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BRISTOL METHODISM
IN
JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.

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Bristol Methodism

IN

JOHN WESLEY'S DAY,

Monographs of the Early Methodist Preachers,

JOHN S. PAWLYN

"And all the city -was moved, and the people ran together."
"By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted."
Acts xxi. 30. Pbot. xi. 11.

BRISTOL:
PUBLISHED BT W. C. HEMMONS, ST. STEPHEN'S AVENUE;
sold at the
Weslitan Cohfeeenoe Office, 66, Paternoster Rot, London.
And by all Booksellers.

DEDICATED

ALFRED PrOINTON, ESQ.,

MY

ESTEEMED AND FAITHFUL
FRIEND.

PREFACE.

The early history of Methodism is more closely, connected
^jwith Bristol than with any other city in the world. There —
itSj distinctively aggressive work commenced; its earliest
triumphs were achieved ; its first sanctuary was erected ; and,
excepting London, its first Society was formed.
Ascertaining that no history of Bristol Methodism in a
separate form had ever been published, I ventured on the task.
In pursuing it I have found a congenial toil, — Bristol, beyond
all other places, being endeared to me by close family associa
tions, and, by its having been the sphere of my earliest
ministry. Bristol Methodism in the following pages stands promi
nently forth, but the information they contain will be found
to fill a much wider sphere : the work, in fact, is a picture,
limned by an imperfect hand, of Methodism from its origin to
the death of Wesley — its foreground filled with the City of
the Avon, and its perspective reaching far.
The materials for this work have been derived from the
standard books of Methodist history, and from other sources
of information. Though carried very rapidly through the
press, amid the demand of other and arduous duties, no pains
have been spared to insure the accuracy of its contents.
May it redound to the honour of Him whose hand hath
traced our history ; and call forth renewed allegiance to the
Church of our fathers and our Faith.
Birmingham, July, 1877.

VI.
INDEX. -«e>K3&-
CHAPTER I.
Introductory History. , page.
Introduction of Christianity into Bristol — Monastic Institutions —
Religious Reformers — Decline of Protestantism — Condition of the
Churches and Country in the Early Part of the Eighteenth Century. 1
CHAPTER II.
Consecration and Commencement.
Whitefield's Ordination and earliest ministry— Conversion of the Wesleys —
Pre-Methodist Societies — Remarkable Love Feast — Whitefield opposed
in Bristol — He commences Field Preaching to the Kingswood Colliers
— Wondorful Popularity — Lays the foundation stone of Kingswood
School— Adieu. 6
CHAPTER III.
Signs and Wonders.
Wesley in Bristol— Commences Field Preaching — Marvellous Manifestations
— Watson's Explanations — Opposition — Kingswood School opened —
Wesley's Philanthropy— A riot averted. 16
CHAPTER IV.
Development and Divisions.
The first Methodist Chapel— Separation from Moravians— Secession of
Calvinists- Origin of Class-meetings— Persecution— Scene at Pensford. 26
CHAPTER V.
Conferences and Conflicts.
Conference of 1745— The "Young Pretender"— Conference of 1746— Narrow
Escape — Disturbance at Devizes. 33
CHAPTER VI.
Kingswood School— Connubial Experience.
Opening of Kingswood School- Enlargement of the Broadmead Chapel-
Marriage of Charles Wesley— Earthquake in London— Conference
of 1750— Marriage of John Wesley, and marital misery— Poverty and 40

INDEX.
CHAPTER VII.
Patriotism and Philanthropy.
A Bristol Riot— Wesley ill— Death of C. Wesley's child— Patriotism-
Conferences of 1756 and 1758— French Captives at Knowle— Conferen
ces of 1760 — Condemned Prisoners.

CHAPTER VIII.
"Workers together with Him." pagi
Conference of 1764— John Murlin— John Nelson— Captain Webb— Walpole
on Wesley— Conference of 1768— Alexander Mather— Dr. Wrangle,
the King of Sweden's Chaplain— Death of George Whiteneld. 56
CHAPTER IX.
The Calvinistic Controversy.
Calvinistic Controversy — Countess of Huntingdon — Conference of 1771
— Fletcher, Toplady, and Thomas Olivers — Wesley's Calmness —
Joseph Benson — John Pawson — Bishop Asbury and American
Methodism. ' 65
CHAPTER X.
" In Labours more Abundant."
Wesley's Journeyings — Seventy-second Anniversary of his Birthday —
Conference of 1774 — Joseph Bradford— Samuel Bradburn — Robert
Southey, the Poet Laureate. 71
CHAPTER XL
A Fellow Servant in the Lord.
Parliamentary Contest — Experiences in Ireland— Westley Hall— Wesley
introduced to Dr, Coke — Dr. Coke's conversion, labours, and death. 78

CHAPTER XI 1.
Sick and in Prison.
Fletcher's Sickness — Remarkable Conference Scene — Lord's Supper in a
Stable — Missions to Africa — Unlawful Distilling — Silas Told — His
Labours in Newgate. 87

VHl. INDEX.
CHAPTER'XIII.
Murmurings and Disputings. pagi
Opening of New Chapel at Bath— National Depression— John Valton —
Alexander McNab— Dispute at Bath— The Gordon Riots— Conference
of 1780— C. Wesley Depressed— John Cricket— Fletcher at Brislington. 94
CHAPTER XIV.
' ' The Tongue of the Learned. "
Horse Cured by Prayer-Letter on Courtship- Adam Clarke : his Conversion,
Call, Kingswood Experiences, and Grand Career — Stanton Drew
Dniidical Remains — "The Dairyman's Daughter" — Wesley Sick —
His visit to Holland. 104
CHAPTER XV.
"Baptised for the Dead.'' , ,
Conference of 1788— Kingswood Scholars — Seven Sermons on One Sunday —
Dr. Coke ordained Bishop — Conference of 1786 — John Fletcher's
Death — WiUiam Bramwell's Life and Death. 113
CHAPTER XVI.
"Stormy Wind, fulfilling His Word."
Wesley's second visit to Holland — His visit to Ireland— A useful Present-
Sir Robert Peel — The Channel Islands — Remarkable Voyage —
Methodism in Inverness — Interesting Letter — Exorcism in Temple
Church — Wesley preaches before the Mayor and Corporation of
Bristol. 122
CHAPTER XVII.
"The Sweet Singer of Israel."
Charles Wesley's death — His Character— His Poetic Genius — John Wesley '
on the v ing. 130
CHAPTER XVII I.
"He Fell Asleep."
Adam Clarke in Bristol — A good old Age — Stranger's B'riend Society —
Conference uf 1790 — Appointment of Missionaiy and Chapel Commit
tees—Henry Crabbe Robinson— Last Labours— Sickness and Death. 130

BRISTOL METHODISM IN
JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY HISTORY.
Introduction of Christianity into Bristol — Monastic institutions —
Religious Reformers — Decline of Protestantism — Condition of
the Churches and Country in the Early Part of the Eighteenth
Century.
)HE city of Bristol stands second to none, save perhaps
London, York, and Oxford, in the religious interest
attached to its history. Ancient traditions ascribe the introduc
tion of Christianity to a period soon after the commencement
of the Christian era. Stately churches, according to Seyer,*
may have shadowed the Clifton camp of the Romans and the
huts of the conquered Celts ; but more reliable authority traces
its origin to Anglo-Saxon times.
Soon after the Norman conquest the Benedictine monks
established a priory, where now stands St. James's church ;
and the Canons regular of St. Augustine, an abbey, a portion
* Vide "Seyer's" Memoirs of Bristol.

2 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
of which continues in the Cathedral of College Green. The
religious Mendicant Orders — Dominicans, Carmelites, and
Franciscans followed suit j and with them came the Knights
Templars of St. John, who erected a church on the site of that
whose leaning tower has told for centuries of the swampy
marsh in which it first was, built. These religious Orders
were subsequently suppressed, but their record still remains
in the saintly patronymics of its numerous churches and
parishes. The doctrines of the Reformation were proclaimed in
Bristol at an early period. John Purney, the curate of John
Wycliffe, preached there, and seeing that Wycliffe was
the Prebend of the Collegiate Church of Westbury, in the
immediate neighbourhood, it is more than probable that
the great reformer himself often published in Bristol the
Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The preaching of the pre-reformation reformers so far
prevailed, that as early as 1498 severe persecution raged.
Many were apprehended for heresy, for which some were
burnt, and some "abjured to bear faggots" — that is, they
were condemned to carry a faggot to some appointed place
and to wear the badge thereof embroidered on their sleeves as
a sign of perpetual infamy. Among the noble men condemned
to bear the faggot for heresy was George Wishart, a Scottish
preacher, who "set forth his lecture in St. Nicholas' Church
in Bristol " — George Wishart, who seven years later in 1545,
gloriously sealed his witness with his blood at St Andrew's, in
Scotland, by order of Cardinal Beaton.
The Reformation, began in Bristol by Wycliffe's curate if
not actually by himself, was forwarded by the preaching of
William Tyndale the translator, and " honest Hugh Latimer."
Early in the sixteenth century, Tyndale often preached in its

INTRODUCTORY HISTORY. 3
public streets, and in a large meadow called the St. Austin's
•Green ; Latimer also, in the churches of St. Nicholas, the
Black Friars, and St. Thomas, aroused the wrath of the
monks and the wonder of the multitude.
Henry VIII. having abolished its religious orders, created
Bristol a Protestant bishopric. In Mary's reign, Popery was
re-established, and on St. Michael's Hill, on the spot where
Highbury Chapel now stands, five martyrs, named Richard
Shepton, Edward Sharpe, Richard Sharpe, Thomas Hale, and
Thomas Benion, were burnt to death.
The history of Dissent in Bristol is full of interest. The
Independents held public services, first, during the Common
wealth in the house of Scroop, the governor of the Castle.
The Baptist Nonconformists used a large room in the
Dolphin Inn (an ancient tavern standing in the thoroughfare
which now bears its name), removing from thence in 167 1 to
premises on the site of the present Broadmead Baptist
Chapel — the chapel immortalised by the eloquence of Robert
Hall. The tenets of the Quakers were introduced by George
Fox and a few of his followers in 16545 their first meeting
house being erected a few years later in Rosemary Lane, on
the site of the old Black Friar's monastery.
After the Restoration, the Bristol Dissenters suffered great
persecution. The infamous Conventicle and Five-mile Acts
were passed and enforced by Gilbert Ironside, the bishop of
the Bristol diocese, and Guy Carleton his successor, with
merciless severity. Their sanctuaries were broken into, their
property destroyed, and pastors and people dragged before the
city officials, only to be amerced in ruinous fines, or to languish
in loathsome dungeons. Thus, in his prime, perished in the
common gaol, William Thompson, the first appointed Inde
pendent minister — thus also perished many other faithful

4 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
ones until the Revolution overthrew the Stuart tyranny, and
restored to every man his long defrauded birthright —
religious liberty.
The age in which Wesley and his coadjutors commenced
their work was one of great spiritual indifference and sin.
The House of Stuart had long given place to the House of
Hanover ; but the orgies of Whitehall and the irreligion and
immorality which swept like a tornado over the land soon
after the Restoration, had left their desolating tracks.
In arms, Marlborough made England's name renowned ;
in science and literature the genius of Newton, Steele, Swift,
Parnell, Pope, and Young, made it " the Augustan age ; "
but all this was insufficient to uplift the land from religious
darkness and moral misery. The masses of the people were
grossly ignorant and degraded. The educated, corrupted by the
prurience of Dryden, Fielding, and Congreve the dramatist,
openly indulged in indecencies which now would be intoler
able ; or beguiled by the infidel works of Voltaire, Rousseau,
and Hobbs, laughed at religion as an idle dream.
And this growing ungodliness the Established and Noncon
formist churches were powerless to arrest. These, save one
here and there, were slumbering in indifference, or themselves
suffering from the prevailing plague. Nothing could be more
desponding than the confessions made about this time by the
leading ministers. Dr. Isaac Watts mourns over "the decay of
vital religion in the hearts and lives of men," and calls upon
the faithful to "use all efforts for the recovery of dying religion
in the world." Bishop Burnet laments the ignorance of the
clergy and sees "imminent ruin hanging over the church
and by consequence over the whole Reformation." "It
is come," says Butler, afterwards Bishop of Bristol, " I
know not how, to be taken for granted by many persons, that

INTRODUCTORY HISTORY. £
Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry, but that it
is now at length discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly
they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreed
point among all people of discernment, and nothing remained
but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as
it were, by way of reprisals for its having so long interrupted
the pleasures of the world."* With this confession of Bishop
Butler, agrees the statement of Archbishop Seeker, his
predecessor in the Bristol diocese, " It is natural," he says, in
his published Charges, to "think those evils the greatest
which we feel ourselves, and therefore mistakes are easily
made in comparing one age with another ; yet, in this we
cannot be mistaken, that an open and professed disregard for
religion is become, through a variety of unhappy causes, the
distinguishing character of the present age : that this evil has
grown to a great height in the metropolis of the nation 5 is
daily spreading through every part of it, and bad in itself, as
any can be, must of necessity bring in all1 others after it.
Indeed, it hath already brought in such dissoluteness and
contempt of principle in the higher part of the world, and
such profligate intemperance and fearlessness of committing
crimes in the lower, as must, if this torrent of impiety stop
not, become absolutely fatal. And God knows, far from
stopping, it receives through the ill designs of some persons
and the inconsiderateness of others, a continued increase.
Christianity is now ridiculed and railed at with very little
reserve, and the searchers of it without any at all."
Such was the condition of the land when the Methodists
commenced their ministry ; but the darkest hour of night
is that which ushers in the dawn.
* Butler's Advertisement to Analogy — May 1736.

BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.

CHAPTER II.
CONSECRATION AND COMMENCEMENT.
Whitefield's Ordination and earliest ministry — Conversion of the Wesleys-
— Pre-Methodist Societies — Remarkable Love Feast — Whitefield
opposed in Bristol — He commences Field Preaching to the
Kingswood Colliers— "Wonderful popularity — Lays the foundation
stone of Kingswood School — Adieu.

^EORGE Whitefield paid his first notable visit to Bristol
early in 1 736. Healed in soul, he there sought strength
of body. Ere his conversion, so great had been his disquietude
and so ascetic his habits under a sense of sin, he had been,
brought near to the gates of death.
During his stay in Bristol, he met Dr. Benson, Bishop of
Gloucester, who proffered him ordination. He prepared
himself for its solemnities by fasting and much prayer, and,
when on June 20th the prelate's hands were laid upon his
head, he devoted himself unreservedly to an apostolic life. His
first sermon revealed his extraordinary powers. It was-
preached in the church of St. Mary de Crypt, Gloucester, the
place of his baptism. Fifteen of his hearers, Dr. Benson
heard, were driven mad ; the good bishop only hoped that
their madness might be permanent, and gave the preacher —
poor enough in pocket though princely in eloquence — five

CONSECRATION AND COMMENCEMENT. 7
guineas to help him on his way. Returning to the " Holy
Club " at Oxford, he renewed his wonted labours and took
his bachelor's degree.
John Wesley at that time was in Georgia, and, in response
to his earnest solicitation, Whitefield resolved to join him,
and hastened to Bristol to bid farewell to his friends. There,
preaching from day to day, his holy oratory moved the city
with wonderment. The people blessed him as he passed along
the streets. They crowded the churches ; in their eagerness
to hear even climbing upon the roofs, and when his farewell
words were spoken, their excited feelings broke forth in tears
and sobs and lamentations. Returning to London, the scenes
of Bristol were re-enacted, until early in 1738, followed by the
prayers of multitudes, he sailed for Savannah.
Almost before Whitefield had lost sight of his native shores,
Wesley had greeted them on his return from Georgia.
Entering the metropolis he found it filled with the praises of
his friend ; but his own soul was sad ; for though in labours
most abundant he had not yet the conscious knowledge of
Diyine reconciliation. Though it tarried, the long looked for
blessing came. Taught the more perfect way of salvation by
Peter Bohler, and other metropolitan Moravians, Charles
Wesley found peace on May 21st, 1738, and three days after
John shared in his brother's joy.
Soon after his conversion, Wesley visited Germany, where,
being instructed by Count Zinzendorf, and beholding the
saintly lives of the Moravian brethren at Marienborn and
Herrnhut, he was more fully fitted for his great vocation.
Charles Wesley meantime continued in London preaching
with new found fervour and wonderful success. Converts were
multiplied ; but the excitement quickly awakened opposition,
insomuch that the churches were closed against him, and by the

8 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
authority of the churchwardens he was ejected from the
curacy of Islington. All things were working for one com
mon end, and both providence and grace were qualifying them
for their appointed tasks. Long ere the advent of Methodism,
there were agencies at work of a kindred character, which
prepared its way and afforded the first basis of its evangelical
operations. As early as 1667, two London clergymen, Dr.
Horneck and Mr. Smithes (the "Lord's Day lecturer, of
Cornhill "), encouraged by Bishop Hopkins, established re
ligious "Societies" within the Established Church, for the
cultivation of personal piety and practical philanthropy among
the people. They were formed in London, Bristol,
and other important centres, and accomplished invaluable
good. Declining in course of years in number and influence,
and becoming disassociated from the Establishment, they were
resuscitated by the Moravians, and to them the Wesleys and
Whitefield often went ; finding in their services the most
ample provisions for the hunger of their souls, and the most
congenial field for the putting forth of their energies. It was in a
" Society meeting " in Aldersgate Street, that Wesley found
the long sought knowledge of salvation ; and at a love feast held
by the " Society of Fetter Lane," about sixty being present,
the evangelists were, so to speak, divinely consecrated for
their peculiar work. " Had a love feast with our friends in
Fetter Lane," so writes Whitefield under date of January 1,
1739, "and spent the whole night in close prayer, psalms
and thanksgiving." Wesley's journal is more explicit: —
" About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in
prayer, 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 awe and
amazement at the presence of his Majesty, we broke out

CONSECRATION AND COMMENCEMENT. 9
with one voice, ' We praise thee, O God j we acknowledge
thee to be the Lord.' " Thus with prayer and paeans of praise
they began the year. Five days later the Wesleys, Whitefield,
and four other Methodist clergymen held a conference at
Islington, and, having spent much of the night in mutual
counsel and devotion, they parted with a full conviction that
God was about to do great things.
Commissioned and equipped, their work was awaiting
them : the harvest was ripe and ready for gathering in. The
London churches were L soon shut against Whitefield and
Wesley, as they had been before against his brother Charles.
Leaving the Wesleys at work among the societies, Whitefield,
in February, went down to Bristol to preach in behalf of an
Orphan House which he had opened in Georgia. In his absence,
however, stories of his Methodist extravagance had reached
the city ; and, though he had been immensely popular during
his previous visit, the clergy, with a few honourable exceptions,
excluded him from their pulpits. Fortunately, his journal of
this period is preserved, and with this before us we can follow
him day by day. On Thursday, February 15th, the Rev.
Mr. Gibbs, the minister, refused him the use of Redcliff
Church ; but " God having given him great favour in the
jailer's eyes, he preached a sermon on the penitent thief in
Newgate, and collected fifteen shillings for them."*
On Friday, February 16th, Whitefield commenced to read
prayers to the Newgate prisoners, and this he" did daily until
* Newgate, which "Whitefield visited, and which was, subsequently,
often the scene of his and "Wesley's ministrations, was the old city gaol,
built in 1691, and abandoned in 1820 for the new gaol near Bathurst
Basin. Howard the philanthropist visited it in 1775, and describes it as
standing in the midst of the city, white without, but foul within, and too
.small for the general number of prisoners.

10 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
persecution debarred him from even this poor privilege. On
the evening of Friday he also " expounded from five till near
nine to two thronged Societies." These were some of the
Societies already alluded to as having originated in 1667, in
the labours of two London clergymen.
The following day he went with two friends to Kingswood.
"Kingswood," says Southey, " as its name implies, had been
a royal chase, containing between three and four thousand
acres, but it, had been gradually appropriated by the several
lords whose estates lay round about its borders ; and their title,
which for a long time was no better than what possession
gave them, had been legalised. The deer had long since
disappeared, and the greater part of the wood also ; and coal
mines having been discovered there, from which Bristol
derives its chief supply of fuel, it was now inhabited by a race
of people as lawless as the foresters their forefathers ; but far
more brutal, and differing as much from the people of the
the surrounding country in dialect as in appearance. They
had at that time no place of worship, for Kingswood then
belonged to the out-parish of St. Philip and Jacob ; and if the
colliers had been disposed to come from a distance of three
and four miles, they would have found no room in the parish
church of a populous suburb. When upon his last visit to-
Bristol, before his embarkation, Whitefield spoke of converting
the savages, many of his friends said to him ' What need of
going abroad for this ? Have we not Indians enough at home ?
If you have a mind to convert Indians, there are colliers
enough in Kingswood.' Towards these colliers Whitefield, as
he says, had long felt his bowels yearn, for they were very
numerous, and as yet as sheep having no shepherd. In truth
it was a matter of duty and of sound policy, (which is always-
duty) that these people should not be left in a state of bestial

CONSECRATION AND COMMENCEMENT. II
ignorance ; heathens, or worse than heathens, in the midst pf
a christian country ; and brutal as savages, in the close
vicinity of a city which was then in extent, wealth, population,
and commercial importance, the second city in England. On
the afternoon, therefore, of Saturday, February 17th, 1739, he
stood upon a mount in a place called Rose Green, his ' first
field pulpit,' and preached to as many as came to hear,.
attracted by the novelty of such an address. ' I thought,'
says he, ' 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,' Not above
two hundred persons gathered round him, for there had been
no previous notice of his intention, and these, perhaps, being
no way prepared for his exhortations, were more astonished
than impressed by what they heard. But the first step was
taken, and Whitefield was fully aware of its importance.
' Blessed be God:' he says 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.'
It was not, however, because pulpits were denied him that he
had preached upon the mount at Rose Green ; but in the course
wherein he was proceeding, that which at first was choice, soon
became necessity."*
Returning from Kingswood, Whitefield the same day wrote
to the Bishop of Bristol as he had done before to the Bishop
of Bath and Wells, for "leave to preach in his lordship's
churches for the benefit of the Orphan House." The following
day, Sunday, February 18th, he preached in the morning at
* Southey's Life of Wesley, I. 141.J

12 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
St. Werburgh's "with great freedom to a large audience;"
in the afternoon, (the Rev. Mr. Gibbs having repented his first
refusal) in St. Mary Redcliff "to such a congregation as his eyes
had neverkbefore seen ;" concluding the day with " expounding
for near two hours " to a society in Baldwin Street, and the same
length of time to another society in Nicholas Street, " equally
thronged but with much greater power." The following day,
in addition to services at Newgate and in Baldwin Street, he
preached, in the afternoon, "to a great multitude at the parish
•church of St. Philip and Jacob, thousands going away because
there was no room for them within."
The next entry in Whitefield's journal is very graphic and
too important to be condensed. " Tuesday, Feb. 20th. This
day my master honoured me more than ever he did yet.
About ten in the morning, in compliance with a summons
received from the apparator yesterday, I waited upon the
Rev. M. R  1, the chancellor of Bristol, who now
plainly told me he intended to stop my proceedings. [' I have
sent for the Registrar here, Sir,' says he, 'to take down your
answer,' upon which he asked me by what authority I
preached in the diocese of Bristol, without a license. I
answered, I thought the custom was grown absolete ; ' and
why, pray, Sir, did you not ask the Irish clergyman this
question who preached for you last Thursday ?' He said
that was nothing to me. He then read over part of the
ordination-office, and those canons that forbid any minister
preaching in a private house, &c. 5 and then he asked me
what I said to them ? I answered, that I apprehended those
canons did not belong to professed ministers of the
Church of England; but he said they did. 'There is
also a canon,' said I, 'sir, forbidding all clergymen to
frequent taverns and play at cards; why is not that put

CONVERSION AND COMMENCEMENT. 13
into execution ?' 'Why does not somebody complain of them ?'
says he,, 'And then it would.' When I asked hinj why I
was thus taken particular notice of, referring to my printed
discourses for my principles, he said I preached false doctrine,
upon which I answered him not a word, but told him,
notwithstanding those canons, I could not but speak the
things that I knew, and was resolved to proceed as usual.
' Observe his answer then,' said he, ' Mr. Registrar,' and turning
to me added, ' I am resolved, Sir, if you preach or expound
any where in this diocese, till you have a license, I will first
suspend and then excommunicate you !' I then took my
leave. He waited upon me very civilly to the door, and
told me what he did was in the name of the clergy and laity
of the city of Bristol ; — and so we parted.
" Being taken ill just before I went to the Chancellor, on
my return home, I found I had not so much joy as peace.
But, however, I did not perceive the least feeling of resent
ment to arise in my heart. And to show how little I
regarded such threatenings, after I had joined in prayer for
the Chancellor, I immediately went and expounded at
Newgate as usual, where God gave me great joy, and
wondrously pricked many to the heart, as though he would
say, — ' this is the way, walk ye in it.' After this we dined
with several christian friends, with the kind keeper of the
prison, and rejoiced exceedingly at the thought that we should
some day or other sing together in such a place as Paul and
Silas did. God prepare us for that hour, for I believe it will
come. I shall be exalted, I must be humbled."
The interdict of the Chancellor was no idle threat. The
following day thousands flocked to St. Nicholas Church to
hear Whitefield preach ; but the preacher was shut out. Thus
excluded from the Churches he went to Kingswood, and a

14 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.
second time preached out of doors to near two thousand people.
On the following Sunday the minister of Brislington offered
him the use of his Church ; but so vast was the congregation
that he preached in the churchyard, that none might be sent
empty away. In the afternoon of the same day he preached
again at Kingswood to above ten thousand people. 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, the fire is kindled in the
country, and I know all the devils in hell shall not be able to
quench it."* From this time his visits to Kingswood were
frequent, and his open air endeavours extended to the city and
other adjacent villages. In Bristol he preached in the Glass
house Yard, at Baptist Mills, and in the Bowling Green. The
Bowling Green was crowded, and the windows and balconies
•of the surrounding houses filled with attentive hearers.
Kingswood, however, was the scene of his most wonderful
success. There his heart was most deeply moved, and the
effects produced most marvellous. " To behold such crowds
standing together in solemn silence, and to hear the echo of
their singing resounding over the mighty mass, suggested to
bim the scene] of the general assembly of the spirits of just
men made perfect, when they shall join in singing the song of
Moses and the Lamb in heaven ! The moral effect of these
occasions still more deeply impressed him. Having no
righteousness of their own to renounce, the poor colliers were
glad to hear that Christ was a friend to publicans, and came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He could
see the effect of his words by the white channels made by the
* "Whitefield's Journal, p. 151.

