change was made, primarily, by Wesley himself, and that this change was by addition, being an additional formulation, which, however, did not contradict, neutralize, or destroy, or even modify, the former doctrinal standards of these preachers and people.

The Reverend John Wesley prepared what he called "The Sunday Service for the Methodists in North America. With other Occasional Services." This as before stated was prepared in 1784, and was sent over for the reorganization. In making this book, Wesley took the historic Prayer Book, or Book of Common Prayer, of the Church of England, as the basis of his new book, and, by elimination, condensation, and other changes, made a revised Common Prayer for the new organization in America. It contained, however, much beside the "Sunday Service," and this book, made by Wesley and accepted by the organizing Conference, became the first authoritative book of The Methodist Episcopal Church, being prior even to the Book of Discipline, and may be said to have been woven into the very constitution of the new Church when the Church was organized.

A number of the documents or parts of this Service Book contained important doctrinal expressions, but one in particular was very specifically and wholly on the matter of doctrines, and this portion now demands special attention.

The important change here suggested was made by the Reverend John Wesley, the head of Methodism, and the author of the then accepted standards of doctrine specially found in his Fifty-two Sermons, and his Notes on the New Testament.

Of course it is to be presumed that Wesley, who had

made the standards already accepted, would not destroy or nullify them or their teachings by another formulation, and, whatever may be the force of this presumption, the fact is that Mr. Wesley did not disturb the former and existing standards, and neither did the organizing Conference.

This new formulation to which we refer consisted of Twenty-four Articles of Religion which Mr. Wesley had prepared for the reorganized American Methodism.

Mr. Wesley had authority to make these Articles of Religion, for he was the head of the Wesleyan organization, and was recognized as such, wherever organized Wesleyan Methodism was found, in America as well as in Europe, so that whatever he ordered for his American disciples was by them duly received, and duly acknowledged as of authority.

Now, it is evident, that with the addition of the Articles of Religion, the Methodist Episcopal Church was fairly well supplied with doctrines and doctrinal standards.

The General Rules emphasized practical and moral living, and religious observances; Wesley's Fifty-two Sermons gave doctrinal statements, explanations, and applications, and specially emphasized the internal and external religious life in its several stages and its various phases; the Notes of Wesley on the New Testament emphasized Biblical interpretation of the truth in the form of explanatory comments; while the Articles of Religion gave a more abstract and intellectual, or scholastic, formulation of the fundamental doctrines of general Christianity, and also declarations in opposition to certain erroneous views held by other bodies then and now.

In addition to these standards the new Church had the doctrinal statements in the Minutes of the British, and, also, the American Conferences, and now the doctrinal expressions in Wesley's "Sunday Service. And other Occasional Services," including the Apostles' Creed, which was in the Morning and Evening Prayer and in the Baptismal Service for those of Riper Years, all of which had been accepted by the organizing Conference.

With all these before the ministers and members of the new Church, there was no necessity of their going astray from sound doctrine or from Scriptural right

eousness.

With these facts it would seem that no one can doubt that, at its formation, the new Church, in 1784, had its doctrines and its doctrinal standards.

And now, at the present time, it would seem strange if any one should fail to see that the Methodist Episcopal Church has its doctrinal standards, or be bold enough to declare that it has no such standards, when, for more than a century, both in its Constitution and its statute law, the Church has been using the specific and technical expressions, "standards of doctrine," and our standards of doctrine," thus declaring that the Church has had, and has, doctrines and "standards of doctrine."

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"Book of Discipline," 1916, Constitution Article X, Section I.

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XII

THE ARTICLES OF RELIGION

NE of the most important things which Mr. John Wesley did for the American reorganization was the preparation of the series of Articles of Religion as symbols of doctrine and as standards of doctrine for the new Church.

Added to the doctrinal standards the American Methodists already possessed, they gave a greater completeness of churchly form, and by the style in which they were phrased gave a formal dignity in harmony with the full status as a Church, while this statement of the doctrines of general Protestant Christianity brought the reorganized body more fully in line with the historic Churches.

Possibly with this thought of historic Christianity before him, just as he based his Service Book on the Church of England Book of Common Prayer, so, likewise, he based his Articles of Religion for the American Methodists upon the Anglican Articles of Religion.

The English Articles numbered thirty-nine, but Mr. Wesley eliminated a number of Articles, thus reducing his Articles to twenty-four, and also made many changes in the Anglican Articles which he retained.

The Thirty-nine Articles contained some of the best formulations of the centuries, and the best thought of the leaders of the Reformation, and, as a whole, they were greatly respected by Mr. Wesley. He had known

them from his childhood. He had studied them in his youth and in his riper years, and, now, an Octogenarian, with full mental power, having to prepare Articles of Religion for a new Church, he takes the best out of the thirty-nine, and makes twenty-four Articles of Religion.

This was not simply for the purpose of brevity, and certainly not because he regarded the work as a mere form, but because he had learned to differ from a number of things in the Thirty-nine Articles, so that the changes he made indicated his doctrinal differences with the doctrinal teachings of the Thirty-nine Articles, and also the variation of Wesleyanism from some of the doctrinal formularies of the Church of England. Wesley found the basis of his Articles in the Anglican Thirty-nine Articles. In this he was wise, for the Anglican Articles were the fruitage of the ages, and, later, the product of the Protestant Reformers, but Wesley's Twenty-four Articles were a revised edition and something more, for by his eliminations, and other changes, he made his Articles say something very dif ferent from the voicings of the Thirty-nine.

The Early Protestant Reformers got rid of Romanism, while Wesley went further and got rid of Calvinism. More than that, by other changes, through elimination and insertion, he indicated, as already stated, his own doctrinal differences with the teachings of the Thirty-nine Articles, and showed the variation of crystallized Wesleyanism from the Anglican doctrines. Further he thus indicated what he wanted the new Church to believe.

The Thirty-nine Anglican Articles, however, are deserving of profound respect for their contents, and for