Methodism and Literature

Methodism and Literature: SERIES OF ARTICLES FROM SEVERAL WRITERS ON THE LITERARY ENTERPRISE AND ACHIEVEMENTS Methodist Episcopal Church. EDITED BY F. A. ARCHIBALD, D. D. CATALOGUE OF SELECT BOOKS FOR THE HOME, THE CHURCH, AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. CINCINNATI: WALDEN AND STOWE, NEW YORK: PHILLIPS & HUNT. 1883. Copyright by WALDEN & STOWE, 1882. PREFACE. This book is believed to be a demand of the times, and especially in the denomination whence it emanates. Among the numerous agencies which Methodism has employed in her evangelizing labors, none has been more potent than the printing-press. This instrumentality was early recognized by the founders of the Church, who wisely took measures for its growth and perpetuity, and " builded better than they knew." With them a prime object was to create and foster a taste for reading, and to regulate the cost of literature, so that it might be brought within the reach of the great masses to whom they preached. Methodism was, indeed, the pioneer of cheap religious reading, organizing a system of col- portage before the term colporteur had been engrafted upon our Saxon stock. Mr. Wesley wrote books for the million, and sold them at rates which astonished the book-makers of his day. In 1782, seventeen years prior to the for- mation of the " Religious Tract Society of London," he organized, in connection with Dr. Coke, the "So- ciety for the Distribution of Religious Tracts among the Poor;" but forty years before that, while prose- cuting his evangelical work, he commenced printing and circulating tracts, and was the first to use, on an extensive scale, this means of popular information. 4 PREFACE. Asbury and his coadjutors brought the same spirit into America, and planted the germ of the present mammoth Book Concern, which has steadily grown from its earliest implantation, until now it has amassed a body of literature representing all phases of matured thought in the fields of systematic theol- ogy, moral philosophy, ecclesiastical history, religious biography, and Christian experience, and presenting to the world thoroughly digested systems, well-matured suggestions, and all needful appliances for the work of evangelization. The New York Evangelist, in re- ferring to its purely Methodistic publications, says: "No religious body in this country can present, we believe, so various and extensive a collection of de- nominational literature as the Methodist Church." That this work of the Church may be brought to the thoughtful notice of the public, and that its com- pleteness, adaptation, and due importance may be presented in a befitting and permanent form, the papers that constitute the body of this book have been carefully prepared; and the reader who shall give them a proper consideration will doubtless arise from their perusal as fully convinced as the editor hereof that the publication is not only timely but necessary- Nearly every phase of Methodism in literature has here a comprehensive treatment, and the different fields have been so fully explored as to ren- der a formal introduction almost unnecessary. These papers begin, very appropriately, with the subject, " A Reading Church." The necessity for general information and mental culture is as true to-day as when Wesley, in his declining years, imbued ! ; PREFACE. 5 with deep solicitude for the permanence of the socie- " ties he had raised up, wrote these words : It can not be that the people should grow in grace, unless they give themselves to reading. A reading people will always be a knowing people. A people who talk much will know little. Press this upon them with your might, and you will soon see the fruit of your labors." If Mr. Wesley regarded the neglect of reading in his time a serious hinderance to Methodist progress, how much greater does the impediment ap- pear when viewed in the light of a reading age The " Book Concern" itself, the reservoir and the conservator of the Church's best thoughts, as well as the medium whence they flow out to vivify and serve mankind, has its appropriate recognition in these pages, and is immediately followed by subjects of grave importance to the Church,—the methods for the dissemination of our literature, and the duty of the Church to our publishing interests. The time was when every itinerant minister was ex-officio a disseminator of the Church's literature ; but the im- mediate and pressing cares of the pastorate, which have multiplied as the spheres of labor have become contracted and the Churches have increased in mem- bership, have been accepted, in many cases, as a release from what the fathers deemed an obligation but it must be admitted that the duty, in some form or other, still remains. To the consideration of these subjects the attention of the Church is now invited, and a proper discussion of the duties of all interested can not but result in good. The three papers which follow direct the attention 6 PREFACE. to a vital issue now forced upon the attention of the Church in general, and which must be answered speedily if disastrous consequences are to be avoided. What we read, and what we should read, as well as the pernicious literature and novel-reading of the day, open up questions that concern the patriot as well as the moral philosopher; and the prospect that rises in the future, when a generation of youth fed upon the husks, and worse than husks, of much of the popular literature of the present, shall come upon the stage of action, is apjmlling to every philanthropist. Some of the fruit has already matured, as an examination of these papers and the criminal records of the country will amply show. Recent statistics disclose the alarming fact that not only in the large cities, but in the country places as well, nearly one-fourth of those arrested for crime of all grades are boys and girls between the ages of twelve and twenty. A secular newspaper, in discussing the subject, says: "That which has led many of these young persons into their unfortunate condition is the obscene literature so gen- erally read by the young people of this country." This is the crying evil of modern society. It is sapping the foundations of virtuous liberty. There is no concealing the truth uttered by the papers in this book. If the Church is to grow up a healthful influential, and permanent institution, with its mem- bership fully equipped in the brain and heart, it must press out its literature everywhere, and seek to coun- teract the streams of death that are deluging the land. The biographical and historical literature of Methodism, as will be seen by reference to the articles PREFACE. 7 on these subjects, are by no means meager. It has been thought by some that our publishers have gone to an extreme in biographical publications ; but these are the materials out of which history is made, and there seems to be a satisfactory and sufficient reason for every book of this character. The most ancient book in the possession of mankind, the Genesis of Moses, has recorded for all time a series of biographical memoirs, and,upon the Christian Church the duty is enjoined by an express command to "remember them who have spoken to us the word of God," and to imitate their faith. A learned author of one of " the biographies of Methodism says : The providence and grace of God have, from age to age, raised up men whose lives should be a beacon of hope to them who come after. f A true intellect stands like a watch-tower upon the shore.' The waves thunder against it, and vanish in spray. Its clear and steady lamp burns in the storm—a consolation and a guide, over the dark sea, to the haven of glory." The paper on the " Literature of Bible Study " is not intended to be exhaustive of the subject. Such books as Wiseman's "Sketches from the Book of Judges," which Spurgeon places among the comment- aries, and says is written " in a powerful style," have not always been introduced, although they might appropriately find a place in this department. In the " Literature of Sacred Song " we reach a subject vital to the success of the Church in the past as well as the present. The first Wesleyan hymn- book was published in 1738. It contains seventy hymns, twenty-seven of which are by Dr. "Watts. : 8 PREFACE. A number of other hymn-books were issued by the two Wesleys up to the year 1779, when the standard hymn-book was published by subscription. Seven editions of it appeared in John Wesley's life-time. He had taken immense pains with it, selecting the materials with care, methodizing them with characteristic exactness, and transcribing it with his own hand. It was his last great work—a bequest of ines- timable value to the Methodist societies and to the Christian Church at large, almost all the denomina- tions in England and in this country, both in and out of the national establishment, having availed themselves of it in their various hymn-books to a greater or less extent. That acute and captious critic, Isaac Taylor, has said of the hymns of Methodism " It may be affirmed that there is no principal ele- ment of Christianity, no main article of belief as ex- pressed by Protestant Churches, that there is no moral or ethical sentiment peculiarly characteristic of the Gospel, no height or depth of feeling proper to the spiritual life, that does not find itself, emphatically and pointedly and clearly, stated in some stanza of Charles Wesley's hymns." This is the heritage which Methodism has had bequeathed to her, and which she is asked to cherish and sanctify to the glory of God.

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