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Show Ten Million Americans to Honor Founder of Their Religious Faith A Nation-Wide Communion Service in More Than 14,000 Congregations Will Recall the .; May Evening 200 Years Ago When John Wesley "Felt His Heart Strangely Warmed" and Took the Step Which Led Eventually to the Establishment of the Methodist Church. Western Newspaper Union By ELMO SCOTT WATSON ON SUNDAY morning, May 22, more than 9,-000,000 9,-000,000 Americans, members of 14,300 congregations, congrega-tions, will take part in a nation-wide communion service honoring the memory of the founder of their religious faith. Two days later, on Tuesday evening, May 24, there will be an informal service of prayer and religious relig-ious testimony in each church of that denomination, not only in the United States but throughout the world. Approximately Ap-proximately 25,000,000 people peo-ple will take part in this ceremony cere-mony and again it will be in his honor, for it is the two-liundredth two-liundredth anniversary of his evangelical "conversion" or "heart-warming" as he called it. Who was this man who gave to the world a form of religion so appealing that alter 200 years he has 25,000,-000 25,000,-000 disciples all over the globe? His name was John Wesley and he was the founder of the Methodist Episcopal church. On the evening of May 24, 1738, a little group of people gathered in a small house in Aldersgate street, London, England, to conduct con-duct a' prayer meeting. They were members of the Church of England who had failed to find the stately service of that church all "that they sought . in the way of spiritual help. So they gathered, week after week, to seek additional addi-tional strength in an informal meeting of this kind. In this company sat a slight young man in the robes of an Anglican churchman. For three months he had been passing through a period of intense inner struggle, due mainly to his unhappy un-happy experiences across the Atlantic At-lantic ocean in General Oglethorpe's Ogle-thorpe's new colony of Georgia. Of what happened at the prayer meeting, John Wesley afterward recorded in his diary: "In the evening I went very unwilling to a society in Aldersgate street, where one was reading Luther's . . preface to the Epistle to the Ro-J Ro-J mans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change that God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I i r-. wmm mmMmmmmmmi f ; - ;- - ' -v v 'V. ft 2;y- s V lv V 'i;:i''iv'f::A: s::H""-' '::aS;: T-.;'f : i f - !: f v) ' - 1 1 ! i . . , . . . " - i f . ' " ... Ft if ii i iiifnii J fr- -, ....awyyifg::. v -11, , Francis Asbury, Famous Methodist Circuit Rider. felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for my salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." Although Wesley never recognized recog-nized his followers as belonging to another than the Church of England, this Aldersgate meeting is designated by Methodists today to-day as the beginning of their church, for from it Wesley went out to preach with a new enthusiasm. enthusi-asm. Also, soon afterwards the 1? Sift v ; ; "P-i ilis; ?5- v ;.;:r & : ::" : j p , I s 4 k s - - J . , s . ; 1 , , ' i , 1 ' " -I '& i 'i s H r " iri 1 1 : - r7 - i John Wesley, Founder of the Methodist Church. I authorities closed the doors and pulpits of their churches to him and to his brother, Charles, and all the other preachers of the Methodist societies, which led them to organize a new church. Wesley was born in 1703, the son of Rev. Samuel Wesley, rector rec-tor of the Anglican church at Ep-worth, Ep-worth, England. He attended Charterhouse until he was seventeen, seven-teen, and then went to Christ Church college, Oxford, on a meager scholarship from his former for-mer school. A year after his ordination Wesley Wes-ley was elected a fellow of Lincoln Lin-coln college, Oxford, where he was one of the leading members of the Holy club. These scholars subjected every phase of their lives to the deepest discussion. In 1735 the elder Wesley died and a year later John and his younger brother, Charles, set out for Georgia, Gen. James Oglethorpe's Ogle-thorpe's new colony in America, to serve as missionaries to the Indians. But they soon found that Indian missionary work was not practical. So they devoted themselves them-selves to pastoral duties among the English colonists. Charles Wesley went to the little settlement of Frederica where he soon became exceedingly exceeding-ly unpopular and, as a result, gave up his work after six months and returned to England. John Wesley also visited Frederica but he was no better liked than his brother had been. However, this did not halt his work in his parish. Eventually, however, there arose a situation which resulted in his following his brother back to England. This was an unhappy love affair that had caused the "intense inner struggle" (referred (re-ferred to earlier in this article) and led to his evangelical conversion. conver-sion. Among Oglethorpe's colonists colo-nists were a Mr. and Mrs. Caus-ton Caus-ton an dtheir niece, Sophie Hop-key, Hop-key, eighteen years old, beautiful, intelligent and a very pious member mem-ber of the Church of England. Wesley's Romance. Wesley and Sophy were immediately imme-diately attracted to each other and General Oglethorpe, becoming becom-ing aware of the budding romance, ro-mance, did all he could to promote pro-mote it. He wanted Wesley to stay in the colony and he believed that marriage would humanize the inflexible young moralist and perhaps make him more popular with the people. But there was one bar to their marriage. That was a vow of celibacy which Wesley had taken and which caused him to postpone a proposal. Eventually, Eventu-ally, Sophy grew tired of waiting for him to make up his mind and suddenly she married another man, William Williamson. As soon as Wesley saw that he had lost the girl he became embittered em-bittered against her, so much so that eventually be refused to allow her to participate in communion com-munion