God gave the word, and great has been The preachers' company. What wonders have our fathers seen! What signs their children see! One song of praise for mercies past, Through all our courts resound; One voice of prayer, that to the last Grace may much more abound. All hail! a hundred years ago! And when our lips are dumb, Be millions heard rejoicing so, A hundred years to come. CHAPTER XIX. WESLEY'S CHARACTER AS ESTIMATED BY UNBIASED JUDGES. REV. DR. RIGG, author of _The Living Wesley_, says: "No single man for centuries has moved the world as Wesley moved it; since Luther, no man." Dr. Abel Stevens, the historian of Methodism, says Mr. Wesley "possessed, in an eminent degree, one trait of a master mind--the power of comprehending and managing at once the outlines and details of plans. It is this power that forms the philosophical genius in science; it is essential to the successful commander and great statesman. It is illustrated in the whole economical system of Methodism." Bishop Coke, in speaking of Mr. Wesley's unbounded benevolence, says: "Sometimes, indeed, the love which believeth and hopeth all things, of which he had so large a share, laid him open to imposition, and wisdom slept at the door of love; if there was any fault in his public character, it was an excess of mercy." Mr. Lecky (no mean judge) has this to say: "The evangelical movement which directly or indirectly originated with Wesley produced a general revival of religious feeling which has incalculably increased the efficiency of almost every religious body in the community, while at the same time it has materially affected party politics." In Green's _History of the English People_ he speaks of Wesley and Whitefield thus: "In power as a preacher Wesley ranked next to Whitefield; as a hymn writer he stood second to his brother Charles. But, combining in some degree the excellences of either, he possessed qualities in which both were utterly deficient--an indefatigable industry, cool judgment, command over others, a faculty of organization, and a union of patience and moderation, with an imperious ambition which marked him as a ruler of men." "If men may be measured by the work they have accomplished, John Wesley can hardly fail to be recorded as the greatest figure that has appeared in the religious world since the days of the Reformation."