in the Gospel. As such, it is your part to employ your time in the
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e 8. Do not affect the gentleman.
You have no more to do with this character, than with that of a dancirg-master.
A Preacher of the Gospel is the servant of all.
9. Be ashamed of nothing but sin: not of fetching wood (if time permit), or drawing water; not of cleaning your own shoes, or your neighbour's.
"iA 10. Be punctual.
Do everything exactly at the time.
And in general, do not mend our rules, but keep them; not for wrath, but for conscience sake.
11. You have nothing to do but to save souls.
Therefore, spend and be spent in this work.
And go always, not only to those who want you, but to those who want you most.
12. Act in all things, not according to your own will, but as a son in the Gospel.
As such, it is your part to employ your time in the manner which we direct: partly in preaching, and visiting the flock from house to house.
Above all, if you labour with us in our Lord's vineyard, it is needful you should do that part of the work which we advise, at those times and places which we judge most for His glory.
It will be seen these ' Rules' were intended to guide the preachers in matters which concerned their private conduct, their work, their relation to each other, the people, and the Wesleys.
They remained practically unaltered until 1780, when the following paragraph was added to the eleventh rule :
Observe.
It is not your business to preach so many times, and to take care of this or that Society; but to save as many souls as you can, to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance, and with all your power to build them up in that holiness without which they cannot see the Lord: And remember! A Methodist Preacher is to mind every point, great and small in the Methodist discipline !
Therefore you will need all the sense you have, and to have all your wits about you.?
Having confirmed the ' Rules of a Helper,' which have done so much to produce that unity of spirit which has for so long characterized the ministers of Methodism, the Conference proceeded to another act of great significance.
The fraternal feeling among the preachers has been strengthened by the fact that in the examination of character, year by year, every man from the President downward has to submit to a scrutiny of his character and of his teaching.
We may confidently appeal 1 Minutes of Conference, i. 492-496, 8vo ed.
For the ' Rules' as they stand to-day see Summary of Methodist Law and Discipline, 271, 272.
Fifth edition.
The paragraph just quoted was removed from the end of the eleventh to the end of the ' Rules' in 1779.
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to the Minutes of the Leeds Conference for a proof of the antiquity of the practice.
The question was asked:
' Has any of you any objections to the life or doctrine of any Itinerant Preacher?'
The names of the preachers were mentioned one by one, and any member of the Conference 'might raise an objection.
After close examination this answer was recorded, 'We are all well satisfied with each other.'
At this distance of time it is difficult to distinguish the voices of the men who spoke at the Leeds Conference.
We hear a murmur of sound, but have to be content with the consolation we derive from the whispers of Jacob Rowell's quill pen.
When the examination of character was completed, those who were present heard a strong voice making a strange request.
It was the voice of John Edwards.
When the discussion on the ' Predestinarians' and Whitefield was proceeding we glanced at him, knowing his history.
He had been in association with the Wesleys, according to Myles, since 1747.
He was an Irishman; and at the Limerick Conference he had been stationed in Athlone Rounds, North, Cork, and Limerick—a wide stretch of country.
He was a valuable man, conspicuous for his work as an evangelist.
In former years he was closely associated with Whitefield, and was one of his preachers.
How far he was in sympathy with Whitefield's Calvinistic views at the time cannot be stated with precision.
Through the ministry of Jacob Rowell we find that at this Conference he asked permission to settle permanently in Leeds.
If he had been willing to become a ' Local Preacher ' there might have been no objection to his retirement; but the evidence before us shows that he wished to be stationed at the new chapel, and to have possession of the preacher's house which was attached to it.
It was an extraordinary request.
To our relief, Jacob Rowell is busy taking notes.
From them we see how the Conference dealt with the matter.
In answer to the question, 'Is it expedient that John Edwards should settle at Leeds?'
The Conference said, 'He can in nowise consent to stay there always.
But neither he nor we have any objections to his spending half a year in Leeds Circuit, as any other Travelling Preacher: and he may make a trial for the two or three next months, as joint Assistant with William
Shent.'
The results of this experiment are known.
When the appointed time expired, he refused to give up the preachers'
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ne house and the chapel.
He was very popular with many of the Leeds Methodists, who supported him in his action.
When he was compelled to leave the house and chapel, it is said that 'he drew part of the Society with him, embraced Calvinistic opinions, built the White Chapel, and ministered usefully in Leeds for thirty years.'!
