league against Louis of France, so did the great religious hero and statesman strike for a universal reviving of religion, and for a coalition, co-extensive with Christendom, against the prince of darkness, and for the spiritual and eternal freedom and happiness of the nations. Imagining, for a moment, Wesley of the eighteenth century to be transferred to the nineteenth; and, in 1846, to have been flying over England, as one hundred years before,-what intelligent Methodist doubts that when the great and good came up, in that year, to London-came from the four winds of heaven, and formed the Evangelical Alliance-who doubts, we repeat, that there would have stood forth, in lofty prominence, in that rejoicing assembly-his catholic heart swelling with exultation unutterable — the founder of Methodism, and of the Methodist Episcopal Church? Of that gathering of its purposes and of its results we may think and speak lightly, if we please. One thing is as certain as the rising of tomorrow's sun-John Wesley would have been there.

"But what of all this?" Much every way, we answer. The ministry and laity of the Methodist Episcopal Church do either sympathize with the founder of their organization, in the great features of his character and example, or else they are false to their profession. But Wesley was certainly a Catholic -a Catholic in theory-a Catholic in practice-beyond any man of modern times. He did most diligently eschew all war for the sake of opinions, and in all his protracted ministry faithfully maintained, so far as in him lay, and engaged his followers to maintain and set forward, QUIETNESS, PEACE, AND LOVE, AMONG ALL CHRISTIAN PEOPLE;-one of the solemn things which

every ordained elder in Methodism has promised, before God and his people, to observe and endeavour.

FINALLY, WHETHER, OR NOT, METHODISM MAY HAVE ASSUMED TOO FULLY THE SECTARIAN FORM? We feel obliged to yield this also up to the affirmative; and we do so with a distress and anguish such as never can be written. Here, likewise, that we may come at the truth adequately and fully, we must go back and ponder "the beginnings;" and still survey the movements and spirit of the man whom we all delight to honour. That John Wesley, in the outset of his peculiar ministry, designed the erection of no new and separate sect; and that, so far as Great Britain, at least, is concerned, he persisted in this design to the last, are points insisted upon by all the more candid of his biographers-fully illustrated by his own express statements and persevering practice; and will not, it is presumed, be called in question by any reader of this article. His grand design, or drift, has already been repeatedly asserted. It was, we say once more, the reviving of religion. It is entirely well known, and calls for no proof or illustration, that Wesley always disclaimed the formation of a separate

sect.

Note the little piece of history herein following,

to wit:

Toward the close of 1739, John Wesley formed a society of eight or ten religious persons, who, as one of their rules, met on Thursday evening of each week. The purpose of the society was purely spiritual. Exhortation and prayer, with sacred song, were the exercises, and aiding each other to work out their salvation was the object. No question was asked whether the members belonged to the Establishment,

No interference was

or to the Dissent, or to neither. contemplated with any existing church or organization, except it were by the spiritual benefit arising from the society, to infuse a higher spiritual life and activity into such church, to which, as well as to the society, one or more members may have belonged.

Now, having written these few words, we need write no more. This brief sketch embraces the gist of the whole history. There was the seed whence has sprung up, to the astonishment of Christendom—and since the elm before your door was planted-the colossal tree of Methodism. But who, let him ever so minutely dissect that seed, can discern the sectarian element? It is not there. And if, as the tree arose and spread itself, there chanced, among its fruits of healing, the bitter apple of sectarianism, it came of an exotic and spurious scion, inserted by another hand than Wesley's. The English Church, it is true, he always loved, and always wished that Methodism might be a part of that Establishment, and avoid all separation from it. Yet this strong preference was but the fruit of his catholicism, and his aversion to the existence of any separate sect. Still, if the union he desired could not exist consistently with the highest prosperity of the Church Catholic, he would submit. "Church or no Church," writes he to his brother, “we must attend to the work of saving souls." And again, "I neither set it up (the Establishment), nor pull it down; but let you and I build the city of God." In other words, the largest possible salvation was Wesley's longing. To build up any party-even his own beloved Church of England-was a trifle that must not come into comparison. He would build only the

city of God; and to the last he asserted of the Methodists, that "they were of no sect or party; but they receive those of all parties who endeavour to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God."

But what shall be said of American Methodism-of the Methodist Episcopal Church? When, after the revolution, the Methodists of this country were set off, by Wesley, from the parent connexion, and formed by him into a distinct organization, under the superintendency of Coke and Asbury, was not this a sectarian movement? It may appear so-it certainly does appear so-to such as have always been accustomed to look coldly and suspiciously upon the career of that extraordinary man. But we venture to affirm that Methodists, and Methodist ministers, should know Wesley better and better appreciate a soul that was wedded to the soul of Jesus-and moved and beat as in eternity-and sickened at the idea of sectism, on the one hand, as it did at that of bigotry on the other. We discuss not here either the fact or the mode of the separation as an act of Wesley-of American from English Methodism. Our business is with Wesley's heart;--and as that heart contemplated the growth, in this country, of the same great agency which had wrought such wonders in the father-land, it was still, with him, nought save a reviving of religion. He stood a venerable and holy man of Godhis locks whitened by that multitude of years, whose strength, saith Inspiration, is labour and sorrow; and yet, as leaning upon his staff he looked this way, and as every western breeze wafted to his ear glad tidings from these "ends of the earth," his spirit grew young

again, and he worshipped, and shouted in his rapture, "What hath God wrought!"

No. True Methodism, assuming its founder to have been also its personification, is without sectarianism, whether in the old world or the new. True, it now goes forth in the form of a church organization, both here and in England, while this form it took, on this side of the Atlantic, with the co-operation and approval of Wesley himself. It seemed a matter of necessity; yet never including the doleful necessity of partyism. It is still, and everywhere, unless it be changed to another thing, a reviving of religion; stretching itself for such a reviving everywhere, and among every denomination of Christians-organized for this very purpose-blessing and helping all Christians and Christian denominations, and injuring none-towering above sectarianism, and flying with the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth. Contemplating daily renewals of the scenes of Pentecost-the outpourings of the Spirit-the baptism and prophesying of sons and daughters-heavenly visions of old men and young-wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath-the calling upon the name of the Lord, and the promised salvation to all that call.

"Daily renewals of the scenes of Pentecost-the outpouring of the Spirit"-the revival and triumph of religion! What has all this to do with sectarianism? Exactly what the fire has to do with hay, wood, and stubble. Religious partyism is one of the prominent and baleful fruits of spiritual decline and coldness. When the fire of God descends upon the Church, it dissipates this bad thing as rapidly and as surely, as when Jesus whipped the thieves out from the temple