Wesley, to his utter astonishment, found there were scarcely any instances of other than instantaneous conversions. Still he objected : " God wrought this in the first ages of Christianity ; times now are changed." Bohler turned again to his experience proof, and the day after brought forward his witnesses that God had given them in a moment such a fiiith in Christ as translated them out of darkness into light.
Wesley writes: "Here ended my disputing. I could only cry out, 'Lord, help thou my unbelief I was now thoroughly convinced, and by the grace of God I resolved to seek this faith unto the end,
(!) by absolutely renouncing all dependence^ in whole or in part, upon my own works of righteousness, on which I had really grounded my hope of salvation, though I knew it not, from my youth up;
(2) by adding to the constant use of all other means of grace continual prayer for this very thing."
From that time, February 7, 1738, till tlie 4th His Heart "Strangely Warmed." 55 of May, when Bohler left London, Wesley embraced every opportunity of conversing with him.
Meanwhile several of his friends, as Whitefield and William Hutchins, of Pembroke College, had embraced the doctrine of salvation by faith only, and had experienced it. Charles Wesley also, on May
21, was made a partaker of the same great blessing.
Wesley was still a mourner ; his heart was heavy.
He felt there Avas no good in him, and that all his works, his righteousness, and his prayers, as far from having merit, needed an atonement for themselves, and yet he heard a voice saying : " Believe, and thou shalt be saved;" "he that believeth is passed from death unto life."
Three more days of anguish were passed, and then, on May 24, at five in the morning, he opened his Testament on these words: "There are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature." On leaving home he opened on the text,
" Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." In the afternoon he went to St. Paul's Cathedral, where the anthem was full of comfort; at night he went to a society meeting in Aldersgate^ street, where a person read Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans, in which Luther teaches what faith is, and also that faith alone justifies. While. this preface was being read Wesley experienced an amazing change. He writes: "I felt my heart strangely
56 Life of John Wedey. warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death ; and I then testified openly to all there what I now first felt in my heart." Toward ten o'clock a troop of friends took him to his brother, who Avas sick ; they sung a hymn and then parted with a prayer. To add to this is not necessary. He Avas before a servant of God, accepted, as he afterward claimed himself, and was therefore safe; but now he knew it, and was happy as well as safe.
Bohler's explanation of his and Charles's difficulty in believing is well worth pondering by all:
"Our mode of believing in the Saviour is so easy to Englishmen that they cannot reconcile themselves to it. If it were a little more artful they would much sooner find their way into it. Of faith in Jesus they have no other idea than the generality of people have. They justify themselves, and therefore they always take it for granted that they
1 relieve already, and try to prove their faitli by tiicir works, and thus so plague and torment themselves that they are at heart very miserable."
Wesley had found peace with God ; but for the instruction of ncAV converts let it be remembered that his joy in the Holy Ghost was not unbroken.
The same night he " wiis much buftetcd with temptations wliicli returned again and again." The day Doubting, but Waiting on God. 57 after, "the enemy injected a fear" that the change was not great enough, and therefore that his faith was not real. On May 26th his "soul continued in peace, but yet in heaviness through manifold temptations." On the 27th there was a want of joy ; on the 31st he "grieved the Spirit of God, not only by not watching unto prayer, but likcAvise by speaking with sharpness, instead of tender love, of one who was not sound in the faith. Immediately God hid his face, add he was in trouble and heaviness till the next morning."
In mingling with the Moravians, one of whose societies he joined, he seemed to have imbibed some wrong notions from their teachings, and especially froni their experiences, which, earnest and sincere as they were, were yet mixed with much that was fanatical and foolish. For a time he seems to have confounded the doctrine of the Spirit's witness with that of sanctification, and thought it to include "deliverance from every fleshly desire, and from every outward and inward sin."
Accordingly, five months after his conversion, we find him writing: "This witness of the Spirit, I have it not." And again : " I cannot find in myself the love of God or of Christ ; hence my deadness and my wanderings in public prayer," etc.
Like many others, he was apparently attaching to the witness of the Spirit a signification too high, and afilicting himself because his experience did
58 Life of John Wesley. not reach to the height he had fixed for it. But in the midst of all these temptations and doubts and failings, he kept waiting upon God continually, read the New Testament, conquered temptation, and gained increasing power to trust and to rejoice in God his Saviour. The mists Avere soon scattered, and he could testify to the end of life: "The testimony of the Spirit is an inward impression on the soul, whereby the Spirit of God directly witnesses to my spirit that I am a child of God; that Jesus
Christ hath loved me, and given himself for me; and that all my sins are blotted out, and I, even I, am reconciled to God."
III. CHAPTER A Durk Hour—The Methodist Revival—Outdoor Preacliing — Beau Nash— Persecution — The Foundry— The United Societies—Lay Preachers—Strange Scenes—Calvinism— Class-meetings— The Itinerancy— Preaching from his Father's Tombstone—Death of Mrs. Wesley
Mobs—Happy Deaths—Learning. the year 1738, with the exception ofDURING one month spent on his voyage from America and three months he passed in Germany on a visit to the Moravian comrannity under Count Zinzendorf, Wesley preached continually— in work-houses, in prisons, in the cabin of a ship, or in churches wherever he could gain admittance. Justification by faith and free grace were the great doctrines which he, with Whitefield and Charles Wesley, now began to teach, and which gave rise to that great revival of modern times called Methodism-—the greatest revival since the days of the apostles.
Never was there greater need of an awakening.
"Never," says a writer in the North British Review, "has a century risen on Christian England so void of soul and faith as that which opened with Queen Anne and reached its musty noon beneath athe second George—a dewless night succeeded by sunless dawn." Vice abounded. The Bishop of (.V.)) 60 Lfife of John Wesley.
Leitchfield, in a sermon in 1724, said : "The Lord'sday is now become the devil's market-day. ....
Sin in general has grown so hardened and rampant as that immoralities are justified defended—yea, on i^rinciple Every kind has found a writer to teach and vindicate it, and a bookseller and hawker to divulge and spread it."
"Drinking had become almost a mania. In 1736 every sixth house in London was a licensed grog-shop. In the higher classes of society the taint left by Charles II. and his licentious court still festered. Among the lower classes laziness and dishonesty were next to universal. Superstition flourished almost as vigorously as it had done in the Middle Ages. Extravagance was the order of the day. Scarcely one family in ten kept within its income. The grand controversy was who should outdress, outdrink, or outeat his neighbor. Gambling was universal. London swarmed with ruined rakes and broken traders, who contrived to live in the best society by reciting broken scraps of poetry, singing licentious songs, and retailing drunken puns and quibbles. All usual restraints were relaxed.
