REV. JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 Life of John Wesley.)
 
 THE CENTENARY 
 
 LIFE OF WESLEY. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDITH C KENYON, 
 
 AUTHOR OP 
 
 " FonESTALLED J OR, THE NEW FABRIC OF STONEFIELD MILLS," 
 "THK OLD VIOLIN," ETC. 
 
 THE WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING CO., LTD. 
 
 LONDON AND NEWCASTLE-ON-TVNE. 
 
 NEW YORK: 3 EAST 14111 STREET.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE attention of every Christian in the English- 
 speaking world will probably be drawn, sooner or later, 
 during this Centenary Year of John Wesley, to the life 
 of the remarkable man whom Churchmen and Non- 
 conformists those who still call themselves after his 
 name, and those who do not combine to praise for his 
 zeal, faith, power, and the great work which he did for 
 the cause of true heartfelt religion. 
 
 Several memoirs of Wesley have been written, but, 
 in adding to their number, we do so in the hope that 
 the present one may meet a want which the Centenary 
 
 Year will create. 
 
 E. C. KENYON 
 
 BRADFORD, 
 1891.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 JOHN WESLEY'S EARLY HOME ... i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 RETROSPECTIVE; JOHN WESLEY'S ANCESTRY - II 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 JOHN WESLEY'S MOTHER . . . .18 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 JOHN AND CHARLES AT SCHOOL . . . 3 2 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 AT OXFORD ... . . 36 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PREPARING FOR HOLY ORDERS . . . -43 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FELLOW OF LINCOLN . . . . -57
 
 iv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 FA0I 
 
 CURATE OF WROOTE ..... 66 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE HOLY CLUB ..... 71 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 DEATH OF THE RECTOR OF EPWORTH . . .85 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 PROPOSAL TO GO OUT TO GEORGIA . . . - 97 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ON BOARD SHIP . . . . . . .105 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 IN AMERICA . . . . . . -US 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 DISAPPOINTING EXPERIENCES . . . , .125 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 WESLEY'S RETURN TO ENGLAND . . . . 135 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 WESLEY'S CONVERSION . . . . . .147 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 WESLEY'S ECCENTRICITIES . . . . -157 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 WESLEY IN GERMANY ... . l66
 
 CONTENTS. v 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 IN LONDON AGAIN . . . . . -177 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 FIELD PREACHING .... . l86 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 STRANGE SCENES . . . . . .196 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 OPPOSITION AND PERSECUTION . . . .207 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 DEATH OF SAMUEL WESLEY . . . . . 2l6 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 SEPARATION FROM THE MORAVIANS . . . .224 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 SEPARATION FROM WHITEFIELD . . . .241 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 LAY-PREACHING . . . . , , . 259 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 WESLEY VISITS NEWCASTLE AND EPWORTH . . .267 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 PERSECUTIONS, MOBS, AND RIOTS .... 279 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 PREACHING IN CORNWALL . . , . . 2Q3
 
 vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 PAQR 
 
 THE FIRST CONFERENCE . . . . 3OI 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 LAST SERMON BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY . . . 308 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 ITINERATING . . . . . . 3'4 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 WESLEY'S IDEA OF A PRESBYTER . . . .326 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 FURTHER LABOURS . , 336 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 A SAD CHAPTER . . . . . -346 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 WESLEY IN MIDDLE AGE . . . . . 351 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 TWO OF WESLEY'S HELPERS AND FRIENDS . . .362 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 WESLEY'S ORDINATIONS . . . . .374 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 WESLEY'S LAST DAYS ..... 382 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 WESLEY'S DEATH . , , . , -^
 
 LIFE OF JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 JOHN WESLEY'S EARLY HOME. 
 
 IN the beginning of the eighteenth century, in the reign of 
 Queen Anne, a very sad state of things prevailed in England. 
 Mobs and riots were by no means uncommon; the people 
 were ignorant and irreligious ; Churchmen and Nonconformists 
 alike bore testimony to the wretched condition of religion and 
 morals. The writings of Infidels amongst others, Hobbes, 
 Tindal, Chubb, and Collins, and, later, Bolingbroke, Hume, 
 and Gibbon were eagerly read by the people, and the clergy 
 were themselves frequently unlettered men, sunk in sloth and 
 little respected by those to whom they ministered. Bishop 
 Burnet wrote "I cannot look on without the deepest concern, 
 when I see the imminent ruin hanging over this Church, and, 
 by consequence, over the whole Reformation. The outward 
 state of things is black enough, God knows ; but that which 
 heightens my fears rises chiefly from the inward state into 
 which we are unhappily fallen. . . . Our Ember-weeks are the 
 burden and grief of my life. The much greater part of those 
 who come to be ordained are ignorant to a degree not to be 
 apprehended by those who are not obliged to know it The 
 easiest part of knowledge is that to which they are the greatest 
 strangers . . . those who have read some few books, yet 
 never seem to have read the Scriptures. . . . This does often 
 
 I
 
 a JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 tear my heart. The case is not much better in many who, 
 having got into orders, come for institution, and cannot make 
 it appear that they have read the Scriptures, or any one good 
 book, since they were ordained ; so that the small measure of 
 knowledge upon which they got into holy orders, not being 
 improved, is in a fair way to be quite lost; and then they 
 think it a great hardship if they are told they must know the 
 Scriptures and the body of divinity better before they can be 
 entrusted with the care of souls." 
 
 Southey too spoke of them thus, "The clergy had lost that 
 authority which may always command at least the appearance 
 of respect ; and they^had lost that respect also by which the 
 place of authority may sometimes so much more worthily be 
 supplied." In the great majority of the clergy zeal was wanting. 
 The excellent Leighton spoke of the Church as a fair carcase 
 without a spirit. Burnet observes that, in his time, our clergy 
 had less authority and were under more contempt, than those 
 of any other Church in Europe ; for they were very much the 
 most remiss in their labours and the least severe in their 
 lives. It was not that their lives were scandalous ; he entirely 
 acquitted them of any such imputation; but they were not 
 exemplary, as it became them to be ; and, in the sincerity and 
 grief of a pious and reflecting mind, he pronounced that they 
 would never regain the influence which they had lost, till they 
 lived better and laboured more. 
 
 And Archbishop Seeker said, " In this we cannot be mis- 
 taken, that an open and professed disregard to religion is 
 become, through a variety of unhappy causes, the distinguishing 
 character of the present age. , . . Such are the dissoluteness 
 and contempt of principle in the higher part of the world, and 
 the profligate intemperance and fearlessness of committing 
 crimes in the lower, as must, if this torrent of impiety stop not, 
 become absolutely fatal." 
 
 If this was the state of affairs in the main in England, what, 
 vre ask, must it have been in remote and isolated country
 
 JOHN WESLE Y'S EARL Y HOME. 3 
 
 districts, where the people were even less civilised and more 
 lawless than the dwellers in more thickly populated parts of the 
 kingdom ? 
 
 Matters were bad enough, at all events, in Epworth, a 
 market-town of about 2000 inhabitants in that portion of 
 the county of Lincolnshire known as the Isle of Axholme, 
 a strip of land lying west of the Trent, and enclosed between 
 that river and two others viz., the Don and Idle. The land 
 had been drained by a Dutchman, Cornelius Vermuyden, 
 to whom a third of it was granted, whereupon he sold shares 
 to his countrymen, and some of them left Holland and settled 
 on their allotments. The Fenmen, as the original dwellers on 
 the island were called, were, however, opposed to the drainage, 
 and refused to receive compensation for their right of pas- 
 turage on the redeemed land. Hence arose fierce riots and 
 angry litigation, lasting for more than half a century, in which 
 the pre-eminence in ferocity must be assigned to the Fenmen. 
 They burnt the crops of their opponents, killed their cattle, 
 and sometimes their workmen laid the whole level under 
 water in the hope of drowning the inhabitants, and, at last, 
 attempted to burn the house of the most obnoxious of their 
 adversaries, Nathaniel Reading, with all its inhabitants, the 
 doors having been locked, and the keyholes stopped up with 
 clay. That was in the year 1697, when the Rev. Samuel Wesley 
 was endowed with the living of Epworth, and removed there 
 with his wife and children. 
 
 Mr. Wesley was a scholarly man, who had for many 
 years supplemented his very scanty stipend of 50 by 
 literary work. He wrote poem after poem, The Life of 
 Christ, and The History of the Old and New Testaments; but 
 his most valuable publication was a Latin dissertation on the 
 Book of Job, which evinced profound learning, and won him 
 the approval of some noted men of his day. Pope wrote to 
 Swift of him " I call him what he is, a learned man, and 
 I engage you will approve his prose more than you formerly
 
 4 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 did his poetry." His wife Susanna was young, very pretty, 
 and fairly well educated as education went in those days. 
 The living of Ep worth was worth ^200 a year, and the 
 Rectory must have seemed a palace as compared with 
 the wretched dwelling the poor clergyman and his wife had 
 lived in at South Ormsby. It was a three-storied and five- 
 gabled timber and plaster house, thatched with straw, and 
 containing seven or eight rooms and offices. 
 
 But the pleasure of the new Rector and his wife in 
 coming to this living must have been greatly marred when 
 they discovered the wild and lawless character of the 
 Epworth people. 
 
 Southey said, " Mr. Wesley found his parishioners in a pro- 
 fligate state ; and the zeal with which he discharged his duty 
 in admonishing them of their sins excited a spirit of diabolical 
 hatred in those whom it failed to reclaim. Some of these 
 wretches twice attempted to set his house on fire, without 
 success; the third time they succeeded," but of that more 
 anon. 
 
 Nothing daunted by these signs of vindictive hatred, the 
 worthy Rector plied faithfully his parish labours. He certainly 
 was an exception to the lazy clergy of whom mention has been 
 made. He knew all his parishioners, and visited them from 
 house to house, keeping a record of his visits. His preaching 
 was pointed, and he spoke out boldly, even when it gave 
 offence. Bad livers in the parish resented it, as they did also 
 his party politics, and showed their resentment by wounding 
 his cattle at night, cutting off the legs of his house-dog, 
 breaking his doors, and, as we have said, by setting fire to his 
 house. Many of them vexed him not a little about the tithes, 
 and at one time they would pay only in kind. Mr. Wesley 
 had a large and increasing family, and want at times pressed 
 heavily upon his home. Poetry and literature would not avail 
 to provide all that was required, if he did not receive what was 
 his due. We can therefore understand that he had sometimes
 
 JOHN WESLE y>S EARL Y HOME. 5 
 
 to leave his books and defend his rights, and we can well 
 believe the following anecdote of him. 
 
 One day, " going into the field where the tithe corn was laid, 
 he discovered a person cutting the ears with a pair of shears, 
 and filling with them a bag brought for the purpose. Without 
 saying a word, he seized the astonished parishioner by the arm, 
 and led him into the market-place of the town, where he 
 opened the bag, turned it inside out before the multitude, and 
 declaring what the pilferer had done, walked quietly away, 
 leaving him confounded before his neighbours." 
 
 Doubtless it was sometimes his imprudent political zeal as 
 well as his godly admonitions which enraged his parishioners 
 against him, but the persecution that he underwent was very 
 grievous. At one time, under the pretext of a small debt, 
 which he could not at the moment discharge, he was arrested 
 while leaving his church, and imprisoned in Lincoln Castle, 
 where he continued about three months. But his native 
 spirit did not fail him. "Now I am at rest," he wrote to the 
 Archbishop of York from his prison, "for I am come to the 
 haven where I have long expected to be; and," he charac- 
 teristically added, " I don't despair of doing good here, and it 
 may be more in this new parish than in my old one." He 
 became, therefore, a volunteer chaplain to his fellow-prisoners, 
 and read prayers daily, and preached on Sundays to them. 
 He was consoled by the fortitude of his noble wife. "'Tis not 
 every one," he wrote again to the Archbishop, "who could 
 bear these things j but I bless God my wife is less concerned 
 with suffering them than I am in writing, or than I believe your 
 Grace will be in reading them." When he went to prison he 
 said, in another letter, he had only about ten shillings, and his 
 wife, who had scarcely as much at home, sent him her rings, 
 because she had nothing else of value to send ; the good man, 
 however, was able to return them. When Mr. Wesley was 
 advised to leave Epworth on account of his persecutions, he 
 replied bravely
 
 6 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 "'Tis like a coward to desert my post because the enemy 
 fires thick upon me. They have only wounded me yet, and I 
 believe cannot kill me." 
 
 Such was the father of John Wesley; and into his frugal home 
 at Epworth was the child born, on the iyth June 1703, who 
 was to cause such a decided change for good in the spiritual 
 life of Englishmen both in his own and in following genera- 
 tions. John was the second living son, and he was probably a 
 delicate child, for he was baptised by his father when only a 
 few hours old. He received the names of John Benjamin, 
 after two baby boys (the tenth and eleventh children) who had 
 preceded him and died in infancy. But his second name was 
 never used ; in his home he was simply Jack or Jacky, and he 
 always signed himself plain John. 
 
 In his infancy his life was endangered by the barbarity of 
 the lawless people of the place, who, as we have said, were at 
 last successful in their attempt to burn down the Rectory. 
 His mother thus graphically relates the incident : 
 
 " On Wednesday night, February the gth, 1709, between the 
 hours of eleven and twelve, some sparks fell from the roof of our 
 house upon one of the children's (Kitty's) feet. She immediately 
 ran to our chamber and called us. Mr. Wesley, hearing a cry of 
 fire in the street, started up (as I was very ill, he was in a separate 
 room from me) and, opening his door, found the fire was in 
 his own house. He immediately came to my room and bade 
 me and my two eldest daughters rise quickly and shift for 
 ourselves. Then he ran and burst open the nursery door and 
 called to the maid to bring out the children. The two little 
 ones lay in the bed with her ; the three others in another bed. 
 She snatched up the youngest and bade the rest follow, which 
 the three elder did. When we were got into the hall, and were 
 surrounded with flames, Mr. Wesley found he had left the keys 
 of the doors above stairs. He ran up and recovered them a 
 minute before the staircase took fire. When we opened the 
 street door the strong north-east wind drove the flames in with
 
 8 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 such violence that none could stand against them. But some 
 of our children got out through the windows, the rest through 
 a little door into the garden. I was not able to climb up to 
 the windows; neither could I get to the garden door. I 
 endeavoured three times to force my way through the street 
 door, but was as often beat back by the fury of the flames. In 
 this distress I besought our blessed Saviour for help, and then 
 waded through the fire, which did me no further harm than a 
 little scorching my hands and my face. 
 
 "When Mr. Wesley had seen the other children safe, he 
 heard the child in the nursery cry. He attempted to go up 
 the stairs, but they were all on fire, and would not bear his 
 weight. Finding it impossible to give any help, he kneeled 
 down in the hall and recommended the soul of the child to 
 God." 
 
 John Wesley himself afterwards continued the relation 
 of his escape for he was the child in the following 
 words : 
 
 " I believe it was just at that time I waked ; for I did not 
 cry, as they imagined, unless it was afterwards. I remember 
 all the circumstances as distinctly as though it were but yester- 
 day. Seeing the room was very light, I called to the maid to 
 take me up ; but none answering, I put my head out of the 
 curtains, and saw streaks of fire on the top of the room. I got 
 up and ran to the door, but could get no farther, all the floor 
 beyond it being in a blaze. I then climbed up on a chest 
 which stood near the window. One in the yard saw me, and 
 proposed running to fetch a ladder. Another answered, 
 ' There will be no time ; but I have thought of another 
 expedient. Here, I will fix myself against the wall ; lift a light 
 man and set him on my shoulders.' They did so, and he 
 took me out of the window. Just then the whole roof fell ; 
 but it fell inward, or we had all been crushed at once. When 
 they brought me into the house where my father was he cried 
 out, ' Come, neighbours, let us kneel down ; let us give thanks
 
 io JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 to God ! He has given me all my eight children ; let the 
 house go, I am rich enough. 1 
 
 " The next day, as he was walking in the garden and survey- 
 ing the ruins of the house, he picked up part of a leaf of his 
 Polyglot Bible, on which just these words were legible : ' Vade; 
 vende omnia qua hales, et attolle crucem et sequere me ' (Go sell 
 all that thou hast, and take up thy cross and follow me)." 
 
 In this fire most of Mr. Wesley's manuscripts were destroyed, 
 but a few small mementoes of the terrible calamity were pre- 
 served, among others a hymn with music adapted. It is the 
 only entire hymn written by the father of the Wesleys that 
 finds a place in the Wesleyan hymn-book : 
 
 " Behold the Saviour of mankind 
 Nailed to the shameful tree ; 
 How vast the love that Him inclined 
 To bleed and die for thee ! 
 
 Hark ! how he groans, while nature shakes, 
 
 And earth's strong pillars bend : 
 The temple's veil in sunder breaks, 
 
 The solid marbles rend ! " 
 
 John Wesley never forgot his deliverance from such a terrible 
 death. The scene of the burning house is commemorated 
 under one of his portraits, with the words, " Is NOT THIS A 
 BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING?" And he made 
 frequent allusion to the saying in his writings, and when in 
 his fiftieth year, he believed himself to be dying, he chose 
 those words for his epitaph. To his mature imagination, we 
 are told, all mankind was typified in his own remembered 
 peril peril only the greater from their own unconsciousness 
 of it ; his work was to imitate his own deliverer, and snatch 
 slumbering souls from their state of exceeding danger.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 RETROSPECTIVE; JOHN WESLEY'S ANCESTRY. 
 
 THOSE who care for the study of heredity will be much inter- 
 ested in tracing the family history of the man who became the 
 chief agent in a religious, and, if we may use the term, spiritual 
 revolution of a most extraordinary and potential nature. 
 
 John Wesley was emphatically of a good family in the sense 
 in which he would himself have used the expression. His 
 great-grandfather, Bartholomew Wesley, studied medicine as 
 well as divinity at the University, and when he was ejected by 
 the Act of Uniformity from the living of Arlington, in Dorset- 
 shire, the medical knowledge which he had acquired from 
 motives of charity became then the means of his support. He 
 is said to have been the fanatical minister of Charmouth, 
 Dorsetshire, who had nearly caused Lord Wilmot and 
 Charles II. to be delivered to their enemies, but about this 
 there is a little difference of opinion. His son John was 
 educated at New Inn Hall, Oxford, in the time of the Com- 
 monwealth, and was noted for his cleverness in the acquisition 
 of Oriental tongues, as well as for his piety and diligence, and 
 attracted the notice of the then vice-chancellor, John Owen, 
 " a man," says Southey, " whom the Calvinistic dissenters still 
 regard as the greatest of their Divines." If the Government 
 had continued in the Cromwell family, the patronage of Owen 
 would have led Bartholomew Wesley to distinction ; as it was, 
 he obtained the living of Blandford in his own county, and 
 was ejected from it for nonconformity. He had, in fact, never 
 been ordained. 
 
 At the Restoration he had scruples against the use of the
 
 i a JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 Common Prayer, and was cited before the Bishop of Bristol 
 for his irregularities. The prelate told him that if he con- 
 tinued to preach it must be " according to order, the order of 
 the Church of England, upon ordination." 
 
 " What," he replied, " does your Lordship mean by an 
 ordination ? If you mean that sending spoken of in Romans 
 x., I had it." 
 
 "I mean that," replied the Bishop. "What mission had 
 you ? You must have it, according to law and the order of 
 the Church of England." 
 
 " I am not satisfied in my spirit of that," said the other. 
 " I am not satisfied in conscience touching the ordination you 
 speak of." And then he proceeded to vindicate his preaching 
 by its good results, the approval of good men, and his entire 
 devotion to it. 
 
 " I am glad I heard this from your own mouth," said the 
 good Bishop. "You will stand to your principles, you 
 say ? " 
 
 " I intend it, through the grace of God, and to be faithful 
 to the king's majesty, however you deal with me." 
 
 "I will not meddle with you," said the Bishop. 
 
 "Farewell to you, sir," was Mr. Wesley's only answer. 
 
 "Farewell, good Mr. Wesley," responded his lordship. 1 
 
 Here was "a kind of epitome of Methodism," says Clarke. 
 "He was a lazy preacher, and he was an itinerant evangelist." 
 The good impression he made upon the Bishop of Bristol 
 could not save him from imprisonment soon after. Four 
 times was he imprisoned, once for half a year, and again for 
 six months. The evil days and the loss of precious friends 
 broke the poor man's heart, and he died at the early age of 
 three or four and thirty. So bitter, we are told, was the spirit 
 of the age, that the Vicar of the village of Preston, where he 
 died, would not allow his body to be buried in the church. 
 Bartholomew, his father, was living then, but the loss of this 
 1 History of Methodism^ by Abel Stevens, LL.D.
 
 JOHN WESLE Y'S ANCESTR Y. 1 3 
 
 his only son, under such grievous circumstances, brought his 
 grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. 
 John Wesley married a woman of good family, the niece of 
 
 JOHN WESLEY AND THE BISHOP. 
 
 Fuller, the Church historian, a man "not more remarkable 
 for wit and quaintness than for the felicity with which he 
 clothed fine thoughts in beautiful language. 1 He left two 
 1 Southey's Life of Wesley.
 
 14 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 sons, of whom Samuel, the younger, was only eight or nine 
 years old at the time of his father's death. The circum- 
 stances of his father's life and sufferings, which have given 
 him a place among the confessors of the Nonconformists, 
 were likely to influence the opinions of the son, but, happen- 
 ing to fall in with bigoted and ferocious men, he saw the 
 worst side of the dissenting character." Their defence of the 
 execution of King Charles offended him, and being shocked 
 and disgusted at some of their proceedings he separated 
 from them, and because of their intolerance joined the Church 
 which had persecuted his father, and continued throughout 
 life a zealous Churchman. 
 
 It is most interesting to note how the final severance with 
 his party came about. The young Samuel was designed for 
 the ministry of the Nonconformists, and, trained by so many 
 domestic examples to sympathise with their cause, he had 
 been appointed to prepare a reply to some severe invectives 
 which had been published against them. In attempting the 
 task " he conceived that he saw reason to change his 
 opinions." 
 
 The step of leaving his father's party, and consequently his 
 friends, plunged the young man, who was then about twenty- 
 one, into poverty, but, having great self-reliance, he walked 
 to Oxford, entered himself at Exeter College as a "poor 
 scholar," and began his studies, with the modest sum of 
 2 and a few shillings in hand, and no prospect of any 
 future supplies. From that time until he graduated a single 
 crown was all the assistance he received from his friends. 
 The ways in which he earned money were various ; he taught 
 all who were desirous of learning from him, he composed 
 exercises for those who had more money than learning, and 
 he wrote much for the publishers, and was, as we have seen, 
 a tolerably successful writer of verse. 
 
 We have but few glimpses of his Oxford life; they show 
 however the genuine Wesleyan character. He was laborious,
 
 JOHN WESLEY'S ANCESTRY. 15 
 
 devout, and diligent in visiting the poor, and also the unhappy 
 prisoners in the Castle, and relieving their necessities as well 
 as ministering to their souls. Years later, when his sons 
 became notorious at Oxford for similar labours, he wrote to 
 them " Go on in God's name, in the path into which your 
 Saviour has directed you, and that wherein your father has 
 gone before you." But, like his sons, the liberal man was also 
 economical, and when he left Oxford for London he had more 
 than 10 in his pocket. 
 
 Dunton, his London publisher, having married a daughter 
 of Dr. Annesley, an eminent Nonconformist divine, introduced 
 his young friend to the family, where he found his future wife 
 in the youngest daughter, Susanna. 
 
 Dr. Annesley was of aristocratic lineage. His father and 
 the Earl of Anglesea of that date were first cousins, their 
 fathers being brothers. Samuel Annesley was an only child, 
 and received the Christian name that has been handed down 
 to so many of his descendants at the request of a saintly 
 grandmother, who died before he was born. His mother too 
 was an eminently pious woman, and as she lost her husband 
 when Samuel was four years old, she brought up the boy, 
 who entered at Queen's College, Oxford, at the age of 
 fifteen, and in due course took his M.A. degree. Susanna's 
 mother was his second wife, and the girl was one of a large 
 family. 
 
 In one respect Susanna's experience was singularly like that 
 of Samuel Wesley's, for she too had early chosen to leave the 
 Nonconformist fold, of which her father was a distinguished 
 preacher, and join the Church of England. Years later, in a 
 letter to her son Samuel, she informs him that she has been 
 drawing up an account of her leaving the Dissenters at the 
 early age of thirteen, giving "the main of the controversy 
 between them and the Church as far as it had then come to 
 her knowledge." 
 
 When Dr. Annesley's youngest daughter thus deserted the
 
 1 6 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 cause of the Nonconformists, her father seems to have uttered 
 no reproach, nor did he prevent her exercising her liberty of 
 conscience. Possibly he sympathised with her, and, at any 
 rate, she was his favourite child to the end of his life, and it 
 was to her care he committed the family papers (which 
 unfortunately were destroyed many years afterwards in the fire 
 which wrecked the parsonage at Epworth). 
 
 Susanna was only nineteen years of age when she married, 
 and was six years younger than Samuel. The young man 
 was then a curate in London, with an income of .30, 
 which he doubled by his pen. But Susanna was clever and 
 economical, and for two years they contrived to live in London 
 lodgings where their eldest son Samuel was born and keep 
 out of debt. Then the Marquis of Normanby heard of the 
 young divine and his straightened circumstances, and used his 
 influence with the Massingberds to procure him the living 
 of South Ormsby. ^50 a year, a house to live in (though 
 a very poor one), and abundant leisure in which to write 
 for the pastoral work was by no means onerous must have 
 been a pleasant change from the London curacy. The 
 new incumbent was eight-and-twenty, his wife twenty-two, and 
 their babe only four months old, when they left London for 
 their new home in the country. 
 
 As months and years went on, Mrs. Wesley was much 
 distressed to observe that, although healthy and intelligent, her 
 eldest boy made no attempt to speak. The parents feared 
 that he was dumb, but their minds were set at rest about that 
 one day, when he was between four and five years old. The 
 little fellow was very fond of the cat, and would carry it about, 
 and often disappear with it into quiet corners, and it happened 
 that day that he had been so long absent that his mother grew 
 uneasy. She hunted all over for her child, and at last heard 
 a voice saying, "Here am I, mother," proceeding from 
 beneath the table. Stooping down, the mother saw Sammy and 
 his cat, and from that time the little boy spoke as well as
 
 JOHN WESLE Y >S ANCESTR K 1 7 
 
 other children. Perhaps the fact that he had been the object 
 of so much solicitude as well as natural fondness for her first- 
 born caused Samuel always to be his mother's favourite. 
 
 It was just before the Wesleys left South Ormsby for 
 their new living of Epworth that Mrs. Wesley had the grief 
 of losing her father, who died after five months' illness, on the 
 last day of 1696. Speaking of this, Mrs. Clarke says in her 
 interesting life of Susanna Wesley, " She was a strong believer 
 in communion between the spirits of the departed and those dear 
 to them who are still in the body, and throughout the remainder 
 of her life loved to think that her father was far nearer to her 
 than while she was in Lincolnshire, and he in the flesh in 
 Spital Yard."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 JOHN WESLEY'S MOTHER. 
 
 IN regard to Mrs. Wesley's personal appearance, Mr. Hyde 
 says, " Her portrait taken at about twenty-five about five 
 years after her marriage gives a face that one cannot choose 
 but admire. It has an air of high breeding, but there is a 
 touching simplicity, a liveliness and a sweetness beaming 
 over all." One writer, looking upon this picture and remem- 
 bering what virtues adorned the fair original, and how, after 
 the toils and struggles of three-score years and ten, her soul 
 and her face were still full of light and sweetness, is not 
 ashamed to vent his feeling in tears. " Such a woman, take her 
 for all in all, I have not heard of, I have not read of, nor with 
 her equal have I been acquainted." He almost thinks that 
 Solomon saw her from afar, and took from her the portrait of 
 the perfect woman ! Studying her character, and thinking of 
 the noble women later risen during a century and a half, he 
 finds himself still saying, " Thou excellest them all." 
 
 Mrs. Wesley had nineteen children in the course of twenty- 
 one years, and of these children ten lived to be adults. As 
 we have seen, the family removed to Ep worth in 1697, and 
 most likely it was then that the young mother of eight 
 children began working hard to obtain for them an education. 
 It was plain that she must teach the girls herself, with the 
 assistance of her husband, and the boys would have to be 
 carefully prepared for the public school, which was considered 
 a sine qu& non for them. So the mother began to keep school ; 
 and for six hours every day during about twenty years, often in 
 ill-health, she was her children's untiring instructor.
 
 JOHN WESLEY'S MOTHER. 19 
 
 "A careful student of nature," says Mr. Daniel, "has said, 
 ' When God sets out to make a great man He first makes a 
 great woman.' " Certainly Mrs. Wesley's sons were greatly 
 blessed in having such a mother. Her system of education 
 impressed them with so much admiration, that in later 
 years she wrote a letter to her son John, in which, at his 
 request, she gave him an elaborate account of her method 
 of instruction. 
 
 "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," she said ; " 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 subjecting 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 obstinacy which are 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 after- 
 wards broken. When a child is corrected it must be con- 
 quered, and this will be no hard thing to do if it be not 
 grown headstrong by too hard indulgence." We are glad to 
 find Mrs. Wesley adds " 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 inadvert- 
 encies may be passed by. Some should be overlooked and 
 taken no notice of, and others mildly reproved ; but no 
 wilful transgression ought ever to be forgiven children 
 without chastisement less or more, as the nature and circum- 
 stances of the case may require. I insist on the conquering 
 of the will of children betimes, because this is the only 
 strong and rational foundation of a religious education, with- 
 out which both precept and example will be ineffectual" . . . 
 And again, " I cannot yet dismiss the subject. As self-will is
 
 so JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 the root of all sin and misery, so v/hatever cherishes this in 
 children ensures their after wretchedness and irreligion ; what- 
 ever 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 doing the will of God 
 and not our own ; that the one great impediment to our 
 temporal and eternal happiness being this self-will, no indul- 
 gence 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" 
 
 For the rest, the children were taught as soon as they 
 could speak to say their prayers every morning and evening, 
 and to keep the Sabbath. "They were quickly made 
 to understand -they might have nothing they cried for"; 
 and they were taught to speak courteously even to the 
 lowest servant. Of course bad words were never heard 
 among them, nor was such a thing as loud talking or playing 
 allowed. 
 
 The wise mother, also, observing that cowardice and fear of 
 punishment often led children to tell lies, made a law 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." Mrs. Wesley here hints that "one of 
 the family," presumably Mr. Wesley, " could not be brought to 
 observe this rule, so that the salutary arrangement was a little 
 hindered, and he was often imposed upon by ' false colours 
 and equivocations.'" Another wise rule was that if a child 
 had committed a fault and then had done better, it should 
 never be upbraided with it. Again, every signal act of 
 obedience, especially when it crossed a child's own inclinations, 
 was to be commended and frequently rewarded. And, once 
 more, " 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
 
 JOHN WESLEY'S MOTHER. 21 
 
 accepted, and the child with sweetness directed how to do 
 better for the future." 
 
 The children were strictly taught to respect " the rights of 
 property," and were not permitted to take as much as the 
 value of a pin from one another without leave. " This rule," 
 said Mrs. Wesley, " can never be too much inculcated on the 
 minds of children ; and from the want of parents and governors 
 doing it as they ought proceeds that shameful neglect of 
 justice which we may observe in the world." 
 
 Two more matters the worthy mother insisted upon; one 
 was that promises should be strictly kept, and the other that no 
 girl should be taught to work till she could read very well. 
 "This rule also is much to be observed," she said, " 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." 
 
 In the matter of teaching the children to read, Mrs. Wesley 
 had a method of her own. She would not begin to teach a 
 child even the alphabet until it was five years old, rightly 
 judging that until that age the little brain had enough to 
 exercise it with the varying problems of existence as they were 
 revealed to it. And then, she took her pupil and devoted the 
 whole six hours of the first day's tuition to the task of teaching 
 it the alphabet. This was generally completely learned during 
 that time, and then the pupil was nearly always able to read 
 well in the short space of a quarter of a year. The youngest 
 daughter, Kezia, was the only exception to this rule; 
 she " picked up her letters " before she was five, to the 
 mother's regret, who quaintly observed it was none of her 
 doing, but "reading must have been in the atmosphere." 
 Kezzy, too, she informed her son, was the only one who 
 did not acquire the art of reading well in a quarter of a 
 year. 
 
 Mrs. Wesley's patience in teaching was one day witnessed 
 by her husband, who had the curiosity to sit by and count
 
 22 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 while she repeated the same thing to one child more 
 than twenty times. " I wonder at your patience," said 
 he; "you have told that child twenty times that same 
 thing." 
 
 " If I had satisfied myself by mentioning it only nineteen 
 times," she answered, "I should have lost all my labour. It 
 was the twentieth time that crowned it." 
 
 All this was admirable, especially when we remember how 
 frequently ill-health confined the mother to her couch some- 
 times for months together from which the instruction must 
 still have gone on. But some parts of the Wesleyan code 
 sound a little stern. When turned a year old her children 
 were taught to fear the rod, and to cry softly, " by which means 
 that odious noise, the crying of children, was rarely heard in 
 the house ; " while none of the children were allowed to call 
 each other by their proper names without the addition of 
 brother or sister. 
 
 But, as one writer (Wedgewood) says, we see in the mother's 
 punctual, orderly rule a distinct germ of the whole Methodist 
 discipline, with all its excellencies, and only some of its faults. 
 John and Charles owed much to their mother, and she was 
 revered by them as she deserved to be. John gave it as one 
 of the causes which had deterred him from matrimony, that 
 he never could expect to see any woman who equalled his 
 mother. 
 
 With John she took particular pains, and felt the deepest 
 interest in him, because of his singular and providential escape 
 when their home was burnt down. In a private note she said, 
 in reference to this, that she considered herself "under special 
 obligation, to be more particularly careful of the soul of a child 
 whom God had so mercifully provided for." He was very 
 young when she used to take him apart once a week to talk to 
 him on religious subjects. Indeed, it was her custom to do 
 this with all her children, and she has left it on record 
 " On Monday I talked with Molly, on Tuesday with Hetty,
 
 JOHN WESLE Y'S MOTHEX. 23 
 
 Wednesday with Nancy, Thursday with Jacky, Friday with 
 Patty, Saturday with Charles, and with Emilia and Sukey 
 together on Sunday." 
 
 John Wesley showed what the influence of these Thursday 
 interviews with her had been when, twenty years after he had 
 left the old home, he wrote thus : " In many things you have 
 
 MRS. SDSANNA WESLEY. 
 
 interceded for me and prevailed. Who knows but in this too" 
 (a complete renunciation of the world), " you may be successful. 
 If you can spare me only that part of Thursday evening which 
 you formerly bestowed on me in another manner, I doubt not 
 it would be as useful now for correcting my heart as it was in 
 forming my judgment."
 
 24 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 That he must have been early visited by deep religious 
 impressions may be inferred by the fact that his father 
 allowed him to partake of the Lord's Supper at the age of 
 eight. 
 
 At times poverty pressed hard upon the family. When the 
 living of Epworth came to Mr. Wesley there came also many 
 expenses in making the house habitable and in removing there : 
 ^150 had to be borrowed, and this debt, and paying the 
 interest on it, hung like a mill-stone round his neck during the 
 remainder of his life. Then, after the parsonage had been 
 burned down, a new and equally commodious residence had 
 to be built; for the Ecclesiastical Commissioners must be 
 satisfied, and there was no insurance company to assist. 
 Altogether the new parsonage is said to have cost ^400, and 
 if kind friends had not come forward from time to time with 
 liberal assistance, Mr. Wesley could not have maintained his 
 family. 
 
 Archbishop Sharpe was a most kind and faithful friend, and 
 one day he said it was when Mr. Wesley was in prison for 
 debt "Tell me, Mrs. Wesley, whether you ever really wanted 
 bread?" 
 
 "My Lord," said she, " I will freely own to your Grace that, 
 strictly speaking, I never did want bread ; but then I had so 
 much care to get it before it was eaten, and to pay for it after, 
 as has often made it very unpleasant to me. And I think to 
 have bread on such terms is the next degree of wretchedness 
 to having none at all" 
 
 " You are certainly right," replied the Archbishop, and the 
 next morning he sent her a handsome present 
 
 Mr. Wesley appreciated the prelate's kindness on this and 
 on many other occasions, and in a letter to him showed his 
 heart was overflowing with gratitude. 
 
 "When I received your Grace's first letter," he wrote, "I 
 thanked God upon my knees for it, and have done the same, 
 I believe, twenty times since, as often as I have read it ; and
 
 JOHN WESLEY'S MOTHER. 25 
 
 more than once for the other which I received yesterday." 
 And again, " I am pretty confident your Grace neither reflects 
 on nor imagines how much you have done for me, nor what 
 sums I have received by your lordship's bounty and favour, 
 without which I had been ere this mouldy in a jail, and sunk 
 a thousand fathoms below nothing." He then names over the 
 
 KPWORTH PARSONAGE (AS IT IS). 
 
 sums he had received through the Archbishop, .^184, in 
 which was included ^43 from Queen Anne. " A frightful 
 sum," he adds ; " but it is beyond thanks, and I must never 
 expect to perform that as I ought till in another world, where, 
 if I get first into the harbour, I hope none will be before me 
 in welcoming your lordship into everlasting habitations, where
 
 26 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 you will be no more tried with my follies, nor concerned with 
 my misfortunes." 
 
 No doubt Mr. Wesley greatly added to his expenses by his 
 visits to London, for the purpose of attending Convocation, 
 which kept him away from his home for several months 
 together, and necessitated his keeping a curate at a stipend of 
 ^30 a year, though probably when the small living of Wroote 
 for which at most he only received ^50 a year was given 
 him in addition to Epworth, the same curate was able to do 
 the clerical work of both parishes. 
 
 It was during one of these long absences from home that 
 Mrs. Wesley began to hold a service in her kitchen on Sunday 
 evenings (when there was no service in the church), at first 
 for the benefit of her own children and servants, and, later, for 
 others of the parishioners who also begged permission to 
 attend. The curate, Mr. Inman, was not liked, and the 
 people complained that they did not derive that benefit from 
 his preaching which they had been wont to receive from Mr. 
 Wesley's. On the other hand, they found the expositions of 
 the wise and pious Rector's " lady" were extremely edifying, 
 and so they came themselves and told their friends, until 
 at last as many as two hundred assembled together, while 
 numbers had to go away because there was not even standing 
 room. 
 
 John was a little boy of eight years old when he sat in this 
 congregation, listening to his mother's reading and exhorting, 
 and feeling no doubt deeply impressed by the solemnity of the 
 scene. It has been thought that as the numbers increased 
 the meeting must have adjourned to some barn or other 
 roomy out-building, for certainly more are said to have come 
 than the Rectory kitchen could contain. Be that as it might, 
 however, there was one person who was not pleased with the 
 meetings. Mr. Inman wrote to the Rector complaining of 
 his wife's proceedings, and this induced Mr. Wesley to write 
 and remonstrate with her. Upon which she replied
 
 JOHN WESLEY'S MOTHER. 27 
 
 " EPWORTH, February 6th, 1712. 
 
 " I heartily thank you for dealing so plainly and faithfully 
 with me in a matter of no common concern. The main of 
 your objections against our Sunday evening meetings are, first, 
 that it will look particular; secondly, my sex; and lastly, your 
 being at present in a public station and character; to all which 
 I shall answer briefly. 
 
 "As to its looking particular, I grant it does; and so 
 does almost everything that is serious, or that may any way 
 advance the glory of God, or the salvation of souls, if it be 
 performed out of a pulpit, or in the way of common conversa- 
 tion ; because in our corrupt age the utmost care and diligence 
 have been used to banish all discourse of God or spiritual 
 concerns out of society, as if religion were never to appear out 
 of the closet, and we were to be ashamed of nothing so much 
 as of professing ourselves to be Christians. 
 
 "To your second, I reply that as I am a woman, so I am 
 also a mistress of a large family. And though the superior 
 charge of the souls contained in it lies upon you, as head of 
 the family, and as their minister, yet in your absence I cannot 
 but look upon every soul you leave under my care as a talent 
 committed to me, under a trust, by the great Lord of all the 
 families of Heaven and earth. And if I am unfaithful to Him, 
 or to you, in neglecting to improve these talents, how shall 1 
 answer unto Him when he shall command me to rendei 
 an account of my stewardship ? 
 
 "As these and other such like thoughts made me at first 
 take a more than ordinary care of the souls of my children and 
 servants; so, knowing that our most holy religion requires a 
 strict observation of the Lord's day, and not thinking that we 
 fully answered the end of the institution by only going to 
 church, but that likewise we were obliged to fill up the inter- 
 mediate spaces of that sacred time by other acts of piety and 
 devotion, I thought it my duty to spend some part of the day
 
 8 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 in reading to and instructing my family, especially in your 
 absence, when having no afternoon service we have so much 
 leisure for such exercises ; and such time I esteemed spent in 
 a way more acceptable to God than if I had retired to my own 
 private devotions. 
 
 "This was the beginning of my present practice; other 
 people coming in and joining us was purely accidental Our 
 lad told his parents they first desired to be admitted ; then 
 others who heard of it begged leave also; so our company 
 increased to about thirty, and seldom exceeded forty last 
 winter ; and why it increased since I leave you to judge, after 
 you have read what follows. 
 
 " Soon after you went to London, Emily found in your 
 study the account of the Danish missionaries, which, having 
 never seen, I ordered her to read it to me. I was never, 
 I think, more affected with anything than with the relation of 
 their travels; and was exceeding pleased with the noble 
 design they were engaged in. Their labours refreshed my 
 soul beyond measure ; and I could not forbear spending good 
 part of that evening in praising and adoring the divine good- 
 ness for inspiring those good men with such an ardent zeal 
 for His glory, that they were willing to hazard their lives, and 
 all that is esteemed dear to men in this world, to advance the 
 honour of their master, Jesus. For several days I could think 
 or speak of little else. At last it came into my mind, though I 
 am not a man nor a minister of the gospel, and so cannot be 
 employed in such a worthy employment as they were, yet if my 
 heart were sincerely devoted to God, and if I were inspired 
 with a true zeal for His glory, and did really desire the salva- 
 tion of souls, I might do somewhat more than I do." 
 
 Mrs. Wesley went on to say that she resolved to pray more 
 for the people, and to devote more time individually with each 
 of her children, and with the neighbours who came in she 
 spoke more freely and affectionately, and was more zealous 
 than ever in choosing the best sermons she could get to
 
 JOHN WESLEY'S MOTHER. 29 
 
 read on Sunday evening, and in prolonging the time of the 
 services. 
 
 "Last Sunday," said she, " I believe we had two hundred, 
 and yet many went away for want of room." 
 
 But Mrs. Wesley, though zealous, was also humble, and she 
 went on to say 
 
 "But I never durst positively presume to hope that God 
 would make use of me as an instrument in doing good ; 
 the furthest I ever durst go was, It may be, who can tell ? 
 With God all things are possible. I will resign myself to him ; 
 or, as Herbert better expresses it 
 
 11 ' Only since God doth often make 
 Of lowly matter for high uses meet, 
 
 I throw me at His feet. 
 There will I lie until my Maker seek 
 For some mean stuff, whereon to show His skill ; 
 
 Then is my time.' 
 
 "And thus I rested without passing any reflection on myself, 
 or forming any judgment about the success or event of this 
 undertaking. 
 
 "Your third objection I leave to be answered by your own 
 judgment. We meet not on any worldly design. We banish 
 all temporal concerns from our society ; none is suffered to 
 mingle any discourse about them with our reading or singing ; 
 we keep close to the business of the day, and as soon as it is 
 over they all go home. . . . Therefore why any should reflect 
 on you, let your station be what it will, because your wife 
 endeavours to draw people to the church, and to restrain them, 
 by reading and other persuasions, from their profanation of 
 God's most holy day, I cannot conceive. But if any should be 
 so mad as to do it, I wish you would not regard it. For my 
 part, I value no censure on that account. . . . 
 
 "As for your proposal of letting some other person read, 
 alas ! you do not consider what a people these are. I do not
 
 30 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 think one man among them could read a sermon without spell- 
 ing a good part of it ; and how would that edify the rest? Nor 
 has any of our family a voice strong enough to be heard by 
 such a number of people. 
 
 " But there is one thing about which I am most dis- 
 satisfied ; that is their being present at family prayers. I do 
 not speak of any concern I am under, barely because so 
 many are present, for those who have the honour of 
 speaking to the great and holy God need not be ashamed 
 to speak before the whole world ; but because of my sex, 
 I doubt if it be proper for me to present the prayers of the 
 people to God. 
 
 "Last Sunday I fain would have dismissed them before 
 prayers, but they begged so earnestly to stay I durst not deny 
 them." 
 
 But, as Mr. Inman persisted in his complaints, and asked 
 the Rector to stop his wife's meetings, Mr. Wesley wrote again 
 on the matter. His letter does not seem to have been pre- 
 served, but his wife again writes to defend her work, urging 
 that it brought many people to church who otherwise would 
 not have come, and worked many other reforms. Finally she 
 says 
 
 " If you do, after all, think fit to dissolve this assembly, do 
 not tell me that you desire me to do it, for that will not satisfy 
 my conscience ; but send me your positive command in such full 
 and express terms as may absolve me from all guilt and 
 punishment for neglecting this opportunity of doing good, 
 when you and I shall appear before the great and awful 
 tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 We have given so much of these letters, because they show 
 what an earnest, high-souled woman the mother of the 
 Wesleys was, and how truly Christian were her thoughts 
 and actions. Hers was no religion which rested content 
 with the saving of her own soul, or even her children's. No, 
 she cared for all for whom Christ died, and the influence of
 
 JOHN WESLEY'S MOTHER. 31 
 
 her precepts and example must have helped largely to fill her 
 sons with their ardent missionary zeal 
 
 It does not appear that Mr. Wesley forbade the meetings, 
 and, though we find nothing more recorded about them, they 
 were probably continued until his return to Epworth, when, 
 of course, as he was considered the best preacher in the 
 neighbourhood, the necesssity for them no longer existed.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 JOHN AND CHARLES AT SCHOOL. 
 
 VERY little is told us about John Wesley's boyhood. He 
 seems to have been very fond of arguing, for we find that his 
 elder brother, Samuel Wesley, said to him when he was quite 
 young 
 
 " Child, you think to carry everything by dint of argument, 
 but you will find by-and-by how little is ever done in the 
 world by clear reason." 1 
 
 When John had reached man's estate he endorsed this 
 opinion, adding, " It is true of almost all men, except so far as 
 we are taught of God, 
 
 " ' Against experience we believe ; 
 
 We argue against demonstration ; 
 Pleased while our reason we deceive, 
 And set our judgment by our passion.' 
 
 Passion and prejudice govern the world, only under the name 
 of reason. It is our part, by religion and reason joined, to 
 counteract them all we can." 
 
 His father used to say : "As for Jack, he will have a reason 
 for everything he is to do. I suppose he would not do any- 
 thing unless he had a reason for it." 
 
 At nine years of age John had the small-pox, and is reported 
 to have borne it bravely. At eleven, after having been care- 
 fully prepared for it by his parents, he was sent, through the 
 kind services of the Duke of Buckingham, to the Charter-house 
 School in London. This school was originally built for a 
 monastery. In 1611 it was sold at auction for thirteen 
 1 Anecdotes of the Wesleys t by Rev. J. Wakely.
 
 JOHN AND CHARLES AT SCHOOL. 33 
 
 thousand pounds to Thomas Sutton, Esq., one of the richest 
 merchants of the day, who established the present institution, 
 for which he obtained a charter from King James I. Its 
 objects were the education of the young and support for the 
 aged. In this school forty-four boys are gratuitously fed, 
 clothed, and instructed in the classics. They must be 
 between the ages of ten and fifteen years, and can remain only 
 eight years. Amongst those illustrious men who were educated 
 here were the highly-cultured essayists Addison and Steele, 
 and the great legal commentator, Sir William Blackstone, 
 Isaac Barrow, and John Wesley. 
 
 Mr. Southey says "John suffered at the Charter-house 
 under the tyranny which the elder boys were permitted to 
 exercise. This evil at one time existed very generally in 
 English schools, through the culpable negligence of the 
 masters, and perhaps may still continue to exist ; though if 
 a system were designed for cultivating the worst dispositions of 
 human nature, it could not more effectually answer the purpose. 
 The boys of the higher forms of the Charter-house were then 
 in the practice of taking their portion of meat from the 
 younger ones, by the law of the strongest ; and during great 
 part of the time that Wesley remained there, a small daily 
 portion of bread was his only food. Those theoretical 
 physicians who recommend spare diet for the human animal 
 might appeal with triumph to the length of days which he 
 attained, and the elastic constitution which he enjoyed. He 
 himself imputed this blessing, in great measure, to the strict 
 obedience with which he performed an injunction of his father's, 
 that he should run round the Charter-house garden three times 
 every morning. Here for his quietness, regularity, and applica- 
 tion, he became a favourite with the master, Dr. Walker ; and 
 through life he retained so great a predilection for the place, 
 that on his annual visit to London, he made it a custom to 
 walk through the scene of his boyhood. To most men every 
 year would render a pilgrimage of this kind more painful than 
 
 3
 
 34 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 the last ; but Wesley seems never to have looked back with 
 melancholy upon the days that were gone; earthly regrets of 
 this kind could find no room in one who was continually 
 pressing onward to the goal." 
 
 Poor little John 1 though time softened the remembrance of 
 it all afterwards, no doubt it was hard enough to bear, when 
 the older boys snatched away his meat as he returned from the 
 cook's house where their rations were served out, and left him 
 nothing but bread to satisfy an appetite stimulated by the 
 "runs round the garden " so conscientiously performed. How- 
 ever, by-and-by he grew old enough to fight for his meat, and 
 also for that of some other persecuted little boys, and after 
 that he had a better time of it. 
 
 Two years after John was sent to the Charter-house his five- 
 years-younger brother Charles was sent to school at Westminster, 
 where their eldest brother Samuel, a clever youth, was one of 
 the ushers. Samuel generously paid the cost of his youngest 
 brother's course of study. Charles was a spirited boy, well 
 built, active, and afraid of nothing, which qualities made him 
 a great favourite, and gained him the title of " captain of the 
 school." 
 
 He was as generous as he was brave; as the following 
 incident, related by Dr. Smith, shows us : 
 
 "There was a Scotch laddie at school, whose ancestors had 
 taken sides with the Pretender, as the Papist claimant to the 
 throne was called, and who, in consequence, was greatly 
 persecuted by the other boys; but the 'captain' took him 
 under his own special charge, defended him, fought for him, 
 and saved him from what would otherwise have been a life of 
 misery. This lad was James Murray, afterward the great 
 Baron Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice of England." 
 
 While Charles was at Westminster School, Mr. Garret 
 Wesley, a rich Irish gentleman, wished to adopt him as his heir, 
 and take him to Ireland. The proposal was first made to the 
 Rector of Epworth, and he, characteristically, left the decision
 
 JOHN AND CHARLES AT SCHOOL. 35 
 
 to Charles. The boy, who was devotedly attached to his family 
 and doubtless shrank from giving them up so completely, and 
 who had also, even then, dreams of a career of hard work 
 which should benefit mankind, refused to accept Mr. Garret 
 Wesley's offer. Disappointed about Charles, that gentleman 
 adopted Richard Colley, an Irish relative, who took the name 
 of Wesley, and became the grandfather of the Marquis of 
 Wellesley and the Duke of Wellington. John Wesley called 
 this "a fair escape." Had Charles chosen to go to Ireland, he 
 might never have become " the sweet singer " whose hymns 
 have enriched the psalmody of the world, and England might 
 never have had its illustrious Duke of Wellington. 
 
 John Wesley made excellent use of his time at the Charter- 
 house, and then he seems to have been studying with his 
 brother Samuel, for we find the latter writing to their father in 
 1719, when the worthy rector was hesitating over some 
 decision about the future of Charles : 
 
 " My brother Jack, I can faithfully assure you, gives you no 
 manner of discouragement from breeding your third son a 
 scholar." 1 Two or three months afterwards he mentions him 
 again in a letter to his father : 
 
 "Jack is with me, and a brave boy, learning Hebrew as fast 
 as he can." 
 
 He was then sixteen, and the next year he was elected to 
 Christ Church, Oxford. 
 
 1 The Life of John Wesley, by John Whitehead, M.D.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AT OXFORD. 
 
 THE Charter-house Foundation scholars were not permitted to 
 go to Oxford empty-handed ; indeed it is said John had won 
 a scholarship of 40 a year, and he was admitted to Christ 
 Church College in 1720. Before he went to the University he 
 had acquired some knowledge of Hebrew under his brother 
 Samuel's tuition. " At college he continued his studies with 
 all diligence, and was noticed there for his attainments, and 
 especially for his skill in logic, by which he frequently put to 
 silence those who contended with him in after-life. No man, 
 indeed, was ever more dexterous in the art of reasoning. A 
 charge was brought once against him that he delighted to 
 perplex his opponents by his expertness in sophistry; he 
 repelled it with indignation. ' It has been my first care,' said 
 he, ' to see that my cause was good, and never, either in jest or 
 earnest, to defend the wrong side of a question ; and shame on 
 me if I cannot defend the right after so much practice, and 
 after having been so early accustomed to separate truth from 
 falsehood, how artfully soever they are twisted together.' Like 
 his father and both his brothers, he was no inexpert versifier in 
 his youth. This, however, was a talent which he forbore to 
 use when ascetic opinions began to influence him, and the 
 honour of being the sweet singer of Methodism was reserved 
 for his brother Charles." 1 
 
 As to his manners, Southey says, " While he was an 
 undergraduate his manners were free and cheerful, and 
 that activity of disposition which bore him afterwards 
 1 Southey's Life of Wesley.
 
 38 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 through such uninterrupted labour displayed itself in wit and 
 vivacity." 
 
 One rebuff John met with on his entrance at Oxford which 
 was as unexpected as it was disagreeable. 
 
 Dr. Sacheverell was ten years younger than Samuel Wesley, 
 senior. 1 He had fine talents, was "a perfect firebrand of a 
 preacher," and one of the highest of High Churchmen. He 
 published two bitter sermons, which caused the most intense 
 excitement The House of Commons passed a resolution that 
 they " were malicious, scandalous, and seditious libels, highly 
 reflecting upon her Majesty and her Government, the late 
 happy Revolution, and the Protestant succession as by law 
 established," and ordered that he should attend at the bar of 
 the House. He was tried and found guilty in February 1710. 
 The defence which he delivered on the occasion was written 
 by Samuel Wesley. 
 
 When John went to Oxford, his father, knowing Dr. Sache- 
 verell had strong influence at Christ Church College, and 
 thinking he would be glad to show kindness to the son of the 
 man who had done him such a service, directed John to call 
 upon him and get letters of recommendation. 
 
 John did so, and afterwards related the interview in his own 
 peculiar style. He said : 
 
 " I was a very little fellow when I was introduced to him 
 [Dr. Sacheverell]. I found him alone, as tall as a May-pole, 
 and as fine as an Archbishop. After I made known to 
 him the object of my visit, he said, ' You are too young to go 
 to the University. You cannot know Greek and Latin yet 
 Go back to school' " 
 
 John Wesley said : " I looked at him as Goliath looked at 
 David, and despised him in my heart. I thought, ' If I do 
 not know Greek and Latin better than you, I ought to go back 
 to school indeed.' I left him, and neither entreaties nor 
 commands could have again brought me back to him." 
 1 Anecdotes of the Wesley s, by the Rev. J. B. Wakely.
 
 40 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 John took indeed, as we have seen, a high position as a 
 student at Oxford, and soon became quite famous for his 
 learning in the classics, and especially for his skill in logic. 
 
 Christ Church was at that time the most aristocratic, 
 fashionable, and luxurious of all the Oxford colleges, whose 
 chief function was to give a mild scholastic flavour to the 
 manners of the prospective noblemen of the realm, and was 
 therefore ill adapted to train a religious leader for his work. 1 
 
 John was astonished at the prevalence there of all manner 
 of dissipations, drinking, gambling, etc. "For a time he was 
 carried by the current out of his moral latitude, but not for 
 long." 
 
 No, the careful home-training he had received in childhood, his 
 mother's religious teaching, her prayers, and the consciousness 
 that he could never entirely divest himself of, that he had been 
 saved from the Epworth fire, " as a brand from the burning," 
 were able to prevent his falling into outward sins. And 
 perhaps his poverty was an additional safeguard, for the 
 " heavy sinning " at Oxford implied heavy expense, and John 
 could not afford to be " fashionably wicked." 
 
 Still, six years of roughing it at the Charter-house, and then 
 the life at Christ Church, Oxford, were not calculated to 
 advance his spiritual welfare. We find him confessing that he 
 had lost his childish religion and had become "a sinner," but 
 not to any desperate degree. 
 
 Dr. Whitehead tells us that John Wesley's "natural temper 
 in his youth was gay and sprightly, with a turn for wit and 
 humour. When he was about twenty-one years of age he was, 
 as Mr. Badcock has observed, the very sensible and acute 
 collegian a young fellow of the finest classical taste, of the 
 most liberal and manly sentiments. His perfect knowledge of 
 the classics gave a smooth polish to his wit, and an air of 
 superior elegance to all his compositions. He had already 
 begun to amuse himself occasionally with writing verses, 
 1 Rev. W. H. Daniels.
 
 AT OXFORD. 41 
 
 though most of his poetical pieces at this period were, I believe, 
 either imitations or translations of the Latin. Sometime in 
 this year (1724), however, he wrote an imitation of the 65th 
 Psalm, which he sent to his father, who said, " I like your 
 verses on the 65th Psalm, and would not have you bury your 
 talent." 
 
 In the summer of this year, his brother Samuel broke his 
 leg and wrote to inform him of his misfortune, together with 
 the fact that their mother was coming to London to meet her 
 brother from India, and that, if he liked, he might come and 
 meet her there. To which John answered : 
 
 " I believe I need not use many arguments to show I am 
 sorry for your misfortune, though at the same time I am glad 
 you are in a fair way of recovery. If I had heard of it from 
 any one else, I might probably have pleased you with some 
 impertinent consolations ; but the way of your relating it is a 
 sufficient proof that they are what you don't stand in need of. 
 And, indeed, if I understand you rightly, you have more reason 
 to thank God that you did not break both, than to repine 
 because you have broken one leg. You have undoubtedly 
 heard the story of the Dutch seaman, who having broke one of 
 his legs by a fall from the main-mast, instead of condoling 
 himself, thanked God that he had not broke his neck. I scarce 
 know whether your first news vexed me, or your last news 
 pleased me more; but I can assure you that, though I did not 
 cry for grief at the former, I did for joy at the latter part of 
 your letter. The two things which I most wished for of almost 
 anything in the world were to see my mother and Westminster 
 once again, and to see them both together was so far above my 
 expectations, that I almost looked upon it as next to an im- 
 possibility. I have been so frequently disappointed when I 
 had set my heart on any pleasure, that I will never again 
 depend on any before it comes." 
 
 It was just as well he did not, for when the time came he was 
 unable to leave Oxford, because money for the journey was
 
 42 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 wanting, and he was already in debt. As soon as she reached 
 home, Mrs. Wesley wrote him the following anxious yet hope- 
 ful little note : 
 
 "WROOTB, August igth, 1724.* 
 
 " DEAR JACK, I am uneasy because I have not heard from 
 you. I don't think you do well to stand upon points, and to 
 write only letter for letter. Let me hear from you often, and 
 inform me of the state of your health, and whether you have 
 any reasonable hopes of being out of debt. I am most 
 concerned for the good, generous man that lent you ten 
 pounds, and am ashamed to beg a month or two longer, 
 since he has been so kind as to grant us so much time already. 
 We were amused with your uncle's coming from India, but 
 I suppose these fancies are laid aside. I wish there had been 
 anything in it, for then perhaps it would have been in my 
 power to have provided for you. But, if all things fail, I 
 hope God will not forsake us. We have still His good 
 providence to depend on, which has a thousand expedients 
 to relieve us beyond our view. 
 
 " Dear Jack, be not discouraged ; do your duty ; keep close 
 to your studies, and hope for better days. Perhaps, notwith- 
 standing all, we shall pick up a few crumbs for you before the 
 end of the year. 
 
 " Dear Jacky, I beseech Almighty God to bless thee ! 
 
 "SUSANNA WESLEY." 
 
 1 When Mr. Wesley received the additional living of Wroote, he and 
 his family went to live there. Perhaps they were able to let the largei 
 house at Epworth.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PREPARING FOR HOLY ORDERS. 
 
 WESLEY'S thoughts do not seem to have been directed towards 
 the Church as a profession during his undergraduate days, but 
 when at last the time arrived for him to make up his mind 
 what he wished to be, we find him writing to his father for 
 advice as to whether he should apply for ordination. His 
 father's answer is dated the 26th of January 1725. 
 
 " As to what you mention," he says, " of entering into Holy 
 Orders, it is indeed a great work, and I am pleased to find you 
 think it so." And he goes on to say that, though there is no 
 harm in his son's looking upon the work as a means of liveli- 
 hood, "yet certainly a desire and intention to lead a stricter 
 life, and a belief that one should do so, is a better reason; 
 though this should by all means be begun before, or ten to 
 one it will deceive us afterwards. But if a man be unwilling 
 and undesirous to enter into Orders, it is easy to guess whether 
 he can say so much as, with common honesty, that he trusts 
 he is ' moved to it by the Holy Ghost' But the principal 
 spring and motive, to which all the former should be only 
 secondary, must certainly be the glory of God, and the service 
 of His Church in the edification of our neighbour. And woe 
 to him who with any meaner leading view attempts so sacred 
 a work." He then mentions the qualifications necessary for 
 Holy Orders, and answers a question which his son asked. 
 " You ask me which is the best Commentary on the Bible ? 
 I answer the Bible itself For the several paraphrases and 
 translations of it in the Polyglot, compared with the original 
 and with one another, are, in my opinion, to an honest, devout.
 
 44 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 industrious, and humble man, infinitely preferable to any com- 
 ment I ever saw. But Grotius is the best for the most part, 
 especially on the Old Testament." He then hints that he 
 thinks it is too soon for his son to take Orders, and encourages 
 him to work and write while he has leisure to do so. 
 
 " You see," he goes on to say touchingly, " time has shaken 
 me by the hand ; and death is but a little behind him. My 
 eyes and heart are now almost all I have left ; and I bless God 
 for them." 1 
 
 John's mother, however, seems to have differed from her 
 husband in the opinion that their son was too young to take 
 Orders, for in reference to his letter to his father on the sub- 
 ject, she writes " I was much pleased with it, and liked the 
 proposal well. I think the sooner you are a deacon the 
 better, because it may be an inducement to greater applica- 
 tion in the study of practical divinity, which of all other 
 studies I humbly conceive to be the best for Candidates for 
 Orders." 
 
 "The alteration of your temper," she says in the same 
 letter, "has occasioned me much speculation. I, who am apt 
 to be sanguine, hope it may proceed from the operations of 
 God's Holy Spirit, that, by taking off your relish for earthly 
 enjoyments, He may prepare and dispose your mind for a more 
 serious and close application to things of a more sublime and 
 spiritual nature. If it be so, happy are you if you cherish 
 these dispositions. And now, in good earnest, resolve to make 
 religion the business of your life ; for, after all, that is the one 
 thing that, strictly speaking, is necessary : all things beside are 
 comparatively little to the purposes of life. I heartily wish you 
 would now enter upon a strict examination of yourself, that 
 you may know whether you have a reasonable hope of salvation 
 by Jesus Christ. If you have, the satisfaction of knowing it 
 will abundantly reward your pains ; if you have not, you 
 
 1 The Rector had recently had a slight stroke of paralysis, which dis 
 abled his right hand.
 
 46 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 will find a more reasonable occasion for tears than can be met 
 with in a tragedy. This matter deserves great consideration 
 by all, but especially by those designed for the Ministry ; who 
 ought above all things to make their own calling and election 
 sure, lest, after they had preached to others, they themselves 
 should be cast away." 
 
 Mrs. Wesley then warns him against "trifling studies," 
 which might lead to the neglect of those more absolutely 
 necessary, and adds, " I dare advise nothing ; God Almighty 
 direct and bless you." 
 
 John now proceeded to apply himself diligently to the study 
 of divinity in his leisure hours, with the result that he became 
 more desirous than ever of taking Orders. 
 
 He wrote twice more on the subject to his father, who 
 answered him in March, informing him that he had changed 
 his mind and was " inclined" that he should take Orders that 
 summer. "But in the first place," said he, "if you love 
 yourself or me, pray heartily." 
 
 The books which seem to have had the greatest influence on 
 Wesley in the course of his reading that summer were The 
 Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis, and Taylor's 
 Holy Living and Dying. He did not altogether agree with 
 what they taught, but " he began to see that true religion is 
 seated in the heart, and that God's law extends to all our 
 thoughts as well as words and actions," 1 and was convinced 
 that the influence of the Christian religion was much more 
 extensive than he had before imagined. He resented, 
 however, the strictness and asceticism of A Kempis. 
 
 With a pleasing humbleness of mind and reverence for the 
 opinions of older and more experienced Christians, not often 
 seen in young men of twenty-two, Wesley wrote to his parents 
 for advice and asked their opinion. His letter is dated 
 May 29, 1725. 
 
 "I was advised to read Thomas a Kempis over, which I had 
 1 Wesley's Works, vol. xxvl p. 274.
 
 PREPARING FOR HOL Y ORDERS. 47 
 
 frequently seen, but never much looked into before. I think 
 he must have been a person of great piety and devotion, but 
 it is my misfortune to differ from him in some of his main 
 points. I cannot think that when God sent us into the world, 
 He had irreversibly decreed that we should be perpetually 
 miserable in it. If our taking up the cross imply our bidding 
 adieu to all joy and satisfaction, how is it reconcilable with 
 what Solomon expressly affirms of religion, ' that her ways are 
 ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace ' ? Another 
 of his tenets is, that all mirth and pleasure is useless if not 
 sinful and that nothing is an affliction to a good man ; that 
 he ought to thank God even for sending him misery. This, in 
 my opinion, is contrary to God's design in afflicting us ; for 
 though He chasteneth those whom He loveth, yet it is in order 
 to humble them. I hope when you have time you will give me 
 your thoughts on these subjects, and set me right if I am 
 mistaken." 
 
 His mother's answer came first. 
 
 " I have A Kempis by me ; but have not read him lately. I 
 cannot recollect the passages you mention ; but believing you 
 do him justice, I do positively aver that he is extremely in the 
 wrong in that impious, I was about to say blasphemous sugges- 
 tion, that God, by an irreversible decree, has determined any 
 man to be miserable even in this world. His intentions, as 
 Himself, are holy, just, and good ; and all the miseries incident 
 to men here and hereafter proceed from themselves. The 
 case stands thus : This life is a state of probation, wherein 
 eternal happiness or misery are proposed to our choice ; the 
 one as a reward of a virtuous, the other as a consequence of a 
 vicious life. Man is a compound being, a strange mixture of 
 spirit and matter, or rather a creature wherein those opposite 
 principles are united without mixture, yet each principle, after 
 an incomprehensible manner, subject to the influence of the 
 other. The true happiness of man, under this consideration, 
 consists in a due subordination of the inferior to the superior
 
 48 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 powers, of the animal to the rational nature, and of both to 
 God. 
 
 "This was his original righteousness and happiness that 
 was lost in Adam ; and to restore man to his happiness by the 
 recovery of his original righteousness was certainly God's 
 design in admitting him to the state of trial in the world, and 
 of our redemption by Jesus Christ. And surely this was a 
 design truly worthy of God, and the greatest instance of 
 mercy that even omnipotent goodness could exhibit to us. 
 
 " As the happiness of man consists in a due subordination 
 of the inferior to the superior powers, etc., so the inversion of 
 this order is the true source of human misery. There is in us 
 all a natural propension towards the body and the world. The 
 beauty, pleasures, and ease of the body strangely charm us ; the 
 wealth and honours of the world allure us ; and all, under the 
 management of a subtle malicious adversary, give a prodigious 
 force to present things; and if the animal life once gets the 
 ascendant of our reason, it is the greatest folly imaginable, 
 because he seeks it where God has not designed he shall ever 
 find it But this is the case of the generality of men : they live 
 as mere animals, wholly given up to the interests and pleasures 
 of the body ; and all the use of their understanding is to make 
 provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof, without the 
 least regard to future happiness or misery. 
 
 "I take Kempis to have been an honest, weak mar^ that 
 had more zeal than knowledge, by his condemning all mirth 
 or pleasure as sinful or useless, in opposition to so many 
 direct and plain texts of Scripture. Would you judge of the 
 lawfulness or unlawfulness of pleasure ? Of the innocence or 
 malignity of actions? Take this rule: Whatever weakens 
 your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, 
 obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual 
 things ; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority 
 of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, how- 
 ever innocent it may be in itself."
 
 PREPARING FOR HOL Y ORDERS. 49 
 
 John Wesley's father wrote : " As for Thomas a Kempis, 
 all the world are apt to strain either on one side or the other ; 
 but, for all that, mortification is still an indispensable Christian 
 duty. The world is a siren, and we must have a care of 
 her; and if the young man will rejoice in his youth, yet let 
 
 HAl.L, CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD. 
 
 him take care that his joys be innocent ; and, in order to do 
 this, remember that for all these things God will bring him 
 into judgment. I have only this to add of my friend and old 
 companion, that, making some grains of allowance, he may 
 be read to great advantage ; nay, that it is almost impossible 
 
 4
 
 50 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 to peruse him seriously without admiring, and I think in some 
 measure imitating, his heroic strains of humility, piety, and 
 devotion." 
 
 Perceiving, says Dr. Whitehead, the good effects of con- 
 sulting his parents, and that his mother in particular took a 
 pleasure in discussing at large the subjects he proposed to 
 her, John consulted her in a letter dated June iSth, on some 
 things he had met with in Bishop Taylor. 
 
 " You have so well satisfied me," he said, " as to the tenets 
 of Thomas a Kempis, that I have ventured to trouble you once 
 more on a more dubious subject." He then says that a 
 friend, whom he took "to be a person of good judgment," 
 had been terribly frightened when she was young by reading 
 Dr. Taylor's Holy Living and Dying, because "he seemed 
 to exclude all from being in a way of salvation who did not 
 come up to his rules, some of which are altogether impracti- 
 cable." He then states several particulars, which Bishop 
 Taylor makes necessary parts of humility and repentance, and 
 amongst others 
 
 " We must be sure, in some sense or other, to think our- 
 selves the worst in every company where we come." And 
 again : " Whether God has forgiven us or no, we know not, 
 therefore be sorrowful for ever having sinned." 
 
 "I take the more notice of this last sentence," he said, 
 "because it seems to contradict his own words in the next 
 section, where he says that by the Lord's Supper all the 
 members are united to one another, and to Christ the Head. 
 The Holy Ghost confers on us the grace necessary for, and 
 our souls receive the seeds of an immortal nature. Now 
 surely these graces are not of so little force as that we cannot 
 perceive whether we have them or not ; if we dwell in Christ 
 and Christ in us, which He will not do unless we are regene- 
 rate, certainly we must be sensible of it. If we can never 
 have any certainty of our being in a state of salvation, good 
 reason it is that every moment should be spent, not in joy,
 
 PREPARING FOR HOL Y ORDERS. 51 
 
 but in fear and trembling ; and then undoubtedly, in this life, 
 we are of all men most miserable. God deliver us from such 
 a fearful expectation as this. Humility is undoubtedly neces- 
 sary to salvation; and if all these things are essential to 
 humility, who can be humble ? who can be saved ? " 
 
 His mother replied that what Dr. Taylor called humility was 
 not the virtue itself, but the accidental effects of it, which may 
 in some instances, and must in others, be separated from it 
 She then proceeded to state her own idea of humility. 
 
 "Humility is the mean between pride, or an overvaluing 
 ourselves on one side, and a base abject temper on the other. 
 It consists in an habitual disposition to think meanly of 
 ourselves ; which disposition is wrought in us by a true know- 
 ledge of God; His supreme essential glory, His absolute 
 immense perfection of being, and a just sense of our 
 dependence upon Him and past offences against Him; 
 together with a consciousness of our present infirmities and 
 frailties." 
 
 To which John replied : " You have much obliged me by 
 your thoughts on Dr. Taylor, especially with respect to 
 humility, which is a point he does not seem to clear. As to 
 absolute humility consisting in a mean opinion of ourselves, 
 considered with respect to God alone, I can readily join with 
 his opinion. But I am more uncertain as to comparative, if 
 I may so term it ; and think some plausible reasons may be 
 alleged to show it is not in our power, and consequently not a 
 virtue, to think ourselves the worst in every company. 
 
 "We have so invincible an attachment to truth already 
 perceived, that it is impossible for us to disbelieve it. A 
 distinct perception commands our assent, and the will is under 
 a moral necessity of yielding to it. It is not therefore in every 
 case a matter of choice, whether we will believe ourselves 
 worse than our neighbours or no; since we may distinctly 
 perceive the truth of this proposition, He is worse than I ; 
 and then the judgment is not free. One, for instance, who is
 
 5* JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 in company with a Freethinker, or other person signally 
 debauched in faith and practice, cannot avoid knowing himself 
 to be the better of the two, these propositions extorting our 
 assent: an Atheist is worse than a believer; a man who 
 endeavours to please God is better than he who defies Him. 
 
 " If a true knowledge of God be necessary to absolute 
 humility, a true knowledge of our neighbour should be 
 necessary to comparative. But to judge one's self the worst 
 of all men implies a want of such knowledge. . . . Again, 
 this kind of humility can never be well-pleasing to God, since 
 it does not flow from faith, without which it is impossible to 
 please Him. Faith is a species of belief, and belief is defined 
 an assent to a proposition upon reasonable grounds, and con- 
 sequently no faith. 
 
 " That we can never be so certain of the pardon of our sins 
 as to be assured they will never rise up against us, I firmly 
 believe. We know that they will infallibly do so if ever we 
 apostatise ; and I am not satisfied what evidence there can be 
 of our final perseverance until we have finished our course. 
 But I am persuaded we may know if we are now in a state 
 of salvation, since that is expressly promised in the Holy 
 Scriptures to our sincere endeavours, and we are surely able to 
 judge of our own sincerity. 
 
 " As I understand faith to be an assent to any truth upon 
 rational grounds, I do not think it possible, without perjury, to 
 swear I believe anything unless I have rational grounds for my 
 persuasion. Now that which contradicts reason cannot be 
 said to stand on rational grounds; and such undoubtedly is 
 every proposition which is incompatible with the Divine 
 Justice or Mercy. . . . What then shall I say of Predestina- 
 tion? An everlasting purpose of God to deliver some from 
 damnation does, I suppose, exclude all from that deliverance 
 who are not chosen. And if it was inevitably decreed from 
 eternity that such a determinate part of mankind should be 
 saved, and none beside them, a vast majority of the world
 
 PREPARING FOR HOL Y ORDERS. 53 
 
 *ere only born to eternal death, without so much as a possi- 
 bility of avoiding it. How is this consistent with either the 
 Divine Justice or Mercy ? Is it merciful to ordain a creature 
 to everlasting misery ? Is it just to punish man for crimes which 
 he could not but commit? That God should be the author 
 of sin and injustice, which must, I think, be the consequence 
 of maintaining this opinion, is a contradiction to the clearest 
 ideas we have of the Divine Nature and Perfections. 
 
 " I call faith an assent upon rational grounds, because I 
 hold Divine Testimony to be the most reasonable of all 
 evidence whatever. Faith must necessarily, at length, be 
 resolved into reason. God is true, therefore what He says is 
 true : He hath said this, therefore this is true. When any one 
 can bring me more reasonable propositions than these, I am 
 ready to assent to them ; till then it will be highly unreasonable 
 to change my opinion." 
 
 " As for Jack, he will have a reason for everything he is to 
 do," the father had said of John, when he was a child ; and 
 here we find the young man still searching for right reasons 
 and insisting upon the necessity for them. 
 
 But the mother replies 
 
 "You say that I have obliged you by sending my thoughts 
 of humility, and yet you do not seem to regard them in the 
 least, but still dwell on that single point in Dr. Taylor of 
 thinking ourselves the worst in every company. I shall 
 answer your arguments, after I have observed that we differ 
 in our notions of the virtue itself. You will have it consist in 
 thinking mainly of ourselves ; I in a habitual disposition to 
 think meanly of ourselves. ... Of what importance can this 
 inquiry (whether our neighbours or we be worse) be to us ? 
 Comparisons in these cases are very odious, and do most 
 certainly proceed from some bad principle in those who 
 make them. . . . There is nothing plainer than that a Free- 
 thinker as a Free-thinker, and an Atheist as an Atheist, is 
 worse in that respect than a Believer as a Believer. But if
 
 54 JOHN WESLEY 
 
 that Believer's practice does not correspond to his faith he is 
 worse than an Infidel 
 
 " If we are not obliged to think ourselves the worst in every 
 company, I am perfectly sure that a man sincerely humble 
 will be afraid to think himself the best in any. And though 
 it should be his lot (it can never be his choice) to fall into the 
 company of notorious sinners ; who makes thee to differ ? 
 or what hast thou that thou hast not received ? is sufficient, if 
 well considered, to humble us, and silence all aspiring thoughts 
 and self - applause ; and may instruct us to ascribe our pre- 
 servation from enormous offences to the sovereign grace 01 
 God, and not to our own natural purity or strength. 
 
 " You are somewhat mistaken in your notions of faith. All 
 faith is an assent, but all assent is not faith. . . . The true 
 measure of faith is the authority of the revealer, the weight of 
 which always holds proportion to our conviction of his ability 
 and integrity. Divine faith is an assent to whatever God has 
 revealed to us, because He has revealed it." 
 
