A HUNDRED YEARS OF METHODISM.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

HE occurrence of the Centennial Anniversary

THE

of the Nation's Birth revives the memories of the past. The actors of 1776 are roused as if by magic wand, and step upon the stage again. Scene after scene flits before us, recalling the revolutionary struggle from Lexington to Yorktown. We listen to the voices of the old patriots, and to the tones of the old bell, ringing, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof." Would there were some skillful workman to mend that bell, that our children and children's children might listen to its sound! Orators, statesmen, poets, philosophers, inventors, and discoverers pass in long procession before us. The teeming millions come from farm and shop, from land and sea. The forests turn into farms and the deserts into gardens, and songs of joy announce that oppressed colonies have become a triumphant nation, acknowledging no superior on the globe.

Nor has the world been unmoved. Civilization has extended her triumphs. The islands of the sea and the inland deserts and mountains have been explored and measured. The brave mariner has battled the icebergs of the North, and the intrepid traveler has dared the heat and dangers of the tropics. The railroad has spanned the continents and tunneled the Alpine mountains. The telegraph has cabled the ocean and joined the extremities of the earth. Africa and Asia have parted their borders, and permitted the Mediterranean to mingle its waters with the Indian Ocean, and the "high way of the East" has been opened. Despotisms have fallen, and monarchies have been remodeled. Republican ideas have spread eastward and westward. Machinery has multiplied the power of labor, and inventions have added to human comfort. The advancement of science; the diffusion of literature; the establishment of public schools; the endowment of universities; the enlargement of libraries and museums; the opening of hospitals; the care of orphans; the teaching the blind to read and the dumb to speak; the education and elevation of woman, giving her access to employments and professions; the myriad issues of the daily press, with its news from every quarter of the globe; the systems of express and cheap postages; the furnishing houses and streets with water and gas; the phosphoric match; the electric fire