But what of the "full assurance of faith," that "repose in the blood of Christ," that "firm confidence," that "highest tranquility, serenity, and peace. of mind" which he had sought long before he met
Arvid Gradin in far-away Germany? Wesley had considerable experience with enthusiasts who thought they had attained perfection, and he was obviously careful in guarding against excesses. Those who think themselves to have reached the goal should be reticent about it, and others should be tender with the claim-. ants. There was, indeed, a rule by which one may judge himself to have attained perfection. 'This is:
"a man is perfect when after having been fully convinced of inbred sin, by a far deeper and clearer conviction than that he experienced before justification, and after having experienced a gradual mortification of it, he experiences a total death to sin, and an entire renewal in the love and image of God, so as to rejoice
Christian Perfection evermore, to pray without ceasing, and in everything to give thanks." *' But one is not so to judge because he feels 'tall love and no sin."» However, when one known to be veracious testifies that he is perfect, he ought not to be doubted without sufficient reason.
Not only the fruit but the witness of the Spirit is the attestation of a man's sanctification. But here Wesley was again cautious. "The witness of sanctification is not always clear at first.... neither is it afterward always the same, but, like that of justification, sometimes stronger and sometimes fainter. Yea, and sometimes it is withdrawn." *° It should be made clear, that "holiness" for Wesley is a strongly ethical term, but ethical because it is religious. There is no "natural" ethics so far as Wesley is concerned; and there is no understanding of his moral teaching unless the essential religiousness of his ethical thought is firmly grasped: but Wesley's ethical interest was real. Of the Standard Sermons a much larger proportion deal with morality than is generally recognized; perhaps Wesley's best treatise on Christian ethics is in his thirteen sermons on our Lord's
In these thirteen sermons, Wesley places the hunger of the soul '"'after the image of God" at the center.
This is the case of the soul "that truly hungers and thirsts after righteousness. He can find no comfort in anything but this: he can be satisfied with nothing else. Whatever you offer besides, it is lightly esteemed: whether it be riches, or honour, or pleasure, he still says, "This is not the thing which I want.'
Give me love, or else I die!" ** And this love is, as he John Wesley and Modern Religion phrases it again, "the image of God, the mind which was in Christ Jesus. It is every holy and heavenly temper in one; springing from, as well as terminating in, the love of God, as our Father and Redeemer, and the love of all men for His sake." °? Such a one cannot be satisfied with formal religion, with what
"the world accounts religion." In an intense passage, Wesley presses the claim for inward religion: 'The religion of the world implies three things: (1) The doing no harm, the abstaining from outward sin; at least from such as is scandalous, as robbery, theft, common swearing, drunkenness: (2) The doing good, the relieving the poor; the being charitable, as it is called: (3) The using the means of grace: at least the going to church and to the Lord's supper. He in whom these three marks are found is termed by the world 'a religious man.' But will this satisfy him who hungers after God? No: it is not food for his soul.
He wants a religion of a nobler kind, a religion higher — and deeper than this. He can no more feed on this poor, shallow, formal thing, than he can "fill his belly with the east wind.' 'True, he is careful to abstain from the very appearance of evil; he is zealous of good works; he attends all the ordinances of God: but all this is not what he longs for. This is only the outside of that religion which he insatiably hungers after.
The knowledge of God in Christ Jesus; 'the life which is hid with Christ in God'; the being 'joined unto the ~ Lord in one spirit'; the having 'fellowship with the Father and the Son'; the 'walking in the light as God is in the light'; the being 'purified even as He is pure,'
Christian Perfection —this is the religion, the righteousness he thirsts after; nor can he rest, till he thus rests in God." *°
The great hindrances to this inward religion are pride, levity, and thoughtlessness, anger, impatience, discontent. These are healed by poverty of spirit;
"holy mourning," which Wesley interprets as sorrow for our own and others' sin; and meekness. But Wesley anticipates modern psychology in his recognition that instinctive attitudes may be sublimated.
They who are truly meek "'do not desire to extinguish any of the passions which God has for wise ends implanted in their nature; but they have the mastery of all: they hold them in subjection, and employ them in subservience to those ends. And thus even the harsher and more unpleasing passions are applicable to the noblest purposes; even hatred, anger, and fear, when engaged against sin, and regulated by faith and love, are as walls and bulwarks to the soul, so that the wicked one cannot approach to hurt it." **
But insistent as Wesley is that true holiness is rooted in the inner life, this must in no way be taken as minimizing outward holiness. One must recall again his answer to those who object "that religion does not lie in outward things, but in the heart, the inmost soul; that it is the union of the soul with God, the life of God in the soul of man; that outside religion is nothing worth." His answer was: "It is most true, that the root of religion lies in the heart, in the inmost soul; that this is the union of the soul with God, the life of God in the soul of man. But if this root be really in the heart, it cannot but put forth branches. And these are the several instances of outJohn Wesley and Modern Religion ward obedience, which partake of the same nature with the root; and, consequently, are not only marks or signs, but substantial parts of religion."
He would not surrender his belief that ethical conduct is part of religion, not merely an outward sign of an inward work. As a true Englishman, he was interested in morality far more than in metaphysics; but he was sure that morality is truly rooted in the inner life and, therefore, would have nothing to do with morality completely divorced from religion.
Neither would he have anything to do with religion divorced from morality. He would not put asunder what he believed God Himself to have joined.
The ethical life, or rather the life of outward Christian conduct, is to be sought not only by enriching the inner life but also by ethical striving. "Strive to enter in at the strait gate," he wrote, "not only by this agony of soul, of conviction, of sorrow, of shame, of desire, of fear, of unceasing prayer; but likewise by ordering thy conversation aright, by walking with all thy strength in all the ways of God, the way of innocence, of piety, and of mercy. Abstain from all appearance of evil; do all possible good to all men; deny thyself, thy own will, in all things, and take up thy cross daily. Be ready to cut off thy right hand, to pluck out thy right eye, and cast it from thee; to suffer the loss of goods, friends, health, all things on earth, so thou mayest enter into the kingdom of heaven." °* Thus again he defines "serving God"' as believing in him, loving him, imitating him, and obeying him.
But how does a man seek perfection in this world?
Christian Perfection Perfection, in the medieval Church, was sought in retreat from the world; and, while Luther and Calvin made much of man's "calling," his "'vocation" to live in the world, they never entirely freed themselves from a feeling that the worldly affairs are unimportant. A man's great business is to save his soul, and he lives in the ordinary calling of life because he has to: he seeks God in vocatione, not per vocationem.®* How was the quest of perfection related, in Wesley's mind, with the world of common affairs?