 We have given so much of this correspondence with his 
 mother, that we may show John Wesley's manner of reasoning 
 whilst still so young, and, also, how assiduously and critically 
 he studied the authors he was reading. The letters also 
 show how close was the intellectual and spiritual bond 
 between mother and son, and how ably the former, with her 
 multitudinous home cares, was able to enter into the difficulties 
 of the young Divinity student. Perhaps the secret of Susanna 
 Wesley's success in keeping pace with her children in their 
 mental and spiritual growth may be found in the fact that at 
 the age of thirty she began her life-long custom of devoting the 
 first hour of every day to religious meditation and prayer. 
 
 Dr. Whitehead says " It was impossible for Mr. Wesley to 
 correspond with such a parent and not be improved. And it 
 is certain that he never forgot some of the rules and maxims 
 which he had learned from her. The effect of his present 
 inquiries was deep and lasting. In reading Kempis he tells
 
 PREPARING FOR HOL Y ORDERS. 55 
 
 us that he had frequently much sensible comfort, such as he 
 was an utter stranger to before. And the chapter in Dr. 
 Taylor on purity of intention convinced him of the necessity 
 of being holy in heart, as well as regular in his outward 
 deportment. ' Instantly/ he says, ' I resolved to dedicate 
 all my life to God all my thoughts and words and actions, 
 being thoroughly convinced there was no medium ; but that 
 every part of my life (not some only) must either be a sacrifice 
 to God, or myself, that is, in effect, to the Devil.'" 
 
 Meeting, too, with a religious friend about this time he had 
 never had one before he began to alter the whole form of his 
 conversation, and to set out in earnest upon a new life. He 
 communicated every week. He watched against all sin, 
 whether in word or deed ; and began to aim at and pray for 
 inward holiness. 
 
 He had now no longer any doubt about taking Holy Orders, 
 and we find his father writing to him " If you be what you 
 write, you and I shall be happy, and you will much alleviate 
 my misfortune." 
 
 Mr. Wesley removed some scruples which his son had 
 expressed concerning the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian 
 Creed. 
 
 " Their point," he said, " was levelled only against obstinate 
 heretics, and a distinction was undoubtedly to be made 
 between what is wilful and what is in some measure involun- 
 tary. God certainly will make a difference, and to Him it 
 must be left. Our business is to keep to the rule which He 
 has given us. As to the main of the cause," he continues, 
 "the best way to deal with our adversaries is to turn the war 
 and their own vaunted arms against them. From balancing 
 the schemes it will appear that there are many irreconcilable 
 absurdities and contradictions in theirs, but none such (though 
 indeed some difficulties) in ours. They can never prove a 
 contradiction in our Three in One, unless we affirm them to be 
 so in the same respect, which every child knows we do not.
 
 56 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 But we can prove there is one in a creature's being a Creator, 
 which they assert of our Lord." 
 
 And then, as the time for John's ordination drew near, his 
 father wrote "God fit you for your great work. Fast, watch 
 and pray ; believe, love, endure, and be happy ; towards which 
 you shall never want the most ardent prayers of your aflec- 
 tionate father/
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 FELLOW OF LINCOLN. 
 
 IN the autumn of the year 1725 John Wesley was ordained by 
 Dr. Potter, then Bishop of Oxford, and afterwards Primate, 
 whom he regarded as "a great and good man." Fifty years 
 afterwards he remembered with gratitude the Archbishop's 
 advice to him, " Not to spend his time in contending for or 
 against things of a disputable nature, but in testifying against 
 vice, and in promoting real, essential holiness." And we are 
 told that Wesley bore this in mind so clearly as to avoid many 
 controversies, sometimes leaving that work to others, and 
 sometimes allowing them to drop. 
 
 His first sermon was preached at South Leigh, near Oxford, 
 and immediately afterwards he preached at Epworth a funeral 
 sermon on the death of a young and promising parishioner. 1 
 He assisted his father for a time, and then returned to Oxford. 
 
 And now we find him directing his inquiries into the 
 evidences of the Christian religion. He wrote to his mother 
 on this subject on November the 3rd, who, in her answer dated 
 the loth, encourages him to persevere in such investigations. 
 
 " I highly approve," said she, "of your care to search into 
 the grounds and reasons of our most Holy Religion ; which 
 you may do, if your intention be pure, and yet retain the 
 integrity of your faith. Nay, the more you study on that 
 subject, the more reason you will find to depend on the 
 veracity of God ; inasmuch as your perception of Him will 
 be clearer, and you will more plainly discover the congruity 
 there is between the ordinances and precepts of the Gospel 
 1 R. Denny Urlin.
 
 58 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 and right reason. Nor is it an hard matter to prove that the 
 whole system of Christianity is founded thereon." 
 
 It was only a small portion of his time, however, which 
 John employed in these studies. His diary shows that he 
 was diligent in the study of the classics, and in the perform- 
 ance of his academical exercises. "The time also drew near 
 when it was expected that the election of a Fellow of Lincoln 
 College would take place, with a view to which his friends 
 had been exerting themselves all the summer. When Dr. 
 Morley, the Rector, was spoken to on the subject, he said, 
 1 1 will inquire into Mr. Westley's 1 character.' He did so, and 
 gave him leave to stand a candidate." 2 Dr. Morley also used 
 his influence for him, and showed himself to be a very kind 
 friend. 
 
 Even in college elections, says Southey, there is play enough 
 for evil passions, and too much licence allowed them. Though 
 Wesley was not yet eccentric in his habits of life, the strictness 
 of his religious principles was sufficiently remarkable to afford 
 subject for satire; and his opponents hoped to prevent his 
 success by making him ridiculous. 
 
 In reference to this his father wrote "As for the gentle- 
 men candidates you write of Does anybody think that the 
 Devil has no Agents left? It is a very callow virtue, sure, 
 that cannot bear being laughed at. I think our Captain and 
 Master endured something more for us, before He entered 
 into glory; and unless we follow His steps, in vain do we 
 hope to share that glory with Him. Nor shall any who 
 sincerely endeavour to serve Him, either by turning others 
 to righteousness, or keeping them steadfast in it, lose their 
 reward." 
 
 And again, in another letter, Mr. Wesley exhorts John to 
 
 1 We find the name of the family spelt in the various records in seven 
 different ways Wellesleigh, Wellesley, Westleigh, Westley, Weisley, 
 Weisly, Wesley. 
 
 3 Dr. Whitehead.
 
 FELLOW OF LINCOLN. 59 
 
 bear it all patiently. " But be sure," he adds, " never to 
 return the like treatment to your enemy. You and I 
 have hitherto done the best we could in that affair ; do 
 you continue to do the same, and rest the whole with 
 Providence." 
 
 His mother encouraged him in a different manner. " If," 
 said she, " it be a weak nature that cannot bear being laughed 
 at, I am sure it is a strong and well -con firmed virtue that 
 can stand the test of a brisk buffoonery. Many people, though 
 well inclined, have yet made shipwreck of faith and a good 
 conscience merely because they could not bear raillery. I 
 would therefore advise those who are in the beginning of a 
 Christian course to shun the company of profane wits as 
 they would the plague or poverty; and never to contract 
 an intimacy with any but such as have a good sense of 
 religion." 
 
 But, in spite of all the opposition, John Wesley was elected 
 Fellow of Lincoln in March 1726. His parents' joy in his 
 success was very great. Mr. Wesley, who had made great 
 exertions to assist him with money from time to time, wrote 
 that he questioned whether he had ^5 to keep his family from 
 May-day until after harvest. " And what will be my own fate, 
 God knows, before the summer be over, sed passi gravivra." 
 But he adds, " Wherever I am, my Jacky is Fellow of Lincoln ! " 
 
 And his mother gave thanks to God with a full heart, and 
 soon had one of her great desires fulfilled, for John came home 
 for the whole summer and acted as his father's curate, reading 
 prayers and preaching twice every Sunday either at Epworth 
 or Wroote. The rest of his time was well spent in pursuing 
 his studies and conversing with his parents on deeply inter- 
 esting and instructive matters. In his diary he frequently 
 mentions the conversations they had ; amongst others, they 
 discussed how to increase their faith, their hope, and their love 
 of God ; prudence, simplicity, sincerity, pride, vanity ; wit, 
 humour, fancy, courtesy, and general usefulness. His parents
 
 60 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 made such observations as reflection and long experience had 
 suggested to them, and he carefully took note of their most 
 important sayings. 
 
 When Wesley returned to Oxford in September, he took up 
 his new position in Lincoln College, one of the smallest, 
 poorest, and most scholarly of the nineteen colleges which are 
 comprised in the University of Oxford. 
 
 " Some of the Fellowships in the rich colleges at Oxford 
 yielded an annual income of ;6oo or ^700 ; those at Lincoln 
 College, however, were far less valuable, but ample for the 
 supply of his wants. 
 
 "The position of Fellow was both honourable and easy. 
 Its duties consisted in residing in the college, taking such 
 part as might be agreeable in the general management of its 
 affairs, and helping to maintain the college dignity by a life of 
 learned leisure; it was, in a word, a scholastic sinecure, 
 requiring some distinguished merit to obtain it, and continuing 
 until death, marriage, or the presentation of some fat living. 
 For a man of Wesley's turn of mind this was indeed a paradise. 
 No more debts to haunt him, no more burdens to lay upon his 
 poor father, an assured position among English scholars, and a 
 comfortable home for life in the midst of the best helps to 
 learning then to be found in the world." 1 
 
 Hitherto John Wesley had been, as we have seen, extremely 
 poor ; " so much so that his habit of wearing the hair long, 
 begun in opposition to the prevailing fashion, was boldly set 
 down by himself to a motive of economy he had nothing to 
 spend on hair-dressers. This habit he retained through life, 
 as appears by the numerous portraits." a 
 
 The removal to Lincoln enabled John also to get rid himself 
 of all unsympathising acquaintance, in a manner which he 
 related, sixty years afterwards, in his sermon on leaving the 
 world. 
 
 1 Rev. W. H. Daniels. 
 
 The Churchman's Lift of Wesley,
 
 ST. MARYS CHUKCU, OXFORD.
 
 62 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 "When it pleased God," he said, "to give me a settled 
 resolution to be not a nominal, but a real Christian (being 
 then about twenty-two years of age), my acquaintance were 
 as ignorant of God as myself. But there was this difference : 
 I knew my own ignorance; they did not know theirs. I 
 faintly endeavoured to help them, but in vain. Meantime I 
 found, by sad experience, that even their harmless conversation, 
 so called, damped all my good resolutions. But how to get 
 rid of them was a question I resolved in my mind again and 
 again. I saw no possible way, unless it should please God to 
 remove me to another college. He did so, in a manner utterly 
 contrary to all human probability. I was elected Fellow of a 
 college where I knew not one person. I foresaw abundance 
 of people would come to see me, either out of friendship, 
 civility, or curiosity, and that I should have offers of acquaint- 
 ance new and old ; but I had now fixed my plan. Entering 
 now, as it were, into a new world, I resolved to have no 
 acquaintance by chance, but by choice, and to choose such only 
 as would help me on my way to Heaven. In consequence of 
 this I narrowly observed the temper and behaviour of all that 
 visited me. I saw no reason to think that the greater part of 
 these truly loved or feared God. Such acquaintance, there- 
 fore, I did not choose : I could not expect they would do me 
 any good. Therefore, when any of these came, I behaved as 
 courteously as I could ; but to the question, ' When will you 
 come to see me?' I returned no answer. When they had 
 come a few times, and found I still declined returning the 
 visit, I saw them no more. And I bless God," he adds, "this 
 has been my invariable rule for about three score years. I 
 knew many reflections would follow, but that did not move me, 
 as I knew full well it was my calling to go through evil report 
 and good report. n 
 
 From this time Wesley began to keep a diary ; a practice, 
 Southey remarks, which was at one time very general amongst 
 persons religiously disposed, and to which the world owes some
 
 64 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 valuable materials for history as well as individual biography ; 
 but perhaps no person has in this manner conveyed so lively 
 a picture of himself as Wesley. " During a most restless life 
 of incessant occupation, he found time to register not only his 
 proceedings, but his thoughts, his studies, and his occasional 
 remarks upon men and books, and not unfrequently upon 
 miscellaneous subjects, with a vivacity which characterised him 
 to the last." 
 
 Eight months after his election to a Fellowship, the high 
 opinion entertained of his abilities and learning was expressed 
 by his being appointed Greek lecturer and Moderator of the 
 classes. 
 
 Wesley, we are told, always regarded this last appointment 
 "as a very gracious providence." It gave him a complete 
 knowledge of that important branch of learning by which he 
 was afterwards enabled during his whole life to defend the 
 truth against all opponents. " For several years," 1 he observes, 
 "I was Moderator in the disputations which were held six 
 times a week at Lincoln College, in Oxford. I could not 
 avoid acquiring hereby some degree of expertness in arguing, 
 and especially in discerning and pointing out well-covered and 
 plausible fallacies. I have since found abundant reason to 
 praise God for giving me this honest art By this, when men 
 have hedged me in by what they call demonstrations, I have 
 been many times able to dash them in pieces ; in spite of all 
 its covers, to touch the very point where the fallacy lay, and it 
 flew open in a moment." 
 
 He was now fully employed between his public offices and 
 his pupils. Of the latter he took the greatest care, accounting 
 himself not only responsible for them to their parents and the 
 community, but to God. He laboured not only to make them 
 scholars, but Christians also ; and to that end wrote a form of 
 prayers for them (which is still extant) for every day in the 
 week. 
 
 1 Wesley's Journal.
 
 FELLOW OF LINCOLN. 65 
 
 His address to the tutors of the University will clearly 
 show the spirit in which he discharged his duties. 
 
 "Ye venerable men," says he, "who are more especially 
 called to form the tender minds of youth, to dispel thence the 
 shades of ignorance and error, and to train them up to be wise 
 unto salvation, are you filled with the Holy Ghost with all 
 those fruits of the spirit which your important office so 
 indispensably requires ? Is your heart whole with God full 
 of love and zeal to set up His kingdom on earth ? Do you con- 
 tinually remind those under your care that the one rational end 
 of all studies is to know, love, and serve the only true God, 
 and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent ? Do you inculcate upon 
 them, day by day, that love alone never faileth? (whereas, 
 whether there be tongues, they shall fail ; or philosophical 
 knowledge, it shall vanish away) : and that without love all 
 learning is but splendid ignorance, pompous folly, vexation of 
 spirit ? Has all you teach an actual tendency to the love of 
 God, and all mankind for His sake ? Have you an eye to this 
 end in whatever you prescribe, touching the kind, the manner, 
 and the measure of their studies : desiring and labouring 
 that, wherever the lot of these young soldiers of Christ is cast, 
 they may be so many burning and shining lights, adorning the 
 Gospel of Christ in all things ? And permit me to ask, do you 
 put forth all your strength in the vast work you have under- 
 taken ? Do you labour herein with all your might, exerting 
 every faculty of your soul, using every talent which God hath 
 lent you, and that to the uttermost of your power ? Let it not 
 be said that I speak here as if all under your care were intended 
 to be clergymen. Not so, I only speak as if they were intended 
 to be Christians." 
 
 Bold words were these coming from so young a man, and 
 they must have stirred the hearts of those to whom they were 
 addressed.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CURATE OF WROOTE. 
 
 "WESLEY now formed for himself a scheme of studies, 
 resolving not to vary from it for some years at least Mondays 
 and Tuesdays were allotted to the classics ; Wednesdays to 
 logic and ethics ; Thursdays to Hebrew and Arabic ; Fridays 
 to metaphysics and natural philosophy; Saturdays to oratory 
 and poetry, but chiefly to composition in those arts ; and the 
 Sabbath to divinity. It appears by his diary, also, that he 
 gave great attention to mathematics. But he had come to 
 that conclusion at which, sooner or later, every studious man 
 must arrive that life is not long enough for the attainment of 
 general knowledge, and that there are many things of which 
 the most learned must content themselves to be ignorant He 
 says to his mother, ' I am perfectly come over to your opinion, 
 that there are many truths it is not worth while to know. 
 Curiosity indeed might be a sufficient plea for our laying out 
 some time upon them, if we had half-a-dozen centuries of 
 lives to come ; but methinks it is great ill husbandry to spend 
 a considerable part of the small pittance now allowed us, in 
 what makes us neither a quick nor a sure return.' Full of 
 business as he now was, he found time for writing by rising an 
 hour earlier in the morning, and going into company an hour 
 later in the evening." 1 
 
 All the Wesleys had a turn for poetry, and John occasionally, 
 
 at this time, tried his hand at paraphrasing a psalm or writing 
 
 a set of verses. His mother wrote to him judiciously on the 
 
 subject " I would not have you leave off making verses ; 
 
 1 Southey's Life of Wesley.
 
 CURATE OF WROOTE. 67 
 
 rather make poetry sometimes your diversion, though never 
 your business." 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1727 John took his degree, 
 and soon after went into Lincolnshire to work as his father's 
 curate, Mr. Wesley being at that time in failing health. In 
 the following July the young man received Priest's orders from 
 Archbishop Potter; and it was this year, too, that he was 
 
 JOHN WRSLEY AT TWENTY-THREE YEARS. 
 
 deeply influenced by reading the two famous treatises of 
 the Rev. William Law the Serious Call and Christian 
 Perfection. 
 
 "These," said John Wesley, "convinced me more than ever 
 of the absolute impossibility of being half a Christian ; and I 
 determined, through His grace (the absolute necessity of 
 which I was deeply sensible of), to be all devoted to God, to
 
 68 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 give Him all my soul, my body, and my substance." Hitherto 
 John Wesley had been more a teacher of morality, placing 
 much dependence upon forms and observances; now, as he 
 studied the Bible more closely than he had ever done, he saw 
 in a clearer light the indispensable necessity of having the 
 mind that was in Christ, and religion for the first time 
 appeared as "the inward and outward conformity to the 
 Master." From this time he became a faithful follower of the 
 great Example. 1 
 
 " He now insisted on a high standard of religious consecra- 
 tion and personal holiness, both active and passive. He 
 presently united with these views not a little of the High 
 Church doctrine and discipline. These two books the above- 
 mentioned books of Law's convinced him, he said, of the 
 1 exceeding height and breadth and depth of the love of God ; ' 
 and the ( light flowed in so mightily upon his soul, that every- 
 thing appeared in a new view.' "* 
 
 As these religious feelings deepened and strengthened, the 
 state of mind came on him which led the enthusiasts of early 
 ages into the wilderness. He began to long for seclusion, and 
 thought it " the settled temper of his soul " that he should for 
 some time at least be fixed in such a retirement from the 
 world that he might be able to confirm in himself those habits 
 which he thought best, before " the flexibility of youth should 
 be past." A school was proposed to him, with a good salary 
 annexed to it, in one of the Yorkshire dales. He was pleased 
 with the idea. 
 
 41 But what has made me wish for it [the school] most,' 1 he 
 wrote, " is the frightful description, as they call it, which some 
 gentlemen who know the place gave me of it yesterday. It 
 lies in a little vale, so pent up between two hills, that it is scarce 
 accessible on any side ; so that you can expect little company 
 from without, and within there is none at all I should there- 
 fore be entirely at liberty to converse with company of my own 
 1 Tyer. * The Churchman's Life ef Wesky.
 
 CURATE OF WROOTE. 69 
 
 choosing, whom for that reason I would bring with me ; and 
 company equally agreeable wherever fixed could not put me to 
 less expense. 
 
 " c The sun that walks his airy way 
 
 To cheer the world, and bring the day ; 
 The moon that shines with borrow'd light, 
 The stars that gild the gloomy night, 
 All of these, and all I see, 
 Should be sung, and sung by me ; 
 These praise their Maker as they can, 
 But want, and ask the tongue of man. ' " 
 
 But the school was otherwise disposed of, at which his 
 mother was well pleased " I am not sorry," said she, " that 
 you have missed the school; that way of life will not agree 
 with your constitution ; and I hope God has better work for 
 you to do." 
 
 So John settled down at Wroote as his father's curate, 
 and remained there about two years. Although a native 
 of the county, he did not escape the ague, and perhaps 
 it was better for his health when he was recalled to Oxford 
 by a regulation that the junior Fellows, who might be 
 chosen Moderators, should attend in person the duties of 
 their office. 
 
 Before he returned to the University, however, John travelled 
 many miles to see what was called a " serious man " and consult 
 him. This person said to him, " Sir, you wish to serve God 
 and go to Heaven. Remember you cannot serve Him alone. 
 You must therefore find companions or make them. The 
 Bible knows nothing of solitary religion." Never afterwards 
 did Wesley forget those words, which seemed to have been 
 sent to prepare him for his future work. And mingling with 
 his thoughts of them, as he returned to Oxford, would doubt- 
 less come the memory of words he had read in one of the 
 books of Law's which had made such a great impression upon 
 his mind :
 
 70 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 " If some persons should unite themselves into little societies 
 professing voluntary poverty, retirement, and devotion, that 
 some might be relieved in their charities, and all be benefited 
 by their example, such persons would be so far from being 
 chargeable with any superstition that they might be justly said 
 to restore that piety which was the boast and glory of the 
 Church when its greatest men were alive/'
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE HOLY CLUB. 
 
 CHARLES WESLEY, at the age of eighteen, was elected to Christ 
 Church College, Oxford, shortly after John had become a 
 Fellow of Lincoln. The younger brother had been nine years 
 at Westminster under the care of his eldest brother Samuel, 
 who was an usher of the school. As we have seen, Charles 
 had been remarkable there for courage and skill, and by his 
 bravery, generosity, and loving disposition, had made for him- 
 self many friends. He was also diligent in study and regular 
 in his conduct, but when, upon his coming to Oxford, John 
 sought to press upon him the importance of austerer habits and 
 a more active devotion, he exclaimed, "What ! would you have 
 me become a saint all at once ? " and turned a deaf ear to hip 
 admonitions. 
 
 But whilst John was away the two years in Lincolnshire, 
 Charles changed very much ', he became deeply serious, and 
 at last he even wrote to ask his brother for some such advice as 
 he had spurned before. " It is owing," he said, " in a great 
 measure to somebody's prayers (my mother's, most likely) that 
 I am come to think as I do, for I cannot tell how or where I 
 woke out of my lethargy, only it was not long after you went 
 away." 
 
 We are told that Charles's piety first showed itself in honest, 
 hard work with his books ; then in his partaking of the sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's Supper every week. And then, the next 
 step well, he did not need telling by any " serious man " that 
 he must have companions on his way to Heaven. His genial, 
 loving disposition impelled him to persuade his friends to
 
 72 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 share his new hopes and endeavours, and so he soon got two 
 or three young men to join him in a systematic effort to attain 
 a state of absolute holiness. " They adopted certain rules for 
 holy living, apportioned their time exactly among their various 
 scholarly and religious duties, allowing as little as possible for 
 sleeping and eating, and as much as possible for devotion. 
 It was their regularity of life that won them the name of 
 ' Methodists,' a term derived from the Greek word /w^oSixos, 
 which signifies ' one who follows an exact method.' But John 
 Wesley subsequently turned the tables upon his adversaries in a 
 dictionary which he published for ' the people called Metho- 
 dists,' in which he defined the word ' Methodist ' as ' one who 
 lives according to the method laid down in the Holy Scrip- 
 tures."' 1 
 
 The little society thus formed by Charles could not fail to 
 attract observation in an English University, and especially at 
 a time when a laxity of opinions as well as morals prevailed, 
 and infidelity was becoming so common that the Vice- 
 Chancellor had exhorted the tutors to " discharge their duty 
 with double diligence, and forbidden the undergraduates to 
 read books which might tend to the weakening of their faith." 2 
 The greatest prudence would not have sufficed to save men 
 from ridicule who, at such an age and in such a scene, pro- 
 fessed to make religion the business of their lives ; and 
 prudence is rarely united with enthusiasm. 
 
 Several other names besides that of Methodist which was 
 not quite new were given to the young men and their meet- 
 ings; they were called derisively " Sacramentarians," "Bible- 
 bigots," "Bible-moths," the "Holy," or the "Godly Club." 
 
 When John Wesley returned to Oxford, Charles and his 
 friends at once made him their leader ; and so he, who had 
 in his retirement in the country been prepared for religious 
 companionship, which he was to "find," or "make," now 
 discovered it ready and waiting for him. 
 
 1 Rev. W. H. Daniels. J Southey's Life of Wesley.
 
 74 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 The two who, with John and Charles, were the first members 
 of the little society were Robert Kirkham and William Morgan. 
 To these were subsequently added George Whitefield, John 
 Clayton, J. Broughton, Benjamin Ingham, James Hervey, 
 John Whitelamb, Westley Hall, John Gambold, Charles 
 Kinchin, William Smith, and Messrs. Salmon, Wogan, Boyce, 
 Atkinson, and others. 
 
 " What shall we say of these Oxford Methodists ? l 
 
 " William Morgan's career was brief and painful ; he was the 
 first Methodist who passed the pearly gates of the celestial 
 city. Charles Kinchin, a lovely character, soon followed him. 
 Charles Wesley, in his incomparable hymns, left behind him 
 one of the noblest legacies that an uninspired man ever 
 bequeathed to the Christian church. George Whitefield was 
 the prince of preachers a glorious emblem of the apocalyptic 
 angel flying through the midst of Heaven with the good tidings 
 of great joy unto all people. And James Hervey will be 
 loved and honoured as long as there are men to appreciate the 
 highest order of Christian piety, and the most mellifluent 
 compositions in the English language." 
 
 Of course amongst the number there were others widely 
 different "But with all these drawbacks," says Tyerman, 
 " the reader is challenged to produce a band of godly friends, 
 whose lives and labours have, upon the whole, issued in such 
 an amount of blessing to mankind as that which has resulted 
 from the lives and labours of the students who in 1735 were 
 known as Oxford Methodists." 
 
 Charles Wesley paid the utmost deference to his brother, as 
 did also the other members of the little community. John had 
 more learning and experience than any of the others, and was 
 so active and yet so steady that, whilst continually gaining 
 ground, he yet lost none. His judgment was good, his 
 countenance wore an air of authority, and yet he assumed 
 no airs, but listened respectfully to all that the others had 
 1 Li/e and Times of the Rev. John Wesley, by Tyerman.
 
 THE HOL Y CL UB. 75 
 
 to say; he had schooled his natural impetuosity into a child- 
 like simplicity of manner, which no doubt endeared him to 
 all hearts. 
 
 Every night they met together to review what each had 
 accomplished during the day, and to consult about the 
 morrow's work. Their meetings were begun with prayer, and 
 ended with a frugal supper. Their good deeds were various. 
 Some conversed with young students and tried to rescue them 
 from bad company and encourage them to lead a good life. 
 Others undertook the instruction and relief of impoverished 
 families ; others the charge of some school ; others of the 
 parish workhouse. Others went daily to the Castle and to the 
 city prison, to read good books and exhort those prisoners who 
 would listen. Out of their own scanty means, and by quarterly 
 contributions from others, they raised a fund to purchase 
 books, medicines, etc., for the prisoners, and to pay the debts 
 of such as only owed small amounts, that they might be allowed 
 to go free. They read prayers twice a week in the Castle, and 
 preached on Sunday, and administered the Sacrament once 
 a month. One of the schools they visited was founded by 
 John Wesley, who paid the teacher and clothed the children 
 himself at its commencement 
 
 His charity to the poor was only limited by his means. 
 One cold winter's day, he tells us, a young girl whom the 
 Methodists kept at school called upon him in a state nearly 
 frozen, whereupon he said 
 
 "You seem half-starved. Have you nothing to wear but 
 that linen gown ? " 
 
 " Sir, this is all I have," replied the poor girl. 
 
 Wesley put his hand in his pocket, but found it nearly empty. 
 The walls of his room, however, were hung with pictures, and 
 they now became his accusers. 
 
 " It struck me," said he, " will thy Master say, ' Well done, 
 good and faithful steward ! thou hast adorned thy walls with 
 the money that might have screened this poor creature from
 
 76 JO ffN WESLEY. 
 
 the cold. O Justice ! O Mercy ! Are not these pictures the 
 blood of this poor maid ? ' " 
 
 He tells us too it was the practice of the Oxford Methodisl> 
 to give away each year all they had after providing for their 
 own necessities, and then adds his own case as an illustra- 
 tion : 
 
 " One of them had ^30 a year. He lived on ^28, and 
 gave away forty shillings. The next year receiving ;6o, he 
 still lived on ^28, and gave away ^32. The third year he 
 received ^90, and gave away ^62. The fourth year he 
 received ^120; still he lived as before on ^28, and gave to 
 the poor all the rest." l 
 
 He was as careful of time as of money. Finding that he 
 lay awake a part of every night, he rose an hour earlier every 
 morning until he found that if he got up at four o'clock he 
 never had any sleepless hours. Sixty years after finding this 
 out he wrote, "By the grace of God, I have risen at four 
 o'clock ever since ; and, taking the year round, I don't lie 
 awake a quarter of an hour together in a month." 
 
 The whole of the little company had stated times at which 
 they " prayed in concert," and stated occasions on which they 
 used ejaculatory and other prayers. They tried to spend an 
 hour every day in speaking to men directly about religion; 
 they planned every conversation before they went into com- 
 pany with a view to making it most useful ; they persuaded all 
 they could to attend public prayers, sermons, and sacraments, 
 4 ' and in general to obey the laws of the Church Catholic, the 
 Church of England, the State, the University, and their 
 respective colleges." They refrained from speaking unkindly 
 of any one, used intercessions for their friends, pupils, those 
 who particularly desired it, and the family with whom they 
 lodged, on different days of the week. They also communi- 
 cated once a week at Christ Church. 
 
 Having all determined to be Bible Christians, their chief 
 1 Wesley's Works, vol. vii.
 
 THE HOLY CLUB. 
 
 77 
 
 book of reference in every matter was the Bible ; next to that 
 in authority among them, especially in settling their judgment 
 as to the doctrine by Justification by Faith, was the Book of 
 Homilies. 
 
 They were tenacious not only of all the doctrines of the 
 Church of England, but of all her discipline, to the minutest 
 points, and were scrupulously strict in observing the rubrics 
 and canons. In short, Wesley himself says, "They were in 
 the strongest sense High Churchmen." 
 
 THE CASTLE, OXFORD. 
 
 Some of their proceedings were ecclesiastically irregular 
 though religiously right, and John Wesley prudently wrote to 
 his father and elder brother for advice. The latter replied 
 that, though dubious about some things, yet he would choose 
 to follow his two brothers to the grave rather than that they 
 should abandon their course of piety, and especially that 
 relating to the prisoners in the Castle. The father too wrote
 
 78 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 approvingly, at the same time advising them to obtain consent 
 to visit the prisoners from the Chaplain who had charge of 
 them, and also to seek the approbation of their Bishop. This 
 advice was acted upon; the Chaplain approved of their 
 design, and the Bishop expressed himself as highly pleased 
 about it. 
 
 Thus strengthened by sympathy and commendation, Wesley 
 and his little band proceeded with their self-denying works, 
 not, however, without meeting with much persecution from 
 outsiders. Vehement efforts were made to detach its members, 
 not only by idle youths, but by men of position and learning ; 
 violence, threats, and persuasion induced several of the little 
 band to limit their partaking of Holy Communion to three 
 times a year. 
 
 In 1732 Wesley wrote a sermon on the Sacrament of the 
 Lord's Supper for the use of his pupils, in which he shows 
 the duty of all Christians to communicate as often as they 
 can. He says that, with "the first Christians, the Christian 
 sacrifice was a constant part of the Lord's day service ; and 
 that, for several centuries, they received it almost daily, four 
 days a week always, and every saint's day besides." He 
 further asserts that the Church of England has taken "all 
 possible care that the sacrament be duly administered wherever 
 the Common Prayer is read, every Sunday and holiday in the 
 year," and that those who do not receive it at least twice in the 
 year are liable to excommunication. 
 
 In the same month in which Wesley wrote his sermon, his 
 mother addressed to him a letter, from which we extract the 
 following : 
 
 "The young gentleman you mention seems to me to be in 
 the right concerning the real presence of Christ in the 
 sacrament. I own I never understood by the real presence 
 more than what he has elegantly expressed, that ' the Divine 
 nature of Christ is there eminently present, to impart, by the 
 operation of His spirit, the benefits of his death to worthy
 
 THE HOLY CLUB. 79 
 
 receivers.' And surely the Divine presence of our Lord, thus 
 applying the virtue and merits of the great atonement to each 
 true believer, makes the consecrated bread more than a sign 
 of Christ's body ; since, by His so doing, we receive, not only 
 the sign, but with it the thing signified all the benefits of 
 His incarnation and passion. But still, however this Divine 
 institution may seem to others, to me it is full of mystery." 
 
 To which John replies 
 
 "One consideration is enough to make me consent to your 
 judgment concerning the Holy Sacrament; which is, that 
 we cannot allow Christ's human nature to be present in it with- 
 out allowing either con- or transubstantiation. But that His 
 Divinity is so united to us then, as He never is but to worthy 
 receivers, I firmly believe, though the manner of that union is 
 utterly a mystery to me." 
 
 This is perhaps the clearest definition Wesley ever gave of 
 his view of the doctrine, disavowing alike transubstantiation 
 and consubstantiation, while speaking of a union of the 
 Divinity with the believer in that sacrament, the manner of the 
 union being a mystery. Wesley republished the sermon fifty 
 years later, and his doing so confirms the opinion that in no 
 essential matter had his theology changed. 
 
 About this time, or perhaps a year or two earlier, Wesley 
 became acquainted with the eminent nonjuror, William Law, 
 the author of the two books which had made such a deep 
 impression on his mind. Law was living in seclusion near 
 London, though he occupied the position of a spiritual 
 physician to whom many people brought their difficulties and 
 those of their friends. 
 
 "You would have a philosophical religion," he said to 
 Wesley, "but there can be no such thing. Religion is the 
 most plain, simple thing in the world. It is only, we love Him, 
 because He first loved us." Wesley, on one occasion, confessed 
 to him that he felt greatly dejected, because he saw so little 
 fruit from his labours.
 
 8o JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 " My dear friend," replied Law, " you reverse matters from 
 their proper order. You are to follow the Divine Light, where- 
 ever it leads you, in all your conduct. It is God alone that 
 gives the blessing. I pray you always mind your own work, 
 and go on with cheerfulness ; and God, you may depend upon 
 it, will take care of His. Besides, sir, I perceive you would 
 fain convert the world. But you must wait God's own time. 
 Nay, if, after all, He is pleased to use you only as a hewer of 
 wood or a drawer of water, you should submit yea, you 
 should be thankful to Him that He has honoured you so 
 far." 
 
 Twice or thrice in the year John and Charles Wesley 
 walked the whole distance from Oxford to London to visit 
 this good man, who became, to the elder brother at least, 
 as an oracle. But later their views differed widely, for Law 
 became a mystic and disciple of Jacob Behmen. 
 
 Meantime there appeared in Fogg's Weekly Journal an 
 article condemning and maligning the motives and deeds of 
 the Methodists, which, amongst other things, said : 
 
 "As these Methodists have occasioned no small stir in 
 Oxford, so there has not been wanting a variety of conjectures 
 about them. Some are apt to ascribe their gloomy and dis- 
 consolate way of life to want of money; thus, being denied 
 the enjoyment of those things they chiefly desire, they are 
 weighed down by an habitual sorrow. . . . Others tax their 
 characters with hypocrisy, and suppose them to use religion 
 only as a veil to vice; and indeed if we should give credit 
 to the several tales related of them, their greatest friends 
 would be ashamed to stand in their defence. Others judge 
 that their way of life is owing to enthusiasm, madness, and 
 superstitious scruples. Among their own party, they pass 
 for religious persons and men of extraordinary parts ; but they 
 have the misfortune to be taken by all who have ever been in 
 their company for madmen and fools." 
 
 Such were some of the scandalous charges brought against
 
 8a JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 the Oxford Methodists, 1 together with others which are too 
 scurrilous to be mentioned. 
 
 Wesley attempted to meet these shameful attacks by draw- 
 ing up the following list of queries, which were in fact a body 
 of articles, for no mere nominal Christian could possibly 
 answer them in the negative, 
 
 The chief of the questions are : 
 
 "Whether we may not try to do good among the young 
 gentlemen of the University; particularly whether we may 
 not endeavour to convince them of the necessity of being 
 Christians, and of being scholars ? 
 
 " Whether we may not try to convince them of the neces- 
 sity of method and industry, in order to either learning or 
 virtue ? 
 
 "May we not try to do good to those who are hungry, 
 naked, or sick ? If we know any necessitous family, may we 
 not give them a little money, clothes, or physic, as they 
 want ? " 
 
 This appeal increased the number of both friends and foes; 
 the former sent them money, the latter called a meeting among 
 the seniors of the College, in order to consult on the best 
 measures to stop the growth of enthusiasm? 
 
 To show the spirit in which John Wesley met these attacks, 
 we will quote from a letter to his father, written in December 
 1730. 
 
 " To-morrow night," he writes, " I expect to be in company 
 with the gentleman who did us the honour to take the first 
 notice of our society. I have terrible reasons to think he is 
 
 1 This name soon clave to them more than any other. For doing every- 
 thing in a methodical way was a very decided characteristic of theirs. It 
 has been said that Mrs. Wesley was the true founder of the Methodists, 
 for she inculcated the importance of Method from her sons' childhood. 
 
 3 Dr. Whitehead says " Mr. Wesley and his friends did not learn what 
 was the result of this very pious consultation ; but it was soon publicly 
 
 reported, that Dr. and the Censors were going to blow up the Godly 
 
 Club."
 
 THE HOL Y CL UB. 83 
 
 as slenderly provided with humanity as with sense and learn- 
 ing. However, I must not let slip this opportunity, because 
 he is at present in some distress occasioned by his being about 
 to dispute in the schools on Monday, though he is not 
 furnished with such articles as he wants. I intend, if he has 
 not procured them before, to help him to some arguments, 
 that I may at least remove that prejudice from him, ' that we 
 are friends to none but those who are as queer as ourselves.' " 
 
 In his sermon preached at St. Mary's, Oxford, before the 
 University, on January ist, 1733, Wesley propounded in the 
 plainest terms his famous doctrine of Christian perfection. 
 
 " The circumcision of the heart," said he, " is that habitual 
 disposition of soul, which in the sacred writings is termed 
 holiness, and which directly implies the being cleansed from 
 sin, from all filthiness, both of flesh and spirit ; and, by conse- 
 quence, the being endued with those virtues which were also 
 in Christ Jesus; the being so renewed in the image of our 
 mind, as to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect." 
 
 "This sermon," he said in 1765, "contained all that I now 
 teach concerning salvation from all sin, and loving God with 
 an undivided heart." 
 
 In the same sermon he tells us that without the Spirit of 
 God we can do no good, and this holiness of heart is only to 
 be obtained by faith, " which is not only an unshaken assent 
 to all that God hath revealed in Scripture, but in particular to 
 those important truths, ' Christ Jesus came into the world to 
 save sinners/ 'He bare our sins in His own body on the 
 tree,' 'He is the propitiation for our sins,' etc." 
 
 Then follows, "Those who are thus, by faith, born of God, 
 have also strong consolation through hope. This is the next 
 thing which the circumcision of the heart implies ; even the 
 testimony of their own spirit with the Spirit, which witnesses 
 in our hearts that they are the children of God." 
 
 Then, as if in answer to the accusation of his enemies, he 
 adds that this heart religion does not forbid us, as some have
 
 84 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 strangely imagined, to take pleasure in anything but God ; to 
 suppose this is to suppose the Fountain of Holiness is directly 
 the author of sin ; since He has inseparably annexed pleasure 
 to the use of those creatures which are necessary to sustain the 
 life He has given us. "But, at the same time, e/ery good 
 soldier of Christ will not only renounce the works of darkness, 
 but every appetite too, and every affection, which is not 
 subject to the law of God. Vain hope ! that a child of Adam 
 should ever expect to see the kingdom of God without striving, 
 without agonising first, to enter in at the strait gate, without 
 a constant and continued course of general self-denial." 
 
 "This," adds Wesley, "is God's short and plain account of 
 true religion and virtue. Other sacrifices from us He would 
 not, but the loving sacrifice of the heart He hath chosen. 
 And no creature shall be suffered to share with Him, for He is 
 a jealous God."
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 DEATH OF THE RECTOR OF EPWORTH. 
 
 IN the year 1733 John Wesley issued his first printed pro- 
 duction, A Collection of Forms of Prayer for Every Day in the 
 Week. 
 
 These prayers, originally designed for the use of Wesley's 
 pupils, showed some of the principles and aims of the Oxford 
 Methodists. 
 
 " They longed for the love of God to be the sole actuating 
 power in the use they made of their understanding, affections, 
 senses, health, time, and talents ; that God might always be 
 present to their minds ; that they might ever have awful 
 thoughts of Him, and never mention His holy and reverend 
 name unless on just, solemn, and devout occasions, nor even 
 then without acts of adoration ; and that they might glorify Him 
 by every thought of their hearts, every word of their tongues, 
 and every work of their hands, and by professing His truth, 
 even to the death, if it should please Him to call them 
 to it. 
 
 " They wished to be made all kindness and benignity, all 
 goodness and gentleness, all meekness and long-suffering ; and 
 to be filled with the whole spirit of humility, and to have it the 
 constant, ruling habit of their minds. They dreaded applause, 
 and desired never to speak a word that might tend to their 
 own praise, unless the good of others required it. They 
 endeavoured to abstain from all pleasures which did not 
 prepare them for taking pleasure in God. 
 
 " They acted upon the principle of excluding none from their 
 charity who were the objects of God's mercy. They embraced
 
 86 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 all occasions to assist the needy, to protect the oppressed, to 
 instruct the ignorant, to confirm the wavering, to exhort the 
 good, and to rebuke the wicked. They wished to look upon 
 the failings of their neighbours as if they were their own, and 
 never revealed them but when charity required, and then with 
 tenderness and compassion. 
 
 " Space forbids further reference to these prayers. Suffice 
 it to say that, for reverential feeling, simplicity and beauty of 
 expression, scriptural sentiment, Christian benevolence, and 
 earnest longings for the highest holiness ; for adoration, peni- 
 tence, deprecation, petition, thanksgiving, and intercession 
 they have no superiors, perhaps hardly any equals, in the 
 English language." 1 
 
 After the death of Morgan, it appeared probable, says 
 Southey, that Wesley would soon follow him to that world, 
 the preparation for which they seemed to consider not merely 
 as the most important, but as the sole business of this. Hard 
 study, exercise carried sometimes in his journeys beyond his 
 strength, the exertion of frequent preaching and earnest 
 discourse, fasting upon all the appointed days of the Ancient 
 Church, and a most abstemious diet at all times, had reduced 
 him to an alarming condition, and at last he was awakened 
 one night by the breaking of a blood vessel Evidently 
 thinking himself in great danger, he wrote in his diary this 
 cry to the Almighty : " Oh, prepare me for Thy coming, 
 and come when Thou wilt" 
 
 The poor mother at Epworth suffered a good deal of 
 anxiety about the health of her two Oxford sons, and, whilst 
 writing hearty commendation of their work, could not refrain 
 from the motherly expostulation 
 
 " I don't know how you may have represented your case 
 
 to Dr. Huntingdon. I have had occasion to make some 
 
 observation in consumptions, and am pretty certain that 
 
 several symptoms of that disorder are beginning upon you, 
 
 1 Tyerman.
 
 DEATH OF THE RECTOR OF EP WORTH. 87 
 
 and that unless you take more care than you do, you will 
 put the matter past dispute in a little time. But take your 
 own way; I have already given you up, as I have some 
 before which once were very dear to me. Charles, though 
 I believe not in a consumption, is in a fine state of health 
 for a man of two or three and twenty! It is a great pity 
 that folks should be no wiser, and that they can't fit the 
 mean in a case where it is so obvious to view that none can 
 mistake it that do not do it on purpose." 
 
 John placed himself under the direction of medical men, 
 and after awhile recovered. 
 
 About this time Samuel accepted the mastership of Tiverton 
 School, and, before removing so far westward, went to Epworth 
 to visit his parents, where his two brothers joined him, that 
 all the family might be assembled together for the last time 
 upon earth. The aged Rector, who had been failing for a 
 long time, was solicitous that John should, if possible, obtain 
 the living and be his successor, his chief reasons being 
 anxiety that the good he had effected in the parish should 
 not be lost by the luke-warmness of his successor, and also 
 that his wife and daughters might not be left homeless upon 
 his death. John seems to have given no decided answer at 
 the time ; however, after his return to Oxford, he wrote to his 
 mother 
 
 "You observed when I was with you that I was very 
 indifferent as to the having or not having the living of Epworth. 
 I was indeed utterly unable to determine either way ; and that 
 for this reason : I know if I could stand my ground here, and 
 approve myself a faithful minister of our blessed Jesus, by 
 honour and dishonour, through evil report and good report, 
 then there would not be a place under the Heaven like this 
 for improvement in every good work. But whether I can stem 
 the torrent which I saw then, but see now much more, rolling 
 down all sides upon me, that I know not. It is true there is 
 One who can yet either command the great water-flood that it
 
 88 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 shall not come nigh me, or make a way for His redeemed to 
 pass through. But then something must be done on my part ; 
 and should He give me even that most equitable condition, 
 'According to thy faith be it unto thee,' yet how shall I fulfil it? 
 Why, He will look to that too, my father and you helping 
 together with your prayers that our faith fail not." 
 
 An absence of some little time from Oxford showed how soon 
 the effects of all his exertion might be lost when his presence 
 was withdrawn from his little band of associates, for by the 
 time he returned the Methodists had diminished in number from 
 twenty-seven to five. " One of his (Wesley's) pupils confessed 
 that he was becoming more and more afraid of singularity ; 
 another had studied some of Mr. Locke's writings, which had 
 convinced him of the mischief of regarding authority ; a third 
 had been converted from fasting by a fever and a physician." 1 
 
 Some of the twenty-seven appear to have been ladies, but 
 the five who remained steadfast during their leader's absence 
 were all men. These things made John consider seriously 
 what the consequences of his singularity were. As regards 
 himself, it was evident they were diminution of fortune, loss of 
 friends and of reputation. 
 
 "As to my fortune," said he, " I well know, though perhaps 
 others do not, that I could not have borne a larger than I 
 have. For friends, they are either trifling or serious ; if triflers, 
 fare them well, a noble escape ; if serious, those who are more 
 serious are left. And as for reputation, though it be a 
 glorious instrument of advancing our Master's service, yet 
 there is a better than that, a clean heart, a single eye, and a 
 soul full of God. A fair exchange, if by the loss of reputa- 
 tion we can purchase the lowest degree of purity of heart." 
 
 John now considered the Epworth matter more in reference 
 to the well-being of his own soul, arguing that where he could 
 be most holy himself, there he could most promote the holiness 
 of others ; to which his father answered that even at Oxford he 
 
 1 Southey.
 
 DEATH OF THE RECTOR OF EP WORTH. 89 
 
 might have promoted holiness much more than he had done, 
 if he had taken the right method. 
 
 "For," said the old man, "there is a particular turn of mind 
 for these matters, great prudence as well as great fervour. I 
 cannot allow austerity or fasting, considered by themselves, to 
 be proper acts of holiness, nor am I for a solitary life. God 
 made us for a social life. We are to Met our lights shine 
 before men,' and that not merely through the chinks of a 
 bushel for fear the wind should blow it out; the design of 
 lighting it was that it might 'give light to all who are in 
 the house ' of God. And to this academical studies are only 
 preparatory." 
 
 Very touching and eloquent are the father's concluding 
 words 
 
 " We are not to fix our view on one single point of duty, 
 but to take in the complicated view of all the circumstances in 
 every state of life that offers. Thus in the case before us, put 
 all the circumstances together; if you are not indifferent 
 whether the labours of an aged father, for above forty years in 
 God's vineyard, be lost, and the fences of it trodden down 
 and destroyed; if you consider that Mr. M. must in all 
 probability succeed me if you do not, and that the prospect 
 of that mighty Nimrod's coming hither shocks my soul, and is 
 in a fair way of bringing down my grey hair with sorrow to the 
 grave; if you have any care for our family, which must be 
 dismally shattered as soon as I am dropt ; if you reflect on 
 the dear love and longing which this poor people has for you, 
 whereby you will be enabled to do God the more service, and 
 the plenteousness of the harvest, consisting of near two thou- 
 sand souls, whereas you have not many more souls in the 
 University ; you may perhaps alter your mind, and bend your 
 will to His, who has promised if in all our ways we acknow- 
 ledge Him, He will direct our paths." 
 
 Samuel, on the other hand, set before John his own example, 
 in having twice taken important steps in life at the desire of
 
 90 JOHN WESLE Y. 
 
 his father ; he also told John that, having taken Orders, he was 
 solemnly engaged to undertake " the cure of souls before God 
 and His High Priest and His Church." 1 
 
 Wesley, in reply to his father and brother, argued as if his 
 own salvation would be rendered impossible at Epworth. 
 He could not, he said, stand his ground there for a month 
 "against intemperance in sleeping, eating, and drinking; his 
 spirit would thus be dissolved ; the cares and desires of the 
 world would roll back upon him, and while he preached to 
 others he should be a castaway himself." Freedom from 
 trifling acquaintance was necessary for him; he dreaded, as 
 the bane of piety, the company of good sort of men who were 
 lukewarm Christians. 
 
 " They undermine insensibly," says he, "all my resolutions, 
 and quite steal from me the little favour I have. I never 
 come from among these saints of the word (as John Valdesso 
 calls them) faint, dissipated, and shorn of all my strength, but 
 I say, 'God deliver me from a half Christian.' " 
 
 He stood in need of the close religious companionship he 
 had at Oxford, and there, too, he had none of the cares of the 
 world ; his income was provided for him ; there was no anxiety 
 about the things of this world; there, too, he endured that 
 contempt which is a part of the cross that every man who 
 would follow his Saviour must bear. 8 
 
 Much good, also, he declared was to be done to others by 
 his continuance at Oxford ; " the schools of the prophets were 
 there: was it not a more extensive benefit to sweeten the 
 fountain, than to purify a particular stream ? " And in refer- 
 ence to Epworth's being a wider sphere of action, where he 
 would have the charge of two thousand souls, he cried, 
 "Two thousand souls! I see not how any man living can 
 
 1 Southey. 
 
 * To which Samuel replied, " What you say of contempt is nothing to 
 the purpose, for if you go to Epworth, I can answer for it you shall in 
 a competent time be despised as much as your heart can wish."
 
 THE HIGH OXFORD,
 
 9 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 take care of an hundred. If any stress be laid upon the love 
 of the people of Epworth, I ask how long will it last? 
 Only till I come to tell them plainly that their deeds are evil, 
 and to make a particular application of that general sentence, 
 to say to each, ' Thou art the man I ' Alas, sir, do I not 
 know what love they had for you at first? And how have 
 they used you since? Why, just as every one will be used 
 whose business it is to bring light to them that love to sit in 
 darkness ! " And to the last part of his father's letter he 
 replied thus, " As for the flock committed to your care, whom 
 for many years you have diligently fed with the sincere milk of 
 the word, I trust in God your labour shall not be in vain, 
 either to yourself or them. Many of them the Great Shepherd 
 has, by your hand, delivered from the hand of the destroyer, 
 some of whom are already entered into peace, and some 
 remain unto this day. For yourself, I doubt not, but when 
 your warfare is accomplished, when you are made perfect 
 through sufferings, you shall come to your grave, not with 
 sorrow, but as a ripe shock of corn, full of years and victories. 
 And He that took care of the poor sheep before you were born 
 will not forget them when you are dead." 
 
 Samuel now saw that it was useless to urge his brother any 
 more about the Epworth living, but he persisted in declaring 
 it to be his duty to undertake some special cure of souls. 
 "The order of the Church," he said, "stakes you down, and 
 the more you struggle will hold the faster. You must, when 
 opportunity offers, either perform that promise or repent of it : 
 utrum mavis ? which do you prefer ? " 
 
 John admitted the force of his ordination vow, but denied 
 that it had this meaning, and finally wrote to the Bishop who 
 ordained him, asking whether he had, at ordination, engaged 
 himself to undertake the cure of a parish or not ? 
 
 The Bishop's answer was " It doth not seem to me that, 
 at your ordination, you engaged yourself to undertake the 
 cure of any parish, provided you can, as a clergyman, better
 
 DEATH OF THE RECTOR OF EPWORTH. 93 
 
 serve God and His Church in your present or some other 
 station." 
 
 In telling his brother of this answer John adds, " Now that I 
 can, as a clergyman, better serve God and His Church in my 
 present station I have all reasonable evidence." 
 
 There the matter rested, according to some of Wesley's 
 biographers; but Tyerman tells us that before his father's 
 death, which took place two months afterwards, John did 
 actually apply for the Epworth living, but was not successful, 
 and in support of this assertion he brings forward a letter from 
 Wesley's friend Broughton, 1 who was curate of the Tower in 
 London, stating what efforts had been made on his behalf 
 (and presumably at his request) "in attempting what, if crowned 
 with success, might prove a means of making our declining 
 friend (the Rector of Epworth) end his days in peace." 
 
 " But where is the obstacle? " wrote this friend. " Why, my 
 Lord of London, who is usually consulted by the Minister of 
 State 2 on such occasions, spoke some disadvantageous things 
 of you once in the presence of SL John " (Viscount Boling- 
 broke, whose intercession they were asking for) ; " but I could 
 not but observe to our friend that the misrepresented strictness 
 of life, which gave occasion for those disadvantageous things 
 to be said of you, was so far from being an objection to your 
 being favoured by a Christian Bishop, that I humbly hoped it 
 would turn to your good account, inasmuch as over-exactness 
 of behaviour was the sign of a tender and well-regulated mind." 
 
 However, the friendly pleading was in vain ; the application 
 was unsuccessful, and presently the Epworth living was given 
 to another. 
 
 And now comes the closing scene in the life of the " Father 
 of the Wesleys." John and Charles were with the old man 
 during the last stage of his illness. A few days before he died 
 he said to them 
 
 1 Published in the Wesley an Times, October 28, 1861. 
 8 The Epworth living was a gift of the Crown.
 
 94 JOHN WESLE Y. 
 
 " The weaker I am in body, the stronger and more sensible 
 support I feel from God. There is but a step between me 
 and death. To-morrow I would see you all with me round 
 this table, that we may once more drink of the cup of 
 blessing before we drink it new in the kingdom of God. ' With 
 desire have I desired to eat this passover with you before I 
 die.'" 
 
 "The next day he was so weak and full of pain," says 
 Southey, "that he could not receive the elements without 
 difficulty, and often repeated, ' Thou shakest me, thou shakest 
 me.' 
 
 "He had no fear of death, and the peace of God which he 
 enjoyed appeared sometimes to suspend his bodily sufferings, 
 and when they recurred, to sustain his mind above them. 
 When, as nature seemed spent and his speech was failing, 
 his son John asked him whether he was not near Heaven, 
 he answered, 'Yes, I am,' distinctly, and with a voice of 
 hope and joy. After John had used the commendatory prayer, 
 he said, ' Now you have done all ' ; these were his last words, 
 and he passed away so peacefully and insensibly, that his 
 children continued over him a considerable time in doubt 
 whether or not the spirit was departed. Mrs. Wesley, who for 
 several days, whenever she entered his chamber, had been 
 carried out of it in a fit, recovered her fortitude now, and said 
 her prayers were heard, for God had granted him an easy 
 death, and had strengthened her to bear it" 
 
 Charles, writing to his absent brother Samuel of his father's 
 last hours, said that immediately after communicating there 
 followed the most visible alteration in his father. "He 
 appeared full of faith and peace, which extended even to his 
 body, for he was so much better that we almost hoped he 
 would have recovered. The fear of death he had entirely 
 conquered, and at last gave up his latest human desires of 
 finishing Job, paying his debts, and seeing you. He often 
 laid his hand upon my head and said, 'Be steady. The
 
 DEATH OF THE RECTOR OF EP WORTH. 95 
 
 Christian faith will surely revive in this kingdom ; you shall 
 see it t though I shall not. 1 To ray sister Emily he said ' Do 
 not be concerned at my death, God will then begin to manifest 
 Himself to my family.' " 
 
 "How patriarchal the scene!" exclaims a writer. "We 
 are reminded of the words of the dying Jacob, ' Behold, I die, 
 
 SAMUEL WESLEY. 
 
 but God will be with you.' How prophetic the language ! 
 How fulfilled to the very letter, both in regard to his family and 
 the nation ! " 
 
 Seven years later, in reviewing the great revival which took 
 place at Epworth, as he preached to the people from his
 
 96 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 father's tombstone, John Wesley exclaimed, referring to that 
 father : 
 
 " Oh ! let none think his labour of love is lost because the 
 fruit does not immediately appear. Near forty years did my 
 father labour here, but he saw little fruit of his labour. I took 
 some pains among the people too, and my strength also seemed 
 spent in vain ; but now the fruit appeared. There was scarcely 
 any in the town, on whom my father or I had taken any pains 
 formerly, but the seed sown so long since now sprang up, 
 bringing forth repentance and remission of sins."
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PROPOSAL TO GO OUT TO GEORGIA. 
 
 IMMEDIATELY after the death of John Wesley's father, in 
 April 1735, most of the little band of Oxford Methodists were 
 widely scattered. Gambold was a clergyman at Stanton- 
 Harcourt; Ingham became a curate in Essex; Whitefield, 1 
 though not ordained, went on an evangelistic tour to Glou- 
 cester, Bristol, and other places ; Broughton was chaplain at the 
 Tower ; and the two Wesleys repaired to the metropolis, and 
 became the guests of James Hutton's father in Westminster. 
 
 Young Hutton was nineteen years old; he had met the 
 Wesley brothers at Oxford, and had invited them to visit him. 
 His father was an ordained clergyman of the Church of Eng 
 land, but not being able to take the oaths at the accession of 
 George I., he had resigned his Church preferments, and now 
 kept a boarding-school in a house next door to that of Wesley's 
 brother Samuel. 2 Here on Sunday evenings the venerable 
 man held meetings, at which he read and prayed and sung 
 with penitents ; and here Wesley preached a sermon on " One 
 thing is needful," which was the means of converting both 
 James Hutton and his sister. 
 
 Now, just at this time Dr. John Burton, of Corpus Christi 
 College, Oxford, was taking great interest in the colonisation 
 
 1 It was through Charles Wesley that Whitefield, then a servitor at 
 Oxford, joined the Methodists. He had noticed the devout conduct of the 
 Wesleys, with the ridicule to which they were subject, and seized a 
 chance opportunity of becoming acquainted with Charles, who became his 
 spiritual father. 
 
 * Tyerman's Life and Times of Wesley*
 
 98 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 of Georgia, and he met Wesley in London, and introduced 
 him to General Oglelhorpe. This remarkable man, the 
 friend of Johnson, the patron of the Wesleys, the founder of 
 the youngest of our American colonies, and the "delightful 
 old beau" of Hannah More, was the son of Sir Theophiluf 
 Oglethorpe, of Goldalming, and an Irish mother, from whom 
 he inherited not a few of the characteristics of her countrymen. 
 He was a patron of literature ; he had been one of the late 
 Rector of Epworth's chief subscribers to his book on Job ; a 
 soldier, a philanthropist, a legislator, and, as he was a wonder- 
 fully active man, at forty he had the experience of several 
 average lives ; he had been at Oxford ; in the English army ; 
 he had, under Prince Eugene, taken part in battles which, 
 after nearly half a century, he retraced with undimmed memory 
 for the benefit of Warton and Johnson; and, still young, he 
 had become a member of Parliament. His parliamentary 
 career showed a foreshadowing of the labours of Howard. 
 The state of the prisons in that day was something fearful. 
 No criminal of any grade is now punished as was a debtor in 
 the last century. Oglethorpe's sympathies were first kindled 
 by the sufferings of a friend in the Fleet, 1 and were not 
 extinguished with the misfortune that excited them ; he 
 brought the perpetrators of the atrocities committed in these 
 prisons before a parliamentary committee, celebrated alike by 
 pen and pencil. Thomson, with better feeling than poetry, 
 describes 
 
 " The generous band, 
 
 Who, touched by human woe, redressive searched 
 
 Into the horrors of the gloomy gaol, 
 
 Where misery moans unpitied and unheard, 
 
 Where sickness pines, where thirst and hunger burn, 
 
 And poor misfortune feels the lash of vice." 
 
 "And Hogarth, with more graphic power, depicts the 
 skulking gaoler cowering before the committee, while his half- 
 
 1 J. Wedgewood.
 
 PROPOSAL TO GO OUT TO GEORGIA. 99 
 
 naked victim points out the instruments of torture which had 
 possessed so dreadful a significance for him. The misery 
 which Oglethorpe witnessed drove him to seek not alleviation 
 but cure. He resolved to give the Fleet and the Marshalsea 
 scope and subsistence in the forests of the New World ; and a 
 large tract of fertile and well-watered land to the south of South 
 Carolina, over which the jurisdiction of England was still 
 merely nominal/' seemed to him and his friends the right spot 
 in that sunny clime in which to plant the children of mis- 
 fortune whom they had released from prison, but who were 
 still without food and shelter. Accordingly, on the gih of 
 June 1732, a charter was obtained from George II. "erecting 
 this thin slice of America into the province of Georgia, and 
 appointing Oglethorpe and twenty other gentlemen (of whom 
 Dr. Burton was one) trustees to hold the same for the period 
 of one-and-twenty years ' in trust for the poor.' The benevo- 
 lence of England was aroused." The trustees gave liberally, 
 the Bank of England presented ; 10,000, the House of 
 Commons voted an equal amount, and the total sum, easily 
 raised, was ,36,000. 
 
 The first emigrants, one hundred and fifty in number, taken 
 out by Oglethorpe as commander, were accompanied by the 
 Rev. Henry Herbert, a clergyman of the Church of England. 
 On their arrival at the high bluff on which Savannah is now 
 erected, the colonists encamped and began to build their town. 
 Every freeholder was allotted fifty acres of ground, five of which 
 were near Savannah and forty-five farther off. Thus did the 
 Commonwealth of Georgia begin ; and the humane reformer of 
 prison life found himself already the father of a State. The 
 Indians showed themselves to be friendly, and made an alliance 
 with the colony. It seemed to Oglethorpe that a door was 
 open for the conversion of the Indians, and nothing was want- 
 ing but a minister who understood their language. 
 
 The next company of emigrants who were sent to Georgia 
 were poor persecuted Germans from Salzburg, who had been
 
 ioo JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 led to renounce Popery and embrace the Reformed religion. 
 Thousands had fled from the fearful persecutions at Salz- 
 burg, and others were still in prison there, fed with bread and 
 water, and employing themselves in praying and singing 
 psalms. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel heard 
 of these poor persecuted Protestants, and proposed to them to 
 emigrate to Georgia. A section of the poor people gladly 
 accepted the offer, and on October 3ist, 1733, set out for 
 Georgia, arriving there in the month of March. They were 
 met by Oglethorpe, and chose a settlement twenty-one miles 
 from Savannah, where there were "rivers, little hills, clear 
 brooks, cool springs, a fertile soil, and plenty of grass." The 
 spot which they chose, and to which they gave the name of 
 Ebenezer, was surrounded by vast forests of cedars, walnuts, 
 cypresses, and oaks, with wild vines running to the top of the 
 highest trees. As to game, there were eagles, turkeys, roe- 
 bucks, goats, deer, wild cows, horses, hares, partridges, 
 and buffaloes without number. The Salzburghers built 
 tents made of the bark of trees, constructed roads and 
 bridges, set up religious services, were furnished with 
 domestic utensils and with cattle, and were soon a pros- 
 perous community. 
 
 Oglethorpe next came over to England, bringing with him 
 some Indians to invigorate the confidence of England in the 
 destiny of Georgia. All went well, Parliament continued its 
 benefactions, the new colony prospered. 
 
 The next emigrants who went out to Georgia were a party 
 of Scotch Highlanders, then a company of Moravians, and 
 then a number of men with whom we are now more directly 
 interested; for it was proposed by Dr. Burton and General 
 Oglethorpe that Wesley should go with them, on a mission to the 
 infant colony and to the friendly Indians. If he went, he was 
 to go as a Missioner of the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel, and it was Dr. Burton's wish that his brother Charles 
 should go also. Whilst they were still at Oxford the doctor
 
 PROPOSAL TO GO OUT TO GEORGIA. 101 
 
 had thought how advisable it would be to send to Georgia men 
 like the Wesleys, inured to hardness of life, full of zeal, and 
 wishful for hard work. Charles was not ordained ; if he went, 
 therefore, it was proposed that he should go as General 
 Oglethorpe's secretary. 
 
 At first John peremptorily refused to entertain the proposal, 
 and chiefly upon his mother's account. When many objec- 
 tions which he made were answered, and some difficulties 
 which he started were removed, he mentioned the grief it might 
 give his mother. " I can be," said he, " the staff of her age, 
 her chief support and comfort." 
 
 " Will you go if your mother's consent can be obtained ? " 
 he was asked. 
 
 He thought this would be impossible, but went to Epworth 
 to lay the proposal before her, upon which she replied in a 
 manner worthy of the mother of the Wesleys. 
 
 "Had I" said she, "twenty sons, I should rejoice that they 
 were all so employed, though I should never see them more" 
 
 Still Wesley did not even then consent to go until he had 
 consulted other friends, the most important of whom were 
 probably William Law and Samuel Wesley. Both these 
 approved of the plan ; most likely Samuel thought it well 
 that he should engage in a work which called for so much 
 zeal, that the excess of it which had led him into extrava- 
 gances might find full employment. It was indeed his 
 growing asceticism which made John long for removal from 
 the temptations of the world, and he had a very mistaken 
 idea of the labours of a missionary to the heathen. In a 
 letter dated October loth, 1735, he gives his reasons for going 
 to Georgia. 
 
 "My chief reason is the hope of saving my own soul I 
 hope to learn the true sense of the gospel of Christ by 
 preaching it to the heathen. They have no comments to 
 construe away the text ; no vain philosophy to corrupt it ; no 
 luxurious, sensual, covetous, ambitious expounders to soften its
 
 102 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 unpleasing truths. They have no party, no interest to serve, 
 and are therefore willing to receive the Gospel in its simplicity. 
 They are as little children, humble, willing to learn, and eager 
 to do the will of God. 
 
 " A right faith will, I trust, by the mercy of God, open the 
 way for a right practice ; especially when most of those 
 temptations are removed which here so easily beset me. 
 It will be no small thing to be able, without fear of 
 giving offence, to live on water and the fruits of the earth. 
 An Indian hut affords no food for curiosity, no gratifica- 
 tion of the desire of grand or new or pretty things. The 
 pomp or show of the world have no place in the wilds of 
 America. 
 
 "Further, I hope from the moment I leave the English 
 shore, under the acknowledged character of a teacher sent 
 from God, there shall be no word heard from my lips but 
 what properly flows from that character ; and the same faith- 
 fulness I hope to show in dispensing my Master's goods, if 
 it please Him to send me to those who, like His first followers, 
 have all things common. What a guard is here against that 
 root of evil, the love of money, and all the vile attractions that 
 spring from it ! 
 
 "I then hope to know what it is to love my neighbour as 
 myself, and to feel the powers of that second motive to visit 
 the heathens, even the desire to impart to them what I have 
 received a saving knowledge of the Gospel of Christ I 
 have been a grievous sinner from my youth up, and am yet 
 laden with foolish and hurtful desires; but I am assured, if 
 I be once converted myself, God will then employ me both 
 to strengthen my brethren, and to preach His name to the 
 Gentiles. 
 
 " I cannot hope to attain the same degree of holiness here 
 which I may there. I shall lose nothing I desire to keep. I 
 shall still have food to eat and raiment to put on ; and if any 
 man have a desire of other things, let him know that the
 
 PROPOSAL TO GO OUT TO GEORGIA. 103 
 
 greatest blessing that can possibly befall him is to be cut off 
 from all occasions of gratifying those desires which, unless 
 speedily rooted out, will drown his soul in everlasting per- 
 dition." 
 
 We take exception to some of the sentiments and expres- 
 sions used in this letter; still, as it stands, it discloses very 
 plainly what was the mind of its writer at that time. 
 
 Wesley's heart was indeed set upon righteousness; he desired 
 above everything to know God, "which is life eternal," and he 
 was eager to lay aside everything which might detain him and 
 hinder the achievement of his purpose. And though his chief 
 motive was the " saving of his own soul," his chief dread that 
 of " everlasting perdition," by the practice of a holy life he was 
 proceeding on a way in which he would be certain, sooner or 
 later, to have further light. For it is true, that if any one will 
 do His will, he shall know of the doctrine. 
 
 So Wesley, and his brother Charles also, consented to go to 
 Georgia; but they were not suffered to depart without many 
 expostulations from their friends. 
 
 One, who was an unbeliever, said to Wesley 
 
 "What is this, sir? Are you turned Quixote too? will 
 nothing serve you but to encounter windmills ? " 
 
 " Sir, if the Bible be not true," calmly replied the other, " I 
 am as very a fool and madman as you can conceive ; but if it 
 be of God, I am sober-minded. For He has declared, ' There 
 is no man that hath left house, or friends, or brethren, for the 
 kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more 
 in the present time, and in the world to come everlasting 
 life.'" 
 
 The young men's uncle, Matthew Wesley, was a physician 
 in London, and he sometimes made light of holy things. One 
 day, when Charles was dining with him, he made fun about 
 John's " apostolical project," as he called it. 
 
 "When the French found any remarkably dull fellow among 
 them," he said, " they sent him to convert the heathen."
 
 104 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 But Charles checked his raillery by repeating 
 
 " To distant lands the apostles need not roam, 
 Darkness, alas I and heathen are at home." 
 
 Two days before the brothers sailed, John fulfilled one of 
 his father's last wishes by presenting to the Queen a copy of 
 his Dissertations on the Book of Job, upon which occasion he 
 received "many good words and smiles."
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ON BOARD SHIP. 
 
 "TUESDAY, October 14, 1735, Mr. Benjamin Ingham, of 
 Queen's College, Oxford; Mr. Charles Delamotte, son of a 
 merchant in London, who had offered himself some days 
 before ; my brother Charles Wesley, and myself, took boat for 
 Gravesend, in order to embark for Georgia. Our end in 
 leaving our native country was not to avoid want (God having 
 given us plenty of temporal blessings), nor to gain the dross of 
 riches or honour ; but singly this, to save our souls to live 
 wholly to the glory of God. In the afternoon we found the 
 Simmonds off Gravesend, and immediately went on board. 
 
 " Wednesday and Thursday we spent with one or two of our 
 friends, partly on board and partly on shore, in exhorting one 
 another to shake off every weight and to run with patience 
 the race set before us." l 
 
 Let us glance at the writer of these lines as he paces the 
 deck of the Simmonds, sometimes conversing with his friends, 
 and sometimes rapt in meditation. He is a little slender 
 man, but his step is firm and his appearance vigorous and 
 muscular. His face is a very fine one a clear, smooth 
 forehead ; an aquiline nose ; an eye " the brightest and most 
 piercing that can be conceived," and a fresh complexion ; his 
 hair is long and carefully dressed. 
 
 Let us turn to his companions. Little need be said of his 
 
 brother Charles, the sweet hymn-writer, known of all who sing 
 
 God's praises, whether in church or chapel, throughout the 
 
 English-speaking world. He is small too, as we have seen, 
 
 1 Wesky 's Journal
 
 106 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 and he is also near-sighted and abrupt in his manners ; but he 
 is affectionate, of a lively disposition, and gifted with "sparkling 
 wit and humour." It was said of him later that "with his wit he 
 silenced infidels, quelled mobs, confounded magistrates, priests, 
 and bishops. Naturally timid, religion made him as bold as 
 Luther or Knox. He could face mobs without fear, and sing 
 sweetly in the midst of storms." The same writer says that, as 
 a preacher, Charles was superior to John. He intended to be 
 a college tutor all his life, but Providence marked out other 
 work for him. He has just been ordained deacon by Bishop 
 Potter. 
 
 Then there is Benjamin Ingham, a young Yorkshireman, 
 twenty-three years of age, who for the last three months has 
 been preaching in the villages surrounding London with 
 singular success. 
 
 "Fast and pray," wrote Wesley to him in the beginning of 
 September, " fast and pray ; and then send me word whether 
 you dare go with me to the Indians." Ingham at first thought 
 there was enough to do at home, but a fortnight after he 
 acquiesced in Wesley's proposal. 
 
 Charles Delamotte is a young man of twenty-one (the son of 
 a Middlesex magistrate), who is so attached to Wesley, that 
 when he heard he was about to embark for Georgia, he 
 determined to go with him, and to act as his servant. To 
 this, naturally enough, his father strongly objected, and offered 
 to settle him in a handsome business; but the youth was 
 obstinate, and, after obtaining a half-consent from his parents 
 and family, set sail with Wesley, bent upon serving him as a 
 son in the gospel, and enduring hardness as a good soldier of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Then there is a much older man, David Nitschmann, who 
 was born in Moravia, and is now in the sixtieth year of his 
 age. "In 1720 a remarkable revival of religion took place in 
 the .town where David lived, but by the intervention of the 
 Jesuits, the meetings of the new converts were prohibited, and
 
 ON BOARD SHIP. 107 
 
 many who attended them were imprisoned in stables, cellars, 
 and other offensive places. 1 A police officer entered Nitsch- 
 mann's house, where one hundred and fifty of these godly people 
 were assembled, and seized all the books within his reach. 
 The congregation at once struck up a stanza of one of Luther's 
 hymns 
 
 " ' If the whole world with devils swarmed, 
 
 That threatened us to swallow, 
 We will not fear, for we are armed, 
 And victory will follow.' 
 
 Twenty persons, including David, all heads of respectable 
 families, were arrested and sent to gaol. For three days David 
 was deprived of food, and was so cruelly ironed that the blood 
 spurted from his nose and mouth and oozed from his very 
 pores. After some time he escaped from his horrid dungeon, 
 and fled for safety to his Moravian friends at Herrnhuth." 
 
 David is now a Moravian bishop, and, accompanied by 
 about thirty Moravians, is on his way to visit the congregation 
 in Georgia. 
 
 We must not omit to mention the central figure of Ogle- 
 thorpe, of whom, about half a century later, Hannah More 
 wrote " He is much above ninety years of age, and the finest 
 figure you ever saw. He perfectly realises all my ideas of 
 Nestor. His literature is great, his knowledge of the world 
 extensive, and his faculties as bright as ever. He is quite 
 a preux chevalier^ heroic, romantic, and full of the old 
 gallantry." 
 
 As a younger man, as indeed we see him on board the 
 SimmondS) though the very soul of benevolence and honour, 
 though brave and loyal, and full of enthusiastic feeling, he 
 is irascible, and sometimes rash, talkative, and somewhat 
 boastful. 
 
 We are told the following story of him. During the voyage 
 
 1 Tytrznan.
 
 io8 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 to America, Wesley, hearing an unusual noise in the General's 
 cabin, entered to inquire the cause, on which the angry soldier 
 cried 
 
 " Excuse me, Mr. Wesley, I have met with a provocation 
 too great to bear. This villain Grimaldi" (pointing to his 
 Italian servant) "has drunk nearly the whole of my (Syprus 
 wine, the only wine that agrees with me, and several dozens of 
 which I have provided for myself. But I am determined to 
 be revenged. The rascal shall be tied hand and foot, and be 
 carried to the man-of-war ; for I never forgive." 
 
 "Then, "said Wesley with great calmness, "then I hope, 
 sir, you never sin." 
 
 Oglethorpe was confounded, his vengeance was gone; he put 
 his hand into his pocket, pulled out a bunch of keys and threw 
 them at Grimaldi, saying, " There, villain, take my keys and 
 behave better for the future." 
 
 On another occasion, when some of the officers and gentle- 
 men on board were annoying Wesley and his friends, with 
 whose strictness of life and religious services they were dis- 
 pleased, Oglethorpe indignantly exclaimed 
 
 " What mean you, sirs ? Do you take these gentlemen for 
 tithe-pig parsons ? They are gentlemen of learning and respect- 
 ability ! They are my friends, and whoever offers an affront to 
 them insults me ! " 
 
 This was quite enough; ever afterwards the Methodists 
 were treated with respect, both by the officers and passengers. 
 
 Wesley had not been more than a day or two at sea 
 when he began to learn German, in order that he might be 
 able to converse with the Germans on board, who from the 
 first seemed to have impressed him with their piety; and 
 Nitschmann and some of the other Germans began to learn 
 English. 
 
 Whilst Wesley had been at Oxford he had always been 
 restrained, perhaps unconsciously, by some regard for appear- 
 ances ; but now, when that restraint was no longer felt, he and
 
 ON BOARD SHIP. 
 
 109 
 
 his companions began to put their ascetic principles in full 
 practice. He says in his Journal 
 
 " Believing the denying ourselves, even in the smallest 
 
 GENERAL OGLETHORPE AND HIS SERVANT. 
 
 instances, might, by the blessing of God, be helpful to us, 
 we wholly left off the use of flesh and wine, and confined 
 ourselves to vegetable food, chiefly rice and biscuit."
 
 i io JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 After a while he adds : " Finding nature did not require so 
 frequent supplies as we had been accustomed to, we agreed to 
 leave off suppers ; " and then Wesley, having slept on the floor 
 one night because his bed had been damaged in a storm, 
 thought he should not find it needful to sleep in bed any 
 more. His next experiment was whether life might not as 
 well be sustained by one sort of food as by variety. 1 He and 
 Delamotte accordingly tried with bread, as being the staff of 
 life, and they found they continued to be vigorous and hearty. 
 This caused him to exclaim 
 
 " Blessed are the pure in heart ; to them all things are pure ; 
 every creature is good to them, and nothing to be rejected. 
 But let them who are not thus pure use every help and remove 
 every hindrance, always remembering that he that despiseth 
 little things shall fall by little and little." "At this time," his 
 biographers say, " he had only attained to the spirit of bondage 
 unto fear, and he found that all his senses were ready to betray 
 him into sin, upon every exercise of them." 
 