Jacob Rowell has rescued from oblivion another interesting and important item of the business of this Conference.
It relates to the difficulties of finance, which did much to hinder the work of Methodism at this period.
The question was asked, ' What are those hardships upon the Preachers which it is in our power to remove?'
The reply was, ' One of the greatest is that which lies on the married Preachers.
There is no provision for their wives.'
We have seen that an attempt had been made to solve this difficult problem, but the relief given was slight.
It was along time before a complete solution was reached, but the preliminary efforts of the Leeds Conference are suggestive, and worthy of record.
The Conference faced the fact that some of the preachers had married in haste.
The question was asked, 'Ought not the Preachers to be careful how they bring these difficulties on themselves?'
To which this reply was given, ' Undoubtedly they ought.
Therefore any Preacher who marries without first consulting his Ministers, or his brethren, should not take it amiss that he is then left to himself to provide for his wife how he can.'
The conversation then took the following course :
Q. But if a Preacher do consult them first, and still if he marry one that has nothing ?
A. He must be content to return to his temporal business, and so commence a Local Preacher.
Q. That the Societies may the more readily assist the married Preachers, ought not their wives to be as exemplary as possible ?
A. Certainly they ought.
In particular, they ought never to be idle, and constantly to attend the morning preaching.
Q. But how may they have what is needful with the least trouble ?
A. (1) Let the Assistant inquire what each Preacher's wife wants, at every Quarterly Meeting.
(2) Let those wants be supplied, first of all, out of the common stock.
(3) Let a letter be wrote to all the Societies upon this head.
Q. Do the Stewards behave well with regard to the Preachers ?
A. Most of them do; some do not.
' For a further account of John Edwards see Laycock's Methodist Heroes in the Great Haworth Round, 137, 138.
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Q. How may this be remedied ?
A. (1) Let the Assistant explain to the Stewards in every place the nature of their office.
(2) Let him immediately displace those who behave amiss and will not be reproved.!
After the preachers had been stationed in the twelve circuits in England, Wales, and Ireland, the business of the Conference came to an end.
The Conference being over, John Wesley resumed his itinerant work.
On Sunday, May 27, he preached at Birstall.
The next day he stayed there for rest and correspondence.
We are especially interested in a letter he wrote to his intimate friend Ebenezer Blackwell.
It reveals the subject which was engaging his most serious thoughts.
In it he says, 'I believe the harvest has not been so plenteous for many years as it is now in all the North of England: but the labourers are few.
I wish you could persuade our friend to share the labour with me.
One of us should in any wise visit both the North and Ireland every year.
But I cannot do both, the time will not suffice; otherwise I should not spare myself.
I hope my life, rather than my tongue, says, I desire only to spend and to be spent in the work.'* There is a note of pathos in this letter.
We are accustomed to think of John Wesley as a man of indomitable purpose, who faced all difficulties with cheerfulness, and smiled at the word 'impossible.'
His confession of his inability to do work which ought to be done is strange to us.
But we must remember that at this time his health was being slowly wasted by his incessant toil.
In some moments of depression he was inclined to think that his life-work would soon be done.
As he sits yonder in Birstall let us try to understand the position Wesley had to face.
There can be no doubt that the beauty of the fields whitening for the harvest came before him ; but it filled him with concern.
Did he think of one who had said in far-distant years, 'The harvest is plenteous, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send forth labourers into his harvest?'
We think he offered that prayer continually.
We remember that the habit of incessant prayer ruled his life to its close.
But in 1753 the answer seemed to delay its coming.
Let us look at 1 Minutes of Conference, i. 719, 8vo ed.
8 Wesley's Works, xii.165, 8vo ed:
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ve the situation in respect of the labourers in the great harvest that shone before the eyes of Wesley.
In William Myles's Chronological History of the People called Methodists there are lists containing the names of ' the first, second, and third races of Methodist Preachers.'
They show the condition of Methodism in respect of 'labourers' during the periods 1739 to 1765, 1766 to 1790, and 1791 to 1812.
We are concerned at present with the first section of the list.
We find that in 1741, 1749, and 1752 no lay preacher was appointed for the itinerant work.
In 1753 four were received and employed.
But we must always remember that in several cases the length of itinerant service was brief.
For instance, in the case of the four men received in 1753, one left the itinerant work at the end of three years; two ' departed ' at the end of sixteen years ; and only one continued to the close of his life.
It is not likely we shall forget Thomas Olivers so long as his noble hymn ' The God of Abraham praise' is sung in Methodist congregations.
