo- 
 ries and hesitations to the world, and, in the
 
 Broad and Narrow. 39 
 
 publishing, sometimes puts so miicli scorn and 
 irony as to betray more than an intellectual 
 doubt. He is really a semi-evangelical liberal- 
 ist, and belongs to the school of Dr. Freeman 
 Clarke and Edward Everett Hale. There is no 
 argument in favor of his retention as a repre- 
 sentative of Methodist theology which would 
 not hold good for the introduction to our min- 
 istry of the gentlemen above named. In all 
 
 connnendable elements of character Dr. 
 
 is worthy of association with theui ; but the 
 Conference believes that neither they nor he 
 are proper representatives of Methodism. 
 
 The action of the Conference is a protest 
 against the misrepresentation of the Church, in 
 its own pulpit, by a man pledged to present and 
 defend its doctrines. Correct or not, the im- 
 pression does prevail among the brethren that 
 
 Dr. has, for years, made public statements 
 
 which place the Church in an unfavorable light; 
 as when, for example, he leaves his audience to 
 infer that Methodists believe "the butcher 
 theory" of the atonement; and his slurs and 
 innuendoes against the Church and against the
 
 40 OuK Oavn Chukch. 
 
 orthodox theology have, more than once, made 
 friends weep and foes applaud. 
 
 The action of the Conference is a protest 
 against narrowness in interpretation. It believes 
 that the doctrines which relate to God have an 
 infinite side which it is impossible for man fully 
 
 to comprehend. When, therefore, Dr. 
 
 claims to state the full contents of the Atone- 
 ment in his "moral " theory, he limits and lowers 
 a sublime and divine doctrine which, in the 
 thought of the Church, involves legal as well 
 as moral relations and effects. He sneers at the 
 doctrine of " the blood ; " a doctrine which sets 
 forth the bearings of justice and righteousness 
 (as well as of love and mercy) upon G-od's gov- 
 ernment and man's character ; a doctrine which 
 no human philosophy can comprehend ; but 
 which the Evangelical Church in all the ages 
 has held ; which infidels and rationalists have 
 abused and caricatured ; but which, like deep 
 and wide-reaching foundations, upholds the very 
 throne of God. And on this foundation one 
 may rest and be at i>eace, even though he may 
 not see, measure, and map it out. Against this
 
 Bkoad and Kakkow. 41 
 
 narrowness tlie Conference protests, as well as 
 against the coarse and violent assaults which it 
 
 believes that Dr. has made upon the sacred 
 
 and precious mystery of the blood of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 The action of the Conference is a protest 
 against the modification by mere human theo- 
 ries, through human sympathies, of the divine 
 warnings and appeals. There are those who 
 teach the certain restoration of the wicked, after 
 ages of punishment. They say that somehow, 
 sometime, something shall be done in God's 
 universe to do away with the last result of sin. 
 "Well, who has not thought, with wonder and 
 longing, in those directions ? and who would 
 not be glad of such an announcement? But 
 there are ten thousand wishaMe things in hu- 
 man life that one has no ground to expect and 
 no right to promise. The Methodist theology 
 finds nothing in the Bible to justify a word of 
 hope, in a Christian pulpit, concerning the finally 
 impenitent. Private longings and speculations 
 are one thing; public proclamations by authority 
 altogether another thing. The Methodist theol-
 
 42 Our Own Church. 
 
 ogy sees nothing but '^ blackness of darkness " 
 over the fate of the persistent sinner. Its voice 
 to him is a voice of warning, solemn and em- 
 phatic, with no tone of mercy in it beyond the 
 present life. What God may hold in the life 
 that is to come in possibilities of grace, consist- 
 ent with the fearful threatenings of his word, 1 
 know not; but this I know, that the Bible gives 
 me no right to proclaim any hope beyond to the 
 incorrigible sinner here. I shut out every ray 
 of light from his future, that sin, in the pres- 
 ent, may seem to liim the black and dreadful 
 
 thing it is. Dr. has put a star, big and 
 
 brilliant, in the impenitent sinner's sky. Meth- 
 odism does not do this ; Methodism never did 
 it ; dares not do it. The Conference says that 
 
 even Dr. shall not do it by its authority ; 
 
 and it says this, not to limit, or assail, or punish, 
 or persecute him, but for the sake of loyalty to 
 the word of God. 
 
 The action of the Conference is a protest 
 against the interruption of certain experiments 
 now being made in society by the Church; and 
 this protest is made in the interest of science,
 
 Broad and Kaerow. 43 
 
 and is no more narrow and unjust than the ac- 
 tion of physicists, physicians, and politicians, 
 every day and every-where. In the old-fash- 
 ioned debating society, which did so much to 
 promote thought and encourage reading among 
 the people, the question for debate w^as plainly 
 stated, '' sides " taken, and representatives of 
 the "affirmitive" and the '' negative" chosen. 
 When, through malice, mischief, or ignorance, 
 the representatives of one side made argument 
 in favor of his opponents, he was promptly re- 
 proved by his associates, and, if he persisted in 
 it, w^as peremptorily sent to the "' side " he rep- 
 resented and defended, and to which he really 
 belonged. He was not silenced, but properly 
 assigned. And in this new adjustment there 
 was neither narrowness nor injustice. The re- 
 manding by his associates of a Republican to 
 the Democrats, when he no longer represents 
 Republican ideas and policies, is no proof of 
 bigotry and persecution. He goes to his own 
 place, uses his power of speech and suffrage 
 according to his own view^s ; nor is he thereby 
 ousted from citizenship, nor is his patriotism
 
 44 Our Own Church. 
 
 challenged. Mr. Tyndal makes an experiment 
 in physics. Mr. Huxley enters the laboratory, 
 and, by the smoking of a cigar or the jarring 
 of a table, complicates and embarrasses the con- 
 ditions of certain experiments in which Mr. 
 Tyndal is interested. Who will charge the lat- 
 ter with narrowness for requesting Mr. Huxley 
 to remove to another place or conform to the 
 necessities of the occasion ? To-day the schools 
 of theology are experimenting on society. To 
 thoughtful men the denominational subdivis- 
 ions, with their varied creeds, constitutions, and 
 modes of work, are but splendid experiments 
 upon human nature, with the divine ideas and 
 forces which revelation introduces ; and the 
 broadest and most scientific minds most prize 
 the sharply-defined lines by which the denom- 
 inations are separated, "With malice toward 
 none, and with charity for all," they hold tena- 
 ciously to the creeds as conditions of an impor- 
 tant experiment, in which not only men but 
 angels are interested. 
 
 Here are Calvinists, Arminians, Liberalists, 
 Congregationalists, Baptists, each with some dis-
 
 Bkoad and IN'aekow. 45 
 
 tinguishing idea of biblical theology or church 
 ordinance or church government, which they 
 deem of importance to the race, and which, 
 with pious and scientific intent, they seek to test 
 among men. It is important that the favorable 
 conditions for this testing be protected. While 
 in some things the schools fully agree, and can, 
 to the measure of their agreement, affiliate and 
 co-operate, it is extremely desirable that, on 
 other points, each should be left unembarrassed. 
 If a man believe in a settled ministry so firmly 
 that he cannot serve in the " itinerancy," he has 
 no right to remain in the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church. And that Church is not narrow if she 
 care more for a great principle than an indi- 
 vidual. If a man believe in "immersion" as 
 the only baptism, there is a place where his 
 faith can find its opportunity. If a man believe 
 in the Episcopal rather than in the Congrega- 
 tional mode of Church government, his place 
 is easily defined. If a man be " liberal " rather 
 than "evangelical," (believing that the Atone- 
 ment may be fathomed by the reason of man ; 
 believing in the partial inspiration of Scripture
 
 46 Our Own Church. 
 
 and in the possibility of future probation,) tliere 
 are platforms on which he can stand, and to 
 these platforms he should at once repair. And 
 if, for any purpose, he persists in remaining 
 among the debaters and experimenters to whose 
 side he does not belong, and whose work his 
 presence retards, it is fitting for them kindly, 
 firmly, and with unmistakable emphasis to say 
 to him, " Go out from us, since thou ai't no 
 longer of us." Physicists, politicians, physi- 
 cians, do it. The Church has always done it, 
 and always will do it, and that in the interest 
 of true progress and culture. 
 
 It is claimed that Dr. does not, after all, 
 
 hold or preach views out of harmony with the 
 Methodist Church ; that her standards are so 
 indefinite and general as not to cover the points 
 of his alleged divergence ; and that he is but 
 showing how wide a range of belief is compat- 
 ible with fidelity to her creeds. Ko one knows 
 
 better than Dr. how sophistical his claim 
 
 is. It does not deserve a moment's considera- 
 tion. One has but to read a single sermon of 
 Dr. 's (that preached in Church, on
 
 Beoad and K arrow. 47 
 
 Sunday evening, before the Annual Conference 
 of 1880) to know that he does not represent 
 Methodism. 
 
 Prof. Swing, of Chicago, fairly put the case 
 when he recently said to a Presbyterian clergy- 
 man, " Dr. is not a Methodist, and has no 
 
 business to remain in the Church." 
 
 It is alleged that other men, high in official 
 position in the Methodist Episcopal Church, are 
 
 also "heretical." This will not save Dr. . 
 
 His pulpit deviations are in the essentials of 
 faith. If any one else in the Church (be he 
 pastor, secretary, agent, or bishop) similarly 
 pronmlgates doctrines which antagonize evan- 
 gelical and Methodist theology, let him also be 
 tried and rejected, and this in the interest of the 
 broadest catholicity and the tenderest charity. 
 
 Let me urge young Methodist Episcopal peo- 
 ple to read the Scriptures diligently and devout- 
 ly, to study candidly the standards of the Church, 
 and they will find the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church really among the broadest and fairest 
 of all the Christian denominations.
 
 48 Our Own Church. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church does not 
 require much of one who would, in sincerity of 
 soul, seek the life of love and obedience which 
 " salvation " involves. It does not require much 
 ''theology," or the acceptance of many "points" 
 in a " creed." It asks only concerning motive 
 and spirit, and then gives Church privileges — 
 preaching, prayer, sacraments, fellowship, bib- 
 lical training, and pastoral oversight. With 
 very little faith, and a mere atom of a creed, 
 one may enjoy the blessings which the apostolic 
 Church offers. 
 
 But when one attempts to teach by authority 
 in tlie Church, as exhorter, class-leader, Sunday- 
 school teacher, parent, or preacher, the Church 
 does have an understanding as to what is to be 
 taught. And this is right and good and broad !
 
 The Classmates' Meeting. 49 
 
 THE CLASSMATES' MEETING. 
 
 '•They spake often one to another." 
 
 VHEN young people have had a pleasant 
 party, or an excursion, they like to get 
 together and to talk about it. 
 
 When students who were at school together, 
 after a long separation meet again, they take 
 great pleasure in reviewing the toils and joya 
 and struggles of school life. As '^ classmates " 
 they meet and talk. When a society of any 
 sort has had a peculiarly successful time in car« 
 rying forward some enterprise, the members 
 talk and talk and talk about it. 
 
 Two young fellows were planning for a 
 summer trip over the Atlantic. For months be- 
 forehand they would meet and talk and devise 
 pleasant schemes for making the journey a suc- 
 cess. They loved to talk about it. And dur- 
 ing the trip, as they rode in European cars or 
 4
 
 50 Our Own Church. 
 
 walked among the hedges of England, or exam- 
 ined museums and picture galleries, they kept 
 up, day after day, a brisk conversation. They 
 talked over their experiences: how they hap- 
 pened to start at all; how they felt as the 
 ^'Good-bye" was spoken; how they enjoyed 
 ocean life ; how they were affected by the sight 
 of land ; w^hich they regard as their " best 
 day" up to the present time ; w^hat they antici- 
 pate from the journey yet to be prosecuted *, 
 what difficulties they apprehend ; what plans 
 they have for overcoming them ; how the home- 
 start will seem ; and how the sight of native 
 land again will delight them. About every 
 thing they talk — day and night they talk. And 
 the talk does them good. It makes them more 
 united. It removes some of their difficulties. 
 It increases their interest in tlie journey. It 
 fixes on their memories its varied experiences. 
 
 In this world every body talks. By talk peo- 
 ple give knowledge to others. By talk they test 
 the knowledge given. By talk they awaken an 
 interest in others. By talk they may increase 
 their influence over others.
 
 The Classmates' Meeting. 51 
 
 On all subjects men talk — on home life, on 
 music, art, science, business, politics, daily news. 
 Is it strange that men are sometimes inclined to 
 talk on religion ? Is any subject more impor- 
 tant ? Is any subject more interesting ? 
 
 People may talk too much. They may talk 
 in a wrong spirit. Talk may hurt. The tongue 
 is sharper sometimes than a ^'sword." St. James 
 says it is a "fire." People may talk too much 
 even on religion — as when they tire people out, 
 when they talk unwisely, when they talk on the 
 wrong side, when they substitute talk for deeds 
 and character. But so people may talk too much 
 and in the wrong way on a variety of subjects. 
 I have heard too much business talk, too much 
 poHtical talk, too much idle talk, and sometimes 
 too much religious talk — but not often. And 
 still it is possible to ring the bell of the church 
 too often, too long, and too loud. 
 
 There are two or three kinds of religious talk. 
 There is, for example, the talk of religious con- 
 troversy, which finds place when people discuss 
 the '' doctrine " or the " form " of religion — the 
 " trinity," the " intermediate state," the " second
 
 52 OuK Own Chukch. 
 
 coming," the '' mode of baptism," " Sabbath 
 vs. Sunday," and the like. I have seen people 
 very angry in disputes over such questions. 
 Sometimes, and under wise restraint, religious 
 discussions are useful. They are too often 
 abused, and lead to abuse. 
 
 There is the religious talk didactic^ in which 
 plenty of advice is given, in prayer-meeting, in 
 class-meeting, and in private. It is very easy 
 kind of talk, that is, for him who gives the ad- 
 vice ; not always so easy for him to whom it is 
 given. It is useful sometimes, especially when 
 he who offers it takes it out of his own daily 
 life. When out of a daily habit of cheerfulness 
 he speaks of Christian joy, or when out of 
 every-day honesty he talks about integrity — his 
 words weigh their full worth. When talk 
 comes from the wrong person, especially if 
 given with professional glibness, or in a profes- 
 sional tone, it puts the honest-hearted hearer in 
 mind of the clatter of an empty wagon, and is 
 annoying and even, at times, vexatious. 
 
 There is religious talk experimental. It is 
 the telling of how one felt once, a.nd what one
 
 The Classmates' Meeting. 63 
 
 once thought, and of how one feels and thinks 
 now. It is a report from within, by the only 
 tongue that can tell. Experimental talk may 
 have several objects. It may be designed to 
 give proof to others of the words of promise in 
 the Bible. God says that he will, by his Spirit, 
 do certain things for the soul of him who 
 believes ; that he will give assurance of pardon, 
 peace, joy, strength, hope. Now when I do 
 believe, and do receive what God promises, I 
 only do what I owe to my fellow-men when I 
 tell them about it. I add my testimony to the 
 testimony of believers in all the world, and 
 prove to others (some of whom greatly need 
 and w^ant proof of that kind) the truth of the 
 promises. 
 
 Wise talk about one's experience may correct 
 one's own notions about himself. I am not al- 
 ways sure of my feelings— as to their origin and 
 their healthfulness. I may mistake my own 
 moods and character as I may mistake other 
 people's looks, motives, and conduct. When I 
 talk about my experience, he to whom I talk 
 may be able to correct my wrong views, remove
 
 54 OuE Own Chuech. 
 
 my doubts and difficulties, and sliow me how. I 
 err in my conclusions. Talk about his own ex- 
 perience may commit one to more definite views 
 and more decided conduct. By expression 
 my character may become stronger, my views 
 clearer, my devotion to Christ more ardent. It 
 may be " a cross," as we call it, to talk about 
 one's self, especially about one's religious aims, 
 feelings, doubts, discouragements, and resolu- 
 tions. The "■ bearing of the cross " may be the 
 very thing needed to give positiveness to pro- 
 fession and influence. It is a mistake to talk 
 too much about experience, or to talk to any 
 body and every body indiscriminately. It is a 
 mistake to talk before too many people about 
 one's inward struggles and doubts. But it is 
 a great mistake not to talk at all on personal 
 aims, desires, and delights. One may thereby 
 lose an opportunity to witness for Christ and to 
 influence others to seek Christ. 
 
 There is another kind of religious talk which 
 is not controversial, nor didactic ; neither is it, 
 directly, experimental. It is a self-forgetting 
 talk about Christ — his person, character, and
 
 The Classmates' Meeting. 55 
 
 offices — until one finds his heart aglow with 
 the light and love of Christ. It does not begin 
 with a look within at all. It begins with a 
 look upward toward Christ. It ends with an 
 unsought warmth within. It does not begin 
 with self, but with Christ. It meets Christ. It 
 walks with Christ. It talks with Christ. It 
 listens to Christ as he opens the Scriptures and 
 reveals himself there in its history, its doctrine, 
 its promises. And all at once, as Christ is seen 
 to fill all the Scripture, he seems to fill the soul, 
 and jou afterward say to your neighbor : " Did 
 not our heart burn within us as he talked with 
 us by the way and opened to us the Script- 
 ures ! " Thus looking at Christ loosens the 
 tongue. You see him and are delighted with 
 his wisdom and love, and your delight finds 
 words. You tell it. You tell it because you 
 cannot help telling it. You tell it because you 
 are so glad you know it. You tell it because 
 you want other people to know how great and 
 blessed and mighty a Saviour the Lord Jesus 
 Christ is. He does not seem to be a dream or 
 a doctrine, but a friend near and precious. Per«
 
 56 Our Own Church. 
 
 haps, if you had begun by looking at yourself 
 you would have had nothing to say about him, 
 nor about yourself; but beginning to look at 
 him, a lire began to burn in your inmost heart, 
 and Christ gives you experience and you tell it. 
 And as you tell it you feel an increase of the 
 love that kindles it. 
 
 In the Methodist Episcopal Church — as in all 
 Methodist Churches, from the little class of 
 earnest disciples in Galilee to this very day— 
 the believers in Christ have been in the habit 
 of coming together to talk. In the days of 
 waiting, before Christ came, " they that feared 
 the Lord spake often one to another." In the 
 days of Christ the classmates of his blessed 
 school met often together in upper rooms, on 
 mountain tops, in desert places, and by the sea- 
 side, and they talked and talked and talked. 
 They talked about their fears, their hopes, theii 
 doubts, their longings. They talked about him 
 and his kingdom, his grace and his promises. 
 After he left them they talked on, and prayed, 
 and received the Holy Spirit in those glorious 
 primitive class meetings of the earliest Church.
 