 In this spirit he wrote from on board to his brother Samuel, 
 entreating him to banish all such poison from his school as the 
 classics that were usually read there, and introduce Christian 
 authors in their place, for it was his duty to instruct his 
 scholars, "not only in the beggarly elements of Greek and 
 Latin, but much more in the Gospel." " Fanaticism always 
 comes to this," says Southey, "in its progress: first it depre- 
 ciates learning, then it would destroy it There have been 
 Christians, as they believed themselves, who would have burnt 
 the Alexandrian library upon the same logic as the Caliph 
 Omar, with no other difference than that of calling their book 
 by a Greek name instead of an Arabic one." 
 
 Very strictly did Wesley and his friends portion out their 
 time. From four in the morning till five they used private 
 prayer : from five until seven they read the Bible together, 
 carefully comparing it with the writings of the earliest ages. 
 
 1 Southey.
 
 ON BOARD SHIP. m 
 
 At seven they breakfasted, and at eight they had public 
 prayers. From nine till twelve John Wesley learnt German, 
 and Delamotte studied Greek, Charles wrote sermons, and 
 Ingham instructed the children on board. At twelve they 
 met, and each gave an account of what he had done since 
 their last meeting, and of what he intended to do before they 
 left About one they dined, and from dinner until about four 
 they read to or exhorted those of whom each had taken 
 especial charge. There were evening prayers at four, when the 
 second lesson was explained, or the children were catechised 
 and instructed before the congregation. From six to seven 
 each read in his cabin to a few of the passengers. At seven 
 Wesley joined the Germans in their public service, whilst 
 Ingham read between the decks to as many as liked to listen ; 
 at eight they met again to instruct and exhort. Between nine 
 and ten they retired to rest, being no doubt thoroughly 
 fatigued, and Wesley said " neither the waving of the sea, nor 
 the motion of the ship, could take away the refreshing sleep 
 which God gave us." 
 
 It was a rough season, and presently a terrible storm came 
 on, or rather three storms, the last of which was by far the 
 worst. We will give Wesley's description of it. He had been 
 saying that during the previous one he had felt " much ashamed 
 of his unwillingness to die," and the behaviour of the Germans 
 must therefore have made all the more impression upon him. 
 
 "Sunday, 25th (of January). At noon our third storm 
 began. At four it was more violent than before. Now indeed 
 we could say, ' The waves of the sea were mighty and raged 
 horribly. They rose up to the Heavens above, and clove down 
 to hell beneath.' The wind roared round about us, and 
 (what I never heard before) whistled as distinctly as if it had 
 been a human voice. The sea not only rocked to and fro with 
 the utmost violence, but shook and jarred with so unequal 
 grating a motion, that one could not but with great difficulty 
 keep one's hold of anything, nor stand a moment without it.
 
 iia JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 Every ten minutes came a shock against the stern or side of 
 the ship which one would think should dash the planks in 
 pieces. At this time a child privately baptised before was 
 brought to be received into the Church. It put me in mind 
 of Jeremiah's buying the field when the Chaldeans were on the 
 point of destroying Jerusalem, and seemed a pledge of the 
 mercy God designed to show us, even in the land of the 
 living. 
 
 " We spent two or three hours after prayers in conversing 
 suitably to the occasion, confirming one another in a calm 
 submission to the wise, holy, gracious will of God. And now 
 a storm did not appear so terrible as before. Blessed be the 
 God of all consolation I 
 
 "At seven I went to the Germans. I had long observed 
 the great seriousness of their behaviour. Of their humility 
 they had given a continual proof, by performing those servile 
 offices for the other passengers, which none of the English 
 would undertake; for which they desired and would receive 
 no pay, saying ' it was good for their proud hearts,' and 
 ' their loving Saviour had done more for them.' And every 
 day had given them occasion of showing a meekness which 
 no injury could move. If they were pushed, struck, or thrown 
 down, they rose again and went away ; but no complaint was 
 found in their mouth. There was now an opportunity of try- 
 ing whether they were delivered from the spirit of fear, as well 
 as from that of pride, anger, and revenge. In the midst of 
 the psalm wherewith their sermon began, the sea broke over, 
 split the main-sail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured in 
 between the decks, as if the great deep had already swallowed 
 us up. A terrible screaming began among the English. The 
 Germans calmly sung on. I asked one of them afterwards, 
 ' Were you not afraid ? ' He answered, ' I thank God, no.' 
 I asked, ' But were not your women and children afraid ? ' 
 He replied mildly, ' No, our women and children are not afraid 
 to die.'
 
 ri4 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 "From them," continues Wesley, "I went to their cry- 
 ing, trembling neighbours, and pointed out to them the 
 difference in the hour of trial between him that feareth God 
 and him that feareth Him not. At twelve the wind fell. This 
 was the most glorious day which I had hitherto seen." 
 
 Happy Wesley ! It was as if in the midst of the storm he 
 had caught a glimpse of those who had heard the Master's 
 words, " Peace, be still," and for him too " immediately there 
 was a great calm." 
 
 The next day he wrote " We enjoyed the calm. I can con- 
 ceive no difference comparable to that between a smooth and 
 rough sea, except that which is between a mind calmed by 
 the love of God, and one torn up by the storms of earthly 
 passions." 
 
 In nine days more they anchored in the Savannah River.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 IN AMERICA. 
 
 ON February 5th, 1736, "Between two and three in the 
 afternoon," wrote Wesley in his Journal, " God brought us all 
 safely into the Savannah River. We cast anchor near Tybee 
 Island, where the groves of pines, running along the shore, 
 made an agreeable prospect, showing, as it were, the bloom of 
 spring in the depth of winter." 
 
 The next morning, about eight o'clock, Wesley and his 
 friends first set foot on American ground. This was a small 
 uninhabited island, near Tybee. 
 
 Very impressive must have been the scene ! General Ogle- 
 thorpe led the little missionary band to a hill, where they all 
 knelt down to give thanks ; and after that, they took boat for 
 Savannah, which was now a town of forty houses, standing on 
 a flat bluff, rising forty or fifty miles above the crescent river 
 flowing at its base. On the eastern side of the town was a 
 swamp, on the west a wood, and on the south a forest of pines, 
 fourteen miles in length. The principal buildings were a 
 court-house, which served also for a church, a log-built prison, 
 a storehouse, a public mill for grinding corn. All the houses 
 were of the same size. There were still standing the four 
 beautiful pines under which Oglethorpe encamped when he 
 landed with the first, and which for nearly twelve months he 
 used as a sleeping place. At about half a mile's distance 
 was a small Indian town, in which at times large numbers of 
 the Creek nation were accustomed to assemble. 
 
 " When the rest of the people were come to the shore,*
 
 n6 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 wrote Wesley, " we called our little flock together to prayers. 
 Several parts of the second lesson (Mark vi.) were wonderfully 
 suited to the occasion, in particular the account of the courage 
 and sufferings of John the Baptist ; our Lord's directions to 
 the first preachers of His gospel, and their toiling at sea and 
 deliverance, with these comfortable words, ' It is I, be not 
 afraid.'" 
 
 The next day the well-known Moravian elder, August 
 Gottlieb Spannenburg, came to meet Wesley, and bid him 
 welcome to his new sphere of labour. Wesley asked his 
 advice about the work which lay before him. Spannenburg 
 said, "My brother, I must first ask you one or two questions. 
 Have you the witness within yourself? Does the Spirit of 
 God bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of 
 God ? " 
 
 Wesley was surprised at such questions, and did not know 
 what to answer. 
 
 Spannenburg observed this, and asked, " Do you know 
 Jesus Christ ? " 
 
 " I know He is the Saviour of the world," replied Wesley. 
 
 " True," said the other ; " but do you know He has saved 
 you?" 
 
 " I hope He has died to save me," answered Wesley. 
 
 " Do you know yourself? " asked Spannenburg. 
 
 " I do," said Wesley ; but in his Journal afterwards he 
 wrote, "but I fear they were vain words." 
 
 Two days after, when the conversation was renewed, Wesley 
 was the questioner, and drew from his new friend an auto- 
 biography which must have impressed him deeply, and 
 perhaps partly explains the great influence which this and 
 other Moravians had afterwards over his mind. 
 
 "At eighteen years old," said Spannenburg, " I was sent to 
 the University of Jena, where I spent some years in learning 
 languages and the vain philosophy which I have now long 
 been labouring to forget Here it pleased God, by some that
 
 IN AMERICA. 117 
 
 preached His word with power, to overturn my heart. I 
 immediately threw aside all my learning but what tended to 
 save my soul I shunned all company and retired into a 
 solitary place, resolving to spend my life there. For three 
 days I had much comfort here, but on the fourth it was al 1 
 gone. I was amazed, and went for advice to an experienced 
 Christian. When I came to him I could not speak. But he 
 saw my heart and advised me to go back to my house and 
 follow the business Providence called me to. I went back, but 
 was fit for nothing. I could neither do business, nor join 
 in any conversation. All I could say to any one was Yes, 
 or No. Many times I could not say that, nor understand 
 the plainest thing that was said to me. My friends and 
 acquaintance looked upon me as dead, came no more to me, 
 nor spoke about me. 
 
 11 When I grew better, T began teaching some poor children. 
 Others joining with me, we taught more and more, till there 
 were above thirty teachers and above two hundred scholars. 
 I had now invitations to other Universities. But I could not 
 accept of any, desiring only, if it were the will of God, to be 
 little and unknown. I had spent some years thus when 
 Professor Breithouse, of Halle, died; being then pressed to 
 remove thither, I believed it was the will of God and went. I 
 had not been long there before many faults were found, both 
 with my behaviour and preaching; and offences increased 
 more and more, till, after half a year, a petition against me 
 was sent to the King of Prussia, who sent an order to the 
 commander at Halle, in pursuance whereof I was warned to 
 leave the city in forty-eight hours. I did so, and retired to 
 Herrnhuth to Count Zinzendorf. 
 
 " The village of Herrnhuth contains about a thousand souls, 
 gathered out of many nations. They hold fast the discipline 
 as well as the faith and practice of the Apostolical Church. I 
 was desired by the brethren there last year to conduct sixteen 
 of them to Georgia, where two lots of ground are assigned us,
 
 u8 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 and with them I have stayed ever since." Wesley asked 
 whither he was to go next ? To which the good man replied, 
 " I have thoughts of going to Pennsylvania. But what God 
 will do with me, I know not. I am blind. I am a child. 
 My Father knows, and I am ready to go wherever He calls." 
 
 After quitting the ship, Wesley and Delamotte lodged with 
 the German Moravians at Savannah, till the house which was 
 intended for them should be erected. "We had now," said 
 Wesley, " an opportunity, day by day, of observing their whole 
 behaviour ; for we were in one room with them from morning 
 to night, unless for the little time spent in walking. They 
 were always employed, always cheerful themselves, and in 
 good humour with one another. They had put away all anger 
 and strife, and wrath and bitterness, and clamour and evil 
 speaking. They walked worthy of the vocation wherewith 
 they were called, and adorned the gospel of our Lord in ali 
 things." And when he had been present at one of their con- 
 sultations concerning the affairs of their Church, in which, 
 after hours spent in conference and prayer, they proceeded to 
 the election and ordination of a bishop, he said the great 
 simplicity and solemnity of the whole almost made him forget 
 the seventeen hundred years between, and imagine himself in 
 one of the assemblies " where form and state were not, but 
 Paul the tent-maker, or Peter the fisherman presided, yet 
 with the demonstration of the spirit and of power." 
 
 Wesley had been afraid, says Southey, upon leaving Eng- 
 land, that he should never again have so many faithful friends 
 as he had left there. He now exclaimed, " But who knoweth 
 the mercy and power of God ? From ten friends I am awhile 
 secluded, and He hath opened me a door into the whole 
 Moravian Church." 
 
 Nine days after their arrival in America, Wesley and his 
 friends were visited by Tomo-Chachi (the Indian chief whom 
 Oglethorpe had taken to England some time before) and half- 
 a-dozen other Indians.
 
 IN AMERICA. 119 
 
 The young clergymen met them attired in their gowns and 
 cassocks. 
 
 " I am glad you are come," said Tomo-Chachi, speaking 
 through a woman-interpreter. "When I was in England I 
 desired that some would speak the great Word to me ; and my 
 nation then desired to hear it ; but now we are all in confusion. 
 Yet I am glad you are come. I will go up and speak to the 
 wise men of our nation; and I hope they will hear. But 
 we would not be made Christians as the Spaniards make 
 Christians ; we would be taught before we are baptised." 
 
 " There is but One He that sitteth in Heaven who is able 
 to teach men wisdom," replied Wesley. " Though we have 
 come so far, we know not whether He will please to teach you 
 by us or no. If He teach you, you will learn wisdom, but we 
 can do nothing." 
 
 The chief's wife, who had accompanied her husband, gave 
 a jar of milk to the missionaries, as emblematic of her wish 
 that they might feed the Indians with milk, for they were but 
 children, and a jar of honey, with the hope that the mission- 
 aries would be sweet to them. 
 
 During the summer Wesley had a long conference with some 
 of the Chicasaws. The Chicasaw creed was not without a 
 certain poetic beauty of its own. 
 
 "We believe," said the spokesman, "that there are four 
 beloved things the clouds, the sun, the clear sky, and He that 
 lives in the clear sky. We think of them always wherever we 
 are. We talk of them and to them, at home and abroad, in 
 peace, in war, and after the fight, and wherever and whenever we 
 meet together." 
 
 " Their belief," says Wedgewood, " that ' He that lived in 
 the clear sky had two with him three in all' one cannot 
 but take to imply some reminiscence of Christian teaching. 
 Whether He was the Creator of the rest they could not tell \ 
 ' who hath seen ? ' but they believed He made man. They 
 were ignorant whether He loved him. They did not doubt
 
 120 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 His power to save them from their enemies, but knew not if 
 He would exercise it. 
 
 " To Wesley's offer of a book that would tell them many things 
 about ' the Beloved Ones ' above, they returned a faint answer. 
 They were now occupied with war ; if ever a more convenient 
 season came, they would hear him. Yet they seem to have 
 felt a certain amount of sympathy with the Christians. The 
 interpreter told Wesley that they had said they knew what he 
 was doing at the funeral of a young girl who had died lately 
 he had been speaking to the ' Beloved Ones ' to take up her 
 soul. They believed also, they told Oglethorpe, that the time 
 would come when the black and white man would be one. 
 There is one other passage which, if it does not indicate Christian 
 teaching, is full of interest : ' There are but a few whom the 
 " Beloved One " teaches from a child, and is in them, and takes 
 care of them, and teaches them. They know these things, 
 and our old men practise, therefore they know ; but I do not 
 practise, therefore I do not know.'" 
 
 This, with one trifling exception, was the sole conference 
 Wesley ever had with any members of the race he had crossed 
 the Atlantic to convert. The real Indians portrayed here are 
 not so extremely unlike his ideal Indians as we should expect; 
 but the glowing expectations he had brought with him were 
 chilled, not so much by what they now said as by what he 
 heard and saw of them besides. The " little children eager to 
 learn and anxious to do the will of God," were thus described 
 by him before he left America : " They have no religion, no 
 laws, no civil government. They are all, except perhaps the 
 Choctaws, liars, gluttons, drunkards, thieves, dissemblers. 
 They are implacable, unmerciful, murderers of fathers, mur- 
 derers of their own children it being a common thing for 
 a son to shoot his father or mother because they are old 
 and past labour, and for a woman to throw her child into 
 the next river because she will go with her husband to the 
 war."
 
 IN AMERICA. 121 
 
 Painful indeed must the contrast have been to Wesley 
 between his anticipation and experience. 
 
 " Oglethorpe and Wesley seem not to have entirely under- 
 stood each other as to the object of his journey," says the 
 above-named writer, 1 putting into few words what some 
 biographers have said in many. " He had come to America 
 to preach to the Indians; Oglethorpe designed for him the 
 position, wholly incompatible with this, of parish priest at 
 Savannah. Ke made several attempts to leave Savannah 
 for an expedition among them, which were precluded by the 
 impossibility of finding a substitute for his duties there ; 
 but what is most noteworthy in this failure is the reason he 
 gives for it that he could not find any Indians on the 
 continent of America who had the least desire of being 
 instructed ! 
 
 "There were about as many Indians in America desirous 
 of being instructed in the Christian religion, we presume, as 
 there were colliers in Kingswood or miners in Cornwall in 
 that state of mind. But the evil influence of delusion sur- 
 vives delusion ; the mind when it awakens from misconception 
 cannot take up the position of mere ignorance, but recoils to 
 an attitude equally unfavourable for correct judgment or 
 effective action. It was well in this case that it was so : 
 Wesley was destined to preach Christianity to heathens quite 
 as savage as the Chicasaw Indians, and more accessible to 
 his teaching." 
 
 Southey says, Wesley never seemed to hare attempted the 
 arduous task of learning the language. 
 
 When they commenced work in Georgia the brothers 
 separated. Charles went with Ingham to Frederica, a settle- 
 ment on the west side of the island of the Alatamaha, and 
 he was the first to make the painful discovery that their 
 mission was a failure. 
 
 Wesley, however, at first was pleased with his situation; 
 1 J. Wedge wood.
 
 122 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 he thought the place was pleasant and healthful, and even 
 wrote to his mother saying he should be heartily glad if any 
 poor and religious men or women of Epworth or Wroote 
 would come out to him ; inviting them with a promise of land 
 enough, and of provisions till they could live upon its produce. 
 
 He was satisfied, too, with his reception, and the effect he 
 produced. The people crowded to hear him, and when he 
 saw their "deep attention and the seriousness which sate upon 
 all their faces," he hoped that his preaching would not be in 
 vain. 
 
 Yes, they welcomed him and heard him gladly when first 
 he came amongst them, and if he had only had more tact, 
 if he had only remembered Dr. Burton's warning, that the 
 people among whom he was going were " babes in the progress 
 of their Christian life, to be fed with milk instead of strong 
 meat ; " above all, if he had only had a saving knowledge of 
 the redemption wrought for us and in us by our Saviour 
 Christ, his would have been a very different work in America. 
 As it was, he bewildered and alarmed the people by his hard 
 and fast rules of life, his asceticism, his scrupulous adherence 
 to the letter rather than the spirit of Church laws, and his 
 want of tact and of the power to yield, when it was really 
 unnecessary to be unyielding. 
 
 One of the ladies to whom he was introduced on his 
 first landing, assured him that he would see as well-dressed 
 a congregation on Sunday as most which he had seen in 
 London. " I did so," he said afterwards, "and soon after took 
 occasion to expound those Scriptures which relate to dress, 
 and to press them freely upon my audience in a plain and 
 close application. All the time that I afterwards ministered 
 at Savannah, I saw neither gold in the Church nor costly 
 apparel ; but the congregation in general was almost constantly 
 clothed in plain clean linen or woollen. All was smooth 
 and fair and promising ; many seemed to be awakened ; all, 
 all were full of respect and commendation." He taught one
 
 IN AMERICA. 123 
 
 school, and Delamotte another. Some of Delamotte's boys, who 
 wore shoes and stockings, thought themselves superior to the 
 poor fellows who were bare-foot. Delamotte was at a loss 
 how to remedy this evil, but Wesley proposed to change 
 schools for a time, that he might try to cure it. To effect this 
 he one day went into the school without his shoes and 
 stockings. The boys stared at him and at each other, but 
 he said nothing, and only kept them to their work as usual. 
 Before the week was over the boys who had no shoes and 
 stockings took courage, and many more of them came to the 
 school. 
 
 On another occasion, one of the richer colonists gave a ball, 
 and Wesley arranged that the public prayers should begin 
 at the same time ; consequently, the Church was full, whilst 
 the ball-room was so empty that the dancing could not 
 proceed. But this made many people angry, and it seemed 
 unnecessary that he should have excited their feelings in 
 this way. 
 
 In his strict following of the rubric, in opposition to the 
 practice of the English Church, he insisted upon baptising 
 children by immersion, and refused to baptise them if their 
 parents would not consent to that method. He would not 
 allow some to be sponsors, because they were not com- 
 municants, and would not allow one who had been baptised 
 by a dissenter, but who was a very holy man, to come to 
 Holy Communion unless he would consent to be re-baptised 
 by himself, whilst, on the other hand, it was said that he 
 allowed those who had been baptised by the Roman Catholics 
 to come. He was accused, too, of making his sermons satires 
 upon particular persons; and the fear of being preached at 
 made the members of his congregation stay away. 
 
 One plain speaker said to him, "The people say they are 
 Protestants, but, as for you, they cannot tell what religion you 
 are of; they never heard of such a religion before, and they 
 do not know what to make of it."
 
 124 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 Some were displeased also because Wesley did what is so 
 frequently done now divided the public prayers according to 
 the original appointment of the Church, which, he told the 
 people, was still observed in a few places in England. He 
 performed the morning service at five, the communion 
 office, with the sermon, at eleven, and the evening service 
 at three. He also diligently visited his parishioners from 
 house to house during the hours between twelve and three, 
 when they could not work because of the heat And he also 
 formed some of his more serious parishioners into a little 
 society, who should assemble once or twice a week for the 
 purpose of improving, instructing, and exhorting one another. 
 From these a smaller number was to be selected for " a more 
 intimate intercommunion," which might be forwarded partly 
 by the clergyman's conversing singly with each, and partly by 
 inviting them altogether to his bouse on Sunday afternoons.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 DISAPPOINTING EXPERIENCES. 
 
 POOR, hard-working young clergyman ! Tyerman says, " He 
 [Wesley] was looked upon as a Roman Catholic (i) Because 
 he rigidly excluded all Dissenters from the Holy Communion, 
 until they first gave up their faith and principles, and, like 
 Richard Turner and his sons, submitted to be re-baptised by 
 him. (2) Because Roman Catholics were received by him 
 as saints. (3) Because he endeavoured to establish and 
 enforce confession, penance, and mortification; mixed wine 
 with water at the sacrament; and appointed deaconesses in 
 accordance with what he called the Apostolic Constitutions." 
 
 The opposition he met with sometimes was very great. 
 Oglethorpe grew weary of the complaints which were made to 
 him of both the Wesleys. 
 
 One wicked woman, whom John had offended, knocked him 
 down one day presumably when he was off his guard and 
 cut off from one side of his head the whole of those long locks 
 of auburn hair which he had been accustomed to keep in 
 the most perfect order. Perhaps he made more of this 
 indignity than he need have done, for he preached to the 
 people afterwards with his hair long on one side and short on 
 the other, those sitting on the side which had been cut 
 observing, " What a cropped head of hair the young parson 
 has!" 
 
 We have said that Charles soon got into trouble at Frederica. 
 He had been trying to reconcile quarrelling women, and he, 
 too, had been baptising children by immersion. Some of the
 
 iz6 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 termagant women prejudiced General Oglethorpe against him. 
 and the poor secretary was treated with coldness and charged 
 with mutiny; while all the others were provided with boards 
 to sleep upon, he was left to sleep upon the ground, and his 
 very few well-wishers were afraid to speak to him. 
 
 Wesley and Delamotte went over to his assistance, and spent 
 six days in trying to settle the miserable squabbles that had 
 sprung up among the palmetto huts of Frederica. But not 
 long after his return to Savannah, his brother, wearied of his 
 life at Frederica and of the false-heartedness of the people, 
 unexpectedly turned up. Places were exchanged, and John 
 and Delamotte started off to the forsaken flock. They only 
 seem to have stayed there one busy month, however, before 
 they were back at Savannah. 
 
 Charles embarked for England the following month, July, 
 and John returned to Frederica for twelve weeks. There he 
 set up a small library; and as several Germans, through not 
 understanding the English tongue, were unable to join in the 
 public service, he agreed to meet them every day at noon in 
 his own house, where, in their own language, he expounded to 
 them a chapter of the New Testament, and prayed with them. 
 But finding his prospects of doing good at Frederica became 
 less and less, he returned to Savannah at the end of 
 October, and remained there most of the time he stayed in 
 America. 
 
 Ingham went to England next, to see if he could get more 
 help. Then General Oglethorpe's troubles began ; the trustees 
 accused him of misapplying funds, and of abusing his 
 entrusted powers, but Wesley wrote to him 
 
 "Perhaps in some things you have shown you are but a 
 man: perhaps I myself may have a little to complain of; but 
 oh ! what a train of benefits have I received to lay in the 
 balance against it ! I bless God that ever you were born. I 
 acknowledge His exceeding mercy in casting me into your 
 hands. I own your generous kindness all tBe time we were at
 
 REV. CHARLES WESLEY.
 
 iz8 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 sea. I am indebted to you for a thousand favours here. 
 Though all men should revile you, yet will not I." 
 
 Sinister rumours were circulated about Wesley as well, but 
 the trustees wrote fully acquitting him. 
 
 After this occurred a very painful episode in Wesley's life, 
 which was one of the chief causes of his leaving Georgia. 
 The story is a long one, as told by the different biographers, 
 who differ not a little in their narrative of facts and motives. 
 
 It is well known that clever men, and good men too, often 
 show a lamentable want of common-sense when they have 
 to choose for themselves a wife. And even the most ardent 
 admirers of John Wesley will allow that he failed conspicuously 
 whenever he attempted the matter. 
 
 Perhaps at first it lightened his dreary work in Savannah, 
 when the pretty niece of Mr. Causton, one of the principal 
 inhabitants, showed an intense desire for more and more 
 religious instruction. And when he fell ill, and she nursed him 
 through his fever, and always dressed in simple white, because 
 she knew austere man as he was he liked to see her in it, 
 how was it possible that John could help falling in love with 
 her ? How should he know if some of the religious interest 
 was simulated, and many of the lady's noblest qualities were 
 assumed? 1 It is said by some that he asked her to marry 
 him ; others again indignantly deny this, and say he was only 
 thinking of doing so; at all events, when Delamotte asked 
 him if it was his intention to marry her, Wesley waived an 
 answer. But presently he consulted David Nitschmann, the 
 Moravian Bishop, whose answer was, " Marriage is not unlaw- 
 ful ; but whether it is now expedient for you, and whether this 
 lady is a proper wife for you, ought to be maturely weighed." 
 
 1 " Mr. Moore says Wesley never came to the determination to marry 
 bet. Dr. Whitehead says he did intend to marry her. Southey agrees 
 with Whitehead. Mr. Watson presumes that Mr. Moore is a better 
 authority than Whitehead. Mr. Jackson seems to think the same." 
 TVERMAN.
 
 DISAPPOINTING EXPERIENCES. 129 
 
 Wesley now resolved to submit the matter to the elders of 
 the Moravian Church. When he entered the house in which 
 they were met together, he found Delamotte in the midst of 
 them, and, on naming his business, Nitschmann said 
 
 " We have considered your case ; will you abide by our 
 decision ? " 
 
 After some hesitation, Wesley replied, " I will." 
 
 "Then," said the Moravian bishop, "we advise you to pro- 
 ceed no further in the matter ! " 
 
 " The will of the Lord be done ! " replied Wesley. 
 
 Whether it was that the lady, Miss Sophy Hopkey, heard of 
 this, or that she was herself heartily tired of Wesley's coolness 
 as a lover, is uncertain, but he tells us himself how the 
 matter was decided by her. In his Journal he writes 
 
 " February 5th, 1737. One of the most remarkable dispensa- 
 tions of Providence towards me began to show itself this day. 
 For many days after I could not at all judge which way the 
 scale would turn ; nor was it fully determined till March 4th, 
 on which day God commanded me to pull out my right eye ; 
 and, by His grace, I determined to do so : but, being slack in 
 the execution, on Saturday, March i2th, God being very 
 merciful to me, my friend performed what I could not." 
 Further explaining matters by writing 
 
 "March 8th. Miss Sophy engaged herself to Mr. Williamson, 
 a person not remarkable for handsomeness, neither for great- 
 ness, neither for wit, or knowledge, or sense, and least of all 
 for religion; and on Saturday, March i2th (four days after), 
 they were married at Purrysburg, this being the day which 
 completed the year from my first speaking to her." 
 
 And on March 7th, he says : " I walked with Mr. Causton 
 to his country lot, and plainly felt that, had God given me such 
 a retirement with the companion I desired, I should have for- 
 got the work for which I was born, and have set up my rest in 
 this world." 
 
 Wesley was about thirty-four at that time, and doubtless the 
 
 9
 
 130 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 disappointment was most painful. 1 Forty-nine years after he 
 wrote in reference to this event, "I remember when I read 
 these words in the church at Savannah, ' Son of man, behold, 
 I take from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke,' I was 
 pierced through as with a sword, and could not utter a word 
 more. But our comfort is, He that made the heart can heal 
 the heart." 
 
 He also wrote and told his brother Samuel, who replied, 
 " I am sorry you are disappointed in the match, because you 
 are very unlikely to find another." 
 
 This courtship and its d'enouement t in which there was 
 certainly no more harm than the simplicity of Wesley in sub- 
 mitting the matter to the Moravian elders, and the lady's 
 rashness in marrying another man after only four days' engage- 
 ment, was unfortunately mixed up with subsequent troubles. 
 
 It is supposed by some of Wesley's biographers that when 
 Miss Hopkey became Mrs. Williamson she no longer cared 
 to appear as good and religious as she had previously striven 
 to be thought by Wesley. And indeed she erred so much 
 on the other side that Wesley, as her clergyman, found it 
 necessary to tell her of certain things which he found wrong 
 in her behaviour. This made her extremely angry, and three 
 days later her uncle, accompanied by the Bailiff and the 
 Recorder, came to demand an explanation. Wesley hinted to 
 them that he might find it necessary to repel her from the 
 Holy Communion. He also told her uncle what the people 
 of Savannah were saying against his magisterial proceedings, 
 which no doubt greatly enraged Mr. Causton. 
 
 Some weeks passed, and, as Mrs. Williamson did not choose 
 to alter her ways, Wesley refused to allow her to com- 
 municate. 
 
 The next day a warrant was issued against him for defaming 
 the character of Sophia Williamson, and refusing to administer 
 to her the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in a public 
 1 Tyerman.
 
 DISAPPOINTING EXPERIENCES. 131 
 
 congregation without cause, for which injury the husband laid 
 his damages at ^1000. When Wesley appeared before the 
 Recorder and one of the Bailiffs, he maintained that the 
 giving or refusing the Lord's Supper was a matter purely 
 ecclesiastical, and therefore he would not acknowledge their 
 power to interrogate him concerning it. He was told that 
 he must, however, appear at the next court held for Savannah. 
 Meantime Mr. Causton, having become very angry, required 
 him to assign in writing his reasons for refusing to allow his 
 niece to communicate. This Wesley did in the following 
 letter to Mrs. Williamson : 
 
 "At Mr. Causton's request I write once more. The rules 
 whereby I proceed are these : So many as intend to partake of 
 the Holy Communion shall signify their names to the Curate, at 
 least some time the day before. This you did not do. 
 
 11 And if any of these have done any wrong to his neighbour 
 by word or deed, so that the congregation be thereby offended^ the 
 Curate shall advertise him, that in any wise he presume not to 
 come to the lord's table until he have openly declared himself to 
 have truly repented. 
 
 " If you offer yourself at the Lord's table on Sunday, I will 
 advertise you, as I have done more than once, wherein you 
 have done wrong; and when you have openly declared yourself 
 to have truly repented, I will administer to you the mysteries of 
 God." 
 
 Causton and his friends tried to make the people of 
 Savannah believe that Wesley had acted from spite in treat- 
 ing his niece so harshly, because she had married some one 
 else ; and, indeed, Wesley seemed to have known that such a 
 motive might be attributed to him in acting as he did ; but, 
 on the other hand, was he to lay himself open to the charge 
 that, because of their previous relations, he overlooked, in 
 her, conduct which he should have felt bound to notice in 
 another ? 
 
 Mr. Causton industriously read aloud to all who would hear
 
 132 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 selected portions of Wesley's letters to him and his niece. In 
 the midst of all this Wesley writes : " I sat still at home, and 
 I thank God, easy, having committed my cause to Him, and 
 remembering His word, ' Blessed is the man that endureth 
 temptation ; for when he is tried he shall receive the crown 
 of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love 
 Him.' " 
 
 Then, at the request of several of the communicants, Wesley 
 drew up a short statement of the case and read it after evening 
 prayers in the open congregation. The whole of that week 
 was occupied, we are told, by Causton in persuading, bribing, 
 and otherwise corrupting the forty-four jurymen who were to 
 compose the Grand Jury. When the court was formed on 
 Monday, the 22nd, Causton, who, by-the-bye, was the chief 
 magistrate in the town, gave a long and earnest charge to 
 these jurymen to beware of spiritual tyranny^ and to oppose 
 the new illegal authority which was usurped over their con- 
 sciences. 
 
 Mrs. Williamson's affidavit was read, and then Causton deliv- 
 ered to the Grand Jury a paper entitled " A List of Grievances," 
 which, with some immaterial alterations, was " returned as a 
 true bill, charging John Wesley with having ' broken the 
 laws of the realm, contrary to the peace of our Sovereign 
 Lord the King, his crown and dignity.' The indictment 
 contained ten counts, of which the first was for speaking 
 and writing to Mrs. Williamson against her husband's con- 
 sent; the others related to his repelling her from the Com- 
 munion, his division of the service, and his conduct respecting 
 baptisms and burials. He appeared before the court, and 
 declared that as nine of these counts related to his ecclesias- 
 tical matters, they were not within the cognisance of that 
 tribunal; but that which concerned speaking and writing to 
 Mrs. Williamson was of a secular nature, he said, and there- 
 fore he desired that it might be tried upon the spot where 
 the facts complained of had occurred. But it was in vain that
 
 DISAPPOINTING EXPERIENCES. 133 
 
 he repeatedly demanded a hearing on this charge ; and in this 
 manner more than three months elapsed." 1 
 
 But Wesley had still zealous friends. Even among the 
 Jurors twelve persons were found who, in a paper addressed 
 to the trustees, protested against the indictment as a scheme 
 for gratifying personal malice by blackening Wesley's character. 
 This, indeed, the whole affair seems to have been ; again and 
 again a further trial was delayed, until, after the seventh post- 
 ponement, 2 the defendant, finding he could neither obtain 
 justice nor be of any use as a clergyman under such con- 
 ditions, gave up in despair and announced his determination 
 to return to England. Upon this the magistrates asked him 
 to give bail for his appearance when wanted, but this Wesley 
 would not do ; so, in return, they gave orders that he should 
 not be permitted to leave the colony, and forbade any person 
 to assist him in so doing. They also brought another clergy- 
 man to officiate in the parish, a Mr. Dixon, who was chaplain 
 to some soldiers at Frederica. 
 
 That same evening Wesley, with four other fugitives who had 
 reasons for wishing to leave the colony, started in an open boat 
 for Port Royal, in South Carolina, which place they reached, 
 after hard toiling and rowing by sea and many hardships by 
 land, on December 6th, 1737. On the 8th Wesley was joined 
 at Port Royal by Delamotte, when they took a small craft and 
 started for the port of Charleston, which they reached on the 
 1 3th On the 22nd John Wesley quitted America, after 
 having experienced the failure of many hopes, and learned 
 many useful though painful lessons. 
 
 It seems that when he had actually left them, some of his 
 late parishioners began to think more kindly and justly about 
 him, for when his friend and successor, Whitefield, 8 arrived, 
 they found some good things to say about him. 
 
 1 Southey. a Rev. W. II. Daniels, M.A. 
 
 1 Whitefield, the pupil of the Wesleys, sailed for Georgia a day or two 
 before John Wesley arrived in England.
 
 '34 
 
 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 In a letter from Georgia, Whitefield says " The good Mr. 
 John Wesley has done in America is inexpressible. His name 
 is very precious among the people, and he has laid a founda- 
 tion that I hope neither man nor devils will ever be able to 
 shake." 
 
 WESLEY'S CLOCK.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 WESLEY'S RETURN TO ENGLAND. 
 
 IT was natural that Wesley should feel depressed and be the 
 subject of many heart-searchings during his return voyage to 
 England, for he had had many disappointments and some bitter 
 trials in America. Resolute had been his purpose, high his 
 hopes, and ardent his zeal when he went out on his missionary 
 expedition, yet he had accomplished little, and of that little 
 recent events had tended to undo much. And now he was 
 obliged to confess to himself that what he had thought his 
 Heaven-sent mission had been a failure, and he recognised the 
 fault might be, nay, probably was, in himself. 
 
 It was during a storm, as he was returning to England, that 
 he discovered a great fear in his heart of death, and the 
 discovery of that fear much disturbed him, for he knew that a 
 Christian should not be afraid to die. Sadly he wrote in his 
 Journal : 
 
 " I went to America to convert the Indians; but, oh! who 
 shall convert me ? Who, what is he that will deliver me from 
 this evil heart of unbelief? I have a fair summer religion ; I 
 can talk well; nay, and believe myself, while no danger is 
 near: but let death look me in the face, and my spirit is 
 troubled, nor can I say, ' To die is gain I ' 
 
 '"I have a sin of fear, that when I've spun 
 My last thread, I shall perish on the shore I ' 
 
 " I think verily, if the Gospel be true, I am safe ; for I not 
 only have given and do give all my goods to feed the poor ; I
 
 136 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 not only give my body to be burned, drowned, or whatever 
 God shall appoint for me ; but I follow after charity (though 
 not as I ought, yet as I can), if haply I may obtain it I now 
 believe the Gospel is true. 'I shall show my faith by my 
 works,' by staking my all upon it I would do so again and 
 again a thousand times if the choice were still to make. Who- 
 ever sees this sees I would be a Christian. Therefore 'are 
 my ways not like other men's ways.' Therefore I have been, 
 I am content to be, ' a by-word, a proverb of reproach.' But 
 in a storm I think, ' What if the Gospel be not true ? Then 
 thou art of all men most foolish.' . . . Oh, who will deliver me 
 from this fear of death ! What shall I do ? Where shall I fly 
 from it? Should I fight against it by thinking, or by not 
 thinking of it ? A wise man advised me some time since, ' Be 
 still, and go on.' Perhaps this is best, to look upon it as my 
 cross; when it comes, to let it humble me, and quicken all 
 my good resolutions, especially that of praying without ceasing; 
 and at other times to take no thought about it, but quietly to 
 go on in the work of the Lord." 
 
 And then he reviewed the progress of his religious life. 
 "For many years," he said, "I have been tossed about by 
 various winds of doctrine. I asked long ago, 'What must I 
 do to be saved?' The Scripture answered, Keep the com- 
 mandments, believe, hope, love. I was early warned against 
 laying, as the Papists do, too much stress on outward works, 
 or on a faith without works, which, as it does not include, so it 
 will never lead to true hope or charity. Nor am I sensible 
 that to this hour I have laid too much stress on either. But I 
 fell among some Lutheran and Calvinist authors who mag- 
 nified faith to such an amazing size, that it hid all the rest of 
 the commandments. I did not then see that this was the 
 natural effect of their overgrown fear of Popery, being so 
 terrified with the cry of merit and good works, that they 
 plunged at once into the other extreme; in this labyrinth I 
 was utterly lost, not being able to find out what the error was,
 
 WESLEY'S RETURN TO ENGLAND, 137 
 
 nor yet to reconcile this uncouth hypothesis, either with 
 Scripture or common-sense. The English writers, such as 
 Bishop Beveridge, Bishop Taylor, and Mr. Nelson, a little 
 relieved me from these well-meaning, wrong-headed Germans. 
 Only when they interpreted Scripture in different ways, I was 
 often much at a loss. And there was one thing much insisted 
 on in Scripture, the unity of the Church, which none of them, 
 I thought, clearly explained. But it was not long before 
 Providence brought me to those who showed me a sure rule 
 of interpreting Scripture, consensus veterum : quod ab omnibus, 
 quod ubique, quod semper creditum ; at the same time they 
 sufficiently insisted upon a due regard to the one church at all 
 times and in all places. Nor was it long before I bent the 
 bow too far the other way, by making antiquity a co-ordinate, 
 rather than sub-ordinate rule with Scripture; by admitting 
 several doubtful writings; by extending antiquity too far; 
 by believing more practices to have been universal in the 
 ancient Church than ever were so ; by not considering that the 
 decrees of a provincial synod could bind only that province, 
 and the decrees of a general synod only those provinces whose 
 representatives met therein; that most of those decrees were 
 adapted to particular times and occasions, and consequently 
 when those occasions ceased, must cease to bind even those 
 provinces. These considerations gradually stole upon me as I 
 grew acquainted with the mystic writers, whose noble descrip- 
 tions of union with God and internal religion made everything 
 else appear mean, flat, and insipid. But in truth they made 
 good works appear so, too ; yea, and faith itself, and what not ? 
 They gave me an entire new view of religion, nothing like any 
 I had before. But, alas! it was nothing like that religion 
 which Christ and his apostles loved and taught I had 
 a plenary dispensation from all the commands of God; 
 the form was thus: Love is all; all the commands 
 beside are only means of love ; you must choose those which 
 you feel are means to you, and use them as long as they
 
 138 JOHN WESLEY* 
 
 are so. Thus were all the bands burst at once ; and though 
 I could never fully come into this, nor contentedly omit what 
 God enjoined, yet, I know not how, I fluctuated between 
 obedience and disobedience; I had no heart, no vigour, no 
 zeal in obeying, continually doubting whether I was right or 
 wrong, and never out of perplexities and entanglements. Nor 
 can I at this hour give a distinct account how or when I came 
 a little back toward the right way; only my present sense 
 is this, all the other enemies of Christianity are triflers, the 
 mystics are the most dangerous ; they stab it in the vitals, and 
 its most serious professors are most likely to fall by them." 
 
 The returned missionary landed at Deal, and then solemnly 
 recorded his own self-condemnation and sense of imperfect 
 faith. " It is now," he said, " two years and almost four 
 months since I left my native country in order to teach the 
 Georgian Indians the nature of Christianity. But what have 
 I learnt myself meantime? Why what I least of all 
 expected that I, who went to America to convert others, 
 was never myself converted to God. / am not mad, though" 
 I thus speak ; but / speak the words of truth and soberness^ 
 if haply those who still dream may awake, and see that as I 
 am, so are they. Are they read in Philosophy ? So was I. In 
 ancient or modern tongues ? So was I also. Are they versed 
 in the science of divinity? I, too, have studied it many 
 years. Can they talk fluently upon spiritual things? The 
 very same could I do. Are they plenteous in alms ? 
 Behold I give all my goods to feed the poor. Do they give 
 of their labour as well as of their substance ? I have laboured 
 more abundantly than them all. Are they willing to suffer 
 for their brethren ? I have thrown up my friends, reputation, 
 ease, country. I have put my life in my hand, wandering 
 into strange lands ; I have given my body to be devoured by 
 the deep, parched up with heat, consumed by toil and weari- 
 ness, or whatsoever God shall please to bring upon me. But 
 does all this (be it more or less, it matters not) make me
 
 WESLEY'S RETURN TO ENGLAND. 139 
 
 acceptable to God? Does all I ever did or can know, say, 
 give, do, or suffer, justify me in His sight ? If the Oracles of 
 God are true, if we are still to abide by the Law and the 
 Testimony, all these things, though when ennobled by faith 
 in Christ, they are holy and just and good, yet without it are 
 dung and dross. 
 
 " This, then, I have learned in the ends of the earth that 
 I am fallen short of the glory of God ; that my whole heart is 
 altogether corrupt and abominable ; . . . that my own works, 
 my own sufferings, my "own righteousness, are so far from 
 reconciling me to an offended God, so far from making an 
 atonement for the least of those sins, which are more in 
 number than the hairs of my head, that the most specious of 
 them need an atonement themselves, or they cannot abide His 
 righteous judgment . . I have no hope but that if I seek I 
 shall find Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own 
 righteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ, 
 the righteousness which is of God by faith." He afterwards 
 modified this strong statement by saying that, even then, he 
 had "the faith of a servant, though not that of a son." But 
 in his Journal, at the time, he continues : " If it be said that 
 I have faith [for many such things have I heard from many 
 miserable comforters], I answer so have the devils, a sort of 
 faith ; but still they are strangers to the covenant of promise. 
 So the apostles had even at Cana in Galilee, when Jesus first 
 manifested forth His glory : even then they in a sort believed 
 on Him; but they had not then 'the faith that overcometh 
 the world.' I want that faith which St Paul recommends to 
 all the world, especially in his Epistle to the Romans; that 
 faith which enables every one that hath it to cry out, ' I live 
 not, but Christ liveth in me ; and the life which I now live, I 
 live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave him- 
 self for me.' I want that faith which none can have without 
 knowing that he hath it [though many imagine they have it 
 who have it not] ; for whosoever hath it is freed from sin ; the
 
 MO JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 whole body of sin is destroyed in him, he is freed from fear ; 
 'having peace with God through Christ, and rejoicing in 
 hopes of the glory of God.' And he is freed from doubt ; 
 having the love of God shed abroad in his heart, through the 
 Holy Ghost which is given unto him; which spirit itself 
 beareth witness with his spirit, that he is a child of God." 1 
 
 And then Wesley came to England, where he found the 
 ground prepared for his work, and spiritual teaching fitted for 
 his need. 
 
 During his absence, Whitefield's more ardent nature had 
 caused him to " outrun " the brothers whose earnest pupil he 
 had been. Let us glance at his career hitherto. He was the 
 son of a tavern-keeper, and was a poor servitor at Oxford when 
 the devout conduct of the " Methodists " first attracted atten- 
 tion, and drew scorn and ridicule upon them. Whitefield 
 desired much to make the acquaintance of the Wesleys, and 
 one day, hearing of the sad plight of a poor woman who had 
 attempted suicide in one of the workhouses, he sent an old 
 apple-woman of the college to inform Charles Wesley, charg- 
 ing her not to tell him who sent her. But the old woman 
 told, and Charles Wesley sent word to Mr. Whitefield to 
 breakfast with him the next morning. Whitefield says 
 
 " I thankfully embraced the opportunity, and, blessed be 
 God 1 it was one of the most profitable visits of my life. My 
 soul was at that time athirst for some spiritual friends to lift 
 up my hands when they hung down, and to strengthen my 
 feeble knees. He soon discovered it, and, like a wise winner 
 of souls, made all his discourses tend that way." He put two 
 
 1 " Yet on reflecting upon the time which he had spent in Georgia, he 
 saw many reasons to bless God for having carried him into that strange 
 land. There he had been humbled and proved ; there he had learnt to 
 know what was in his heart; there the passage had been opened for him 
 to the writings of holy men in German, Spanish, and Italian tongues ; 
 and there he had been introduced to the Church of Herrnhuth (the 
 Moravians). " SOUTHKY.
 
 REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD.
 
 i4 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 books into Whitefield's hands, one of which, he says, " was 
 wonderfully blessed to my soul." Wesley soon lent him 
 another book, entitled The Life of God in the Soul. White- 
 field says, " And though I had fasted, watched, and prayed, 
 and received the Sacrament so long, yet I never knew what 
 true religion was till God sent me that excellent treatise by the 
 hands of my never-to-be-forgotten friend." In reading that 
 book, in which he found it asserted that true religion is a union 
 of the soul with God, or Christ formed within us, a ray of 
 Divine light, he said, darted into his soul. But the vehemence 
 of his disposition led him into all sorts of excesses in his 
 desire to obtain the peace of God whole days and weeks he 
 lay prostrate on the ground in silent or vocal prayer. He 
 chose the worst food, affected mean apparel ; he made himself 
 remarkable by leaving off powder in his hair, when every one 
 else was powdered ; he wore woollen gloves, a patched gown, 
 and dirty shoes, as signs of humility. Some of the men whose 
 servitor he was did not choose to be served by one so slovenly, 
 and he therefore lost some of the pay on which he depended 
 for support. " Other excesses injured his health : he would 
 kneel under the trees in Christ Church Walk in silent prayer, 
 shivering the while with cold, till the great bell summoned him 
 to his college for the night ; he exposed himself to cold in the 
 morning till his hands were quite black; he kept Lent so 
 strictly that, except on Saturdays and Sundays, his only food 
 was coarse bread and sage tea, without sugar. The end of this 
 was, that before the termination of the forty days, he had 
 scarcely strength enough left to creep upstairs, and was under 
 a physician for many weeks." 1 
 
 At the end of a long illness he was able to believe in Christ, 
 or, as he himself expressed it, " God was pleased at length to 
 remove the heavy load, to enable me to lay hold on His dear 
 Son by a living faith, and, by the Spirit of adoption, to 
 seal me, as I humbly hope, even to the day of everlasting 
 
 1 Southey.
 
 WESLEY'S RETURN TO ENGLAND, 143 
 
 redemption. But oh ! with what joy, joy unspeakable, even joy- 
 that was full of and big with glory, was my soul filled when the 
 weight of sin went off, and an abiding sense of the pardoning 
 love of God, and a full assurance of faith, broke in upon my 
 disconsolate soul ! Surely it was the day of my espousals a 
 day to be had in everlasting remembrance. At first my joys 
 were like a spring-tide, and, as it were, overflowed the banks. 
 Go where I would, I could not avoid singing of psalms almost 
 aloud; afterwards they became more settled, and, blessed be 
 God, saving a few casual intervals, have abode and increased 
 in my soul ever since." 
 
 About that time, some one fearing lest the little society ot 
 Methodists at Oxford would be broken up for want of a 
 superintendent, as the Wesleys were away in Georgia, wrote to 
 a certain Sir John Philips, of London, who was ready to assist 
 religious works with his purse, and recommended Whitefield 
 as a proper person to be encouraged and patronised for that 
 purpose. Sir John immediately gave him an annuity of ^20, 
 and promised to make it ^30 if he would continue at Oxford, 
 for he thought " if this place could be leavened with the vital 
 spirit of religion, it would be like medicating the waters at 
 their spring." 
 
 Whitefield's devout behaviour next attracted the attention of 
 Dr. Benson, the Bishop of Gloucester, who told him that, 
 although he had resolved not to ordain any one under twenty- 
 three Whitefield was only twenty-one he should think it his 
 duty to ordain him whenever he came for Holy Orders. 
 
 Whitefield was accordingly ordained thus early in life, and 
 he preached his first sermon in the Church of St. Mary de 
 Crypt, where many assembled to hear " the boy parson." " He 
 preached like a lion," said one who heard him ; a few mocked, 
 but many were much impressed, and a complaint was made to 
 the Bishop that he had driven fifteen mad. The prelate hoped 
 that the madness might not be forgotten before the next 
 Sunday.
 
 M4 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 Whitefield returned to his work at Oxford, took his degree, 
 and hoped that he might do some good to the gownsmen : " to 
 convert one of them would be as much as converting a parish." 
 
 The society grew under his care, but he was called away from 
 time to time, to officiate at the Tower Chapel in London and 
 elsewhere, his preaching being most successful, and making no 
 little stir. 
 
 Then Charles Wesley returned from Georgia to procure 
 assistance, and he wrote to Whitefield in a way which 
 suggested that in his opinion Whitefield was the right person 
 to go, and soon afterwards John wrote to him 
 
 " Only Mr. Delamotte is with me," he said, " till God shall 
 stir up the hearts of some of His servants, who, putting their 
 lives in His hands, shall come over and help us, where the 
 harvest is so great and the labourers so few. What if thou art 
 the man, Mr. Whitefield?" In another letter, he asked, "Do 
 you ask me what you shall have ? Food to eat and raiment to 
 put on ; a house to lay your head in, such as your Lord had 
 not ; and a crown of glory that fadeth not away." 
 
 Upon reading this, Whitefield said his heart leaped up within 
 him, and he gave up all his fair prospects in England, and 
 offered his services to General Oglethorpe and the Trustees for 
 Georgia. His offer was promptly accepted, and before the vessel 
 was ready in which he was going to sail, he went for a while to 
 serve the Church of one of his friends at Stonehouse, where he 
 enjoyed much sweet communion with God. The people of 
 Bristol seemed to have heard of his wonderful ministry, and, 
 after repeated invitations, he went there to preach. Southey 
 says 
 
 "Multitudes came on foot to meet him, and some in coaches 
 a mile without the city; and the people saluted and blessed 
 him as he passed along the street. He preached about five 
 times a week to such congregations, that it was with great 
 difficulty he could make way along the crowded aisles to the 
 reading-desk. 'Some hung upon the rails of the organ-loft,
 
 WESLEY'S RETURN TO ENGLAND. 145 
 
 others climbed upon the leads of the church, and altogether 
 made the church so hot with their breath, that the steam would 
 fall from the pillars like drops of rain.' When he preached his 
 farewell sermon, and said to the people that perhaps they might 
 see his face no more, high and low, young and old, burst into 
 tears. Multitudes followed him home weeping." 
 
 It was the same in London, where he next went Clergymen 
 begged him to come and preach their charity sermons, so large 
 were the amounts collected after his sermons. He preached at 
 Cripplegate, St. Anne's, and Foster Lane Churches at six in the 
 morning, and assisted at the Sacrament ; so many attending that 
 the stewards found it difficult to carry the offerings to the 
 Communion-table. The streets were filled with people, going 
 to hear him before daybreak, with lanterns in their hands. 
 They stopped him in the aisles and embraced him, they visited 
 him in his lodgings to lay open their souls, and when he 
 preached his farewell sermon, they wept and sobbed aloud. 
 
 And what was the secret of his power ? He had natural gifts 
 certainly, but they alone could not have availed to rouse men 
 as he roused them to repent and turn to God. The answer 
 must be that he preached the Gospel, and preached it with power 
 from on high. He had himself felt the burden of sin, he had 
 found forgiveness at the foot of the Cross, he longed for others 
 too to share his joy and peace in believing he was intensely in 
 earnest. And we must consider too that the " boy parson " 
 began his work at a time when there was great spiritual dead- 
 ness in the Church ; clergymen, as a rule, contented themselves 
 with preaching a mild morality and loyalty to the King. 
 
 Of course there were many who were jealous of the eloquent 
 young preacher, and doubtful of his doctrine ; perhaps too of 
 his ways. For Whitefield found, at that time, that he and the 
 more serious Dissenters had much sympathy with each other, 
 and he went much among them, rightly thinking that "the 
 best way to bring them over was not by bigotry and railing, 
 but by moderation, and love, and undissembled holiness of life. 
 
 10
 
 146 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 And on their part they told him that if the doctrine of the New 
 Birth and Justification by Faith were powerfully preached in 
 the Church, there would be but few Dissenters in England." 1 
 But, as we have said, some of the clergy were alarmed at 
 this doctrine, and doubtless they were glad when the young 
 enthusiast had departed for Georgia. 
 
 Within a few days, however, of Whitefield's departure from 
 London, John Wesley arrived there, to deepen and widen the 
 impression Whitefield had made. " Had their measures been 
 concerted," says Southey, " they could not more entirely have 
 accorded. The first sermon which Wesley preached was upon 
 these strong words, ' If any man be in Christ, he is a new 
 creature ; ' and, though he himself had not reached the same 
 stage in his progress as his more ardent coadjutor, the dis- 
 course was so high-strained, that he was informed he was not 
 to preach again in that pulpit" 
 
 The next Sunday he preached at St. Andrew's, Holborn, and 
 there also was informed that he was to preach no more. 
 
 Meantime, he met with three German Moravians, one of 
 whom was Peter Bohler, a missionary who was going to 
 Georgia, and he marks the day of that meeting in his Journal 
 as one to be remembered. 
 
 1 Southey.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 WESLEY'S CONVERSION. 1 
 
 FOR some time now Charles Wesley had been in England, 
 working and worrying over Georgia affairs. His unhappy 
 state of mind will be seen by the following extract from his 
 Journal : 
 
 "January 22, 1737. I called upon Mrs. Pendarvis while she 
 was reading a letter of my being dead. Happy for me had 
 the news been true ! What a world of misery would it have 
 saved me ! " 
 
 In the month of February he was very ill, and while lying 
 almost at death's door, Peter Bohler called upon him, and, 
 after prayer, said to him 
 
 " You will not die now. Do you hope to be saved ? " 
 
 " Yes," replied Charles. 
 
 " For what reason do you hope it ? " 
 
 " Because I have used my best endeavours to serve God." 
 
 Bohler shook his head and said no more, which made 
 Charles Wesley feel very uncomfortable. 
 
 "What!" he said in his Journal, "are not my endeavours 
 a sufficient ground of hope? Would he rob me of my 
 endeavours ? I have nothing else to trust to." 
 
 Poor Charles ! though his illness continued, he still worked 
 hard with his "endeavours," praying much, reading, and 
 agonising. Besides Bohler, there was a poor, ignorant man, 
 named Bray, a Smithfield brazier, but a happy believer in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, to whose house he was carried, and who 
 showed him the way of faith more perfectly. 
 
 A poor but pious woman too spoke words which went. 
 1 See note on page 157.
 
 148 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 home to his heart, but, as she humbly said, they were not her 
 words, but Christ's. And at last Charles found "rest to big 
 soul " in believing. 
 
 But to return to John Wesley. At first, after he became 
 clearly convinced in his own mind of unbelief, he had scruples 
 about continuing preaching, and consulted Bohler about the 
 expediency of giving it up. 
 
 "By no means," replied Bohler. "Preach faith till you have 
 it, and then because you have it, you will preach faith." 
 
 John accordingly preached faith in season and out of season, 
 as the case might be, and very touching it is to read of the 
 success of the message given by the messenger who was him- 
 self athirst for that of which he spoke. 
 
 He and Mr. Kinchin set out for Manchester, preaching and 
 speaking to as many as they could upon their way. In his 
 Journal, Wesley says, on Friday, nth: "In the evening we 
 came to Stafford. The mistress of the house joined with us in 
 family prayer. The next morning one of the servants appeared 
 deeply affected, as did the ostler before we went. Soon after 
 breakfast, stepping into the stable, I spoke a few words to 
 those who were there. A stranger, who heard me, said, ' Sir, 
 I wish I was to travel with you,' and when I went into the 
 house, followed me, and began abruptly, ' Sir, I believe you are 
 a good man, and I come to tell you a little of my life.' The 
 tears stood in his eyes all the time he spoke, and we hoped 
 not a word which was said to him was lost . . . 
 
 " Coming to Holms-Chapel about three, we were surprised 
 at being shown into a room where a cloth and plates were laid. 
 Soon after, two men came in to dinner. Mr. Kinchin told 
 them, ' If they pleased, that gentleman would ask a blessing 
 for them.' They stared, and as it were consented ; but sat 
 still while I did it, one of them with his hat on. We began to 
 speak on turning to God, and went on, though they appeared 
 utterly regardless. After a while their countenances changed, 
 and one of theni stole off his hat, and, laying it down behind
 
 PETER BOHLEE.
 
 150 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 him, said all we said was true ; but he had been a grievous 
 sinner, and had not considered it as he ought ; but he was 
 resolved, with God's help, now to turn to Him in earnest 
 We exhorted him and his companion, who now likewise 
 drank in every word, to cry mightily to God, that He would 
 send them help from His holy place." 
 
 At Manchester, on the Sunday, Wesley preached from St. 
 Paul's words, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new 
 creature." 
 
 Early the next day they left Manchester, feeling "fully 
 determined to lose no opportunity of awakening, instructing, 
 or exhorting any whom they might meet on their journey." At 
 Knutsford, where they first stopped, all they spoke to thank- 
 fully received the word of exhortation. They pursued their 
 journey; people to whom they spoke listened, were amazed, and 
 wanted to hear more ; others accompanied them part of their 
 way on their journey. They reached Oxford again, rejoicing 
 in having received so many fresh instances "of that great 
 truth, ' In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct 
 thy paths.' " 
 
 On Easter Day, Wesley records, " I preached in our College 
 Chapel, on ' The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead 
 shall hear the voice of the Son of God ; and they that hear 
 shall live.' I preached in the afternoon, first at the Castle 
 and then at Carfax, on the same words. I see the promise, 
 but it is afar off." 
 
 At a meeting of his religious friends, his heart was so full 
 that he could not confine himself to the forms of prayer which 
 they were accustomed to use at such times; and from that 
 time forth he resolved to pray indifferently with or without 
 form, as the occasion and the impulse might indicate. Peter 
 Bohler again talked to him about faith, and he was more and 
 more amazed to hear the account the Moravian gave of 
 the fruits of living faith, and the holiness and happiness 
 with which it was attended. He began to study his Greek
 
 WESLE Y'S CONVERSION. 1 5 1 
 
 Testament again, with confidence that he would be shown 
 whether the doctrine was of God. 
 
 After a few weeks, Wesley met Bohler and his brothel 
 Moravians once more in London, and then assented to what 
 Bchler said of faith, but could not understand " How a man 
 could at once be thus turned from darkness to light, from sin 
 and misery to righteousness and joy in the Holy Ghost" 
 However, he searched the Scriptures again, and, examining 
 more particularly the Acts of the Apostles, he says he was 
 utterly astonished at finding scarcely any instances there of 
 other than instantaneous conversions. Southey marvels that a 
 man of Wesley's acuteness who had studied the Scriptures as 
 he had, till the age of five-and-thirty, should have hitherto 
 failed to see that the conversions they recorded were instan- 
 taneous, and necessarily so, because they were produced by 
 plain miracles. 
 
 But still Wesley said to himself, " The Almighty wrought 
 them thus in the first ages of the Church; but times are 
 changed, and what reason is there to suppose He works them 
 thus now ? " 
 
 "But," he writes in his Journal, on Sunday, 22nd April, 
 " I was beat out of this retreat too by the concurring evidence 
 of several living witnesses, who testified God had thus 
 wrought in themselves ; giving them in a moment such a faith 
 in the blood of His Son as translated them out of darkness 
 into light, out of sin and fear into holiness and happiness. 
 Here ended my disputing. I could now only cry out, ' Lord, 
 help thou my unbelief! ' " 
 
 Again he asked Peter Bohler whether he ought not to 
 refrain from teaching others. 
 
 " No," was the answer ; " do not hide in the earth the talent 
 God hath given you." 
 
 So Wesley went on preaching " The Faith as it is in Jesus " 
 a strange doctrine which some who did not care to contradict, 
 yet knew not what to make of.
 
 152 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 His brother's illness caused Wesley to return to London, 
 where he and between forty or fifty persons, including the 
 Moravians, drew up the fundamental rules of " their society 
 in obedience to the command of God by St. James, and by the 
 advice of Bohler." They were to be divided into several 
 bands, or little companies, none consisting of fewer than five 
 or more than ten persons ; in these bands every one in order 
 engaged to tell the others, at their meetings, as freely, plainly, 
 and concisely as he could, the real state of his heart, with his 
 several temptations and deliverances since the last meeting. 
 On Wednesday evenings, at eight o'clock, all the bands were 
 to have a conference, beginning and ending with hymns and 
 prayer. Those who wanted to be admitted into this society, 
 the headquarters of which were in Fetter Lane, were to be 
 asked their motives, whether they would be entirely open, 
 using no kind of reserve. Those who were received on trial 
 were formed into separate bands, and some experienced person 
 was appointed to assist them. After two months, if there 
 appeared to be no objection to them, they were admitted into 
 the society. Every fourth Saturday was to be observed as a 
 day of general intercession ; and on the Sunday " sevennight " 
 following, a general love-feast should be held from seven till 
 ten in the evening. Wesley was now united with the 
 Moravians in doctrine, and well disposed to many parts of 
 their discipline. 
 
 The Sunday following he records, "I preached at St. 
 Lawrence's in the morning ; and afterwards at St. Katherine's 
 Cree Church. I was enabled to speak strong words at both ; 
 and was therefore the less surprised at being informed I was 
 not to preach any more in either of those churches." 
 
 And on the following Tuesday he records, " I preached at 
 Great St. Helen's, to a very numerous congregation, on ' He 
 that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us ail, 
 how shall we not with Him also freely give up all things ? ' 
 My heart was now so enlarged, to declare the love of God to
 
 WESLEY'S CONVERSION. 153 
 
 all that were oppressed by the Devil, that I did not wonder in 
 the least when I was afterwards told, ' Sir, you must preach 
 here no more.' " 
 
 It seems wonderful that the very man whose soul was full 
 of sorrow because of his " evil heart of unbelief," was able so 
 powerfully to preach the " Faith which is in Jesus," that 
 crowds hung on his lips, whilst the affrighted clergy forbade 
 his ever again occupying their pulpits. 
 
 Then Charles, as we have seen, found rest and peace in 
 believing, and, three or four days after, John relates in his 
 Journal how he also attained to faith : 
 
 "In the evening [May 24] I went very unwillingly to a 
 society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's 
 Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter 
 before nine, while he was describing the change which God 
 works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart 
 strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ Christ alone for 
 salvation ; and an assurance was given me that He had taken 
 away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin 
 and death." 
 
 It is interesting to read what immediately followed. Wesley 
 began to pray with all his might for those who persecuted and 
 despitefully used him. Then he openly testified to all present 
 what he now felt in his heart. " But it was not long before 
 the enemy suggested, ' This cannot be faith, for where is thy 
 joy ? ' Then was I taught that peace and victory over sin are 
 essential to faith in the Captain of our salvation ; but that, as 
 to the transports of joy that usually attend the beginning of it, 
 especially in those who have mourned deeply, God sometimes 
 giveth, sometimes withholdeth them according to the counsels 
 of His own will." 
 
 Returning home, Wesley was buffeted with temptations ; he 
 cried out and they fled away, but to return again and again. 
 
 "I as often lifted up my eyes," he said, "and He sent me 
 help from His holy place. And herein I found the difference
 
 1 54 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 between this and my former state chiefly consisted. I was 
 striving, yea, fighting with all my might under the law, as well 
 as under grace ; but then I was sometimes, if not often, con- 
 quered ; now I was always conqueror." 
 
 Wesley considered the 24th of May 1738 the date of his 
 conversion. Eighteen days afterwards, at St. Mary's, in 
 Oxford, he preached his celebrated sermon on the text, " By 
 grace are ye saved, through faith." 1 In this discourse, 
 says Tyerman, he showed that the faith through which we 
 are saved is not barely the faith of a heathen, who believes 
 that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently 
 seek Him ; nor, secondly, is it the faith of a devil, who, in 
 addition to the faith of a heathen, believes that Jesus is the 
 Son of God, the Christ, the Saviour of the world ; nor, thirdly, 
 is it barely the faith which the apostles had while Christ was 
 yet upon earth, although they so believed in Christ as to leave 
 all and follow Him, had power to work miracles, and were 
 sent to preach; but, fourthly, "it is a full reliance on the 
 blood of Christ, a trust in the merits of His life, death, and 
 resurrection, a recumbency upon Him as our atonement and 
 our life, as given for us and living in us ; and in consequence 
 hereof, a closing with Him and cleaving to Him, as our 
 wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, or, in 
 one word, our salvation." 
 
 "The salvation obtained by such a faith is described as 
 being a salvation (i) From the guilt of all past sin ; (2) from 
 servile fear ; (3) from the power of sin. The man having it is 
 pardoned ; he has the witness of the Spirit that he is a child of 
 God ; he is born again ; and he lives without sin. 
 
 "Wesley further answers objections to this doctrine, and shows 
 that to preach salvation by faith is not only to preach against 
 holiness and good works ; neither does it lead men into pride, 
 nor drive them to despair. He maintains that never was the 
 
 1 This sermon was published in the following November by James 
 Hutton. Price 3d.
 
 WESLEY'S CONVERSION. 155 
 
 preaching of this doctrine more seasonable than now, and that 
 nothing else can effectually prevent the increase of the Popish 
 delusion. It was this which drove Popery out of the kingdom, 
 and it is this alone that can keep it out . . . 
 
 " In the same year Wesley published another sermon, 'On 
 God's Free Grace,' in which he gave equal prominence to 
 another great Bible truth namely, ' That the grace or love of 
 God, whence cometh our salvation, is free in all, and free for 
 all.' And then in defence of himself as a good Churchman, 
 he issued a small i2mo pamphlet of sixteen pages, entitled, 
 ' The Doctrine of Salvation, Faith and Good Works : extracted 
 from the Homilies of the Church of England.' Here he shows 
 that the doctrine of the Church is, that the sinner is justified 
 by faith only ; and yet this faith does not exclude repentance, 
 hope, love, and fear of God ; but shuts them out from the 
 office of justifying. . . . Justification is the office of God only 
 a blessing which we receive of His free mercy, through the 
 only merits of His beloved Son. He adds, 'The right and 
 true Christian faith is not only to believe that Holy Scripture 
 and the articles of our faith are true, but also to have a sure 
 trust and confidence to be saved from everlasting damnation 
 by Christ; whereof doth follow a loving heart to obey his 
 commandments.' He maintains further that, without this true 
 saving faith, the works we do cannot be good and acceptable 
 in the sight of God. ' Faith gives life to the soul, and they 
 are as much dead to God who want faith, as they are to the 
 world whose bodies want souls. Without faith all we do is but 
 dead before God, be it ever so glorious before man.' " 
 
 These are the great doctrines Wesley grasped and began to 
 preach in 1738, and it was the preaching of these doctrines 
 that led to one of the greatest revivals in religion which ever 
 took place in the Church of Christ. But the preacher himself, 
 after having been once heard to utter them, was forbidden to 
 preach again in most of the pulpits in the churches of our land. 
 A thousand pities it was that the clergy were themselves so far
 
 156 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 from the True Light, that when it shone they knew it not, and 
 when the voice of the Redeemer spoke through his servant the 
 same message that was uttered long ago upon the shores of 
 Galilee, they knew not that it was His voice which was pro- 
 claiming the Gospel of Salvation through faith in Him who 
 died that we might live 1 
 
 But, though the Wesleys were turned out of the churches, 
 they still lived and worked in the Church^ esteeming it all 
 honour that they were permitted to suffer persecution for 
 the kingdom of Heaven's sake. And one great result of their 
 labours is that to-day, throughout the churches of the English 
 Church, the message that they gave is, more or less, being 
 preached to all its members.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 WESLEY'S ECCENTRICITIES. 
 
 IT is always sad to see the weakness of great men, and we 
 should like to draw a veil over some of the extravagances 
 Wesley committed during this part of his career, but our duty 
 as an historian must be done. 
 
 In the lives of all deep thinkers or great workers there 
 are times of reaction ; there is an inevitable " swinging of the 
 pendulum " before the thinker or the worker settles down in 
 his newer, wider sphere. 
 
 Wesley had been what we should call a Ritualist, but what 
 was in those days called a Sacramentarian ; but now, having 
 received through the Moravians the greatest possible assist- 
 ance in the attainment of his faith in Christ, he began to 
 adopt their views, conform to their practices, and, apparently, 
 somewhat blindly follow their extravagances. 
 
 Before Samuel Wesley left London for Tiverton his house 
 in Dean's Yard had been a home for his brothers whenever 
 they came to town. Afterwards Mr. Hutton, the father of 
 their Oxford friend, and his family, who were much attached to 
 them, occupied the house, and desired John and Charles 
 Wesley to make the same use of it John, therefore, was 
 staying with the Huttons at the time of his conversion, 1 and a 
 few days after, when Mr. Hutton had finished a sermon which 
 he was reading on Sunday evening to his visitors and family, 
 John rose, and, to their amazement, assured them that he 
 
 1 The meaning of the word has been often perverted. Here we simply 
 use it as expressing a new turn to his mind which brought him back to 
 the faith of a child, " Except ye be converted," etc.
 
 158 TOHN WESLEY. 
 
 had never been a Christian till within the last five days, and 
 then went on to say that he was perfectly certain of it, and 
 that the only way for them to become Christians was to 
 believe and confess that they were not so now. 
 
 "Have a care, Mr. Wesley," said Hutton, "how you 
 despise the benefits received by the two sacraments ! " 
 
 And when Wesley repeated the same thing at supper in Mrs. 
 Hutton's presence, she exclaimed 
 
 " If you were not a Christian ever since I knew you, you 
 were a great hypocrite, for you made us all believe you were 
 one." 
 
 Wesley replied that when a man had renounced everything 
 but faith, and then got into Christ, then and not till then had 
 he any reason to believe he was a Christian. 1 
 
 " If faith only was necessary to save us," asked Mr. Hutton, 
 "why did our Saviour give us His divine sermon on the 
 Mount?" 
 
 " That was the letter that killeth," said Wesley. 
 
 " Hold," said the other ; " you seem not to know what you 
 say : are our Lord's words the letter that killeth ? " 
 
 But it would have been as easy, says Southey, to cure a 
 fever by reasoning with the patient, as to have made Wesley 
 at this time doubt the soundness of his new opinions. 
 
 Mrs. Hutton said to Samuel Wesley, in writing an account 
 of all this, that her two children had so high an opinion of 
 Wesley's sanctity and judgment that she was afraid they would 
 be drawn into his wild notions, and mentioned that Wesley 
 had "abridged the life of one Halyburton, a Presbyterian 
 teacher in Scotland," and that her son had meant to print 
 it, but she and her husband had forbidden him to promote 
 such "rank fanaticism," and that all his converts were 
 "directed to get an assurance of their sins being pardoned, 
 and to expect it in an instant." She said, too, that she knew 
 the two Wesleys were "men of great parts and learning," 
 Vide John's explanation on p. 159 of his idea of a Christian.
 
 WESLEY'S ECCENTRICITIES. 159 
 
 but thought they were now under a " strange delusion," and, 
 finally, she entreated Samuel to stop " this wild-fire" if he could. 
 
 In reply to this communication Samuel wrote from Tiverton 
 on June 17, 1738 "I am sufficiently sensible of yours and 
 Mr. Hutton's kindness to my brothers, and shall always 
 acknowledge it. Falling into enthusiasm is being lost with 
 a witness ; and, if you are troubled for two of your children, 
 you may be sure I am so for two whom I may, in some sense, 
 call mine. What Jack means by his not being a Christian 
 till last month, I understand not. Had he never been in 
 covenant with God ? Then, as Mr. Hutton observed, baptism 
 was nothing. Had he totally apostatised from it ? I dare say 
 not j and yet he must either be unbaptised, or an apostate, to 
 make his words true. 
 
 "If renouncing everything but faith means rejecting all 
 merit of our own good works, what Protestant does not do 
 that ? Even Bellarmine, on his death-bed, is said to have 
 renounced all merits but those of Christ But if this renounc- 
 ing regards good works in any other sense, as being unnecessary, 
 it is wretchedly wicked. 
 
 " I hope your son does not think it as plainly revealed that 
 he shall print an enthusiastic book, as it is, that he should 
 obey his father and mother. God deliver us from visions that 
 shall make the law of God vain ! I pleased myself with the 
 expectation of seeing Jack; but now I am afraid of it I 
 know not where to direct to him, or where he is. I will write 
 to Charles." 
 
 Later, Samuel seems to have found where John was, for 
 he wrote to him, asking what he meant by being made a 
 Christian, the astute elder brother imagining rightly that part 
 of John's apparent inconsistency might arise from a confusion 
 of terms. John's reply shows that, at all events, he had a 
 meaning of his own for the term Christian. 
 
 " By a Christian," he says, " I mean one who so believes in 
 Christ as that sin hath no more dominion over him ; and, in
 
 160 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 this obvious sense of the word I was not a Christian till the 
 24th of May last. Till then sin had dominion over me, 
 although I fought with it continually ; but from that time to 
 this it hath not. Such is the free gift of God in Christ If you 
 ask me by what means I am made free ? I answer by faith \ 
 by such a sort or degree of faith as I had not till that day." 
 
 A little time before his conversion Wesley had written very 
 severely to his old teacher, William Law, telling him that for 
 two years he had been preaching after the model of Mr. Law's 
 two practical treatises, and all who had heard had allowed that 
 the law was great, wonderful, and holy, but when they tried to do 
 so, they found they could not fulfil it, and that " by doing the 
 works of the law should no flesh living be justified." He had 
 then bidden them pray earnestly for grace, and use all those other 
 means of obtaining it which God had appointed. Still he and 
 his hearers were more and more convinced that by this law man 
 could not live; and he might have groaned to death under this 
 heavy yoke had not a good man to whom God had lately 
 directed him answered his complaining at once, by saying, 
 " Believe, and thou shalt be saved. Believe in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ with all thy heart, and nothing shall be impossible to 
 thee. Strip thyself naked of thy own works and thy own 
 righteousness, and flee to Him." "Now, sir," continued Wesley, 
 " suffer me to ask, how will you answer it to our common Lord 
 that you never gave me this advice ? Why did I scarcely ever 
 hear you name the name of Christ ; never so as to ground any- 
 thing upon faith in His blood? If you say you advised other 
 things preparatory to this, what is this but laying a foundation 
 below the foundation ? Is not Christ then the First as well as 
 the Last ? If you say you advised them, because you knew 
 that I had faith already, verily you knew nothing of me ; you 
 discerned not my spirit at all. . . I know that I had not faith, 
 unless the faith of a devil, the faith of Judas, that speculative, 
 notional, airy shadow which lives in the head, not in the heart. 
 But what is this to the living, justifying faith, the faith that
 
 WESLE Y'S ECCENTRICITIES. 1 6 1 
 
 cleanses from sin ? I beseech you, sir, by the mercies of God, 
 to consider deeply and impartially whether the true reason of 
 your never pressing this upon me was not this, that you had it 
 not yourself." He then warned him, on the authority of Peter 
 Bohler, whom he called a man of God, that his state was a very 
 dangerous one, and asked him whether his extreme roughness 
 and morose and sour behaviour could possibly be the fruit of a 
 living faith in God. 
 