Professor Mecklin, in his Story of American Dissent, has seen the "'quintessence of Methodism" in a quotation from Wesley: 'Here is a short, a plain and infallible rule before you enter into particulars. In whatever profession you engage you must be singular or be damned! The way to hell has nothing singular in it; but the way to heaven is singularity all over. If you move but one step towards God, you are not as other men are." This, says Professor Mecklin, expresses "the dissenting, 'come-outer' spirit of Methodism. . . . This obviously harmonizes with the dissenting tradition, developed in opposition to the churchly tradition, of spiritual separation from the world and a secularized church." ** Professor Mecklin is here dealing with American Methodism and not with Wesley; but the spirit of which he speaks is in Wesley also, but not as an inheritance from "'the dissenting tradition." In him it was from that deep spiritual tradition which has existed in the Church at almost all times. From William Law, a High Churchman, Wesley had learned that "if the doctrines of Christianity were practiced, they would make a man
John Wesley and Modern Religion as different from other people as to all worldly tempers, sensual pleasures, and the pride of life, as a wise man is different from a natural [a fool]."*® And it will be recalled that Dr. Hayward, who examined
Wesley before he was ordained to priest's orders in 1728, said: '""Do you know what you are about? You are bidding defiance to all mankind. He that would live a Christian priest ought to know that, whether his hand be against every man or no, he must expect every man's hand should be against him." *° Whatever may have determined the Methodists in England or America, Wesley's "singularity" stemmed from that principle of renunciation which has been in Christianity from the beginning.
Christianity is a peculiar way of life. Just as truly as the medieval Church thought that the highest type of Christian must live a life separated from the world, so truly did Wesley, following the Imitation of Christ — and Christian asceticism, believe that one must be singular "or be damned."
It will be well to examine the asceticism in Wesley's teaching. In Sermon XLII, on "Self-Denial," there is much material. This sermon was written before the Aldersgate experience, but it was revised afterwards—Dr. Sugden thinks about 1744-45.*1
In the second paragraph, Wesley speaks of the duty of denying oneself: "The denying ourselves, and the taking up our cross, in the full extent of the expression, is not a thing of small concern: it is not expedient only, as are some of the circumstantials of religion; but it is absolutely, indispensably necessary, either to our becoming or continuing His disciples."
BS Christian Perfection This necessity arises from the fact that "the will of God is the supreme, unalterable rule for every intelligent creature; equally binding every angel in heaven, and every man upon earth." A second reason for the necessity of self-denial is that it is the will of God, that we resist and counteract the corruption of our nature. Indeed, in order to "the healing of that corruption, that evil disease, which every man brings with him into the world, it is often needful to pluck out, as it were, a right eye, to cut off a right hand,— so painful is either the thing itself which must be done, or the only means of doing it."
Such statements as the above represent Wesley's views after 1738 as well as before. "Without holiness no man can see the Lord" was Wesley's uncompromising slogan; and he made clear in his sermon on "'SelfDenial" just what he meant. The second division of his sermon was to show "'that it is always owing to the want either of self-denial, or taking up his cross, that any man does not thoroughly follow Him, is not fully a disciple of Christ." He illustrates this as follows:
"A man hears the word which is able to save his soul .... yet he remains 'dead in trespasses and sins,' senseless and unawakened. Why is this? Because he will not part with his bosom sin, though he now knows it is an abomination to the Lord." No deep impression is made upon him because of this. 'Suppose he begins to awake out of sleep, and his eyes are a little opened, why are they so quickly closed again? Why does he again sink into the sleep of death? Because he again yields to his bosom sin." In other instances, the impressions once received do not wear away.
John Wesley and Modern Religion "And yet, many of these have not found what they seek: they mourn, and yet are not comforted. Now, why is this? It is because they do not 'bring forth fruits meet for repentance.'"? Another receives the "heavenly gift"; "the peace which passeth all understanding" ruled in his heart, and "the love of God was shed abroad" therein. 'Yet he is now weak as another man... his love is waxed cold, and the peace of God no longer rules in his heart. And no marvel; for he has again given place to the devil... . Or he did not stir up the gift of God which was in him; he gave way to spiritual sloth, and would not be at the pains of 'praying always, and watching thereunto with all perseverance': that is, he made shipwreck of the faith, for want of self-denial, and taking up his cross daily."
Another does not make shipwreck of the faith, but he does not go on to perfection. "And why is he thus, but because he hath forgotten the word of God, 'By works is faith made perfect'? He does not use all diligence in working the works of God. He does not 'continue instant in prayer,' private as well as public; in communicating, hearing, meditation, fasting, and religious conference."
Toward the end of 1739, eight or ten persons "who appeared to be deeply convinced of sin, and earnestly groaning for redemption," came to Wesley in London.
They desired his help and advice; and from this meeting developed the "United Societies"—that is, the Methodist Societies of the Methodist Revival. For | admittance to these societies nothing was required save ''a desire 'to flee from the wrath to come, to be saved from their sins' "; but this desire was expected
Christian Perfection to produce fruits. Consequently, certain rules were drawn up for these seekers, the famous "General
Rules." *? The first division of the rules sets forth the self-denial required of the Methodists.
Aside from the common evils which Methodists were to avoid, such as drunkenness, quarreling, using many words in buying or selling, the list includes "unprofitable conversation," "doing what we know is not for the glory of God, as the 'putting on of gold or costly apparel'; the taking such diversions as cannot be used in the name of the Lord Jesus; the singing those songs, or reading those books, which do not tend to the knowledge or love of God; softness, and needless self-indulgence; laying up treasures upon earth." Fasting is enjoined under the head of "'the ordinances of God." In Advice to the People Called
Methodists (1745), Wesley was more particular. He refers to the rule of the Methodists "to abstain from fashionable diversions, from reading plays, romances, or books of humour, from singing innocent songs, or talking in a merry, gay, diverting manner; your plainness of dress; your manner of dealing in trade; your exactness in observing the Lord's day; your scrupulosity as to things that have not paid custom; your total abstinence from spirituous liquors (unless in case of necessity); your rule, 'not to mention the fault of an absent person, in particular of Ministers or of those in authority.' " *° It may be noted, in passing, that Wesley was emphasizing what he deemed new in the Methodists; he did not think of his people as simply reviving Puritanism or Moravianism. He believed that he was reJohn Wesley and Modern Religion storing primitive Christianity, and that in the combination of different qualities the Methodists were new in the world of the eighteenth century.
In many things Wesley was scrupulous and required his followers to be so. He stressed plainness of dress, insisting that Methodists should wear clothes in accord with the times, but not fine clothes. To the answer that people must dress expensively if their stations required it, he replied sarcastically that he advised all
Lords of the Bedchamber and Maids of Honor at Court to do this, but not others.** But in many ways he required more of his Methodists than he thought absolutely necessary for all. He did not allow any belonging to his Societies to dance or play cards, but he would have his preachers say no more than: "Possibly you may be saved though you dance and play at cards. But I could not." He made allowance thus for those who were not Methodists; "else," he added,
"T might send my own father and mother to hell, though they not only lived many years, but died in the full assurance of faith." *° His mother would not allow her children to go to a dancing-school, but she had a dancing-master come to the house to instruct the children in her presence so far as she thought necessary. "To this," said Wesley, "I have no objection.