 The Classmates' Meeting. 57 
 
 Glad classmates ! Glorious classmates' meet- 
 ings ! 
 
 Methodism revived the old plan of the apos- 
 tolic days. To this day "class-meetings" are 
 held in all Methodist branches of the Chnrch. 
 Sometimes they are poorly attended. Some- 
 times they are crowded. Sometimes they are dull 
 and almost lifeless. Sometimes they are full of 
 spiritual power. Young people are often found 
 in them. Too often they are attended because 
 enjoyed only by the old members of the Church. 
 
 Grand institution is the class-meeting of the 
 Church ! I commend it to every young Chris- 
 tian. Yes, some class-meetings are dull, and its 
 regular attendants have old ways and sometimes 
 odd ways of telhng "experience." Some of the 
 classmates are very peculiar, and use a set of 
 stereotyped phrases, and, never having been 
 educated, talk very poor grammar; and some 
 are timid and scarcely know what to say, and so 
 they say what they "really didn't exactly intend 
 to say;" and some confound "happy feelings" 
 with religious character, and go off into tearful 
 and sometimes noisy talk and shouts ; and some
 
 58 OuK Own Chukch. 
 
 forget to look to Christ, and only look at them- 
 selves. Cold, cynical, unbelieving hearts may find 
 something to smile at in one of these class-meet- 
 ings, but, after all, what a blessing they are to the 
 Church ; to the young, to the old, to the tempted, 
 to the bereaved, to the discouraged! What 
 shadows they drive away ! What burdens they 
 lift 1 What joy they bring ! 
 
 The nesrlect 'jf the " class " is one of the sad 
 mistakes of certain Christians to-day. I write 
 to young Methodist Episcopal Christians to 
 plead with them on this subject. 
 
 This is not the place to point out the errors 
 of class-leaders, or to give plans for improving 
 the class-meeting. I may suggest that we need 
 more class-leaders, and more of them women ; 
 and we need to put more of the class-meeting 
 element into our Sunday-school classes ; and in 
 all social meetings, whether for prayer or fel- 
 lowship, we need more of the Bible — its passages 
 about Christ, who he is, what he can do, what 
 he has promised, and how we can be more like 
 him and the more glorify him. And we need 
 to have more wise instruction given to our
 
 The Classmates' Meeting. 59 
 
 young people as to tlie claims of the class, tliat 
 they, as classmates in the school of Christ, may 
 meet more frequently under spiritual, sensible 
 leaders, and talk together about the Lord and 
 his words and his ways, may put themselves on 
 the side of Christ and his Cliurch, and thus help 
 to swell the current of Christian influence. 
 
 Let me give you, dear young Christians, a few 
 words of counsel : 
 
 1. If a company of you would like to organize 
 a little " classmates' meeting " of your own, 
 rather than attend any one of the classes now 
 organized in your church, go to the pastor and 
 tell him about your preference. Let him appoint 
 leader and time and place. Abide by his advice 
 in the matter. He is your chief shepherd. 
 He knows what is best for his flock. It would 
 be unfair to organize any meeting without his 
 consent. You will find him glad to give both 
 consent and counsel. 
 
 2. When meetings are appointed always at- 
 tend. Go most certainly and most jpTom^jjytly 
 when you feel least inclined to go. Be gov- 
 erned by a sense of duty in this particular.
 
 60 OuK Own Church. 
 
 Mr. Wesley says, "Trample under foot that en- 
 thusiastic doctrine, that ' we are not to do good 
 unless OUT hearts he free to ^Y.' " One of the 
 things you most need in the training of char- 
 acter is the strengthening of the will. Nothing 
 helps in this like the doing of duty from prin- 
 ciple when one's feelings are least inclined that 
 way. Go to the meeting because you ought 
 The more of this kind of self-control you exer- 
 cise the stronger you w^ill be, and the sooner 
 you will come to delight in all duty. 
 
 3. Speak or not, as you prefer. Try to speak, 
 but be true to yourself in every w^ord you do 
 speak. Avoid asking yourself what impression 
 your testimony may make on others concerning 
 you. Care for such impression may blight your 
 best aspirations. Be true to Christ while you 
 are true to yourself. It matters little what 
 your associates think of you. Of this be very 
 sure, they will easily read any hollowness or 
 pretense in your looks or testimony. There is 
 something in human nature that reads human 
 nature without words and beyond words and 
 in spite of words. Be true to the truth, and
 
 The Classmates' Meeting. 61 
 
 your speech will "be with grace, seasoned with 
 salt." 
 
 4. Do not feel bound to follow any particular 
 order, nor to use set terms or phrases. Stand 
 up to speak, or remain seated. Never mind how 
 other people talk or what they do. Speak your 
 own honest convictions in the way that seems 
 best to you. 
 
 5. Do not feel bound to tell to any body else 
 the deepest and most secret struggles of your 
 heart. Use good sense in this. Some true 
 things you might tell might do no good, and 
 might do much harm to others. 
 
 6. Speak chiefly of Christ, how you think 
 concerning him, how his " yoke " seems to you, 
 what you know of his "liberty," and quote many 
 of his own words. The important theme of 
 Christian life is Christ. Let your talk be about 
 him, and not about yourself, except as thinking 
 about him your tongue is touched into testi- 
 mony by his grace in your heart. 
 
 7. Take your Bible with you to the class. 
 Head it while you wait for other members to 
 come. Quote it as you are inclined. Perhaps
 
 62 OuK Own Church. 
 
 a sliort reading from the book may be the best 
 contribution you can sometimes make to the 
 profit of your classmates. 
 
 8. Carry the best aspirations of the happiest 
 class-hour into your daily life. Take the class- 
 room atmosphere home with you to kitchen and 
 parlor. Take it to street and school, shop and 
 field. Live all the day in the tone of your talk 
 at the classmates' meeting. Fill parlors wdth 
 it, and your " society " temptations will be 
 reduced. 
 
 9. Turn the class-meeting into a council-fire, 
 and around it discuss practical work. You love 
 Christ ; then work for him. Yon want to be 
 like him ; then tiy to work as he worked. 
 Consult with your classmates about visiting and 
 reading to invalids, about teaching in Sunday- 
 school, about encouraging young people to 
 read good books, about inviting neighbors to 
 attend church, about helping in local mis- 
 sionary, temperance, reform, and other iisefid 
 work. Fill your souls v/ith great thoughts 
 about Christ, and your lives with gracious deeds 
 for Christ.
 
 The Classmates' Meettn-g. 63 
 
 10. Avoid fault-finding, uncliarity, and all 
 ill-will. Be gentle and helpful toward your 
 classmates. Strive to grow in grace daily. Seek 
 the " sweet persuasion " that the Holy Spirit 
 gives that you are a child of God. Prove, to 
 yourself and others, by purity, patience, and active 
 service, that you do not mistake the "voice." Let 
 good deeds put the seal on good words, and let the 
 classmates go forth weekly from their meeting 
 to serve God. 
 
 You will be interested to read what our be- 
 loved little Church Hand-book, the "Disci- 
 pline," says about "Classes and Class-meetings," 
 '* The Design of the Organization," etc. 
 
 CLASSES AND CLASS-MEETINGS. 
 
 The design of the ornanization of classes and tlie appoint- 
 ment of leaders is — 
 
 To establish a system of pastoral oversight that shall 
 effectively reach every member of the Church. 
 
 To establish and keep up a meeting for social and religious 
 worship, for instruction, encouragement, and admonition, that 
 shall be a proJfitable means of grace to our people. 
 
 To carry out, unless other measures be adopted, a financial 
 plan for the raising of moneys. 
 
 The primary object of distributing the members of the 
 Church into claSvies is to secure the subpastoral oversight 
 made necessary by our itinerant economy. In order to secure
 
 64: Our Own Church. 
 
 this oversight, let the classes, wherever practicable, be com- 
 pused of not more than twenty persons, and let the leader re« 
 port at each Qua'terly Conference the condition of bis claps, 
 as follows: Number of members in his class; number of proba- 
 tioners; average attendance; number liabitually absent; num- 
 ber of class-meetings held ; number who contribute to the 
 support of the church; number of visits made; number of 
 heads of families in the class, and what proportion of them 
 observe family worship; number of Church papers taken by 
 class-members; miscellaneous matters. 
 
 Let each leader be careful to inquire how every soul of his 
 L-lass prospers ; not only how each person outwardly observes 
 the rules, but how he grows in the knowledge and love of God. 
 
 Let the leaders converse with those who have the charge 
 of their circuits and stations frequently and freely. 
 
 In order to render our class-meetings interesting and profit- 
 able, remove improper leaders; see that all the leaders be of 
 sound judgment and truly devoted to God. 
 
 In the arrangement of class-meetings two or more classes 
 may meet together, and be carried on according to such plan 
 as shall be agreed upon by the leaders in concurrence with the 
 preacher in charge. 
 
 Let care be observed that they do not fall into formality 
 ihrough t!ie use of a uniform method. Let speaking be volun- 
 tary or the exercises conversational the leader taking such 
 measures as may best assist in making the services fresh, 
 spiritual, and of permanent religious profit. 
 
 Let the leaders be directed to such a course of reading and 
 study as shall best qualify them for their work; especially let 
 such books be recommended as will tend to increase their 
 knowledge of the Scriptures and make them familiar with 
 those passages best adapted to Christian edification. "When- 
 ever practicable, let the preachers examine the leaders in the 
 studies recommended.
 
 OuK Settled Itinerancy. 65 
 
 OUR SETTLED ITINERANCY. 
 
 " Let us go into the next towns." 
 
 THE itinerancy is the name given to a system 
 of ministerial supply by which pastors are 
 changed from time to time from one field of 
 labor to another. They serve a church for a 
 limited term, and then go to another church, and 
 then another. 
 
 Most ministers in churches of all denomina- 
 tions are itinerants. We find the smallest per- 
 centage of men who have, all their ministerial 
 lives, been pastors of one church. All the 
 Churches have an itinerancy. You will find it in 
 the Presbyterian Church and in the Baptist and 
 Congregational Churches ; indeed, every-where. 
 
 There are two ministries : The itinerant sys- 
 tem of the "settled ministry," and the settled 
 ministry of the " itinerancy." The latter is the 
 splendid, steady, working system of that method- 
 ical Church organization known as Methodism 
 — the modern development of " Christianity in
 
 66 Our Oavn Church. 
 
 earnest" — with its wise, rational, practical, effi- 
 cient methods of work. It has tested thoroughly 
 the itinerant plan. 
 
 The "itinerancy of the settled ministry" is 
 found in all the Churches outside of our own ; 
 among them the Protestant Episcopal, Presby- 
 terian, Baptist, Congregational, and Lutheran. 
 Ministers change. Few remain for life. Very 
 few for ten years. They itinerate when they 
 grow tired of one place, or think they can be 
 more useful elsewhere ; or when their people 
 grow tired of them, and also think they can be 
 more useful elsewhere; or when a small minority 
 of their influential people think a "change" 
 would be profitable. Then the settled minister 
 begins to itinerate. He itinerates as a "supply" 
 to fill vacant pulpits. He itinerates as a "candi- 
 date" to find a vacant pulpit that he would like 
 to fill. He seeks — and often finds. Kot always, 
 for an alarmingly large proportion of the min- 
 isters who belong to the settled ministry are 
 without pulpits — thousands of them, and an 
 alarmingly large proportion of churches are 
 without pastors. The minister seeks, and when
 
 OUK SeTILED iTmEEANCY. 67 
 
 he finds he " settles." 'No wonder people smile 
 
 when it is reported that " The Kev. has 
 
 been settled over Church." There is only 
 
 one thing more amusing. It is to hear him 
 preach a sermon in favor of a "settled ministry," 
 and point out the " defects of the itinerancy." 
 But it is a good thing for him to have that ser^ 
 mon on hand. He can preach it often — as he 
 itinerates and settles, itinerates and settles, as 
 the years go by. And we must not condemn 
 him too emphatically. He does good. 
 
 The " ministry of the settled itinerancy " is 
 another form of ministerial supply. It provides 
 an intermediary agency in a system of bishops 
 and presiding elders, and encourages expression 
 of preference by both preachers and peoj)le. 
 There is on the part of both, for the good of 
 both, a reference of the questions "who" and 
 "where" to godly men whose experience and 
 wisdom may be trusted. 
 
 Let us test the system by results. What 
 are the facts in Methodism ? No church witli- 
 out a pastor ; no pastor without a church, for a 
 single Sabbath; little friction anywhere; mar-
 
 68 Our Own Church. 
 
 velous harmony, activity, and success every- 
 where. There are some ministers and laymen 
 in the Methodist Episcopal Church w^ho would 
 like to see some modification of the plan — the 
 extension of the time of possible pastoral service 
 in a single church to a longer but limited term. 
 A very few advocates of extension would remove 
 all restriction and allow a j^astor to receive an- 
 nual appointments for an indefinite time. But 
 the voice of the Church has, with singular una- 
 nimity, indorsed the itinerant system as a 
 whole. The latest attempts to lengthen the 
 pastoral limit have been successful, and now 
 five years is the limitation. Yet the compar- 
 atively small number of ministers and charges 
 which availed themselves of the former ex- 
 treme limit of three years seemed to jus- 
 tify the conservative policy of the Church in 
 reference to this question. But let ns follow the 
 leadings of providence. 
 
 The ministry of the settled itinerancy has 
 many advantages to people and to preachers. 
 
 It gives " talent " a fair chance to assert itself 
 and take its place of opportunity and pre-emi-
 
 OuE Settled Itixerais^cy. 69 
 
 nence. It provides for the expression of pref- 
 erence on tlie part of preachers and j)eople. It 
 makes it every-waj desirable for the appointing 
 power, if possible, to gratify both. It provides 
 safeguards by which any abuse of power may be 
 brought to speedy arraignment and punishment. 
 It saves preachers and people a world of anxiety. 
 It discourages the organization of permanent 
 cliques or parties in the local church. It culti- 
 vates the spirit of mutual forbearance. It gives 
 the various classes of people in a church a di- 
 versity of "talent" suited to their several tastes 
 and needs — and all this without developing the 
 partisan spirit. It distributes ministerial ability 
 — and this builds up many sides of the church. 
 "What one man omits his successor supplies. It 
 throws the responsibility of the continuous life 
 of the church upon the laity, and not upon the 
 pulpit. It develops local working force. Local 
 preachers, class-leaders, and Sunday-school work- 
 ers become a body of permanent pastors, so that 
 the affairs of the church are in the same hands 
 for years, whatever the ministerial changes may 
 be; and in this local board of permanent pastors
 
 70 OuK Own Chukch. 
 
 the itinerant pastor lias wise and experienced 
 counselors. It also guarantees the frequent and 
 various reiteration of the fundamental truths 
 of the Gospel. 
 
 The settled itinerancy is a great blessing to 
 the minister himself. If he be a thoughtful and 
 studious man, it gives him rare opportunity for 
 the study of human nature, the revision of ser- 
 mons, and the reading of current theological 
 and general literature. No system so develops 
 preaching power and pastoral efficiency. It in- 
 cites to promptness, system, and fidelity in 
 pastoral work. The limit of time, understood 
 from the beginning, impels him to industry and 
 faithfulness. 
 
 The itinerancy secures to a pastor a delightful 
 social life, widening his circle of choice friends 
 through passing years and in many places. It 
 gives him perfect independence of the local lim- 
 itations which are created by local affiliations, 
 and by a desire to conciliate public opinion and 
 the "powers that be" in church and community. 
 It makes him a " voice " from God to a people, 
 to whom he comes by a divine commission,
 
 OuK Settled Itinekancy. T1 
 
 among whom lie speaks only for an appointed 
 season, of whom he is sufficiently independent 
 while with them to proclaim fearlessly the whole 
 truth, and from whom he goes with wealth of 
 experience and the firmness of a new resolve 
 to labor more wisely and more energetically in 
 another field. His itinerating life becomes a 
 school of theology and of character. 
 
 The system is not " oppressive." No men are 
 less oppressed than Methodist ministers. They 
 are as independent a class of men as one can find 
 in America. The itinerancy is vastly more free 
 from the discomfort which follows the exercise 
 of a superiors will and authority than the army 
 and navy in this republican government. The 
 young miss who '' pities the wife of a Methodist 
 minister subject to bishops, and likely at any 
 time to be removed," looks with coveting eyes 
 on subalterns of army and navy, forgetting what 
 impotent things they are in the grasp of superior 
 power, over which they have no influence, and 
 from which, except in extreme cases, they can 
 take no appeal. Ah, little sympathizing maiden, 
 your itinerant preacher is a king as compared
 
 72 Our Own Church. 
 
 with your lieutenant, captain, major, or colonel 
 in armj or navy ! 
 
 Nor is the itinerancy "destructive of social 
 life and sympathy." The new pastor is already 
 known. He has his Conference reputation. He 
 comes a new pastor, but not a stranger to the 
 congregation. A hearty welcome awaits him. 
 The parsonage is made warm, clean, and ready. 
 Friends gather to greet him and his family. If 
 he would be popular and attract society in the 
 settled ministry, he has superior facilities for 
 the same in the itinerancy. When he leaves 
 he goes by the operation of a general law, not 
 through local strife. His best qualities remain 
 as a pleasant possession to his people. He is 
 put into the sacred place of the old pastors. His 
 good work is remembered. His faults are likely 
 to be forgotten. His friends still love him. 
 His opponents do not annoy him. 
 
 The local church, through this system, ac- 
 quires an inheritance of talent, service, and sym- 
 pathy in the pastors it has had. And these still 
 remain in the Conference, accessible, visiting 
 now and then their old parishioners, preaching
 
 Our Settled Itinerancy. 73 
 
 in the old pulpit, recalling the old times, warm- 
 ing the hearts of the converts of their ministry, 
 ■who, if they have a pardonable preference for 
 the preacher who led them to Christ, may, by his 
 visit, gain a new impulse toward the kingdom. 
 Eich, indeed, are our ministers and churches in 
 the love and memory thus promoted ! 
 
