Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][graphic]
[ocr errors]

Not in A

9118107

THE SYMBOL

OF

METHODISM

BEING

AN INQUIRY INTO THE HISTORY, AUTHORITY,
INCLUSIONS, AND USES OF THE

TWENTY-FIVE ARTICLES

[blocks in formation]

SMITH & LAMAR, AGENTS

PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH,
NASHVILLE, TENN., DALLAS, TEX.

1907

RNB

R.B

T

COPYRIGHT, 1907

BY

SMITH & LAMAR

PREFACE.

THE present treatise is not meant to be controversial; but the author is only frank in admitting that recent discussions and official actions which have seemed to call in question, and to some extent actually have called in question, the adequacy of the Confessional Articles of Methodism have been the occasion of its writing. The matters herein set forth, and the manner of their treatment, appear to me to be such as will contribute to a correct understanding of the present doctrinal situation in Methodism. Some seven and twenty to thirty years ago, in connection with the study of the "Conference Course" for young ministers and the Methodist "Standards," I read Bishop Burnet's "History of the English Reformation." It was then that there came to me a vision of the transcendent historical importance of Methodism as the successor and heir of the great intellectual and doctrinal movements of English and German Protestantism. From that day to this Methodism has seemed to me to be the sublimation of those spiritual and intellectual forces which began with the double revival of letters and religion. The initial effort as represented in the Lutheran movement was to recover the simple theology of apostolic times. Through several stages this

b

« PreviousContinue »