CONVERSION AND COMMENCEMENT. Ij
tears which trickled down their blackened cheeks, for they
• came unwashed out of , the coal pits to hear him. Hundreds
after hundreds of them were brought under deep religious
impressions, which, as the event proved, happily ended in
sound and thorough conversions. The open firmament above
him, the prospect of the adjacent fields, with the sight of
thousands beyond thousands, some in coaches, some on horse
back, and some in the trees, and at times ' all affected and
drenched in tears together,' presented a scene which was
sublime and overpowering to his vivid imagination, especially
when the grand picture was impressed with the solemnity of
the approaching night.''*
During this time Whitefield had not forgotten his Orphan
House in Georgia, and having collected a considerable sum he
prepared for another Atlantic voyage.
On Monday, April 2nd, 1739, he took leave of the Bristol
societies whose interests, amid all his unparalleled popularity,
he had daily attended to. It was an affecting season. "Floods
¦ of tears flowed plentifully;" and when at last he forced himself
. away, about twenty friends on horseback escorted him through
the city streets. Arrived at Kingswood, the grateful colliers
surprised him with a hospitable entertainment. Religion had
already quickened their thirst for knowledge. They had raised
subscriptions for the erection of a school, and begged
Whitefield, ere he left them, to lay the foundation stone.
The request was somewhat premature, for as yet no site had
been secured. Earnestness, however, gave promptness to their
endeavours. A piece of land was at once providentially pre
sented by a person standing by ; the necessary materials were
brought; andthe same day Whitefield laid the foundation stone,
accompanying the ceremony with solemn prayer and praise.
This done, and farewells spoken, he proceeded on his way.
Stevens's History of Methodism, Vol. I., p. 116.

l6 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.

CHAPTER III.
SIGNS AND WONDERS.
Wesley in Bristol. — Commences Field Preaching. — Marvellous-
Manifestations. — "Watson's Explanations. — Opposition. — Kings-
wood School opened.— "Wesley's Philanthropy. — A riot averted.

J5) EFORE leaving Bristol, Whitefield wrote to Wesley to.
come and carry on the work so auspiciously commenced.
Hesitating at first, lie was decided by casting lots, and
arrived in Bristol on Saturday, March 31st, i739> where
he at once joined Whitefield at the house of Mr. Greville,
an influential grocer in Wine Street, whose hospitable home
was open to them often in after times. The following day
Wesley heard Whitefield preach at the Bowling Green,
Hanham, and Rose Green, and "could scarce reconcile himself
at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields." The
following day Wesley was probably with the equestrians who
accompanied Whitefield through the city and shared in the
entertainment which the colliers had prepared, with its
subsequent solemnities. The same evening, overcoming his
scruples, he " proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of
salvation, speaking from a little eminence, in a ground
adjoining the city, to about three thousand people." Thus

SIGNS AND WONDERS. 1 7
Wesley passed the Rubicon — thus he commenced his marvel
lous career as an open air evangelist, from the appropriate text,
" 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 ; the
recovery of sight to the blind ; to set at liberty them that are
bruised; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
Having begun the work,', Wesley spent a considerable part
of 1739 and the following year in Bristol and the immediate
neighbourhood. When duty called him to London or other
parts, his place was usually supplied by his brother Charles.
His journals of this period are full of local interest. To the
different "Societies" meeting in Nicholas Street, Baldwin
Street, Castle Street, Gloucester Street, Back Lane, and
Weaver's Hall, he nightly "expounded, in order, the word of
life." Theseseveral societies, under Wesley's preaching, became
the arenas of wonderful excitement— sinners often being
stricken down as though in the throes of death. "While
preaching on the Common from the words, 'When they had
nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both,' a young
woman sank down in violent agony, as did five or six persons
at another meeting in the. evening. Many were greatly
offended by their cries. The same offence was given during
the day by one at ' Theaner's Hall,' and by eight or nine
others at ' Gloucester Lane.' One of these was a young
lady, whose mother was irritated at the scandal, as she called
it, of her daughter's conduct : but ' the mother was the next
who dropped down and lost her senses in a moment, yet
went home with her daughter full of joy, as did most of those
who had been in pain.' Such 'phenomena' increased
continually. Bold blasphemers were instantly seized with
agony, and cried aloud for the divine mercy; and scores were

l8 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.
sometimes strewed on the ground at once, insensible as dead
men. A traveller at one time was passing, but on pausing a
moment to hear the preacher, was directly smitten to the earth,
and lay there apparently without life. A quaker, who was
admonishing the bystanders against these strange scenes as
affectation and hopocrisy, was himself struck down as by an
unseen hand, while the words" of reproach were yet upon his
lips. A weaver, a great disliker of dissenters, fearing that the
new excitement would alienate his neighbours from the
Church, went about zealously among them to prove that it
was the work of Satan, and would endanger their souls. A
new convert lent him one of Wesley's sermons : while reading
it at home he suddenly turned pale, fell to the floor, and roared
so mightily that the people ran into the house from the streets,
and found him sweating, weeping, and screaming in anguish.
He recovered his self-possession, and arose rejoicing in God.
On one occasion great numbers fell around the preacher, while
he was inviting them to ' enter into the holiest by a new and
living way.' A woman opposed them as giving way to an
agitation which they might control, and endeavoured to escape
the assembly. Scarcely had she got three or four yards, when
she fell down in as violent agony as the rest."*
Such were some of the scenes which attended Wesley's
early Bristol ministry. It is remarkable that such manifesta
tions were more prevalent in Bristol than in other parts, and
were seldom seen in after years. Some, then as now, attributed
them to " vehement eloquence acting upon weak minds,
ardent feelings, and disordered fancies;" others, to demoniacal
possession ; and others, to the influence of the Holy Ghost.
Watson, in his " Life of Wesley," and more fully in his
strictures on Southey's fife of the great evangelist, places the

* Stevens's History of Methodism.

SIGNS AND WONDERS. 19
matter in its proper light : — " That cases of real enthusiasm
" occurred at this and subsequent periods, is indeed allowed.
" There are always nervous, dreamy, and excitable people to
" be found ; and the emotion which was produced among those
" who were really so ' pricked in the heart ' as to cry with a
•" sincerity equal to that which was felt by those of old, 'What
" shall we do to be saved !' would often be communicated to
"such persons 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. Yet the effects were
" not without precedent even in those circumstances in which
"they have been thought most singular and exceptionable.
" Great and rapid results of this kind were produced in the
'" first ages of Christianity, but not without ' outcries,' and
"strong corporeal as well as mental emotions, nay, and
" extravagances too. But will any man from this argue against
" Christianity itself, or asperse the labours and characters of
" those holy men who planted its genuine root in Asia, Africa
" and Europe ? Even in the decline of true piety in the
" Church of Christ there were not wanting holy and zealous
"ministers to carry out the tidings of salvation to the
" barbarous ancestors of European nations ; and strong and
"effectual impressions were made by their faithful and
"powerful preaching upon the multitudes who surrounded
"them, accompanied with many effects. But all who went
" on these sacred missions were not enthusiasts; nor were all
" the conversions effected by them a mere exchange of super
stitions. Like effects also often accompanied the preaching
" of eminent men at the reformation ; and many of the

20 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
" Puritan and Nonconformist ministers had similar successes
"in large districts in our own country. In Scotland, and also
"among the grave Presbyterians of New England, previous to
"the rise of Methodism, such impressions had not unfre-
" quently been produced by the ministry of faithful men,
'• attended by very similar circumstances, and they might
"have been informed that, though on a smaller scale, the
"same results have followed the ministry of modern mission-
" aries of different religious societies in various parts of the
" world. It may be laid down as a principle established by fact,
" that whenever 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 by 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 — the case certainly
" of this country at the outset of Mr. Wesley and his
" colleagues jn their glorious career — should require a strong
" remedy, and that the attention of a sleeping 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 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."*
In addition to his continuous work among the societies,
Wesley preached day after day to listening thousands in the
"Watson's Works, v. 89.

SIGNS AND WONDERS"

open air. The usual meeting places were Baptist Mills,
Hanham Mount, Rose Green, Two-mile Hill, Fishponds, and
the Bowling Green, " near the centre of the city." A graphic
and impartial description of these great out-of-door gatherings is
given in Hutton's Memoirs. " Their congregations," he says,
" were composed of every description of persons, who,
without the slighest attempts at order, assembled, crying
' Hurrah !' with one breath, and with the next bellowing and
bursting into tears on account of their sins; some poking
each other's ribs, and others shouting ' Hallelujah !' It was
a jumble of extremes of good and evil ; and so distracted
alike were both preachers 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."*
The result to be expected from all this great excitement was
open opposition, and this at once broke out. Newspapers,
magazines, and countless pamphlets combined to heap upon
the Wesleys and Whitefield the vilest vituperations. They
were branded as "babblers," "insolent pretenders," "papists,"
¦"buffoons in religion," "mountebanks in theology," "vision
ary antics in gown and cassocks," and "quacks in divinity."
Some of the more distinguished pamphleteers Wesley
answered, — others he treated with the silent contempt they
certainly deserved. The Archbishop of Canterbury threatened
Charles Wesley with excommunication, and the Bishop of
Bristol commanded John to leave his diocese ; but, undeterred
by threats they respectfully replied, and continued their usual
* Vide " Tyreman's Life of Wesley."

22 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
course. Wesley at first received permission to preach in
Pensford ^Church, but this permission was afterwards with
drawn on the ground of his being mad. Charles Wesley
attending a service in Temple Church, the officiating clergyman
roughly repelled him from the sacrament. Visiting Bath,
John was confronted by Beau Nash, who had sworn to resist
his preaching ; but before the eagle eye and earnest words of
the great evangelist the decked-out dandy of the pump-room
sneaked away, followed by the jeering of the crowd. The
opposition soon broke into acts of open violence. At Hanham
while one of Wesley's early helpers was preaching, a publican
and his wife rode through the congregation, thrashing the
people with their whips, and trampling them beneath their
horse's hoofs. Little children, too, collected missiles, in the
shape of stones and dead dogs, which their fathers flung at
the hapless preacher's head. "Alderman Beecher" was so
opposed to Wesley that when some poor wretches in the city
prison, under sentence of death, earnestly desired to see him,
he refused to hear their prayer : it is gratifying, however, to learn
from Wesley's journal that the Mayor put to a nobler use his
brief authority. Thus he writes: "Tuesday, April I, 1740.
While I was expounding the floods began to lift up their
voice. Some or other of the children of Belial had laboured
to disturb us several nights before ; but now it seemed as if
all the host of the aliens were come together with one consent.
Not only the courts and the alleys, but all the street, upwards
and downwards, were filled with people shouting, cursing and
swearing, and ready to swallow the ground with fierceness
and rage. The Mayor sent order that they should disperse.
But they set him at nought. The chief Constable came next
in person, who was, till then, sufficiently prejudiced against
us. But they insulted him also in so gross a manner as I

SIGNS AND WONDERS. 23
believe fully opened his eyes. At length the Mayor sent
his officers, who took the ringleaders into custody and dispersed
the rest. Surely he hath been to us 'the minister of God
for good.'" On Wednesday, the 2nd: "The rioters were
brought up to the court, the Quarter Sessions being held that
day. They began to excuse themselves by saying many
things of me, but the Mayor cut them all short by saying,
'What Mr. Wesley is is nothing to you. I will keep the
peace : I will have no rioting in this city.' ''
A few days after this occurrence one of the leaders of the
disturbance hanged himself; another was stricken down with
severe sickness, and solicited an interest in Wesley's prayers ;
and a third came to him and, confessing that he had been
hired and made drunk for the purpose, besought his pardon
for the wrong.
Wesley's association with Bristol during this early period
reveals the breadth and grandeur of his character. He was a
man eminently in advance of his times, and so far from being
" cabined, cribbed, confined " by sectarian selfishness, his
sympathies embraced the lower as well as the highest interests
of all. At this time no national system of education existed ;
Bell and Lancaster were as yet unknown ; and though by the
munificence of Carr, Colston, and others, "hospitals" and
"schools " had been endowed for the education of the poor,
the provision was utterly inadequate to meet the growing
demand. In 1739, the same year in which Redcliff Charity
School was opened in Pile Street, Wesley commenced a school
in the city for the education and partial maintenance of the
children of the poor. About the same time he also collected
contributions for the School at Kingswood the foundation
stone of which had been laid by Whitefield ; and, the building
finished, he opened it early in the following year. A tragic

24 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
interest is attached to his early educational efforts. The first
master of the Bristol School was a man named' Ramsay, who
being in a state of destitution had applied to Wesley for relief.
Ramsay soon after, in concert with a man named Snoude,
robbed the too-confiding Wesley of £30 collected for
Kingswood School, and decamped to London. Devoting
themselves to highway robbery both were soon after arrested,
when Snoude was transported, and Ramsay executed at
Tyburn. Wesley was eminently a philanthropist. Spotted fever, a
malignant disease which seldom spared its victims, was
prevalent in Bristol; and, reckless of himself, he went
from house to house ministering to body and to soul. A
protracted frost in the beginning of 1 740 threw hundreds out
of work, thus creating great distress; and while it lasted he fed
from a hundred to a hundred and fifty every day. Later in
the year, provisions being very dear and employment scarce,
he took into his meeting house twelve of the poorest people
he could find, and to save them at once from want and idleness,
employed them for four months in carding and spinning wool.
During the same summer the influence of the Wesleys
averted from Bristol what would probably have proved a
destructive and murderous riot. Maddened by the dearness
of corn the Kingswood] colliers rose, and| arming as best they
could, marched towards the city. Charles Wesley, riding over
Lawrence Hill, met about a thousand face to face. Among
them were some Methodists who had been forced, by ill usuage
and threats of murder, to accompany their riotous fellow
pitmen. These, seeing their minister, saluted him affection
ately, and resolved to return with him to the Kingswood
School. This they did with great difficulty, the violent ones
opposing them with blows. Charles Wesley's account of it is

SIGNS AND WONDERS. 2jJ
very graphic. •' Many seemed inclined to go back with me, but
the devil stirred up his oldest servants, who rushed upon the
others beating and tearing and driving them away from me.
I rode up to a ruffian who was striking one of our colliers and
prayed him rather to strike me. ' He would not,' he said, for ' all
the world,' and was quite overcome. I turned upon one who
struck my horse, and he also sank into a lamb. I seized on
one of the tallest and earnestly besought him to follow me :
' that he would,' he said, ' all the world over.' About six
more I pressed into Christ's service. We met several parties,
stopped, and exhorted them to join us. We gleaned a few
from every company, and grew as we marched along, singing
to the school. From one till three we spent in prayer that
evil might be prevented, and the lion chained. Then news
was brought us that the colliers were returned in peace. They
had quietly walked into the city without sticks or the least
violen.ce. A few of the better sort went to the Mayor and
told their grievance. Then all returned as they came, without
noise or disturbance. All who saw were amazed, for the
leopards were laid down."*

* Jackson's " Life of Charles Wesley."

26 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.

CHAPTER IV.
DEVELOPMENT AND DIVISIONS.
The first Methodist Chapel — Separation from Moravians — Secession of
Calvinists — Origin of Class-meetings — Persecution — Scene at
Pensford,

LMOST coincidently with its earliest evangelical
successes, Methodism began to crystallize into its
distinctive institutions, doctrines and discipline.
Six weeks only after the commencement of Wesley's efforts
in Bristol, on Saturday, May 12th, 1739, the foundation
stone of the first Methodist Chapel in the world was laid on
a piece of ground in the Horse-fair, near St. James's Church.
This Chapel was duly opened a few months later. It appears
to have been simply a commodious preaching room with two
small contiguous apartments, in which sometimes Wesley
and the early preachers lodged. Two years later, Whitefield
having complained of unnecessary expenditure incurred, Wesley
sent him this reply: "The Society-room at Bristol you say is
adorned. How ? Why, with a piece of green cloth nailed to
the desk, and two scones for eight candles each in the middle.
I know no more. Now, which of these can be spared?
I know not ; nor would I desire more adorning, or less. But

DEVELOPMENT AND DIVISIONS. 27
'lodgings are made for me and 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?"
At first the preaching room was vested in trustees, but -
soon after Wesley cancelled the deed and vested the pro
perty in himself. Six years subsequently, he again settled it
on trustees, reserving only for himself and brother the liberty
of preaching and lodging therein. In March 1747, he wrote,
" I considered what would I do now if I was sure I had but
two days to live ? All outward things are settled to my wish :
the houses at Bristol, Kingswood and Newcastle are safe ; the
deeds whereby they are conveyed to the trustees took place on
the 5th instant ; my will is made ; what have I more to do
but to commend my soul to my merciful and faithful
Creator?" The year 1 740 was one of great Methodistic development.
Deserted by the clergy, Wesley began to employ lay
preachers. His earliest preachers were John Cennick, who
was appointed to labour among the Kingswood colliers, and
Thomas Maxfield, a Bristolian, converted in the St. Nicholas
Street society-room, who was sent to the " Foundry" — the
name of the first London preaching room. The employment of
laymen as preachers was a startling innovation ; and while it
alienated from Wesley some who had hitherto been his friends, it
intensified the hate of his enemies. An amusing conversation
on this subject took place some years after at the Hotwells
between Charles Wesley, and Robinson, the Archbishop of
Armagh : "I knew your brother well," said the Archbishop,
" I could never credit all I heard respecting him and you ;
but one thing in your conduct I could never account for — your

28 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.
employing laymen." "My lord," said Charles, "the fault is
yours and your brethren's." "How so," asked the Primate.
" Because you hold your peace and the stones cry out." "But
I am told," his Grace continued, "they are unlearned men."
"Some are," replied . the poet, "and so the dumb ass
rebukes the prophet."
Wesley's lay helpers increased rapidly from year to year,
and numbered^ not less than fifty at the time of the first
Bristol Conference.
On July 22, 1740, Wesley formally and finally, on
doctrinal grounds, separated from the Moravians at Fetter
Lane; and of the members who seceded with him, formed at
the Foundry the first, strictly speaking, Methodist Society.
The Bristol Methodists soon followed suit, and constituted
themselves a distinct Society, their head-quarters being the
Horse-fair preaching room..
Calvinistic views were at this time increasingly prevalent,
and to arrest the growing evil, Wesley preached in Bristol
a sermon from Romans viii. 32, on the doctrine of
" Free grace," and promptly published it. But seldom, if
ever, certainly, has a sermon been productive of greater
results. The Arminian tenets boldly expressed therein, led
to the severance of Whitefield — who had strongly espoused
Calvinistic opinions — from his old friend and fellow labourer;
the establishment of " Lady Huntingdon's Connexion," the
rise of the " Welsh Calvinistic Methodists," and a protracted
controversy which culminated thirty years after in the
publication of Fletcher's unequalled " Checks."
The doctrinal disputes between Wesley and Whitefield caused
greatglee among their common enemies, and created divisions in
the Bristol and Kingswood Societies. Cennick, the Kingswood
preacher, embraced the Calvinistic creed, and in recklessness

DEVELOPMENT AND DIVISIONS. 29
of zeal, publicly animadverted on Wesley's character and
public teaching. At a love feast, held in Bristol, Wesley
challenged him with it, and the proofs being conclusive, in the
presence and with the concurrence of the majority of the
Kingswood Society, he expelled him for slander, about fifty of
his Calvinistic sympathisers withdrawing with him. The
Bristol and Kingswood Societies thus divided by doctrinal
differences, Wesley closely scrutinized them, and for the first
time in Methodist history, gave Society tickets to those in whom
he had confidence — a custom which continues to this day.
Those early Society tickets were mostly quaint pictorial pro
ductions, printed on cardboard, and containing no inscription
save Wesley's signature.
Two years later, Bristol Methodism originated the class
meeting with its weekly contributions.* Under the date of
Feb. 1 jth, 1742, Wesley records the rise of this institution,
so closely interwoven with Methodist life and enterprise,
" I was talking with several of the Society in Bristol con
cerning the means of paying the debts there, when one stood
up and said, ' Let every member of the Society pay a penny a
week till all are paid.' Another answered, 'But many of
them are poor and cannot afford to do it.' 'Thee,' said he,
'put eleven of the poorest with me, and if they can give
nothing, I will give for them as well as myself ; and each of
you call on eleven of your neighbours weekly, receive what
they give, and make up what is wanting.' It was done. In
a while some of these informed me they found such and such
an one did not live as he ought. It struck me immediately,
' This is the thing, the very thing we have wanted so long.'
I called together all the leaders' of the classes, (so we used to
term them and their companies) and desired that each would
make a particular inquiry into the behaviour of those whom

* See Appendix A.

30 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
he saw weekly. They did so. Many disorderly walkers were
detected. Some turned from the evil of their ways ; some
were put away from us."
At first the leaders visited the members of their respective
homes, but this mode, making too great a demand upon their
time, was soon abandoned for the still prevailing plan of
meeting together at a given hour in some appointed place.
The Bristol Society being thus organized, returned about
seven hundred members.
During the years now being reviewed, the Wesleys engaged
in the most extensive travels, often, however, returning to
their Bristol work. Once, seized in Wales with sickness,
John hastened to Bristol, and in fever, for eight days, hung
between life and death. Charles, crossing the New Passage
with "faithful Felix Farley" and another friend narrowly
escaped, " in answer to prayer,'' a watery grave, — the lighter
in which they sailed being nearly driven on the Black-rock, on
which a ship had dashed, and thirty-two persons lost, but
a few weeks before.
In their Bristol ministry the brothers sometimes met with
amusing incidents. While Charles was conducting a Kings-
wood meeting a wild collier brought four of his black faced
little ones, and threw the youngest on the table saying, " You
have got the mother take the bairns as well." But these
pleasantries were but the occasional relief of protracted
persecution. A pamphlet entitled "The progress of
Methodism in Bristol, or the Methodist unmasked,"
disseminated in Hudibrastic verse the vilest slanders.
The Clergy warned their flocks against them, and
it is noted as remarkable that the bitterest of them all whilst
so engaged was seized with mortal sickness in the pulpit of
St. Nicholas Church and shortly after died. This opposition

DEVELOPMENT AND DIVISIONS. 31
was intensified towards the close of this period by the pre
valent expectation of an invasion by the French in favour of
the royal House of Stuart. Their enemies branded them as
Papists, Jacobins, and traitors against the King and constitu
tion. A Bristol backslider declared he would " make affidavit
that he had seen Wesley administer extreme unction to a
woman, and give her a wafer and say that that was her passport
to heaven." While following Hannah Richardson, a deceased
member of the Society, to her grave, the procession was pelted
through the streets with dirt and stones. Charles Wesley
preaching in the neighbourhood of Bristol, a justice of peace
threatened him with terrible things and urged the mob to pull
him down. Pensford, now so peaceful, among the persecuting
places stood pre-eminently out. We have already seen
that on a former occasion the vicar withdrew his permission
to Wesley to preach in Pensford church, on the ground of his
being mad ; somewhat later his journal contains the following
•entry : — Friday, March 19, 1 742, " I rode once more to Pensford
at the earnest request of several serious people. The place
where they desired me to preach was a little green spot, near
the town. But I had no sooner begun than a great company
of rabble, hired (as I afterwards found) for that purpose,
¦came furiously upon us, bringing a bull which they had been
baiting, and now strove to drive in among the people. But
the beast was wiser than his drivers, and continually ran
either on one side of us or the other, while we quietly sang
praise to God and prayed for about an hour. The poor
wretches finding themselves disappointed, at length seized
upon the bull, now weak and tired, after being so long torn
.and beaten both by dogs and men, and by main strength
partly dragged and partly thrust him in among the people.
When they had forced their way to the little table on which

32 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
I stood, they strove several times to throw it down by thrust
ing the helpless beast against it, who, of himself, stirred no
more than a log of wood. I once or twice put his head aside
with my hand that the blood might not drop upon my clothes,
intending to go on as soon as the hurry should be a little over.
But the table falling down some of the friends caught me in
their arms and carried me right away on their shoulders,
while the rabble wreaked their vengeance on the table, which
they tore bit by bit. We went a little way off, where I
finished my discourse without any noise or interruption."

CONFERENCES AND CONFLICTS. ^

CHAPTER V.
CONFERENCES AND CONFLICTS.
Conference of 1 745 — The " Young Pretender " — Conference of 1 746-
Narrow Escape — Disturbance at Devizes.

, HE first Wesleyan Conference was held in London in
1 744, and the second, in Bristol in the succeeding year.
It was held in the Horsefair preaching room, commencing its
sitting on Thursday, August 1st, 174.$, and concluding on the
following Tuesday. In prospect of the pending enlargement
of the Conference basis, it is gratifying to find that it consisted
of clergymen, lay preachers, and a layman, — numbering ten
in all. In addition to the Wesleys, the clergy were represented
by the Rev. John Hodges, Rector of Wenvo, a friend and
co-labourer of the Wesleys in the principality ; the lay preachers
by Thomas Richards, Samuel Larwood, Thomas Meyrick,
James Wheatley, Richard Moss, John Slocombe, and Herbert
Jenkins. The solitary layman was Marmaduke Gywnne, a
magistrate of Garth, a Methodist whose princely mansion was
always open to the early itinerants.
At the commencement of the Conference, Wesley laid down
rules for the guidance of their deliberations. It was decided
that " care should be taken to check no one, either by word
or look, even though he should say that which was quite

34 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
wrong." That every point might be rightly settled, it was
resolved "to beware of making haste, or of showing or
indulging any impatience, whether of delay or contradiction."
Its method settled, the conference next devoted its attention
to doctrinal matters, defining its views on Justification,
Sanctification, and the Witness of the Spirit, as they are now
methodistically received. To the " Rules of a Helper,'' for
mulated at the first Conference, the reminder was added that
they had " nothing to do but to save souls." In order to this
it was resolved to spend in addition to daily preaching
services from six o'clock till twelve every day in reading,
writing, and prayer ; from twelve to five in visiting; and from
five to six in private communion with God." In their
preaching they were to dwell less on the wrath and more on
the love of God. Then followed a discussion on church
government, wherein Wesley clearly indicated a growing
liberality of view, and a departure from that obedience to
episcopal [government which in earlier days he was prepared
to yield. He still, however, believed in Apostolic succession,
in the priestly character of the Christian ministry, and in the
essential distinction of its Orders. These notions he abandoned
in after years.
The very day on which the first Bristol Conference opened,
the Government offered a reward of ^"30,000 for the appre
hension of Prince Charles Stuart, the " Young Pretender."
The battle of Preston Pans was soon after lost ; and Charles,
already proclaimed at Edinboro', King of England, was
rapidly leading his army south. The Bristol merchants at
once raised ^36,430 to resist the Pretender, and sent sixty
men as a reinforcement to the King's guard in London.
Charles Wesley continued in Bristol and the neighbour
hood, calling on the public to turn to God, in order that His

CONFERENCES AND CONFLICTS. 3j
judgments might be turned away; and John hastened to
Newcastle to be with his people in their alarm and peril.
There, while the danger lasted, he remained preaching day
and night in the town and adjacent villages, encouraging the
loyalty of the populace, and urging them to repent and put their
trust in God.
During the next few months Wesley's visits to Bristol were
but occasional. In January he presided at a Conference of the
Calvinistic Methodists, in which something like harmony of
action if not of opinion was arrived at between him and the
Whitefieldites. On Monday, April 7th, he laid the foundation
stone of a new preaching house at Kingswood, discoursing,
on the occasion, from Isaiah Ix. 17-22. Charles, meanwhile,
spent the most of the time in this neighbourhood, meeting
with a considerable measure of success. At Road he dined at
the " Squire's," who seemed amazed and half converted at the
change wrought by the Methodists in the conduct of the
drunkards and profligate of the place. At Shepton Mallet he
severely sprained his leg, and for some weeks was carried from
place to place, preaching daily on his knees.
The third Wesleyan Conference was held in Bristol only
nine months after the second. It commenced on Tuesday,
May 1 2th, [1746, and appears to have finished the following
Friday. Four clergymen were present, viz., the two Wesleys,
John Hodges, the Rector of Wenvo, and Samuel Taylor, the
Vicar of Quinton ; also five lay preachers. As at former
Conferences, doctrines were first reviewed and carefully
guarded against error and abuse, and afterwards points of
discipline were discussed and settled. To the present
opponents of lay representation in the Conference the fact is
commended, that it was decided that the " properest persons
to be present at any Conference" were "the preachers, the

2,6 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEYS DAY.
most earnest and sensible of the band leaders of the Conference
town, and any pious and judicious stranger that might be
visiting the place." In reference to candidates [for the
itinerancy, it was resolved that all who believed themselves
called by the Holy Ghost to preach should be tested by the
question, " Have they grace, gifts, and fruits ?" — a question of
which the present protracted mode of admittance into the
Wesleyan ministry is but the natural elaboration, During
the preceding year, Wesley's views on episcopacy had been
considerably modified by reading " Lord King on the
Primitive Church;" [and already the ordination of his
fellow labourers occurred to him as a future contingency.
To the question why they did not use more solemnity
in receiving a lay preacher, it was replied : — " The
Conference declines it : first — because there is something of
stateliness in it ; second — because it is not expedient to mahe
haste; we desire barely to follow providence as it gradually
opens." Meanwhile efforts were to be employed to induce
the people to attend the Church, and, as an example to the
Bristol Methodists, it was agreed that the stationed preachers
should attend the services of the contiguous church of St.
James, on the Wednesday and Friday of every week. For
the first time this year the several circuits were enumerated
in the "Disciplinary Minutes." They numbered only seven,
and the vast extent of ground they covered will afford the
reader an idea of the work which the early " Rounders " had
to do. Thus runs the list : i, London — which includes
Surrey, Kent, Essex, Brentford, Egham, Windsor, and
Wycombe. 2, Bristol, which includes Somersetshire, Portland,
Wilts, Oxfordshire, and Gloucestershire. 3, Cornwall.
4, JEvesham — which includes Shrewsbury, Leominster, Here
ford, and from Stroud to Wednesbury. j, Yorkshire— which

CONFERENCES AND CONFLICTS. 37
includes Ch eshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire,
Rutlandshire, and Lincolnshire. 6, Newcastle. 7, Wales.
Four years elapsed ere the conference was held in Bristol again.
Meanwhile, left principally to lay preachers the " cause " con
tinued to flourish, the Wesleys visiting it as often as their now
extensive itinerary allowed. On these occasions they preached
usually in the Horsefair Preaching Room, at Baptist Mills, at
Bedminster, at Weaver's Hall,* at Kingswood, and in the " Old
Orchard." Early in 1 747 an accident occurred to John which
might have cut short his useful life. Riding through narrow St.
Nicholas Street the shaft of a runaway horse and cart knocked
down his hack and the wheel narrowly escaped the prostrate
rider's head. Sorely bruised but unperturbed he forthwith
reached from " Thou, Lord, shalt save both man and beast," and
afterwards " some warm treacle took away all pain in an hour
or two."
About this time, taking Bristol as his centre, Wesley
carried the gospel into several adjacent towns. In Devizes he
was much opposed ; " the town was in an uproar from end to
¦end as if the French were just entering, and abundance of
swelling words were spoken, oaths, curses, and threatenings.''
Soon after Charles visited Devizes, and a riot occurred,
from which he and Mr. Meriton narrowly escaped with life.
As soon as they arrived the mob mustered their forces for the
battle. " They began with ringing the bells backward and
running to and fro in the streets as lions roaring for their
prey. The chief gentleman of the town headed the mob,
and the " zealous curate, Mr. Innys, stood with them in the
street the whole time; dancing for joy." Assaulting the house
in which the little society were met for worship, the rabble
blocked up the door with a waggon and set up lights lest
he should escape." Finding refuge in the house of a friendly
* See ADDendix B.

