Wty erti eee Poreenes Wan ae y Las i oe. a - =) - ith Wesley on Religious Education A Study of John Wesley’s Theories and Methods of the Education of Children in Religion by/ JOHN W. PRINCE Professor of Bible and Religious Education in the University of Chattanooga ——————— The Methodist Book Concern New York Cincinnati Copyright, 1926, by JOHN W. PRINCE All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian. Printed in the United States of America TO MY MOTHER: In REVERENT MEMORY AM aR mt PYROS gy iis fad} eure sly J ‘ Kents wed 3 ¢é A ths! E fait ray \ Py ae LPG) ele 2 f zy J i et CONTENTS PAGE PACRMOWLE DGMENTS aiier ie oliite lariat ee ery CON. Us Gl aes ta tien Waa 7 AN ERQUUCTION GH emo treeNTI Ay i ciel a eee UE Gee ghar amavena eMC we 9 CHAPTER I THEORY OF HuMAN NATURE ROT ONAL SIT) ANG CHET ALLO us hale Vite Ub ur styiut Rare Gin gemeete at 13 II. The Effect of Original Sin Upon the Human Race....... 21 III. The Relation Between Original Sin and Actual Sin...... 24 Mey eee LOS EXTEN MOL IGHTANIC Yh icmyaicrit ak aes leas a eR ewe lease ube oe V. The Work of Grace in the Salvation of Man............ 34 ‘CHAPTER II THE SALVATION OF ADULTS PPE CDETILAUCE Hire ais a einer ys WNL Gea eR noe Mae eee Harel wae 44 II. Justification by Faith and Regeneration................ 50 PUTO ME ANCUUNCH IONE oh tte Reve any Gor tare ena ek CelN Weare ae CUBED DNL! gait AM 57 LV; Assurance, or ‘the Witness of the Spirit. 22. es 63 Me EIVICE IIS OTS ITACHI te hire te week ale y iy ety yeast Rea GATS 64 VI. The Relation Between Wesley’s Doctrines and Methodist Lee ESTA nb alk cee Guua RTM Ob Dakel dan Mau a MS ean PRU as 76 CHAPTER III THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN: GENERAL THEORY I. Wesley’s Belief in the Religion of Childhood............ 81 II. The Purpose of Religious Education................... 87 III. The Salvation of Children by Baptism and Training..... 93 IV. The Salvation of Children by Training and Conversion .. 97 6 CONTENTS CHAPTER IV THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS PAGE I. The Influence of Mrs. Susanna Wesley Upon the Educa- tional: Pheory of John Wesley’. 54: 72 sure 103 II. Religious Education in the Home: (aye Discipiines siete) wal erases aCe mee ee II5 (D) ,Anstructiany. 0006 aay eats eaten ence ae hee ieee 122 (c) The Children's ‘Textsi: (xe 2. ance ene 125 II. Religious Education in the Methodist Societies ......... 132 IV. Religious Education in the Schools ................06- 136 CONCLUSIONS io ireicscoeew ooitbw Sibson 7 eae eae aerate eee ae ae 148 APPENDIX y visree aca d Sabinde Ceuta gta a Rote eee Re ae a 149 BIBLIOGRAPHY 9 jtla's hiv tee Gola aicle Gacy eee aT ee eee 154 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many minds and hands have contributed directly and indi- rectly toward the preparation of this present study. I wish to name the following especially for their aid: I am particularly grateful to Professor Luther A. Weigle, not only for suggesting the subject, but also for patient and kindly criticism and personal encouragement during the period of its preparation. Helpful suggestions and guidance to valuable source mate- rials for this study came from the Rev. Arundel Chapman, M.A., B.D.; the Rev. George Eayrs, F.R.Hist.S.; the Rev. Thomas F. Lockyer, B.A.; the Rev. John S. Simon, D.D.; the Rev. John Telford, B.A.; and the Rev. Principal H. B. Workman, D.Litt., D.D.—all of England. The staffs at the libraries of Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, New Jersey; of Garrett Biblical Institute, Evanston, Illinois; of Union Theological Seminary, New York City; of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut; and of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, gave me generous aid in the collection of materials. I would mention especially Miss Emily H. Hall and Miss Anne S. Pratt, of the Yale Library, for their willing cooperation. The consent of either author or publisher concerned has been secured in the use of copyright material quoted in this book. I am glad to express to the following my obligation for the use of such quotations from their publications: Professor Hugh R. Mackintosh, New College, Edinburgh, Scotland. Charles Scribner’s Sons. Thomas Nelson & Sons. John Murray for Smith, Elder & Co., London. Hodder & Stoughton, Limited, London. The Methodist Book Concern. Pea ke. Chattanooga, Tennessee. WH \ ' 4 nit Cee Sanat wnt eK “4 ey INTRODUCTION THE religious-educational theory of John Wesley merits critical study for many reasons. His position in history as the founder of a religious movement which has extended into every country in the world, numbering to-day some forty million mem- bers, and constituting one of the largest branches of the Protes- tant faith, justifies the investigation of an aspect of his thought that has been neglected. Besides this, in his own day he was a pioneer of popular education, stimulating the intellectual life of the English people and conducting educational enterprises continuously for over fifty years. Furthermore, the far-reach- ing religious-educational work of the Methodist Episcopal Church continues in unbroken line a movement which he initiated. To be sure, much has been written about the extent and nature of his endeavors to spread education. The philanthropic aspect of the schools he conducted has received thorough treat- ment. The story of the enterprise to which he was most devoted, the Kingswood School, has been told in a sympathetic way by three of its former pupils. The history of the Sunday-school movement of the Methodist Episcopal Church has been written, and takes account of his relation in general to the rise and prog- ress of Sunday schools. But none of these studies, nor any other so far as can be discovered, attempts to set forth the theories which form the underlying basis of his educational practice. In fact, his theories have been generally overlooked in the attention given to their immediate application. To treat this aspect of the life and work of John Wesley is the purpose of the following investigation. This essay will give an exposition not only of Wesley’s methods of religious education, but also of the fundamental doc- trines underlying them. In fact, the two lines of research are inextricably joined, and, in the last analysis, constitute one and the same problem, both finding their source in what he con- ceived to be his mission. The key to all his labors is his passion 9 10 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION to lead sinners to inward and outward salvation, and to deliver English life from the inroads of vice and irreligion and start it on the way to righteousness and holiness. He was therefore first and foremost an evangelist, seeking by the methods of the revival to bring men to a new birth from sin and unhappiness into the freedom and privilege of sonship with God. But his mission to children began as early as his evangelistic work, and kept pace with it in intensity of purpose and breadth of scope. This com- bination in him of the evangelist and the educator suggests the main problem of this dissertation. It is to discover the relation- ship in Wesley’s system of theology between the conception that the religious life of adults is built up around the experience of conversion and the conception that the same life is dependent in the case of children upon definite religious instruction. Seldom have the two conceptions been found together in individuals, or in movements from their inception. Usually, the awakened inter- est in education is one of the effects of the revival rather than a movement parallel with it. Many evangelists have preached with great power, but only a few of the greatest have combined with it an eagerness to spread education. What explanation is there for the existence of the two lines of effort in Wesley? Since everything he did has a connection with his desire to save sinners, in what sense did he believe the education of children would contribute to their salvation? Historically, there have been two wenerat theories of the religion of childhood. According to one theory, children can be brought to saving relationship with God only when they are old enough to undergo conscious conversion in the way of grown people, and until that time are to be left alone to grow up in sin. According to the other theory, children are to be trained in the faith from their earliest years, and when they reach the age of personal responsibility they are to take the vows of discipleship for themselves without any strained efforts for emotional crises. The crises may be present, but they are not deemed necessary nor are they encouraged. This latter is the theory of the Church of England, to which Wesley belonged all his life, and it would be natural to expect him to favor it. Which of these, if either, INTRODUCTION II was his view? If he held a different view, what was that, and what the theories springing from it? In order to determine this it will be necessary to get at his theology, to bring together its various strands and correlate them. Unfortunately, this has never been done in any but a summary way. Theologians making the broad assumption— which is correct in the main—that he shared the doctrines of the Reformers, have presented his position but in skeleton. They have paid slight attention to the particular ways in which he jus- tified his position. And what is more pertinent here, some of the minor points in which he could differ from the Reformers and still hold their general conclusions, bear directly upon children and are among those that have received next to no treatment at all. It will be necessary, therefore, first to present his theory of redemption. This will include discussions of his theory of human nature in its ideal and present conditions, his doctrine of con- version and the life consequent upon it. In the second place, an investigation will be made into the bearing of these doctrines upon the life and education of children. No attempt will be made to present his theological positions in full except where they are related definitely to the education of children. Some matters that in a study of Wesley’s theology would need ampler treat- ment will be but briefly mentioned in this study of his educational theory. Throughout it must be borne in mind that Wesley was a preacher and not a philosopher or a systematic theologian. He was “remarkably inconsistent,” as Doctor Workman says, for a man possessing a mind so unusually expert in logic." His aim was practical rather than speculative. He was indeed deeply interested in philosophy and theology, but particularly as these 1Workman, The Place of Methodism in the Catholic Church, p. 95. Compare also, for a concrete example, Curtis, The Christian Faith, p. 378. In discussing Wesley’s views of sinless perfection, he says: “I have found no way of harmon- izing all of Wesley’s statements at this point; and I am inclined to think that he never entirely cleared up his own thinking concerning the nature and scope of sin. At first I believed that a path out of his seeming inconsistency might be found by means of an exact chronology, but a severer examination of all his writings forced me to give up even that hope.’’ Abundant other comments of this tenor are to be found in Curtis’s book. 12 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION bore upon his main work and helped him to perform it. Conse- quently, oftentimes at points of crucial importance to the inves- tigator he does not enter into elaborate discussion or have deep concern for consistency. This necessitates in several instances a recourse to analogy and deduction in the endeavor to decipher his theories. CHARTER 1 THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE I. Original Sin and the Fall “THE three grand scriptural doctrines” at the center of Wesley’s theology of the nature and conditions of salvation are original sin, justification by faith, and holiness consequent there- from.’ His-.well-known summary of his creed shows the natural relation of these fundamentals to each other: “Our main doc- trines, which include all the rest, are three—that of repentance, of faith, and of holiness. The first of these we account, as it were, the porch of religion; the next, the door; the third, religion itself.”* The interchange of the word “repentance” for “original sin” in these two statements is justified, repentance, roughly speaking, being the conviction that one is in original sin. Their exact correspondence will be explained in due course. Nothing Wesley ever said or wrote can be detached from these three prin- ciples of his system. How important and indispensable he con- sidered them is shown from a letter he wrote in 1764 to forty or fifty clergymen, evangelicals of the Church of England, in which he proposed a union of all clergymen who agree in the essentials —original sin, justification by faith, and holiness of heart and life—with the only other condition that the lives of the men who 1 Wesley: Works, Vol. VI, p. 757. All references in the footnotes to Wesley’s Works indicate ‘‘The Works of the Reverend John Wesley, A.M.,’’ New York, 1831, edited by John Emory and published in seven volumes. Although this edition is styled the “first American complete and standard edition,” it does not include several of Wesley’s writings employed in this study. References to these will be especially indicated. Furthermore, although Emory’s edition of Wesley’s Works contains his Journal, this study has used the standard edition of “The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M.,” London, 1909-1916, edited by the Rev. Nehemiah Curnock and issued in eight volumes. This is the latest and most scholarly edition, and contains notes and documents not easily acces- sible elsewhere. All references to the Journal in the footnotes refer to this edi- tion. 2 Works, Vol. V, p. 333. 13 14 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION hold these answer to their doctrine.* These doctrines he felt to be of deeper importance than others for vital religion. Among any people ignorant of these Christianity could not accomplish any- thing.* The other doctrines which he stressed do, as he claimed, naturally lead to or spring from these three fundamentals. Taken as a whole they constitute a system of theology whose structural unity has received little written appreciation. Of the three doctrines, the doctrine of original sin is the first in order and importance. It forms the porch of his theological structure. From it he derives his theory of human nature. Wes- ley was profoundly ‘convinced of the fact of the Fall. He was much concerned over the current denial of depravity by the rationalists and their insistence upon the goodness of human nature. Such a denial, he said, is no ‘other than old Deism in a new dress; seeing it saps the very foundation of all revealed religion, whether Jewish or Christian.’”® Wesley felt it his Chris- tian duty to provide an antidote to such deadly poison as was spreading not only through the nation but was making inroads into the universities.° To this-end he wrote a long and delib- erate treatise on The Doctrine of Original Sin According to Scrip- ture, Reason, and Experience, in answer to a work on the Doc- trine of Original Sin, by Dr. John Taylor. It is interesting to note in passing that Jonathan Edwards wrote a rejoinder at about the same time to the same work, called The Great Chnistian Doctrine of Original Sin Defended." Wesley’s treatise is divided into seven parts. The last four parts consist of extracts from Doctor Watts’ Ruin and Recovery of Mankind, from tracts by the Rev. Samuel Hebden, and from Boston’s Fourfold State of Man, all of which defend the doctrine under discussion. Wesley’s own contribution to the subject is in the first three parts. There he deals with the present and past state of humanity and defends the scriptural method of account- ing for it. From this work and from a sermon on “Original Sin,” and 3 Journal, Vol. V, pp. 60-61. 5 Ibid., Vol. V, pp. 492, 650. 4 Works, Vol. II, p. 437. 6 Jbtd., Vol. V, p. 492. 7 Faulkner, Wesley as Sociologist, Theologian, Churchman, 43-44. THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE 15 from many references to the same subject running through his sermons and other writings, it is possible to gather his views on the place and significance of the doctrine in his system. Viewing the past and present condition of mankind, Wesley sees univer- sal corruption. God’s purpose for the race was very different from the course it has taken. From the earliest times down to the present the race shows unmistakable signs of a departure from God’s plan for it, a falling away from what it was meant to be, with regard to virtue and knowledge. The present condition is no better, either in the Christian world or in the heathen and Mohammedan. A curious evidence of the lack of common sense in the heathen is the foot-binding custom of the Chinese and their alphabet of thirty thousand letters. In the Christian world no further sign of utter degeneracy is needed than the presence of war. In his treatment of this subject Wesley waxes hot and elo- quent. “Surely all our declamations on the strength of human reason, and the eminence of our virtues, are no more than the cant and jargon of pride and ignorance, so long as there is such a thing as war in the world.”® War is the “complication of all the miseries incident to human nature” and is the most demonstra- tive proof of the universality of ungodliness..° “So long as this monster stalks uncontrolled, where is reason, virtue, hu- manity?”"* Then coming down from the general to particulars, Wesley draws an unflattering picture of conditions in Great Britain, domestic, professional, and social. Lawyers, government officials, clergymen come in for appraisal along with humbler folk. Then, if there is any doubt of the truth of depravity remaining in anyone’s mind, let him begin at his own home, surveying him- self, his family, and his neighbors. He will find the same con- ditions of human misery and wickedness in plain evidence. Even the children of the home, whom the parent so admires and be- lieves to be happily different from other children, are not ex- cluded. Evil tempers, self-will, passions, stubbornness, and surli- ness exist in them to some extent at least even before they are 8 Works, V, 506. 10 Thid., V, 522-523. 9 Thid., V, 512. 1 Jbid., V, 513. 16 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION two years old.’* This universal degeneracy seen from every standpoint and condition of life in the past and present is the cause of universal misery, and the misery is the proof of the de- generacy.’* Such are the facts. How account for them? This undenied bias of all ages and nations to the side of vice and ignorance rather than virtue and knowledge cannot be explained by attributing it to evil customs. Accounting for it thus leads no nearer to solution, for the question logically arises, Whence came customs to be evil? Nor can it be explained by bad education, for then the cause, prevalence, and persistence of bad education must be explained. Wickedness must have been antecedent to evil custom and education.“ The only true method of accounting for original sin is the scriptural method. The transgression of Adam in Paradise brought sin into the world and entailed its consequences upon all his descendants. This is the key to the whole mystery of the baseness of human nature and the misery and wickedness of the world. Wesley is careful to clear God of the responsibility for the origin of evil. He does not have much to say as to the actual cause nor elaborate the circumstances of the entrance of sin into the world, but he does exonerate God. He, at least, is not respon- sible for the corruption of human nature.*® Evil came into the world from Lucifer, the fallen angel, who became devil. He was the first sinner in the universe, the author of sin, who introduced it into creation. Together with him a great host of angels fell from heaven and likewise became devils..7 It was Lucifer who tempted Adam and who ever since, in conjunction with the other devils under him, has been tempting mankind.** Thus did orig- inal sin enter into the world. Asa matter of fact, the doctrine of original sin is highly to the credit of God. To believe that God created man in his fallen state, in his present stupid, stubborn, intractable condition, with weakened understanding and perverse will, would be to impugn the very goodness of God. We must 22 Thid., V, 518-519. 16 Thid., V, 574. 13 Thid., V, 521. 17 Totd., Li, 70. Mt Thid., V, 523-524. 18 Thid., I, 376-384; II, 70, 141. 6 Ibid., II, 479. THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE 17 either disbelieve in such a God, says Wesley, or believe him to be utterly evil. If that is his nature, the faith even of a Deist would not be justified. Atheism, or the belief of a Manichee, would be more logical and inevitable.’® ‘I know not what honor we can pay to God, if we think that man came out of his hands in the condition wherein he is now.””° Adam as he was created by God was perfect. He was created in God’s image—in his natural image and in his moral image. Wesley makes his natural image to correspond to the spiritual nature of God, and uses the terms “natural image” and “spiritual image” interchangeably.** This consists of the faculties of understanding, will, and liberty, and is what constitutes man a spiritual being.” Every human spirit possesses these faculties. Of these the understanding is the most essential to a spiritual being, if not the very essence of such.”* It carries much the same meaning as reason, to which it is to be preferred, being a less ambiguous term.** Its principal powers are apprehension, judg- ment, and movement from one judgment to another.”” Its main purpose is to guide the will and liberty, to furnish the rule of action for the whole of human nature.*® By the will Wesley means the power man has to exercise his nature, his passions and tempers, his likes and dislikes, which determine his bent and are summed up under the term “affections.’”’ In fact, these affections are but the will exercising itself in various ways.*’ Wesley says the faculty of liberty was in his day often confused with the will. But, as a matter of fact, it is neither a property of the will nor does it bear the same nature, but it is a faculty distinct from it, an entity by itself. It is the power of self-determination, the property to choose to do or not to do, to elect good as well as evil.** It is indispensable to a free agent, without it the under- standing and the will being utterly useless, incapable of either virtue or holiness.*? It is evident that Wesley means by this 19 Thid., V, 574. % Ibid., II, 127. 20 Tbed., VII, 112. 26 Tbid., II, 50, 69; VI, 208. 41 Wesley: Explanatory Notes Upon the Old Testament, I, 7. 2 Works, I, 400. 27 Thid., II, 69. 23 Tbid., II, 69. 38 Tbid., VI, 208. * Tbid., II, 51, 127. 29 Ibid., II, 36, 69. 18 WESLEY ON. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION power of liberty nothing more or less than the common accepta- tion of the word “will.’’*° These are the faculties with which Adam was endowed in his spiritual nature when created by God. He possessed these faculties in perfect form. His understanding was without defect, having such powers as no man has had since, enabling him to see truth as directly as the eye sees light. Perhaps while in his perfect state it was not necessary for him to reason, for he may have been able to discern truth by a kind of intuition.** He was also free from defects of passions or affections, his will being unbiased toward evil, since it was under the dictate of his infalli- ble understanding.** His liberty being likewise dictated by his understanding led him to choose only the right.**. Adam was also created in God’s moral image. He was endowed with a moral nature like the divine, holy and righteous.** At this point lay his supreme perfection, for he had an aptitude for appreciating, loving and obeying God,® a condition that made absolutely unnecessary the faculty of faith.*° He was morally perfect because possessing all the faculties God gave him he used them legitimately, being correct always in his knowledge, uniform in his obedience, and genuine in his love.*’ “And, to crown all, he was immortal.”°* He was made that he might know and enjoy and serve God forever.*® Coeval with his nature he was given a law, “a complete model of all truth, so far as is intelligible to a finite being.’”*° This Adamic law was the law of works, the same in substance as the angelic law, common to angels and to men.** His powers and abilities being exactly as God would have them, he was required to exercise them to the glory of God. “Consequently, this law, proportioned to his original powers, re- quired that he should always think, always speak, and always act precisely right, in every point whatever. He was well able so to do: and God could not but require the service he was able to 30 Thid., VI, 208. % Tbid., I, 326-327. 31 Jiid., IT, 50, 69; V, 550; VI, 512: . *? Idtd.; II, 50. 32 Thtd., II, 50. 388 Thid., II, 51. 33 [hid. 39 Tbid., I, 307. 4 Jbid., II, 69, 71. 40 Tbid., I, 307. 35 Thid., II, 50. 41 Jiid., I, 307-308; VI, 512. THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE 19 pay.’’*? In this law he was to continue until his trial on earth was ended.** Not only was Adam created perfect in his moral and spirit- ual nature, but also in his physical nature. He was clothed with physical immortality and incorruption, and knew no bodily weak- ness or sickness as he knew no sin. Although he was formed out of the dust of the earth, he was yet free from all seeds of decay.** His physical nature was at the service of his moral and spiritual natures, and did not clog them, but worked in harmony and accord with them.*° Such was “the original nature of mankind, when it was first ‘brought into being.’”*° It is quite beside the purpose of this study to criticize Wesley’s theology; but one cannot let pass such a highly imaginative picture of man without at least saying that there is no just ground in Scripture for it. The only references that could possibly be used as a support—and these would be strained to the breaking point if so used—are the statements that God created man in his own image, and that after he had finished he saw that what he had created was good. It is hardly necessary to assert that Wesley meant a very dif- ferent thing by the term “original nature’? from the content given it by modern psychology, as, for instance, in Thorndike’s book on The Original Nature of Man. According to modern terminology, original nature means man’s uneducated equipment, his nature independent of post-natal nurture. Wesley meant by it man’s nature as it came from God in the first parents, prior to their fall into disobedience of God’s law. What is known according to modern psychology as original nature Wesley covers by the term “our present corrupt nature.’’*? ” Tbid., VI, 513, 739. 43 Tbid., I, 45. “4 Tbid., VII, 583. This reference is to the preface to the first edition of Wesley’s Work, ‘‘Primitive Physick: or, An Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases.”” The full text is found in Vol. 25 of The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., Bristol, 1771-1774, 32 Vols. 4 Tbid., VI, 512. 6 Ibid., V, 543. 47 Jbid., V, 543. 20 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION After the Fall Adam had a corrupt nature. He was created “able to stand and yet liable to fall.’’** The very possibility of falling into sin was one of the liabilities of his freedom as a moral agent. And the design of his trial and probation was to test his ability to stand. But when the devil tempted him, he yielded, rebelling against the law of God and willfully and deliberately violating it. “By this willful act of disobedience to his Creator, this flat rebellion against his Sovereign, he openly declared that he would no longer have God to rule over him; that he would be governed by his own will, and not the will of Him that created him; and that he would not seek his happiness in God, but in the world, in the works of his hands.”*? Whereupon the punishment that was threatened if he disobeyed was inflicted upon him, and in that day he lost his original nature and suffered physically and spiritually. His body began to die and became subject to weakness and sickness, which inevitably lead to physical death.°? From that time it became unable to cooperate with his moral and spiritual natures, but pressed down both his mind and his soul and became a heavy drag upon them, serving them at best but imperfectly.* Furthermore, he suffered the most dreadful of all possible deaths, the death of his soul. Being separated from God, he lost the image of God and the life of God in his soul.°? Righteousness and holiness departed from him, and he became unholy, full of sin and guilt and tormenting fears, incapable any longer of loving God or desiring him.°* He not only lost altogether the moral image of God, but also in part the natural image of him.** His understanding became darkened so that his knowledge of God ' became dim and vague.®® His heart also, being turned from God, followed its own bent and will.°® And his liberty became so im- paired that it was from that time free only to choose evil. 48 Tbhid., I, 400. 49 Thid. 50 Joid., II, 71; VII, 583. Also, Primitive Physick, 4. 51 Tiid., II, 34. 54 Tiid., II, 36. 82 Tbid., I, 400-401; II, 71. 55 Tbid., I, 401. 583 Tbid., II, 71. % Ihid., II, 70, 73. THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE 21 II. The Effect of Original Sin Upon the Human Race But Adam’s sin was not limited to himself, since, in addi- tion to being the father of the race, he was the federal head, the first representative of mankind, or a public person, as the Assem- bly’s Larger Catechism defines him, in whom all mankind were contained.°’ “The greatest aggravation of his sin was, that he involved all his posterity in sin and ruin by it. He could not but know that he stood as a public person, and that his disobedience would be fatal to all his seed; and if so, it was certainly the greatest treachery and the greatest cruelty that ever was.’’® The entire human race, including its youngest members, being dependent upon his behavior, fell in his fall and have ever since suffered the most deplorable effects.°? Original sin was trans- mitted to them and the guilt of his sin was imputed to them.® The sentence pronounced upon him included all evils that could befall the souls and bodies of his posterity. That which charac- terized Adam’s state after his fall is the condition of mankind ever since, a fallen state.“ More precisely, the imputation of Adam’s sin means that the bodies of men become mortal, their souls suffer the death of disunion from God and are sinful and devilish, and liable to eternal death.°* Wesley bases these argu- ments, as arguments on this head are usually based, upon Paul’s teaching in Romans 5. 12-20 and 1 Corinthians 15. 21-22, that in Adam all die, by one man sin came into the world, etc.** He admitted his uncertainty as to the method by which original sin is transmitted, believing it was not especially important to know, so long as there is no doubt of the truth of the transmission. He is of the opinion, however, that it is handed down by natural generation through the blood unity of the race with Adam.™ Wesley also infers the imputation of Adam’s guilt from the fact of the sufferings of the human race. In both adults and ‘7 Tbid., I, 46; II, 36; V, 539, 588-589. 58 Wesley: Explanatory Notes Upon the Old Testament, I, 7. * Works, II, 36; V, 539, 540, 548-549. 60 Tbid., V, 539-540. 63 Thid., V, 524. 1 Tiid., VII, 113. 4 Thid., V, 539, 549. ®@ Thid., V, 195-196. 22 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION infants these sufferings are of the nature of punishments, Just as the sins of the race were imputed to Christ and he was pun- ished for them, although he did not commit them, so the sin of Adam is imputed to the race with all the sufferings consequent upon it. Obviously, God does not look upon infants any more than adults as innocent, otherwise he would not inflict upon them the punishment of physical sickness and death and moral estrange- ment from himself.°° “They suffer; therefore, they deserve to suffer.’’®? It is not to be understood, however, that this punishment for original sin includes the eternal death of the soul in the same way as it does the physical death of the body. “I believe none ever did, or ever will, die eternally, merely for the sin of our first father.’”®8 The connection of eternal death with original sin is but indirect. Only if because of original sin men commit actual sin, which is the inevitable outcome if it is left to take its course, will the souls of men perish. A distinction is to be made, therefore, between infants and adults. Obviously, infants are incapable of preventing themselves from sin and of availing themselves of any measures for their redemption. “No infant ever was, or ever will be, ‘sent to hell for the guilt of Adam’s sin,’ seeing it is canceled by the righteousness of Christ as soon as they are sent into the world.’ All others will escape the con- demnation for Adam’s sin only on condition that they avail them- selves of the righteousness of Christ, which will be imputed to them on condition and from the time that they believe.” This righteousness, which comes as a free gift to everyone born into the world, is unto salvation to those of riper years, who are inevitably sinners, only on condition that they fulfill the require- ments of its application. And unless they do, they will be damned eternally.” Wesley constantly views the condition of human nature brought about by Adam’s sin in terms of disease. He diagnoses 6 Tbid., VI, 722. 69 Thid., VII, 97. 6 Tbid., V, 577, 579. OT hedy Vio075: 67 Thid., V, 579. 1 Tbid., V, 528 68 Tbid., V, 577. THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE 23 it through a physician’s eyes and describes it with a physician’s vocabulary. “The whole world is, indeed, in its present state, only one great infirmary. All that are therein are sick of sin; and their one business is to be healed.”** The diseased condition of the body aggravates the faculties of the soul and makes them unfit for right action.* For the soul sympathizes with the body and is sensitive to its distempers.“* Being inextricably joined to a diseased body and forced to dwell in it until death, the soul cannot do as it would either in thought, speech, or action, but is pressed down and well-nigh submerged and hindered in its more exact operations.” The faculty of the understanding is especially disabled. As it plays upon the body as on an instru- ment of material keys, thinking can be no better than the nature and state of the body.