FROM ADDRESSES OF BISHOPS -- 1824

In the quadrennial address to the General Conference of 1824 the Bishops said:

"Do we come to the people in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of peace? Do we insist on the witness of the Spirit and entire sanctification through faith in Christ? Are we contented to have the doctrine of Christian Holiness an article of our faith only, without becoming experimentally acquainted with it; or are we pressing after it as 'the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus?' If Methodists give up the doctrine of entire sanctification, or suffer it to become a dead letter, we are a fallen people. It is this that lays the axe at the root of the Antinomian tree in all its forms and degrees of growth. It is this that inflames and diffuses life, arouses to action, prompts to perseverance, and urges the soul forward in every holy exercise and useful work. If the Methodists lose sight of this doctrine, they fall by their own weight. Their success in gaining numbers will be the cause of their dissolution. Holiness is the main cord that binds us together -relax this, and you loose the whole system. This will appear the more evident if we call to mind the original design of Methodism. It was to raise up and preserve a holy people. This is the principal object which Mr. Wesley, who, under God, was the great founder of our order, had in view. To this all the doctrines believed and preached by Methodists tend."