 " But this constant moving, how hard it is ! " 
 Yes, in the settled ministry, where no provision 
 is made for systematic "moving," and where 
 there are no permanent parsonages with peril] a- 
 nent furniture— it is hard to move so often. 
 But spare your sympathy for the itinerant who 
 moves the personal effects of his family once 
 every two or three years from parsonage to par- 
 sonage. Your wealthy resident of Fifth Avenue, 
 who goes to Saratoga, or Cape May, the White 
 Mountains, or Europe, summer after summer- 
 packing up innumerable trunks, preparing to 
 close the house for three months ; moving out, 
 adjusting furniture and goods at the " summer 
 residence" or the hotel, coming back, getting 
 the winter home into running order again— six 
 movings in three years— why, young reader,
 
 74 OuK Owx Church. 
 
 your millionaire and liis family, who sneer at 
 the movings and discomforts of the traveling 
 ministry, move live or six times as often as the 
 ministers whom they commiserate. 
 
 "But that permanent furniture in a parson- 
 age — who wants to have a house with furniture 
 in it that other people have used ? " O! dainty 
 friend, why don't you object to the hotel furni- 
 ture at Cape May or Fifth Avenue Hotel ? You 
 enjoy that, although in one season it is used by 
 twenty times as many different people as the 
 furniture of a parsonage in twenty years. JS^on- 
 sense, little fault-finder ! Your objection has no 
 weight. Soap and water and paint and varnish 
 and taste and industry easily make old things new 
 and fresh and clean. And " old furniture " is 
 the fashion nowadays ! 
 
 We know of no serious and unanswerable 
 objections to the itinerancy. It has its toils 
 and cares, but it is a delightful life, full of 
 novelty to the young, full of opportunity to 
 the old. It is a useful life — a life of divine 
 aims and inspirations. It has achieved wonders 
 for Church and nation.
 
 Our Settled iTiNERANcr. To 
 
 It is, indeed, a pilgrimage. What else is 
 human life? How many families stay m one 
 house or in one place for any great length of 
 time ? And how soon all come to the grave ! 
 But this itinerancy is a pilgrimage, with Christ 
 as it guide, heaven as its goal, and helpful 
 service as its object. 
 
 What happy hearts have gathered about par- 
 sonage firesides! What noble lives have been 
 begun and what splendid sacrifices have been 
 made in these old parsonages of Methodism ! 
 And what glorious translations from earth to 
 heaven have they witnessed ! 
 
 Sometimes a young man who has been edu- 
 cated in the itinerant's home, and who has by 
 father's professional position been admitted into 
 good society — a class of society to which, per- 
 haps, he could never otherwise have had access 
 — is heard to complain against or ridicule the 
 itinerancy. He hears people who never studied 
 the subject speak lightly of it. He joins in 
 their adverse criticism. Ferhaps he goes into 
 more " fashionable circles," unites with a more 
 "fashionable church," forsakes the church that
 
 76 Our Own Chukch. 
 
 gave him all the position and education he has, 
 and ridicules the "itinerant system." His sister 
 admits what silly girls say about its disadvan- 
 tages, and is tempted to find, in other circles, 
 her chnrch and social home. 
 
 Young friends ! sons and daughters of Meth- 
 odist ministers! stand by your home, your father, 
 your mother ! Stand by the Church that made 
 you all that you are ! Study its history ; and if 
 you admire heroism and advancement you will 
 Jiud its records full of both. Study its economy ; 
 and if you admire sound philosophy and prac- 
 tical method, you w^ill delight in the ways, as 
 well as in the doctrine and spirit, of your be- 
 loved Church! 
 
 But, be loyal to your antecedents. Do not 
 allow the Church that made you to be misrep- 
 resented by people who are ignorant of her 
 record and doctrine and work. Speak bold 
 words for her. Live and die in her communion. 
 Use your influence to build up that branch of 
 the Church in which your father and mother 
 spent their lives, and to which you owe intel- 
 ligent and perpetual loyalty !
 
 Eabnest Cheistians. 77 
 
 EARNEST CHRISTIANS. 
 
 " Thy will be done." 
 
 IF Metliodism is Cliristianity, Methodists 
 sliould, of course, be Christians. And if 
 " Methodism is Christianity in earnest," Meth- 
 odists should be earnest Christians. 
 
 Now earnest Christians are those who have 
 the thing and not merely the theory, the fact 
 and not merely the form. They hold the doc- 
 trine in both letter and spirit. What their 
 intellects know and their lips say, their hearts 
 feel and their lives prove. They not only pos- 
 sess religious truth, but religious truth possesses 
 them, captures them, masters them, fills them. 
 The head is full of it. The conscience is quick 
 and tender because of it. The heart is warmed 
 by it. The will is strong in it. The tongue 
 tells it. The eyes, at times, shine with it. And 
 the steady-going, every-day living at home, at
 
 78 Our Own Chuech. 
 
 school, at business, as well as at church and 
 class-meeting, demonstrates its power. Our 
 religion is from heaven. It is supernatural. It 
 has divine energy in it. 
 
 To earnest Christians the truths of Christian- 
 ity are real. Thej are serious, holy, splendid, 
 eternal verities. God is, and is re warder. He 
 is not far from every ,one of us. In him we 
 live and mov^e and have our being. He is holy, 
 and loathes sin. He is gracious, and pities the 
 sinner. lie is Love, and folds to his heart the 
 penitent believer and fills that heart with peace 
 — with love — with joy— such as the w^orld has 
 not and cannot give. 
 
 To earnest Christians Christ is a real being, 
 divine and spotless ; bringing the holy Father 
 and the guilty prodigal together, by his death of 
 atonement, by his resurrection of power, by his 
 Spirit of regeneration. And this Holy Spirit is 
 real — divine, omnipotent, eager to awaken and 
 quicken the sinner, and to strengthen and wit- 
 ness and abide within him, and to guide him 
 every day, and to sanctify him wholly, to fill 
 him with divine love, for divine work here and
 
 Earnest Christians. 79 
 
 for divine fellowship hereafter. Thus " Theol- 
 ogy" becomes personal and vital. It is not a 
 matter of books and creeds and sermons, but of 
 life and action — a reality. 
 
 Earnest Christians do nqi always feel the 
 same, but they hold on to Christ. In darkness 
 they trust and wait and work on. In sunsliine 
 they are glad. They are faithful to God in 
 hours of good feeling and in hours of gloomy 
 feeling. They are like the needle — true to the 
 pole w^hether the warm sun of July shines upon 
 it or the storms of January cover it with ice 
 and snow. 
 
 Earnest Christians test and prove their faith 
 and feeling by works. They «r<3, and they go^ 
 and do. Christian doctrines with them are not 
 choice seeds wrapped up in pretty papers and 
 placed in boxes on shelves, with scientific names 
 to tell what they are, and figures to show how 
 much they are worth. They are rather seeds in 
 good ground — sprouting, growing, blooming, 
 and bearing fruit. What they yield tells what 
 they are worth. 
 
 Earnest Christians visit the sick, comfort the
 
 80 Our Own Church. 
 
 bereaved, read to the blind, give to the poor, 
 teach the children, feel practically interested in 
 mission work at home and abroad, in reforms of 
 every kind. They are deeply interested in the 
 country, so talking and so voting that there may 
 be pure laws and wise men to execute them. 
 They account nothing unimportant that con- 
 cerns man — his temporal, social, moral, spiritual 
 life. If the temperance work needs an advocate 
 in a town, or if a great moral question is dragged 
 into politics and needs public discussion, every 
 body knows which pulpit is sure to speak out 
 on the right side, and with perfect fearlessness. 
 Methodism believes in a religion that must go 
 on missions of faithful reproof and gracious 
 invitation — every-where. It has its eye on 
 heaven, but it believes in bringing as much of 
 heaven to the earth as possible. 
 
 Earnest Christians know that earnestness must 
 be fed by truth and fellowship and prayer. 
 They insist on much Bible reading, on compari- 
 son of Christian experiences, on united and fer- 
 vent prayer, on hearty singing, on practical 
 work with people for their souls' sake. Hence
 
 Earnest Christians. 81 
 
 Methodists are famous for revivals, and for speak- 
 ing plain words to sinners from the pulpit and in 
 private. Indeed, when a minister of another 
 denomination (Presbyterian, Congregational, 
 Baptist) is very active and talks with unusual 
 feeling, and goes into religious work with his 
 whole soul, people say, " He is a regular Meth- 
 odist." When a prayer-meeting in some other 
 cliurch is full of heartiness and spiritual power, 
 it is called "a Methodist prayer-meeting." Dr. 
 Chalmers said the true thing when he called 
 Methodism " Christianity in earnest." Method 
 on fire is always full of power. We glorify sys- 
 tem, but we seek the Spirit also. 
 
 Earnest Christians go so far over to the right 
 and safe side that every body knows where to 
 find them on those questions concerning which 
 there is no specific " Thus saith the Lord," but 
 which are left to the judgment of true souls 
 and the spirit of self-sacrifice for the neighbor's 
 good. They say, "Don't let us tamper with 
 things in which may lurk evil to weak or im- 
 periled brethren." Therefore genuine Method- 
 ists do not patronize the theater, attend dances,
 
 82 OuK Own Church. 
 
 or play cards. If a Methodist does such things, 
 every body discounts him. Even worldly people 
 say of him, " That's out of place in a Meth- 
 odist." And all this is not because Methodists 
 are narrow, but because they are broad and 
 tender-hearted and want to help and not hinder 
 the true upward progress of society. They want 
 to be uncompromising, positive, and loyal to 
 the highest life of love and service. It is a 
 grand thing to be decided. There are rest and 
 strength and joy in decision. 
 
 All Methodists do not attain this standard. 
 That is a sad fact. But thousands and tens of 
 thousands do, and this is the idea and spirit of 
 the Church-development known as Methodism, 
 and toward it we all should aspire, and for it we 
 should woik ; all of us ; always and in all places. 
 This is our ideal. 
 
 My young reader, are you an earnest Chris- 
 tian ? This is the great question. And here 
 are test-questions which may aid you in giving 
 answer : 
 
 Is religious truth a real thing in your life? 
 Does it move you to think and ask questions, and
 
 Earnest Christians. 83 
 
 wonder and desire to know, and to be troubled 
 when you are uncertain, and to be uncomfortable 
 when you think how far you are from the life 
 your religious ideas require you to live ? 
 
 Do you believe in God, and in Jesus 
 Christ, and in the Holy Spirit, and in eternal 
 life? 
 
 Do you know (with a knowledge that takes 
 hold of you) that you are a sinner against God's 
 law, and that you can never make amends for 
 your past sins, and never undo what evil you 
 have done by any possible good you may do ? 
 
 Do you belie\^e that Jesus Christ is the only 
 hope you can have— Jesus Christ the mediator 
 between God and man — Jesus Christ who be- 
 came flesh and died and rose from the dead and 
 is now in the heavenly places ? Do you believe 
 this with your heart ? 
 
 Do you give yourself to Him of your own 
 will, with a glad heart, to be his — his servant, 
 his disciple, his friend, his brother? Do you 
 leave your case with him as a boy involved in 
 debt leaves his affairs in the hands of his father, 
 who has promised to look after every thing and
 
 84 OuK Own Chukch. 
 
 settle every outstanding account? Do you leave 
 your case with Jesus Christ as a sick man who 
 has "given up all hope" in himself, leaves his 
 case with the new physician who has come — a 
 man of great skill and wide fame? Do you 
 turn yourself over to Jesus Christ as a voyager 
 across the Atlantic suri-enders himself to steamer 
 and captain — depending upon them every hour 
 of his journey ? 
 
 Is all this faith and surrender practical? And 
 is it steady ? Does it hold good only when you 
 " feel good ? " or is it like an honest man's bar- 
 gain — firm through thick and thin, in sun and 
 storm, in gloom and gladness, in winter and 
 summer? Are you a pledged Christian all the 
 time and every-where ? Are you enlisted — a 
 new but a true recruit in the army ? Asleep, 
 awake, elated, depressed, praised, hated — are 
 you all the time, all the same, so far as purpose 
 and profession are concerned ? Do " all the 
 folks" know it? Are you not ashamed of it? 
 Do you show your colors and stand by them ? 
 A great deal of religion is " warfare " in which
 
 Earnest Chkistians. 85 
 
 without feeling but "by faith." It is like school- 
 life in which one is enrolled and assigned to his 
 place and appointed to his lessons, and must go 
 on steadily wliether his soul is intiamed with 
 ambition and hope, or discouraged by poor 
 health, dull intellect, and difficult tasks. The 
 true student simply holds fast and goes on. 
 The true disciple in the school of Christ does 
 the same. He holds fast and goes on. Do 
 you ? 
 
 Do you put yourself into training as athletes 
 do— going through the required drill to give 
 suppleness to the joints, strength to the mus- 
 cles, and steadiness to the nerves ? Do you put 
 yourself into right conditions ? Do you compel 
 yourself to do your duty in this respect whether 
 you feel like it or not ? Do you pray every 
 day? Do you every day read a portion of 
 Scripture ? Do you attend prayer-meeting and 
 class-meeting and Sunday-school and preaching? 
 Do you help people? Do you give of your 
 means to advance the Gospel ? Are you a good 
 student in the art of spiritual living ? Are you 
 a good athlete in Christian life ?
 
 86 Our Own Church. 
 
 Do jou keep in mind everj-wliere your 
 religious relations and professions and respon- 
 sibilities ? Do JOU refuse to do " worldly " 
 tliino-s because of tlieir influence on others and 
 on yourself, and because of the place you hold 
 in the Church? Are you willing that every 
 body should know that you are a Christian ? 
 And are you, therefore, willing to be pro- 
 nounced " Puritanic " and " Methodistic " and 
 ''over-particular?" Can you bear the "shame" 
 of the Gospel — in the eyes of worldly and 
 frivolous people ? 
 
 Do you find will and life obeying conscience ? 
 Do you gain victories over the flesh ? Do you 
 conquer temptation? Do yon avoid secret sing 
 — sins of the flesh, sins of the passions, sins of 
 the imagination, sins of envy and pride and 
 temper? If you cannot "feel happy as some 
 do," can you conquer self and sensuous society 
 and Satan ? Does the Gospel truth give you 
 principle, and does this Gospel principle rule 
 your daily life ? 
 
 "When you go wrong do you at once go back 
 to Christ, and ask his forgiveness and his help ?
 
 Earnest Chkistians. 87 
 
 Do joii seek to please him and to liaTe peace in 
 him ? This is your privilege. 
 
 Do you ever have a " sweet persuasion '' that 
 you are a child of God ? E^o audible voice tells 
 you so. No visible sign assures you. But is 
 there a sweet, restful feeling in your heart that 
 seems to sing, 
 
 " My God is reconciled, 
 
 His pardoning voice I hear, 
 He owns rae for his child, 
 
 I can no longer fear ; 
 With confidence I now draw nigh, 
 And Father, Abba, Father cry?" 
 
 Are you called by a voice within to lines of 
 duty ? Do you obey it ? Do you love to obey 
 it ? Is your life guided by an inner leading — 
 a word in the heart inspired bv the word 
 of God ? 
 
 Do conviction of Bible truth and desire to be 
 a Christian and surrender to Christ bloom into 
 all-absorbing love for God and man? Does a 
 strange joy sometimes fill your heart — as the 
 warm sun and sweet fragrance of roses fill a 
 June day? Can you rejoice in tlie Lord? Does
 
 88 Our Own Chuech. 
 
 heaven seem a glorious reality to you? And 
 is earth glorious because of the divine life you 
 lead ? Have you seasons when you seem to live 
 in the land of Beulah, with perfect rest and the 
 assurance of hope ? And can you understand 
 the Bible revelations about heaven because you 
 have in your own heart a taste of heaven ? 
 
 Dear young Christian, all these things are pos- 
 sible to you. But remember that the triumphs 
 of victory are preceded by the awkwardness of 
 the drill, the fatigue of the march, the weari- 
 ness of the eamp, and the perils of the battle- 
 field. Enlist, drill, endure, fight, wait — and in 
 the end wear the crown of victory ! Sing : 
 
 "Thy saints in all this glorions war, 
 Shall conquer though they die; 
 
 They see the triumph from afar — 
 By faith they bring it nigh I "
 
 The Holy Communion. 
 
 ■VIII. 
 THE HOLY COMMUNION. 
 
 "In remembrance of me," 
 
 EYERY three months, or perliaps every 
 month, what you and many call the " sacra- 
 ment" is administered in your church. You call 
 the day of its administration " Communion Sun- 
 day." By the sacrament you mean the sacrament 
 of the Lord's Supper, although that is no more a 
 sacrament than is the sacrament of baptism. The 
 word " sacramentum " among the Eomans signi- 
 fied the oath of loyalty to his country which the 
 Roman soldier assumed. Some people speak of 
 this service as the " communion," and in the En- 
 glish Church it is called the "Holy Communion." 
 The word "communion" is from the Greek 
 word which means fellowship, and it implies a 
 communion or fellowship between Christ and 
 his people, and between the people themselves. 
 Paul speaks of the " communion of the blood of 
 Christ " and of " the communion of the body of
 
 90 OuE Own Church. 
 
 Christ" — symbols and means through which 
 nnion with Christ and union among believers 
 are indicated and promoted. This sacrament is 
 also called the " eucharist," from a word which 
 means thanksf^ivins:. It is called " the feast " — 
 that is, a feast of those having the grace it com- 
 memorates. Thus we see that this solemn and 
 impressive ordinance, or service, has several 
 names. The service itself is vastly more im- 
 portant than the name, and still more important 
 is the spirit in which it is observed. 
 
 Jesus instituted this feast. It was on the 
 night before his crucifixion. His disciples were 
 filled with uncertainty and with sadness. They 
 did not know all that was to happen. His words, 
 his looks, his voice foreshadowed a great sorrow, 
 and there in the upper room, in the solemn hour 
 of night, he ordained the supper you celebrate. 
 "Do this," he said, ''in remembrance of me," 
 and Paul gives a most impressive account of it 
 in his letter to the Corinthians, where he says 
 (E. Y.) : " For I received of the Lord that which 
 also I delivered unto you, how that the Lord 
 Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed
 
 The Holy Communion. 91 
 
 took bread ; and when he had given tlianks, he 
 brake it, and said, This is my body, which is 
 broken for you : this do in remembrance of me. 
 In Hke manner also the cup, after supper, say- 
 ing. This cup is the new covenant in my blood : 
 this do, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of 
 me. For as often as ye eat tliis bread, and drink 
 the cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death till he 
 come." If you care at all for Jesus Christ, his 
 person, his character, his work, his cause, you 
 will be interested in the Lord's Supper, and you 
 will be willing, if not eager, to share in it ; and 
 you should be anxious to know all that is meant 
 by the act. The holy sacrament has been greatly 
 abused by the ritualistic and Romish Churches, 
 they giving a peculiar significance to it which 
 is not justified by any thing that is spoken in the 
 word of God. And sometimes they make it a 
 species of idolatry, and, to a great degree, render 
 it void by their superstitions. 
 