EveryAvhere there was an abuse of liberty, a great neglect in education, and a want of care in training children and in keeping servants in good order, while idleness, luxury, gambling, and drunkenness had grown into an alarming magnitude. Infidelity prevailed among all classts, and boldl}' made direct
A Godless Era in England. 61 efTorts to undermine all religion. Ignorance was rife, and gave opportunity to all evil. In the whole kingdom in 1715 there were but one thousand one hundred and ninety-three schools for the education of the poor, containing only twenty-six thousand nine hundred and twenty scholars. Crime was enormous. In 1738 fifty-two criminals were hanged at Tyburn jail alone. During that and the i^receding year twelve thousand persons in London had been convicted of smuggling gin or of selling it without license. Sunday traffic had become such a nuisance in London that the court of aldermen had to interfere to suppress it. A committee of the House of Lords, appointed in1738 'to examine into the causes of the present notorious immorality and profaneuess,' reported that a number of loose and disorderly persons had of late formed themselves into a club, and were trying to iuduce the youths of the kingdom to join them, professing themselves to be votaries of the devil, and offering prayers to him and drinking his health."*
At once the cause and a consequence of the prevailing ignorance, immorality, and crime was the general decay of religion prevailing. In the Church ministers were fops and dandies, and immoral or dead and formal. Bishop Burnet wrote in 1713:
" Our ember days are the burden and grief of my * Condensed from Tyermau's ''Life and Times of Wesley."
62 IJ^e of John Wesley. life. The much greater part of those who come to be ordained are ignorant to a degree not to be appreciated by those who are not obliged to know it.
The easiest part of knowledge is that to which they the plaimjstare the greatest strangers— I mean parts of the Scriptures. They can give no account, or at least a very imperfect account, of the cont<3Jits even of the gospel, or of the catechism itself"
Green says: "Of the prominent statesmen of the time the greater part were unbelievers in any form of Christianity, and distinguished for the grossness and immorality of their lives. Drunkenness and foul talk were thought no discredit to Walpole. A later prime-minister, the Duke of Grafton, was in the habit of appearing at the play with his mistress.
Purity and fidelity to the marriage-vow were sneered out of fashion ; and Lord Chesterfield, in his letters to his son, instructs him in the art of seduction us a part of a polite education."* To reform and save the people, Wesley and his colaborers simply preached the doctrines of the Bible and instituted their discipline of life ; and it was sufficient then, as it always will be by the blessing of God. The moral aspect of the whole nation was soon changed.
"A religious revival burst forth at the close of Walpole's ministry which in a few years changed *" History of the English People," Vol. IV., Book VIIL Tlie Methodist Revival. the whole temj^er of English society. The - /luvch was restored to life and activity. E<ili5if.Q (.arried to the hearts of the poor a fre/sh spirit of moral zeal, Avhile it purified our literature and our manners. A new philanthropy reformed our prisons, infused clemency and wisdom into our penal laws, abolished the slave-trade, and gave the first impulse to popular education. The revival began in a small knot of Oxford students, whose revolt against the religious deadness of their times showed itself in ascetic observances, an enthusiastic devotion, and a methodical regularity of life, which ' Methodists.'gained them the nickname of Their preaching stirred a passionate hatred in their opponents. Their lives were often in danger; they were mobbed, they were ducked, they were smothered wdth filth; but the enthusiasm they aroused was equally passionate Charles Wesley came to add sweetness to this sudden and startling light. The wild throes of hysteric enthusiasm passed into a passion for hymn-singing, and a new musical impulse was aroused in the peojile which gradually changed the face of public devotion throughout England. But the Methodists themselves were the least result of the Methodist revival. Its action upon the Church of England
'broke the lethargy of the clergy, and the Evangelical' movement, which found representatives like Newton and Cecil within the pale of the Es64 Life of John Wesley. tablishment, made the fox-hunting parson and the absentee rector at last impossible. In Walpole's day the English clergy were the idlest and most lifeless in the world. In our own time no body of i-eligious ministers surpasses them in piety, in philanthropic energy, or in popular regard.
" In the nation at large appeared a new moral enthusiiism, which, rigid and pedantic as it often seemed, was still healthy in its social tone, and whose power was seen in the disappearance of the profligacy which had disgraced the upper classes, and the foulness which had infested literature ever since the restoration. But the noblest result of the religious revival was the steady attempt—which has never ceased from that day to this—to remedy the guilt, the ignorance, the physical suffering, the social degradation of the profligate and the poor. It was not till the Wesleyan movement had done its work that the philanthropic movement began. The passionate impulse of human sympathy with the wronged and the afflicted raised hospitals, endowed charities, built churches, sent missionaries to the heathen, supported Burke in his plea for the Hindoo and Clarkson and Wilberforce in their crusade against the iniquity of the slave-trade."
Strong opposition arose. Mrs. Hutton, in whose house John and Charles Wesley had their lodgings, and whose family had be'en a long time intimate with them, grew alarmed lest her two boys should
His Ministry Opposed. 65 also be drawn into the same "wild notions," and writes to Samuel Wesley to stop this "wildfire" if he can. Samuel was already troubled about his two brothers, and entered into a correspondence with John protesting and arguing against their views with all his might. Complaint was made against them by others to Dr. Gibson, Bishop of Loudon, and John and Charles waited on him to answer the charge; but the bishop found nothing to reprove in them, and dismissed them kindly.
The famous AVarburton began to write against them ; and sermons from prominent ministers were leveled at their doctrines.
