Excerpt from The Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review, 1831, Vol. 13

We now invite attention to that part of the history which treats on Methodism, and which is chargeable with the most serious defects and errors. Lord John Russel's history itself bears ample testimony to the failure of an adulterated Gospel, in the hands of the clergy of the last centu Its adaptation to the wants of a polite age' is what indeed he assumed but all the evidence is on the other side of the question. Mr. Wesley's testimony is decisive as to the uncorrected profiigacy of those very classes of society whose case required, we are told, and obtained, a new kind of spiritual food.' As he has minutely traced the rogress of demoralization through all the principal functionaries of, our Christian and civic economy, we may well doubt the wholesome operation of the remedy. And perhaps no greater proof can be given, that society was no better for an adulterated Gospel, than the fact, which both Bishop But ler, in the reface to his Analogy, ' and Nelson, in that to his Fes fivals and asts, ' attest, that Christianity and the clergy had fallen into general contempt. But if all the evidence be against the assumption of the benefit resulting to the higher classes from the new order of things in the Church, its want of adaptation to the mass of society is fully conceded in the following quotation from his lordship's book The general body of the people, however. Were not sufficiently advanced in knowledge, nor sufficiently refin ed ia taste, to be worthy the delicate banquet that was set before them. All the histories of this age teem with complaints of the gross pmfligacy, the drunkenness, disorder, and forgetfulness of religion, exhibited by the common people, especially in large towns, amidst the hurry and excitement of increasing trade and flourish ing industry. It has been already said, that the superior education and decent fortune of the English clergy have the attendant defect of untitt'mg them for a daily and familiar intercourse with their flocks. They are confined too by law, by habit, and by inclination, to the quot where their parochial or governing duties are to be performed 3 and are therefore quite incapable of being directed actively to con vert, to guide, an to instruct new masses of population. This polite age, like the first days of civilization, wanted missionaries; and what is wanted by the spirit of the time seldom fails to appear. Missionaries sprang That missionaries were wanted rs his lordship's inference from his own description of the moral state of the lower orders and it is a virtual admission, that the Gospel in its new and modified form, so far as it was applied to their case, was an en tire failure. His lordship admits also, that it was so fettered by the habits and regulations of the clergy, as to be incapable of being ap plied to the increasin wants of the nation. Now, no weightier rea sons can be given in avor of Methodism than those couched in these.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.