 To this extraordinary letter, as Southey calls it, Law 
 returned a temperate answer. "As you have written," said 
 he, "in obedience to a divine call, and in conjunction with 
 another extraordinary good young man whom you know to 
 have the Spirit of God, so I assure you, that considering your 
 letter in that view, I neither desire nor dare to make the 
 smallest defence of myself. I have not the least inclination 
 to question your mission, nor the smallest repugnance to own, 
 receive, reverence, and submit myself to you both in the 
 exalted character to which you lay claim. But upon supposi- 
 tion that you had here only acted by that ordinary light, which 
 is common to good and sober minds, I should remark upon 
 your letter as follows : How you may have been two years 
 preaching the doctrine of the two Practical Discourses, or how 
 you may have tired yourself and your hearers to no purpose is 
 what I cannot say much to. A holy man, you say, taught you 
 thus Believe and thou shalt be saved. Believe in the Lord 
 Jesus with all thy heart, and nothing shall be impossible to thee. 
 Strip thyself naked of thy own works and thy own righteous- 
 ness^ and flee to Him. I am to suppose that until you met 
 with this holy man you had not been taught this doctrine. 
 Did you not above two years ago give a new translation of 
 Thomas a Kempis ? Will you call Thomas to account, and to 
 answer it to God, as you do me, for not teaching you that 
 doctrine ? Or will you say that you took upon you to restore 
 the true sense of that divine writer, and to instruct others how 
 they might best profit by reading him, before you had so much 
 
 ii
 
 162 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 as a literal knowledge of the most plain, open, and repeated 
 doctrine in his book ? You cannot but remember what value 
 I always expressed for Kempis, and how much I recommended 
 it to your meditations. You have had a great many conversa- 
 tions with me, and I dare say that you never were with me for 
 half-an-hour without my being large upon that very doctrine 
 which you make me totally silent and ignorant of. How far 
 I have discerned your spirit or the spirit of others that have 
 conversed with me, may perhaps be more a secret to you than 
 you imagine. But granting you to be right in the account of 
 your own faith, how am I chargeable with it ? 
 
 " I am to suppose that after you had been meditating upon 
 an author that, of all others, leads us the most directly to a 
 real, living faith in Jesus Christ ; after you had judged yourself 
 such a master of his sentiments and doctrines as to be able to 
 publish them to the world, with directions and instructions 
 concerning such experimental divinity; that years after you 
 had done this you had only the faith of a devil or Judas, an 
 empty notion only in your head ; that you were in such a state 
 through ignorance that there was any better to be sought after; 
 and that you were in this ignorance because I never directed 
 or called you to this true faith. But, sir, as Kempis and I 
 have both of us had your acquaintance and conversation, so 
 pray let the fault be divided betwixt us ; and I shall be con- 
 tent to have it said that I left you in as much ignorance of this 
 faith as he did, or that you learnt no more of it by conversing 
 with me than with him. If you had only this faith till some 
 weeks ago, let me advise you not to be too hasty in believing 
 that because you have changed your language or expressions, 
 you have changed your faith. The head can as easily amuse 
 itself with a living and justifying faith in the blood of Jesus, as 
 with any other notion ; and the heart which you suppose to be 
 a place of security, as being the seat of self-love, is more 
 deceitful than the head." He then refers to Wesley's 
 uncourteous remark about his behaviour, saying mildly,
 
 WESLEY'S ECCENTRICITIES. 163 
 
 "Your last paragraph, concerning my sour, rough behaviour, 
 I leave in full force ; whatever you can say of me of that kind, 
 without hurting yourself, will be always well received by me." 
 
 Wesley's answer to this letter is curious it is hard, logical, 
 intense, and, whilst regardless of self, is equally regardless of 
 any other individual Wesley allows the facts of Law's letter, 
 but disputes the inferences he would draw from them. In 
 reference to Kempis, he said it was Law's business to have led 
 him to a truer understanding of his meaning. He repeats that 
 Law's advice had kept him from the true faith. 
 
 " It would have been better," says Wedgewood, " if Law had 
 let the correspondence drop here, but a second, and, if we may 
 trust a rough draft found among Law's papers, a third letter 
 followed, carrying the discussion to the yet more useless stage 
 of mere personal controversy." 
 
 " But if I tell you," writes Law, " that you had conceived a 
 dislike to me, and wanted to let me know that a man of God 
 bad shown you the poverty and misery of my state ; if I tell 
 you that this was the main intent of your letter, you know that 
 I tell you the truth." 
 
 Then he adds bitterly of Bohler (Wesley having brought 
 about a meeting between the two), " I listened to him humbly, 
 consented to his instructing me. We parted, to all appearance 
 friendly. He passes a sentence of condemnation on me as 
 being in a poor, miserable state, which lay open to his eyes. 
 This man of God told nothing of this to myself, but goes away 
 to another man of God, and invents and tells things as false as 
 if he had charged me with picking his pocket. This other man 
 of God confirms this sentence, as spoken by one who knew 
 that he had the spirit of God." 
 
 The letter concludes with a question, which Wedgewood 
 thinks may have given the finishing blow to Wesley's earliest 
 form of High Churchism : 
 
 " If you have a right to charge me with guilt for the neglect 
 of the question you say it was my duty to have put to you,
 
 1 64 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 may you not much more reasonably charge them who are 
 authoritatively charged with you? Did the Church in which 
 you were educated put this question to you ? Did the Bishop 
 that ordained you either Deacon or Priest do this for you? 
 Did the Bishop that sent you a missionary into Georgia do 
 this for you ? Pray, sir, be at peace with me." 
 
 The correspondence ceased, and so did the friendship 
 between Wesley and his first spiritual guide. 
 
 Southey says, " Many years afterwards Wesley printed, and 
 in so doing sanctioned, an observation of one of his corre- 
 spondents, which explains the difference that now appeared to 
 him so frightful between his own doctrine and that of William 
 Law. ' Perhaps,' said this writer, ' what the best heathens call 
 Reason, and Solomon Wisdom, St. Paul Grace in general, and 
 St. John Righteousness or Love, Luther Faith, and Fe"nelon 
 Virtue, may be only different expressions for one and the self- 
 same blessing, the light of Christ shining in different degrees 
 upon different dispensations. Why then so many words, an.d 
 so little charity exercised among Christians, about the par- 
 ticular term of a blessing experienced more or less by all 
 righteous men ! ' There are sufficient indications that in the 
 latter part of his life Wesley reposed in this feeling of Catholic 
 charity, to which his heart always inclined him."
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 WESLEY IN GERMANY. 
 
 AFTER his conversion John Wesley continued about a fortnight 
 "in heaviness, because of manifold temptations, in peace, 
 but not in joy." A certain letter which reached him perplexed 
 him, because it maintained that " no doubting could co-exist 
 with the least degree of true faith ; that whoever at any time 
 felt any doubt or fear was not weak in faith, but had no faith 
 at all ; and that none had any faith till the law of the spirit of 
 life had made him free from the law of sin and death," 
 Praying to God to direct him, he opened his Bible, 1 and his 
 eye fell on that passage where St. Paul speaks of babes in 
 Christ, who were not able to bear strong meat, yet to whom 
 he said, " Ye are God's building ; ye are the temple of God." 
 Surely then, thought Wesley, these men had some degree of 
 faith, though it is plain their faith was but weak. His mind, 
 however, was still unsettled, so he determined to go and visit 
 the Moravians at Herrnhuth, their chief settlement, in the hope 
 that "conversing with these holy men, who were themselves 
 living witnesses of the full power of faith, and yet able to bear 
 with those that are weak, would be a means of so establishing 
 his own soul, that he might go on from faith to faith, and from 
 strength to strength." 
 
 Accordingly, on the i3th of June, having taken leave of his 
 mother, Wesley set off for Herrnhuth. One of his companions 
 
 1 This was a very common habit with the Wesleys and the early 
 Methodists. When they were in a difficulty they prayed, then opened 
 the Bible and took the first verse on which their eyes rested as a message 
 for them.
 
 REV. JOHN WESLEY.
 
 WESLE Y IN GERMANY. 1 6 7 
 
 was his friend Ingham, another was John Toltschig, one of the 
 first fugitives who fled to Herrnhuth from the fierce persecution 
 in Moravia in 1724. 
 
 Wesley records in his Journal that they arrived at Rotterdam 
 on Thursday [the i$th of July]. He says : 
 
 "We were eight in all, five English and three Germans. 
 Dr. Koker, a physician of Rotterdam, was so kind when we 
 set forward in the afternoon as to walk an hour with us on our 
 way. I never before saw such a road as this. For many 
 miles together it is raised for some yards above the level, and 
 paved with a small sort of brick, as smooth and clean as the 
 Mall in St. James's. The walnut-trees stand in even rows 
 on either side; so that no walk in a gentleman's garden is 
 pleasanter. About seven we came to Gondart, where we were 
 a little surprised at meeting with a treatment which is not 
 heard of in England. Several inns utterly refused to entertain 
 us ; so that it was with difficulty we at last found one where 
 they did us the favour to take our money for some meat and 
 drink and the use of two or three bad beds. They pressed us 
 much in the morning to see their church, but were displeased 
 at our pulling off our hats when we went in ; telling us, ' We 
 must not do so ; it was not the custom there.' It is a large 
 old building of the Gothic kind, resembling some of our 
 English cathedrals. There was much history painting in the 
 windows, which, they told us, is greatly admired." 
 
 In a little more than six hours they reached Ysselstein, the 
 home of Baron Watteville, who had been one of Count 
 Zinzendorf s fellow-students, and one of the young gentlemen 
 at the Academy in Halle, who, about the year 1717, had formed 
 an association called "The Order of the Grain of Mustard 
 Seed," the object of which was the conversion of the Jews and 
 heathen. 
 
 Watteville was now at the head of " a few German brethren 
 and sisters, and about eight English Moravians, who were 
 living in three or four small houses, until one should be built
 
 168 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 large enough to contain them all." Wesley and his friends 
 spent a day with them it happened to be their Intercession 
 Day. 
 
 " In the morning," writes Wesley, " some of our English 
 brethren desired me to administer the Lord's Supper. The 
 rest of the day we spent with all the brethren and sisters, in 
 hearing the wonderful work which God is beginning to work 
 over all the earth, and in making our requests known unto 
 Him, and giving Him thanks for the mightiness of His 
 kingdom." 
 
 At Amsterdam, where they spent four days, they attended 
 several society meetings, where " the expounding was in High 
 Dutch." 
 
 On Sunday, June 26th, they reached Cologne, which Wesley 
 said was " the ugliest, dirtiest city I ever saw with my eyes." 
 
 They went to the Cathedral, which magnificent though 
 unfinished building he called " mere heaps upon heaps, a huge 
 misshapen thing, without either symmetry or neatness belong- 
 ing to it." The worship here and in other Roman Catholic 
 buildings, Wesley remarked, was not united worship. For one 
 man prayed at one shrine, and one at another ; and there was 
 no " common " prayer. As they came out of the Cathedral, 
 one of Wesley's companions scrupled to take off his hat as a 
 Popish procession passed, upon which a Papist cried, "Knock 
 down the Lutheran dog ! " The friends, however, escaped any 
 violence by retreating into the Cathedral. 
 
 When they embarked on the majestic Rhine Wesley says he 
 " could not but observe the decency of the Papists above us 
 who are called Reformed. As soon as ever we were seated 
 (and so every morning after) they all pulled off their hats, and 
 each used by himself a short prayer for our prosperous journey. 
 And this justice I must do the boatmen (who upon the Rhine 
 are generally wicked even to a proverb) I never heard one of 
 them take the name of God in vain, or saw any one laugh when 
 anything of religion was mentioned."
 
 WESLE Y IN GERMAN K 169 
 
 Wesley of course admired the scenery of the Rhine 
 immensely; the boat in which he travelled was drawn by 
 horses, and he had ample time to study the beauties of one of 
 the finest rivers in the world during the four days and nights 
 which passed before they reached Mayence. On arriving, 
 " faint and weary," at Frankfort, they were refused admittance 
 because they had no passports. By the interposition, however, 
 of Peter Border's father, who resided in the city, they were 
 allowed to enter at last, and were hospitably entertained by 
 Herr Bohler. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 4th of July, they came to Marienburg, 
 in the neighbourhood of which Zinzendorf, two years before, 
 had taken up his abode in an old ruinous castle called Ronne- 
 burg, and where he had established schools for poor children, 
 whom he fed and clothed at his own expense. Here too 
 he had formed a missionary congregation, consisting of forty 
 students from Jena, most of whom became ministers in 
 Europe, or went on missions to the heathen. 
 
 The meeting between Wesley and .Count Zinzendorf was a 
 deeply interesting one. Wesley, not being able to converse 
 easily in German, talked to the Count in Latin. The latter 
 had been through very similar experiences to those of Wesley ; 
 like him, but at a much earlier age while a schoolboy of 
 fifteen at Halle he had been the centre of a little religious 
 brotherhood " He at Wittenberg, like Wesley at Oxford, had 
 been ' mocked for his singularity ' ; and later in life had been 
 the subject of so much obloquy, that King Frederick William, 
 the father of Frederick the Great, after a long interview with 
 him, had declared that ' all the devils in hell could not have 
 invented greater lies than had been told him of Zinzendorf.' 
 Finally, he (Zinzendorf) too formed the centre of an order, 
 and struggled against the imputation of being the founder of a 
 sect ; and the connection in his case, as in Wesley's, was not 
 of his own seeking. Except in this particular, however, the 
 causes which connected Zinzendorf with the Moravians were
 
 J 70 fOHN WESLEY. 
 
 wholly unlike those which connected Wesley with the 
 Methodists. He had postponed his strong desire of entering 
 the ministry in deference to his mother's wish that he should 
 occupy some position more suitable to his rank, and accepted 
 a position at the Saxon Court. This sacrifice enabled him, as 
 a person of influence, effectually to befriend the Moravian 
 Protestants, driven by persecution from their native land ; they 
 owed their second organisation to his care, and are sometimes 
 supposed to have been a sect founded by him." 1 
 
 The Moravian family at Marienburg altogether consisted of 
 about ninety people, all living in a large house rented by 
 Zinzendorf. Wesley stayed with them a fortnight, conversing 
 with the brethren, listening to the Count's sermons, and 
 attending conferences and intercession meetings. 
 
 In a letter to his brother Samuel he says : " God has given 
 me at length the desire of my heart. I am with a Church 
 whose conversation is in Heaven ; in whom is the mind that 
 was in Christ, and who so walk as He walked. As they have 
 all one Lord and one faith, so they are all partakers of one 
 Spirit the Spirit of meekness and love, which uniformly and 
 continually animates all their conversation. I believe in a 
 week Mr. Ingham and I shall set out for Herrnhuth, about 
 three hundred and fifty miles hence. Oh ! pray for us, that 
 God would sanctify to us all those precious opportunities." 
 
 In his Journal Wesley says : " Here I continually met 
 with what I sought for viz., living proofs of the power of 
 faith, persons saved from inward as well as outward sin, by 
 ' the love of God shed abroad in their hearts ; ' and from all 
 doubt and fear, by the abiding witness of 'the Holy Ghost 
 given unto them.' " 
 
 That Zinzendorf was, though pious, a very peculiar man, the 
 
 following anecdote, related by Hampson, shows : The Count, 
 
 who regarded Wesley as his pupil, ordered him one day to dig 
 
 in the garden ; and after Wesley had been there for some 
 
 1 J. Wedgewood.
 
 WESLE Y IN GERMANY. 1 7 1 
 
 time working without coat, and when the unaccustomed 
 labour had made him very tired, the lordly Count commanded 
 him to enter a carriage that was waiting, and go with him to 
 pay a visit to a neighbouring noble. Wesley of course wanted 
 to wash his hands and put on his coat, but this his preceptor 
 would not allow. 
 
 "You must be simple, my brother," he said, in answer to 
 every remonstrance, and Wesley was so simple as to obey. 
 
 At the end of the fortnight Wesley again started for Herrn- 
 huth, and at Weimar was brought before the Duke, who asked 
 why he was going to Herrnhuth. 
 
 " To see the place where the Christians live," replied Wesley, 
 upon which the Duke looked surprised, but allowed him to go. 
 
 At Halle and Dresden, Wesley and his friends were sent 
 from one official to another for so long, before they were 
 allowed to settle at an inn, that Wesley "greatly wondered 
 that common sense and common humanity allowed such a 
 senseless, inhuman usage of strangers." 
 
 Wesley arrived at Herrnhuth on August ist, and found the 
 Moravian settlement consisted of about a hundred houses, 
 built on a rising ground. There was a chapel which contained 
 six or seven hundred people ; and, during the fortnight of his 
 stay, he heard Christian David preach four times. Christian 
 David, or the Bush preacher, as his persecutors called him, 
 was a remarkable man; his boyhood had been spent in 
 tending sheep, his youth and early manhood partly at the 
 carpenter's bench, and partly in the soldier's tent. At that 
 time he was a zealous Papist, and crawled on his knees before 
 images, performed penances, etc., etc. He was twenty before 
 he saw a Bible, and after that he hardly read anything else; 
 the Bible convinced him of the errors of Popery, and he made 
 up his mind to join the Lutherans. He began to preach at 
 the age of twenty-seven, and his sermons were the means of 
 converting numbers of his countrymen. Persecution followed ; 
 the converts fled ; Herrnhuth was founded. Christian David
 
 J72 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 continued preaching in Moravia till the whole country was 
 thrown into a state of excitement "The people assembled at 
 each other's houses to sing hymns, and to read the Bible. 
 Shepherds chanted the praises of their Redeemer as they kept 
 their flocks ; servants at their work talked of nothing but His 
 great salvation; and children on village greens poured out 
 their fervent prayers before Him. Many were imprisoned ; 
 others were thrust into cellars, and made to stand in water till 
 they were well-nigh frozen ; not a few were loaded with irons, 
 and obliged to work as convicts j and a whole host were con- 
 demned to pay heavy fines." 1 
 
 All this sprung from the preaching of the unlettered man 
 whom Wesley heard at Herrnhuth, the man who five years 
 before conducted the first missionaries to Greenland, and 
 preached to the King of Denmark as he went, a man who, 
 when at home at Herrnhuth and not engaged in work for the 
 Church, always followed his trade as a carpenter, and was 
 respected and loved by young and old, a man who often made 
 mistakes, but was always ready to own his errors when they 
 were pointed out to him, a pious man, who lived in closest 
 communion with the Saviour for whom he worked, and who 
 never tired of preaching the precious truths his Bible taught 
 him as long as he had strength to do so. 
 
 What a sight it must have been to see one of the most 
 distinguished Fellows of Lincoln College, Oxford, sitting in the 
 Herrnhuth Chapel and in the carpenter's cottage to be taught 
 by such a man as that! And yet Christian David was 
 immeasurably superior to the Oxford student in the science of 
 saving truth and Wesley's humility in sitting at his feet was 
 not misplaced. 
 
 Wesley tells us that every time he heard David preach he 
 
 chose the very subject which he would have desired if he had 
 
 spoken to him before. " Thrice he described the state of those 
 
 who are weak in faith ; who are justified, but have not yet a 
 
 1 Tyerman.
 
 WESLE Y IN GERMANY. 1 73 
 
 new, clean heart; who have received forgiveness through 
 the blood of Christ, but have not received the constant 
 indwelling of the Holy Ghost This state he explained from 
 ' Blessed are the poor in spirit ; for theirs is the kingdom of 
 Heaven ; ' when he showed at large, from various Scriptures, 
 that many are children of God and heirs of the promises long 
 before their hearts are softened by holy mourning ; before they 
 are ' comforted ' by the abiding witness of the Spirit melting 
 their hearts into all gentleness and meekness ; and much more, 
 before they are renewed in all that ' righteousness ' which they 
 hungered and thirsted after ; before they are pure in heart from 
 all self-will and sin, and merciful as their Father in Heaven is 
 merciful. " 
 
 The preacher told Wesley privately that he had " the for- 
 giveness of sins, and a measure of the peace of God for many 
 years before he had that witness of the Spirit which shut out 
 all doubt and fear." 
 
 Again Wesley wrote in his Journal an extract from the 
 fourth sermon, which he said made a great impression on his 
 mind : 
 
 " Here is a mystery. Here the wise men of the world are 
 lost, are taken in their own craftiness. This the learned of 
 the world cannot comprehend. It is foolishness unto them. 
 Sin is the only thing which divides men from God. Sin [let 
 him that heareth understand] is the only thing that unites 
 them to God, that is, the only thing which moves the Lamb 
 of God to have compassion upon and by His blood to give 
 them access to the Father. This then do, if you will lay a 
 right foundation. Go straight to God with all your ungodliness. 
 Tell Him, ' Thou whose eyes are a flame of fire scorching the 
 heart, seest that I am ungodly. I plead nothing else ; I do 
 not say I am contrite, but I am ungodly. Therefore bring 
 me to Him that justifieth the ungodly. Let Thy blood be 
 the propitiation for me. For there is nothing in me but 
 ungodliness.' "
 
 174 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 This extract, says one of Wesley's biographers,! is valuable 
 both as explaining the influence of the Moravians and Wesley's 
 subsequent misunderstanding of and recoil from their doctrine. 
 He felt now, with all the vividness of a sudden discovery which 
 startles the mind by its simplicity, that the sense of need was 
 all that was necessary for the soul to bring to God ; and any 
 utterance of this truth, even one that implied that a virtuous 
 life was a disadvantage in the eyes of God, came home to him 
 with the utmost power. This idea, however, took such a very 
 different "proportion" in his mind after his separation from 
 the Moravians, that it seemed to them he had ceased to think 
 thus. 
 
 Other members of the simple community related their 
 experiences to Wesley, and he was so much impressed with 
 the reality of their religion that he wrote : " I would gladly 
 have spent my life here. Oh, when shall this Christianity 
 cover the earth as the waters cover the sea ? " 
 
 He was affected by their simple burial rites. 8 Their grave- 
 yard was "God's Acre." They bore thither the dead with 
 hymns. Little children led the procession and carried the 
 bier of a deceased child. He saw a bereaved father, a humble 
 mechanic, looking upon the grave of his infant, and wishing to 
 console him, found it unnecessary, for he had a higher Comforter. 
 Wesley inquired about his affliction. 
 
 " Praised be the Lord," was the parent's reply ; "praised be 
 the Lord, He has taken the soul of my child to Himself; I 
 know that when his body is raised again, both he and I shall 
 be ever with the Lord." 
 
 These Moravians were divided into about ninety bands, each 
 band meeting twice or three times a week to " confess their 
 faults one to another, and to pray for one another that they 
 might be healed." The rulers of the Church had daily con- 
 ferences, and once a week there was one for strangers, to which 
 any one might come and ask questions. The children and 
 1 J. Wedgewood. a Abel Stevens,
 
 WESLE Y IN GERMANY. 175 
 
 young people were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, Latin, 
 Greek, Hebrew, French, English, history, and geography. 
 
 The separation of the sexes was carried so far that only one 
 or two of the male officers ever spoke with the women ; female 
 teachers, helpers, censors, etc., replacing them with those of 
 their own sex. 
 
 Marriage, they said, was held by them in great reverence, 
 " as highly conducive to the kingdom of Christ But," they 
 went on to say, " neither our young men nor women enter into 
 it till they assuredly know they are married to Christ. When 
 any know it is the will of God that they should change their 
 state, both the man and woman are placed for a time with 
 some married people, who instruct them how to behave, so 
 that their married life may be pleasing to God. Then their 
 design is laid before the whole Church, and after about four- 
 teen days they are solemnly joined, though not otherwise 
 habited than they are at other times." 
 
 On Sunday, the services began at six in the morning, and at 
 eight in the evening they held their last service, after which 
 the young men went round the town singing songs of praise. 
 Casting lots was used both in public and in private, to decide 
 matters of importance, when the reasons on each side appear 
 to have been about equal in weight 
 
 Some things there were in the customs of these Moravians 
 of which, in spite of their wondrous faith and love, Wesley 
 must necessarily have disapproved. For instance, some of 
 their hymns were the veriest balderdash, and totally unfit for 
 the service of the Almighty; and we find that after Wesley 
 had left them and returned to England, he wrote to the 
 Moravian Brethren part of a letter, which showed his uneasi- 
 ness about other matters, but which apparently was, for some 
 reason, never sent. We give it as it is : 
 
 " MY DEAR BRETHREN, I cannot but rejoice in your stead- 
 fast faith, in your love to our Blessed Redeemer, your deadness 
 to the world, your meekness, temperance, chastity, and love of
 
 i 7 6 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 one another. I greatly approve of your conferences and 
 bands; of your method of instructing children; and, in 
 general, of your great care of the souls committed to your 
 charge, 
 
 " But of some other things I stand in doubt, which I will 
 mention in all love and meekness. 
 
 " Is not the Count all in all among you ? 
 
 " Do you not magnify your own Church too much ? 
 
 " Do you not use guile and dissimulation in many cases ? 
 
 "Are you not of a close, dark, reserved temper and 
 behaviour?" 
 
 These are grave accusations, and probably Wesley con- 
 sidered that it would be better not to send them. But he 
 wrote to Zinzendorf, thanking him warmly for his hospitality, 
 and telling him how reluctantly he had quitted the society of 
 " the Christians who love one another," and then adding 
 frankly, " I hope to see them at least once more, were it only 
 to give them the fruit of my love by speaking freely on a few 
 things which I did not approve, perhaps because I did not 
 understand them." We may gather what some of the few 
 things were by his concluding words, in which he desires that 
 God would make Zinzendorf to abound more and more in all 
 lowliness, faith, and love, particularly towards those who are 
 without?- 
 
 The charge here implied was repeated by Wesley in after 
 years. 
 
 1 Wedgewood.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 IN LONDON AGAIN. 
 
 DURING Wesley's absence in Germany, his brother Charles 
 had kept up the impression their religious earnestness had 
 made in London, and John found upon his return, on Septem- 
 ber 1 6th, that the society in Fetter Lane consisted of thirty- 
 two persons. His presence, however, was required; "For, 
 though," he writes, "a great door had been opened, the 
 adversaries had laid so many stumbling-blocks before it, that 
 the weak were daily turned out of the way, Numberless mis- 
 understandings had arisen, by means of which the way of truth 
 was much blasphemed ; and thence had sprung anger, clamour, 
 bitterness, evil-speaking, envyings, strifes, railings, evil surmises, 
 whereby the enemy had gained such an advantage over the 
 little flock, that of the rest durst no man join himself to 
 them." 
 
 A few weeks after his return, however, Wesley had eight 
 bands of men and two of women under his spiritual direction. 
 He wrote of them as follows to his German friends : 
 
 "We are endeavouring here also, by the grace which is 
 given us, to be followers of you, as ye are of Christ." 
 
 With his own spiritual state he was still very dissatisfied, and 
 about this time he wrote 
 
 " St. Paul tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, 
 joy, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, temperance. Now 
 although, by the grace of God in Christ, I find a measure of 
 some of these in myself viz., of peace, long-suffering, gentle- 
 ness, meekness, temperance ; yet others I find not : I cannot 
 find in myself the love of God, or of Christ; hence my 
 
 12
 
 1 78 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 deadness and wanderings in public prayer; hence it is that even 
 in the Holy Communion I have rarely any more than a cold 
 attention ; hence, when I hoar of the highest instance of God's 
 love, my heart is still senseless and unaffected ; yea, at this 
 moment I feel no more love to Him than to one I had never 
 heard of. Again, I have not that joy in the Holy Ghost, no 
 settled, lasting joy ; nor have I such a peace as excludes the 
 possibility either of fear or doubt When holy men have told me 
 I had no faith, I have often doubted whether I had or no ; and 
 those doubts have made me very uneasy, till I was relieved 
 by prayer and the Holy Scriptures. Yet, upon the whole, 
 although I have not that joy in the Holy Ghost, nor that love 
 of God shed abroad in my heart, nor the full assurance of faith, 
 nor the (proper) witness of the Spirit with my spirit that I am 
 a child of God much less am I, in the full and proper sense 
 of the words, in Christ a new creature I nevertheless trust I 
 have a measure of faith, and am accepted in the Beloved : I 
 trust the handwriting that was against me is blotted out, and 
 that I am reconciled to God through His Son." 
 
 Southey says this representation of his own state is evidently 
 faithful; but his Moravian friends did not judge of it so 
 favourably. Delamotte said to him : 
 
 " You are better than you were at Savannah, You know 
 that you were then quite wrong; but you are not right yet. 
 You know that you were then blind ; but you do not see now. 
 I doubt not but God will bring you to the right foundation ; 
 but I have no hope for you while you are on the present 
 foundation ; it is as different from the true as the right hand 
 from the left. You have all to begin anew. I have observed 
 all your words and actions, and I see you are of the same 
 spirit still ; you have a simplicity, but it is a simplicity of your 
 own ; it is not the simplicity of Christ You think you do not 
 trust in your own works ; but you do trust in your own works. 
 You do not believe in Christ ; . . . you have a peace, but it is 
 not a true peace ; if death were to approach, you would find
 
 IN LONDON A GAIN. \ 79 
 
 all your fears return. But I am forbid to say any more ; my 
 heart sinks in me like a stone." 
 
 Wesley was troubled by this solemnly delivered censure. He 
 prayed to God, and then opened his Bible in his usual manner 
 when seeking counsel. The words he opened at were 
 
 " As many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, 
 and mercy upon the Israel of God." 
 
 A second trial gave him the text, " My hour is not yet come" 
 
 Meanwhile, Wesley was working hard, preaching, teaching, 
 and hearing the heart-broken confessions of numbers of pent- 
 tents. Both he and his brother preached in the churches 
 whenever they were allowed to do so, but the congregations 
 were often offended because of the crowds that followed them 
 and that filled the buildings, and the clergy disliked and 
 distrusted their doctrine. 
 
 Some time before, Charles Wesley had received a letter 
 from his friend Gambold, which contains his view of this. 
 
 After saying he had seen by the fact "how intolerable the 
 doctrine of faith is to the mind of man," and " how peculiarly 
 intolerable to the most religious men," he goes on to say, 
 " One may say the most unchristian things, even down to 
 deism ; the most enthusiastic things, so they proceed but upon 
 mental raptures, lights, and unions; the most severe things, 
 even the whole rigour of ascetic mortification ; and all this will 
 be forgiven. But if you speak of faith in such a manner as 
 makes Christ a Saviour to the utmost, a most universal help 
 and refuge ; in such a manner as takes away glorying, but adds 
 happiness to wretched man ; as discovers a greater pollution in 
 the best of us than we could ever before acknowledge, but 
 brings a greater deliverance from it than we could before 
 expect ; if any offer to talk at this rate, he shall be heard with 
 the same abhorrence as if he was going to rob mankind of 
 their salvation, their Mediator, or their highest happiness. I 
 am persuaded that a Montanist, or a Novatian, who from the 
 height of his purity shall look with contempt upon poor
 
 i8o JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 sinners, and exclude them from all mercy, would not be 
 thought such an overthrower of the Gospel as he who should 
 learn from the Author of it to be a friend to publicans and 
 sinners, and to sit down upon the level of them as soon as 
 they begin to repent" 
 
 Then, after speaking about self-righteousness, he goes on to 
 say " But the doctrine of faith is a downright robber, it takes 
 away all this wealth. . . . But where am I running?" he 
 adds. " My design was only to give you warning that, 
 wherever you go, this foolishness of preaching will alienate 
 hearts from you and open mouths against you." 
 
 " Though my brother and I are not permitted to preach in 
 most of the churches in London," wrote Wesley to the 
 Moravians at Herrnhuth, "yet, thanks be to God, there are 
 others left wherein we have liberty to speak the truth as it is 
 in Jesus. Likewise every evening, and on set evenings in the 
 week, at two several places we publish the word of reconcili- 
 ation, sometimes to twenty or thirty, sometimes to fifty or 
 sixty, sometimes to three or four hundred persons met together 
 to hear it" 
 
 And to Dr. Koker he wrote: "His blessed Spirit has 
 wrought so powerfully, both in London and Oxford, that there 
 is a general awakening, and multitudes crying out, 'What 
 must we do to be saved ? ' " 
 
 Driven out of many churches, the Wesleys went to the 
 prisons and hospitals, and wherever they went and preached 
 and expounded the Word of God, souls seem to have been 
 awakened, and many turned to the Lord. 
 
 On November 3rd [1738], Wesley records in his Journal : 
 
 " I preached at St. Antholin's ; Sunday, 5th, in the morning 
 at St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, in the afternoon at Islington, 
 and in the evening to such a congregation as I never saw 
 before, at St Clement's, in the Strand : as this was the first 
 time of my preaching here, I suppose it is to be the last. 
 
 " On Wednesday my brother and I went, at their earnest
 
 IN L OND ON AGAIN. 1 8 1 
 
 desire, to do the last good office to the condemned male- 
 factors. It was the most glorious instance I ever saw of faith 
 triumphing over sin and death. One, observing the tears run 
 fast down the cheeks of one of them in particular, while his 
 eyes were steadily fixed upwards, a few moments before he 
 died, asked, ' How do you feel your heart now ? ' 
 
 " He calmly replied, ' I feel a peace which I could not 
 believe to be possible; and I know it is the peace of God 
 which passeth all understanding.' " 
 
 Charles Wesley used the occasion to preach the Gospel to a 
 large gathering of publicans and sinners. " Oh ! Lord God of 
 my fathers," exclaims Wesley, "accept even me among them, 
 and cast me not out from among Thy children." 
 
 The next Friday, Wesley left town for Oxford, and spent 
 Saturday evening with " a little company " at Oxford. He was 
 grieved to find that prudence had made them leave off singing 
 psalms, and was afraid it would not stop there. " God deliver 
 me," he wrote, "and all that seek Him in sincerity, from what 
 the world calls Christian prudence." 
 
 The Wesleys were both of them still tenacious of " Church 
 order"; they had done nothing, nor did they intend to do 
 anything, which was contrary to that order. But it became 
 necessary that they should give explanations to Dr. Gibson, the 
 Bishop of London. The latter, we are told, was " of a mild 
 and conciliatory temper, a distinguished antiquary, a sound 
 scholar, equally frugal and beneficent, perfectly tolerant as 
 becomes a Christian, and conscientiously attached as becomes 
 a bishop to the doctrines and discipline of the Church." * 
 
 When John and Charles Wesley waited upon him " to justify 
 their conduct," he said to them, in reference to that tenet 
 which now notoriously characterised their preaching, " If by 
 assurance you mean an inward persuasion, whereby a man is 
 conscious in himself, after examining his life by the law of 
 God and weighing his own sincerity, that he is in a state of 
 1 Abel Stevens.
 
 1 8 2 JOHN WESLE K 
 
 salvation and acceptable to God, I do not see how any good 
 Christian can be without such an assurance." 
 
 The brothers answered that they contended for this, and 
 complained that they had been charged with Antinomianism, 
 because they preached justification by faith alone. 
 
 They spoke also about the propriety of re-baptising 
 Dissenters, Wesley saying that if any person dissatisfied with 
 lay-baptism should desire episcopal, he should consider it his 
 duty to administer it The Bishop said he was against it 
 himself! The brothers asked advice and information as to 
 the law ecclesiastical. 1 Was a simple religious meeting a 
 "conventicle"? The Bishop advised them to read and 
 investigate such matters for themselves ; and promised to 
 listen to no "hasty or prejudiced stories" in their disfavour. 
 He concluded the interview by telling them they might come 
 to him at any time. 
 
 A few weeks after Charles availed himself of this permission, 
 and informed the Bishop that a woman wanted him to re- 
 baptise her, as she was not satisfied with her baptism by a 
 Dissenter. 
 
 The Bishop replied that he wholly disapproved of it; Charles 
 Wesley rejoined that he did not expect his approbation, but 
 only came in obedience to give him notice of his intention. 
 
 " It is irregular," said the Bishop. " I never receive any such 
 intention but from the minister." 
 
 "My lord," answered Wesley, "the Rubric does not so 
 much as require the minister to give you notice, but any 
 discreet person ; I have the minister's leave." 
 
 " Who gave you authority to baptise ? " 
 
 "Your lordship," replied Charles he had been ordained 
 priest by him "and I shall exercise it in any part of the 
 known world." 
 
 "Are you a licensed curate?" said the Bishop, beginning to 
 be offended at the way in which he spoke. 
 
 1 The Churchman's History of Wesley.
 
 IN LONDON AGAIN. 183 
 
 Perceiving he could no longer appeal to the letter of the law, 
 Charles Wesley replied he had the leave of the proper minister. 
 
 "But do you not know that no man can exercise parochial 
 duty in London without my leave ? It is only sub silentio? 
 
 " But you know many do take that permission for authority, 
 and you yourself allow it," expostulated Charles. 
 
 " It is one thing to convince," said the Bishop, "and another 
 to approve : I have power to inhibit you." 
 
 "Does your lordship exact that power? Do you now 
 inhibit me ? " 
 
 "Oh, why will you push matters to the extreme 1" exclaimed 
 the irritated Bishop, closing the interview by saying, "Well, 
 sir, you knew my judgment before, and you know it now." 
 
 Charles Wesley would not reflect with much satisfaction 
 upon this dialogue when he and his brother altered their 
 opinions respecting the point in dispute. 1 
 
 Soon afterwards the brothers waited upon the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, also for the purpose of "justifying themselves." 
 
 " He showed us," said Charles, speaking of this interview, 
 " great affection, and cautioned us to give no more umbrage 
 than was necessary for our own defence, to forbear exceptional 
 phrases, and to keep to the doctrines of the Church. We told 
 him we expected persecution would abide by the Church till 
 her articles and homilies were repealed. He assured us he 
 knew of no design in the governors of the Church to innovate; 
 neither should there be any innovation while he lived." 
 
 If the minds of the bishops were favourably inclined, and 
 if many of the clergy wished well to the Methodist movement, 
 why, asks Mr. Denny, were not the Wesleys kept within the 
 system of the Church? And he answers the question by 
 saying the reply to it is found in the history of the last century. 
 "Convocation had died out ; and the idea seems to have been 
 lost of the Church as one grand corporate body, deliberating 
 and acting together for the common good. Each prelate and 
 
 1 Southey.
 
 1 84 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 each parochial minister acted timorously, and on his own 
 responsibility. There was no benefit of mutual consultation, 
 and of concerted action. Only in our day have the ' sacred 
 synods been revived, and the smaller assemblies for the diocese 
 and the rural deanery convened.'" 
 
 In the latter part of the year Whitefield returned from 
 Georgia, with two objects in view: the first that he might 
 receive priest's orders, and the second that he might raise con- 
 tributions for founding and supporting an orphan-house in the 
 colony. During a residence of three months in America he 
 had got on with the people much more happily than his pre- 
 decessor, Wesley ; for though he discharged his duties with 
 equal zeal and faithfulness, he never attempted to revive 
 obsolete forms, nor insisted upon what was unnecessary. He 
 seems to have been really happy in Savannah, and would have 
 contentedly remained there if it had not been expedient for 
 him to return to England for a time at least 
 
 As soon as he arrived in London he waited on the Bishop 
 and Archbishop, and he was soon ordained priest by his vener- 
 able friend, the Bishop of Gloucester. " God be praised," he 
 said, " I was praying night and day whilst on shipboard, if it 
 might be the Divine will, that good Bishop Benson, who laid 
 hands on me as a deacon, might now make me a priest ; and 
 now my prayer is answered." 
 
 The trustees highly approved of his conduct, and, at the 
 request of the magistrates and settlers in Georgia, presented 
 him with the living of Savannah. His business of collecting 
 money for the orphan-house, however, detained him in Eng- 
 land until he took those decisive steps which led step by step 
 to the separation of the Methodists from the Church. 1 
 
 Wesley hastened to London to meet Whitefield on his 
 return, and mentions in his Journal that " God gave us once 
 more to take sweet counsel together." The old affection 
 and confidence between the two men seemed unbroken, and 
 
 1 Southey.
 
 IN LONDON A GAIN. \ 85 
 
 when the Fetter Lane Society began the new year (1739) with 
 a love-feast a meal of bread and water eaten in company, 
 with prayer, belonging to the Moravian discipline the bread 
 broken in common seemed a fit symbol of their oneness of 
 hope and aim. 1 
 
 "About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant 
 in prayer," says Mr. Wesley, speaking of that meeting when 
 there were about sixty others present, "the power of God 
 came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for 
 exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as we 
 were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the 
 presence of His majesty, we broke out with one voice, 'We 
 praise Thee, O God; we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord."' 
 
 " It was a Pentecostal season indeed," says Whitefield, and 
 adds, respecting those "Society meetings," that sometimes 
 whole nights were spent in prayer. 
 
 Thus [did the three friends begin the year which was to 
 prove such a crisis in their lives and in their work. 
 
 1 Wedgewood.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 FIELD PREACHING. 
 
 ON the 5th of January 1739, a conference, says Whitefield, 
 was held at Islington with seven ministers, "despised 
 Methodists," concerning many things of importance. They 
 continued in fasting and prayer till three o'clock, and then 
 parted " with a full conviction that God was about to do great 
 things among us" 
 
 Whitefield wished, as we have seen, to raise money for his 
 projected orphan-house, but the churches were soon generally 
 closed to his appeals ; only two or three were left open to him 
 for a short time longer. 
 
 One day, as he was preaching in one of these with " great 
 freedom of heart and clearness of voice," 1 while nearly a 
 thousand people stood outside the building and hundreds had 
 gone away for want of room, the thought struck him of 
 proclaiming the Word, as Christ did, in the open air. He 
 mentioned it to some friends, who thought it a fanatical idea. 
 " However," he writes, " we knelt down and prayed that 
 nothing may be done rashly. Hear and answer, O Lord, for 
 Thy name's sake." 
 
 He went down to Bristol, which before had received him 
 so enthusiastically. The churches were open to him on his 
 arrival, but in the short time of a fortnight every church was 
 closed to him, and there was only the prison left for him to 
 preach in soon the mayor closed that door also to him. 
 
 Not far from Bristol was Kingswood, which was formerly a 
 royal chase, but its forests had mostly fallen, and it was now a 
 1 Abel Stevens.
 
 FIELD PREACHING. 187 
 
 region of coal mines and inhabited by a wild and lawless 
 people. There was no church there, and none nearer than 
 the suburbs of Bristol, three or four miles distant Whitefield 
 thought surely in such a place, if anywhere, field preaching 
 might be justifiable; so on Saturday, February 1739! he 
 crossed the Rubicon, and did what so many Church of 
 England clergymen do in these days when there is a need for 
 it, but what seemed then a most irregular proceeding, preached 
 in the open air, with only the vault of heaven above him for a 
 roof, and the green sward below him for a floor. He stood 
 upon a mount, in a place called Rose Green, his "first 
 field pulpit," and preached to as many as came to hear in 
 number about two hundred of the degraded and astonished 
 colliers. 
 
 " I thought," said Whitefield, " it might be doing the service 
 of my Creator, who had a mountain for His pulpit, and the 
 heavens for a sounding-board ; and who, when his Gospel was 
 refused by the Jews, sent His servants into the highways and 
 hedges." 
 
 The young preacher was fully aware of the importance of 
 the step he had taken. 
 
 14 Blessed be God," he said in his Journal, " that the ice is 
 now broken, and I have now taken the field. Some may 
 censure me ; but is there not a cause ? Pulpits are denied, 
 and the poor colliers ready to perish for lack of knowledge." 
 
 When Whitefield arrived at Bristol, the Chancellor of that 
 diocese informed him that he would not prohibit any clergy- 
 man from lending him a church ; but in the course of the 
 week he sent for him, and intimated that he was about to stop 
 his proceedings. 1 He then asked him by what authority he 
 preached in the diocese of Bristol without a licence ? 
 
 " I thought that custom was grown obsolete," Whitefield 
 replied ; " and why, pray, sir, did not you ask the clergyman 
 that question who preached for you last Thursday ? " 
 1 Souther.
 
 i88 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 Whitefield records this reply without any sense of its impro- 
 priety or irrelevancy. 
 
 The Chancellor proceeded to read him those canons which 
 forbade any minister from preaching in a private house. 
 
 Whitefield imagined they did not apply to professed clergymen 
 of the Church of England. 
 
 When he was informed of his mistake, he said 
 
 "There is also a canon, sir, forbidding all clergymen to 
 frequent taverns and play at cards; why is that not put in 
 execution ? " He then went on to say that, notwithstanding 
 those canons, he could not but speak the things which he 
 knew, and that he was determined to proceed as usual. This 
 answer was written down, and the Chancellor then said 
 
 " I am resolved, sir, if you preach or expound anywhere in 
 this diocese till you have a licence, I will first suspend, and 
 then excommunicate you." 
 
 Whitefield wrote in his Journal after this interview : " To-day, 
 my Master honoured me more than ever He did yet ; " for he 
 counted it all honour to suffer persecution. 
 
 He continued his labours at Kingswood, and the second 
 time he preached his audience consisted of two thousand 
 persons; his third congregation numbered from four to five 
 thousand, and they went on increasing to ten, fourteen, twenty 
 thousand. 
 
 "The sun shone very bright," he says on one occasion, 
 " and the people standing in such an awful manner round the 
 mount, in the profoundest silence, filled me with a holy admira- 
 tion. Blessed be God for such a plentiful harvest ! Lord, do 
 Thou send forth more labourers into Thy harvest" 
 
 Another time he says : " The trees and hedges were full. All 
 was hushed when I began : the sun shone bright, and God 
 enabled me to preach for an hour with great power, and so loud, 
 that all, I was told, could hear me. Blessed be God, Mr. 
 
 spoke right : the fire is kindled in the country I To 
 
 behold such crowds standing together in such an awful silence,
 
 FIELD PR EACH! KG, 189 
 
 and to hear the echo of their singing run from one end of them 
 to the other, was very solemn and striking." Yet presently, 
 as he proceeded, there was a striking change in his audience, 
 and he had " the prospect of the adjacent fields, with the sight 
 
 INTERIOR OF FEITEK LANE CHAPEL. 
 
 of thousands and thousands, some in coaches, some on horse- 
 back, and some in the trees, all affected and drenched in tears 
 together." This, with the solemnity of the approaching 
 evening, at times almost overcame him.
 
 1 90 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 He wrote for Wesley to come and join him, but Charles 
 Wesley at first strongly opposed the suggestion. The matter 
 was laid before the society in Fetter Lane, and as there was a 
 great conflict of opinions about it, it was agreed that they 
 should settle the matter by drawing lots. By that means it was 
 decided that Wesley should go ; but, as several desired it, the 
 Bible also was consulted in their usual way. However, the 
 verses which the eye first fell upon do not seem to us to have 
 been exactly relevant The last of the three was : "And Ahaz 
 slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in 
 Jerusalem." 
 
 Perhaps the little company of Methodists perceived a simi- 
 larity between Bristol and Jerusalem and Ahaz and John 
 Wesley which is not apparent to us, for Wesley records the 
 text in his Journal without any remark about it As he did not 
 die, however, he seems to have supposed this and other texts 
 were given as a trial of his faith. At any rate, Charles no 
 longer opposed his going, and he accordingly set off to Bristol 
 at the end of March, and met Whitefield there. 
 
 " I could scarcely reconcile myself," he says in his Journal, 
 "at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, of which 
 he set me an example on Sunday ; having been all my life (till 
 very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency and 
 order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost 
 a sin, if it had not been done in a church." 
 
 On the next Sunday he heard Whitefield preach, and then 
 the latter made over to him his out-door congregations, and 
 left for other fields. The multitude sobbed aloud when he 
 said farewell to them, crowds gathered at his door when he 
 departed, and twenty persons accompanied him out of the city 
 on horseback. As he passed through Kingswood, the grateful 
 colliers stopped him ; they had prepared an " entertainment" 
 for him, and offered subscriptions for a charity school to be 
 established among them. He was astonished at their liberality, 
 and when, at their request, he laid the corner-stone of the
 
 FIELD PREACHING. 191 
 
 building, he knelt down on the ground among them, and 
 prayed that the gates of hell might not prevail against it to 
 which their rough voices responded a hearty " Amen." Leav- 
 ing them at last, Whitefield went on into Wales. 
 
 Of his first work after Whitefield's departure, Wesley 
 writes: "April i, 1739. In the evening (Mr. Whitefield 
 being gone), I began expounding our Lord's sermon on the 
 mount (one pretty remarkable precedent of field preaching, 
 though I suppose there were churches at that time also) to a 
 little society which was accustomed to meet once or twice a 
 week in Nicholas Street. 
 
 " Monday, 2nd. At four in the afternoon, I submitted to be 
 more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of 
 salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoin- 
 ing to the city, to about three thousand people. The Scripture 
 on which I spoke was this (is it possible any one should be 
 ignorant that it is fulfilled in every true minister of Christ ?) : 
 ' The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed 
 me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to 
 heal the broken-hearted ; to preach deliverance to the captives, 
 and recovery of sight to the blind ; to set at liberty them that 
 are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.' " 
 
 When Wesley was questioned as to his good faith in holding 
 out-of-door services without the consent of the local clergy- 
 men, he replied : 
 
 " You ask, ' How is it that I assemble Christians who are 
 none of my charge, to sing psalms, and pray, and hear the 
 Scriptures expounded, and think it hard to justify doing this 
 in other men's parishes, upon Catholic principles ? ' 
 
 " Permit me to speak plainly. If by Catholic principles you 
 mean any other than Scriptural, they weigh nothing with me. 
 I allow no other rule, whether of faith or practice, than the 
 Holy Scriptures ; but on Scriptural principles I do not think 
 it hard to justify whatever I do. God in Scripture commands 
 me, according to my power, to instruct the ignorant, reform
 
 i 9 2 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 the wicked, confirm the virtuous. Man forbids me to do this 
 in another's parish ; that is, in effect, to do it at all, seeing I have 
 now no parish of my own, nor probably ever shall Whom 
 then shall I hear God or man ? If it be just to obey man 
 rather than God, judge you. ' A dispensation of the Gospel 
 is committed to me ; and woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.' 
 But where shall I preach it upon the principles you mention ? 
 Why not in Europe, Asia, Africa, or America ; not in any of 
 the Christian parts, at least, of the habitable earth ? For all 
 these are, after a sort, divided into parishes. If it be said, 
 ' Go back then to the heathens from whence you came ; ' 
 nay, but neither could I now (on your principles) preach to 
 them, for all the heathens in Georgia belong to the parish 
 either of Savannah or Frederica. 
 
 "Suffer me now," he goes on to say, "to tell you my 
 principles in this matter. I look upon all the world as my 
 parish ; thus far I mean, that in whatever part of it I am, I 
 judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty to declare unto all 
 that are willing to hear the glad tidings of salvation. This is 
 the work which I know God has called me to, and sure I am 
 that His blessing attends it. Great encouragement have I, 
 therefore, to be faithful in fulfilling the work He hath given me 
 to do. His servant I am, and as such am employed according 
 to the plain directions of His word, ' As I have opportunity, 
 doing good unto all men ; ' and His providence clearly concurs 
 with His word, which has disengaged me from all things else, 
 that I might singly attend on this very thing, and ' go about 
 doing good.' " 
 
 It must have required some amount of moral courage in a 
 gentleman, well born and well educated as Wesley was, the 
 distinguished Fellow too of an Oxford College, to mount 
 upon a table, or on the stump of a tree, or climb into a cart, 
 and then, attired in his gown and bands, preach to a multitude 
 of unwashed, uncombed, uncultivated people, down whose 
 swarthy faces tears marked little white channels, as they hung
 
 FIELD PREACHING. 193 
 
 upon his words. Anyhow, the sight seemed so wonderful that 
 it attracted the notice of the " higher classes," and frequently 
 amongst the crowd were to be seen their carriages. Wesley, 
 we are told, spoke just as fearlessly to these nobility and gentry 
 as to the poorer people, on which account he came to be 
 considered by some as a rude, ill-mannered person. 
 
 During a visit to the neighbouring city of Bath, 1 which was 
 at that time a centre of fashionable life, a notoriously bad 
 character, called " Beau " Nash, who was the acknowledged 
 leader in Bath society, attempted to stop Wesley's meetings. 
 Shortly after the preacher had begun his sermon, the dandy 
 appeared in gorgeous array, impudently demanding 
 
 " By what authority dare you do what you are doing now?" 
 
 " By the authority of Jesus Christ, conveyed to me by him 
 who is now Archbishop of Canterbury, when he laid his hands 
 upon my head and said, ' Take thou authority to preach the 
 Gospel,' " answered Mr. Wesley deliberately. 
 
 " But this is a conventicle," said Nash, "and contrary to Act 
 of Parliament." 
 
 " No," answered Wesley ; " conventicles are seditious meet- 
 ings, but here is no sedition ; therefore it is not contrary to Act 
 of Parliament" 
 
 " I say it is," stormed the fellow ; " and, besides, your 
 preaching frightens people out of their wits." 
 
 " Sir," said Wesley, " did you ever hear me preach ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " How can you judge of what you never heard ? " 
 
 " I judge by common report." 
 
 " Is not your name Nash ? " asked Wesley. 
 
 " It is," said the " Beau." 
 
 "Well, sir, I dare not judge you by common report," was 
 Mr. Wesley's stinging reply. 
 
 The pretentious fop was confounded, especially when an old 
 woman in the congregation asked Wesley to allow her to 
 1 Rev. W. H. Daniels. 
 
 '3
 
 1 94 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 answer him, which she did with such a manner that he slunk 
 away, and the service was able to proceed. 
 
 Wesley had already undesignedly become an "itinerant." 
 His Journal shows that he was constantly going from place 
 to place preaching and "expounding." His plan was as 
 follows : 
 
 " An exposition to one or other of the British societies every 
 night, and preaching every Sunday morning and every 
 Monday and Saturday afternoon. At Kingswood, including 
 Hannam Mount, Rose Green, and Two Mile Hill, he preached 
 twice every Sunday, and also every alternate Tuesday and 
 Friday. At Baptist Mills he preached every Friday ; at Bath, 
 once a fortnight, on Tuesday; and at Pensford, once a 
 fortnight, on Thursday." 
 
 In regard to his doctrine, we may say his chief and almost 
 only aim was to explain to the people the plan of Scriptural 
 salvation; for, as may be seen, almost all his texts have ac 
 immediate bearing on this the greatest of all pulpit themes 
 Believing that he was himself in a state of salvation, his whole 
 soul was bent upon expounding the truth which above all 
 other truths is the means of saving sinners. 
 
 "The points," he writes, " I chiefly insisted upon were four. 
 First, that orthodoxy or right opinions is, at best, but a very 
 slender part of religion, if it can be allowed to be any part at 
 all; that neither does religion consist in negatives, in bare 
 harmlessness of any kind; nor merely in externals in doing 
 good, or using the means of grace, or of charity; that it is 
 nothing short of, or different from, the mind that was in 
 Christ ; the image of God stamped upon the heart ; inward 
 righteousness, attended with the peace of God and joy in the 
 Holy Ghost Secondly, that the only way to this religion is 
 repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ 
 Thirdly, that by this faith, he that worketh not but believeth 
 on Him that justifieth the ungodly, is justified freely by His 
 grace, through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ. And,
 
 FIELD PREACHING. 195 
 
 lastly, that being justified by faith, we taste of the Heaven to 
 which we are going ; we are holy and happy ; we tread down 
 sin and fear, and sit in Heavenly places with Christ Jesus." 1 
 
 This most certainly was not doctrine which should have 
 alarmed the clergy and caused them to close the doors of 
 their churches against the preacher. 
 
 1 Weshyt
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 STRANGE SCENES. 
 
 ALTHOUGH there was nothing in the doctrine which Wesley 
 preached to justify the clergymen of that time in prohibiting 
 him from their pulpits, we can easily understand that some of 
 the violent demonstrations which took place whilst he was 
 preaching were exceedingly disliked by all who wished the 
 worship of Almighty God to proceed with decency and in 
 order. 
 
 Hutton tells us that Wesley's congregations were composed 
 of every description of persons, who, without the slightest 
 attempt at order, cried " Hurrah ! " with one breath, and with 
 the next burst into tears, whilst some poked each other's ribs, 
 and others shouted " Hallelujah ! " 
 
 " It was a jumble of extremes of good and evil ; and so 
 distracted alike were both preacher and hearers, that it was 
 enough to make one cry to God for His interference. Here 
 thieves, prostitutes, fools, people of every class, several men 
 of distinction, a few of the learned, merchants, and numbers 
 of poor people who had never entered a place of worship, 
 assembled in crowds and became godly." 
 
 Two or three times Wesley went to town for a short while, 
 and his preaching both there and in the country was frequently 
 interrupted by more or less violent scenes. 
 
 In his Journal he records, on the 25th of April, " While I 
 was preaching at Newgate, on these words, ' He that believeth 
 hath everlasting life,' I was insensibly led, without any previous 
 design, to declare strongly and explicitly, that ' God willeth all 
 men to be thus saved,' and to pray that, ' if this were not the
 
 ST&ANGE SCENES. 197 
 
 truth of God, He would not suffer the blind to go out of their 
 way ; but if it were He would bear witness to His word.' 
 Immediately one, and another, and another sunk to the earth : 
 they dropped on every side as thunderstruck. One of them 
 cried aloud. We besought God in her behalf, and He turned 
 her heaviness into joy. A second being in the same agony, we 
 called upon God for her also, and He spoke peace unto her 
 soul. In the evening I was again pressed in spirit to declare 
 that ' Christ gave Himself a ransom for all.' And almost 
 before we called upon Him to set to His seal, He answered. 
 One was so wounded by the sword of the Spirit, that you 
 would have imagined she could not live a moment. But 
 immediately His abundant kindness was showed, and she 
 loudly sang of His righteousness. 
 
 "Friday, a6th. All Newgate rang with the cries of those 
 whom the word of God cut to the heart ; two of whom were 
 in a moment filled with joy, to the astonishment of those that 
 beheld them. . . . 
 
 " Monday, 2gth. We understood that many were offended at 
 the cries of those on whom the power of God came ; among 
 whom was a physician, who was much afraid there might be 
 fraud or imposture in the case. To-day one whom he had 
 known many years was the first (while I was preaching at 
 Newgate) who broke out into 'strong cries and tears.' He 
 could hardly believe his own eyes and ears. He went and 
 stood close to her, and observed every symptom, till great 
 drops of sweat ran down her face, and all her bones shook. 
 He then knew not what to think, being clearly convinced it 
 was not fraud, nor yet any natural disorder. But when both 
 her soul and body were healed in a moment, he acknowledged 
 the finger of God." 
 
 And the next day he records: "May i. Many were offended 
 again, and, indeed, much more than before ; for at Baldwin 
 Street my voice could scarce be heard amidst the groanings of 
 some, and the cries of others, calling aloud to ' Him that is
 
 198 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 mighty to save.' I desired all that were sincere of heart to 
 beseech with me ' the Prince exalted for us, that He would 
 proclaim deliverance to the captives.' And He soon showed 
 that He heard our voice. Many of those who had been long in 
 darkness saw the dawn of a great light; and ten persons 
 (I afterwards found) then began to say in faith, ' My Lord and 
 my God.' 
 
 " A Quaker, who stood by, was not a little displeased at the 
 dissimulation of those creatures, and was biting his lips and 
 knitting his brows, when he dropped down as thunderstruck. 
 The agony he was in was even terrible to behold. We 
 besought God not to lay folly to his charge; and he soon 
 lifted up his heart, and cried aloud, ' Now I know thou art a 
 prophet of the Lord.' " 
 
 Another step in these manifestations was reached when these 
 terrible emotions seized upon people in their own homes. 
 
 J H , a zealous Churchman, one, too, who was against 
 
 Dissenters of every denomination, being informed that people 
 fell into strange fits at the " Societies," came to see and judge 
 for himself. He then felt less satisfied than before, and so 
 "went about to his acquaintance one after another," says 
 Wesley, "and laboured above measure to convince them 'it 
 was a delusion of the devil' We were going home when one 
 
 met us in the street and informed us ' that J H was 
 
 fallen raving mad.' It seems he had sat down to dinner, but 
 had a mind first to end a sermon he had borrowed on ' Salva- 
 tion by Faith.' In reading the last page he changed colour, 
 fell off his chair, and began screaming terribly and beating 
 himself against the ground." His convulsions were frightful, 
 the neighbours hurried in ; and when Wesley too entered he 
 was greeted with the exclamation, " This is he who I said was 
 a deceiver of the people ; but God has overtaken me. I said 
 it was all a delusion ; but this is no delusion." Wesley prayed 
 with him, and by-and-by he was quiet, and " both his soul and 
 body were set at liberty."
 
 STRANGE SCENES. 199 
 
 A woman, feeling this strange agitation coming upon her, 
 ran out of the meeting that she might not be made a public 
 spectacle, but so powerful was the mysterious influence to 
 which she was a prey that she sank down in the street and had 
 to be carried home, where Wesley found her in violent agony, 
 which was removed while he prayed with her. 
 
 It is quite painful to read some of the cases reported by 
 Wesley, but the wildest ravings never failed to give way to 
 peace and calm whilst he was praying. 
 
 Perhaps the worst case was that of an illiterate girl at Kings- 
 wood, apparently taken ill at her own house. 
 
 "It \\as a terrible scene," says Wesley. "Anguish, horror, 
 and despair above all description appeared in her pale face , 
 the thousand distortions of her body showed how the dogs of 
 hell were gnawing her heart. The shrieks intermixed were 
 scarce to be endured, but her stony eyes could not weep. She 
 screamed out, as soon as words could find their way, ' I am 
 damned, damned, lost for ever ! Six days ago you might have 
 helped me, but it is past ; I am the devil's now, I have given 
 myself to him. I will be his, I will serve him, I will go with 
 him to hell!' She then began praying to the devil. We 
 began (singing) 
 
 " ' Arm of the Lord, awake, awake ! ' 
 
 She immediately sunk down as asleep, but as soon as we left 
 off, broke out again with inexhaustible vehemence, 'Stony 
 hearts, break ! I am a warning to you. Break, break, poor 
 stony hearts ! I am damned that you may be saved ; you 
 need not be damned, though I must' We interrupted her by 
 calling upon God, on which she sank down as before, and 
 another young woman began to roar out as she had done. 
 We continued in prayer till past eleven, when God in a 
 moment spoke peace unto the soul, first of the first tormented, 
 and then of the other, and they both joined in singing praises 
 to Him who had stilled the enemy and the avenger."
 
 aoo JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 The scene no doubt was a very trying one, and, although the 
 end was so triumphant, Wesley seemed unwilling to obey the next 
 summons to another young woman, taken ill at the Society, 
 However, he opened his Testament at the words, "I was afraid, 
 and went and hid thy talent in the earth ; " and then went to 
 the girl, who was held down on the ground by three or four 
 persons, her violent convulsions taxing their utmost efforts to 
 hold her still "She began screaming," he said, "before I 
 came into the room, then broke out into a horrid laugh, mixed 
 with blasphemy grievous to hear. My brother coming in, she 
 called out, ' Preacher, field preacher, I don't love field preach- 
 ing.'" This was repeated for two hours with expressions of 
 strong aversion. Wesley visited the wretched girl twice that 
 day, and the following noon he was again by her bedside. The 
 crisis was now passed, "all her pangs ceased in a moment, 
 and she was filled with peace, and knew that the son of 
 wickedness had departed from her." 
 
 Charles Wesley was very much against the noisy, violent 
 demonstrations of these penitents, and did his utmost to 
 discourage them. He wrote 
 
 " Many no doubt were at our first preaching struck down, 
 both soul and body, into the depth of distress. Their outward 
 affections were easy to be imitated. Many counterfeits I have 
 already detected. The first night I preached here half my 
 words were lost through their outcries. Last night, before I 
 began, I gave public notice that whosoever cried so as to 
 drown my voice, should be carried to the farthest corner of the 
 room. But my porters had no employment the whole night ; 
 yet the Lord was with us, mightily convincing of sin and of 
 righteousness. I am more and more convinced (he fits were a 
 device of Satan to stop the course of the Gospel" 
 
 Whitefield's more lively preaching was almost always un- 
 accompanied by these "signs," and at first he much dis- 
 approved of them. On July 25th he wrote to Wesley 
 
 " HONOURED SIR, I cannot think it right in you to give so
 
 STRANGE SCENES. 201 
 
 much encouragement to those convulsions which people have 
 been thrown into under your ministry. Was I to do so, how 
 many would cry out every night ? I think it is tempting God 
 to require such signs. That there is something of God in it, I 
 doubt not. But the devil I believe interposes. I think it will 
 encourage the French Prophets, take people from the written 
 word, and make them depend on visions, convulsions, etc., 
 more than on the promises and precepts of the Gospel" 
 
 Twelve days after Whitefield was in Bristol, and Wesley 
 wrote as follows : 
 
 "July 7. I had an opportunity to talk with Mr. Whitefield of 
 those outward signs which had so often accompanied the work 
 of God. I found his objections were chiefly grounded on 
 gross misrepresentations of matters of fact But next day he 
 had an opportunity of informing himself better ; for in the 
 application of his sermon, four persons sunk down close to him 
 almost in the same moment. One of them lay without either 
 sense or motion ; a second trembled exceedingly ; the third 
 had strong convulsions all over his body, but made no noise 
 unless by groans ; the fourth, equally convulsed, called upon 
 God, with strong cries and tears. From this time, I trust, we 
 shall all suffer God to carry on His own work in the way that 
 pleaseth Him." 
 
 " This," says Tyerman, "was an important crisis. Without 
 expressing any opinion respecting these 'signs,' as Wesley calls 
 them, we cannot but admire Wesley's wish and hope that God 
 may be allowed to work His own work in His own way. Of 
 all men living, Wesley was one of the least likely to desire 
 novelties like these; but he was wise enough and reverent 
 enough not to interpose when God was working, and to say 
 that unless His work was done in a certain fashion he should 
 object to its being done at all Some in modern times have 
 been in danger of doing this." 
 
 Whitefield's objections were silenced. He writes on July 7 : 
 " I had a useful conference about many things with my
 
 202 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 honoured friend, Mr. John Wesley. I found that Bristol had 
 great reason to bless God for his ministry. The congregations 
 I observed to be much more serious and affected than when I 
 left them ; and their loud and repeated Amens, which they 
 put up to every petition, as well as the exemplariness of their 
 conversation in common life, plainly show that they have not 
 received the grace of God in vain. Ye hypocrites, ye can dis- 
 cern the face of the sky ; but how is it that ye cannot discern 
 the signs of these times ? That good, great good, is done is 
 evident. What is it but little less than blasphemy against the 
 Holy Ghost to impute this great work to delusion, and to the 
 powers of the devil?" 
 
 We will notice a few more passages in Wesley's Journals. 
 
 " July 23. On several evenings this week many were deeply 
 convinced, but none were delivered from that painful convic- 
 tion. I fear we have grieved the Spirit of the jealous God by 
 questioning His work, and that therefore He is withdrawn 
 from us for a season. But He will return and abundantly 
 pardon. 
 
 "July 30. Two more were in strong pain, both their souls 
 and bodies being well-nigh torn asunder. But, though we 
 cried unto God, there was no answer. One of them cried 
 aloud, though not articulately, for twelve or fourteen hours, 
 when her soul wa-s set at liberty. She was a servant, and her 
 master forbade her returning to his service, saying he would 
 have none in his house who had received the Holy Ghost 
 
 " August 5. Six persons at the new room were deeply con- 
 vinced of sin, three of whom were a little comforted by 
 prayer. 
 
 "August n. In the evening two were seized with strong 
 pangs, as were four the next evening, and the same number at 
 Gloucester Lane on Monday, one of whom was greatly cut to 
 the heart, but their wound was not as yet healed." 
 
 Many reasons have been suggested for these strange and 
 mysterious facts; for a hundred and thirty years they have
 
 STRANGE SCENES. 203 
 
 been sneered at by Wesley's enemies, and have also puzzled 
 Wesley's friends. 
 
 Isaac Taylor writes : 
 
 " These disorders resembled, in some of their features, the 
 demoniacal possessions mentioned in the Gospel history. The 
 bodily agitations were perhaps as extreme in the one class of 
 instances as in the other; nevertheless, there is no real 
 analogy between the two. The demoniacs were found in this 
 state by Christ where He went preaching; they did not 
 become such while listening to Him. Besides, in no one 
 instance recorded in the Gospels or Acts, did demoniacal 
 possession, or any bodily agitations resembling it, come on as 
 the initial stage of conversion. How then are we to dispose 
 of such cases? Perhaps not at all to our satisfaction, except 
 so far as this, that they serve to render so much the more 
 unambiguous the distinction between themselves and those 
 genuine affections which the apostolic writers describe and 
 exemplify." 
 
 Another able writer says : " We must remember too what 
 kind of people they were who were thus affected. The lower 
 middle class of Hanoverian England were turbulent beyond 
 the sense in which uncultivated people are always turbulent 
 The same instincts which found gratification in cruel amuse- 
 ments, and in intoxication, would also derive a certain 
 satisfaction from the horrible ravings which Wesley has copied 
 into his Journal . . . Any one who studies the account with 
 the same attention he would give to that of any other strange 
 event, will be convinced that there was something in the 
 personal influence of Wesley (for it certainly does not remain 
 in his sermons) which had the power of impressing on a dull 
 and lethargic world such a sense of the horror of evil, its 
 mysterious closeness to the human soul, and the need of a 
 miracle for the separation of the two, as no one, perhaps, 
 could suddenly receive without some violent physical effect." 1 
 1 ]. Wedgewood.
 
 ao4 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 The Rev. R. Watson writes : 
 
 "That cases of real enthusiasm occurred at this and sub- 
 sequent periods is indeed allowed. There are always nervous, 
 dreamy, and excitable people to be found; and the emotion 
 produced among these would often be communicated by 
 natural sympathy. No one could be blamed for this, unless 
 he had encouraged the excitement for its own sake, or taught 
 the people to regard it as a sign of grace, which most 
 assuredly Mr. Wesley never did. Nor is it correct to represent 
 these effects, genuine and fictitious together, as peculiar to 
 Methodism. Great and rapid results were produced in the first 
 ages of Christianity, but not without 'outcries,' and strong 
 corporeal as well as mental emotions. Like effects often 
 accompanied the preaching of eminent men at the Reforma- 
 tion ; and many of the Puritan and Nonconformist ministers 
 had similar successes in our own country. In Scotland, and 
 also among the grave Presbyterians of New England, previous 
 to the rise of Methodism, the ministry of faithful men had 
 been attended by very similar circumstances ; and, on a smaller 
 scale, the same results have followed the ministry of modern 
 missionaries of different religious societies in various parts of 
 the world. It may be laid down as a principle established by 
 fact, that wherever a zealous and faithful ministry is raised up, 
 after a long spiritual dearth, the early effects of that ministry 
 are not only powerful, but often attended with extraordinary 
 circumstances; nor are such extraordinary circumstances 
 necessarily extravagances because they are not common. It 
 is neither irrational nor unscriptural to suppose that times of 
 great national darkness and depravity should require a strong 
 remedy ; and that the attention of the people should be roused 
 by circumstances which could not fail to be noticed by the 
 most unthinking. We do not attach primary importance to 
 secondary circumstances; but they are not to be wholly 
 disregarded. The Lord was not in the wind, nor in the 
 earthquake, nor in the fire, but in the still, small voice; yet
 
 STRANGE SCENES. 205 
 
 that still, small voice might not have been heard, except by 
 minds roused from their inattention by the shaking of the 
 earth and the sounding of the storm." 
 
 Passing over the various and contradictory opinions of 
 others, let us now see what Wesley wrote about the matter. 
 " You deny," he said, " you deny that God does now work 
 these effects; at least that He works them in this manner. 
 I affirm both; because I have heard these things with my 
 own ears, and have seen them with my own eyes. I have 
 seen very many persons changed, in a moment, from the 
 spirit of fear, horror, despair, to the spirit of love, joy, and 
 peace; and from sinful desire, till then reigning over them, 
 to the pure desire of doing the will of God. I know several 
 persons in whom this great change was wrought in a dream, 
 or during a strong representation to the eye of their mind of 
 Christ either on the cross or in glory. This is the fact ; let 
 any judge of it as they please." 1 
 
 In answer to the question why these things were permitted, 
 Wesley says : " Perhaps it might be because of the hardness 
 of our hearts, unready to receive anything unless we see it 
 with our eyes and hear it with our ears, that God, in tender 
 condescension to our weakness, suffered so many outward 
 signs at the very time when He wrought this inward change 
 to be continually seen and heard among us. But although 
 they saw ' signs and wonders ' (for so I may term them), yet 
 many would not believe. They could not indeed deny the 
 facts ; but they could explain them away." 
 
 How were these extraordinary circumstances brought about ? 2 
 Five years after, when he had heard all his enemies had to say, 
 when such convulsive agitations no longer happened, and 
 when time had tested the genuineness of those remarkable 
 conversions, and he had been able to form a calm judgment 
 about the whole matter, Wesley wrote : 
 
 "The extraordinary circumstances that attended the con- 
 1 Wulty't Workt. Tyerman.
 
 206 JOHN WESLEY, 
 
 viction or repentance of the people may be easily accounted 
 for, either on principles of reason or Scripture. First, on 
 principles of reason. For how easy is it to suppose that a 
 strong, lively, and sudden apprehension of the heinousness 
 of sin, the wrath of God, and the bitter pains of eternal death, 
 should affect the body as well as the soul, during the present 
 laws of vital union ; should interrupt or disturb the ordinary 
 circulations and put nature out of its course ? Yea, we may 
 question whether, while this union subsists, it be possible for 
 the mind to be affected, in so violent a degree, without some 
 or other of those bodily symptoms following. Secondly, it is 
 likewise easy to account for these things on principles of 
 Scripture. For when we take a view of them in this light, 
 we are to add to the consideration of natural causes the 
 agency of those spirits who still excel in strength, and, as far as 
 they have leave from God, will not fail to torment whom they 
 cannot destroy ; to tear those that are coming to Christ It is 
 also remarkable that there is plain Scripture precedent of every 
 symptom which has lately appeared"
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 OPPOSITION AND PERSECUTION. 
 
 IN August Wesley had a conference with the Bishop of 
 Bristol, of which the following has been reported. First they 
 discussed the subject of faith as the only necessary condition 
 of a sinner's justification before God. 
 
 " Why, sir, our faith itself is a good work," said the Bishop ; 
 " it is a virtuous temper of mind." 
 
 " My lord, whatever faith is," replied Wesley, " our Church 
 asserts we are justified by faith alone. But how it can be 
 called a good work, I see not ; it is the gift of God ; and a 
 gift that presupposes nothing in us but sin and misery." 
 
 " How, sir? Then you make God a tyrannical Being, if He 
 justifies some without any goodness in them proceeding, and 
 does not justify all If these are not justified on account of 
 some moral goodness in them, why are not those justified 
 too?" 
 
 " Because, my lord, they resist His spirit ; because they 
 will not come to Him that they may have life ; because they 
 suffer Him not to work in them both to will and to do. They 
 cannot be saved because they will not believe." 
 
 " Sir," said the Bishop, " what do you mean by faith ?" 
 
 " My lord, by justifying faith I mean a conviction wrought 
 in a man by the Holy Ghost, that Christ hath loved Aim, and 
 given Himself for Aim, and that through Christ, his sins are 
 forgiven." 
 
 " I believe some good men have this, but not all. But how 
 do you prove this to be the justifying faith taught by our 
 Church?"
 
 2o8 JOHN WESLE Y. 
 
 " My lord, from her Homily on Salvation, where she 
 describes it thus : ' A sure trust and confidence which a man 
 hath in God, that through the merits of Christ his sins are 
 for given ', and he reconciled to the favour of God.' " 
 " Why, sir, this is quite another thing t " 
 " My lord, I conceive it to be the very same." 
 " Mr. Wesley, I will deal plainly with you. I once thought 
 you and Mr. Whitefield well-meaning men; but I cannot 
 think so now. For I have heard more of you; matters of 
 fact, sir. And Mr. Whitefield says in his Journal, ' There are 
 promises still to be fulfilled in me.' Sir, the pretending to 
 extraordinary revelations, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, is a 
 horrid thing, a very horrid thing ! " 
 
 "My lord, for what Mr. Whitefield says, Mr. Whitefield, 
 and not I, is accountable. I pretend to no extraordinary 
 revelations, or gifts of the Holy Ghost ; none but what every 
 Christian may receive, and ought to expect and pray for. But 
 I do not wonder your lordship has heard facts asserted which, 
 if true, would prove the contrary ; nor do I wonder that your 
 lordship, believing them true, should alter the opinion you 
 once had of me. A quarter of an hour I spent with your 
 lordship before, and about an hour now; and perhaps you 
 have never conversed one other hour with any one who spake 
 in my favour. But how many with those who spake on the 
 other side ? so that your lordship could not but think as you 
 do. But pray, my lord, what are those facts you have heard ? " 
 " I hear you administer the Sacrament in your societies." 
 " My lord," replied Wesley, " I never did yet, and I believe 
 never shall." 
 
 " I hear, too, many people fall into fits in your societies, and 
 tfiat you pray over them." 
 
 " I do so, my lord, when any show, by strong cries and 
 tears, that their soul is in deep anguish ; I frequently pray to 
 God to deliver them from it, and our prayer is often heard in 
 that hour."
 
 OPPOSITION AND PERSECUTION. 209 
 
 " Very extraordinary indeed ! Well, sir, since you ask my 
 advice, I will give it freely. You have no business herej 
 you are not commissioned to preach in this diocese. Therefore 
 I advise you to go hence." 
 
