kept up among the different Connections as well by letter as by personal delegation, and with far less expenditure of money and time. A special session may be appointed for the reception of delegates who may be in attendance-as there may be always some who should be present-and to consider the communications which may be addressed to the Conference.

CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM.

We may venture to hope that delegates, not only from American Connections, but from Connections beyond the sea, especially the Mother Connection, will be in attendance at the Centenary Conference. We have been looking forward to that great festival with more interest than to any other, and we hope the General Conference will provide for the doing of all that is necessary for our Connection to do to make it an occasion of great interest, much spiritual enjoyment, and lasting profit.

It may not be amiss to reproduce in this place the action of our last General Conference in regard to the Centenary Celebration. We copy from the General Conference Journal, pages 137, 138:

REPORT NO. 3 OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE ECUMENICAL CONFERENCE. The committee to whom was referred the resolution of Thomas O. Summers and A. G. Haygood, respecting the celebration of the Centenary of American Methodism in 1884, having duly considered the same, beg leave to report, in their judgment, the subject is one of importance to all the families of Methodism on this continent; and that it is desirable that whatever step may be taken by our Church in the matter shall be taken at this session of the General Conference.

The preamble and resolutions being an unexceptionable expression of what should be the feeling and action of the Conference, we return them with the recommendation that they be adopted. Respectfully submitted.

PAUL WHITEHEAD,
A. G. STITT,

N. H. D. WILSON,
R. ALEXANDER,

Committee.

Whereas, the year 1884 will be the Centenary of American Methodism -the Methodist Episcopal Church in America having been organized in the city of Baltimore, December, 1784; and whereas, that event ought

to be duly commemorated by all the Methodists on this continent: therefore,

Resolved, That the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, now assembled in Atlanta, Ga., deem it desirable that a Conference of Methodists in the United States, the Dominion of Canada, and other parts of the Continent of America, be held in the city of Baltimore, at Christmas, in the year 1884, that being the centenary of the organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America.

Resolved, That the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, be requested, in behalf of this Conference, to open a correspondence on this subject with the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Presidents of the several Canada Conferences, and of all other Methodist bodies on this continent.

Resolved, That the Bishops and Presidents aforesaid be, and the same are hereby, requested to mature a programme for the solemn observance of the centenary of the organization of American Methodism, in the city of Baltimore, Md., December 25, 1884. THOMAS O. SUMMERS, A. G. HAYGOOD.

A GOOD SESSION.

The last session of the General Conference has a bad record for disorder. We never heard of such complaints before. Some attribute it to the fact that many of the members were laymen who attend secular gatherings, in which boisterous and disorderly scenes occur. Others attribute it to the room in which the Conference was held. Others to other causes. We say nothing, except this: that in "a Court of Jesus Christ," as our Presbyterian brethren would say, "assembled in the Holy Spirit," as our Roman Catholic brethren would say, there ought to be seriousness, sedateness, strict observance of the rules of order, no scrambling for the floor, no vociferation, no tart replies, no jibes or jests. As Mr. Wesley says, "Let all things be done as in the immediate presence of God."

Let every member be in his seat at the opening of every session. It is a positive scandal for members of Conference to be lounging near the Conference-room smoking (save the mark!), gossiping, and what not. We were mortified to see the twitting of Presbyterians and Methodists with these things by one of another Communion, whose representatives are not without reproach in the premises. We do not speak as an accuser of the brethren-we are not given to play that rôle―

but none can gainsay what we have said, and we trust there will be no occasion to resay

it.

As the Feast of Pentecost occurs in the month in which the General Conference will be held, and as we recognize the necessity of the Holy Spirit's special aid on so momentous an occasion, we may well anticipate the Pentecost, and say devoutly in its Collect: "O God, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by the sending to them. the light of thy Holy Spirit: grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort, through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen."

JOHN WESLEY NEITHER AN AUTOCRAT NOR A BIGOT.

BY THE REV. H. M. DUBOSE.

Art. "John Wesley," by W. MYALL. Seven Vols. New York: Carlton & Porter. 1856.

International Review, October, 1881.
Wesley's Works.

To enter into any elaborate presentation of the claims of Methodism as the greatest religious movement of the age, and, indeed, as a religious and moral revolution, second in importance and extent only to the great Reformation of the sixteenth century, would be an offense to the intelligence and catholicity of the general reader. Methodism has attained a hardy growth in the midst of the most determined opposition; and its achievements, the record of an unparalleled success in the propagation of its principles, have startled the world; while the deep vitality it has awakened throughout the evangelical Churches, and the probe it has proved to the human conscience, have constrained the universal verdict that its mission is divine. And it was long ago thought, even by the enemies of Methodism, that the place accorded John Wesley and his coadjutors in the history of England was eminently merited and proper. "I consider John Wesley as the most influential mind of the last century," said an eminent and scholarly man, after studying that mind in the light of the impress it had left upon the religious thought of the world. And the prophecy made concerning it, by the same not overpartial biographer, is being fulfilled to-day in the influence it is exercising as a living, Heaven-preserved power: "The man who will have produced the greatest effects centuries, or perhaps, millenniums, hence, if the present race of men should continue so long." It has also been regarded as a universally-accepted conviction that the sharp outlines of the character, once the target of scurrility and slander, that gave ecclesiastical shape and tone to Methodism, marked a wondrous balance of relig

1882.]

AUTOCRAT NOR A BIGOT.

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ious tolerance, devotion to truth, respect for the uses of discipline, and recognition of the limits of law and of the individnality of those allied to it in its Heaven-given work.

But in this it would seem that current sentiment and the great intellects of the past century were at fault. The spirit which seeks to materialize from uncertain fragments of history a theory self-begotten and hurtful to the influence and character of the faithful dead is abroad in the world to-day, and goes groping back through the past, seeking some noble form upon which to lay irreverent hands. The disposition to reckon as wisdom any thing which differs from established methods of thought, and which reflects upon, or in any degree lessens reverence for, what is held sacred, or as fixed in history beyond touch or taint, accounts for the largess of worship bestowed in this age upon Agnostic despoilers of the truth. Under the title, and in the number of the periodical cited at the head of this paper, an effort is made to reverse the verdict of history, and to reflect disparagingly upon the character of the venerated founder of Methodism-an act that will be resented by all who love the strong and beautiful as blended in the life assailed. The writer of this article, some of whose assertions I propose to review in the light of that life's own record, as it was wrought day by day upon the forge of unfailing purpose, presents the spectacle of one endeavoring to arrest the torrentcourse of living truth by casting into its path the pebbles of cavil and the shattered bowlders of sarcasm. The paper is a strange medley from beginning to end-an introduction of lionizing words well calculated to inspire interest, laying great emphasis upon the parallel drawn by Macaulay between the great revivalist's genius for government and the tyrannical influence acquired over the French people by the ambitious Richelieu, rounding up his periods by insidiously imputing to Wesley "an inordinate love of power" as the ruling passion of his life, and touching off the whole with a charge of bigotry and superstition.

These imputations would be unworthy even a passing notice, and the evidence introduced to sustain them, for the most part too plainly void of any semblance of logic, or claim to