And bow before Him, and adore.”
Revelation 9—Two Ineffective Reformation Woes
9:1. And the fifth angel sounded.—The Wesleyan movement began, leading up to the Methodist Episcopal Church, United American Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Church, African United Methodist Protestant Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Methodist Protestant Church, Wesleyan Methodist Church, Methodist Episcopal Church South, Congregational Methodist Church, New Congregational Methodist Church, Zion Union Apostolic Church, Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, Free Methodist Church, Reformed Methodist United Episcopal Church, and Independent Methodist Churches.—1 Cor. 3:3.
And I saw a star.—John Wesley became a star in the Anglican heavens in 1728, at which time he was ordained a priest by Bishop Potter.
Fall from heaven unto the earth.—For many years Wesley had no thought of forming a sect; and yet, unconsciously, he began to do so from the time he was ordained. He was then in Oxford University, where “the completeness of his self-devotion to the service of God, combined with his rare moral courage and superior strength of character, caused him to be recognized as the leader of a group of under-graduates which was nicknamed the ‘Holy Club’ by the ungodly of the University, who derided its members for their rigid rules and charitable practices by calling them ‘Methodists.’ ” (McC.) “He fully accepted the recognized teaching of the Church of England, and publicly appealed to the Prayer-Book and the Thirty-nine articles in justification of the doctrines he preached. Methodism began in a revival of personal religion, and it professed to have but one aim, to spread Scriptural holiness over the land. Its doctrines were in no sense new.” (Brit.) The work in the Western World, particularly in the United States, grew to vast proportions. “The preachers in the South determined upon administration of the sacraments, and a committee was chosen who ordained themselves and others. The Northern preachers opposed this step and for several years the Connexion was on the verge of disruption. Wesley perceived that the Society would disintegrate unless effective [pg 156] measures were speedily taken, and, aided by two presbyters of the Church of England, (one of whom was James Creighton) early in 1784 he ordained Thomas Coke, a presbyter of that Church, as Superintendent.”—Brit.
His brother Charles heartily disapproved of this and wrote the following (which does not, however, appear with his other hymns in the Methodist hymnal):
“So easily are bishops made
By man or woman's whim;