The Doctrinal Integrity of Methodism (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878. Excerpt: ... dfcatrte fourth. I Have mentioned a number of facts which indicate a strong tendency, at this time, toward extreme theories and adventurous speculation--a tendency so wide-spread and infectious as, perhaps, to threaten even the integrity of doctrine in the Church. Many things conspire at this juncture to aggravate the tendency. Christian civilization is undergoing great changes. Industries are being put on a new footing by means of a new motive power and the use of machinery in every department of labor. Great corporations and monopolies are carrying on the world's work. They have displaced individual enterprise in many employments. Travel, both by land and water, has been revolutionized. Every thing is quickened amazingly. Conversation is carried on by lightning, and the ends of the earth have been brought together. This is all the result of intense mental activity, and tends to increase the activity which has produced it. Human thought is at work upon the forces of nature beyond anything known in the past. It is prying into the occult relation of natural laws with most wonderful acuteness and force. Every day witnesses a new discovery and lays bare a new secret. Priceless rewards of mental effort provoke to more arduous endeavor. The mental stimulus is tremendous, and the action produced by it in many cases intense to a degree that is unhealthy. The tension is unnatural. The results are in many respects of great value, but the over-tension is a high price, in many cases, for the good result. In this evil world there is ever some evil going on along with the good, to balance it in a measure. The mental tension of our day brings along much good with it. It brings, also, some evil. Thought, over-stimulated, can not always work safely. There will be lesion ...