 " My lord," replied Wesley, " my business on earth is to do 
 what good I can. Wherever, therefore, I think I can do 
 most good, there must I stay, so long as I think so. At 
 present, I think I can do most good here j therefore, here I 
 stay. Being ordained a priest, by the commission I then 
 received, I am a priest of the Church universal ; and, being 
 ordained as Fellow of a college, I was not limited to any 
 particular cure, but have an indeterminate commission to 
 preach the Word of God in any part of the Church of England. 
 I conceive not therefore that in preaching here by this com- 
 mission I break any human law. When I am convinced I do, 
 then it will be time to ask, shall I obey God or man ? But if 
 I should be convinced in the meanwhile that I could advance 
 the glory of God, and the salvation of souls in any other place 
 more than Bristol, in that hour by God's help I go hence; 
 which till then I may not do." 1 
 
 About the same time there began to issue from the press 
 sundry pamphlets and articles written against the Methodists, 
 and especially the Methodist preachers. The first of these was 
 a pamphlet of ninety-six pages, entitled "The Life of the Rev. 
 Mr. George Whitefield, by an Impartial Hand." The impar- 
 tiality was not evident, the hostility was; the object of the treatise 
 being to make the subject of it "a mark for the shafts of 
 ridicule." 2 
 
 Then, in the Weekly Miscellany of July 2ist, 1739, appeared 
 an article which was even more malignant "The Methodist 
 preacher stands on an eminence," said the writer, " with 
 admiring and subscribing crowds about him. He is young, 
 which is good ; looks innocent, which is better ; and has no 
 human learning, which is best of all." When we consider that 
 i Wo*-ks. J Tyerman.
 
 a io JOHN WESLE Y. 
 
 the chief Methodist preacher, Wesley, was then thirty-six, had 
 spent most of his life in striving after holiness, and was a 
 distinguished Fellow of his Oxford College, we are astonished 
 that an editor could be found who would insert such a libel in 
 his journal ! The article goes on to say 
 
 "The Methodists are mad enthusiasts who teach for dictates 
 of the Holy Spirit, seditions, heresies, and contempt of the 
 ordinances of God and man. They are buffoons in religion, 
 and mountebanks in theology ; creatures who disclaim sense, 
 and are below argument," and so on. 
 
 In the same year appeared a pamphlet in wretched doggerel, 
 which was scurrilous in the extreme, and which we cannot 
 sully our pages by describing. Then a certain James Bates, 
 M. A., Rector of St. Paul's, Deptford, and formerly Chaplain to 
 His Excellency Horatio Walpole, Esq., distinguished himself 
 by producing two pamphlets, the first against Mr. Whitefield 
 in particular, and the second entitled " Quakero-Methodism ; 
 or, a Confutation of the First Principles of the Quakers and 
 Methodists." In the first, Whitefield is charged with causing 
 numbers of poor tradesmen to leave their families to starve 
 whilst they ramble about after him ; he is also accused of 
 violently dividing text from context in expounding the Word of 
 God, so that he makes arrant nonsense of both ; and finally, 
 "he shuffles and prevaricates; treats the Bishop with saucy 
 sneers; is guilty of flat falsehoods, disingenuous quirks, and 
 mean evasions ; perfidiously tramples upon the canons of the 
 Church ; and flies in the face of his diocesan with unparalleled 
 pride and impudence." And the second pamphlet is equally 
 abusive and untrue. 
 
 The magazines and newspapers of the period were filled with 
 similar abuse of the poor Methodists. One paper complains 
 that, "in Yorkshire, by the preaching of the Methodists, 
 the spirit of enthusiasm had so prevailed that almost 
 every man who could hammer out a chapter in the Bible had 
 turned an expounder of the Scripture, to the great decay of
 
 OPPOSITION AND PERSEC UTION. a 1 1 
 
 industry, and the almost ruin of the woollen manufacture, 
 which seemed threatened with destruction for want of hands to 
 work it" 
 
 Such, says Tyerman, were the premonitory mutterings of 
 the storm in which the Methodist movement was cradled. 
 Mobs threatened ; newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals 
 fulminated their malicious squibs; prelates, priests, and 
 doctors of divinity became militant pamphleteers ; but, in the 
 midst of all, Wesley and his friends calmly proceeded in their 
 glorious calling, though even those who were friendly towards 
 them looked on their proceedings with alarm. Good Dr. 
 Doddridge writes in a letter, dated May 24th, 1 739 : 
 
 "I think the Methodists sincere; I hope some may be 
 reformed, instructed, and made serious by their means. I saw 
 Mr. Whitefield preaching on Kennington Common last week 
 to an attentive multitude, and heard much of him at Bath ; 
 but, supposing him sincere and in good earnest, I still fancy 
 that he is but a weak man much too positive, says rash 
 things, and is bold and enthusiastic. I am most heartily glad 
 to hear that any real good is done anywhere to the souls of 
 men ; but whether these Methodists are in a right way 
 whether they are warrantable in all their conduct whether 
 poor people should be urged through different persons 
 successively to pray from four in the morning till eleven at 
 night, is not clear to me ; and I am less satisfied with the high 
 pretences they make to the Divine influence. I think what Mr. 
 Whitefield says and does comes but little short of an assump- 
 tion of inspiration or infallibility." 
 
 Sometimes the Methodists met with a friend. For instance, 
 "godly Joseph Williams," of Kidderminster, 1 sympathised with 
 their indefatigable endeavours to save the souls of their fellow- 
 men, and on September lyth, 1739, he writes about the two 
 Wesleys, Whitefield, and Ingham : 
 
 "The common people flock to hear them, and in most 
 1 Tyerman.
 
 212 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 places hear them gladly. They commonly preach once or 
 twice every day ; and expound the Scriptures in the evening to 
 religious societies, who have their society rooms on purpose." 
 He then gives an account of his hearing Charles Wesley preach 
 at Bristol. The preacher stood on a table in a field, and, with 
 eyes and hands lifted up to Heaven, prayed with uncommon 
 fervour and fluency. " He then preached about an hour," said 
 Williams, " in such a manner as I have scarce ever heard any 
 man preach. Though I have heard many a finer sermon, yet 
 I think I never heard any man discover such evident signs of 
 vehement desire (to benefit his hearers). With unusual fervour 
 he acquitted himself as an ambassador for Christ ; and although 
 he used no notes, nor had anything in his hand but a Bible, yet 
 he delivered his thoughts in a rich, copious variety of expression, 
 and with so much propriety, that I could not observe any- 
 thing incoherent through the whole performance, which he 
 concluded with singing, prayer, and the usual benediction. 
 
 " Afterward I waited on him at Mr. Norman's. He received 
 me in a very friendly manner. Before he would take any 
 refreshment, he, with a few friends that waited on him, sung a 
 hymn, and then prayed for a blessing, as at set meals. After tea 
 we sung another hymn, and then I went with them to the 
 religious society, and found the place so thronged that it was 
 with great difficulty we reached the centre of it. We found 
 them singing a hymn; he then prayed, and proceeded to 
 expound the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of St. John in a 
 sweet, savoury, spiritual manner. This was followed by singing 
 another hymn ; and he then prayed over a great number of 
 bills presented by the society, about twenty of which respected 
 spiritual cases. Never did I hear such praying. Never did I 
 see or hear such evident marks of fervency in the service of 
 God. At the close of every petition a serious ' Amen,' like 
 a gentle, rushing sound of waters, ran through the whole 
 audience. Such evident marks of a lively, fervent devotion 
 I was never witness to before. If there be such a thing as
 
 OPPOSITION AND PERSECUTION. 213 
 
 heavenly music upon earth, I heard it then. I do not 
 remember my heart to have been so elevated in divine love 
 and praise as it was there and then, for many years past, if 
 ever. Notwithstanding some errors which as mere men they 
 may be liable to, I cannot but believe that God is with them 
 of a truth, and hath raised them up in this day of general 
 defection from Gospel purity, simplicity, and zeal for signal 
 service and usefulness in His Church." 
 
 On his first arrival at Bristol, Wesley introduced that part 
 of the Wesleyan discipline which he had adopted from the 
 Moravians, and male and female bands were formed as in 
 London, that the members might meet together weekly, to 
 confess their faults one to another, and pray one for another. 
 "How dare any man," says Wesley, "deny this to be, as to 
 the substance of it, a means of grace ordained by God ? unless 
 he will affirm with Luther, in the fury of his Solifidianism, that 
 SL James's epistle is an ' epistle of straw.' " 
 
 Watson says of these band meetings that they were small 
 companies of serious persons of the same sex and in the same 
 conditions of life, whether married or single, who "meet 
 occasionally to converse with each other on their religious 
 state, and to engage in mutual prayer. They are founded on 
 the injunction of St James, ' Confess your faults one to 
 another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.' 
 Whatever objection may be made to these meetings as a 
 formal part of discipline (though with us they are only recom- 
 mended^ not enjoined), the principle of them is to be found in 
 this passage of Scripture. They have been compared to the 
 auricular confession of the Papists, but ignorantly enough; 
 for the confession is in itself essentially different, and it is not 
 made to a minister, but takes place among private Christians 
 to each other, and is, in fact, nothing more than a general 
 declaration of the religious experience of the week. Nor is 
 the abuse of the passage in St. James to the purpose of super- 
 stition a reason sufficient for neglecting that friendly confession
 
 2T 4 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 of faults by Christians to. each other which may engage their 
 prayers in each other's behalf. The founders of the National 
 Church did not come to this sweeping conclusion, notwith- 
 standing all their zeal against the confession of the Romish 
 Church. In the Homily on Repentance it is said, 'We 
 ought to confess our weakness and infirmities one to another, 
 to the end that, knowing each other's frailness, we may the 
 more earnestly pray together unto Almighty God, our Heavenly 
 Father, that He will vouchsafe to pardon our infirmities, for 
 His Son Jesus Christ's sake.' For the principle of this insti- 
 tution, Mr. Wesley might therefore plead the authority of the 
 Church of which he was a clergyman ; and if the manner of 
 carrying the principle into effect were free from sound objec- 
 tion, a formal institution for this purpose can no more be 
 condemned than the principle itself." 
 
 Still the meetings of these bands, or societies as they were 
 often called, were looked upon by many with suspicion and 
 even abhorrence. Only we find one "good and virtuous" 
 clergyman giving the excellent advice to his people, " Not to 
 censure any professed members of our Church who live good 
 Jives, for resorting to religious assemblies in private houses, to 
 perform in society acts of divine worship, when the same seems 
 to have been practised by the primitive Christians ; and when, 
 alas, there are so many parishes where a person piously dis- 
 posed has no opportunity of joining in the public service of 
 our Church more than one hour and a half in a week." 
 
 The same clergyman advises, " Not to condemn those who 
 are constant attendants on the communion and service of our 
 Church if they sometimes use other prayers in private assem- 
 blies, since the best divines of our Church have composed 
 and published many prayers that have not the sanction of 
 public authority, which implies a general consent that our 
 Church has not made provision for every private occasion." 
 
 Mr. Wesley often wished that those who wrote and preached 
 against him would attend to those rules which were drawn up,
 
 OPPOSITION AND PERSECUTION. 215 
 
 with some others, by their good Author, to guide people in 
 their treatment of the Methodists. 
 
 To make matters worse, Wesley's eldest sister Emilia, who 
 had always been accustomed to correspond with him, and for 
 whose opinions he had much respect, wrote to him very 
 angrily about this time, abusing the Methodists as bad people, 
 and telling him she understood he could work miracles, cast 
 out devils, etc. 
 
 Dr. Whitehead's comment upon this is as simple as it is 
 beautiful : 
 
 "Mr. Wesley knew in whom he had believed, and in the 
 midst of abuse poured out upon him by friends and enemies, 
 went on his way as if he heard not" 
 
 WESLEY'S TABLE.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 DEATH OF SAMUEL WESLEY. 
 
 BEFORE Wesley went to Herrnhuth, he had related to his 
 mother the particulars of his conversion, for which she 
 " heartily blessed God who had brought him to so just a way 
 of thinking." But it happened that, after his return from 
 Germany, nine months elapsed before he was able to visit her, 
 and in the meantime she had been prejudiced against him, 
 and had entertained "strange fears concerning him, being 
 convinced that he had greatly erred from the faith." 
 
 AH her fears, however, appear to have left her when she 
 came to London and saw her beloved son, at last, in Sep- 
 tember ; and he records in his Journal : 
 
 "1739, September 3rd. I talked largely with my mother, 
 who told me that, till a short time since, she had scarce heard 
 such a thing mentioned as the having God's Spirit bearing 
 witness with our spirit : much less did she imagine that this 
 was the common privilege of all true believers. 'Therefore,' 
 said she, ' I never durst ask it for myself. But two or three 
 weeks ago, while my son Hall was pronouncing these words, 
 in delivering _the cup to me, " The blood of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ which was given for thee," the words struck through my 
 heart, and I knew God, for Christ's sake, had forgiven me all 
 my sins.' 
 
 " I asked whether her father (Dr. Annesley) had not the 
 same faith ; and whether she had not heard him preach it to 
 others. She answered, he had it himself; and declared, a 
 little before his death, that, for more than forty years, he had 
 no darkness, no fear, no doubt at all of his being accepted
 
 DEATH OF SAMUEL WESLEY. 217 
 
 in the Beloved. But that, nevertheless, she did not remember 
 to have heard him preach, no, not once, explicitly upon it : 
 whence she supposed he also looked upon it as the peculiar 
 blessing of a few; not as promised to all the people of 
 God." 
 
 From that time Mrs. Wesley resided chiefly in London, and 
 attended the ministry of her sons, John and Charles. She 
 heartily embraced their doctrines, and on one occasion stood 
 by John's side on Kennington Common, in the midst of 
 twenty thousand people. Samuel Wesley was very much 
 grieved at all this, and wrote to her in October only seven- 
 teen days before his death : 
 
 " My brothers are now become so notorious, that the world 
 will be curious to know when and where they were born, what 
 schools bred at, what colleges of in Oxford, and when matricu- 
 lated, what degrees they took, and where, when, and by whom 
 ordained. I wish they may spare so much time as to vouch- 
 safe a little of their story. For my own part, I had much 
 rather have them picking straws within the walls than preaching 
 in the area of Moorfields. 
 
 " It was with exceeding concern and grief I heard you had 
 countenanced a spreading delusion, so far as to be one of 
 Jack's congregation. Is it not enough that I am bereft of 
 both my brothers, but must my mother follow too? I 
 earnestly beseech the Almighty to preserve you from joining 
 a schism at the close of your life, as you were unfortunately 
 engaged in one at the beginning of it. It will cost you many 
 a protest should you retain your integrity, as I hope to God 
 you will. They boast of you already as a disciple. 
 
 " They design separation. They are already forbidden all 
 the pulpits in London, and to preach in that diocese is actual 
 schism. In all likelihood it will come to the same all over 
 England, if the bishops have courage enough. They leave off 
 the liturgy in the fields ; and though Mr. Whitefield expresses 
 his value for it, he never once read it to his tatterdemalions
 
 2i8 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 on a common. Their societies are sufficient to dissolve all 
 other societies but their own. Will any man of common sense 
 or spirit suffer any domestic to be in a band engaged to relate 
 to five or ten people everything, without reserve, that concerns 
 the person's conscience, how much soever it may concern the 
 family ? Ought any married people to be there, unless hus- 
 band and wife be there together? This is literally putting 
 asunder whom God hath joined together. 
 
 " As I told Jack, I am not afraid the Church should excom- 
 municate him (discipline is at too low an ebb), but that he 
 should excommunicate the Church. It is pretty near it 
 Holiness and good works are not so much as conditions of 
 our acceptance with God. Love-feasts are introduced, and 
 extemporary prayers and expositions of Scripture, which last 
 are enough to bring in all confusion j nor is it likely they will 
 want any miracles to support them. He only who ruleth the 
 madness of the people can stop them from being a formed 
 sect Ecclesiastical censures have lost their terrors; thank 
 fanaticism on the one hand and Atheism on the other. To 
 talk of persecution from thence is mere insult It is 
 
 " ' To call the bishop, Grey-beard Goff, 
 And make his power as mere a scoff 
 As Dagon, when his hands were off.' 
 
 My sister Hall has written to me on the subject, whom I will 
 answer as soon as ever I can. In the meantime I shall be 
 glad to hear from you, and beg your blessing upon us and 
 ours, *nd your prayers, that we may be safely guided through 
 the painful remnant of our lives, and arrive by Christ's mercies 
 to everlasting happiness." 
 
 Sixteen days afterwards, having gone to bed in fairly good 
 health, Samuel Wesley was taken ill at three o'clock in the 
 morning, and died, after four hours' suffering, at the age of 
 forty-nine; He was a clever and sensible man, although he 
 did not appreciate the wonderful work which his brothers had
 
 DEA TH OF SA MUEL WESLE Y. 219 
 
 begun, and in which they encountered so much opposition, 
 but rather took alarm at some of their extravagances which 
 others did not fail to acquaint him with. 
 
 Mrs. Clarke mentions the interesting fact that St. George's 
 Hospital owes its existence to Samuel Wesley. She says : 
 " It was originally an infirmary, the first in Westminster, and 
 was founded in 1719 mainly through his untiring exertions. 
 Hyde Park Corner thus bears witness to the triumphs of two 
 kinsmen, one of whom was an adept in the arts of war, and 
 the other in those of peace." 
 
 When John Wesley, who was in London, received the news 
 of his brother's death, he is said to have actually started off to 
 meet Charles, who was then at Bristol, and go with him to 
 Tiverton to see their widowed sister-in-law, without communi- 
 cating the sad news to his mother, who was ill in her own 
 room (she lived at the Foundry then). John had often been 
 rallied by his relatives about his reticence as to family matters, 
 but it may have been that, in this case, he had not the heart 
 to tell his mother, for all the family knew how dearly she 
 loved her eldest child, and what a pattern son he had been to 
 her. 1 Possibly John commissioned one of his sisters to tell 
 her gently. How she bore it, she herself told Charles : 
 
 " November 29, 1739. 
 
 " DEAR CHARLES, Upon the first hearing of your brother's 
 death, I did immediately acquiesce in the will of God, without 
 the least reluctance. Only I marvelled that Jacky did not 
 inform me of it before he left, since he knew thereof; but he 
 was unacquainted with the manner of God's dealing with me 
 in extraordinary cases, which indeed is no wonder, for though 
 I have so often experienced His infinite mercy and power in 
 my support, and inward calmness of spirit when the trial 
 would otherwise have been too strong for me, yet His ways of 
 working are to myself incomprehensible and ineffable." 
 
 1 Mra. Clarke.
 
 2o JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 The mother would be greatly consoled too in hearing from 
 her sons that they were told at Tiverton that several days 
 before Samuel died, "God had given him a calm and full 
 assurance of his interest in Christ." 
 
 About a month afterwards Mrs. Wesley wrote again to 
 Charles at Bristol : 
 
 " DEAR CHARLES, You cannot more desire to see me than 
 I do to see you. Your brother, whom I shall henceforth 
 call son Wesley, since my dear Sam is gone home, has just 
 been with me, and much revived my spirits. Indeed, I have 
 often found that he never speaks in my hearing without my 
 receiving some spiritual benefit. But his visits are seldom 
 and short, for which I never blame him, because I know he is 
 well employed, and, blessed be God, hath great success in his 
 ministry. But, my dear Charles, still I want either him or 
 you ; for indeed, in the most literal sense, I am become a 
 little child, and want continual succour. ' As iron sharpeneth 
 iron, so doth the countenance of a man his friend.' I feel 
 much comfort and support from religious conversation when I 
 can obtain it Formerly I rejoiced in the absence of com- 
 pany, and found the less I had of creature comforts the more 
 I had from God. But, alas ! I am fallen from that spiritual 
 converse I once enjoyed. ... I complained I had none to 
 converse with me on spiritual things, but for these several 
 days I have had the conversation of many good Christians, 
 who have refreshed in some measure my fainting spirits ; and 
 though they hindered my writing, yet it was a pleasing, and I 
 hope not an unprofitable, interruption they gave me. I hope 
 we shall shortly speak face to face ; and I shall then, if God 
 permit, impart my thoughts more fully. But then, alas, when 
 you come, your brother leaves me. Yet that is the will of 
 God, in whose blessed service you are engaged, who has 
 hitherto blessed your labours, and preserved your persons. 
 That He may continue so to prosper your work and protect 
 you both from evil, and give you strength and courage to
 
 DEA TH OF SAMUEL WESLE K 221 
 
 preach the true Gospel in opposition to the united prayers of 
 evil men and evil angels, is the hearty prayer of, 
 
 " Dear Charles, your loving mother, 
 
 "SUSANNA WESLEY." 
 
 After John and Charles Wesley had visited their bereaved 
 sister at Tiverton, they proceeded to Exeter, as they had been 
 invited there; and the next day, Sunday, John preached ir> 
 the morning at St. Mary's Church, on " The Kingdom of God 
 is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy 
 
 in the Holy Ghost." As usual, after the sermon, Dr. W 
 
 told him, "Sir, you must not preach in the afternoon. Not," 
 he added, " that you preach any false doctrine. I allow all 
 that you have said is true. And it is the doctrine of the 
 Church of England. But it is not guarded. It is dangerous. 
 It may lead people into enthusiasm or despair." 
 
 About this time Wesley stated his doctrinal views in a very 
 clear, concise manner. He said : 
 
 " A serious clergyman desired to know in what points we 
 differed from the Church of England. I answered, ' To the 
 best of my knowledge, in none ; the doctrines we preach are 
 the doctrines of the Church of England, indeed the funda- 
 mental doctrines of the Church, clearly laid down both in her 
 Prayers, Articles, and Homilies.' 
 
 "He asked, 'In what points, then, do you differ from the 
 other clergy of the Church of England?' I answered, 'In 
 none from that part of the clergy who adhere to the doctrines 
 of the Church ; but from that part of the clergy who dissent 
 from the Church (though they own it not) I differ in the points 
 following : 
 
 "'First, they speak of justification, either as the same thing 
 with sanctification, or as something consequent upon it I 
 believe justification to be wholly distinct from sanctification, 
 and necessarily antecedent to it. 
 
 " 'Secondly, they speak of our own holiness or good works 
 as the cause of our justification j or that for the sake of which,
 
 aaa JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 on account of which, we are justified before God. I believe 
 neither our own holiness nor good works are any part of the 
 cause of our justification ; but that the death and righteousness 
 of Christ are the whole and sole cause of it ; or that for the 
 sake of which, on account of which, we are justified before 
 God. 
 
 " ' Thirdly, they speak of good works as a condition of 
 justification, necessarily previous to it. I believe no good 
 work can be previous to justification, nor, consequently, a 
 condition of it ; but that we are justified (being till that hour 
 ungodly, and therefore incapable of doing any good work) 
 by faith alone ; faith, though producing all, yet including no 
 good works. 
 
 " ' Fourthly, they speak of sanctification, or holiness, as if it 
 ivere an outward thing; as if it consisted chiefly, if not 
 wholly, in these two points: i. The doing no harm; 2. The 
 doing good, as it is called ; that is, the using the means of 
 grace and helping our neighbour. I believe it to be an 
 inward thing, namely, " The life of God in the soul of man ; a 
 participation of the Divine nature; the mind that was in 
 Christ ; " or " The renewal of our heart after the image of Him 
 that created us." 
 
 " ' Lastly, they speak of the new birth as an outward thing ; 
 as if it were no more than baptism, or, at most, a change 
 from outward wickedness to outward goodness from a 
 vicious to what is called a virtuous life. I believe it to be 
 an inward thing ; a change from inward wickedness to inward 
 goodness; an entire change of our inmost nature from the 
 image of the devil, wherein we were born, to the image of 
 God ; a change from the love of the creature to the love ol 
 the Creator, from earthly and sensual to heavenly and holy 
 affections; in a word, a change from the tempers of the 
 spirits of darkness to those of the angels of God in heaven. 
 
 " 'There is therefore a wide, essential, fundamental, irrecon 
 cilable difference between us : so that if they speak the truth
 
 DEATH OF SAMUEL WESLEY. 223 
 
 as it is in Jesus, I am found a false witness before God ; but 
 if I teach the way of God in truth, they are blind leaders of the 
 blind.'" 
 
 A terribly lonely thought that must have been for Wesley ! 
 To himself he seemed to stand on one side, while behind him 
 was a little band of helpers and followers, and on the other 
 side were almost all his fellow-clergymen in the Church of 
 England One true and the other false 1 and between them 
 were the masses of the people sunk in sloth, and ignorance, 
 and degradation. Was it any wonder that Wesley worked and 
 prayed by day and night what faithful man could do other- 
 wise with such a conviction in his soul ? 
 
 WESLEY S CHAIR.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 SEPARATION FROM THE MORAVIANS. 
 
 IN the early stages 1 of his career Wesley was content to leave 
 the good done by his ministry to the care of the clergymen of 
 the parish in which the persons who received it dwelt After- 
 wards, we have seen that he formed bands and societies for the 
 mutual assistance of his converts, and these were usually left 
 in the charge of persons who would instruct them in religious 
 matters. In these days the Church provides for the careful 
 instruction and religious fellowship of her members ; in those 
 "the clergy in general made no such provision for the 
 religiously-disposed people of their parishes; and hence, asks 
 Mr. Wesley, 'what was to be done in a case of so extreme 
 necessity ? No clergyman would assist at all. The expedient 
 that remained was to find some one among themselves who 
 was upright in heart, and of sound judgment in the things of 
 God, and to desire him to meet the rest as often as he could, 
 in order to confirm them as he was able in the ways of God, 
 either by reading to them, or by prayer, or by exhortation.' 
 Now surely any mind rightly influenced would consider 
 assemblies of people for such purposes, in so many parishes 
 in the kingdom where nothing of the kind before existed, and 
 where these very persons but a little time before were spending 
 their leisure in idleness or in vice, as a most gratifying occur- 
 rence, both for the benefit of the individuals themselves, and 
 the effect of their example upon others. It would indeed have 
 been more satisfactory if a pious clergyman had put himself 
 at the head of these meetings, afforded the people his counsel, 
 
 1 Watson.
 
 \\ V 
 
 bji - U- 
 
 33 
 
 K 
 
 STATUE OF JOHN WESLEY AT CITY ROAD CHAPEL.
 
 336 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 and restrained any irregularities or errors which might arise ; 
 and had clergymen so qualified or disposed been found, the 
 Church would have reaped the full benefit of Mr. Wesley's 
 labours, and no separation in any form would have ensued. 
 Unhappily, they did not exist ; and Mr. Wesley submitted to 
 the irregularity, to avoid the greater evil of suffering those 
 who had been brought under religious influence to fall away 
 for want of care and instruction. That superintendence which 
 the clergy were not disposed to give he supplied as much as 
 possible by his occasional visits, and it was more regularly 
 afforded, after the employment of his own preachers, by their 
 regular visits under his direction. In these measures there 
 was no intention of a separation from the Church. . . . He 
 [Mr. Wesley] took care, and all his principles and feelings 
 favoured the caution, that no obstacles should be placed in 
 the way of the closest connection of the societies with the 
 Establishment. None of their services were held in the 
 hours of her public service ; the Methodists formed in many 
 parishes the great body of her communicants; thousands of 
 them died in her communion; and the preachers, though 
 separated to the work by solemn prayer and a mode of ordin- 
 ation, though without imposition of hands, were not permitted 
 to administer either of the sacraments to the people among 
 whom they laboured." 1 
 
 We have given this long extract because it shows how wise 
 and just were the regulations Wesley made, and how alien to 
 his purpose was the idea of separating from the Church. In 
 these more enlightened days, ah ! how gladly would such a 
 mission preacher as he be welcomed by all, both High and 
 Low Church clergymen, who are animated by the true spirit 
 of Christianity ! 
 
 But the success of the work of the societies Wesley found 
 depended in a great measure upon the leaders who were 
 chosen to look after them during his absence. The affairs of 
 
 1 Watson.
 
 SEPARATION FROM THE MORAVIANS. 227 
 
 the first organised society in Fetter Lane fell into confusion, 
 again and again, during his absence in Bristol, and when he 
 came to town much of his time was taken up in trying to 
 restore order. Charles Wesley was for a time the pastor of 
 the London Moravians and Methodists, but conjoined with 
 him was Philip Henry Molther, who was the Moravian 
 favourite. 
 
 Molther was a native of Alsace, and a divinity student of 
 the University of Jena, who had been the private tutor of 
 Count ZinzendorPs only son. He was now an ordained 
 Moravian minister, and he arrived in London in October 
 1739, on his way to Pennsylvania. Bohler had then left 
 England, and the people were anxious to hear Molther preach. 
 At first he spoke to them in Latin with the help of an 
 interpreter, but soon became able to make himself understood 
 in English. Molther was much dissatisfied with the Fetter 
 Lane Moravians. The first time he entered their meeting, he 
 was alarmed and almost terror-stricken at " their sighing and 
 groaning, their whining and howling, which strange pro- 
 ceeding they called the demonstration of the spirit of power." 
 A man who could speak thus of those manifestations which 
 Wesley looked upon as signs of the working of " the spirit of 
 power," was not likely to get on well with him. Molther, 
 however, soon became popular ; not only was the meeting- 
 house filled with hearers, but the courtyard also. About a 
 fortnight after his arrival Wesley came over from Bristol, and 
 he says in his Journal that, when he came to London, the first 
 person he met there was one whom he had left strong in faith 
 and zealous of good works, but who now told him, " Mr. 
 Molther had fully convinced her she never had any faith at 
 all ; and had advised her, till she received faith, to be still, 
 ceasing from outward works ; which she had accordingly done, 
 and did not doubt but in a short time she should find the 
 advantage of it" 
 
 " In the evening," Wesley continues, " Mr. Bray also was
 
 228 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 highly commending 'the being still before the Lord.' He 
 likewise spoke largely of the great danger that attended the 
 doing of outward works, and of the folly of people that kept 
 running about to Church and Sacrament, as I (said he) did till 
 very lately." 
 
 "Sunday, 4th. Our Society met at seven in the morning 
 and continued silent till eight One then spoke of looking 
 unto Jesus, and exhorted us all 'to lie still in His hand.' 
 
 " In the evening I met the women of our Society at Fetter 
 Lane, where some of our brethren strongly intimated that none 
 of them had any true faith, and then asserted in plain terms 
 
 1. 'That till they had true faith they ought to be still; that is, 
 as they explained themselves, to abstain from the means of 
 grace, as they are called; the Lord's Supper in particular.' 
 
 2. ' That the ordinances are not means of grace, there being 
 no other means than Christ.'" 
 
 On the following Wednesday, Wesley, "being greatly 
 desirous to understand the ground of this matter," had a long 
 conference with one of the new teachers, Mr. Spanenberg. 
 
 " I agreed," he says, " with all he said of the power of faith. 
 I agreed that whatsoever is by faith born of God, doth not 
 commit sin ; but I could not agree either, ' that none has any 
 faith, so long as he is liable to any doubt or fear ; or that, till 
 we have it, we ought to abstain from the Lord's Supper, or the 
 other ordinances of God.' " 
 
 When the Society met that evening, they sat an hour without 
 speaking, and then began disputing. 
 
 After that, Wesley observed every day more and more the 
 advantage Satan had gained over them. 
 
 " Many of those," he says, " who once knew in whom they 
 had believed were thrown into idle reasonings, and thereby 
 filled with doubts and fears, from which they now found no 
 way to escape. Many were induced to deny the gift of God, 
 and affirm they never had any faith at all ; especially those who 
 had fallen again into sin, and of consequence into darkness.
 
 SEPARATION FROM THE MORAVIANS. 229 
 
 And almost all these had left off the means of grace, saying 
 ' they must now cease from their own works ; they must now 
 trust in Christ alone ; they were poor sinners, and had nothing 
 to do but to lie at His feet' " 
 
 Till Saturday, the xoth, Wesley adds, he did not find one 
 woman of the Society who had not been on the point of 
 casting away her confidence in God. However, on that day he 
 found one who, although others had laboured hard to persuade 
 her she had no faith, replied, " with a spirit they could not 
 resist, ' I know that the life which I now live, I live by faith in 
 the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me ; and 
 He has never left me one moment since the hour He was made 
 known to me in the breaking of bread.' " 
 
 All that week Wesley was busy exhorting the Society to use 
 the means of grace, to wait upon God "by lowliness, meekness, 
 and resignation, in all the ways of His holy law and the works 
 of His commandments," and also by privately endeavouring "to 
 comfort the feeble-minded, and to bring back the lame which 
 had been turned out of the way, if haply it might be healed." 
 
 Then he went back to Bristol, but in December was again 
 summoned to London by an appeal to him on account of the 
 wranglings and divisions of the Fetter Lane Society. 
 
 "Wednesday, igth," he writes, "I accordingly came to 
 London, though with a heavy heart. Here I found every day 
 the dreadful effects of our brethren's reasonings and disputings 
 with each other. Scarce one in ten retained his first love; and 
 most of the rest were in the utmost confusion, biting and 
 devouring one another. I pray God ye be not consumed one 
 of another." 
 
 "One came to me," says Wesley, the following Sunday, "by 
 whom I used to profit much. But her conversation was now 
 too high for me. It was far above, out of my sight My soul 
 is sick of this sublime divinity 1 Let me think and speak 
 as a little child ! Let my religion be plain, artless, simple 1 
 Meekness, temperance, patience, faith, and love, be these my
 
 330 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 highest gifts ; and let the highest words wherein I teach them, 
 be those I learn from the book of God ! " 
 
 The next day Wesley had " a long and particular conversa- 
 tion " with Mr. Molther himself, weighed all his words with the 
 utmost care, desired him to explain what he did not understand, 
 and, after having obtained as exact a knowledge as possible of 
 his doctrine and teaching, returned home, and after praying 
 for Divine aid, wrote down, in his usual clear and logical way, 
 an exact statement of each of their views respecting faith. 
 The Moravians sought it in " waiting for Christ and not using 
 what we term the means of grace, not going to church, not 
 communicating, not fasting, not reading the Scripture;" he 
 sought it by doing all these things : 
 
 " To go to church ; 
 
 " To communicate ; 
 
 "To fast; 
 
 " To use as much private prayer as he could ; and, 
 
 " To read the Scripture ; 
 
 "Because I believe these are 'means of grace' />., do 
 ordinarily convey God's grace to unbelievers ; and that it 
 is possible for a man to use them without trusting in 
 them." 
 
 Much harm, Wesley went on to say, had been done by the 
 teaching of the Moravians ; " many who were beginning to 
 build holiness and good works on the true foundation of faith 
 in Jesus being now wholly unsettled, and lost in vain reasoning 
 and doubtful disputations ; many others being brought to a 
 false unscriptural stillness, so that they are not likely to come 
 to any true foundation ; and many being grounded on a faith 
 that is without works, so that they who were right before are 
 wrong now." 
 
 The next day Wesley writes: " Jan. i , 1 740. I endeavoured 
 to explain to our brethren, the true, Christian, Scriptural 
 ' stillness,' by largely unfolding these solemn words, ' Be still, 
 and know that I am God.'" And on "Wednesday, 2nd. I
 
 SEPARATION FROM THE MORAVIANS. 231 
 
 earnestly besought them all to stand in the old paths ; and no 
 longer to subvert one another's souls by idle controversies and 
 strife of words. They all seemed convinced. We then cried 
 to God to heal our backslidings. And He sent forth such a 
 spirit of peace and love as we had not known for many 
 months before." 
 
 Molther requested Wesley to furnish him with a translation 
 of a German hymn ; and the well-known one, " Now I have 
 found the ground wherein," was the result. 1 Molther, in 
 writing to thank the translator, utters devout wishes clothed 
 in very mystical language that Wesley may increase in 
 knowledge, and have "entire satisfaction" according to his 
 (Molther's) views. 
 
 Being summoned again to Fetter Lane, towards the end of 
 March, by letters which informed him that the poor brethren 
 were in great confusion and earnestly desired his presence, 
 Wesley returned to them ; but he shall tell the whole story in 
 his own graphic way. 
 
 "Monday, zist (April). I set out, and the next evening 
 reached London. Wednesday, 23rd, I went to Mr. Simpson. 
 He told me ' all the confusion was owing to my brother, who 
 would preach up the ordinances ; whereas believers (said he) 
 are not subject to ordinances ; and unbelievers have nothing 
 to do with them. They ought to be still; otherwise they 
 will be unbelievers all the days of their life.' 
 
 "After a fruitless dispute of about two hours, I returned 
 home with a heavy heart Mr. Molther was taken ill this day. 
 I believe it was the hand of God that was upon him. In the 
 evening our society met, but cold, weary, heartless, dead. I 
 found nothing of brotherly love among them now, but a harsh, 
 dry, heavy, stupid spirit. For two hours they looked one at 
 another, when they looked up at all, as if one half of them 
 was afraid of the other ; yea, as if a voice were sounding in 
 their ears, ' Take heed ye every one of his neighbour ; trust ye 
 1 Tyerman.
 
 32 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 not in any brother. For every brother will utterly supplant, 
 and every neighbour will walk with slanders.' 
 
 " I think not so few as thirty persons spoke to me in these 
 two days, who had been strongly solicited i. To deny what 
 God had done for their souls ; to own they never had living 
 faith. 2. To be still till they had it, to leave off all the means 
 of grace, not to go to church, not to communicate, not to 
 search the Scriptures, not to use private prayer ; at least not so 
 much, or not vocally, or not at any stated times. 
 
 " Friday. My brother and I went to Mr. Molther again, and 
 spent two hours in conversation with him. He now also 
 explicitly affirmed i. That there are no degrees in faith; 
 that none has any faith who has ever any doubt or fear, and 
 that none is justified till he has a clean heart, with the 
 perpetual indwelling of Christ and of the Holy Ghost ; and 2. 
 That every one who has not this, ought, till he has it, to be 
 still ; that is, as he explained it, not to use the ordinances, or 
 means of grace, so called. He also expressly asserted i. 
 That to those who have a clean heart the ordinances are not 
 matter of duty. They are not commanded to use them, they 
 are free ; they may use them, or they may not 2. That those 
 who have not a clean heart ought not to use them (particularly 
 not to communicate), because God neither commands nor 
 designs they should (commanding them to none, designing 
 them only for believers), and because they are not means of 
 grace, there being no such thing as means of grace, but Christ 
 only. 
 
 "Ten or twelve persons spoke to me this day also, and many 
 more the day following, who had been greatly troubled by this 
 new Gospel, and thrown into the utmost heaviness ; and indeed 
 wherever I went I found more and more proofs of the grievous 
 confusion it had occasioned ; many coming to me day by day 
 who were once full of peace and love, but were now again 
 plunged into doubts and fears, and driven even to their wits' end. 
 
 " I was now utterly at a loss what course to take, finding no
 
 SEPARATION FROM THE MORAVIANS. 233 
 
 rest for the sole of my foot. These vain janglings pursued me 
 wherever I went, and were always sounding in my ears. 
 
 "Wednesday, 3oth. I went to my friend (that was!), Mr. 
 
 St , at Islington. But he also immediately entered upon 
 
 the subject, telling me ' now he was fully assured that no one 
 has any degree of faith till he is perfect as God is perfect.' I 
 asked, 'Have you, then, no degree of faith ? ' He said, ' No, for 
 I have not a clean heart,' T turned and asked his servant, 
 'Esther, have you a clean heart?' She said, 'No, my heart is 
 desperately wicked ; but I have no doubt or fear ; I know my 
 Saviour loves me, and I love Him ; I feel it every moment.' 
 I then plainly told her master, 'Here is an end of your 
 reasoning ; this is the state the existence of which you deny.' 
 
 " Thence I went to the little society here, which had stood 
 untainted from the beginning. But the plague was now spread 
 to them also. One of them, who had been long full of joy in 
 believing, now denied she had any faith at all, and said ' till 
 she had, she would communicate no more.' Another who 
 said 'she had the faith that overcometh the world,' added, 
 ' she had not communicated for some weeks, and it was all one 
 to her whether she did or no, for a believer was not subject to 
 ordinances.' 
 
 " In the evening, one of the first things stated at Fetter Lane 
 was the question concerning the ordinances. But I entreated 
 we might not be always disputing, but rather give ourselves 
 unto prayer. 
 
 " I endeavoured all this time, both by explaining in public 
 those Scriptures which had been misunderstood, and by private 
 conversation, to bring back those that had been led out of the 
 way ; and having now delivered my own soul, on Friday, May 
 2nd, I left London." 
 
 "Of course it did not mend matters" i.e., Wesley's 
 strenuous exertions says a modern commentator. " They had 
 got to that pitch, which indeed is very soon reached in religious 
 controversy, when argument had done what little it can do, and
 
 34 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 those who attempt to carry it further merely repeat the same 
 words with increased irritation. It was plain, any further 
 attempt at union was a mere aimless sacrifice of what was most 
 distinct in Wesley's ideal for the sake of a union that could 
 only be artificial." 
 
 In June, Wesley again came to London, and found the 
 society in Fetter Lane even in a worse state than before. 
 
 "Finding there was no time to delay," he writes in his 
 Journal, "without utterly destroying the cause of God, I began 
 to execute what I had long designed, to strike at the root 
 of the grand delusion. Accordingly, from these words of 
 Jeremiah, 'Stand ye in the way, ask for the old paths,' I took 
 occasion to give a plain account, both of the work which God 
 had begun among us, and of the manner wherein the enemy 
 had sown his tares among the good seed," and he proceeds to 
 give the same account of his differences with the Moravians 
 as he had given in the statement he drew up on the 3ist of 
 December, but accompanied by severe expressions of rebuke. 
 
 For the next few days he continued to exhort and reprove 
 them. On Friday, zyth, he preached on, " Do this in remem- 
 brance of me," saying: "In the ancient Church, every one 
 who was baptised communicated daily. So in the Acts we 
 read, ' They all continued daily in the breaking of bread, and 
 in prayer,' " and proceeding to show that our Lord himself in 
 the first instance gave His Supper to those " who had not yet 
 received the Holy Ghost," and arguing from that (on the next 
 day) that the Lord's Supper was ordained by God, to be a 
 means of conveying to men, either preventing, or justifying, or 
 sanctifying grace, according to their several necessities. 2. That 
 the persons for whom it was ordained are all those who know 
 and feel that they want the grace of God either to restrain them 
 from sin, or to show their sins forgiven, or to renew their souls 
 in the image of God, and so on. 
 
 But this was distasteful teaching to Molther's disciples, and 
 when, on the i6th of the month, the brethren met together at
 
 SEPARATION FROM THE MORA VIANS. 235 
 
 Fetter Lane, the chasm between them was too wide to be 
 bridged over any more. 
 
 Wesley had taken with him a book of mystic divinity they 
 were in the habit of using, and he read aloud the following 
 extract: "The Scriptures are good; prayer is good; communi- 
 cating is good ; relieving our neighbour is good ; but to one 
 who is not born of God, none of these is good, but all very evil. 
 For him to read the Scriptures, or to pray, or to communicate, 
 or to do any outward work, is deadly poison. First, let him be 
 born of God ; till then let him not do any of these things ; for 
 if he does, he destroys himself." 
 
 " My brethren," asked Wesley, after reading this distinctly 
 two or three times over, " is this right or is it wrong ? " 
 
 "It is right, it is all right," exclaimed one of the members; 
 "to this we must all come, or we can never come to 
 Christ" 
 
 Another brother suggested that perhaps the speaker had not 
 quite understood what Mr. Wesley said, but the man declared 
 he had, and the other members seem to have agreed with him, 
 for many " laboured to prove " both John and Charles Wesley 
 laid too much stress upon the ordinances. After some 
 confused discussion, the question was put to the meeting 
 whether John Wesley should be allowed to preach in Fetter 
 Lane. After a short debate, the answer was given 
 
 " No; this place is taken for the Germans." 
 
 Upon which "some asked 'whether the Germans had 
 converted any soul in England ? Whether they had not done 
 us much hurt, instead of good, raising a division of which we 
 could see no end ? And whether God did not many times use 
 Mr. Wesley for the healing of our divisions, when we were all 
 in confusion ? ' ' 
 
 " Confusion ! What do you mean ? We were never in any 
 confusion at all 1 " replied several. 
 
 " You ought not to say so," said Wesley to one of these, 
 " because I have your letters now in my hand."
 
 236 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 They continued in useless debate till about eleven, when the 
 meeting broke up. 
 
 The next day, Friday, the i8th, Wesley writes "A few of us 
 joined with my mother in the great sacrifice of thanksgiving ; 
 and then consulted how to proceed with regard to our poorer 
 brethren of Fetter Lane. We all saw the thing was now come 
 to a crisis, and were therefore unanimously agreed what to do." 
 
 The following Sunday evening, therefore, Wesley went to the 
 love-feast in Fetter Lane, and at the conclusion of it read a 
 document he had again drawn up, which stated clearly the 
 difference between their views and his own. It ended with 
 these words : 
 
 " I believe these assertions" (the assertions which they made) 
 " to be flatly contrary to the word of God. I have warned you 
 hereof again and again, and besought you to turn back to the 
 law and the testimony. I have borne with you long, hoping 
 you would turn ; but as I find you more confirmed in the error 
 of your ways, nothing now remains but that I should give you 
 up to God. You that are of the same judgment, follow me." * 
 
 And then, without saying anything more, Wesley withdrew, 
 and was followed by eighteen or nineteen of the society. 
 
 Molther's account of the separation was of course somewhat 
 different "In 1740," he says, "John Wesley attacked the 
 society with a view of confounding it. But as most of the 
 members loved the doctrine of our Saviour, and the atonement 
 in His blood, his efforts remained fruitless ; and, perceiving his 
 object to be foiled, he separated from the society, exclaiming, 
 1 Whoever belongs to the Lord, let him follow me.' " 2 
 
 Soon after quitting the Fetter Lane Society Wesley received 
 a letter from one of the Herrnhuth Moravians, ordering him 
 no longer to take upon him the position of a teacher, but to 
 give up this to the Moravians, who alone were fit for it. The 
 letter was extremely abusive ; but Wesley's answer returns nouc 
 of the railing. It bears this superscription : 
 
 1 Wesley" s Journal. , * J. Wedgewood.
 
 JOHN WESLEY AND COUNT ZINZENDORF.
 
 238 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 "From John Wesley, a presbyter of the Church of God in 
 England, to the Church of God at Herrnhuth, in Upper 
 Lusatia;" and is very humble in its commencement. " Tt may 
 seem strange," he writes, " that such a one as I am should take 
 upon me to write to you. You I believe to be children of 
 God, through faith which is in Jesus ; me you believe (as some 
 of you have declared) to be a child of the devil, a servant of 
 corruption. Yet whatsoever I am, or whatsoever you are, I 
 beseech you to weigh the following words, if haply God, ' who 
 sendeth by whom He will send,' may give you light thereby, 
 although the ' mist of darkness,' as one of you affirm, should 
 be reserved for me for ever." He then goes on to arrange 
 under fifteen heads the offences of the Moravians, the chief of 
 which we have already mentioned, but Wesley also includes 
 their wearing gold and silver ornaments, and joining in worldly 
 diversions in order to do good. The brethren do not appear 
 to have denied one of these charges, but, in explanation, of 
 Wesley's having heard some of the Moravians affirm that the 
 salvation of faith implied liberty from the commandments of 
 God, they say, " All things which are a commandment to the 
 natural man, are a promise to him that has been justified." 
 
 Wesley had his last interview with Zinzendorf on September 
 3oth, 1741, in Gray's Inn Walks, then a public garden. We 
 have only Wesley's account of the meeting. 
 
 " Why have you changed your religion ? " asked Zinzendorf. 
 
 Of course Wesley said he did not know that he had. 
 " Who," said he, " has given that account of me ? " 
 
 "You yourself," replied the Count; "in your letter to us 
 you say that true Christians are not poor sinners; this is 
 utterly false. The best of men are miserable sinners till 
 death; if any one says otherwise, they are either mere 
 impostors or seduced by the devil. You have attacked our 
 brethren for teaching better things, and when they sought 
 peace from you you refused it." 
 
 " I do not understand what you mean," said Wesley.
 
 SEPARATION FROM THE MORA VIANS. 239 
 
 Upon which Zinzendorf began a review of their intercourse, 
 saying, " I loved you much when you wrote to me from 
 Georgia, and recognised your simplicity of heart, but saw that 
 it was accompanied by confused ideas. When you came to 
 see us, your ideas were more than ever confused." He then 
 went on talking about some personal matters, which Wesley 
 put aside as irrelevant and brought him back to the matter 
 they were discussing by saying that he feared the Moravians 
 erred both as to not aiming at Christian perfection and not 
 prizing the means of grace. 
 
 " I allow of no inherent perfection in this life ! " cried 
 Zinzendorf. "All our perfection is imputed, not inherent. 
 This is the error of errors, which I follow with fire and sword 
 through the whole world. Whoever follows inherent perfection 
 denies Christ." 
 
 " Surely we are disputing about words," replied Wesley, 
 and then proceeded to ask if every true believer was not holy 
 if he did not live a holy life, and if his heart was not sanctified , 
 if he did not love God with all his heart, and serve Him with 
 all his strength; and, when Count Zinzendorf replied in the 
 affirmative, urged this was all he contended for. 
 
 But this, said Zinzendorf, was all legal sanctity, not evan- 
 gelic, and the Christian did not grow in holiness as he grew in 
 love. 
 
 " Surely," said Wesley, " the love of God increased in the 
 heart of the true believer." 
 
 Even this Zinzendorf vehemently denied. As lead changed 
 into gold was not more gold on the second day than the first, 
 thus, he said, it was with the heart of the believer. 
 
 " I thought we were to grow in grace," urged Wesley. 
 
 " In grace, but not in holiness." 
 
 " Perhaps I do not understand you. In denying ourselves, 
 do we not die more and more to the world and live to God ? " 
 
 " We reject all self-denial," exclaimed Zinzendorf, thoroughly 
 roused; "we trample it under foot We do, as believers,
 
 2 4 o JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 whatever we like, and nothing besides ; we laugh at all morti- 
 fication." 
 
 Wesley here put an end to the useless conversation by 
 saying he would think over what Zinzendorf had said. 
 
 The biographer, to whom we owe much assistance in relating 
 this episode, 1 tells us that Zinzendorf 's last words are repeated 
 in a pamphlet written by him in 1755 in English, with the 
 spirit of which Wesley would no doubt have agreed, for it 
 contained the following words : 
 
 " It was no self-denial to my Saviour, nor any mortification 
 to lead a holy life in this world. When He, dying for us, 
 abolished our guilt and pain, He obtained for all partakers of 
 His merits the privilege to sin no more, and to live in this 
 world as He would have lived Himself, had He lived in our 
 station and our times. So I also scorn heartily the doing 
 good by way of self-denial and mortification." 
 
 Towards the close of his life Wesley was more just and 
 gentle in his attitude towards the Moravian leader than he was 
 for a long time after he separated from them. His last notice 
 of Zinzendorf was in a sermon on knowing Christ after the 
 flesh, and he mentions him as "a late great man, whose 
 memory I love and esteem." 1 
 
 1 J. WedgewootL
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 SEPARATION FROM WHITEFIELD. 
 
 FROM time to time Wesley was harassed with monetary 
 responsibilities which he took upon himself for the sake of 
 the great work in which he was engaged. It has been said 
 that Whitefield was the cause of the Kingswood School for 
 the poor being built, and for that purpose the poor colliers 
 gave generously according to their means. Whitefield col- 
 lected other sums on two or three occasions, and then left the 
 rest to Wesley, who for many months, wherever he went, 
 begged subscriptions for the colliers' school 
 
 Meantime the rooms in which the societies met in Bristol 
 were too small and unsafe for the purpose ; it was determined 
 therefore to build a meeting-house, for the use of the members 
 and as many of their friends as they could induce to attend. 
 A piece of ground was obtained in the Horse Fair, and there, 
 on the 1 2th of May 1739, "the first stone" of the first 
 Methodist preaching-house " was laid with the voice of praise 
 and thanksgiving." Wesley did not intend to be personally 
 engaged either in the direction or expense of the work, for the 
 property had been settled upon eleven trustees, and he 
 imagined the responsibility would be theirs. But he soon 
 found the work would stand still if he did not pay all the 
 workmen; and before very long he found himself burdened 
 with a debt of more than a hundred and fifty pounds, whilst 
 the subscriptions of the Bristol societies did not amount to one- 
 fourth of that sum. Whitefield and Wesley's other London 
 friends at the same time declared that they would not contribute 
 towards the building unless he discharged the trustees, and 
 
 16
 
 24 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 did everything in his own name ; otherwise, they argued, the 
 trustees would always have the power to turn him out of the 
 room, unless he preached according to their liking. Wesley 
 therefore undertook the whole trust as well as the whole 
 management himself. "Money," said he, "it is true I had 
 not, nor any human prospect or probability of procuring it ; 
 but I knew the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, and 
 in His name set out, nothing doubting." 
 
 Eventually the Methodists at Bristol, knowing that the 
 building was for their use, very properly regarded the debt as 
 a public one; and when they were consulting with Wesley 
 how it should be paid, one of them suggested that every 
 Methodist should contribute a penny a week towards it. 
 
 Some one else observed that many were poor and could not 
 afford it 
 
 " Then," said the proposer, " put eleven of the poorest with 
 me, and if they can give anything, well ; I will call on them 
 weekly, and, if they can give nothing, I will give for them as 
 well as for myself. And each of you call upon eleven of your 
 neighbours, receive what they give, and make up what is 
 wanting." 
 
 This was the origin of the Methodists' class-money, and the 
 same accident also led to a perfect system of inspection. For 
 it was soon found that the collectors of the class-money could 
 easily perceive any irregularities in the lives of those from 
 whom they collected pence, so Wesley desired that each should 
 look after the behaviour of those under their care, and in this 
 way "many disorderly walkers were detected," and "some 
 turned from the evil of their ways," or, failing that, turned out 
 of the society. 
 
 A little later Wesley called together some of his leading 
 disciples in London, explained to them what was being done 
 at Bristol, and the advantages of such a thorough system of 
 inspection, with the result that they agreed to work upon the 
 same plan. After that, whenever a society of Methodists was
 
 SEPARATION FROM WH1TEFIELD. 243 
 
 formed, this arrangement was followed a scheme for which 
 Wesley said he could never sufficiently praise God, its unspeak- 
 able usefulness having ever since been more and more manifest. 
 
 By-and-by it was found that visiting every member in his 
 own home every week entailed too much labour, or was incon- 
 venient, many members living in the houses of others as 
 servants, etc., so then it was determined that every class should 
 meet weekly. Advice or reproof was then given, misunder- 
 standings were removed, and the meeting ended with prayer 
 and singing. This too was the origin of the Methodists' class- 
 meetings. 
 
 Whilst Wesley was in London, towards the close of 1739, 
 two gentlemen unknown to him came again and again to urge 
 him to preach in a place called the Foundry, near Moorfields. 
 This was a large ruined edifice which had been used by the 
 Government in casting cannon, till in 17163 terrible explosion 
 blew off the roof and injured and killed several of the workmen. 
 The place was then abandoned, for the royal foundry was 
 removed to Woolwich. 
 
 With much reluctance Wesley consented to preach there ; 
 and he writes in his Journal: "Sunday, November nth, I 
 preached at eight to five or six thousand on the spirit of 
 bondage and the spirit of adoption ; and at five in the evening 
 to seven or eight thousand in the place which had been the 
 King's foundry for cannon." 
 
 He was then pressed to take the place into his own hands, and 
 did so. The purchase-money was i 1 5 ; l but a large addi- 
 tional sum had to be expended in needful repairs, in building 
 galleries, etc Many friends subscribed, and in three years 
 raised the sum of ^480, leaving a balance of ^300, for which 
 Wesley was responsible. 
 
 This was the first Methodist meeting-house of which the 
 metropolis could boast. Over the band-room, where the 
 classes met and early services were conducted and prayer- 
 
 1 Tyerman.
 
 244 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 meetings held, there were apartments for Wesley, and in one 
 of these his mother lived during the latter part of her life. 
 The Foundry was really the cradle of London Methodism. 
 Here Wesley began to preach at the end of 1739. Tyerman 
 says : " The character of the services held in this rotten, pantile- 
 covered building may be learnt from Wesley's works. Wesley 
 began the service with a short prayer, then sung a hymn and 
 preached (usually about half-an-hour), then sung a few verses 
 of another hymn, and concluded with a prayer. His constant 
 theme was, salvation by faith, preceded by repentance and 
 followed by holiness. The place was rough and the people 
 poor ; but the service simple, scriptural, beautiful No wonder 
 that such a priest, shut out of the elaborately-wrought pulpits 
 of the Established Church, and now cooped up within a pulpit 
 made of ' rough deal boards,' should be powerful, popular, and 
 triumphant" 
 
 When Wesley left the Moravians, the eighteen who followed 
 him out of the room at Fetter Lane, in response to his appeal, 
 " Let him that is of the same judgment, follow me," joined the 
 Methodists at the Foundry, and became very pious and useful 
 members. 
 
 In the summer of 1739 Wesley received a letter from a 
 zealous Calvinist charging him with not preaching the gospel, 
 because he never touched upon the doctrine of Predestination. 
 The letter had an exactly opposite effect to what was intended 
 by the writer : Wesley began to think it was a positive duty to 
 preach against the doctrine which he abhorred. Upon trying 
 to decide about this matter in his usual way, he drew a 
 lot which told him to "preach and print." He accordingly 
 preached a sermon against Predestination, which he proceeded 
 to publish, and then sent a copy of it to Georgia, where it fell 
 into Whitefield's hands. Now Whitefield held the Calvinist 
 doctrines, and was grieved that Wesley, with whom he had 
 hitherto worked so harmoniously, should publicly oppose an 
 opinion which he believed to be agreeable to the will of God.
 
 SEPARATION FROM WHITEFIELD. 245 
 
 He had one of the kindest hearts in the world, but his logical 
 faculties were small. When he read the Calvinistic theory, he 
 was not conversant with the arguments against it, and impul- 
 sively adopted a creed which far more powerful minds than his 
 had not been able to defend. Perhaps he never quite under- 
 stood the whole of the Calvinistic doctrine ; indeed, he owned 
 that he had not read any of Calvin's works. Wesley, in his 
 sermon, drew up, as usual, a clear and logical statement of 
 what he believed were their views. 
 
 The following outline of the sermon and its teaching, given 
 by Tyerman, is most interesting, and we therefore insert it 
 here : 
 
 " Wesley's sermon, entitled ' Free Grace,' was founded upon 
 Romans viiL 32, and was printed as a i2mo pamphlet in 
 twenty-four pages. Annexed to it was Charles Wesley's 
 remarkable hymn on 'Universal Redemption,' consisting of 
 thirty-six stanzas of four lines each. It is also a noteworthy 
 fact, that, notwithstanding its importance, it was never included 
 by Wesley in any collected edition of his sermons ; and, in his 
 own edition of his works, it is placed among its controversial 
 writings. There is likewise a brief address to the reader, as 
 follows : 
 
 " ' Nothing but the strongest conviction, not only that what 
 is here advanced is "the truth as it is in Jesus," but also that I 
 am indispensably obliged to declare this truth to all the world, 
 could have induced me openly to oppose the sentiments of 
 those whom I esteem for their work's sake, at whose feet may 
 I be found in the day of the Lord Jesus ! 
 
 " 'Should any believe it his duty to reply hereto, I have only 
 one request to make, let whatsoever you do be done in 
 charity, love, and in the spirit of meekness. Let your very 
 disputing show that you have " put on, as the elect of God, 
 bowels of mercies, gentleness, long-suffering," that even accord- 
 ing to this time it may be said, "See how these Christians 
 love one another." '
 
 246 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 " Having laid down the principle that God's ' free grace is 
 free in all, and free for all,' Wesley proceeds, with great 
 acuteness, to define the doctrine of Predestination; namely, 
 ' Free grace in all is not free for all, but only for those whom 
 God hath ordained to life. The greater part of mankind God 
 hath ordained to death ; and it is not free for them. Them 
 God hateth; and therefore, before they were born, decreed 
 they should die eternally. And this He absolutely decreed 
 because it was His sovereign will. Accordingly they are born 
 for this, to be destroyed body and soul in hell. And they 
 grow up under the irrevocable curse of God, without any 
 possibility of redemption ; for what grace God gives, He gives 
 only for this, to increase, not prevent their damnation.' 
 
 "Having effectually answered the objections of well- 
 meaning people, who, startled at a doctrine so spectral, say, 
 ' This is not the Predestination which I hold ; I hold only the 
 election of grace,' he sums up as follows: 
 
 '"Though you use softer words than some, you mean the 
 self-same thing ; aid God's decree concerning the election of 
 grace, according to your account of it, amounts to neither 
 more nor less than what others call "God's decree of reproba- 
 tion." Call it therefore by whatever name you please, " election, 
 preterition, predestination, or reprobation," it comes in the end 
 to the same thing. The sense of all is plainly this, by virtue 
 of an eternal, unchangeable, irresistible decree of GOD, one 
 part of mankind are infallibly saved, and the rest infallibly 
 damned ; it being impossible that any of the former should be 
 damned, or that any of the latter should be saved 
 
 " ' This presents the doctrine in all its naked, hideous 
 deformity ; but it is fair, and no Calvinian dexterity can make 
 it otherwise.' " 
 
 After stating the objections against this doctrine, Wesley 
 said "Here I fix my foot On this I join issue with every 
 asserter of it. You represent God as worse than the devil. 
 But you say you will prove it by Scripture. Hold ! what will
 
 SEPARATION FROM WtilTEFlELD. 247 
 
 you prove by Scripture? that God is worse than the devil? 
 It cannot be. Whatever that Scripture proves, it never can 
 prove this ; whatever its true meaning be, this cannot be its 
 true meaning. Do you ask ' What is its true meaning then ? ' 
 If I say, 'I know not,' you have gained nothing; for there 
 are many Scriptures the true sense whereof neither you nor 
 I shall know till death is swallowed up in victory. But this 
 I know, better it were to say it had no sense at all, than to say 
 it had such a sense as this.' " 
 
 Whitefield, having read the sermon, wrote to Charles Wesley 
 expostulating with him and his brother on the subject. He 
 was then returning to England, and he had had some con- 
 troversy by letter with Wesley about the same thing. He 
 wrote : 
 
 " MY DEAR, DEAR BRETHREN, Why did you throw out the 
 bone of contention ? Why did you print that sermon against 
 predestination ? Why did you in particular, my dear Charles, 
 affix your hymn and join in putting out your late hymn-book ? 
 How can you say you will not dispute with me about election, 
 and yet print such hymns, and your brother send his sermon 
 over, against election, to Mr. Gorden and others in America ? 
 Do not you think, my dear brethren, I must be as much 
 concerned for the truth, or what I think truth, as you ? God 
 is my judge, I always was, and I hope I always shall be, 
 desirous that you may be preferred before me. But I must 
 preach the gospel of Christ, and that I cannot now do 
 without speaking of election." He then tells Charles that 
 he had written an answer to his brother's sermon, which was 
 being printed in America to which communication Charles 
 made answer by telling him he was to put up again his sword 
 within its sheath. Poor Whitefield, however, was in deep 
 distress; he ended his letter by saying, "Oh, my dear 
 brethren, my heart almost bleeds within me! Methinks I 
 could be willing to tarry here on the waters for ever, rather 
 than come to England to oppose you."
 
 248 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 Whitefield indeed seems to have taken pen in hand to 
 write against Wesley with great regret ; he protested that 
 Jonah could not go with more reluctance against Nineveh. 
 "Was Nature to speak," said he, "I had rather die than 
 do it ; and yet, if I am faithful to God, and to my own and 
 others' souls, I must not stand neuter any longer." In this 
 letter Whitefield related how Wesley had preached and printed 
 his obnoxious sermon in consequence of drawing a lot " I 
 have often questioned," said he, "whether in so doing you 
 did not tempt the Lord. A due exercise of religious prudence, 
 without a lot, would have directed you in that matter. But 
 I fear, taking it for granted it was not, you only inquired 
 whether you should be silent or preach and print against it. 
 I was apt to think one reason why God should so suffer 
 you to be deceived was, that hereby a special obligation might 
 be laid upon me faithfully to declare the Scripture doctrine 
 of election, that thus the Lord might give me a fresh oppor- 
 tunity of seeing what was in my heart, and whether I would 
 be true to His cause or not." 
 
 The argumentative part of this letter had nothing worthy of 
 notice either in manner or matter, for, though such a powerful 
 preacher, Whitefield had neither strength nor acuteness of 
 intellect, 1 and his written compositions are nearly worthless. 
 But the conclusion is remarkable for the warmth of affection it 
 breathes. 
 
 " Dear, dear sir, oh ! be not offended. For Christ's sake, be 
 not rash ! Give yourself to reading. Study the covenant of 
 grace. Down with your carnal reasonings ! Be a little child ; 
 and then, instead of pawning your salvation, as you have done 
 in a late hymn-book, if the doctrine of universal redemption 
 be not true; instead of talking of sinless perfection, as you 
 have done in the preface to that hymn-book, and making 
 man's salvation to depend on his own free will, as you have 
 done in this sermon, you will compose a hymn in praise of 
 
 1 Southey.
 
 SEPARATION FROM WH1TEFIELD. 249 
 
 sovereign distinguishing love. You will caution believers 
 against striving to work a perfection out of their own hearts, 
 and print another sermon the reverse of this and call it, Free 
 Grace indeed; free, because not free to all ; but free, because 
 God may withhold or give it to whom and when He pleases. 
 Till you do this, T must doubt whether or not you know 
 yourself. God knows my heart ; nothing but a signal regard 
 for the honour of Christ has forced this letter from me. I 
 love and honour you for His sake; and when T come to 
 judgment, will thank you before men and angels for what you 
 have under God done for my soul There T am persuaded I 
 shall see dear Mr. Wesley convinced of election and everlasting 
 love." 
 
 Southey says: "That this letter was intended for publication 
 is certain ; but there seems to have been a hope in Whitefield's 
 mind that the effect which its perusal would produce might 
 render publication needless. His friends in London, how- 
 ever, thought proper to print it, without either his permission 
 or Wesley's, and copies were distributed at the door of the 
 Foundry, and in the meeting itself. Wesley, holding one in 
 his hand, stated to the congregation its surreptitious publi- 
 cation, and then saying, 'I will do just what I believe Mr. 
 Whitefield would were he here himself,' he tore it in pieces. 
 Every person present followed his example; and Wesley, in 
 reference to the person by whose means these unlucky copies 
 had been circulated, exclaims in his Journal, ' Ah ! poor 
 Ahitophel ! Ibi omnis effusus labor ! ' " 
 
 The person who seems to have been most active at that time 
 in enforcing Calvinism in opposition to Wesley was a man 
 named John Cennick, whom Wesley employed in the school 
 at Kingswood. He was the son of Quakers, who had taught 
 him to pray from infancy; but he grew up and developed 
 unsteady habits, so that when the time came for him to be 
 bound apprentice to a trade, he went nine times from Reading 
 to London for that purpose, but no one would accept his
 
 25 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 services. However, in 1735, ne was convinced of sin, and at 
 once left off his "song-singing, card-playing, and attending 
 theatres," and began to lead the life of an ascetic, fasting much, 
 and praying often, until at last, in 1737, "he found peace with 
 God," and went on his way rejoicing. He began to write 
 hymns, a number of which Charles Wesley corrected for the 
 press. On his arrival at Kingswood, for the purpose of under- 
 taking his duties in the school there, he found Wesley had gone 
 to London, but was invited to go to Kingswood to hear a 
 young man (probably Maxfield) read a sermon to the colliers. 
 The young reader, however, did not arrive, and Cennick was 
 asked to take his place, which he did with some reluctance, 
 and preached a sermon of which he says himself, "The Lord 
 bore witness with my words, insomuch that many believed in 
 that hour." After that he preached again and again, and 
 Wesley, on his arrival, finding his work useful, encouraged him 
 to proceed. 1 But Cennick's views were Calvinistic, and when 
 he found Wesley was preaching and publishing against the 
 doctrine, he wrote a wild, urgent letter to Whitefield, imploring 
 him to return from America, " that he might stay the plague." 
 " I sit," said Cennick, " solitary, like Eli, wondering what will 
 become of the ark ; and while I wail and fear the carrying of it 
 away from among my people, my trouble increases daily. How 
 gloriously did the Gospel seem once to flourish in Kingswood 1 
 I spake of the everlasting love of Christ with sweet power. 
 But now Brother Charles is suffered to open his mouth against 
 this truth while the frighted sheep gaze and fly, as if no shep- 
 herd were among them. It is just as if Satan were now making 
 war with the saints in a more than common way. Oh, pray for 
 the distressed lambs yet left in this place that they faint not ! 
 Surely they would if preaching would do it, for they have 
 nothing whereon to rest, who now attend on the sermons, but 
 their own faithfulness. With Universal Redemption, Brother 
 Charles pleases the world. Brother John follows him in every- 
 1 See next chapter about lay-preaching.
 
 SEPARATION FROM WH1TEF1ELD. 251 
 
 thing. I believe no atheist can more preach predestination 
 than they " (the idea of an atheist preaching predestination !) ; 
 "and all who believe election are counted enemies to God, 
 and called so. Fly, dear brother ! I am as alone I am in 
 the midst of the plague ! " 
 
 It was very painful to Wesley when a copy of this letter 
 came into his hand, and he saw who was the traitor within the 
 camp. " One," says he, " I had sent for to assist me, a friend 
 that was as my own soul, that even while he opposed me lay in 
 my bosom." 
 
 Charles Wesley wrote a very stern letter of reproof to 
 Cennick; but Wesley thought that as matters had by that 
 time proceeded so far that Cennick was already forming a 
 separate society, it would be better for him to speak to him 
 and his adherents publicly. He therefore did so, reproving 
 them for inveighing against him behind his back. One of 
 them replied that they had said no more of him behind his 
 back than they would say before his face, which was that he 
 preached false doctrine, for he preached that there was 
 righteousness in man. 
 
 "Sir," said Wesley, "there is, after the righteousness of 
 Christ is imputed to him through faith. But who told you 
 that what we preached was false doctrine ? Whom would you 
 have believed this from but Mr. Cennick ? " 
 
 "You do preach righteousness in man," said Cennick, 
 boldly. "I did say this, and I say it still However, we are 
 willing to join you ; but we will also meet apart from you, for 
 we meet to confirm one another in those truths which you 
 speak against" 
 
 "You should have told me this before," replied Wesley; 
 "and not have supplanted me in my own house, stealing the 
 hearts of the people, and by private accusations separating 
 very friends." 
 
 Upon this Cennick denied having ever privately accused 
 him.
 
 2$a JOHN WESLE Y. 
 
 " My brethren," said Wesley, " judge ! " and he produced 
 Cen nick's letter to Whitefield. 
 
 Cennick owned that he had written the letter, and said that 
 he neither blamed himself for doing so or retracted anything 
 that he had said. Some heat manifested itself then, and 
 Wesley, with his usual prudence, adjourned the meeting. 
 
 Wesley made use of the adjournment to collect witnesses 
 who could prove that much evil had been spoken against the 
 preaching of himself and his brother ; and he read a statement 
 of this, which ended with saying that all those persons who 
 had been proved guilty of this and of tale-bearing, lying, 
 dissembling, and slandering, should be dismissed from the 
 society. 
 
 The members who had come prepared to combat his 
 opinions thus found themselves summarily dismissed. As 
 soon as they had recovered from their surprise, however, they 
 declared they had heard him and his brother preach Popery 
 many times ; still, in spite of that, they said they were willing 
 to stay with them, but they would not own they were wrong. 
 Wesley gave them a week to consider about it, and they then 
 offered to break up their society, provided that Cennick should 
 be received and employed as before. 
 
 " My brother has wronged me much," said Wesley, " but he 
 doth not say I repent" 
 
 "Unless in not speaking in your defence, I do not know 
 that I have wronged you at all," answered Cennick. 
 
 " It seems, then," said Wesley, " nothing remains but for 
 each to choose which society he pleases." 
 
 After prayer for the last time together, Cennick withdrew, 
 and about half the meeting followed him. 
 
 Then Whitefield returned, anticipating, it seems, the separa- 
 tion between him and the Wesleys which was now so imminent, 
 for, notwithstanding the affection evinced in his letter to 
 Charles Wesley, he had written to other friends on the voyage 
 home:
 
 SEPARATION FROM WHITEFIELD. 253 
 
 "Great perils await me; but Jesus Christ will send His 
 angel, and roll away every stone of difficulty." " My Lord's 
 command now, I believe, is, 'Take the foxes, the little foxes 
 that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.' Help 
 me by your prayers. I have sought the Lord by prayer and 
 fasting, and He assures me that He will be with me ; whom 
 then shall I fear ? " " The Lord is girding me for the battle, 
 and strengthening me mightily in the inner man." 
 
 It is always sad when good men are led into controversies ; 
 it was doubly so when the Wesleys and Whitefield, having 
 worked so hard together for the salvation of souls, found them- 
 selves on opposing sides, for they stood comparatively alone, 
 whilst their brother clergymen were afar off regarding them 
 either with looks of scorn or timid wonder and now discord 
 and strife had come between them I 
 
 Whitefield reached London and saw Charles Wesley. " It 
 would have melted any heart," says the former, " to have heard 
 us weeping after prayer, that, if possible, the breach might be 
 prevented." 
 
 Whitefield promised Charles that he would never preach 
 against him and his brother, whatever his private feelings 
 might be. But many things made him feel bitter at this time. 
 He had written intemperately and injudiciously (as he after- 
 wards acknowledged) against Archbishop Tillotson's works, 
 and the tatter's Whole Duty of Man happened to have 
 unrivalled popularity. 
 
 Altogether, Whitefield's celebrity seemed to have passed 
 away ; the twenty thousand who used to assemble at his 
 preaching had dwindled down to two or three hundred ; and 
 on one occasion on Kennington Common, where he had 
 formerly preached to such multitudes, scarcely a hundred 
 gathered together to hear him. He called it truly a trying 
 time. 
 
 "Many, very many, of my spiritual children," said he, "who 
 at my last departure from England would have plucked out
 
 254 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 their own eyes to have given me, are so prejudiced by the dear 
 Messrs. Wesley dressing up the doctrine of election in such 
 horrible colours, that they will neither hear, see, nor give me 
 the least assistance ; yea, some of them send threatening letters 
 that God will speedily destroy me." 
 
 This folly, says Southey, on the part of Wesley's hot 
 adherents, irritated him, and that irritation was fomented by 
 his own. Thus it was that when Wesley, having been sent for 
 by Charles, went to him to see if the breach might yet be 
 closed, Whitefield frankly told him that they preached two 
 different Gospels, and therefore he not only would not join 
 with him, or give him the right hand of fellowship, but would 
 publicly preach against him " wheresoever he preached at all," 
 alleging that his former promise was "an effect of weakness," 
 and he was now of another mind. 
 
 This temper caused him, presently, to write somewhat 
 sharply to Wesley about things which he thought had been 
 mismanaged during his absence in America, to which Wesley 
 replied kindly and temperately 
 
 " Would you have me deal plainly with you, my brother? I 
 believe you would ; then, by the grace of God, I will. Of 
 many things I find you are not rightly informed ; of others you 
 speak what you have not well weighed. The society-room at 
 Bristol, you say, is adorned. How ? Why, with a piece of 
 green cloth nailed to the desk ; two sconces for eight candles 
 each in the middle ; and nay, I know no more. Now, which 
 of these can be spared I know not ; nor would I desire either 
 more adorning or less. But lodgings are made for me or my 
 brother. That is, in plain English, there is a little room by 
 the school, where I speak to the persons who come to me ; 
 and a garret in which a bed is placed for me. And do you 
 grudge me this? Is this the voice of my brother, my son 
 Whitefield?" 1 Another and a heavier charge was, that he had 
 perverted Whitefield's design for the poor colliers ; and this 
 
 1 Southey.
 
 SEPARATION FROM WHITEFIELD. 255 
 
 was answered by a plain statement of the matter, which must 
 have made Whitefield blush for the hasty and ungenerous 
 accusation. 
 
 " But it is a hard case," said Wesley, " that you and I 
 should be talking thus ! Indeed these things ought not to be. 
 It lay in your power to have prevented all, and yet to have 
 borne testimony to what you call the truth. If you had dis- 
 liked my sermon, you might have printed another on the same 
 text, and have answered my proofs without mentioning my 
 name. 1 This had been fair or friendly. You rank all the 
 maintainers of Universal Redemption with Socinians them- 
 selves. Alas ! my brother, do you not know even this, that 
 the Socinians allow no redemption at all? That Socinus 
 himself speaks thus Tola redemptio nostra per Christum 
 mctaphora; and says expressly Christ did not die as a ransom 
 for any, but only as an example for all mankind ? How easy 
 were it for me to hit many other palpable blots in that which 
 you call an answer to my sermon ! And how above measure 
 contemptible would you then appear to all impartial men, 
 either of sense or learning ! But I spare you ! mine hand 
 shall not be upon you : the Lord be judge between thee and 
 me. The general tenor both of my public and private exhorta- 
 tions, when I touch thereon at all, as even my enemies, if they 
 would testify, is, ' Spare the young man, even Absalom, for my 
 sake ! ' " 
 
 At the end of 1741 the evangelical party in England was 
 thus split up into three divisions. In the first place, there was 
 that headed by Wesley, and soon known as Wesley's or 
 Wesleyan Methodists; and, secondly, the "United Brethren," 
 or Moravians, who were in sympathy with mystical religion, 
 and disliked the violent display of emotions made by the early 
 Methodists. And then there was the party soon a large one 
 which gathered round Whitefield, and clung to the doctrine of 
 
 1 Whitefield had preached against Wesley's teaching, mentioning him 
 by name.
 
 256 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 Predestination or Election, and, we must add, considered that 
 a vital point ; for there was nothing in the mere belief to 
 exclude them from Wesley's society. 
 