‘® Hence the apprehension is indistinct, the judgment false, and the reasoning wrong in countless in- stances.‘’ And since to guide and enlighten the will and liberty is the particular function of the understanding, every mistake that it makes leads naturally to a mistake in practice.”* Certain spiritual ailments are therefore “a natural effect of the disordered machine, which proportionably disorders the mind.’”’”® By these combined circumstances the body is not able to live up to the soul, nor the soul to coerce the body. Such is the condition of human spirits dependent upon mortal bodies.®° Wesley’s belief in the baneful effects of a diseased body upon the mind and soul arouses one’s speculation concerning his extended philanthropic labors to relieve sickness. For twenty-six or -seven years he made anatomy and physic (the eighteenth cen- tury term for medicine) the diversion of his leisure hours.** While in America he assumed among his other duties the office of medical missionary. In England he conducted several dispen- saries for the needy sick and made other practical provisions for their relief.°° He appointed in the Methodist Societies ‘Visitors 72 Thid., II, 545. 7 Thid., V, 559. 73 Ibid., V, 559. 78 Ibid., II, 34; VI, 513. 4 Thid., I, 420. 79 Tbid., VII, 54. % Ibid., II, 34; VI, 513. 80 Jhzd., II, 34. Toid., IT, 34; VII, 54. TDMA, Ta he & Jbid., For full account, see North: Early Methodist Philanthropy, 36-46. 24 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION of the Sick,”’ a measure that proved to be of great good in a period when expert medical service, especially among the poor, was gen- erally lacking.** During his lifetime he published five different medical treatises, original and extracted from other authors, chief among which he rated his own work called Primitive Physick: or, An Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Dis- eases. This work, he wrote in a pastoral letter, “if you had any regard for your bodies or your children, ought to be in every house.’’** The question naturally arises after an acquaintance with the extent of his medical labors whether he was not moti- vated by something besides a deep solicitude for the physical welfare of men. To be sure, he was moved by sheer human compassion for people suffering from any trouble whatever, and it should not be suggested that if there were no other reason he would have withheld these labors. But it still remains that he conceived his mission to be something more vital than physical welfare work. It was to cure the disease of sin and to bring salvation to the souls of men. Anything, therefore, that could be done toward making people physically well would, according to his view of the relation of the body to the soul, further the cause of salvation. This may have been one of the ulterior reasons for his interest in medicine. But Wesley holds that the soul is hindered in its operations not simply because it is oppressed by its habitation in a mortal body, but also because it is itself sick by nature. It brings with it into the world certain inbred diseases. The more fundamental of these diseases, from which all others spring, are four: atheism, pride, love of the world, and self-will.4* These Wesley describes as “those parent sins.”®* Inasmuch as children are included in the misery caused by Adam’s disobedience, they share these diseases with adults. In fact, inasmuch as original sin is trans- mitted by natural generation, all who come into the world are 83 Tbid., V, 186-187. * Journal, V, 31, note 2, cited by editor. ® Works, I, 287, 39@-397; II, 475. 8 Ibid., I, 287. THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE 25 from their very birth tainted with these diseases of sin. Wesley’s sermon “On the Education of Children” describes these diseases in their bearing upon children, and they are seen to be the same as those to which he refers constantly when speaking of adults. The similarity is brought out sharply in a comparison of this sermon with that on “Original Sin.” Both speak of these dis- eases as being in man “by nature.’ Man brings them with him into the world at birth. The passages relating to them could be exchanged from one sermon to the other without doing damage to either discourse. There are several diseases described in the sermon “On the Education of Children” which are not mentioned in the sermon on “Original Sin.” These are anger, a deviation from truth, a proneness to speak or act contrary to justice, and un- mercifulness. It is not to be imagined that Wesley believed them to be limited solely to children. The very term “by nature” makes this clear. He does charge adults with them, and in scathing terms.*’ But in these cases he speaks of them as branches of the parent sins. No other reason than this is evident for leaving them out of his sermon on “Original Sin.” The description of these diseases here to follow will be for the most part a syn- thesis from these two sermons.*® The meaning of each disease of human nature goes back to the experience of Adam and becomes clear in that light.8° By nature man 1s an atheist. Naturally, he has no knowledge of God, no more idea of him or acquaintance with him than the beasts of the field. It is true that he acquires by inference through reflection and education the conception of an eternal, powerful Creator; but he is far removed from any intimate knowledge of him. Nor could he have by his natural understanding, for such knowledge of the Father comes only through the revelation of his Son, Jesus Christ. As a consequence, he has no love for God nor fear of him, as these depend upon a knowledge of him. Wher- ever such fear and love are found, they are acquired by conver- sation or example. In many people not even the knowledge of 87 Tbid., I, 65, 193-198; II, 345-346, 475-476. 88 Thid., I, 392-399; II, 307-316. 89 Ibid., II, 70. 26 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION God as Creator exists. Through general perversity of mind, God is separated from his creation, which is believed to exist and have life without his sustaining power. This is “a kind of practical atheism.”°° Another insidious disease is pride. Instead of worshiping God, man is an idolater and worships himself. He thereby robs God of what is due him and usurps his glory, instead of thinking of himself humbly as he ought to think. The reminder that it was chiefly pride that led to the fall of the angels from heaven and turned them into devils makes one sufficiently aware of the fatal character of this disease. The disease of self-will is the twin sister of pride and with it bears the image of the devil. It is a question which of the two is the more fatal distemper. The sinful character of self-will is the refusal of the one who has it to consider the will of God as the supreme regulative rule of life, and instead to indulge his own will, the leaning and bent of his sinful affections and pas- sions. It was this disease that contributed so largely to Adam’s disobedience of the law of God. Through atheism, and pride, and the indulgence of one’s own will it is easy to fall into the disease, the love of the world. Hav- ing no knowledge of God and consequently no fear of him or love of him, man naturally seeks happiness in earthly and sensual things. This disease has three symptoms or evidences. First, there is a tendency in man to gratify the low desires and pleasures of the flesh and to seek happiness in them. Man is dominated and led captive by sensual appetites to such an extent that it may be doubted whether the beasts are not his superiors. A second symptom is the desire of the eye, the propensity to crave the pleasures of the imagination by the sight of great and beautiful and uncommon objects. A third symptom is the pride of life, the natural desire for honor and high esteem and applause. The possession of riches is regarded as the chief means to such honor. The sinfulness of the pride of life is the refusal to seek one’s honor and praise solely in God by pleasing him. Such are the fatal diseases of human nature born with every 90 Jbid., I, 202. THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE 27 soul that comes into the world. Taken together, they constitute a “carnal mind,” an infection spreading over the soul like a creep- ing vine leading to every other branch of sin.®* It is a state of inward, moral disorder, a condition of heart that is “inward hell.”°? Its very inwardness lends propriety to its designation as disease. These are the diseases that are mentioned in both sermons. It remains to speak of the sins that are mentioned besides these in the sermon “On the Education of Children’’—anger, a devia- tion from the truth, a proneness to speak or act contrary to justice, and unmercifulness. They are almost self-explanatory. Anger is primarily the desire for revenge for personal injury. Although it is “short madness,” it is real insanity while it lasts. The disease of deviation from truth covers all open falsehood, all departures from simplicity, all efforts to dissimulate and appear what one is not. The tendency to speak or act contrary to justice causes one to be partial to himself and whenever possi- ble to consult his own interest and pleasure more than strict justice would allow. The last disease mentioned is unmerciful- ness, the way of dealing with people and all living creatures un- kindly and as we would not like to have them deal with us. III. The Relation Between Original Sin and Actual Sin From original sin spring most if not all actual sins.” Herein lies its seriousness and the necessity of taking account of it. Human nature, by the combinations of these deep-rooted and insidious diseases, is biased wholly toward evil and is forced nat- urally to prefer evil and to choose it from the good. Wesley’s broad survey of human conditions in every country and every age led him to ask: “How is it, that, in all ages, the scale has turned the wrong way, with regard to every man born into the world?” ‘How comes it, that all men under the sun should choose evil rather than good?’** The answer is that given by Augustine—that human nature inherits a bias to evil. Ante- 1 Ibid., I, 398. % Thid., V, 548. 8 Jind.) VI, ‘36. % Thid., V, 593- 28 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION cedent to any preference in the matter, the individual is inclined to choose evil rather than good.** It is not to be accounted for by habit formation due to wrong training in youth, although it is true that habits are contracted from a vicious environment. This condition would, indeed, be lessened together with the conse- quent wickedness of the world if parents were virtuous and realized their duty of raising their children virtuously. The bias is not merely the infection children receive from their immediate parents, although this is, indeed, a part of it.°* The disorder is caused by something more deeply rooted than evil training, for it asserts itself long before there has been opportunity for chil- dren to contract evil habits.°° Wesley quotes Doctor Watts with approval on this point, that children “are strongly inclined to evil, long before ill habits can be contracted.”°8 This condition of a bias is observable in children before they are even two years old.°° And the children of even careful parents, despite disci- pline, show evidences of the beginnings of passions and appetites that are obviously evil.°° The consequence is that children are born lacking a fair start toward that life of holiness for which God intended them.*” The truth that Wesley is here stating and is so much con- cerned with, by reason of its great importance to his system, is that sin is not limited to the individual will. He wishes to make clear that the individual is estranged from ‘God, not simply by his own personal acts of disobedience, but altogether apart from them and prior to them, by something deeper, by some evil inherent in his very nature. He does not neglect the conception brought to such prom- inence by modern psychology of the inheritance of sin through the social environment. In a passage in which he almost breaks out into a challenge to the Almighty, he says: ““How many are, from their very infancy, hedged in with such relations, that seem to have no chance (as some speak), no possibility, of being useful 9% at V, 548, 562, 586, 593. 99 Tbid., V, 519. % Thid., V, 562. 100 Ibid, V, 563, 567, 585-586. 97 Ibid., V, 562-563. 101 Toid., V, 536-537. 88 Jbid., V, 586. THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE 29 to themselves or others? Why are they, antecedent to their own choice, entangled in such connections? Why are hurtful people so cast in their way that they know not how to escape them? And why are useful persons hid out of their sight, or snatched away from them at their utmost need? O God, how unsearchable are thy counsels! . . . Nothing is more sure than that so vast a majority of mankind are, so far as we can judge, cut off from all means, all possibility of holiness, even from their mother’s womb. What possibility is there that a Hottentot, a New Zea- lander, or an inhabitant of Nova Zembla, if he lives and dies there, should ever know what holiness means? or, consequently, ever attain it? . . . As soon as he is born into the world he is absolutely in the power of his savage parents and relations, who, from the first dawn of reason, train him up in the same ignorance, atheism, and barbarity with themselves. He has no chance, so to speak, he has no possibility of any better education. What trial has he then? From the time he comes into the world till he goes out of it again, he seems to be under a dire necessity of living in all ungodliness and unrighteousness. But how is this? How can this be the case with so many millions of the souls that God has made? Art thou not ‘the God of all the ends of the earth, and of them that remain in the broad seas’ ?”’2 Wesley is also aware of the grave dangers of an evil environ- ment to those who have it in their power to flee from it. This is clearly set forth in two sermons he placed together in his col- lected sermons: “On Friendship with the World” and “In What Sense We Are to Leave the World.’ The gist of the thought therein contained is that friendship with the world is sinful because it throws one into evil companionships, which make easy the committing of actual sins and spread the infection of the diseases of nature. The very spirit of wicked people is infec- tious, and spiritual diseases are caught almost as easily as physi- cal. Just as there is an atmosphere surrounding every human body, inescapable by those about it, so the human spirit has an atmosphere carrying inescapable contagion of pride, self-suffi- 102 Thid., II, 123-124. 108 Joid., II, 196-212. 30 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ciency, and other spiritual distempers.*%* Christian people should therefore keep as far as possible from all ungodly men, should avoid needless intercourse and contact with them. For vice is of such an infectious character that it can even renew the bias of nature which a Christian has begun to conquer.*”° The reason Wesley does not speak more fully of social hered-. ity in its wider aspects is not, then, due to any blindness on his | part to its significance, as the foregoing amply shows. He was interested in spreading the truth that the cause of human degen- _eracy is inherent in human nature, and not merely due to the fact ' that we are born into an evil civilization that shapes us inescapably without our consent and prior to our ability to withstand it. Folk are enlisted into the battle of life with weakened natures, constitutions not only susceptible to sin and liable to diseases, but already infected with diseases of sin in advanced stages, which logically and inevitably form a bent and bias of nature. The significance of this diseased state of nature is that it inclines the individual to commit actual sins. It is for actual sins of word and thought and deed as distinguished from original sin that the individual is to be condemned. He is not responsible for the nature that is so constituted that it leads him into sin, but for permitting it to lead him without taking the available meas- ures to withstand and overcome it. Adam is responsible for the original sin, for the infection of the individual’s nature; but the individual himself is responsible when through his own fault he commits actual outward and inward sins, and for these he will be liable to punishment in the next world.*°° But so long as he wars against his nature, so that it does not have dominion over him, he is free from condemnation. In keeping with this dis- tinction between the infection of nature and the evil deeds that are due to it is Wesley’s definition of sin. ‘Nothing is sin, strictly speaking, but a voluntary transgression of a known law of God.’*% As original sin will not be exterminated from the world until the end of the world,?°° the inward state of sin will 104 Thid., II, 200-201. 107 Thid., VII, 56. 10 Thid., II, 208-209. 108 Tbid., VI, 76. 106 Tbid., V, 556. THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE 31 persist in every individual, even in the heart of the believer and the regenerate.*°? The seeds of pride and anger and self-will and evil desires and sins of every other kind will continue in his heart, and he will feel more or less of them springing up within him. He will experience wandering thoughts and coldness of affection toward God. He will be unable to prevent involuntary transgressions, or sins of surprise through sudden and violent and unforeseen temptations.“° But only his voluntary trans- gressions will be counted against him. The rest, the inward state and sins naturally arising from it, will not be reckoned as actual sin unless he gives way to them consciously and willfully, unless they have the concurrence of his will.’ IV. The Extent of Depravity As to Wesley’s belief in the extent of depravity, it is possi- ble to take contradictory positions. Stevens holds that Wesley disliked the phrase “total depravity,” but that he nevertheless agreed with the usual definition given it...* Workman points out that it was the early Methodist doctrine, but that in later times it has been quite widely relinquished.*4* McConnell says that it does not belong essentially to the Methodist theology.*™ As a matter of fact, it is difficult to be sure of Wesley’s opinion on this point. Certain of his statements do not admit of any other interpretation than that he believed depravity to be abso- lute. Others seem to give room in his system to partial deprav- ity. But if human nature has been committed to an exact re- semblance of Adam’s nature after his fall, it cannot be other aids, 1, 10S + V7 270, 110 Joid., I, 71-73. 1 Thid., I, 16, 74. 12 Stevens: A History of the Religious Movement of the Eighteenth Century, Called Methodism. II, 409. 134 New History of Methodism, edited by Townsend, Workman, and Eayrs, I, 52-53. This reference is to the Introduction of this monumental history written by Workman. It was published separately in revised and expanded form as “The Place of Methodism in the Catholic Church.” It is referred to in this essay in its first form as a part of the New History of Methodism, unless otherwise indicated. 4 McConnell, The Essentials of Methodism, 12, 27. Ke WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION than utterly depraved, for such his became, as has been shown. Wesley makes it the distinguishing mark between Christianity and heathenism, that the first believes in “the entire depravation of the whole of human nature, of every man born into the world, in every faculty of his soul, not so much by those particular vices which reign in particular persons, as by the general flood of atheism and idolatry, of pride, self-will, and love of the world. This, therefore, is the first, grand, distinguishing point between heathenism and Christianity. The one acknowledges that many men are infected with many vices, and even born with a proneness to them; but supposes withal, that in some that natural good much overbalances the evil; the other declares that all men are ‘con- ceived in sin,’ and “shapen in wickedness’—that hence there is in every man a ‘carnal mind, which is enmity against God, which is not, cannot be subject to his law;’ and which so infects that whole soul, that ‘there dwelleth in him, in his flesh,’ in his nat- ural state, ‘no good thing’; but ‘every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is evil,’ only evil, and that ‘continually.’” “AIl who deny this, call it original sin, or by any other title, are heathens still, in the fundamental point which differences heathenism from Christianity.”"*° Of the faculties of the soul, the will seems to be the one singled out particularly by Wesley as utterly depraved. Although Adam before his fall possessed natural free-will to choose either good or evil, no man since has that power in mat- ters pertaining to the religious life."*° The will is free by nature only to choose evil.*7 It is wholly inclined to indulge the inher- ited corruption."** Only in concerns that lie outside of religion does man have freedom of will. Entire alienation, then, from the life of God is this view. Over against the view that human nature is totally depraved must be placed the frequent remarks that limit depravity. Here it would seem Wesley’s division of human nature into the moral image of God and the natural image, with all that this distinction implies, makes it possible to assert that he believed in both total and partial depravity. There is no doubt in his mind that so 115 Works, I, 397-398. 17 Thid., VI, 156. 18 Toid., VI, 127. 18 Toid., I, 428. THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE 33 far as the character of the individual is concerned it is utterly lacking in likeness to God’s character, that is, in holiness and righteousness. He does leave an opening, however, for the belief that on the individual’s spiritual side, in that part of him which in Adam was the natural image of God, he is only partially de- praved. “Some remains of the natural image of God, as we are spiritual and immortal beings, are even now to be found in every man.’’'® In the sermon on “The Heavenly Treasure in Earthen Vessels,” which Wesley begins by describing human nature as wholly degraded, he says that a considerable portion of the lost image of God may be regained, although the vessel that contains this will stay none the less earthen in its character. But there will be already in human nature, when the recoverable image returns to it, a nucleus of divinity to which it will join itself. This is the remains of the lost image and it is in the individual before ever he becomes a Christian believer. “May we not include herein, first, an immaterial principle, a spiritual nature, endued with understanding, and affections, and a degree of liberty; of a self-moving, yea, and self-governing power? .. . And, secondly, all that is vulgarly called natural conscience? Implying some discernment of the difference between moral good and evil, with an approbation of the one, and disapproba- tion of the other, by an inward monitor, excusing or accusing?” He has no doubt, we may conclude, that some remnants of the understanding and affections and liberty are natural to every child of man; but he is uncertain whether conscience is ‘‘natural or superadded by the grace of God.” At any rate, it does not necessarily follow that because men are deeply fallen as to their understanding, will, and affections, there may not be enough reason left to be able to discern good from evil.7** In fact, every spirit must possess these three faculties, in some measure, to be a spirit. “It may be doubted whether God ever made an intellectual creature without all these three faculties; whether any spirit ever existed without them; yea, whether they are not 119 Tind., V, 587. 120 Thid., IT, 479. 121 Tbid., V, 561. 34 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION implied in the very nature of a spirit. Certain it is, that no being can be accountable for its actions, which has not liberty, as well as understanding.”*** The tract, “Thoughts Upon Neces- sity,’ from which this quotation is taken, has in its introductory word to the reader the following: “I cannot believe the noblest creature in the visible world to be only a fine piece of clock-work.” In this tract Wesley specifies his objections to determinism and gives his typical reasons for holding to free-will. If all man’s thoughts and deeds are so of necessity, that is, irresistibly, there can be no moral good or evil. Man would be incapable of vice or virtue, and could not be subject to rewards or punishments on any scale that is just. Future judgment would be done away with, and finally the divine origin of the Scriptures disproved.*”* In other words, moral obligation, punishment and reward, heaven and hell, imply freedom of the will. In short, man would not be man at all without it.*** VY. The Work of Grace in the Salvation of Man It is not a matter of great importance, after all, to his theory of salvation and education, whether partial depravity can or cannot be given room in his theology. For whether or not man has some good in him by nature, as the basis of his redemption, he is under the dispensation of grace, which is universal and effica- cious in supplying whatever deficiency may be owing to fallen nature. A discussion of the work of grace, as Wesley conceived it, in the life of man is complicated by his belief that the influ- ence of grace extends over every point in human life from its very birth. For Wesley taught that not only is salvation due to grace, but that the creation of Adam and the life of all people and their strength and everything they possess is due to the same power. Salvation is distinguished from the general life of the individual only by being the very highest blessing in the power of grace to confer.**® From the very hour of the original promise made after the fall of Adam mankind has been under the cove- 12 Thid., VI, 208. IMT Did. | ELS 70 123 Thid., VI, 200-212. 1% Tbid., I, 13. THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE 35 nant of grace. From these statements it is readily evident that one has to be on his guard in reading Wesley when he is using the phrase “by nature.” It would seem that he is dealing with an abstraction. ‘There is no man that is in a state of mere nature,” for no one is entirely without the grace of God unless he has irretrievably quenched the Spirit.°’ McGiffert has sug- gested that Wesley and the evangelicals did not teach the imma- nence of God in a very strict sense, that while they emphasized that in the hearts and lives of believers the Spirit was imme- diately present, they denied it most emphatically to nature and humanity in general. The divine indwelling is enjoyed only by those possessing saving faith..** What McGiffert says may be true with regard to the evangelicals taken as a whole; but its application to Wesley should be made cautiously, for statements similar to those to be found grouped together in his sermon “On the Omnipresence of God” might be gathered together by the investigator from all quarters of his writings. There it is stated that God is “presiding over all that he has made, and governing atoms as well as worlds.” “We cannot believe the omnipotence of God, unless we believe his omnipresence, for seeing, as was observed before, nothing can act where it is not; if there were any space where God was not present, he would not be able to do any- thing there. Therefore to deny the omnipresence of God implies, likewise, the denial of his omnipotence. To set bounds to the one is, undoubtedly, to set bounds to the other also. Indeed, wherever we suppose him not to be, there we suppose all his attributes to be in vain. He cannot exercise there, either his jus- tice, or mercy; either his power or wisdom.’’?*? Such a statement as this ought to be effective answer also to the opinion that Wesley’s thinking was based on the deistic assumption that God having created the world in the beginning stood apart from it and let it run by its self-operative laws, and revealed himself only by miraculous intervention. Such an intervention is con- 126 Thid., V, 204. 127 Thid., II, 238; see also I, 110-115. 128 McGiffert: Protestant Thought Before Kant, 171-172. Used by permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons. 129 Works, II, 413-414. 36 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION version.'*® Qn the contrary, the only way in which it could be said truthfully that conversion is an intervention is to say that God’s indwelling presence in the entire universe together with whatever relation he has to it, is an intervention. And this might justly be held on his conception of grace. But in that case it would be unfair—or at least redundant—to speak of particu- lar interventions, as, for instance, conversion. The point to be kept in sight in this discussion is that re- gardless of Wesley’s views on the extent of depravity, the force of it is checked by the logical outcome of his belief in grace and in its universal efficacy. This is the heart of Wesley’s Arminian- ism.'** Human nature is not determined by necessity, nor is the propensity to evil irresistible. By the grace ever available this can be resisted and conquered.*? Every person possesses the principle of self-determination and is a free agent, without which he would be “not an agent, but a patient.”*** This means not only that a man is free to choose God, but also that he 1s not forced by God to make that choice and to believe and be saved. He is a free agent every way. God desires the salvation of every soul and has fulfilled all the necessary divine conditions, flooding the world with light. But he leaves it to everyone to see it for himself and to draw nigh to it unforced.*** This fact of freedom to choose or reject salvation is evidence enough of a check by grace to total ruin and depravity. Wesley was aware that such a view of self-determination is not easy to reconcile with the foreknowledge possessed by God of all who throughout time would accept or reject salvation. And he confessed he could not reconcile it.42° All that he could say was that God’s knowledge could not be the cause of any indi- vidual’s attitude toward salvation. ‘Men are as free in believing, or not believing, as if he did not know it at all.”*** Likewise, 180 McConnell, op. cit., 17., disagrees with the Author’s position. 131 Dale, Fellowship With Christ and Other Discourses Delivered on Special Occasions, 224; A New History of Methodism, I, 36-37. 132 Works, V, 562. 135 Thid., V, 592. 183 Thid., II, 69. 1% Thid., II, 39, 14 Thid., II, 98, 460. THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE Bi the power wherewith good and evil actions are performed is directly of God, but this does not make the sinfulness or the goodness of the deeds God’s will or work. It is the use man makes of this power from his own free-will that characterizes him as sinful or righteous.*** So that although Wesley cannot explain this seeming paradox, he nevertheless feels certain that God cannot be the author of sin, which he would be were man determined beforehand, and not free.'88 And on the basis of this feeling he retains belief in freedom. For just as he knows that primary and secondary qualities, for instance, color as well as size and figure, are real, by the testimony of his senses, so he knows man to be free by the same sort of testimony. If man is a mere machine, none of his senses can be trusted, for it is the testimony of all of them, both outward and inward, that he is a free agent. If, therefore, he cannot trust them with respect to freedom, he cannot trust them respecting anything, not even primary or secondary qualities, and the only possible outcome is universal skepticism.**? The denial of some offset to depravity, whether by nature or of grace, leads to Calvinistic determinism, in which election by hard-and-fast decrees shifts responsibility for salvation wholly from the individual and rests it solely upon God. And the ground is entirely cut loose from aspiration and education. These become, as Doctor Workman points out, utterly impossible. “For,” he says, “if all is immutable decrees, there is neither need nor logic in prayer or worship; these things are but the idle beat- ing of the wings against the prison bars.”**° Likewise the con- ception of conversion as a voluntary act of self-surrender would be impossible. Nor would there be any justification for attempt- ing the work of education, when that is defined as a leading out of latent possibilities for good. For the less one’s beastliness were permitted to develop, the better it would be on such a view of the world. His possibilities were better kept in chains. But if some spark of divinity is to be found within the individual suf- ficient to enable him to see his own darkness and desire more 137 Thid., V, 592. 139 Tbid., VI, 210-211. 138 Thid., VI, 204-205. 40 4 New History of Methodism, I, 11. 38 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION light, the way would be opened for conversion and for education. Wesley held to such a conception. Although human beings are by nature utterly corrupt, there is sufficient grace in every man given by the Spirit to start him off toward a quest for the higher life. He held that a great deal is left to the individual in finding salvation, although at the same time man’s utter dependence upon God is to be kept constantly in mind.. “It is a fact,’ says a mod- ern writer, “that every individual has a rudimentary moral nature derived from God, the Source of all goodness, and that apart from this ethical potentiality, to which appeal can be made, moral influence and training would go for nothing.”’*** This statement depicts Wesley’s position accurately. The established name that has been used in the history of doctrine to describe this initial influence of God in the soul of man is prevenient grace. Wesley usually defines it more closely as preventing grace. “Salvation begins with what is usually termed (and very properly), preventing grace; including the first wish to please God; the first dawn of light concerning his will; and the first slight transient conviction of having sinned against him.’’*** It is a feeling and groping after God if haply he might be found. It finds inclusive utterance in Paul’s doctrine, which is reiterated in Wesley’s writings, that you are to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work.’’