38 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.
Baptist, Charles and his friend spent the night in peace, but the
next morning the riot recommenced. "While preaching to a
few listening sinners" in the house of Mrs. Phillips, the mob
brought the fire-engine and soon broke the windows.fl joded the
room, and spoiled the goods. Then seizing on one of the
Society they dragged him away and threw him into the horse-
pond. Charles Wesley's life was now in imminent danger, and
the mayor's wife — rthe mayor himself being absent from the
town — sent her maid to beg him to disguise himself in woman's
clothes and try to make his escape. This he declined to do,
and with his companions continued to pray and converse,
calmly confident " that the Lord would deliver them." The
mob now began to untile the roof, but just at this juncture a
constable and some gentlemen arrived and succeeded in
restraining their violence. Escorted by the constable and his
feeble posse, Charles and Mr. Meriton came boldly forth
and took horse in the face of their enemies. " We rodi," so
says he in his record, " a slow pace up the street, the whole
multitude pouring along on both sides, and attending us with
loud acclamations. Such fierceness and diabolical malice I
have not seen on human faces. They ran up to our horses
as if they would swallow us, but did not know which was
Wesley. We felt great peace and acquiescence in the honour
done us, while the whole town were spectators of our march."*
After riding some little way the mob set on them two
bulldogs which attackedjMr. Meriton's horse and tore its
flesh. Getting at length beyond their persecutors' reach they
rode on to Wrexall, where they united in hearty praise to
their Divine deliverer in Charles Wesley's own hymn, now
so well and widely known : —
* Jackson's "Life of C "Wesley."

CONFERENCES AND CONFLICTS. 39
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 seals set to, that God is true,
And reigns a King for ever.
Omnipotent Redeemer,
Our ransom'd souls adore thee :
Our Saviour thou, we find it now,
And give thee all the glory.
We sing thine arm unshorten'd,
Brought through our sore temptation ;
With heart and voice In thee rejoice,
The God of our salvation.
Thine arm hath safely brought us
A way no more expected,
Than when thy sheep pass'd through the deep,
By crystal walls protected.
Thy glory was our rear-ward,
Thine hand our lives did cover,
And we, even we, have pass'd the sea,
And march'd triumphant over.
The world's and Satan's malice
Thou, Jesus, hast confounded ;
And, by thy grace, with songs of praise
Our happy souls resounded.
Accepting our deliv'rance,
We triumph in thy favour,
And for the love which now we prove,
Shall praise thy name for ever.

40 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.

CHAPTER VI.
KINGSWOOD SCHOOL — CONNUBIAL
EXPERIENCES,
Opening of Kingswood School — Enlargement of the Broadmead Chapel
— Marriage of Charles Wesley — Earthquake in London — Con
ference of 1750 — Marriage of John Wesley, and marital misery —
Poverty and penuriousness.

(>N Friday, June 24th, 1748, Wesley, assisted by his
brother, opened the Kingswood School. Seven
years earlier a School — the foundation stone of which
was laid by Whitefield — had been commenced for the use of
the colliers, but the new School was a distinct boarding
establishment intended to convey on Christian principles a
superior education to the children of the wealthier class.
After several ineffectual attempts to make it a general School
for the Methodist Connexion it became step by step exclusively
an institution for the education of Methodist Preachers' sons.
Wesley preached on the occasion of the opening from " Train
up a child, &c." and then drew up the scholastic rules.
Examining them, the secret of its failure as a public school is
obvious. The poor itinerants were glad to get a superior
education for their sons at any cost of parental feeling, but
no parent whose means would admit of sending his sons to

KINGSWOOD SCHOOL  CONNUBIAL EXPERIENCES, 41
other institutions would be likely to subject them to the
hardships to which the first scholars were exposed. The
children were admitted at six years of age, and, from the day
of their admission, were required to rise the year round at four ;
to fast, if in good health, every Friday till three o'clock in the
afternoon, and never to play, for the reason asserted in a
mistaken German proverb "he who plays when he is a
child will play when he becomes a man." Had Wesley been
the favoured father of half-a-dozen boisterous boys and girls,
instead of an inexperienced bachelor in middle life he would
probably have drawn up rules more consistent with common
experience — more compatible with healthful childhood's
imperative demands.
Established on such a stringent unnatural basis one wonders
not that it proved to Wesley a source of ceaseless trouble.
Masters and scholars alike rebelled against a yoke intolerable
to be borne. Wesley, however, continued inexorable. Such
restrictions could never last. After its founder's decease there
dawned a sunnier day for Kingswood School. Many a noble
man, both ministerial and lay, now looks back with unfeigned
pleasure fo his old Kingswood days, the memories of football
and cricket being far more odorous than those of Euclid,
Virgil, and Cicero. The school at Kingswood continued until
18,51, when it was superseded by the spacious " New Kings-
wood School," on Lansdown Hill, near Bath.
The Horsefair preaching-house shewing signs of insecurity,
and, moreover, proving too small for the worshippers, it was
enlarged in 1748, at a considerable expense. For the proper
carrying out of the builder's contract, Wesley appointed five
supervising Stewards or honorary clerks of the works. It was
re-opened by Wesley for public worship on Thursday, Sep
tember 15th. Probably an entrance at that time was made to

42 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
the chapel from Broadmead ; hence, afterwards it was known
as the Broadmead preaching-house. The chapel, as it was then
made, stands to-day, though for many years it has passed into
the hands of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists. A few days
after jthe re-opening of the chapel, Wesley carefully scrutinized
the Bristol Society, leaving out every careless person, and
every one who wilfully refused to meet his brethren weekly.
By this weeding process the membership was reduced from
nine hundred to about seven hundred and fifty.
On Tuesday, April 8th, 1749, Charles Wesley was married
to Sarah, daughter of Marmaduke Gywnne, of Garth. Afortnight
after, leaving his bride behind him, he set out for Bristol.
Feeling feverish on his arrival, Dr. Middleton so "sweated,
blooded, and vomited '' him that for some days he could not
preach. Recovering, he set ^forth on his circuit rounds, his
wife re-joining him at Hereford. For some time she accom
panied him from town to town, everywhere receiving the
respect and admiration of the " Societies," a homage particu
larly acceptable to Charles, who wrote, "All look upon my
Sally with my eyes." Their usual mode of travelling was on
horseback, — Mrs. Charles seated on a pillion . behind her
husband. This was a dangerous mode of travelling, for
Charles was a most unfortunate horseman. He often com
posed on horseback, and poetic reverie and riding over rugged
roads were evidently most incompatible. To be thrown
was to him a very common occurrence. Only a few weeks
before his marriage he was un-horsed, and led bruised and
bleeding into Bristol ; a few weeks after, for once driving
instead of as usual riding with his wife, he "very gently
overturned, without hurting her in the least." After
some months the state of Mrs. Wesley's health called
for a less locomotive style of life, and the worthy pair fixed

KINGSWOOD SCHOOL  CONNUBIAL EXPERIENCES. 43
on Bristol as their home. A small house in Stokes Croft was
secured, at an annual rental of £1 1, and house-keepingforthwith
commenced. There they lived — though Charles Wesley was
necessarily much from home — their hospitable abode always
open to the itinerants, until 177I) when they finally removed to
London. The marriage was in every way a very happy one.
Seventeen years his junior, Mrs. Wesley survived her husband
just twice that length of time, and died in 1822, at the
patriarchal age of ninety -six.
By the Conference of 1749, held in London, John Jones
was appointed to labour in the Bristol circuit. This was the
first- official appointment to the circuit of which any record
now remains. Jones was a man of considerable learning, of
good abilities, and genuine piety. Almost immediately after
his appointment he was favoured with the company of his
chief — Wesley having spent some little time toward the close
of the year at Kingswood, preparing his sermons for the
press. On March 8th, 1750, London was thrown into consterna
tion by the violent shock of an earthquake. While Charles
Wesley was preaching in the Foundry the building perceptibly.
rocked. The congregation was alarmed, but the preacher
with almost supernatural calmness lifted up his voice, and
cried, " God is our refuge and our strength, a very present
help in trouble, therefore will not we fear, though the earth
be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the
midst of the sea." On that very eventful day, John Wesley
commenced another Bristol Conference. Of the meeting only
the briefest memorandum now remains. Wesley says, "I
desired all the preachers that were in Bristol to meet me at
four in the afternoon ; and so every day while I was in
town. In the evening God rent the rocks again. I wondered

44 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.
at the words He gave me to speak. But He doeth whatsoever
pleaseth Him."
Four months later, after some time spent in Ireland, and a
stormy passage in the Channel, Wesley was there again.
Christopher Hopper, one of the early preachers, was his
companion, and the following extract is from his diary.
" July 22nd. I embarked with Mr. Wesley for England.
23rd — We had a violent squall of wind, thunder, and light
ning, between the Welsh lands and the rocky shore of Lundy.
We cried to the Lord in our trouble, and he delivered us out
of our distress. 24th. The wind was contrary. It blew a
storm. The seas ran mountains high. We were tossed in a
narrow channel, full of rocks, shoals, and sands. We prayed
for help : our God heard, and brought us safe to Pill."
On arriving at Bristol, Wesley found that the Bristol
Weekly Intelligencer had just published three folio columns of
scurrilous abuse against him and the Methodists in general ;
but not deigning to reply, he devoted himself to his accustomed
work, preaching among other places at " Points' Pool, a little
without Lawford's Gate,* just in the midst of the butchers and
all the rebel rout that neither fear God nor reverence man."
In February, 1751, Wesley was married to Mrs. Vazielle —
a widow lady of independent means. Charles was strongly op
posed to the union from the first, but so far reconciled himself to
* Lawford's Gate — in Saxon times known as Hlaford's Gate — stood
at the top of Old Market Street. It was rebuilt in 1395 by John Walter
Barstable — three times mayor of Bristol. Forming one of the principal
entrances to the city, it was the place usually chosen for the public
reception of distinguished visitors. The Sovereigns Elizabeth and Ann,
Charles II. and James II. were received at Lawford's Gate by the
Mayor and Corporation, arrayed in all the gorgeous finery ol ancient
civic state. Lawford's Gate was finally demolished in 1768.

KINGSWOOD SCHOOL  CONNUBIAL EXPERIENCES. 4j
what could not be undone, that when a few days after the
marriage, the bride and bridegroom appeared in the Broadmead
Chapel, he saluted his sister-in-law and gave her the kiss of peace.
Wesley, during his honeymoon, conducted another Bristol
Conference. It began on Monday, March nth, and continued
until the close of the week. Before it opened he had been
greatly depressed, fearing that some of his preachers had
departed from the simplicity of the faith. Investigation
however, proved that his fears were groundless, and he
briefly records of it, "the more we conversed the more
brotherly love increased." This could not be said of the
conjugal relations of himself and wife. Mrs. Wesley had
already commenced her unwifely conduct. John Wesley's
itinerating life was certainly not conducive to domestic happi
ness even though he had secured one of Mahomets four
perfect women ; and so far from possessing impeccability,
Mrs. Wesley was "peevish, sullen, sour — a foul contending
rebel and graceless traitor to her loving lord." Southey
says that by her outrageous jealousies and terrible temper she
deserved to be classed in a triad with " Socrates' Xantippe
and the wife of Job." Words with her led on to blows,
borne by her victim with Christian fortitude. All of Wesley's
lay preachers were evidently not of kindred meekness with
their chief. " Jack " said gigantic John Hampson, Senior,
to his son* " I was once on the point of committing murder.
In the north of Ireland I went into a room and found Mrs.
Wesley foaming with fury. Her husband was on the floor,
where she had been trailing him by the hair of his head ; and
she herself was still holding in her hand venerable locks
which she had plucked up by the roots. I felt as though I
could have knocked the soul out of her." For twenty years
she tormented him, then mercifully left the home so long

46 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
bereft by her of homeliness. In his journal Wesley simply
chronicles the past and adds, " Non earn reliqui, non dimisi,
non revocabo : — I did not forsake her, I did not dismiss her, I
will not recall her."
The next Conference was held in Bristol, Oct. 16, 1732.
Up to that time no settled arrangement for the support of the
lay preachers had existed. In the origi nal " Rules of a
Helper" drawn up 1744, it was enjoined : " Take no money
of any one. If they give you food when you are hungry, or
clothes when you need them, it is good. But not silver or
gold. Let there be no pretence to say, we g row rich by the
Gospel." This precarious mode of life was found to entail
many inconveniences, especially upon the least popular of the
itinerants ; therefore, at this Conference it was resolved " That
each preacher should receive ^12 per annum to provide him
self with clothing and with books." Money it must be
remembered was of more value then than now ;
but the first Methodist Stewards must have been somewhat
penurious as well as poor. Soon after this arrangement
Alexander Mather being requested to accompany Wesley
into Ireland, requested his circuit stewards to allow his
wife during his absence four shillings a week for her support.
The stewards thought that this was a larger sum than they
could afford, and Mather therefore wisely refused to under
take the jo urney. York is now honourably spoken of for
its generous treatment of its ministers ; in 1 765 a deputation
was sent from that city to the Conference at Manchester, to
plead against the hardship of being obliged to give the
extravagant sum of £12 per year stipend to their appointed
preachers. Four years elapsed before the Conference was again held in
Bristol; meanwhile the good work went on. In 1753

KINGSWOOD SCHOOL  CONNUBIAL EXPERIENCES. 47
Wesley visited Felix Farley on his death bed. By the Con
ference of that year William Hitchins, John Haime, and Paul
Greenwood were the appointed itinerants. Greenwood, several
years later became somewhat conspicuous by persisting in his
ecclesiastical right to administer the Sacrament in opposition
to Charles Wesley's wish ; and John Haime is immortalised as
one of the Methodist soldiers, who alike for Christ and for
their country won high honours on the fatal fields of Flanders.

48 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.

CHAPTER VII.
PATRIOTISM AND PHILANTHROPY.
A Bristol Riot — Wesley ill — Death of C. Wesley's child— Patriotism
— Conferences of 1756 and 1758 — French Captives at Knowle —
Conferences of 1760 — Condemned Prisoners.

ARLY in 1753 a riot occurred in Bristol of a very
alarming kind. Provoked by the dearness of bread,
the colliers arose, smashed the windows of the Council-house,
sacked a grain vessel on the quay, pelted the constables and
city guards with stones, and were proceeding to greater
outrage when the Scotch Greys arrived, killed four of them,
took thirty prisoners, and dispersed the rest. While lying in
the Bridewell, repenting at leisure their reckless lawlessness,.
the poor colliers sent for Wesley, who, prompt to every call,.
went and preached to them.
Soon after this Wesley was seized with a dangerous
sickness. Believing that his end was nigh, " to prevent vile
panegyric," he penned his epitaph : — " 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, ten pounds behind him ; praying — God

PATRIOTISM AND PHILANTHROPY. 49
be merciful to me an unprofitable servant." Charles Wesley
hurried from Bristol to see his brother die, and Whitefield,
who, with all their doctrinal differences, still held Wesley
in high esteem, sent him a letter of loving, lingering
F-a-r-e-w-e-1-1 But Wesley's work was not yet done.
Much prayer was presented for him ; and, to the surprise of
the physicians, who had pronounced the disease " galloping
consumption," he slowly recovered. As soon as he could
safely travel he removed from London to the Hotwells, where
he spent several months in comparative quietude, during
which he wrote his invaluable "Notes on the New
Testament." During Charles Wesley's absence from Bristol, attending
his sick brother, his wife, who remained at home, was taken
with small pox, and brought very near to death. Scarcely
was she out of danger when their first-born and only child
was seized, and, ere his father could reach him, died. Thomas
Jackson, in his "Life of Charles Wesley," tells of "some
light and delicate hair " on the study table before him
as he wrote, on the folded wrapper of which, ninety years
before, the sorrowing mother had inscribed, " My dear Jacky
Wesley's hair, who died of small pox, on Monday, Jan. 7th,
1753-4, aged a year, four months and seventeen days. I shall
go to him, but he never shall return to me." This was the
first shadow which fell on the Stokes Croft home ; but soon
was it gladdened again by childhood's prattlings, and years
after once more the darkness lowered in the death of James,
their third-born son.
In 1756 the "Seven years' War" commenced. France,
Russia, Sweden, and Saxony allied against England and
Prussia, and great alarm prevailed. Friday, February 6th, was
set apart for national humiliation and prayer. In this

JO BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.
Wesley and his Societies of course concurred, but, like
Cromwell, he believed in fighting as well as devotional exercise.
On the ist day of March he wrote to the Hon. James West,
offering to raise for his Majesty's service two hundred
volunteers, to be supported by Connexional contributions.
Having made this loyal offer, Wesley set out for Bristol, then
in the tumult of an election, occasioned by the death of Mr.
Beckford, the borough member, and threw his powerful
influence into the scale in favour of the Honourable John
Spencer, against his rival, Jarrett Smith. Having seen his
favoured candidate returned by a large majority, he remained
for some time in the neighbourhood discoursing to the several
societies ; on one occasion a press gang presenting itself while
he was preaching in the open-air at Pill.
The thirteenth conference began in Bristol, August 26,
1756. The Wesleys and about fifty of the preachers were
present. Christopher Hopper says : "It was a good season."
The Rules of the Society were read and carefully considered
one by one. The rules of Kingswood School were renewed
and, unwise as they now appear to us, were pronounced
" agreeable to Scripture and to reason." For sometime, much
to Charles Wesley's horror, several of the preachers had
evidenced dissatisfaction with their undefined position, and a
desire to formally break from the Church of England, and
John, he feared, was tainted with the "heresy." This dis
satisfaction on the part of the preachers had been excited by
a withering satire on the Establishment, written by Edward
Perronett, the son of Wesley's friend, the Vicar of Shoreham.
Charles warmly demanded in the conference that the itenerants
should solemnly promise never to seperate from the Church,
and refusing to do this should cease to be connected with
them. It does not appear that the pledge was actually enforced,

PATRIOTISM AND PHILANTHROPY. jl
but after a conversation on the subject, the Wesleys " closed
the conference with a declaration never to separate from the
Church, and all the brethren agreed therein." In this deci
sion John Wesley proceeded on the principle that such a
separation was lawful but inexpedient — inexpedient, because
he knew that such a course would alienate his brother for ever
from him, and cause disunion in the Societies. This,
however, was only patching up a temporary peace : the
change was inevitable.
From this time Charles Wesley virtually ceased to
itinerate, confining his labours almost exclusively to Bristol
and London, though the remaining records of his labours are
very few. This change in his mode of life was partly due
to his dissatisfaction with what he deemed the preachers' dis
loyalty to the Establishment, and partly to the increase of
family cares. The differences of opinion on ecclesiastical
questions which prevailed probably led to a stagnation in the
spiritual work in the Bristol and neighbouring Societies. The
Kingswood Society was standing still, and the Bristol Society
was reduced from nine hundred to a little more than half
that number. Observing this, Wesley, in October, i757> held
a solemn fast with the Society, and from that time the work
revived. During this visit the Kingswood School caught fire,
and narrowly escaped entire destruction. Though laid aside
some days with swollen face, which he cured by " applying
boiled nettles," Wesley found time to open a new
preaching house at Pill and visit other Societies. In the
following Christmas week he again rode down from London,
and began the year 17,58 with "the great congregation, at
four, a.m., rejoicing and praising God."
The fifteenth Conference began in Bristol on the 10th of
the following August. In all, about thirty-seven were present.

j2 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEYS DAY.
Several candidates for the itinerancy were received : one was
declined until he ceased to "rail, to print, and sell wares
without a license;" and poor Michael Fen wick, whom Wesley
in his travels had found a better " groom, valet de chambre and
nurse " than preacher, was recommended to return to
business.* "You must," said Wesley to his helpers, "do one
of three things : either spend time in chit chat, or learn Latin
and Hebrew, or spend all your time and strength in saving
souls. Which will you do?" And the earnest reply was
given, "The last, by the grace of God." These points of
discipline being settled, the remainder of the time was
spent in a discussion on the doctrines of Justification and
Sanctification. Of this Conference Christopher Hopper says,
" It was a good season. God crowned our meeting with love
and unanimity."
The day after the Bristol Conference closed its sittings,
Wesley attended a performance of "Mr. Handel's Messiah,"
in the Cathedral, and was greatly pleased alike with "choruses
and congregation." The following day, he started for a tour in
Wales, duly returning from which, he spent some days with
John Fletcher and several other preachers discussing the
doctrine of " entire Sanctification." He also preached in the
Broadmead Chapel to " great congregations ;" and riding over
to Bath, and "finding the house too small," he encouraged
the people to take a piece of land and commence building a
larger one without delay.
The following year, 1759, Wesley commenced in Bristol by
visiting the Societies, and preaching a sermon for the poor
The great war was still proceeding, and more than a thousand
French prisoners were immured in a prison which then stood
near Totterdown. An extract from Wesley's journal will

* Appendix C.

PATRIOTISM AND PHILANTHROPY. j3
show at once the wretched condition of the captives, and the
practical religion of the early Bristol Methodists. " Monday,
October i j. — I walked up to Knowle, a mile from Bristol, to
see the French prisoners.* About eleven hundred of them,
we were informed, were confined in that little place, without
anything to lie on but a little dirty straw, or anything to cover
them but a few foul thin rags, either by day or night, so that
they died like rotten sheep. I was much moved, and
preached in the evening on (Exodus xxiii. 9) ' Thou shalt not
oppress a stranger ; for ye know the heart of a stranger,
seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.' Eighteen
pounds were contributed immediately, which were made up
to four-and-twenty the next day. With this we bought linen
and woollen cloth, which was made up into shirts, waistcoats,
and breeches. Some dozen of stockings were added, all of
which were carefully distributed where there was the greatest
need. Presently after, the Corporation of Bristol sent a large
quantity of mattresses and blankets ; and it was not long
before contributions were set on foot in London and in
various parts of the kingdom, so that I believe from this time
they were pretty well provided with all the necessaries of
life." The contributions sent from London and other parts
were doubtless the result of a powerful appeal in behalf of
the prisoners published by Wesley in Lloyd's Evening Post.
Twelve months later he visited the prisoners again, and once
more made a collection to supply their most pressing needs.
The early part of 1760 Charles Wesley spent in London.
Wesley's friend, the Countess of Huntingdon, was just then
in deep distress by reason of the atrocious crime and felon's
death of her kinsman, the Earl of Ferriers.+ Charles was
* See Appendix D. f See Appexdix E.

j4 BRIST-OL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
present at his trial in the house of Lords, and did much to
comfort his dishonoured relatives. John meanwhile was
itinerating in Ireland, from which he hastened to the Bristol
Conference, arriving there, through a series of misfortunes,
about thirty-six hours after the appointed time. Of the
Conference only 'a brief note has been preserved. Wesley
says: "September 28th, 1760. — We pushed on to Newport,
where I took a chaise, and reached Bristol before eleven. I
spent the two following days with the preachers, who had
been waiting for me all the week ; and their love and
unanimity was such as soon made me forget all my labour."
Three weeks later than the Conference Wesley again spent
several weeks in Bristol and its vicinity. On Saturday,
November 25, King George II. died at Kensington, and the
following Friday was observed by the Society as a day of
fasting and prayer for the blessing of God upon his successor,
George III. The Bristol Methodists were evidently thriving,
despite the war, and so Wesley solemnly warned them
against the danger of riches and the spirit of the world.
Some Pensford gentlemen had threatened to arrest the next
Methodist preacher who should presume to set foot within
the parish. Wesley rode over 'to give them the oppor
tunity," but not one of them appeared. In sooth, mob
persecution was by this time dying out ; but Wesley found
opponents not less formidable in the 'falsehoods of a ribald
press, the public ridicule of Foote and other comedians, and
soon after in themillenarian fanaticism of George Bell, Thomas
Maxwell (his old Bristolian preacher), and their excited
followers. The year 1761 appears to have been one of religious
prosperity. In September Wesley found the Bristol Society
larger than it had been for many years ; and at Kingswood,

PATRIOTISM AND PHILANTHROPY. 55
both the Society and School in a flourishing state. During
this visit he preached to the prisoners in the jail, " was after
wards desired by the condemned prisoners to give them one
sermon more," and also administered the sacrament to Patrick
Ward, who soon after left in the hangman's cart for the
gallows, "breathing a peace and joy beyond all utterance."