At the close of the year 1738 Wesley was almost uniformly excluded from the pulpits of the Established Church. With the exception of expounding in a few private houses, he had to content himself with preaching not more than half a dozen sermons during the first two months of 1739. In March he went to Oxford, where he labored chiefly in visiting ftimilies and individuals and instructing them, being sometimes obliged to dispute with opposers, whom he found everywhere endeavoring to destroy the fruits of his ministry. " We had appointed the little society at Reading to meet us in the evening, but the enemy was too vigilant ; almost as soon as we were out of the town the minister sent or went to each of the members, and began ai-guing and threatening, and utterly confounded
66 Life of John Wesley. them, so that tliey were all scattered abroad." But the work was not in vain. "Mrs. Campton set her face as a flint." "Mrs. Mears's agony so increased that she could not avoid crying out aloud in the street. With much difficulty we got her to Mrs. Shrieve's, where God heard us and sent her deliverance. Presently Mrs. Shrieve fell into a strange agony both of body and mind-—her teeth gnashed together, her knees smote each other, and her whole body trembled exceedingly. We j^rayed on, and within an hour the storm ceased ; and she now enjoys a sweet calm, having remission of sins and knowing that her Redeemer liveth." "On Monday Mrs. Cleminger being in pain and fear, we prayed, and the Lord gave her peace. At six in the evening we were at Mrs. Fox's society; about seven at Mrs. Campton's. The power of the Lord was present at both, and all our hearts were knit together in love."
Whitefield now took a bold step. In February, having come to Bristol, he found all the churches closed against him but two; and the chancellor of Bristol interfered to prevent him from preaching in those, threatening to first suspend and then expel him if he should continue to preach in that diocese without license. But the chancellor had undertaken no easy task. Away went Whitefield,
February 17, and preached in the open air to two hundred colliers at Kingswood. Wesley "could ; Following WhitefieMs Example. 67 scarcely reconcile himself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, having all his life so tenacious of every point retill very lately—been lating to decency and order that he should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been in a church." But Whitefield continued, and at the second service he had two thousand people to hear him; at the third four thousand; at the fifth, ten thousand; and afterward sometimes as many as twenty thousand. He now sent for Wesley. Wesley hesitated, Charles objected, and the society in Fetter Lane disputed ; but at length the matter was decided affirmatively. Wesley reached
Bristol March 31st, and immediately began to follow Whitefield's examjDle.
Once more he was engaged in his loved employ, and thenceforth continued to preach without ceasfields and commons, and public squares,ing—in wherever he could find a congregation—to the end of his long life ; the greatest outdoor preacher that ever lived. Most of 1739 he spent in Bristol and its immediate neighborhood, delivering at least five hundred sermons, only eight of which were preached in churches. "The points," he writes, "I chiefly insisted upon were four : First, that orthodoxy, oi right opinion, is at best but a very slender part of religion, if it can be allowed to be any part at all that neither does religion consist in negatives, in bare harmlessness of any kind, nor merely in ex- ; 68 Life of John Wesley. ternals, in doing good, or using the means of grace, in works of piety or of charity, but that it is nothing short of or different from the mind that was in Jesus Christ; the image of God stamped upon the heart; inward righteousness attended with the peace of God and joy in the Holy Ghost. Secondly, that the only way to this religion is repentance towai-d
God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly, that by this faith he that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly is justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Fourthly, that being justified by faith we taste of the heaven to Avhich we are going we are holy and hapi:)y; we tread down sin and fear, and sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus."
He adds that he had no desire to preach in the open air. Field -preaching was a thing submitted to rather than chosen; and submitted to because he thought preaching even thus better than no preaching at all—first in respect to his own soul, and next in respect to the souls of others. He asserts further that never had he seen a more awful sight than when on Rose Green or the top of Hannam Mount some thousands of persons were calmly joined together in solemn waiting upon God. He says: "I have now no parish of my own, nor probably ever shall I look upon all the world as my parish ; thus far I mean that in whatever j^art of it I am I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty to Field-preaching—Persecution. 69 declare unto all that are willing to hear the glad tidings of salvation."
" Their congregations," says James Hutton, " were composed of every description of persons, who, without the slightest attempt at order, assembled, crying ' Hurrah ! ' with one breath, and with the next bellowing and bursting into tears on account of their sins ; some poking each other's ribs, and others shouting, 'Halleluiah!' It was a jumble of extremes of good and evil. . . . Here thieves, prostitutes, fools, people of every class, several men of distinction, a few of the learned, merchants, and numbers of poor people who had never entered a place of worship, assembled in crowds and became godly."
But hundreds of the poor miners were made happy in Ch»ist. Standing unwashed, just as they had come out of the coal-pits, the tears coursed down their blackened faces and left white furrows on their cheeks, while they repented, believed, and were saved. In a short time multitudes of them, notorious before for ignorance, degradation, and crime of every sort, were transformed into humble and consistent Christians.
Persecution arose. Wesley says : " We continued to call sinners to repentance, but it was not without violent opposition both from high and low, learned and unlearned. Not only all manner of evil was spoken of us, both in private and public, but the 70 Life of John Wesley. beasts of the people were stirred up almost in all places to knock these mad dogs on the head at once; and when complaint was made of their savage, brutal violence, no magistrate would do us justice."
At Pensford the minister would not allow him to preach in the church, because he said he had heard he was mad. Wesley thereupon took his stand in the open air; but in the midst of prayer two men hired for the purpose began to sing ballads, which obliged Wesley and his company to sing psalms so as to drown one noise with another.
Subsequently at Bath, Beau Nash—at that time the social dictator of that fashionable city, though a to break up Wes-rake and a gambler—determined ley's preaching in the city when he came there.
In due time Wesley arrived, and wa»entreated by his friends not to attempt to preach. But he had gone there to preach, and preach he would. The threatenings of Nash made his congregation very large, both of the rich and the poor. Soon after Wesley began, the "beau" appeared in his immense white hat, and asked "by what authority he did these things." Wesley replied : " By the authority of Jesus Christ, conveyed to me by the (now) Archbishop of Canterbury, when he laid his hands upon me and said, 'Take thou authority to preach the gospel.'" "This is contrary to act of Parliament," said Beau Nash ; " this is conventicle." Wesley anAssaulted and Abused Everywhere. 71 tjwered: "Sir, the couventicles are seditious meetings; but here is no sedition; therefore it is not contrary to that act." "I say it is!" cried he;
" and besides, your preaching frightens people out of their wits." "Sir," said Wesley, "did you ever hear me preach ? " " No," said ISTash. " How, then," said Wesley, "can you judge of what you never heard?" "Sir, by common report. Common report is enough." "Give me leave, sir," replied
Wesley, "to ask, Is not your name Nash?" "My name is Nash," said he. " Sir," said Wesley, " I dare not judge of you by common report. I think it is not enough to judge by." Here Nash paused awhile, and having recovered himself said : " I desire to know what this people come here for." On which an old woman said: "Sii", leave him to me;" and amid J>er taunts the gorgeous "beau" slunk away.
