242 Presidential Addresses 



he finished completely; others we must finish; and 

 there remain yet others which he did not have to 

 face, but which, if we are worthy to be the inheritors 

 of his principles, we will in our turn face with the 

 same resolution, the same sanity, the same unfalter 

 ing belief in the greatness of this country, and un 

 faltering championship of the rights of each and all 

 of our people, which marked his high and splendid 

 career. 



AT CARNEGIE HALL, NEW YORK, N. Y., FEB 

 RUARY 26, 1903, UPON THE OCCASION OF 

 THE BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE 

 BIRTH OF JOHN WESLEY 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen. 



I am glad to have the chance of addressing this 

 representative body of the great Church which Wes 

 ley founded, on the occasion of the commemoration 

 of the two hundredth anniversary of his birth. 

 America, moreover, has a peculiar proprietary claim 

 on Wesley's memory, for it is on our continent that 

 the Methodist Church has received its greatest de 

 velopment. In the days of our Colonial life Meth 

 odism was not on the whole a great factor in the 

 religious and social life of the people. The Congre- 

 gationalists were supreme throughout most of New 

 England; 'the Episcopalians on the seaboard from 

 New York southward; while the Presbyterian con 

 gregations were most numerous along what was 

 then the entire Western frontier; and the Quaker, 