If I had convenience, I would be glad to have all our preachers taught, even by a dancing-master, to make a bow and to go in and out of a room." *® Wesley also gave instructions to his Methodists which he did not think necessary for a Fellow of Lincoln. He revised at least one novel for circulation, and his own reading was omnivorous. But he knew his people
Christian Perfection and their lack of discrimination. It was one of his own preachers who, after Wesley's death, burned the Shakespeare which the Methodist leader had read and annotated with his own hand.
There remained in Wesley also some traces of his former preference for celibacy. Although he agreed that clergymen might marry and although he himself finally married, yet Wesley congratulated those who became eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake, taking pains to explain that marriage is an honorable estate but that he who is unmarried may give all his time and money to the Lord without let or hindrance.*'? As late as 1745, the Conference seemed undecided whether one who had reached perfection would be "'capable of marriage." The answer to the questions was: ""We cannot well judge. But supposing he were not, the number of those in that state is so small it would produce no inconvenience." In John
Bennet's copy of the Minutes, Wesley added a note:
"Me is H in all"; a reference to Hebrews xiii. 4, ""Marriage is honourable in all." ** The preachers and assistants were examined more closely than were members as to their renunciations.
Among the questions asked them concerning their "prudential" means of grace were the following: "Do you deny yourself every useless pleasure of sense, imagination, honour? Are you temperate in all things? instance in food: Do you use only that kind and that degree which is best both for your body and soul?
Do you see the necessity of this? Do you eat no flesh suppers? No late suppers? Do you eat no more at each meal than is necessary? Are you not heavy or,
John Wesley and Modern Religion drowsy after dinner? Do you use only that kind and that degree of drink which is best both for your body and soul? Do you drink water? Why not? Did you ever? Why did you leave it off? If not for health, when will you begin again? today? How often do you drink wine or ale? every day? Do you want
[need] it? Wherein do you 'take up your cross dayne All this is in the line of Christian asceticism, although it is an asceticism lived in the world, not out of it. But how is this related to man's business, to man's vocation as a workman, as a master, a member of the professions? Professor Tawney has summed up the Puritan ideal as follows: "In their emphasis on the moral duty of untiring activity, on work as an end in itself, on the evils of luxury and extravagance, on foresight and thrift, on moderation and self-discipline and rational calculation, they had created an ideal of Christian conduct which canonized as an ethical principle the efficiency which economic theorists were preaching as a specific for social disorders." °° Wheras the axioms of Christian social ethics had been summed up for generations in the words to Timothy,
"Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. For the love of money is the root of all evil," the Puritans, according to Professor Tawney, raised a new standard. They exalted "not an easy-going and — open-handed charity, but a systematic and methodical accumulation."
At first blush this seems to be precisely what Wesley did. His followers were to seek earnestly after inward and outward holiness by faith and works, practicing
Christian Perfection self-discipline and self-denial. "It is the bounden duty of all who are engaged in worldly business," he wrote in his sermon on ""The Use of Money," "'to observe that first and great rule of Christian wisdom, with respect to money, 'Gain all you can.' Gain all you can by honest industry. Use all possible diligence in your calling. Lose no time. If you understand yourself, and your relation to God and man, you will have none to spare. If you understand your particular calling, as you ought, you will have no time that' hangs upon your hands. .. . And 'whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.' Do it as soon as possible: No delay! ... And do it as well as possible. . . . Gain all you can, by common sense, by using in your business all the understanding which God has given you. . . . You should be continually learning, from the experience of others, or from your own experience, reading, and reflection, to do everything you have to do better today than you did yesterday. . . . Having gained all you can, by honest wisdom, and unwearied diligence, the Second rule of Christian prudence is, 'Save all you can.' ... Expend no part of it merely to gratify the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, or the pride of life." *
Numerous quotations could be added, but the heart of the matter is here. Work, diligent, intelligent work, and careful, self-denying saving are the rules of the Christian man. If this were all, then there would be no alternative to listing Wesley with those who reinterpreted the Christian doctrine of money and work in line with the individualistic economic development of the eighteenth century. But Professor
John Wesley and Modern Religion Tawney himself recognized as exceptions to the general trend Wesley's sermon on "The Use of Money" and Law's reassertion of Christianity as a distinctive way of life.°?
In Wesley's sermon, he rules out employments that are hurtful to the worker in mind or body. He insists that a Christian must not engage in a business which hurts his neighbor. "We cannot devour the increase of his lands, and perhaps the lands and houses themselves, by gaming, by over-grown bills, (whether on account of physic, or law, or anything else,) or by requiring or taking such interest as even the laws of our country forbid... .°? We cannot, consistent with brotherly love, sell our goods below the marketprice; we cannot study to ruin our neighbour's trade, in order to advance our own; much less can we entice away, or receive, any of his servants, or workmen whom he has need of. None can gain by swallowing up his neighbour's substance, without gaining the damnation of hell!" For the same reason none can engage in selling liquor or anything which would injure his neighbor's health. And concern for his neighbor's soul will prevent any from keeping "taverns, victualling-houses, opera-houses, play-houses, or any other places of public, fashionable diversion."
Such are the cautions which must be used by those who work. But there is a third rule to be added.
"Gain all you can; save all you can"; but also "give all you can." The rule which Wesley lays down is short but explicit: "First, provide things needful for yourself; food to eat, raiment to put on, whatever nature moderately requires for preserving the body in health
206 , FY a'q Christian Perfection and strength. Secondly, provide these for your wife, your children, your servants, or any others who pertain to your household. If, when this is done, there be an overplus left, then, 'do good to them that are of the household of faith.' If there be an overplus still,
'as you have opportunity, do good unto all men.' "
This is not to be taken as an exhortation to "tithing" or to any other method of keeping books with the Almighty. "Render unto God, not a tenth, not a third, not half, but all that is God's, be it more or less; by employing all on yourself, your household, the household of faith, and all mankind, in such a manner that you may give a good account of your stewardship, when ye can be no longer stewards." At the Judgment, the Lord will inquire of man: "In what manner didst thou employ that comprehensive talent, money? ... first supplying thy reasonable wants, together with those of thy family, then restoring the remainder to Me, through the poor, whom I had appointed to receive it; looking upon thyself as only one of that number of poor, whose wants were to be supplied out of that part of My substance which I had placed in thy hands for this purpose; leaving thee the right of being supplied first, and the blessedness of giving rather than receiving." °* It is estimated that Wesley himself, during his life-time, gave away £30,- 000.
The point here is not Wesley's economic or social theory but his conception of the way in which the Christian man, who is going on to perfection, may follow his "vocation" in this world. Professor Cell has given an interesting analysis of Wesley's views
John Wesley and Modern Religion concerning riches and has speculated as to the influence of such religious ideals as thrift, diligence, selfdenial in economic history." 'The present concern is to show that Wesley was proposing, not a religious ideal which coincided with the dominant economic individualism of the times, but a conception of the Christian man's vocation as distinctive. Decidedly, if he were taken seriously, there could be no such thing as modern business. If surplus were turned back into social channels, instead of being applied to capital holdings, then the modern capitalistic economy would be destroyed.
