they had made the preceding week in " the way of the Lord."
THE YEAR OF JUBILEE
a office.
He was succeeded by Mr. Robert Wrixon, who took a firm stand against the mob, and ended the riots which had brought disgrace on the city.?
When John Wesley's visit to Ireland was drawing to a close he had a notable interview with a young man.
He resided at New Market, and was a class-leader there.
The writer of his biography describes a class as ' a little company of Christian friends, mutually agreed to meet together weekly in order to their furtherance in the way of godliness '—a definition worthy of remembrance.
The young man must be allowed to state 'the business of a leader.'
He says, 'My business was:
I. To see each person in my class once a week; and, if any were absent, to inquire into the cause.
2. Whenever we met together to sing psalmsor hymnsand topray withthem.
3. To examine how their souls prospered, and what progress they had made the preceding week in " the way of the Lord."
Whether they were unanimously determined to serve God with their whole heart?
If any had fallen into sin, they were reproved; if tempted, they were comforted and encouraged; and those who ran well, adorning their profession in all things, were exhorted still to press forward, and give glory to God.'
'After a faithful and friendly examination of each other (between which and the Popish auricular confession, with which some have erroneously or unkindly paralleled it, there is scarcely the most distant resemblance), they concluded with praising God, and prayers suited to their several conditions.'
That description lifts the veil of the past, and brings the picture of an early Methodist class-meeting into view.
The biographer also tells us that this young man ' met with the whole Society two or three times a week; when, with praises and prayers, there was always a word of exhortation preached or read.
And it pleased God to testify His approbation thereof by the singular display of His presence amongst them; by replenishing their souls with abundance of His grace and heavenly benediction.'
Trained by constant attendance at the class-meeting and at the society-meeting, the Methodists lived as brethren, and strove together for ' the hope of the gospel.'
They were of one heart, and of one mind, in the presence of God.
They realized in a high degree what is meant by ' the communion of saints.'
1Crookshank's History of Methodism in Ireland, i. 67,
THE YEAR OF JUBILEE
It is no wonder that the young man whom we are watching, living under such conditions, should feel a strong desire to preach, and that the desire should be followed by a strong conviction that it was his duty to become a preacher of the gospel.
He waited on Wesley and asked his advice.
When we say that the young man was Thomas Walsh we see the significance of the interview.
He tells us that Wesley's advice was 'sweetly and humbly ' given—a statement that gives us a glimpse of the great evangelist.
Wesley told him to write to him afterwards.
He did so, giving a brief account of his conversion to God, and of his conviction concerning his 'call to preach.'
Wesley was much impressed by him, and sent him the following letter:
'It is hard to judge what God has called you to till trialis made.
Therefore, when you have an opportunity, you may go to Shronell, and spend two or three days with the people there.
Speak to them in Irish.'
Walsh followed Wesley's direction.
He went to Shronell, a village in Tipperary, about thirty miles from New Market.
One of his brothers and a friend accompanied him.
Then the next day he commenced, in a large barn, his remarkable career as a preacher.
We shall meet with him again.
The term of his ministry in Ireland and England was brief; it only lasted for nine years; but during that time he quietly took his place among the most memorable preachers of the Methodist Church.
1The process employed by Wesley in the case of Thomas Walsh, including the giving of ' a note to preach,' has persisted to the present time.
ay ?
XIV DORSET WHEN we remember the exhausting experiences through which John Wesley had passed before his visit to Ireland, and the state of his health at that time, we glance over the records in his Journal fearing we may find some sign of the weakening of his purpose to live and die the evangelist of his country.
The persistence of his determination was essential to the success of his mission.
It is certain that sometimes he was tempted to abandon his work.
It would be a mistake to represent him as a man who stood on high, far beyond the reach of the temptations that assail and cripple us.
He was not a super-man.
The dazzling perfection of ' the superman' blinds us.
He gives us no encouragement.
The man of like passions with ourselves, who does splendid work, we can see and understand.
His example often rebukes us; but we sometimes find that rebuke is only another form of encouragement.
Let us linger for a moment over an entry in Wesley's Journal on June 21, 1750.
Two days before he had gone back to Dublin, and had found ' all things there in a more prosperous state than ever before.'
Then he left the city and returned to Closeland, where he preached in the evening to a little, earnest company.
The quietness of the country, the attention of the small congregation appealed to him.
The service being over, we watch him as he writes:
'Oh, who should drag me into a great city, if I did not know there is another world?'
The man who has become accustomed to village preaching will understand the meaning of that sentence; but it is when we read the next that our fears are roused.
"How gladly could I spend the remainder of a busy life in solitude and retirement!'
If he had never again expressed the same sentiment we might have passed it by without remark; but in moments of despondency, of which it is a symptom, we often hear this sigh.