*** Wesley’s exegesis of these verses is that grace accompanies and follows our desires, but also goes before them and prevents them, so that it is God who works in us to desire the right.1** In a letter to John Mason, one of his preachers, he gives his opinion on this point. Evidently, from the nature of Wesley’s reply to him, Mason has been troubled about the problem of election. Wesley writes: “One of Mr. Fletcher's Checks considers at large the Calvinistic supposition, ‘that a natural man is as dead as a stone,’ and shows the utter falseness and absurdity of it: seeing no man 141 Mackintosh, The Divine Initiative, 86. 14 Works, II, 235-236; see also VI, 509. 443 Philippians, II, 12-13. 144 Works, V, 574- THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE 39 living is without some preventing grace; and every degree of grace is a degree of life.”’*° Wesley felt that sovereignty was not at ali taken from God, the point so much valued in Calvin- ism.**® Sovereignty is, rather, attributed to God, in the only rational way, permitting at the same time a conception of him which retains belief in his justice and mercy. Wesley could hold to the sovereignty of God only on the condition that it was not separated from his other attributes, chiefly his justice and his mercy.**? That which is more properly termed preventing grace is more popularly known, in the life of one before he becomes a Christian, as natural conscience. To call it this is, however, un- just, for it is not natural but supernatural, a gift from God, and is superior to all man’s natural endowments.’*® Conscience “is a kind of silent reasoning of the mind,” he says, quoting from a seventeenth-century sermon.’*® It is “the light of reason.”?°° “And does it not appear as soon as the understanding opens? as soon as reason begins to dawn?” In a Christian its office is to give assurance to the good life.** But in one not yet a Christian it is preventing grace and leads the way to his becoming a Chris- tian. And it is the possession of every man. “Every man has a greater or less measure of this, which waiteth not for the call of man. Everyone has, sooner or later, good desires; although the generality of men stifle them before they can strike deep root, or produce any considerable fruit. Everyone has some measure of that light, some faint glimmering ray, which sooner or later,. more or less, enlightens every man that cometh into the world. And everyone, unless he be one of the small number, whose con- science is seared as with a hot iron, feels more or less uneasy when he acts contrary to the light of his own conscience. So that no 14% Jhid., VII, 97. This refers to the saintly John Fletcher (1729-1785), gifted theologian and one of Wesley’s ablest preachers. Wesley indicated him to be his successor as leader of the Methodists, a wish not realized because of his prior death. See Works, VI, 687-688. M46 Thid., VI, 42-45. 47 Ibid., VI, 35. See also sermon on ‘‘Free Grace,’’ I, 482-490. 48 Thid., II, 378. 150 Thid., I, 250. 49 Thid., II, 377. 151 Tbid., II, 376-383. 40 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION man sins because he has not grace, but because he does not use the grace which he hath.’’!*? Summing up Wesley’s position, it may be said that he be- lieved in the depravity of human nature but at the same time joined to it an ameliorating doctrine of grace whereby every man born into the world is enabled to sense his pitiable condition, to sigh for deliverance, and to make a start toward it. Viewed from its origin in the Fall, character might have been hopelessly bad. That it has been otherwise is due to the personal interest of God. Wesley would doubtless agree with Professor Mackin- tosh that “to whatever point we retrace the story of our personal inclinations and decisions, behind everything else there stretches the prevenient love of God making ready for our good.”*** The whole Christian system is “a universal remedy, for a universal evil.”’*°* It is “God’s method of healing a soul which is thus diseased. Hereby the great Physician of souls applies medicines to heal this sickness; to restore human nature, totally corrupted in all its faculties.”?°° But it is essential to retain the belief in the depravity of man’s inmost nature. Otherwise religion is un- necessary as well as education. Only outward reformation would be necessary on any other consideration. The Christian system would fall at once were this foundation to be taken away.**® There would be no need of a cure or for any medicine if there were not this diseased condition. It would be useless to talk of a renewal in knowledge and holiness if that original condition had never been lost, if man were as good as Adam before his apostasy. And, on the other hand, that religion which does not aim to restore the original condition “is no other than a poor farce.”*°’ This is true salvation. “By salvation I mean, not barely, according to the vulgar notion, deliverance from hell, or going to heaven; but a present deliverance from sin, a restoration of the soul to its primitive health, its original purity; a recovery of the divine nature; the renewal of our souls after the image of 162 Thed., II, 238. 18% Thid., I, 398; see also II, 73. 163 Divine Initiative, 40. 156 Thid., V, 493. 144 Works, II, 435. 87 Tbid., I, 399. THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE 4I God, in righteousness and true holiness, in justice, mercy, and tht | In fairness to Wesley—although it is somewhat out of line with the purpose of this study—over against the trend of the argument in this chapter should be placed several of his scientific views as contained in the work by Bonnet, which he edited and circulated under the title, 4 Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation: or, A Compendium of Natural Philosophy, ‘There can be no doubt that this work in the form issued by Wesley reflects honestly his accepted views, for in the Preface he says: “T have found occasion to retrench, enlarge, or alter every chap- ter, and almost every section. So that it is now, I believe, not only pure, containing nothing false or uncertain; but as full as any tract can be expected to be: and, likewise plain, clear, and intelligible to one of a tolerable understanding.”’*”? This work shows that Wesley accepted in general the revolu- tionary scientific hypothesis of the solar system of Copernicus and Isaac Newton, and that he rejected the Ptolemaic system. “Demonstrated,” are his words, “by unanswerable arguments that it could not possibly be otherwise without the utter sub- version of all the laws of nature.’’*® It is needless to dwell upon the fact that these views are not in accord with the biblical theory of the system of the heavens. There is no evidence that Wesley attempted to harmonize them. The attempt has been made recently to prove from statements in this “Survey” that Wesley accepted the essential doctrine of organic evolution, namely, the doctrine of the gradual and or- derly progression from lower forms to higher in the organic world. This position, it is said, is set forth clearly in the two chapters, “A General View of the Gradual Progression of Be- ings,” and “Continuation of the Gradual Progression of Beings.” The following statements are made by him therein: “All is meta- morphosis in the physical world. Forms are continually chang- ing. The quantity of matter alone is invariable. The same sub- 188 Thid., V, 35. 19 Wesley, A Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation, Preface. 360 Jiid., II, 112. 42 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION stance passes successively into three kingdoms. The same com- position becomes by turns a mineral,- plant, insect, reptile, fish, bird, quadruped, man.’’**' “By what degrees does nature raise herself up to man? How will she rectify this head that is always inclined toward the earth? How change these paws into flexible arms? What method will she make use of to transform these crooked feet into supple and skillful hands? Or how will she widen and extend this contracted stomach? In what manner will she place the breasts, and give them a roundness suitable to them? ‘The ape is this rough draft of man; this rude sketch an imperfect representation, which nevertheless bears the resem- blance to him, and is the last creature that serves to display the admirable progression of the works of God.’*® “But mankind have their gradations, as well as the other productions of our globe. There is a prodigious number of continued links between the most perfect man and the ape.’’*® If Wesley, accepting the evolutionary hypothesis, considered it to be in conflict with the Scripture doctrine of creation, or with theistic philosophy, he failed to record such an opinion anywhere. On the contrary, this method of creation seemed to him to show the wisdom of God, “even the manifold wis- dom which is able to answer the same ends by so various teans.. 005 These passages should be interpreted in the light of Wesley’s writings as a whole, and not Wesley’s other voluminous writ- ings in the light of these brief passages. There is not the slight- est evidence in anything else he ever wrote that he favored the doctrine of evolution. On the contrary, he asserted consistently his belief in the account in Genesis of the origin and creation of man. It is safe to say, therefore, that in endorsing these state- ments from Bonnet he did not mean to imply a belief in a process of evolution, Darwinian or otherwise, of one form of life from another. Bishop Warren A. Candler, in a sane article answering 161 Wesley, A Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation, II, 226. 162 Thid., II, 210. 163 Jhid., II, 213. 164 Tbid., Preface. THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE 43 &é the attempts to make Wesley an evolutionist, writes: All that Bonnet taught and all that Wesley accepted was that God had created all things, especially living things, in a series of gradations or scales,” 1% “‘Tohn Wesley and Evolution.’’ Christian Advocate, General Organ of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, August 7, 1925, p. 1093. CHAPTER II THE SALVATION OF ADULTS I. Repentance In Wesley’s summary of his doctrinal position, it will be remembered, the porch of religion is original sin, and the door is faith. “The doctrine of original sin, and faith grounded thereon, is the only foundation of true piety.”* In his ablest theological writing, dn Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion, which Doctor Simon aptly calls his ‘““Apologia,’’* Wes- ley justifies the religion he commends on the ground that it is agreeable to reason, if by reason is meant the eternal reason, the essential nature of things, the nature of God and the nature of man. Christianity is suited to the nature of God, for it begins in knowing him and in going on to love him and all mankind. It is also agreeable to the nature of man, for its starting point is the knowledge of what human nature really is—“‘foolish, vicious, miserable.” It points the remedy for this condition and culmi-_ nates in restoring God and man to their right relations to each other, as Father and son, Lord and servant.* The knowledge of God and the knowledge of self represent but two sides of one and the same thing. They are complementary. To know God is to be disillusioned about oneself. To know oneself is to be aware of the deep contrast existing between God and man. Real knowl- edge of either leads to deep dissatisfaction and striving to achieve redemption. Religion is the love of God and of mankind.* You must love him before you can be holy.® But you cannot love him until you know he loves you.® But before you can know him you must come into touch with Christ. And before you are 1 Works, V, 551. 2Simon: John Wesley and the Methodist Socteties, 153. This is the second volume thus far completed in the life of Wesley which Doctor Simon is now writing and which is to be the standard life of Wesley. The first volume is called John Wesley and the Religious Socteties. 3 Works, V, 11-12. 5 Thid., I, 88. 4 Tbid., V, 5. 6 Jbid., V, 20. 44 THE SALVATION OF ADULTS 45 willing to do that you must be convinced that you are corrupt. “The power of godliness consists in the love of God and man; this is heavenly and substantial religion. But no man can possi- bly ‘love his neighbor as himself’ till he loves God; and no man can possibly love God till he truly believes in Christ; and no man truly believes in Christ till he is deeply convinced of his own sin- fulness, guiltiness, and helplessness. But this no man ever was, neither can be, who does not know he has a corrupt nature.’’? Man since the Fall has been diseased with atheism. He is unable to know God in any but a dim and superficial way. And being unacquainted with the effulgence of the Divine, he takes pride in his own miserable sinful condition as though it were itself mag- nificent. Unless somehow an awareness of the true state of things can break through his depraved understanding, he will never long for anything better. Self-knowledge, therefore, is the sine qua non of the religious life. Without it there can be no sal- vation. With it salvation is practically inevitable.® Wesley’s constant mention of this condition leaves no room to doubt that he considered it important almost above everything else. To know oneself as shapen in wickedness and conceived in sin and as having added to that ever since the ability to discern good from evil, and therefore guilty of eternal death, is to build upon the Rock spoken of in the Sermon on the Mount. For only then will one mourn his condition and appropriate to himself the salvation that is through Christ by faith.? Not even the grace of God can have effect in a life which lacks this acquaintance with himself. Wesley criticized the sacraments of the Church of Rome on this score in his tract, Popery Calmly Considered. He therefore created new societies, which later came to be known as the United Soci- eties, carrying over into them the best traditions of the Religious Societies. He states the ideal that inspired him in his description of “The Nature, Design, and General Rules of the United Soci- eties’: “Such a society is no other than ‘a company of men hav- ing the form and seeking the power of godliness, united in order to pray together, to receive the word of exhortation, and to watch over one another in love, that they may help each other to work out their salvation.’ ”’?’® The consideration that contributed most to the form that these societies took was Wesley’s wish that progress in the Chris- tian life should be continuous and under constant watch. By the very nature of the “itineracy” there was a danger that the efforts of the preachers would be discursive. As a general rule, Wesley would not begin a work in any place which he could not be sure of following and developing.”**7 “He had slight faith in the effectiveness of a fugitive ministry.”*** He set his face positively against such a conception of the work of a min- ister as would invite a sinner to come to Christ and then leave him after his conversion to shift for himself without guidance and oversight. Quick methods of evangelism resulting in mere numbers recorded on the official books did not answer to Wes- ley’s ideal of the church. After the sinner is converted he must be led on to grow in holiness. The societies accordingly became schools of holiness with provision for instruction in righteous- ness suited to the needs and capacities of those in different stages of spiritual progress. 214 Simon: John Wesley and the Religious Societies, 20. 215 Tbid., 306-307. 216 Works, V, 190. 217 Thad., V, 212. 218 Simon: John Wesley and the Methodist Societies, 167. 78 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS. EDUCATION The members of the societies were divided into groups called ‘‘The Bands,” ‘‘The Select Societies,’ and “The Pen- itents.’ The only condition of admission into the general organ- ization was “a desire to flee from the wrath to come, to be saved from their sins.”*"° Such of those received into membership as believed they were justified by faith were enrolled into smaller companies, called “The Bands,” of not less than five and not more than ten members, “the married or single men, and mar- ried or single women, together.’’**° Those in the Bands who “went on daily from faith to faith” were separated from those who “fell from the faith.” In some places the former group composed separate companies called “The Select Societies.’’?** Those in the latter group were called “The Penitents.’’** Each of these groups, except the Penitents, was governed by special rules dealing with conditions of admission, attendance upon the meetings, and continuance as members. Distinct from these there was another division of the local societies into classes, each composed of about twelve members, meeting once a week, under the supervision of a leader, for mutual edification through per- sonal testimony and fellowship in prayer and praise. The knowledge gained by the leader of his members through these class-meetings and through private conferences was handed on to the traveling preacher at his regular visits, who used it as the basis of systematic supervision.-* By this system the spiritual ardor of the Methodists was sustained and their development in holiness made more secure than could have been possible by pub- lic worship alone. Wesley recognized it to be the very heart of the societies. In a pastoral letter to the societies in Bristol, written late in 1763 or early in 1764, he characteristically urges the duty of meeting regularly in band and class, declaring, “Whoever misses his class thrice together thereby excludes himsel f.”’?*4 219 Works, V, 177. 220 Thid., V, 183. 221 Thid., V, 184-185; Simon: John Wesley and the Methodist Societies, 214. 222 Thid., V, 184-185. 223 Tbid., V, 178-179, 190-191; A New History of Methodism, I, 287-289. 224 Journal, V, 31, note 2, cited by editor. THE SALVATION OF ADULTS 79 Wesley’s recognition of individual differences in the degree of spiritual progress guided not only the form of organization which the societies assumed but also the work and methods of the preachers. Preaching is to be graded. To give patients with varied spiritual distempers in different stages the same treatment is quackery of the worst sort, and they who do it are not physi- cians but “spiritual montebanks.”’”"? “The cure of spiritual, as of bodily diseases, must be as various as are the causes of them. The first thing, therefore, is, to find out the cause; and this will naturally point out the cure.’’”** In a letter “On Preach- ing Christ,” dated December 20, 1751, Wesley contrasts preach- ing the law with preaching the gospel—the two general heads in the minister’s message. By preaching the law is meant setting forth the commandments of Christ to love God and one’s neigh- bor and to be meek, humble, and holy, especially as these are found in the Sermon on the Mount. By preaching the gospel is meant declaring God’s whole plan of salvation through Christ whereby power is given to obey the commandments of Christ, with all the blessings that follow. After a general statement of God’s love for sinners and his desire for their salvation, the law should be preached as strongly, as closely, as searchingly as pos- sible with but slight intermixture of the gospel, “showing it, as it were, afar off.”’ Then as the hearers are convinced of sin, and as they repent, bring in more and more of the gospel, yet not too hastily, but combined with the law. After they are justified and on the way to complete sanctification, present the law again with increasing emphasis upon its meaning in the light of the gospel, stressing obedience to it now rather as the privilege of the saved than as a command upon those seeking salvation.?*7 But here no hard-and-fast rule can be laid down, for most con- gregations are composed of people in all stages of spiritual de- velopment. Only where the hearers are all distinctly of the same attainment should the message center on one phase, either 225 Works, I, 413. 2% Thid. 27 Thid., VI, 555-558. See also, for ampler statement of the distinction between the law and the gospel, Works, I, 223. 80 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION of the law in the light of the gospel or the gospel intermixed with the law and enforced by it.”*? What Wesley was concerned about was that the law should be stressed as much as it deserved as the normal way of convicting sinners. The preachers were given to preaching the gospel on all occasions and so slighting the very foundations of religion.””? The gospel may awaken one in a thousand, but the law is the ordinary method God uses to bring about this effect, reserving the gospel to regenerate them. The propriety of this procedure is enforced by the au- thority of the Scripture, by Christ’s employment of it, and by the very nature of the scheme of salvation, “It is absurd, there- fore, to offer a physician to them that are whole, or at least imag- ine themselves so to be. You are first to convince them that they are sick; otherwise they will not thank you for your labor.”’*8° To reverse the order would be to cast pearls before swine.*** “The holy, the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, are not to be prostituted unto these men.” You must begin to “tallx to them in their own manner, and upon their own princi- ples. . . . Reserve higher subjects for men of attainments.”’*? It was on this ground that Wesley objected to William Law’s tract On the Spirit of Prayer. It commends to men that they practice the presence of God just as they are first entering the religious life, while still unawakened and unacquainted with their sinful condition. This, according to Wesley, on the con- trary, should constitute not the first but one of the last phases of religious experience.” 88 Thid., VI, 556-557. 231 Tbid., I, 283, 317. 229 Thid., I, 316. 432 Thid., I, 283. MOL Didig ih, a7. 233 Tbhid., II, 195. CHAPTER III THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN: GENERAL THEORY I. Wesley’s Belief in the Religion of Childhood WESLEY’S position with respect to the religious education of children follows logically from his theology. We have seen that he believed in the depravity of the entire human race, including its youngest members, that both young and old are by nature en- tirely lacking in God’s natural and moral image, and in conse- quence as entirely alienated from him. We have also seen that he believed in the equally universal extension of grace, making it possible for him to hold the seeming paradox that all men are by nature evil, yet no man is altogether evil, for no one is in a state of mere nature. We have further seen that salvation from sin is the main purpose of life, that it begins in repentance, which is the knowledge and conviction of man’s despicable con- dition and of the certain and deserved damnation following from it unless it can be changed. This change, it was seen, is, in the man himself, a new birth or regeneration, and, in his relation to God, justification conditioned by the faith that the redemptive work of Christ is efficacious in his particular case. The conse- quence in the life of the individual is inward and outward holiness or piety, a growing experience in the love of God and mankind, maintained and nourished by the use of the means of grace. The application Wesley made of these doctrines to the life of children is found in incidental passages scattered here and there in his writings, but more particularly in his sermons and works dealing almost exclusively with children. Two of these have already been mentioned, namely, “A Treatise on Baptism” and the sermon “On the Education of Children.” Other works are: a sermon “On Family Religion” and another “On Obedi- ence to Parents”; a tract, which first appeared in the Arminian 81 82 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Magazine in 1783, called “A Thought on the Manner of Edu- cating Children” ; three articles, “A Short Account of the School, Near Bristol,’ ‘A Plain Account of the Kingswood School,” and “‘Remarks on the State of Kingswood School’; and, finally, a tract entitled “Serious Thoughts Concerning Godfathers and Godmothers.’”’ A sermon preached to some children in Bolton on the text, “Come, ye children, hearken unto me; and I will teach you the fear of the Lord,” would be of great value, were it available, in determining Wesley’s manner of addressing chil- dren directly; but it is not even known whether he ever com- mitted it to writing. The chief sources of insight into the subject matter and the method Wesley employed in teaching religion to children are the tracts, “Tokens for Children,” “Les- sons for Children,” “Instructions for Children,” and “Prayers for Children.” Wesley firmly believed that a genuine and deeply religious life is possible in childhood. At just what age he expected to see holiness manifested is difficult to say. Very often the ages of the children to whom he refers as undergoing religious expe- riences are not recorded. Often they are spoken of as groups or classes. Even when given, the ages are only approximate. The children are said to be about such an age, or as between certain ages, or as either of one age or of the next. Exactness, however, in fixing the precise age is not particularly necessary, for Wesley set no rigid time in early life before which it is im- possible to be pious. Accordingly, it is not surprising to find him citing several instances of piety in children of extremely tender years. The youngest example of such piety is that of a child who died at the age of two years anda half. It was a case that struck his attention as rare and phenomenal, and was credible to him only because it was backed by such solid testimony. It was “such a child,” he says, “as is scarce heard of in a century.” He records it in his Journal of April 8, 1755. “Through much hail, rain, and wind we got to Mr. Bladdiley]’s, at Hayfield, 1 Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, IV, 119. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN 83 about five in the afternoon. His favorite daughter died some hours before we came, such a child as is scarce heard of in a century. All the family informed me of many remarkable cir- cumstances, which else would have seemed incredible. She spake exceeding plain, yet very seldom; and then only a few words. She was scarce ever seen to laugh, or heard to utter a light or trifling word. She could not bear any that did, nor any one who behaved in a light or unserious manner. If any such offered to kiss or touch her, she would turn away, and say, ‘I don’t like you.” If her brother or sisters spoke angrily to each other, or behaved triflingly, she either sharply reproved (when that seemed needful) or tenderly entreated them to give over. If she had spoke too sharply to any, she would humble herself to them, and not rest till they had forgiven her. After her health declined she was particularly pleased with hearing that hymn sung, ‘Abba, Father,’ and would be frequently sing- ing that line herself: “Abba, Father, hear my cry!’ On Monday, April 7, without a struggle, she fell asleep, having lived two years and six months.”? The case of a pious boy three years of age is entered in the Journal of June 28, 1746. “I inquired more particularly of Mrs. Nowers concerning her little son. She said he appeared to have a continual fear of God, and an awful sense of his pres- ence; that he frequently went to prayers by himself, and prayed for his father and many others by name; that he had an exceed- ing great tenderness of conscience, being sensible of the least sin, and crying and refusing to be comforted when he thought he had in anything displeased God; that a few days since he broke out in prayer aloud, and then said: ‘Mamma, I shall go to heaven soon, and be with the little angels. And you will go there too, and my papa; but you will not go so soon;’ that, the day before, he went to a little girl in the house and said: ‘Polly, you and I must go to prayers. Don’t mind your doll; kneel down now: I must go to prayers: God bids me.’ When the Holy Ghost teaches, is there any delay in learning? This child 2 Journal, IV, 110-111. 84 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION was then just three years old! A year or two after he died in peace.” The instance of another unusual girl is entered in the Journal of September 16, 1744. The entry preceding records the burial of a young man converted on his death-bed and gives proper setting to this account. “I buried, near the same place, one who had soon finished her course, going to God in the full assurance of faith when she was little more than four years old. In her last sickness (having been deeply serious in her behaviour for several months before) she spent all the intervals of her con- vulsions in speaking of, or to, God. And when she perceived her strength to be near exhausted, she desired all the family to come near, and prayed for them all, one by one; then for her ministers, for the church, and for all the world. A short time after, recovering from a fit, she lifted up her eyes, said, “Thy kingdom come,’ and died.’”* The last example of piety in extremely tender years that will be recorded here, and the only other one given in detail by Wesley, is recorded without any but introductory comment in the Journal of May 29, 1750. “I inquired concerning Richard Hutchinson, of whom I had heard many speak. Huis mother informed me: ‘It was about August last, being then above four years old, that he began to talk much of God, and to ask abund- ance of questions concerning him. From that time he never played nor laughed, but was as serious as one of threescore. He constantly reproved any that cursed or swore, or spoke inde- cently in his hearing, and frequently mourned over his brother, who was two or three years older, saying, “I fear my brother will go to hell, for he does not love God.” About Christmas I cut off his hair; on which he said, “You cut off my hair be- cause you are afraid I shall have the smallpox; but I am not afraid; | am not afraid to die, for I love God.” About three weeks ago he sent for all of the society whom he knew, saying he must take his leave of them; which he did, speaking to them, one by one, in the most tender and affectionate manner. Four mre serie aa ae yey 4 Toid., III, 150. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN 85 days after he fell ill of the smallpox, and was light-headed almost as soon as he was taken; but all his incoherent sentences were either exhortation, or pieces of hymns, or prayer. The worse he was the more earnest he was to die, saying, “I must go home; I will go home.” One said, “You are at home.” He earnestly replied, “No; this is not my home; I will go to heaven.’ On the tenth day of his illness he raised himself up and said: “Let me go; let me go to my Father; I will go home. Now, now I will go to my Father.” After which he lay down and died.’’” One would not attach too much weight to these somber records. They do, however, show that Wesley believed it was possible for very young children to be religious, and they also give some idea of the nature of the religion, which, though strik- ing him as unusual in children so young, he would cultivate as early as possible. It is a piety marked by a seriousness of temper and behavior, a slight mystic sense, a tender conscience, and a deep concern for the spiritual condition of others. It is in accord with Wesley’s definition of holiness—the love of God and man- kind. It is true that these records came second-handed to him; but he went out of his way to get them, and believed them au- thentic, whether anyone else did or not. Evidently, he did not believe that their experiences were merely the result of social suggestion. He does not suggest that he might have considered their condition, in part at least, abnormal and pathological. His comments are scant. He just accepts them as precociously pious. His reasons for holding to the possibility of mature reli- gious consciousness in children so young lie in his doctrine of grace, that when the Spirit is the teacher there is no delay in learning.® The things of God cannot be pressed too soon upon them. “If you say, ‘Nay, but they cannot understand you when they are so young,’ I answer, No; nor when they are fifty years old, unless God opens their understanding. And can he not do this at any age?” 5 Tbhid., III, 475. 6 Tbid., III, 244. 7 Works, II, 431. 86 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Although these extreme cases are recorded by Wesley, by far the majority of children of whom he speaks as being under religious impressions are considerably older. Most of them are in later childhood, that is, on the verge of adolescence, or in adolescence. One group reported as seriously moved toward salvation is composed of children from six to fourteen. The children of the schools in Kingswood affected by the recurring revivals there were between the ages of seven and fourteen, if the only accounts that mention ages may be taken as typical.® Quite frequent mention is made of children under religious im- pressions between the ages of eight and ten. The Weardale So- ciety elicited Wesley’s warm praise because the family religion of its members was so strong. He reports that “in most of their families, the greatest part of the children above ten years old are converted to God.’’?® More children, however, are men- tioned between the ages of nine and fifteen than of younger years. The age at which Wesley believed he himself to be ripe for some spiritual change was ten, for it was then that he thought he had sinned away the “washing of the Holy Ghost” which he had received at baptism.1* He confesses, however, that the in- structions he received in childhood concerning outward duties and sins he accepted gladly and thought of often, “but all that was said to me of inward obedience or holiness I neither under- stood nor remembered. So that I was indeed as ignorant of the true meaning of the law as I was of the gospel of Christ.” If in later years he remembered his own early experience, he must have been reluctant in accepting reports of piety of any depth in very young children, at least in any under ten. But it does not appear that this influenced his later dealings with children. These older children, in Wesley’s estimation, are capable of experiencing every step in the process of salvation. Many are in deep distress, seriously concerned over their natural state, 8 Journal, V1, 514. ® Tbid., V, 258; VII, 94-05. 10 Thid., V, 466. 1 Tbid., I, 465. 12 Tbhid. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN 87 convinced of sin and “under strong drawings.’’