It is well known that Wesley was very much afraid » of riches. Time and again, he pointed out with sorrow that his Methodists were becoming rich; and he was sure that, when they were rich, they would no longer be religious. In no sense was Wesley a social philosopher. In politics he was conservative; he had no social or economic outlook peculiar to him—save in his interpretation of the path of the Christian seeking perfection. Here he stands neither in the way of St. Francis nor of the Puritan—if the ordinary interpretation of the Puritan's economic morality is correct. Wesley did not believe in poverty as poverty; he would relieve all men from its thraldom.
Work is good, and business is to be encouraged. But the importance of Wesley's teaching is that, for the modern, industrial world, he preserved the traditional =ireasa+—_—=
Christian attitude. The man of God lives a distinceeeaMeooekanacliCeRE tive life, not in monasteries, but in the world of business. He has the virtues of the modern world; but — his aims are different. Each man owes all that he has Seat= =e eta4reet ——8
Christian Perfection to the God of all men, and he pays it to society. The first unit of society is the household of faith; next comes all mankind. For this society of God's poor brethren man must work all his days; to work for himself alone is to fatten his soul for hell.
The holiness of the inner life and the holiness of conduct, religion and ethics, Wesley joined together, not as two separate things but as different parts of the same. "In a word," he wrote in a passage which sums up his total belief, 'let thy religion be the religion of the heart. Let it lie deep in thy inmost soul. Be thou little, and base, and mean, and vile (beyond what words can express) in thy own eyes; amazed and humbled to the dust by the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Be serious. Let the whole stream of thy thoughts, words, and actions flow from the deepest conviction that thou standest on the edge of the great gulf, thou and all the children of men, just ready to drop in, either into everlasting glory or everlasting burning! Let thy soul be filled with mildness, gentleness, patience, long suffering towards all men; at the same time all which is in thee is athirst for God, the living God, longing to awake up after His likeness and to be satisfied with it! Be thou a lover of _ God and of all mankind! In this spirit do and suffer all things! Thus show thy faith by thy works; thus
"do the will of thy Father which is in heaven'! And, as sure as thou now walkest with God on earth, thou shalt also reign with Him in glory!" °° This was the ideal. Men should be filled with a great passion for God, and, living in constant awareness of the criticalness of life, should be possessed of John Wesley and Modern Religion the Christian virtues and of the outward goodness and obedience which are substantial parts of religion.
But as Wesley grew older he grew in comprehension: all men are not the same, nor do all men attain unto the same. Sometimes he had been too exacting, too rigid. In April, 1788, Wesley the aged looked back with regret upon his earlier narrower views. "Nearly fifty years ago, when the Preachers, commonly called
Methodists, began to preach that grand scriptural doctrine, salvation by faith, they were not sufficiently apprized of the difference between a servant and a child of God. They did not clearly understand, that even one 'who feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him.' In consequence of this, they were apt to make sad the hearts of those whom God had not made sad. For they frequently asked those who feared God, 'Do you know that your sins are forgiven?' And upon their answering, 'No,' imme- — diately replied, 'Then you are a child of the devil.'
No; that does not follow. It might have been said, (and it is all that can be said with propriety,) 'Hitherto you are only a servant, you are not a child of God.
You have already great reason to praise God that he has called you to his honourable service.'"°? The path toward perfection stretches not only a long way forward, but a long way back, and along the way any ~ who walks forward is of the good company. |
Even among those who had felt justifying faith, there are two kinds of Christians; there have been two — kinds from the beginning. 'The one lived an innocent life, conforming in all things, not sinful, to the — customs and fashions of the world; doing many good ©
Christian Perfection works, abstaining from gross evils, and attending the ordinances of God. They endeavoured, in general, to have a conscience void of offence in their behaviour, but did not aim at any particular strictness, being in most things like their neighbours." °° From long experience, Wesley had decided that justified Christians had the choice of walking in this way or in "the more excellent way." But those who chose the lower path, while he would not say that they were in the way to hell, "'will not have so high a place in heaven as they would have had if they had chosen the better part."
The ideal is an ideal, but one must look to the height. "Settle it then in your heart, that from the moment God has saved you from all sin, you are to aim at nothing more, but more of that love described in the thirteenth of the Corinthians. You can go no higher than this, till you are carried into Abraham's bosom." ®° " He believed in man's natural depravity, but also in man's opportunity, by the grace of God, for infinite growth. His doctrine of perfectibility was not that of the optimists of the Enlightenment, nor was it at one with the naturalistic optimism of the Romantic Movement; but Wesley saw that man's reach exceeds his grasp, and that he may go on hopefully in his pilgrimage toward the City of God.! The sum of the whole matter he might have stated in a quotation from his father's friend, high-priest of eighteenth-century Classicism, "that excellent poet,"
And knows where faith, law, morals, all began, All end, in love of God, and love of man.
Zz11 CHAPTER IX THE DISCIPLINE, OF Tike Ir has already been made plain that Wesley did not, either in practice or teaching, rely upon "'feelings." He would have subscribed to Augustine's aphorism, "Love God and do as you please," but only on the presupposition of a disciplined character.
Fully to understand Wesley's religion, one must consider at greater length the place which discipline and control played in his scheme for himself and others.
According to Wesley, the name of Methodist was given to the little group at Oxford because of "the exact regularity of their lives as well as their studies."
He further said, that "the one charge then advanced against them was, that they were 'righteous overmuch'; that they were abundantly too scrupulous, and too strict, carrying things to great extremes: In particular, that they laid too much stress upon the Rubrics and Canons of the Church; that they insisted too much upon the Statutes of the University; and that they took the Scriptures in too strict and literal a © sense; so that if they were right, few indeed could be © saved." if? It will be well to examine in more detail the practices of Wesley and the Oxford Methodists — during the early stages and then to follow the older
Wesley in the matter of "exact regularity."
