510 History of Methodism 



dence of God has recently shown yon how insecure and uncertain 

 are all earthly riches, and admonished you to use the goods intrusted 

 to you as stewards of our Lord, making "to yourselves friends of 

 the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive 

 you into everlasting habitations." 



It is in seasons of trial like the present, and when our own 

 necessities seem to demand all our efforts and our care, that Faith 

 enacts its brightest deeds and records its sublimest triumphs. So 

 was it with the widow of Sarepta when she used her last handful 

 of meal to make the prophet's bread. So was it when another 

 widow cast her mites into the treasury of the Lord and gave all the 

 living which she had. So was it with the disciples at Antioch dur- 

 ing the famine in the days of Claudius Csesar, when every man, ac- 

 cording to his ability, sent relief to the brethren which dwelt in 

 Judea. So was it with the Churches of Macedonia, of whom St. 

 Paul bore witness " how that in a great trial of affliction the abun- 

 dance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches 

 of their liberality." So was it with the Philippians, whose generous 

 remembrance of St. Paul prompted them to send to the relief of his 

 necessities once and again at Thessaloniea, and afterward to Pome, 

 by the hands of Epaphroditus. Surely if they have sown unto you 

 spiritual things, you should gladly minister to them your carnal 

 things. 



We should not fully perform our duty in this Address, beloved 

 brethren, if we did not exhort you to maintain with all diligence 

 the integrity and purity of your Christian character in the midst of 

 the severe ordeal through which the providence of God is calling 

 yoa to pass, and so to use the afflictions of these times "that they 

 may work out for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of 

 glory." " We have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the 

 end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." 

 "Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and 

 entire, Avanting nothing." It is the old lesson of our Christianity, 

 that through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of 

 God. Poverty and sufferings have been the lot of the faithful in 

 all ages, and these have developed the stern and manly virtues of 

 th» Christian character. The shaking of kingdoms, the confusion 

 of human plans, and the turbulent agitation of human passions, are 

 only preparatory to the establishment of that kingdom which shall 

 never be shaken — to the order and harmony of that system which 

 shall never be changed — and to the' introduction of that perfect 



