John Wesley keenly appreciated the dangers that attend public favor.
Among the quaint but intensely practical counsels he gives are
some as to the art of escaping popularity:
How shall we avoid popularity? We mean such esteem and love
from the people as is not for the glory of God. 1. Earnestly
pray for a piercing sense of the danger and the sinfulness of
it. 2. Take care how you ingratiate yourself with any people
by slackness of discipline. 3. Or by any method which another
preacher can not follow. 4. Warn the people among whom you are
most of esteeming or loving you too much. 5. Converse sparingly
with those who are particularly fond of you.
Times and men are strangely changed since those words were
written. What preacher to-day has to study anxiously “how to
avoid popularity,” or finds any necessity for warning the people
among whom he labors against “esteeming him or loving him too
much!”--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”
(2407)
=Population=--See CITIES OF THE WORLD; CITY, GROWTH OF A GREAT.
=Population, Non-Church and Church-Membership=--See CHURCH
STATISTICS.
=Population, Over-=--See SURVIVAL.
=Populations, Religious, of World=--See RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS OF THE
WORLD.
=Position, Advantage of=--See FAVORITISM.
=Position and Worth=--See WORTH, ESTIMATING.