“The Evangelical movement in the Church of England was the direct result of his influence and example, and since the movements and ideas which have moulded the Church of England to-day could have found no fitting soil for their development if they had not been preceded by the Evangelical movement, it is no paradox to say that the Church of England to-day is what it is because John Wesley lived and taught in the last century....  He remains the greatest, the most potent, the most far-reaching spiritual influence which Anglo-Saxon Christianity has felt since the days of the Reformation.”  So far the Times, of him whom it styles “the restorer of the Church of England.”  Many impartial writers, some being ardent friends of the English Church, have also recognised a gracious overflow from Methodism which has blessed that Church, the Nonconformist bodies, and the nation at large.  If a man would understand “the religious history of the last hundred years,” that “most important ecclesiastical fact of modern times,” the rise and progress of Methodism, must be studied in relation to the Anglican and the older Nonconformist Churches, and the general “missionary interests of Christianity”:  so we are taught by Dr. Stoughton, who has traced the influence of Methodism in the general moral condition of the country and the voluntary institutions of our age.  The doctrines once almost peculiar to Wesley and his followers—­such as entire sanctification—­are now accepted and taught by many Churches, and the religious usages of Methodism are imitated, watchnight services being held, and revival mission services and prayer-meetings being conducted, in Anglican churches; while the hymns of Charles Wesley, sung by all English-speaking Protestants, and translated into many languages, enrich the devotional life of the Christian world.

It was a fit tribute to the benefits which the English Church has derived from the Methodist movement, when the memorial tablet to the brothers John and Charles Wesley was unveiled in Westminster Abbey by the late Dean Stanley, in 1872.

“The bracing breezes,” said Dr. Stoughton, “came sweeping down from the hills of Methodism on Baptist meadows as well as upon Independent fields.”  We may give some few instances that will show what blessings have come to Nonconformist Churches by the agency of Methodism.

A remarkable incident that occurred in 1872 was recorded in the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine.  Dr. Jobson had invited five eminent ministers to meet the President of Conference at his house.  After breakfast their conversation quite naturally took the form of a lovefeast, all being familiar with Methodist custom; when Dr. Allon, Dr. Raleigh, and Dr. Stoughton all said they were converted in Methodist chapels, and began Christian work as Methodists.  Thomas Binney said that “the direct instrumentality in his conversion was Wesleyan,” and Dr. Fraser was induced to enter the ministry by a Wesleyan lady.