DORSET
It is well to know that all things prospered in Dublin.
But in Cork, and other parts of Ireland, the Methodists at this time were subjected to fierce persecution.
In a letter Wesley wrote to his friend Mr. Blackwell on July 21 he states facts which enable us to see the situation.
I have had so hurrying a time for two or three months as I scarce ever had before; such a mixture of storms and clear sunshine, of huge applause and huge opposition.
. That any of the Methodist preachers are alive is a clear proof of an over-ruling Providence; for we know not where we are safe.
A week or two ago, in a time of perfect peace, twenty people assaulted one of our preachers, and a few that were riding with him, near Limerick.
He asked their captain what they intended to do, who calmly answered, 'To murder you!' and accordingly presented a pistol, which snapped twice or thrice.
Mr.
Fenwick then rode away.
The other pursued, and fired after him.
Three of his companions they left for dead.
But some of the neighbouring justices of the peace did not take it well; so they procured the cut-throats to be apprehended; and it is supposed they will be in danger of transportation, though murder is a venial sin in Ireland.*
It was during this visit to Ireland that John Wesley wrote a letter to Captain Gallatin, then quartered in Manchester, explaining why the Methodist preaching-houses had not been licensed.
We have seen that the " New Room' in Bristol was 'recorded' on October 17, 1748, 'as a place of meeting of a congregation or assembly for religious worship, conformable to the statute made in the reign of William and Mary, intituled an Act for Exempting their Majesties' Protestant subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the penalties of certain laws,' such as the Conventicle Act and the other persecuting Acts passed in the reign of Charles II.*
At first John Wesley hesitated to avail himself of the provisions of the Toleration Act.
His principal objection to such a proceeding was that the Methodists would be obliged to describe themselves as Dissenters before they could obtain relief.
We can understand his objection when we remember that so late as 1766 he maintained that the Methodists were not Dissenters 'in the only sense which our law acknowledges : namely, persons who believe it is sinful to attend the service of the Church: for we do attend it at all opportunities."
So long as he held this view of the meaning of the word 1 Journal, iii. 486 note.
%See ante, 57,58.
* Minutes of Conference, i. 58, 59.
DORSET Re 'dissenter' we can understand his hesitation.
But he saw the advantages of registering his preaching-houses, and he considered several ways of escaping from his difficulties.
After consulting the Recorder of Chester, he was led to favour the following plan.
At the Quarter Sessions a note with these or the like words should be presented to the justices :
'A. B. desires his house in C. D. may be licensed for public worship.'
Then by order of the Bench the house should be registered, sixpence being paid to the clerk.
If Wesley thought that such a simple act of registration would exempt a house from the provisions of the Conventicle Act he was mistaken.
Until the Act was repealed its provisions would over-ride the slight barrier of such a certificate.
From Wesley's letter to Captain Gallatin it would appear that in 1750 'the house at Leeds and some others' had been licensed.
But the Methodists had to travel along a weary road before the Conventicle Act disappeared from the Statute
Book.?
On July 22 John Wesley and Christopher Hopper went on board a ship bound for Bristol.
She had little ballast and no goods.
If the sea remained calm all would be well ; if a storm came she would roll as if she would be overset.
The next night when she was in the Bristol Channel, a severe storm broke upon her.
About eleven o'clock Wesley was wakened by 'a huge, confused noise.'
He found that a vehement squall of wind, thunder, and rain was upon them, and that the sailors were at their wits' end.
They could only see across the ship when the lightning was glaring in their eyes.
The ship was off Lundy, an island which abounds in steep cliffs and shelving granite rocks.
In the sunshine of a quiet, almost cloudless summer day, the island is a beautiful picture as we watch it from the distant shore of ' the Golden
Bay.'
But when the winds are roaring, and the waves are leaping up the cliffs, the mind is gloomed by the memories of great shipwrecks.
In that wild night, when Wesley was in the Bristol Channel, he was aware of the danger that threatened the ship.
She was between the Welsh sands and the rocks of Lundy.
The captain thought that the best plan was to take in the sails and let her drive.
Wesley describes the 1 Wesley's letter to Captain Gallatin was in the collection of the late Mr. George
Stampe.
See John Wesley's Journal, iii. 486.
DORSET 18I effect.
'The motion then was wonderful.
It blew a storm; and, the wind being contrary to the tide, the sea ran mountain-high.
. It was intensely dark, and neither the captain nor any man else knew where we were; only. that we were tossing in a bad, narrow channel, full of shoals, and rocks, and sands.'
Those who are accustomed to go down to the _ Sea in sailing-ships will picture the scene.
What was to be done?
Let us listen to Wesley.
'But does not God hear the prayer?
Mr. Hopper and I believed it our duty to make the trial again; and in a very few moments the wind was small, the sea fell, and the clouds dispersed ; so we put up a little sail, and went on quietly and slowly till the morning dawned.
