cent--twice as great as the increase of population in the countries
represented; the Methodist Church in Ireland actually increasing
thirteen per cent, while the population of the country was
diminishing and the other Protestant Churches reported loss.

If the increase in Great Britain be proportionally smaller, this need
not cause surprise, in view of that vast development of energy in the
Established Church which is really due to the reflex action of
Methodism itself; that Church, with all the old advantages of wealth
and prestige and connexion with the universities and grammar schools
which she possessed in the days of her comparative supine-ness, with
her clergy roll of 23,000, and her many voluntary workers, having in
twenty-seven years almost doubled the number of her elementary
schools, largely attended by Methodist children. But the indirect
influence of Methodism is such as cannot be represented in our
returns; figures cannot show us the true spiritual status of a
Church. The total cost of the maintenance of our work in all its
branches can be estimated; and so able an authority as the Rev. Dr.
H. J. Pope stated it at from L1,500,000 to L1,750,000 pounds
annually, a sum more than equal to a dividend on fifty millions of
consols; but it is impossible to compute the profit to the human race
from that expenditure and the work it maintains. This may be said
with certainty, that other Churches have been greatly enriched
thereby. We may just refer to that remarkable religious movement, the
Salvation Army, of Methodist origin, though working on new lines;
doing such work, social and evangelistic, as Methodism has chosen for
its own, and absorbing into its ranks many of our own trained
workers. "The Salvationists, taught by Wesley," said the late Bishop
of Durham, "have learned and taught to the Church again the lost
secret of the compulsion of human souls to the Saviour."

"The Methodists themselves," says John Richard Green, "are the least
result of the Methodist revival"; the creation of "a large and
powerful and active sect," numbering many millions, extending over
both hemispheres, was, says Lecky, but one consequence of that
revival, which exercised "a large influence upon the Established
Church, upon the amount and distribution of the moral forces of the
nation, and even upon its political history"; an influence which
continues, the sons of Methodism taking their due part in local and
imperial government. Eloquent tributes to the work of Wesley are
frequent to-day, the _Times_, in an article on the centenary of his
death, saying: "The Evangelical movement in the Church of England was
the direct result of his influence and example, and since the
movements and ideas which have moulded the Church of England to-day
could have found no fitting soil for their development if they had
not been preceded by the Evangelical movement, it is no paradox to
say that the Church of England to-day is what it is because John
Wesley lived and taught in the last century.... He remains the
greatest, the most potent, the most far-reaching spiritual influence
which Anglo-Saxon Christianity has felt since the days of the
Reformation." So far the _Times_, of him whom it styles "the restorer
of the Church of England." Many impartial writers, some being ardent
friends of the English Church, have also recognised a gracious
overflow from Methodism which has blessed that Church, the
Nonconformist bodies, and the nation at large. If a man would
understand "the religious history of the last hundred years," that
"most important ecclesiastical fact of modern times," the rise and
progress of Methodism, must be studied in relation to the Anglican
and the older Nonconformist Churches, and the general "missionary
interests of Christianity": so we are taught by Dr. Stoughton, who
has traced the influence of Methodism in the general moral condition
of the country and the voluntary institutions of our age. The
doctrines once almost peculiar to Wesley and his followers--such as
entire sanctification--are now accepted and taught by many Churches,
and the religious usages of Methodism are imitated, watchnight
services being held, and revival mission services and prayer-meetings
being conducted, in Anglican churches; while the hymns of Charles
Wesley, sung by all English-speaking Protestants, and translated into
many languages, enrich the devotional life of the Christian world.

It was a fit tribute to the benefits which the English Church has
derived from the Methodist movement, when the memorial tablet to the
brothers John and Charles Wesley was unveiled in Westminster Abbey by
the late Dean Stanley, in 1872.

"The bracing breezes," said Dr. Stoughton, "came sweeping down from
the hills of Methodism on Baptist meadows as well as upon Independent
fields." We may give some few instances that will show what blessings
have come to Nonconformist Churches by the agency of Methodism.

A remarkable incident that occurred in 1872 was recorded in the
_Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_. Dr. Jobson had invited five eminent
ministers to meet the President of Conference at his house. After
breakfast their conversation quite naturally took the form of a
lovefeast, all being familiar with Methodist custom; when Dr. Allon,
Dr. Raleigh, and Dr. Stoughton all said they were converted in
Methodist chapels, and began Christian work as Methodists. Thomas
Binney said that "the direct instrumentality in his conversion was
Wesleyan," and Dr. Fraser was induced to enter the ministry by a
Wesleyan lady. Charles H. Spurgeon was converted through the
instrumentality of a Primitive Methodist local preacher; William Jay
of Bath was converted at a Methodist service; John Angell James
caught fire among the Methodists; and Thomas Raffles was a member of
the Wesleyan Society; Dr. Parker began his ministrations as a
Methodist local preacher; while Dr. Dale has shown the indebtedness
of Nonconformity to Methodism. In France and Germany Methodist agency
has been one of the strongest forces in re-awakening the old
Protestant Churches; the services held by our Connexional evangelists
send many converts to swell the fellowship of Churches not our own.
And the same effects followed the great Methodist revival in America;