These, however, were comparatively light attacks.
"We were assaulted and abused on every side,"
Wesley. "We were everywhere represented as mad dogs, and treated accordingly. We were titoned in the streets, and several times narrowly escaped with our lives. In sermons, newspapers, and pamphlets of all kinds, we were painted as unheard-of monstei'S. But this moved us not ; Ave went on testifying salvation by faith both to small and great, and not counting our lives dear unto ourselves so we might finish our course with joy."
72 Life of John Wesley.
Besides many other attacks from smaller antagonists, Gibson, Bishop of London, published a "pastoral letter" of fifty-five pages, two-thirds of which dwelt on "enthusiasm," charging the Methodists with nine serious errors. To this Whitefield re- ])lied boldly and effectively. At the same time
Wesley was having a tilt Avith the Bishop of Bristol, who had directed him to leave the diocese.
Wesley declined, declaring that " wherever I think I can do the most good there must I stay as long as I think so. At pi-esent I think I can do most good here ; therefore, here I stay." The basest and most scurrilous attacks were common. It was declared that they were " movers of sedition and ringleaders of the rabble;" that they taught "such absurd doctrines as to give countenance to the lewd and debauched, the irreligious and profane?" that they were "deceivers," "babblers," "insolent pretenders." In a poetical pamphlet published in 1739 the devil was represented as having made a tour fronj
Home to Oxford, in the course of which he stole the bigoted madness of a Turk and the wit of a modern atheist, both of which he drenched dull and deep in a literary Dutchman's brain, and then making them his own, etc., introduced himself to the Methodists and gave them instructions how to too filthy to be here repeated. act—instructions
Such was the storm in which Methodism was cradled. It was niisunderstood and opposed more (>r Building Schools and Churches. 78 less actively even by such men as Dr. Doddridge,
Hervey, and Samuel Wesley, friendly as they were personally to the Methodist leaders. But none the less the latter kept calmly on their way.
Methodism soon began to assume a more stable form. At once they set about building schools and churches and organizing their bands. The first school attempted was at Kiugswood, where the people, poor and ignorant almost as the beasts that perish, were utterly unprovided for. The poor colliers contributed out of their poverty twenty pounds,
Whitefield collected some eighty pounds more, and Wesley undertook the rest, becoming himself responsible for the payment of the debts. At the same time he began to build a room also in Bristol for the use of two "societies," by which a debt of one hundred and fifty pounds was contracted, while the subscriptions did not amount to more than a quarter of that amount. But he reflected that " the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof," and Avent on with the work, assuming all the debt. He also began to build a church in London.
In November, on a visit there, he had preached in the "Foundry," a place which had been the king's foundry for cannon, but then " a vast uncouth heap of ruins," caused by an explosion that had occurred there in 1716. He had immense congregations, and he was pressed to buy the place and fit it up for public worship. The purchase-money was one
74 Life of John Wesley. hundred and fifteen pounds ; but a large sum additional would be required to make the needful repairs. Wesley resolved to undertake the work, and borrowing the money he bought the place and fitted it up. Subscriptions were obtained amounting in three years to four hundred and eighty pounds, but leaving still a balance of three hundred pounds unprovided for, and for which he alone was responsible. By such courage, faith, and selfdenying enterprise did Methodism rise; and these were among Wesley's greatest gifts. Surely eloquence and even wisdom and knowledge are neither so strong nor, alas! so rare as these.
The " Foundry " was really the cradle of London Methodism. The building was about one hundred and twenty by ninety-nine feet. The chapel, with its galleries, seated some fifteen hundred persons on benches without backs, excepting about a dozen seats with back-rails for the weaker women in front. At the end of the chapel was a dwellinghouse for his domestics and assistant preachers, and behind it was a bandroom holding some three hundred people, where the classes met, and where prayer-meetings were held twice a week, and where in winter the "five o'clock morning service" was conducted. In this room, too, was " the book-room" for the sale of Wesley's publications, fitted up at the north end, and overhead were apartments for Wesley, and where his mother died. Attached to The " United Societies." 75 the whole was a small building used as a coachhouse and stable. Such was the first Methodist meeting-house—at once a church and a parsonage.
Anothermost important event in 1739 was the rise of the " United Societies." Up to this time the Methodists had organized no societies of their own. The "societies" to whom Wesley had been in the habit of preaching before this were of two the "Moravian Societies," the first ofkinds—one which he had himself helped to organize in Fetter
Lane, London, in 1738; the other the "Religious Societies," w^iich had been in existence for many years before, scattered over the kingdom and composed of small gatherings of pious people met for religious exercises and to do works of charity.
But he writes: "Li the latter end of the year 1739 eight or ten persons came to me in London who appeared to be deeply convinced of sin and earnestly groaning for redemption. They desired I would spend some time w'ith them in prayer, and advise them how to flee from the wrath to come.
That we might have more time for this great work, I appointed a time when we might all come together, which from thenceforward they did every
Thursday in the evening. To these and as many more as desired to join with them (for the number increased daily) I gave those advices, from time to time, which I judged most needful for them; and we always concluded our meetings with prayer
76 Life of John Wesley. suited to their several necessities. This was the rise of the United Societies, first in London and then in other places." Rules of discipline were soon added ; and from this seed grew all the Methodist churches of Great Britain and America.
Another momentous event of this eventful year was the introduction of lay preaching. In 1735 John Cennick, the son of Quaker parents who had piously reared him, was convicted of sin while walking in Cheapside. At once he left off his sins, and prayed and fasted long and often, but not till
September 5, 1737, did he find peace with God.
Rejoicing in his new-found happiness, he began to preach. June, 1739, he became head-master of the school at Kingswood. There, on the failure of a young preacher to appear on an appointed day, he was requested to officiate. He reluctantly consented, and again the next day, and again on the following Sunday. Meantime Howell Harris, in Wales, without any orders, and without any acquaintance with the Wesleys, had been preaching since 1735, and was the means of a most glorious work of God in his native country. He and Cennick now met Wesley in Bristol. The three fell upon their knees. Wesley "was greatly enlarged," writes Harris, "in prayer for me and all
Wales;" and both Cennick and Harris returned to their respective fields of labor encouraged by Wesley to continue preaching to sinners. Thomas MaxThe Unlettered Maxfield. 77 field and John Nelson soon after followed, and Jo seph Humphreys, who had also apparently assisted him, in 1738, at Fetter Lane.