About nine in the evening we reached The Pill, where I took horse and rode to Bristol.'*
-On July 26 Wesley walked to Kingswood.
The school was giving him much concern.
It was failing to answer its purpose.
He found 'the family' there considerably lessened.
He made searching inquiries, and once more we listen to the note of despondency.
We can hear him sigh as he makes this entry in his Journal: 'I wonder how I am withheld from dropping the whole design, so many difficulties have continually attended it.
Yet if this counsel is of God, it shall stand, and all hindrances shall turn into blessings.'
Charles Wesley's 'raven note' does not deeply affect us.
We know that he will soon be singing with the lark at heaven's gate; but his brother's despondency at this time suggests a mood of mind which was threatening to become habitual.
We are haunted by his confession that, when leaving London for his journeys to Bristol and Ireland he did so 'reluctantly.'
We have wondered if he has a secret which he is carefully guarding.
On July 30 John Wesley, with a companion, rode out of Bristol, and set his face towards the land of his ancestors.
It rained heavily.
By the time he reached Shepton Mallet he was well drenched to the ' very soles of his feet.'
It was useless to go farther that day; so the travellers stayed the night there.
The next morning they reached Shaftesbury, that town set on a hill which has been so vividly described by Sir Frederick Treves in his Highways and Byways in Dorset.
We have desired to see Shaftesbury because we have lost 1 Journal, iii. 487.
'The Pill' is well known to those who have sailed up the Avon.
It derives its name from the Welsh word pwi, which means an inlet or pool.
In Wesley's time it was a port of embarkation for Ireland and America.
DORSET aS sight of that valiant soldier John Haime, and we may find him in his native town.
In the war during which the battles of Dettingen and Fontenoy were fought John Haime was a dragoon in the Queen's Regiment.
When the war ended he returned to England, and was discharged from the Army.
He waited on John Wesley, and asked to be permitted to labour with him as a travelling preacher.
Wesley was willing, and he was sent into a circuit.
He opened his mind to John Wesley, who listened to his story of sore temptation which had shaken his steadfastness.
After continuing for some time in circuit work, Wesley made him one of his travelling companions.
Haime gives us another opportunity of seeing the real Wesley.
He says:
'Mr Wesley took me to travel with him.
He knew I was fallen from my steadfastness; but he knew, likewise, how to bear with me.
And when I was absent he comforted me by his letters, which were a means, under God, of saving me from utter despair.'
In his' Life' in Early Methodist Preachers he gives one of Wesley's letters, written from London on June 21, 1748.
It is one of those inspiring letters which Wesley was accustomed to write to his preachers when the burden of their hard life was becoming too heavy for them to bear.
The letter to Haime closes with words that still strengthen the heart of a downcast man:
'Mercy and peace shall not forsake you.
Through every threatening cloud look up; and wait for happy days.'
But Wesley's consolation did not sweep away the clouds.
In a miserable condition of mind Haime went to Shaftesbury to see his friends.
He spent there several days.
His former acquaintances came to him and said, 'What news?'
His reply was, 'Good news!
Christ died to save sinners.'
They stared at him, and probably thought he was mad.
One day, being half asleep, he had a startling experience.
Those who are acquainted with his history will remember that, at the battle of Fontenoy his regiment was exposed for seven hours to the hottest fire of the enemy.
At the end of that time a cannon-ball killed his horse under him.
An officer cried out aloud, 'Haime, where is your God now?'
He answered, 'Sir, He is here with me; and He will bring me out of this battle.'
Soon there was another discharge from the hostile batteries.
The officer who had shouted to him fell from
DORSET
his saddle, dead.
Haime got free from his own horse, which had fallen on him.
Then he walked away, praising God.
At Fontenoy he could say, ' God is with me'; at Shaftesbury he seemed to be forsaken ; he served a God who was very far off.
But as he sat and mused, the voice that had spoken to him so often spoke again.
He says that he was, as it were, thunder-struck with an inward voice, saying, 'What doest thou here?'
At once he was face to face with conscience and his divine Master.
He cried to the Lord for meréy, and gave notice that on the Sunday following he would preach in a place at the end of the town, where four ways met.
The town and villages around were alarmed; and, at the time appointed, there were three or four thousand people assembled to hear him.
He got on a wall and preached.
His inward trouble seemed suspended.
He was a free man, preaching "deliverance to the captives and the opening of the prison door to those who were bound.'
Twelve, if not fourteen, persons were then convinced of sin.
In a few weeks fifty were joined together in society; a large room was secured, and in it he preached several times a week.
This work stirred up the anger of the adversary.
On the day when a meeting was to be held to consider the subject of building a preaching-house John Haime was apprehended and put in prison, two men having sworn that he had made a riot.
