there was not a fibre in Wesley's body which vibrated to an intellectual religion. It is certain that he opposed and rejected the Calvinistic articles of the English Church—would not accept them. Augustinism or Calvinism, the most profoundly intellectual scheme ever devised by the brain of man, has wonderfully moved the world, but has entirely failed to evangelize the world. So striking is this, that in Paris, where, in the times of St. Bartholomew, the Calvinists were almost or quite equal in numbers and power to the Catholics, there are to-day but two small and most feeble churches. In New England, too, there has been a revolt, and Calvinism is hardly preached even in those churches where it still remains a form of doctrine.
Let us illustrate. The man who should say, "My child shall eat no bread until he understands its chemical constitution," would be put into a mad-house; the plant which should refuse to grow in the rays of the life-giving sun, because it did not understand what the sun was, would be (if it had a will) a preposterous fool; the man who should decline to be religious until he could make out the exact doctrine of justification, would be a miserable creature.
Men are but children in this vast world, living and growing, like the plant, in the warm rays of the divine love, they know not how, and they need not to know. To comprehend and understand God is not possible, nor is it necessary to a divine life. To be in harmony with God's laws, and thus with Him, is necessary, and, in a degree, possible. Whoever is not in harmony with them will be whipped, and will be more or less miserable until he becomes so. The impracticability of a purely doctrinal church—which I need not dwell upon—was strikingly exemplified a few years since, when the Hartford Dr. Bushnell preached his great discourse upon the Trinity. Among the clergy it caused a sensation, and men said, he is a heretic, and he must be tried and condemned. So they began to point out his heresy, and to state the true doctrine. The result was nigh fatal, for not a man among them could escape with his life. Heresy cropped out in every quarter, and a respected brotherhood came nigh rushing into chaos. Dr. Bushnell was soon left alone.
The English Church, which stands upon doctrines, is only able to keep together by wisely shutting its eyes and admitting almost all sorts of belief, varying from Maurice and Kingsley to Drs. Newman and Pusey, if they will but stay.
Our Father who art in Heaven. That was the truth which Jesus of Nazareth taught to men; and since that hour when the shepherds kept their watch on the hills of Bethlehem, and the stars shone down into the manger where the divine Child lay, God has been, not an Oriental Satrap, but the Father and friend of men. This marvellous fact, which marks an era in human history, needs to be re-stated from time to time, because we are so constantly running off after strange notions, and fancying we can define God better than Jesus did. We cannot.
This, then, is the fact which Wesley expressed by his life, and this it is which is embodied in the Methodist Church. This I believe to be the secret of its great success. It is a church embodying a divine and universal sentiment, and not a creed or doctrine.
So broad and sweeping a statement requires explanation. Wesley never asked:
Do you believe in the Trinity?
Do you hold to the Atonement?