This was a most startling innovation. "I knew your father well," said the Archbishop of Armagh to Charles Wesley; "I could never credit all I heard respecting you; but one thing in your conduct I could never account employing laymen." for—your
" " the fault is yours and My lord," said Charles, your brethren's." " How so?" asked the Archbishop. " Because you hold your peace and the stones cry out." "But I am told," continued his grace,
"that they are unlearned men." "Sometimes they are," said the sprightly poet; "and so the dumb ass rebukes the jDrophet." His lordship said no more.
Whitefied was in doubt. Wesley himself, in the case of Maxfield, was apprehensive. Maxfield was one of his first converts, and had been with Charles
Wesley for a year or two apparently as a servant.
Being left at the Foundry to meet the society and pray with them and to give them suitable advice, he was insensibly led to preach, and with such power that immbers were converted. Wesley, hearing of this irregularity, hurried to Londtm to put a stop to it. His mother, who then lived at the Foundry, said: "John, take care what you do in respect of that young man, for he is as surely called of God to preach as you are. Examine
78 Life of John Wesley. what have been the fruits of his preaching, and hear him yourself." John did so, and was convinced, and Thomas went on preaching. Four years after, he wrote: "I am bold to affirm that these unlettered men have help from God for the great work of saving souls from death. But indeed in the one thing which they profess to know they are not ignorant men. I trust there is not one of them who is not able to go through such an examination in substantial, practical, experimental divinity, which few of our candidates for holy orders even in the university are able to do. In answer to the objection that they are laymen, I reply: The scribes of old, who were the ordinary preachers among the Jews, were not priests; they were not better than the laymen. . . . Besides, in how many churches in England does the parish clerk read the whole service every Lord's-day. . . .
Nay, is it not done in the universities. Who ordained that singing man at Christchurch, Oxford, murdering every lesson he reads, not endeavoring to read it as the wprd of God, but rather as an old song?" In further justification he states that after God had used him and his brother clergymen in several places to turn many from sin unto holiness, the ministers of those places sj)oke of them "as if sent them; and repre-the devil—not God—had sented them as fellows not fit to herlive—paj^ists, etics, traitors, conspirators against their king and Extraordinary Manifestations. 79 country ; " while the converts under their ministry were "driven from the Lord's-table, and openly cursed in the name of God." What could be done for their regular instruction? "No clergyman would assist at all. The expedient that remained was to find some one among themselves who Avas upright of heart and of sound judgment in the things 'of God." The attempt was made, and it succeeded. God owned an^l blessed it, and the lay preachers became the means not only of encouraging the converts and reclaiming backsliders, but also of converting sinners.
Mention must be made of the extraordinary manifestations that attended Wesley's preaching this year at Bristol and the neighboring country:
"April 17.—At Baldwin street we called upon God to confirm his word. Immediately one that stood by cried out aloud with the utmost vehemence, even as in the agonies of death. But we continued in prayer till a new song was put into her mouth, even a thanksgiving unto our Lord. Soon after, two other persons were seized with strong pain and constrained to roar for the disquietude of their hearts. But it was not long before they too burst forth into praise to God their Saviour. The last who called upon God as out of the belly of hell was a stranger in Bristol ; and in a short sj^ace he also was overwhelmed with joy and love.
"April 21, a young man was suddenly seized ^\ith 80 lAJe oj John Wesley. a violent trembling all over, and in a few minutes sunk to the gi-ound.
I was led to pray that "April 27.—At Newgate God would bear witness to his word. Immediately one and another and another sunk to the earth.
They fell on every side as thunderstruck. street my voice could "May 1.—At Baldwin scarce be heard amidst the groanings of some aiud the cries of others calling aloud to Him that is mighty to save. ... A Quaker who stood by was very angiy, and was biting his lips and knitting his brows when he dropped down as thunderstruck.
The agony he was in was even terrible to behold.
We prayed for him, and he soon lifted up his head with joy, and joined with us in thanksgiving. A by-stander, John Haydon, a weaver, a man of regular life and conversation, one that constantly attended the public prayers and sacrament, and was zealous for the Church and against dissentei's, labored to convince the people that all this was a delusion of the devil ; but next day, while reading a sermon on 'Salvation by Faith,' he suddenly changed color, fell off his chair, and began screaming and beating himself against the ground
When I came in he said : 'Ay, this is he I said deceived the people ; but God has overtaken me. I said it was a delusion of the devil, but this is no delusion.' Then he roared out: 'O thou devil! thou cursed thou legion of devils!—thou devil!—yea,: !; Busy tuith the Converts. 81 canst not stay in me! Christ will cast thee out. I know his work is begun. Tear me in pieces if thou wilt, but thou canst not hurt me,' He then beat himself against the ground, his breast heaving as if in the pangs of death, and great dro}5S of sweat trickling down his face. We all betook ourselves to prayer. His pangs ceased, and both his body and soul were set -at liberty."
Such extracts might be multiplied. We subjoin only two or three more of the most remarkable visit a young wom- " October 23.—I was pressed to an at Kingswood. I found her on the bed, two or three |>ersoDS holding her. Anguish, horror, and despair above all description appeared in her pale face. The thousand distortions of her whole body showed how the dogs of hell were gnawing at her heartThe shrieks intermixed were scarce to be enduredShe screamed out: 'I am damned, damned lost forever! Six days ago you might have helped me; but it is past. I am the devil's now; I have given myself to him ; I am his ; him I must serve with him must I go to hell; I will be his; I will serve him; I will go with him to hell; I cannot be saved; I Avill not be saved; I must, I will, I will be damned ! ' She then began praying to the devil.
We began, 'Arm of the Lord, awake, awake! ' She immediately sunk down as asleep, but as soon as we left off broke out again with inexpressible vehemence. . . . We continued in prayer till past
82 Ldfe of John Wesley. eleven, when God in a moment spoke peace to her soul. sent for to Kiugswood again, "October 27.—I was to one of those Avho had been so ill before. A violent rain began just as I set out. Just at that time the miles off—cried out, 'Yonwoman—then three der comes Wesley galloping as fast as he can I'
AVhen I was come she burst into a horrid laughter, and said: 'No power, no power! no faith, no faith!