** Some are born again and “indisputably justified,’ and rejoicing in the peace of God.** Several are sanctified and saved from inward sin and are patterns of holiness.” In fact, the experiences of many of them match and in several instances surpass the expe- riences of their elders. Thus at the society in Dublin “thirteen or fourteen little maidens, in one class, are rejoicing in God their Saviour; and are as serious and stayed in their whole behaviour as 1f they were thirty or forty years old. I have much hopes that half of them will be steadfast in the grace of God which they now enjoy.”*® Ina lovefeast at Epworth several children “spoke with the wisdom of the aged, though with the fire of youth. So out of the mouth of babes and sucklings did God perfect praise.”** Wesley compares the children in the Wear- dale revival with the adults in the Everton revival. Many chil- dren at Weardale became young men in Christ, enjoying an experience deeper and a fellowship with God more constant than the oldest man or woman whom Wesley had ever seen or heard of at Everton, very few of these surpassing an infant state of grace.’® II. The Purpose of Religious Education Wesley’s theory of religious education is in keeping with his belief that every stage in religious experience is possible in childhood. The goal of all work with children at home, in the schools, and in the Methodist societies is to make them pious, to lead to personal religion, and to insure salvation. It is not merely to bring them up so that they do no harm and abstain from outward sin, nor to get them accustomed to the use of the means of grace, saying their prayers, reading good books, and the like, nor is it to train them in right opinions. The p | lof religious education is to instill in children true religion, holi- ‘ sf sen he awed etary bid., III, 236, 237; IV, 279-280; V, 255, 258-260, 362, 388, 485, 524-526; VI, 514-515; VII, 23, etc. 14 Tbid., III, 266, 466; IV, 27; V, 152, 258-260, 362, 524-526; VI, 4, 78-79; VII, 68, 75. 6 Tbid., V, 464; VII, 75, etc. 17 Thid., VI, 352. 16 Thid., VII, 68. 18 Ibid., V, 471-472. eo 88 © WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ness, and the love of God and mankind, , and to train them in the ™% image of God. . OE ee Te Re Oui ohes ‘making of everything that is done for them subor- dinate to their growth in religion is emphasized in every impor- tant writing of Wesley’s that bears on children. He deplores the neglect of “family religion, the grand desideratum among the Methodists.’*® If something is not done to acquaint the chil- dren with real religion, the present revival will die away in a short time. And so he advises parents to train them up in the way they should go, and directs his preachers to go from house to house and enforce a return to family worship. He also makes it their duty to engage actively in the training of the children themselves.”° In caring for the continuation of the children’s education after their training at home, Wesley was guided by the same purpose of making everything subservient to religion. He set forth principles to lead parents in the choice of the right school. To decide which school to send them to, it is necessary, he says, to settle a previous question of the purpose of higher education. _It is to extend their training for heaven as well as for tl this life. “That school, fhen, is the only proper one whose masters 5 take this ‘to be the goal of education and will Il zealously keep it beter the ‘children, cuieine them i in religion @ as well as learning.” Such schools “are nurseries of all manner of Rieverinceod and the boys should not be sent to them. Girls should not be sent to large boarding schools, for there they will be taught by the other girls “everything which a Christian woman ought not to learn” and will be unable to continue in the fear of God and save their souls. If possible, therefore, parents should bring up their girls themselves; otherwise send them to God-fearing mistresses who ' keep only so many pupils as to be able to pay personal attention to each one of them, and whose lives are examples of what the children should become.” “Methodist parents, who would send 19 Tind., V, 193. 20 Works, II, 301; Mtnutes, I, 51, 62, 67. 21 Toid., II, 305-306. 2 Works, II, 306. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN 89 your girls headlong to hell, send them to a fashionable boarding- school !’*8 But Wesley did not leave the matter with a condemnation of existing conditions. He indorsed for the Methodist people several private mistresses and schools of the right sort.4 Miss Owen’s boarding-school for girls at Publow he regarded as a pattern, perhaps the best in Great Britain.*° Curnock suggests that some arrangement may have existed between this school and the Methodists, and that perhaps Wesley had subsidized it.27° He also asserts that its existence was due to Wesley’s encouragement.*7 When Miss Owen removed from Publow, Miss Bishop set up a school for girls at Keynsham continuing the Christian tradition, much to Wesley’s satisfaction.?* These teachers, together with Miss Bosanquet, who ran an orphan school, he regarded as ideal teachers for girls.*? Their teaching ee led to the 1¢ knowledge : and love of God. And such should be the “result of all te The true Christian school will first make Christians, and then teach other matters. Thus he wrote to Miss Bishop: ‘Make Christians, my dear sister, make Christians! Let this be your leading view. . .. Let everything else you teach be subordinate to this. Mind one thing in all. Let it be said of the young women you educate, “Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eyes, In all her gestures sanctity and love.’ 3° When Wesley was on his way to Georgia he wrote to his brother Samuel, headmaster at Tiverton School, Devonshire, that the souls in his school were committed to-him_ by God. to-be-prepared. for I heaven, to ibe instructed in the he gospel as _ as well as in Greek eietymnpsiennanssnimeinnenan et ne and { Latin, to. be built up in the knowledge a and love of: God. a egal a 23 Journal, V, 452. % Works, II, 306. % Journal, V1, 78-79; Minutes, I, 113. % Tbid., VI, 118, note 1; see also Minutes, I, 119, 125. 27 Thid., V, 484, note 3. 28 Thid., VI, 336. 29 Ibtd., V, 375-376; 375, note 3; 484, note 3. 20 Works, VII, 243. XM Ry 90 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION “You are even now called to the converting of heathens, as well iyi by tits The way in which Wesley conducted charity schools and the Kingswood School for the higher education of Methodist boys lends further support to his belief in the primacy of reli- gion in education. The charity school for colliers’ children in Kingswood (not to be confused with the boarding-school there) was similar in curriculum to the contemporary charity schools, with greater emphasis upon religious instruction.®* There it was “proposed, in the usual hours of the day, to teach chiefly the poorer children to read, write, and cast accounts; but more especially (by God’s assistance) to ‘know God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent.’”°? The charity school conducted at the Foundery Society in London supplies the most detailed informa- tion of Wesley’s ideal for charity schools. Many of the chil- dren, he says, of the Foundery were kept from school by the poverty of their parents, and consequently ran wild, while those who attended school acquired the rudiments of learning but were “under almost a necessity of learning heathenism at the same time,” so that it would have been better for them to lack that knowledge than to have purchased it so dearly. So he undertook to teach them, with the aid of two schoolmasters, in his own home at the Foundery.** When the Foundery was re- linquished and the society moved to City Road Chapel, a charity ~ school was commenced there in the course of five or six years.*° Wesley’s sole reference to it is that he preached to raise funds for it, and that children are there “trained up both for this world and the world to come.’’*® Wesley was led to establish the New School at Kingswood for the higher education of boys because of a dearth of the right sort of boarding-schools. It was to be a model Christian institu- 31 Tbid., VI, 601. 8 North: Early Methodist Philanthropy, 81. 33 Journal, II, 323. %4 Works, V, 188-189. 85 Stevenson: History of City Road Chapel, 88, 333. % Journal, VII, 222. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN oI 6é tion®’ “which would not disgrace the apostolic age.’*®> Its two outstanding features were to be “sound religious training and perfect control of the children.”*? At the opening of the school in 1748, Wesley preached his sermon “On the Education of Children,” from the text, “Train up a child in the way he should ( go; and when he is old he will not depart from it.’’*° The key- | words to the educational ideal he had in mind for it are in the hymn written by Charles Wesley for the opening service: “Come Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, To whom we for our children cry, The good desired and wanted most Out of thy richest grace supply, The sacred discipline be given To train and bring them up for heaven. “Answer on them that end of all Our cares and pains, and studies here, On them, recovered from their fall, Stampt with the heavenly character, Raised by the nurture of the Lord, To all their paradise restored. “Error and ignorance remove, Their blindness both of heart and mind, Give them the wisdom from above, Spotless, and peaceable, and kind. In knowledge pure their mind renew, And store with thoughts divinely true. “Learning’s redundant part and vain Be here cut off, and cast aside: But let them, Lord, the substance gain, In every solid truth abide, Swiftly acquire, and ne’er forego The knowledge fit for man to know. “Unite the pair so long disjoined Knowledge and vital piety, Learning and holiness combined, And truth and love let all men see. 37 Works, VII, 345. ** A quotation from Wesley cited in The History of the Kingswood School, by Three Old Boys, 13. 89 Thid., 14. 49 Journal, III, 356. g2 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION In these whom up to thee we give, Thine, wholly thine to die and live. “Father, accept them in thy Son, And ever by thy Spirit guide, Thy wisdom in their lives be shewn, Thy name confessed and glorified, Thy power and love diffused abroad, Till all our earth is filled with God.’”*! Wesley’s interest also in the Sunday-school movement, to the inception of which Methodism made its contribution, even anticipating it by fourteen years, was chiefly because he saw in it a great potentiality for making Christians. To be sure, he approved of the Sunday schools because of their philanthropic features and called them “one of the noblest specimens of charity which have been set on foot in England since the time of Wil- liam the Conqueror.”** But he saw in them much more besides, In the first reference he makes to them in his Journal, in 1784, he thinks that God may have a deeper purpose for them than is evident to men. “So many children in one parish are restrained from open sin, and taught a little good manners, at least, as well as to read the Bible. I find these schools springing up wherever I go. Perhaps God may have a deeper end therein than men are aware of. Who knows but some of these schools may become nurseries for Christians?’** Three years later, as the movement gains impetus, he writes to a friend: “It seems these will be one great means of reviving religion throughout the nation. I wonder Satan has not sent some able champion against them.’’** Seeing in the Sunday school a great auxiliary to the Methodist reformation, he gave it his hearty support.*® Such, according to Wesley, as seen from many points of view, is the chief object of all work with and for children. In 41 Charles Wesley: Hymns for Children and Others of Riper Years, 35-36. “ From a letter to Duncan Wright, cited by Tyerman: The Life and Times of John Wesley, III, 522. 4 Journal, VII, 3. “4 From a letter to Richard Rodda, cited by Tyerman, op. cit., III, 500. * See Wardle: History of the Sunday School Movement tn the Methodist Epis- copal Church. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN 93 the home, in the schools, and in the societies it is to make Chris- tians, inwardly and outwardly. Ill. The Salvation of Children by Baptism and Training As to the actual process by which this is to be begun and carried out, there are seemingly conflicting views in Wesley. One is made to feel that Wesley himself was conscious of a strife between his theory and his practice. In theory, the first step in the redemption of the child is baptism. The new birth, the beginning of the inward change, is reached by adults through baptism only on condition that they repent and believe the gos- pel.*® But it is reached by children through the outward sign of baptism without this condition, for they can neither repent nor believe.*7 For them, regeneration is annexed to their baptism unconditionally., Wesley’s views on infant baptism, as before indicated, are found in his father’s Short Discourse of Baptism. There should be no hesitancy in regarding it as representing Wesley’s personal opinions on the subject, for he published it as his own, under the title, 4 Treatise on Baptism, when he was over fifty years of age. This work gives several reasons in sup- port of the view that infants are proper subjects of baptism. Infants are guilty of original sin, and they cannot be saved ordinarily unless this is washed away by baptism. They are included in the evangelical covenant with God and capable of solemn consecration to him, which can be made only by baptism. They have the right to come to Christ to be ingrafted into him, and ought to be brought to him for that purpose; but it neces- sitates their admittance into the church by baptism. Infant bap- tism was the practice of the apostles and has been held by the Christian Church ever since. Baptism regenerates, justifies, and gives the infant all the privileges of the Christian religion. For all these reasons, therefore, it is not only proper for parents to present their infants for baptism, but their sacred duty.* This conception of baptism stated in terms of Wesley’s Works, V, 36, 38; VI, 21. 4“) Thids, V,'38; V1, 21. 8 Jhid., VI, 16-22. 94 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION theological system means that children by that rite are born again and brought into right relationship to God, that the bent of their nature toward evil is arrested and set toward good, and that the diseases of nature are in the process of cure. It means that “herein a principle of grace is infused’’*® into them, and that they have entered an environment which will insure their development in that principle until they become holy. The work accom- plished is so far effectual that if they die before they commit actual sin, they will be eternally saved.°® And if they live, they need never again to pass through the porch of repentance and the door of faith unless they do commit actual sin. But it will be natural for them to sin, for the principle of nature is still in them at cross purposes with the principle of grace, just as it is in believers of riper years. Therefore they need constant atten- tion from their earliest years. i This position presents a striking parallel to that held by the solitaries of the Little Schools of Port-Royal which flour- ished in France in the middle years of the seventeenth century. Mr. Bridgen, a contributing editor of the New History of Meth- odism, asserts that Samuel Wesley criticized, in his letters, many schools of thought, among them the Port-Royalists, and that these criticisms were known to his son John and influenced his theol- ogy.” Just what his attitude was toward the Port-Royalists and its effect upon John Wesley it has been impossible to determine. In his youth he came to know Pascal through his mother,”? and later read his Thoughts.** He is the only member of the Port- Royal community to whom Wesley makes reference in his writ- ings. Even if he were closely familiar with their work, he would have taken issue with their rigid conception of predestination and God’s arbitrary selection of those upon whom he will confer grace. He would also have objected to their doctrine of abso- lution for those who had fallen into deadly sin after baptism. 49 Works, VI, 15. 60 Tbid., VI, 14. 51 4 New History of Methodism, I, 167. % Publications of the Wesley Historical Society, No. III, Mrs. Wesley's Conference With Her Daughter, An Original Essay by Mrs. Susanna Wesley, 39. 83 Journal, IV, 45. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN 95 But he was closely akin to much in their theology, and, as will be seen later, in their educational method. They believed that infants are in a state of original sin and guilty of it, that bap- tism restores them to innocency, but that since they retain their corrupt nature, despite baptism, they are in danger of falling again into sin. The only way to conserve their innocency is to guard them completely from contamination during their help- less years and at the same time to build character that they may resist evil by their own strength when they become of age. This is the task of education. Wesley’s practical position, it may be inferred, is similar to this. Baptism but begins the change in human nature and is to be followed by proper and careful instruction and discipline. The new birth no more cures children entirely of their spiritual diseases, nor sets altogether aright the wrong bias of their nature, than it does for adults. They still possess tendencies to evil, and are still beset by the diseases of pride, self-will, and love of the world in which they are born. Justification and re- generation represent but the door to religion. Religion itself is holiness through the knowledge and love of God. So that even though baptized they are not necessarily holy, certainly not in the highest degree. But they are to become so. They are to “grow in grace in the same proportion as they grow in years.”°® The goal is to make predominant the principle of grace and to overcome the principle of nature. This is to be done, with the help of God, by discipline and teaching. “This is the most probable method for making their children pious, which any parents can take.’°® Your children are “immortal spirits whom God hath, for a time, intrusted to your care, that you may train them up in all holiness, and fit them for the enjoyment of God in eternity.”°" ‘The grand end of education” is to cure the dis- eases of human nature.*® “The bias of nature is set the wrong way : education is designed to set it right. This, by the grace of 54 Barnard: The Little Schools of Port-Royal, 53-54. 55 Works, II, 305. 58 Tbid., II, 310. 56 Thid., II, 308. 87 Tind., II, 302. 96 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION God, is to turn the bias from self-will, pride, anger, revenge, and the love of the world, to resignation, lowliness, meekness, and the love of God.’°? This work, begun by parents, is to be con- tinued in the schools by instructors “that will tread in the same steps.’’°° But, as has already been indicated, it is a task of great difficulty to find teachers of this sort. That is the reason Wesley was so careful to guide parents in the choice of schools for their children. For the same reason he was concerned in the choice parents made of godfathers and godmothers for their children at bap- tism. Only those should be chosen who are of the highest Chris- tian character and who will be certain to perform their duty faithfully. Wesley’s brief tract entitled Serious Thoughts Con- cerning Godfathers and Godmothers states his anxiety over the neglect of this office. Many in his day were hesitant to answer for children at baptism because of the mistaken notion that their duty was to promise that the child would “renounce the devil and all his works, constantly believe God’s holy word, and obedi- ently keep his commandments.” As a matter of fact, Wesley points out, not the sponsor but the child promises this. The sponsor, according to the Liturgy, undertakes to see to it that the infant realizes as soon as he is able the nature and solemnity of his profession, and to influence him to attend worship, learn the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, tha Ten Commandments, and all things else he should know for the health of his soul, that he may be brought up to lead a holy life. Failure on the part of spon- sors to understand the nature of their duty was leading to a neglect of it. Furthermore, many parents in Wesley’s day were apparently choosing godfathers and godmothers regardless of their fitness for their task. He therefore advises them to select only those who truly fear and serve God and who will perform their undertaking’ with knowledge and love. If this evil is remedied and parents and sponsors cooperate to train their chil- dren, “what a foundation of holiness and happiness may be laid, even to your late posterity!’ 59 Thid., VII, 459. 61 Jbid., VI, 235-236. 60 Tbid., VII, 460. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN 97 IV. The Salvation of Children by Training and Conversion Wesley’s theory that infants are born again at baptism and that training is the most probable method of making children pious is seemingly at odds with his practice of expecting and in- ducing the new birth in children beyond the years of infancy. For instance, at the opening of the New Kingswood School he preached his sermon “On the Education of Children,” which contains his most detailed advice concerning the cure of the dis- eases of human nature.®* Inasmuch as the students of this school were to be drawn largely from Methodist homes, and, in part at least, from preachers’ homes, it is to be expected that they would be baptized. Yet Wesley encouraged the experience of the new birth in these children not only during his own frequent meetings with them but also through their masters. The Journal records also that he preached on education in other places—Bris- tcl, Manchester, London—using this same sermon.®* ‘There is no reason for believing that in these places he refrained from stimulating children to regeneration. On the contrary, accord- ing to the Journal, wherever he met children his chief work was to cultivate in them a sense of their sinful nature and a desire for a cure, by talks on their natural state, and on the first prin- ciples of religion, namely, repentance and faith.®* All the evi- dence points to the fact that he labored as strenuously to bring children into the instantaneous experience of religion as he ad- vised parents to train them up in religion. Is it possible to reconcile Wesley’s faith in religious educa- tion with his application of the revival methods to children? He believed, it will be recalled, that anyone who has sinned after his baptism has denied that rite and therefore must have recourse to another new birth if he is to be saved, just as the Port-Royal- ists believed in the necessity of absolution after losing baptismal innocency. If an individual, who before he had the use of reason was consecrated to God and set apart as a temple for the Holy Spirit, has been serving the devil since he came to the 8 Journal, IIT, 356. 8 Tbid., V, 189, 193, 253; VII, 99. 4 Titd., IV, 279-280; V, 388; etc. 98 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION use of reason and has been setting up in his heart pride, the love of the world, anger, lust, foolish desire, and other sinful affec- tions, he has denied his baptism and cannot be saved without being born again. Also, any willful sin, such as lying, profan- ing the Lord’s Day or the Lord’s name, is a denial of baptism, as much as sinful affections, and necessitates a new birth. It is a severe ideal; but Wesley held it up before the people. And it is seen that it was no temporary opinion from the fact that this aspect of his teaching is stressed in two of his most impor- tant sermons, ““The Marks of the New Birth’ and “The New Birth.” Now, since Wesley believed that reason dawns in the child when he begins to walk or talk, he is justified logically in holding that the benefits of baptism may be lost early in life, for from then on willful sin becomes possible. He was convinced that he himself had sinned away the benefits of baptism at an early age. He saw parents neglecting the religious training of their children. He came into constant contact with children running wild in sin, lying and profaning the Lord’s Day and name. These seem to have given him reason enough for holding that children must actually be born again. But, it must be noticed, his teaching that the new birth is necessary under the conditions of a denial of baptism is not in conflict with his edu- cational position. It 1s, rather, a strong confirmation of it, for only by strict training will it be possible to retain the benefits of baptism. The revival methods would be necessary only where Christian nurture had failed. There is no evidence to show that Wesley ever put the fore- going theory into practice. The evidence points to another theory altogether, according to which the aims of the revival method and religious education are the same. This theory pays no attention whatever to baptismal regeneration but implies the need of regeneration under all circumstances. It is the theory that conversion—to use the term disliked by Wesley—is uni- versally necessary for children as well as adults. Professor Rishell points out in a brief article in the Methodist Review on “Wesley and Other Methodist Fathers on Childhood Religion,” & Works, I, 160-161, 406-407. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN 99 of which only a little over three pages and a half are devoted to Wesley, that Wesley did not believe conversion to be necessary for children, generally or universally, but that he believed in the effectiveness of religious instruction apart from conversion as the way to the religious life.6* In proof he cites random sen- tences from Wesley, such as the following from the sermon “On Family Religion”: “The wickedness of the children is generally owing to the fault or neglect of their parents.” It is well to quote from Wesley’s paragraph in more detail, “Is there not a generation arisen, even within this period, yea, and from pious parents, that know not the Lord? That have neither his love in their hearts nor his fear before their eyes? How many of them already ‘despise their fathers, and mock at the counsel of their mothers! How many are utter strangers to real religion, to the life and power of it! And not a few have shaken off all religion, and abandoned themselves to all manner of wickedness! Now, although this may sometimes be the case, even of children educated in a pious manner, yet this case is very rare: I have met with some, but not many instances of it. The wickedness of the children is generally owing to the fault or neglect of their parents. For it is a general, though not uni- versal rule, though it admits of some exceptions, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.’ ’’® Now, Rishell’s unguarded position is not tenable. For, as a matter of fact, Wesley did not hold that a religious education makes conversion unnecessary, but that religious education and conversion supplement each other. All that he states in the passage which Rishell uses to support his interpretation is, that where there is no religion in the children the parents are usually to blame for not training them in a pious way. What Wesley really means by this and by the more positive statement that training is the most probable method of making children pious can be discovered only by defining more closely what constitutes the training of children in his theory. He gives the concept of % Methodist Review, LXXXIV, 779. 8? Works, II, 301. 100 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION training and education a wider connotation than they usually carry. He uses them to include not only the bringing of children to a knowledge and appreciation of the conditions of salvation, but also to their personal appropriation of salvation. Religious education must lead to the experience of regeneration with its resultant life of holiness. It must aim to produce repentance and faith, that is, the knowledge of self and of God through Christ, and the life of inward and outward piety which nat- urally follows. This is made clear by a section from the ser- mon “On Family Religion,’ a few lines following the sentence which Rishell quotes. The text is from Joshua 24. 15: “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” Wesley inquires, ““What is it to ‘serve the Lord,’ not as a Jew, but as a Christian? Not only with an outward service (though some of the Jews undoubtedly went farther than this), but with inward; with the service of the heart, ‘worshiping him in spirit and in truth.’ The first thing implied in this service is faith—believing in the name of the Son of God. We cannot perform an acceptable service to God till we believe on Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. Here the spiritual worship begins. As soon as any one has the witness in himself, as soon as he can say, “The life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,’ he is able truly to ‘serve the Lord.’” This is nothing else than Wesley’s description of the experience of re- generation and justification by faith. From this starting point he proceeds to show that the love of God follows the belief, and the love of neighbor necessarily accompanies the love of God. He finally shows that to serve the Lord means to obey him. This is the first head of the sermon. The second asks, Who are included under the expression “my house’? And Wesley an- swers, ‘““The children along with the wife and servants.’®* In other words, children are to be trained to serve the Lord; but they cannot serve him without the experience of regeneration and justification, Therefore, to train children up in the way they should go means to lead them ultimately into the expe- rience of salvation in much the same way that an adult is led Hiatt Ibid., II, 301-302. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN IOI into it. It is true, as Rishell says, that Wesley believed that the sins of children are due to the neglect of parents; but the neglect of parents is not simply failure to give their children a few lessons in religion. It is more serious than this. It is failure to induce in them the ordered stages of the experience of real religion as set forth in his theology. Training must be a con- verting process. Wesley’s position in the sermon “On the Education of Children” is seen to coincide with this view. There to train children in the way they should go means to cure them of their inherent diseases—pride, atheism, love of the world, self-will, etc. But since Wesley identifies the cure of these diseases with real religion, there is no conflict between the two sermons. The cure of pride and atheism results in a knowledge of self and a knowledge of God, repentance, and faith. The cure of the love ot the world and self-will results in the love of God and obedi- ence to his will. To cure the diseases of nature and to train the individual in religion mean the same thing.® Wesley’s tract, A Thought on the Manner of Educating Children, also suggests the harmony of these two positions, although, since it is a polemic, it does not labor with details. On the first page Wesley is defending the education children receive at Kingswood and in the schools run by Miss Bosanquet and Miss Owen. His critic has been saying that children brought up severely turn out worse than those left to develop more nat- urally. In answer to this, Wesley points to these schools and says that the children educated in them will be worse than others only on condition that they have never been converted or have quenched the Spirit subsequent to conversion. He thus iden- tifies conversion with at least a part of the educative process. On the next page Wesley says true religion ought to be instilled into children as early as possible, that education is designed to set aright the bias of nature, to cure the diseases of self-will, pride, etc. Therefore to train children in the way of real reli- gion is to regenerate them, to cure the corruption of their nature. 69 Tizd., II, 307ff. 70 Tbid., VII, 458-459. 102 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION And inasmuch as it should begin with the first dawn of reason, before there has been any possibility of the loss of the effects of baptism, it would seem to be a regeneration process added to the regeneration received at baptism. And this training should in- clude the more gradual processes of Christian nurture. The methods of the revival will be employed to supplement and to quicken the processes of nurture. The close relationship between the process of adult salva- tion and child education should be emphasized. The foundation of real religion is the knowledge of self and of God through Christ; that is, repentance and faith. Since salvation is from original sin and from the inherited bias of nature as well as from actual sin, the actual process whereby it is accomplished does not need to wait until sin has been committed, although in the case of adults it is so delayed. Two significant statements in Wesley’s teaching harmonize at this point: the doctrine of original sin and faith grounded thereon is the only foundation of true piety; and, training is the most probable method of mak- ing children pious. To understand this more fully, it is neces- sary to study in greater detail his educational theories and the manner of their application. To this task the chapter to follow will address itself. CHAPTEROLV, THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN: PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS I. The Influence of Mrs. Susanna Wesley Upon the Educational Theory of John Wesley ALTHOUGH Wesley was a leader of popular education and did much to advance the intellectual condition of the English people, stressing especially their religious development, it cannot be said that he made any brilliant discoveries in the theory or method of education, either religious or secular. In many ways he was a child of the eighteenth century and shared its blindness to the meaning of childhood. Many of his educational views are unquestionably eccentric. Nevertheless, he did entertain several enlightened views as well. In his writings there are echoes of several educational re- formers. Mention has already been made of the educational work of the Religious Societies, and of Wesley’s debt to them, as well as of their debt to him. He learned much from the Moravians in Georgia, and more from them in Germany.