586 History of Methodism 



matter and manner of the Methodist preaching of that day, a great 

 deal of what we had was of a controversial nature ; for the doctrinal 

 opinions of the Church were so completely antagonistic to the Wes- 

 leyan doctrines that it was not possible for Methodists ever to work 

 themselves into the affections of the people until they had triumphed 

 on many hard-fought fields of doctrinal battle. All our preachers 

 who -had any original gifts and logical talents became intense stu- 

 dents of "Fletcher's Checks," and with them they slew their oppo- 

 nents as with a burnished sword. In the present day (1864) with 

 all the cultivation of Methodist preachers, I doubt whether there is 

 a man in the South Carolina or Georgia Conferences who could 

 compete with one of these old preachers in argument against the old 

 type of Calvinism. As to the manner of Methodist preaching of 

 that day, it abounded in effective delineations of character, both as 

 to the wicked and the righteous. And I have this much to say in 

 behalf of it : I never have seen any preaching since, and I never 

 expect to see any preaching while I live, have the same wonderful 

 effect that this style of preaching produced in the early times of 

 Methodist ministration. The preachers most generally selected 

 their texts with some sort of reference to this style of preaching — 

 such as : " Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him ; 

 for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked ! 

 it shall be ill with him ; for the reward of his hands shall be given 

 him." (Isaiah iii. 10, 11.) In their exposition of these texts, so 

 fully had they studied human nature, and so well did they under- 

 stand the workings of the carnal mind, that they, as it were, laid 

 the sinner down on the table like an anatomist, and, taking their 

 scalpel of truth, laid bare muscle after muscle, vein after vein, ar- 

 tery after artery, until the sinner felt that unless he could obtain 

 mercy he was a lost man. In this way the remarkable convictions, 

 common in those times, were produced ; and so well was this work 

 done, and so highly did God approve of it, that for many long years 

 I never saw a Methodist meeting in which there were no convictions, 

 and generally there were conversions. They discoursed on the 

 righteous in the same masterly style ; they took him up from the 

 starting-point — his first convictions — how he did and felt. These 

 preachers were so perfectly acquainted with all the emotions of the 

 heart that when they preached on the character of the righteous, 

 they put Christians on the work of self-examination. It was a work 

 of examination and exact measurement, on which was hinged their 

 eternal stake, the like of which you never saw. The people be- 