 Soon after Whitefield had separated from Wesley, some 
 Calvinistic Dissenters built a large shed for him near the 
 Foundry, upon a piece of ground which was lent for the purpose, 
 till he should return to America. This edifice was called a 
 Tabernacle, because of its temporary nature, and in allusion to 
 the movable place of worship of the Israelites of old ; and from 
 that the name became the designation of all the Calvinistic 
 Methodist Chapels. But Whitefield had not any ambition of 
 founding a separate religious community, and neither had he the 
 requisite talent; he would have been content with being the 
 founder of the Orphan House at Savannah, and with his work 
 as an itinerant preacher; and Calvinistic Methodism would 
 never have been embodied in a separate sect, if it had not 
 found a patroness in Selina, Countess of Huntingdon. 
 
 This " noble and elect lady," as her followers called her, was 
 the widow of Theophilus, Earl of Huntingdon. The Wesleys 
 had been called in to see her after a dangerous illness, which 
 had led to her conversion ; and, says Southey, her husband's 
 tutor, Bishop Benson, was sent for afterwards in hopes that he 
 might " bring her to a saner sense of devotion." However, the 
 lady, being more disposed to teach than learn, quoted the 
 Homilies to him, insisted upon her own interpretation of the 
 Articles, and spoke to him of the awful responsibility of his 
 position. The Bishop is said to have expressed his regret, as 
 he took his leave, that he had ever laid hands on George 
 Whitefield. 
 
 " My lord," replied the Countess, " mark my words ! when 
 you come upon your dying bed, that will be one of the few 
 ordinations you will reflect upon with complacence." 1 
 
 During her husband's lifetime the Countess yielded to his 
 
 1 The Bishop on his death-bed sent Whitefield a present of ten guineas, 
 and asked an interest in his prayers. ABEL STEVENS.
 
 COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON.
 
 258 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 wishes so far as to restrain herself from taking an active and 
 public part in the Methodist movement, but, after his death, 
 finding herself the owner of a liberal income, she devoted it 
 and her life to the cause of the Methodists. Her Calvinistic 
 opinions and other reasons caused her to patronise Whitefield 
 when he separated from Wesley; and then her talents, wealth, 
 and influence placed her at the head of his party. She 
 endeavoured to reconcile Wesley and Whitefield, with the 
 result that Whitefield preached in Wesley's chapel, Wesley 
 reading prayers, and Wesley officiated at the tabernacle, 
 assisted by Whitefield. 
 
 Perhaps it might be as well to mention here that during 
 her lifetime this noble lady gave away for religious purposes 
 more than a hundred thousand pounds. She sold all her 
 jewels that she might build chapels for the poor, giving up, 
 also, for the cause she had so much at heart, her carriage, her 
 expensive residences, and liveried servants; she purchased 
 theatres, halls, dilapidated chapels, too, in London, Bristol, 
 and Dublin, and fitted them up for public worship. At her 
 Chelsea mansion Whitefield preached to men of high rank 
 and great talents. Romaine, Venn, Madan, Berridge, Toplady, 
 Shirley, Fletcher, Benson, and a host of others shared the 
 beneficent labours of the Countess. She met them in frequent 
 conferences, travelled about the kingdom, accompanied by 
 other pious ladies and evangelists, who preached wherever 
 they went, and finally was the means of establishing a theo- 
 logical college in Wales for the preparation of ministers, 
 presumably of her own way of thinking.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 LAY-PREACHING. 
 
 WESLEY had at this time cause for serious apprehension that 
 a worse separation than that from Whitefield was impending. 
 The Moravians had now disowned some of those errors which 
 Molther had introduced into their midst, and which had led 
 to Wesley's leaving them, and Charles Wesley was inclined to 
 take their side, and even went so far as to declare it was not 
 his intention to preach again at the Foundry. 
 
 "The Philistines are upon thee, Samson," says Wesley in 
 his Journal on this occasion, " but the Lord is not departed 
 from thee. He shall strengthen thee yet again." 
 
 Writing to Charles, he says " Oh, my brother, my soul is 
 grieved for you ! the poison is in you ; fair words have stolen 
 away your heart No English man or woman is like the 
 Moravians ! So the matter is come to a fair issue. Five of 
 us did still stand together a few months since, but two are 
 gone to the right hand (Hutchins and Cennick), and two more 
 to the left (Mr. Hall and you). Lord, if it be Thy Gospel 
 which I preach, arise and maintain Thine own cause." 
 
 Charles, however, now yielded to his brother's opinions, 
 and once more the old love and confidence between them 
 was re-established. 
 
 About that time Wesley made a preaching tour in the 
 Midland counties. Ingham had been that way preaching 
 with great success, and there too Mr. Simpson, one of the 
 Oxford Methodists, had settled as a sort of Moravian minister. 
 On reaching Ockbrook, where Simpson lived, Wesley found 
 that, though a few months before there had been a great
 
 260 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 awakening all round about, three-fourths of the converts 
 were now backsliders. Simpson had drawn the people from 
 the Church, and had advised them to abandon devotion. 
 He said there was no Church of England left, and that there 
 was no Scriptural command for family or private prayer. 
 " If you wish to believe, be still," he said, " and leave off 
 what you call the means of grace, such as prayer and running 
 to church and sacrament." 1 Mr. Graves, the clergyman of 
 the parish, wisely offered the use of his church to Wesley, 
 who preached two sermons, one on "the true Gospel stillness," 
 and the other from his favourite text " By grace are ye saved, 
 through faith." 
 
 Wesley next went on to Nottingham, where he found further 
 proofs of backsliding. There the Methodists held their 
 meetings in the house of Matthew Bagshaw, " who, to accom- 
 modate the people, fixed in the floor of his chamber a large 
 trap door, which, when lifted up, converted Matthew's dor- 
 mitory into a sort of gallery; and the preacher, standing in 
 the aperture, with his head just through the floor, was thus 
 enabled to preach to the female part of his congregation in 
 the room below, and at the same time to the men occupying 
 the room above." 
 
 Now, however, the rooms, which used to be crowded, were 
 half empty, and the few who came behaved most irreverently. 
 Wesley preached twice to them, and once in the market-place 
 to an immense multitude. 
 
 But we must now mention Wesley's first lay-preachers. 
 One of the matters that had been disputed about in Fetter 
 Lane before the breach with the Moravians was as to the 
 expediency of lay-preaching. A layman named Shaw insisted 
 that a priesthood was an unnecessary and unscriptural institu- 
 tion, and that he himself had as good a right to preach, 
 baptise, and administer the sacraments as any other man. 
 Of course such a teacher found ready believers, but Charles 
 1 Tyerman.
 
 JOHN WEaLEY PREACHING J.N MAT1HEW BACiiliAW'a HOUSE.
 
 26a JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 Wesley strenuously opposed these "pestilent errors." A 
 certain Mr. Bowers set the first example of lay-preaching, but 
 afterwards acknowledged he had erred, and became reconciled 
 to Charles. The latter was supported in these disputes by 
 Whitefield and his friend Howell Harris, a young and ardent 
 Welshman, who was the first promoter of Methodism in his 
 own country. 
 
 Tyerman says all Methodist historians have assumed that 
 Maxfield was Methodism's first lay-preacher i.e., the first 
 that was allowed to expound the Scriptures without being 
 formally ordained but this is a mistake, for he was not 
 converted till May 1739, and a month before that John 
 Cennick was employed with Wesley's sanction at Kingswood. 
 Howell Harris had preached in his own country, and had 
 crossed the Channel to find "wider doors of usefulness than 
 ever." Then Thomas Maxfield desired to help in the work, 
 and Wesley set him over the society in London, letting him 
 expound and no doubt read sermons there. 
 
 The official biographers say that the young man Max- 
 field, " being fervent in spirit, and mighty in the Scriptures, 
 greatly profited the people. They crowded to hear him ; and 
 by the increase of their number, as well as by their earnest 
 and deep attention, they insensibly led him to go further than 
 he had at first designed. He began to preach ; and the Lord 
 so blessed the word that many were not only deeply awakened 
 and brought to repentance, but were also made happy in a 
 consciousness of pardon. The Scripture marks of true con- 
 version, inward peace, and power to walk in all holiness 
 evinced the work to be of God." 
 
 Yet still the preaching was represented to Wesley as an 
 irregularity which it required his presence to put a stop to, and 
 he hastened to London to do so. 1 
 
 His mother was living in his apartments at the Foundry, 
 and she asked him why he looked displeased when he entered. 
 
 1 Southey.
 
 LA Y-PREACH1NG. 263 
 
 "Thomas Maxfield has turned preacher I find," he replied. 
 
 "John," said Mrs. Wesley, "you know what my sentiments 
 have been ; you cannot suspect me of favouring readily 
 anything of this kind ; but take care what you do with respect 
 to that young man, for he is as surely called of God to preach 
 as you are. Examine what have been the fruits of his preaching, 
 and hear him also yourself." 
 
 Wesley, says Southey, like Loyola, was always ready to 
 correct any part of his conduct or system as soon as he 
 discovered that it was inconvenient or erroneous. He was too 
 wise a man to be obstinate, and too sincere in all his actions 
 to feel any reluctance at acknowledging that he had been 
 mistaken. He heard Maxfield preach, and then said, in the 
 words of one of old, "// is the Lord^ let Him do what seemeth 
 Him good" 
 
 Seeing it was impossible to prevent his followers from 
 preaching, he tried to direct the stream he could not turn, and 
 from that time admitted volunteers whom he approved of as 
 "sons in the Gospel," but always upon the condition that they 
 should labour where he appointed. 
 
 " I knew your brother well," said Robinson, the Arch- 
 bishop of Armagh, when he met Charles Wesley in Bristol ; 
 " I knew your brother well. I could never credit all I heard 
 respecting him and you; but one thing in your conduct I 
 could never account for, your employing laymen." 
 
 " My Lord," said Charles, " the fault is yours and your 
 brethren's." 
 
 " How so ? " asked the Archbishop. 
 
 " Because you hold your peace, and the stones cry out" 
 
 " But I am told," continued the Primate, " that they are 
 unlearned men." 
 
 " Some are," said the poet-preacher, " and so the dumb ass 
 rebukes the prophet." 
 
 If Wesley's determination had not been occasioned by 
 Maxfield's conduct, it would have been brought about by the
 
 264 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 service of another labourer, named John Nelson, a Yorkshire 
 mason. This man, the son of a pious father, married early 
 and happily, was prosperous in business, and in worldly matters 
 doing well, when he was visited, at the age of thirty, with a 
 sense of the unworthiness of his life and the fear of judgment, 
 and also with such a yearning hope of something better, that 
 he could take no rest. He wandered up and down in the 
 fields after his day's work was done, thinking what he should 
 do to be saved; he went from church to church, but found no 
 consolation. In one he heard a clergyman expatiate upon the 
 comfort good men derive in death from the retrospect of a 
 well-spent life, which, he says, thinking of the failure his own 
 had been, "was a stab" to his "wounded soul." In another 
 church he heard it affirmed that man had no right to expect 
 an interest in the merits of Christ if he had not fulfilled his 
 part and done all that lay in his power, which made him think 
 that none but little children could be saved. He next went to 
 hear Dissenters of different denominations, but to no purpose. 
 He tried Roman Catholics, but soon had enough of their way 
 of worship. He attended the Quakers' meetings, but with no 
 better success. " I had now," he said, " tried all but the 
 Jews, and I thought it was to no purpose to go to them." So 
 he resolved to keep to the Church, and read and pray, whether 
 he perished or not 
 
 He next went to hear Whitefield preach in Moorfields, but 
 Whitefield did not touch the right chord in his heart 
 
 "He was to me," says Nelson, "as a man that could play 
 well on an instrument ; for his preaching was pleasant to me, 
 and I loved the man, so that if any one offered to disturb 
 him, I was ready to fight for him, but I did not understand 
 him." 
 
 Then Wesley preached for the first time in Moorfields. 
 
 "Ohl" says Nelson, "that was a blessed morning for my 
 soul ! As soon as he got upon the stand, he stroked back his 
 hair, and turned his face towards where I stood, and I thought
 
 LAY-PREACHING. 265 
 
 he fixed his eyes on me. His countenance struck such an 
 awful dread upon me before I heard him speak, that it made 
 my heart beat like the pendulum of a clock ; and when he did 
 speak, I thought his whole discourse was aimed at me." 
 
 Nelson might well think thus, says Southey, for it was a 
 peculiar characteristic of Wesley in his discourses, that, in 
 winding up sermons, in pointing his exhortations and driving 
 them home, he spoke as if he were addressing himself to an 
 individual, so that every one to whom the condition which he 
 described was applicable, felt as if he were singled out ; and 
 th preacher's words were then like the eyes of a portrait which 
 seem to look at every beholder. 
 
 "Who," said the preacher, "who art thou that now seest 
 and feelest both thine inward and outward ungodliness ? Thou 
 art the man! I want thee for my Lord; I challenge tliee 
 for a child of God by faith. The Lord hath need of thee. 
 Thou who feelest thou art just fit for hell, art just fit to advance 
 His glory, the glory of His free grace, justifying the ungodly 
 and him that worketh not Oh ! come quickly ! Believe in 
 the Lord Jesus; and thou, even thou^ art reconciled to 
 God." 
 
 As Wesley spoke in this manner, the chord vibrated now in 
 the heart which Whitefield had failed to touch, and when the 
 sermon was over, John Nelson said to himself, " This man can 
 tell the secrets of my heart He hath not left me there, for he 
 hath shown the remedy, even the blood of Jesus." 
 
 Nelson did not at that time make his case known to Wesley, 
 but went to hear him again and again, and felt so zealously for 
 the salvation of souls that he actually hired another man to go 
 and hear him. The other man went, and said it was the best 
 thing for his soul any one had ever done him. Nelson lived 
 now so strict a life that he had to encounter no little persecu- 
 tion. After a little time, he had an opportunity of speaking to 
 Wesley ; they walked a little way together, and Nelson said it 
 was a blessed conference for him. When they parted, Wesley
 
 266 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 took him by the hand, and, looking him in the face, bade him 
 take care that he did not quench the Spirit. 
 
 Nelson now went to Bristol, his native place, to rejoin his 
 family; and there, much to his wife's distress, he began 
 reproving and exhorting the neighbours, and, to defend his 
 doctrine, acquired the habit of quoting texts of Scripture, 
 expounding and enforcing them. This he did in his own 
 house at first, until he had converted most of his relations ; 
 and when his audience became so large that the house would 
 not hold them, he stood at the door and harangued there. 
 Ingham was settled in this neighbourhood with a Moravian 
 society, and he, at Peter Bohler's desire, gave John Nelson 
 leave to exhort them, though this permission was withdrawn 
 after the separation of the Methodists from the Moravians in 
 London. However, John would not then be silenced ; he said 
 he had not begun at the order of man, and would not leave off 
 by it. Hitherto, his " sobriety of character " had caused him 
 to have strong conflicts with a natural reluctance to preach, 
 and perhaps a diffidence of himself. On one occasion, Jonah- 
 like, when a great congregation was gathered together begging 
 him to preach, he fled into the fields. But now opposition 
 stimulated his zeal, and indignation made him eloquent. He 
 wrote to Wesley, telling him what he was doing, and requesting 
 him, " as his father in the Gospel," to write and give him some 
 instructions how to proceed in the work which God had begun 
 by such an unpolished tool as himself. 
 
 Wesley replied that he would see him in the ensuing week, 
 and accordingly came to Bristol and found a preacher and a 
 congregation raised up without his interference. 1 Had he 
 been still doubtful whether the admission of lay-preachers 
 should make a part of his plan, this must have decided him. 
 " Therefore," say his official biographers, " he now fully 
 acquiesced in the order of God, and rejoiced that the thoughts 
 of God were not as his confused thoughts." 
 
 1 Southey.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 WESLEY VISITS NEWCASTLE AND EPWORTH. 
 
 LEAVING Nelson, with full confidence in his steadfast discretion 
 and further success, Wesley hastened to Newcastle, then one 
 of those degraded mining regions which Methodism proposed 
 to invade. 
 
 On going out into the town the same evening on which he 
 arrived Thursday, i7th May 1742 he was surprised at the 
 wickedness which abounded. 
 
 "So much drunkenness, cursing and swearing," he says in 
 his Journal, " (even from the mouths of little children), do I 
 never remember to have seen and heard before, in so small a 
 compass of time. Surely this place is ripe for Him who 'came 
 not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.' " 
 
 At seven o'clock on Sunday morning, Wesley walked down 
 to Sandgate, the poorest and most degraded part of the town, 
 and, standing at the end of the street with a religious friend, 
 began to sing the hundredth psalm. 
 
 " Three or four people," he says, " came out to see what was 
 the matter, who soon increased to four or five hundred. I 
 suppose there might be twelve or fifteen hundred before I had 
 done preaching, to whom I applied these solemn words, ' He 
 was wounded for our transgressions ; He was bruised for our 
 iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him ; and 
 by His stripes we are healed.' 
 
 "Observing the people, when I had done, to stand gaping 
 and staring upon me with the most profound astonishment, I 
 told them, ' If you desire to know who I am, my name is John
 
 268 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 Wesley; at five 1 in the evening, with God's help, I design tc 
 preach here again.' 
 
 " At five, the hill on which I designed to preach was covered 
 from the top to the bottom. I never saw so large a number of 
 people together, either at Moorfields or Kennington Common. 
 I knew it was not possible for the one-half to hear, although my 
 voice was then strong and clear, and I stood so as to have them 
 all in view, as they were ranged on the side of the hill. The 
 word of God which I set before them was, ' I will heal their 
 backsliding, I will love them freely.' After preaching, the poor 
 people were ready to trample me under foot, out of pure love 
 and kindness. I was some time before I could possibly get 
 out of the press. I then went back another way than I came. 
 But several were got to our inn before me ; by whom I was 
 vehemently importuned to stay with them, at least a few days, 
 or, however, one day more. But I could not consent, having 
 given my word to be at Bristol, with God's leave, on Tuesday 
 night. 
 
 "Some of these told me 'they were members of a religious 
 society, which had subsisted for many years, and had always 
 gone on in a prudent, regular manner, and had been well 
 spoken of by all men. They likewise informed me what a 
 fine library they had, and that the steward read a sermon every 
 Sunday.' And yet how many of the publicans and harlots will 
 go into the kingdom of Heaven before these ! " 
 
 It must have been hard for Wesley to leave these poor 
 people, some of whom were so hungering for the Bread of 
 Life, and others so wrapped up in self-satisfaction, and yet 
 desirous to hear more from him. Before very long his brother 
 came among them for a short time, and before the year closed 
 Wesley returned himself. On his second visit, he saw their 
 degradation more completely than before; he wrote that he 
 had got into the very Kingswood of the north. Twenty or 
 thirty wild children ran round him when he entered the 
 
 1 Wesley was very careful not to preach in Church hours. E. C K.
 
 VISITS NEWCASTLE AND EP WORTH. 269 
 
 common to preach. Their raggedness and evident destitution 
 deeply affected him, and they looked, he says, as if they would 
 have "swallowed him up," especially while he was applying to 
 them the words, "Be it known unto you, men and brethren, 
 that through this man is preached unto you forgiveness of 
 sins." He next began to build a room for what he called 
 "the wild, staring, loving society." "I could not but observe," 
 he says, " the different manner wherein God is pleased to work 
 in different places. The grace of God flows here with a wider 
 stream than it did at first either in Bristol or Kingswood ; but 
 it does not sink so deep as it did there. Few are thoroughly 
 convinced of sin, and scarce any can witness that the Lamb 
 of God has taken away their sins." 
 
 However, later, some instances of excitement and its 
 physical effects appeared here as in other places where Wesley 
 preached. One woman had her sight and strength taken away 
 at once ; and at the same time, she said, the love of God so 
 overflowed her soul that she could neither speak nor move. 
 A man also lost his sight for a time, and others began to cry 
 out and sink down in the meetings. 
 
 " And I could not but observe," says Wesley, " that here 
 the very best people, so called, were as deeply convinced as 
 open sinners. ... I never saw a work of God in any other 
 place so evenly and gradually carried on. It continually rises 
 step by step. Not so much seems to be done at any one time 
 as hath frequently been at Bristol or London, but something 
 at every time. It is the same with particular souls. I saw 
 none in that triumph of faith which has been so common in 
 other places. But the believers go on calm and steady. Let 
 God do as seemeth him good ! " 
 
 There was some difficulty in obtaining a place at New- 
 castle whereon to build his meeting-house. "We can 
 get no ground," said Wesley, " for love or money. I like 
 this well. It is a good sign. If the devil can hinder us, he 
 shall." The purchase at last was made, and the foundation
 
 270 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 was laid of a meeting and orphan house upon a scale for 
 the completion of which it was computed that .700 would be 
 required. 
 
 "Many," says Wesley, "were positive it would never be 
 finished at all, others that I should not live to see it covered. 
 I was of another mind, nothing doubting ; but, as it was begun 
 for God's sake, He would provide what was necessary for the 
 finishing of it." 
 
 "Wesley," says Southey, "had now meeting-houses in 
 Bristol, London, Kingswood, and Newcastle, and societies were 
 being rapidly formed in other places by means of an itinerancy, 
 which was now become a regular system, and by the co- 
 operation of lay-preachers, who sprang up daily among his 
 followers. At this time he judged it expedient to draw up a 
 set of general rules, and this was done with the advice and 
 assistance of his brother. The United Society, as they now 
 denominated it, was defined to be ' no other than a company 
 of men having 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 own salvation.' The 
 class rules were then laid down, as a means of more easily 
 discerning whether the members were indeed thus employed. 
 The only condition previously required of those who applied 
 for admission was ' a desire to flee from the wrath to come, 
 and be saved from their sins.' But it was expected that all 
 who continued in the society should 'continue to evidence 
 their desire of salvation, first, by doing no harm, by avoiding 
 evil in every kind, especially that which is most generally 
 practised : such as taking the name of God in vain ; profaning 
 the Sabbath, either by doing ordinary work thereon, or by 
 buying and selling ; drunkenness ; buying or selling spirituous 
 liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme necessity ; 
 fighting, quarrelling, brawling; brother going to law with 
 brother; returning evil for evil, or railing for railing; using
 
 VISITS NEWCASTLE AND EPWORTFf. 271 
 
 many words in buying or selling; buying or selling un- 
 accustomed goods ; giving or taking things on usury ; uncharit- 
 able or unprofitable conversation ; particularly speaking evil of 
 magistrates or of ministers; doing to others as we would not 
 they should do unto us ; and doing what we know is not for 
 the glory of God, as the putting on of gold or costly apparel ; 
 the taking such diversions as cannot be used in the name of 
 the Lord Jesus ; the singing those songs or reading those 
 books that do not tend to the knowledge or love of God; 
 softness and needless self-indulgence ; laying up treasure on 
 earth ; borrowing without a probability of paying, or taking up 
 goods without a probability of paying for them. These were 
 the inhibitions which the members of the society were expected 
 to observe.' 
 
 " They were expected to evidence their desire of salvation, 
 'secondly, by doing good, by being in every kind merciful 
 after their power, as they had opportunity; doing good of 
 every possible sort, and as far as possible to all men, to their 
 bodies, of the ability that God giveth, by giving food to the 
 hungry, by clothing the naked, by visiting or helping them 
 that are sick or in prison; to their souls, by instructing, 
 reproving, or exhorting all they had any intercourse with; 
 trampling under foot that enthusiastic doctrine of devils, that 
 we are not to do good unless our hearts be free to it; by 
 doing good, especially to them that are of the household of 
 faith, or groaning so to be; employing them preferably to 
 others; buying one of another; helping each other in busi- 
 ness ; and so much the more, because the world will love its 
 own and them only; by all possible diligence and frugality 
 that the Gospel might not be blamed; by running with 
 patience the race that was set before them, denying themselves 
 and taking up their Cross daily ; submitting to bear the re- 
 proach of Christ, to be as the filth and off-scouring of the 
 world, and looking that men should say all manner of evil of 
 them falsely for the Lord's sake.' They were expected also
 
 272 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 to attend on all the ordinances of God, such as public worship, 
 the ministry of the Word, either read or expounded; the 
 Lord's Supper ; family and private prayer ; searching the 
 Scriptures, and fasting or abstinence. 
 
 " ' These,' said the two brothers, ' are the general rules of 
 our societies ; all of which we are taught of God to observe, 
 even in His written Word, the only rule, and the sufficient rule, 
 both of our faith and practice. And all these we know the 
 Spirit writes on every truly awakened heart. If there be any 
 among us who observe them not, who habitually break any of 
 them, let it be made known to them who watch over that soul, 
 as they must give an account. We will admonish him of the 
 error of his ways ; we will bear with him for a season. But 
 then, if he repent not, he hath no more place among us. We 
 have delivered our own souls.' " 
 
 When these strict rules were laid down, Methodism had 
 taken deep root in the land ; and the one master-mind, the 
 head of the whole system, was John Wesley. Lord Macaulay 
 said Wesley " had a genius for ecclesiastical government not 
 inferior to that of Richelieu," and he certainly managed the 
 affairs of his huge society with great skill and power. We 
 have seen how cleverly the finances were arranged, so that the 
 increase of the members brought with it an increase of revenue ; 
 and, at the same time, the system of minute inspection of the 
 members both tended to gratify each one by giving him a 
 sense of his own importance, and also enabled each preacher 
 to have an exact knowledge of those under his charge, and 
 thus evil-disposed persons and dissemblers were as far as 
 possible excluded from the society. The number of the lay- 
 preachers, all appointed by Wesley, increased rapidly ; and be- 
 fore long Wesley distributed them all over England. They were 
 sent out two and two, and were stationed for a year at a time 
 in their "circuit," or definite tract of country. At first the 
 circuits were very large, but there has been a process of sub- 
 division always going on. London and Bristol remained the
 
 VISITS NEWCASTLE AND EP WORTH. 273 
 
 chief centres, and received a large portion of the Wesleys' 
 personal attention. Before long, Newcastle-on-Tyne became 
 the Methodists' next important place. 1 
 
 After Wesley's first visit to Newcastle, he again visited 
 Bristol, and then went on to Epworth, his old home, where 
 he had not been for a long time ; but we will quote from his 
 Journal : 
 
 "June 5th, Saturday. It being many years since I had 
 been in Epworth before, I went to an inn in the middle 
 of the town, not knowing whether there were any left in 
 it now who would not be ashamed of my acquaintance. But 
 an old servant of my father's, with two or three poor women, 
 presently found me out. I asked her, ' Do you know any 
 in Epworth who are in earnest to be saved ? ' She answered, 
 1 1 am, by the grace of God ; and I know I am saved through 
 faith.' 
 
 " ' Have you then the peace of God ? ' I asked. ' Do you 
 know that He has forgiven your sins ? ' 
 
 " She replied, ' I thank God, I know it well. And many 
 here can say the same thing.' 
 
 " Sunday, 6th. A little before the service began I went to 
 Mr. Romley, the curate, and offered to assist him, either by 
 preaching or reading prayers. But he did not care to accept 
 of my assistance. The church was exceedingly full in the 
 afternoon, a rumour being spread that I was to preach. But 
 the sermon on ' Quench not the Spirit ' was not suitable to the 
 expectation of many of the hearers. Mr. Romley told them 
 one of the most dangerous ways of quenching the spirit was by 
 enthusiasm, and enlarged on the character of an enthusiast in 
 a very florid and oratorical manner." 
 
 To refuse to allow John Wesley to preach in his father's 
 
 church was bad enough ; but to use the occasion, when his 
 
 late father's parishioners had crowded there to hear him 
 
 preach, to expatiate against him and his doctrine was surely 
 
 1 R. Denny Urlin. 
 
 18
 
 274 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 worse ! l Yet how patiently Wesley records it, and how 
 undaunted he was in his resolution still to do the work to 
 which he believed he was called ! John Taylor, a servant of 
 the Countess of Huntingdon, and a very religious man, was 
 with him, and, after the sermon, he " stood in the churchyard 
 and gave notice, as the people were coming out, ' Mr. Wesley, 
 not being permitted to preach in the church, designs to preach 
 here at six o'clock.' " 
 
 "Accordingly at six I came," says Wesley, "and found such 
 a congregation as I believe Epworth never saw before. I 
 stood near the east end of the church, upon my father's tomb- 
 stone, and cried, 'The kingdom of Heaven is not meat and 
 drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy 
 Ghost.' " 
 
 Wesley remained eight days at Epworth, and every evening 
 preached to the people from his father's tomb-stone. He 
 must have felt deeply the associations of the place, but 
 paused not to record his emotions ; his one great work of 
 preaching absorbed his every energy. His hearers, how- 
 ever, felt the power of his word and of the scene. He 
 tells us that one evening, when he was preaching of Ezekiel's 
 vision of the resurrection of the dry bones, "lamentation and 
 great mourning were heard ; God bowing their hearts, so that 
 on every side, as with one accord, they lifted up their voice and 
 wept aloud. Surely," he adds, "He who sent His spirit to 
 breathe upon them will hear their cry and will help them." 
 
 A gentleman came to hear him, "who was remarkable for 
 not pretending to be of any religion at all." Wesley was 
 informed that he had not been at public worship of any kind 
 for thirty years. The strange scene in the churchyard prob- 
 ably alone induced him to hear Wesley. But, however that 
 might be, the sermon smote him to the heart, and he stood 
 gazing upwards and looking like a statue. 
 
 1 This man owed all he was, we are told, to the father of John Wesley, 
 even his curacy.
 
 WESLEY PREACHING ON HIS FATHER'S TOMB,
 
 7 6 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 " Sir, are you a sinner?" asked the preacher, turning to him. 
 
 " Sinner enough ! " he replied, in a deep broken voice, still 
 staring upwards, till his wife and a servant or two, "all in 
 tears," put him in his chaise and carried him home. Ten 
 years later Wesley saw him, 1 and was agreeably surprised to 
 find him strong in faith, though fast failing in body. For 
 some years, he said, he had been rejoicing in God without 
 either doubt or fear, and was now waiting for the welcome 
 hour when he should depart and be with Christ. 
 
 Wesley also preached at Burnham, Ouston, Belton, Over- 
 thorpe, and Haxey, in which places religious societies had 
 been formed ; but two men, John Harrison and Richard 
 Ridley, had poisoned them with the Moravian heresy, teach- 
 ing "that all ordinances are man's inventions, and that if 
 they went to church or sacrament they would be damned." 
 Many people had therefore forsaken the Church, and others 
 were doubtful what to da The knowledge of this made 
 Wesley decide to stay longer than he at first intended. He 
 says quaintly " I was now in a strait between two ; desiring 
 to hasten forward in my journey, and yet not knowing how 
 to leave those poor bruised reeds in the confusion wherein 
 I found them." However, as we have seen, he decided to 
 stay eight days; upon one of these the following incident 
 occurred. 
 
 "Wednesday, gth. I rode over to a neighbouring town," 
 says Wesley, " to wait upon a Justice of Peace, a man of can- 
 dour and understanding ; before whom (I was informed) their 
 angry neighbours had carried a whole waggon-load of these 
 heretics" (Wesley's converts). "But when he asked what 
 they had done there was a deep silence ; for that was a point 
 their conductors had forgot. At length one said, 'Why, they 
 pretend to be better than other people. And, besides, they 
 pray from morning to night.' 
 
 " Mr. J asked, 'But have they done nothing besides?' 
 
 1 Stevens' History of Methodism,
 
 VISITS NEWCASTLE AND EPWORTH. 277 
 
 "'Yes, sir,' said an old man; 'an't please your worship, 
 they have converted my wife. Till she went among them she 
 had such a tongue and now she is as quiet as a lamb.' 
 
 "'Carry them back, carry them back,' replied the Justice, 
 'and let them convert all the scolds in the town.'" 
 
 John Whitelamb, Wesley's brother-in-law, who held the 
 living at Wroote, heard him preach at Epworth, and wrote 
 to him, saying 
 
 "Your presence creates an awe, as if you were an inhabitant 
 of another world. I cannot think as you do ; but I retain 
 the highest veneration and affection for you. The sight 
 of you moves me strangely. My heart overflows with grati- 
 tude. I cannot refrain from tears when I reflect this is 
 the man who at Oxford was more than a father to me; this 
 is he whom I have there heard expound, or dispute publicly, 
 or preach at St Mary's with such applause. I am quite 
 forgotten. None of the family ever honour me with a line ! 
 Have I been ungrateful? I have been passionate, fickle, a 
 fool, but I hope I shall never be ungrateful." 
 
 On receiving this touching appeal, Wesley hastened to 
 Wroote to visit his old friend. Mr. Whitelamb offered him 
 his church, and he preached there in the morning on " Ask, and 
 it shall be given you," and in the afternoon on the difference 
 between " the righteousness of the law and the righteousness 
 of faith ; " but the church could not contain all the people who 
 came, some of them from far, to hear him. 
 
 The same evening Wesley preached for the last time in 
 Epworth churchyard to "a vast multitude, gathered together 
 from all parts," on the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. 
 And then " I continued among them for near three hours," says 
 Wesley, "and yet we scarce knew how to part." Then, allud- 
 ing to his father's work during a long lifetime, he exclaims, 
 " Oh ! let none think his labour of love is lost, because the 
 fruit does not immediately appear 1 Near forty years did my 
 father labour here ; but he saw little fruit of all his labour. I
 
 278 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 took some pains among this people too; 1 and my strength 
 also seemed spent in vain. But now the fruit appeared ; there 
 were scarce any in the town, on whom either my father or I 
 had taken any pains formerly, but the seed sown so long since 
 now sprung up, bringing forth repentance and remission of 
 sins." 
 
 John Whitelamb, writing to Charles Wesley, said, " I had the 
 honour and happiness of seeing and conversing with my 
 brother John. He behaved to me truly like himself. I found 
 in him what I have always experienced heretofore the gentle- 
 man, the friend, the brother, and the Christian." 
 
 In the beginning of the next year Wesley visited Epworth 
 again, and then he was treated with even rudeness and 
 disrespect by the curate, Mr. Romley. This man, 2 as we have 
 seen, owed his position entirely to Wesley's father, and yet his 
 bitterness and animosity against Wesley was such, that when 
 some persons who had come from the neighbouring towns, by 
 Wesley's advice, notified to Mr. Romley that they intended to 
 communicate the following Sunday, he said to them in reply, 
 " Tell Mr. Wesley I shall not give him the sacrament, for he 
 is not fit." This insult called forth from Wesley a strong 
 expression of feeling in his Journal. 
 
 " How wise a God," says he, " is our God ! There could 
 not have been so fit a place under Heaven where this should 
 befall me j first, as my father's house, the place of my nativity, 
 and the very place where, according to the very strictest sect of 
 our religion, I had so long lived a Pharisee. It was also fit, 
 in the highest degree, that he who repelled me from that very 
 table, where I had myself so often distributed the bread of 
 life, should be one who owed his all in this world to the tender 
 love which my father had shown to fa's, as well as personally 
 to himself." 
 1 During bis two years' curacy. a He is said to have been a drunkard.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 PERSECUTIONS, MOBS, AND RIOTS. 
 
 WESLEY was at Bristol, soon after his first preaching visit to 
 Epworth, when he was summoned to London to his dying 
 mother. Charles was absent, but Mrs. Wesley's five daughters 
 were with her. Wesley writes " I found my mother on the 
 borders of eternity ; but she had no doubt or fear, nor any 
 desire but to depart and be with Christ." She died of gout, 
 on Friday, July 23. It was the third day after Wesley's arrival, 
 and he thus writes of it in his Journal : 
 
 " I sat down on the bedside. She was in her last conflict, 
 unable to speak, but, I believe, quite sensible. Her look was 
 calm and serene, and her eyes fixed upward, while we com- 
 mended her soul to God. From three to four the silver chord 
 was loosing, and the wheel breaking at the cistern ; and then, 
 without any struggle, or sigh, or groan, the soul was set at 
 liberty. We stood round the bed and fulfilled her last request, 
 uttered a little before she lost her speech : ' Children, as soon 
 as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to God.' " 
 
 John performed the funeral service himself, and thus feelingly 
 describes it "Almost an innumerable company of people 
 being gathered together, about five in the afternoon I com- 
 mitted to the earth the body of my mother to sleep with her 
 fathers. The portion of Scripture from which I afterwards 
 spoke was, ' / saw a great white throne, and Him that sat 
 on it ; from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, 
 and there was found no place for them. And 1 saw the dead, 
 small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened, 
 and the dead were judged out of those things which were written
 
 280 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 in the books t according to their works' It was one of the most 
 solemn assemblies I ever saw, or expect to see, on this side 
 eternity." 
 
 Thus died and was buried one of the best of women, and 
 the son, who in his early manhood had expressed the earnest 
 desire that he might not survive his mother, stood by her grave 
 and preached to the assembled crowd one of his most eloquent 
 and impassioned sermons. 
 
 Mrs. Wesley had had much sorrow. During her husband's 
 lifetime she had struggled with "narrow circumstances. Of her 
 nineteen children the greater number had died young ; she had 
 survived her best beloved Samuel, and had been left dependent 
 upon her other sons ; and she had the bitter grief of knowing 
 that two of her daughters were miserable in their married life. 
 But her faith triumphed over all her afflictions ; she died the 
 death of the righteous, and her last moments were full of peace. 
 
 Wesley immediately plunged again into his round of constant 
 preaching, and at times, as ever, encountered the fierce 
 animosity of the wicked. 
 
 On the 1 2th of September he writes "I was desired to 
 preach in an open place, commonly called the Great Gardens, 
 lying between Whitechapel and Coverlet's Fields, where I found 
 a vast multitude gathered together. Taking knowledge that a 
 great part of them were little acquainted with the things of God, 
 I called upon them in the words of our Lord, ' Repent ye, 
 and believe the Gospel' Many of the beasts of the people 
 laboured much to disturb those that were of a better mind. 
 They endeavoured to drive in a herd of cows among them ; but 
 the brutes were wiser than their masters. They then threw 
 whole showers of stones, one of which struck me just between 
 the eyes ; but I felt no pain at all ; and when I had wiped away 
 the blood, went on testifying with a loud voice that God hath 
 given to them that believe, ' not the spirit of fear, but power, 
 and of love, and of a sound mind.' And by the spirit which 
 now appeared through the whole congregation, I plainly saw
 
 PERSECUTIONS, MOBS, AND RIOTS. 281 
 
 what a blessing it is when it is given us, even in the lowest 
 degree, to suffer for His name's sake." 
 
 But Bristol, the scene of Wesley's first out-door labours, was 
 the first place where he received any serious disturbance from 
 the rabble. After several nights of uproar, the mob assembled 
 in great strength. "Not only the courts and alleys," says 
 Wesley, " but all the street, upwards and downwards, was filled 
 with people, shouting, cursing and swearing, and ready to 
 swallow the ground with fierceness and rage." They set the 
 orders of the magistrates at nought, and grossly abused the 
 chief constable, till a party of peacemakers arrived and took 
 the ringleaders into custody. When they were brought up 
 before the Mayor, Mr. Combe, they began to excuse themselves 
 by reviling Wesley, but the Mayor promptly cut them short by 
 saying, " What Mr. Wesley is, is nothing to you. I will keep 
 the peace. I will have no rioting in this city." The effect of 
 this determined interposition of the civil power was that the 
 rabble at Bristol no longer disturbed the Methodists. 
 
 In London also the same protection was offered; the 
 Chairman of the Middlesex Justices, hearing of the feeling 
 which the mob had shown, called upon Wesley, and after telling 
 him such things were not to be suffered, added, "Sir, I and the 
 other Middlesex magistrates have orders from above to do you 
 justice whenever you apply to us." 
 
 Wesley applied for this assistance when the mob stoned 
 him and his followers in the streets and attempted to unroof 
 the Foundry, and the disturbances were soon suppressed. At 
 Chelsea the rioters threw wild-fire and crackers into the room 
 where he was preaching. At Long Lane they broke in the 
 roof with large stones, so that the people within were in danger 
 of their lives. Wesley addressed the rabble, but to no purpose; 
 he then sent out three or four determined men, who seized 
 one of the ringleaders and brought him into the house, cursing 
 and blaspheming. The wretched man was despatched to the 
 nearest Justice, and bound over to the next sessions at Guilford.
 
 282 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 A remarkable circumstance occurred during this scene. One 
 of the stoutest champions of the rioters was struck with sudden 
 contrition, and came into the room with a woman who had 
 been as ferocious as himself both to fall upon their knees 
 and acknowledge the mercy of God. 1 
 
 These disturbances were soon suppressed in London and its 
 vicinity, but in some parts of the country the magistrates 
 themselves instigated the people to attack the Methodists. 
 
 Wesley had preached at Wednesbury, in Staffordshire, both 
 in the Town Hall and in the open air, without molestation ; the 
 colliers in the neighbourhood had listened peaceably, and 
 between three or four hundred had joined themselves into a 
 society as Methodists. The clergyman of the town was at first 
 well pleased at this, but later he was offended by some 
 indiscretion, and from that time began to oppose the Metho- 
 dists with all his might Some of the neighbouring magistrates 
 assisted him in stirring up the rabble, and in refusing to act on 
 behalf of the Methodists when their persons and property 
 were attacked. Affairs therefore grew desperate ; mobs were 
 collected by the sound of a horn, windows were demolished, 
 houses broken open, goods destroyed or stolen ; men, women, 
 and children beaten, pelted, and dragged about. People were 
 nearly murdered if they would not sign a paper of recantation. 
 When things had gone on in this way for four or five months, 
 Wesley, who was on his way then to Newcastle, heard how it 
 was with the poor Methodists at Wednesbury, and went there 
 at once, for he was always ready to face danger. 
 
 He preached at mid-day in the middle of the town to a 
 large assembly of people, without the slightest molestation 
 from any one. But in the evening the mob beset the house 
 where he lodged, crying fiercely, " Bring out the minister ! 
 We will have the minister ! " 
 
 Without losing any of his usual calmness, Wesley desired 
 one of his friends to take the captain of the mob and lead 
 1 Southey.
 
 PERSECUTIONS, MOBS, AND RIOTS. 283 
 
 him into the house. The fellow was soothed or awed by 
 Wesley's manner and appearance, and was persuaded to 
 bring in one or two of his more angry companions. They 
 too were appeased, and now suffered Wesley, or assisted to 
 make way for him, to go out and speak to the people. 
 Wesley called for a chair, got upon it, and demanded of the 
 crowd what they wanted of him. 
 
 " We want you to go with us to the Justice," cried some. 
 
 " That I will, with all my heart," replied Wesley, and away 
 they went. 
 
 The magistrate's house was two miles off, and before they 
 had walked a mile the night came on, accompanied by heavy 
 rain. The greater part of the senseless crowd dispersed, 
 but two or three hundred still kept together, and presently 
 some hastened forward to tell the magistrate they were bringing 
 Mr. Wesley before him. 
 
 " What have I to do with Mr. Wesley ?" said he. " Go and 
 carry him back again." 
 
 By this time the main body came up and began knocking 
 at the door. A servant told them Mr. Lane (the magistrate) 
 had gone to bed. His son followed, and asked what was the 
 matter. 
 
 " Why, an't please you," said the spokesman, " they sing 
 psalms all day; nay, and make folks rise at five in the 
 morning; and what would your worship advise us to do?" 
 
 "To go home," was the answer, "and be quiet." 
 
 Finding it impossible to obtain an audience with the 
 magistrate, the mob then hurried Wesley to Walsal, to Mr. 
 Justice Persehouse. It was then about seven o'clock, and 
 Mr. Persehouse also sent word out that he had gone to bed. 
 
 " Now," says Wesley, " they were at a stand again ; but at 
 last they thought it was the wisest course to make the best of 
 their way home. About fifty of them undertook to convoy 
 me ; but we had not gone a hundred yards when the mob of 
 Walsal came pouring in, like a flood, and bore down all before
 
 2 84 JOHN WESLE Y. 
 
 them. The Darlaston mob made what defence they could , 
 but they were weary as well as out-numbered ; so that in a 
 short time, many being knocked down, the rest ran away and 
 left me in their hands. 
 
 " To attempt speaking was in vain, for the noise on every 
 side was like the roaring of the sea ; so they dragged me along 
 till we came to the town, where, seeing the door of a large house 
 open, I attempted to go in ; but a man, catching me by the 
 hair, pulled me back into the middle of the mob. They made 
 no more stop till they had carried me through the main street, 
 from one end of the town to the other. I continued speaking 
 all the time to those within hearing, feeling no pain or weari- 
 ness. At the west end of the town, seeing a door half open, I 
 made towards it, and would have gone in, but a gentleman in 
 the shop would not suffer me, saying, ' They would pull the 
 house down to the ground.' However, I stood at the door 
 and asked, ' Are you willing to hear me speak ? ' Many cried 
 out, ' No, no, knock his brains out ; down with him ; kill him 
 at once.' Others said, c Nay, but we will hear him first.' I 
 began asking, ' What ,evil have I done ? Which of you all have 
 I wronged in word or deed ? ' and continued speaking for 
 above a quarter of an hour, till my voice suddenly failed ; when 
 the floods began to lift up their voice again, many crying out, 
 'Bring him away, bring him away.' 
 
 " But in the meantime my strength and my voice returned, and 
 I broke out aloud into prayer. And now the man who had 
 just before headed the mob turned and said, ' Sir, I will spend 
 my life for you ; follow me, and not one soul here shall touch 
 a hair of your head.' Two or three of his fellows confirmed 
 his words, and got close to me immediately j at the same time 
 the gentleman in the shop cried out, ' For shame, for shame ; 
 let him go.' An honest butcher, who was a little further off, 
 said, 'It was a shame they should do this,' and pulled back 
 four or five, one after another, who were running on the most 
 fiercely. The people then, as if it had been by common con-
 
 PERSECUTIONS, MOBS, AND RIOTS. 285 
 
 sent, fell back to their right and left ; while those three or four 
 men took me between them, and carried me through them all. 
 "But on the bridge the mob rallied again; we therefore 
 went on one side over the mill-dam, and thence through the 
 meadows, till a little before ten God brought me safe to 
 
 JOHN WESLEY AT WEDNF.SBURY. 
 
 Wednesbury, having lost only one flap of my waistcoat, and a 
 little skin from one of my hands. 
 
 "I never saw such a chain of Providences before ; so many 
 convincing proofs that the hand of God is on every person and 
 thing, overruling all as it seemeth Him good.
 
 286 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 " The poor woman at Darlaston who had headed that mob 
 and sworn that none should touch me, when she saw her 
 followers give way, ran into the thickest of the throng, and 
 knocked down three or four men, one after another ; but many 
 assaulting her at once, she was soon overpowered, and had 
 probably been killed in a few minutes (three men keeping her 
 down and beating her with all their might), had not a man 
 called to one of them, ' Hold, Tom, hold 1 ' ' Who is there ? ' 
 said Tom. ' What, honest Munchin I Nay, then, let her go.' 
 So they held their hand, and let her get up and crawl home as 
 well as she could. 
 
 " From the beginning to the end I found the same presence 
 of mind as if I had been sitting in my own study ; but I took 
 no thought for one moment above another : only once it came 
 into my mind that if they should throw me into the river, it 
 would spoil the papers that were in my pocket ; for myself I 
 did not doubt but I should swim across, having but a thin 
 coat and a light pair of boots. 
 
 " The circumstances that followed I thought were particularly 
 remarkable, i. That many endeavoured to throw me down 
 while we were going down hill on a slippery path to the town, 
 as well judging that if I were once on the ground I should 
 hardly rise any more ; but I made no stumble at all, nor the 
 least slip, until I was entirely out of their hands. 2. That 
 although many strove to lay hold on my collar or clothes to 
 pull me down, they could not fasten at all ; only one got fast 
 hold of the flap of my waistcoat, which was soon left in his 
 hand ; the other flap, in the pocket of which was a bank-note, 
 was torn but half off. 3. That a lusty man, just behind, struck 
 at me several times with a large oaken stick, with which, if he 
 had struck me once on the back of my head, it would have 
 saved him all further trouble ; but every time the blow was 
 turned aside I know not how, for I could not move to the 
 right hand or left. 4. That another came rushing through 
 the press, and raising his arm to strike, on a sudden let
 
 PERSECUTIONS, MOBS, AND RIOTS. 287 
 
 it drop, and only stroked my head, saying, ' What soft hair 
 he has!' 5. That I stopped exactly at the Mayor's door, 
 as if I had known it (which the mob doubtless thought 
 I did), and found him standing in the shop, which gave 
 the first check to the madness of the people. 6. That 
 the very first men whose hearts were turned were the heroes 
 of the town, the captains of the rabble on all occasions, 
 one of them having been a prize-fighter at the bear-garden. 
 7. That from first to last I heard none give a reviling word, or 
 call me by any opprobrious name whatever ; but the cry of 
 one and all was, ' The Preacher ! the Preacher ! the Parson ! 
 the Minister ! ' 8. That no creature, at least within my hear- 
 ing, laid anything to my charge, either true or false, having in 
 the hurry quite forgot to provide themselves with an accusa- 
 tion of any kind. And lastly, that they were as utterly at a 
 loss what they should do with me, none proposing any deter- 
 minate thing, only, ' Away with him ; kill him at once.' 
 
 "By how gentle degrees does God prepare us for His will ! 
 Two years ago a piece of brick grazed my shoulders. It was 
 a year after that the stone struck me between the eyes. Last 
 month I received one blow, and this evening two one before 
 we came into the town, and one after we were gone out but 
 both were as nothing ; for though one man struck me on the 
 breast with all his might, and the other on the mouth with such 
 force that the blood gushed out immediately, I felt no more 
 pain from either of the blows than if they had touched me with 
 a straw. 
 
 "It ought not to be forgotten that when the rest of the 
 society made all haste to escape for their lives, four only would 
 not stir " [mentioning their names]. " These kept with me, 
 resolving to live or die together ; and none of them received 
 one blow but William Sitch, who held me by the arm from 
 one end of the town to the other. He was then dragged away 
 and knocked down, but he soon rose and got to me again. I 
 afterwards asked him ' what he expected when the mob came
 
 288 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 upon us?' He said, 'To die for Him who died for us;' 
 and he felt no hurry or fear, but calmly waited till God should 
 require his soul of him." 
 
 These were rough doings; but such was the beginning of 
 Methodism in the "Black Country." Wesley mentions "as 
 great a curiosity in its kind" as he believes was ever seen 
 in England, that being nothing more nor less than that the 
 very magistrates who refused to see him on the night when 
 he was dragged to their door by the mob, issued a proclama- 
 tion, within a few days, which commanded the police to 
 make diligent search for those Methodist preachers who " go 
 about, raising routs and riots, to the great damage of his 
 Majesty's liege people, and against the peace of our Sovereign 
 Lord the King." The proclamation went on to say that when 
 the said preachers were found they were to be carried before 
 "some of us, his said Majesty's Justices of the Peace." 
 
 Notwithstanding all this, Charles Wesley boldly " bearded 
 the lions in their den," only five days after his brother so 
 wonderfully escaped. He found the poor Methodists " stand- 
 ing fast in one mind and spirit, in nothing terrified by their 
 adversaries," and writes, " Never before was I in so primitive 
 an assembly. We sung praises lustily, and with a good 
 courage ; and could all set our seal to the truth of our Lord's 
 saying, ' Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteous- 
 ness' sake.' We assembled before day to sing hymns of 
 praise to Christ ; and, as soon as it was light, I walked down 
 the town, and preached boldly on Rev. ii. 10. It was a 
 most glorious time. Our souls were satisfied as with marrow 
 and fatness, and we longed for our Lord's coming to confess 
 us before His Father and His holy angels." 
 
 The clergyman at Darlaston was so struck with the meek 
 
 behaviour of the Methodists in the midst of suffering, that he 
 
 offered to join the Wesleys in punishing the rioters, 1 whilst 
 
 "honest Munchin," the captain of the rabble, forsook his 
 
 1 Charles Wesley's Journal.
 
 PERSECUTIONS, MOBS, AND RIOTS. 289 
 
 godless companions and joined the Methodists, being received 
 by Charles Wesley as a member on trial only five days after 
 Wesley's escape. 
 
 "What thought you of my brother?" asked Charles of 
 " honest Munchin." 
 
 " Think of him ! " said he ; "I thought he is a mon of God ; 
 and God was on his side, when so mony of us could not kill 
 one mon" 
 
 Whitefield came to Wednesbury the following Christmas, 
 and preached eloquently and with his usual power. White- 
 field had now regained much if not all of the celebrity he 
 had lost, and he was actively engaged in the work of his 
 Calvinistic branch of the Methodist societies. Wesley and 
 he were again friends, and though they now pursued separate 
 courses and held different creeds, their aims were the same, 
 and their affection for each other was very warm. 
 
 Wesley wrote of Whitefield " I believe he is sincere in all 
 he says, concerning his earnest desire of joining hand in hand 
 with all that love the Lord Jesus Christ" 
 
 And Whitefield wrote of Wesley " I think he is wrong in 
 some things ; but I believe he will shine bright in glory. I 
 have not given way to him, or to any whom I thought in error, 
 no, not for an hour ; but I think it best not to dispute where 
 there is no probability of convincing." 
 
 After Whitefield had preached several days in the streets 
 of Wednesbury, he went away; but Charles Wesley returned 
 on February 2, 1744. Egginton, the Wednesbury vicar, 1 had 
 drawn up a paper, and sent the crier to give notice that all the 
 Methodists must sign it, or their houses would be demolished. 
 The paper was to the effect, " that they would neither read, or 
 sing, or pray together, or hear the Methodist parsons any 
 more." Several signed, through fear; and every one who did 
 was mulcted a penny to assist in making the rabble drunk. 
 This iniquitous proceeding had taken place about a month 
 1 Wesley's Works.
 
 2 9 o JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 before Charles Wesley arrived, and when he came Egginton 
 was dead, but not a Methodist in Darlaston had escaped the 
 violence of the mob, except two or three who had given their 
 purses to the lawless gang. The windows of all the Methodists' 
 houses were broken, neither glass, lead, nor frames remaining. 
 Tables, chairs, chests of drawers, and whatever furniture was 
 not easily removable, were dashed in pieces, and feather-beds 
 were torn to shreds. 
 
 No craven-hearted man would have ventured to preach to 
 humanised fiends like these, but the Wesleys came to them 
 again and again. Charles, too, escaped unhurt, but the poor 
 Methodists were again made to suffer from the brutal violence 
 of their wicked neighbours. Again and again, when assaults 
 were made, furniture broken, goods stolen, and lives 
 threatened, the Methodists appealed to the magistrates, but 
 in vain ; they could obtain no redress. 
 
 A document stating their grievances was drawn up 
 on February 26, 1744, when the persecuted Methodists 
 added 
 
 "We keep meeting together morning and evening, are in 
 great peace and love with each other, and are nothing terri- 
 fied by our adversaries. God grant we may endure to the 
 end!" 
 
 The temper in which the Wesleys endured these cruel 
 persecutions is shown in a hymn said to be written by Charles 
 after one of these tumults \ it begins 
 
 " Worship, and thanks, and blessing, 
 
 And strength ascribe to Jesus ! 
 Jesus alone defends His own, 
 
 When earth and hell oppress us. 
 Jesus with joy we witness 
 
 Almighty to deliver ; 
 Our souls set to, that God is true, 
 
 And reigns a King for ever." 
 
 Charles, the sweet singer 1 some of whose hymns are the
 
 PERSECUTION'S, MOBS, AND RIOTS. 291 
 
 dearest to almost every churchman's heart, yet who, alas, was 
 forced, even on one occasion by personal violence, 1 to desist 
 from preaching in the churches' pulpits. 
 
 1 It is said that on one occasion the churchwardens laid their hands upon 
 Charles's gown to constrain him to come down from the pulpit. 
 
 WESLEY'S TEA-POT. 
 
 (Pretented to Wesley by Wedgvxmd, the famous pottfr 
 of Sta/ordahire.)
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 PREACHING IN CORNWALL. 
 
 AN old writer tells us that they who would go to Heaven must 
 do four kinds of service hard service, costly service, derided 
 service, and forlorn service. Wesley's service never was the 
 last, but we have seen how hard it often was. And it was costly, 
 for it entailed the sacrifice of much which men hold dear, ease, 
 leisure we find Wesley sometimes sighing, "Oh; for a little 
 quiet ! " an honourable position in the world of learning, 
 preferment in the Church, for which, as such a distinguished 
 Fellow of his College, he was so well entitled. His service, too, 
 was derided at times both by the press and the people to whom 
 he preached, yet he stood on such high ground, he scarcely 
 seems to have noticed that; only, sometimes, an impatient 
 utterance escapes him, as, for instance, when he says, " I 
 preached at Pocklington with an eye to the death of that lovely 
 woman, Mrs. Cross. A gay young gentleman with a young 
 lady stepped in, stayed five minutes, and went out again, with 
 as easy an unconcern as if they had been listening to a ballad 
 singer. I mentioned to the congregation the deep folly and 
 ignorance implied in such behaviour. These pretty fools never 
 thought that, for this very opportunity, they are to give an 
 account before men and angels." On another occasion, when 
 his congregation had appeared insensible, he said, "They hear, 
 but when will they feel/ Oh, what can man do toward raising 
 dead bodies or dead souls ! " 
 
 But he was generally listened to with deep attention and 
 devout reverence ; even those who were indifferent to the 
 truths he uttered being overawed by the demeanour of the
 
 PREACHING IN CORNWALL. 293 
 
 majority. Wesley compared them favourably with some 
 churchgoers. "I wonder," says he, "at those who talk of 
 the indecency of field-preaching. The highest indecency is in 
 St. Paul's Church, where a considerable part of the congrega- 
 tion are asleep, or talking, or looking about, not minding a 
 word the preacher says. On the other hand, there is the 
 highest decency in a churchyard or field, where the whole 
 congregation behave and look as if they saw the Judge of All, 
 and heard Him speaking from Heaven." Sometimes, says 
 one writer, when he had finished the discourse and pronounced 
 the blessing, not a person offered to move : the charm was 
 upon them still ; and every man, woman, and child remained 
 where they were until he left the ground. One day many of 
 his hearers sat upon a low wall, built of loose stones, and in 
 the middle of the sermon it fell with them. 
 
 " I never saw, heard, nor read of such a thing before," he 
 said. " The whole wall, and the persons sitting upon it, sunk 
 down together, none of them screaming out, and very few 
 altering their posture, and not one was hurt at all ; but they 
 appeared sitting at the bottom just as they sat at the top. 
 Nor was there any interruption either of my speaking or of the 
 attention of the hearers." 
 
 The situations in which he preached sometimes contributed 
 to heighten the impression, and he perceived " that natural 
 influences operated upon the multitude like the pomp and cir- 
 cumstance of Romish worship." 1 
 
 On a hot and cloudless day he would stand under cover of 
 the sycamores which afforded shade to some of the old farm- 
 houses in Westmorland and Cumberland, and which now 
 shaded his congregation. He mentions once that a bird, 
 perched on a branch close by, sung without intermission from 
 the beginning of the service to the end, and that no instru- 
 mental concert would have accorded with the place and feeling 
 of the hour so well. 
 
 1 Soutbey.
 
 294 JOHN WESLEY, 
 
 In Cornwall, whither the Wesleys repaired after their rough 
 experiences in the "Black Country," there were many of these 
 natural advantages. One of his preaching-houses there was 
 what had once been the courtyard of a rich and honourable 
 man, who with his family had long been dead, and their 
 memory had almost perished. 
 
 At Gwennap, in the same county, he preached in a sort of 
 natural amphitheatre, of which he said, "I stood on the wall, 
 in the calm, still evening, with the setting sun behind me, and 
 almost an innumerable multitude before, behind, and on either 
 hand. Many likewise sat on the little hills, at some distance 
 from the bulk of the congregation. But they could all hear 
 distinctly while I read, 'The disciple is not above his Master, 
 and the rest of those comfortable words which are, day by day, 
 fulfilled in our ears." 
 
 And he spoke of the same favourite preaching-place in his 
 old age, saying, " I think this is one of the most magnificent 
 spectacles which is to be seen on this side of Heaven. And 
 no music is to be heard on earth comparable to the sound of 
 many thousand voices, when they are all harmoniously joined 
 together, singing praises to God and the Lamb." 
 
 Charles Wesley came to St. Ives on the i6th of July 1743, 
 and he there met with much rough treatment, sticks and stones 
 being used, and many, especially women, meeting with personal 
 violence. At Pool, on the 26th of July, the churchwarden 
 shouted and hallooed, and put his hat to Charles Wesley's 
 mouth to prevent his preaching. These outrages, it is sad to 
 say, were principally instigated by clergymen, who continually 
 spoke of the Methodists as " popish emissaries " that, as one 
 of them said, " ought to be driven away by blows, and not by 
 arguments." 
 
 At length, however, the mayor of St. Ives took steps to 
 suppress the rioters by force of arms. Charles Wesley was 
 called away to London on August the 8th, but a fortnight 
 later his brother, accompanied by John Nelson and two others,
 
 1
 
 296 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 succeeded him. They reached St Ives on the 3oth of August, 
 and found the society of Methodists increased to one hundred 
 and twenty. Nelson began to work at his trade as a stone- 
 mason, and, as he found opportunity, preached at St. Just, the 
 Land's End, and other places. 
 
 One of Wesley's assistants fell ill, and was not able to preach 
 at all. And the others had some very rough experiences ; 
 Wesley and Nelson slept upon the floor, the former using 
 Nelson's overcoat for a pillow, and Nelson using Burkitt's 
 Notes on the New Testament for his. x One morning, at three 
 o'clock, after using this hard bed for a fortnight, Wesley, who 
 could not sleep, said to his companion 
 
 " Brother Nelson, let us be of good cheer, for the skin is off 
 but one side yet." 
 
 They fared badly, too, in the matter of food ; they were con- 
 tinually preaching; but "it was seldom," said Nelson, "that 
 any one asked us to eat or drink. One day, as we were 
 returning from St. Hilary Downs, Mr. Wesley stopped his 
 horse to pick the blackberries, saying 
 
 " ' Brother Nelson, we ought to be thankful that there are 
 plenty of blackberries ; for this is the best country I ever saw 
 for getting an appetite, but the worst for getting food.' " 
 
 Upon the whole, however, Wesley was kindly treated in 
 Cornwall, where he stayed about three weeks, and this although 
 his reception had been a very noisy one ; for the mob at St. 
 Ives welcomed him with a loud huzza, and serenaded him 
 before his window with the ditty 
 
 " Charles Wesley is come to town, 
 To try if he can pull the churches down." 
 
 And during his stay the only act of violence he met with was 
 when, on one occasion, the mob burst into the room at St. 
 Ives, and a ruffian struck him on the head. 
 
 It was on one of Wesley's later visits to Cornwall that the 
 1 Tyerrnan,
 
 PREACHING IN CORNWALL. 297 
 
 following scene occurred, which we will give in the graphic 
 words (as they have been handed down to us) of old Peter 
 Martin, who was sexton of the parish of Helstone sixty-five 
 years : 
 
 " I first heard Mr. Wesley preach in the street, near our 
 market-house, seventy-four years ago. I had an adventure 
 with him when I was ostler at the London Inn. Mr. Wesley 
 came there one day in a carriage, driven by his own servant, 
 who, being unacquainted with the road further westward than 
 Redruth, he obtained my master's leave for me to drive him to 
 St. Ives. We set out, and on our arrival at Hayle we found the 
 sands between that and St. Ives, over which we had to pass, 
 overflowed by the rising tide. On reaching the water's edge, 
 I hesitated to proceed, and advised him of the danger of 
 crossing ; and a captain of a vessel, seeing us stopping, came 
 up and endeavoured to persuade us from an undertaking so 
 full of peril, but without effect Mr. Wesley had resolved to 
 go on ; he said he had to preach at St Ives at a certain hour, 
 and that he must fulfil his appointment. Looking out of the 
 carriage window, he called loudly to me, ' Take the sea ! take 
 the sea!' In a moment I dashed into the waves, and was 
 quickly involved in a flood of waters. The horses were now 
 swimming, and the carriage became overwhelmed with the 
 tide, as the hind wheels were not unfrequently merged in the 
 deep pits and hollows in the sands. I struggled hard to main- 
 tain my seat in the saddle, while the poor affrighted animals 
 were snorting and rearing in the most terrific manner. I 
 expected every moment to be swept into eternity, and the only 
 hope I then cherished was on account of driving so holy a 
 man. 
 
 "At that awful crisis I heard Mr. Wesley's voice. With 
 difficulty I turned my head toward the carriage, and saw his 
 long white locks dripping with water, which ran down the 
 rugged furrows of his venerable countenance. He was look- 
 ing calmly forth from the windows, undisturbed by the
 
 s 9 8 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 tumultuous roar of the surrounding waters, or by the dangers 
 of his perilous situation. 
 
 " He hailed me in a tolerably loud voice, and asked, ' What 
 is thy name, driver ? ' 
 
 " I answered, ' Peter, sir.' 
 
 " He said, ' Peter, fear not ; thou shall not sink.' 
 
 "With vigorous spurring and whipping I again urged on 
 the flagging horses, and at last got safely over ; but it was a 
 miracle. We continued our way, and reached St. Ives without 
 further hindrance. We were very wet, of course. 
 
 " Mr. Wesley's first care after our arrival was to see me 
 comfortably lodged in a public-house ; he procured me warm 
 clothing, a good fire, and excellent refreshment Nei'.her 
 were the horses forgotten. Totally unmindful of himself, he 
 proceeded, wet as he was, to the chapel and preached accord- 
 ing to his appointment." 
 
 At St. Ives, when a high wind prevented Wesley standing 
 where he had intended, he found a little enclosure near the 
 spot, one end of which was native rock, rising ten or twelve 
 feet perpendicular, from which the ground fell with an easy 
 descent. "A jutting out of the rock, about four feet from 
 the ground," he said, "gave me a very convenient pulpit. 
 Here well-nigh the whole town, high and low, rich and poor, 
 assembled together. Nor was there a word to be heard, nor 
 a smile seen, from one end of the congregation to the other. 
 It was just the same the three following evenings. Indeed 
 I was afraid on Saturday that the roaring of the sea raised 
 by the north wind would have prevented their hearing. But 
 God gave me so clear and strong a voice that I believe 
 scarce one word was lost" 
 
 On his way to Cornwall, and also on returning, Wesley 
 preached at Exeter, and visited a lad and a clergyman, both 
 sentenced to death. Southey tells us, "There is a beautiful 
 garden at Exeter, under the ruins of the castle and of the 
 old city wall, in what was formerly the moat; it was made
 
 300 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 under the direction of Jackson, the musician, a man of rare 
 genius in his own art, and eminently gifted in many ways. 
 Before the ground was thus happily appropriated, Wesley 
 preached there to a large assembly, and felt the impressive- 
 ness of the situation. He says, " It was an awful sight ! So 
 vast a congregation in that solemn amphitheatre, and all 
 silent and still, while I explained at large and enforced that 
 glorious truth, ' Happy are they whose iniquities are forgiven, 
 and whose sins are covered.' " 
 
 Wesley also preached at the Cross at Taunton, where a man, 
 attempting to make disturbance, so exasperated the congrega- 
 tion, that there was a general cry, " Knock the rascal down ; 
 beat out his brains ! " and Wesley had to interfere to prevent 
 his being roughly handled. 
 
 Wesley also paid a flying visit to the Isles of Scilly, crossing 
 the ocean in a fishing-boat, and singing amid the swelling 
 
 waves 
 
 " When passing through the watery deep, 
 
 I ask in faith His promised aid ; 
 The waves an awful distance keep, 
 
 And shrink from my devoted head, 
 Fearless, their violence I dare ; 
 They cannot harm, for God is there." 
 
 Speaking of the "Land's End," one writer tells us that 
 Wesley admired this singular promontory, and visited it more 
 than once. In 1785, when "the shadows of the evening were 
 gathering round him," he made his last visit He was then 
 over eighty years old. " It was singular to behold an old man 
 over fourscore years, with white hair, furrowed cheeks, and 
 infirm limbs, climbing over huge steep rocks that hung in 
 precipices over the sea, to get a better view of a bold 
 promontory where two oceans meet." 
 
 "We went," he wrote, "to the Land's End, in order to 
 which we clambered down the rocks to the very edge of the 
 water. I cannot but think the sea has gained some hundreds 
 of yards since I was there forty years ago."
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THE FIRST CONFERENCE. 
 
 MUCH of Wesley's time was taken up in conversing with 
 individuals; and in January 1743, we find him at Bristol 
 and Kingswood, speaking to each member of the society. " I 
 cannot understand," he says, "how any minister can hope 
 ever to give up his account with joy unless (as Ignatius 
 advises) he knows all his flock by name ; not overlooking the 
 men-servants and maid-servants." 
 
 In London, Wesley and his brother began visiting the 
 society together in February, "which they continued from six 
 in the morning till six at night, until the visiting was com- 
 pleted." 
 
 The London society now consisted of nineteen hundred 
 and fifty members; before the year was ended it numbered 
 twenty hundred. The members alone, without their children, 
 servants, and outside hearers, were almost sufficient to fill the 
 Foundry twice over. It was necessary that they should have 
 more room, and presently Wesley obtained and opened a 
 chapel in West Street, Seven Dials, and a little later another 
 at Snowfields. 
 
 Wesley's labours now, as ever, were unremitting, and still he 
 undertook fresh ones with undiminished zeal. From time to 
 time he published books and pamphlets as it occurred to him 
 they would be useful. In answer to an oft-repeated cry that 
 he and his coadjutors were making preaching the means of 
 replenishing their purses, he stated in his work, An Earnest 
 Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion, that the moneys given 
 by the Methodists never came into his hands at all, but were
 
 30* JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 received and expended by the stewards in relieving the poor, 
 and in buying, erecting, or repairing chapels ; and that, so far 
 from there being any overplus when this was done, he himself 
 at that moment was in debt to the amount of ^650, on 
 account of the meeting-houses in London, Bristol, and New- 
 castle. Addressing himself to his brother clergymen, he 
 asked 
 
 " For what price will you preach eighteen or nineteen times 
 every month ; and this throughout the year ? What shall I give 
 you to travel seven or eight hundred miles, in all weathers, 
 every two or three months ? For what salary will you abstain 
 from all other diversions than the doing good and the praising 
 God ? I am mistaken if you would not prefer strangling to 
 such a life, even with thousands of gold and silver. 
 
 " I will now simply tell you my sense of these matters, 
 whether you will hear or whether you will forbear. Food and 
 raiment I have ; such food as I choose to eat, and such 
 raiment as I choose to put on. I have a place where to lay 
 my head ; I have what is needful for life and godliness ; and 
 I apprehend this is all the world can afford. The kings of the 
 earth can give me no more. For as to gold and silver, I 
 count it dung and dross; I trample it under my feet; I 
 esteem it just as the mire of the streets. I desire it not; 
 I seek it not ; I only fear lest any of it should cleave to me, 
 and I should not be able to shake it off before my spirit 
 returns to God. I will take care (God being my helper) that 
 none of the accursed thing shall be found in my tents when 
 the Lord calleth me hence. Hear ye this, all you who have 
 discovered the treasures which I am to leave behind me : if I 
 leave behind ;io, above my debts and my books, or what 
 may happen to be due on account of them, you and all 
 mankind bear witness against me, that I lived and died a thief 
 and a robber." 
 
 Tyerman adds, " Wesley kept his word ; for within twelve 
 months of his decease he closed his cash-book with the
 
 IV;
 
 304 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 following words, written with a tremulous hand, so as to be 
 scarcely legible 
 
 " ' For upwards of eighty-six years I have kept ray accounts 
 exactly ; I will not attempt it any longer, being satisfied with 
 the continual conviction that I save all I can, and give all I 
 can ; that is, all I have.' " 
 
 The work of superintending all the preachers, and, through 
 them, all the large body of Methodists, had, in 1744, become 
 too great for Wesley to undertake any longer alone, or even 
 with the assistance of his brother. He therefore called 
 together his brother, four clergymen, and four lay-preachers 
 to confer with him on the affairs of the societies. 
 
 Thus it was that the first Methodist Conference met at the 
 Foundry on Monday, June 25th. 
 
 Wesley wrote in his Journal : " Monday, June 25th, and the 
 five following days, we spent in conference with our preachers, 
 seriously considering by what means we might the most 
 effectually save our own souls and them that heard us. And 
 the result of our consultations we set down to be the rule of 
 our future practice." 
 
 The arrangement was found to work so well that from that 
 time a Methodist Conference was held annually, Wesley 
 himself, during his long life, presiding at forty-seven of 
 them. 
 
 The day before the Conference commenced was one to be 
 remembered. During the course of it Holy Communion was 
 administered by five clergymen to the whole of the London 
 Society, then numbering between two and three thousand 
 members. 
 
 The Conference was opened with solemn prayer, a sermon 
 by Charles Wesley, and the baptism of an adult. The three 
 points debated were (i.) What to teach. (2.) How to teach. 
 (3.) How to regulate doctrine, discipline, and practice. 
 
 In regard to the first point, " it was settled that to be justi- 
 fied is to be pardoned and received into God's favour ; that
 
 THE FIRST CONFERENCE. 305 
 
 faith, preceded by repentance, is the condition of justification ; l 
 that repentance is a conviction of sin ; that faith in general is 
 a divine supernatural elenchos of things not seen; and that 
 justifying faith is a conviction by the Holy Ghost, that Christ 
 loved me and gave Himself for me ; that no man can be justi- 
 fied and not know it ; that the immediate fruits of justifying 
 faith are peace, joy, love, power over all outward sin, and 
 power to keep down inward sin ; that wilful sin is inconsistent 
 with justifying faith ; that no believer need ever again come 
 into condemnation ; that works are necessary for the continu- 
 ance of faith, which cannot be lost but for want of them ; and 
 that St. Paul and St. James do not contradict each other, when 
 one says Abraham was not justified by works, and the other 
 that he was, because they do not speak of the same justifica- 
 tion, and because they do not speak of the same works St. 
 Paul speaking of works that precede faith, and St James of 
 works that spring from it. 
 
 " The Conference further agreed that Adam's sin is imputed 
 to all mankind in the sense that, in consequence of such sin 
 (i) our bodies are mortal; (2) our souls disunited from 
 God, and of a sinful, devilish nature ; and (3) we are liable to 
 death eternal. It was further agreed that the Bible never 
 expressly affirms that God imputes the righteousness of Christ 
 to any, but rather that faith is imputed to us for righteousness. 
 At the same time, the Conference conceived that, by the 
 merits of Christ, all men are cleared from the guilt of Adam's 
 actual sin ; that their bodies will become immortal after the 
 resurrection; that their souls receive a capacity of spiritual 
 life, and an actual spark or seed thereof; and that all believers 
 are reconciled to God and made partakers of the Divine nature. 
 
 " Sanctification was defined, a renewal in the image of God ; 
 
 in righteousness, and true holiness ; to be a perfect Christian is 
 
 to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and 
 
 strength, implying the destruction of all inward sin ; and faith 
 
 1 Tyerman. 
 
 20
 
 3 o6 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 is the condition or instrument -by which such a state of grace 
 is obtained." 
 
 Amongst other things which were then settled, the Confer- 
 ence proceeded to resolve that they would defend the doctrine 
 of the Church of England both by their preaching and living ; 
 they would obey the bishops in all indifferent matters, and 
 observe the canons as far as they could with a safe conscience ; 
 and finally they resolved to exert themselves to the utmost not to 
 entail a schism in the Church, by their hearers forming them- 
 selves into a distinct sect ; though they agreed that they must 
 not neglect the present opportunity of saving souls, for fear of 
 consequences which might possibly, or probably, happen after 
 they were dead. 
 
 "The belief was expressed that the design of God in raising 
 up the preachers called Methodists was to reform the nation, 
 more particularly the Church, and to spread Scriptural holiness 
 through the land." 
 
 This is deeply interesting, showing as it does that the 
 founders of Methodism were attached to the Church, but still 
 more so to what they believed to be their mission, or the 
 purpose for which they were " raised up by God," and, whilst 
 admitting the grave possibility, or probability, that after they 
 were dead their successors might form a distinct sect, they still 
 dared not neglect their present opportunity of saving souls. 
 Many details were then settled relating to the rules respecting 
 bands, meetings, members, lay-assistants who were allowable 
 only in cases of necessity and the circuits which the preachers 
 were to take. Wesley's maxim was, never to strike a blow in 
 any place where it could not be followed up ; he believed that 
 to awaken sinners to repentance, and then to leave them 
 without further instruction and supervision, was to leave them 
 in imminent danger from the powers of darkness. And he 
 also believed that it was very good for souls to have a frequent 
 change of teachers; hence the constant movement of the 
 Wesleyan ministers from one place to another.
 
 THE FIRST CONfERENCE. 307 
 
 The next week was spent by Wesley and his coadjutors in 
 trying to weed from the society " all who did not work worthy 
 of the Gospel." "By this means," he goes on to say, "we 
 reduced the number of members to less than nineteen 
 hundred. But number is an inconsiderable circumstance. 
 May God increase them in faith and love ! " 
 
 How rapidly, in spite of Wesley's strictness, the members 
 had multiplied 1 Four years before, when Wesley separated 
 from the " brethren " at Fetter Lane, only fifty or sixty followed 
 him.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 LAST SERMON BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 EXACTLY a month after that first Methodist Conference, upon 
 Friday, August 24th, the anniversary of St. Bartholomew, 
 Wesley preached his last sermon before the University of 
 Oxford. Being on the foundation of a college and a Master of 
 Arts, this duty came to him by rotation, and, had he declined 
 it, he would have had to provide a substitute. It happened to 
 be the race week, and the audience was much augmented by 
 the racing-men; and we learn from Charles Wesley that he 
 and two other of Wesley's clerical friends were present, that 
 some of the heads of colleges stood during the whole service, 
 and fixed their eyes upon the preacher; and that, after the 
 sermon, the little band of four Methodist clergymen walked 
 away in form, none daring to join them. 1 
 
 Wesley writes : 2 
 
 " I preached, I suppose, for the last time at St. Mary's. Be 
 it so. I am now clear of the blood of these men. I have 
 fully delivered my own soul. The beadle came to me after- 
 wards, and told me the Vice-Chancellor had sent him for my 
 notes. I sent them without delay, not without admiring the 
 wise providence of God. Perhaps few men of note would have 
 given a sermon of mine the reading, if I had put it into their 
 hands ; but, by this means, it came to be read, probably more 
 than once, by every man of eminence in the University. 
 
