The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 200

The European Union in Prophecy
of forming a new denomination, but he organized them under what was called the
Methodist Connection.
Mysterious and trying was the opposition which these preachers encountered
from the established church; yet God, in His wisdom, had overruled events to cause
the reform to begin within the church itself. Had it come wholly from without, it would
not have penetrated where it was so much needed. But as the revival preachers were
churchmen, and labored within the pale of the church wherever they could find
opportunity, the truth had an entrance where the doors would otherwise have
remained closed. Some of the clergy were roused from their moral stupor and became
zealous preachers in their own parishes. Churches that had been petrified by
formalism were quickened into life.
In Wesley's time, as in all ages of the church's history, men of different gifts
performed their appointed work. They did not harmonize upon every point of doctrine,
but all were moved by the Spirit of God, and united in the absorbing aim to win souls
to Christ. The differences between Whitefield and the Wesleys threatened at one time
to create alienation; but as they learned meekness in the school of Christ, mutual
forbearance and charity reconciled them. They had no time to dispute, while error and
iniquity were teeming everywhere, and sinners were going down to ruin.
The servants of God trod a rugged path. Men of influence and learning employed
their powers against them. After a time many of the clergy manifested determined
hostility, and the doors of the churches were closed against a pure faith and those who
proclaimed it. The course of the clergy in denouncing them from the pulpit aroused
the elements of darkness, ignorance, and iniquity. Again and again did John Wesley
escape death by a miracle of God's mercy. When the rage of the mob was excited
against him, and there seemed no way of escape, an angel in human form came to his
side, the mob fell back, and the servant of Christ passed in safety from the place of
danger.
Of his deliverance from the enraged mob on one of these occasions, Wesley said:
"Many endeavoured to throw me down while we were going down hill on a slippery
path to the town; as well judging that if I was once on the ground, I should hardly rise
any more. But I made no stumble at all, nor the least slip, till I was entirely out of
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