In 1753 we see him making his way to Cornwall to begin his career as an itinerant preacher.
When Wesley was brooding over the lack of labourers, we wonder what he thought of the itinerant preachers whom he had met at the Leeds Conference.
Our curiosity was excited as they dispersed.
There were twentyfive travelling preachers who had bee:. present.
What became of them?
Ten died in the work; twelve 'departed' from it ; two were excluded ; we are not able to say what became of the last in our list.
John Wesley understood the difficulty of gathering the harvest when he looked at his little band of ever-changing labourers.
It is true that he was enheartened when he thought of some of his local preachers—the men who helped him in one place—but his letter to Blackwell shows his wider vision.
He longed for the coming of the day when the number of his itinerating preachers would be so enlarged that it would be possible to reap the great harvest.
Those who have watched the gradual growth of the membership of the Conference will be disappointed to find that only two clergymen, William Grimshaw and John Milner, were present to support John Wesley at Leeds.
That matter is full of significance.
Wesley's old friend, Samuel Taylor, died 4See Tyerman's Life and Times of Wesley, ii. 126, 127, for a view of ' the serious sifting' during the years that followed the founding of Methodism.
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in 1750. When we recall figures familiar to us in the early Conferences in association with the Wesleys we think of John
Meriton, Charles Graves, Henry Piers, John Hodges, Richard Thomas Bateman, and Charles Manning.
With the exception of Charles Manning, according to Myles's list, all these had ceased to take an active part in Methodist work before the Conference of 1753 ; and Charles Manning ' departed' in 1754.
It must have been clear to John Wesley that the time was coming when he would not be able to rely on the clergy -of the Church of England for help which had been most useful to him at the commencement of his mission.
There was one clergyman on whose help he had every reason to rely—his brother Charles; but he was absent from the Conference.
His Journal is blank at this period, and so we are not able to state confidently the reasons for his absence.
We know that Mrs. John Wesley was present in Leeds during the time when the Conference was being held, and we are aware that Charles Wesley had no wish to meet her.
There was a time when he seemed to be seeking to obtain the blessing which belongs to the peacemaker, but he found that the task was beset with insurmountable difficulties.
He abandoned it, and left his brother and Mrs. Wesley to arrange their differences without his interference.
It was a wise decision.
It is clear, however, that the failure of his ' plans of pacification ' had left in his mind a wholesome dread of his sister-inlaw.
As Charles Wesley has not given us the reasons for his absence from the Conference we are compelled to make another suggestion.
It cannot be doubted that his relations with his brother were seriously strained.
The reference to ' our friend' in John Wesley's letter to Blackwell is clear to those who are acquainted with the circumstances of the time.
The heavier part of the burden of work was laid on John Wesley, and he wished that his brother should bear an equal load.
In two letters which John Wesley wrote to him on October 20 and 31 we get an insight into their relations to each other at this time.
He says:
Take one side or the other.
Either act readily in connexion with me, or never pretend it.
Rather disclaim it ; and openly avow you do and will not.
By acting in connexion with me, I mean, take counsel
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ne with me once or twice a year as to the places where you will labour.
Hear my advice before you fix, whether you take it or no.
At present you are so far from this that I do not even know when and where you intend to go.
So far are you from following any advice of mine ; nay, even from asking it.
. You told William Briggs that you never declined going to any place because my wife was there.
I am glad of it.
Ifso, I have hope we may some time spend a little time together.
With much on his mind, and in failing health, John Wesley resumed his work.
We watch him with sympathy as he travels from place to place.
Sometimes he rests for a few days because it is impossible for him to preach.
Then he tries again, but his strength has departed from him.
He gets back to London, consults Dr. Fothergill, receives some temporary relief, but once more is prostrated by his disease.
On November 26 Dr. Fothergill told him that he must not stay in town a day longer.
He advised him to try the country air, rest, drink asses' milk, and ride daily.
About noon he took coach, as he could not ride,and came to Mr. Blackwell's house at Lewisham.
Mr. and Mrs. Blackwell received him into their home, and he stayed there until the end of the year.
In the evening of November 26, being uncertain as to whether he should die or live, he wrote out his own epitaph, in order 'to prevent vile panegyric.'
It shows that he considered he was dying of 'a consumption.'
Further, it contains a statement that, after his debts were paid, he did not leave ten pounds behind him.
It surprises us that he should have to make this statement, but we remember how sensitive he was to the rumour of his considerable wealth.
