THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Japan. That in Japan has been affiliated with the missions of the two Episcopal Methodist Churches which have formed the Methodist Church of Japan (ut sup., I). The connectional educational institutions are: Victoria University, Toronto, the germ of which was planted in 1837, and it was incorporated in 1841; Mount Allison College, founded in 1840 at Sackville, N. B.; Wesleyan Theological College, Montreal; Wesley College, Winnipeg; Albert College, Bellville, Ont.; Alma College, St. Thomas; Methodist College, St. Johns, Newfoundland; Columbian College, New Westminister, British Columbia; Ontario Ladies' College, Whitby, incorporated in 1874; and the Stanstead Wesleyan College, Stanstead, Quebec, established in 1873. Long is the list of able and devoted men who have built up this noble structure. Among those who have finished their course can be mentioned, without exciting jealousy, Egerton Byerson (q.v.), the renowned educator, George Douglas, whose memory is ever green, Samuel S. Nelles (q.v.), so long president of Victoria University, and William Morley Punshon (q.v.), whose preaching, administration, and guidance promoted every interest of the advancing church and country. To-day the vastness of the territory of the Methodist Church of Canada is suggested by the names of its conferences on the continent of North America: Toronto, London, Hamilton, Bay of Quinte, Montreal, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia. Distributed over this immense area are its 2,476 ministers and 334,637 members.
V. The Doctrinal Standards of Methodism: John Wesley was a clergyman of the Church of England. The societies which he formed were organizations for the conversion of men and their religious development. He aimed to retain his I. Doctrinal converts within the pale of that great Bases. national church, and from its clergymen the majority of Methodists received the sacraments. He and they believed the fundamental doctrines of universal Christendom, as contained in the articles, homilies, and ritual to which they had been accustomed from childhood. Nevertheless, in the judgment of Wesley, certain doctrines of the New Testament were neglected by the clergy or robbed of their true proportion and emphasis. These doctrines were by him considered vital to the spread of pure Christianity. Accordingly he expounded them in his conferences, published them with comments in the Minutes and preached upon them. Also he found it necessary to write and publish sermons upon the doctrines which Methodism emphasized; for his preaching excited vehement opposition from unsympathetic Anglican clergymen, and from Presbyterian, Independent, and Baptist ministers. The Baptists differed from him on the method and subjects of baptism and its relation to the reception of the Lord's Supper. To preserve unity of belief among the preachers and members of his societies, he prepared Notes on the New Testament, wherein are clear explanations of the pivotal passages upon which he based the views he so firmly believed and fervently preached. To render impossible the preaching of
heretical doctrines in the chapels, the deeds by which they were held contained a limitation of the powers of trustees in the following words: " Provided always, that the persons preach no other doctrine than is contained in Mr. Wesley's ' Notes on the New Testament,' and four volumes of ' Sermons.' " The same provision subsists in the model deed of the Wesleyan Methodist Church (in England, Ireland, etc.) in the following words: " No person shall be allowed to preach, who shall maintain, promulgate, or teach any Doctrine or Practise contrary to what is contained in certain Notes on the New Testament, commonly reputed to be the Notes of the said John Wesley, and in the first four volumes of Sermons, commonly reputed to be written and published by him."
When introducing these Sermons to the public, Wesley said,
" The following sermons contain the substance of what I have been preaching for eight or nine years past. During that time, I have frequently spoken in public on every subject in the ensuing collection, and I am not conscious that there is any one point of doctrine, on which I am accustomed to speak in public, which is not incidentally, if not professedly, laid before every Christian reader. Every serious man, who peruses these, will, therefore, see in the clearest manner what these doctrines are, which I embrace and teach as the essentials of true religion."
It was for this purpose that Wesley made these Sermons so large and vital a part of his doctrinal standards. Certain discrepancies have been alleged with respect to the number of these Sermons. The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Great Britain and Ireland and the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States recognize fifty-three; the Methodist Church of Canada and the Methodist Episcopal Church South but fifty-two, and certain critics but forty-three. The discrepancies are of no significance, as all agree on the smallest number, stated in the model deed, and all essential truths of the system of doctrine on which Methodism depends are discussed in the forty-three, and nothing additional of doctrinal value is contained in the nine or ten added by Wesley after he had made the others a standard.
The distinctive doctrinal features of Methodism are suggested by the titles of these Sermons : " Scriptural Christianity," " The Almost Christian," " Awake thou that sleepest," " The Way to the Kingdom," " Salvation by Faith," " Justification by Faith," " The Righteousness of Faith," " The First Fruits of the Spirit," " The Spirit of Bondage and Adoption," " The Master of the 2. Dis- New Birth," " The Witness of our own tinctive Spirit," two sermons on the "Witness
Doctrinal of the Spirit," " Sin in Believers," thir-
Features. teen sermons on the Sermon on the Mount, " The Nature of Enthusiasm," " A Caution against Bigotry," " Christian Perfection," " The Judgment." Incidental to the direct exposition of these topics the distinction between Wesley's Arminian theology and that of Calvin is pointed out; and the dangerous license of Antinomianism condemned. Wesley emphasized foreknowledge, but opposed the doctrines of election and reprobation as taught by Calvin. Magnifying free will and resultant responsibility, he acknowl-