OCR Text |
Show I "WESLEY and" christIanTjinty7 Helped to Lessen Bitterness and Draw Good Men Nearer Together. It would be unjust to Ignoro whnt -i"hn Wesloy did for Christian unity. Holicinus difference wore moro ran """us In his day than In ours. Mac-nnlnv Mac-nnlnv often PtnpKratos, but he did not cxnuwrate in describing the old-time wintry squire whose "animosities iii numerous nnd hitter. He hated I r nrhmen and Italians, Scotchmen nl Irishnion, Papists nnd Presbyte-tliu Presbyte-tliu s Irileppndents and Baptist, CJ-iakors nnd .lews." It did not re-.'i re-.'i ln much pioocatton fur a mob to jvl1 'lown a illflsentlPK Cinppl or throw ti !'s at a Ilonian Catholic priest. In J.lna world of fierce denunciation inov-pi inov-pi a scholar who Kindly acknowledged ils indebtedness to Rood men of wlde-h wlde-h dirt-rent Ie:iet8 Wesley hnd learn-pi learn-pi a roo! dial from the early fathers. pp bad read the great divines of tho jCmirch of linnlnnd, some of his wnim-3wt wnim-3wt friends wito Moravian, he ndmlr-pd ndmlr-pd the saintly characters of the Kt finn and of the undivided Catholic ghurdi, his sympathies, naturally Bu'ck hnd been broadened by rend-leg. rend-leg. Since Dp Mnlstre warned tho Ito-nnii Ito-nnii church not to forget tho claims f her Anglican sister, since tho Kfnn-clicais Kfnn-clicais gave new force to tho Church Sf England, since tho Oxford divines Jjimde dry bones live, many lossons have been learned. An increasing ntirn-jeer ntirn-jeer of persons Is gradually nwakenlng o the difference between tho fnlth tonco delivered to tho saints' and tho OTiInlons which merely dato from Au-feustlne Au-feustlne or Cnlvin. John Wesley wna Bn advance of his tlmo. Should organic Ounlty come within a century or two, to will be counted among thoso who helped to lessen bitterness, and to j3;aw good men nearor togothor. Tho 'Wvlug Chutch (P. K.). |