* Some of his ideas are in accord with John Amos Comenius, the Mora- vian pioneer of education of the seventeenth century; but whether he had read his works, as his brother Charles had read his life, cannot be ascertained. He read and admired Milton’s Tractate on Education, and acknowledges his indebtedness to it.2 He was powerfully influenced by Locke’s Essay on the Human Understanding, and it is probable, as Mr. Bridgen asserts, that he knew the Thoughts on Education.? He had read Rousseau’s Emile, but found it a “most empty, silly, injudicious thing.’”* 1 Works, VII, 348. For full account of Wesley’s visit to the Moravians in Germany, see Journal, II, 23-63. 2 Jo1d., VII, 341. 3 Ibid., VII, 336; A New History of Methodism, I, 218. ‘ Tbid., VI, 458. 103 104 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION There is no evidence that he was favorably startled by any of its doctrines. Froebel was born but eight years before Wesley’s death, and Pestalozzi did not wield an influence in England until long after. Wesley evidently received but little inspiration from such of these educational reformers as he came to know, although some of his opinions are strikingly similar to theirs. He derived more of his convictions concerning the educa- tion of children from his cultured and pious mother, Mrs. Su- sanna Wesley, than from any other source. His right to instruct parents was questioned several times.” On one of these occasions, when he preached on the education of children and the management of families, although many were convinced of their duty, “some still made that very silly answer, “Oh, he has no children of his own!’ Neither had Saint Paul, nor (that we know) any of the apostles. What then? Were they, therefore, unable to instruct parents? Not so. They were able to instruct everyone that had a soul to be saved.”® That he possessed such a detailed program of how children should be managed, not having any of his own, was due largely to his remembrance of his mother’s management of the numerous children of the Ep- worth Rectory, and especially to an account she gave him in writing of the principles on which she based her management. Ten of the nineteen children of the Epworth Rectory sur- vived infancy. Their training was almost exclusively in the hands of Mrs. Wesley, a task for which she was eminently qualified. She refused to send her children to the local school- master, John Holland, because of his notorious incompetency and wickedness.’ She preferred to teach them herself. She prepared her three boys for secondary school, only one of them receiving any outside supplementary training.* Practically all the education her daughters received seems to have come from her. So thorough was their training that several of them be- came unusually cultured for their day, and one attained out- 5 Journal, V, 189, 253. 6 Thid., V, 253. 7 Telford: Life of John Wesley, 15. 8 Clarke: Susanna Wesley, 64. *Tyerman: The Life and Times of John Wesley, I, 18. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS _ 105 standing scholarship. She looked upon all her children as talents committed to her under trust by God, and although she desired that they should be versed in useful knowledge it was her “prin- cipal intention” to save their souls.*° A deepened spiritual expe- rience that came to her after the burning of the Rectory led her to resolve a more conscientious care of her children, and from that time she made it a habit to converse one evening a week with each child separately... She devoted Thursday evening to John,” and was especially careful of him, seeing in his mirac- ulous escape from the fire some deep providential meaning.** So deeply was the boy impressed by these conferences that at eight years of age he was adjudged by his father fit to receive holy communion.** In later life, amid the multifarious cares of a growing church, he pleaded that she spare some part of the same evening to prayer for him.*° Mrs, Wesley prepared books suited to the children’s needs, finding none available that met her severe requirements. Among these were an exposition of the Apostles’ Creed, an exposition of the Ten Commandments,*® and a “Religious Conference, Written for the Use of My Chil- dren,” in the form of a dialogue with her daughter Amelia. Wesley knew this manuscript and refers to it as ““My Mother’s Conference with her Daughter.”** During her husband’s ab- sences from Epworth she continued family worship and held services Sunday evenings for her children and servants, which neighbors also joined, often packing the house. At these serv- ices she read a sermon and prayers and discussed religious topics.1* John Wesley observed of her shortly after her death that “she (as well as her father and grandfather, her husband, 10 From a letter quoted by Clarke, op. cit., 47-48. 11 From a letter quoted by Wesley, Journal, III, 32-34. 2 Tbid:, 33. 13 From Mrs. Wesley’s Meditations, quoted by Moore: Life of John Wesley, I, 101. 14 Clarke: Susanna Wesley, 122. 16 Works, V1, 593. 16 Mrs. Wesley’s Conference, editor’s preface, 1i1. 17 Ibid. 18 From a letter quoted by Wesley, Journal, III, 32-34. 106 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION and her three sons), had been, in her measure and degree, a preacher of righteousness.’’”” Back of the rules of her “way of education,” as she called it, and back of the intent that animates it, lies her theology, in the light of which alone it can be understood. Between her theology and that of her son John there is a marked similarity. It is because he agreed with her theology that he could accept the educational position that rests upon it. She believed that human nature, due to the Fall, is depraved in understanding, will, and affections, possessing a strong bias to evil, and that the root of all evil is self-will.*° The first steps in one’s recovery are repentance and faith, a deep and sincere sensibility of his condition, and an appropriation of the righteousness of Christ." “Christ will be no Saviour to such as see not their need of one. The freedom of the will is necessary if there is to be moral responsibility.22 The speculations of philosophy are barren compared with the experimental knowledge of God through faith.* Yet reason is not to be denied its proper place in reli- gion, for “the understanding is the highest and most noble power or faculty of the human soul.””® This life is a probation for the next; therefore religion is man’s one important business on earth, and all else of little moment in comparison.7® In these points the theology of mother and son agrees. Yet for many years there was one fundamental difference. Not until old age did she believe in present forgiveness of sins, having scarce ever heard of such a thing until over a year after the knowledge and experience of it had reached her two sons.*’ Consequently she did not clearly distinguish between justification and sanctifica- ’ 99992 19 Journal, III, 32. 20 From Mrs. Wesley’s writings quoted in Clarke: Wesley Family, II, 4off., 71-72, 80, 84; Clarke: Susanna Wesley, 183-184; Wesley, Journal, III, 36. 31 Mrs. Wesley’s Conference, 34. 22 From Mrs. Wesley’s writings quoted in Clarke: Susanna Wesley, 241. 73 From Mrs. Wesley’s writings quoted in Clarke: Wesley Family, II, 42. 4 Thid., II, 78-79. 35 Mrs. Wesley’s:Conference, 27. See also, 5. *% From Mrs. Wesley’s writings quoted in Clarke: Susanna Wesley, 181, 183. 37 Journal, II, 267-268. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS _ 107 tion, nor between justification by faith and by works.”® The glad certainty of acceptance with God was consequently lacking in her theology, and seems to explain in part the defect in her sys- tem of education, namely, the lack in it of provision for a more inward experience. In this setting of Mrs. Wesley’s theology, to educate chil- dren into salvation becomes a serious and difficult enterprise. She was reluctant to write down her “way of education,” for she did not believe it could be generally observed, being adapted only for those whose chief aim is to save the souls of their children, and who, fully appreciating the difficulty of the task, are willing to literally renounce the world to accomplish it.? It was important that training should be begun early. In a letter to “Jacky” at Oxford she states one of the guiding prin- ciples in her theory of education. “Believe me, dear son,” she writes, “old age is the worst time we can choose to mend either our lives or our fortunes. If the foundations of solid piety are not laid betimes in sound principles and virtuous dispositions, and if we neglect, while strength and vigor last, to lay up some- thing ere the infirmities of age overtake us, it is a hundred to one odds that we shall die both poor and wicked.’”®° And yet, despite her insistence upon early piety and continuous training, she was deeply anxious lest her children should not be saved. She wants “Jacky” to examine himself and see if he is “in a state of faith and repentance or not,” and if he has “a reason- able hope of salvation.”** These and other like advices seem to indicate that her “way of education” does not exclude the necessity of regeneration any more than her son’s way.*” The test of everything that touches life, according to Mrs. Wesley, is whether it furthers or hinders progress toward sal- vation. She does not with a Kempis condemn “all mirth or pleasure as sinful or useless.”’*? She permitted games of chance 28 Clarke: Wesley Family, II, 119-120. 2? From Mrs. Wesley’s writings quoted in Clarke: Susanna Wesley, 47-48. 30 Thid., 200. . 31 Thid., 181. 2 Tbid., 71, 90, 92. 3 Ibid., 184. 1088 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION and skill, and even cards, in the Epworth home. Stevens, agree- ing with Adam Clarke, is undoubtedly right in saying that John’s early education was not unduly severe.** Certainly, it was not as severe as the educational program he later advocated. His mother followed and advised the rule which she observed in her youth, never in one day to spend more time in recreation than in private religious exercises.*” Her sane criterion of the good or evil in pleasures, however innocent in themselves, is whether these things rob the mind and conscience of their mastery over the body, and dull the sense of God and spiritual things.2® Un- fortunately, her son did not altogether agree with her as to the things that have this effect, and he excluded many things from both young and old which he was permitted at home. Such is the background of Mrs. Wesley’s “way of education.” The letter containing the way itself deserves to be quoted in full, so much light does it throw upon Wesley’s own theories. It is written to him at his own request for the details of her method of raising children. A section of it on the management of the children’s wills, comprising a tenth of the entire letter, he incorporates with slight alterations in the sermon on “Obedi- ence to Parents,’ and uses ideas and wording from other parts of it freely in all of his sermons bearing on children. Attention has never been called, so far as has been discovered, to the fact that this quotation is taken from his mother’s letter, Wesley introducing it simply as a “part of a letter on the subject, printed some years ago.”°’ Many of his hearers and readers had un- doubtedly seen it in his Journal, where he had printed it, and were therefore acquainted with its source. Their biographers, while calling attention to the son’s debt in educational theory to his mother’s discipline, and to the publicity he gave to her methods as illustrating his own theories, have nevertheless failed to show how great was his dependence upon the letter itself. The latest biographer of Mrs. Wesley holds the hypothesis that 34 Stevens: History of the Religious Movement of the Eighteenth Century, Called Methodism, I, 54, and note 33. 3 From Mrs. Wesley’s writings quoted in Clarke: Susanna Wesley, 94. 36 Thid., 184. 37 Works, II, 319. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS _ 109 possibly his desire to have his mother’s theories in writing was due to “his own aspirations to family life.”** Whatever may have been his reasons for desiring it, the reason for entering it in his Journal was, as he says, “for the benefit of those who are intrusted, as she was, with the care of a numerous family.’ Her letter follows: July 24, 1732. DEAR SON, According to your desire, I have collected the principle rules I observed in educating my family; which I now send you as they occurred to my mind, and you may (if you think they can be of use to any) dispose of them in what order you please. The children were always put into a regular method of living, in such things as they were capable of, from their birth: as in dressing, undressing, changing their linen, &c. The first quarter commonly passes in sleep. After that they were, if possible, laid into their cradles awake, and rocked to sleep; and so they were kept rocking till it was time for them to awake. This was done to bring them to a regular course of sleeping; which at first was three hours in the morning and three in the afternoon; afterward two hours, till they needed none at all. When turned a year old (and some before), they were taught to fear the rod, and to cry softly; by which means they escaped abun- dance of correction they might otherwise have had, and that most odious noise of the crying of children was rarely heard in the house, but the family usually lived in as much quietness as if there had not been a child among them. As soon as they were grown pretty strong they were confined to three meals a day. At dinner their little table and chairs were set by ours, where they could be overlooked; and they were suffered to eat and drink (small beer) as much as they would, but not to call for anything. If they wanted aught, they used to whisper to the maid which attended them, who came and spake to me; and as soon as they could handle a knife and fork they were set to our table. They were never suffered to choose their meat, but always made eat such things as were provided for the family. Mornings they had always spoon-meat; sometimes on nights. But whatever they had, they were never permitted to eat at those meals of more than one thing; and of that sparingly enough. Drinking or eating between meals was never allowed, unless in case of sick- 38 Clarke: Susanna Wesley, 46. 39 Journal, III, 34. 110 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ness, which seldom happened. Nor were they suffered to go into the kitchen to ask anything of the servants when they were at meat; if it was known they did, they were certainly beat, and the servants severely reprimanded. At six, as soon as family prayers were over, they had their sup- per; at seven the maid washed them; and, beginning at the young- est, she undressed and got them all to bed by eight; at which time she left them in their several rooms awake—for there was no such thing allowed of in our house as sitting by a child till it fell asleep. They were so constantly used to eat and drink what was given them that, when any of them was ill, there was no difficulty in making them take the most unpleasant medicine; for they durst not refuse it, though some of them would presently throw it up. This I mention to show that a person may be taught to take anything, though it be never so much against his stomach.*® In order to form the minds of children, the first thing to be done is to conquer their will, and bring them to an obedient temper. To inform the understanding is a work of time, and must with children proceed by slow degrees as they are able to bear it; but the sub- jecting the will is a thing that must be done at once, and the sooner the better. For, by neglecting timely correction, they will contract a stubbornness and obstinancy which is hardly ever after conquered: and never, without using such severity as would be as painful to me as to the child. In the esteem of the world they pass for kind and indulgent whom I call cruel parents, who permit their children to get habits which they know must be afterward broken.41 Nay, some are so stupidly fond as in sport to teach their children to do things which in a while after they have severely beaten them for doing. Whenever a child is corrected, it must be conquered; and this will be no hard matter to do if it be not grown headstrong by too much indulgence. And when the will of a child is totally subdued, and it is brought to revere and stand in awe of the parents, then a great many childish follies and inadvertencies may be passed by. Some should be overlooked and taken no notice of, and others mildly reproved; but no willful transgression ought ever to be forgiven children without chastisement, less or more, as the nature and cir- cumstances of the offense require. I insist upon conquering the will of children betimes, because this is the only strong and rational foundation of a religious educa- tion, without which both precept and example will be ineffectual. 40 Wesley’s quotations from this letter in his sermon “On Obedience to Parents” begins at this point. 41 Wesley does not quote the remainder of this paragraph. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS 111 But when this is thoroughly done, then a child is capable of being governed by the reason and piety of its parents, till its own under- standing comes to maturity, and the principles of religion have taken root in the mind. I cannot yet dismiss this subject. As self-will is the root of all sin and misery, so whatever cherishes this in children insures their after-wretchedness and irreligion; whatever checks and mortifies it promotes their future happiness and piety. This is still more evident if we further consider that religion is nothing else than the doing the will of God, and not our own; that, the one grand impediment to our temporal and eternal happiness being this self-will, no indul- gences of it can be trivial, no denial unprofitable. Heaven or hell depends on this alone. So that the parent who studies to subdue it in his child works together with God in the renewing and saving a soul. The parent who indulges it does the devil’s work, makes reli- gion impracticable, salvation unattainable; and does all that in him lies to damn his child, soul and body, for ever.*? The children of this family were taught, as soon as they could speak, the Lord’s Prayer, which they were made to say at rising and at bedtime constantly; to which, as they grew bigger, were added a short prayer for their parents, and some collects; a short catechism, and some portions of Scripture, as their memories could bear. They were very early made to distinguish the Sabbath from other days, before they could well speak or go. They were as soon taught to be still at family prayers, and to ask a blessing immediately after, which they used to do by signs, before they could kneel or speak. They were quickly made to understand they might have nothing they cried for, and instructed to speak handsomely for what they “ The following paragraph, which enforces the necessity of breaking the child’s will, appears in Wesley’s sermon as being also from his mother’s letter. It apparently stood at this point in the letter in its original form. It is not found in the letter printed in the standard edition of Wesley’s Works, nor in Curnock’s standard edition of the Journal. With it Wesley’s quotation concludes: “This, therefore, I cannot but earnestly repeat, Break their wills betimes. Begin this great work before they can run alone, before they can speak plainly, or perhaps speak at all. Whatever pains it cost, conquer their stubbornness: break the will, if you would not damn the child. I conjure you not to neglect, not to delay this. Therefore, 1, Let a child from a year old, be taught to fear the rod and to cry softly. In order to this, 2, Let him have nothing he cries for; absolutely nothing, great or small; else you undo your own work. 3, At all events, from that age, make him do as he is bid, if you whip him ten times run- ning to effect it: let none persuade you it is cruelty to do this: it is cruelty not to do it. Break his will now, and his soul will live, and he will probably bless you to all eternity.”— Works, II, 320. i12' "WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUGATION wanted. They were not suffered to ask even the lowest servant for aught without saying, “Pray, give me such a thing;” and the servant was chid if she ever let them omit that word. Taking God’s name in vain, cursing and swearing, profaneness, obscenity, rude, ill-bred names, were never heard among them. Nor were they ever permitted to call each other by their proper names without the addition of Brother or Sister. None of them were taught to read till five years old, except Kezzy, in whose case I was overruled; and she was more years learning than any of the rest had been months. The way of teaching was this: the day before a child began to learn, the house was set in order, every one’s work appointed them, and a charge given that none should come into the room from nine till twelve, or from two till five; which, you know, were our school hours. One day was allowed the child wherein to learn its letters; and each of them did in that time know all its letters, great and small, except Molly and Nancy, who were a day and a half before they knew them per- fectly; for which I then thought them very dull; but since I have observed how long many children are learning the horn-book, I have changed my opinion. But the reason why I thought them so then was because the rest learned so readily; and your brother Samuel, who was the first child I ever taught, learned the alphabet in a few hours. He was five years old on the toth of February; the next day he began to learn; and, as soon as he knew the letters, began at the first chapter of Genesis. He. was taught to spell the first verse, then to read it over and over, till he could read it off- hand without any hesitation; so on to the second, &c, till he took ten verses for a lesson, which he quickly did. Easter fell low that year; and by Whitsuntide he could read a chapter very well; for he read continually, and had such a prodigious memory that I cannot remember ever to have told him the same word twice. What was yet stranger, any word he had learned in his lesson he knew wherever he saw it, either in his Bible or any other book; by which means he learned very soon to read an English author well. The same method was observed with them all. As soon as they knew the letters, they were put first to spell, and read one line, then a verse; never leaving till perfect in their lesson, were it shorter or longer. So one or other continued reading at school-time, without any intermission; and before we left school each child read what he had learned that morning; and, ere we parted in the afternoon, what they had learned that day. There was no such thing as loud talking or playing allowed of, but every one was kept close to their business, for the six hours of PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS 113 school: and it is almost incredible what a child may be taught in a quarter of a year, by a vigorous application, if it have but a toler- able capacity and good health. Every one of these, Kezzy excepted, could read better in that time than the most of women can do as long as they live. Rising out of their places, or going out of the room, was not per- mitted unless for good cause; and running into the yard, garden, or street, without leave was always esteemed a capital offense. For some years we went on very well. Never were children in better order. Never were children better disposed to piety or in more subjection to their parents, till that fatal dispersion of them, after the fire, into several families. In these they were left at full liberty to converse with servants, which before they had always been restrained from; and to run abroad, and play with any children, good or bad. They soon learned to neglect a strict observation of the Sabbath, and got knowledge of several songs and bad things, which before they had no notion of. That civil behavior which made them admired when at home by all which saw them was, in great measure, lost; and a clownish accent and many rude ways were learned, which were not reformed without some difficulty. When the house was rebuilt, and the children all brought home, we entered upon a strict reform; and then was begun the custom of singing psalms at beginning and leaving school, morning and even- ing. Then also that of a general retirement at five o’clock was entered upon, when the oldest took the youngest that could speak, and the second the next, to whom they read the Psalms for the day, and a chapter in the New Testament; as, in the morning, they were directed to read the Psalms and a chapter in the Old; after which they went to their private prayers, before they got their breakfast or came into the family. And, I thank God, this custom is still pre- served among us. There were several by-laws observed among us, which slipped my memory, or else they had been inserted at their proper place; but I mention them here, because I think them useful. 1. It had been observed that cowardice and fear of punishment often led children into lying, till they get a custom of it, which they cannot leave. To prevent this a law was made, That whoever was charged with a fault, of which they were guilty, if they would ingenuously confess it, and promise to amend, should not be beaten. This rule prevented a great deal of lying, and would have done more, if one*®? in the family would have observed it. But he could not be prevailed on, and therefore was often imposed on by false #8 Journal, III, 38, note 1, editorial: probably John Wesley’s father. 114 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION colors and equivocations; which none would have used (except one),** had they been kindly dealt with. And some, in spite of all, would always speak truth plainly. 2. That no sinful action, as lying, pilfering, playing at church, or on the Lord’s Day, disobedience, quarreling, &c., should ever pass unpunished. 3. That no child should ever be chid or beat twice for the same fault; and that, if they amended, they should never be upbraided with it afterward. 4. That every signal act of obedience, especially when it crossed upon their own inclinations, should be always commended, and fre- quently rewarded, according to the merits of the cause. 5. That if ever any child performed an act of obedience, or did anything with an intention to please, though the performance was not well, yet the obedience and intention should be kindly accepted ; and the child with sweetness directed how to do better for the future. 6. That propriety be inviolably preserved, and none suffered to invade the property of another in the smallest matter, though it were but of the value of a farthing or a pin; which they might not take from the owner without, much less against, his consent. This rule can never be too much inculcated on the minds of children; and from the want of parents or governors doing it as they ought pro- ceeds that shameful neglect of justice which we may observe in the world. 7. That promises be strictly observed; and a gift once bestowed, and so the right passed away from the donor, be not resumed, but left to the disposal of him to whom it was given; unless it were conditional, and the condition of the obligation not performed. 8. That no girl be taught to work till she can read very well; and then that she be kept to her work with the same application, and for the same time, that she was held to in reading. This rule also is much to be observed; for the putting children to learn sewing before they can read perfectly is the very reason why so few women can read fit to be heard, and never to be well understood.#5 This letter reveals a discipline strict and persistent, but withal calm and unhurried. It shows that Mrs. Wesley gov- erned by inflexible rules nearly every detail of her children’s lives—their physical growth, their play, their study and work, and their piety and devotion. Wesley applies her rules more “ Thtd., III, 38, note 2, editorial: May this have been Hetty? 4 Tbid., III, 34-39. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS 115 explicitly to the cure of children’s diseases of nature. In many respects, as will be seen, he outdoes his mother in strictness. II. Religious Education in the Home (a) Discipline Wesley, following his mother, conceives the training of children to be a twofold task. One branch of it is discipline, the other teaching. The disciplinary work is to correct the bias of nature by curing the diseases of nature. It is done chiefly in two ways, the one negative and the other positive. The growth of the diseases should not be stimulated; they should not be fed. Most parents are guilty of this, of adding fuel to the slumbering fires. But more is required than the withholding of everything that does this. There should follow positive methods to root out the diseases and to heal them. As soon as any of the evil roots are seen springing up through the fertile soil of the child’s life, their advance should at once be checked and efforts made to uproot them. This is the disciplinary task. The reli- gious instruction of children begins before this is accomplished, merging with it and supplementing it. The dawn of conscious religion should be coincident with the dawn of reason. The right time to begin instruction is “from the very time that reason dawns.”*® As soon as their understanding opens they should be told why they have been subjected to such a discipline, and then be led forth into the instruction of definite religious prin- ciples.*7. The combined task should be begun as early as possi- ble. “Scripture, reason, and experience jointly testify that, inas- much as the corruption of nature is earlier than our instructions can be, we should take all pains and care to counteract this cor- ruption as early as possible.”*® The most important work of discipline is to cure the disease of self-will. It is the foundation of religious education, because true religion is disposing of our life according to the will of God and not according to our own will. The only way to pre- 4 Works, VII, 459. 47 Thid., II, 320; VII, 458-460. 48 Totd., VII, 459. 116 WESLEY .ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION pare children to submit to God in their riper years is to subdue their will when they are young. And this is the province of the parent, for “the will of a parent is to a little child in the place of the will of God.” Therefore, a wise parent will begin as soon as the child’s will appears.*® Although the understand- ing is to be informed by slow degrees through time, the will should be subjected at once, for it becomes more difficult the older the child grows. It should be done before he is two years old. It may be done later, but it will be with much more diff- culty.°? One of the most practical ways of accomplishing this is never to give the child what it cries for, but to teach it “to fear the rod and to cry softly.”°’ To give it what it cries for, to humor it, is but to reward its will for self-assertion.°? The task requires constant attention and unremitting firmness and resolution.** The severity of this rule has been held up for ridicule and generally misunderstood. What Wesley and his mother mean by it is not so much to break the will, for it is not yet set in an infant, but to prevent it from setting, from becom- ing habituated to indulge itself and the rest of one’s nature. The word Mrs. Wesley prefers for “break” is “subdue” or “con- quer.” From her letter it is quite evident that the object in be- ginning correction early is in order to avoid the later necessity of using methods which would require “such severity as would be as painful to me as to the child.”** The disease of love of the world admits of treatment before the child is old enough for intellectual instruction, as does the disease of self-will. The pleasures of the senses, of the flesh and of the eye usually feed the love of the world. Therefore those things that gratify the outward senses should be given to children cautiously, if given at all. Before they are weaned their diet should be exclusively milk, “the natural food of chil- dren.” After they are weaned they should be denied other kinds of food until their nature really demands it. Such glittering playthings and fancy clothes as catch their eye and fascinate 49 Tbid., II, 311-312. 82 Thid., II, 312. 60 Tbid., II, 321. & Jbed., Il, 312: 51 Tbid., II, 312, 320. 54 Journal, III, 35. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS | 117 them should also be withheld and the plainest things substi- tuted.» Parents are not to adorn their children “with such gewgaws as other children wear” simply to look prettier.®® Above all, whenever they are presented with unusual things, it is never to be as a reward for doing their duty. To do so would cause them to place too great value upon the merely pleasurable in life. They are to look to God for rewards. And this they should be taught to do as soon as they are old enough for instruc- tion. “Habituate them to make God their end in all things; and inure them, in all they do, to aim at knowing, loving, and serv- ing God.’’*? So great a task is it to change the bias of nature from a love for the world to the love of God that all in the house- hold need to cooperate in effecting it. Especially should servants and mothers-in-law be held in check. Servants are to be care- fully advised never to work against the rules of the house by giving good things to children. Mothers-in-law are to be re- fused any share whatever in the management of children, “In four score years I have not met with one woman that knew how to manage grandchildren. My own mother, who governed her children so well, could never govern one grandchild. In every other point obey your mother. Give up your will to hers. & Works, II, 313-314. 86 Joid., II, 265. It is interesting to compare Wesley with Horace Bush- nell on this point. From dissimilar views of human nature and contrasted theo- logical backgrounds they arrive at about the same conclusion regarding dress and the discipline of the body. Bushnell says: “The subject of dress, taken as related to religious character of youth, is one of transcendent importance. .. . The child is going to enlarge his consciousness, so as, in a sense, to take in his dress and be configured to it—inverting the common order of speech on the subject, when we talk of cutting the dress to the child; for it is equally true, in a different sense, that the child will be cut to his dress. . . . This taste for show, and finery, and flattery—what is it but the beginning of all irreligion? and what will the after life be but the continuance of this beginning? . . . The real ques- tion of dress is what shall be put upon this child, to make it feel most like a Christian—what will give him the finest feeling with the least of show and.