 The sacrament of the Lord's Supper seems to 
 be a very little and, apparently, unimportant 
 thing, and yet little things may represent very 
 great things. A kiss may be a pledge of perpetual
 
 92 Our Own Chukch. 
 
 love. The simple bowing of the head in legal 
 assent may seal a covenant that no human power 
 can break. The flag of your nation, which may 
 be put into your pocket, represents power and 
 wealth and courage and a wonderful history. 
 A plain gold ring put on your finger by a dying 
 mother, as she asks you to think of her at the 
 twilight, may not be worth much in dollars and 
 cents, but no money could buy it from you. 
 Her dying request may not involve much — a 
 simple look at the ring in act of remembrance — 
 but it brings tears to your eyes and fills your 
 heart with memories, and you live more care- 
 fully because of it all. When Jesus withdrew 
 his physical presence from earth he left a monu- 
 ment, a memorial, of that j)resence here. He 
 established an observance. It is a very simple 
 thing — this eating of bread and drinking of wine. 
 There is no great "feast" in it. It satisfies 
 neither hunger nor thirst. It is the meaning in 
 it, and not the matter of it, that gives it real 
 value. Jesus did not tell his disciples how it 
 was to be observed. He gave no particular and 
 minute directions about the details. He did not
 
 The Holy Communion. 93 
 
 specify any particular posture of body. Jesus 
 Christ never cared for forms. He never cares 
 for the mode of taking the Lord's Supper or of 
 receiving baptism. He denounced over-careful- 
 ness about sucli little matters. His whole Gos- 
 pel is opposed to such carefulness. The Romish 
 Church has put pagan rites into the sacrament 
 of the Lord's Supper, has turned the service into 
 superstitious observance, and has thereby lost 
 the sense and sweetness and power of it ; indeed, 
 destroying its whole character. Jesus Christ 
 instituted a simple sacred souvenir of his life, 
 his words, his death, and makes it a means of 
 grace to all those who humbly and believingly 
 receive it. 
 
 'Now, although the observance of the com- 
 munion is apparently a little thing, it is really 
 a great thing, full of meaning. Let us see 
 what we do every time we partake of the sac- 
 rament. 
 
 The act recalls a wonderful history. It sug- 
 gests him who appointed it ; his life, deeds, 
 words, spirit — which made the most wonderful 
 career that the world has ever witnessed. It
 
 94 Our Own Chuech. 
 
 points the whole world to a record of facts. It 
 points this age of unbelief to facts — not the less 
 real because remote as to time and place of their 
 occurrence. It is therefore an act of solemn 
 declaration to the world of the reality of a his- 
 tory which more radically and directly affects 
 the world than any other chapter in it. Is 
 it useless to celebrate the Fourth of July ? 
 The history recalled by the Communion is w^orth 
 more to man than the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence. Christ by his life and death gave 
 freedom to the w4iole race, and his life itself was 
 wonderful, beautiful, tender, unselfish, and full 
 of heroism. 
 
 The act obeys the command of a loving friend. 
 Christ loved man as man. He loved him even 
 unto death. On the eve of the greatest display 
 of love that the universe ever saw he asked all who 
 believe in him to commemorate for all time that 
 love and that death. This is a small thing. 
 Shall we think on Sabbath evening of a moth- 
 er's dying request and forget his command 
 whose love is deeper, more enduring, and worth 
 more to us than a mother's love?
 
 The- Holy Communion. 95 
 
 The act gives us the ojpjportunity to make 
 public our affection for Christ before the world. 
 It is a way of declaring to the world our alle- 
 giance to Christ. It is a way of showing our 
 colors. It says to our fellow-Christians, " I am 
 one of your company ; I want to be associated 
 with you rather than with the world." It says 
 to our associates in school, shop, and society, " I 
 am one who believes in Jesus Christ and his 
 Church. I am trying to acquire a character like 
 his." It is a way of winning others to Christ, 
 to the Bible, to the Church, and saying, " I be- 
 lieve with all my heart in all those things." It 
 is an act in connection with which the grace of 
 Christ is given. It is a sign and a means. It 
 is not a loadstone in which power was deposited 
 long ago, a sort of talisman, as the ritualistic 
 and Koraish Churclies teach, but it is a present 
 means of grace, to be received with faith and 
 thus to be made a channel of spiritual power. 
 
 The act has hope in it. It looks forward as 
 well as backward : forward to his coming again 
 to the world ; forward to onr coming to him ; 
 forward to the feast of his saints in heaven.
 
 96 Our Own Chuesh. 
 
 It is an act in wliicli all Christendom joins i 
 a service of the Holy Catholic Church. All de- 
 nominations observe it. It is a bond of union ; 
 union in testimony to the facts of history ; union 
 in obedience to the command of Christ ; union 
 in hope of everlasting communion ; union in de- 
 votion to the person of our Lord. 
 
 It is an act which the Church has always per- 
 formed. It is an ancient service, antedating 
 cathedrals and castles. It allies us to the first 
 century, and to that niglit in which Christ insti- 
 tuted it. 
 
 It is an act in wliich each particular Church 
 is interested. Ever since your Church stood it 
 has witnessed this ordinance. The old saints 
 kept this feast. The old ministers administered 
 it. What glorious times have been witnessed as 
 bowed multitudes have received the bread and 
 wine in recognition of their Kedeemer, in con- 
 fession of their faith, and in solemn covenant of 
 service ! 
 
 The act has a family value. Your father and 
 mother, your dearest friends, wherever they are, 
 observe it. Are they absent? You meet them
 
 The Holy Communion. 97 
 
 at the table of the Lord. Nothing can be more 
 perfect as a bond of sympathy than this habit Of 
 observing the communion on given days wher- 
 ever you live and wherever you wander. 
 
 The act has, above all, a personal value. It is 
 a way of personal approach to God ; of confession, 
 of renewed consecration. It helps the soul to 
 take a new step. It gives grace to resist temp- 
 tation. 
 
 When we have in the observance of the sac- 
 rament of the Lord's Supper recalled the won- 
 derful history of Christ, obeyed his command as 
 the command of a loving friend, embraced the 
 opportunity for making public our devotion to 
 Christ, looked forward with hope, looked around 
 the globe with charity, looked backward with 
 reverent memory, and felt all the sacredness as- 
 sociated with our own Church, our own family, 
 and our own spiritual lives — when we have done 
 all these things there still remains a deeper and 
 more important truth which lies at the very 
 foundation of this most sacred institution. The 
 fact which gives real significance to the em- 
 blems, and real value to the service, is that atone- 
 
 %
 
 9S Our Own Church. 
 
 ment which Christ made for us by his death, 
 wtich we commemorate as we receive the broken 
 bread and the sacred wine. 
 
 The doctrine of the atonement is a profound 
 mystery. What great truths are involved in it 
 — truths relating to God and to Christianity and 
 to God's government over men — our human in- 
 tellects can never fathom. Angels desire to 
 look into these things. Figures of speech are 
 employed in the Holy Scriptures w^iich express 
 in the most emphatic way the importance of the 
 sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. We were as 
 men in debt, with no resources and no possibil- 
 ity of finding resources sufficient to cancel that 
 debt. And lo. One came who paid it all ! And 
 by his death, in some mysterious way, the price 
 was paid and our debt absolutely canceled. We 
 were as men in bondage, with no j)ower to break 
 the bars and chains which held us, and no arm 
 of earthly friends strong enough, and no author- 
 ity competent, to set us free. But the Lord 
 Jesus made our release a blessed possibility. 
 These great thoughts should come into our 
 minds as we receive the lioly communion.
 
 The Holy Communion. 99 
 
 How it is possible for God to be just and jet 
 justify the ungodly is a problem which law- 
 makers cannot solve. How to sustain the dio*- 
 
 o 
 
 nity and honor of the divine government, and 
 yet to extend the scepter of grace to an offend- 
 ing subject — this is a mystery. Without at- 
 tempting to explain it we receive the teachings 
 of the Holy Scriptures and simply accept them. 
 Christ died to sustain the glory and purity of 
 the law, and yet to make possible to every one 
 pardon and peace and immortal blessedness. It 
 is this doctrine, clothed in mystery, that we bring 
 before our minds as we bend in reverence and 
 awe at the communion table. He died that we 
 might not die. He poured out his blood as a 
 ransom for our sins, and through his obedience 
 our obedience, although offenders, is made pos- 
 sible. We are in danger of being shocked by 
 the strangeness of this doctrine. We cannot 
 comprehend it, and therefore we are in danger 
 of repelling it. But, if God's word teaches an}^ 
 thing, it teaches this relation of the soul to Christ, 
 and conditions spiritual life upon the acceptance 
 of him as one crucified for our sins.
 
 100 Our Own Chukch. 
 
 If our readers stumble at these great and mys- 
 terious truths let them move cautiously before 
 they foster doubt. With the great law of sacri- 
 Hce and substitution we are familiar in life. 
 Every day we see voluntary suffering for the 
 sake of others. Every day we see the innocent 
 suffer for the guilty ; and the highest joy of the 
 human soul is when, through self-abnegation, it 
 dares to put itself in the place of another, and 
 bear burdens and suffer grief that through it 
 others may have strength and gladness. Christ 
 came to fight the powers of evil, to make salva- 
 tion possible, to open the gate of heaven to be- 
 lievers; and there were mysteries wliich no 
 human or angelic mind can fathom, associated 
 with the scene of Gethsemane and the long 
 hours of darkness and agony on Calvary. He 
 went down into deep gulfs of woe that we might 
 have pathways prepared for our feet from earth 
 to heaven. He suffered that we might be saved. 
 And it behooves us to learn this lesson of self- 
 sacrifice ourselves, that what the Christ did for 
 us we may do for our fellow-men. 
 
 JSTaturally we shrink from suffering. "We
 
 The Holy Communion. 101 
 
 want what we call "good times," "happy days," 
 no trouble, much pleasure. And jet do we not 
 know that in these days of good fortune and suc- 
 cess no real peace is found ? Joy comes in the 
 way of sorrow. Some of the happiest people in 
 this world are the people who are deprived of 
 what we call " worldly comforts." The writer 
 of these lines once wrote a little story about a 
 boy whom he called Ilartwell Harrington. JN'ow 
 Hartwell has liad every thing that the world can 
 give, and yet there come to him seasons of deep 
 and bitter depression. What Hartwell needs is 
 the spirit of the self-sacrificing Christ. What 
 he needs is to know by a personal experience the 
 joy of loving self-surrender. A correspondent, 
 who has evidently tasted all the meaning of this 
 truth, wrote the author : " I am truly sorry for 
 Hartwell Harrington. ... If he has ' every ad- 
 vantage of an earthly sort,' love, friendship, be- 
 longs to the Church, and is a Christian, and the 
 religious truths which he usually accepts cannot 
 drive away these times of depression and dis- 
 couragement, it may be that he would gain help 
 and strength were he to visit homes where are
 
 102 OuK Own Church. 
 
 anxious business cares over against the 'sure 
 success ;' shattered health instead of his chief 
 temporal blessings ; anxieties for future necessi- 
 ties instead of an abundance ; children battling 
 with the vicissitudes of life ; no ability to take 
 one step in the future without the 'unfailing' 
 hand ; where there are days when ' cares like a 
 wild deluge ' press from within and from without, 
 and yet when the sun always shines. Hartwell 
 would find in such homes no remembrance of 
 dark days, but he would find a tear-stained spot 
 with 'shut door' where 'He is faithful that 
 promised.' I wish that he might be comforted, 
 and remember that ' a child of God praying to 
 the Father is mightier than a warrior in armor 
 of steel.' " 
 
 This unknown correspondent reveals the deep- 
 est root-principle of Cliristian character — a per- 
 fect trust in a Father's care. This conscious- 
 ness is reached through the ministry of the 
 Spirit, by the sacrifice of Christ. One living 
 for others, and having sorrow and yet always 
 rejoicing, knows something even in this life of 
 the mystery which is involved in the great sac-
 
 The Holy Communion. 103 
 
 rifice which we commemorate at the table of 
 the Lord. 
 
 Dear young reader, understand the Holy Sac- 
 rament. Prize it. ^ever omit it. Prepare for 
 its intelligent observance. And as you draw 
 near to tlie altar come w4th confession, with 
 prayer, with faith, with covenant purpose ; re- 
 gardless of mere feeling, give yourself anew to 
 the service of Christ and of his Church.
 
 104 OuK Own Chcjrch. . 
 
 TRUE CHURCH LOYALTY. 
 
 "Whatsoever tilings . . . are just." 
 
 MR. A is a Methodist. lie belongs to 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church ; that is, 
 he did for years belong to that Church. He 
 was, in a sense, born in the Church. He was 
 baptized and trained in it. He joined " on 
 probation." He and his family attended it 
 regularly. They owned a pew or had a place in 
 church which they called their own. 
 
 Mr. A moves West. He lands with his 
 
 family in a little western town. He expects to 
 make this place his home for many years, per- 
 haps for the rest of his life. He does — to his 
 credit be it recorded — look up the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church in the town. He attends its 
 service on Sunday. His family go with him. 
 It must be confessed that the church has a 
 dingy look. The walls are somewhat stained
 
 True Chuech Loyalty. 105 
 
 with water from a leakj roof. Thej are bro- 
 ken in some places, and well smoked up. The 
 windows are stained, but not with artistic glass. 
 And there are cobwebs in sight. The church 
 ought not to have this forlorn appearance — but 
 it does. 
 
 The people are not a fashionable-appearing 
 set. They are poor — the most of them. And 
 the preaching is not brilliant. The pastor is 
 a plain man. He might dress better — if his 
 salary were larger. Indeed, on his limited sal- 
 ary he might afford to comb his hair a little 
 more carefally, and take the knots out of his 
 unnecessarily long beard. One would not be 
 attracted toward him for any reason except that 
 he seems to be an earnest man and occupies an 
 important position. 
 
 Mr. A is not pleased with church-build- 
 ing, people, preacher, singing, or sermon. " It 
 is not at all like the little church" he left in 
 " Eastern New York." There are, all through 
 the AYest, churches just as good, and people just 
 as refined, and preachers just as gentlemanly as 
 one will find in the East. But Mr. A hap
 
 106 Ouii Own Church. 
 
 pened to strike an unfortunate combination of 
 conservatism and coarseness. 
 
 The Sunday-school is like the church. Little 
 
 Tom A didn't like the fellows in his class. 
 
 Miss Jennie A was " disgusted with the 
 
 ^irls" in her class, and John A declared he 
 
 " would never go back to that school." And 
 that Sunday evening the family canvasses the 
 church and the school, the people and the 
 preacher — and bad grows worse as they contrast 
 this Sunday with last Sunday. They find more 
 people whom they don't like, and recall more 
 people in the old church whose faces they miss. 
 
 The following week Mrs. A and Miss 
 
 Jennie receive a call from two Presbyterian la- 
 dies, or Congregational ladies, or Baptist ladies, 
 perhaps. These ladies have heard, of course, 
 that the A 's are Methodists. Their min- 
 ister told them so. And he also told them to 
 call. "We may be able to get them into our 
 Church," he said. The uncatholic and imperti- 
 nent suggestion matures into a deliberate plan 
 of proselyting. So the " ladies " call with a 
 purpose. Conversation is opened with the usual
 
 True Chuech Loyalty. 107 
 
 society questions and answers. Then come allu- 
 sions to East and West, to our town, its growth, 
 its schools, its churches ; and then the question 
 blossoms out, " What church will you attend ? " 
 
 " We've always been Methodists," answers 
 Mrs. A . 
 
 " O, Methodists ! Indeed ! " The feigned 
 surprise is a fitting opening for the words that 
 follow: "Well, Methodists are a very good sort 
 of people, pious, you know, and all tliat ; but 
 here in our town there is really no society 
 among the Methodists. They are a poor class. 
 All the best people go to our church; and if 
 you want to get your daughters into good soci- 
 ety, you will have to come to us. Dr. , 
 
 Judge , the 's, and the 's all go to 
 
 our church, you know ; and Mr. , our min- 
 ister, is an elegant man, refined, and good com- 
 pany, and a lovely preacher." 
 
 The '' call " — a double call, of doubtful honor 
 — tells on the susceptible and discontented wom- 
 en. " Society" has wonderful power. Then 
 the girls tease mother and mother teases fathei', 
 and, af^er more calls and more appeals and more
 
 108 Our Own Church. 
 
 misrepresentations, backbones bend, and the 
 Church letters go into the greedy grasp of a 
 minister who calls himself a gentleman, and 
 yet deliberately laid a plan to defraud the local 
 Methodist Episcopal Church of a family to 
 which it is entitled, and to fill a pew in his own 
 church with people allured, not by the love of 
 Christ, but beguiled through a carnal desire for 
 social standing in the community. Thus " soci- 
 ety" triumphs. The low standards of taste and 
 of conscience, on the part of the proselyting 
 pastor and his committee, have succeeded. A 
 cowardly family drops the " cross," and, regard- 
 less of doctrine, usages, antecedents, memory, 
 goes into a " society church." 
 
 The self-respect and religious tone of the 
 whole family are, of necessity, lowered. Instead 
 of giving, they receive; instead of leading, they 
 are led ; and more than once they are laughed 
 at by the very people who took them such easy 
 captives. " They were glad enough to come to 
 us," they say. " And why ? " they ask. 
 
 There are some otlier things to be said on this 
 subject. I do not excuse that little Methodist
 
 True Church Loyalty, 109 
 
 Episcopal Churcli. Indeed, there are some severe 
 things tliat should be said to its members and pas- 
 tor. In fact, it is a slovenly church. Its walls and 
 windows and cobwebs are a disgrace to it. It 
 needs a gospel of soap and shingles and glass and 
 kalsomining. Its pastor ought to be ashamed of 
 himself. He has a slovenly church because he 
 is a sloven. I wish John ^Yesley or our " Church 
 Extension Society " could take him in hand for 
 an hour. Xo wonder he has such a cliurch ! 
 In this day we should have clean churches, con- 
 structed and decorated according to a true art, 
 ventilated perfectly, and warmed comfortably. 
 "No parlor should be more pleasant and inviting 
 than the house of the Lord, whither we go on 
 Sabbath-days to serve him and meet his saints. 
 
 "When a Methodist Episcopal church drops 
 into the hands of boors, and is kept as barns are 
 kept, it must not wonder if its tone repels peo- 
 ple, and if even loyal Methodists of taste and 
 refinement find in the case severe and unneces- 
 sary temptations to unfaithfulness. 
 
