p. 676 | THE DECADENCE OF THE CLASS-MEETING

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 11, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 43.

THE DECADENCE OF THE CLASS-MEETING.

By Western Christian Advocate (Methodist)

METHODISM owed its pristine strength to the class-meeting. The device to secure one result proved equal to all uses. It became the unit of organization, the test and stimulus of piety, the assessor and collector of ecclesiastical funds. Nothing in Methodism promised more, nothing yielded half so much. But Methodism then was Christianity in earnest. People having the form, banded together to seek the power, of godliness. Grievously at fault, the erring Methodist was amenable to discipline. He paid the leader his "contribution" and "quit his meanness" at one and the same time. All who bore the name were fleeing from the wrath to come. They had a wholesome dread of hell, and a sturdy purpose to avoid it by God's help. The class-meeting was a normal school where the best methods of overcoming evil were discussed. As long as the heart was stirred, so long these meetings were full of the attraction of the cross. When love failed, and fashion crept in, and the world hid the cross, men went to class for form's sake, bore false witness before the Lord, lied to one another in his name, and finally threw their oars into the boat, pillowed their heads on the cast-off garments of righteousness, slept, and drifted. There never comes an awakening but something akin to the class-meeting is demanded. It is because we have lost the spirit of piety that we have so generally abandoned the class.