in his church. The upshot of this was a suit for defamation of character by her husband which came to nothing, although it weakened Wesley's influence in the colony. So he decided to return re-turn to England. Although disheartened by his experience in America, his stay here was far from being a failure. fail-ure. The meetings which he had held, and his zeal in the cause of Christianity had left their impress im-press upon the colony. Besides that he had published in Charleston Charles-ton in 1737 a collection of hymns, the first Methodist songs ever gathered together. Establishing the Church. In May occurred the previously mentioned experience in the little house in Aldersgate street which led directly to the establishment of the Methodist church. At first those members of the Church of England who were dissatisfied with the ritual of that church began be-gan holding their prayer meetings at Fetter Lane. Then Wesley inaugurated in-augurated meetings at the foundry foun-dry in Moorefields in 1739. These meetings are often regarded re-garded as the real beginning of the Methodist church since Wesley Wes-ley was forced to sever connections connec-tions with the Fetter Lane society so-ciety in 1740 due to grave disorders disor-ders in the meetings. Until 1742 he limited his efforts to spreading the new gospel to London and Bristol but he later began the travels over England, Scotland and Ireland which were to take him more than a quarter of a million mil-lion miles and result in his preaching preach-ing more than 40,000 sermons. He died in his house in City Road in 1791 and was buried in the graveyard of the City Road chapel nearby. Although the worldwide Methodist Metho-dist celebration this month is for the purpose of honoring the name of John Wesley, founder of that church, it also recalls another clergyman of that sect who was one of the most remarkable figures fig-ures in American history. He was Francis Asbury, the first American Methodist bishop, the so-called "Prophet of the Long Road" and the apotheosis of that sturdy figure in frontier life, the circuit rider. Born near Birmingham, England, Eng-land, in 1745, he was only fifteen years old when he began "to venture ven-ture a work of exhortation." At eighteen he was a local preacher and at twenty-one he was received by Wesley into the itinerant ministry. min-istry. When he was twenty-six, Wesley selected him to spread the gospel in America and in 1771 Asbury landed in Philadelphia. Sympathy for Patriots. At that time there was only one Methodist church in America and there were only about 600 persons of that faith, chiefly in New York and Philadelphia. At the outbreak of the Revolution Asbury sympathized sympa-thized with the Patriots and while his ecclesiastical superior, a Mr. Rankin, returned to England, Asbury As-bury remained. During the war he was so energetic in spreading the gospel of Methodism that by the end of the Revolution there were 83 Methodist ministers at work and the membership had increased in-creased to 14,000. With the severing of political ties between the new nation and the mother country there was also the necessity for founding a separate sepa-rate church. Although there had been intimations of separation from the parent society as early as 1773, it was not until the Baltimore Balti-more conference in December, 1784, that Asbury and Thomas Coke, whom Wesley had sent to America to direct the organization organiza-tion of the new church, were ordained or-dained as joint superintendents. So with this authority back of him Asbury set out on the "Long Road" with the future of Methodism Method-ism in this country in his keeping. He never married, lest a wife should distract his attention from his great work, and he had no home. For 45 years, in bad weather and in good, over wilderness wilder-ness roads and mountain trails, from Maine to Kentucky, he rode the circuits. He slept wherever night overtook over-took him, he shared the food of the pioneers in the rude mountain cabins, or dined on the crust of bread from his saddle bags. Six thousand miles on horseback was his stint of travel year in and year out. He preached daily, often as many as three sermons a day, occasionally oc-casionally as many as five; he preached to the slaves in the kit- ti.iw, sgr-Tyg& TIBS- A Methodist Circuit Rider. Cntrns ui Li.t: &uuunt;iii pituiLer, ne preached to the housewives ol New England. Wherever he could gather together a few willing to listen he preached. Towards the last his labors were frequently interrupted by severe attacks of illness which confined him to his bed for long periods. Yet he would not give up. His indomitable will drove him on in the performance of his duty. His rheumatism bothered him more and more. At times he could not wear his shoes, and he went "hobbling about on crutches." All these years he had ridden' horseback. It became impossible' for him to do so longer. He had ' worn out many horses, and in his ( autobiography he looks back with regret upon "Jane," "Fox," and "Spark." Philadelphia friends! provided him with "a light, little j four-wheeled carriage," into; which he could be lifted, for he insisted on going forward. "I suppose I have crossed the AUe-H gheny mountains sixty times," he once said. Death Stops His Work. He never retired; he never gave up. Death found him still going on with his work. A week before he died he preached his last sermon in Richmond, Rich-mond, Va. Tuberculosis had laid its hand upon him and he was so weak that his friends tried to dissuade dis-suade him from preaching. But he insisted upon being carried into the church and, seated on a table in the pulpit, he preached for an hour. Then he was carried to his bed in the home of a friend near Fredericksburg, Va., where he died on Sunday morning, March 31, 1816. Of Asbury it has been said: "Few characters if any in all the history of the American continent stand out more clearly in rugged simplicity, in devotion to an ideal than does the character of this greatest of mtinerant preachers." j |