She is mine! her soul is mine! I have her, and will not let her go!' Meanwhile her pangs increased more and more. . . . One who was clearly convinced that this was no natural disorder said: 'I think Satan is let loose. I fear he will not stop here; '.and added, 'I command thee, in the name of the Lord Jesus, to tell if thou hast commission to torment any other soul.' It Avas immediately answered : ' I have ; L y C r and S h J s.' We betook ourselves to jorayer again, and ceased not till she began, with a clear voice and composed, cheerfiil look, to sing 'Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.'
At this time L y C r and S h J s were in perfect health, and living some distance away ; yet Wesley writes the next day called at Mrs. J s, at Kings- " October 28.—I wood. L y C r and S h J s were there. It was scarce a quarter of an hour before the former fell into a strange agony ; and presently
The Phenomena Explained. 83 after, the latter. The violent convulsions all over their bodies were such as words cannot describe.
Their cries and groans were too horrid to be borne. till L yWe poured out our souls before God C r's agonies so increased that it seemed she was in the pangs of death. But in a moment God spoke, and both her body and soul were healed."
Besides these, another marvelous case occurred November 30th, when seven pei'sons were grievously tormented ; and Wesley and his friends continued in prayer from the time of evening service till nine o'clock next morning, or about fifteen almost unparalleled in the history ofhours—a case the Church..
Various explanations have been offered for'these occurrences ; but it is a noteworthy fact that, with few^ exceptions, they all took place in the year 1739, under AVesley's preaching, and in the city and neighborhood of Bristol. No such demonstration seems to have attended the preaching of Whitefield or Charles Wesley, though quite as faithful as that of Wesley, and far more impassioned. Similar effects followed the preaching of Cennick also at Bristol, and the Kev. Ralph Erskine writes Wesley that they had had something analogous in Scotland in the revival that then prevailed there. Wesley, five years aftet, when he had heard all that was to be said against them, and after they had ceased, gives the following as his explanation of them on :
84 Life of John Wesley. calm and full consideration; and none better ia likely to be offered. He says "They may be easily accounted for, either on principles of reason or Scripture. First, how easy it is to suppose that a strong, lively, and sudden apprehension of the heinousness of sin, the wrath of God, and the bitter pains of eternal death should affect the body as well as the soul during the present laws of vital union? . . . Yea, we may question whether, while this union subsists, it be possible for the mind to be affected in so violent a degree, without some or other of those bodily symptoms following. Secondly, ... we are to add to the consideration of natural causes the agency of those spirits who still excel in strength, and, as far as they have leave from God, Avill not fail to torment when they cannot destroy; to tear those that are coming to Christ. It is also remarkable that there is plain
Scripture precedent of every symptom which has lately appeared."
This year Wesley's mother attained to a new experience. She had begun to entertain "strange fears concerning him, being convinced that he had greatly erred from the faith ; " but this did not last long. Wesley writes : " September 3, 1739, 1 talked largely with my mother, who told me that till a short time since she had scarce heard such a thing mentioned as having God's Spirit bearing witness with our spirit; much less did she imagine that this
Publications— Calvinimi. ^^ was the common privilege of all true believers.
'Therefore,' said she, 'I never durst ask it for myself; but two or three weeks ago, while my son Hall was pronouncing these words in delivering the cup to me, 'The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee,' the words struck through my heart, and I knew God, for Christ's sake, had forgiven me all my sins.' " After this Mrs. Wesley resided chiefly in London, and heartily embraced the doctrines of John and Charles, and attended ujion their ministry.
Wesley's publications now began to be important.
Besides numerous tracts," he published in 1739 a beautiful abridgment of the " Life of Halyburton " and a book of hymns. A separation that took place in 1741 between Wesley and Whitefield, and their resj^ective followers, on the doctrines of Calvinism, added to the list. Whitefield, while in America, had embraced Calvinistic views, and Wesley felt bound to oppose him. He says: "Call it by Avhat name you please—'election,' 'pretention,' 'predestiin the end to thenation,' or ' reprobation '—it comes same thing. The sense of all is this : By virtue of an unchangeable, irresistible decree of God, one part of mankind are infallibly saved and the rest infallibly damned, it being imjDossible that any of the former should be damned or that any of the latter should be saved." Such a doctrine, he asserts, among other monstrous consequences, makes all
86 Life of John Wesley. preaching vain, tends to destroy our zeal for good works, and makes God, in saying one thing and love which hemeaning another—in pretending a has not, and in condemning millions of souls to everlasting fire for continuing in sin, which, for want ofavoid—"asgrace hemoregivesfalse,themmorenot,cruel,theyandaremoreunableunjustto than the devil." He adds: "This is the blasphemy clearly contained in the horrible decree of predestination. And here I fix my foot; on this I join issue with every asserter of it. You represent God as worse than the devil ; but you say you can prove it by Scripture. Hold! What will you prove l)y
Scripture? That God is worse than the devil? It cannot be. Whatever Scripture proves, it never can prove this; whatever its true meaning, tins
'cannot be its true meaning. Do you ask, What is its true meaning then ? ' If I say I know not you have gained nothing, for there are many scriptures the. true sense whereof neither you nor I shall know till death is swallowed up in victory. But this I know : better it were to say it had no sense at all tlian to say it had such a sense as this."
The differences that had arisen between him and the London Moravians increased, too ; and he was at length forbidden the use of the Moravian pulpits. He then withdrew himself fi-om them entirely. There w^as also much backsliding in the societies at this period, and a general want of any
A New Means Jot Good. 87 great religious success during 1740 and 1741. Attacks upon him and his doctrines through the press steadily continued, and the mob kept up their furious violence toward him while preaching; but never for a moment did his courage or confidence give way. He was constantly engaged in traveling, preaching, and writing. Besides this, he undertook various laborious works of charity in Bristol and London for the relief of the poor. Being separated from Whitefield and the Moravians, he began to purge and organize more perfectly the societies that were now properly his own. Such as appeared guilty, and would not promise amendment, were not allowed to remain with them. To the rest he gave tickets, which were renewed every quarter, ])y which he certified to the membership of those who bore them. These he considered to be e(|uivalent to the "commendatory letters" mentioned in the New Testament ; and they also gave opportunity of removing any disorderly member in a quiet and inoffensive way i. e., by ceasing to give him a ticket.