ZizZ The Discipline of Life Certainly Wesley was by nature and training fitted for a regular way of life. No man with any natural predisposition in this direction could have escaped a bent toward some form of methodism as a result of Susannah Wesley's training and teaching. Exactly how much in Wesley's character was owing to his natural tendencies and how much to training cannot, of course, be determined; but that he was from his youth up precise in his habits, as well as rationalistic of mind, is plain to all who know his story. In his childhood he seems to have taken kindly to the barrack-like discipline of his mother; at Charterhouse he ran thrice around the yard every morning, read the Scriptures and said his prayers twice a day; in 1721, as a young collegian he budgeted his time, allowing portions for study, for correspondence and the like; in his old age his "habit of body" was expressive "'of strict temperance and continual exercise. .. . In dress he was a pattern of neatness." "
The influence of Jeremy Taylor, of Thomas 4 Kempis, and of William Law was to set Wesley upon the way toward Christian Perfection. Nothing less than inward and outward holiness was to be his goal from 1725 until his death more than sixty-five years later. But these guides also set Wesley upon the path of discipline, of the imitation of Christ. The first
Journal opens with the well-known words: "It was in pursuance of an advice given by Bp. Taylor, in his Rules for Holy Living and Dying, that about fifteen years ago [about 1725 ], I began to take a more exact account than J had done before of the manner wherein I spent my time, writing down how I had
John Wesley and Modern Religion employed every hour." * A Kempis' Imitation of Christ, let it be said once more, is not a mystical book, but the product of monasticism. It is a book for ordered lives, setting out rules and methods for a selfdenying, sometimes ascetic, way of living. And, in like manner, one should recall that the William Law who influenced Wesley was not William Law, follower of the mystic, Jakob Boehme, but Law in his earlier period, the author of A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life and of Christian Perfection. Part of the teaching of Law was: "either Reason and Religion prescribe rules and ends to all the ordinary actions of our life, or they do not: If they do, then it is as necessary to govern all our actions by these rules, as it is necessary to worship God." * Wesley's practices at Oxford and in America are too well known to need detailed repetition, but their general character should be recalled. A writer, sometimes said to have been William Law, summed up the habits of the Oxford Methodists in an approving paragraph: "That this society think themselves obliged in all particulars to live up to the law of the gospel. That the Rule they have set themselves is not that of their own inventions but the Holy Scriptures, and the orders and injunctions of the Church, and that not as they perversely construe and misinterpret them, but as they find them in the holy canon. That, pursuant to these, they have resolved to observe with strictness not only all the duties of the Christian religion according to their baptismal engagements, but the fasts, the prayers, and sacraments of the Church; to receive the blessed Communion as often as there is
The Discipline of Life opportunity; and to do all the good they can, in visiting the sick, the poor, the prisoners, &c., knowing these to be the great articles on which they are to be tried at the last day; and in all things to keep themselves unspotted from the world. It would be found that, if they rise earlier than ordinary, if they are sparing in eating and drinking or any expensive diversions, *tis to save time and money for improving those glorious ends; and not, as is unfairly insinuated, that they make such things to be essentials in religion, much less out of a gloomy and Pharisaical spirit, to shun the company or upbraid the practices of others.
These are the Rules, this the Method, they have chosen to live by." ® Unquestionably the Oxford Methodists carried their enthusiasm to excess. Rising early, carefully abstaining from other than godly company, treating every act as affecting eternal destiny, Wesley sometimes showed traces of that morbidity which Tyerman noticed. But meeting together to review the day and plan work for the next, visiting the sick and prisoners, catechizing children, relieving the poor and suffering, strict observance of the statutes of the University and of the Church and weekly communion were their chief characteristics. Wesley insisted that he could best pursue holiness at Oxford because he had there religious friends, retirement, and opportunity for public and private prayers and for frequent communion. Samuel Wesley, Jr., was no friend to fanaticism; but he wrote lines on the death of one of the Oxford Methodists, William Morgan, which are fair to the whole group.
John Wesley and Modern Religion Whose Zeal for other Men's Salvation shown, Beyond the reach of Hell secur'd his own.
Glad'ning the Poor where e'er his Steps he turn'd, Where pin'd the Orphan, or the Widow mourn'd:
Where Pris'ners sigh'd beneath Guilt's Horrid Stain, The worst Confinement, and the heaviest Chain:
Where Death's sad Shade the Uninstructed Sight Veil'd with thick Darkness in the Land of Light.
Our Saviour thus fulfill'd his great Design, (For Human may be liken'd to Divine, ) Heal'd each Disease that Bodies frail endure,
And preach'd th' unhop'd-for Gospel to the Poor.
Nor yet the Priestly Function he invades, 'Tis not his Sermon, but his Life, persuades.
Humble and teachable to Church he flies, Prepar'd to practice, not to criticize.
Then only angry, when a Wretch conveys The Deists Poison in the Gospel Phrase.
To Means of Grace the last Respect he show'd, Nor sought new Paths, as wiser than his God.
Their sacred Strength preserv'd him from Extremes Of empty Outside, or Enthusiast Dreams; Whims of Molinos, lost in Rapture's Mist,
Or Quaker, late-reforming Quietist.
He knew that Works must here our Faith employ, And that 'tis Heav'n's great Business to enjoy.® During his later years at Oxford, after 1732, Wesley was influenced by John Clayton of Manchester, who sympathized with the High Church views of the Nonjurors, Dr. Deacon and John Byrom. Concerning Clayton's influence, Wesley wrote: "The two points whereunto, by the blessing of God, we had attained, we endeavoured to hold fast: I mean, the doing what good we can; and in order thereto, communicating as often as we have opportunity. To The Discipline of Life these, by the advice of Mr. Clayton, we added a third, —the observing the fasts of the Church, the general neglect of which we can by no means apprehend to be a lawful excuse for neglecting them." ' It is possibly to Clayton's influence that one must attribute Wesley's interests in the so-called Cowstitutions of the Holy Apostles and Ecclesiastical Canons. These, he thought, were of such early date as to make them authoritative. Wesley was also influenced by Dr.
Deacon's service book and by the teaching of this very High Church group of Nonjurors, and part of his Georgia troubles came from his strictness in these matters.
It must not be inferred that Wesley was of a sour, forbidding spirit at Oxford and in America. In the first place, he was a man who rejoiced in strictness and in methodical living. In the second place, his austerity was not excessive. Mr. Edwyn Bevan favorably contrasts Wesley, in this respect, with Augustine, to whom "more and more the many colours of life seemed to him only an undesirable stain upon the white radiance of eternity." * Mr. Bevan is thinking of Wesley's moderation of view in his later years; but the contrast holds good for his earlier period also.
"You seem to apprehend," he wrote to Mrs. Chapman from Georgia in 1737, "that I believe religion to be inconsistent with cheerfulness, and with a sociable, friendly temper. So far from it, that Iam convinced, as true religion or holiness cannot be without cheerfulness, so steady cheerfulness, on the other hand, cannot be without holiness or true religion. And I am equally convinced that true religion has nothing abe John Wesley and Modern Religion sour, austere, unsociable, unfriendly in it; but, on the contrary, implies the most winning sweetness, the most amiable softness and gentleness." Wesley may have been thinking of Augustine, who was stricken with shame because he could not eat after fasting without some "gust of sensual pleasure," when he added: "Do you refuse no pleasure but what is an hindrance to some greater good or has a tendency to some evil? It is my very rule; and I know no other by which a sincere, reasonable Christian can be guided.
In particular, I pursue this rule in eating, which I seldom do without much pleasure." ® Not only was Wesley not a morbid, unhappy man; he was not seeking to commute his sins by good deeds.
When, in the disturbed days immediately preceding and just after his Aldersgate experience, he said hard things about his previous experience, he stopped to note that he had not been consciously trying to acquire merit by his own works. "I take religion," he wrote to Richard Morgan from Oxford in 1734, "to be not the bare saying over so many prayers, morning and evening, in public or in private; not anything superadded now and then to a careless or worldly life; but a constant ruling habit of soul, a renewal of our minds in the image of God, a recovery of the divine likeness, a still-increasing conformity of heart and life to the pattern of our most holy Redeemer."
