(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
https://www.amazon.com/plea-Methodism-Cranston-Earl-1840-1932/dp/1172543062?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1172543062
Earl Cranston was born on June 27, 1840 in Athens, Ohio, United States. He was the posthumous son of Earl Cranston, a young land-surveyor, and Jane Montgomery, his wife. The father, dying of yellow fever, left the mother of his unborn son a widow at sixteen.
Earl graduated High School in Jackson, Ohio. He earned the A. B. degree (with honor) in 1861 and the A. M. degree in 1865, both from Ohio University. The Rev. Solomon Howard, D. D. , LL. D. , was the President of O. U. at the time.
He began teaching school in Ohio at the age of sixteen, and was a senior in Ohio University in 1861, when on April 18, he read President Lincoln's first call for troops and instantly enlisted.
He was in active service for three years in Ohio infantry and West Virginia cavalry regiments, attaining the rank of captain. Soon after the war, in Middleport, Ohio, he underwent a profound religious experience in a Methodist meeting, which changed the current of his life. He offered himself for the ministry, and was received into the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1867.
As a pastor he served churches in Ohio, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, and Colorado, being a presiding elder in the last named state. The General Conference of 1884, of which he was a member, elected him one of the publishing agents of the Methodist Book Concern at Cincinnati, a post in which his superior executive gifts found ample scope. In this work he became widely and favorably known throughout the denomination. Twelve years later, 1896, he was elected to the episcopacy and stationed at Portland, Oregon where his constructive policies helped the churches and institutions in their struggle against the prevailing financial depression. Thence he was transferred in 1904 to Washington, D. C. , which continued to be his official residence until his retirement for age in 1916.
As a bishop he was entrusted with important and delicate ecclesiastical tasks calling for clear judgment, accurate knowledge, and skill in human relations. On official duty he visited mission fields in the Orient, Mexico, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Notably successful was his guidance of the negotiations for uniting the competitive Methodist bodies in Japan into one autonomous Methodist Church, for which he wrote much of the constitution.
Upon his retirement in 1916 he was the guest of honor at a banquet in Washington, at which President Wilson paid an impressive tribute to his fine spirit and thorough work and to their value to the nation. Retirement did not abate Bishop Cranston's zeal or dull his effectiveness.
The high moment of the Methodist Episcopal General Conference of 1916 was that in which he dramatically clasped hands with Bishop Hendrix, the Southern representative, in token of their mutual endeavor to perfect the union which then seemed to be on the verge of success. Through the baffling years of negotiation which followed he never lost hope. With voice and pen and by numerous influential personal contacts in both Churches he pressed on, only to die before the union was consummated in 1939; but the younger men who carried through this greatest union movement in Protestant history were prompt to declare that they had gained inspiration from his courage and faith.
His public addresses reflected the clearness of his thinking and the strength of his reasoned convictions. Under the appearance of something like severity was a warm and kindly disposition. His pulpit oratory was ordinarily devoid of ornament or emotion, though on occasion, when deeply moved, he rose to the heights. His writings, chiefly limited to the church periodicals, showed the same characteristics, a sure grasp of facts, close reasoning, balanced judgment, and perfect clarity of thought and expression. Always a reader, in his later years he was a keen student of contemporary theological and philosophical literature, and wrote articles on subjects in these fields when he had long passed fourscore. His only book was Breaking Down the Walls (1915), an argument for Methodist unification.
He died at New Richmond, Ohio, in his ninety-third year. His body was temporarily buried there but was later removed to the Arlington National Cemetery.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
Bishop Cranston was tall, erect, and well-proportioned. Spectacles, a beard of formal cut, and a manner which revealed both thought and decision, gave him the air of a business executive or educational administrator.
He was married, first, October 7, 1861, to Martha A. Behan, of Middleport, Ohio, by whom he had three children, only one of whom, Earl Montgomery, survived infancy; second, May 12, 1874, to Laura Martin, of Jacksonville, Illinois of which union there were four daughters: Dora, Ethel, Laura, and Ruth; and third, November 15, 1905, to Lucie M. Parker, of Cincinnati, who survived him.
