Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1903 — METHODISM'S DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

METHODISM'S DAY

The John Wesley Bi-Centen-nial Celebration In Inm dianapolis. EVENT Senator Albert J. Beveridge Oelivere a Notable Address on Behalf n; of the Laity. ■: . . , —— —- pam n|iiji “The World's Debt to Methodism" > Was His Theme—An Eloquent yf'v Presentation. One of the greatest events in the history of Indiana Methodism was the celebration of the Wesley 81-Centen ntal, at the Denison hotel. In Indianapolis, Saturday night. Besides the Methodists of Indianapolis, who alone numbered into the hundreds, there were present prominent Methodists

from different parts of the state. A program of addresses of unusual excellence had been arranged. Particularly notable was the address of Senator Albert J. Beveridge, who Is a member Of the Meridian Street Methodist church of Indianapolis. The senator's subject was. “The World s Debt to Methodism. He said: “Among the items of the world’s debt to Methodism is that charity which “vaunteth not Itself, Is not puffed up” and cheerfully concedes to all other Christian churches full Credit for equally devoted work for Christ. In speaking to the toast you assign me, 1 voice no vainglory of sect or creed; for Methodism knows no ego tlsm of religious cult, no narrowness of spiritual clan. Methodism is AS broad as charity, as tolerant as the Master’s love. If this Is not true the world owes us no debt, but we owe the world an apology for our exist ence.

“We come before mankind, then, merely as one of the workers in the vineyard and not as the sole and only laborer In the regeneration of the world. We look upon our work with pride, hut with the pride of Christians who will rejoice If any sister church makes better showing. For, ‘ln honor preferring one another’ is the chivalry of our re ligion, the beatitude of our belief. "This tolerance of others, this grace and poetry of our faith Is a part of the world’s indebtedness to Methodism. For Methodism came In the hour of mingled religious bigotry and spiritual stupiflcation. Wesley was charged with being a Jesuit on the one hand, and, on the other hand, with design ing the revival of Puritan fanaticism. Rowland Hill declared that he could not tell from Wesley’s sermons whether he was a Jew, a Paptlst, a pagan or a Turk’—and this because of the breadth of his view In an age of cofflnlike narrowness. For against the bigotry of non-essentials Methodism opposed simple faith In the Savior; against the doctrines of unavoidable damnation Methodism asserted free salvation to all who ask it. It was Charles Wesley who wrote ’The Hymn of Universal Redemption.’ And Methodism Insisted that faith should bear the fruit of righteous deed*. "When Methodism came, England was spiritually debased, religiously sodden. Catholicism was suppressed. Puritanism sleeping. tb« Church of England in a drunken coma. England was In the dark ages of morals and religion. And England was the heart of the modern world. At this hour came Methodism and revived the souls of men. And Methodism's fervor was no fitful fire, extinguished In the hour of Its blazing. It was n steady and Increasing light And so It Is that tbs evangelization of Protsstant peoples Is the world's first debt to our church. That vast revival which Methodism worked In the masses, spread In every English cathedral, to every Protestant house of worship; and. gathering force and Increase with the years. It has rolled on like the stone cut by hand* nnaeen from the mountain side, till the Twentieth century Is filled with the coming glory of man's uni vernal I-ord. "Equilibrium of enthusiasm and form Is the condition of conservative progress. And progress that la not conservative Is merely impulse. Kn Sustain creates; form preserves. etbodlsm was the realisation of this accessary balance. Their order line area the origin of their name; their ter