After appearing before the mayor and aldermen, he was hurried away to Dorchester and shut up in the jail there.
He little thought that he was going through the experiences of John Westley, of Winterbourne Whitchurch.
But he followed his example and preached to the prisoners.
Once again we catch sight of members of the Society of Friends who show sympathy with the Methodists.
Two Shaftesbury Quakers became bound for his appearance at the Quarter Sessions.
When he had been in prison for eight days, one of them came to Dorchester to fetch him out, and brought money to pay the prison-fees and all expenses.
When he returned to Shaftesbury he began preaching again.
Good fortune attended him.
He says, 'I soon received a letter from a gentleman at London, bidding me employ two counsellors and an attorney, and draw upon him for whatever money I wanted. I carried this letter to the postmaster, and asked him if he were willing to let me have money upon
DORSET a it.
He said, '' Yes, as much as you please."
This was soon noised about the town: so the magistrates were glad to make up the matter.
And the work of God so increased that in a little time we had eighty in society.'
And that is the way in which Methodism came to Shaftesbury. ?
When John Wesley arrived at Shaftesbury on July 31 he was hoping to preach 'abroad' in the evening,
' notwithstanding the threatenings of great and small'; but the downpour of rain prevented him.
So he went into ' the house,' where he found four or five hundred people assembled.
The chief opposers of John Haime were there; ' but none stirred, none spoke, none smiled.
Many were in tears, and many others were filled with joy unspeakable.'
The next morning, at five o'clock, the room was nearly full, and once more several of John Haime's bitterest persecutors were present.
Mounting their horses, Wesley and his companions rode towards Devon.
Having been informed that many at Tiverton desired to hear him, John Wesley went to the town where his brother Samuel was for some years the head master of Blundell's School, and where he died and was buried.
On August 3 John Wesley preached in the market-place, and hoped that good would be done.
Journeying towards Cornwall, on Sunday, August 5, he preached to a large congregation in Whitefield's Tabernacle in Plymouth, numbers flocking to hear him from all parts.
The barriers had been removed by the reconciliation that had been effected between the Wesleys and Whitefield, and the dawn of a better day was spreading in the sky.
John Wesley stayed in Cornwall for a little more than three weeks.
He found much to encourage him.
His deep content is revealed by the words with which he closes his account of this visit:
' What can destroy the work of God in these parts but zeal for and contending about opinions?'
The only drawback to the cheerfulness of his descriptions is this remark:
' Through all Cornwall I find the Societies have suffered great loss from want of discipline.
Wisely said the ancients, "The soul and body make the man; the Spirit and discipline make the Christian." '
When we remember the sharp trials through which the Cornish Methodists had passed, and the persecution which had driven the lay preachers out of the county, we do not wonder that the defect which 2 Lives of Early Methodist Preachers, i. 301-305.
DORSET
Wesley perceived had arisen ; but much can be placed on the other side.
Wesley was cheered by the change in the character of the preaching of Mr. Collins, the minister of Redruth.
He attended the church, and heard 'an exceedingly useful sermon on the General Judgement.'
At St. Just he found that the prosperity of the Society had continued.
It was still the largest in Cornwall; and in describing it he says, "So great a proportion of believers I have not found in all the nation beside.'
On August 22 he held a Quarterly Meeting at St. Ives, at which the stewards of all the Cornish Societies were present.
We have seen that in former years meetings of the Cornish stewards had been held, but the word 'Quarterly' shows that a new departure had been made, and the Cheshire and Yorkshire plan had been introduced.
In connexion with the Quarterly Meeting the first watch-night in Cornwall was held.
Wesley preached twice in the church at St. Gennys; and, on Monday, August 27, he was with his friend John Bennett, whom he describes as 'full of days, and by swift steps removing into eternity.'
Wesley preached in the churches at Tresmere and Laneast, and said farewell to John Bennett.
It was their last meeting.
In October his old comrade died.
An incident that occurred during this visit to Cornwall must be specially mentioned.
Among the contents of Bishop Lavington's pamphlets there is an accusation against Wesley respecting his conduct with women.
Accompanied by John Haime and John Trembath, Wesley went to the house of the woman who was the bishop's authority for the scandals.
The result of the interview is given in the Journal.
Wesley says that the woman, on being questioned, ' readily told me, and that over and over again, that she never saw or knew any harm by me.'
He adds, ' Yet I am not sure that she has not said just the contrary to others.
If so, she, and not I, must give account for it to God.' It is probable that these reports were brought to the bishop by the men who acted as his ' lion-providers,' and that he used the unsavoury gossip of a garrulous woman without any personal attempt to ascertain the truth of her statements.
The report did Wesley much mischief.
It travelled into the North of England, and his enemies there made use of it in their attempt to besmirch his character.
1 Journal, iii. 492.