Your ShelfYour Projects

The Needs of Methodism

25%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 23, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 17.

Read the full edition

The Needs of Methodism

IN the Northwestern Christian Advocate for March 4, 1914, W. F. Oldham thus expresses the needs of the Methodist Church:—
O, my Methodism, which found me a careless, godless youth, a world's diameter from where I now stand, would God I could cause thee to hear the voice of the Son of man as he crieth, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; . . . and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see"! Then wouldst thou see that not great buildings and mighty institutions, not high scholarship nor proud gatherings of large numbers, not talks of a splendid past nor pride of ancestry, but having the spirit of devotion to God and a flaming zeal for the souls of men,—the abiding tokens of a clean heart filled with the Holy Ghost,—that in these are thy strength, thy promise for a better future, and the real grounds of hope for being trusted with a great program for a world's redemption.
Yet there are many, though generally of our humbler folk, who are called, have heard, and accepted,—effectually called to be saints,—who know the cleansing blood, and wear "a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it," that new best name of perfect love, and for these I am sure I speak when I say they want holiness. They want it in the pulpit. They want the deep, cleansing streams to flow up through their pastors' hearts, through their lips into the hearts of the listening congregations. They want these to flow through our editors' hearts and down through their pens till the pages of our official papers will be filled with the tender green grass upon which the flocks of God may feed. They want it in our schools and colleges and seminaries. They want that which has been the birthright of Methodist schools, not to be hidden from Methodist eyes or so muffled as not to be perceptible to Methodist ears.