JOHN WESLEY AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Southland Times, Issue 1680, 24 December 1872, Page 3

JOHN WESLEY AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Sib,— l fail to see that the cessation of my connection with the Wesleyan body has deprived me of the rights of citizenship, or rendered questionable the propriety of my rectifying a widely-spread error. As regards the cessation referred to, it was publicly stated in the Weikjin Church in Leet sti«el by the then minuter that it was voluntary on my part, unsolicited by the body, and remonstrated against. Recently Mr Rishworth called on me at my office, being as he said very anxious to obtain my return to the Wesleyan body, and proposed to confer with his ecclesiastical superior to obviate a difficulty, of my raising, in the way of my return. On the morning on which my letter appeared in your iiiut, Mr- Riahworth MoerUd to me that my | letter contained " fallacies," and that I had no business to interfere in the matter, and that it was not likely he would wade through 300 original letters of Mr Wesley to ascertain whether that particular letter was genuine or not. To this I replied, in that case he ought not to have made a poEitive assertion. The utterances of either a jcholar, a gentleman, or a Christian minister, are entitled to respect, but I must very respectfully decline to entangle myself, even in appearance, in a contest with Mr Rishworth in the use of his " peculiar" weapons of personal abuse, insinuation, and venom. In a discussion in which scholarly attainments, knowledge of history, and a regard for the amenities and courtesies of civilised life are essentials, I sh«U be happy to take part. — Yours, &c., Thomas Pbbkiks.