NEW POWER IN METHODISM

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1847, 22 May 1888, Page 3

NEW POWER IN METHODISM

,i * — , \. In the inaosiral hu'.l-'e«a <>t the op Anb Mng of the W^leym Methodist Cor- ' { ferenoe •at Melbourne th« lie/ J. H. [ iFlotoher, of Sydney, avid :— " The at'ence i j whioh hsß crept into oar pnb'lo workshop > ' instead of the bou! s'irring responses of i earlier daya ; the decline of our claaa meeting— in ooosf quaace, I think, partly j of the riwiiy of gifted layman and lay- ! wome'j as oVihb !eader3, aud partly on Recount of the unwho'i-some reserve whlcf. it Ja now the fa*hl"n to throw nround j one's personal OorißtUn exporienc, and the paralysis of th« pc«ye* rndetliig, all demonstrate the necessity not only of a naw pore-, but 'f ne<v methods, »f the Auilraliaus of 1988 aro to be muoh indebted to We^leyan Meth,dißra We need vitality en <ugh not only to endure the cbah and the crash of the yeara before as, bat even to gain by them, as the art of navigation haß gained by the rode manners of the ocean, until shipß have towered up into the mighty cistleij of the Bpa, which carry the population of a whole village at once, and kaep their appointed time with almost the punctuality of the etara they eteer by. We aometltnes hiar It said that we need a revival of eld Mothodism. Indeed we do not. The Methodism whioh within half a oentnry cf its birth was filling England not only wilh new churches, but with new charities, •-raa not ai old, but anew Methodism. It is old Methodism, stiff, querulous, and slow to adapt itself to new olroumBtanoes, that we want to Bpeeilly embalm in good books and ploas epitaphs, while a new and yet newer Me. hodism, fl xibio, beneficent, and bold waves throngH tho world fall of new Ideas, but setting 'hero to the old ramie :-— Oh, for a trumpet voioe on all the world to call, To bid their hearts rejoice in Him who died for all. In dootrlno 4 and in government all the churchoa have wonderfully apDroacbed each other during the' last 40 years. Watobni^hta, which wore ono^ considered by churchmen as daugeroua to morality, Rre now common in the deooroua services c f the Churoh of England, Preabyteriana have beei heard to command itinarancy. Oongregatlonalists have longed for the clas3 meo 1 )g, and Methodists have been heard to say, { Oh, that we bad blah; p3 I' Even Oalviuiem now, for the raoßi p irt, lies like a missive bouldar in the bed of a river, never &een exoapt in dry weather, There is no auoh thing as the glory departing from churches whioh Drcc'.aim and strive to fulfil a Gospel of Christian ocrtain'y, of Christian brotherhood, of p9rannftl Christian service, and of Chiatian p^fectness through tho perfecting grace of Christ's Ov?n spirit, and which also proclaim a Gcapei of nrgenoy, which, know ng no Becond probation, no BUpplemeatary GoHpel, at.'d knowing no purgitiry, bat the precious blood of Ohiist now and here only accessible, not only burn with zea'oua oh&ri'y to rescue men from a terrible hereafter, bui to lead them into the present heaven of ' the Kingdom of God within them.' Our position iB undoubtedly one of danger if our great Captain has no reserve to bring op into this battlefield of the world, in whio'i, if be refgna at all, ' Be muse reign,' not askinr the perniia?ion of hia enemies."