 Again : "Why did not earnest Methodist Epis- 
 copal women call early in the week on Mr.
 
 110 Our Own Ciiukch. 
 
 A 's family, and show the best spirit that 
 
 dwelt in the Church, and invite the co-operation 
 it needed from the new comers? Why stand ofl 
 and give rival congregations a chance to tempt 
 our own people ? Why d'd not the pastor have 
 his forces organized and at work ? That church 
 needs a new preacher, and a new board of stew- 
 ards, and leaders, and trustees. What a pity it 
 could not have had a new member who might 
 have helped it up! 
 
 But all this does not excuse Mr. A and 
 
 lais family. Concerning them something more 
 remains to be said. We can afford to look into 
 
 his antecedents. Mr. A is a good, solid man, 
 
 and might be a very useful man. His father was 
 much less of a man. He was well " down " so- 
 cially, was poor, much despised by many people 
 in the town in which he alternately worked and 
 lounged. He was much pitied by others. He 
 had no standing financially, socially, morally. 
 Cue day, fifty years ago, a Methodist preacher 
 dismounted, fastened his horse to a post, and 
 
 entered the little house where A 's father 
 
 lived. A was not himself born then. The
 
 Tkue Chuech Loyalty. Ill 
 
 preacher spoke plain words to the man and his 
 wife ; told them (what no pulpit or preacher 
 had ever told them before) that God loves all 
 men and that Christ died for all men and that 
 all have a genuine offer of eternal life ; that 
 through repentance and faith and good works 
 a sinner maj be blessed and be a blessing ; that 
 through faith he receives and through good 
 works he proves and uses God's grace ; that a 
 guilty sold may have pardon for the past, peace 
 ard power and hope in the present, and in the 
 ife to come fellowship with God. The preacher 
 /)roved all this by the words of the Holy Bible 
 which he held in his hand. He was so earnest, 
 
 so faithful, so persistent that old A and his 
 
 wife were impressed, and they kneeled down 
 and prayed — the preacher leading. Then they 
 sought diligently the promised "blessing," and 
 in the little old kitchen and sitting-room and 
 
 parlor (for in A 's house they were one and 
 
 the same) there opened out a new life, a new 
 love, a new joy The preacher often came to 
 
 A 's. He preached there, organized a class, 
 
 and started a little prayer-meeting for Thursday
 
 112 OuE Own Church. 
 
 evenings. And wliat glad days those were in 
 
 the little cottage ! A was a Christian, 
 
 through and through, and every body acknowl- 
 edged it. He drank no more. lie gave up bad 
 companions. He lived honestly, humbly, up- 
 rightly, and was respected more and more by 
 his neighbors, who would say to each other, 
 " The Methodists did it.'' But for that Meth- 
 odist preacher and the Churcb that sent him to 
 
 old A 's house, young A would have 
 
 been born into an atmosphere of tobacco and 
 rum and family jars and social degradation. As 
 
 it was, thanks to " the Methodists," A was 
 
 born into a house of prayer and spiritual song 
 and good-will, where "class" was held and ser- 
 mons were preached. His family was poor, but 
 it was respectable — and this respectability was 
 
 owing to the Methodists. A grew up to 
 
 manhood, held to virtue, industry, and economy 
 by his father's and mother's life and example, 
 and led, through a Methodist preacher's influ- 
 ence, to seek a better education, and surrounded 
 in his school days by Methodist friends, who 
 stood by and encouraged him. His wife's
 
 True Chuech Lov^lty. Ho 
 
 history is very much the same as his own. And 
 when they got off the train to reside at the little 
 western village, all the money and start and 
 standing and taste and education they had they 
 owed to Metliodism — to a Methodist preachei', 
 to a Methodist mother, to a Methodist father, to 
 a Methodist school, to Methodist society. 
 
 Now Mr. A , who has been made all that 
 
 he is by the Church, has a chance to pay ba^^k a 
 part of his gain, to lift up the Church, help it 
 on, improve, beautify, st'engthen it. 
 
 What did he do ? Alas for the power of 
 " society " — and of the " world ! " 
 
 Mr. A might have remained in his own 
 
 communion ; given his money where it was 
 needed ; put liis taste into walls and windows ; 
 put his knowledge and tact into Sunday-school 
 and official board ; started a social center within 
 his own Church which would have attracted and 
 confirmed others and given his own Church a 
 standing in the town. He would liave had the 
 satisfaction of being a leader rather tlian of being 
 led. And every body would have respected him 
 
 more. And he would have respected himself. 
 
 8
 
 114 Our Own Church. 
 
 One thing is never to be overlooked or forgot- 
 ten : there are many Methodist families who from 
 different social beginnings are indebted to the 
 Church, to a great degree, for moral and spirit- 
 ual antecedents ; who in homes of wealth were 
 by Methodism saved from dissipation and deg- 
 radation, and, perhaps, from poverty. Strength, 
 liber, harmony, and prosperity came through 
 Methodism into elegant but exposed and world- 
 ly homes, and because of it the family remained 
 in affluence, the father's honor continued, and 
 mother became the saint she was. All these owe 
 a debt to their Church. And it is a debt which 
 can be paid only by personal loyalty. 
 
 Do I assert that a man cannot be as good a 
 Christian in the Presbyterian or Baptist or Con- 
 gregational Church as in a Methodist Episcopal 
 Church ? I do not put it in that way. I love 
 and honor these branches of the Holy Catholic 
 Church. I know and love many of their devout 
 ministers and members. But I do assert that 
 when a man leaves one Church and joins another 
 for "society" reasons, and to shirk the "shame" 
 and service of his own, leaves the Church which
 
 True Church Loyalty. 115 
 
 liis father and mother loved, whose doctrines 
 he cannot deny, and to whose ministry he is 
 indebted for all the Gospel training he has — I 
 say that this man commits a great wrong, sets a 
 bad example, and sows the seeds of m.oral weak- 
 ness in his household. 
 
 Methodism has a right to the service of her 
 own peoj^le whom she has blessed, and whose 
 family sources owe all their best things to her 
 influence. She has a right to ask their influ- 
 ence, their personal membership, their moral 
 and financial support ; and if our people had 
 more conscience in this respect we should be 
 able to build better churches, train abler preach- 
 ers, develop a more influential and refined Chris- 
 tian society, do more good to the world at large, 
 and set an example to our sister communions of 
 the glorious Holy Catholic Church. 
 
 Let us be " just " in matters denominational, 
 and be true to Methodism — the dear old fos- 
 tering mother — who best represents to-day the 
 beautiful, apostolic, holy, and divine doctrine 
 and polity of the Church of Jesus Christ.
 
 116 Our Own Chuech. 
 
 THE STORY OF MARK. 
 
 "Forever thine." 
 
 MAEK was a young country boy who had 
 worked on a farm from the day he was 
 able to begin work up to the day that he left 
 his old house for " Oxonian Hall," where he 
 was recorded by the registrar as " Eighteen years 
 old ; a farmer by profession ; father dead ; moth- 
 er living ; a membei* of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church ; at school six winter terms in Lincoln 
 
 Township, County, State." There were 
 
 a few tears on the broad red face of the boy as 
 he said " Good-bye " to his plain, faithful, affec- 
 tionate old mother, who put her arms around his 
 neck and gave him three kisses, tender and en- 
 ergetic kisses, breaking on his lips in the music of 
 a mother's love. There is no music in the world 
 like it. She said, " Be true, Mark, to your father's 
 memory and to your old mother." And he said, 
 " I will." There was a slight blush on the big 
 boy's face as he stood before the registrar and
 
 The Story of Mark, 117 
 
 answered the questions tliat were put to him. 
 His answers are recorded above. This is the 
 story of Mark's "matriculation" at Oxonian Hall. 
 Mark had not enjoyed many educational ad- 
 vantages, but he had made the best use of tliose 
 that came in his w^ay. He had a good mother, 
 and that is a great step toward the highest and 
 broadest culture. He had access to a few good 
 books which made up the little library he had 
 inherited from his father. He listened as his 
 mother read them aloud when he was a little 
 boy. He read them over again for himself 
 when he grew larger. He consulted them often, 
 especially for the "debates-' they used to hold 
 in the winter schools he attended, and for help 
 in the "compositions" he had to write. His 
 mother was a great reader ; took one good weekly 
 secular and one weekly religious paper, and read 
 every word of both. And she talked about all 
 the subjects on which she read. She talked 
 w^ell. Her voice w-as good, her enunciation dis- 
 tinct, her style accurate, her face bright, and she 
 loved the boy for whom she read and talked. 
 Winter school did a good deal for Mark, but
 
 118 Our Own Church. 
 
 niother-school all the year round did vastly more. 
 Mothers are worth more than school-masters. 
 And school-masters are worth ten times more to 
 a boy with a good mother than they can be to 
 the other scholars. And this is the story oi 
 Mark's preparation for matriculation at Oxonian 
 Hall. 
 
 In an institution so full of the atmosphere of 
 true culture, with men and women of learning, 
 of taste, of tact, and of religious influence, as 
 were his teachers, Mark sbon became an enthu- 
 siast in study, and pushed forward with a degree 
 of application and success which afforded his 
 professors great satisfaction. They saw the 
 making of a strong man in the rustic, whose ap- 
 pearance had not won him an immediate social 
 recognition, but whose power, slowly developing, 
 had made him stanch friends both among his 
 class-mates and in the faculty. In no sphere of 
 life do earthly ambitions And earlier or fuller 
 play than in the scholastic. The brighter, the 
 quicker, the more versatile and successful the 
 young student, the higher do his hopes and re- 
 solves ascend. Visions of achievement and of
 
 The Story of Mark. 119 
 
 renown flash across his heavens. He is full of 
 confidence. Kecitations, discussions, composi- 
 tions quicken his desire and strengthen his pur- 
 pose. And here creeps in the demon of Selfish- 
 ness, in the form of vaulting Ambition, the 
 influence of which is as deadening to all the 
 finer instincts and aspirations of the soul as is 
 Covetousness itself. Mark was not exempt from 
 the temptations which every youth must en- 
 counter. He had some fierce conflicts, some 
 deadly doubts, some unworthy feelings of jeal- 
 ousy as he measured the power of his class-rivals, 
 and some ambitious schemes which dazzled his 
 imagination and weakened his spiritual life. 
 He did not drink beer or wine. He did not 
 smoke. He visited neither theater nor billiard- 
 hall. Mark was a circumspect, honorable fellow, 
 as boys are weighed in tliese times by public 
 opinion. But angels saw the struggle going on 
 within him, and he himself knew how selfish, 
 worldly, and unchristian were his most interior 
 thoughts and motives. Success therefore gave 
 him little pleasure. It seemed to him as though 
 a promising field of grain was spread out in
 
 120 Our Own Church. 
 
 fresh verdure under the sun on the slope of the 
 mountain. But he who knew best, and as casual 
 observers could not know, knew that the heat 
 and fissures and rumblings under ground and the 
 occasional puffs of smoke among the young 
 grain were sure signs of a force imderneath 
 which was hostile to the coming harvest, and 
 tliat any hour it might burst forth to wither and 
 bury every blade of wheat that grew in the field. 
 Mark knew that with such a heart the culture 
 of his head would not be of much worth. 
 
 It was evening. The students were gathered 
 in the chapel of Oxonian Hall for prayer. They 
 were detained a little later than usual that even- 
 ing. There was a deep religious feeling in the 
 institution. The claims of God on the love and 
 service of the students were keenly felt. It 
 came like a warm wave over the school. There 
 are such warmings up of the physical atmosphere 
 when ]S"ature seems to take a leap into life. 
 You can almost see the leaves and blossoms 
 come out. There are such sweeping currents 
 in the spiritual world. They come with sum- 
 mer warmth out of the heavens. I pity a sem-
 
 The Stoey of Maek. 121 
 
 inarj or college where they are not felt and en- 
 couraged and used. Such a stirring up and 
 warming up and blossoming out had come to 
 Oxonian Hall. After the students and faculty 
 had left the chapel, and the last notes of the 
 organ had died away, Mark, so absorbed in 
 thought as to forget to leave, found himself 
 alone in the dim twilight. How silent the place 1 
 How solemn the hour ! All that passed through 
 his soul then we cannot record here. But I 
 know that bowing down alone in the darkness 
 he whispered a deep, strong, soul-surrendering 
 prayer. The whispers now and then broke into 
 groans. The conflict was fearful, the surrender 
 was full, the victory was perfect, the peace that 
 came into the young student's soul seemed 
 to him like a miracle. " I will live for thee, O 
 Christ," he cried. "I will live for the world 
 thou earnest to redeem. Away, Ambition! 
 Away, selfishness, and envy, and all evil desires ! 
 I do here and now, in the name of Christ, sur- 
 render myself to thee, O Father of heaven and 
 earth ! I enter into an everlasting covenant with 
 thee, and with all true souls, to love and serve
 
 122 Our Own Chukch. 
 
 thee and to prove my love for thee by serving 
 my fellow-man ! " Mark rose from his knees. 
 The silence was profound, and the sense of the 
 divine presence was overwhelming. Through 
 one of the open windows of the chapel he caught 
 sight of the new moon. The familiar crescent 
 with its silver light had new beauty to his eyes 
 that night. E"ature receives an added charm 
 when souls who study it are brought into har- 
 mony with the God of nature. A new life had 
 been given to Mark and a new career opened 
 before him. The young and growing moon had 
 a meaning. That night he wrote to his mother. 
 After this wonderful experience Mark moved 
 steadily forward. He had work to do. He did 
 it faithfully and well. He had seasons of storm 
 and doubt and darkness. He repeated his vow 
 of surrender, remembered the Christ of his sal- 
 vation, read the word of God regularly, asso- 
 ciated with those who had committed themselves 
 to the same service. Thus he passed safely 
 through every season of depression. '' I built 
 that night on God, not on frames and feelings," 
 he said. The religious interest at Oxonian Hall
 
 The Stoky of Mark. 123 
 
 was followed bj miicli discussion among the 
 students concerning church membership. More 
 than one student approached Mark to secure his 
 name as a candidate for enrollment in this church 
 or that. Mark was decided, and gave prompt 
 answer : " My father and mother brought me 
 np in the Methodist Episcopal CUmrch." A 
 Roman Catholic friend wrote him about that 
 Church. A class-mate who belono-ed to the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church used strong argu- 
 ments, as he supposed, why Mark should join 
 that denomination. Other " branches " stretched 
 their boughs over into Mark's neighborliood, 
 but he invariably said, " I was born into a Meth- 
 odist Episcopal family. I believe in my own 
 Church. When I have examined farther and 
 fully, and find that I cannot conscientiously 
 stay there, I will seek another fold. But now I 
 stay with my own." So Mark stayed and ex- 
 amined. He reviewed church history, studied 
 church polity, read religious biography, gave 
 answers to his Roman Catholic and Protestant 
 Episcopal friends — answers I am sorry not to 
 have space here to record — and every day grew
 
 124 Olk Own Chcrch. 
 
 broader as a Christian and more positive and 
 earnest as a Methodist. He wrote to his mother, 
 "I love all branches of the Christian Church as 
 they try to set forth Jesus Christ himself, his 
 doctrines, his ethics, his Spirit. The demand of 
 the age is the simple teachings and life of Christ 
 reproduced every day in our several spheres of 
 life and influence. This philosophy makes me a 
 Methodist. Our Church seems to me most like 
 the early Church. I read the book of the Acts 
 of the Apostles, and the epistles, and feel more at 
 home in the Church I have chosen." And thus 
 Mark stood up for his own Church with intelli- 
 gent fidelity. His manliness and decision gave 
 much strength to the other students. He said one 
 evening in a " converts' class," as it was called, 
 " We should not separate culture from religious 
 life, education from grace. We should be Chris- 
 tian students. We should bring our intellectual 
 energies into the service of the Church. Let 
 us form a ' League ' devoted to the sanctification 
 of our educational opportunities, in the study of 
 tlie Holy Scriptures, the study of church history 
 and economics, and the promotion of a large,
 
 The Story of Mark. 125 
 
 full-orbed, spiritual, philanthropic, and church 
 life." 
 
 The proposal was accepted by the students, 
 " The Oxford League of Oxonian Hall " organ- 
 ized, and from that day onward the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church gained in interest and influ- 
 ence in that institution. I cannot here report 
 all the discussions and essays, the committees 
 and their work, the ante-communion services, 
 the " conference debates," the rich biographical 
 resuines from Methodist history, the able argu- 
 ments on " the extemporaneous instead of the 
 liturgical form of worship," the "itinerancy," 
 the " class-meeting," and a score of denomina- 
 tional topics, which occupied one evening a week 
 in the chapel- of Oxonian Hall. A young Meth- 
 odist girl from city said to a friend, " I 
 
 was never so proud of my own Church as since 
 I have learned more of her history, opinions, 
 and achievements." A young Congregation- 
 alist said, " \i you Methodist people would let 
 every body know what you do believe, and let 
 your young folks know, and what God has done 
 for you and what a work is yet to be done by
 
 126 OuK Own Chuech. 
 
 you, your power would be immensely aug- 
 mented." Mark, who was leader of the League, 
 said, "If we will only study God's word and 
 give ourselves to culture for God's glory and 
 for man's good we need not care what any body 
 thinks of us. As for myself," he said, " I have 
 scientific tastes. I shall be a chemist. I shall 
 try to be a good one. And I shall find satisfac- 
 tion in connecting my work and my good name, 
 if I can win it, and my success with the Church 
 I belong to and love. As Bishop Simpson once 
 said, ' I live to make my own Church a power 
 in the land, while I live to love every church 
 that loves and exalts Christ.' " So much for 
 Mark and the league. On another page I give 
 the outline of Mark's address at the formal or- 
 ganization of the " Oxford League of Oxonian 
 Hall." Will not Methodist Episcopal students 
 in our several institutions organize similar 
 leagues ?
 
 THE OXFORD LEAGUE OF OXONIAN HALL." 
 
 The voluntary on the organ having ended, a hymn was sung by the 
 congregation that packed the chapel. It was the strong, rich, spiritual 
 hymn beginning, " Arise, my soul, arise." Prayer was offered by the 
 
 President of Oxonian Hall, who then introduced Mr. Mark as 
 
 '' Leader of the Oxford League of Oxonian Hall." Mark was received 
 with cheers, and proceeded to deliver an address of which the following 
 is merely an outline : 
 
 1. Love for all Christian believers in all branches of the Church of 
 Christ should be by each believer genuine and abounding. 
 