56 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.

CHAPTER VIII.
"WORKERS TOGETHER WITH HIM."
Conference of 1764— John Martin— John Nelson— Captain Webb—
"Walpole oni Wesley— Conference of 1 768— Alexander Mather—
Dr. Wrangle, the King of Sweden's Chaplain— Death of
George "Whitefield.

'ARLY in 1762 Wesley visited Bristol, and found
its attention engrossed by the supposed bewitch
ment of "Molly and Dobby Giles," the children of the
landlady of the " Lamb." Wesley, who from the time
of the Epworth Rectory's ghostly rappings had, to say
the least, an insatiable liking for what would now savour
of spiritualistic seances, heard with wonder of the " sera tell
ings on the windows and walls," and of the unequine
vagaries of Giles the landlord's teams. In his Journal he
asks, " How are they to be accounted for ? By natural or
supernatural agency?" Wesley's questions soon were
answered. Yielding to the stern persuasion of a birchen rod,
Molly and Dobby at last^confessed the hocus pocus tricks by
which, at the instance of their mother, who wished to buy
the property, they had sought to depreciate the value of the
" Lamb" by haunting it like spirits from the "vasty deep."
The Twenty-first Conference began in Bristol August 6,
1764. At this time Wesley found his position most embar-

57
rassing. Societies had been formed throughout the length
and breadth of the land; and the members thereof were
demanding their ecclesiastical rights to distinct sacramental
ordinances. Hesitating himself as a presbyter to ordain,
though convinced of his scriptural right to do so, and needing
helpers in the administration of the sacraments, he had pro
cured ordination for John Jones, an old Bristol preacher, and
a few others, at the hands of Erasmus, Bishop of Arcadia in
Crete, a Greek prelate then on a visit to this land. At this
act, Charles Wesley, whose attachment to the Church of
England increased with advancing years, was very wroth, and
Jones was obliged to retire from the itinerancy. To remove
his difficulties John had subsequently sent a circular
letter to all the clergymen of the Establisment, inviting
them to unite with him and with each other in holy efforts
to spread scriptural holiness throughout the land. Of fifty
or more clergymen thus addressed, only three were courteous
enough to send him a reply. Failing in this attempt at union
Wesley invited several of them to come and confer with him
at the Bristol Conference. Twelve attended, and in the con
versation which ensued, urged the carrying out of a scheme
which had been suggested by a Cornish rector some years
before, viz., " that in every parish in which there was a pious
clergyman the societies formed there should be given up to
his direction and oversight." This proposition Charles Wesley
was prepared heartily to accede to, but John firmly and
respectfully declined. . Charles had so far departed from his
once noble stand against ecclesiastical monopoly as to declare
that if he were the settled minister in any particular parish
the Methodists should not preach therein. To this, outspoken
John Hampson — the same who once was tempted to avenge
Wesley's wrongs on his virago wife — brusquely made reply :

58 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.
" I would preach there and never ask leave, and should have
as good a right to do so as you would have." The conver
sation with the clergy at the Bristol Conference only made the
breach wider than before, and hastened the inevitable end of
Methodist secession from the Church.
Four years passed away before a Bristol Conference met
again. During this time the work was carried on by Preachers
annually appointed — Wesley from time to time passing through
the City and visiting the several surrounding Societies.
Among the Bristol Preachers of this period were John Murlin
and John Nelson. Murlin was widely known as the " Weeping
Prophet," his tears being more eloquent than his words.
Tender hearted as a little child he had also a lion's
courage in the cause of truth. Withstanding Charles Wesley's
ultra ecclesiasticism, he had four years before boldly adminis
tered the Sacrament at Norwich ; and in after years, filled
with iconoclastic firry against a carved archangel which the
Halifax Methodists had placed upon the pulpit sounding-
board, he iiterally hewed the " graven image" in pieces before
the Lord and consumed it to ashes in the Chapel yard.
Wesley's faithful follower in life, in death, they were re-united,
and now their ashes mingle in the honoured tomb of City
Road. John Nelson is a name familiar in Methodism as household
words. From among Wesley's faithful helpers he stands pro
minently forth, noblest, bravest, most successful of them all.
In perils oft— he stood amid the wildest tumults of the people
calm and unshaken as the rock lashed by the angry waves.
Though but a stone mason by profession, he was one of
nature's noblemen, and his native goodness was enriched and
crowned by grace. Years before he had gathered hundreds
into the Societies at " Paulton, Coleford, Shepton Mallet,

"WORKERS TOGETHER WITH HIM. 59.
Road and Bearfield," and in 1766 he was formally appointed
to the Bristol Circuit. Eight years later a sobbing, singing
host bore him through the crowded streets of Leeds to-
Birstal, and there, the place of his nativity and earliest minis
trations, they laid the hero down to rest.
In September, 1765, Wesley visited Bristol, and on this
occasion made the acquaintance of Captain Webb, who some
months previously had been converted and joined the
Society. Seven years before, scaling with General Wolfe the
heights of Abraham, he had lost an eye and been wounded in
the arm. From henceforth he proved as courageous in the
cause of Christ as he had been in the service of his King.
Almost immediately he began to preach, and being ordered
soon after with his regiment to America, was one of the chief
founders of Methodism in the Western Continent. Returning
to England in 1783, he devoted himself to the work of an
evangelist Residing principally in Bristol, to him Methodism
in this city is indebted to a great degree for the erection of
Portland Chapel, and there his body lies interred.*
Toward the end of 1766, Wesley spent several weeks in
Bristol and its vicinity, pursuing his usual work. At Bath
he preached several times in the Countess of Huntingdon's
Chapel to distinguished pump-room visitors. Horace
Walpole heard him there, and in his " Letters " thus speaks
of him with his usual facetiousness : — "I have been at one
opera -Mr. Wesley's. They have boys and girls with
charming voices that sing hymns in parts to Scotch ballad
tunes, but indeed so long that one would think they were
already in eternity and knew not how much time they had
before them. Wesley is a clean, elderly man, fresh coloured,

* Appendix F.

t5o BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.
his hair smoothly combed, but with a little soupcon of curls at
the end. Wondrous clever, but as evidently an actor as
Garrick." To Walpole's insinuation of Wesley being an actor
his whole life is an unanswerable and glorious contradiction.
A letter from Charles Wesley to his wife in Bristol sent about
this time affords a pleasant glimpse of John's ceaseless activity.
" My brother, I presume, will look upon you on Wednesday
se'nnight in his flight to the Land's End. He is an astonishing
youth ! and may be saluted like the eastern monarchs, ' O
King, live for ever ! ' "
On Saturday, August 13, 1768, after six months ceaseless
travelling, Wesley arrived in Bristol to attend the Conference.
Hearing that his wife, who had not then finally left him, was
seriously ill in London, he took postchaise at once, arriving
at the Foundry about one o'clock on Monday morning.
" Finding the fever was turned and the danger over " he left
her within an hour and by rapid posting reached Bristol " not
at all tired " the same afternoon. The Conference opened
next morning and finished its sittings on the following Friday.
The Bristol membership was returned at n 77, being an
increase of nearly a hundred in the preceding year; the
connexional membership as 27,341, being an increase of
nearly sixteen hundred. The character and conduct of the
preachers underwent a careful examination. To eke out
their scanty income some had engaged in miniature mercantile
pursuits, such as selling pills and other patent physic. Such
were commanded to desist from " hawking drops, (though
their wives might sell them at home)," and to'relinquish other
forms of business as unnecessary, infra dig. and dishonouring
to the sacred office which they held. To promote their own
as well as the interests of the Societies, they were urged to
maintain the custom of early preaching. " Let the preaching,"

"WORKERS TOGETHER WITH HIM." 6l
said Wesley, " at five in the morning be constantly kept up
wherever you can have twenty hearers. This is the glory of
the Methodists. Rising early is equally good for soul and
body. It helps the nerves better than a thousand medicines,
and in particular preserves the sight and prevents lowness of
spirits more than can be well imagined." Discipline was to
be steadily maintained and stewards changed more frequently
"lest they should ride over the preachers' heads." Public
singing in the Societies was to be reformed and cultivated.
Musical repeats, especially fugues, having "no more of religion
in them than in a^Lancashire hornpipe," were to be carefully
eschewed, and the " assistants," as the superintendents were
then called, were to see that the " members of every large
Society were taught to sing." Field preaching was to be
efficiently maintained, the children of the Societies were to be
looked after, and for the promotion, of their own religious
life the preachers were to read the life of David Brainerd, and
to give themselves to fasting and to prayer. Twelve young
men were received as probationers, among them " Sammy "
Bardsley, who lived to be the oldest Methodist preacher of
his day, and the memory of whose gentle, loving spirit is still
fragrant in multitudes of homes.
A three years' interval elapsed ere the Conference was held
in Bristol again. In that time the numerical increase in the
circuit did not exceed a hundred. The most notable of the
appointed preachers was Alexander Mather. Born in Brechin,
in Scotland, Mather before he was thirteen ran away from
his parents, followed " Prince Charlie," and passed through
Culloden. Escaping from the pursuit he returned home, and
some years later removed to London. There he was con
verted and joined the " Foundry Society." Soon after sent

62 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
by Wesley into the work, he walked a hundred and fifty miles
to his first circuit, and for some years endured great hardships
and indignities from the hands of lawless mobs. Clear-headed,
wise in counsel, fearing the face of no man in the maintenance
of truth and honour ; he was moreover distinguished for his
pathetic eloquence and his tenderness toward the indigent
and distressed. He commenced to travel in 1757, was
ordained as an elder and superintendent by Wesley in 1788,
was elected to the Presidency ofthe Conference in 1792, and
died at the commencement of the present century.
During the brief period now reviewed, Wesley, according
to his wont, cheered the Bristol preachers from time to time
with his presence and genial smile. During his visits he
preached daily in the Broadmead Chapel, in a room opened
for worship in Princess Street, at Bedminster, and in the sur
rounding towns and villages. Discoursing at Whiteshill, near
Bradford, " the beasts of the people" shouted in derision,
and one "called a gentleman" having filled his pockets
with rotten eggs, intending to pelt the preacher, a young
man, approaching unawares, " clapped his hands on each
side of him, and in an instant he was perfume all over;
though it was not so' sweet as balsam."
Joseph Benson, afterwards so long and honourably associ
ated with Methodism, was at this time classical tutor at Kings-
wood School, an office which he soon relinquished to take
the head-mastership of Trevecca College, founded by Lady
Huntingdon. In 1770 the Wesleys, at the request of the Bristol Society,
arranged for the administration of the Lord's Supper every
other Sunday ; an arrangement involving considerable incon
venience, inasmuch as at that time the ordinance could only
be administered by an Episcopal clergyman. About the same

"WORKERS TOGETHER WITH HIM." 63
time Wesley had much pleasant intercourse in Bristol with
Dr. Wrangle, the King of Sweden's chaplain. The worthy
Swede preached in the Broadmead Chapel, and delighted the
Bristol Methodists with " the simplicity and life which accom
panied his sound doctrine." Returning soon after to his
native land he disseminated Methodistic teaching, and in
Stockholm and other towns sowed precious seed, which more
than half a century later was reaped by Joseph Rayner
Stephens and Dr. Scott.
On Saturday, August 18th, 1770, Wesley stood in the
shadow of St. Mary Redcliffe Church and warned of " wrath
to come." Just six days later poor Chatterton, the marvellous
" Boy Bard of Bristol," whose genius and career are so closely
interwoven with St. Mary's, perished in his misery and pride.
Wesley would feel for the hapless youth, whose brilliant sun
so soon and so sadly set ; but five weeks later another genius
died, whose departure more deeply affected him. Though
born himself at "The Bell," in Gloucester, Whitefield's
mother was a Bristolian, and his father for some time carried
on in that city the business of a wine and spirit merchant.
In Bristol, too, he commenced his marvellous career as the
greatest field preacher that ever lived. Much inferior to
Wesley in intellectual power and academical distinctions— as
an orator Whitefield had no peer. His was the soul of elo
quence, and also the cultured art. By the witchery of his words
— now impetuous as the cataract, now soft and plaintive as the
summer breeze — sinners were startled into terror or were'melted
into tears. With a restlessness of zeal which knew no respite,
he rushed over England and America, everywhere preaching
to wondering multitudes, everywhere bowing men and women
to the sovereignty of truth, until — like the sword whose keen

64 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEYS DAY.
edge cuts through its scabbard — his noble soul suddenly
escaped from its prisonage and soared to its reward. George
Whitefield died at Newburyport in the United States,
September 30th, 1770, just as the Sabbath sun was uprising
from the neighbouring sea.

THE CALVINISTIC CONTROVERSY. 65

CHAPTER IX.
THE CALVINISTIC CONTROVERSY.
Calvinistic Controversy — Countess of Huntingdon — Conference of 1771
— Fletcher, Toplady, and Thomas Olivers — Wesley's Calmness —
Joseph Benson — John Pawson — Bishop Asbury and American
Methodism.

J HE period between the Bristol Conferences of 1768 and
1 77 1 was one of great religious excitement, both polit
ical and ecclesiastical. Wilkes, the member for Middlesex, was
committed to the King's Bench prison for stirring up sedition,
a commitment which led to the " Massacre of St. George's
Fields." To arrest the increasing spirit of democracy Wesley
wrote his first political brochure, entitled " Free Thoughts on
the present State_of Political Affairs." In this production he
somewhat strongly satirizes Wilkes, defends the character of
the King, and warns that the prevalent agitation, unless
arrested, would lead on to revolution and internecine war.
The Calvinian controversy at this time approached its
culmination. The Conference Minutes of 1770 contained a
Confession of Faith in which anti-calvinistic doctrines were
conspicuously emphasized. This Confession gave great offence
to the Calvinistic party. The Countess of Huntingdon
branded it as " popery unmasked," and determined that all

66 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.
who declined to disavow it should quit Trevecca College.
Joseph Benson, the head-master, was accordingly dismissed ;
and John Fletcher, the president, whose visits from time to
time were like those of an angel of light, after nobly vindi
cating Wesley's teachings, respectfully withdrew. The Bristol
Conference approached, and the Countess in co-operation
with her chaplain, the Rev. Walter Shirley, sent a circular
letter to all her Calvinistic friends, convening a meeting in the
city at the time of the Conference, for the purpose of going
en masse thereto and demanding from Wesley and his followers
a formal recantation of their " dreadful heresies."
The Conference commenced its sittings Aug. 6, 177 1.
Wesley might have treated the threats of his opponents with
merited contempt and closed the Conference doors against
them, but ascertaining that their temper was somewhat
mollified he gave them admittance on Thursday, two days
after the opening. Shirley had done his best to muster a
monster meeting ; — but, lo ! instead of a host only eight
appeared, and two of them mere youths. After so many loud
swelling words they might have expected ridicule ; but Wesley
treated them with christian courtesy, explained the passages
of the Minutes which had given such grave offence, signed
with fifty-three of his itinerants a declaration of abhorrence of
the doctrine of "justification by works," and then demanded
from Mr. Shirley an acknowledgment that he had mistaken
the meaning of the Minutes and his hearty agreement
with the same. So ended the Bristol Conference in apparent
peace. The sword thus drawn, however, was not so quickly
sheathed. Shirley, before the Conference met, had publicly
accused; Wesley's doctrines therefore required a public
vindication. The vindication was ready in the first of

THE CALVINISTIC CONTROVERSY. 6~j
" Fletcher's Checks," which was immediately put through the
press by [Mr. William Pine, the publisher of " Felix Farley's
Journal." Shirley endeavoured to answer Fletcher in his
" Narrative" of the dispute, but was effectually silenced by a
second " Check." The brothers Richard and Rowland Hill
and Augustus Toplady now joined in the controversy, which
called forth the third " Check" from Madeley. Walter Sellon,
an accomplished curate, once one of Wesley's preachers, and
Thomas Olivers, an itinerant, next hastened into the fray.
Wesley, and Fletcher, and Sellon, as clergymen, were deemed
by Toplady " foemen worthy of his steel," but that Olivers, a
converted mechanic, a man who once had nursed a lapstone,
should presume to come between "the wind and his nobility,"
was an offence as huge as the " slovenly unhandsome corse"
to Hotspur's fragrance loving fop, Oliver forthwith was
assailed with the most sarcastic references to his humble
origin, but in a literal as well as proverbial sense Roland was
met by Oliver ; the " consecrated cobbler's" quarter-staff laid
on as effectually as the vicar's burnished blade. And so for six
long years the conflict waged, and then the smoke of battle
clearing, disclosed the Arminian and Calvinistic hosts afar
removed to meet in shock of war no more. During all this
time, Wesley, assailed on every side, calmly went on his usual
way, leaving the vindication of his character and teaching to
God and his faithful followers. Had his opponents been
content to impugn his doctrinal opinions they might have been
excused, but they invaded his domestic privacy and
thereby sought to ruin his reputation. Mrs. Wesley having
obtained some letters belonging to her outraged husband, so
altered them by interpolations as to convey a most false and
dishonouring meaning. These, by the advice of some
Calvinists, were to be sent to the " Morning Post," but their

68 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
publication was delayed through the wishes of one gentleman,
who wished to give Wesley an opportunity of first answering
for himself. Charles, horrified, hastened to his brother, who
had engaged to take his niece, Sarah Wesley, to Canterbury
on the following day, and begged him to defer his journey
until the accusation had been disproved. " Brother " was
John's reply, " when I devoted to God my ease, my time,
my life, did I except my reputation ? No, tell Sally I shall
take her to Canterbury to-morrow." Wesley fulfilled his
promise ; — the letters were soon found to be mutilated
forgeries ; — and his reputation continued as untarnished as his
trust in God was great.
Reverting to the Bristol Conference of 1771, two or three
names, destined to Methodist renown are worthy of passing
notice. Joseph Benson was received on trial, John Pawson
was appointed to the Bristol Circuit, and Francis Asbury
was set apart for the work in America.
Joseph Benson was received on trial. Dismissed as we have
seen from Trevecca College for his fidelity to Wesley's
doctrines, he repaired to Oxford University to complete his
studies. Four years before, six Methodist students had been
expelled from St. Edmund's Hall, for no fault save their piety ;
and scarcely better treatment awaited him. His tutor
declined to sign his testimonials for Orders in the Church,
and these obtained from other and higher sources, the Bishop
of Oxford refused him ordination. Thenceforth he devoted
himself to the toils and triumphs of the itinerancy. In appear
ance unpretentious — in intellect, Joseph Benson was a prince.
Scholarly and critical — he rendered incalculable service to
Methodist literature, and scarcely less so as a pulpit orator.
Somewhat feeble and harsh in voice, disposed to expository
and grave discourse —his appeals were sometimes overwhelm-

[ THE CALVINISTIC CONTROVERSY. 69
ing, startling his congregrations as the morningblast of trumpets
startles the slumbering hosts. By fifty years of faithful service,
during which he filled the highest connexional offices, inclu
ding twice the Presidential chair, he proved his fidelity to
the trust reposed in him, and then found an honoured resting
place amid the holy dead in the chapel yard of City Road.
John Pawson was appointed to the Bristol Circuit. Disin
herited by his uncle for turning Methodist — Pawson early
dedicated himself to the work of the itinerancy, and though
oft exposed to temptation and heavy trial he never dishonoured
the cause he so early and earnestly espoused. His preaching
talents were not of the highest order, but so illumined and
sanctified by grace that his words were ever words of power.
His judgment clear, his administrative ability superior, his
sanctityunquestioned — in the Connexional unsettlednesswhich
succeeded Wesley's death, he rendered much needed service,
a service soon rewarded by his elevation to the Presidential
Chair. |' John Pawson was the first itinerant who remained
two years in the Bristol Circuit ; ten years later he travelled
there again ; a third time early in the century ; dying soon
after a triumphant death.
Francis Asbury was appointed to labour in America. No
appointment ever made by the Conference has been followed
by more signal results. Richard Boardman and Joseph
Pilmore were there two years before ; but the arrival of
Asbury threw such impetus into the work, and so widespread
and unwearied was his evangelizing wanderings that he may
be justly called the Father of Methodism in the western world.
At the time of his appointment American Methodism returned
only three hundred and sixteen members : he lived to stand at
the head of upwards of two hundred thousand members and
seven hundred itinerants. "The History of Christianity" says

70 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
Dr. Abel Stevens, the Methodist historian, "affords not a
more perfect example of ministerial and episcopal devotion
than was presented in this great man's life. He preached
almost daily for more than half a century. During most of
this time he travelled with hardly an intermission, the North
American Continent from north to south, and east to west,
directing the growing hosts of his denomination with the
skill and authority of a great captain. He entered the
itinerant ministry in England when but seventeen years of
age ; he went to America in his twenty-sixth year and was
ordained bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church when
thirty:nine years old, at its organization in 1784. It has been
estimated that in the forty-five years of his American ministry
he preached about sixteen thousand five hundred sermons,
travelled about two hundred and seventy thousand miles,
presided over two hundred and twenty-four annual Conferences,
and ordained more than four thousand preachers. His
discrimination of character was marvellous, his administration
would have placed him, in civil government or in war, by the
side of Richelieu or Csesar, and his success placed him
unquestionably at the. head of the leading characters of
American ecclesiastical history. His attitude in the pulpit
was solemn and dignified, his voice was sonorous and
commanding, and his discourses were often attended with
bursts of eloquence which spoke a soul full of love, and like
a mountain torrent swept all before it. He preached his
last sermon on the 24th of March, 1816, and seven days
later he died at Spottsylvania."*

Stevens' History of Methodism, iii. 258.

IN LABOURS MORE ABUNDANT." 7 I

CHAPTER X.
"IN LABOURS MORE ABUNDANT."
Wesley's Journeyings — Seventy-second Anniversary of his Birthday-
Conference 'of 1774— Joseph Bradford — Samuel Bradb'urn-
Robert Southey, the Poet Laureate.

fNDETERRED by the Calvinistic controversy then, at
its height, sending out only now and then, in the
shape of a telling pamphlet, a Parthian shot, Wesley, between
the Bristol Conferences of 1771 and 1774, pursued his
accustomed way. Scouring the country from Scotland to
Land's End his visits to Bristol were necessarily less frequent
than in earlier times. In September, a few weeks after the
Conference, he spent some time in the neighbourhood,
preaching at Bath, Keynsham, Pensford, Shepton Mallet,
Bedminster, in St. James' Barton, and on Bristol Quay.
Kingswood School he found religiously depressed ; a Pene
lope's web — the reactionary night unravelling what the reviving
day had wrought. In the following March he spent a few
comfortable days there en route to the North. There his in
cessant journeyings and exposure to all weathers brought on
a severe illness ; but after a few days rest he continued, though
weak, his arduous work. At Halifax a ruffian struck him
violently in the face, but the venerable saint turned to him

72 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
the other cheek, and overcome, the coward slunk away. In
August the Conference was held in Leeds ; Wesley, in addition
to conducting its business, preaching each evening and early
morning. From the Conference, he travelled via Wales, on
to Bristol, and spent the next ten weeks in its vicinity,
preaching and visiting the several Societies. Thence through
Shaftesbury, Salisbury, Winchester, Portsmouth, Bedfordshire,
Northamptonshire, and Oxfordshire to London, where, in
addition to his usual work, he laid himself out, by public
appeals and private beneficence, to alleviate the distresses of
the destitute in the prevailing dearth.
Though still in feeble health, Wesley spent the early part
of the year in Ireland, preaching and giving physic to the
poor ; thus like his Divine Master ministering to body and to
soul. In August the Conference was held in London, at the
close of which he undertook a tour through Cornwall, getting
back to Bristol before the close of the month. There he
became seriously unwell, but " after being electrified " felt
much better and preached with tolerable ease. That his
condition at this time created great anxiety among his friends
we leam from a letter sent from Bristol by John Pawson soon
after his visit. " Mr. Wesley " he wrote, " has been with us for
some time. He seems to be declining very fast and I think
there is grave reason to fear that he will not be with us long."
Soon after this Wesley underwent a painful operation which
not only alleviated his sufferings, but effected a perfect cure.
In a few weeks he was as active as ever in his work, and
apparently as well. A remarkable instance of his activity and
endurance occurred about this time. His Journal shall speak
for him: Wednesday, March 30th, 1774. "I went on to
Congleton where I received letters, informing me that my
presence was necessary at Bristol. So, about one, I took

" IN LABOURS MORE ABUNDANT." 73
chaise and reached Bristol about half-an-hour after one the
next day. Having done my business in about two hours, on
Friday in the afternoon I reach Congleton again, about a
hundred and forty miles from Bristol, no more tired (blessed
be God !) than when I left it." Six months later than Wesley's
double journey Edmund Burke, in his parliamentary zeal,
posted from Malton to Bristol in forty-five hours, and the fact
is chronicled as a most astounding feat. But here a septua
genarian accomplishes, considering his age and the unfavour
able season of the year, a more remarkable journey — two
hundred and forty miles over roads unmacadamized and
haunted by highwaymen — and then, sitting down unwearied as
when he started, he simply records the fact.
Three months later Wesley had completed his seventy-
second year. Thus he entered in his Journal : " My birthday.
How is it that I find the same strength that 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
doeth whatsoever pleaseth Him. The chief reasons are, —
1. 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." The thirty-first Conference commenced in Bristol on Tues
day, August the 9th, 1774, and concluded its sittings on the
following Friday, the last day being devoted to fasting and
prayer for the success of the gospel. On Wednesday evening
says Thomas Taylor, one of the itinerants, Wesley preached
an " indifferent sermon," on the following day he gave them

74 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.
"a profitable discourse on brotherly love," and on Friday
evening he expounded Matt. vii. 27, according to the testi
mony of Miss March, a lady hearer, " the prettiest and most
simple discourse on that text " she ever heard. The Bristol
Circuit numbers were returned at 1404, being an increase
of nearly two hundred on the numbers given at the preceding
Bristol Conference.
The temporal wants of the preachers were reported as very
pressing. The claims of the married preachers were fully
considered, and a resolution passed that "^12 should be
allowed for every preacher's wife by the respective Circuits,
in addition to lodgings, coals, ana candles, or in lieu of thesfr
^15 a year additional." The number of preachers' wives to-
be provided for was forty-three, the provision being made
apparently by a pro rata assessment on the members, two and
a half " sisters " falling to the share of the Bristol Circuit,
viz. : — " S. Christian, S. Bourke, and S. Cotty, half."
The wives being provided for, the claims of their children
next called for the Conferential consideration. Complaints
probably were made ofthe uncomely attire of the Kingswood
boys, and hence it was resolved that if the parents c6uld pay
for their clothes in whole or in part they should do so. " Can
nothing be done for their daughters ? " was the next question
asked and the reply was given : " If any of them were sent to
Miss Owen's School, (perhaps the best boarding school for
girls in Great Britain), they would keep them at as small an
expense as possible." The School, of which Wesley speaks-
in such eulogistic terms, was held at Publow in the vicinity of
Bristol. Wesley frequently visited it, and ever spoke in terms
of highest admiration of the "lovely family" at its head and
their method of tuition. Not until nearly a century later was
adequate provision made for the education of preachers'

" IN LABOURS MORE ABUNDANT." Jg
daughters by the opening of Schools at Beechholme, Five
Elms, and Trinity Hall.
Five young men were admitted into full connection at this
Conference, and fifteen received on trial. First among the
former stands out the name of Joseph Bradford. At this
time, and for many years after, Bradford was Wesley's travel
ling companion, nurse, and faithful friend. Once only for a
moment did a cloud darken their happy intercourse, and then
the beautiful condescension of Wesley so won his somewhat
stubborn "helper," that thenceforth his attachment was greater
than before. " Wesley directed fhim to carry a package of
letters to the post ; Bradford wished to hear his sermon first ;
Wesley was urgent and insisted ; Bradford refused ; ' then,'
said Wesley, ' you and I must part.' ' Very good, sir,' replied
Bradford. They slept over it. On rising the next morning
Wesley, accosting his friend, asked him if he had considered
what he had said, that ' they must part ?' ' Yes, sir,' replied
Bradford. ' And must we part ?' enquired Wesley. ' Please
yourself, sir,' was the reply. ' Will you ask my pardon ?'
rejoined Wesley. ' No, sir.' ' You wont?' ' No, sir.' ' Then
I will ask yours !' replied the great man. Bradford melted
under the example and wept like a child."
Joseph Bradford was with Wesley in his last days, and
closed his eyes in death. He travelled in Bristol in 1795
and following two years, in the first of which he was President
of the Conference. He was re-elected to the Presidency in
1803, and died in 1808.
In the list of probationers received appeat the names of
James Rogers and Samuel Bradburn. James Rogers was a
man of heroic character and tireless activity. Devoted was
his life and still more so the life of his saintly wife. Me
thodism has been rich in consecrated womanhood, and among

]6 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.
them all Hester Ann Rogers holds a foremost place. Friends
and fellow-helpers of Wesley, they stood like Joseph Bradford
beside his dying bed.
Samuel Bradburn is immortalized as the " Methodist De
mosthenes." Born in the Bay of Biscay, and used in child
hood to the stir of arms, his bearing was martial ; and his
eloquence, like the wild waves which rocked his infant sleep,
now mounted into sublimities which filled his auditors with
awe, now sunk into tender cadences which called forth sighs
and tears. Witty, he was also wise ; though at times somewhat
eccentric and unreliable, his natural failings were amply re
deemed by his splendid talents. He graced the Presidential
Chair in 1799, Four years in all Bristol was favoured with
his attractive ministry, during which time, arrayed in gown
and bands he opened Portland Chapel. A soldier's son — he
survived to hear the shoutings for the won field of Waterloo,
•dying soon after in the full assurance of faith,
The day on which the Bristol Conference of 1774 closed
its sittings, a child was born in the home of a Wine Street
linen draper, destined to be poet laureate of England, and
historian of the man who on his natal day presided in the
Broadmead preaching room. Robert Southey's " Life of
Wesley," though brilliant, is defective and unfair. Wesley's
life was too profoundly spiritual for mere poetic and philosc^
phic powers to gauge. Southey misunderstood his motives,
he censured his doctrinal teachings, he decried his success as
tending to destroy the Establishment, but withal he had a
genuine respect for the great Evangelist, and, had he lived,
would have corrected the errors which marred the earliest
edition of his Work. " I consider him " (this testimony of
Southey's opinion of Wesley is preserved to us in ' Wilberfcrce's
Correspondence ') " as the most influential mind of the last

"IN LABOURS MORE ABUNDANT." 77
century, the man who will have produced the greatest effects
centuries or perhaps millennians hence, if the present race of
men should continue so long. Once at least Wesley
and the future laureate met. " When I was a child,"
said Southey, " I was in a house in Bristol where Wesley was.
On running downstairs before him with a beautiful little sister
of my own, he overtook us on the landing, when he lifted my
sister in his arms and kissed her. Placing her on her feet
again, he then put his hand upon my head and blessed me ;
and I feel," continued the bard, his eyes glistening with tears,
and yet in a tone of grateful and tender recollection, " I feel
as though I had the blessing of that good man upon me
still."*

* Tyerman's " Life of Wesley '

78 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.

