424 History of Methodism 



this heavenly bestowment. They had come into the 

 Church, therefore, to take it as it was, and not to re- 

 form it; the rich thus consenting, perhaps rejoicing, 

 to be made low, as the most desirable form of exalta- 

 tion. And they, finding the Church to be pleased 

 with its poverty, as if that poverty might be indis- 

 pensable to its spirituality, adopted the prevailing 

 sentiment, and were content with the poverty for the 

 sake of the spirituality. They had not turned Meth- 

 odists to spoil Methodism, but only for a share of its 

 spiritual power. They were probably in fault, and as 

 far as they may have been so, I too was to blame, for 

 why did I not complain? Or if not, why did I not, 

 for myself, put away that table and that bench, and 

 those ungainly chairs? But the whole economy of 

 1818 was of a piece with this, so that the entire cost 

 to the Church of keeping the parsonage that year was 

 but a fraction over two hundred dollars. I might ex- 

 plain how it was so, if it were worth the trouble, but 

 it is not. Of this, however, I am satisfied, that I 

 have since occupied a parsonage in Columbia, when 

 the table was mahogony, and the bench belonged to 

 the piazza, and the parlor, and the dining-room, and 

 two bed-rooms were suitably furnished for decency 

 and comfort; and neither was I more useful, nor did 

 I love the people nor did they love me more, than in 

 that year of 1818. Changes of this sort require time; 

 and woe to the man who should be so inconsiderate 

 of the force of prejudice and the weaknesses of men as 

 to attempt them by main strength! He shall find his 

 end accomplished, if at all, at a fearful cost. 



"Methodism was never poverty and rags, nor a 

 clown's coat and blundering sj)eech, nor an unfur- 

 nished, half -provisioned house, nor no house at all, 



