Nevertheless, no matter what may be said in jus-
tification of such centralized forms under such condi-
tions, it must be admitted that under ordinary circum-
stances such concentrated authority gives a most
dangerous form of government.
It is true that the best government is relative,
and depends upon the character of the governed ;
but, whatever may be said as to formative periods,
we can not doubt that where the governed have gen-
eral intelligence and strong conscientiousness, the
safest course is in the diffusion of power.
Wesley's government may be defended on the
ground of peculiar conditions and successful results ;
but, with different conditions, a repetition of such con-
trol would be universally deprecated, and should not
be tolerated. ■



CHAPTER II. -

WESLEY'S EARLY PLANS FOR PERPETUATING BRIT-
ISH METHODISM AND ENDOWING THE
CONFERENCE WITH POWER.
THE Eev. John Wesley did not at first realize the
vastness of the work in which he had engaged J
but when its real proportions began to be appreciated,
he had no thought of ever perrnitting it to disappear,
either during his life, or, if he could prevent it, after
his death.
Moving forward at first without any particular
plan, he followed what he believed were the indica-
tions of Providence, and so gradually found himself
doing things which he believed 'were providentially
right, but which would have shocked his early High-
Churchism.
The result was that in the course of years there
grew around him a great religious organization, which,
years before his death, had spread throughout Great
Britain and Ireland and beyond the seas. His so-
cieties and chapels dotted the kingdom, and his de-
voted preachers served wherever he sent them.