-van- ity? . . . Dress your child for Christ, if you will have him a Christian; bring everything, in the training, even of his body, to this one final aim, and it will be strange, if the Christian body you give him does not contain a Christian soul.”—Christian Nurture (new edition), 248-251. Used by permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons. 57 Thad., II, 315. 118 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION But with regard to the management of your children, steadily keep the reins in your own hands.”*® The disease of pride also admits of early treatment. It is ordinarily fed by parents who praise their children and suffer and encourage others to do the same before their very face. To praise them for other than religious worth is but teaching them to value what is unworthy, “what is dung and dross in the sight of God.’’*® “They who teach children to love praise, train them up for the devil.”®° They should commend them “exceeding sparingly,” and then only if with it they teach them that God alone is praiseworthy and the source of all that his children possess for which they are commended.™ “To strike at the root of their pride, teach your children as soon as possi- bly you can, that they are fallen spirits; that they are fallen short of that glorious image of God, wherein they were first created; that they are not now, as they were once, incorruptible pictures of the God of glory; bearing the express likeness of the wise, the good, the holy Father of spirits, but more ignorant, more foolish, and more wicked than they can possibly conceive. Show them that, in pride, passion, and revenge, they are now like the devil. And that in foolish desires and groveling appe- tites, they are like the beasts of the field.”®* That is, they are to be taught that this is their condition apart from grace. Such self-knowledge is the essence of repentance, and leads naturally to a desire for salvation. This teaching harmonizes with Wes- ley’s conviction that the doctrine of original sin and salvation through Christ alone “is the ‘most proper’ of all others ‘to be instilled into a child.’’’® The disease of atheism, unlike the diseases just discussed, is fed not so much by what parents actually do for their chil- dren as by their neglect. Its treatment is, therefore, more through teaching than through discipline. Parents feed athe- ism by permitting days at a stretch to go by without once men- tioning the name of God to their children or even alluding to 58 Thid., II, 314. 61 Works, II, 313. 89 Thid., II, 313. S Jha. V1, 213. 60 Wesley: Instructions for Children, 135. © Ibid., V, 575-576. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS 119 him, while they talk to them on every other conceivable subject. As a consequence God and the unseen world seem remote and the visible world all that there is of the universe. Parents fur- ther aggravate the disease by assigning creation and natural events to chance and to secondary causes. God is not naturally connected with the experience of the children. The constructive effort to heal atheism will continually impress upon the mind of the child from the first dawn of reason that God is the creator and governor of the universe and the source and inspiration of everything good in it and in human beings. “Thus it is, we are to inculcate upon them, that God is all in all.’’** Self-will, love of the world, pride, and atheism are the par- ent diseases of human nature, and are the first that should be attacked in the religious training of children. There are diseases which branch off from these, such as anger, falsehood, injus- tice, and unmercifulness. In describing them and in prescrib- ing their cure Wesley is brief. Parents feed anger in their children in its worst form, namely revenge. “The silly mother says, ‘What, hurt my child? ‘Give me a blow for it.’ What hor- rid work is this! Will not the old murderer teach them this lesson fast enough?’®* Wise parents will teach just the opposite by setting the truth in their minds that vengeance belongs to God, that they are to return good, not evil, for evil. Parents arouse falsehood in children “by their unreasonable severity” which provokes dissimulation and lying, and by admiring any- thing ingenious and cunning in them. To cure it, teach them that the devil is the author of all lies, whether open or con- cealed, that they must “in little things and great, in jest or earnest, speak the very truth from their heart.’°* The tendency to injustice is increased when parents aid their children in cheat- ing each other, or applaud them when they are not aiding them. From their infancy the seeds of justice should be sown in their hearts, to render every one his due in small things as in great. Toid., IT, 311. & Thid., II, 315. Thid., II, 315. 120 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Whenever children are permitted to be unkind to others or to hurt and give pain to anything that has life, such as birds, snakes, worms, or toads, their disease of unmercifulness is in- dulged. To cure it, teach them to “extend, in its measure, the rule of doing as they would be done by, to every animal what- soever. Ye that are truly kind parents, in the morning, in the evening, and all the day beside, press upon all your children, ‘to walk in love, as Christ also loved us, and gave himself for us’; to mind that one point, “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.’ ’’®* Despite the severity Wesley recommends in breaking the will of children, he advised that generally, in so far as possible, the disciplinary work should be undertaken “by mildness, soft- ness, and gentleness,’ “by advice, persuasion, and reproof.’’® Neither extrame severity nor extreme tenderness should be favored, for religion is often frustrated if punishment is used more than is needful or is entirely lacking. Needless severity is especially to be avoided, otherwise “it will not be strange if religion stink in the nostrils of those that were so educated.’ To be sure, drastic methods of correction are to be employed, but only last, only after the trial and failure of all other methods. “And even then you should take the utmost care to avoid the very appearance of passion. Whatever is done should be done with mildness; nay, indeed, with kindness too. Otherwise your own spirit will suffer loss; and the child will reap little advan- tage.” All should be done “with kind severity.” In these statements Wesley comes very close to the gentle spirit of his mother, whose rules were drawn up with the aim that they should forestall future correction. Much wonder has been aroused because the austerity of his methods stands in such sharp contrast to his fondness for children and the characteristic kindliness of his personal dealings with them. It is not neces- sary to cite more than an instance or two illustrating his kindly attitude toward children, for it is well known. Southey gives 67 Thid., II, 315-316. 79 Thid., II, 303. 88 Thad., II, 303; VIT, 450. 1 Ibid., VII, 459. 69 Tbid., VII, 459. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS 121 the oft-cited account of Wesley ordering his chaise every day, during one of his stays at Bath, a half-hour earlier than neces- sary, filling it with children and going to ride with them.” Wesley often speaks affectionately of children, remarks about their lovely faces, and is unable to believe that the wrath of God is abiding upon them.” His kindliness was especially marked in the later years of his life, as his Journal shows. He records with pleasure the affection which children gave him.“ One day, before the preaching service at Oldham, he was surprised by the way they flocked about him and closed in on him, not content to leave him until he had shaken each of them by the hand. He speaks of them as “such children as I never saw till now.” He loved children, but believed that the training of Christians should be strenuous and not effeminate, because of the malignant nature of the diseases that encumber them. In fact, he argued that the belief in the evil nature of folk does not exclude love for them, even though they should be reared with severity. “To describe human nature as deeply fallen, as far removed from both virtue and wisdom, does not argue that we despise it. We know by Scripture, as well as by sad experience, that men are unspeakably foolish and wicked. And such the Son of God knew them to be when he laid down his life for them. But this did not hinder him from loving them, no more than it does any of the children of God.’’*® If his advice to the Methodist people regarding clothes, riches, and luxuries in general, be recalled, it will be seen that he did not discriminate against children. The business of redemption is serious, and all mankind, young or old, demand serious treatment. A comparison with the prac- tice of the Port-Royalists may make Wesley’s position clearer. The bed-rock of the Port-Royal discipline and teaching was love for the pupil. But this did not exclude the employment of stringent methods in educating them. On the contrary, the gen- 2A New History of Methodism, I, 220. 73 Works, VI, 670; VII, 48, 49, 195; Journcl, V, 465. % Journal, VI, 73, 329. % Ibid., VI, 347. 76 Works, V, 585. 122 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION eral tenor of their program was a strict regulation of the conduct of their children and of everything that touched them. In them severity and devotion combined.” In both Wesley and the Port- Royalists the guiding motive was the welfare of the souls in their keeping. (b) Instruction The tasks of discipline and instruction, as has been indicated already, supplement each other in the religious education of children. Yet, practically, the work of each is distinct. Wesley set forth as definite rules for teaching as he did for the work of discipline. His sermon “On Family Religion” sets forth his method of teaching as explicitly as his sermon “On the Educa- tion of Children’ sets forth his manner of discipline. In it he gives parents the guiding principle of teaching in the compact sentence, “You should particularly endeavor to instruct your children, early, plainly, frequently, and patiently.””* He then develops each head separately. “Instruct them early.’”’ As soon as they are able to walk or talk their understanding opens and their reason dawns, and they are capable of instruction. ‘Truth shines upon the mind far earlier than is generally supposed. And from the start such matter should be taught the child as will turn its soul toward good things. “I know no cause why a parent should not just then begin to speak of the best things, the things of God,” as well as of trifling or bad things.” “Speak to them plainly’’—otherwise speaking to them early will be of no avail. To draw and fix the attention of children is one of the greatest difficulties in speaking to them.®® There- fore, “use such words as little children may understand, just as they use themselves. Carefully observe the few ideas which they have already, and endeavor to graft what you say upon them.’”’** For example, in speaking about God, to use the words ™ Barnard: The Little Schools of Port-Royal, 72-73, 82, 90. 78 Works, II, 304. 80 Jbid., VI, 464. 79 Tbid., II, 304. 81 Tbsd., II, 304. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS 123. of the Assembly’s Catechism that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, is to employ terms beyond the capacity of little children.*’ Even the Catechism of the Es- tablished Church is too long and too hard for children of six or seven years of age.®* In speaking of God, interest children first in the sun and its warmth and its work in causing flowers and grass and trees to grow. Then point to God as the power behind the sun causing it to shine and giving it its warmth. From that it is an easy step to speak of the extent of his power and love, even to the smallest thing such as a child. “He loves you: he loves to do you good. He loves to make you happy. Should not you then love him? You love me, because I love you and do you good. But it is God that makes me love you. Therefore you should love him. And he will teach you how to love him.’’** The same method of procedure in dealing with children is advised in the sermon from the text, “There is one God.”*®> Wesley took occasion in his Life of Fletcher to illus- trate his meaning. One day Fletcher was speaking to a group of children and with great difficulty commanding their attention, when a robin flew into the house, diverting them still further. Whereupon with infinite tact he took the robin as his text and spoke to them successfully ‘‘on the harmlessness of that little creature, and the tender care of its Creator.’°® (Comenius seems to be reflected in Wesley’s advice to interest children in things and to speak to them on their own level. And there is reason to believe he practiced it himself. On one occasion, to illustrate his point to several clergymen and friends to whom he had been remarking upon the importance of using simple and plain words when speaking to children, he engaged to preach to a group of them on set date and to use no word of over two syllables. On the day fixed he preached to a group of five hundred and fifty Methodist Sunday-school children and literally fulfilled his pledge. The sermon that he used was the one he was fond of, which has already been mentioned several times, from the text, 8 Tbid., II, 430-431. 8 Jhid., II, 431. 8 Jbid., VII, 170. 86 Jhid., VI, 464. * Jbid., II, 304-305. 124 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.”** “Teach them not only early and plainly, but frequently too.”’** Constant repetition is necessary if results are to be pro- duced. Something about God might well be said many times in the day, instead of talking exclusively about other matters and postponing the most important knowledge till children are older.°? The soul should be fed no less often than the body. “Tf you find this a tiresome task, there is certainly something wrong in your own mind. You do not love them enough; or you do not love him, who is your Father and their Father.”® It is particularly urgent to teach children frequently about God because from the time they enter the world “they are surrounded with idols,” innumerable rivals and substitutes of true religion. Such idols are the excitants of the senses, of the imagination, and the pride of life, which stimulate the love of the world, promising a happiness they cannot give. To omit from the pro- gram of instruction true religion, the only source of true happi- ness, is to suggest that it has no place in bringing happiness on earth, that the happiness it gives is deferred for the next world. It is important to press upon children continually that happiness is dependent upon God.** Therefore, teach them frequently. And, finally, if teaching is to bear any fruit, teach pa- tiently.°* By this is meant teach with perseverance, earnestly and diligently. ‘You must tell them the same thing ten times. over, or you do nothing.’”’*? ‘You must lay line upon line and precept upon precept with all diligence.°* Some children are inconceivably dull, others so giddy and perverse that if the teacher followed his own inclination he would give up in despair. “T remember to have heard my father asking my mother, ‘How could you have the patience to tell that blockhead the same thing twenty times over?’ She answered, ‘Why, if I had told him 87 Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, IV, 119-120; Journal, VII, 155, note 2, 88 Works, II, 305. 2 Tbid., II, 305. 89 Tbid., IT, 305. bid. VIL Of, 90 Thid., II, 305. % Tbid., VII, 459. Thid., II, 431. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS _ 125 but nineteen times, I should have lost all my labor.’ What patience indeed, what love, what knowledge is requisite for this!’’®® And even if after all patience no fruit is in evidence at once, it is possible that later the seeds will result in a reward- ing harvest, especially if God is urgently called upon in prayer. He it is that must open their understanding—“he alone can apply your words to their hearts: without which all your labor will be in vain.” So continually lift up your heart to him that there may be no delay in learning.*® (c) The Children’s Texts In order to assist parents, schoolmasters, and preachers in their teaching, Wesley prepared several tracts to be used as the basis of instruction. Of these the Lessons for Children and the Instructions for Children are the most important. Each has a preface that so illuminates Wesley’s method of instilling religion into children and summarizes what has just been said that they are inserted at this point. A description of the books themselves will be given later. The preface to the Lessons is as follows: To Att PARENTS AND SCHOOLMASTERS 1. I have endeavored in the following lessons to select the plainest and the most useful portions of Scripture; such as a Christian may the most easily understand, and such as it most concerns him to know. These are set down in the same order, and (generally) the same words, wherein they are delivered by the Spirit of God. Where an expression is less easy to be understood, I have subjoined a word or two by way of explication; but taking care not to detain you from your great work, with Comments longer than the Text. 2. I cannot but earnestly entreat you, to take good heed, how you teach these deep things of God. Beware of that common, but accursed, way of making children parrots, instead of Christians. Labor that, as far as is possible, they may understand every single sentence which they read. Therefore, do not make haste. Regard not how much, but how well, to how good purpose, they read. Turn each sentence every way, propose it in every light, and question them % Minutes, I, 68. % Works, II, 305. 126 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION continually on every point; if by any means, they may not only read, but inwardly digest the words of eternal life. 3. Meantime you will not fail, with all diligence to commend both yourselves and your little ones to Him, without whom you well know neither is he that planteth, anything, nor he that watereth. You are sensible, He alone giveth the increase. May He both min- ister bread for your own food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness.%? The following is the preface to the Instructions: To Att PARENTS AND SCHOOLMASTERS 1. I have laid before you in the following tract the true principles. of the Christian education of children. These should, in all reason, be instilled into them as soon as ever they can distinguish good from evil. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then it is certainly the very first thing they should learn. And why may they not be taught the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of letters at the same time? 2. A great part of what follows is translated from the French; cnly it is here cast into another form, and divided into sentences, that it may be the more easily understood either by the teacher or the learners. And although the great truths herein contained are more immediately addressed to children, yet are they worthy the deepest consideration both of the oldest and the wisest men. 3. Let them be deeply engraven in your own hearts, and you will spare no pains in teaching them to others. Above all, let them not read or say one line without understanding and minding what they say. Try them over and over; stop them short, almost in every sentence ; and ask them, ““What was it you said last? Read it again: what do you mean by that?” So that, if it be possible, they may pass by nothing, till it has taken some hold upon them. By this means they will learn to think as they learn to read; they will grow wiser and better every day. And you will have the comfort of observing that by the same steps they advance in the knowledge of these poor elements they will also grow in grace, in the knowledge of God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ.%8 Wesley prepared the Lessons in order to guide his people to the most useful portions of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. He did not make a similar abridgment of the New *” Wesley, Lessons for Children, 3, 4. %8 Works, VII, 523. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS 127 Testament because he felt that all of it should be read.*® Every book of the Old Testament is represented in the Lessons except Ruth, Song of Solomon, Lamentations, and the Minor Proph- ets. One wonders why Wesley did not substitute Ruth for Esther, and why he did not include some portions, even though brief, of Amos, Hosea, and Malachi. One also wonders why he did not present the story of Jonah in summarized form, A list showing the topics and the sections of Scripture from which his selections are taken is included in the Appendix inasmuch as it has never before been compiled. Wesley gave the Instructions for Children chief place among the textbooks for children in the home. He directed the preachers’ assistants to see that every Methodist society was well supplied with it, so that every home could possess a copy.1 He believed it contained “the best matter that we can possibly teach” children, and claimed never to have “seen anything com- parable to them, either for depth of sense, or plainness of lan- guage.”*°! Although it is not an original work of Wesley’s, yet it is an accurate presentation of his theology.’ It is in such form as children can readily understand. The sentences are short and compact, occupying, for the most part, one or two lines each. The tone throughout is dogmatic and almost imperative. It is divided into six sections and contains in all fifty-eight les- sons. Section one is a catechism of twelve lessons on God, the creation and fall of man, the redemption of man, the means of grace, and hell and heaven.’** This is the catechism which Wesley thought more proper for children than the Assembly’s Catechism. Section two deals more specifically with the nature “Of God, and of the Soul of Man,” expanding the teaching of the catechism on these topics.*°* Section three is entitled “How 99 Minutes, I, 17. 100 Works, V, 226. 101 Tbid., VI, 467, note 2; VII, 94. 102 The Instructions for Children is chiefly a translation from the French work of Abbé Fleury and M. Pierre Poiret entitled, Les Principes solides de la religion et dela vie Chrétienne appliqués al’ éducation des enfants. See Green, Bibliography, Nos. 62, 117, 118, 174. 108 Wesley, Instructions for Children, 123-129. 10 Thid., 129-133. 128 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION to Regulate Our Desires.’”*° The desire of the soul is defined as “the heart or the will.” This section inculcates the lesson of giving up self-will to the will of God and desiring only those things that please him. It teaches the nature of prayer and sets down the desires that should be voiced every time prayer 1s offered, and gives a form of prayer as a guide. It concludes with the Lord’s Prayer, defining it as “the best prayer in the world.” Section four is on “How to Regulate Our Understand- ing.’”’?°° It teaches that the understanding is ‘made for truth, that is, for God himself, for his word and his works,” that atheism is the lot of mankind since the Fall, that only through the eyes of the soul, which God alone can open, can anything be known either of God or the things of God. It sets forth regula- tions concerning one’s belief, and gives the Apostles’ Creed as the best summary of belief. Section five teaches “How to Regu- late Our Joy.”*°? Man’s joy should rest not in the world and in the things of the world, but in God, in the knowledge of his great attributes, and in obedience to him. Fondness for pretty things and for money will be destroyed in one who makes God his chief joy. He will also put away lying, pride, and revenge, for they lead to separation from God. But joy should be mixed with fear, else “it will cover the greatness of our corruption, and so hinder us from seeking to be cured of it.’ The last section is on “How to Regulate Our Practice.”?8 “The true spirit of the Christian life and practice’ is opposite to the spirit of the world and of corrupt nature. It leads to a life of self-denial and works of charity for mankind in humility and penitence, with- out desire for reward or self-pleasing. Eating and drinking especially should be done only in such manner as will advance the glory of God. “Suffer me not, O Lord, to eat and drink like a brute beast, only by a brutal appetite: much less do thou suffer me to follow herein the motions of my corrupt nature.” The Ten Commandments, together with Christ’s two command- 10 Thid., 1337143. 106 Thid., 143-150. 107 Thid., 150-159 108 Jhid,, 159-172. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS . r29 ments of love to God and neighbor, are given as the regulative guide to practice, and are followed by brief expositions of their meaning. The Instructions concludes with an exhortation to parents to follow its teachings. “Happy are those who despising the rules of the diabolical and antichristian world, train up the precious souls of their children wholly by the rules of Jesus Christ.” The Tokens for Children is another text recommended by Wesley to be used in teaching children, although it is mentioned but once in his writings. The Conference of 1744 advised it as a lesson book for the preachers to use along with the Instruc- tions.°® According to Green’s Bibliography of Wesley’s works, it consists of ten carefully abridged examples of the conversion, holy living, and dying of young children, from 4A Token for Children, by the Rev. James Janeway.’*® Janeway’s work con- tains the records of thirteen pious children between the ages of two and thirteen. Their religious experiences resemble some- what the experiences of the pious children which Wesley records in his Journal. Janeway’s accounts, however, are written in greater detail and are more somber in character. The Preface addressed to the children is especially frightful in its depiction of the consequences to visit those who die unconverted.*** One is led to think that Wesley decided for judicious reasons to relinquish his edition of this work some time after the first Con- ference in favor of the Instructions. He mentions the Lessons and Instructions again and again, but does not refer to the Tokens after this Conference of 1744. Wesley considered education in prayer to be a part of the religious training of children, as is seen from the Instructions. Children should be brought up to use this means of grace as well as the Scriptures. They should be led to pray in private as well as to participate in family worship. Thus, Wesley at- tributes the sudden end of a promising revival among the Kings- wood boys “chiefly to their total neglect of private prayer. 109 Minutes, I, 12. 110 Green, Bibliography, No. 124. 11 Janeway, A Token for Children, 9, 10. 130 WESLEY: ON RELIGIOUS EDUCA TION Without this, all the other means which they enjoyed could profit them nothing.”’"* But those who educate children in prayer should discriminate and take into account the ages of the children and grade their prayers according to their spiritual ex- perience. “Although there may be some use in teaching very young children to ‘say their prayers daily’; yet I judge it to be utterly impossible to teach any to ‘practice prayer’ till they are awakened. For what is prayer but the desire of the soul ex- pressed in words to God, either inwardly or outwardly? How, then, will you teach them to express a desire who feel no desire at all?’448) But as soon as the child has become a believer, even though but a beginner, he should be stimulated to pray. To guide children in this aspect of their religious life Wesley pre- pared forms of prayer to be used every morning and evening in the week, as he did for the use of adults and families.4* To these he added “A Prayer for Relations, Friends, &c., to be used after Morning and Evening Prayer,” and two others, “Grace before Meat” and “After Meals.” He prefaced them in these words: My dear Child—A lover of your soul has here drawn up a few prayers, in order to assist you in that great duty. Be sure that you do not omit, at least morning and evening, to present yourself upon your knees before God. You have mercies to pray for, and bless- ings to praise God for. But take care that you do not mock God, drawing near with your lips, while your heart is far from him. God sees you, and knows your thoughts; therefore, see that you not only speak with your lips, but pray with your heart. And that you may not ask in vain, see that you forsake sin, and make it your endeavor to do what God has shown you ought; because God says, ‘“‘The prayers of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord.” Ask, then, of God for the blessings you want, in the name, and for the sake, of Jesus Christ; and God will hear and answer you, and do more for you than you can either ask or think.15 These prayers voice the children’s needs and stimulate higher aspirations. There is nothing puerile about them. If anything, they are, in form and content, more appropriate for 12 Journal, V, 484. 14 Thid., VI, 417-426. 13 Works, VII, 95. M5 Tbid., 417. PARAICWOLAR@LHEORIES ANDo METHODS: 7131 children of riper years than for the youngest, for those “awak- ened,” to use Wesley’s word. ‘The style of the prayers is bib- lical, and many phrases are borrowed from the Scriptures, espe- cially from the Psalms. The prayer for Monday evening is an adaptation of the general confession from the Book of Common Prayer.*® The chief attitudes which Wesley desired to arouse through the prayers are reverence for God, due sense of the cor- ruption of human nature, receptivity to spiritual things, a desire to become more spiritual, and a deep sincerity. Some of the re- curring petitions are for pardon, for strength against tempta- tion, for God’s blessing on the child’s studies, for the opening of his understanding, and for his advancement in the means of grace. The characteristic points in Wesley’s theology are fre- quently brought out. They appear in such petitions as, “Give me, O Lord, that highest learning, to know thee; and that best wisdom, to know myself;** “O Lord, do thou teach me the meaning of the new birth, that I, a child of wrath, may become a child of grace. Lord, take away the veil from my heart, that I may know my sinful nature.”’"** The “Prayer for Relations, Friends, &c.,”’ makes provision for the social element in prayer. Through it the child asks God’s blessing upon his parents, teach- ers, friends, superiors, and enemies, his mercy upon the afflicted and the suffering, and the coming of the knowledge and love of God upon all mankind.*?® Each of the morning and evening prayers concludes with the Lord’s Prayer. Another provision that Wesley made for the spiritual and intellectual guidance of children was his publication in 1790 of forty-four hymns selected from Charles Wesley’s Hymns for Children and Others of Riper Years, which he issued as Hymns for Children. According to Green, more than half of the hymns are taken from the section in his brother’s work en- titled Hymns for the Youngest, “and amongst these are some of Charles Wesley’s sweetest verses.’’*° The Preface Wesley wrote to his selection is as follows: 6 Thid., VI, 419-420. 19 Thid., VI, 426. 7 Thid., V1, 422. 120 Green, Bibliography, No. 414. 118 Jiid., VI, 423. ee WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION There are two ways of writing or speaking to children; the one is, to let ourselves down to them; the other, to lift them up to us. Doctor Watts has wrote in the former way, and has succeeded admirably well, speaking to children as children, and leaving them as he found them. The following hymns are written on the other plan: they contain strong and manly sense, yet expressed in such plain and easy language as even children may understand. But when they do understand them, they will be children no longer, only in years and stature.!*1 This Preface, like the prefaces to the Lessons and the In- structions, indicates Wesley’s conviction that teaching should aim not simply to impart information but to develop the power of the pupil to think, and that it should lead him to the experi- mental knowledge of religion. As this collection of hymns was one of Wesley’s last publications, it shows that his solicitude for the welfare of children was not abated even in his extreme old age. III. Religious Education in the Methodist Societies The Methodist preachers were detailed by Wesley to coop- erate with parents in the training of children. He reminded them that preaching once or twice a week was the least part of their office,** that not even preaching as frequently as once or twice a day would excuse them from other duties.1%? “What avails public preaching alone, though we could preach like angels?”’*** The faithful shepherd of souls will be busy with the cure and the care of the parish. “To ‘seek and save that which is lost;’ to bring souls from Satan to God; to instruct the ignorant; to reclaim the wicked; to convince the gainsayer; to direct their feet into the way of peace, and then keep them therein; to follow them step by step, lest they turn out of the way, and advise them in their doubts and temptations; to lift up them that fall; to refresh them that are faint; and to comfort the weak-hearted; to administer various helps, as the variety of occasions require, according to their several necessities—these are parts of our office; all this we have undertaken at the peril 121 Thid. 123 Minutes, I, 122. 122 Works, V, 126. 124 Thid., I, 62; Works, V, 213. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS 133 of our own soul.”’*? Among other things, then, the preacher must be an instructor of religion. It is noteworthy that the design of the first Methodist Conference, held in 1744 at the Foundery, which in many ways contained the germ-cell of the later devel- opment of Methodism, should have been to consider: ‘1. What to teach. 2. How to teach. And, 3. What to do? i.e., how to regulate our doctrine, discipline, and practice.’’’