 " I am well pleased that the sermon was preached on the 
 very day on which, in the last century, near two thousand 
 burning and shining lights were put out at one stroke. Yet 
 1 C. Wesley's Journal. z Wesley's Works.
 
 LAST SERMON BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY. 309 
 
 what a wide difference is there between their case and mine ! 
 They were turned out of house and home, and all that they 
 had ; whereas I am only hindered from preaching, without any 
 other loss; and that in a kind and honourable manner, it 
 being determined that when my next turn to preach came, 
 they would pay another person to preach for me ; and so they 
 did, twice or thrice, even to the time that I resigned my 
 fellowship." 
 
 The celebrated Dr. Kennicott 1 was at that time an under- 
 graduate at Oxford ; he had no sympathy with the Methodists, 
 but he wrote thus of Wesley's sermon : 
 
 " All that are Masters of Arts, and on the foundation of any 
 college, are set down in a roll, as they take their degree ; and 
 in that order preach before the University, or pay three guineas 
 for a preacher in their stead ; and as no clergyman can avoid 
 his turn, so the University can refuse none; otherwise Mr. 
 Wesley would not have preached. He came to Oxford some 
 time before, and preached frequently every day in courts, 
 public-houses, and elsewhere. On Friday morning, having 
 held forth twice in private, at five and at eight, he came to St. 
 Mary's at ten o'clock. There were present the Vice-Chancellor, 
 the proctors, most of the heads of houses, a vast number of 
 gownsmen, and a multitude of private people, with many of 
 Wesley's own people, both brethren and sisters. He is neither 
 tall nor fat ; for the latter would ill become a Methodist. His 
 black hair quite smooth, and parted very exactly, added to a 
 peculiar composure in his countenance, showed him to be an 
 uncommon man. His prayer was soft, short, and conformable 
 to the rules of the University. His text was Acts iv. 31. 
 He spoke it very slowly, and with an agreeable emphasis" 
 (here the sermon is described). " When he came to what he 
 called his plain, practical conclusion, he fired his address with 
 so much zeal and unbounded satire as quite spoiled what other- 
 wise might have been turned to great advantage ; for, as I liked 
 1 Tyerman.
 
 3io JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 some, so 1 disliked other parts of his discourse extremely. I 
 liked some of his freedom, such as calling the generality of young 
 gownsmen 'a generation of triflers,' and many other just 
 invectives. But, considering how many shining lights are 
 here, that are the glory of the Christian cause, his sacred 
 censure was much too flaming and strong, and his charity 
 much too weak in not making large allowances. But, so 
 far from allowances, he concluded, with a lifted-up eye, in 
 this most solemn form ' It is time for Thee, Lord, to lay 
 to Thine hand ; ' words full of such presumption and seeming 
 imprecation, that they gave an universal shock. This, and 
 the assertion that Oxford was not a Christian city, and this 
 country not a Christian nation, were the most offensive parts 
 of the sermon, except when he accused the whole body (and 
 confessed himself to be one of the number) of the sin of 
 perjury; and for this reason, because, upon becoming mem- 
 bers of a college, every person takes an oath to observe the 
 statutes of the University, and no one observes them in all 
 things. Had these things been omitted and his censures 
 moderated, I think his discourse, as to style and delivery, 
 would have been uncommonly pleasing to others as well 
 as to myself. He is allowed to be a man of great parts, and 
 that by the excellent Dean of Christ Church (Dr. Conybeare) ; 
 for the day he preached the Dean generously said of him, 
 ' John Wesley will always be thought a man of sound sense, 
 though an enthusiast.' However, the Vice-Chancellor sent for 
 the sermon, and I hear the heads of colleges intend to show 
 their resentment." 
 
 And now let us look at the sermon itself. It had three 
 divisions, and considers Christianity under three different 
 aspects, (i.) Christianity beginning to exist in individuals. 
 (2.) As spreading from one to another. (3.) As covering the 
 earth. Of these, says Tyerman, nothing need be said ; that 
 which gave offence was the plain, practical application which 
 the courageous preacher dared to end with.
 
 LAST SERMON BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY. 311 
 
 " I beseech you, brethren," he said, " by the mercies of 
 God, if ye do account me a madman or a fool, yet as a fool 
 bear with me. It is utterly needful that some one should use 
 great plainness of speech towards you. It is more especially 
 needful at this time; for who knoweth but it is the last? 
 And who will use this plainness if I do not? Therefore I, 
 even I, will speak. And I adjure you, by the living God, 
 that ye steel not your hearts against receiving a blessing at my 
 hands. 
 
 " Let me ask you then, in tender love, and in the spirit of 
 meekness, is this city a Christian city? Is Christianity, 
 Scriptural Christianity, found here? Are we, considered as 
 a community of men, so filled with the Holy Ghost as to 
 enjoy in our hearts, and show forth in our lives, the genuine 
 fruits of that Spirit? Are all the magistrates, all heads and 
 governors of colleges and halls, and their respective societies 
 (not to speak of the inhabitants of the town), of one heart and 
 soul ? Is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts ? Are 
 our tempers the same that were in Christ ? And are our lives 
 agreeable thereto ? 
 
 " In the fear and in the presence of the great God, before 
 whom both you and I will shortly appear, I pray you that are 
 in authority over us, whom I reverence for your office sake, to 
 consider, Are you filled with the Holy Ghost ? Are ye lively 
 portraitures of Him whom ye are appointed to represent 
 among men ? Ye magistrates and rulers, are all the thoughts 
 of your hearts, all your tempers and desires, suitable to yonr 
 high calling ? Are all your words like unto those which come 
 out of the mouth of God ? Is there in all your actions dignity 
 and love ? 
 
 "Ye venerable men, who are more especially called to form 
 the tender minds of youth, are you filled with the Holy Ghost? 
 with all those fruits of the Spirit which your important office 
 so indispensably requires ? Do you continually remind those 
 under your care that the one rational end of all our studies is
 
 Sis JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 to know, love, and serve the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
 whom He hath sent ? Do you inculcate upon them, day by 
 day, that without love all learning is but splendid ignorance, 
 pompous folly, vexation of spirit? Has all you teach an 
 actual tendency to the love of God and of all mankind for Hig 
 sake ? Do you put forth all your strength in the vast work 
 you have undertaken using every talent which God hath lent 
 you, and that to the uttermost of your power ? 
 
 "What example is set them " [the youth] " by us who enjoy 
 the beneficence of our forefathers, by fellows, students, 
 scholars, more especially those who are of some rank and 
 eminence ? Do ye, brethren, abound in the fruits of the 
 Spirit, in lowliness of mind, in self-denial and mortification, 
 in seriousness and composure of spirit, in patience, meekness, 
 sobriety, temperance, and in unwearied, restless endeavours to 
 do good, in every kind unto all men ? Is this the general 
 character of fellows of colleges ? I fear it is not. Rather, 
 have not pride and haughtiness of spirit, impatience and 
 peevishness, sloth and indolence, gluttony and sensuality, and 
 even a proverbial uselessness, been objected to us, perhaps not 
 always by our enemies, nor wholly without ground ? " 
 
 He then proceeds to ask similar, but, if possible, more 
 solemn questions of those who were " more immediately con- 
 secrated to God," respecting their office and the zeal with 
 which they try to " save souls from death." 
 
 Then he makes a stirring appeal to the undergraduates, 
 asking if they have " either the form or the power of Christian 
 godliness." 
 
 "In the name of the Lord Almighty," he cries at length to 
 all, "I ask, what religion are you of? Even the talk of 
 Christianity ye cannot, will not hear ? Oh 1 my brethren, 
 what a Christian city is this ? It is time for Thee, Lord, to 
 lay to Thine hand." 
 
 And then he adds sadly, " For indeed what probability, what 
 possibility, is there that Christianity, Scriptural Christianity,
 
 LAST SERMON BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY. 313 
 
 should be again the religion of this place ? That all orders 
 of men among us should speak and live as men filled with 
 the Holy Ghost? By whom should this Christianity be 
 restored ? By those of you that are in authority ? Are you 
 desirous it should be restored ? And do ye not count your 
 fortune, liberty, life, dear unto yourselves, so ye may be instru- 
 mental in restoring it ? But suppose ye have this desire, who 
 hath any power proportioned to the effect ? Perhaps some of 
 you have made a few attempts, but with how small success ? 
 Shall Christianity then be restored by young, unknown, incon- 
 siderable men ? I know not whether ye yourselves would suffer 
 it. Would not some of you cry out, ' Young man, in so doing 
 thou reproachest us ' ? But there is no danger of your being 
 put to the proof; so hath iniquity overspread us like a flood. 
 Whom then shall God send ? The famine, the pestilence, or 
 the sword, the last messengers of God to a guilty land ? The 
 armies of the Romish aliens, to reform us into our first love ? 
 Nay, rather let us fall into Thy hands, O Lord, and let us not 
 fall into the hand of man ! " 
 
 " Who can find fault with it (this ' plain, practical applica- 
 tion ') ? " says the biographer above-named. " Rather, who will 
 not commend the bold preacher, who in such yearning accents 
 gave utterance to truths of the highest consequence, but which 
 perhaps no one but himself, in such a congregation, durst have 
 uttered ? " 
 
 But Wesley was to preach no more at St. Mary's hence- 
 forward, as we have seen. So long as he held his fellowship a 
 paid substitute was to preach in his turn. Well, the University 
 would have no more of his burning words, his stirring enthu- 
 siasm, his bold reproofs, and Wesley passed on to other scenes, 
 feeling, as he quaintly expressed it, that, at all events, he had 
 "delivered his own soul"
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 ITINERATING. 
 
 THE persecutions still continued in different parts of the 
 country. The story of Nelson being pressed for a soldier, 
 and his subsequent sufferings in prison, has been told so often 
 that it is needless to repeat it In Cornwall Maxfield was 
 seized, by means of a warrant issued by the magistrates for the 
 purpose of apprehending several of the obnoxious people 
 (the Methodists), as being " able-bodied men, who had no 
 lawful calling or sufficient maintenance." His captors offered 
 him to the captain of a king's ship then in Mount's Bay, but 
 the officer refused to take him, saying 
 
 " I have no authority to take such men as these, unless you 
 would have me give him so much a week to preach and pray 
 to my people." 
 
 Maxfield was then thrown into prison at Penzance, and then 
 delivered over as a soldier. 
 
 A few days after, a Cornish gentleman, Mr. Ustick, came up 
 to Wesley, as he was preaching in the open air, saying 
 
 " Sir, I have a warrant from Dr. Borlase, and you must go 
 with me." 
 
 Mr. Ustick was somewhat perturbed when he found that, 
 instead of a wild hare-brained fanatic, as he had doubtless 
 been led to expect, he had taken into custody apparently a 
 most respectable clergyman. Changing his manner, he asked 
 Wesley with great civility if he were willing to go with him to 
 the Doctor, to which Wesley replied that he would go imme- 
 diately if he pleased. 
 
 " Sir, I must wait upon you to your inn, and in the
 
 ITINERATING. 315 
 
 morning, if you will go with me, I will show you the way," 
 replied Mr. Ustick. 
 
 They accordingly rode there in the morning, but, as the Doctor 
 did not happen to be at home, Mr. Ustick said he had fulfilled 
 his commission, took leave of Wesley, and left him at liberty. 
 
 That same evening, when Wesley was preaching at Gwennap, 
 two gentlemen rode up fiercely, crying out 
 
 " Seize him ! seize him for his Majesty's service ! " 
 
 Finding the order was not obeyed, one of them alighted, 
 caught him by the cassock, and said, " I take you to serve his 
 Majesty." 
 
 Seizing hold of his arm, he walked away with him, talking 
 until he was out of breath of what he called the wickedness of 
 the society. 
 
 At last, taking advantage of a moment's pause, Wesley said, 
 " Sir, be they what they will, I apprehend it will not justify you 
 in seizing me in this manner, and violently carrying me away, 
 as you said, to serve his Majesty." 
 
 Perhaps the dignity of Wesley's remonstrance, or an instant 
 apprehension of the consequences which might result from 
 acting illegally towards a gentleman who seemed to understand 
 the law, caused the other to waver in his purpose, and the 
 colloquy ended by his escorting Wesley back to the place from 
 which he had taken him. 
 
 The next day the house in which Wesley was visiting an 
 invalid lady at Falmouth was beset by a mob, who shrieked, 
 "Bring out the Canorum where is the Canarumf" a nick- 
 name which, for some reason not known now, the Cornish men 
 had given the Methodists. 
 
 The crews of some privateers headed the rabble, and they 
 broke open the outer door and filled the passage. By that 
 time all in the house had escaped but Wesley and a servant 
 girl, who begged him to hide himself. But that was not 
 Wesley's way; instead, as soon as the partition was broken 
 down, he stepped into the midst of them, saying
 
 3 i6 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 " Here I am ! Which of you has anything to say to me ? 
 To which of you have I done any wrong ? To you ? or you ? 
 or you ? " 
 
 Whilst talking thus he made his way, bareheaded, into the 
 street, where he continued speaking until the captain swore no 
 one should touch him, A clergyman and some of the better 
 inhabitants then interfered and took him into a house, and 
 afterwards sent him by water to Penryn. 
 
 Charles, meantime, was in equal or greater danger at Devizes. 
 The rabble there were supplied by two men of consequence in 
 the town with as much ale as they could drink while they plied 
 an engine into the house where Charles Wesley was, and 
 flooded the rooms. The mayor's wife, whose profligate son 
 Charles had been the means of converting, sent a message to 
 Charles beseeching him to disguise himself in woman's clothes, 
 and try to make his escape. But he would not attempt that, 
 though matters were very serious, the only magistrate in the 
 town having refused to act when called upon, and the mob even 
 beginning to untile the house that they might get in through the 
 roof. 
 
 "I remembered the Roman senators," said Charles Wesley, 
 " sitting in the Forum, when the Gauls broke in upon them, 
 but thought there was a fitter posture for Christians, and told 
 my companion they should take us on our knees." 
 
 His friends, however, succeeded at last in making a sort of 
 treaty with a hostile constable, who agreed to take him safely 
 out of town, if he would promise never to preach there again. 
 
 "I shall promise no such thing," said Charles Wesley; 
 " setting aside my office, I will not give up my birthright, as 
 an Englishman, of visiting what place I please in his Majesty's 
 dominions." 
 
 The point was, however, compromised by his saying it was 
 not his present intention to preach, and he was escorted out of 
 Devizes, the mob pursuing after with shouts and execrations. 
 
 One of the churches Wesley was allowed to preach in, in
 
 ITINERATING. 317 
 
 Cornwall, was that of Laneast, of which Mr. Bennet was the 
 aged clergyman. A strange scene happened in that church 
 when Charles Wesley was preaching there in August " against 
 harmless diversions." 
 
 Three clergymen were amongst his auditors Messrs. 
 Meriton, Thomson, and Bennet; and when he cried, "By 
 harmless diversions I was kept asleep in the devil's arms, 
 secure in a state of damnation, for eighteen years 1" Mr. 
 Meriton said aloud 
 
 " And I for twenty-five." 
 
 "And I," exclaimed Mr. Thomson, "for thirty-five." 
 
 "And I," said Mr. Bennet, the venerable incumbent "and 
 I for above seventy." 
 
 During 1 745 Wesley made two journeys to Newcastle and 
 the North of England, riding, as usual, the whole of the way, 
 and much hindered during the first journey, which took place 
 in winter, by the frost and snow. 
 
 Wesley wrote : " Many a rough journey have I had before, 
 but one like this I never had, between wind and hail, and rain 
 and ice, and snow and driving sleet, and piercing cold. But 
 it is past Those days will return no more, and are therefore 
 as though they had never been. 
 
 " ' Pain, disappointment, sickness, strife, 
 Whate'er molests or troubles life, 
 However grievous in its stay, 
 It shakes the tenement of clay, 
 When past, as nothing we esteem ; 
 And pain, like pleasure, is a dream.' " 
 
 The besetting sin of the Newcastle Methodists was quarrel- 
 ling among themselves, and Wesley's first work was to recon- 
 cile wrangling neighbours. On the second Sunday after his 
 arrival a brutal bully, who was accustomed to abuse the 
 Orphan House family and throw stones at them, assaulted 
 Wesley, pushing him and cursing. The next day Wesley sent 
 him the following note :
 
 3 i8 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 "ROBERT YOUNG, I expect to see you between this 
 and Friday, and to hear from you that you are sensible 
 of your fault ; otherwise, in pity to your soul, I shall be 
 obliged to inform the magistrates of your assaulting me in the 
 street. 
 
 " I am, your real friend, 
 
 "JOHN WESLEY." 
 
 Robert Young immediately came and begged Wesley's 
 pardon, promising to amend his ways. 
 
 The Orphan House was at once a place of worship, a school 
 for orphans, a refuge for the injured and oppressed, the 
 northern home of Wesley, and the theological institution of 
 his young preachers. Here he gave them instruction, and 
 here he himself studied. Here, too, for a time during his 
 stay in 1745, he was visited by a Popish priest, who came to 
 inquire what the Methodist views really were. 
 
 The Popish priest, by name John Adam, seems to have 
 been much impressed by Wesley's preaching, and by all he 
 saw of his single-hearted, devoted life, for presently he carried 
 him off to preach at his own house in Osmotherley, a village 
 with about a thousand inhabitants, sixty miles south of New- 
 castle. The priest and Wesley arrived there one evening, 
 after a long ride over hill and dale. It was spring-time, and 
 consequently the darkness of night had come on, and most of 
 the villagers had retired to rest. But the indefatigable priest 
 and his friends went round from house to house, arousing the 
 people, and succeeded in about an hour in collecting a con- 
 gregation in the chapel which formerly belonged to the Fran- 
 ciscan Friars. Wesley preached to them, and after midnight 
 went to bed, feeling, he said, "no weariness at all" As early 
 as five in the morning he preached again on Romans iii. 22. 
 "A sermon," says Tyerman, "in a Popish chapel, on the 
 great anti-Popish doctrine of justification by faith alone, part 
 of the congregation having sat up all night for fear they should 
 not awake in sufficient time to hear him." Many of them
 
 THE ORPHAN HOUSE, NEWCASTLR-ON-TYNB.
 
 320 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 either were or had been Papists, and one was a Quakeress, 
 who, after the sermon, thus addressed Wesley : 
 
 " Dost thou think water baptism an ordinance of Christ ? " 
 
 "What saith Peter?" replied Wesley, quoting, "'Who can 
 forbid water, that these should not be baptised, who have 
 received the Holy Ghost even as we ? ' " 
 
 After he had said a few words more she cried out, "'Tis 
 right! 'tis right! I will be baptised." 
 
 She was baptised, we are told, that very hour. 
 
 Writing to his brother of this visit to Osmotherley, Wesley 
 says " I preached in a large chapel, which belonged, a few 
 years since, to a convent of Franciscan friars. I found I was 
 got into the very centre of all the Papists in the North of 
 England. ' Commessatorem haud satis commodum? This also 
 hath God wrought." 
 
 A society was formed soon after, and in a few years a 
 chapel was built. Osmotherley, in fact, became one of 
 Wesley's favourite haunts ; though it was seven miles from 
 the direct road between London and Newcastle, and a place 
 difficult to reach, he paid it sixteen visits ; and the priest's 
 house was on some occasions Wesley's home. When the 
 latter visited him in 1776 he found him "just quivering 
 over the grave;" and, on his visit a year later, he writes "I 
 found my old friend was just dead, after living a recluse life 
 nearly fifty years. From one that attended him I learned that 
 the sting of death was gone, and he calmly delivered up his 
 soul to God." 
 
 At Osmotherley Wesley saw the remains of the Carthusian 
 monastery, and wrote "Who knows but some of the poor 
 superstitious monks, who once served God here according to 
 the light they had, may meet us by-and-by, in that house of 
 God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens ? " 
 
 After his first visit to Osmotherley Wesley visited several 
 Yorkshire towns, stayed a month in London putting many 
 things right, which, as usual in his absence, had gone wrong,
 
 ITINERATING. 321 
 
 and then proceeded to Cornwall, where he spent five weeks, 
 returning to London on August i6th. 
 
 The nation was now in great excitement, owing to the 
 Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart, having embarked from 
 Brittany, with fifty of his Scotch and Irish adherents, and 
 set up his standard in Scotland. Wesley, "hearing of more 
 and more commotions in the North," hurried back to New- 
 castle, which he reached on September the iSth. 
 
 News had just arrived that the Pretender had reached 
 Edinburgh, and the people of Newcastle were in great con- 
 sternation. Wesley immediately began preaching to them 
 from the text "Who can tell, if God will return, and 
 repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish 
 not?" 
 
 The Mayor of Newcastle summoned all the householders 
 to meet him in the Town Hall to sign an agreement, to the 
 effect that they would risk their goods and lives in defend- 
 ing the town against the common enemy. Wesley was not 
 present, so he wrote to the Mayor to explain that his absence 
 was not due to any disaffection to his Majesty King George. 
 "But I knew not," he said, "how far it might be either 
 necessary or proper for me to appear on such an occasion. 
 I have no fortune at Newcastle; I have only the bread I 
 eat, and the use of a little room for a few weeks in the 
 year. 
 
 "All I can do for his Majesty, whom I honour and love, 
 I think not less than my own father, is this : I cry unto 
 God, day by day, in public and in private, to put all his 
 enemies to confusion; and I exhort all that hear me to do 
 the same; and, in their several stations, to exert themselves 
 as loyal subjects, who so long as they fear God cannot but 
 honour the king." 
 
 Wesley ended his letter with an appeal to the Mayor's piety. 
 " I am persuaded you fear God, and have a deep sense that 
 His kingdom ruleth over all. . . . Oh, sir, is it not possible to 
 
 21
 
 3 aa JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 give any check to these overflowings of ungodliness ? to the 
 open, flagrant wickedness, the drunkenness and profaneness 
 which so abound, even in our streets ? I just take leave to 
 suggest this. May the God whom you serve direct you in this 
 and in all things ! " 
 
 The next day the news arrived of General Cope's disastrous 
 defeat at Prestonpans. Newcastle was seized with panic. 
 Many of the rich people fled, carrying off their most precious 
 possessions. The poor people, too, were busy removing their 
 goods, and, in the midst of the confusion, Wesley preached 
 " on the wisdom of God in governing the world." 
 
 And this sort of thing continued ; in the midst of terrible 
 alarms Wesley preached on and visited societies in the 
 country round about When the danger seemed over for 
 the present, he made another preaching tour, going as far 
 as Epworth, where he had the pleasure at last of hearing 
 Mr. Romley preach " an earnest, affectionate sermon," while 
 he himself exhorted the society " to fear God and honour the 
 king." 
 
 Within a week after his return to Newcastle, Field-marshal 
 Wade and Prince Maurice of Nassau arrived with about nine 
 thousand Dutch and English soldiers, which, when added to 
 the other troops now there, made about fifteen thousand men, 
 all encamped upon Newcastle Moor. No wonder that, in the 
 state of morals at that time, wickedness abounded. 
 
 Wesley again wrote to the Mayor : 
 
 "My soul has been pained day by day, even in walking the 
 streets of Newcastle, at the senseless, shameless wickedness, 
 the ignorant profaneness of the poor men to whom our lives 
 are entrusted. The continual cursing and swearing, the 
 wanton blasphemy of the soldiers in general. ... Is there 
 no man that careth for these souls ? Doubtless there are some 
 who ought to do so. But many of these, if I am rightly 
 informed, receive large pay, and do just nothing. I would to 
 God it were in my power to supply their lack of service." He
 
 JOHN WESLEY'S STUDY IN THE ORPHAN HOUSE, NEWCASTLR-ON-1
 
 3*4 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 then offered to preach to them once or twice a day (whilst in 
 those parts), at any hour or in any place, and for no pay, 
 " unless what my Lord shall give me at His appearing." 
 
 Then, anticipating that objections might be made to his 
 doing this, lest the emotions he might excite would unnerve 
 the men for their duty, he adds 
 
 "If it be objected 'this conscience will make cowards of 
 us all,' I answer, let us judge by the matter of fact Let either 
 friends or enemies speak. Did those who feared God behave 
 as cowards at Fontenoy? Did John Haime, the dragoon, 
 betray any cowardice before or after his horse sunk under 
 him ? Or did William Clements, when he received the first 
 ball in his left, and the second in his right arm ? Or John 
 Evans, when the cannon-ball took off both his legs ? Did he 
 not call all about him, as long as he could speak, to praise and 
 fear God, and honour the king ? as one who feared nothing, 
 but lest his last breath should be spent in vain." 
 
 The Mayor sent a message that he would communicate 
 Wesley's proposal to the general. We are not told whether the 
 general consented, but only that, five days after, Wesley was in 
 the midst of the huge encampment preaching from, " Ho, 
 every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ! " 
 
 " None," says he, " attempted to make the least disturbance 
 from the beginning to the end. Yet I could not reach their 
 hearts. The words of a scholar did not affect them, like those 
 of a dragoon or a grenadier." 
 
 The next day he preached to the troops again, and then a 
 lieutenant endeavoured to raise a disturbance, but, repenting, 
 told the soldiers at the end of the sermon that all that had 
 been said was very good. 
 
 The day after, Wesley's text was, " The Scripture hath con- 
 cluded all under sin, that the promise might be given to them 
 that believe ; " and he now began to see some fruit of his 
 labour. On the Sunday, when he preached again in the 
 camp, a multitude of people flocked together, equestrians and
 
 ITINERATING. 335 
 
 pedestrians, rich and poor, to whom he declared, " There is 
 no difference j for all have sinned, and come short of the glory 
 of God." 
 
 He afterwards addressed some Germans in their own 
 language. This terminated his labours in the camp.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 WESLEY'S .IDEA OF A PRESBYTER. 
 
 FROM Newcastle, in the early part of 1745, Wesley wrote to a 
 friend as follows : 
 
 " Many persons still representing the Methodists as enemies 
 to the clergy, I wrote to a friend the real state of the case, in 
 as plain a manner as I could. 
 
 " i. About seven years since we began preaching inward^ 
 present salvation, as attainable by faith alone. 
 
 "2. For preaching this doctrine we were forbidden to preach 
 in the churches. 
 
 "3. We then preached in private houses, as occasion 
 offered ; and when the houses could not contain the people, 
 in the open air. 
 
 " 4. For this many of the clergy preached or printed against 
 us, as both heretics and schismatics. 
 
 "5. Persons who were convinced of sin begged us to advise 
 them more particularly how to flee from the wrath to come. 
 We replied, If they would all come at one time (for they were 
 numerous), we would endeavour it. 
 
 "6. For this we were represented both from the pulpit and 
 the press (we have heard it with our ears, and seen it with our 
 eyes) as introducing Popery, raising sedition, practising both 
 against Church and State ; and all manner of evil was publicly 
 said against us, and those who were accustomed to meet 
 with us. 
 
 " 7. Finding some truth herein viz., That some of those 
 who so met walked disorderly, we immediately desired them 
 not to come to us any more.
 
 WESLEY'S IDEA OF A PRESBYTER. 327 
 
 " 8. And the more steady were desired to overlook the rest, 
 that we might know if they walked according to the Gospel 
 
 "9. But now several of the bishops began to speak against 
 us, either in conversation or in public. 
 
 " 10. On this encouragement, several of the clergy stirred 
 up the people to treat us as outlaws or mad dogs. 
 
 " 1 1. The people did so, both in Staffordshire, Cornwall, 
 and many other places. 
 
 " 12. And they do so still, wherever they are not restrained 
 by their fear of the secular magistrate. 
 
 " Thus the case stands at present. Now, what can we do, 
 or what can your brethren do, toward healing this breach, 
 which is highly desirable, that we may withstand with joint 
 force the still increasing flood of Popery, Deism, and im- 
 morality ? 
 
 " Desire of us anything we can do with a safe conscience, 
 and we will do it immediately. Will you meet us here? Will 
 you do what we desire of you, so far as you can with a safe 
 conscience ? 
 
 "Let us come to particulars. Do you desire us (i) To 
 preach another, or to desist from preaching this doctrine ? 
 
 "We think you do not desire it, as knowing we cannot do 
 this with a safe conscience. 
 
 " Do you desire us (2) To desist from preaching in private 
 houses, or in the open air ? 
 
 " As things are now circumstanced, this would be the same 
 as desiring us not to preach at all. 
 
 " Do you desire us (3) To desist from advising those who 
 now meet together for that purpose ; or, in other words, to 
 dissolve our societies ? 
 
 " We cannot do this with a safe conscience ; for we appre- 
 hend many souls would be lost thereby, and that God would 
 require their blood at our hands. 
 
 " Do you desire us (4) To advise them only one by one ? 
 
 "This is impossible, because of their number.
 
 328 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 " Do you desire us (5) To suffer those who walk disorderly 
 still to mix with the rest ? 
 
 " Neither can we do this with a safe conscience; 'because 
 evil communications corrupt good manners.' 
 
 " Do you desire us (6) To discharge those leaders of bends 
 or classes (as we term them) who overlook the rest ? 
 
 " This is, in effect, to suffer the disorderly walkers still to 
 mix with the rest, which we dare not do. 
 
 " Do you desire us (lastly) To behave with reverence toward 
 those who are overseers of the Church of God, and with 
 tenderness both to the character and persons of our brethren 
 the inferior clergy. 
 
 " By the grace of God, we can and will do this. Yea, our 
 conscience beareth us witness that we have already laboured so 
 to do, and that at all times and in all places. 
 
 " If you ask what we desire of you to do, we answer 
 
 " i. We do not desire any one of you to let us preach in 
 your cLarch, either if you believe us to preach false doctrine, 
 or if you have upon any other ground the least scruple of 
 conscience concerning it. But we desire any one who believes 
 us to preach true doctrine, and has no scruple at all in this 
 matter, may not be either publicly or privately discouraged 
 from inviting us to preach in his church. 
 
 "2. We do not desire that any one who thinks we are 
 heretics or schismatics, and that it is his duty to preach or 
 print against us as such, should refrain therefrom, so long as he 
 thinks it his duty (although in this case the breach can never 
 be healed). 
 
 " But we desire that none will pass such a sentence till he has 
 calmly considered both sides of the question ; that he would 
 not condemn us unheard, but first read what we have written, 
 and pray earnestly that God may direct him in the right way. 
 
 " 3. We do not desire any favour, if either Popery, sedition, 
 or immorality be proved against us. 
 
 " But we desire you will not credit without proof any of
 
 WESLEY'S IDEA OF A PRESBYTER. 329 
 
 those senseless tales that pass current with the vulgar ; that if 
 you do not credit them yourselves, you will not relate them to 
 others (which we have known done) ; yea, that you will confute 
 them as far as ye have opportunity, and discountenance those 
 who still retail them abroad. 
 
 " We do not desire any preferment, favour, or recommenda- 
 tion from those that are in authority, either in Church or State. 
 But we desire 
 
 " i. That if anything material be laid to our charge, we may 
 be permitted to answer for ourselves. 2. That you would 
 hinder your dependents from stirring up the rabble against us, 
 who are certainly not the judges of these matters. And 3. 
 That you would effectually suppress and thoroughly discoun- 
 tenance all riots and popular insurrections, which evidently 
 strike at the foundation of all government, whether of Church 
 or State. 
 
 " Now these things you certainly can do, and that with a 
 safe conscience. Therefore, till these things are done, the 
 continuance of the breach is chargeable on you, and you 
 only." 
 
 This is a characteristically clear statement, and we see how 
 reasonable, from Wesley's point of view, was every step he 
 had hitherto taken. 
 
 In August the second Wesleyan Conference was held. 
 Besides the two Wesleys, there was only one clergyman, Mr. 
 Hodges, present ; but there were six travelling preachers, and 
 one gentleman who was not a preacher, but who was after- 
 wards the father-in-law of Charles Wesley. 
 
 After discussing the doctrines of Justification and Assurance, 
 the Conference debated points of Church government. The 
 question was asked, "Is Episcopal, Presbyterian, or Inde- 
 pendent Church government most agreeable to reason ? " 
 And the answer was in substance the following 
 
 "The plain origin of Church government seems to be 
 this : Christ sends forth a person to preach the Gospel ;
 
 330 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 some of those who hear him repent and believe in Christ ; 
 they then desire him to watch over them, to build them 
 up in faith, and to guide their souls into paths of righteous- 
 ness. Here then is an independent congregation, subject to 
 no pastor but their own; neither liable to be controlled, in 
 things spiritual, by any other man or body of men whatsoever. 
 But, soon after, some from other parts, who were occasionally 
 present whilst he was speaking in the name of the Lord, 
 beseech him to come over and help them also. He com- 
 plies, yet not till he confers with the wisest and holiest of 
 his congregation, and with their consent appoints one who 
 has gifts and grace to watch over these souls also. In like 
 manner, in every place where it pleases God to gather a little 
 flock by his word, he appoints one in his absence to take the 
 oversight of the rest, to assist them as of the ability which God 
 giveth. 
 
 "These are deacons, or servants of the Church, and they 
 look upon their first pastor as the common father of all their 
 congregations, and regard him in the same light and esteem 
 him still as the Shepherd of their souls. These congregations 
 are not strictly independent, as they depend upon one pastor, 
 though not upon each other. 
 
 " As these congregations increase, and the deacons grow 
 in years and grace, they need other subordinate deacons, or 
 helpers, in respect of whom they may be called presbyters, or 
 elders, as their father in the Lord may be called the bishop, or 
 overseer, of them all" 
 
 Wesley's mind was becoming more and more exercised 
 about this matter of Church government, and we cannot be 
 surprised when we reflect that, deeply attached as he was to 
 the Church of England, it was daily becoming more difficult 
 for him to work with her. Harshly had her priests excluded 
 him from the majority of her pulpits ; and we have seen how 
 impossible he felt it to leave the souls he had awakened to 
 their need of a Saviour, and in whom the New Life, or, it may
 
 WESLEY'S IDEA OF A PRESBYTER. 331 
 
 be, the long-buried Divine Spark of Life, was beginning to stir 
 and grow, to the teaching of men who, in their heart of hearts, 
 cared for none of these things. Hence the societies, with 
 their class-meetings and class-leaders; hence, too, the lay- 
 preachers, because so few ordained clergymen could and would 
 assist in the work. And then Wesley had taught the Metho- 
 dists so carefully to partake of the Holy Communion regularly, 
 and to go to church for that purpose to receive it from the 
 hands of the clergymen ; and oh ! the pity of it ! in some 
 parishes the clergy refused to give it to the people called 
 Methodists. We have seen that at Epworth Wesley himself 
 had been repelled from the Holy Table. He and the few 
 ordained clergy who joined with him administered the Lord's 
 Supper to the Methodists ; but what would happen when they 
 passed away ? Were their people still to be deprived of that 
 blessed sacrament ? Or was it possible that, even when the 
 bishops refused to ordain the Methodist preachers, they still 
 might be ordained by some other means ? Wesley believed 
 that would not be right, and he fought against the idea. To 
 one who wrote urging the two Wesleys to secede from the 
 Church of England, he wrote at the end of 1745 
 
 "We believe it would not be right for us to administer 
 either Baptism or the Lord's Supper, unless we had a commis- 
 sion so to do from those bishops whom we apprehend to be 
 in a succession from the Apostles. 
 
 "We believe there is, and always was, in every Christian 
 Church (whether dependent on the Bishop of Rome or not) 
 an outward priesthood ordained by Christ, and an outward 
 sacrifice offered therein by men authorised to act as ambassa- 
 dors of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 
 
 " We believe that the threefold order of ministers is not only 
 authorised by its apostolical institution, but also by the written 
 word." 
 
 Now it happened that as Wesley was proceeding to Bristol 
 in the beginning of the next year (1746), the book which
 
 33* JOHN WESLEY 
 
 engaged his attention for, as we know, it was his custom to 
 read as he rode was a book written by Lord King, 1 then a 
 rigid Dissenter, and a nephew of the celebrated Locke. The 
 book was published by King when he was only twenty-two, and 
 was entitled, " An Enquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, 
 Unity, and Worship of the Primitive Church, that flourished 
 three hundred years after Christ ; faithfully collected out of the 
 extant writings of those ages." 
 
 Wesley was much influenced by this book ; and, after reading 
 it, he wrote: "In spite of the vehement prejudice of my 
 education, I was ready to believe that this was a fair and 
 impartial draught ; but if so, it would follow that bishops and 
 presbyters are essentially of one order, and that originally 
 every Christian congregation was a Church independent of all 
 others." 
 
 "Thus," says Tyerman, "notwithstanding his strong affec- 
 tion for the Church of England, we find Wesley, almost at 
 the commencement of his Methodist career, entertaining 
 doubts respecting its ecclesiastical polity. The recorded 
 decisions of the Conference of 1745 plainly show that he 
 regarded his preachers as deacons and presbyters, and thought 
 himself a Scriptural Bishop. Lord King's researches served to 
 confirm these sentiments. In the minutes of the Conference 
 held a year after this (1747), we find the following questions 
 and answers : 
 
 "' Q. Does a Church in the New Testament always mean a 
 single congregation ? 
 
 " 'A. We believe it does. We do not recollect any instance 
 to the contrary. 
 
 " * Q. What instance or ground is there then in the New 
 Testament for a national Church ? 
 
 " 1 A. We know none at all. We apprehend it to be a 
 merely political institution. 
 
 1 He rose to be Lord High Chancellor of England. He afterwards 
 changed his views, and became a member of the Church of England.
 
 WESLEY* >S IDEA OF A PRESBYTER. 333 
 
 " ' Q. Are the three orders of bishops, priests, and deacons, 
 plainly described in the New Testament ? 
 
 " ' A. We think they are ; and believe they generally obtained 
 in the Church of the Apostolic age. 
 
 " * Q. But are you assured that God designed the same plan 
 should obtain in all Churches, throughout all ages ? 
 
 "'A. We are not assured of this, because we do not know 
 that it is asserted in Holy Writ 
 
 " ' Q. If this plan were essential to a Christian Church, what 
 must become of all the foreign reformed Churches ? 
 
 " ' A. It would follow that they are no parts of the Church 
 of Christ ! A consequence full of shocking absurdity. 
 
 " * Q. In what age was the Divine right of episcopacy first 
 asserted in England ? 
 
 " ' A. About the middle of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Till 
 then, all the bishops and clergy in England continually allowed 
 and joined the ministrations of those who were not episcopally 
 ordained; 
 
 "'Q. Must there not be numberless accidental varieties in 
 the government of various Churches ? 
 
 " 'A. There must in the nature of things. For, as God 
 variously dispenses His gifts of nature, providence, and grace, 
 both the offices themselves and the officers in each ought to 
 be varied from time to time. 
 
 " ' Q. Why is it that there is no determinate plan of Church 
 government appointed in Scripture ? 
 
 " ' A. Without doubt because the wisdom of God had a 
 regard to this necessary variety. 
 
 " ' Q. Was there any thought of uniformity in the govern- 
 ment of all Churches, until the time of Constantine ? 
 
 " ' A. It is certain there was not ; and would not have been 
 then, had men consulted the Word of God only.' " 
 
 From this extract it would seem that either Lord King's book, 
 or his own wishes, had caused Wesley's views respecting 
 ecclesiastical polity to be considerably changed. He still loved
 
 334 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 the Church of England, and ah ! how much he must have 
 longed for her to be reformed ; to be, in fact, what she has since 
 become 1 but he had begun to think that he, as a presbyter, 
 was in fact a certain sort of bishop, and that therefore he might 
 employ and set apart preachers, and thus give them a sacred 
 office. Mr. Watson properly observes : " It has been generally 
 supposed that Mr. Wesley did not consider his appointment of 
 preachers an ordination to the ministry j but only as an 
 irregular employment of laymen in the spiritual office of merely 
 expounding the Scriptures in a case of moral necessity. This 
 is not correct. They were not appointed to expound or preach 
 merely, but were solemnly set apart to the pastoral office ; nor 
 were they regarded by him as laymen, except when in common 
 parlance they were distinguished from the clergy of the 
 Church. 
 
 "His usual mode of setting apart or ordaining to the 
 ministry consisted of a most rigid examination of the 
 ministerial candidate on the three points Has he grace? 
 has he gifts ? has he fruit ? preceded by fasting and prayer ; 
 and followed by official and authoritative appointment to 
 ministerial work. For the present, the form of laying-on of 
 hands was not employed; but it was thought of, and was 
 discussed. Hence the following extract from the minutes of 
 the Conference held in 1746 : 
 
 " ' Q. Why do we not use more form and solemnity in 
 receiving a new labourer ? 
 
 "'A. We purposely decline it (i) Because there is some- 
 thing of stateliness in it (2) Because we would not make 
 haste. We desire barely to follow Providence, as it gradually 
 opens.' " 
 
 Thus we see that although Wesley might try to persuade 
 himself and others that he was in a certain sense a bishop, and 
 therefore able to ordain men to the sacred ministry, he yet 
 knew then, when his mind was in its full vigour, that he had 
 no right to " lay his hands " upon any man, and he knew also
 
 WESLEY'S IDEA OF A PRESBYTER. 335 
 
 the preachers he sent out had no right to administer the blessed 
 Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 Afterwards, it is true, many, many years afterwards, when 
 fears for the bereaved condition of the Methodists, when he 
 should be gone, doubtless overpowered the wonderful mental 
 powers which had outlasted so many of his compeers', Wesley 
 thought and acted differently; but of that more anon.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 FURTHER LABOURS. 
 
 THROUGHOUT the course of his long life, Wesley was con- 
 tinually writing, revising, and publishing a stream of penny 
 tracts, and larger pamphlets and books, that attained to an 
 enormous circulation, which, he says in one place, unawares 
 made him rich ; though, as we have seen, he could not remain 
 so, the wants of others always appealing more highly to his 
 purse-strings than his own. It was considered obligatory on 
 his travelling preachers to extend as far as they were able the 
 circulation of their leader's books. By this means the ideas 
 which Wesley wanted to instil into the minds of the Methodist 
 people were largely propagated. But the writing of many of 
 these books, and the careful editing of others, must have cost 
 him a great amount of labour. The feeling that his time was 
 not his own, but belonged to his Master, was very strong upon 
 him, and we find him utilising every spare moment ; at one 
 place, for instance, writing a tract to meet a special need while 
 his clothes were drying at the fire, after a journey through rain 
 and storm. Some of the books he selected and published or 
 republished were very beautiful, and contained true Church 
 teaching. Perhaps some of those who call themselves by his 
 name would be startled at much of the doctrine therein con- 
 tained. As, for instance, in the following extract from Brevint, 
 which by publishing he made his own : 
 
 " The Lord's Supper was chiefly ordained for a Sacrament 
 i. To represent the sufferings of Christ which are fast, whereof 
 it is a memorial, 2. T convey the first fruits of these sufferings,
 
 WESLEY S LIBRARY. 
 
 22
 
 338 JOHN WESLE Y. 
 
 in present graces, whereof it is a means. 3. To assure us of 
 glory to come, whereof it is an infallible pledge. 
 
 " The sacrifice, which by a real oblation was not to be offered 
 more than once, is, by a devout and thankful commemoration, 
 to be offered up every day. The sacrifice in itself can never 
 be repeated. Nevertheless, this Sacrament, by our remem- 
 brance, becomes a kind of sacrifice, whereby we present before 
 God the Father that precious oblation of His Son once offered. 
 To men, the Holy Communion is a sacred table, where God's 
 minister is ordered to represent, from God his Master, the 
 passion of His dear Son, as still fresh and still powerful for 
 their eternal salvation. And to God it is an altar, whereon 
 men mystically present to Him the same sacrifice, as still 
 bleeding and suing for mercy." 
 
 Wesley left hymn-writing mostly to his gifted brother ; but 
 occasionally he tried his hand at it also. The following quaint 
 hymn, so " strikingly descriptive of his own lot and experi- 
 ence," when he had transferred his chapels to trustees, and 
 had no wife nor child, is believed to be his : 
 
 ' ' I have no babes to hold me here ; 
 But children more securely dear 
 
 For mine I humbly claim ; 
 Better than daughters or than sons, 
 Temples of living stones, 
 Inscribed with Jesu's name. 
 
 No foot of ground do I possess, 
 No cottage in this wilderness ; 
 
 A poor, wayfaring man, 
 I lodge awhile in tents below ; 
 Or gladly wander to and fro, 
 
 Till I my Canaan gain. 
 
 I have no sharer of my heart, 
 
 To rob my Saviour of a part, 
 
 And desecrate the whole ; a 
 
 1 A pitiable mistake.
 
 FURTHER LABOURS. 339 
 
 Only betrothed to Christ am I, 
 And wait His coming from the sky, 
 To wed my happy soul. 
 
 Nothing on earth I call my own, 
 A stranger to the world unknown, 
 
 I all their goods despise ; 
 I trample on their own delight, 
 And seek a country out of sight, 
 
 A country in the skies." 
 
 In November (1746), Wesley for the first time published a 
 volume of sermons. The book, entitled Sermons on Several 
 Occasions, is the first of the four volumes of sermons which, 
 with the Notes on the New Testament, were afterwards consti- 
 tuted the perpetual standard of Methodist theology. In the 
 preface Wesley speaks of his mode of preparing his sermons ; 
 it is very beautiful 
 
 " I sit down alone ; only God is here. In His presence I 
 read His book ; for this end, to find the way to Heaven. Is 
 there a doubt concerning the meaning of what I read ? I lift 
 up my heart to the Father of Lights, and ask Him to let me 
 know His will. I then search after and consider parallel 
 passages of Scripture. I meditate thereon with all the atten- 
 tion and earnestness of which my mind is capable. If any 
 doubt still remains, I consult those who are experienced in 
 the things of God, and then the writings whereby, being dead, 
 they yet speak. And what I thus learn, that I teach." 
 
 Amongst other things, Wesley wrote a book of Lessons for 
 Children, and in the preface for that he says : 
 
 " Beware of that common but accursed way of making 
 children parrots, instead of Christians. Regard not how much, 
 but to how good purpose they read. Turn each sentence 
 every way, propose it in every light, and question them con- 
 tinually on every point." 
 
 This is very good, and Wesley knew better how to teach 
 children than how to train them, which was not surprising, as
 
 34 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 he had none of his own, but was used to teaching the un 
 educated, who are truly " children of a larger growth." 
 
 In 1 748 Wesley opened his new school at Kingswood ; the 
 other school, for the children of the miners, was not abolished, 
 but still went on as a separate institution ; but the new school 
 was for children of a different class the sons of travelling 
 preachers (who had very little time to look after their families) 
 and of those pious Methodists who wished them to receive a 
 distinctly religious training. But, to our mind, several mis- 
 takes were made ; one was in the stringent rule that no child 
 was to be taken from the school by its parents, " no, not for 
 a day, till they take him for good and all." The poor boys 
 were thus completely sundered from their homes, and admitted 
 into a system which was highly calculated to make them 
 unreal and hypocritical. True, the boys went to bed at eight, 
 but they were compelled to rise at four all the year round, and 
 "spend the time till five in private reading, singing, meditat- 
 ing, and praying." When we add to this that every child, if 
 healthy, was made to fast every Friday till three o'clock, it 
 can easily be understood that religion thus enforced tended 
 to disgust the poor children. Moreover, they were allowed 
 to have no holidays, and no time allowed on any day for play, 
 as Wesley thought, " he who plays when a child will play as a 
 man ; " and he forgot the sensible adage about " all work and 
 no play." 
 
 Was it any wonder that Wesley often found the boys were 
 either removed by their parents or had to be dismissed as 
 incorrigible ? No doubt, if he had had children of his own, 
 his school regulations would have been very different 
 
 Other institutions demanded much time and thought. As 
 he had studied medicine during his Oxford career, he estab- 
 lished a sort of medical dispensary in London, Bristol, and 
 Newcastle, at a time when there was nothing of the sort ; and 
 he seems to have had no hesitation about prescribing himself 
 for individuals. But we must remember that in those days
 
 FURTHER LABOURS. 341 
 
 clergymen were often the medical advisers of their parishioners. 
 Then, Wesley established a loan society, whereby poor and 
 deserving Methodists might be assisted in times of need ; and 
 he took much thought and trouble about the education of his 
 preachers. Most of these were ignorant, unlettered men, who 
 had grasped the first principles of religion, and were of 
 immense use in bringing them home to the hearts of the 
 poor and ignorant, and, for a time, they knew as much as 
 was required, but by-and-by it was evident that those who 
 were converted by their preaching needed more teaching than 
 they could bestow. Wesley perceived that his preachers must 
 be trained to read and think, and he began to instruct some 
 of them himself at the useful Newcastle Orphan-house. We 
 find him corresponding with the eminent Dr. Doddridge about 
 the choice of books for these students; and in his Journal 
 he writes at Newcastle : 
 
 " March 4. This week I read over, with some young men, 
 a compendium of rhetoric, and a system of ethics. I see not 
 why a man of tolerable understanding may not learn in six 
 months more of solid philosophy than is commonly learned at 
 Oxford in four (perhaps seven) years." 
 
 In the early part of 1749 John went to Wales to marry his 
 brother Charles and Sarah Gwynne, the daughter of a Welsh 
 gentleman. The bride was only twenty-three, whilst the 
 bridegroom was forty; but the marriage was a very happy 
 one in spite of this disparity of age. 
 
 Two days after the marriage Wesley set out for Ireland, and 
 arrived on Sunday morning, April i6th, and on the same day 
 preached three times to the Dublin Methodists. 1 He spent a 
 fortnight there, and then started to the provincial societies. 
 At Edinberry he had " an exceedingly well-behaved congrega- 
 tion," including "many Quakers," and took the appropriate 
 text, " They shall be all taught of God." At Athlone a few of 
 the officers and several of the soldiers of the regiment to which 
 1 The members numbered 449.
 
 342 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 Nelson had been attached were among his audience. Several 
 sinners were converted, including a man who, for many years, 
 had been "eminent for cursing, swearing, drinking, and all 
 kinds of fashionable wickedness." 
 
 At Limerick Wesley preached to a very mixed congregation 
 of about two thousand, " not one of whom either laughed, or 
 looked about, or minded anything except the sermon." Here 
 the society had taken a lease of an old abbey, and had 
 turned it into a Methodist meeting-house. Wesley met a 
 class of soldiers, eight of whom were Scotch Highlanders. 
 "Most of these," he wrote in his Journal, "were brought 
 up well; but evil communications had corrupted good 
 manners. They all said from the time they entered into 
 the army they had grown worse and worse. But God had 
 now given them another call, and they knew the day of their 
 visitation." 
 
 And a little later, " The more I converse with this people, 
 the more I am amazed. That God hath wrought a great work 
 among them is manifest; and yet the main of them, believers 
 and unbelievers, are not able to give a rational account of the 
 plainest principles of religion. It is plain God begins his work 
 at the heart ; then the inspiration of the Highest giveth under- 
 standing." 
 
 When returning by boat from Newtown to Limerick, a day 
 or two after, Wesley had a narrow escape. 
 
 "After dinner," he wrote, " we took boat, in order to return. 
 The wind was extremely high. We endeavoured to cross over 
 to the leeward side of the river ; but it was not possible. The 
 boat being small and overloaded, was soon deep in water ; the 
 more so because it leaked much, and the waves dashed over 
 us frequently. And there was no staying to empty it, all our 
 men being obliged to row with all their strength. After they 
 had toiled about an hour, the boat struck a rock, the point of 
 which lay just under the water. It had four or five shocks, 
 the wind driving us on, before we could get clear. But our
 
 344 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 men wrought for life, and about six o'clock God brought us 
 safe to Limerick." 
 
 After preaching at Mardyke, Wesley set out for Cork. 
 His account of what happened on the way is interesting : 
 
 "We breakfasted at Brough, nine miles from Limerick. 
 When I went into the kitchen, first one or two, then more and 
 more, of the neighbours gathered about me, listening to every 
 word. I should soon have had a congregation, but I had no 
 time to stay. 
 
 "A mile or two beyond Kilmallock (once a large and 
 strong city, now a heap of ruins) we saw the body of a man 
 lying dead in the highway, and many people standing and 
 looking upon it I stopped and spoke a few words; all 
 listened attentively, and one who was on horseback rode on 
 with us. We quickly fell into discourse ; I soon perceived he 
 was a priest, and found he was a sensible man. I gave him 
 a book or two at parting, and he dismissed me with 'God 
 bless you,' earnestly repeated twice or thrice. 
 
 " We stopped a while at Kildorrery in the afternoon, and 
 took the opportunity of speaking closely to every one that 
 understood English, and of giving them a few books. What a 
 nation is this ! every man, woman, and child (except a few of 
 the great vulgar) not only patiently but gladly suffer the word 
 of exhortation. 
 
 " Between six and seven we reached Rathearmuck. Mr. 
 Lloyd read prayers and I preached. Even the Papists 
 ventured to come to church for once, and were a very serious 
 part of the congregation." 
 
 The next day Wesley preached at eleven, " and the hearts 
 of the people seemed to be as melting wax." 
 
 "Our congregation in the evening was larger than ever," 
 Wesley continues ; " and never, since I came into this kingdom, 
 was my soul so refreshed as it was both in praying for them, 
 and in calling upon them to accept the redemption that is in 
 Jesus."
 
 FURTHER LABOURS. 345 
 
 Just as they were coming out of church a gentleman from 
 Cork came up to Wesley and told him that it was impossible 
 for him to preach there in that city, because of the riots that 
 were taking place there. Wesley, however, went on, and he 
 had no sooner entered Cork than " the streets and doors and 
 windows were full of people." Prudently, instead of waiting 
 until the mob had time to gather, Wesley rode on to Bandon, 
 a town entirely inhabited by Protestants, where he had 
 by far the largest congregation he had yet seen in Ireland. 
 Rumours detrimental to the characters of the Wesleys and 
 of the Methodists had penetrated there, and Wesley had an 
 opportunity of refuting them. 
 
 After visiting Blarney and Brough, the indefatigable preacher 
 returned to Limerick. 
 
 " Four comfortable days," says he, "I spent with this lively 
 people, the like to whom I had not found in all the 
 kingdom." 
 
 When he left there to go to Nenagh, " for want of better 
 accommodation," he was glad to ride on horseback behind 
 "an honest man" who overtook him as he trudged on foot. 
 At Gloster he preached in the "stately saloon" of a large 
 house. At Ferbane he found two inns did not care to 
 entertain heretics ; however, he tried a third, and was admitted, 
 no questions being asked. At Athlone, towards the end of 
 his sermon in the new chapel, he cried out, " Which of you 
 will give yourself soul and body to God ? " 
 
 Whereupon a Mrs. Glass responded with a cry that almost 
 shook the house, " I will, I will." Two others followed her 
 example, and the scene became most exciting. Many began 
 to cry aloud for mercy. " But we continued wrestling with 
 God in prayer," says Wesley, " till He gave us an answer of 
 peace." 
 
 And so on and on Wesley went from place to place, until 
 nine weeks had been taken up by this excursion. He then 
 returned to England.
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 A SAD CHAPTER. 
 
 JOHN WESLEY really was unfortunate in his love affairs \ 
 Perhaps he felt lonely after his brother's marriage had with- 
 drawn the tatter's affectionate sympathy in a measure from 
 himself, or perhaps the news of Charles's happiness made him 
 think of following his example. Anyway, he began to pay 
 attentions to a certain young and attractive Methodist, named 
 Grace Murray. She was of humble origin, and the widow of 
 a sailor; and, after a striking conversion, she had devoted 
 herself to a religious life in connection with the Newcastle 
 Orphan House. Grace taught the scholars, visited the sick, 
 and acted as leader in classes of women, occasionally making 
 excursions for a similar purpose in the country around. 
 
 No doubt she was an estimable woman, and withal very 
 amiable ; for when Charles Wesley came over in a terrible way 
 because his brother contemplated marrying her, she allowed him 
 to persuade her to marry a certain John Bennet, a Methodist 
 preacher, whom she had nursed through a fever which lasted 
 twenty-six weeks, and who was so exceedingly in love with her 
 that he did not scruple to marry her whilst she was still 
 engaged to John Wesley. 
 
 But then John had been slow ! He might have married her 
 before, but he had waited to satisfy John Bennet as if a man 
 in love with her would ever be satisfied without her ! to pro- 
 cure his brother's consent, to send an account of his reasons 
 for marrying to all his preachers and societies, and to desire 
 their prayers. 
 
 When, therefore, Grace found that all the societies were in
 
 A SAD CHAPTER. 347 
 
 an uproar at the idea of their leader marrying " that woman,' 1 
 and when Charles Wesley came over saying he would never 
 consent, and John Bennet pleaded his cause in person, was it 
 surprising that, in the absence of John Wesley, she yielded, 
 and became Mrs. Bennet ? 
 
 " The sons of Zerniah were too strong for me," wrote the 
 forsaken lover in a letter. " The whole world fought against 
 me ; but, above all, my own familiar friend. Then was the 
 word fulfilled, ' Son of man, behold I take from thee the desire 
 of thine eyes at a stroke ; yet shalt thou not lament, neither 
 shall thy tears run down.' The fatal, irrevocable stroke was 
 struck on Thursday last Yesterday I saw my friend (that was) 
 and him to whom she was sacrificed. ' But why should a 
 living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins ?'" 
 
 The venerable Vicar of Shoreham evidently feared that this 
 interference of Charles's might lead to a breach between the 
 brothers, and he wrote to Charles 
 
 "Yours came this day to hand. I leave you to guess how 
 such news must affect a person whose very soul is one with 
 yours and our friend. Let me conjure you to soothe his sor- 
 rows. Pour nothing but oil and wine into his wounds. 
 Indulge no views, no designs, but what tend to the glory of 
 God, the promoting the kingdom of His dear Son, and the 
 healing of our wounded friend. How would the Philistines 
 rejoice could they hear that Saul and Jonathan were in danger 
 from their own swords 1 " 
 
 Tyerman says that Wesley's fortitude was one of his greatest 
 virtues ; and certainly he showed it now, for he immediately 
 began preaching again as indefatigably as ever. At a meeting 
 of the select society at Newcastle, soon afterwards, he says, 
 " Such a flame broke out as was never there before. We felt 
 such a love to each other as we could not express; such a 
 spirit of supplication, and such a glad acquiescence in all the 
 providences of God, and confidence that He would withhold 
 from us no good thing."
 
 348 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 So Wesley continued his work, and travelled about in 
 England and also Ireland, preaching often, and enduring 
 many an unseemly attack with a steady bravery which would 
 alone have made him a hero ; and in this way fourteen months 
 passed by. 
 
 Then he became acquainted with a Mrs. Vazeille, the 
 widow of a London merchant, " who appeared," says Moore, 
 "to be truly pious, and was very agreeable in her person and 
 manners. She conformed to every company, whether of the 
 rich or of the poor; and had a remarkable facility and 
 propriety in addressing them concerning their true interests." 
 But other biographers speak very differently of her, and say 
 she was ignorant and ill-bred. 
 
 On February and, 1751, Wesley made this entry in his 
 Journal : 
 
 "For many years I remained single, because I believed I 
 could be more useful in a single than in a married state. And 
 I praise God, who enabled me so to do. I now as fully 
 believe that, in my present circumstance, I might be more 
 useful in a married state." 
 
 He immediately told his brother the conclusion he had 
 come to ; for Charles wrote at the same date : " My brother 
 told me he was resolved to marry. I was thunderstruck, and 
 could only answer, he had given me the first blow, and his 
 marriage would come like the coup de grace. Trusty Ned 
 Perronet followed, and told me the person was Mrs. Vazeille ! 
 one of whom I had never had the least suspicion." 
 
 Charles Wesley, who seems to have been a good judge of 
 character, did not like Mrs. Vazeille, and events proved that 
 she was anything but a suitable wife for his brother. 
 
 Wesley consulted his friend, Mr. Perronet, about the 
 expediency of his marrying, and, having received a favourable 
 answer, proceeded to propose marriage to the widow. 
 
 Mrs. Vazeille accepted him, and about that time, just as he 
 was making preparations to start on his annual preaching tour
 
 A SAD CHAPTER. 349 
 
 to Newcastle and its vicinity, he slipped on the ice while 
 crossing London Bridge, and with much difficulty proceeded 
 to Seven Dials, where he preached. He attempted to preach 
 at the Foundry at night; but his sprain becoming very 
 painful, he was obliged to relinquish his purpose, and he at 
 once removed to Threadneedle Street, where Mrs. Vazeille 
 lived, and there spent the next seven days, " Partly," he says, 
 " in prayer, reading, and conversation, and partly in writing a 
 Hebrew grammar and lessons for children." 
 
 A week afterwards, Wesley was carried to the Foundry, and 
 preached kneeling, not yet being able to stand; and on the 
 next day his marriage took place. He was then forty-eight, 
 and his bride was seven years younger. 
 
 As every one knows, their marriage was a most unhappy 
 one. Dr. Whitehead says, "Had he [Wesley] searched the 
 whole kingdom, he would hardly have found a woman more 
 unsuitable in all possible respects." At any rate, if she had any 
 really good qualities, they were soon swallowed up in the 
 fierce passion of jealousy. 
 
 Dr. Southey says : 
 
 " Had Mrs. Wesley been capable of understanding her 
 husband's character, she could not possibly have been jealous ; 
 but the spirit of jealousy possessed her, and drove her to 
 the most unwarrantable actions. . . . She frequently left his 
 house, and upon his earnest entreaties returned again ; till, 
 after having thus disquieted twenty years of his life, as far as it 
 was possible for any domestic vexations to disquiet a man 
 whose life was passed in locomotion, she seized on part of his 
 Journals, and many other papers, which were never restored, 
 and departed, leaving word that she never intended to return. 
 He simply states the case in his Journal, saying that he knew 
 not what the cause had been ; and he briefly adds ' Non earn 
 reliqui, non dimisi, non revocabo: I did not forsake her, I did 
 not dismiss her, I will not recall her.' " 
 
 Most of Wesley's biographers represent this separation as
 
 350 JOHN WESLEY, 
 
 final; but one points out that in the following year, 1772, she 
 is mentioned in Wesley's Journal as travelling with him: 
 " Tuesday, June 30. Calling at a little inn on the Moors, I 
 spoke a few words to an old man there, as my wife did to the 
 woman of the house ; they both appeared to be deeply 
 affected. Perhaps Providence sent us to this house for the 
 sake of those two poor souls." 
 
 Southey says Mrs. Wesley died ten years after she left 
 Wesley, on the occasion which has generally been considered 
 final.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 WESLEY IN MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 IT is remarkable, considering how very much is recorded of 
 Wesley during the twelve preceding years, that we hear very 
 little of him from about the year 1751, when he resigned his 
 fellowship of Lincoln College, to 1770 that is, during the 
 prime of his life, between the ages of forty-eight and sixty- 
 eight. His biographers, Dr. Whitehead and Mr. Watson, 
 pass over this long space of nearly twenty years in a few 
 pages; and though it is true a later biographer, 1 in his valu- 
 able Life of Wesley^ gathers together many interesting facts 
 and letters, which are well worth consideration by those who 
 can obtain the book, yet there seems to us no reason why we 
 should enter into particulars concerning those years of which 
 his chief biographers have been silent. The reason of their 
 silence is plain. In the twelve years between 1738 and 1750, 
 Wesley was full of activity, planning and erecting a great 
 edifice; his soul was undergoing great struggles and experi- 
 encing great changes, and he felt that the same work was to be 
 wrought out in thousands of human beings. His every energy 
 then was absorbed and concentrated upon the task that he 
 had set himself, and every step of the way is recorded. But 
 the twenty years which followed were filled with patient 
 building up, maturing, and organising; and necessarily this 
 quieter work did not attract so much attention. But Wesley 
 worked on steadily, travelling from place to place, preaching, 
 
 1 Tyerman.
 
 352 JOHN WESLEV. 
 
 prescribing, overlooking the societies, and reproving and 
 exhorting his preachers. Again and again individuals among 
 these disappointed his expectations, and had to be "laid 
 aside"; others, and these were usually the more earnest, 
 hard-working ones, wanted to have their own way too much, 
 especially upon a matter which gave both the Wesleys much 
 concern they were often wanting to separate from the 
 Church ; their plea being that they wished to administer the 
 sacraments themselves. It is very interesting to read the 
 correspondence which passed between Wesley and his brother 
 and one or two earnest-minded clergymen upon the subject. 
 Over and over again Wesley wrote that he could not bring his 
 mind to it, and his brother repeatedly urged him to make all 
 his preachers sign the same agreement they had signed in the 
 early days of Methodism which agreement promised not to 
 separate from the Church. 1 
 
 Wesley did not want to separate ; he loved the Church of 
 England ; but when he had to choose between her and his 
 large band of lay-preachers he hesitated, and his conduct was 
 sometimes inconsistent. Charles enlisted the services of the 
 Rev. John Walker, a Church of England clergyman who 
 had done a noble work in his parish at Truro, hundreds of 
 his parishioners having been converted under his ministry. 
 Between him and Wesley there was a most interesting corre- 
 spondence about the matter. Mr. Walker wisely suggested 
 that Wesley should exert himself in trying to bring his vast 
 body of workers more directly within the Church, by having, 
 or trying to have, the more able of his preachers ordained, and 
 the others made Scripture-readers. But this, Wesley said, 
 would not serve the purpose which he and they had in view 
 the ordained few would become curates in isolated parishes 
 where the same round of duties and the loss of the stimulus 
 of change would cause them to grow " dead " themselves, as 
 also those to whom they preached ; and the Scripture-readers 
 1 See Tyerman's Life of Wesley.
 
 WESLE Y IN MIDDLE AGE. 353 
 
 might do zealous service for a time here and there, but if they 
 were under no sympathetic religious governance themselves, 
 they too might grow cold. That was Wesley's idea, and he 
 who had fought so long against the irreligion of the clergy of 
 that day was surely in a better position to judge of them than 
 we are. Then Wesley thought that by the dismissal of 
 preachers who were not attached to the Church as he and his 
 brother were, he would cause them and many of their followers 
 to separate. But "while we are with them," he wrote to 
 Mr. Walker, "our advice has weight, and keeps them to the 
 Church." Then, referring to a remark of Mr. Walker's, 
 " And will it not be the same " [/*&, will they not separate] "at 
 your death ? " he says touchingly, " I believe not ; for I believe 
 there will be no resentment in this case. And the last advice 
 of a dying friend is not likely to be soon forgotten" 1 
 
 Still it often required all Charles's exertions to keep Wesley 
 firm, when many besieged his ears with special pleading; and 
 Wesley sometimes displayed a want of firmness, which grieved 
 his brother much. For instance, when he found that one or 
 two of his preachers had begun to administer the Sacrament of 
 the Lord's Supper, he did not dismiss them from the society, 
 he did not even prohibit them from doing so, but he talked 
 seriously to them about it, and advised their not doing so any 
 more. And this he states himself, when defending himself 
 from the charge of persecuting his preachers. 
 
 In 1752 Wesley received an interesting letter from the Rev. 
 Mr. Milner, who had been at Chester, and who wrote about 
 the disposition of the Bishop towards the Methodists : 
 
 "The Bishop," says he, "I was told, was exceeding angry at 
 my late excursion into the North in your company. But I 
 found his lordship in much better temper than I was led to 
 expect by my brother Graves, who was so prudent that he 
 would not go with one so obnoxious to the Bishop's dis- 
 pleasure, and all the storm of anger fell upon him. When he 
 1 The italics are our own.
 
 354 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 told me how he had been treated for speaking in your 
 defence, I was fully persuaded all the bitterness was past, and 
 so I accordingly found it I told his lordship that God was 
 with you of a truth ; and he seemed pleased with the relation 
 of the conversion of the barber at Bolton, and with your 
 design of answering Taylor's book on Original Sin. I have 
 made no secret of your manner of proceeding to any with 
 whom I have conversed, since I had the happiness of being in 
 your company; and to the Bishop I was very particular in 
 telling him what an assembly of worshippers there is at New- 
 castle; how plainly the badge of Christianity love is there 
 to be seen. When his lordship talked about order, I begged 
 leave to observe that I had nowhere seen such a want of it as 
 in his own cathedral ; the preacher so miserably at a loss, that 
 the children took notice of it ; and the choristers so rude as to 
 be talking and thrusting one another with their elbows. At 
 last I told him there was need of some extraordinary messen- 
 gers from God to call us back to the doctrines of the Reforma- 
 tion ; for I did not know one of my brethren in Lancashire 
 that would give the Church's definition of faith, and stand to 
 it And alas ! I had sad experience of the -same falling away 
 in Cheshire; for one of his son's curates would not let me 
 preach for him, because of that definition of faith." 
 
 In October 1753 Wesley fell ill in London, and before he 
 had quite recovered he once or twice caught cold, and was 
 soon threatened with rapid consumption. By medical advice 
 he went to Lewisham. "Here," says Dr. Whitehead, "not 
 knowing how it might please God to dispose of him, and 
 wishing to prevent vile panegyric " in case of death, he wrote 
 his epitaph, and gave orders that if any inscription were put 
 on his tombstone, it should be this
 
 WESLEY IN MIDDLE AGE. 355 
 
 "HERE LIETH 
 
 THE BODY OF JOHN WESLEY, 
 
 A BRAND PLUCKED OUT OF THE BURNING : 
 
 WHO DIED OF A CONSUMPTION IN THE FIFTY-FIRST YEAR 
 
 OF HIS AGE. 
 
 NOT LEAVING, AFTER HIS DEBTS ARE PAID, 1 TEN POUNDS 
 BEHIND HIM; 
 
 PRAYING, 
 'GOD BE MERCIFUL TO ME AN UNPROFITABLE SERVANTl"' 
 
 However, he proved not to be so seriously ill as the 
 physician feared, and on the first of January he returned to 
 London, and the next day set out for the Hotwells, near 
 Bristol, to drink the water. On the 6th he began writing 
 notes on the New Testament "A work," says he, "I should 
 scarce ever have attempted had I not been so ill as not to be 
 able to travel or preach, and yet so well as to be able to read 
 and write." 
 
 After that he recovered, and proceeded with his usual work 
 with unremitting diligence. Perhaps there is some truth in 
 Dr. Whitehead's surmise that Wesley became more and more 
 determined to be the sole governor, humanly speaking, of the 
 large organisation he had raised up. To err is human, and 
 every position of authority over a mass of people has its 
 dangers. "It appears to me," says Dr. Whitehead, "that, 
 after the first difference with his brother, who disappointed his 
 intended marriage, he made up his mind not to suffer either a 
 superior or an equal in these respects. From that time he 
 seemed determined to be out Casar out nihil. Mr. Charles, 
 perceiving his brother's determination, and finding that the 
 preachers became more and more prejudiced against him, 
 thought it most prudent to withdraw from the active situation 
 he had hitherto held amongst them ; reserving to himself, 
 however, the right of speaking his mind freely to his brother 
 
 1 He had been so often accused of making money for himself out of the 
 societies.
 
 356 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 in a friendly correspondence, on various occasions through the 
 remaining part of his life." 
 
 Charles, therefore, seems to have stopped itinerating, and 
 devoted his future life to a more settled sphere of labour, and 
 the production of his beautiful hymns. 
 
 During the years that followed, Wesley's health and strength 
 were wonderfully preserved, in spite of arduous labours in 
 England, Scotland, and Ireland. "In October 1765," he 
 writes, " I breakfasted with Mr. Whitefield, who seemed to be 
 an old, old man, being fairly worn out in his Master's service, 
 though he has hardly seen fifty years. And yet it pleases 
 God that I, who am now in my sixty-third year, find no dis- 
 order, no weakness, no decay, no difference from what I was 
 at five-and-twenty, only that I have fewer teeth and more grey 
 hairs ! " Soon after he adds, " Mr. Whitefield called upon 
 me. He breathes nothing but peace and love. Bigotry 
 cannot stand before him, but hides its head wherever he 
 comes." 
 
 So the old friends were friends once more, and each of 
 them was toiling hard for the souls of men, though each with 
 such different ideas of the goodness and mercy of God. 
 
 "The world," says Dr. Whitehead, going out of his way to 
 account for the very patent fact that Wesley was not faultless, 
 "has seldom seen a man of strong powers of mind, of first-rate 
 talents, who has not laboured under some peculiar weakness 
 or mental infirmity, which men of little minds, capable only of 
 observing defects, have frequently made the object of ridicule. 
 Numerous instances might easily be produced, both among 
 philosophers and divines. Mr. Wesley's chief weakness was a 
 too great readiness to credit the testimony of others, when he 
 believed them sincere, without duly considering whether they 
 had sufficient ability and caution to form a true judgment of the 
 things concerning which they bore testimony. In matters, 
 therefore, which depended wholly on the evidence of other per- 
 sons, he was often mistaken. Mr. Charles Wesley was in the
 
 WESLE y IN MIDDLE AGE. 357 
 
 opposite extreme ; full of caution and suspicion. But he was 
 fully sensible both of his own and of his brother's weakness, and 
 in the present year wrote to him as follows : ' When you fear 
 the worst, your fears should be regarded ; and when I hope 
 the best, you may almost believe me.' And again, some years 
 later ' Your defect of mistrust needs my excess to guard it. 
 You cannot be taken by storm, but you may by surprise. We 
 seem designed for each other. If we could and would be 
 oftener together, it might be better for both. Let us be useful 
 in our lives, and at our death not divided.' " 
 
 Wesley was in fact exceedingly credulous in many points, 
 though in one or two he showed himself to be just the oppo- 
 site; and, on the other hand, Charles was suspicious and 
 cautious. We have seen that in the refusal of the latter to 
 believe the bon&fide character of the fits and violent displays 
 of emotion which the preaching of John so often excited, 
 whilst John's credulity at times is almost pitiable. His Journal 
 abounds with the recitals of most extraordinary stories which 
 his converts poured into his willing ears ; and the biographer 
 above-mentioned says " Mr. Wesley easily believed most of 
 the stories he heard concerning witchcraft and apparitions" 
 
 In the year 1769 Wesley sent a letter to many Church 
 clergymen, who, he thought, believed and preached salvation 
 by faith, asking them if it were not possible for them and him 
 to agree cordially among themselves, and not hinder, but help 
 one another ; but of the fifty or sixty to whom he wrote only 
 three vouchsafed him an answer, so he gave up his cherished 
 hope of union. "They are a rope of sand," he wrote, "and 
 such they will continue." And then he turned his attention 
 to the subject of trying to make his preachers more united, 
 urging them at the Conference in 1769 to resolve "(i) To 
 de-vote ourselves entirely to God ; denying ourselves, taking up 
 our Cross, steadily aiming at one thing, to save our own souls 
 and them that hear us. (2) To preach old Methodist doctrines 
 and no other, contained in the minutes of the conferences.
 
 358 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 To observe and enforce the whole Methodist discipline, laid 
 down in the said minutes." 
 
 When the business of the Conference was over, Wesley 
 says, all the preachers were melted down while they were 
 singing these lines for me 
 
 " Thou who so long hast saved me here, 
 
 A little longer save ; 
 Till freed from sin, and freed from fear, 
 
 I sink into a grave ; 
 Till glad I lay my body down, 
 
 Thy servant's steps attend ; 
 And 1 my life of mercies crown 
 
 With a triumphant end. " 
 
 A fine finish to one of Wesley's most important conferences. 
 
 Two preachers had gone over to America some time before, 
 though perhaps not exactly sent by Wesley. 1 At this Con- 
 ference, however, he sent two, named Boardman and Pilmoor, 
 to preach and take charge of the societies in America, where 
 Methodism soon began to flourish. 
 
 Wesley began the year 1770 with a covenant service in 
 London, at which eighteen hundred Methodists were present 
 In this year Wesley was able to reckon forty-nine circuits in 
 England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and one hundred and 
 twenty-two itinerant preachers, besides double the number of 
 local preachers, who did not quit their usual avocations. 
 
 In the Conference this year Wesley's position and power 
 were called in question, and the following minutes are very 
 interesting : 
 
 " Q. What power is this which you exercise over both the 
 preachers and societies ? 
 
 "A, i. In November 1738, two or three persons, who 
 
 desired to flee from the wrath to come, and then a few more, 
 
 came to me in London, and desired me to advise and pray 
 
 with them. I said, ' If you will meet me on Thursday night, 
 
 1 Tyerman.
 
 WESLEY IX MIDDLE AGE. 359 
 
 I will help you as well as I can.' More and more then 
 desired to meet with them, till they were increased to many 
 hundreds. The case was afterwards the same at Bristol, 
 Kingswood, Newcastle, and many other parts of England, 
 Scotland, and Ireland. It may be observed, the desire was 
 on their part, not mine. My desire was to live and die in 
 retirement. But I did not see that I could refuse them my 
 help, and be guiltless before God. 
 
 " Here commenced my power namely, a power to appoint 
 when, and where, and how they should meet ; and to remove 
 those whose lives showed that they had not a desire to flee 
 from the wrath to come. And this power remained the same, 
 whether the people meeting together were twelve, or twelve 
 hundred, or twelve thousand. 
 