We must leave John Wesley, sone recovering under the care of his friends at Lewisham, and visit Bristol.
On November 29 Lady Huntingdon and Mrs. Gallatin called at Charles Wesley's house.
They told him of his brother's serious illness.
The letters he had received had led him to believe that John Wesley was out of all danger ; but Mrs. Gallatin brought news that alarmed him.
On Saturday, December 1, he arrived in London ; and the next day he rode to Lewisham, and found
John Wesley with Mrs. Wesley, Mrs. Blackwell, and Mrs.
Dewal.
It was an affecting meeting.
Charles Wesley was convinced that his brother would not recover.
He was of opinion that he was far gone in 'a galloping consumption,' iTyerman's Life and Times of Wesley, ii. 172, 173.
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just as their elder brother Samuel was at the same age.
During this interview John Wesley tried to effect a reconciliation between his wife and his brother.
He asked them to forget all that was past.
Charles Wesley agreed to do so.
He says, "J once more offered her my service, in great sincerity. Neither will I suspect hers, but hope she will do as she says.'
It must have been a relief to John Wesley to see his brother, as his anxiety concerning his work in London was removed.
Charles Wesley at once took up that work, and learned a lesson that effectually banished any desire to be his brother's successor.
After preaching at the Foundery on Sunday, December 2, he held a Society meeting in the evening.
He says, 'I told the Society on Sunday night that I neither could nor would stand in my brother's place (if God took him to Himself) ; for I had neither a body, nor a mind, nor talents, nor grace for it.'* Charles Wesley's stay in London was short.
On Tuesday, December 4, he saw his brother again at Lewisham and had a long talk with him concerning ' all which had passed since his marriage.'
The result of the conference was ' perfect harmony.'
Then he had a conversation with Mrs. Blackwell and Mrs.
Dewal.
The subject was the value of inoculation as a preventive of small-pox.
The ladies suggested that his wife might have been inoculated with her sister.
He answered that he left every one to his own conscience, but, for his part, he looked upon it as taking the matter out of God's hands, and that he should choose, if it depended on him, to trust his wife entirely to God.
In these days such an answer is astounding.
Leaving Lewisham, he returned to the Foundery.
Two letters from Lady Huntingdon were waiting for him.
The first informed him that it was feared that his wife was ' taken ill of the small-pox ' ; the second confirmed the suspicion.
He set off for Bristol, and found his wife very ill.
Her friends Mrs.
Vigor and Mrs. Jones were ministering to her day and night.
Sister Burges was her nurse.
Dr. Middleton had been a father to her ; and Lady Huntingdon had attended to her constantly twice a day.
It casts an extraordinary light on the condition of opinion in the eighteenth century when we find that the patient blessed God that she had not been inoculated, and had received the disease as immediately from Him.
She recovered, 1 Charles Wesley's Journal, ii. 99.
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he but was disfigured for life.
Her faith must have been sorely tried when her little boy died of small-pox on January
7, 1754.
And so the clouds closed over the homes of the Wesleys in the last month of a trying year—a month that must have raised sad forebodings in the hearts of the Methodist people.
xx !
'NOTES UPON THE NEW TESTAMENT'
In our book on John Wesley and the Religious Societies we caught sight of Alexander Pope as he crossed the old bridge in Bristol.
We had to part company with him near the inner wall of the city, as Wesley was then going in a different direction; but now we must follow Pope, and watch him as he completes his journey from Bath.
Having crossed the bridge he says:
' Passing still along by the river, you come to a rocky way on one side overlooking green hills on the other ; on that rocky way rise several white houses, and over them red rocks; and as you go farther more rocks above rocks, mixed with green bushes and of different coloured stone.
This at a mile's end terminates in the house of the Hot Well.'
After noting 'several pretty lodging-houses, open to the river, with walls of trees,' he continues:
When you have seen the hills which seem to shut in upon you and stop any further way, you go into the house [the pump-room], and looking out of the back-door a vast rock of an hundred feet of red, white, green, blue, and yellowish marble, all blotched and variegated, strikes you quite in the face, and turning on the left there opens the river at a vast depth below, winding in and out, and accompanied on both sides with a continued range of rocks up into the clouds, of a hundred colours one behind another ..
. very much like the broken scenes in a playhouse.
Upon the top of those high rocks there runs a large down of fine turf for about three miles.
It looks too frightful to approach the brink, and look down upon the river.