*® In general, there are three points in Wesley’s outline of the teaching work of the ministry as it relates to children. In the first place, the preacher is to revive and guide family worship. He can best do this by using as a pattern the method of family prayer Philip Henry (1631-1696) employed in his own home and encouraged among his parishioners. According to his son and biographer, Matthew Henry, the famous commentator, Philip Henry made a business of family prayer. One of his famous utterances is, “We are that really which we are rela- tively. It is not so much what we are at church, as what we are in our families. Those do well that pray morning and evening in their families; those do better that pray and read the Scrip- tures; but those do best of all that pray, and read, and sing psalms: and Christians should covet earnestly the best gifts.’’?*7 He had a set order of service in his morning and evening family worship. A short prayer was offered at the opening, then a psalm sung, and the Scriptures read and expounded. This done, the children were required to give some account of what they had heard, whereupon the meaning of it was further fixed in their minds by their parents. A longer prayer followed. The worship concluded with a benediction or the doxology. Before the family separated the children would ask a blessing of their parents, which was invariably given. On Thursday evenings 125 Works, V, 126. 126 Minutes, I, 4; Works, V, 194. 127 Henry, Life of Philip Henry, 43. According to the Minutes of the Con- ference of 1765, Wesley directed the preachers to ‘‘read publickly that part of Mr. Philip Henry’s Life’”” which contained his method of family prayer.—Min- utes, I, 51. It is impossible to say whether the reference is to the Life by Mat- thew Henry or not. Wesley was acquainted with his commentaries and may have known this work. 134 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION special pains were taken to catechize the children. On Saturday evenings they were called upon to recite what they had learned during the week.’** As far as can be ascertained, this is Philip Henry’s method of family prayer which Wesley instructed his preachers to urge the Methodists to adopt.**® It is evident that the children hold a central place in it. In the second place, the preacher himself is to teach the children in the home. One of the stated questions Wesley asked those seeking admittance into the Methodist Conference was, “Will you diligently and earnestly instruct the children, and visit from house to house?’**° This question, it may be remarked, is still asked of all candidates for full membership in any Con- ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.’** Wesley felt that there is no better method for instructing from house to house than that set forth by Richard Baxter in his Gildas Salvianus: the Reformed Pastor, and urged that his preachers adopt it.*** He accordingly gave them a summary of it, adding special ref- erences to the instruction of children. Every preacher should make a systematic visitation of the homes represented in his so- ciety, instructing both young and old, using as a text the /n- structions for Children. The particular method suggested in doing this is to take each person apart by himself and deal closely with his condition and greatest spiritual need, catechizing him, instructing him according to his capacity in the principles of the Christian religion, and, if he is unconverted, impressing him with a sense of his condition and endeavoring to win him to an acceptance of Christ. “Before you leave them, engage the head of each family, to call all his family every Sunday, before they go to bed, and hear what they can rehearse, and so continue till they have learned all The Instructions perfectly. And afterward take care that they do not forget what they have learned.” ‘The sum is: Go into every house in course, and 128 Thid., 43-53. 129 Minutes, I, 51, 68; Works, V, 223. 180 Thid., I, 52. 131 Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1920, 133. 1382 Minutes, 1, 62-67, 68; Works, V, 213-217, 223. See The Practical Works of The Rev. Richard Baxter, XIV, Chapters 6 and 7. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS 135 teach every one therein, young and old; if they belong to us, to be Christians inwardly and outwardly.’’*? The third duty of the preacher with respect to the religious education of children is to form societies for them within the larger society and meet them regularly. The epoch-making Con- ference of 1744 did not leave the children out of account but made provision for their oversight. The question was asked: “Might not the children in every place be formed into a little society?’ To this the answer was given: “Let the preachers try, by meeting them together, and giving them suitable exhor- tations. At each meeting, we may first set them a lesson in the Instructions or Tokens for Children. 2. Hear them repeat it. 3. Explain it to them in an easy, familiar manner. 4. Often ask, “What have I been saying?’ And strive to fasten it on their hearts.”*** The Conference of 1766 directed the preach- ers to spend an hour twice a week with the children in every society where there are ten of them. To the objection that “TI have no gift for this,’ the answer was given, “Gift or no gift, you are to do it, else you are not called to be a Methodist preacher.”**? Again, the Conference of 1768, legislating to meet conditions in the large towns where parish work was heav- ier than elsewhere, gave special instructions to the preachers to meet the children an hour a week, “whether you like it or not.’’?*° By these successive enactments Wesley made provision for the membership of the children in the societies and for their reli- gious instruction. Nothing much besides this can be said with respect to the relation of the children to the societies. Appar- ently, they joined them as members on trial and as members in full on the same terms with their elders.**” Wesley expected that the Methodist preachers who entered his service should give themselves to diligent study to meet the requirements of their teaching office more efficiently. He held 183 Tbid., I, 68; Works, V, 223. 134 Minutes, I, 12. 1% Tbid., I, 68. 136 Thid., I, 81. 87 Journal, II, 211 (diary); V, 525; VI, 515, note 3. 136 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION a lofty ideal for all clergymen, as his “Address to the Clergy” shows. They should have special gifts of grace, of person- ality, and of intellect.14° They should have “all the courtesy of a gentleman, joined with the correctness of a scholar.’*? It was a current opinion that one who was too ignorant for any other profession could become a minister. In answer to this Wesley said, “A blockhead can never ‘do well enough for a par- son.’ ”4° “Oh, how can these who themselves know nothing aright, impart knowledge to others? how instruct them in all the variety of duty, to God, their neighbor, and themselves? How will they guide them through all the mazes of error, through all the entanglements of sin and temptation? How will they apprize them of the devices of Satan, and guard them against all the wisdom of the world?” ‘The Methodist preachers were to devote their mornings to study—‘from six in the morning till twelve (allowing an hour for breakfast).”*** They were to follow the courses of study, including the classics, which Wesley prescribed for them.*** If they had no taste for reading and could not “contract a taste for it by use,” they were to re- turn to their trades.4* So desirous was Wesley of having a trained leadership that he planned for many years to “have a seminary for laborers,’ and when the New Kingswood School was built he hoped that some of his preachers might receive pre- liminary training there,’** and designed that the children trained there should be “fit as to all acquired que Beaman for the work of the ministry.’’** IV. Religious Education in the Schools Insight into the application of Wesley’s educational prin- ciples to schools, as has already been stated, is gained chiefly 1388 Works, VI, 217-231. 139 Thid., 220. 10 Thid., 223. Ml Minutes, I, 16; Works, V, 222. 14 Publications of the Wesley Historical Soctety, No. 1, 28-29. 143 Minutes, I, 67; Works, V, 223. M44 Simon, John Wesley and the Methodist Societies, 218, 262, 315. 45 Publications of the Wesley Historical Society, No. 1, 54. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS | 137 from a study of the charity school at the Foundery Society and the boarding’ school at Kingswood. References in Wesley’s writings to the Foundery School, scant though they are, lead one to the conclusion that the underlying theories upon which it was conducted closely resemble the principles governing the school at Kingswood. The Foundery School was an elementary day school, and could not from the nature of.the case admit of rules covering such various phases of life as the boarding school of higher education at Kingswood. It aimed, however, to keep strict control of its pupils during school hours, and to give them sound religious training as well as to teach them the elements of learning. School hours were from six to twelve, and from one to five. The children were prohibited from speaking in school except to the masters. They were permitted no play days. They were obliged to attend the morning sermon. Any child that was absent from the school two days in one week or failed to observe the rules was expelled. Two stewards were ap- pointed to attend to the administration of the school, and among their duties was the spiritual oversight of the pupils. They met the children twice a week to pray with them and exhort them, and to inquire into their progress in grace and their observance of the rules of the school. They also consulted once a week with the parents and exhorted them to train their children in the ways of the school. Some time before 1772 the school was discontinued.1*° It will be remembered that a dearth of the right sort of schools for boys led Wesley to found the Kingswood School for the higher education of Methodist children. He intended that it should overcome the “palpable blemishes” of the general run of boarding schools then in existence. He disapproved of the current schools chiefly on four grounds. In the first place, most of them are situated in large towns. The attention of the children is diverted from the ends of learning every time they go abroad, and they come into promiscuous contact with large numbers of town children, who by example and advice retard their learning and make havoc of their religion. Secondly, 146 Works, V, 188-189. 138 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION these schools are not sufficiently careful in the selection of pupils, receiving all who apply, “however corrupted already, perhaps in principle (though that is not quite so frequent) as well as prac- tice.” Children are not likely to retain their religion, if they have any, with such companionship. In the third place, “in many schools, the masters have no more religion than the scholars,” and are not instilled in the principles of Christianity nor inter- ested in its practice. “Consequently, they are nothing concerned, whether their scholars are Papists or Protestants, Turks or Christians: they look upon this as no part of their business; they take no thought about it.” Lastly, the schools of the day are defective in instruction. They rarely teach arithmetic, writing, geography, and “chronology”; they teach neither Greek nor Latin thoroughly; and “there are some schools of note wherein no Hebrew at all is taught.” The classics in use are imperfect in style and sense, and obscene and profane in content. Nor are they read in the order of their difficulty, the easiest often read last and the most difficult first.**" Wesley in founding his school at Kingswood aimed to avoid these outstanding defects. He intended that the children educated there should receive thorough intellectual education and sound religious training. With this in mind he guided the cur- riculum and the government of the school. The Kingswood curriculum was encyclopedic, and com- bined classical and religious instruction to a remarkable degree. It was designed to include “every branch of useful learning, from the very alphabet.”**8 According to the Short Account of the School in Kingswood, Near Bristol, published in 1768, the scholars were to be taught “reading, writing, arithmetic, Eng- lish, French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, history, geography, chronol- ogy, rhetoric, logic, ethics, geometry, algebra, physics, music.”'*® In the Plain Account of Kingswood School, published in 1781, “natural philosophy, and metaphysics” are added to these.’ 147 Thid., VII, 336-337. 48 Publications of the Wesley Historical Society, No. 1, 54. 19 Works, VII, 332. 150 Thid., 340. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS 139 And it is quite possible that there were other subjects." The curriculum printed in the short account shows that religion was given a large place in the school. The texts from which reading was taught in all eight classes were moral and religious books. It was probably intended that religion should be inculcated, in part at least, indirectly. The following books were used in reading: the Instructions for Children, Lessons for Children, The Manners of the Ancient Christians (extracted from Fleury), Cave’s Primitive Christianity, The Pilgrim’s Progress, The Life of Mr. Haliburton, The Life of Mr. De Renty, Law’s Christian Perfection and Serious Call. Other moral and religious texts employed are Corderu Colloquia Selecta, Historia Selectae, Cas- tellio’s Kempis, Cornelius Nepos, Select Dialogues of Erasmus, Moral and Sacred Poems, “Genesis,” “The Gospels,” and “The Epistles of St. John.” Wesley himself wrote the grammars and the textbook in logic.°* He likewise edited all the other books, expur- gating them carefully, “that nothing immodest or profane be found in any of our authors. ... But this is not all. We take care that our books be not only inoffensive but use- ful too; that they contain as much strong, sterling sense, and as much genuine morality, as possible; yea, and Christian moral- ity. For what good reason can be assigned why we should leave this out of account? Why should not even children be taught, so far as they are capable, the oracles of God?”’*** Thus, in so far as possible, Wesley made the secular books contribute to the religious purpose of the school. Where this was impossible, he was careful that none of them worked counter to it. The conditions of admission into the school were stringent. Not every child that applied was to be admitted, “but, if possi- ble, such as had some thoughts of God, and some desire of sav- ing their souls; and such whose parents desired they should not be almost, but altogether, Christians.”*°* Parents were therefore informed of this condition and requested to read the rules of the 18 History of the Kingswood School, by Three Old Boys, 29. 18 Works, VII, 332-333. 14 Thid., 340. 83 Tbid., 609-745. 185 Thid., 339. 140 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION school before they sent their children to it, being assured that neither “favor or affection” would be shown to any nor excep- tions made. They were further obliged to agree that their children would observe all the rules, and that they would not take them from the school, even for a day, until they were ready to take them once for all. Wesley gives as his reason for this rule that if children are permitted to go back and forth between the school and their homes, they would “unlearn’” in a short time what it takes a long time to learn, and would “contract a prejudice to exact discipline.”*® ‘The children, therefore, of tender parents, so called (who are indeed offering up their sons and daughters unto devils), have no business here.’’?°* Wesley enacted regulations concerning the age and number of boys taught in the school. His practice seemed to vary with regard to this from time to time. According to the Minutes of the Conference of 1744, it was designed to admit boys only be- tween the ages of six and ten.°° According to Wesley’s Short Account of the school, those as old as twelve could enter.1? But in 1770 Wesley wrote to the headmaster, Joseph Benson, “T will take none that is above nine years old.” It seems, how- ever, that this was only a temporary arrangement of Wesley’s, for at the time of his writing there was “a gracious visitation” of the Spirit in the school and he wished to be particularly care- ful to guard the children from corruption.*®® The settled policy of the school was undoubtedly to receive children between the years of six and twelve. The ground for setting the age limit at twelve was that “a child could not well before that age be rooted either in bad habits or ill principles.’’*** Not only was admittance into the school to be limited to boys of restricted ages, but also the size of the group enrolled at any one time was to be strictly controlled. The school was built to accommodate fifty children, besides masters and sery- 136 Tbid. 157 Thid., 333. 158 Publications of the Wesley Historical Society, No. I, 54. 18 Works, VII, 332. 160 Thid., 68. 161 Thid., VII, 339. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS - 11 ants.'°? The enrollment was ordinarily allowed to reach that number. Wesley stated, however, on one occasion that he de- sired only thirty.*°* He was against larger numbers because they added to the burdens of the masters and increased the dif- ficulty of proper control. “It is scarce possible to keep them in so exact order as we might do a smaller number.’”’!™ Wesley chose masters for the school with utmost care. Twice he makes reference to searching “the three kingdoms” for such as would meet the high qualifications he held for that office.*®° They must be men not only of intellectual attainments but also of genuine piety, utterly devoted to God, and patterns of holiness to the children.°® They must seek “nothing on earth, neither pleasure, nor ease, nor profit, nor the praise of men; but simply to glorify God, with their bodies and spirits, in the best manner they were capable of.”"*’ They must be punctilious in executing his plans and enforcing the rules of the school. As soon as Wesley was disappointed in them and could not prevail upon them to carry out his designs, he discharged them at once and sought others.’°* A terse letter to Thomas Welch, who had applied for the position as teacher of English, reveals Wesley’s expectations of the masters. BristoL, August 16, 1783. Dear THomMAs—You seem to be the man I want. As to salary, you will have thirty pounds a year; board, etc., will be thirty more. But do not come for money. 1. Do not come at all, unless purely to raise a Christian school. 2. Anybody behaving ill I will turn away ’ immediately. 3. I expect you to be in school eight hours a day. 4. In all things I expect you should be circumspect. But you will judge better by considering the printed rules. The sooner you come the better—I am your affectionate brother, JoHN Westey.'® The general rules of the house, taken from the Short Ac- count, illustrate Wesley’s theories of religious education and are the counterpart of his system of training and discipline in 162 [bid., VII, 338. 16 Tbid., VII, 334, 337-338. 168 Journal, V, 340. 167 Thid., 338-339. 164 Thid., V, 340-341. 168 Journal, III, 530-531. 165 Works, VII, 122, 338. 16 Quoted in the History of Kingswood School, by Three Old Boys, 50. 142 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION the family. At the thirteenth Methodist Conference, held in 17506, these rules were read and considered one by one and were pronounced “agreeable to Scripture and reason.’**° This ver- dict was in harmony with Wesley’s continuous attitude toward them. The general rules of the house are these :— First. The children rise at four, winter and summer, and spend the time till five in private; partly in reading, partly in singing, partly in self-examination or meditation (if capable of it), and partly in prayer. They at first use a short form (which is varied continu- ally) and then pray in their own words. Secondly. At five they all meet together.“ From six they work till breakfast; for as we have no play days (the school being taught every day in the year but Sunday), so neither do we allow any time for play on any day; he that plays when he is a child will play when he is a man. On fair days they work according to their strength, in the garden; on rainy days, in the house. Some of them also learn music; and some of the larger will be employed in philosophical experiments ; but particular care is taken that they never work alone, but always in the presence of a master. We have three masters: one for teaching reading, and two for the languages. Thirdly. The school begins at seven, in which languages are taught till nine; and then writing, &c, till eleven. At eleven the chil- dren walk or work. At twelve they dine, and then work or sing till one. They diet nearly thus: Breakfast.—Milk porridge and water gruel, by turns. Supper.—Bread and butter or cheese, and milk, by turns. Dinner.—Sunday.—Cold roast beef. Monday.—Hashed meat and apple dumplings. Tuesday.—Boiled mutton. Wednesday.—Vegetables and dumplings. Thursday.—Boiled mutton or beef. Friday.—Vegetables and dumplings. And so in Lent. Saturday.—Bacon and greens, apple dumplings. They drink water at meals: nothing between meals. On Friday, if they choose it, they fast till three in the afternoon. Experience shows this is so far from impairing health, that it greatly conduces to it. 170 Journal, IV, 186. 171 For ‘“‘public Worship,” according to the Minutes of the Conference of 1748.—Publications of the Wesley Historical Society, No. 1, 55. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS 143 Fourthly. From one to four, languages are taught; and then writing &c, till five. At five begins the hour of private prayer; from six they walk or work till supper; a little before seven the public service begins; at eight they go to bed, the youngest first. Fifthly. They lodge all in one room (now in two), in which a lamp burns all night. Every child lies by himself. A master lies at each end of the room. All their beds have mattresses on them, not feather beds. Sixthly. On Sunday, at six, they dress and breakfast; at seven, learn hymns or poems; at nine, attend the public service; at twelve, dine and sing; at two, attend the public service; and at four, are privately instructed?” This time-table of the house, in conjunction with the time- table of the school, was drawn up with the sole aim of making the Kingswood boys Christians. If forcing could produce that result, it would succeed. Certainly, there is ample provision in it for public and private worship, for careful oversight, and for the prevention of demoralizing idleness. It shows some slight appreciation of the differences in individual capacity. But there is very little evidence in it that he who drew it up understood child nature. It leans too much toward that extreme severity which Wesley says, in the Thought on the Manner of Educating Children, should not be used as.the method of instilling religion into children. One would agree with Fitchett that it “was admir- ably calculated to make them either lunatics or hypocrites.’’*” In the Plain Account Wesley quotes several of the rules of this time-table, expands them, and gives fuller reasons for adopt- ing them. He found, he says, after years of experience, that “the reasons of what is peculiar in our method” were plain enough to himself, but they were scarcely known by the rest of mankind. He was therefore led to enlarge somewhat upon them.'* By studying these reasons in the light of his ideas of education in the family and of his general theological position, it is possible to enter more deeply into the motives that gave rise to the rules. 172 Works, VII, 333-334. 178 Fitchett, Wesley and His Century, 494. Used by permission of John Murray for Smith, Elden & Co., London. 1% Works, VII, 336. 144. WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Several of these rules may be grouped around Wesley’s concern for the physical health of folk in general and his desire to keep the boys from softness and effeminacy. The prohibition of feather beds and the enforcement of moderation in eating were calculated to promote health and hardihood. Eating between meals was forbidden “lest they should insensibly contract habits which are neither good for body nor mind.’*” The early hour of rising, Wesley found by years of experience and observation to conduce to good health and to prevent nearly all nervous dis- orders.*’® So convinced was he of its advantages that in his Primitive Physick he advises tender and weakly persons especially to rise at four or five o'clock.” The rule regarding walking and work reflects in part his acquaintance with the Moravian Orphanage House in Herrnhut, as these were the only provis- ions the Moravian authorities there made for recreation.*® Wesley regarded systematic exercise as indispensable to health, especially in the case of the studious.‘7° He considered walking as the best form of it for those able to bear it.*®° Wesley’s enactment forbidding play has provoked wide- spread criticism. But it is not irrational in the light of his theory of human nature and its remaking. There is no doubt, as Rigg suggests in his Living Wesley, that the coarse and law- less play Wesley saw when he was a student at the Charterhouse School had much to do with his restrictions at the Kingswood School.*** But a deeper reason than this must have motivated him, for he never speaks of that great school except in the fond- est terms. On the contrary, he retained for it “a remarkable predilection,”’!*? and returned to it again and again to stroll about its walks and to pray, meditate, and write.’** As a mat- ter of fact, it is unfair to Wesley to single out for criticism his rule against play. It is in keeping with the general tenor of the government of the house, which was dictated by the desire 15 Thtd., VII, 340. 179 Wesley, Primitive Physick, 15-16. Ol d., V 11.1330; 180 Thid., 15. 177 Wesley, Primitive Physick, 15. 181 Rigg, The Living Wesley, 30. 178 Journal, II, 51. 182 Moore, Life of John Wesley, I, 101. 183 Journal, II, 129 (Diary), 132 (Diary), 137, note I, editorial; IV, 232. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS _ 145 to eliminate everything that could possibly interfere with the religious development of the boys. His leading view that serious- ness, and not levity, is becoming to one who aspires for Christian character and for eternal happiness, and that the training of Christians must be strenuous and not effeminate, led him to de- nounce many things that would seem otherwise harmless. He might have been opposed to play on the same ground that he opposed frills, fancy dress, and jewelry, because they tend to feed the diseases of human nature. Play might engender pride, self-will, love of the world, and center the eye of the participant upon himself rather than upon God. Such a view harmonizes with the section in the Instructions for Children on “How to Regulate Our Joy.” His attitude toward “the present stage entertainments’ was austere not only because “they naturally tend to efface all traces of piety and seriousness out of the minds of men,” but also because they give “a wrong turn to youth especially, gay, trifling, and directly opposite to the spirit of industry and close application to business.”*** It is not unrea- sonable to suppose that he was against play at Kingswood for the same reasons. And, finally, in Wesley’s day the physical, moral, and reli- gious values of play had not been discovered. As a matter of - fact, play was looked upon as directly hostile to moral and reli- gious development. It was for this reason that Francke, a lead- ing eighteenth-century educator, said, “Play must be forbidden in all its forms,” reflecting in this statement the current attitude of many religious leaders. Wesley, at any rate, was obviously in agreement with it. His concluding observation on this point is that since play has no place in the life of adults it can have no rightful place in the life of children. “It is,” he says, “a wise German proverb, ‘He that plays when he is a boy, will play when he is a man.’ If not, why should he learn now what he must unlearn by and by??? Wesley’s desire to remove from the children all opportuni- ties for corrupting each other and for being contaminated by 16 Works, VI, 667. 1% Jbid., VII, 339. 146 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION town influences led him to follow the example of the school at Jena in legislating that the Kingswood boys should never be alone, especially during work and sleep, but always in the sight of a master. As there was no time for play, it was intended that surveillance should be complete. “It is far better to prevent evils than to punish them,” is Wesley’s terse explanation.'*® This desire also to prevent evil from spreading from one boy to another led him to dismiss summarily any member of the school detected corrupting his companions.**" These rules, together with the theories underlying them, remind one forcibly of the Port-Royalist educational practice. Passing reference has already been made to the close resem- blance between the two systems. ‘The parallel extends even to many details of management. The Port-Royalists preferred the less thickly settled communities for the location of their schools.’°* They were careful in their selection of masters and pupils.*°? They maintained absolute control of their pupils and close supervision of them.'’? They expurgated their text- books.** And they expelled any boy whose character lacked signs of indwelling grace lest he should corrupt his fellows.1% All this they did, driven by their theology, in the endeavor to save the souls of their charges. A more fitting summary of Wesley’s educational ideal and practice could hardly be sug- gested than this. Kingswood School had many periods of spiritual decline, and more often than not disappointed Wesley. And when Christians were not being made there, he felt the school was not answering the purpose of its founding and had better close. At such times he would say, “I will kill or cure: I will have one or the other—a Christian school, or none at all.” During the periods when the fires of the revival swept through it he was keenly delighted. But his interest did not wane even when the 186 Works, VII, 334, 340. 187 Journal, III, 530-531. 188 Barnard: The Little Schools of Port-Royal, 76. 189 Thid., 59-60. 191 Thid., 86-88. 190 Tbid., 72-73. 192 Thid., 60-61. PARTICULAR THEORIES AND METHODS _ 147 spiritual fires burned slowly. His characteristic determination during such periods is revealed in his utterance: “I endeavored once more to bring Kingswood School into order. Surely, the importance of this design is apparent, even from the difficulties that attend it. I have spent more money and time and care on this than almost any design I ever had; and still it exercises all the patience I have. But it is worth all the labor.”*** 193 Journal, IV, 80. CONCLUSION JoHN WESLEY maintained a policy of religious education definitely framed and correlated throughout. His theory makes use of nearly every element of his theology and is indissolubly associated with it. If his theological premises are granted, the consequent educational principles appear rational and logical; in any other light many of them are eccentric and may be justly questioned. It is only natural that, with his severe view of human nature and its redemption, he should regard the task of discipline and instruction based upon it with such a serious attitude. The significance of Wesley as an educator should not be judged, however, so much by the particular details of his ped- agogy as by the deep-seated conviction which he held that edu- cation itself is the most probable method of bringing religion to children and making them Christian. He championed the cen- tral idea of religious education that children are not to be left to grow up in sin, but are, rather, to be carefully disciplined and instructed from their earliest years, and with this in view he harmonized his doctrine of conversion. He furthermore gave a large place to children in the program of the revival and la- bored to found and conduct schools for them both within and without his societies. He lent his sympathy and gave his active support to the Sunday-school movement founded by Raikes, but for which “it might have been local and transient.” The present age accepts his confidence in education and is witnessing the fulfillment of his prophecy regarding the Sunday- school movement. The Methodist Church, upon whose shoul- ders fell his mantle more directly, is justified by its historical connection with this movement and by its theological founda- tions in carrying on the work he began. One cannot but venture the opinion that were Wesley living in the enlightened twentieth century, enlightened both in its theology and in its insight into the meaning of childhood, he would advocate the progressive theories now held by the church which he founded. 148 APPENDIX A list showing the topics of the lessons and the sections of Scripture from which Wesley made his selections for the Lessons for Children. Fe CREM rea LION Cyc, Sie teed Serge ota ay sha. ve aha eee Gen. 1. 1-8 Pe IEeUe CT eaclOM Nay Dee. ia a eie uses teie a shal Me he ai Gen. I. 9-23 AS TUNG AAT EUION tifa cicie coeitiabe ya! clay ia ners ane yeas Gen. I. 24-31 SPATE ALAUIIGES SORRP EC RU Leeda ala eos yoo e hy ea eLae Gen. 2. I-25 RETR HOM ALL OL NEGING Woop fainig saatecoka te lar toe wk Ak Rees Gen. 3. 1-23 Gem PE ett SICh AL OLA ye acl isilsh ty aia reed siapotucd eiWa.-ei al oho Gen. 4. 1-26 PUTAMAT SENOC, ANd. NOR sire fc uit oslo oedions Gen. 5. 3—6. 22 oh COPA HAT yah Ca QA Ac edie Aes PS OB a aD ede Gen. 7. 11—8. 12 Op,Otine lend. Or toe Bigod. aii ie eis eh ae eee Gen. 8. 13—9. 29 10. Of the Tower of Babel and the Birth of Abra- ER a gWe Se Atte ae Bae TaN aes de WER ae OF Gen. II. I-31 11. Of God’s Promise to Abram, and of His Jour- ote ard eZ, MEU LE NS Wm haan cane ate Gen. 12. I—13. 18 12. Of Abraham’s Rescue of Lot, and of Melchi- OCLC NE Unmet ett aurea cie asks Be cy aaeks SCL AN Gen. 14. I-23 13. Of God’s Further Promises to Abraham....... Gen. I5. I—I17. 23 14. Of Abraham’s Intercession for Sodom......... Gen. 18. 1-33 15. Of the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah... Gen. Ig. 1-26 16. Of the Birth and Offering of Isaac............ Gen. 21. I—22. 18 IFO Wie wWviartiage Of ISAaCi eG. . nikcaaces hee Gen. 24. I-67 18. Of Abraham’s Death; of God’s Promises to Isaac; and of the Birth of Esau and Jacob........ Gen. 25. 7—26. 24 19. Of Jacob’s Journey and Vision....... by Ae re Gen. 28. I—29. 