William Black: The Apostle of Methodism in the Maritime Provinces of CanadaMacLean, John
Religion
William Black: The Apostle of Methodism in the Maritime Provinces of Canada
MacLean, John
Black, William, 1760-1834; Wesleyan Methodist Church -- Clergy -- Biography
Without any propagandist effort, Methodism was spreading.
Spontaneously it had gone out over Great Britain and Ireland, and into
what is now the United States, to the West Indies, and Nova Scotia,
but the time was ripe for complete organization as a missionary
church. The time had come and with it the man in the person of Thomas
Coke. While Nova Scotia and the American colonies were suffering from
the Revolution, Wesley and Coke had met for the first time, and thus
began a union which made Methodism a great missionary organization.
The man for America had not yet come to the fullness of his power,
but Francis Asbury was reaching out and getting ready to become
essentially the founder of Methodism in the United States. The man for
Nova Scotia had not yet arrived, as he was only a stripling at his
father's home in Amherst, and was still a stranger to the grace of
God.
The introduction of Methodism into Nova Scotia was not the
establishment of a sect or a party in dogmatic theology, but it was
the revival of spiritual Christianity, exempt from the trammels of
ecclesiasticism and the exclusiveness of dogmatism. As such it became
a strong and elevating factor in the social life of the people,
imparting lofty ideals, which were wrought out in moral strength,
making loyal citizens and men and women of power and gentleness.
There was something lacking to secure unity and strength in the
scattered forces of the new movement. Prayer meetings and preaching
services were held, and souls were won to the faith, still there was
no organization and there could not be until a leader should come
forth, who would command by his genius and concentrated effort unity
of administration.
Though not the original founder of Methodism in Eastern British
America, the man who in the providence of God was destined to unite
the scattered forces and to give birth to the new movement, and who,
by his intrepid spirit and enthusiastic and incessant labours as a
great evangelist, was to spread the doctrines which were so full of
power in the revival in England, throughout that portion of territory
now known as the Maritime Provinces, was William Black, a man of faith
and power, whose memory is revered by thousands, and whose descendants
still abide with us.
II.
MAKING THE MAN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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