Lk Doctrine and Worship.—Under this head not much requires to be said. Wesleyan Methodists claim to be considered orthodox, Protestant, and evangelical. The propriety of the last two appellations will probably not be disputed, but a rigid Calvinist might object to the first. They accept the articles of the English church, but believing these articles to have been frarned on a basis of comprehension, they consider themselves at liberty to accept them in an Arminian sense. It must not, however, be supposed that they are out-and-out Arminians. Their great distinguising doctrine is the universality and freedom of the atonement; hence they reject the Calvinistic doctrine of predestina tion (which they conceive to be incompatible with the former), but while they maintain the freedom of the will and the responsibility of man, they also maintain his total fall in Adam, and his utter inability to recover himself. If these two appear to the human understanding to eontlict, it is nevertheless asserted that the.Bible teaches both; and it is objected to high Calvinism that in its anxiety to be logical it has shown itself unscriptural. Prominence is also ,given hy the Wesleyan Methodists to certain points of religion, some of which are not altogether peculiar to them. They insist on the necessity of men who profess to be Christians feeling a personal interest in the blessings of salvation—i.e., the assurance of forgiveness of sins and adoption into the family of God. This, however, is not to be confounded with a certainty of final salvation. They believe the spirit of God gives no assurance to any man of that, but only of present pardon. In harmony with this view, they reject the doctrine of the necessary perseverance of the saints, and hold that it is fearfully possible to fall from a state of grace, and even to perish at last after having " tasted of the heavenly gift," and having been " made partakers of the Holy Ghost." They also maintain the perfectibility of Christians, or rattier the possibility of their entire sanctiticaction as a privilege to be enjoyed in this 2ife. But Wesley " explains" that " Christiau perfection does not imply an exemp tion from iffnorance or mistake, infirmities or temptations; hut it implies the being so crucitia with Christ as to be able to testify, ' I live not, but Christ liveth in me.'" He regards the sins of a " perfect" Christian as " involuntary transgres sions," and does not think they should be called "sins" at all, though he admits that they need the atoning blood of Christ. The Wesleyan Methodists, in their religious services, use more or less the English liturgy; the morning. service being read in many of their chapels, and the sacramental offices being required in all. They observe a " watch-night " on the eve of the new year, on which occasion the religious services are protracted till midnight, and their chapels are generally crowded to excess; and in the beginning of the year they hold a " covenant-service," at which congregations stand up to a man (though this form is not invariable), and solemnly VOW to serve the Lord.
But even the ordinary religious services in some places are frequently marked by an ebullition of fervent feeling on the part of the auilience, which has a very singular effect upon a stranger.
3. Hi.story.—The history of Methodism is for many years the history of Christian effort to evangelize the neglected " masses" of England. The labors of Wesley, and of those whom he inspired to imitate his example, were of the noblest description, and met with -remarkable success. The reforrnation of life which his preaching, produced, for exam -ple, among the Kiiingswood colliers and the Cornwall wreckers, is a testimony to the power of religion which cannot be too highly estimated. The zeal which has inspired the body in regard to foreign missions, although in the highest degree honorable, is only the 'ordeal development of their efforts at home—for they originally regarded their soci ety ieEngland as simply a vast " home mission," and neither Wesley nor his followen desired to consider themselves a " sect." a new church, in the common usage of the term, but were warmly attached to the old national church, and considered themselves among her true children. When Wesley died (1791) his " societies" had spread over the United Kingdom, the continent of Europe, the states of Ammica, and the West Indies, and num-bered 80,000 members. Since then they have largely increased, and, according to the returns for the year 1875, the membership (including the numbers in foreign mis sions, embracing continental India, Northern Europe, China, Asia Minor, the South Sea and West India islands) amounted then to 504,315' (of whom 393,343 belonged to Great Britain and Ireland), and the number of ministers, 2,905 (of whom 2,050 belonged to the United Kingdom). The annual income of " The Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Soci ety" in 1875 was 1.90,000.
The Wesleyan Methodists have three theological colleges for the training of ministers, one at Richmond Hill, Surrey, a second at Didsbury, South Lancashire, and a third at Headingley, in Yorkshire, besides the establishments at Sheffield and Taunton; two schools (New Kingswood school and Woodhouse Grove school) for the education of sous of Wesleyan ministers; and two for the daughters, one at Clapton and another at South port. The boys receive a six years' and the girls a four years' course of instruction. The Methodist Book-room is situated in the City Road, London, and issues hundreds of thousands of religious publications (tracts, etc.) monthly. The newspapers and other periodicals, professedly in connection with the body, are the larger and smaller Maga zates, the Christian Miscellany, TVesleyan Sunday-School Magazine, monthly Exercises on Scripture Lessorts, Early Days, the Watchman, the Methodist Recorder, and the London Quarterly Review. Among the more eminent Methodist authors may be named the two Wesleys, Fletcher, Benson, Clarke, Moore, Watson, Drew, Edmondson, Sutcliffe, Jack son, Treffry, Rule, Nichols, Smith, and Etheridg.e.