 2. Love, to be true, must never be disloyal to truth, nor must it, for 
 fear of giving offense, fail to testify against error. 
 
 3. We most effectually testify against error by boldly and faithfully 
 proclaiming the whole truth. We should not aim to build up our own 
 school of religious thought by tearing others dov.-n. 
 
 4. The Methodist Episcopal Church, with which all members of the 
 Oxford League are connected, has all the marks of the original and 
 apostolic Church. 
 
 5. Methodism, therefore, really began in the days of Christ and of 
 the apostles. 
 
 6. Methodism is not, however, the only representative of apostolic 
 Christianity. She claims to be one of the many branches of the true 
 Holy Catholic Church. 
 
 7. The revival of Methodism in the last century was a blessing to all 
 branches of the Church. 
 
 8. The Methodism of the last century began in Oxford University, 
 and among men of the highest culture. 
 
 9. True Methodism has always favored intellectual training. 
 
 10. The great demand of this age is a more thorough culture in sub- 
 ordination to a tender, sympathetic, philanthropic, and vigorous piety 
 accompanied by a present personal consciousness of harmony with 
 God. 
 
 11. Young Methodist Episcopal students In our Church institutions 
 should seek Christly character and the highest human culture, aiming 
 at high scholarship in the various departments of learning and using 
 it in the service and to the honor of our owti Church, as laymen, as 
 teachers, and as ministers of the Gospel. 
 
 12. These ends will be subserved by the organization of an Oxford 
 League, which aims to secure Christian experience, Bible knowledge, 
 sound general education and habits of practical philanthropy. It aims 
 also to promote a higher appreciation of the divine origin, history, 
 organization, usages, advantages, and most pressing necessities of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church.
 
 128 OuK Own Chukch. 
 
 HARRY. 
 
 "Ashamed of Jesus?" 
 
 HAEEY was a fine-looking fellow; a well- 
 dressed and handsome fellow, evidently 
 refined in his tastes, and certainly agreeable in 
 
 manners: a graduate of H University, and 
 
 now a teacher. It was easy to drop into a con- 
 versation with him. He was attractive and, 
 after the last word, left a pleasant impression. 
 Such agreeable acquaintance a Pullman parlor 
 car occasionally affords. 
 
 Harry talked freely. He had his tastes and 
 opinions ; knew much about the leading col- 
 leges of the day and their peculiar views and 
 policies ; was not a believer in the elective 
 scheme, nor yet fully satisfied with the rigorous 
 and old-time classic regime. He was '''not a 
 Methodist." He was partly Congregational and 
 partly " Episcopal ;" liked one more than the
 
 Harry. 129 
 
 other, and went to either or both according to 
 circumstances. He was ''not a Methodist." He 
 said that twice. 
 
 As our conversation continued Harry be- 
 trayed a singular familiarity for a young college 
 man, and a Congregationalist or "Episcopalian," 
 with Methodist Episcopal names and ways. He 
 knew the editors and the church papers. He 
 spoke of class-meetings and Conferences. He saw 
 the name of "Cranston & Stowe" on a paper we 
 held, and remarked, 
 
 "That used to be 'Hitchcock <fe Walden,' 
 didn't it?" 
 
 We saw that he was at home in the nomen- 
 clature of Methodism, and asked, 
 
 "Were you not brought up in a Methodist 
 Episcopal family ? " 
 
 He answered: "Yes; all my life, until re- 
 cently. I am not now a Methodist. Our whole 
 family was Methodist until a very short time 
 ago. But we left." 
 
 We found out why. For all action there is a 
 
 reason. Harry left Methodism because his father 
 
 did. His father and family left on the occasion 
 9
 
 130 OuK Own Chukch. 
 
 of a church trouble. We inferred that the 
 " trouble" was the occasion, and not the cause, 
 of the leaving. It was a good time to go. They 
 went. We probed Harry still further and found 
 that he was quite willing to go — glad to go. 
 We tried to find out why he was glad. We suc- 
 ceeded. Harry ^'didn't like prayer-meetings and 
 revivals." He "didn't like responses in meeting" 
 — unless they were printed in a book. He didn't 
 like '^working on the emotions." Besides, there 
 were a "good many common people in the 
 Church," and "common people are not agreea- 
 ble, you know." Then Harry smiled a pleasant 
 smile, and twisted his light — light-weight, light- 
 shade — mustache and looked out of the car 
 window like "a high-born fellow, you know." 
 
 We did not give Harry up, for he was a most 
 agreeable talker, and seemed to be in earnest, 
 and was willing to discuss matters. We gave 
 him our views about revivals. We conceded 
 the occurrence now and then of uncomfortable 
 episodes in religious meetings, where liberty of 
 speech and entire extemporaneousness in prayer 
 are allowed ; where weak people and impulsive
 
 Harry. 131 
 
 people and hysterical people have a right to 
 express themselves ; where personal joy over 
 personal salvation finds a tongue and is permit- 
 ted to tell about the lifting of burdens, and the 
 scattering of clouds, and the healing of wounds, 
 and the banishing of despair, and the triumph 
 of hope, and where this expression does some- 
 times shatter the college boy's rules of grammar 
 and the society man's canons of taste. Would 
 Harry forbid this freedom? Would he stop 
 the mouth of a reformed drunkard, or the glad 
 utterances of the reformed drunkard's wife, or 
 a song of victory over the assurance of divine 
 acceptance? Allowing the experience to be 
 real, would he forbid the expression ? " Cer- 
 tainly not," but then he " liked silence." In the 
 cemetery of his native town Harry could find — 
 silence. But then he could also find it, and for 
 the same reason, in some churches. 
 
 The aesthetic element in Harry was very 
 strongly developed. It usually, is in young 
 people of a certain kind and degree of culture. 
 If they are society people this development is 
 more marked and its influence very great. They
 
 132 Our Own Church. 
 
 don't like any thing that is "out of taste," or 
 that certain frigid and worldly people pro- 
 nounce to be "out of taste." It oifends them. 
 They are ashamed to have any thing occur in 
 any of their meetings that savors of emotion, or 
 that violates laws of accurate speech, or that 
 "nice people" would laugh at. 
 
 Such aesthetic youths w^ould have a hard time 
 in war. It would be "dreadful" to have to stay 
 away from all the modern conveniences and to 
 be compelled to live in such rough ways. How 
 "aw^f al" hospital ministries would be ! What 
 vulojar thino-s have to be done there ! Kitchen- 
 work is so much "out of taste," and helping 
 mother care for baby, and going to the grocery, 
 and watching by old auntie dying with cancer ! 
 What perfectly terrible violations of taste in the 
 days of Christ, when blind men called out to 
 him, and mothers crowded forward w4tli their 
 children for a blessing, and lepers praised him, 
 and children shouted " Hosanna ! " and people 
 spread garments and palm-branches in the way. 
 And he — the Christ — approved it all. 
 
 We tried to show Harry that "taste" is a very
 
 Hakry. 133 
 
 selfish and a very dangerous thing when carried 
 too far, and that it is easy to carry it too far ; 
 that reahty, sturdy reality, sometimes allows and 
 requires things which weak "propriety" con- 
 demns ; that true work for men, bold, rugged, 
 manly, merciful, divine work for men, must 
 care very little for conventionalities ; that men 
 who save souls, like men who save nations, must 
 break loose from such pettiness and do manful 
 work in heroic way. We told him that Meth- 
 odist ministers, as a class, whatever may be said 
 about largeness or lack of "culture," w^ere pre- 
 eminently men of profound earnestness and 
 plain, bold speech and sound common sense, and 
 that they were, through their very vigor and 
 loyalty to reality, in danger of depreciating the 
 little conceits and temporary decrees of sestheti- 
 cism. As for these men, they could not stay in 
 a cemetery. If they did stones would speak, 
 graves open, and the dead come forth. We 
 made Harry ashamed of his "taste" and "Lubin" 
 and dilettanteism, as he began to think of the 
 heroic faith and good sense and unflinching pur. 
 pose to do good and bring souls into the eter-
 
 134 OuK Own Church. 
 
 nal heaven which characterize the Church and 
 ministry he and liis family had forsaken. 
 
 The "emotion" troubled Harry. Well, hyster- 
 ical emotion and manufactured emotion and un- 
 controlled emotion sometimes trouble us. But 
 there is a true emotion. Liberty cannot be 
 given to the true without making way for the 
 display of the false. And it is better to have a 
 little wild-fire than to smother the real fire. 
 Where would Harry find life without emotion : 
 Among his college class-mates? On the base- 
 ball ground ? At the boat-race ? At a cane 
 rush ? On the campus when the songs began ? 
 At the class supper? Where would he find 
 freedom from emotion? Among school-boys? 
 In the court- room ? In a nursery ? At the 
 theater? Among tourists in Switzerland? At 
 a political meeting? In Congress? Where? 
 There is one place — among the permanent resi- 
 dents of a cemetery. But Harry wants emotion 
 repressed in only one place — a church meeting, 
 where, if anywhere on earth, emotion is fitting 
 and necessary ; where those themes are discussed 
 which are more likely than any other to awaken
 
 Harky. 135 
 
 the noblest and most efliective emotions of the 
 soul ; where there cannot be thought or convic- 
 tion without emotion ; where to be alive is to be 
 subject to the plaj of emotion. Harrj wants 
 the Church to be a cemetery with tombs and 
 tablets and columns and art and — silence ! Ah ! 
 Harry, you don't know what the Church is for, 
 nor what it holds in its heart, nor how it came 
 to be, nor who reigns over it. If you want 
 silence, broken only by conventional or liturgic 
 provision, don't go back to Pentecost. Don't 
 try to bring back the day of the Master's tri- 
 umphal entry into Jerusalem. Don't go to 
 Methodist meetings. Don't pass the gates of 
 the celestial city, where 
 
 "rush of hallelujahs 
 Fills all the earth and sky!" 
 
 and where 
 
 '' 'Hallelujah' " they cry, 
 
 To the King of the sky, 
 To the great everlasting I AM; 
 
 To the Lamb that was slain, 
 
 And that liveth again, — 
 * Hallelujah to God and the Lamb ! " 
 
 As for the objection based upon the presence
 
 136 Our Own Church. 
 
 of "the common people," Harry did not press it 
 very strongly after we had shown our colors on 
 the aesthetic question. He saw it could not 
 weigh with us. We believe in common sense 
 and ruggedness of soul and thorough work, and 
 in the democratic ideas of Christianity. Harry 
 was afraid we might quote texts out of the 
 Gospel concerning Jesus Christ — such as, "The 
 common people heard him gladly," and "He ate 
 with publicans and sinners." Perhaps Harry 
 remembered the commission given by the Mas- 
 ter, "Go ye into all the world and preach the 
 Gospel to every creature." Or he may have 
 recalled the fact that the disciples at the begin- 
 ning were "common people," and that the ma- 
 jority of the earliest believers were very "com- 
 mon people." Or, it may be, Harry feared that 
 we might reach back by a simple question into 
 his own ancestry. And we might reach back 
 too far ; or, not reacliing very far, might find a 
 fact or two of an exceedingly plain sort, and 
 break a high, stiff Cambridge collar of the pres- 
 ent by a rude grip on a coUarless shirt-band of 
 the past. Perhaps Harry talked about "com-
 
 Harry. 137 
 
 moil people" with his peciihar tone when he 
 was some distance from home, or to people who 
 did not know him and his at home^the home 
 of the family to-day or a quarter of a century 
 back. However that may be, Harry did not 
 push the plebeian question any further. With 
 his good sense — and he has a good stratum of it 
 under the deposit of taste and social ambition — 
 Harry cannot argue against a church because it 
 has "common people" in it. That argument 
 would have kept many a senator out of the 
 Capitol, many a judge out of the Supreme 
 Court, many a President out of the White 
 House, many a millionaire out of his parlor, 
 many a lady out of society, and many a saint 
 out of heaven. But for the "common people" 
 we should have neither wealth nor scholarship. 
 The man who depreciates them is chargeable 
 with folly, and the Church that neglects them is 
 guilty of a great crime — a crime against God 
 and against the Saviour who died for all men, 
 every- where.
 
 138 OuK Own Church. 
 
 ETHEL. 
 '• Good sense is sister to good taste." 
 
 ETHEL SETTIQUE had French blood in her 
 veins, and a strong taste for the things which 
 were pronounced "in good taste." Yery often 
 when there was no stronger argument in favor 
 of a thing than that it was in "good taste" she 
 at least for a time approved it, even when her 
 native good sense opposed it. She had both 
 very strong sense and a very higli degree of 
 aesthetic sensitiveness. All who know any thing 
 about the combination in one individuality well 
 know that it precipitates many an interior con- 
 troversy, in which one person is broken into 
 two ; that the two are sure to fight for a long 
 time over the problem which has been submit- 
 ted to the Unity, and that the problem cannot 
 be adjusted until there has been a prolonged 
 scuffle between wdiat we may be allowed to call 
 the Duality. Now Ethel Settique was a Unity 
 in Duality or a Duality in Unity.
 
 Ethel. 139 
 
 If she was French she was neither flippant 
 nor fickle. We know the reputation tliat people 
 give the nation, and we think it unfair. But 
 there is little use in fighting against these uni- 
 versal reputations. In Ethel's case we are care- 
 ful to put in a modifying statement, seeing that 
 there was a trace of French blood in the swift, 
 full streams that swept through her veins. And 
 she was a Methodist. She always said she was 
 a "Methodist Episcopalian." And she put em- 
 phasis on the "Episcopalian," although, to tell 
 the truth, she was at the last remove from the 
 traditional Episcopalian. She says frankly that 
 she is a "Methodist Episcopalian," with double- 
 underscore-for-caps (the com230sitor at least will 
 understand us), because she is not any other 
 kind of Episcopalian. She believes in the 
 Episcopal form of government. She believes 
 in two "orders" only (and that will certainly 
 delight Dr. E^eely), and in the Episcopacy as an 
 "ofiice," and as an office full of dignity and 
 honor. She likes to point to her "Bishop" and 
 show what power he has — a power that he does 
 not get from an "order," or from antiquity, but
 
 140 OuK Own Chukch. 
 
 from the Clnircli that is, and from the work 
 that he does, and from the manhood under the 
 Bishop, and from the Lord himself, who, as she 
 believes, directs in the selection of Bishops. 
 She is a great enthusiast on the Episcopacy — is 
 Ethel Settique. 
 
 She has a young friend who is as much of a 
 Protestant Episcopalian as Ethel is an Episcopa- 
 lian of the — right sort. And they discuss mat- 
 ters, generally with great good nature. When 
 they do get warmed up and talk like — preachers, 
 which, seeing that they are only lay members of 
 the Church, they ought not to do, they soon get 
 reconciled and kiss each other and "make up," 
 and — begin again. They discuss "orders" and 
 ^'succession" and "taste" and, which is more 
 important, the "preaching" or the "praying," 
 and all those subjects that will come up when a 
 new-fashioned Protestant Episcopalian and an 
 old-fashioned Methodist Episcopalian get to- 
 gether. And of course "the liturgy" comes up, 
 and the distinction between "reading prayers" 
 and "praying." We are sorry not to be able to 
 put down in black and white all that they did
 
 Ethel. 141 
 
 say one afternoon when they had a "peaceful 
 quarrel," as Ethel called it, over the "liturgy." 
 They really had all the old arguments, pro and 
 con. It was a lively discussion. It was begun 
 by Ethel's friend, who indorsed the views of 
 
 Dr. , editor of the , on the liturgy. 
 
 She got the reading of the through her 
 
 intelligent Protestant E23iscopal rector, who 
 took it regularly "because it is so strong and 
 bright and frank." The editor in the editorial 
 referred to says: "The Discipline contemplates 
 a participation of the communicants with the 
 minister in the repetition of the Confession. It 
 should always be done. Here no objection to a 
 liturgy can be alleged. The effect is solemn 
 and impressive to a high degree. The writer 
 tried the method of reading it for several years, 
 the people being silent ; then requested them to 
 join in the Confession, and the latter was every 
 way to be preferred." "So you see," said 
 Ethel's friend, "that your people are gradually 
 coming around to a liturgy." It was at that 
 particular moment we should like to have had 
 Ethel's face painted by a real artist.
 
 142 OuE Own Chukch. 
 
 "Coming around to a liturgy indeed!" and 
 there were some lines of noble irony drawn in 
 tlie child's fine face. "Coming around to a 
 liturgy ! We have always had a liturgy. We 
 began with it very much as you Protestant 
 Episcopalians have it now, and soon grew out of 
 its bondage. We use it on occasions. We ac- 
 cept it as exceptional. We believe in the idea 
 of a form, but w^e believe more in freedom. 
 There is a certain educating value in classic 
 prayers, but they may shut the soul against the 
 free play of spiritual influence by their very 
 beauty, and they may foster a critical habit to 
 such a degree as to render one insensible to the 
 sweetness and power of a spontaneous prayer, 
 because its expression is not according to classic 
 standards. No, no, I know too much about the 
 dwarfing and binding power of 'taste' to justify 
 the use of an invariable form." Ethel grew 
 eloquent in her defense of the extemporaneous 
 order of her beloved Church. "But," said her 
 friend, "your Church is growing more and more 
 fond of forms of prayer." Ethel replied : "The 
 opposite is true. In England, where in some
 
 Ethel. 143 
 
 Weslejan chapels the old liturgy according to 
 Mr. Wesley's custom is still used, the people on 
 the whole dislike it, and many absent themselves 
 from the chapel until just before the sermon, in 
 order to avoid the liturgy. Methodists can 
 never be liturgists. There is not a minister in 
 the Church in America, as far as I know, who 
 advocates the use of a form of prayer except 
 on special occasions." "You do read Scripture 
 in concert," said her friend. Ethel replied, 
 *'To some extent. The participative service in 
 which Scripture is read responsively is in many 
 places used in public service and Sunday-school, 
 but nowhere to the exclusion or reduction of 
 the extemporaneous prayer. I believe our nnn- 
 isters and superintendents would to a man give 
 up even that if they saw any tendency to a set 
 liturgy. It is not in the genius of Methodism 
 to be liturgical, much less ritualistic. The edi- 
 tor's concession which you quoted is not in 
 favor of the liturgy, for I happen to know that 
 the editor is a loyal Methodist Episcopalian, and 
 does not believe in the use of a liturgy beyond 
 the present provisions of the Discipline. By
 
 144 Our Own Church. 
 
 that he stands. And so do I." And Ethel 
 smiled to think what she had almost compared 
 herself to by classing herself with so great a 
 
 man as Dr. . But with all her ''taste," and 
 
 love of order, and desire to increase an interest 
 on the part of young people and children in the 
 church service, she is heartily opposed to set 
 forms, liturgical tendencies, aud quartette choirs. 
 She wants the people to feel at home in all 
 Methodist Episcopal churches, to sing heartily, 
 to pray spontaneously, to read God's word aloud 
 if they want to, and even in using the Lord's 
 Prayer to speak it out each for himsQlf without 
 trying to keep with the minister or w^ith the 
 other people, knowing that when a great con- 
 gregation is thoroughly interested its individuals 
 will by an irresistible law of sympathy keep 
 together, and that without thinking about it. 
 Of course we do have Sunday-school concert 
 services, and employ Christmas-trees and flowers 
 and banners, which in a regular church service 
 we might condemn, just as a lecturer would tell 
 funny stories in an off-hand platform speech 
 which he would never think of introducing into
 
 Ethel. 145 
 
 the sermon. "I believe," said Ethel, ^'that if 
 our people saw the slightest tendency toward 
 formalism and ritualism in these things they 
 would give them all up, even the observance of 
 Christmas-day." Ethel is right. What Meth- 
 odism needs is spontaneity governed by common 
 sense, and by the ordinary measure of good taste 
 which common sense always has, and which it 
 always keeps in wise subjection. So thinks our 
 little French friend, Ethel Settique. And the 
 writer of these lines fully agrees with her. 
 10
 
 146 OuB Own Church. 
 
 THE STORY OF A REVIVAL. 
 
 " Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is hberty." 
 
 THERE were to be " special meetings " in the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church of . 
 
 One might be tempted to think that the reguhir 
 meetings of that church were enough to take up 
 the time and excite the interest of the people in 
 the congregation and community without insti- 
 tuting a series of ''special" meetings. The 
 church had two "classes" meeting at 9 o'clock 
 every Sunday morning; preaching at 10:30 
 A. M. ; Sunday-school at 2:30 P. M. ; young peo- 
 ple's prayer-meeting at 6:30, and preaching again 
 at 7:30 P. M. On Monday night there was an 
 " official meeting ; " Tuesday night, three " class- 
 meetings ; " Wednesday night, general prayer- 
 meeting ; Thursday night, two '' class-meetings ;" 
 Eriday night, two cottage prayer-meetings and 
 young people's prayer-meeting ; and on Saturday 
 night choir practice. One may be excused for 
 thinking that the " regular meetings are
 
 The Stoky of a Eevival. 147 
 
 enongli." So thought and so said Herbert S. 
 Topatome, a young fellow of good family in the 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church of , in the 
 
 District of the Annual Conference. 
 
 Herbert heard the minister announce the 
 "special" meetings one pleasant Sunday morn- 
 ing in May, and, being of a mathematical turn of 
 mind, Herbert at the dinner-table counted the 
 services of the week in their church. The re- 
 sult was as follows, beginning with the two 
 classes on Sunday morning and closing with the 
 choir-meeting on Saturday evening : Two, plus 
 one, plus one, plus one, plus one, equal six ser- 
 vices for Sabbath. For the week-days one, plus 
 three, plus one, plus two, plus three, plus one, 
 equal eleven. Six Sunday, plus eleven Aveek- 
 day services, equal seventeen church services a 
 week. Multij)ly seventeen by fifty-two and the 
 result is eight hundred and eighty-four religious 
 services in a year. " What is the use," asked 
 our young Methodist Episcopal mathematician, 
 "of special meetings?" Father Topatome 
 was pleased with his son's wisdom, and smiled 
 because he saw in it wit as well as wisdom, and
 
 148 OuK Own Church. 
 
 added, " If in the seventj-five families of our 
 cliurcli there were family prayer only once every 
 day it would make twenty-seven thousand and 
 tliree hundred prayers a year, in addition to the 
 regular eight hundred and eighty -four services of 
 the church ; making a total of twenty-eight thou- 
 sand one hundred and eighty-four 'regular' 
 services in one year." Then he smiled a self- 
 complacent smile at Herbert and said, " I don't 
 t^ce, my son, any use for special services." And 
 both Herbert aud his father took a swallow of 
 good, strong, after-dinner coffee and winked at 
 each other. It is so witty to be wise ! 
 
 Hattie, the oldest girl of the Topatome house- 
 hold, only thirteen years of age, was as bright 
 as Herbert, as good a mathematician, and a bet- 
 ter Methodist. She listened in the morning 
 with solemn attention to the sermon and with 
 gratitude to the minister's announcement of the 
 special services. At dinner she heard with a 
 wounded heart the heartless and frivolous criti- 
 cisms- and calculations of Herbert and her father. 
 She was silent for a few moments, and as the 
 worloly-minded pinr laughed at the "special
 
 The Story of a Revival. 149 
 
 meetings," '^and revivals," and *' evangelists," 
 she collected her thoughts, lifted her heart to 
 Heaven for a breath of help, and then asked 
 Herbert how many of the seventeen regular 
 services he had attended that week. By her 
 assistance Herbert counted — tioo. "And jou, 
 father ? " asked Hattie. After a bit of raillery 
 and evasion he, by her aid and yielding to her 
 pressure, said, " One — I was at church Sunday 
 morning." '^ Father," continued the ardent and 
 loyal girl, " if the seventy-five families of our 
 church had family prayer just as often as we did 
 last week, how many family prayer services 
 were there out of the possible five hundred and 
 twenty -five? And if last week's family devo- 
 tions in our house be the standard in our church 
 for the year, how many family prayers would 
 there be this year out of the estimated twenty- 
 seven thousand three hundred ? " Now, last 
 week there was no family prayer in the TojDa- 
 tome house. And although Mr. Topatome's 
 father did have family prayer' regularly, and al- 
 though Topatome himself believed in it and did 
 once in a while — more rarely than he knew —
 
 150 Cue Own Church. 
 
 have Sunday morning family worship, the whole 
 company at the table, when crowded by Hattie 
 to tell when they had kneeled in prayer at the 
 family altar, were compelled to acknowledge 
 that it had been weeks and months since tlie 
 family Bible had been brought out and used in a 
 devotional service of any kind. Herbert wanted 
 to " talk about something else," and his father 
 thought that " if the church would attend to its 
 regular duties we should not need special ser- 
 vices," and sug:gested that he "must take a 
 Sunday afternoon nap." But Hattie was not to 
 be silenced, and as she inherited no small meas- 
 ure of her father's force she insisted upon say- 
 ing her say. And this is substantially what she 
 said : 
 
 " The church has regular services. Herbert 
 and you say that in one week there are seven- 
 teen of them, or eight hundred and eiglitj'-four 
 a year. In the seventy-five homes of our church 
 there may be twenty-seven thousand three hun- 
 dred family prayers a year, making a grand 
 total of twenty-eight thousand one hundred and 
 eighty-four. That sounds large, and to say it,
 
 The Story of a Kevival. 151 
 
 seems wise, and from the way Herbert smiles 
 over it I think he considers it wondrous 
 witty ; but I consider it both weak and wicked. 
 Forgive me, father, but you tell me to be ^ a 
 true and simple-hearted girl,' and dear old grand- 
 father, who always had family prayer, told me 
 before he died that 'piety was the best orna- 
 ment a woman could w^ear,' and dear dead 
 mother told me to ' stand true to the Church 
 and to the Lord Jesus, who is its Head and Life.' 
 Therefore you must hear me. Herbert, accord- 
 ing to your own arithmetic, attends two and 
 you one out of the possible seventeen services 
 a week. And as to family prayer, you made a 
 sad mistake in referring to it, for if other mem- 
 bers are like the Topatomes there is next to no 
 family prayer in the church. See where your 
 
 arithmetic puts you : In the church 
 
 twenty-eight thousand one hundred and eighty- 
 four possible regular services a year. S. Topa- 
 tome attends fifty-two of them. The difference 
 between fifty-two and twenty-eight thousand 
 one hundred and eighty-four is just twenty- 
 eight thousand one hundred and thirty-two.''
 
 152 OiTR Own Chuech. 
 
 Then Aunt Sarah, who is very amiable, and 
 as wise as she is amiable, said, " We hold 
 'special' meetings to awaken the church to the 
 value of the ^regular ' meetings, and to promote 
 regular religious service in the church and the 
 family. Until the ^regular' services are appre- 
 ciated and observed tlie ' special ' will be neces- 
 sary. I think the mathematical arguments of 
 the dinner-table are as twenty-eight thousand one 
 hundred and eighty-four to fifty-two, or as five 
 hundred and forty-one to one in favor of special 
 meetings." And here the company broke up. 
 But this was not the end. 
 
 The special meetings in church began 
 
 according to the pastor's announcement. An 
 evangelist who had both taste and common 
 sense to balance an earnest heart came to the 
 pastor's assistance. There were special services 
 held every day. A morning Bible reading and 
 prayer-meeting, an afternoon meeting for chil- 
 dren and youth, and an evening sermon, follow- 
 ed by altar service or inquiry meeting. For six
 
 The Story of a Kevival. 153 
 
 weeks — well into the suiiiiiier — this series con- 
 tinued. Three meetings were not held every 
 day, but there were for the six weeks many 
 more meetings than usual. There was little ob- 
 jectionable demonstration and no excessive ex- 
 citement. Sixty persons, some old, some young, 
 became " probationers ; " a large number of back- 
 sliders were reclaimed, and the Church was 
 quickened. Our interest centers not in the 
 church, but in the home of Herbert and Hattie 
 and their father. 
 
 Herbert's scorn grew apace with the increase 
 of popular interest in tlie meetings. When the 
 general character of the services came under 
 discussion in the stores, street-cars and parlors 
 of the place, Herbert took sides in a most lordly 
 manner against tlie " fanaticism of the evangel- 
 ists," and reported at table in an irritating w^ay 
 wdiat was said by Mr. Soandso and Mrs. Thisor- 
 that, putting into their unfavorable remarks ail 
 the contempt that could find escape under the 
 shadow of his callow mustache. At first he 
 grieved and then almost enraged his sister, who 
 had a very human heart and a high sense of
 
 154 Our Own Church. 
 
 justice, along with simplicity of faith and a tnie 
 reverence for holy things. She held her peace, 
 however, and allowed Herbert to talk and sneer 
 and lay upfnel for flame of repentance later on. 
 He said so much and recurred to the subject so 
 frequently that his father one day remarked, " I 
 shall expect to see you a ranting saint someday, 
 my son. You fight like Saul of Tarsus." 
 
 " What I hate is the excitement," remarked 
 Herbert, one morning at breakfast. 
 
 " What excitement ? " asked Hattie. 
 
 " That revival excitement. I was in a while 
 last evening. I think it outrageous to make 
 such a row over religion." 
 
 Hattie answered in her quiet waj^ " I was 
 there last night, but discovered no excessive 
 demonstration. 1 thought the meeting very 
 quiet indeed." 
 
 "I am sure," answered Herbert, "that the 
 preacher was very much warmed up. And he 
 said some extravagant things." 
 
 " JS'one of which I can recall," replied his sis- 
 ter. " The sermon was clear, convincing, prac- 
 tical and strong."
 
 The Stoky of a Kevival. 155 
 
 Aunt Sarah ventured in her mild way to ask 
 Herbert if he " had really found as much excite- 
 ment as he expected ; " and his father, who was 
 not a little impressed by the sermon of last even- 
 ins^ and much hurt at Herbert's unreasonable- 
 ness, added, "And would you not have liked it 
 a little better if there had been more noise and 
 demonstration? AYould you not have been 
 gratified by some absurd occurrence which you 
 might have reported here this morning? I 
 frankly confess," continued his father, "there 
 was nothing to which I could possibly take ex- 
 ception last night. There was no noise. There 
 w^as no interruption at any moment of any 
 speaker or leader in prayer. My son, are you a 
 slave to prejudice?" Herbert being in the 
 minority, even his father having deserted him, 
 and being compelled to confess to himself (never 
 so quietly) that he was a little prejudiced, 
 dropped the subject for the time, and the family 
 was scattered for the work of the day. 
 
 Herbert S. Topatome was ill at ease. Under- 
 neath his gay exterior and dashing manner 
 Herbert had a conscience. He knew the " let-
 
 156 OuB Own CnriiCH. 
 
 ter" of the Holy Scriptures, and had caught 
 glimpses of its spiritual meanings. His mother 
 had placed her dying hand on his head and 
 spoken a few very solemn words to him, which 
 had been well-nigh forgotten in the whirl of 
 society and the imperious demands of business. 
 His father's indifference had deadened his relig- 
 ious^ sensibilities. He believed theoretically in 
 religion, but in rehgion as an actual factor in 
 every-day life he had no interest. It was good 
 for Sundays, good for church services, good for 
 sick-rooms, good for women, and good for fu- 
 nerals, but he preferred religion in books and ser- 
 mons and sacraments, and did not want it to in- 
 terfere with his fun, occupy his time, head him 
 off from social indulgencies of every kind, or in 
 any way come in between Herbert and Herbert's 
 self -gratification. He sometimes regretted that 
 his father was a Methodist. " I wish our family 
 had been something else," he said. ^' I wish we 
 were Episcopalians. They don't care what 
 young people do. But Methodists are so fear- 
 fully strict and exacting." 
 
 Then came to him the picture of his dying
 
 The Story of a Kevival. loT 
 
 mother ; her white face and wonderful smile ; 
 the tones of her voice so remarkably sweet and 
 clear; the words of pleading she uttered, and 
 then the last glance from the closing eyes, a 
 sudden smile, a breath, a silence — O, how long 
 that silence ! Herbert remembered that she had 
 been a Methodist, liberal, high-minded, patient, 
 refined, self-sacrificing, fond of her own Church, 
 and in fullest sympathy with its spirit and regu- 
 lations. Thus his mother held him to the Church 
 of her youth and age. Mothers do have tliis 
 power of control. It does not end when they fall 
 asleep and go into their graves. Indeed, motlier 
 is sometimes most eloquent and her infiueuce 
 most effective after her lips are sealed in death. 
 It is a great thing to be a true mother. It 
 is a great thing for the Church where mothers 
 are loyal to it. These facts and reflections will 
 prepare us to appreciate the struggles in Her- 
 bert's soul as he shut the door of his home that 
 morning and hurried down town, to forget, in the 
 excitement of buisness, himself and his "morbid 
 feelings," and the irritating conviction of the 
 breakfast-table.
 
 158 OuK Own Church. 
 
 Mr. Brand, the teller in Mr. Topatome's bank, 
 who had always sympathized with Herbert's dis- 
 like for " obtrusive, demonstrative, and experi- 
 mental religion," had himself been at the meet- 
 ing the night before, and had '* risen for prayers" 
 and had stayed to the " after-meeting." He had 
 been powerfully impressed by the arguments 
 and appeals of the evangelists, and had taken a 
 step which he had thought he could never under 
 an}?^ circumstances take. He had yielded to the 
 inner voice and openly proclaimed his unrest of 
 soul, and had professed a desire to come out be- 
 fore the world as a seeker of the Christ-like 
 spiiit. By a very rapid movement of thought 
 and will, under the divine guidance, he had 
 come out of darkness into light. His convic- 
 tions were sharp, his desire genuine, his resolve 
 prompt and positive, his faith simple ; and be- 
 fore ten o'clock that evening Brand, the captious 
 and worldly, full of doubt and fond of caviling, 
 had been brought into the clear light of a relig- 
 ious experience. He said to the minister after 
 the meeting : " It is all wonderful to me. I 
 doubted, but now I believe ; I scoSed, but now
 
 The Story of a Eevival. 159 
 
 I praise; I knew in a general way the truths of 
 the Gospel, but they never took hold of me as 
 they have to-night, and now I shall live for 
 higher objects. I am through with doubt and 
 self-gratification. I am through with tlie indul- 
 gences which tlie Church and the world both 
 call worldly, and I am determined, by God's 
 help, to live for something worthy of the immor- 
 tal soul.'^ These were words of honesty and 
 of sharp conviction. 
 
 Brand meant what he said, and when Her- 
 bert S. Topatome came into the bank the morn- 
 ing after, he was surprised at the greeting given 
 him by the teller. 
 
 " Are you crazy. Brand ? " he asked. 
 
 " Wild," said Brand. " I believe I could go 
 shouting through these streets this morning." 
 And the smile on his face quickly told Herbert 
 that his old companion had found " peace." 
 Somehow the smile reminded Herbert of his 
 mothers smile when she lay with the gates of 
 heaven opening above her. 
 
 To parry the stroke which Brand's new 
 movement had aimed at Herbert the young
 
 160 Our Own Church. 
 
 fellow asked, '' Are you beside j^onrself, 
 Brand ? " He did not wait for an answer. In 
 his inmost soul lie coveted the peace that 
 Brand liad found ; but his nature was full of 
 resistance and pride, and in that soil " objections 
 do most rankly grow." 
 
 Mr. Brand had been "converted." He had 
 " turned over a new leaf." He had " come to 
 himself" and returned to his heavenly Father's 
 presence and favor. He had begun "a new 
 life." He was " going to be a Christian and a 
 Methodist." These are some of the expres- 
 sions on the tongues of saint and sinner in the 
 community as the news of Brand's surrender to 
 God was reported. It was a remarkable change 
 in a good sort of a man, who was well-known 
 in the village, and it was accepted as proof that 
 the ''work" was genuine and the evangelist 
 sent of God. The logic may not have been 
 flawless, but the :^icts were impressive, and not 
 a few skeptics were struck dumb. 
 
 Hattie was happy enough when the news 
 reached her. It was a great triumph of grace. 
 It was a vindication of the "revival" efforts
 
 The Story of a Revival. 161 
 
 which the Church she loved had put forth. It 
 was a new agency likely to help her in her 
 prayers and labors for Herbert. It turned his 
 arguments into ashes. For a time it took all 
 the scorn out of his lips and voice. How much 
 one soul can do ! Brand was a thoughtful aud 
 well-read man. His very silence on religious 
 subjects had fortified Herbert's growing skepti- 
 cism. His common sense justified the young 
 fellow's contempt for excitement. Herbert 
 would reason with himself, "Here's Brand. 
 Nothing of the kind moves him. He is a 
 scholar, and a level-headed fellow, and has force 
 of character. If there were any thing in relig- 
 ion he would approve it. As it is, he ignores 
 it, and sometimes laughs at it." But now 
 Brand had deserted him ; had gone over to the 
 ranters ; had taken sides with preacher, evangel- 
 ist and the Church; had himself gone into 
 talking religion, and praying, and setting good 
 examples. The change was a salutary one for 
 Herbert. No wonder that Hattie was happy 
 over it ! 
 