vor quickened a falling faith. Zeal for human rescue, systematised for practical ends, ia a debt the world owes ta Methodism—though thi 1 debt is forgotten in the universal adoption long ago of the spirit of Wesley’s method by every Protestant creed. Let no man undervalue authority, order and form. Without It liberty Is mere caprice. religion spasmodic and fruitless emotion. Even ocean waves are rythmic. Diffused electricity lights no lamp, drives no wheels, cures no Ills. Early Methodism insisted that it was of the Church of England, only vitalized and made potential by the Spirit's v Isi tat lon —so great was M ethod ism's appreciation of custom, law and form. This love of law, this reverence for government, made loyalty a secular principle of Methodism. The storms of wrath against ancient wrongs which the French Revolution loosed, seemed likely to overthrow all human institutions, good and bad. God was derhroned in France and a spurious Reason crowned. Hurricanes of chaos swept put of this center of chaos to other lands and calmer peoples. Had they devastated, also, the Anglo-Saxon World, no mind can measure the effect on civilization and the destiny of man. History tells us that Methodism stilled this tempest among English-Speaking peoples. Burke fulmlnated—but the masses never knew. Wordsworth, Coleridge, bouthey sang—but the millions heard them not. But in streets and lane. In shop and field and mine, Methodism spoke and the people heeded. And so it is that the myriads of the tongue of Shakespeare remained and the hosts of law-regu-lated liberty, sane, calm, believing—their history defaced by no excess, the flags of their nations unstained by frenzy-shed blood. Is that no benefaction to mankind? If It Is, profane history, coldly written, says that mankind’s debt for that is due to Methodism." * * • • * Quoting President Lincoln’s 1864 letter to the Methodist General Conference wherein the president said: "It is no fault in others that the Methodist church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospitals and more to Heaven than any. God bless the Methodist Church! Blesj all the-churches! and blessed be God, who 4p this tfial giveth us the churches,” Senator Beveridge continued: “Morb’scriaiera to the field, more nurses to the hospitals—from the first that was Methodism’s wAy. It reached the people. Denied In the cathedrals, It sought the fields. Repelled from the sanctuary, it set up the altar among the grime of factory and mine. It knew neither wealth nor poverty and cared for neither as such —it knew and cared only for the hearts and souls of men.

“Slavery has vanished from the civilized world; the Methodist church was the first formally to declare against It —and Lincoln tells us that what Methodist preachers taught and Methodist mothers prayed for, Methodist sons died for. Methodism brought practical philanthropy into religion. SuccoFTor the suffering was, from the first, a part of Methodism’s mission. All this is universal now and commonplace; but in the Protestant world It began with Methodism’s practical-pur-poses. For If Methodism can be condensed into a phrase It would be this: The union of the spiritual and the human. of the theoretical and the practical. of faith and of works. “While Methodism first sang Its psalms, it took thought for education. Its faith feared not knowledge. Wesley organized schools before he formulated the machinery of church administration. He wrote text-books while he penned the articles of Methodist Confession. And to this day the mind of Methodism is fertile in devising new and modern methods for educating the masses The whole church Is a propaganda for enlightenment. Today 230 universities and schools with 530,000,000 property and endowments and nearly 50,000 students proclaim the world's educational debt to Methodism. “Methodism is powerful now and rich. Its membership reaches nearly 7,000,000. And yet its activity is not abated; and its activity ia the activity or the times. Always the Protestant church of high and careful organization, Its organization today is akin to that perfect machinery of the Industrial and commercial world of the Twentieth century. Organization, conservatism, enthusiasm made practical. Ideals made real —this idea and practice la a part of the world'* indebtedness to Methodism. And th* spirit of the practical manifested in religious activity is Invaluable to a Irepublic wheie every theory, however wild, eveiy scheme, however fantastic, ts urged uptn the people with all th* allurement of novelty, with all the dangerous power of Inflaming speech. Methodism has stood clear-eyed and calm against spurious agitation. • * Methodism says to every sister church, 'Burpass us in zeal If you can; excel us In disciplined energy if you can; but w* defy you to excel us In th* cheers of approval with which ah will be the first to greet your noblest effort. To every company of Christians, by whatever name it may be known — whether Catholic or Proteetant—Methodism exclaims: ‘Come, brothers, we at* with you! W* are of youi Tour glory Is our glory; our triumph is your victory. To every member of every Christian church Methodism exclaims as to Its members: "Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,’ With the cross of Jesus gaJng on before." “And la this spirit will be fouad, altar alt, th* world's chief debt to

SENATOR BEVERIDGE.