 " 2. In a few days some of them said, ' Sir, we will not sit 
 under you for nothing; we will subscribe quarterly.' I said, 
 'I will have nothing; for I want nothing. My fellowship 
 supplies me with all I want.' One replied, 'Nay, but you 
 want an hundred and fifteen pounds to pay for the lease of the 
 Foundry ; and likewise a large sum of money to put it into 
 repair.' On this consideration I suffered them to subscribe. 
 And when the society met, I asked, ' Who will take the 
 trouble of receiving this money, and paying it where it is 
 needful ? ' One said, ' I will do it, and keep the account for 
 you.' So here was the first steward. Afterwards, I desired 
 one or two more to help me as stewards, and in process of 
 time a greater number. 
 
 " Let it be remarked, it was I myself, not the people who 
 chose these stewards, and appointed to each the distinct work 
 wherein he was to help me as long as I desired. And herein 
 I began to exercise another sort of power namely, that of 
 appointing and removing stewards. 
 
 " 3. After a time a young man, named Thomas Maxfield, 
 came and desired to help me as a son in the Gospel. Soon 
 after came a second, Thomas Richards, and then a third,
 
 360 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 Thomas Westall. These severally desired to serve me as sons, 
 and to labour when and where I should direct. Observe 
 these likewise desired me, not I them ; and I durst not refuse 
 their assistance. And here commenced my power to acquaint 
 each of these when and where and how to labour that is, 
 while he chose to continue with me ; for each had a power to 
 go away when he pleased, as I had also to go away from them, 
 or any of them, if I saw sufficient cause. The case continued 
 the same when the number of preachers increased. I had just 
 the same power still to appoint when and where and how each 
 should help me, and to tell any (if I saw cause), ' I do not 
 desire your help any longer.' On these terms, and no other, 
 we joined at first ; on these we continued joined. But they do 
 me no favour in being directed by me. It is true, my reward is 
 with the Lord. But at present I have nothing from it but trouble 
 and care, and often a burden I scarce know how to bear. 
 
 "4. In 1744 I wrote to several clergymen, and to all who 
 then served me as sons in the Gospel, desiring them to meet 
 me in London, and to give me their advice concerning the 
 best method of carrying on the work of God. And when their 
 number increased, so that it was not convenient to invite them 
 all, for several years I wrote to those with whom I desired to 
 confer, and they only met me at London, or elsewhere ; till at 
 length I gave a general permission, which I afterwards saw 
 cause to retract. 
 
 "Observe I myself sent for these of my own free choice. 
 And I sent for them to advise, not to govern me. Neither did 
 I at any time divest myself of any part of the power above 
 described, which the providence of God had cast upon me, 
 without any design or choice of mine. 
 
 " 5. What is that power ? It is a power of admitting into 
 and excluding from the societies under my care ; of choosing 
 and removing stewards ; of receiving or not receiving helpers j 
 of appointing them when, where, and how to help me, and of 
 desiring any of them to confer with me when I see good. And
 
 WESLE Y IN MIDDLE AGE. 361 
 
 as it was merely in obedience to the providence of God, and 
 for the good of the people, that I at first accepted this power, 
 which I never sought ; so it is on the same consideration, not 
 for profit, honour, or pleasure, that I use it at this day. 
 
 " 6. But ' several gentlemen are offended at your having so 
 much power.' I did not seek any part of it. But when it was 
 come unawares, not daring to bury that talent, I used it to the 
 best of my judgment. Yet I never was fond of it. I always 
 did, and do now, bear it as my burden the burden which God 
 lays upon me, and therefore I dare not lay it down. 
 
 " But if you can tell me any one, or any five men, to whom 
 I may transfer this burden, who can and will do just what 
 I do now, I will heartily thank both them and you." 
 
 Thus ably did Wesley vindicate his having this extra- 
 ordinary power. It is interesting to see what Alexander 
 Knox writes about Wesley's love of it : 
 
 " That Mr. Wesley's natural feelings were gratified by the 
 progress of his society cannot be questioned ; nor that, with 
 the partiality of a parent, he was liable to palliate its imperfec- 
 tions, and to over-estimate its good effects. I grant, too, that 
 in governing the body which he had formed, he experienced 
 much of that pleasure which every one feels in exercising those 
 talents wherein he excels. But I am persuaded that these 
 necessary and useful movements of our nature never existed 
 in any human being with less alloy of selfishness than in John 
 Wesley. It is true that he appeared unwilling, even to the last, 
 to part with the power which had grown up in his hands, or to 
 suffer others to share in it. But I affirm with confidence that 
 it was not love of power which made him thus tenacious of it. 
 I am assured that, for his own sake, he no more valued it than 
 the earth on which he trod. But he regarded it as a provi- 
 dential deposit, which he had not a right to part with. He 
 knew that none of those around him were fit to be his 
 coadjutors, and that so long as he could hold his place, the 
 welfare of his society required that he should hold it alone."
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 TWO OF WESLEY'S HELPERS AND FRIENDS. 
 
 OF the few clergymen who entered into Wesley's views, and 
 heartily co-operated with him, Mr. Fletcher was, says Southey, 
 the most remarkable for intellectual powers ; and, on the other 
 hand, the one who entered most entirely into the affairs of the 
 society was Thomas Coke. We will therefore briefly mention 
 the careers of these good and well-known men. 
 
 John Guillaume de la Flechere 1 was born at Nyon, in the 
 Pays de Vaud, of a Bernese family, descended from a noble 
 house in Savoy. He was educated for the ministry at Geneva, 
 but finding himself unable to subscribe to the doctrine of 
 Predestination, he resolved to seek preferment as a soldier of 
 fortune. He therefore went to Lisbon, where he obtained a 
 commission in the Portuguese service, and was ordered to Brazil. 
 An accident, however, which confined him to bed when the 
 ship sailed, prevented his going there, and on his recovery he 
 left Portugal for active service in the Low Countries ; but, peace 
 being established, there was no scope for his energies in that 
 direction, and so he came over to England, and eventually 
 became tutor in the family of Mr. Hill, of Fern Hall, in Shrop- 
 shire. "The love of God and man abounded in his heart," 
 and as he found among the] Methodists the sympathy which 
 he desired, he joined them, and for a time took to ascetic 
 courses, of which he afterwards acknowledged the error. He 
 lived, we are told, on vegetables, and then for a while on milk 
 and water and bread ; he sat up two whole nights in every 
 week to pray and read and meditate on religious things, and 
 1 Southey.
 
 RKV. JOHN FLETCHBR.
 
 364 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 on the other nights did not allow himself any sleep so long as 
 he could keep his attention on his books. 
 
 At last, by the advice of his friends, Mr. Hill and Mr. 
 Wesley, he took orders in the English Church. The ordination 
 took place in the Chapel Royal, St. James's, and as soon as it 
 was over he went to the Methodist Chapel in West Street, 
 where he assisted in administering the Lord's Supper. Wesley 
 found the assistance most seasonable. 
 
 " How wonderful are the ways of God ! " he wrote in his 
 Journal. "When my bodily strength failed, and none in 
 England were able and willing to assist me, .He sent me help 
 from the mountains of Switzerland, and an helpmate for me in 
 every respect Where could I have found such another ? " 
 
 Mr. Fletcher (as he now called himself, being completely 
 Anglicised) incurred much odium by the way in which he 
 proceeded to identify himself with the Methodists. But by 
 Mr. Hill's means he was presented to the Vicarage of Madely, 
 in Shropshire, about three years after his ordination. Madely 
 was a populous village, in which were extensive collieries and 
 ironworks. Mr. Fletcher had been a curate there, and so was 
 acquainted with the wickedness which abounded amongst the 
 crowded population, and he entered upon his ministry with 
 great zeal, devoting the whole of the rents of his small estate 
 in the Pays de Vaud to charitable purposes. When some of 
 his remoter parishioners excused themselves for not attending 
 the morning service because they did not wake early enough 
 to get their families ready, he set out every Sunday for some 
 months at five o'clock, with a bell in his hand, and went 
 round to the most distant parts of the parish to call up the 
 people. And wherever a congregation could be collected 
 within ten or fifteen miles on week-days, there he went to 
 preach to it, though he seldom got home before one or two 
 in the morning. At first his lowest and worst parishioners 
 resented the way in which he ventured to burst in upon their 
 revels to reprove and exhort them.
 
 WESLEY'S HELPERS AND FRIENDS. 365 
 
 One day a mob of colliers, who were baiting a bull, made up 
 their minds to pull him off his horse as he went to preach, set 
 the dogs upon him, and, in their own -words, "bait the 
 parson " ; but, fortunately, the bull broke loose before his 
 arrival, and dispersed them all. 
 
 Fletcher, however, won upon his parishioners, rude and 
 brutal though they were, by his gentle manners and exceeding 
 benevolence and holy life, until at length his church was 
 crowded to excess. 
 
 In 1768 Lady Huntingdon appointed Mr. Fletcher to the 
 presidency of her Theological School at Trevecca, which 
 appointment 1 he held in addition to his living at Madely. 
 Mr. Benson, the head-master of the school, says that on the 
 occasion of his visits he was received as if he had been an 
 " angel of God." When he addressed the students, they were 
 soon "all in tears, and every heart caught fire from the flame 
 that burned in his soul" 
 
 At the close of the addresses he would say, " As many of 
 you as are athirst for the fulness of the Spirit of God, follow 
 me into my room." 
 
 Many usually hastened there, and it is said to have been 
 " like the holiest of holies," two or three hours being " spent 
 in such prevailing prayer as seemed to bring Heaven down to 
 earth." 
 
 " Indeed," says Benson, " I frequently thought while attend- 
 ing to his heavenly discourse and divine spirit, that he was so 
 different from and superior to the generality of mankind, as to 
 look more like Moses or Elijah, or some prophet or apostle 
 come again from the dead, than a mortal man dwelling in a 
 house of clay ! " 
 
 Now it happened that Lady Huntingdon was greatly dis- 
 turbed by some doctrinal views against Predestination and 
 Calvinism, set forth by her old friend Wesley in the minutes 
 of his Conference in 1770, and, lest danger should accrue 
 1 We are told that he received no pay for these duties.
 
 366 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 therefrom to the students at Trevecca, she resolved to test 
 the soundness of her pupils and teachers by ordering all to 
 quit the college who did not disavow Wesley's theology. 
 
 Fletcher immediately resigned his post, and Professor 
 Benson was dismissed. The latter said, "I have been 
 discharged wholly and solely because I did not believe the 
 doctrine of absolute predestination." 
 
 Fletcher also upheld the doctrine of " Christian perfection," 
 which Wesley preached, and he maintained, during years of 
 controversy with Calvinists and those who favoured "anti- 
 nomianism," the spirit of a gentleman and a Christian. 
 
 In 1771 Mr. Fletcher married Mary Bosanquet, a devoted 
 Christian, who had suffered the loss of home and friends for 
 the sake of her religion. But the life of Mrs. Fletcher is too 
 well known to need repeating here. We will only add she 
 was herself a very successful preacher, and so excellent was 
 her influence that Wesley was forced to admit that for this 
 woman to speak in the congregation, provided she did not 
 "intrude into the pulpit," was manifestly no shame at all, 
 but only an exception to the general rule, such as St. Paul 
 himself allowed at Corinth. 
 
 On the 1 4th of August 1785, Fletcher died of consumption, 
 but his devoted wife carried on much of his work for thirty 
 years longer. 
 
 Wesley's appreciation of the great virtues of this saintly 
 man is shown by the fact that he wished very much to make 
 him his successor. 
 
 In 1770 Wesley was urged to go to America, where several 
 societies had now been formed, and he had a strong inclina- 
 tion to do so, for, although more than sixty-six years of age, 
 his bodily health was, he said, even better than when he was 
 twenty-five. But he could not fail to be aware that if he left 
 the United Kingdom the great bulk of the Methodists wouid 
 fall into confusion ; besides, many would be certain to oppose 
 such a hazardous resolution. For the sake of the Methodists
 
 WESLEY'S HELPERS AND FRIENDS. 367 
 
 at home, therefore, he refused to go to those in America ; but 
 the request seems to have caused him to think more and more 
 of appointing a successor, and we find him in 1773 writing to 
 Mr. Fletcher from Shoreham, where lived his friend Mr. 
 Perronet, whom he had doubtless consulted on the subject : 
 
 " DEAR SIR, What an amazing work has God wrought in 
 these kingdoms, in less than forty years ! And it not only 
 continues, but increases throughout England, Scotland, and 
 Ireland ; nay, it has lately spread into New York, Pennsylvania, 
 Virginia, Maryland, and Carolina. But the wise men of the 
 world say, ' When Mr. Wesley drops, then all this is at an 
 end 1 ' And so it surely will, unless, before God calls him 
 hence, one is found to stand in his place. For 'It is not 
 good that the supreme power should be lodged in many 
 hands; let there be one chief governor.' I see more and 
 more, unless there be one 'who presides over the rest,' the 
 work can never be carried on. The body of the preachers 
 are not united ; nor will any part of them submit to the rest ; 
 so that either there must be one to preside over all, or the 
 work will indeed come to an end. 
 
 "But who is sufficient for these things? Qualified to 
 preside both over the preachers and people? He must be 
 a man of faith and love, and one that has a single eye to the 
 advancement of the kingdom of God. He must have a clear 
 understanding; a knowledge of men and things, particularly 
 of the Methodist doctrine and discipline ; a ready utterance ; 
 diligence and activity, with a tolerable share of health. There 
 must be added to these, favour with the people, with the 
 Methodists in general For unless God turn their eyes -and 
 their hearts towards him, he will be quite incapable of the 
 work. He must likewise have some degree of learning; 
 because there are many adversaries, learned as well as un- 
 learned, whose mouths must be stopped. But this cannot be 
 done unless he be able to meet them on their own ground. 
 
 "But has God provided one so qualified? Who is he?
 
 368 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 Thou art the man ! God has given you a measure of loving 
 faith ; and a single eye to His glory. He has given you some 
 knowledge of men and things ; particularly of the whole plan 
 of Methodism. You are blessed with some health, activity, 
 and diligence ; together with a degree of learning. And to all 
 these, He has lately added, by a way none could have foreseen, 
 favour both with the preachers and the whole people. Come 
 out in the name of God! Come to the help of the Lord 
 against the mighty 1 Come while I am alive and capable of 
 
 labour 
 
 " ' Dum superest Lachesi quod torqueat, et pedibus me 
 Porto meis, nullo dextram subeunte bacillo.' 1 
 
 Come while I am able, God assisting, to build you up in faith, 
 to ripen your gifts, and to introduce you to the people. Nil 
 tanti) what possible employment can you have, which is of 
 so great importance ? 
 
 "But you will naturally say, 'lam not equal to the task; 
 I have neither grace nor gifts for such an employment.' You 
 say true ; it is certain you have not, and who has ? But do 
 you not know Him who is able to give them ? Perhaps not 
 at once, but rather day by day; as each is, so shall your 
 strength be. 'But this implies,' you may say, c a thousand 
 crosses, such as I feel I am not able to bear.' You are not 
 able to bear them now, and they are not now come. When- 
 ever they do come, will He not send them in due number, 
 weight, and measure ? And will they not all be for your profit, 
 that you may be a partaker of His holiness ? 
 
 " Without conferring therefore with flesh and blood, come 
 and strengthen the hands, comfort the heart, and share the 
 labour of your affectionate friend and brother, 
 
 " JOHN WESLEY." 
 
 This was a warm and pressing invitation to a position which 
 was even reverenced by many of the Methodists, and it must 
 
 1 " While Lflchesis has some thread of life to spin, and I walk on my 
 own feet without the help of a staff." JUVEN., Sat. iii.
 
 THE THREE FRIENDS.
 
 370 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 have been very gratifying to Fletcher, coming as it did from 
 Wesley, whom he respected, admired, and loved. But Fletcher 
 knew how difficult was the work even for Wesley, and that 
 the preachers were constantly jealous of each other, and had 
 determined not to be under the control of any one man after 
 Wesley's death. " He therefore," as Dr. Whitehead quaintly 
 puts it, " determined not to launch his little bark on so 
 tempestuous an ocean." 
 
 And, as we have seen, he died many years before Wesley, 
 whose health and strength continued wonderfully good. In 
 June 1774, when the latter entered on his seventy-second year, 
 he speaks thus of himself: "This being my birthday, the first 
 day of my seventy-second year, I was considering, how is this 
 that I find just the same strength as I did thirty years ago ? 
 That my sight is considerably better now, and my nerves 
 firmer than they were then? That I have none of the 
 infirmities of old age, and have lost several I had in my 
 youth? The grand cause is, the good pleasure of God, who 
 doth whatsoever pleaseth Him. The chief means are : i. My 
 constantly rising at four, for about fifty years. 2. My 
 generally preaching at five in the morning, one of the most 
 healthy exercises in the world. 3. My never travelling less, 
 by sea or land, than four thousand five hundred miles in a 
 year." 
 
 In the year 1776, Wesley came into Somersetshire in the 
 course of his itinerancy, and there he met for the first time 
 with the afterwards celebrated Dr. Coke. In his Journal the 
 meeting is mentioned thus : 
 
 " Here I found a clergyman, Dr. Coke, late a gentleman 
 commoner of Jesus College, in Oxford, who came twenty 
 miles on purpose to meet me. I had much conversation with 
 him ; and a union then began which, I trust, shall never 
 end." 
 
 Thomas Coke, Doctor of Divinity, was small of stature, like 
 John and Charles Wesley. "These three little men," it has
 
 WESLEY S FRIENDS AND HELPERS. 371 
 
 been said, "made a great change in the moral world: John 
 Wesley, the founder of one of the largest Churches in 
 Christendom ; Charles Wesley, the world-renowned Christian 
 poet ; and Thomas Coke, the great founder of modern 
 missions," 
 
 Thomas Coke was born at Brecknock in the year 1747, and 
 was the only child of respectable and wealthy parents. His 
 father died during his childhood, and in his seventeenth year 
 he was entered as a gentleman commoner at Jesus College, 
 Oxford. Whilst at the University, he contracted a taint of 
 that philosophical infidelity which was then beginning to infect 
 half-learned men. 1 However, the works of Bishop Sherlock 
 reclaimed the young man, and he entered into Holy Orders ; 
 and, being in expectation of some considerable preferment, 
 took out his degree of Doctor of Laws. As he was possessed 
 of a fair income, it was not of much consequence to him that 
 those persons in power to whom he looked for patronage 
 disappointed his expectations, Having accepted the curacy 
 of South Petherton, in Somersetshire, he entered upon the 
 duties of his office with more than ordinary zeal His 
 preaching soon filled the church, where, feeling the need of 
 more room, he erected, as the fashion then was, a gallery at 
 his own expense. This and the style of his preaching raised a 
 suspicion that he was inclined to Methodism. The growing 
 inclination was strengthened by conversation with Maxfield, 
 who happened then to be residing in the neighbourhood, and 
 the perusal of Alleine's Alarm to the Unconverted deepened 
 the impression. 
 
 Dr. Coke now preached extemporaneously, established 
 evening lectures, and introduced hymns into the church, and 
 by doing this excited a strong spirit of opposition. Complaints 
 against him were made to the Bishop and the Rector. The 
 former merely admonished him, but by the latter he was 
 dismissed, in a manner which seems to have been studiously 
 1 Southey.
 
 3?2 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 disrespectful, before the people on the Sunday, and his enemies 
 were so rude as to ring the bell when he left the church. His 
 Welsh blood being roused, the young clergyman took his stand 
 near the church on the two following Sundays, and preached to 
 the people as they came out, "for the purpose of vindicating 
 himself, gratifying his adherents, and exhorting his opponents 
 to repentance." The last-named individuals were so provoked 
 at this, that they collected stones for the purpose of pelting 
 him, on his second exhibition ; and the Doctor would hardly 
 have escaped, without some serious injury, if a young lady and 
 her brother, whom the people knew and respected, had not 
 come forward and stood on each side of him. Soon afterwards 
 Dr. Coke seized the opportunity of being introduced to 
 Wesley, and immediately became a member of the Methodist 
 Society, and was soon looked upon as one of the most able of 
 Wesley's fellow-labourers. As "he gave himself up to the 
 work of the Connexion," says Southey, " the second place in it 
 was naturally assigned to him ; no other of its active members 
 was possessed of equal fortune and rank in society ; and all 
 that he had, his fortune to every shilling, and his life to every 
 minute that could be employed in active exertions, were devoted 
 to its interests. He was now considered as Mr. Wesley's more 
 immediate representative ; and instead of being stationed, like 
 the other preachers, in a circuit, he travelled, like Mr. Wesley, 
 as a general inspector wherever his presence was thought 
 needful. In Ireland, more particularly, he visited the societies 
 alternately with Mr. Wesley, so that an annual visitation was 
 always made." 
 
 Another biographer of Wesley remarks what a remarkable 
 coincidence it was, that in the very year the health of Fletcher 
 failed Wesley formed the acquaintance of Coke ; and it must 
 have seemed to the great leader of the Methodists as if, when 
 disappointed of one, Providence had raised him up another 
 coadjutor, and it might be successor. He seems therefore to 
 have considered him more, and yielded more to his influence
 
 WESLEY'S FRIENDS AND HELPERS. 373 
 
 than to that of any one else. But Coke, though he became so 
 great and useful, was a very different man from Fletcher, and it 
 is a matter for regret that Wesley listened so often to his 
 counsels, because, if his zeal was unquestionable, his judgment 
 was not always to be relied on.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 WESLEY'S ORDINATIONS. 
 
 WE have seen that Wesley loved the Church of England, and 
 made many attempts to prevent the growing tendency of his 
 followers to secede from her, and that in 1761 he had sent 
 a circular-letter to fifty clergymen asking them if it would not be 
 possible for them to agree together, or, in other words, to be 
 united, but to this letter he only received three replies. A 
 little earlier in that year he met "several serious clergymen" 
 for the same object, but also in vain. 
 
 We find this entry in his Journal about the same time : " I 
 arrived at Wardale just in time to prevent them turning Dis- 
 senters, which they were on the point of doing;" and in 1766, 
 at Bingley, " I preached with a heavy heart, finding so many of 
 the Methodists here, as well as at Haworth, perverted by the 
 Anabaptists. I see clearer and clearer none will keep to us 
 unless they keep to the Church. Whoever separates from the 
 Church will separate from the Methodists." 
 
 And in 1767 he writes : " I rode to Yarmouth, and found the 
 society had entirely left the Church. I judged it needful to 
 speak largely upon that head. They stood reproved, and 
 resolved, one and all, to go to it again." 
 
 In the following year he wrote a letter to a clergyman who 
 reflected upon the Methodists for calling themselves members 
 of the Church while they had their meeting-house licensed for 
 Dissenters. l The Methodists, said Wesley, had always refused 
 to be called Dissenters when applying to be licensed, and their 
 being called Dissenters in the certificates did not make them 
 1 J. Wedgewood.
 
 WESLEY'S ORDINATIONS. 375 
 
 so. The Act of Toleration indeed refused to recognise any 
 building in which were held other religious meetings than 
 the stated services of the Church as anything else than a 
 Dissenters' meeting-house. 
 
 When Wesley was in his full vigour of mind, at the age of 
 sixty-five, he wrote: "We are in truth so far from being enemies 
 to the Church, that we are rather bigots to it. I dare not, like 
 Mr. Venn, leave the parish church where I am to go to an 
 independent meeting. I advise all over whom I have any 
 influence to keep to the Church." 
 
 "It is certain, then," says Wedgewood, "that Wesley's 
 attachment to the Church did not wear out; and had she 
 recognised him as her servant, and received the Order founded 
 by him within her boundaries, the probability is that he would 
 have been the means of reconquering for her all the ground 
 she had lost in the preceding century, and bringing over into 
 a strenuous and perhaps bigoted devotion to her doctrine and 
 liturgy no small proportion of the nation." And the same 
 writer goes on to say that, in spite of all the opposition he met 
 with from the chief men in the Church, if his Order had been 
 confined to English soil, it is not probable that he would ever 
 have proceeded to the acts which must be considered as 
 definite separation from the Church of England. 
 
 If the scarcity of clerical help troubled Wesley in England, 
 where there were so few Methodist clergymen to administer 
 the Sacraments to his people, and where so often other clergy- 
 men refused to give the Lord's Supper to the poor Methodists, 
 much more was the difficulty felt in America. In 1777 the 
 preachers in the different circuits there were forty in number, 
 and the societies, too, had greatly increased. These were 
 established in towns and settlements so distant that the 
 preachers had to be constantly travelling long journeys to visit 
 them. Prominent among these good men was the zealous 
 Mr. Asbury, who closely followed Wesley's example in de- 
 votedness to the service of God. Now it happened that,
 
 376 JOHN WESLEY 
 
 because of the war and the acquisition of independence by the 
 States, most of the clergy of the Church of England had left 
 the country ; and thus there was no one to baptise the children 
 of the Methodists, nor to administer the Holy Communion. 
 There was no bishop at all in the United States, so that the 
 preachers, even if they wished, could not apply for ordina- 
 tion unless they crossed the Atlantic. A division took place 
 among the societies, some of them wishing to be formed into 
 a regular Church, and some, with Mr. Asbury, being opposed 
 to such a secession. A statement of the greatness of the 
 work, and the division that had taken place, together with the 
 facts that thousands of their children were unbaptised, and the 
 members of the societies in general had not partaken of the 
 Lord's Supper for many years, was drawn up, and sent to 
 Wesley for his consideration. 
 
 Asbury urged Wesley to go over ; that, as we have seen, the 
 latter felt to be impossible. He was then over eighty years 
 old, and in wonderful health and strength ; but he knew it 
 would be fatal to the Methodist cause in England if he went 
 In this emergency he thought of Coke, and accordingly asked 
 him to go; and at the Conference soon afterwards it was 
 decided that Coke, Whatcoat, and Vasey were to be sent out. 
 Six days afterwards Coke wrote to Wesley, asking him to 
 ordain him I suppose as a sort of bishop that when he 
 arrived in America he might proceed to ordain other 
 clergymen. 
 
 Then, doubtless, Wesley's thoughts reverted to what passed 
 in his mind nearly forty years before, when he read Lord 
 King's book, and reflected upon the meaning he there attached 
 to the word presbyter, and what he surmised were the ancient 
 powers of that office. The wishes, the longings so often 
 suppressed, so often struggled with and fought against, that 
 there might be some other means of ordaining clergymen 
 without the sanction of those prelates who shook their heads 
 at Methodism and would have nothing to do with its
 
 WESLEY'S ORDINATIONS. 377 
 
 beneficent work, doubtless returned in overwhelming force 
 upon the old man's mind, which, although stronger than that 
 of most men at his age, might well be weaker than it had 
 been so he consented. Some I know have contradicted this 
 view of the case. Tyerman contends that for nearly forty 
 years Wesley had believed he had a right to ordain other 
 clergymen; but why, if Wesley believed it right to do so 
 before, did not he "lay his hands" on other men, and thus 
 ordain them ? The need for clerical assistance had long been 
 very great; why should he leave what he thought would be 
 such a useful work until he was eighty-one years old? For 
 the sake of the love he bore the Church of England ? Yes ; 
 but we have long seen his love for Methodism was even 
 greater than his love of her. Charles's influence had had 
 much to do with keeping him from that step before, it is true, 
 and now when Wesley consented to ordain these men, his 
 brother was not acquainted with the matter until after the 
 deed had been done. Poor Charles ! the news was a heavy 
 blow to him I 
 
 " After our having continued friends for seventy years, and 
 fellow-labourers for above fifty," he wrote to Dr. Chandler, 
 "can anything but death part us? I can scarcely believe it, 
 that in his eighty-second year my brother, my old intimate 
 friend and companion, should have assumed the Episcopal 
 character, ordained elders, consecrated a bishop, and sent him 
 to ordain our lay-preachers in America. . . . How was he 
 surprised into so rash an action? . . . Lord Mansfield told 
 me last year that ordination was separation. This my brother 
 does not, nor will not see, or that he has renounced the 
 principles and practice of his whole life. Thus our partnership 
 is dissolved, but not our friendship. I have taken him for 
 better or for worse till death do us part, or rather reunite us in 
 love unspeakable. I have lived a little too long that have 
 lived to see this evil day." He then went on to speak of the 
 new Bishop Seabury, whose ordination was recognised by the
 
 378 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 Church of England, and who was ready to ordain any of the 
 Methodist preachers, and ends sadly, " But what are the poor 
 Methodists now ? Only a new sect of Presbyterians ! " 
 
 And to his brother he writes mournfully : " Alas ! what 
 trouble are you preparing for yourself, as well as for me and for 
 your oldest, truest, best friends 1 Before you have quite broken 
 down the bridge, stop and consider. Go to your grave in 
 peace, or at least suffer me to go before this ruin. So much 
 I think you owe to my father, my brother, and to me, as to 
 stay till I am taken from the evil. I am on the brink of the 
 grave. Do not push me in, or embitter my last moments. . . . 
 This letter is a debt to our parents, and to our brothers as well 
 as to you." 
 
 How full of the pathos of a tender spirit which has, when 
 enfeebled by age, sustained a grievous shock, is this letter! 
 and how we sympathise with Charles, who once wrote that he 
 would have left the Methodists and his brothers years ago if 
 he had not known that his influence restrained his brother 
 from taking such a step as this ! And now, after all his trouble 
 for years, the very thing he had striven so hard to prevent had 
 happened ! John had taken upon himself to ordain, and not 
 to ordain a mere clergyman, but a bishop, who was to continue 
 the schism by ordaining others. 
 
 " Perhaps," admits Wesley, in his rather lame reply to his 
 brother's letter, " if you had kept nearer to me I might have 
 done better." 
 
 Charles's answer shows that in his extreme old age he loved the 
 brother who had pained him so deeply as tenderly as ever, 
 and the Church which had been so cold a mother to him. 1 
 
 " T do not understand," he writes, " what obedience to 
 bishops you dread ; they have let us alone to act just as we 
 please for fifty years. At present some of them are quite 
 friendly to us, particularly to you. The churches are all open 
 to you, and never could there be less pretence for a separatioa 
 1 Wedgewooi
 
 WESLEY'S ORDINATIONS. 379 
 
 If I could prove your separation, I would not. But do you 
 not allow that the Doctor has separated ? Do you not know 
 and approve his avowed design to get all the Methodists in the 
 three kingdoms into a separate body, a new Episcopal Church 
 of his own ? You ask, ' What are you frightened at ? ' At 
 the approaching schism, as causeless and unprovoked as the 
 American rebellion; at your own eternal disgrace, and all 
 those frightful evils which your own reasons describe. ... I 
 thank you for your intention of remaining my friend. Herein 
 my heart is as your heart Whom God hath joined let 
 not man put asunder. We have taken each other for 
 better or worse, till death do us part? no, but unite 
 eternally." 
 
 Wesley details a part of his reasons for his conduct in the 
 affair in the letter-testimonial which Dr. Coke carried over 
 with him to the American Conference. It is addressed, " To 
 Dr. Coke, Mr. Asbury, and our Brethren in North America? 
 and is as follows : 
 
 " By a very uncommon train of providences, many of the 
 provinces of North America are totally disjoined from their 
 mother-country, and erected into independent States. The 
 English Government has no authority over them, either civil 
 or ecclesiastical, any more than over the States of Holland. 
 A civil authority is exercised over them, partly by the Con- 
 gress, partly by the provincial assemblies. But no one either 
 exercises or claims any ecclesiastical authority at all. In this 
 peculiar situation some thousands of the inhabitants of these 
 States desire my advice, and in compliance with their desire I 
 have drawn up a little sketch. 
 
 " Lord King's account of the Primitive Church convinced 
 me many years ago that Bishops and Presbyters are the same 
 order, and consequently have the same right to ordain. For 
 many years I have been importuned from time to time to 
 exercise this right, by ordaining part of our travelling preachers. 
 But I have still refused ; not only for peace sake, but because
 
 380 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 I was determined, as little as possible, to violate the established 
 order of the national Church to which I belonged. 
 
 "But the case is widely different between England and 
 North America. Here there are bishops who have a legal 
 jurisdiction. In America there are none, neither any parish 
 ministers; so that for some hundred miles together there is 
 none either to baptise or to administer the Lord's Supper. 
 Here therefore my scruples are at an end, and I conceive 
 myself at full liberty, as I violate no order, and invade no man's 
 rights, by appointing and sending labourers into the harvest 
 
 " I have accordingly appointed Dr. Coke and Mr. Francis 
 Asbury to be joint Superintendents over our brethren in North 
 America; as also Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey to 
 act as Elders among them, by baptising and administering 
 the Lord's Supper. And I have prepared a Liturgy, little 
 differing from that of the Church of England (I think the 
 best-constituted Church in the world), which I advise all the 
 travelling preachers to use on the Lord's day, in all the 
 congregations, reading the Litany only on Wednesdays and 
 Fridays, and praying extempore on all other days. I also 
 advise the Elders to administer the Supper of the Lord on 
 every Lord's day. 
 
 " If any one will point out a more rational and Scriptural 
 way of feeding and guiding those poor sheep in the wilderness, 
 I will gladly embrace it. At present I cannot see any better 
 method than that I have taken. 
 
 " It has indeed been proposed, to desire the English bishops 
 to ordain part of our preachers for America. But to this I object 
 i. I desired the Bishop of London to ordain only one; but 
 could not prevail. 2. If they consented, we know the slowness 
 of their proceedings ; but the matter admits of no delay. 3. 
 If they would ordain them now, they would likewise expect to 
 govern them. And how grievously would this entangle us ? 
 4. As our American brethren are now totally disentangled from 
 the State, and from the English Hierarchy, we dare not
 
 WESLEY'S ORDINATIONS. 381 
 
 entangle them again, either with the one or the other. They 
 are now at full liberty simply to follow the Scriptures and the 
 Primitive Church. And we judge it best, that they should 
 stand fast in that liberty wherewith God has so strangely made 
 them free. "JOHN WESLEY." 
 
 " Before we proceed any further," says Dr. Whitehead, after 
 transcribing for us this letter in his Life of the Rev. John 
 Wesley, "let us pause a moment and inquire how far the 
 general position laid down in this letter as the ground of Mr. 
 Wesley's proceedings, agrees with his practice of ordination. 
 He tells us, 'Lord King's account of the Primitive Church 
 convinced me many years ago that Bishops and Presbyters are 
 the same order, and consequently have the same right to 
 ordain.' But if this were even admitted, would it justify Mr. 
 Wesley's practice on this occasion ? I apprehend not. Let us 
 suppose that Mr. Wesley was as good an rib-K07ros as any in 
 Europe, and Dr. Coke a regular Presbyter ; the position states 
 that they had the same right to ordain. According to this 
 principle, then, Dr. Coke had the same right to ordain Mr. 
 Wesley, that Mr. Wesley had to ordain Dr. Coke ! and conse- 
 quently the Doctor's ordination was null and void to all intents 
 and purposes : or if the Doctor received any right to ordain 
 others, which he had not before, and which the very ceremony 
 of ordination implies, then Mr. Wesley's general position as the 
 ground of his practice is not true. Thus we see that Mr. 
 Wesley's principle and practice in this affair directly oppose 
 each other. If his principle was true, his practice was bad ; if 
 his practice was good, his principle was false ; they cannot both 
 stand good together. It is painful to see him fall into such a 
 dilemma, which we have not seen before in the whole course of 
 his life. When he began the practice of ordaining to the 
 ministry, his brother, Mr. Charles, exclaimed 
 
 " ' 'Twas age that made the breach, not he.' And if we add 
 to this the influence others had over him in this affair, it is 
 perhaps the best apology that can be made for his conduct"
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 WESLEY'S LAST DAYS. 
 
 WESLEY'S mind was set at rest in the last years of his life about 
 his successor, for in the same year as that in which he held 
 his first ordination, 1784, he acted upon a suggestion of his 
 brother's, and caused the future government of the society to 
 devolve, not upon one, but upon many whom he esteemed 
 " the worthiest," for age, experience, talent, and moderation. 
 
 The instrument by which this settlement was effected was 
 called "A Deed of Declaration," and by it one hundred 
 preachers, mentioned by name, were declared to be "The 
 Conference of the People called Methodists." 
 
 " By means of this deed, 1 a legal description was given to 
 the term Conference, and the settlement of the chapels upon 
 trustees was provided for ; so that the appointment of preachers 
 to officiate in them should be vested in the Conference, as it 
 had heretofore been in Mr. Wesley. The deed also declares how 
 the succession and identity of the yearly Conference is to be 
 continued, and contains various regulations as to the choice of 
 a president and secretary, the filling up of vacancies, expulsions, 
 etc. Thus ' the succession,' as it was called in Mr. Charles 
 Wesley's letter, was provided for ; and the Conference, with its 
 president, chosen annually, came into the place of the Founder 
 of the Connexion, and has so continued to the present day. As 
 the whole of the preachers were not included in the deed, and 
 a few who thought themselves equally entitled to be of the 
 hundred preachers who thus formed the legal Conference 
 were excepted, some dissatisfaction arose ; but as all the 
 
 1 Watson.
 
 WESLE Y'S LAST DA YS. 383 
 
 preachers were eligible to be introduced into that body as 
 vacancies occurred, this feeling was but partial and soon 
 subsided All the preachers in full connection were also 
 allowed to vote in the Conference ; and subsequently those 
 who were not of the hundred, but who had been in connection 
 a certain number of years, were permitted by their votes to 
 put the president into nomination for the confirmation of the 
 legal conference. Thus all reasonable ground for mistrust and 
 jealousy was removed from the body of the preachers at large ; 
 and with respect to the hundred preachers themselves, the 
 president being chosen annually, and each being eligible to that 
 honour, efficiency of administration was wisely connected with 
 equality." 
 
 Dr. Whitehead, differing from other biographers of Wesley, 
 was of opinion that this deed was not designed by Wesley, but 
 that he was urged to sign it, and afterwards repented of having 
 done so. 
 
 But whatever errors of judgment Wesley fell into in his latter 
 days, the fact remains that he carried on his hard work with 
 undiminished zeal at a time when most men, if still living, enjoy 
 the repose which is so much needed in the evening of life. 
 
 " Leisure and I," he said once, when in the prime of life, 
 "have taken leave of one another. I propose to be busy as 
 long as I live, if my health is so long indulged to me." 
 
 "Lord, let me not live to be useless," he said once, after 
 seeing one who had been known as an active and useful magis- 
 trate, reduced by age to be alike feeble in mind and body. 
 
 " Wesley," says a biographer, speaking of his old age, " still 
 continued to be the same marvellous old man. No one who 
 saw him, even casually, in his old age, could easily forget his 
 venerable appearance. His face was remarkably fine ; his com- 
 plexion fresh to the last week of his life ; his eye quick and keen 
 and active. When you met him in the street of a crowded city, 
 he attracted notice, not only by his band and cassock, and his 
 long hair, white and bright as silver, but by his pace and
 
 384 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 manner, both indicating that all his minutes were numbered, 
 and that not one was to be lost. ' Though I am always in 
 haste,' he says of himself, ' I am never in a hurry ; because I 
 never undertake any more work than I can go through with 
 calmness of spirit. It is true I travel four or five thousand 
 miles in a year ; but I generally travel alone in my carriage, 1 
 and consequently am as retired ten hours a day as if I were in 
 a wilderness. On other days I never spend less than three 
 hours (frequently ten or twelve) in the day alone. So there 
 are few persons who spend so many hours secluded from all 
 company.' Thus it was that he found time to read much, and 
 write voluminously. After his eightieth year, he went twice to 
 Holland, a country in which Methodism, as Quakerism had 
 done before it, met with a certain degree of success. Upon 
 completing his eighty-second year, he says, ' Is anything too 
 hard for God ? It is now eleven years since I have felt any 
 such thing as weariness. Many times I speak till my voice 
 fails, and I can speak no longer. Frequently I walk till my 
 strength fails, and I can walk no farther ; yet, even then, I feel 
 no sensation of weariness, but am perfectly easy from head to 
 foot. I dare not impute this to natural causes. It is the will 
 of God.' A year afterwards he says, ' I am a wonder to 
 myself ; I am never tired (such is the goodness of God) either 
 with writing, preaching, or travelling. One natural cause, 
 undoubtedly, is my continual exercise and change of air. 
 How the latter contributes to health I know not, but certainly 
 it does.' " 
 
 The learned Dr. Johnson very much enjoyed Wesley's 
 society. He was very intimate with Wesley's clever sister, Mrs. 
 Hall, and he is said to have requested her to procure him an 
 interview with her brother. Mrs. Hall did so, and a day was 
 appointed for him to dine with the Doctor at his residence at 
 Salisbury Court. Dr. Johnson fixed the dinner-hour at two, to 
 
 1 In his sixty-ninth year his friends persuaded him to give up riding, and 
 drive instead.
 
 WESLE Y'S LAST DA VS. 385 
 
 suit Wesley's hours, but it happened that the dinner was not 
 ready till three. They conversed till that time; but Wesley 
 had only set apart two hours to spend with his learned host, 
 and so, as soon as dinner was ended, he rose from the table 
 
 WEStEV AND DR. JOHNSON. 
 
 and departed The Doctor felt extremely disappointed, and 
 could not conceal his mortification. 
 
 " Why, Doctor," said Mrs. Hall, " my brother has been with 
 you two hours." He replied, " Two hours, madam ! I could 
 talk all day, and all night too, with your brother." 
 
 25
 
 386 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 Boswell, too, the biographer of Johnson, says the Doctor 
 observed to him, " John Wesley's conversation is good, but he 
 is never at leisure. He is always obliged to go at a certain 
 hour. This is very disagreeable to a man who loves to fold 
 his legs and have his talk out as I do." 
 
 Wesley and Howard, the prison philanthropist, very much 
 admired each other. Howard called upon Wesley in Ireland 
 in 1785. Wesley, after that visit, declared him "to be one 
 of the greatest men in Europe," adding, " nothing but the 
 power of God can enable him to go through his difficult and 
 dangerous employments." 
 
 And Howard said of Wesley, "I was encouraged by him to 
 go on vigorously with my own designs. I saw in him how 
 much a single man might achieve by zeal and perseverance : 
 and I thought why may I not do as much in my way as Mr. 
 Wesley in his, if I am only as assiduous and persevering? 
 And I am determined to pursue my work with more alacrity 
 than ever." 
 
 Howard had heard Wesley preach years before on " What 
 ever thy hand findeth to do," etc., and the sermon had made a 
 powerful impression on his mind, and greatly influenced his 
 conduct 1 
 
 " In the biography of Crabbe, 1 his son gives a brief scene in 
 the last days of John Wesley. At Lowestoft, one evening, all 
 adjourned to a dissenting chapel to hear the venerable John 
 Wesley, then on one of the latter of his peregrinations. He 
 was exceedingly old and infirm, and was attended and 
 almost supported in the pulpit by a young minister on each 
 side. The chapel was crowded to suffocation. 
 
 " In the course of his sermon Mr. Wesley repeated, though 
 with an application of his own, the lines from Anacreon 
 
 " ' Oft am I by woman told, 
 
 Poor Anacreon 1 thou grow'st old. 
 
 1 Anecdotes of the Wesley s.
 
 WESLE Y'S LAST DA YS. 387 
 
 See, thine hairs are falling all ; 
 Poor Anacreon ! how they fall 1 
 Whether I grow old or no, 
 By these signs I do not know ; 
 But this I need not to be told, 
 "Tis time to live if I grow old.' 
 
 " My father was much struck by his reverend appearance, 
 his cheerful air, and the beautiful cadence he gave to those 
 lines. After the service he was introduced to the patriarch, 
 who received him with benevolent politeness." 
 
 Once, as the old man was going to mount into his pulpit, 
 he found a little child had perched herself upon the pulpit 
 steps, and as he lifted her out of his way he kissed her; 
 and we are told that simple loving action melted the heart of 
 a papist who had come to hear him preach, and led to his 
 conversion. 
 
 The children loved Wesley, and crowded round him in the 
 streets, longing to have a touch of his kind hand, or a smile 
 from his benevolent face. 
 
 In his eighty-fourth year he began to feel decay ; and upon 
 commencing his eighty-fifth, he writes : 
 
 " I am not so agile as I was in times past ; I do not run or 
 walk so fast as I did. My sight is a little decayed. My left 
 eye is grown dim, and hardly serves me to read. I have 
 daily some pain in the ball of my right eye, as also in 
 my right temple (occasioned by a blow received some 
 months since), and in my right shoulder and arm, which I 
 impute partly to a sprain and partly to the rheumatism. I 
 find likewise some decay in my memory with regard to names 
 and things lately past; but not at all with regard to what I 
 have read or heard twenty, forty, or sixty years ago. Neither 
 do I find decay in my hearing, smell, taste, or appetite (though 
 I want but a third part of the food I did once), nor do I feel 
 any such thing as weariness, either in travelling or preaching. 
 And I am not conscious of any decay in writing sermons,
 
 388 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 which I do as readily, and, I believe, as correctly as ever. 
 Even now, though I find pain daily in my eye, temple, or arm, 
 yet it is never violent, and seldom lasts many minutes at a 
 time. 
 
 "Whether or not this is sent to give me warning that I am 
 shortly to quit this tabernacle, I do not know; but, be it one 
 way or the other, I have only to say 
 
 " My remnant of days, 
 
 I'll spend to His praise, 
 Who died the whole world to redeem ; 
 
 Be they many or few, 
 
 My days are His due, 
 And they all are devoted to Him ! " 
 
 In 1788 Wesley lost his brother Charles, who for so many 
 years had been his zealous coadjutor, and always his faithful 
 and affectionate friend. And though they had differed much 
 in their opinions latterly, that had not affected their intense 
 love for one another. 
 
 Charles had attained to his eightieth year, but he had been 
 a valetudinarian through the greater part of his life ; in con- 
 sequence, it was believed, of having injured his constitution by 
 close application and excessive abstinence at Oxford. He had 
 always dreaded the act of dying, and his prayer was that the 
 Almighty would give him patience and an easy death. His 
 wish was granted ; the powers of life being worn out, without 
 any disease, he fell asleep. He had desired that he might 
 not be buried in his brother's burying-ground, because it 
 was not consecrated, and so he was interred in tne church- 
 yard of Marylebone, the parish in which he dwelt; and his 
 pall was supported by eight clergymen of the Church of 
 England. 
 
 It was not Wesley's way to tell the deep sorrows of his 
 heart ; but he deeply felt his brother's death. A fortnight 
 afterwards, when at Bolton, he attempted to give out, as his
 
 WESLE VS LAST DA YS. 389 
 
 second hymn, the one beginning with the words, " Come, O 
 Thou traveller unknown," but when he came to the lines 
 
 " My company before is gone, 
 And I am left alone with Thee," 
 
 the bereaved old man sunk beneath his uncontrollabla emotion, 
 burst into a flood of tears, sat down in the pulpit, and hid his 
 face in his hands. The singing ceased, and a very touching 
 scene ensued, for the crowded congregation sympathised 
 keenly with their aged minister. At length, recovering himself, 
 Wesley rose again, and went through a service which was 
 never forgotten by those who were present 
 
 The following is the quaint obituary published in the 
 Conference minutes : 
 
 " Mr. Charles Wesley, who, after spending fourscore years, 
 with much sorrow and pain, quietly retired into Abraham's 
 bosom. He had no disease; but after a gradual decay of 
 some months, 
 
 ' The weary wheels of life stood still at las*.' 
 
 His least praise was his talent for poetry ; although Dr. Watts 
 did not scruple to say that that single poem, 'Wrestling 
 Jacob,' was worth all the verses he himself had written." 
 
 It was reported that Charles had said his brother would not 
 outlive him more than a year, and he may well have said it, 
 for John was indeed drawing near to the grave. His Journal 
 contains touching references to his failing powers. Upon his 
 eighty-sixth birthday, he says : 
 
 "I now find I grow old. My sight is decayed, so that I 
 cannot read a small print, unless in a strong light My 
 strength is decayed, so that I walk much slower than I did 
 some years since. My memory of names, whether of persons 
 or places, is decayed, till I stop a little to recollect them. 
 What I should be afraid of is, if I took thought for the 
 morrow, that my body should weigh down my mind, and
 
 390 JOHN WESLE Y. 
 
 create either stubbornness, by the decrease of my understand- 
 ing, or peevishness, by the increase of bodily infirmities. But 
 Ttiou shall answer for me, O Lord, my God 1 " 
 
 In the year 1788 he published a volume entitled the 
 Sunday Service of the Methodists, which was in reality an altered 
 edition of the Prayer-book of the Church of England. Many 
 of the alterations were such as in his younger and more capable 
 days he would never have thought of making, and they would 
 have deeply grieved his more consistent brother, so opposed are 
 they to the whole spirit of the Church of England. And yet in 
 the minutes of the Conference for that year it is recorded : 
 
 "The sum of a long conversation was that, in a course of 
 fifty years, we had neither premeditately nor willingly varied 
 from it in one article, either of doctrine or of discipline ; (2) 
 That we were not yet conscious of varying from it in any point 
 of doctrine." 
 
 Wesley's strength was now so greatly diminished that he 
 found it difficult to preach more than twice a day; and for 
 many weeks he abstained from his five o'clock morning 
 sermons, because a slow and settled fever parched his mouth. 
 Finding himself a little better, he resumed the practice, and 
 hoped to hold on a little longer, but in the beginning of the 
 year 1790, he writes : 
 
 " I am now an old man, decayed from head to foot. My 
 eyes are dim ; my right hand shakes much. ... However, 
 blessed be God 1 I do not slack my labours. I can preach and 
 write still." 
 
 In June he wrote the following letter to a Bishop, whose 
 name has not been published : 
 
 "Mv LORD, It may seem strange that one who is not 
 acquainted with your lordship should trouble you with a 
 letter. But I am constrained to do it ; I believe it is my duty 
 both to God and your lordship. And I must speak plain, 
 having nothing to hope or fear in this world, which I am on 
 the point of leaving.
 
 WESLE Y'S LAST DA YS. 39 1 
 
 " The Methodists in general, my lord, are members of the 
 Church of England. They hold all her doctrines, attend her 
 service, and partake of her sacraments. They do not willingly 
 do harm to any one, but do what good they can to all To 
 encourage each other herein, they frequently spend an houi 
 together in prayer and mutual exhortation. Permit me then 
 to ask, ' Cui bona ? for what reasonable end would your lord- 
 ship drive these people out of the Church ? ' Your lordship 
 does, and that in the most cruel manner ; yea, and the most 
 disingenuous manner. They desire a licence to worship God 
 after their own conscience. Your lordship refuses it, and then 
 punishes them for not having a licence I So your lordship 
 leaves them only this alternative, 'Leave the Church or 
 starve.' And is it a Christian, yea a Protestant bishop, that so 
 persecutes his own flock ? I say persecutes; for it is persecu- 
 tion, to all intents and purposes. You do not burn them, 
 indeed, but you starve them, and how small is the difference ! 
 And your lordship does this under colour of a vile, execrable 
 law, not a whit better than that de Juzretico comburendo / So 
 persecution, which is banished out of France, is again coun- 
 tenanced in England ! 
 
 "O my lord, for God's sake, for Christ's sake, for pity's 
 sake, suffer the poor people to enjoy their religious as well as 
 civil liberty ! I am on the brink of eternity ! Perhaps so is 
 your lordship too ! How soon may you also be called to give 
 an account of your stewardship to the great Shepherd and 
 Bishop of our souls ! May He enable both you and me to do 
 it with joy! So prays, my lord, your lordship's dutiful son 
 and servant, 
 
 " JOHN WESLEY." 
 
 What has been called Wesley's dying manifesto on separa 
 tion from the Established Church appeared in the number of 
 the Methodist Magazine for April 1790. 
 
 After stating that, next to the Primitive Church, he had 
 from childhood esteemed the Church of England as the most
 
 392 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 scriptural, national Church in the world, and had, therefore 
 not only assented to all the doctrines, but observed all the 
 rubric in the liturgy, and that with all possible exactness, even 
 at the peril of his life ; he goes on to give a history of the rise 
 of Methodism, and of his own irregularities^ and ends thus : 
 
 " I never had any design of separating from the Church. I 
 have no such design now. I do not believe the Methodists 
 in general design it, when I am no more seen. I do, and will 
 do, all that is in my power to prevent such an event. Never- 
 theless, in spite of all that I can do, many of them will separate 
 from it (although I am apt to think not one-half, perhaps not 
 one-third of them). These will be so bold and injudicious as 
 to form a separate party. In flat opposition to these, I declare 
 once more that I live and die a member of the Church of 
 England, and that none who regard my judgment or advice 
 will ever separate from it." 
 
 To the same effect was his sermon on " No man taketh this 
 honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was 
 Aaron," which was written at Cork in May 1789, and pub- 
 lished in his magazine twelve months afterwards. In it he 
 maintains that in ancient times the offices of priest and 
 preacher were quite distinct 
 
 "Priests were not preachers; and preachers, or prophets, 
 were not priests. He argues that in the New Testament the 
 office of an evangelist is not the same as that of a pastor. 
 Pastors presided over the flock, and administered the sacra- 
 ments ; evangelists helped them and preached the word." 1 
 After asserting that the same distinction is recognised in the 
 English, Presbyterian, and Roman Churches, he comes to 
 Methodism, and tells his readers that Methodist itinerant 
 preachers are evangelists, not pastors, and that their work is 
 solely to preach, not to administer sacraments. His address 
 to them is worth quoting : 
 
 " God has commissioned you to call sinners to repentance ; 
 1 Tyerman.
 
 WESLE Y'S LAST DA YS. 393 
 
 but it does by no means follow from hence that ye are 
 commissioned to baptise or to administer the Lord's Supper. 
 Ye never dreamt of this for ten or twenty years after ye began 
 to preach. Ye did not then, like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, 
 seek the priesthood also. Ye knew ' No man taketh this honour 
 unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.' 
 O contain yourself within your own bounds. Be content with 
 preaching the Gospel. Do the work of evangelists. I earnestly 
 advise you, abide in your place ; keep your own station. Ye 
 were, fifty years ago, those of you that were then Methodist 
 preachers, extraordinary messengers of God, not going in 
 your own will, but thrust out, not to supersede, but to 
 provoke to jealousy the ordinary messengers. In God's name, 
 stop there ! Both by your preaching and example provoke 
 them to love and good works. ... Be Church of England 
 men still. Do not cast away the peculiar glory which God 
 hath put upon you, and frustrate the design of Providence 
 the very end for which God raised you up." 
 
 Then, trying to vindicate himself from the charge of incon- 
 sistency, he says, " The generality of people naturally think, ' 1 
 am inconsistent' And they cannot but think, unless they 
 observe my two principles the one, that I dare not separate 
 from the Church, that I believe it would be a sin so to do ; the 
 other, that I believe it would be a sin not to vary from it in the 
 points above mentioned. I say, put these two principles 
 together, first, I will not separate from the Church; yet, 
 secondly, in cases of necessity, I will vary from it ; and incon- 
 sistency vanishes away. I have been true to my convictions 
 from 1730 to this day. 
 
 We give the words as we find them, and will only remark 
 that the aged man could not then see the inconsistency between 
 his precepts and his practice in his old age. 
 
 On the 28th of June 1790, he wrote in his Journal : 
 
 " This day I enter into my eighty-eighth year. For above 
 eighty-six years I found none of the infirmities of old age 
 
 25*
 
 394 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 my eyes did not wax dim; neither was my natural strength 
 abated. But last August 1 found almost a sudden change; 
 my eyes were so dim that no glasses could help me. My 
 strength also now quite forsook me, and probably will not 
 return in this world, but I feel no pain from head to foot; 
 only it seems nature is exhausted, and, humanly speaking, will 
 sink more and more, till 
 
 ' The weary springs of life stand still at last.' " 
 
 Henry Crabbe Robinson heard him preach in his old age, 
 and thus describes the scene : 
 
 "It was, I believe, in October 1790, that I heard John 
 Wesley in the great round meeting-house at Colchester. He 
 stood in a wide pulpit, and on each side of him stood a 
 minister, and the two held him up, having their hands under 
 his armpits. His feeble voice was barely audible, but his 
 reverend countenance, especially his long white locks, formed 
 a picture never to be forgotten. There was a vast crowd of 
 lovers and admirers. It was for the most part a pantomime, 
 but the pantomime went to the heart. Of the kind, I never 
 saw anything comparable to it in after-life." 
 
 And in a letter, dated October i8th, 1790, the same narrator 
 says 
 
 " I felt great satisfaction last week in hearing that veteran 
 in the service of God, the Rev. John Wesley. At another 
 time, and not knowing the man, I should almost have ridiculed 
 his figure. Far from it now. I looked upon him with a 
 respect bordering upon enthusiasm. After the people had 
 sung one verse of a hymn, he arose and said : ' It gives 
 me a great pleasure to find that you have not lost your 
 singing; neither men nor women. You have not forgotten 
 a single note. And I hope by the assistance of God, which 
 enables you to sing well, you may do all other things well.' 
 A universal ' Amen ' followed. At the end of every head 
 or division of his sermon, he finished by a kind of prayer,
 
 WESLE Y'S LAST DA YS. 395 
 
 a momentary wish, as it were, not consisting of more than three 
 or four words, which was always followed by a universal 
 buzz. His discourse was short The text I could not hear. 
 After a long prayer, he rose up and addressed the people 
 on liberality of sentiment, and spoke much against refusing 
 to join with any congregation on account of difference in 
 opinion."
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 WESLEY'S DEATH. 
 
 WESLEY'S last sermon was preached on February 23rd, 1791, 
 at Leatherhead (eighteen miles from London), in a magistrate's 
 dining-room, from the text, "Seek ye the Lord while He may 
 be found ; call upon Him while He is near." 
 
 Two days afterwards, when he was brought home to City 
 Road, he went upstairs, and asked that for half-an-hour he 
 should be left alone. When the time expired, Joseph Bradford 
 found him so ill that he sent for Dr. Whitehead. 
 
 " Doctor," said the dying patriarch, " they are more afraid 
 than hurt" 
 
 The next day he slept a great deal, and was very drowsy. 
 On the following morning (Sunday) he seemed better, got up, 
 sat in his chair, looking cheerful, and repeated from one of his 
 brother's hymns 
 
 " Till glad I lay this body down, 
 Thy servant, Lord, attend ; 
 And oh I my life of mercy crown 
 With a triumphant end ! " 
 
 And then, soon after, with marked emphasis, he said, " Our 
 friend Lazarus sleepeth." His niece, Miss Wesley, and Miss 
 Ritchie prayed with him. "When at Bristol," said he, in 
 allusion to his visit there in 1753, "my words were 
 
 ' I the chief of sinners am, 
 But Jesus died for me ! ' " 
 
 " Is that your language now ? " asked Miss Ritchie. 
 
 " Yes," he replied ; " Christ is all ! He is all ! " He then
 
 398 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 dozed, and sometimes his mind wandered, and then he was 
 always preaching or meeting classes. 
 
 Most of the next day he slept, but once he was heard saying 
 in a low, distinct voice 
 
 "There is no way into the holiest but by the blood of 
 Jesus." Then, referring to the text, " Ye know the grace of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich," etc., he 
 remarked, " That is the foundation, the only foundation, and 
 there is no other." 
 
 His friends began to fear that he was beginning to sleep his 
 last sleep, and Joseph Bradford, who was devoted to him, 
 despatched notes to the preachers in the following terms : 
 
 " February 27*%, 1791. 
 
 "DEAR BROTHER, Mr. Wesley is very ill: pray 1 pray! 
 pray! 
 
 " I am, your affectionate brother, 
 
 "JOSEPH BRADFORD." 
 
 But Wesley's work was ended. On Tuesday, March ist, 
 after a restless night, some one asked him if he suffered pain, 
 to which he replied in the negative, and began singing 
 
 " All glory to God in the sky, 
 
 And peace upon earth be restored I 
 O Jesus, exalted on high, 
 
 Appear our omnipotent Lord. 
 Who meanly in Bethlehem born, 
 
 Didst stoop to redeem a lost race, 
 Once more to Thy people return, 
 
 And reign in Thy kingdom of grace. " 
 
 At the end of the second verse he lay still, as if to recover 
 breath. 
 
 " I want to write," said he. 
 
 A pen was put into his hand and paper was placed before 
 him, but he could not do it ; his hand had lost its cunning. 
 
 " I cannot," said the dying man.
 
 WESLEY 1 S DEATH. 399 
 
 " Let me write for you ! " said Miss Ritchie. " Tell me what 
 
 you wish to say." 
 
 " Nothing," was the reply, " but that God is with us." 
 
 " I will get up," said he; and whilst they arranged his clothes, 
 
 he broke out singing in a manner which astonished all who 
 
 were about him 
 
 " I'll praise my Maker while I've breath, 
 And when my voice is lost in death, 
 
 Praise shall employ my nobler powers : 
 My days of praise shall ne'er be past, 
 While life, and thought, and being last, 
 
 Or immortality endures. 
 
 Happy the man whose hopes rely 
 On Israel's God ; He made the sky, 
 
 And earth and seas, with all their train ; 
 His truth for ever stands secure, 
 He saves the oppressed, He feeds the poor, 
 
 And none shall find His promise vain." 
 
 Once more seated in his chair, he said in a weak voice: 
 " Lord, Thou givest strength to those who can speak and to 
 those who cannot. Speak, Lord, to all our hearts, and let them 
 know that Thou loosest tongues." 
 
 And then he sang 
 
 " To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
 Who sweetly all agree. " 
 
 Here his voice failed After gasping for breath he said, 
 " Now, we have done all." 
 
 He was then laid on the bed from whence he rose no 
 more. 1 After resting a little, he called to those who were 
 with him to " Pray and praise." Soon after he said, " Let 
 me be buried in nothing but what is woollen, and let ray 
 corpse be carried in my coffin into the chapel." 
 
 1 Whitehead's Life of the Rev. John Wesley.
 
 400 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 Again calling upon them to pray and praise, he took each 
 by the hand, and, affectionately saluting them, bade them 
 farewell 
 
 After attempting to say something which they could not 
 understand, he paused a little, and then, with all the remaining 
 strength he had, said 
 
 " The best of all is, God is with us." 
 
 And again, lifting his hand, he repeated the same words in 
 holy triumph 
 
 " The best of all is, God is with us." 
 
 Being told that his brother's widow had come, he said, 
 " He giveth His servants rest ; " thanked her as she pressed 
 his hand, and affectionately tried to kiss her. 
 
 After they had moistened his lips he repeated his usual 
 grace after a meal "We thank Thee, O Lord, for these and 
 all Thy mercies \ bless the Church and King, grant us truth 
 and peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
 And, after a little pause, " The clouds drop fatness. The 
 Lord is with us ; the God of Jacob is our refuge." He then 
 called to them to pray, and seemed to join fervently in their 
 petitions. 
 
 Most of the following night he repeatedly tried to repeat the 
 hymn he had sung, but could only say, " I'll praise, I'll 
 praise." 
 
 On Wednesday morning his end was near. Joseph Bradford 
 prayed with him about ten o'clock in the morning, whilst 
 eleven friends knelt round the bed. 
 
 " Farewell," said the dying man ; and it was the last word 
 he spoke. 
 
 Immediately after, without a groan or a sigh, he passed 
 away. His friends stood round his bed and sang 
 
 " Waiting to receive thy spirit, 
 
 Lo ! the Saviour stands above ; 
 Shows the purchase of His merit, 
 Reaches out the crown of love."
 
 402 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 It was on March 2nd, 1791, that Wesley died, and he was 
 in the eighty-eighth year of his life, and had been sixty-five 
 years " in the ministry." 
 
 His remains were interred behind the Chapel in City Road, 
 on the gth of March. So great was the excitement about his 
 death, that, in order to prevent too great a crowd, it was 
 arranged just at the last that the funeral should take place at 
 five o'clock in the morning. Even then hundreds attended, 
 and the burial must have been a very solemn and imposing sight. 
 
 The following inscription was put upon Wesley's tomb : 
 
 "TO THE MEMORY OF 
 THE VENERABLE JOHN WESLEY, A.M., 
 LATE FELLOW OF LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 THIS GREAT LIGHT AROSE 
 (BY THE SINGULAR PROVIDENCE OF GOD) 
 
 TO ENLIGHTEN THESE NATIONS, 
 
 AND TO REVIVE, ENFORCE, AND DEFEND, 
 
 THE PURE, APOSTOLICAL DOCTRINES AND PRACTICES OF 
 
 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH : 
 WHICH HE CONTINUED TO DO, BY HIS WRITINGS AND HIS 
 
 LABOURS, 
 FOR MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY ; 
 
 AND TO HIS INEXPRESSIBLE JOY, 
 NOT ONLY BEHELD THEIR INFLUENCE EXTENDING, 
 
 AND THEIR EFFICACY WITNESSED, 
 
 IN THE HEARTS AND LIVES OF MANY THOUSANDS, 
 
 AS WELL IN THE WESTERN WORLD AS IN THESE KINGDOMS ; 
 
 BUT ALSO, FAR ABOVE ALL HUMAN POWER OR EXPECTATION, 
 
 LIVED TO SEE PROVISION MADE BY THE SINGULAR GRACE OF GOD 
 
 FOR THEIR CONTINUANCE AND ESTABLISHMENT, 
 
 TO THE JOY OF FUTURE GENERATIONS I 
 READER, IF THOU ART CONSTRAINED TO BLESS THE INSTRUMENT, 
 
 GIVE GOD THE GLORY. 
 
 AFTER HAVING LANGUISHED A FEW DAYS, HE, AT LENGTH, 
 
 FINISHED HIS COURSE AND HIS LIFE TOGETHER ; GLORIOUSLY 
 
 TRIUMPHING OVER DEATH, MARCH 2, AN. DOM. 1791, IN THH 
 
 EIGHTY-EIGHTH YEAR OF HIS AGE."
 
 WESLEY'S MONUMENT.
 
 4 o 4 JOHN WESLEY. 
 
 A marble tablet, bearing a well-executed group in relief, and 
 also medallion portraits of John and Charles Wesley, has now 
 been (very properly) placed in the south aisle of Westminster 
 Abbey. And so, as Tyerman aptly says : 
 
 "Thus the wheel turns round. One hundred and thirty 
 years ago, Wesley was shut out of every church in England ; 
 now marble medallion profiles of himself and his brother, 
 accompanied with suitable inscriptions, are deemed deserving 
 of a niche in England's grandest cathedral. The man who, a 
 century ago, was the best-abused man in the British Isles, is 
 now hardly ever mentioned but with affectionate respect. . . ." 
 
 And the judgment of Southey is tacitly confirmed : 
 
 " I consider Wesley as the most influential mind of the last 
 century, the man who will have produced the greatest effects 
 centuries, or perhaps millenniums hence, if the present race of 
 men should continue so long." 
 
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 26. The Gentle Art of Nursing the Sick. 
 
 27. The Care of Infants and Young Children. 
 
 28. Invalid Feeding, with Hints on Diet. 
 
 29. Everyrday Ailments, and How to Treat Them. 
 
 30. Thrifty Housekeeping. 
 
 31. Home Cooking. 
 
 32. Flowers and Flower Culture. 
 
 33. Sleep and Sleeplessness. 
 
 34. The Story of Life. 
 
 35. Household Nursing. 
 
 36. The Ear, and Ear Troubles. 
 
 THE WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING CO., LTD., 
 LONDON" AND FELLING-ON-TYNE.
 
 *fhe Music Story Series. 
 
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 THE STORY OF ORATORIO. By ANNIE W. PATTER- 
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 THE STORY OF THE ORGAN. By C. F. ABDY 
 
 WILLIAMS, M.A., Author of "Bach" and "Handel" ("Master 
 Musicians' Series "). 
 
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 THE STORY OF ENGLISH MUSIC (1604-1904): being the 
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 THE STORY OF MINSTRELSY. By EDMONDSTOUNE 
 
 DUNCAN. 
 THE STORY OF MUSICAL FORM. By CLARENCE 
 
 LUCAS. 
 THE STORY OF OPERA. By E. MARKHAM LEE, Mus. 
 
 Dec. 
 
 IN PREPARATION. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE PIANOFORTE. By ALGERNON S. 
 
 ROSE, Author of "Talks with Bandsmen." 
 
 THE STORY OF MUSICAL SOUND. By CHURCHILL 
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 Musicians' Wit, Humour, and 
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 BEING ON DITS OF COMPOSERS, SINGERS, AND 
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 "A remarkable collection of good stories which must have taken years 
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 adequate sense of the comic." Globe. 
 
 olstoy : His Life and Works. 
 
 
 By JOHN C. KENWORTHY, 
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 Birnaby Radge 1 
 Old Curiosity Shop 
 
 Caudle's Lectures 
 Jack Hinton 
 
 The Days of Brnes 
 The Vale of CuiUrs 
 
 Pickwick Papers 
 
 Bret Harte 
 
 Hunchback of Notre 
 
 Nicholas Nickleby 
 
 Ingoldsby Legends 
 
 Vashti I Da ma 
 
 Oliver Twist 
 
 Handy Andy 
 
 The Caxtons 
 
 Martin Chnzzlewit 
 
 Lewis Aruudel 
 
 Harold, Last of the 
 
 Sketches by i>oz 
 
 Guy Mannering 
 
 Saxon Kings 
 
 Olive 
 
 Rob Boy 
 
 Toilers of the Sea 
 
 The Ogilvies 
 
 Fortunes of Nigel 
 
 What Can She DoT 
 
 Ivan hoe 
 
 Man in the Iron Mask 
 
 New Border Tales 
 
 Kenilvrortb 
 
 Great Composers 
 
 Frank Fairlej-h 
 
 Jacob Faithful 
 
 Louise du la Valiiere 
 
 Zanoni 
 
 Peter Simple 
 
 Great Painters 
 
 Macaria 
 
 Paul Clifford 
 
 Rorv O'More 
 
 Inez 
 
 Eugene Aram 
 
 Arabian Nights 
 
 Conduct and Duty 
 
 Ernest Mall ravers 
 
 Swiss Family Robinson 
 
 Windsor Castle 
 
 Alice ; or, The Mys- 
 
 Andersen's Fairy Tales 
 
 Hard Times 
 
 teries 
 
 Three Musketeers 
 
 Tower of London 
 
 Rienzi 
 
 Twenty Years After 
 
 John Halifax, Gentle 
 
 Pelham 
 
 Vicoiute de Bragelonne 
 
 Westward Ho ! [man 
 
 The Last Days of 
 
 Monte Cristo Dantes 
 
 Lavengro 
 
 Pompeii 
 
 ,, Revengeof Dantes 
 
 It is Never Too Late 
 
 The Scottish Chiufa 
 
 The Newcoines 
 
 to Mend 
 
 Wilson's Tales 
 
 Life of Robert Moffat 
 
 Two Years Ago 
 
 The Fair God 
 
 Life of Gladstone 
 
 In His Steps 
 
 Miss Beresford's 
 
 Cranford 
 
 CruciHxion of Phillip 
 
 Mystery 
 
 North and South 
 
 Strong 
 
 A Mountain Daisy 
 
 Life of Gen. Gordon 
 
 His Brother's Keepei 
 
 Hazel ; or, Perilpoint 
 
 Lincoln and Garfleld 
 
 Robert Hardy's Seven 
 
 Lighthouse 
 
 Great Modern Women 
 
 Days, and Malcoir 
 
 Vicar of Wakefleld 
 
 Henry Esmond 
 
 Kirk (in 1 voL) 
 
 Prince of the House 
 
 Alton Locke 
 
 Richard Bruce 
 
 of David 
 
 Life of Livingstone 
 
 The Twentieth Door 
 
 Wide, Wide World 
 
 Life of Grace Darling 
 
 House of the Seven 
 
 Village Tales 
 
 White's Selborne 
 
 Gables 
 
 Ben-Hur 
 
 Tales of the Covenanters 
 
 Elsie Venner 
 
 Uncle Tom's Cabin 
 
 Barriers Burned Away 
 
 The Romany Rye 
 
 Robinson Crusoe 
 
 Opening a ChestnutBurr 
 
 Little Don-it 
 
 The White Slave 
 
 Pentleuuis 
 
 The Scarlet Letter 
 
 Charles O'Malley 
 
 David Copperfleld 
 
 Mary Barton 
 
 Midshipman Easy 
 
 Luck of Barry Lyndon 
 
 Home Influence 
 
 Bride of Lammermoor 
 
 St. Elmo 
 
 The Mother's Recom- 
 
 H eart of Midlothian 
 
 Son of Portbos 
 
 pense 
 
 Last of the Barons 
 
 Stanley and Africa 
 
 Tennyson's Poems 
 
 Old Mortality 
 Tom Cringle's Log 
 
 Life of Wesley 
 Life of Spur}ieon 
 
 Harry Coverdale's 
 Courtship 
 
 Cruise of the Midge 
 
 For Lust of Gold 
 
 The Biiile in Spain 
 
 Colleen Lawn 
 
 Wooing of Webster 
 
 Handbook of .House- 
 
 Valentine Vox 
 
 At the Mercy of Ti- 
 
 keeping 
 
 N>ght and Morning 
 
 berius 
 
 The Dead Secret 
 
 Bunyan 
 
 Countess of Rudolstadt 
 
 Queen Victoria 
 
 Foxe's Book of Mar- 
 
 Consuelo 
 
 Martin Rattler 
 
 tyrs 
 
 Two Years before the 
 
 Ungava 
 
 Mansfield Park 
 
 Mast 
 
 The Coral Island 
 
 Last of the Mohicans 
 
 Fair Maid of Perth 
 
 Adam Bede 
 
 Poor Jack 
 
 Peveril of the Peak 
 
 The Young Fur-Traders 
 
 The Lamplighter 
 
 Shirley 
 
 The Virginians 
 
 Jane Kyre 
 
 Queechy 
 
 A Tale of Two Cities 
 
 Pillar of Fire 
 
 Naomi; or, the Last 
 
 Scenes of Clerical Life 
 
 Throne of David 
 
 Days of Jerusalem 
 
 The Mill on tiie l-'loss 
 
 Dombey and Son 
 
 Little Women aud 
 
 Danesbury House 
 
 Vanity Fair 
 
 Good Wives 
 
 A Life for a Life 
 
 lufelice 
 
 Hypatia 
 
 Christmas Books 
 
 Buulah 
 
 Viliette 
 
 Tom Brown'sSchoohlays 
 
 Harry Lorrequer 
 
 Ruth 
 
 Grimm's Fairy Tales 
 
 Essays of Eiia 
 
 Agatha's Husband 
 
 Kast Lynne [Stress 
 
 Sheridan's Plays 
 
 Head of the Family 
 
 Through Storm and 
 
 Waverley 
 
 Uld Helmet 
 
 The Channings 
 
 Quentin Durward 
 
 Bleak House 
 
 Old St. Paul's [Hearth 
 
 Talisman 
 
 Cecil Dreeme 
 
 The Cloister and the 
 
 From Jest to Earnest 
 
 Melbourne House 
 
 Mrs. Halliburtou's 
 
 Knight of 19th Century 
 
 Wuthering Heights 
 
 Troubles.
 
 Crown 8vo, about 350 pp. each, Cloth Corer, 2/6 per VoL; 
 Half- Polished Morocco, Gilt Top, 5&. 
 
 Count Tolstoy's Works. 
 
 The following Volumes are already issued 
 
 A RUSSIAN PROPRIETOR. 
 
 THE COSSACKS. 
 
 IVAN ILYITCH, AND OTHER 
 
 STORIES. 
 MY RELIGION. 
 LIFE. 
 
 MY CONFESSION. 
 CHILDHOOD, BOYHOOD, 
 
 YOUTH. 
 
 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WAR. 
 ANNA KAREN1NA. 3/6. 
 
 WHAT TO DO ? 
 
 WAR AND PEACE. (4 vols.) 
 
 THE LONG EXILE, ETC, 
 
 SEVASTOPOL. 
 
 THE KREUTZER SONATA, AND 
 
 FAMILY HAPPINESS. 
 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS 
 
 WITHIN YOU. 
 WORK WHILE YE HAVE TH3 
 
 LIGHT. 
 THE GOSPEL IN BRIEF. 
 
 Uniform with the above 
 IMPRESSIONS OF RUSSIA. By Dr. GEORG BRANDES.' 
 
 Post 410, Cloth, Price is. 
 
 PATRIOTISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 To which is appended a Reply to Criticisms of the Work. 
 
 By COUNT TOLSTOY. 
 
 i/- Booklets by Count Tolstoy. 
 
 Bound in White Grained Boards, with Gilt Lettering. 
 
 WHERE LOVE IS, THERE GOD 
 
 IS ALSO. 
 
 THE TWO PILGRIMS. 
 WHAT MEN LIVE BY. 
 
 THE GODSON. 
 
 IF YOU NEG-LECT THE FIRE, 
 
 YOU DON'T PUT IT OUT. 
 WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN ? 
 
 2/- Booklets by Count Tolstoy. 
 
 NEW EDITIONS, REVISED. 
 
 Small I2mo, Cloth, with Embossed Design on Cover, each containing 
 
 Two Stories by Count Tolstoy, and Two Drawings by 
 
 H. R. Millar. In Box, Price 2s. each. 
 
 Volume I. contains 
 
 WHERE LOVE IS, THERE GOD 
 
 IS ALSO. 
 THE GODSON. 
 
 Volume II. contains 
 
 WHAT MEN LIVE BY. 
 
 WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A 
 
 MAN? 
 
 Volume III. contains 
 THE TWO PILGRIMS. 
 IF YOU NEGLECT THE FIRE, 
 
 YOU DON'T PUT IT OUT. 
 
 Volume IV. contains 
 
 MASTER AND MAN. 
 
 Volume V. contains 
 TOLSTOY'S PARABLES. 
 
 THS WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING COMPANY, LIMITED, 
 LONDON AND FKI.LING-ON-TYWE.
 
 TO 
 
 to 5 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Santa Barbara 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW.
 
 972