. .. There is a little village upon this down called Clifton, where are very pretty lodging-houses, and steep cliffs and very green valleys. ... Iam told that one may ride ten miles farther on an even turf, on a ridge, that on one side views the river Severn.!
Such was the setting of the Old Hot Well in 1739, as it appeared to Alexander Pope.
Those who know the neighbourhood will have little difficulty in re-creating the scene.
In a few 4See Latimer's Annals of Bristol, 222, 223.
'NOTES UPON THE NEW TESTAMENT'
years after his visit the fame of the Hot Well rapidly spread.
Latimer tells us that in 1743 it was in great repute.
Large numbers of visitors flocked there ; and it quickly became the scene of the revelries incident to a fashionable watering-place.
John Wesley had received much benefit from his retirement to Lewisham, but his doctor was not satisfied with his progress towards the recovery of his health.
He was of opinion that a change of scene and treatment was necessary, and he recommended a visit to the Hot Well at Bristol.
When we remember the sorrowful condition of his brother's home at the time we see that a lodging would have to be found elsewhere than in Charles Street.
The friends in Bristol secured rooms for him in a house which stood at a short distance from the Well.
On January 3, 1754, he and his wife arrived, and went to these rooms.
The place of Wesley's lodging has not been identified.
We must be content to know that he stayed there until March 10,1754.
From a letter he wrote to Ebenezer Blackwell we get a glimpse of his surroundings.
Writing on January 5, he says:
If I write to my best friends first, I must not delay writing to you, who have been the greatest instruments, in God's hands, of my recovery thus far.
The journey hither did not weary me at all: but I now find the want of Lewisham air.
We are (quite contrary to my judgement, but our friends here would have it so) in a cold, bleak place, and ina very cold house.
If the Hotwell water make amends for this, it is well.
Nor have I any place to ride but either by the river side, or over the downs, where the wind is ready to carry me away.
However, one thing we know, that whatsoever is, is best.
He soon settled down.
After about a week one or two of his neighbours desired to join his little circle at family prayers ; then a few more made the same request, so he had a small congregation every night.
After a time he found himself strong enough to add 'a short exhortation,' and, gradually, prepared himself for the renewal of his life-work.
Wesley's shield against the attack of depression was work, and still more work.
His mind and hand weresdon busy. He determined to carry out a project over which he had brooded for several years.
It concerned a commentary on The New Testament, which, he thought, would be of great service to his
1 Works, xii. 165 8vo ed.
'NOTES UPON THE NEW TESTAMENT '
people.
We cannot say when he first contemplated its production.
It is probable that he was aware of an arrangement which existed in some of the reorganized Religious Societies of Dr. Woodward's time.
In those societies, when a clergyman could not be present to conduct the services which were held in some of them a steward took his place.
In the conversations which formed part of the proceedings questions concerning doctrine and the meaning of Scriptural statements were sometimes asked which the steward might not feel himself competent to answer.
It was therefore directed that Dr. Hammond's Exposition, or some other book recommended by the minister who usually presided, should be obtained, in order that it might be consulted in case of perplexity or a difference of opinion on questions of doctrine and practice.
At that time there were many Religious Societies that could not get a minister to preside over their meetings.
In such cases it was of great importance that a book of appeal should lie on the table, and that time and temper should not be wasted in heated discussions.
We suggest that it is possible that this arrangement influenced Wesley's action.*
We have seen that John Wesley reached his lodgings, near the Hot Well on January 3, and we know that on the next day he prepared a preface to a volume which was to bear the title Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament.* It is essential we should understand that Wesley's first draft of a preface forms only a part of the preface that is printed in the first edition of the Nofes, and in the copies published at the present time.
This fact needs to be emphasized.
It is of interest, not only to the Methodist antiquary, but to all who wish to understand the working of Wesley's mind when engaged on this important volume.
Under the care of Dr. Sharp, at the Wesleyan Conference Office, is an exceptionally interesting note-book.
It is now entitled John Wesley's MSS. Sermons and Introduction to the New Testament.
The book belongs to Wesley's Oxford days, and it reminds us of the meetings of the Holy Club.
It seems to have been laid aside for some years.
Then it was used in 1754 in connexion with Wesley's preparations for the Notes on the New Testament.
We find in it, first of all, what may 1 John Wesley and the Religious Societies, 18.
2We are indebted to Dr. J. Alfred Sharp for lending us his copy of the first edition of the Notes, and for much other valuable assistance.