The year before, Wesley had written to his mother, that "when I am entrusted with a person who is first to understand and practice, and then to teach, the law of Christ, I endeavour, by an intermixture of reading and conversation, to show him what that law
The Discipline of Life is—that is, to renounce all insubordinate love of the world, and to love and obey God with all his strength." 1?
It was to attain to a "ruling habit of soul," to 'a recovery of the divine likeness," that Wesley followed rules and methods. He was, it must be remembered, seeking holiness, nothing less than Christian Perfection; and he believed that there were means which God had commanded "in order to that end." These means were what Wesley called "instituted," that is, those, such as prayer, reading, meditation on the Scriptures, and frequent communion, which he believed to be commanded in the Scriptures as interpreted by the early Church. Other means were "prudential," that is, "recommended by wise and good men."
Among these latter were meeting together for counsel, keeping strict account of one's time, rising early, working by method, and the like. In 1734, Wesley summed up his beliefs in a letter to Richard Morgan.
"God everywhere declared (1) that without doing good as well as avoiding evil shall no flesh living be justified; (2) that as good prayers without good works attending them are no better than a solemn mockery of God, so are good works themselves without those tempers of heart from their subserviency to which they derive their whole value." *"
In another chapter it has been shown that Wesley maintained to the end of his long life habits of regular « prayer and of frequent communion. Moreover, he continued, almost to the end, the practice of meditation and of self-examination which characterized his earlier period. Sometimes, as was remarked above, he
John Wesley and Modern Religion considered taking up again even the minutiae of his Oxford discipline. "Let me be again an Oxford Methodist!"' he exclaimed in 1772; "I am often in doubt whether it would not be best for me to resume all my Oxford rules, great and small." ** But it is necessary to examine in more detail his teachings concerning regularity, ""methodism," in the years after 173.8.
In 1773, Wesley wrote that "the Methodists, so called, observe more of the Articles, Rubrics, and Canons of the Church than any other people in the three kingdoms. They vary from none of them willingly, although the English canons were never established by law." ** Although he could not acknowledge the authority of many of the canons," he recorded, in 1744, that he had as curate always observed the rubrics with "a scrupulous exactness, not for wrath, but for conscience sake." And he added:
"this, so far as belongs to an unbeneficed Minister, or to a private member of the Church, I do now." ** In detailing what he meant, Wesley began by listing the "days of fasting or abstinence to be observed."
These were the forty days of Lent, the Ember Days at the four seasons; the three Rogation Days; all Fridays in the year except Christmas day. 'There is plenty of evidence that these fast days were neglected in the eighteenth century; indeed, it is Wesley's argument, in the passage in An Earnest Appeal which is here cited, that he observed the canons and rubrics better than those who accused him of laxity. And Wesley continued to observe the fasts and festivals of the Church. In December, 1773, almost thirty years
The Discipline of Life after that quoted above was written, Wesley recorded in his Journal, that he celebrated "the solemn feastdays, according to the design of their institution."
These days included Christmas day, St. Stephen's day, St. John's day, and Holy Innocents' day. The next year, 1774, Wesley wrote: ""During the twelve festival days, we had the Lord's Supper daily; a little emblem of the Primitive Church." *® In this, of course, he was going beyond the practice of the Church of England in his devotion to what he believed to be the practice of the Primitive Church; and this, let it be remembered, was not in Wesley's so-called High Church period, but when he was seventy-one years old.
Ten years later, 1784, when Wesley abridged the Book of Common Prayer for the American Methodists, he omitted most of the holy days "'as at present answering no valuable end." '® Does this mean that Wesley had come to the opinion that the observance of fixed times for fasting or celebration has no value?
Again a glance at his practice is instructive. In 1782 the Diary, which is not available for the previous forty years, once more comes to the student's aid. It has been seen that in 1773 and 1774 Wesley was observing the festivals of the Twelve Days from Christmas to Epiphany, in the latter year communicating every day. What of the years from 1782 to 1791, the years when he was deleting most of the holy days as answering no valuable end for the American Methodists? In 1782, Wesley received the Lord's Supper eight times during the Twelve Days; in 1783, eight times; in 1784, eight times; in 1785, seven times; in 1786, nine times; in 1787, seven times; in 1788, when
John Wesley and Modern Religion Wesley was eighty-five years old, twelve times; in 1789, nine times; and in 1790, the aged man communicated four times.
Of the value of fasting Wesley was never in doubt from his Oxford days until the end. He and his companions in the University fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays as well as on the regular fast days of the Church, although Wesley had had some doubts as to the obligation to observe Wednesday. Recommendations to fast are scattered through the Journal and the Letters. Sermon XXII, Discourse vii "Upon Our
Lord's Sermon on the Mount," is upon the duty of fasting and sets forth at length the reasons for the practice. This was possibly written before 1738; but in 1785 Wesley advised Adam Clarke to recommend the sermon in every society."" Fasting, according to this sermon, has no merit in itself, but "is only a way which God hath ordained, wherein we wait for His unmerited mercy; and wherein, without any desert of ours, He hath promised freely to give us His blessing." 7 That is, fasting is one of the "means"; and to attempt to attain the end without the means is
"enthusiasm." | In 1789, Wesley viewed with regret the neglect of fasting by his people. '"'While we were at Oxford," he wrote, "the rule of every Methodist was, (unless in case of sickness,) to fast every Wednesday and Friday in the year, in imitation of the practice of the Primitive Church; for which they had the highest reverence. Now this practice of the Primitive
Church is universally allowed. 'Who does not know,' says Epiphanius, an ancient writer, 'that the fasts of Lads The Discipline of Life the fourth and sixth days of the week' (Wednesday and Friday) 'are observed by the Christians throughout the world?' So they were by the Methodists for several years; by them all, without any exception; but afterwards, some in London carried this to excess, and fasted so as to impair their health. It was not long before others made this a pretence for not fasting at all. And I fear there are now thousands of Methodists, so called, both in England and Ireland, who, following the same bad example, have entirely left off fasting; who are so far from fasting twice in the week, (as all the stricter Pharisees did), that they do not fast twice in the month. Yea, are there not some of you who do not fast one day from the beginning of the year to the end? But what excuse can there be for this? I do not say for those that call themselves members of the Church of England; but for any who profess to believe the Scripture to be the word of God.
Since, according to this, the man that never fasts is no more in the way to heaven, than the man that never prays." 7?
From the beginning Wesley stressed the necessity for regular public and private devotion. In Georgia he began daily service, dividing the public prayers according to what he believed to be the appointment of the early Church. He was apparently following
Hickes' Reformed Devotions, itself an abridgment and "reformation" of a Roman Catholic work. The service was divided into the early morning service at. five; the Communion and sermon at eleven; the evening service at three. For daily devotion, there were public prayers at five and, apparently, in the evening.
John Wesley and Modern Religion But these did not last, on week-days, more than seven or eight minutes. Dr. Curnock very shrewdly suggests that "probably long prayers, long hymns, and long, prosy sermons, more than anything else, destroyed the early morning services of the Methodists in the last years of the eighteenth century." *
Private devotion, prayer, meditation, reading the Bible and other books, Wesley recommended constantly by precept and example. His own habit of early rising and regular prayer and meditation is well known. But he insisted upon the same plan for others. This was not a matter of feeling or impulse.