 "It is a mere impulse," said Herbert. 
 11
 
 162 OuK Own Chukch. 
 
 "Brand wont hold out. A few days from now 
 he will be regretting it. So it will be with the 
 majority of the converts." So spoke Sir 
 Herbert to " Saint Ilattie," as he called her. 
 "Eegret what?" asked the saint. "Having 
 made a fool of himself in this public way," 
 answered the sage. 
 
 "Now, Herbert, let us look at that for a 
 minute," she said ; " let us see how iTe has made 
 a fool of himself. AVhat has Brand done ? 
 He has acknowledged frankly in a public way 
 and heartily the following facts : 
 
 1. That there is a God, above all, author of 
 all, who has a right to the love and obedience 
 of his creatures. 
 
 2. That there is a life beyond the grave, 
 where we shall continue to know and love, and 
 where character will determine what we do 
 and enjoy. 
 
 3. That the true life on earth is the life that 
 is wisest, most loyal to duty, most full of faith 
 in God and practical love for men. 
 
 4. That the Bible is God's revelation of 
 himself, of his will, of human duty and privilege.
 
 The Story of a Revival. 163 
 
 5. That according to its teachings every man 
 ought to repent of his sins, serve God, try to 
 live according to the standards of the Book, 
 and make his earthly life a sphere of prepara- 
 tion for eternal life. JSTow where is tlie folly 
 of faith in these Rve propositions? I cannot 
 see it. Can you?" Herbert did not confess it 
 openly, but really he could not see the folly he 
 had charged upon his friend. 
 
 And as for the public demonstrations to which 
 Herbert took exceptions, Hattie reminded him 
 how like the talk of some of the old Pharisees in 
 the temple his talk was, and she drew a picture 
 of Herbert trying in the days of Christ to stoj) 
 the hosannas of the people when Christ entered 
 the city in triumph. She then told him to apply 
 his rule on the base-ball ground, and at lawn 
 tennis, and in politics. In this way tlie dear 
 child spoke more eloquently and effectively than 
 she herself knew, and Herbert went down town 
 witli an angered and somewhat hardened heart. 
 
 New victories at the evening meetings 
 increased the power of the revival movement, 
 and correspondingly increased the burden oii
 
 164 Our Own Church. 
 
 poor Herbert's soul. Brand was more cheerful 
 than ever, and withal more profoundly ear- 
 nest. The man was a changed man. Every 
 body saw it. To no one was it more clear than 
 to Herbert, who tried in every possible way to 
 catch the new convert in some inconsistency or 
 to silence him by some argument. Brand, under 
 the sweet influence of unselfish love, was not 
 easily betrayed into any word or act which was 
 contrary to love ; and as for argument. Brand 
 was on the right side, and poor Herbert's weak 
 cavils could not stand against the words of 
 truth and soberness. 
 
 " It may be," said Brand, " that some of us 
 will go back. Poor human nature does often 
 recede from advanced and true positions. It 
 does this in every thing else, why is it not pos- 
 sible in relio-ion ? This is no ar2:ument asrainst 
 the divinity of religion. It shows the weak- 
 ness of human nature, and proves that the free- 
 dom and responsibility of man are recognized 
 in the Bible. Suppose I do go back. I have 
 had a taste of the better life, and what I am 
 for a short time I should be — and may be — all
 
 The Stoky of a Revival. 165 
 
 tlie time. The brief experience makes it the 
 more likely that I shall return to it. Is it not 
 better that I should have the brief experience ? 
 Is it not better for a man to be sober for six 
 weeks than never sober ? Will not the speci- 
 men of sober life be an incentive to a return to 
 sobriety later on ? Ah, my young Herbert, 
 you are walking in a dangerous path." 
 
 These burning words did not subdue the 
 heart of Herbert. We wish we could report 
 his turning unto the Lord. The meetings 
 closed. Brand went one way and Herbert 
 another. So is it in life. So shall it be in 
 eternity. We do not despair of Herbert. But 
 some souls need severe discipline before they 
 surrender. It may be so with him. Hattie 
 must pray on and Brand live on and ministers 
 preach on ; and mother's memory must still come 
 into the poor wanderer's dreams. And some day 
 we have hope that he will relent and repent and 
 return. But it is for us to do our work and 
 put our faith in God, and awaken men to duty. 
 God has his plans. We have our appointments. 
 Let us trust, and serve, and wait.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 rPHE daim of the Ritualists is, that there are three distinct 
 -^ orders in the ministry, and tliat the highest, that of bishops, 
 is in direct succession from the apostles. Methodist Episco- 
 palians claim that there is no such *' apostolic succession," ex- 
 cept in doctrine, spirit, and life; that '•bishops" and "elders" 
 (presbyters) were, in the New Testament, of the same order: 
 that elders (presbyters) have a right to set apart of their own 
 to the office of bishop ; and that when John Wesley, a duly or- 
 dained elder (presbyter) of the Church of England, assisted 
 by otiier Church of England elders, set apart Thomas Coke as 
 superintendent {episcopos, bishop,) he exercised a right con- 
 ferred upon him when he was ordained presbyter by John 
 Potter, Bishop of Oxford ; a riglit for which precedents abound 
 in Church history. One might fill wliole pages with testimony 
 on these points. I give here a few extracts : 
 
 Irenceus declares that the succession, and together with it 
 the episcopate also, had, down to this day (latter pare of 
 second century), descended through a series of presbyters, not 
 of bishops. According to the testimony of this father — the 
 best witness concerning the point in question — the powers 
 now existing in the ministry of the Church are merely presby- 
 terian, not episcopal. 
 
 Jerome (in his note on Titus, chapter first) says : " Presbyters 
 and bishops were formerly the same. . . . Let the bishops know 
 that they are above presbyters rather by custom than by the
 
 Appendix. 167 
 
 divine appointment, and that the Church ought to be ruled in 
 common." 
 
 Augustine says: "Tlie office of a bishop is above the office of 
 a priest (not by the authority of Scripture), but after tlie 
 names of honor which the custom of the Church hath now- 
 obtained." 
 
 The celebrated Laud says : " I do not find any one of the 
 ancient fathers that makes local, personal, visible, and con- 
 tinued succession a necessary sign or mark of the Church in 
 any one place. . . . Most evident it is that the succession 
 which the fathers meant is not tied to place or person, but it is 
 tied to verity of doctrine.'''' 
 
 Bishop StilUngfleet says : " The succession so much pleaded 
 by the writers of the primitive Church was not a succession of 
 persons in apostolic power, httt a succession in o.postolic doctrine. 
 We see evidently that it is the doctrine which they speak of 
 as to succession, and persons no further than as they are con- 
 veyors of that doctrine." 
 
 Bishop Babbington says: " They are the true successors of the 
 apostles that succeed in virtue, holiness, truth, etc., not that 
 sit on the same stool. Faith cometh by hearing, saith St. 
 Paul (not by succession), and hearing cotneth (not by legacy 
 or inheritance from bishop to bishop) but by the word of 
 God." 
 
 John Wesley wrote, February 25, 1785: "Last autumn Dr. 
 Coke sailed from Eagland, and is now visiting the flock in the 
 middle provinces of America, settling them on the New Testament 
 plan, to which they all willingly and joyfully conform, being 
 all united as by one spirit so in one body." 
 
 In justification of his action in tlKis setting apart Dr. Coke, 
 John "Wesley says: "I firmly believe I am a scriptural episcopos 
 as much as any man in England or Europe, for the uninter-
 
 168 Our Own Church. 
 
 rupted succession I know to be a fable, which no man ever 
 did or can prove." 
 
 On January 20, 1746, he writes in his Journal: " I set out for 
 Bristol. On the road I read over Lord King's account of the 
 primitive Churcli. In spite of the vehement prejudice of my 
 education, I was ready to believe that this was a fair and im- 
 partial draft; but if so, it would follow that bishops and pres- 
 byters are (essentially) of one order. 
 
 Dr. Edgeworih, of the Church of England, says : " The priests 
 (elders) in the primitive Church made bishops, and even like 
 as soldiers should choose one among themselves to be their 
 captain, so did priests (elders) choose one of themselves to be 
 their bishop for consideration of his learning, gravity, and good 
 living." 
 
 EutycMus, a patriarch or bishop in Egypt, says: "The 
 twelve presbyters constituted by Mark upon the vacancy of 
 the see chose out of their number one to be head over the rest, 
 and the eleven laid their hands on him, and blest him, and 
 made him patriarch." 
 
 Dr. Holland, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, says: 
 " To affirm the office of bishop to be different from that of 
 presbyter, and superior to, it is most false — contrary to Script- 
 ure and the fathers, to the doctrines of the Church of England 
 and the very schoolmen themselves." 
 
 Dr. Chapin, an authority in the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
 declares that " the records of ordinations in the English Cliurch 
 from December 15, 1661, to 1705, 'are either lost or destroyed.'" 
 Thus making "an utter blank in the records of ordination for 
 forty-four years." And an able writer in America justly adds, 
 after giving a full acc©unt of the ordinations of Seabury 
 and Claggett, " It is perfectly manifest that there is not a 
 minister to-day in the Protestant Episcopal Church who
 
 Appendix. 169 
 
 has the ordination which the canon law of the Church 
 demands," 
 
 Bishop Stillingfleet claims that the records of British succes- 
 sion are destroyed. While Dr. Wharton and Dr. Barroiu ac- 
 knowledge the Eoman succession to be untenable. Says 
 Bishop Stillingfleet: "At Alexandria, where the succession 
 runs clearest, the origin of the power is imputed to the 
 choice of presbyters and to no divine institution." 
 
 Bishop Gi'ove says: "The doctrine of uninterrupted succes- 
 sion is false." And Dean Cornier " expresses his doubts as to 
 the possibility of tracing up the succession with any certainty." 
 
 A Protestant Episcopal clergyman. Dr. Richard Newton, 
 writes concerning the "apostoUc" claim of his own Church as 
 it unchurches other communions: "The man who can main- 
 tain it might as well stand forth at noon to-day and declare 
 that there is no sun in the firmament, or walk out under night's 
 sparkling canopy and deny that there are any stars in the sky. 
 And when this position is affirmed by members of one of the 
 smallest Protestant bodies in the land, there is a degree of 
 arrogant assumption about it that admits of no defense. Nay, 
 more, it seems to be a position that is justly chargeable in the 
 sight of God with grievous sin. It approaches very near to 
 the position which the Pharisees occupied in our Lord's day, 
 when he charged upon them the sin against the Holy 
 Ghost." 
 
 Archbishop Usher, "a divine who had read all the fathers, 
 whom the University of Oxford in convocation styled 'the 
 most skilled in primitive antiquity, the unanswerable defender 
 of the orthodox religion,' when King Charles I. asked him 
 at the Isle of "Wight Vv^herever ho found in antiquity that 
 presbyters alone ordained any, replied, ' I can show your 
 majesty more, even where presbyters alone successively or-
 
 170 Our Own Chukch. 
 
 dained bishops,' and instanced in Hierome's words (Epistle ad 
 Evagrium) of the presbyters of Alexandria choosing and making 
 their own bishops from the dnj-s of Mark till Heraclius and 
 Dionysius." The s,amQ, Ardibiahop Usher s\?>o saj^s: "A pres- 
 byter hath the same order in specie with the bishop: ergo, 
 the bishop hath equal intrinsic power to give orders, and is 
 equal to him in the power of order." 
 
 Lingard, one of the best Englisli historians, says: "Nothing 
 certain is known concerning the first promulgation of the Gos- 
 pel in Roman Britain. The apostolic establishment by St. Paul 
 has not the slightest historical ground. According to their 
 own authorities, the English bishops and archbishops have the 
 following record: 'From A.D. 596 to 1533 (the date of Cran- 
 mer's consecration) fourteen archbishops of Canterbury were 
 consecrated immediately by the popes, and many of these 
 popes the bloodiest and most cruel monsters that ever cursed 
 the world. From Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, to Cranmer, there were sixty-seven incumbents of that see. 
 As noticed above, fourteen of these were consecrated immedi- 
 ately by the popes, three by cardinals of the Romish Church, 
 and all the rest by men wlio had themselves received popish 
 ordination. Thus the very line of bishops through whom this 
 succession must be traced were themselves ordained by the 
 ecclesiastical body which the Church of England in her homi- 
 lies designates 'a foul, filthy, old,' etc. . . . There was not an 
 ordained man in the English Church from Augustine to Cran- 
 mer — for nine hundred and thirty-seven years — who did not 
 receive his ordination direct from the papacy. Thomas Cran- 
 mer, father of the Liturgy and Articles of Religion of the 
 Church of England, and from whom every preacher in the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church has his ordination, was himself 
 consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury by the authority of the
 
 Appendix. 171 
 
 popes, and after the most submissive and cordial recognition 
 of the pope's supremacy."' 
 
 A trustworthy authority says: "Presbyters consecrated pa- 
 triarchs in the Church of Alexandria for two centuries after 
 the apostles. On this ground, when English bishops refused 
 to ordain liis preachers, John Wesle}", in conjunction with two 
 other English episcopally ordained clergymen, consecrated Dr. 
 Coke to establish the Methodist Church in this land, and to 
 consecrate and ordain bishops and presbyters. Tlie custom of 
 the Church of Alexandria has ample testimony. The Meth- 
 odist communion can as rightfully claim an apostolic ministry 
 as the Protestant; Episcopal Church, unless we consent to 
 throw the Church of Alexandria overboard, the most learned, 
 eflScient, and influential of all the primitive Churches. The let- 
 ters of Charles Wesley prove conclusively that his brother in- 
 tended to confer episcopal authority in its usual acceptation." 
 
 The same scholarly author avers that in the primitive patri- 
 archal Church of Alexandria down to the time of the Council 
 of Nice, the presbyters alone laid hands in the ordination of 
 bishops, as Willet, Usher, Stillingfleet, Goode, Litton, Riddle, 
 Stanley, Harrison, Lightfoot, Jacob, Mossman, and Garrat 
 among standard Episcopal writers charge; and among ancient 
 authors Jerome, Hilary, Eutychius, Severus, Elmacinus, Ama- 
 larius, and Morinus testify. 
 
 Lord Macaulay says : "Even if it were possible, which it assur- 
 edly is not, to prove that the Church had the apostolic orders 
 in the third century, it would be impossible to prove that those 
 orders were not in the twelfth century so far lost that no 
 ecclesiastic could be certain of the legitimate descent of his 
 own spiritual character. And if this were so, no subsequent 
 precautions could repair the evil. . . . TTe see no satisfactory 
 proof of the fact that the Church of England possesses the
 
 172 OuK Own Church. 
 
 apostolic succession. . . . What evidence, then, have we for the 
 fact of the apostolical succession? And here we may easily 
 defend the truth against Oxford with the same arguments 
 with which, in the old times, the truth was defended by Ox- 
 ford against Rome." 
 
 On the impossibility of tracing this succession Lord Macau- 
 lay speaks as follows: "The transmission of orders from the 
 apostles to an Enghsh clergyman of the present day must have 
 been through a great number of intermediate persons. Now 
 it is probable that no clergyman of the Cliurch of England can 
 trace up his spiritual genealogy from bishop to bishop, even 
 so far back as the time of the Reformation, There remain fif- 
 teen or sixteen hundred years during which the history of the 
 transmission is buried in utter darkness. And whether he be 
 a priest by succession from the apostles depends on the ques- 
 tion whether, during that long period, some thousands of 
 events took place, any one of which may, without any great 
 improbability, be supposed not to have taken place. We have 
 not a little of evidence to any one of these events. We do not 
 even know the names of the countries of tlie men to whom it 
 is taken for granted these events happened. Whether a cler- 
 gyman of the Church of England is really a successor of the 
 apostles depends on an immense number of contingencies such 
 as these : Wliether under King Ethelwolf a stupid priest might 
 not, while baptizing several scores of Danish prisoners who 
 had just made their option between the font and the gallows, 
 inadvertently omit to perform the rite on one of these grace- 
 less proselytes? Whether in the seventh century an impostor, 
 who had never received consecration, might not pass himself 
 off for a bishop on some rude tribe of Scots ? Whether a lad 
 of twelve did really, by a ceremony huddled over when he was 
 too drunk to know what he was about, confer the episcopal
 
 Appendix. 1T3 
 
 ofiSce on a lad of t,en ? It is as impossible for a minister of our 
 day 10 prove that lie is in direct succession, as to prove that 
 he has lineally descended from Ahab and Jezebel. And if it 
 could be made out, in the language of Hooker, ' there may be 
 just and sufficient reasons to allow ordination to be made with- 
 out a bishop.' " 
 
 Dr. G. A. Jacdb^ of the Church of England, says: ""What 
 forms an absolutely conclusive refutation of this dogma is the fol- 
 lowing consideration: The succession of the Jewish priests 
 was distinctly laid down by Divine authority from the begin- 
 ning; and reiterated commands, enforced by the severest judg- 
 ments, emphatically declared that no one who was not of the 
 seed of Aaron might officiate at the altar of God. Notliing 
 but a Divine command expressly given could ever make such 
 a regulation imperatively exclusive. Nothing but a direct and 
 positive ordinance of the New Testament could justify the as- 
 sertion of such a doctriue now. But in the Ch-isttan dispensa- 
 tion no such command was ever given ; nor is there in the New 
 Testament the slightest intimation, much less an authoritative an- 
 nouncement, that such an apostolic succession is the only source of 
 lawful ministerial authority. The subject, in fact, is not once 
 mentioned or alluded to in the Christian Scriptures ; nor are the 
 apostles ever shown to have themselves received, or to have given to 
 others, any such power as this dogma asserts to have been trans- 
 mitted.^^
 
 INDEX 
 
 Apostolic succession, 8, 20, 167-173. 
 
 Church, Holy Catholic, 5-8, 12. 
 
 Church, Protestant Episcopal, 10, 
 
 Church, Roman Catholic, 6, 7, 
 
 Class-meetings, 49-64. 
 
 Culture, 116-127. 
 
 Itinerancy, 65-76. 
 
 Liturgy, 140-145. 
 
 Methodism, Antiquity of, 13-20; Unworldly, 21-32; 
 
 Breadth of, 33-48; Earnest, 77-88; loyalty to 
 
 Church, 104-115. 
 Oxford League, 125-127. 
 Probation, 5. 
 
 Revivals, 134, 135, 146-165. 
 Sacrament, 89-103. 
 Taste, 128-145.
 
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