An incident put a new and most ]X)tent means for good into his hands. At Bristol in 1742, when some of the principal members had met with Wesley to consider how they might pay the large debt that remained on their meeting-house, one of them
: " Let every member of the society give a penny a week till the debt is jiaid." Another 88 Life of John Wesley. answered: "Many of them are poor, and cannot afford it." "Then," said the former, "put eleven of the poorest with me ; and if they can give any thing, Avell. I will call on them weekly, receive what they give, and make up what is wanting."
" It was done," says Wesley ; " and in a while some of these informed me they found such and such a one did not live as they ought. It struck me that this was the very thing that was wanting so long."
Thus class-meetings began. Each class met once a week with their leader, who conversed with them one by one, each meeting being opened and ended with prayer and singing. " It can scarce be conceived," says Wesley, " what advantages have been reaped by this providential regulation. Many now experienced that Christian fellowship of which they had not so much as an idea before. They began to bear one another's burdens, and naturally to care for each other's welfare. And as they had a more intimate acquaintance, so they had a more endeared affection for each other. . . . For this I can never sufficiently praise God, the unspeakable usefulness of the institution having ever since been more and more manifest."
One more strong weapon completed the equipment of Methodism for the holy warfare. Hitherto Wesley's only regular congi*egations were at Kingswood, Bristol, and the Foundry. In 17 12 he began to enlaiige the sphere of his operations, and to emOn His Preaching Tours. ploy for himself and his assistants the itinerancy.
Fourteen weeks he sjient in a tour through Wales.
He then took a trip to the North of England, preaching at all the towns and villages he came to, and on his return to Bristol. This was the ho ginning of his itinerant labors, Avhich thereafter never ceased to the day of his death. He soon made it the practice of all his preachers, and it reniains one of the most important institutions of all important Methodist churches throughout the world.
At Newcastle, on his arrival there May 28, 1742, Wesley Avas surprised and shocked at the abounding wickedness. Drunkenness and swearing seemed general, and even the mouths of the little children were full of oaths. On Sunday morning, at seven o'clock, he took his stand near the j^ump, in " the poorest and most contemptible part of the town, crowded with keelmen and sailors using the language of hell." He began by singing the old hundredth Psalm and tune. "Three or four people came to see Avhat was the matter," but before he finished preaching his congregation consisted of from twelve to fifteen hundred persons. When the service was ended, " the people stood gaping with the most profound astonishment," upon Avhich he said : " If you desire to knoAV who I am, my name is Jolwi Wesley. At five in the evening, with God's helj), I design to preach heie again." At five he took his stand on the hill, which was covered-from 90 Life of John Wesley. top to bottom with a congregation the largest he had ever yet seen, though he had preached sometimes to twenty thousand people at Moorfields and Kensington Commons, in London. "After preaching," he says, " the poor people were ready to tread me under foot out of pure love and kindness;" but he could not stay. Next morning he set out at three o'clock, and rode about eighty miles. The next day he rode to Bristol, on the way holding a prayer-meeting at Knaresborough. At Bristol John
Nelson lived, and here he had been laboring with great success. At night Wesley preached to a vast multitude, and held service for two hours and a half The next three days he spent preaching in Bristol and about in the surrounding neighborhood.
He then set out for Epworth. The next "day after his arrival there being Sunday, he offered to assist Mr. Romley, the curate, either by preaching or reading prayers; but hLs offer was declined, and Romley preached against enthusiasts in a very offensive sermon. After service, John Taylor gave notice, as the people were coming out of church, that Wesley, not being permitted to preach in the cluircli, would pi'cach in the church-yard at six o'clock. Accordingly at that hour he stood on his father's tombstone and preached to the largest congregation Epw'orth had ever seen. He remained eight days, and every night preached from his father's tombstone. Here thov dared not disturb him.
Succeasjul Labors at Epworth. 91
His preaching was attended with amazing power.
The people wept aloud ; some dropped down as dead his voice was drowned by the cries of penitents, and many found peace with God in the old church-yard.
A gentleman who had not been at public worship of any kind before for more than thirty years stood motionless as a statue. " Sir," asked Wesley, " are you a sinner?" "Sinner enough," said he, and still stood staring upward till his wife and servant, who were both in tears, put him into his chaise and drove him home.
The last service lasted about three hours. Wesletley writes: "We scarce knew how to part. O none think his labor of love is lost because the fruit does not immediately appear! Near forty years did my father labor here, but he saw little fruit of his labor. I took some pains among this people too, and my strength also seemed spent in vain; but now the fruit appeared. There were scarce any in the town on whom either ray father or I had taken any pains formerly ; but the seed sown so long since now sprung up, bringing forth repentance and remission of sins."
Thus the work was established also at Epworth.
In the neighborhood some societies had previously been formed. " Their angry neighbors," says Wesley, " carried a whole load of these new heretics before a magistrate ; but when he asked what they had that was a pointdone, there was a deep silence—for :
92 Life of John Wesley. their conductors had forgotten. At length one said " They pretend to be better than other people, and pray from morning till night." Another said:
"They have converted my wife. Till she went among them she had such a tongue, and now she is quiet as a lamb." "Take them back! take them back!" cried the justice, "and let them convf it all the scolds in town !
On leaving Epworth he went to Sheffield, where he spent four days preaching, and thence to Coventry, to Gresham, and to Stroud, and thence to Bristol, June 28th.
July 23, 1742, his venerable mother passed from earth to heaven, at the Foundry. Charles was absent, but John and her five daughters were with her. "She had uo doubt or fear, nor any desire but to depart and be with Christ." Early in the morning of the day she died, on awaking out of sleep, she cried : " My dear Saviour, art thou come to help me in my last extremity?" In the afternoon an intercessory meeting was held for her in the chapel, at the end of which Wesley returned to her. He found her pulse almost gone, and her fingers dead. Her look was calm, and her eyes fixed upward. They prayed and sung a requiem.
Within an hour she died without a struggle, or groan, or sigh. They then gathered about her bed and fulfilled her last request, uttered just before she lost her speech : "Children, as soon as I am re- ; Buries Sis Mother—Itinerating. 98 leased, sing a psalm of praise to God." They sung the psalm, and on Sunday, August 1st, in the presence of an immense multitude, Wesley himself preached the funeral-sermon from Rev. xx. 12, 18, and performed the last rites. " It was," says he,
"one of the most solemn assemblies I ever saw, or expect to see this side of eternity."