"Tt is therefore our wisdom to force ourselves to prayer—to pray whether we can or no," is his advice to a correspondent who had been infected by Madame Guyon's quietistic doctrines. "To another inquirer he wrote: "Certainly your friend will suffer loss if he does not allow himself time every day for private prayer. Nothing will supply the place of this. Praying with others is quite another thing." "°
Prayer was to be a part of the devotional exercise of the individual; to this was to be added meditation and reading. One of his preachers was rebuked for his little reading. 'Fix some part of every day for private exercises," wrote Wesley. 'You may acquire the taste which you have not; what is tedious at first will afterwards be pleasant. Whether you like it or no, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way, else you will be a trifler all your days, and a pretty, superficial preacher. Do justice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer." ** Members, as well as | 224 The Discipline of Life preachers, were expected to follow the same regimen.
In his letter to the Bristol Societies, in 1764, Wesley advised: ""To the public, constantly add the private means of grace, particularly prayer and reading.
Most of you have been greatly wanting in this; and without it you can never grow in grace. You may as well expect a child to grow without food as a soul
' without private prayer; and reading is an excellent help to this." ?" And for the reading, Wesley had specific directions. '""The most profitable way of reading," he wrote Martha Chapman, in 1772, "'is to read in an exact method: Suppose a chapter or two
(as time may serve) in the Old Testament with the Notes [his own] in the morning; and a chapter more . or less of the New Testament and Nofes in the afternoon or evening. Next to this it might be useful to read the Works [again his own] in order, only not too fast. For all reading should be joined with meditation and prayer. Read a little, pray and meditate much," 7° _ This introduces a somewhat neglected aspect of Wesley's work. In Wickham Lege's English Church
Life from the Restoration to the Tractarian Movement, there is an excellent chapter on devotional works popular in the eighteenth century, including
Roman Catholic works translated and adapted for Protestant use; but the author seems to be unaware of the extent to which Wesley participated in the _ publication and circulation of such books. |
That Wesley had a high opinion of Bishop Taylor's Holy Living and Holy Dying, William Law's Serious © Call and Christian Perfection, and Thomas a Kempis'
John Wesley and Modern Religion Imitation of Christ goes without saying. The latter Wesley thought should be in every house—along with his own "Instruction for Children" and his Primitive
Physic. The Imitation was undoubtedly what Henry Moore called it, Wesley's "favourite guide." The third book that he published (1735), it was reprinted in full in 1750; and extracts from it were published in 1741 and reissued in 1746, 1759, 1777, 1780, and 1788. Taylor and Law were both included, in abridged form, in the Christian Library, the collection of fifty volumes of Christian literature which Wesley hoped to circulate as a sort of "'five-foot shelf" of the world's best religious books.
Perhaps a glance at the works, in addition to those mentioned, which Wesley published for the benefit of the Methodists, preachers and members, will best clarify Wesley's intentions and interests in regard to private devotion. Most of the works which he printed were abridged—and frequently mutilated; but the concern here is not with his literary taste but with his devotional interest.
The books which may be classed as devotional include religious treatises helpful for meditation and those providing definite religious exercises. Among the former are Bishop Hall, Meditations and Vows,
Divine and Moral; An Extract from the Whole Duty of Man; Pascal's Thoughts on Religion, and other subjects; The Spiritual Bee: or a Miscellany of Divine
Meditations, Extracts from the Letters of Mr. Samuel Rutherford; Contemplations Moral and Divine, extracted from the works of Lord Chief Justice Hale;
A Relation of the Holy War (Wesley's abridgment of The Discipline of Life Bunyan) ; Baxter's Saints Everlasting Rest; Spiritual Letters Written in Spanish, from the writings of Don
Juan D' Avila. Of works designed as guides to spiritual exercises may be mentioned: A Collection of Prayers for Families; Dr. Horneck's The Happy Ascetic: or the best Exercise (containing prayers suitable for each exercise) ; An Extract of the Christian Sacrifice: a Treatise showing the Necessity, End and Manner of receiving the Holy Communion, together with suitable prayers and Meditations, by Simon Patrick, late Bishop of Ely; Devotions for Every Day of the Week, and the Great Festivals.
Some of these works call for comment. The Collection of Prayers for Families had been printed separately, and Green's description of this work will be helpful. "It contains a morning and evening prayer for each day of a week. This devotional manual is admirably suited to its high purpose. The prayers are comprehensive, but brief, each covering about a page and a half." 7° The Devotions for Every Day of the Week, and the Great Festivals was a work, originally by John Austin, a Catholic, but adapted for Church of England use by a Mrs. Susannah Hopson. George Hickes (1642-1715), the Nonjuror, further reformed the work; and it was Hickes' version which Wesley adapted, abridged, and printed.
This work had influenced Wesley in Georgia. He had used 'it in his public and private devotions, as it was said to have been used in nonjuring oratories.
The work, too, was useful to Wesley when he compiled his Charlestown Hymnbook, although he could not include some of Austin's hymns. Hickes proJohn Wesley and Modern Religion vided daily devotions, divided into Matins, Lauds,
Vespers, and Compline. In his edition, Wesley changed these to Morning, Noon, Afternoon, and Evening. The character of the work as issued by Wesley is described thus by Green: "Wesley has inserted
'The Office' for each day of the week, and under the head of Devotions for the Great Festivals, the Office of our blessed Saviour, the Office of the Holy Ghost, the Office of the Saints, and the Preparatory Office for Death. Under the head of Occasional Devotions are the Office for a Family, two Litanies, and a number of Prayers. . . . Generally the Psalms written by Austin are given in full in the earlier part, in the latter several are omitted, but there is little or no verbal revision; a few only of the hymns and of the shorter prayers are given, and the passages of Scripture are not as a rule inserted." *° This much detail has been given in order that the reader may understand the nature of the devotional works which Wesley hoped to circulate among his people. That the Christian Library was not extensively sold was a matter of deep regret to him, for he felt that he had provided abridgments and corrections of a rich treasury of Christian literature. And he had. If his emendations were not always wise, his intentions are evident enough. Aside from doctrinal and other works, the devotional literature in the Christian Library would alone have made the distribution of the set immensely valuable to the Methodists and contributive to the preservation of Wesley's religious ideals. | It is necessary to turn to the Rules of the Methodist
The Discipline of Life Societies and to the Minutes of the Conferences to see how far the Society organization was intended to regulate and systematize the devotional life of the Methodists. The General Rules of the United Societies set forth three things expected of all who continue in the societies: (1) Doing no harm; (2) doing good; (3) "attending upon all the ordinances of God." This latter was explained as follows: "Such are, the public worship of God; the ministry of the word, either read or expounded; the supper of the Lord; family and private prayer; searching the Scriptures; and fasting, or abstinence." To secure the carrying out of this, as well as the other rules, the: societies were under strict oversight. The more mature Christians met in "bands"; and the third '"'direction"' to the bands, issued in 1744, was:
"Constantly to attend on all the ordinances of God: in particular,— "1. To be at church and at the Lord's table every week, and at every public meeting of the Bands.