CHAPTER XI.
" A FELLOW SERVANT IN THE LORD."
Parliamentary Contest — Experiences in Ireland — Westley Hall —
Wesley introduced to Dr. Coke — Dr. Coke's Conversion, labours,
and death.

)HE Conference of 17 74 closed on Friday, August 12th;
and a month later, after a tour in Wales and Cornwall,
Wesley was in Bristol again, and remained several weeks in the
vicinity. His time was spent in the usual way — preaching
and pastorizing among the people.
The "city was again passing through the commotion of a
political contest, Lord Clare, Henry Cruger, Matthew Brick-
dale, and the great Edmund Burke, were the parliamentary
candidates. The excitement was intense. On Thurs
day, October 6th, Wesley met the voters of the Society
" and advised them, 1 — To vote, without fee or reward, for the
person they judged most worthy • 2. — To speak no evil of the
person they voted against : and 3 . — To take care their spirits
were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side."
On the following Sunday he preached in the " New Square,"
as King's Square was then called. " It was a fruitful season,"
he says, " soft fell the word as rain into a fleece of wool."
The next six months were spent in London, amid the
excitement caused by the intelligence of the rebellion of the

A FELLOW SERVANT IN THE LORD." 79
aggrieved American Colonists. At first Wesley seemed to
have leaned towards the Colonists, but the study of
Dr. Johnson's famous pamphlet ' " Taxation no Tyranny,"
brought him round to the Government side, and, forthwith, he
threw his powerful influence into the conservative scale.
Travelling from town to town, he exhorted the Societies to
"fear God and honour the king ;" he sent letters on the subject
to Lloyd's Evening Post; and under the title of "A calm
address to the American Colonies," he re-produced Dr.
Johnson's " Taxation no Tyranny " in a condensed form.
This pamphlet created a considerable sensation, and called
forth almost countless pamphlets in reply. Among his
antagonists, the Rev. Caleb Evans, (the pastor of Broadmead
Baptist Chapel,) took a prominent part. In an angry letter
sent to The Gazetteer, he branded Wesley as a renegade in
principle, and as a plagiarist — a charge which Toplady after
wards more emphatically and indecently affirmed in his
pamphlet "The Old Fox tarred and feathered." Wesley calmly
answered the Rev. Caleb Evans and his other antagonists, —
then proceeded on his -way.
The summer months of 1775 Wesley spent in Ireland
visiting the societies, and preaching day after day. The
journal of this tour is full of interest, as exhibiting his
unwearied labours, and the alternate exaltation and abasement
to which he was exposed. Now assisting the Dean in the
administration of the Communion in the Cathedral of St.
Patrick ; and now holding forth "in the most foul, horrid, miser
able hole " he had seen since leaving England ; now waiting on
Lady Moira, and noting the splendours of her mansion ; and
now resting in the rude cabins of the country side; now
" spending two or three hours in one of the loveliest places and
with one of the loveliest families in the kingdom;" and now

80 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
finding neither man, woman, or child " among a " gaping and
staring " crowd to direct him to the meeting house, or to a
place of rest; now rejoicing that his word had fallen like
" rain upon the grass ;" and now regretting that he " could
not reach his hearers' hearts." So runs the record of his
labours in the west. In Ireland, Wesley was prostrated by sick
ness, brought upon himself by sleeping at noon in an orchard —
a brief siesta in which, as a very early riser, he had indulged
for forty years. A few weeks before, •' garlic applied to the
soles of his feet " had proved effectual in removing hoarseness;
and still believing in quaint and simple remedies, he drank
copiously of "treacle and water," and wrapped his feet in
treacle poultices. But this time "primitive physic" was
ineffectual, and his malady increased. A physician was called
in, and his life despaired of; when an emetic draught,
administered by Joseph Bradford, aroused the dormant energy
of his constitution, and in a few days he was well enough to
start for Conference, the last symptoms of his sickness being
driven away by his being " well electrified, during a four or
five hours drive over very rugged, broken roads."
On January 2nd, 1776, Wesley was again in Bristol.
Thither he had been pressed to come by the preachers of the
circuit, in order to calm the political excitement which had
crept into the society over the great trans-atlantic struggle.
He had, also, a solemn task of a family nature. Keziah, his
accomplishe-f sister, the friend of Dr. Johnson, had, nearly
forty years before, married Westley Hall, one of Wesley's
Oxford friends and fellow students. Hall fell into erroneous
opinions and immoral habits; brought disgrace upon the
church at Salisbury of which he was the pastor ; abandoned
his wife and family; became a deist, and for many years
lived a life of sin and misery. He uied at Bristol, December

A FELLOW SERVANT IN THE LORD. Si
28th, 1775. Wesley says "I came just in time, not to see,
but to bury poor Mr. Hall, my brother-in-law, who died on
Wednesday morning, I trust, in peace ; for God had given
him deep repentance. Such another monument of divine
mercy, considering how he had fallen, and from- what height
of holiness, I have not seen, no, not in seventy years ! I had
designed to visit him in the morning, but he did not stay for
my coming. It is enough, if, after all his wanderings, we
meet again in Abraham's bosom."
Leaving Bristol, Wesley continued his accustomed itinerations
through Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire,
Staffordshire, and Shropshire, accompanied by John Fletcher,
then in very enfeebled health. Travelling does not seem to
have greatly benefited the holy vicar of Madeley, and leaving
Wesley he spent some time at the Hotwells to regain if possible
his strength. Wesley rejoined him in August, and find
ing him somewhat better, wished to take him into Cornwall,
but Fletcher's physicians would not consent. Proceeding alone,
Wesley reached Taunton, and there formed an acquaintance
destined to be most influential in the spread of religion
thronghout the world. Wesley thus records it in his journal :
" I preached at Taunton, and afterwards went with Mr. Brown
to Kingston. The large old parsonage house, so pleasantly
situated, close to the churchyard, just is fit for a contemplative
man. Here I found a clergyman, Dr. Coke, late Gentleman
Commoner of Jesus College, in Oxford, who came twenty
miles on purpose. I had much conversation with him ; and
an union then began which I trust will never end."
Thomas Coke, D.D., the only child of wealthy parents, was
born at Brecon, in 1743. In his seventeenth year he entered
the University. Having obtained his degree, and received his
ordination, he entered upon the Curacy of South Petherton, in

82 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEYS DAY.
the County of Somerset. Earnest, but as yet unevangelical —
an interview with Thomas Maxfield inspired him with clearer
light ; sincere, but as yet unsaved — the conversation of an
untutored class-leader led him to the cross.
The change thus realised was soon revealed. The light of
the new-born life shone forth so brilliantly that South Pether
ton was astonished at the change. Found guilty of preaching
from night to night, of ingathering sinners into the fold, and
other ecclesiastical irregularities, he was soon charged with
Methodist madness, and endured all the scorn and opposition
which that opprobrious charge entailed.
Admonished by the Bishop of Bath and Wells, and threatened
by the parishioners, he was at length discharged by the rector
from his curacy. Thus dismissed, he rode ont of the parish
amid the ringing of bells and drunken revelry, in honour of
his departure. He had before, as we have seen, had an
interview with Wesley, and now he resolved to throw in his
lot with the great evangelist, and become in deed, as he had
been in name before, a Methodist minister.
This decision was opportune, and ordered undoubtedly by
God for the further development of Methodistic enterprise.
Wesley had organised it, Fletcher had defined its evangelical
theology, Charles Wesley had provided its peerless psalmody ;
but the Wesleys were growing old, Fletcher was in failing
health, Macedonian voices were heard from America and
other parts calling aloud for help, and Thomas Coke was the
chosen one for the pressing emergency.
Dr. Coke was short of stature ; his voice was feminine ; but
his soul was great and noble. In 1784, he was ordained
by Wesley superintendent or bishop of the Methodist
societies in America; but a diocese co-extensive with
the great Republic was too straitened for his world-

"A FELLOW SERVANT IN THE LORD." 83
wide sympathies and zeal. Eighteen times he crossed
the Atlantic at his own expense to fulfil the duties of his
Methodist episcopal degree, and, moreover, he had the almost
entire control of Methodist missions in Ireland, Wales, the West
Indies, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. Twice — in 1797 and
1805, he filled the office of Connexional President. In 1814,
though more than seventy years of age, he set sail with
several young ministers for India, but he died ere the voyage
was completed, and in the Indian Ocean his remains were
committed to the deep.
Returning from Cornwall, Wesley spent a month in Bristol
and its neighbourhood. In Bristol he read prayers and
preached ; he also visited the Society from house to house,
and "was surprised to find the simplicity with which one
and all spoke, both of their temporal and spiritual state." In
King's Square the Word of God was quick and powerful. To
the Paddock at Bedminster the people flocked from every
quarter. At Midsomer-Norton the Rector granted him the
use of his church. At Bath he preached " as usual to a
crowded audience," at Paulton "to a plain, simple loving
people," at Frome to "a listening multitude," and under the
trees at Kingswood " to such a multitude as he had not lately
seen there." Having visited the " rest of the Societies in
Somersetshire, Wiltshire, and Hants, he returned to London
with Mr. Fletcher."
Early in January i777> Bristol was alarmed by several
conflagrations, evidently the work of an incendiary. Several
warehouses were burned down, and an attempt was made to
destroy the shipping, but the damage was confined to a single
vessel. For this outrage the partizans of the rebellious
Americans were blamed, and great consternation prevailed,
special patrols were appointed and the city had the appearance

84 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEYS DAY.
of a siege. The incendiary was at length discovered in John
Aitkin, alias " Jack the Painter," a wretched criminal, who in
America had learned to hate his mother country. During
his custody he confessed to having set fire to Portsmouth
Dockyard the year before. Aitken was hung in the following
March. The conviction that these and other disturbances had
arisen from indirect colonial influences, intensified the political
differences which then prevailed. Wesley hearing of the
disturbance " occasioned by men whose tongues were set on
fire against the Government," went down in the " Diligence "
and strongly enforced the solemn words, " Put them in mind
to be subject to principalities and powers, to speak evil of no
man." He also wrote whilst there "A Calm address to the
Inhabitants of England " — a tract ]as pungent in its style as it
is intensely loyal in politics.
In the month of March, Wesley was again in Bristol, and
the old persecution having almost entirely passed away, he
preached in St.Werburgh's* and St. Ewen's Churches. Leaving
for London on Monday, April 21st, he laid the foundation
stone of the City Road Chapel in the presence of multitudes,
though the rain " befriended them ,'much by keeping away
thousands who purposed to be. there." Soon after he set out
on extensive travels in the Northern and Midland Counties,
returning to Bristol in the latter end of July.
On Friday, August ist, 1777, Wesley held with the Bristol
Society, a solemn season of fasting and prayer, that God
would restore the spirit of love^ and of a sound mind to the
poor deluded rebels in America.
Five days later the thirty -fourth Conference commenced.
* Vide Appendix G.

"A FELLOW SERVANT IN THE LORD." 8_5
The aggregate membership of the Connexion was reported
as 33j274» an apparent loss of 1,555, but a rea^ Sam °^ J>351>
inasmuch as the American numbers were not returned. For
the first time obituary notices of preachers were presented,
but in the most laconic form. " John Slocomb, at Clones,
an old labourer, worn out in the service; John Harrison,
n ear Lisburn (a promising youth, serious, modest, and much
devoted to , God) ; William Lumley, in Hexham (a blessed
young man, a happy witness of the full liberty of the
children of God) ; and William Minethorp, near Dunbar
(an Israelite indeed, in whom was no guile.) " — these had
passed away.
Some of the preachers it had been rumoured had "taken
money for their wives who did not want it " — this was declared
an absolute slander ; some, too, had been pronounced as clown
ish — this they were urged to cure. There had been a wide-spread
report that Methodism was declining, and that the Methodists
were a fallen people. This, was serious, and called for a care
ful investigation of the Societies. Every "Assistant" was
required to give an account of the work of God in his circuit,
and the result was declared to be satisfactory, and the report
altogether false. To this decision one only took exception.
John Hilton, the Superintendent of the Bristol circuit, insisted
that the report was no mere idle rumour, and that in con
sequence he had resolved to retire from the itinerary.
Several of his old associates attempted to inspire him with
more hopeful views, but Wesley perceiving it to be labour lost,
bade him go in peace. Hilton was probably depressed by a
diminution of seventy-five members in the Bristol circuit; and,
moreover, his principles had been unsettled some time
before, by reading "Barclay's apology." Converted to
Quakerism, he forthwith joined the Society of Friends. The

86 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
Conference, with this exception, seems to have been
characterized by Christian unanimity. Wesley says. " the
Conference concluded on Friday as it began, in much love."
During the Conference, preaching services were held daily .
The Broadmead service on the Sunday lasted, in the
morning, from half-past nine till one o'clock ; at five, Wesley
preached again to a large congregation out of doors ; and at
night he held a Society meeting, at which "he expatiated
upon the rules and said many useful things."

SICK AND IN PRISON." 87

CHAPTER XII.
"SICK AND IN PRISON."
Fletcher's Sickness — Remarkable Conference Scene — Lord's Supper
in a Stable — Missions to Africa — Unlawful Distilling— Silas
Told — His Labours in Newgate.

HlP^OR some months, in 1777, Fletcher, in shattered
^S(§t health, had been the guest of Mr. Ireland, an in
fluential Methodist residing at Brislington ; though ill he made
an effort to attend the Conference.
Joseph Benson, who was present says — " Mr. Fletcher's
visit to-day and yesterday have been attended with a blessing.
His appearance, his exhortations and his prayers, broke most of
our hearts, and filled us with shame and self-abasement for
our little improvement. He happened to be passing the
door of the stable belonging to our chapel in Broadmead,
when I was alighting from my horse ; and I shall never forget
with what a heavenly air and sweet countenance he instantly
came up to me in the stable, and, in the most solemn manner,
putting his hand upon my head as if he had been ordaining
me for the sacred office of the ministry, prayed most fervently
for, and blessed me in the name of the Lord."*
* Fletcher's Works, I, 234.

88 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEYS DAY.
Tyreman also gives a graphic account :—
" On the third day of the Conference, pale, emaciated, and
bowed down, Fletcher entered the Conference, leaning upon
the arm of his host, Mr. Ireland. In an instant the whole
assembly stood up, and Wesley advanced to meet his almost
seraphic friend. The apparently dying man began to address
the brave itinerants, and, before he had uttered a dozen
sentences, one and all were bathed in tears. Wesley, fearing
that Fletcher was speaking too much, abruptly knelt at his
side and began to pray. Down fell the whole of Wesley's
preachers and joined in the devotion of their great leader.
The burden of Wesley's supplication was, that his friend
might be spared to work a little longer ; and this petition was
urged with such fervency and faith, that, at last, Wesley
closed by exclaiming with a confidence and an emphasis
which seemed to thrill every heart, ' He shall not die, but live
and declare the works of the Lord.' The event verified
Wesley's words, for although the pilgrim was already walking
on the margin of the river of death, and had heaven's own
sunshine shining on him, it was not until eight years after
that he passed the gates of the celestial city."*
Another touching incident, illustrative of Fletcher's
sanctity, occurred at Brislington a few weeks later. "In
August, 1777," says Mr. James Rogers, "I was appointed
to leave Edinburgh, and labour in the east of Cornwall. I
had long desired to converse with that great and good man,
Mr. Fletcher ; and now an opportunity offered itself. Stopping
at Bristol for a few days to rest myself and horse, I heard of
his being at Mr. Ireland's, about three miles off, in a poor
state of health, and with two of my brethren went to see him.
* Tyerman's "Life and Times of Wesley,'' Vol. III., page 246.

"SICK AND IN PRISON." 89
When we came there he was returning from a ride, which he
was advised by his physician to take every day. Dismounting
from his horse, he came towards us with arms spread open,
and eyes lifted up towards heaven. His apostolic appearance,
with the whole of his deportment, amazingly affected us.
" The first words he spoke, while yet standing in the stable
by his horse, were a part of the sixteenth chapter of St. John,
most of which he repeated. And whilst he pointed out the
descent of the Holy Ghost as the great promise of the Father
and the privilege of all New Testament believers, in a manner
I had never heard before, my soul was dissolved into tender
ness, and became even as melting wax before the fire. After
a little further conversation upon the universal love of God in
Christ Jesus, we were about to take our leave, when Mr.
Ireland sent his footman into ^the [yard with a bottle of red
wine and some slices of bread upon a waiter. We all
uncovered our heads while Mr. Fletcher craved a blessing
upon the same, which he had no sooner done but he handed
first the bread to each, and lifting up his eyes to heaven
pronounced those words, ' The body of our Lord Jesus
Christ which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul
unto everlasting life.' Afterwards, handing the wine, he
repeated in like manner, 'The blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ, &c.' But such a sacrament I never had before. A
sense of the Divine presence rested upon us all, and we were
melted into floods of tears. His worthy friend, Mr. Ireland,
grieved to see him exhaust his little 'strength by so much
speaking, took him by the arm and almost forced him into
the house, while he kept looking wistfully, and speaking to
us as long as we could see him. We then mounted our
horses and rode away. That very hour more than repaid me
for my whole journey from Edinburgh to Cornwall."*
* Benson's "Life ofthe Rev. John Fletcher," Vol. I., page 235.

90 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
The Conference of 1777 concluded, — Wesley left for
London, where he at once drew up proposals for the
"Arminian Magazine." A week later he passed through
Bristol en route for Cornwall, where he culminated his arduous
labours by preaching to several thousands in Gwennap pit.
Hearing of serious disturbances in the Dublin Society, he
chartered a small sloop to convey him and a companion
thither, and returning in the same manner, encountered a
tempest, which carried away " the bowsprit, and tore one of
the sails to tatters." The remainder of the year was spent in
labours equally abundant. On Wednesday, December 17, he
preached in the early morning in Bristol, and after breakfast
took chaise for Bath. There, at one o'clock, he laid the
foundation stone of the new chapel, and though " the wind
was piercing cold," preached in the open air. After discoursing
again at night he took chaise for London, arriving in safety
the following afternoon. At this time the Bath road was
more than usually dangerous, the post-chaise drivers having
combined, for purposes of robbery, to deliver their passengers
into each other's hands. "In consequence" of this, says
Wesley, "many were robbed, but I had a good Protector
still. I have travelled all roads by day and night for these
forty years, and never was interrupted yet."
The political excitement of the country, consequent upon
the American war and other national complications, was
followed in 1778 by a general depression. Men's hearts
failed them for very fear, and it was thought that the country
was on the brink of ruin. As patriotic as he was pious —
Wesley by his preaching and by his pen, calmed the fears of
the people, and laughed to scorn the very thought that by any
combination of enemies England could ever be overthrown.
In March he found the political panic as great in Bristol as

"SICK AND IN PRISON. 9I
elsewhere ; but, visiting the Society, he was glad to find a
"good increase." This prosperity he attributed to having
himself chosen the Bristol preachers at the previous Confer
ence, — "plain men, and likely to do more good than had
been done in one year for twenty years before." The preachers
thus eulogised were John Goodwin, Thomas Carlill, and
John Pritchard.
In August, the Conference was held in Leeds. At it, the
question of establishing a mission in Africa was discussed at
considerable length. This discussion arose from a request
preferred by two young princes of Calabar, on [the Coast of
Africa. Stolen in childhood from their native shores, they
spent seven years in American slavery, and then escaped
to England. " The Emancipation Act ' ' had not then been
passed, but, appealing to Lord Mansfield they were set at liberty.
They remained in Bristol for some time, receiving instruction
from members of the Wesleyan society. After their return
to Africa, they forwarded letters strongly desiring teachers to
be sent. Two young Germans — members of the Broadmead
Society — went forth ; but they both died almost ere they
reached the shore. Two other young men immediately offered
themselves for the dangerous enterprise ; but the matter
having been considered by the Conference, it was concluded
that the time for sending missionaries to Africa had not
arrived. In September Wesley was again in Bristol, and had on
Sunday " a comfortable opportunity at the room in the morn
ing as well as at the square in the afternoon," Reports had
reached him "that above a hundred in our Society were
concerned in unlawful distilling." The classes were carefully
examined, and the hundred dwindled down to two. These
distillers being expelled, under the influence of angry feeling,

92 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
expressed a wish for Wesley's death. Charles Wesley visiting
in Bristol a few weeks later, heard of this, and immediately
composed the following hymn, which, at his dictation, was
sung in the Society meeting : —
Jesus, thy hated servant own,
And send thy glorious spirit down,
In answer to our prayers ;
While others curse, and wish him dead,
Do thou thy choicest blessings shed,
And crown his hoary hairs.
Not for his death but life we pray,
In mercy lengthen out his day,
Our venerable guide ;
Long may he live thy flock to keep,
Protect from wolves thy lambs and sheep,
And in his bosom hide.
Long may he live lo serve thy cause,
To spread the victory ol thy cross,
To minister thy grace,
And late to'increase thy church in heaven,
With all the children thou hast given,
Appear before thy face.
Thou, God, that answerest by fire,
With fervent faith and strong desire,
Whom we present to thee,
Fill with pure love his ravish'd breast,
And let the spirit of glory rest
On all thy church — and me !
Me, me, thy meanest messenger,
Admit his happiness to share,
And intimately one,
Through life, through death, together guide,
To sing with all the sanctified
Around thy azure throne.

"sick and in prison." 93
On Sunday, November ist, Wesley opened the new City
Road Chapel; and on Sunday, December 30th, he "buried
what was mortal of honest Silas Told."
Silas Told was born in Bristol in 17 11. His father was a
physician, but the boy having a desire for the sea, at fourteen
years of age was bound apprentice as a sailor. Many years he
followed this pursuit, living a life of adventurous romance.
His perils of waters were most appalling ; his descriptions
thereof, with the years he spent among the horrible atrocities
of the slave trade, are of fascinating interest. Wearied at length
of his wanderings he settled down to honest life. Induced by
a pious youth in his employ to hear Wesley at the Foundry,
he was converted, and with his wife soon joined the Society.
Henceforth, his life was marked by Christian usefulness ; and
among the felons of London he did a work unsurpassed in the
annals of prison philanthropy. It was an age of Draconic
harshness. For what nowwould be punished as petty larceny,
men and women were driven by scores in the hangman's cart,
through scoffing crowds, to the gallows tree at Tyburn.
Moving like a good angel in and out among the hapless ones,
often riding with them to the place of death, Told sustained
them in their sorrow, and pointed them effectually to the
Saviour of the world. " Turnkeys, sheriffs, hangmen, wept
as they witnessed his exhortations and prayers. They sent
for him when new cases occurred, which his tireless zeal had
not yet discovered. They opened passages through the
clamorous and ribald crowds to the gallows for him ; hardened
men as they usually were, they came to know and love him
as the good Samaritan, whom death alone could separate from
the objects of his sympathy." Bristol has reason to be proud
of the philanthropists associated with her by birth or by
beneficence; but scarcely second to any, stands forth the
Bristol physician's son — "honest Silas Told."

94 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.