13 20. Of Jacob’s Marriages; of His Return Home; of His Wrestling with the Angel, and Meeting TG SATA Pie ee ee ee a AE ec oe keer Ow seo he Gen. 29. 16—33. 18 21. Of Jacob’s Children, and Isaac’s Death........ Gen. 35. 23—39. 5 22. Of Joseph’s Advancement in Egypt........... Gen. 41. I-57 23. Of the Brethren of Joseph Going to Buy Corn in Horta eager. at ae earn ce wc ae nies Gen. 42. 1-38 24. Of Benjamin’s Going into Egypt............. Gen. 43. 2-33 25. Of Joseph’s Making Himself Known to His ESPEL Tet or ide oe tietete Ay eh ne Te Gen. 45. 1-28 26. Of Jacob’s:Going into Egypt...3. 2. 63.000... Gen. 46. I—47. 31 27. Of Jacob’s Blessing His Children, and of His DGat tie ettaecrt spay ao we cha lorena kor Ge dept iw Ss Gen. 48. I—49. 33 28. Of the Burial of Jacob, and the Death of Joseph. Gen. 50. 1-26 NCEP Itt OL WWLOSES.) Serr ey kk ey wig ae cela es Exod. I. 6—2. 21 30. Of God’s Appearing Unto Moses, and Sending PICO TISUGEl a Mies Mi date a so wis owes ate ate Exod. 3. I-20 150 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 31. Of God’s Sending Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh. Exod. 4. 10—5. 23 32. Of the Rod Turned Into a Serpent, and the Water Into OO TER Mig nei oie oem ae Exod. 7. 7-23 33. Of the Plague of Frogs, of Lice, and of Flies.... Exod. 8. 5-32 34. Of the Murrain, the Boils, the Hail, the Locusts, andthe Darinesa yin os sahastatoaty eau eemani ce Exod. 9. I-10. 23 35. Of the Passover, and the Death of the First- DOP EM ene ale an eatin ie noe phen a Mercacoe ey ae Exod. 12. I-41 36. Of the Journey of the Israelites, and the De- struction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea... Exod. 13. 17—14. 30 37. Of the Quails, the Manna, and Amalek........ Exod. 15. 22—17. 13 38. Of the Giving of the Law at Mount Sinai...... Exod. 19. I-25 ao) The Den! Commandments. 3'.024'si0 Vk see ealeiairds Exod. 20. I-20 AOU VAHOUs Preece Mean cy a uty y ak al an ete are ala Exod. 20. 2I—31. 18. Aruvonthe GoideniGMaliig ic Mic wale siateiom lane Exod. 32. I-35 42, Of Moses Talking With Gods v4), 0s .0 oie Exod. 33. 7—34. 34 ASA plessing Bnd “a Curse cin ses wine wb eters x wel Lev. 26. 3-44 44, Of Koreh, Dathan,‘and: Abiram, . 00). 5a Num. 16. 1-35 AS. OE BAIA ANG DALAaID i yilinile ly waitin aa ba ieee Num. 22. I-35 46, Balaam's Prophecies seca sa Nate tw vases eee ecu Num. 23. 3—24. 17 47. An exhortation ite Obedience. eu a we ones Deut. I. I—4. 40 48. An Exhortation to Obedience... .......05..... Deut. 6. 4—7. 15 49.) An Exhortation to Obedience) 3 .\0.a'. e's en's ys sla Deut. 8. I-20 50. An Exhortation to Obedience... ..........5.% Deut. 9. 4—10. 22 BI; An) pxhortation to Obedience si) 3 ices tae a Deut. 11. I—29. 29 52, An Exbortation to Obedience i/o. (u osseous Deut. 30. I—31. 6 AS DPE OTR TOL SVLOSES!. 15.40% iu tacos anaes avec tin ati any eat Deut. 32. 1-43 54. The Last Words and Death of Moses......... Deut. 33. I—34. 12 $54 ne dsraciives Pass Over Jordan. cue ne bie as Josh. 1. I—3. 17 Gu Lie Abang OF |) AEIeHO gi siay 4 aye di aatelte apenas rene Josh. 5. I—6. 27 57. The Sun and Moon Stand Still... .......:... Josh. 10. I-40 58. Of Caleb, and of the Two Tribes and a Half... Josh. 14. 6—22. 6 59. Joshua’s Exhortation Before His Death....... Josh. 23. I—24. 31 GO, COE Cri dean aya uplearacn boo tnaien tact Eobun eng ng tenth ad Judg. 6. 1-35 61. The Overthrow of the Midianites............. Judg. 6. 36—8. 32 i Pah Ooh Cre} sh 3 arta Panto itl Meco nt aR RAN MOC Mee nm ee IM een a Judg. 10. 6—11. 39 63. Of Samson’s Birth and Marriage............. Judg. 13. I—14. 20 64. Of Samson's Valor and Death..............5. Judg. 15. I—16. 31 65. Of the Birth and Childhood of Samuel........ I Sam. I. I—2. 26 66. God Reveais Himself to Samuel. The Ark Laken iby the Philistines wis een ai cae I Sam. 3. I—4. 18 67. The Ark Restored. Samuel Judges Israel...... I Sam. 5. I—7. 17 68. Saul Made King, Delivers Israel............. 1 Sam. 8. I—II. 15 69. The Overthrow of the Philistines............. 1 Sam. 13. 3—14. 23 70. The Destruction of the Amalekites........... 1 Sam. 15. 1-33 FAOL David and souatiy oy). Pein koe ae re ie -I Sam. 17. 1-52 72. pai Seeks'to: Kull David ot way vie ve eae 1 Sam. 18. I—19. 24 73- David's Escape from Saul...............6... 1 Sam. 22. I—23. 29 APPENDIX 151 74. David, by Sparing Saul, Sheweth His Inno- CONCU Gen SR TAK Ate ame hee eRe 1 Sam. 24. I—25. I Fe. AVIA OPATELD pall AGA. Pansies ne 6 eae pees I Sam. 26. I-25 GME ERG) VW TUCI) OL EENOOT cls a dilusaie gles ui laia @lorai4 a)oie\e 1 Sam. 27. 3—28. 25 77. The Death of Saul. David’s Lamentation..... 1 Sam. 31. I—2 Sam.1.27 78. David Is Made King Over Judah and Israel.... 2 Sam. 2. I—6. 23 79. Of Bathsheba. David Reproved by Nathan... 2 Sam. 11. I—12. 24 30,.C% Amnonrand Absalom os) ici. asian Oeste 2 Sam. 13. I—I5. 6 SP PA DSAOnT Ss IR eDeE EOE ea ee Waar aly stat 2 Sam. 15. 7-—16. 12 82. The End of Absalom’s Rebellion............. 2 Sam. 16. 15—18. 17 83. David's Restoration. He Numbers the People. 2 Sam. 19. I—24. 25 Bay APL POLOTION S VWVASOLL a Hayate etek eh awetad He 1 Kings 2. i—6. 38 85. Of the Dedication of the Temple, and of the Oureenr an Shenae yee ue a Se uk atalae 1 Kings 8. I—II. 43 86. Of Rehoboam and Jeroboam...-..........3.. 1 Kings 12. I—14. 30 87. Elijah Fed by the Ravens. ..............0.. 1 Kings 17. I-24 88. Of Elijah and the Prophets of Baal........... 1 Kings 18. 1-46 89. Elijah Flees from Jezebel.................... 1 Kings 19. I-21 90,0 Phe Syrians Overthrow ss Ligne tee ane e alele e 1 Kings 20. I-34 91. Of Naboth and the Jezreelite................ 1 Kings 21. I-29 G26 Lie Leach OL GANA YN & Cte acne Ue Cale ie ae tte oe 1 Kings 22. 1-38 93; Hiyjah" Taken Upito Heaven! icy es i. cae: 2 Kings 2. 1-22 94. Of the Widow’s Oil, and the Shunammite..... 2 Kings 4. 1-37 Os ene ure Of Naaman .o04 4548 b.9 See a Ee ak 2 Kings 5. 1-27 o6Of Elisha ‘and ithe Symans oo) oo bees eels 2 Kings 6. I—7. 17 97. Jehu Made King. The Death of Jezebel...... 2 Kings 9. 1-37 98. Jehu Destroys Ahab’s House, and the Wor- Snipers Of Baalivlveee eee sta etd ae 4a 2 Kings 10. I-31 99. Israel Carried Into: Captivity ey ss Peas 6 yes 2 Kings 17. 3-41 100. Of Hezekiah and Sennacherib................ 2 Kings 18. 3—19. 37: TOT eelOStan ye ATR RA AAA AAO Le Sey 2 Kings 22. 1-27 2 Chron. 35. 20-24 102. Jerusalem Destroyed. ............. ccc eee ceee 2 Kings 24. 1-21 TOS ETusaleMm LiesthOVed tka: e tse ule Wikies ale oe is 1 Chron. 12. 16—29. 19 104. Jerusalem Destroyed. ...........0...2s cece 2 Chron. 10. 5—16. 14 105.) Jerusalem Destroyed... Ak sa Va aa eke 2 Chron. 19. I—20. 37 106, *Jerusalem ‘Destroyed... 2.40... b esse eae ks 2 Chron. 24. I—25. 27 107. Jerusalem Destroyed (cei ate be eee 2 Chron. 26, 1—28. 27 108. Jerusalem Destroyed..................0ce00: 2 Chron. 29. I—33. 20 109. Of the Rebuilding of the Temple............ Ezra I. I—3. 13 110. The Building Hindered, and Begun Again..... Ezra 4. I—6. 22 111. Ezra Goes to Jerusalem, and Mourns and Prays fori the People .'s iis yk nds ees oye house ab Ezra 7. I—I0. 12 112. The Wall of Jerusalem Rebuilt............... Neh. 1. I—6. 15 113. The Solemn Fast, Repentance, and Confession DET ELEN EOT CN A a Le ale ella ate hcl statis Uae Noia ty vets Neh. 8. I—10. 29 TIA Esther Made Oueen 3 iy icv e Sarena be wielee eet Esth. 1. I—2. 23 115. Of Hamon and Mordecai.......... Ee eee nets Esth. 3. I—5. 14 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION . Hamon Destroyed, and the Jews Preserved.... Esth. 7. I—10. 3 117. The Prosperity and Afflictions of Job......... Job 1. I—2. 13 118. The First Speech of Job, and the Answer of Flip hazy Ser cs tee e ecole deta moves elec aa a ee Job 3. I—4. 26 119. The Second Speech of Job, and the Answer of Bildad seas ia caer niles Raw epee ee Job 6. 1—8. 20 120. The Third Speech of Job, and the Answer of TODUAL Aas cise SG Phe nie BT te DE oot Job 9. I—II. 20 121. The Fourth Speech of Job, and the Answer of LiphaZ ci. sated ples sete ates dace «ein per arate tee Job 12. I—15. 34 122. The Fifth Speech of Job, and the Answer of BuUGaae tire ws et a sie oka ee ee ees Job 16. I—18. 21 123. The Sixth Speech of Job, and the Answer of PODNAT Ue heeds Vcc ie oneiron cys cae ea nara Lae ee Job 19. I—20. 29 124. The Seventh Speech of Job, and the Answer of Wl phas ee ipa es Gn oe oie icta tla ee Meee cs Job 21. I—22. 29 125. Job’s Eighth Speech, Bildad’s Answer, and OU SE IRODLY sine re cee arene een ate ee re Job 24. I—27. 23 126. Job Shews the Price of Wisdom, and Protests Hiss Integrity tech ie dy sis vial te aa ee Job 28. I—30. 31 127. Job Professes His Integrity in Several Duties.. Job 31. I-40 128. Elihu Reproveth Job and His Friends......... Job 32. 5—33. 33 120. Hliha Reproveths) OD waists wave len nicky wig ies atecatens Job 34. I—35. 16 140. Tish Justifeth rod 40 nas a> athinaiwtats pete Job 36. 2—37. 24 131.7God Answereth Jobte Fie ie vaiea, ered ow tents Job 38. I—40. 5 132. God Answereth and Blesseth Job............. Job 40. 6—42. 17 SIS F re piieis piu tiert ers Rie ae in yatit >, SeLytN a times ste inane at anes Psa. 1. I—8. 9 TSA CR RRY See ome Ritigte ts ayetene pis velpieinaha hie e ateione tera cet Psa. 9. I—I16. I LSS cite te tise Ketch eetl Solar ciate Ming Gm mrkianie fara Glee oe oben e a ah Psa. 17. I—I9. 14 TAGs Te Aeron cia aur oo vane k die phe edi pin ete ey arnt a Psa. 20. I—25. 22 BIST Werle ik lasts Camnegs ine One b actena atetahaitiaiai a ene er Psa. 27. I—31. 24 TAO acl e Risid sien a Rath Mies eine aera Whee aye cokes Psa. 33. 2-34. 22 TAG Tulle le wer ace wie te aw eRe AOe bun @iOlete, sien alate atere Saray Psa. 35. I—38. 22 MAD Mote at Weel owihcratern ae datas ala tale won Cun een alate arene Psa. 39. I—42. II TATSIO M,C cc lenin S Marat ais Vey onbele Migkias Gin ate etcets Psa. 43. I—49. 20 DUANE Eg ata Waar cass tad wna ee etn eile Uae ald are nrain ta nt etame Psa. 50. I—57. II TASH Eee Prete lQine o ttele'a iia dW Aa VSD Cane tie Ue EATS Psa. 59. I—65. 12 TAA aie ts Nghe araca ais ee e'e evans CON ts gene stee ite ae Psa. 66. I—68. 35 TAS heme k caiicatan oe ebeis eg. Caisme a eee Biel ean a Patras Psa. 69. I—73. 28 TAOS Pood shaves aed ails eee eak Oy, ae ale NT Ra reve Psa. 74. I—84. 12 TATA Pe ele sete TEN eI ERE We aCe ace eae Psa. 85. I—89. 52 148. A Prayer of Moses, the Man of God.......... Psa. 90. I—92. I5 TAQ. een ed oh aril te det nie alee ciate a ies tiere Coe Psa. 93. I—97. 12 Ct EAL Ea COLI iirc PRON Ran Rio or RU U AR Aa ULE On ty) « Psa. 98. I—103. 22 DHLivipe peice biplk wlolctels em knee wip leak tet caiel Aare ahaa Psa. 104. I-35 BD eiesta ae 4.9 ibe eI ae oe die ae CO Ee ee ee Psa. 107. I—I12. 9 * Of the remaining lessons, only lesson 148 has a topic assigned. APPENDIX 153 DS Sey ee ae Rea Ane end Came as ee SI ayy Monks Psa. 113. I—118. 29 BAA Dy Wl g ie As ENE ap OR Rg APM gy ee NR Psa. 119. I-96 TOS te neste erp CR Reade Ue A a eth gh a Sie ots Psa. 119. 97-176 ERG ee teh crt haied Fs 1e Wa he wi bid 0) ceehctaie Psa. 120. 2—I4I. § TS Fae te ee tiara iy Ste seek Sia ESetts sate sod Pokce eae ae es Psa. 139. I—144. 15 DSO rae ae et oy hire ge avis Sees ah hie aac Psa. 145. I—150. 6 HR AA RAO SPA fe Oe PE oe EL Prov. 1. I—4. 27 TIM 5 Ri etaMeg RRS aie tats cata! gPe eae wleree na eis’ ores Prov. 5. 3—9. I2 POLS ets Nota WRC n ie i en a ae tam aaNe sf Dot Ae are Prov. 10. I—13. 24 bi Fig i eh oom BM Opa 2. ey UR re Pe By a Sy Prov. 14. 6—I9g. 29 Aen rere aye ME a an itis Sh co eid eta ehies oicaks th Prov. 20. I—23. 32 Liven meee ety CMe Patan Cuchi abet Sei Ae dv iei'e uses Prov. 24. 10—26. 28 Nip Spe dete Ree date yaa Cte ivi a) op LUD acta y GHG cabin Cactos: Othe ais Prov. 27. I—3I. 30 1 RG, eye, Rig ae Le URS 2B ie ES egy Oy 2a Ales bog ratio Wan err Eccles. 1. I—3. 14 LO Pree eres Mee od OR ee ode wee ewan ee es Eccles. 4. I—7. 29 LN ented ed Metal fen Uae Sawer Dele cela Wiel a hshe etalk aes Eccles. 8. 8—12. 14 ROOT rile Cee Lat rhe ik. Pore reseed ale wae wie Isa. I. 2—I2. 6 RO et chef iN AE trates Uelats co PE tole an cabal oe Isa. 14. 3-32. 17 Ve BS DOS ay ON a An ar ad rege aires ERGY RA DanC RN MARR Isa. 35. I—40. 22 5 Br ELIS pe tae 2 Aa ge 8 Aah eA aoa aE Isa. 40. 25—44. 28 DAT ial fo Seeds te la oc a atasess ahaa Goa ik Oe antes Saves Isa. 45. I—49. 26 LA eae Meh: Shay ahaha tae ke share Cog ae Leche tale Wiig Viste bis ale.» Isa. 50. 2—53. 13 TAG ere ee Ce Ge he yo aga ale ot cig ia ple a se Isa. 54. 7—59. 19 Rete ia sk Ne ne lng Sy tier ahah Wine hie ais a aa ase Isa. 60. I—63. 16 ST PameTe Rata is bea TIK Rs aie ie ola RS Sek eR Slate Isa. 64. I—66. 2 Ap ROS a oS HL egies wrth ee Ny NR, ioe RR a nea AB ote ALU Jer. I. 4—9. 24 Bree eee hdc I edeY ea oe was crea a die walle blebmia, W ae a Jer. 10. 6—29. 14 DOO See a oie eh ae P e M ame ee cleo ee ees slates Jer. 31. I—33. 9 PRR Aa PEAy sate 7 hin Ue Oe SAL 8g Aerie A Ezek, 3. 16—18. 23 TE7 ee eras Re tle RM Wie GA patsy Wid ore a eo ee Ezek. 18. 24—33. 32 PPS TL Od oR OO ER eRe ist aia aa Sn a Gre hem POPE Dan. I. I—2. 48 Bee POR eae Cinna bilge os Ara hata el al els nhorede ocd Ge ele e's Dan. 3. I-29 Be par em Tee re AN nn CUE Cid s' 5 Uigial oeae es ee aocl vise Oe ae oo Dan. 4. I-37 TRO AEE atm Te alti sine © vite slat lai dhcin weve a hi Re Dan. 6. I-27 TRF ee en er eas ROU Cee Sein h alac othe w this tetas Wisd. of Sol. 1. I—2. 24 pe hee ip ng) Ra Ca As Taya eee eS Aaa ll Al OR Wisd. of Sol. 3. I—5. 23 ERIN MCN MN ee Ra EEE Ne ols ate geile sid! va Wisd. of Sol. 6. 6—7. 16 TOO One INS tac teed hehehe ee Oe be ee wines Maw Wisd. of Sol. 7. 22—9. 17 USP PNT i ea ie Ma TORTS Napa oT, AEB Vl AM ar gL a Wisd. of Sol. 11. 20—19. 22 VISD eaee IS T ae ECE, Pex Os ce TOUS a ERC Goo e a a Reto Ecclesiasticus 1. I—4. 18 TESS O ME MRR re Eat a tes Fel gS ahs lldne eae @ ne ats Ecclesiasticus 4. 20—9. 15 POM MELE a Meet ie had ik ci te 4 plac atdie git ore ae ee. Cinta Ecclesiasticus 10. 7—16. 28 ROS SINE ae eee a tie tte aN L is Sale to a 8 ales Eh pve Ecclesiasticus 17. I—22. 22 LO rete eters cee kk Sie aa ak ot tea he ea lath Ecclesiasticus 23. I—29. 17 1s Be ar doa hy yet aise Sai at eR Beek VaR PS a a Ecclesiasticus 31. 5—35. 19 CREE, a RENE Ss BOTS Ye BE OO A Dap a Ecclesiasticus 36. I—4I. 10 LOG ere ey eat re the alk wae ic eae a ata ed Bede esd Ecclesiasticus 42. I—50. 23 ASAE LS: Sed feel SEEM Ciena EEE a ad FCA AL ae Gn la Pa Ecclesiasticus 51. 1-30 BIBLIOGRAPHY Part I. THe Works oF JOHN WESLEY Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament. By John Wesley, M.A. New York, 1847. Explanatory Notes Upon the Old Testament. By John Wesley, M.A. Three vols. Bristol, 1765. The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. Enlarged from orig- inal MSS., with notes from unpublished diaries, annotations, maps, and illustrations. Edited by Nehemiah Curnock. Assisted by experts. Standard Edition. 8 vols. London, 1909-1916. Lessons for Children and Others. Selected from The Holy Scrip- tures, by the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. The Second Edition. London, 1816. Letters of John Wesley. A selection of important and new letters, with introductions and biographical notes by George Eayrs. with a Chapter on Wesley, His Times and Work, by Augustine Birrell. London, 1915. A Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation, or a Compendium of Natural Philosophy. Containing an abridgment of that Beautiful Work, “The Contemplation of Nature.’ By Mr. Bonnet of Geneva. Also An Extract From Mr. Deuten: “In- quiry into the Origin of the Discoveries Attributed to the Ancients.” In two volumes. By John Wesley, A.M. Second American Edition. Philadelphia, 1816. _ The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A. Thirty-two vols. Bris- tol, 1771-1774. (Contains important writings not found in standard editions. Volume twenty-four contains Instructions for Christians; early title, Instructions for Children. Volume twenty-five contains Primitive Physick.) The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. First American and Complete Standard Edition, from the Latest London Edition, with the Last Corrections of the Author: comprehending also Numerous Translations, Notes, and Original Preface, &c. Edited by John Emory. 7 vols. New York, 1831. Part II. Orser Sources A. Books. Abbey, Charles J., and Overton, John H. The English Church in the E1ghieenth Century. Vol. II. London, 1878. 154 BIBLIOGRAPHY 155 An Account of the Methods Whereby the Charity-Schools Have Been Erected and Managed, and of the Encouragement Given to Them; Together with a Proposal of Enlarging Their Num- ber and Adding Some Work to the Children’s Learning, Thereby to Render Their Education More Useful to the Publick. Lon- don, 1705. The Annotated Book of Common Prayer. Being an Historical, Ritual, and Theological Commentary on the Devotional System of the Church of England. Edited by the Rev. John Henry Blunt. New Edition. London, 1895. Memoir of Miss Hannah Ball of High-Wycomb, in Buckingham- shire. With Extracts From Her Diary and Correspondence. Originally compiled by the Rev. Joseph Cole: Revised and enlarged by John Parker. London, 1839. Barnard, H. C. The Little Schools of Port-Royal. Cambridge, 1913. Baxter, Richard. Practical Works. Edited by Rev. William Orme. 23 vols. Volume fourteen, Gildas Salvianus: The Reformed Pastor, etc. London, 1830. Bicknell, E. J. The Christian Idea of Sin and Original Sin, in the Light of Modern Knowledge. Being the Pringle-Stuart Lec- tures for 1921 delivered at Keble College, Oxford. Second Impression. London, 1923. Bretherton, Francis Fletcher. Early Methodism In and Around Chester, 1749-1812 . . . Chester, 1903. Bushnell, Horace. Christian Nurture. New Edition. Revision by Luther A. Weigle. New York, 1916. Cadman, S. Parkes. The Three Religious Leaders of Oxford and Their Movements. New York, 1916. The Cambridge Modern History. Vol. VI. The Eighteenth Cen- tury. New York, 1909. Clarke, Adam. Miscellaneous Works. Vols. I and II. Memoirs of the Wesley Family: Collected Principally from Original Documents. Second Edition, Revised, Corrected, and Consid- erably Enlarged. London, 1836. Clarke, Eliza. Susanna Wesley. Famous Women Series. Bos- ton, 1886. Clarke, William Newton. An Outline of Christian Theology. New - York, 1917. Cope, Henry Frederick. The Evolution of the Sunday School. Boston, 1911. Cottier, F. W. Back to Wesley. New York, 1924. 156 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Cubberly, Ellwood P. The History of Education. (Riverside Textbooks in Education.) Boston, 1920. Curtis, Olin Alfred. The Christian Faith. New York, 1905. Dale, R. W. The Evangelical Revival and Other Sermons. Lon- don, 188o. Dale, R. W. Fellowship with Christ and other Discourses Delivered on Special Occasions. ‘New York, 1892. (Discourse Nine, on The Theology of John Wesley. ) Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church: 1920. New York, 1920. Faulkner, John Alfred. The Methodists. New York, 1903. Faulkner, John Alfred. Wesley as Sociologist, Theologian, Church- man. New York, 1918. Fitchett, W. H. Wesley and His Century. A Study in Spiritual Forces. London, 1906. Godley, A. D. Oxford in the Eighteenth Century. Second Edition. London, 1909. Green, Richard. The Works of John and Charles Wesley. A Bibliography: containing an exact account of all the publica- tions issued by the Brothers Wesley, arranged in chronological order, with a list of the early editions, and descriptive and illustrative notes. London, 1896. Gregory, Alfred. Robert Raikes: Journalist and Philanthropist. A History of the Origin of the Sunday School. New York, 1877. Henry, Matthew. The Life of the Rev. Philip Henry, A.M. With Funeral Sermons for Mr. and Mrs. Henry. Corrected and Enlarged, by J. B. Williams. London, 1839. Hibbard, F. G. The Religion of Childhood; or Children in Their Relation to Native Depravity, to the Atonement, to the Family, and the Church. Cincinnati, 1864. The History of the Kingswood School. By Three Old Boys. (Hast- ling, Workman, and Willis.) London, 1808. Janeway, James. A Token for Children. Complete, in Two Parts. New Haven, 1822. King, Henry Churchill. Personal and Ideal Elements in Education. New York, 1904. Locke, John. Some Thoughts Concerning Education. Pitt Press Series. Edited by R. H. Quick. Cambridge, 1880. Lockyer, Thos. F. Paul: Luther: Wesley. A study in Religious Experience as illustrative of the Ethic of Christianity. Lon- don, 1921. Lyttelton, Edward. The Corner-Stone of Education. An Essay on the Home Training of Children. London, 1914. BIBLIOGRAPHY 157 Macintosh, Douglas Clyde. Theology as an Empirical Science. New York, 1919. Mackay, W. Mackintosh. The Disease and Remedy of Sin. New York, 1918. Mackintosh, H. R. The Divine Initiative. London, 1921. McConnell, Francis J. The Essentials of Methodism. New York, 1g16. McGiffert, Arthur Cushman. Protestant Thought Before Kant. New York, IgII. McGiffert, Arthur Cushman. The Rise of Modern Religious Ideas. New York, 1915. Meredith, William Henry. The Real John Wesley. Cincinnati, 1903. Milton, John. Tractate on Education. A Facsimile Reprint from the Edition of 1673. Edited by Oscar Browning. Cambridge, 1905. Minutes of the Methodist Conferences, from the First, Held by the Late Rev. John Wesley, A.M., in the Year 1744. Vol. I. Lon- don, r812. Montmorency, J. E.G. de. The Progress of Education in England: A Sketch of the Development of English Educational Organ- ization from Early Times to the Year 1904. London, 1904. Montmorency, J. E.G. de. State Intervention in English Education. A Short History from the Earliest Times down to 1833. Cam- bridge, 1902. Moore, Henry. The Life of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M., in which are Included the Life of His Brother, the Rev. Charles Wesley, A.M., and Memoirs of Their Family; Comprehending an Ac- count of the Great Revival of Religion. Two Volumes. New York, 1824. Moxon, Reginald Stewart. The Doctrine of Sin. New York, 1922. Myles, William. A Chronological History of the People Called Methodists, of the Connexion of the Late Rev. John Wesley; From Their Rise in the Year 1729, to Their Last Conference in 1802. Third Edition, Enlarged. London, 1803. A New History of Methodism. Edited by W. J. Townsend, H. B. Workman, and George Eayrs. Two Volumes. Illustrated. London, 1909. North, Eric McCoy. Early Methodist Philanthropy. New York, 1914. , Pope, William Burt. A Higher Catechism of Theology. New York, 1884. 158 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Pope, William Burt. The Peculiarities of Methodist Doctrine. Lon- don, 1873. The Port-Royalists on Education. Extracts from the Educational Writings of the Port-Royalists. Selected, translated and fur- nished with an Introduction and Notes by H. C. Barnard. Cam- bridge, 1918. Rigg, James H. The Living Wesley. Second Edition. London, 1891. Rishell, Charles W. The Child as God’s Child. New York, 1go4. Sampey, John Richard. The International Lesson System. The History of its Origin and Development. Lectures Delivered Before the Faculty and Students of the Southern Baptist Theo- logical Seminary, February 6-10, 1911. With a Brief Intro- duction by Bishop John H. Vincent. Nashville, 1911. Sheldon, Henry C. History of Christian Doctrine. 2 vols. New York, 1886. Simon, John S. John Wesley and the Methodist Societies. Lon- don, 1923. Simon, John S. John Wesley and the Religious Societies. London, 1921. Simon, John S. The Revival of Religion in England in the Eigh- teenth Century. The 37th Fernley Lecture. London (no date). Southey, Robert. The Life of Wesley; and the Rise and Progress of Methodism. 2 vols. Second American Edition. New York, 1874. Stamp, William W. The Orphan-House of Wesley; with Notices of Early Methodism in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and its Vicinity. London, 1863. Stephen, Leslie. English Literature and Society in the ae et Century. Ford Lectures, 1903. London, 1904. Stephen, Leslie. History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century. 2 vols. Second Edition. London, 1881. Stevens, Abel. The History of the Religious Movement of the Eighteenth Century, Called Methodism, Considered in its Differ- ent Denominational Forms, and its Relations to British and American Protestantism. Nineteenth Edition. 3 vols. New York, 1858. Stevenson, George J. City Road Chapel, London, and Its Associa- tions, Historical, Biographical, and Memorial. With Engrav- ings. London, 1872. Sydney, William Connor. England and the English in the Eigh- teenth Century. Chapters in the Social History of the Times. 2 vols. London, 1891. BIBLIOGRAPHY 159 Thompson, D. D. John Wesley as a Social Reformer. New York, 1808. Thorndike, Edward L. Educational Psychology. Vol. I, The Ori- ginal Nature of Man. New York, 1920. Tyerman, L. The Life and Tumes of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., Founder of the Methodists. 3 vols. London, 1872. Tyerman, L. The Life and Times of the Rev. Samuel Wesley, M.A., Rector of Epworth, and Father of the Revs. John and Charles Wesley .. . London, 1866. Tyerman, L. The Oxford Methodists: Memoirs of the Rev. Messrs. Clayton, Ingham, Gambold, Hervey, and Broughton, with Bio- graphical Notices of Others. London, 1873. Walker, George Leon. Some Aspects of the Religious Life of New England With Special Reference to Congregationalists. Bos- ton, 1897. Walker, Williston. A History of the Christian Church. New York, 1918. Wardle, Addie Grace. History of the Sunday School Movement in the Methodist Episcopal Church. New York, 1918. Watson, Richard. Works. Vol. V. The Life of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M., and Observations on Southey’s Life of Wesley. London, 1835. Wedgewood, Julia. John Wesley and the Evangelical Reaction of the Eighteenth Century. London, 1870. Weigle, Luther Allan. The Training of Children in the Christian Family. Boston, 1922. Weigle, Luther Allan, and Tweedy, Henry Hallam. Training the Devotional Life. New York, 1919. Wesley, Charles. Hymns for Children and Others of Riper Years. Second Edition. Bristol, 1763. Wilmot, E. P. Eardley, and Streatfeild, E. C. Charterhouse, Old and New. London, 1895. Winchester, C. T. The Life of John Wesley. New York, 1906. Workman, H. B. Methodism. (Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature.) Cambridge, 1912. Workman, H. B. The Place of Methodism in the Catholic Church. New York, 1921. (A revised and expanded reprint of the In- troduction to A New History of Methodism. ) B. Periodicals The Arminian Magazine, consisting chiefly of extracts and original treatises on Universal Redemption. London, 1778-1799. The Methodist Review. Bi-monthly. New York. Volume Eighty- 160 WESLEY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION four, pp. 778-784. (Charles W. Rishell: Wesley and Other Methodist Fathers on Childhood Religion.) Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society. Privately published, 1898-1914. Publications of the Wesley Historical Society, 1898. (No. 1: Ben- net and Wesley, Minutes of the Conferences of 1744, 1745, 1747, 1748. No. 3: Mrs. Wesley’s Conference with Her Daughter. ) INDEX Adam, 16f., 21f., 25, 26, 31, 34, 40. Adornments on one’s person, the evil of, 49; denial of to children, 116, 145. Anger, the disease of, 27, 31, 98, 119. Apocrypha, 126. Apostles’ Creed, 128. Arminianism, 36. Assurance, doctrine of, 63, 64. Atheism, the disease of, 17, 24, 25, 45, 40, 101, 118f., 128. Augustine, 27. Bands, a division in early Methodist societies, 78. Baptism, 66f., 73, 86; of children, 93, 95, 90, 97. Baxter, Richard, 134. Bible, The, 16, 34, 41, 42, 52, 56, 66, 69, 72, 80, 92, 115, 121, 126f., 120, F317) £33. Bonnet, Charles, 41f. Boswell, James, 47. Bridgen, Thomas Edwin, 94, 103. Calvinism, 37-38. Candler, Warren A., 42-43. Catechism, of the Church of England, 123; Wesley’s, 127; Westminster, Fox1 27. Charterhouse School, 144. Children, catechizing of, 10, 81f., 85f.; conversion of, 97-102; de- pravity of, 15, 24f., 118; diet of, 116; discipline of, 115-122; education of, 37, 81, 99f.; aim of education of, 95, 100; examples of piety in, 82f.; play of, 144f.; religion of, 10, 81f., 85f.; societies for, in early Meth- odism, 135; teaching of, 115, 122- 125; textbooks for, 82, 125-129. Christian Conference, 75. Church, The, 65f., 77. Church of England, 10, 13, 70, 76. Clarke, Adam, 108. Class meetings, 78. Comenius, John Amos, 103, 125. Conscience, 33, 39. Conversion, 35, 36, 73. Copernicus, 41. Creeds, 96; see also, Apostles’ Creed. Curnock, Nehemiah, 47, 76, 89. Deism) P44 t77135% 52) Depravity, 14, 40, 50, 106; extent of, a1fis AQ; LOL. Determinism, 34, 37. Diseases of human nature, 22, 27, 40, 49, 52, 58, 61, 80, 94, 95f., 101, 115; see also, Anger, Atheism, False- hood, Injustice, Love of the World, Pride, Self-will, Unmercifulness. Dodwell, Henry, 52. Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion, 44, 5I. Edwards, Jonathan, 14. Evil, origin of, 16. Evolution, 41-43. Faith, 13, 20, 45, 50, 53, 59, 97, 100, 106; degrees of, 50, 53; justification by, 13, 50f. 56f., 75, 79, 81, 87, 106f.; of a servant and of a son, 54f. Fall, The, 13f., 40, 49, 106, 127, 128. Falsehood, the disease of, 27, 119. Family religion, 104; see also, Par- ents; responsibility of toward children. Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion, 55. Fasting, 66, 74f., 126. Fletcher, John, 38, 123. Francke, August, 145. Free-will, 34, 36, 37, 100. 161 162 Froebel, Friedrich, 104. God, immanence of, 35; nature of, 39, 44; omnipotence, 35; omnipres- ence, 35. God-parents, 96. Grace, 34f., 45, 48, 61, 81, 94, 95, 118, 127, 731, Green’s Bibliography, 129, 131. Habit, 28. Hebden, Samuel, 14. Henry, Matthew, 133. Henry, Philip, his method of family prayer, 133. Herrnhut, 144. Human nature, 14, 45, 46, 47, 56, 70, 97, 121, 128, 131; bias of in chil- dren, 155f. Hume, David, 46, 47. Humility, 49, 70. Hymns, QI, 131-132. Image of God, 32f., 81; moral image of in man, 18f., 20, 32, 81; natural image of in man, 17f., 32, 81; spir- itual image, 17f. Individual Differences in people, 79. Infants, nature of, 22, 28; see also, Human nature. Injustice, disease of, 27, 119f. Instructions for Children, 82, 127-129, 132, 134, 135, 139, 145. 126, Janeway, James, 129. Jena, school at, 146. Johnson, Samuel, 17. Justification by faith, see Faith. Kingswood School, 9, 82, 86, 90, 101; The New Kingswood School, 90, 97, 120, 137-147; conditions of ad- mission into, 139f.; curriculum of, 138f.; masters in, 141; reasons for founding, 138; rules of the board- ing house, 141f.; rules of the school, 139f., 143f.; textbooks used in, 138f. INDEX Law, William, 80. Lessons for Children, 125f. Liberty, faculty of, 17, 20, 23, 33. Little Schools of Port-Royal, 94-95, 07, I2tf., 146. Locke, John, 51, 103. Lord’s Prayer, 96, 128. Lord’s Supper, 58, 65, 66, 73. Love of God, 44, 58, 72, 79; 85, 96, 100, 122, 128f. Love of Mankind, 44, 58, 70, 72, 79, 85, 100, 128f. Love of the World, disease of, 24, 26, 95f., 98, 101, 116, 124. Luther, Martin, 52. McConnell, Francis J., 31. McGiffert, Arthur C., 35. Mackintosh, Hugh Ross, 4o. Means of Grace, 64-76. Mercy, works of, 58. Methodist Episcopal Church, 9, 148. Methodist Polity, 76-80. Methodist Preachers, 77, 79f., 127; their duties in teaching children, 131-136; their qualifications, 136. Methodist Review, 98f. Methodist Societies, 23, 70, 75f., 87, 90, 127; religious education in, 132- 136. Methodists, The, 49, 52, 62, 71, 73, 78, 88, 92, I2I, 137. Milton, John, 103. Moravians, 73, 75f., 103, 144. Mothers-in-law, duties of home, I17. in the New Birth, 56, 57, 81, 95; in children, 97, 08; see also, Regeneration. New Testament, see Bible. Newton, Isaac, 41. Old Testament, see Bible. Original Nature, 19, 30, 35, 38, 45. Original Sin, 13, 14f., 24, 47, 50, 93; in children, 28; relation of to ac- tual sin, 22, 27f., 30; transmission of, arf. Oxford, 55, 70, 76, 107. INDEX Parents, responsibility of toward children, 28, 88, 95, 98, 99, I0I, 104, TEOT., | LIO, 122, Partial Depravity, see Depravity. Pascal, Blaise, 94. Penitents in the Early Methodist So- cieties, 78. Perfection, Doctrine of, 57f., 59; of Adam, 18. Pestalozzi, Johann H., 103. Piety, 57f., 81; works of, 58. Port-Royalists, see Little Schools of Port-Royal. Prayer, 66, 69, 74; education in, 129f.; for children, 60f.; for families, 69f., 72; forms of, 609f.; private, . 60f., 72; public, 71f. Preaching to be graded, 70. Predestination, 94. Prevenient Grace, 38f., 73. Preventing Grace, see Grace. Pride, disease of, 24, 26, 31, 40, 61, 95f., 98, 101, 118, 124, 128. Primitive Physick, 24, 144. Ptolemaic Theory, 41. Prevenient Raikes, Robert, 148. Reason, faculty of, 44, 50; dawn of in children, 115, 122. Regeneration, 50, 56, 81, 100-102. Reid, Thomas, 46. Religious Education, purpose of, 87; relation to methods of revival, o8f. Religious Societies, 76f., 103. Repentance, 13, 44f., 47, 52, 57, 79, 97, 100, 106, 118; in believers, 61. Riches, worldly, 49, 121. Rigg, James H., 144. Rishell, Charles W., o8f. Rousseau, Jean J., 46, 47, 103. Sabbath, 71. Sacraments, 66. St. Paul, 21, 60, 104. Salvation, 34f., 38, 40f., 48, 77, 70, 86f.; of children, 93, 97-102, 118. 163 Sanctification, doctrine of, 57f., 709, 87, 106f. Schools, 86f., 96, 101; charity, 90; condition of in Wesley’s day, 137f.; Foundery, 137; religious education in, 136-147. Scripture, see Bible. Self-knowledge, 45, 46, 48f., 55. Self-will, disease of, 24, 26, 31, 61, Q5f., 101, 106, 115f., 128. Sermon on Mount, 45, 48, 70. Servants, duty of in the home, 117. Simon, John S., 44. Sin, 30; in believers, 61; see also, Original Sin. Social Heredity, 28, 20f. Spiritual senses, 50. Stevens, Abel, 31, 107. Stillness, Doctrine of, 76. Sunday Schools, 9, 92, 123f., 148. Taylor, Jeremy, 63. Taylor, John .E., 14, 46. Ten Commandments, 96, 128f. Thorndike, Edward S., 19. Tokens for Children, 125f. Total Depravity, see Depravity. Understanding, Faculty of, 17, 20, 23, 33, 45, 100, 128, 131. United Societies of Methodism, see Methodist Societies. Unmercifulness, disease of, 27, I19. Voltaire, 46f. War, I5. Watts, Isaac, 14, 28. Wesley, Charles, 75, 91, 103, 131. John, Conversion of, 54-55; insight into educational theory and method, 103; Journal, 46, 47, 55, 62, 65, 69, 76, 82, 83, 84, 92, 97, 108, 121; kindliness to children, 120f.; philanthropic labors, 9, 23; scientific views, 41; significance as educator, 148; writings of on children, 81-82. Samuel, 67, 93, 94, 124. 164 INDEX Samuel, Jr., 89. Susanna, 62, 94, 117, 124f.; letter on religious education, 109-114; relation to educational theory of John Wesley, 103-115; theology, 106f.; training of her own chil- dren, 104f.; way of education, 107-114; writings on religious education, 105. Will, faculty of, 17, 20,23, 32, 33, 106, 128; will in children to be broken, 116. Witness of Spirit, see Assurance. Workman, H. B., 10, 37. ie ¥; Li fein nv TT 1 1012 01237 6317 | Date Due ~' ta > _ aif OR i cS i mae | i — Fa 7) ip ee trial * ' < od a Sea fo pu? Py che sieeehy SESE SA: Tidal Sse tceer rit