A Warning to Methodists.
By P. Strong
“There is some reason to fear that our preachers and people will yet fall into the spirit of the times, and become as weak as some others. We live in an age when the spirit of the world is making great inroads into the church. Our country offers so many facilities for becoming wealthy, and our republican institutions open so many avenues to distinction and honor, that we can scarcely hope to preserve our original simplicity. Wealth will create splendid and costly churches, and these will require popular preachers; under these circumstances the spirit of piety and devotion, which once characterized us, may decline. A generation may rise up by whom class-meetings may not be appreciated, and formality may take the place of true devotion, and the more popular and shining virtues of a Christian’s character may take the place of a self-denying and cross-bearing life. “But if Methodism fails to accomplish the object for which God introduced it, he will no doubt raise up some other people, and other instrumentalities, to carry forward his merciful designs.”—Life of Rev. T. Spicer, p. 259. Has not the day of this minister’s fears come? Costly edifices, which, in many cases, debar the poor, for whom Christ died, from attending worship, are raised up, and we see now an office seeking, and pleasure loving ministry. And again, is not God calling on his people to return and inquire after the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein? Jer. 6:16. P. STRONG.