CHAPTER XIII.
" MURMURINGS AND DISPUTINGS."
Opening of New Chapel at Bath — National Depression — John Valton-
Alexander LMcNab — Dispute at Bath — The Gordon Riots-
Conference of 1780 — C. Wesley Depressed — John Cricket-
Fletcher at Brislington.

lN March 14th, 1779, Wesley opened the new chapel at
Bath, discoursing on the occasion from " We preach
Christ crucified — to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the
Greeks foolishness." Six months elapsed before he was in the
neighbourhood again — months spent in writing and successful
labour in London and the North. On Sunday, Sept. 29th,
" one of the hottest days he had ever known in England," he
preached and administered the Sacrament to " a very large
number of communicants," and, in the afternoon had "a
warm journey " to Kingswood, to visit a dying man.
The war panic still prevailed, France and Spain were now
allied with the Americans, 'gangs were actively employed in
pressing for the navy, and the prospect was ominous; but
still calm in his confidence of God's favouring providence,
Wesley preached on the Bristol Quay on Sunday, March 5th,
from " The Lord sitteth above the water floods, the Lord
remaineth King for ever." On Monday he discoursed with

" MURMURINGS AND DISPUTINGS. C)g
reference to the political intrigues then prevailing, from
David's prayer, " Lord, turn the counsel of Ahitophel into
foolishness." Having spent some days among the neighbouring
Societies, he preached again in Bristol on the following
Sunday, and several times during the week. The work at
Fishponds had been remarkably dead for many years, but had
been quickened by the prayers and efforts of " that saint of
God, Bathsheba Hall." Discoursing on Thursday in the
Broadmead-room, one sat behind him, who, formerly one of
the masters at Kingswood, had amassed, by commerce,
considerable wealth. " Mr. Spencer," so runs the record in the
Journal, designed to do much good, — after his death. " But God
said unto him, 'Thou fool ! ' Two hours after 'jhe died intestate,
and left all his money to be scrambled for ! Reader, if you
have not done it already, make your will before you sleep !
The preachers appointed by the Conference of 1779 to
Bristol were, Alexander McNab, John Valton, and John
Bristol. Valton had been trained in France as a Romanist];
and in early life, as an acolyte, had attended on the services of
the altar. Whilst occupying an import-ant military position at
Runfleet, he was brought under Methodist influence, and
savingly converted. Commencing to preach as a local
preacher, he soon made his mark as a "revivalist." By the
urgent request of Wesley he entered the itinerancy in 1775.
He died in 1794, and is chronicled in the obituary of the
minutes as a " plain, convincing, powerful preacher ; a pattern
of holiness, of charity, and of zeal."
Alexander McNab, the " Assistant " of the Circuit, was
also a man of considerable note. His intellectual gifts were
superior ; his utterance copious and attractive. The conscious
ness of his power and popularity made him somewhat impatient
of contradiction and ecclesiastical restraints. Soon after his

06 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEYS DAY.
appointment to the Bristol Circuit, the Rev. Edward Smyth,
a clergyman of the Established Church, took his wife to Bath
— then a part of the Bristol Circuit — for the benefit of her
health. Smyth having been distinguished as an earnest and
successful minister, Wesley requested him to preach in the
Chapel every Sunday evening during his sojourn in that city.
This, McNab [as the Assistant or Superintendent of the
Circuit absolutely objected to, affirming that he received his
appointment "not from Wesley but from the Methodist
Conference," and tbat he " would not suffer the clergy to ride
over the lay preachers' heads." Hearing of the doings of his
refractory follower, Wesley and his brother Charles at once
repaired to Bath, and calling together the excited and divided
Society, he reminded them that the rules [of the itinerancy
had been fixed by him before any Conference existed, and
that in accepting those rules every lay preacher had pledged
himself to preach when and where his Chief appointed.
The excitement had spread to Bristol, and Wesley held
another meeting there, similar to the one he had held at Bath.
Then calling together the preachers of the circuit, and
neighbourhood, he informed McNab that if he did not agree
with the existing fundamental rules he could not be continued
in the itinerancy. McNab appears to have submitted for the
time to Wesley's overstrained authority ; but a few years later
he retired and became the pastor of a Congregational Church.
The matter however caused considerable evil in the Bath
Society, and would have done so in Bristol, but for the
soothing counsels of Dr. Coke. Months after the affair, the
following entry appears in Wesley's Journal. " A year ago,
there was such an awakening in Bath as never had been from
the beginning, and in consequence_of it, a swift and large
increase of the Society. Just then Mr. McNab, quarrelling

" MURMURINGS AND DISPUTINGS." 97
with Mr. Smyth, threw wildfire among the people, and
occasioned anger, jealousies, judging each other, backbiting
and tablebearing without end, and in spite of all the the pains
which have been taken, the wound is not healed to this day."
The year 1780 dawned darkly and disastrously upon the
land. War had wrought its accustomed works of want and
misery. Popery had received parliamentary concessions, which
provoked the protestant feeling of the people and produced the
horrors of the Gordon Riots.* The tumult over, and its
excited leader Lord George Gordon immured in the tower —
by his repeated request Wesley visited him, and had a
lengthened conversation on "popery and religion" which he
hoped would prove a lasting blessing to the prisoner.
In March, 1780, Wesley went to Bristol "and enjoyed
much peace among a quiet loving people ;" he " examined the
society, and had reason to rejoice over them," In July, just
before the Conference, he was at Bath relieving the strain of
his ceaseless duties by critically examining " Raphael's
Cartoons," and expiating on the floral wonders of " one of the
greatest curiosities in the vegetable, kingdom — the Nightly
Cereus." The Thirty-seventh Annual Conference began in Bristol,
August 1st, 1780. Wesley says concerning it — " We have
been always, hitherto, straitened for time. It was now
resolved : " For the future we allow nine or ten days for each
conference, that everything, relative to the carrying on of the
work of God, may be maturely considered.' " In the
unavoidable absence of Wesley during a part of the sittings,
ChristopherHopper was appointed to fill the chair. Hopper
in his autobiography, says "Our brethren made me president
* Appendix H.

98 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
in Mr. Wesley's absence. A poor helpless worm ! Superin
tendent ! President ! — Great words ! I doubt we have not
grace to bear them." The usual disciplinary investigation was
faithfully adhered to. A misunderstanding had occurred
during the previous year, between Joseph Benson and Dr.
Coke on doctrinal grounds, and the settlement of the matter
created considerable interest. Benson had been somewhat
unguarded in his theological definition, and Dr. Coke charged
him with having embraced the Arian heresy. Benson denied
the charge and challenged investigation. A nominal committee
met ; fully exonerated Benson from all blame, and the accuser
and accused publicly shook hands in token of reconciliation.
A considerable time was expended in the revision of the
minutes of Conferences already held. The relation of
Methodism'to the Church was again discussed. The convic
tion was increasing year by year, that Methodism had its own
appointed place — its own defined ecclesiastical status outside of
the Established Church ; and as the preachers increased in
number and , influence, they evidenced the courage of their
convictions. The Wesley brothers both were there — there
with widely different feelings. To John, healthy and hopeful —
the outlook [was bright; to Charles, diseased in body and
desponding in mind — it was dark and most depressing. John
spent the interval of the Conference in preaching in King's
Square and on Redcliffe Parade; Charles, in brooding over the
degeneracy which dared to contemplate the possibility of
disunion from the Church. John, as soon as the conference
was concluded, set out for Cornwall, there pursuing his usual
course of holy toil; Charles sat down and, inspired by the
melancholy Muse, sought relief in the following sacred song : —

' MURMURINGS AND DISPUTINGS." 99
Why should I longer, Lord, contend,
My last important moments spend
In buffeting the air ?
In warning those who will not see,
But rest in blind security,
And rush into the snare ?
Prophet of ills why should I live,
Or let my sad forebodings grieve,
Whom I can serve no more ?
I only can their loss bewail,
Till life's exhausted sorrows fail,
And the last pang is o'er.
Here then I quietly resign
Into those gracious hands divine,
Whom I received from thee,
My brethren and companions dear,
And finish with a parting tear
My useless ministry.
Delach'd from every creature now
I humbly at thy footstool bow,
Accepting my release ;
If thou the promised grace bestow,
Salvation to thy servant show,
And bid me die in peace.
At the conference of 1780 eleven probationers were received ;
the name of John Cricket standing the first upon the list.
Cricket was a man of marked eccentricity : the stories of his
simplicity still survive to beguile the hours of pleasant evening
intercourse, or "to set the table in a roar." Unsophisticated
to an astonishing degree, apparently unable to understand the
ordinary conventionalities of society, he was, withal, a man of
unaffected piety and of pulpit power. Eccentric to the last — a
day or two before he died, when urged to have further medical

IO0 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
aid he replied, " It is of no use ; I tell you I am going home ;
my work is done."
Returning from Cornwall in September, Wesley spent
several weeks in Bristol and its vicinity. On Sunday,
September 3rd, he preached three times in Bath, and on
Monday the nth again; his congregation on that occasion
being augmented by one of the parliamentary members having
given an ox to be roasted whole, and heavy rain having spoiled
the sport. On Thursday the 7th, he '• preached to a large and
serious congregation at Chew Magna;" Thursday the 14th, in
Clutton Church ; Wednesday the 20th, in the market place
at Pill, to " the most stupid congregation he had lately seen ;"
and on Sunday the 24th, in Temple Church, "the most
beautiful and most ancient in Bristol." Thus, in ceaseless
activities the year rolled onward to its close, terminating in a
narrow escape of the new chapel in City Road. " Waking
between one and two in the morning," so writes Wesley in
his journal, " I observed a bright light shine upon the chapel.
I easily concluded there was a fire near, probably in the
adjoining timber-yard. If so, I knew it would soon lay us in
ashes. I first called all the family to prayer ; then going out,
we found a fire about a hundred yards off, which had broke out
while the wind was south. But a sailor cried out, "Avast!
Avast! the wind is turned in a moment !" So it did, to the
west, while we were at prayer, and so drove the flame from
us. We then thankfully returned, and I rested well the
residue of the night."
Wesley began the year 1781 by an early morning service;
" praising him who maugre all his enemies had brought him
safe to the beginning of another year."
His nephews Charles and Samuel Wesley, both Bristolians
by birth, had at this time attracted great attention by their

" MURMURINGS AND DISPUTINGS." 101
musical genuis. Charles Wesley, to encourage his sons,
opened his house for a series of select performances, at which
the elite of London, including the nobility were present. On
January 25, Wesley says " I spent an agreeable hour at a
concert of my nephews. But I was a little out of my element
among lords and ladies. I love plain music and plain
company best."*
In March, after an adventurous journey from London,
Wesley was again in Bristol. On Sunday the 18th, he
preached in the chapel, and at night in Temple church. He
carefully examined the Societies, but appears to have had
some subsequent misgivings as to the thoroughness and
fidelity with which this had been done. Some time before Miss
Bishop, a lady correspondent of the evangelist, had opened a
School at Keynsham, and the following letter to her indicates
the authority which he still wielded over his Societies and also
his views on education. Near Leeds, July 17th, 1781.
My Dear Sister, If I live to meet the Society in Bristol, again, I shall
kill or cure the fault of those unwise and unkind parents, who make their
children finer than themselves. I shall make their ears tingle. As to
you, I advise you to be a Bible Christian yourself inwardly and outwardly.
Be not a hair's breadth more conformable to the fashion of the world
than you were when I saw you last. Then, train up your children in the
self-same way. Say to them, with all mildness and firmness. ' Be ye
followers of me, even as I am of Christ.' Whoever is pleased or
displeased, keep to this — to Christian, primitive simplicity. Perhaps,
you will at first lose some scholars thereby ; but regard it not : God
will provide you more. And be assured, nothing shall be wanting that
is in the power of,
" My dear sister, your affectionate friend and brother,
" John Wesley."!
* Appendix I.
f Methodist Magazine, 1807, page 471.

102 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
In the spring of 178 1, John Fletcher, having been greatly
restored by his residence on the continent, spent some time
again at Brislington with Mr. Ireland, his former host. Of
the unabated fervency of his spirit we have proof in the
testimony of Mr. Rankin, one of the Bristol ministers . —
"In the year 1781, being stationed in Bristol with my
much-esteemed friend, Mr. Pawson, I was informed of Mr.
Fletcher's arrival at Brislington, from his journey to Switzer
land. I rode over to Mr. Ireland's the day after, and had such
an interview with him as I shall never forget in time or
eternity. As I had not seen him for upwards of ten years, his
looks, his salutation, and his address, struck me with a
mixture of wonder, solemnity, and joy. We retired into Mr.
Ireland's garden, where we could converse with more freedom.
He then began to inquire concerning the work of God in
America, and my labours for the five years I had spent on that
Continent. I gave]him as far as I was capable, a full account
of every thing that he wished to know. While I was giving
him this relation, he stopped me six times, and, when under
the shade of the trees, poured out his soul to God, for the
prosperity of the work and our brethren there. He appeared
to be as deeply interested in behalf of our suffering friends as
if they had been his own flock at Madeley. He several times
called upon me also, to commend them to God in prayer.
This was an hour never to be forgotten by me while memory
remains. Before we parted, I engaged him to come to Bristol
on the Monday following, in order to meet the select band in
the forenoon, and to preach in my place in the evening. He
did so accordingly. During the hour that he spent with the
select band, the room appeared as ' the house of God and
the gate of heaven.' He preached in the evening, from the
2nd Epistle to the Thessalonians, chap. ii. verse 13. The

MURMURINGS AND DISPUT1NGS. 03
whole congregation was dissolved in tears. He spoke like one
who had but just left the converse of God and angels, and
not like a human being. The different conversations I had
with him, his prayers and preaching during the few days which
he stayed at Bristol and Brislington, left such an impression
on my mind, and were attended with such salutary effects,
that for some months afterwards, not a cloud intervened
between God and my soul, no, not for one hour. His memory
will ever be precious to me while life shall remain, and the
union of spirit which I felt with that holy and blessed
man, will have its consummation in those regions of light, love,
and glory, where parting shall be no more."*

Benson's " Life of Fletcher."

104 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.

CHAPTER XIV.
"THE TONGUE OF THE LEARNED."
Horse Cured by Prayer — Letter on Courtship — Adam Clarke : his Con-
Version, Call, Kingswood Experiences, and Grand Career — Stanton-
Drew Druidical Remains — " The Dairyman's Daughter " — Wesley
Sick — His visit to Holland.

>HE September of 1781 saw Wesley according to his wont
in Bristol and its contiguous towns. On his way thereto
from Taunton, " one of the chaise horses was on a sudden so
lame that he could hardly set his feet to the ground." It
being impossible to procure any human help, prayer was
resorted to, and "immediately the lameness was gone and he
went on just as he did before." On Sunday the 9th, in the
" calm sunshiny evening," he preached in King's Square, the
great congregation " praising God with one heart and one
voice." During the following days he discoursed at Keynsham,
at Chew-magna, at Trowbridge, at Thornbury, at Shepton
Mallet, at Bradford, at Pensford, " a dull, dreary place, the
flower of the congregation being gone;" and in the main-
street of Mangotsfield, " a place famous for all manner of
wickedness, to almost all the inhabitants of the town."
Hearing, probably from the troubled parents of the would-
be-bridegroom, that Mr. Elisha Bush, a young schoolmaster

THE TONGUE OF THE LEARNED. I05
at Midsomer Norton, was wishful to marry one to whom his
father and mother raised grave objections : he sent him the
following assertion of filial duty versus amatory desire.
" Coleford, September, n, 178 1.
" My dear Brother,
"I was much concerned yesterday, when I heard you were likely
to marry a woman against the consent of your parents. I have never,
in an observation of fifty years, known such a marriage attended with
a. blessing. I know not how it should be, since it is flatly contrary to
the fifth commandment. I told my own mother, when pressing me
to marry, ' ' I dare not allow you a positive voice herein ; I dare not
marry a person because you bid me. But I must allow you a negative
voice : I will marry no person if you forbid. I know it would be a sin
against God : Take care what you do. Mr. S. is not a proper judge :
lie hopes to separate you from the Methodists ; and I expect, if you
take this step, that will be the end.
" I am, your affectionate brother, "John Wesley." *
During his stay he met the classes and was not a little sur
prised to find the society still declining. He also visited Miss
Bishop's school at Keynsham, and Mr. Henderson's Asylum
at Hanham — "the most successful institution for lunatics in the
three kingdoms."
On Thursday, Oct. 4th, by special request he preached
" the condemned sermon " in the city gaol ; and took leave
¦of the Bristol congregations on the following Sunday by
again preaching in King-Square.
Twelve months passed away — months of untiring activity
and adventure, and every day saw on the part of the still
youthful octogenarian, something attempted, something done
for God. In March he spent a few days in Bristol, but nothing
occurred to call our attention. From Bristol, taking many

* Methodist Magazine, 1848, p. 1055.

106 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
midland and northern places on his way, he travelled as far as
Aberdeen, from thence returning through London to the
Land's End. At Camelford he was informed that an old
acquaintance and brother clergyman, Mr. Thompson, rector
of St. Gennis, was on the point of dsath, so borrowing the
fleetest horse he could procure, he rode as fast as possible
and soon stood beside his dying friend. Having administered
to him the last consolations of religion, he returned through
Tiverton, Taunton, and South Brent to Bristol — where one
was awaiting him, a young man from the Emerald Isle, whose
name then unknown and unhonoured, now shines brilliantly on
the bright beadroll of literary fame as Dr. Adam Clarke.
Adam Clarke was born in 1760 or 1762 — still an undecided
point. His father was poor but educated, and kept a school
in the parish of Agherton, Coleraine. Adam, when a child
was somewhat dull, but one day goaded by the taunts of his
teacher and fellow students, his intellect, like a slumbering
,giant awoke, and ere long asserted its mastery over all
competitors. When about sixteen years of age he was
brought under deep conviction by the faithful preaching of
John Brittle and Thomas Barber, and after struggling " like
some strong swimmer in his agony" through floods of
penitential grief, he firmly fixed his feet upon the rock and
sung salvation's song[ Soon after he commenced to exhort,
meanwhile pursuing his studies in philosophy, mathematics,
and languages with unflagging zest. John Bredin, a preacher
on the Londonderry circuit, perceiving the talents of the young
Coleraine convert, sent to Wesley respecting him, who
wrote to him to come over to Kingswood School. Commended
to God by the supplication of the little society of his native
place he set out forthwith with a scanty wardrobe, and a still
-scantier purse, but with a heart rich in the unabated glow of

THE TONGUE OF THE LEARNED." I07
youthful consecration, and an intellect replete with princely
promise. In the passage to Liverpool, the packet was boarded
by a pressgang, but the lieutenant mistaking Adam for a
priest, providentially passed him by. Arriving safely at Liver
pool, he took a place for Bristol on the outside of a lumbering
slow-going conveyance, by a strange misnomer called " The
Fly." After some days jolting over wretched roads, on the
last day of which he subsisted on a penny loaf and a halfpenny
worth of apples, he reached Bristol, hungry and exhausted,
with nineteen-pence-halfpenny only in his pocket. Entering.
an inn in Broadmead, he warmed himself by the kitchen fire,
and called for bread and cheese and a drink of water. With
some demur on the part of the waiter to bring water instead
of beer, his modest wants were met. For his supper he paid
sixpence, another sixpence for his bed, and to the chamber
maid for taking care of his]box, a third ; thus reducing his
fortune to three -halfpence. With these resources only 'at his
command, breakfast in the Broadmead inn was an impossibility,
so rising early, young Adam bent his steps towards Kings-
wood, arriving there about seven o'clock, the hour for public
service. Oppressed in spirit, a consoling sermon by Mr.
Payne, the junior preacher of the Bristol circuit, from "Why
weepest thou ? Whom seekest thou ? " somewhat heartened
him, and after service he sought an interview with Mr.
Simpson, the head-master of the school, to whom he delivered
Wesley's letter. His reception was most cold and uncere
monious. Simpson roughly told him that he had no room
for any one in the school, and that, as Wesley would not be
in the neighbourhood for a fortnight, he had better go back to
Bristol and do the best he could. Adam pleaded his impecu-
niosity so earnestly that at length permission was given him
to remain and occupy an old room at the end of the chapel.

108 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
There the forlorn youth passed several days and nights, his
only food being a scanty supply of bread and milk.
Permitted at length to take a place at the family table, his
position was made even more intolerable by the overbearing
imperiousnes of Simpson's wife. To unkindness she added
insult, for asserting that the young Irishman was troubled
with the itch, she made him rub himself from head to foot
with Jackson's ointment, " an infernal unguent," as the victim
called it, " which made him smell worse than a pole-cat."
Thus exposed to annoyance and ill-usage, Adam Clarke found
comfort in his books ; filling up the intervals of study by
gardening and occasional essays to do good. Digging one
day in the garden, he hit upon half a guinea, and as no one
¦could be found who claimed it, he invested it in a Hebrew
grammar, from which he learned his first lessons in the holy
tongue. Mr. Rankin, the superintendent preacher of the
Bristol circuit, also visited him and gave him some circuit
work. In after years when his name had become distinguished,
he sometimes told how his saddened heart was solaced when
after preaching at Pensford, a venerable man of the Congre
gation laid his hand upon his head, and said thrice over, in
tones of approval and of prayer, — " Christ bless the word."
At length Wesley arrived from Cornwall, and being apprised
of Adam's presence, at once expressed a wish to see him.
The interview is described by Adam Clarke himself,— " I had
this privilege for the first time on September the 6th. I went
into Bristol ; saw Mr. Rankin, who took me to Mr. Wesley's
study, off the the great lobby of the rooms over the chapel in
Broadmead. He tapped at the door, which was opened by
this truly apostolic man. Mr. Rankin retired. Mr. Wesley
took me kindly by the hand, and asked me how long since I
had left Ireland. Our conversation was short. He said, ' Well,

THE TONGUE OF THE LEARNED. 100-
brother Clarke, do you wish to devote yourself entirely to the
work of God ? ' I answered, ' Sir, I wish to do, and be, what
God pleases.' He then said, 'We want a preacher for Bradford,
in Wiltshire : hold yourself in readiness to go there. I am
going into the country, and will let you know when you shall
go.' He then turned to me, laid his hands upon my head,
and spent a few moments in praying to God to bless and
preserve me, and to give me success in the work to which
I was called. I departed, having now received, in addition to
my appointment from God to preach His Gospel, the only
authority I could have from man, in that line in which I was
to exercise the ministry of the divine word."
A few days later, Adam Clarke received final instructions to
repair to his appointed circuit. Gladly, without delaying a
single hour, he left Kingswood, and trudged his way to
Trowbridge, the head quarters of the Bradford Circuit. We
need not trace his grand career — suffice to say, that he became
one of the greatest linguists of the world ; that he thrice filled
the presidential chair ; that his company was courted by
princes and the literati of the land ; and that, withal, he
continued a lowly-minded, faithful Methodist preacher to the
end. He died of Asiatic cholera, on Tuesday the 25th of
August, 1832, leaving in his Commentary an imperishable
monument of his diligence and erudition. The final entry in
the journal of his last visit to Ireland, written about seven
weeks before his death, revealed the beautiful childlike spirit
which marked his declining years : — " I feel a simple heart,
the prayers of my childhood are yet precious to me ; and the
simple hymns which I sang when a child, I sing now with
unction and delight. May I live to Thee, die in Thee, and be
with Thee to all eternity. — Amen. Adam Clarke.
Wesley's stay in the neighbourhood of Bristol on the

HO BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEYS DAY.
occasion of his introduction to Adam Clarke, was c ontinued
for several weeks. He discoursed, according to his custom,
in the Broadmead Chapel; in King's Square; and in the after
noon of Sunday, October 6th, in Temple Church, where he
discovered that in order to be heard, it was essential for the
preacher to direct his '¦ voice to the middle of the pillar front
ing the pulpit." At Kingswood he preached '• a funeral
sermon on Jenny Hall, a lovely young woman, who died in
full triumph." At Stanton Drew he stopped to soliloquise on
the Druids' temple, and the now unknown dynamics which
so placed the ponderous stones. The Bristol society he found
still decreasing; nevertheless, on Monday, October nth, he
" left it with much satisfaction, firmly believing that God would
revive his work."
From Bristol, Wesley proceeded through Devizes, Salisbury,
Winchester and Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight. At
Newport there sat among the congregation a young
man named Robert Wallbridge, and probably by his
side his sister Elizabeth, — a fair-haired, merry-hearted girl of
just twelve summers old. Robert Wallbridge was converted
under Wesley's preaching, and his sister some time after by
the instrumentality of James Crabb. Elizabeth Wallbridge
was none other than "The Dairyman's Daughter," the
beautiful story of whose life and death is now read in not less
than thirty languages. She lived and died a Methodist, — a
fact which Legh Richmond, her biographer, most strangely
overlooked. Six mouths of increasing labour brought the evangelist
again to the banks of the Avon. At Bristol he found the
Society "a family of love, so united as it had not been for
many years." Suffering when he arrived from cold, a fever
supervened, with severe rheumatic pains. His illness was

THE TONGUE OF THE LEARNED. Ill
serious, and the remedies resorted to so violent as to rob him
of all his strength. Wesley thought that his pilgrimage was
nearly over and this impression was deepened by a lugubrious
"Sister" of the Bristol Society, who assured him that on
two occasions lately in her dreams she had seen his coffin
borne to the grave, followed by Dr. Coke, John Fletcher, and
the itinerants walking two and two. Wesley usually attached
great importance to the visions of the night; but the
¦conviction of his end being near so far from paralysing his
activities only inspired him with an ill-timed earnestness
which had nearly made the " Sister's" dream an accomplished
reality. Only partially restored, he hastened to Stroud, where
a relapse occurred which brought him near to death. Tidings
of his sickness flew far and wide. Several of the preachers
met to plead for a prolongation of his life, and did not plead
in vain. Rapidly recovering, Wesley rode on to Birmingham,
where, by being well electrified several times in the day, all
symptoms of his sickness speedily disappeared.
In the. summer of 1783 Wesley, "partly for relaxation, and
partly to indulge and enlarge his catholic spirit, by forming an
acquaintance with the truly pious in foreign nations,' ' spent
seventeen days in Holland. His fame had so preceded him,
that in each town he visited, he was welcomed with every
mark of honour and esteem. Enjoying much the interesting
sights afforded him, and the social intercourse with the great
and good, he felt, he tells us, " as much at home at Utrecht
and Amsterdam, as he felt in Bristol and London," He
returned to England in the beginning of July, and having
spent a few days in the metropolis, set out for the Bristol
Conference, resting at Bath for three days on the way, during
which he heartily entered tinto the enjoyment of a pleasant
picnic to Blaize Castle and Lord Clifford's woods at Kings-

112 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
weston. The frosts of four score years were now resting on
his venerable head, but no advance of time could cloud the
sunshine of his heart — a sunshine which lit up with ever
brightening beauty all that his Father's hands had made.

BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD.'

H3

CHAPTER XV.
"BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD."
Conference 'of 1783 — Kingswood Scholars— Seven Sermons on one
Sunday— Dr. Coke ordained Bishop— Conference of 1786— John
Fletcher's Death — William BramweU's Life and Death.