"2. To attend the ministry of the word every morning, unless distance, business, or sickness prevent.
"3. To use private prayer every day; and family prayer, if you are at the head of a family.
"4, To read the Scriptures, and meditate therein, at every vacant hour. And,— "5. To observe, as days of fasting and abstinence, all Fridays in the year." *!
More particular directions were given to the preachers, with the injunction that they should not only observe them themselves, but '"'enforce the use of them on all other persons." 'These directions, in the John Wesley and Modern Religion form of questions, were printed in the Large Minutes
(1763). They stressed early rising and morning devotions, which Wesley believed conducive to both physical and spiritual health. Then the "means of grace" were set forth.
They are either Instituted or Prudential:— "Tt. The Instituted are, "(1) Prayer; private, family, public; consisting of deprecation, petition, intercession, and thanksgiving. Do you use each of these? Do you use private prayer every morning and evening? If you can, at five in the evening; and the hour before or after morning preaching [usually five or six o'clock]? Do you forecast daily, wherever you are, how to secure these hours? Do you avow it everywhere? Do you ask everywhere, 'Have you family prayer?' Do you retire at five o'clock?
Searching the Scriptures by, ""(i1) Reading: Constantly, some part of every day; regularly, all the Bible in order; carefully, with the Notes; seriously, with prayer before and after; fruitfully, immediately practising what you learn there?
"(ii) Meditating: at set times? by any rule?
(iii) Hearing: Every morning? Carefully; with prayer before, at, after; immediately putting in practice? Have you a New Testament always about you?
'""(3) The Lord's supper: Do you use this at every opportunity? with solemn prayer before; with earnest and deliberate self-devotion?
'"*(4) Fasting: How do you fast every Friday?
The Discipline of Life ""(5) Christian conference: Are you convinced how important and how difficult it is to 'order your conversation right?' Is it 'always in grace? seasoned with salt? meet to minister grace to the hearers?' Do not you converse too long at a time? Is not an hour commonly enough? Would it not be well always to have a determinate end in view; and to pray before and after it?
"TI. Prudential Means we may use as common Christians, as Methodists, as Preachers, or as Assistants.
"(1) As common Christians. What particular rules have you in order to grow in grace? What arts of holy living?" *?
Other. "'prudential means" are concerned with society meetings and the like and not particularly with "arts of holy living."
Before concluding this sketch of Wesley's devotional regulations, a word should be said about services peculiar to the Methodists. In the Conference
Minutes of 1744-1748, preserved in John Bennet's and Wesley's copies,'* there are calendars of ""WatchNights, Intercession-Days, Love-Feasts and LetterDays." In Bennet's Minutes for 1745, for example, the list is as follows:
Watch-Nights. Inter-Days Love-Feasts. Letter-Days.
Aug, 2 Sept. 6 Aug. 18 Aug. 13
Aug. 28 Oct, 3 Sept. 15 Sept. 10
Sept. 27 Nov. 8 Oc 13 Octy.'S8 Nov. 1 Dec. 6 Nov. 17 Nov. 12
Nov. 30 Decis 15 Dec. 10
Zot John Wesley and Modern Religion This series of special days, about one a week, was in addition to the regular class and band meetings, the Friday fasts, the morning services, where held, and the Sunday meetings. The "letter days" call for little explanation. Early in the history of the Methodist Societies, a special session of the class meetings was set aside for the reading of letters detailing individual experiences, the progress of the revival, and the like. The Intercession days, the Love-feasts, and the Watch nights were perhaps originally modeled on Moravian services. The first were days set aside for prayer services for special objects, the conversion of friends, the ongoing of the work of God. The others were more peculiarly Methodist meetings.
Wesley's explanation of his love feasts is as follows:
"In order to increase in them [members of the bands] a grateful sense of all his mercies, I desired that, one evening in a quarter, all the men in a band, on a second, all the women, would meet; and on a third, both men and women together; that we might together
'eat bread,' as the ancient Christians did, 'with gladness and singleness of heart.' At these love feasts (so we termed them, retaining the name, as well as the thing, which was in use from the beginning) our food is only a little plain cake and water. But we seldom return from them without being fed, not only with the 'meat which perisheth,' but with 'that which endureth to everlasting life." ** Eating bread and drinking water together, the members spoke of their spiritual life, their trials and triumphs, their hopes and fears. Later, all members of the classes, not Zag The Discipline of Life merely the "select bands," were permitted to join in this observance.
The watch nights were outgrowths of a practice which seems to have sprung up spontaneously at Kingswood. A number of people frequently met at the school and spent the greater part of the night in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. 'Some advised me," wrote Wesley, "to put an end to this; but, upon weighing the thing thoroughly, and comparing it with the practice of the ancient Christians, I could see no cause to forbid it. Rather, I believed it might be made of more general use. So I sent them word, I designed to watch with them on the Friday nearest the full moon, that we might have light thither and back again. I gave public notice of this the Sunday before, and, withal, that I intended to preach; desiring they, and they only, would meet me there, who could do it without prejudice to their business or families. On Friday abundance of people came, began preaching between eight and nine and we continued till a little beyond the noon of night, singing, praying, and praising God." *° This was the general plan for later watch nights.
"We have often found a peculiar blessing at these seasons," wrote Wesléy. "There is generally a deep awe upon the congregation, perhaps in some measure owing to the silence of the night, particularly in singing the hymn, with which we commonly conclude:
Harken to the solemn voice, The awful midnight cry!
Waiting souls, rejoice, rejoice, — And feel the Bridegroom nigh." 36
John Wesley and Modern Religion To an objecting clergyman, Wesley's reply was:
"Sir, did you never see the word 'Vigil' in your Common-Prayer Book? Do you know what it means?
If not, permit me to tell you, that it was customary with the ancient Christians to spend whole nights in prayer; and that these nights were termed Vigilian, or Vigils. Therefore for spending a part of some nights in this manner, in public and solemn prayer, we have not only the authority of our own national Church, but of the universal Church, in the earliest ages." °"
Thus did Wesley invoke the authority of the Primitive Church for methods he thought useful in promoting and guiding the. devotional life of his followers. In all, his aim was to deepen the individual's sense of the love of God; but this could not be done without the use of means. '"'Why are we not more holy?" was one of the questions in the Large Minutes.
The answer was "Chiefly because we are enthusiasts; looking for the end, without using the means." To the eighteenth century this answer was more meaningful than it is to the reader to-day. Enthusiasm was, in their minds, associated with those sectaries of the Commonwealth who claimed to possess the Holy Spirit, who despised the Church and its ordinances and the slower and more prosaic methods which historic
Christianity had ordained for the nurture of the spiritual life. If the Methodist talked of being "filled with the Spirit," he did not mean—or, at least, Wesley did not intend for him to mean—anything that precluded the sober and time-honored means of grace.