'MfoHE fortieth Conference began in Bristol July 29, 1783.
fjfc). The Bristol circuit numbers were returned as 148 1 , being
a net increase of only half a hundred in three years' interval
from the preceding Bristol Conference ; the Connexional num
bers as 45,995 being an increase of only 1^5 members on the
year. Kingswood School affairs occupied the attention of the
Conference a considerable time. The exuberance of youth it
appears had often rebelled against the unwholesome restriction
placed upon it, for complaints were made that, defiant of
punishment, the boys were wont to run into the woods to
play or fight with the colliers' children. " It must be mended
or ended," said Wesley ; but it never was ended effectually
until the unnatural rules which governed it gave place to wiser
ones. Chapels were multiplying too fast, — the zeal of the people
having outstripped their discretion and their means, and this
fact called for a long discussion, and led to resolutions to the

114 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEYS DAY.
effect that no preaching houses should be built during the
year, except such as were already begun ; that none should be
permitted to beg for any house except in the circuit in which
it stands ; and that all the preaching houses should be forth
with settled on the Conference plan. For the accomplishment
of the last mentioned object Dr. Coke was commissioned to
visit the Societies throughout England, the Assistants being
urged to help him to the utmost of their power.
During the Conference services were daily held in the
several preaching places and in the open air. On the Con
ference Sunday Adam Clarke listened to no less than seven
sermons, and appears to have enjoyed them all. In the
early morning he heard Alexander Mather preach in the
Conference Chapel a "very useful sermon from Isaiah xxx. 3, 4."
From thence hastening to Guinea Street, he listened to Samuel
Bradburn as he eloquently discoursed on "Christian perfection,"
from I. John iv. 19. Leaving there he posted to the Draw
bridge, where Joseph Taylor preached " an excellent and
affecting sermon from ' As sin hath reigned unto death, even
so might grace- reign through righteousness unto eternal life,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.' " Thus, having heard and
mentally digested three sermons, young Adam Clark was
prepared for the matutinal meal. Breakfast over, he again
bent his steps to the Broadmead Chapel, where at ten o'clock
Wesley descanted on the "Baptism of the Holy Ghost," and
administered the sacrament to a vast concourse of people.
After dinner he wended his way to Temple Church, and heard
the Rev. B. Collins, the clergyman; from thence to Caroline
Street, where Wesley preached from Hebrews vi. 1 ; after
which he met the Society at the Chapel, and gave them
extracts from the journal of his recent tour in Holland.
Homiletically insatiable, Adam finished the day at Kingsdown,

BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD." 115
where Thomas Hanby enforced the momentous question, " If
the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and
the sinner appear ?"
During the sittings of the Conference Wesley was again
seized with an alarming illness. To alleviate his sufferings a
grain and a half of opium was administered, which had the
effect of producing complete and dangerous comatose. Re
covering possession of his faculties, he expressed to Joseph
Bradford, his friend and faithful nurse, his happiness and only
hope, — "I the chief of sinners am,
But Jesus died for me."
Death, however, was once more disappointed, for, removed to
the hospitable home of Mr. Castlemain, and attended by Dr.
Drummond, the patient rapidly recovered, and ere long was
at his much-loved work again, preaching, and by personal
solicitation, providing for the pressing necessities of the
stricken and destitute.
The interval between the Bristol Conferences of 1783 and
1786 — a period which gave to the Connexion, in the form of
the "Deed of Declaration," its Magna Charta, the legal Con
ference, with all its privileges and powers — Wesley spent in
his accustomed rounds of holy enterprise. Methodical in all
his movements, he had an appointed time for the visitation of
every important place, the privilege falling to Bristol usually
about March and Michaelmas. Without attempting to follow
him closely, step by step, we will note the most interesting
incidents which marked his several visits.
In September, 1784, Wesley was accompanied to Bristol
by Dr. Coke, and Messrs. Vasey and Whatcoat. Thither
they had gone to embark for America. Six months before, a
conversation of a most momentous nature had taken place

Il6 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEYS DAY.
between Wesley and the Doctor, his earnest helper. The
conversation was on the scriptural nature of Ministerial
Orders, and the spiritual needs of the newly-formed American
Republic. Expressing his conviction that episcopacy was the
most suitable form of Church government for the Churches of
the West, and affirming that scripturally a presbyter is co
ordinate with a bishop, pleading also as precedent the custom
pursued[by the presbyters of the ancient church of Alexandria
in ordaining from time to time their bishops, he finally wished
Dr. Coke to accept episcopal ordination at his hands, and in
that character to repair to America, and take the superinten
dence of the Societies of the United States. Hesitating at
first, Dr. Coke at length consented."? At the Leeds Conference
the matter was discussed and fully concurred in by Mr.
Fletcher; and on the second day of September, 1784, in the
Broadmead preaching room, Wesley, assisted by Mr.
Creighton, a clergyman employed in reading prayers at City
Road, ordained Dr. Coke a bishop, and Messrs. Whatcoat and
Vasey presbyters to accompany him and assist him in his
work. Three weeks after, followed by the prayers and
benedictions of multitudes, the good Doctor and his com
panions set sail, — Argonauts seeking not the golden fleece,
butthe diffusion of godliness: "Pilgrim Fathers" scarcely
less noble than the "Mayflower" men, who erst on "the
wild New England Jshore," sought "a faith's pure shrine-
freedom to worship God."
On Sunday, September 12, 1784, Wesley preached at
Kingswood, under the shade of a double row of trees which
he himself had planted forty years before, — a few days after
the use of the Church at Chew Magna was proffered him,
but on his going to preach refused. On October 2, he con
ducted a covenant service in the Broadmead room, at which

BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD. 117
there were a thousand communicants. Twelve months later
he found to his amazement, considering the able and diligent
preachers appointed to the Bristol circuit, the Society in statu
quo; and at Pensford he feared "after all the pains taken thfe
people knew just as much of religion as the Hottentots." In
March, 1786, he was there again, during which visit he
preached in Temple Church, and in the Broadmead room
baptized a young negro, who appeared to be deeply serious
and much affected. Samuel Bradburn, the superintendent of
the circuit having lost his wife some little time before, Wesley
took thim with him on his journeyings, believing that the
change would calm his mind and mitigate his grief.
The forty-third annual Conference began in Bristol,
Tuesday, July 25th, 1786. The daily sittings commenced at
six in the morning, and continued with intervals for breakfast
and dinner, until the evening. About eighty preachers were
present. Tuesday and Wednesday were occupied in canvas
sing the preachers' characters and qualifications. On Thursday
afternoon an open session was held, when the relation of
Methodism to the Established Church was discussed ; and it
was resolved not to denominationally divide therefrom. With
this resolution, however, concessions were made to the
societies which indicate that Wesley foresaw the inevitable
separation which ensued immediately after his decease.
Permission for the first time was given to hold services in
Methodist chapels during church hours, in places where the
clergy were notoriously bad, or preached Arian, or other equally
pernicious doctrines ; or where Church accommodation was
insufficient; or, lastly, where there was no church within two
or three miles. He urged upon the preachers the importance
of resuscitating the early morning services, bands, and select
societies, and of changing their stewards from time to time.

Il8 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
Always jealous with a godly jealousy for the proprieties of
public worship, he also enjoined upon them " always to con
clude the service in about an hour;" to "never scream;" to
"never lean upon or beat the Bible;" and to "never preach a
funeral sermon but for an eminently holy person." The
singing of the sanctuary was also discussed, and the preachers
requested to " introduce no new tunes ;" to " see that none
sing too slow, and the women sing their parts;" and to
" exhort all to sing, and all to stand at singing, as well as to
kneel at prayers."
The number of connexional members was returned as 79,506,
an increase of nearly nine thousand on the year ; the Bristol
circuit membership as 1,600, an increase on the year of about
seventy,andon the three years interval between the Conferences,
of about one hundred and twenty.
At this Conference, to the question "Who has died this
year?" the solemn reply was given " John Fletcher, a pattern
of all holiness, scarcely to be paralleled in a century." " Many
exemplary men," says Wesley in his works, "have I known,
holy in heart and life, within fourscore years, but one equal to
him I have not known ; one so inwardly and outwardly
devoted to God, so unblamable a character in every respect, I
have not found either in Europe or America, nor do I expect
to find another such on this side of eternity." The beautiful
instances of his piety, given in the previous pages, may be
taken as an illustration of the whole of his christian life. His
departure was not merely peaceful, but gloriously triumphant.
The pallor of death already resting on his countenance, he
pre ached for the last time in Madeley Church with a power and
pathos which awakened an awful concern throughout the
whole assembly. Descending from the pulpit into the chancel
he said " I throw myself under the wings of the cherubim

" BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD."

II9

before the mercy seat." Struggling through a most solemn
sacramental service — during which, amid the sobbings of the
congregation, he several times sank exhausted on the
communion table — he at length pronounced me benediction ;
and then, blessings still flowing from his trembling lips, he
was borne to the bed of death. Suffering much his gladness
was ecstatic — " Shout, shout aloud !" he cried, "I want a gust
of praise to go to the ends of the earth." Utterance failed him at
the last, but in answer to his faithful wife, he raised his dying
hands to indicate that Christ was precious, and the prospect of
glory bright. Then — his face radiant with a glory which never
shone on earth or sea — gently as a wearied infant on its
mother's arm, he fell asleep in Jesus, August 14th, 1785, in
the fifty-sixth year of his age.
" God buries his workmen, but he carries on his work."
This oft used adage was never more amply illustrated than at
the Conference of 1786. Elijah had ascended, but already his
mantle was resting on Elisha. Fletcher's name appears in the
obituary, — William Bramwell's among the names of nearly
forty young preachers received on trial.
William Bramwell was born in 1759, at Elswick in
Lancashire. His education was very limited, and he was
early apprenticed to a Preston currier. Trained to religious
habits from infancy, and longing for salvation, he sought it in
penitential solitude of the anchorite, and the most rigorous
self-imposed austerities. Thus troubled, he obtained clearer
views on the nature of saving faith, while receiving the
sacrament in Preston Chuch ; and soon after, while listening
to Wesley's preaching, he realized the sense of sins forgiven.
Thus converted, he was soon intensely active in christian
work. He commenced prayer meetings as early as five in the
morning for working men; he established a class, and by

120 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
these and other holy works, [he created an interest which
considerably augmented the Society. Thus actively employed,
he also sought anxiously for himself the grace of sanctity.
The blessing tarried, for at first he sought it not aright, but at
last it was bestowed. "The Lord," he says, for whom I
had waited, came suddenly to the temple of my heart, and I
had an immediate evidence that this was the blessing I had
for some time been seeking. My soul was all wonder, love,
and praise." Called by Wesley into the intinerancy, he
laboured for nearly thirty years with wonderful success. " His
appearance was striking, his features large, strong, and dark
like those of a bronze statue, and his eye piercing as an
eagle's." His intellect was astute, his discernment of character
extraordinary, "his voice singularly musical, and his command
over the passions of his hearers absolute." By diligence and
early rising he acquired a knowledge of the New Testament
in its original tongue, and became so conversant with French
as to translate therefrom a work on homiletics. His great
power, however, was in his prayers — prayers more fragrant
than ancient incense, uplifted from a holy, loving heart.
Bramwell like Barnabas " was a good man and full of the
Holy Ghost, and of faith :" hence by his ministry, multitudes
were added unto the Lord.
His end was sudden but glorious. He attended the
Conference of 1818 held in the town of Leeds. He preached
his last sermon at Holbeck from Isaiah xiii, 1-3, expatiating
with marvellous unction and power on the Redeemer's promise
to be near his people in the hour of death. On the eve of his
decease, he had a religious conversation with his host, and his
soul seemed deeply moved. Desiring to be calledj at two
o'clock— for the slow journeying of those early times necessitated
his departure for his circuit before the dawing of the day— he

" BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD." 121
retired to rest. Through the hours his host heard his voice in
¦earnest supplication, " Lord bless me, Lord prepare me for
Thy kingdom and take me to Thyself." At two o'clock he
arose, but his heart seemed too full of heaven to heed the
early mealjwhich the servant had prepared. He already feasted
on angels' food — his mouth was filled with praise and prayer.
Kneeling, he poured out his soul for the domestic present with
him, and for all the family. "The Lord bless you," he said
to her, and then went forth into the night. Two of the public
watchmen saw him reel and fall, but' ere they reached him "he
was not, for God had taken him." Soon the grey light of the
morning fell upon the great West Riding town, but William
Bramwell walked the streets of the Holy City which " hath no
need of the sun, for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the
Lamb is the light thereof."

122 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.

CHAPTER XVI.
"STORMY WIND FULFILLING HIS WORD."
Wesley's second visit to Holland — His visit to Ireland — A useful present
— Sir Robert Peel — The Channel Islands — Remarkable voyage —
Methodism in Inverness — Interesting Letter — Anti-slavery Society
— Exorcism in Temple Church — Wesley preaches before the
Bristol Mayor and Corporation.

tMMEDIATELY after the Conference, Wesley paid a
second visit to Holland, and on his return spent some
days in Bristol. In a friend's house he sought retirement in
order to write without interruption John Fletcher's life, but
he could not resist the desire of his friends that he should
again preach in Temple Church. This he did on Wednesday^
September 13th, and on Sunday the 24th, to overflowing
congregations. Once more near King Square, he declared to " a huge multi
tude the whole counsel of God," and in Guinea Street Chapel,
from Heb, xii. 1., he described what he believed to be the
chief besetting sins of Bristol—" love of money and love of
ease." On meeting the classes he found the Kingswood
Society stationary, but the Bristol considerably increased— he
hoped " in grace as well as in numbers."

"STORMY WIND FULFILLING HIS WORD." 123
In March he was in Bristol again. Mrs. Fletcher was in
the neighbourhood at the time, and, invited by Wesley, she
met as many of the classes as her failing strength would
permit — " her words like fire conveying both light and heat
to the hearts of all who heard her." The Bristol Methodists
had already degenerated in respect of early rising — from five to
a dozen only attending the five o'clock preaching services.
Wesley strongly warned them of their indolence, and so
effectually, that from two to three hundred attended every
morning during his stay.
On the whole, however, Bristol Methodism was looking up.
The numbers continued to increase. During Wesley's visit
there were vouchsafed gracious revival influences, and he left
"with much satisfaction, expecting to hear of a plentiful
harvest," in reward for the labourer's toil
From Bristol Wesley proceeded through the midland and
eastern counties, and then via Holyhead to Dublin Bay. He-
spent nearly three months in Ireland, preaching from town to
town, warmly welcomed in every place. At the close of a
service in a country town, a methodist cobbler pressed him to-
accept a present which he said might possibly prove useful.
On opening the parcel he found an awl and a strong waxed
thread. He was somewhat amused at the singularity of the
gift, but soon proved its utility. The harness broke, and but
for the awl and thread the evangelist would have been left in
a houseless nighbourhood, with no means at hand of reaching.
his next appointment.
Having held the Irish Conference, Wesley returned to
England. In July, he conducted the Manchester Conference,
during the sittings of which he breakfasted one morning with
thirty-six of his itinerants, at the house of " Mr. Peel, a calico
printer" — afterwards the famous statesman baronet. In

.124 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
August he went accompanied by Dr. Coke and Joseph
Bradford to the Channel Islands. Obliged to be in Bristol on
an appointed day, he left Guernsey for Penzance, the wind
only serving for that point. Adam Clarke, then labouring
in the Islands, received permission to return with Wesley and
his friends, and to him we are indebted for a graphic descrip
tion of Wesley's power in prayer.
" Mr. Wesley was sitting reading in the cabin, and hearing
:the noise and bustle occasioned by putting the vessel about to
stand on her different tacks, he put his head above, and inquired
what was the matter ? Being told the wind was become
¦contrary, and the ship was obliged thus to tack, he said, ' Then
let us go to prayer.' His own company who were upon deck
walked down, and at his request Dr. CoKe, Mr. Bradford, and
Mr. Clarke went to prayer. After the latter had ended,
Mr. Wesley broke out into fervent supplication, which seemed
to be more the offspring of strong faith than of mere desire, in
words remarkable as well as the spirit, feeling, and manner in
which they were uttered. Some of them were to the follow
ing effect : — ' Almighty and everlasting God, Thou hast Thy
-way everywhere, and all things serve the purposes of Thy
will : Thou holdest the winds in Thy fists, and sittest upon
the waterfloods, and reignest King for ever, Command these
winds and these waves that they obey Thee, and take us
speedily and safely to the haven wither we would be.' The
power of his petition was felt by all. He rose from his knees,
made no kind of remark, but took up his book, and continued
bis reading. Mr. Clark went upon deck, and what was his
surprise when he found the vessel standing on her right course
-with a steady breeze, which slackened not, till, carrying them
at the rate of nine or ten knots an hour, they anchored safely
near St. Michael's Mount in Penzance Bay ! On the sudden

"STORMY WIND FULFILLING HIS WORD.'' 125
and favourable change of the wind Mr. Wesley made no
remark : so fully did he expect to be heard, that he took it for
granted he was heard. Such answers to prayer he was in the
habit of receiving, and therefore to him the occurrence was
not strange. Of such a circumstance how many of those who
did not enter into his views would have descanted at large,
had it happened in favour of themselves ! yet all the notice he
takes of this singular circumstance is contained in the follow^
ing entry in his Journal:— 'In the morning, Thursday,
(September 6th, i787,)we went on board with a fair moderate
wind. But we had just entered the ship when the wind died
away. We cried to God for help ; and it presently sprung up
exactly fair, and did not cease till it brought us into Penzance
Bay.' " *
Safely arrived at Bristol, Wesley devoted three weeks to his
usual pastoral and preaching work. In addition he answered
"abundance of letters '' which had accumulated in his hands.
One of his letters we will insert.
Jonathan Crowther and Duncan McAllum had been
appointed to Inverness to succeed Edward Burbeck and Joshua.
Keighley. On arriving, they found the latter dead, and the
former dying of fever in a filthy bed. Their work was heavy,
their wanderings from place to place in their extensive circuit,
full of difficulty and dangerous adventure, but as to payment —
well of that they had little or next to nothing. For one year's
service Crowther received just fifty shillings ; forty of which
he spent in removing to Dunbar. Borne down by toil and
trouble, he wrote to Wesley to the effect that no man was fit
for the Inverness circuit unless he had flesh of brass, bones
of iron, and a heart harder than a stoic's. He believed that in

* Etheridge's Life of Dr. Adam Clarke

126 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
the " miserable corner " in which his lot was cast, he should
be sacrificed, and even that he could endure — yea a sevenfold
martyrdom — if he could but accomplish good ; but to live in
misery and die in banishment, with no fruit to crown his
labour and enwreath the pillar of his martyr-fame, was more
than he could bear. Wesley sent him the following charac
teristic reply : — Near Bath,
September 2$th, 1 787.
Dear Jonathan, The sum of the matter is, you want money; and
money you shall have, if I can beg, borrow, or anything but steal. I
say, therefore, " Dwell in the land and be doing good, and verily thou
shalt be fed." I should be sorry for the death of Mr. Burbeck, but that
I know God does all things well ; and if his work prospers in your hands,
this will make your labours light.
Our preachers now find in the North of Scotland, what they
formerly found all over England, yet they went on ; and when I had
only blackberries to eat in Cornwall, still God gave me sufficient strength
for my work. I am, etc.,
P.S.— To Mr. Atley, John Wesley.
Pay to Jonathan Crowther, or his order, Five Guineas,
John Wesley.
In the month of May, 1777, an Anti-Slavery Society was
formed in London — the Society now imperishably associated
with the honoured names of Granville, Sharpe, Thomas Clark-
son, and William Wilberforce, and with the grand Emancipation
Act of 1834.
It is strangely and sadly illustrative of the fact that the best
of men may be blinded by prevailing sentiment that
Whitefield encouraged slavery in Georgia, and held slaves as
property on his Orphan-house estate. Wesley never shared
his views. As early as 1774, he published his "Thoughts

STORMY WIND FULFILLING HIS WORD." 127
upon Slavery," and on the formation of the London Anti-
Slavery Society, he gave it his powerful patronage, and by his
preaching and his pen sought to extend its influence. Bristol
in early times obtained an unenviable notoriety as a slave
emporium, 'but influenced by the preaching of Wulfstan,
Bishop of Worcester, many of the traffickers in human flesh
abandoned their wicked trade, and thus set an example to the
slave dealers of other towns. Centuries later, in the spirit
of the ancient prelate, and in the same city, Wesley denounced
slavery as the sum of all human villanies. Having previously
announced his intention of preaching on the subject, the
"Broadmead House on Monday, March 3rd, 1788, was
filled from end to end with high and low, rich and poor."
"I preached," he says in his journal, "on that ancient
prophecy, 'God shall enlarge Japheth. And he shall
dwell in the tents of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his
servant.' About the middle of the discourse, while
there was on every side attention still as night, a vehe
ment noise arose, none could tell why, and shot like
lightning through the whole congregation. The terror and
confusion were inexpressible. You might have imagined it
was a city taken by storm. The people rushed upon each
other with the utmost violence; the benches were broke in
pieces; and nine-tenths of the congregation appeared to be
struck with the same panic. In about six minutes the storm
ceased almost as suddenly as it rose ; and, all being calm, I
went on without the least interruption. It was the strangest
incident of the kind I ever remember; and I believe none can
account for it, without supposing some preternatural influence.
Satan fought, lest his kingdom should be delivered up. We
* Appendix.

128 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
set Friday apart as a day of fasting and prayer, that God would
remember those poor outcasts of men; and (what seems
impossible with men, considering the wealth and power of
their oppressors) make a way for them to escape, and break
their chains in sunder."
On Saturday, March 15th, having no other time at his
disposal, Wesley preached in Temple Church. The vestry
of that sanctuary had just been the scene of a remarkable case
of supposed exorcism. The victim of indwelling demons, as
some supposed, but a ventriloquistic impostor, in the opinion of
others, was George Lukins, of Yatton, in Somersetshire ; the
exorcists were the Rev. Mr. Easterbrook the vicar, Messrs.
Valton, Broadbeat, Rhodes, and Brettle (the Bristol circuit
ministers), and several other persons. The affair caused great
contention in the city, opinion being strongly divided as to its
genuiness. Wesley says of it, "I preached in Temple
Church. I had no thought of meddling with the controversy
which has lately pestered this city, till I read those words in
the second lesson, which threw me full upon it, ' Who shall
be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of
the Lord, and from the glory of his power.' I then thought
it my duty to speak clearly and strongly upon that head." In
this entry no clue is given to his own opinions of the matter ;
but, knowing his strong belief in supernatural visitations, we
may safely assume that he believed that Lukins was a dis
possessed demoniac, and no mere impostor making a market
of short-sighted credulity.
The many services which Wesley had rendered to the
city was recognised at last, for on this occasion he preached in
'the Mayor's Chapel of St. Mark. The Mayor, " most of the
Aldermen, and a multitude of high and low were there ;" but
undeterred, the preacher " explained and applied that awful

"STORMY WIND FULFILLING HIS WORD." 12^
passage of Scripture,- — the history of Dives and Lazarus."
Having described Dives richly apparelled and sumptuously fed,
he dined with the Mayor at the Mansion-house.

130 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.

CHAPTER XVII.
"THE SWEET SINGER OF ISRAEL."
Charles Wesley's Death — His Character — His Poetic Genius — John
Wesley on the wing.

,N Saturday, March 29^ 1788, a fortnight after his
^3J^£, sermon before the Mayor and Corporation, Wesley
conducted a service in Salop. Sweetly the congregation sang : —
One army of the living God,
To His command we bow ;
Part of His host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now.
Just at that solemn moment, as was afterwards ascertained,
the "sweet singer of Israel," the incomparable poet who penned
the hymn, passed over Jordan and entered the promised land.
For years Charles Wesley had been ailing, and at length the
message came and found him quite prepared. During his last
protracted sickness — sickness borne with unmurmuring
patience, he called his faithful partner to his side and bidding
her write, he dictated his last poetic utterance :—
" In age and feebleness extreme,
Who shall a sinful worm redeem ?
Jesus, my only hope Thou art,
Strength of my faiHng flesh and heart ;
O could I catch a smile from Thee,
And drop into eternity !"

THE SWEET SINGER OF ISRAEL."

131

Glimpses of Charles Wesley's character and conduct have
been afforded from time to time within these pages, and it
only remains to take a brief and general view. In stature he
was short; in manners somewhat abrupt ; in habits desultory;
in temperament, like nearly all other poetic geniuses, inclined
to melancholy — a melancholy, however, often attended with
bursts of holy joy, like sunshine through the rifts of April
clouds. As a preacher he was more eloquent than John, but
came immeasurably behind him in constructive and governing
power — indeed, had Wesley died early in his career and the
leadership of Methodism devolved on Charles, it would
probably have passed away before the century which saw its
rise, or have been as little recognized to day as the Moravian
Societies from which, in a sense, it sprang. As a churchman
Charles was conservative, and his devotion to " Church and
State " intensified as the years of his life advanced. He
mourned, as we have seen, over the disloyalty which dared to
forecast the possibility of denominational disunion from the
Church ; he opposed to the utmost all the great measures of
Methodism which, initiated by his brother, have contributed
to its power and permanence ; and true to his principles to the
last, he declined to be interred in the burial ground of City
Road — desiring to be buried in the Church Yard of St.
Mary-le-bone — that being consecrated earth. This mortuary
arrangement was to John a source of painful disappointment.
" It is a pity," he says in a letter to a friend, " but the remains
of my brother had been deposited with mine. Certainly that
ground is holy as any in England ; and it contains a large
quantity of bonnie dust." Seven weeks later he published an
article in the Magazine, in which he denounced the custom of
consecrating burial grounds as a mere relic of Romish
superstition.*

* See Methodist Magazine, 1788, p. 543.

132 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
Charles Wesley's praise will live for ever as the greatest
hymnist of the Christian Church. In the days of the good
king Hezekiah when, after long profanation of the altar, " the
burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also ;" so in
the days of Wesley when, after long indifference and death,
thousands laid themselves upon the altar of holy consecration,
the land at once was filled with sweetest melody. John was
the Moses of Methodism ; Charles, so to speak, the Miriam
who went before the people with music and saintly song : his
lyre was variously attuned, — sometimes to loudest triumph,
sometimes to tones of woe, — but it never hung unstrung and
voiceless upon the willows. His published poems amount to
about four thousand six hundred; his manuscripts would
supply about two thousand more, — making nearly seven
thousand psalms and hymns and spiritual songs consecrated to
the services of religion during his busy, anxious life.* His
hymns as a whole excelled the productions of every other poet
as much in quality Las they did in quantity. Dr. Watts
affirmed that " Wrestling Jacob " was worth all the verses he
himself had evei written. The Castalian fountains within
his heart upwelled its crystal waters to the last. With dying
lips, as we have seen, he sang new songs to Christ ; and that
which age could not diminish death surely could not destroy, —
in heaven his harp is now attuned to higher minstrelsy.
Wesley was in Bristol again in the following September.
He was now more than eighty-five years old, and the infirmities
of age were creeping upon him, but he was slow to acknowledge
it. On Saturday, Sept. 6th, he walked from Bristol to
Hanham and back, "but my friends" he says, somewhat
sarcastically, half offended at their considerateness, " more
» See Rev. John Kirk's Lecture on Charles Wesley.

"THE SWEET SINGER OF ISRAEL."

'33

kind than wise, would scarce suffer it. It seemed so sad a
thing to walk five or six miles ! I am ashamed, that a
Methodist Preacher in tolerable health, should make any
difficulty of this." On the following day he preached three
times — in the morning at the Broadmead Chapel, in the after
noon at Kingswood, and in the evening in Caroline Court, to
an immense number of people, on Romans viii. 33-34. The
second Sunday he spent in Bath, where he says, " I had much
liberty of spirit the first time I preached, but greater at half-
past two, and the greatest of all in the evening, when I
vehemently enforced those awful words, — ' Why will ye die, O
house of Israel.' " The rest of the week was spent in meeting
the Bristol classes; in preaching "to the poor people in
George Street," in " meeting the trustees for the new room,
who were all willing to add a codicil to the Deed of Trust, in
order to ascertain to the Conference" after his death,
" the sole right of appointing the preachers in it ; " and in
other laborious work. On Sunday the 21st he preached twice
in the Broadmead Chapel, and once in Temple Church, con
cluding the day with adjusting the several affairs of the
Society. Thus, the grand old man still exerted his utmost
strength, and so far from becoming morose or insensible to
external things, as the last sands of life fell out, he delighted
in the sunny scenes of nature and in social intercourse with
friends. On Wednesday the 24th he wandered with great
delight among the grottos and terraces and flower-fringed
paths of " Miss Goldney's garden, at Clifton," and three days
later he went with some friends to another pic-nic at Blaize
Castle, and from thence to Lord Clifford's seat, where the
pleasure he experienced in examining the paintings was only
exceeded by the pleasure excited by the landscape which on
every side dispread itself to view. Wesley finished his visit to

134 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEYS DAY.
Bristol by holding a fast day on Sunday, September 26th,
followed by a solemn watch-night, which was brought to a
close by singing " Ye virgin souls arise," to the accompani
ment of the "Gloucestershire band of music:" — "such a
concert," he says, "was never heard in that house before,
and perhaps never will again."
On Sunday, March 1st, 1789, Wesley preached twice in
City Road, and at seven the same evening left in the mail
coach for his annual spring visit to the West. The season
was winterly, and the roads were bad, but having three of his
itinerants with him, they " spent a comfortable night, partly
in sound sleep and partly in singing praise to God." His time
in Bristol and its neighbourhood was spent much in the usual
way, the only noticeable incident being his preaching a
thanksgiving sermon in the Broadmead Chapel, on Thursday,
March 12th, the great day of national rejoicing for the recovery
from serious sickness of his Majesty King George the third.
In the succeeding September he found all things " in a
flourishing state," and continued his journey through Taunton,
Exeter, and Plymouth to Cornwall. In that county " the
old man eloquent," preached in eleven days approaching
twenty sermons — once at Gwennap pit, " to more than five-
and-twenty thousand." From Cornwall he returned to Bristol,
where, on Sunday, September 6th, he read prayers, preached
twice, and administered the Sacrament to several hundred com
municants. The effort, however, was almost too much for his
now fast failing strength. During the week the autumn fair
was held, and the country visitors crowded the preaching rooms.
On Thursday he went over to Thornbury, where, " a few men
of substance " had " built a neat and commodious preaching
house." On Sunday the 13th, he preached three times, and
on the following day "spent an agreeable hour with Mr..

THE SWEET SINGER OF ISRAEL." 135
Ireland and Mr. Romaine at Brislington." On Tuesday he
preached at Pensford, " to an uncommon congregation, and
with an uncommon blessing." On Wednesday he held forth
at Midsomer Norton, and tbe same evening to "our honest
earnest colliers at Coleford." On Thursday he preached at
Frome ; on Friday noon, at Trowbridge ; and in the evening
to "our old steady congregation at Bradford." On Sunday
morning and afternoon he preached in Bath, and in the evening ,
he returned to Bristol. He spent the week in visiting the
Society, and the following Sunday he preached morning and
evening in the Broadmead Room, and in the afternoon at
Temple Church. He again found his Sunday work too heavy
for his patriarchal age, and made the wise resolve not to attempt
to preach again " more than twice a day." On Monday he
warned the Society against worldliness. On Friday he held
a solemn watch-night at Kingswood, concluding his Bristol
visit on Sunday, by enforcing in the Broadmead Room the
solemn words : " Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways."
Thus did the holy octogenarian fill up his fast fleeting hours —
thus could he sing as he hastened on his way : —
" My remnant of days
I 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."

136 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.

CHAPTER XVIII.
" HE FELL ASLEEP."
Adam Clarke in Bristol— "A Good Old Age— Strangers' Friend Society
— Conference of 1790 — Appointment of Missionary and Chapel
Committees — Henry Crabbe Robinson — Last Labours — Sickness
and Death.

J&) RISTOL in 1789-90 was favoured with the ministry of
Adam Clarke. He had been invited to Leeds, but preach
ing during the sittings of the Conference in that town, he
casually omitted to pray for the king. Reminded of his failure,he
sought to repair it in the evening by supplicating for his
Majesty, " saving, sanctifying grace." So incensed were some
of the leading ladies of the congregation at the democratic
principles which assumed that the king needed a Saviour in
common with other sinners, that they signed a remonstrance
against his appointment, and succeeded in carrying their
point. The loss of Leeds was Bristol's gain. In concert with
his colleagues he threw his whole heart into his labours, and
a revival ensued, which resulted in a considerable augmentation
of the Society.
Seventeen-hundred-and-ninety dawned upon the world,
and found Wesley swiftly coursing toward the grave. Con
strained at last by daily increasing infirmities, he confessed
in the opening entry of his Journal of the year : — " I am now

HE FELL ASLEEP.

*37

an old man, decayed from head to foot; my eyes are dim;
my right hand shakes much ; my mouth is hot and dry every
morning; ^1 have a lingering fever almost every day; my
movements are weak and slow. However, blessed be God, I
do not slack my labour ; [I can preach and write still."
. It was a period of great unsettledness among the nations
of the earth. Democracy was rampant, aud dark clouds were
gathering soon to burst in the red-ruin, the murder-madness
¦of the French revolution. Men's hearts were failing them,
but the venerable herald of the cross had already reached the
Beulah land — he lived above the storm. In sooth he still
grasped his warrior's weapons, but his warfare was spiritual,
opposed not to Caesar's but to Satan's reign. Writing to the
preacher of the St. Austell c ircuit early in the year he said — like
some war-scarred chieftain leading on his troops — " Come let us
have a few more strokes at Satan's kingdom and then we shall
depart in peace." His labours were continued from day to day,
but already he heard voices from the unseen calling him, and
he made ready to depart. On Tuesday, Feb. 16th, he writes,
¦" I retired to Balham for a few days in order to finish my
sermons and put all my little things in order." The following
Sunday he preached to the children in City Road — the aged
pilgrim soon to lay down the palmer's staff spake simple words
which children love to hear, to those who with unwearied
steps and hopeful hearts had just commenced life's pilgrimage.
In March he moved on to Bristol, where by the earnest
efforts of Adam Clarke and his coadjutors he "found a people
ready prepared for the Lord." During the week he assisted
the circuit preachers in their heavy toil of class visitation, and
preached every night. On Sunday, March 14th, "he met the
Stranger's Society, instituted wholly for the relief, not of our
Society, but for poor, sick, friendless strangers." This

138 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.
Society, now so widely and worthily known, was originated
some time before in London, by Mr. John Gardner, a retired
soldier, who persuaded a number of his friends to join him in
a penny a week subscription for the suffering poor.
From Bristol, Wesley proceeded through the midland and
northern counties into Scotland, discoursing, with few ex
ceptions, every night. The infirmities of age were now so
evident that at Bradshaw the congregation seeing him totter
up the pulpit stairs were deeply moved, and burst into a flood
of tears. But though his strength was fast failing him
he was reluctant to succumb, and still held with a tenacious
hand the authority he had so long and wisely wielded.
Stationing and Chapel Committees — these, colossal and cum
bersome as they now are, were then all concentrated in one
sovereign will against whose decision but few were brave
enough to utter an appeal. How absolute the spirit embodied
in the following entry : — " Monday 7. — I transcribed the
Stations of the Preachers. Tuesday, 8. I wrote a form for
settling the preaching-houses, without any superfluous words,
which shall be used for the time to come, verbatim, for all
the houses to which I contribute anything. I will no more
encourage that villainous tautology of lawyers, which is the
scandal of our nation."
The forty-seventh Conference began in Bristol July 27th,
1790. Wesley, of course, presided, but, physically, appeared
almost unfit. Charles Atmore, who was present, says,
" Mr. Wesley appeared very feeble ; his eyesight had failed so
much that he could not see to give out the hymns. Yet his
voice was strong, his spirit remarkably lively, and the powers
of his mind and his love towards his fellow creatures were as
bright and ardent as ever." The number of members in
Great Britain was reported as 76,968 ; the number in the

HE FELL ASLEEP.

139

Bristol circuit as 1,841, being about 350 in advance of the
preceding Bristol Conference. The usual routine business
was carefully gone through, and important legislative measures
passed. Aaron was already on mount Hor, and must put on
others the robes of his authority : Wesley was about to enter
into rest ; it was meet, therefore, that provision should finally
be made for prosecuting the good work when he had passed
away. Hitherto, as we have seen, he had embodied all
authority in himself ; but at this Conference a Committee was
appointed for the management of the West Indian missions ;
two Chapel Committees also, — one for England and one for
Ireland. The Chapel Committee being appointed, the
following rules were prescribed for its observance : —
"1. — Everything relative to the building or repairing of
preaching houses to be referred to them.
" 2. — No house shall be undertaken without the consent
of the majority of them ; and not a stone laid, till the house
is settled after the Methodist form, verbatim. — N.B. No
lawyer is to alter one line, neither need one be employed.
" o>. — No building is to be undertaken till an estimate of
the expense is made, and two-thirds of the money raised or
subscribed. " 4. — Every preaching house equal to or less than the Bath
house, is to be built in the same form without and within.
" 5. — Every house larger than the Bath house is to be built on
the plan of the new chapel in London, both within and without.
"N.B. 1. — No Preacher shall preach three times the same
day to the same congregation. 2.— No Preacher shall preach
twice on a week day, or oftener than three times on the
Lord's day. 3.— No Preacher shall in future leave the Con
ference before the conclusion of it, without consent publicly
obtained in the Conference."

I40 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY'S DAY.
The Conference business over, its venerable head — who for
seventy years had directed its deliberations — attached his
signature. The autograph — preserved now as a precious relic
— too clearly indicates that his eyes were dim, and that his
hand had forgot its cunning.
On Friday, August 27th, Wesley returned to Bristol, and
remained in the neighbourhood a month. On Sunday, the
29th, he preached in the Broadmead Chapel, but having no
one to help him, " was obliged to shorten the service, which
brought the prayers, sermon, and Lord's supper within the
compass of three hours." On the same day he "preached
in the afternoon near King's Square, and the hearts of
the people bowed down before the Lord." Devoting
bis attention chiefly to the Bristol Society, he also paid
— for the last time — visits to Ditchet, Castle Cary, Shepton
Mallet, Pensford, Bath and Thornbury. On Saturday, Sep
tember 27th, he left the city which had witnessed so many of
his toils and triumphs, and he never saw it more ! Six months
later he purposed paying another visit to the west, and to that
end took seats for himself and companion in the mail coach,
having sent his chaise on before him ; but on the very day of
his intended leaving he reached " the bourne from whence no
traveller returns."
"It is difficult," says Madame de Stae'l, "to grow old
gracefully;" but those who were permitted to gaze on Wesley
in his last days beheld a picture, the bright vision of which
haunted them through life. His " May of life " had long
" fallen into the sear and yellow leaf ;" nature in him stood on
" the very verge of her confine ;" but fourscore years and eight
had made no furrows in his heart; and around him, as he
moved from places on his way to the metropolis, there gathered
all " that which should accompany old age — as honour, love,

HE FELL ASLEEP. t,t,
obedience, troops of friends." *• It was, I believe," says
Henry Crabbe Robinson in his "Reminiscences," "more
than half a century later, in October 1 790, 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 pantomine,
but the pantomine went to the heart. Of the kind, I never
saw anything comparable to it in after life."
From Colchester he continued his journey to Norwich,,
where, on the Sunday, he " found no preaching in the thirty-
six churches of the city, save the Cathedral and St. Peter's ;
and from thence in an open chaise through "mizzling rain " to
Lynn, where he arrived "chilled from head to foot." The
following Sunday, having returned to London, he made his
last entry in his Journal. — " Sunday 24th, I explained to a
numerous congregation in Spitalfields church, "the whole
armour of God." St. Paul's, Shadwell, was still more crowded
in the afternoon, while I enforced that important truth, ' One
thing is needful ; and I hope many, even then, resolved to
choose the better part."
But though his Journal ends — his hand too tremulous to
record his latest movements — he still exerted to the utmost his
swiftly waning strength. Mr. Ireland, of Brislington, hearing
of his state of health sent him a case of claret, but at the
"White Swan " it was seized for some reason by the custom
house authorities and never reached its destination.
On Thursday, February 17th, the message came. He

142 ¦ BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEYS DAY.
-discoursed at Lambeth, and returned feverish with cold. The
following Sunday he rose as usual at four o'clock, but could not
take any public work. On Wednesday he finished his earthly
ministry by preaching at Leatherhead. For more than half a
century his voice, like a clarion blast, had echoed through the
land — upwards of two and forty thousand times had he preached
with no uncertain sound; and still faithful to his earliest allegiance
to the truth, he cried at Leatherhead, " Seek ye the Lord
while He may be found, call ye upon Him while he is near."
He then went home to die. Loving friends assembled
around him, and fully realized that "the chamber where the
good man meets his fate is privileged beyond the common
walks of life close on the verge of heaven." " I the chief of
sinners am, bnt Jesus died for me ;" " There is no way into
the holiest but by the blood of Jesus ;" " He is all ! He is all!
I will go!" "The clouds drop fatness;" "The Lord of hosts
is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge ;" " The best of all
is God is with us;" — such were some of the broken but
exultant ejaculations which fell from his dying lips. Already
he heard the strains of heavenly minstrelsy; and, filled with joy,
from time to time his spirit trembled into song: —
" I'll praise my Maker while I've breath,
And when my voice is lost in death,
Praise shall employ my nobler powers."
Mrs. Charles Wesley, his brother's widow, having placed
some refreshment to his lips, he gratefully repeated his usual
thanksgiving after meals, — "We thank Thee, O Lord, for
these and all thy mercies. Bless the Church and King, and
grant us truth and peace through Jesus Christ, our Lord, for
ever and ever."
His last earthly morning dawned and the celestial city was
full in view. Around his bed his friends and faithful followers,

" HE FELL ASLEEP." j,,
-eleven in all, stood or knelt in silent supplication. " Farewell !"
he cried as he turned his benignant eye from heaven towards
the watching sorrowing ones — Farewell ! and then— as
Joseph Bradford, in the spirit of the royal bard exclaimed,
" Lift up your head, O ye gates ; and be ye lift up ye ever
lasting doors and this heir of Glory shall come in,"— Wesley,
without a groan and without a sigh, gathered up his feet and
died. Seven days later, on Wednesday, the 9th day of March,
they laid him down to rest.
To prevent the inconvenience arising from too great a
-crowd they interred him at the early hour of five a.m., but
hundreds were there to pour out the tribute of their tears.
" They buried his body in peace, but his name shall live
FOR EVER."
His character needs no higher eulogium than that already
afforded by the preceding pages. His works shall praise him,
our pen is inadequate thereto. The funeral threnody of
Fresenius over Albert Bengel aptly expresses the emotions
with which we finish our tribute to his memory and ministry
in the west.*
"A pillar falls ; a light expires ; a star, which shone so brightly
in the visible heaven of the church, stops its course, withdraws,
and mingles with the supernal glory of the spirits made perfect.
An angel of peace, who was as pious as he was laborious ;
as childlike as he was learned ; as rich in spirit as he was acute
in mind ; as humble as he was great.
A friend of God expires, whom the Eternal Wisdom led into
her chambers ; to whom were opened the outgoings of that
-light which enlightens human minds, the powers of that word
* Etheridge's Life of Clarke, p. 415.

144 BRISTOL METHODISM IN JOHN WESLEY S DAY.
which quickens souls, the treasures of that grace which allures,
leads, and saves us.
He was eyes to the blind, a leader to the weak, a pattern
to the strong, a luminary to the learned, an ornament to the
church. " A treasury is closed, in which the Lord of all the treasures
of grace hath laid up wondrous wealth of knowledge and
wisdom. A teacher, mighty in the Scriptures, is no more.
"SIGH, CHILDREN, YOUR FATHERS FALL
ASLEEP."

atpenDix.

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX A.
" Bristol Methodism originated the Class Meeting." (p. 29.)
From priginal information very recently published by the Moravians,
it appears that a class for Christian fellowship existed in Bristol before
this time, but as no mention is made of it in Wesley's Journal, it is
probable that its existance was of very short duration, and moreover, it
was never, strictly speaking, a Methodist class, — Wesley not having at
that time left the Moravian community. — The following extract is from
The Messenger, a Moravian serial : —
" In a letter, dated, Bristol, April 9th, 1739, Wesley says : — " About
seven in the evening, three women, who desired only to know Jesus
Christ and Him crucified — Mrs. Norman, Mrs. Grrevilleand Mrs. Panon,
— agreed to meet together once a week, to confess their faults to one
another, and to pray one for another that they may be healed. And Mrs.
Panon desired she might propose their design to her two sisters, and
offer them the liberty of joining with them. At eight, Samuel Wathen,
Surgeon; Richard Cross, Upholsterer; Charles Bonner, Distiller;
ind Thomas Westell, Carpenter, met and agreed to do the same ; who
ilso desired they might make the offer of joining with them to three or
four of their acquaintance. If this work be not of God, let it come to
naught. If it be, who can hinder it." — Methodist Magazine, July, 1877,
i>. 512.

ii. APPENDIX.
APPENDIX B.
" Weavers' Hall." (page 37.)
"In Temple Street stood the Weavers' HaD, of which some remains
still exist ; and beneath it is the hospUal or almshouse for four poor
women, which has long been tenantless ; and at the east end where
Divine service was once performed, all is now totally silent and deserted.
The hall has been successfully used as a Wesleyan chapel, a Jews'
Synagogue, and a charity school ; for the latter purpose it is still
occupied. — Pryce's History of Bristol, p. 65.

APPENDIX C.
"Michael Fenwick recommended to return to business."
(Page 52.)
It does not appear, however, that Michael Fenwick listened to this
advice. For many years after this he continued in the itinerancy and did
good honest work. He was earnest albeit somewhat quaint. He ex
pressed a wish to be immortalized by being mentioned in Wesley's
journal. Wesley gratified his wish, but in a manner scarcely flattering to
his vanity. Thus he writes : — "July 25, 1757. — I preached at Cleyworth.
I think none was unmoved but Michael Fenwick, who fell fast asleep
under an adjoining hayrick."
Rev. Luke Tyreman in his Life of Wesley tells the following anecdote :
" Their old chapel in New Acres had been converted into cottages; and
in 1776, they had built another in Ridgway Gates, though not without
a united and great effort. The Rev. Mr. Fowles, a clergyman, had the
management of a sandbed from which they had to obtain their sand ;
and hearing of their intentions, he announced, that, after the expiration
of five days the sand would be charged half-a-crown a load. This, to
the poor Methodists, was a serious matter ; but George Escrick was a
man of too much energy to be easily defeated. Accordingly, he, at once,
requested all the Methodists, young and old, strong and feeble, active and

aipendix. hi.
otherwise, to repair with him to the sandpit, and to dig and convey away
all the sand they needed. To a man, they obeyed George's injunction,
and, in a single day, got as much as their intended chapel was likely to
require. Michael Fenwick was then their preacher, and kept running
over the half-a-mile distance, between the site of the new chapel, and
the clerical sandbed, encouraging the people in their task, and at one
time, wanting to sing the hymn beginning with "Before Jehovah's
awful throne-'; but blunt George Escrick, the weaver, impeiatively
stopped his spiritual superior, telling him to take a spade in his hand,
for there was a time for all things, and this was a time to dig."

APPENDIX D.
" French prisoners." (page ^.)
"During the war now concluded, there wasa depot for French prisoners
at Knowle, juxta Totterdown and Pile Hill. A short time previous to
the. peace, one of the soldiers, on his return from guard, for a wager,
with a single ball struck the weather-cock of St. Mary Redcliffe tower.
About nine years afterwards the cock ceased to traverse, and on exami
nation it proved that the gun- shot- wound had opened a passage for the
rain, which corroded the spindle."— Evans" s Chronological Outlines of
Bristol, p. 282,

APPENDIX E.
" The Earl of Ferrers." (page S3-)
"The Earl of Ferrers, an infidel, had murdered his steward. The
House of Lords condemned the wretched nobleman ; he was to be
executed and his body dissected. His brother and the Countess of
Huntingdon, assisted by their Methodist associates, sought in vain to
arouse him to a sense of the moral peril of his condition. They visited
him and prayed with him in prison ; and supplications were offered for

IV. APPENDIX.
him in many of the Methodist chapels. But he seemed incapable of
reflecting upon his appalling fate. He spent the evenings of his imprison
ment in playing at piquet ; he demanded intoxicating drinks ; the night
before his execution he made one of his keepers read Hamlet while he
was in bed, and half an hour before he was carried to the gallows he was
employed in correcting verses which he had composed in the Tower.
Dressed in his wedding clothes, decked with silver embroidery, he rode
to the gallows in his carriage drawn by six horses, and accompanied by
troops, and a hearse and six which was to convey his corpse to the
Surgeons' Hall. He died without penitence, and apparently without
fear." — Stevens's History of Methodism II., p. 2O.

APPENDIX F.
Captain Webb. — " His body lies interred."
The following epitaph appears on a neat tablet in Portland
Wesley an Chapel : — " Sacred to the Memory of
Thomas Webb, Esq. ,
Lieutenant in the 48th Regiment of Foot,
Who died the 20th December, 1 796,
Aged 72,
And whose remains are interred in the recess.
As a Soldier
he was brave— active— courageous,
and lost an eye at the siege of Louisbourg, 1758.
When afterwards enlisted under the banner of Christ,
As a Christian,
he was exemplary
for simplicity and godly sincerity.

APPENDIX.
As a Preacher,
he was faithful— zealous— successful,
both in Great Britain and America.
In the latter he founded
the first Methodist Churches,
and was
the principal Instrument
In erecting this
Chapel."

APPENDIX G.
" St. Werburgh and St. Ewen's Churches."
This Church, situated in Corn Street, is dedicated to St. Werburga, —
supposed to be the daughter of Wulferus, King of Mercia. No satis
factory information has been conveyed to our times respecting
the building of the original structure, although a church of some kind
must have existed there in the reign of Edward II. ; for we find it was
confirmed to the Priory of Keynsham by that monarch for its better
support. The tower may be referred to about the year 1400, but the
body of the church was partly rebuilt in 1 760.
St. Ewen's Church stood on the site of the present Council House
in Com Street. It was built in the reign of Richard IL, and taken
down in 1778.

APPENDIX H.
" Gordon Riots." (page 97.)
' ' While Johnson was thus engaged, the tranquillity ofthe metropolis of
Great Britain was unexpectedly disturbed by the most horrid series of
outrage that ever disgraced a civilized country. A relaxation of some of

VI. APPENDIX.
the severe penal provisions against the Catholic communion had been
granted by the legislature, but a dark and malignant spirit of persecution
soon shewed itself, in an unworthy petition for the repeal of the wise and
humane statute. That petition was brought forward by a mob, with the
evident purpose of intimidation, and was justly rejected. But the attempt
was accompanied and followed by such daring violence as is unexampled
in history. Of this extraordinary tumult, Dr. Johnson has given the
following concise, lively, and just account in his " Letters to Mrs.
Thrale :"
" On Friday, the good Protestants met in St. George's Fields, at the
summons of Lord George Gordon, and marching to Westminster,
insulted the Lords and Commons. At night, the outrages began by the
demolition ofthe mass-house by Lincoln's-Inn.
"On Tuesday night they pulled down Fielding's house, and burnt his
goods in the street. They had gutted on Monday Sir George Savile's
house, but the building was saved. On Tuesday evening, leaving
Fielding's ruins, they went to Newgate to demand their companions, who
had been seized demolishing the chapel. The keeper could not release
them but by the Mayor's permission, which he went to ask ; at his
return, he found all the prisoners released, and Newgate in a blaze.
They then went to Bloomsbury, and fastened upon Lord Mansfield's
house, which they pulled down ; and as for his goods, they totally burnt
them. They have since gone to Caen-wood, but a guard was there
before them. They plundered some Papists, I think, and burnt a
mass-house in Moorfields the same night.
" On Wednesday they broke open the Fleet, and the King's Bench,
and the Marshalsea, and Wood Street Compter, and Clerkenwell
Bridewell, and released all the prisoners.
"At night they set fire to the Fleet, and to the King's Bench, and
I know not how many other places; and one might see the glare of
conflagration fill the sky from many parts. The sight was dreadful.
"The soldiers were sent out to different parts, and the town is now
at quiet.
"June 9th. — The soldiers are stationed so as to be everywhere
within call : there is no longer any body of rioters, and the individuals
are hunted to their holes, and led to prison. Lord George was last
night sent to the Tower,

appendix. vii.
APPENDIX I.
" Concert of my Nephews." (page 101.)
" At this period, his nephews, Charles and Samuel Wesley, were
attracting great attention by their musical performances. They had
won the friendship of the great musical composers, Dr. Boyce, Dr.
Nares, and Dr. Burney. Lords Le Despencer, Barrington, Aylesford,
Dudley, and others, were enraptured with them. The Earl of Morn-
ington, for some years, breakfasted weekly with them. Dr. Howard,
the distinguished organist, declared concerning Samuel, that he seemed
to have ' dropped down from heaven.' Charles was introduced to
George III., with whom he became a great favourite. The result of
this unparalleled popularity was the institution, in Wesley's brother's
house, of a series of select concerts, which were continued for several
years." — Tyermaris Life and Times of Wesley .

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Cheapest House in the West of England for every description of
English and Foreign Glass.
©tlfcBCT raTOME&S @F AM* F©B1I©M @©@©S,
Hotel Keepers and the Trade Supplied at Manufacturers' Prices.
BIVETTING BY COMPETENT WORKMEN.
Experienced Packers sent to all parts of the City and Clifton.

TERMS— CASH. Crates and Hampers charged for, and full price
allowed if returned in GOOD CONDITION with STRAW.
HOTE THE ABBffiJESSs-
JOHN "WILLIAMS & CO.,
THE OLD ESTABLISHED
(llass, Cjjirm, (JforitJentoare, ¦Ste, WLmt\ayxm,
1. Gastle St„ Corner of Peter St., Bristol.

UNFERMENTED WINE,
FREE FROM ALCOHOL AND UNINTOXIGATING,
PREPARED FOR
Sacramental atiti Btetettc WLxts,
BY
F. WHIG-HT, LONDON.

From the Rev. HENRY GALE, D.C.L.,
Rector of Garsden, Wilts.
" I congratulate you and the ChurcheB upon the success of your attempts to
provide an innocent substitute for the abominations now found upon the Table
of our Lord."
Price 28/- per doz. ; Half-bottles 16/- per doz. ; A Single Bottle,
OR ANY NUMBER, SUPPLIED AT SAME RATE, 1/4 OR 2/4 EACH.
' Beckett's Fruit Syrups, in every variety — Pints Is Qd ; Half-pints Is, will make a gallon, and
by the simple addition of warm or cold water, in the proportion of one or two table-
spoonfuls of Syrup to a tumblerful of water.
Also for BECKETT'S Syrup of Orange and Quinine.
Pints, Ss; Half -pints, Is 9d. Cash with orders, to J. W. Willis, Bristol.
This Preparation forms a most wholesome and invigorating Beverage by the simple addition of
warm or cold water. It is also an excellent Tonic and Stomachic. Dr. Lees, Dr. Munroe,
and many other eminent men give it a cordial recommendation.
Dbpot for Bristol and District — Temperance and General Provident Insurance Office,
97, Ashley Road, Bristol, (Opposite James-street.) Cash, with Orders made payabble-
JOHN WESLEY WILLIS, Bristol.
SPECIAL I I
BALANCED1 IVORY- HANDLED,
TABLE KNIVES.
By Eminent Sheffield Manufacturers, from 1 0/6 the Half-dozen
(WARRANTED.) also
THE CELEBRATED HAM SLICER,«2/6
The best Carving Knife ever introduced.

E. J. SKEATES,
37, HIGH STREET, BRISTOL.
CLOSE TO THE MARKET GATE.