Till November Wesley labored in London and Bristol, but then, Charles Wesley having founded a society at Newcastle, he set out for the North.
On arriving at Newcastle, November 13th, he met "the wild, staring, loving society," as he calls them, and began to preach. Great power attended him.
On one occasion six or seven dropped down as dead another time several of the genteel people were constrained to roar because of the disquietness of their hearts. In six weeks there were eight hundred persons joined together in society, besides many others benefited in the neighboring towns and villages. A meeting-house became necessary, and on December 20 the foundation-stone Avas laid. The building was estimated to cost £700, and Wesley had just twenty-six shillings toward it.
But he went on, " nothing doubting, but as it was begun for God's sake, he would provide what was needful for the finishing of it." He preached his farewell sermon December 20th. Men, women, and children hung upon him ; and even after he started on his journey "a muckle woman" kept her hold
94 Life of John Wesley. of him and ran by his horse's side through thick and thin till the town was cleared.
During 1743 he extended his itinerant labors still farther, traveling into Cornwall, and beyond Newcastle into the North of England, enduring many hardships and meeting with many strange adventures. On returning to Newcastle, February
14th, he found that seventy-six had forsaken the society, a large proportion of them because their ministers refused them the sacrament as long as they continued Methodists. Thirty-three others had left because their husbands, wives, parents, masters, or acquaintance objected ; five because such bad things were said of the society; nine because they would not be laughed at; and one because she was afraid of falling into fits. Sixty-four more he expelled, among them two for swearing, two for Sabbath-breaking, two for selling liquor, seventeen for drunkenness, three for quarreling, one for beating his wife, three for lying, one for laziness, and twenty-nine for lightness and carelessness.
In Stafibrdshire, in "the black country," there began about this time to be dreadful riots, the mob breaking the houses and furniture of the Methodists, and beating Wesley himself almost to death.
So it was also in Cornwall. Many of these outrages were prompted by the parsons, and the magistrates would give no protection. But God protected them, and their work prospered. Often the Delivered from a Mob. 95 ilngleaders of the mob would themselves l)e converted. At Walsal, in Staffordshire, the rioters seized Wesley, and driving oif all his friends, surrounded him. Some one tried to grasp him by the collar and drag him down; a big fellow just behind struck him several times with a club; one man struck him in the breast, and another on the mouth, so that the blood gushed out. He stood and asked,
"Are you willing to hear me speak?" They cried, "No, no! Knock out his brains! down with him! kill him at once!" Wesley asked again: "What evil have I done? Which of you have I wronged in word or deed?" Again they cried, "Bring him away! bring him away!" Wesley, upon this, began to pray, and instantly a man who just before had headed the mob turned and said: "Sir, I will spend my life for you ; follow me, and no one shall hurt a hair of your head." Two or three others then joined him, one of them a prize-fighter in a beer-garden, and Wesley was sa'ved. He writes:
"A little before ten o'clock God brought me safe to W^ednesburg, having lost only one flap of my waistcoat and a little skin from one of my hands. From the beginning to the end I found the same presence of mind as if I had been in my own study."
Five days after, Charles Wesley walked through the town and boldly preached from Eev. ii. 10:
" Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer; behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison.
96 Life of John Wesley. that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days; be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." He says: "It was a most glorious time. Our souls were satisfied as with marrow and fatness."
In Cornwall much hardship was endured. Wesley and John Nelson traveled and slept together.
Their bed was the floor. Wesley used Nelson's top coat for his pillow, and Nelson took " Burkitt's Notes" for his. One morning Wesley turned over and, slapping Nelson on theside, jocularly exclaimed,
" Brother Nelson, let us be of good cheer, for the skin is off but one side yet!" It was seldom that any one gave them either meat or drink. One day as Wesley stopped to eat blackberries, he said:
"Brother Nelson, we ought to be thankful that there are plenty of blackberries, for this is the best country I ever saw for getting an appetite, but the worst for getting food." But Cornwall soon had flourishing societies established, and Methodist itinerants suffered no longer.
In Loudon two more chapels were secured in 1743. The same year the " General Eules " were first adopted and published at Newcastle. The appointment of stewards in the several societies was now also begun, and the organization of the "United
Societies" was complete.
Meantime it w^as found that the Methodists " died well." Elizabeth Davis, after she was speechles."^, Some Important Duties. 97 was desired to hold up her hand if she knew she was going to God, and immediately she held up both. Another said: "I am very ill, but I am very well I am happy, happy, happy ! My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour. Life or death is all one to me. I have no darkness, no cloud. soulMy body indeed is weak and in pain, but my is all joy and praise." John Woolley, a child of thirteen years, threw his arms wide open and said,
"Come, come, Lord Jesus, I am thine!" and breathed his last. Among others Heziah Wesley, "full of thoughtfiilness, resignation, and love, commended her soul into the hands of Jesus and fell on sleep."
Visiting the sick in person Wesley insisted upon .as an imperative Christian duty ; sending help was not enough. " One great reason," he says, " why the rich have so little sympathy for the poor is because they so seldom visit them. . . . All who desire to escape the everlasting fire, and to inherit the everlasting kingdom, are equally concerned according to his power to practice this important duty."
Family religion and the instruction of children was another most important duty in Wesley's eyes.
In a tract he published upon the subject, translated from the French, he asserts that "the wickedness of children is generally owing to the fault or neglect of their parents. The souls of children ought to he fed as often as their bodies;" and Methodists
98 Lift of John Wesley. are urged iitjt to seud their sous "to any of the large public schools (for they are nurseries of all uianuer of wickedness), but to a j^rivate school, kept by some pious man who endeavors to instruct a select number of children in religion and learning." AVesley no doubt spoke from his own experience at the Charterhouse school. He also published a sermon on the same subject, as well as an abridgment of a work on "Learning and Knowledge," by Dr. John Norris. The following extract shows his views on an important matter in this connection :
" I cannot, with any patience, reflect that out of it may be,so short a time as human life—consisting, of fifty or sixty years—nineteen or twenty shall be spent in hammering out a little Latin and Greek, and in learning a company of poetical fictions and fantastic stories. . . . How many excellent and useful things might be learned while boys are thumbing and murdering Hesiod and Homer!
Of what significance is such stuflP as this to the accomplishments of a reasonable soul ? What iraprovemenc can it be to my understanding to know the amours of Pyramus and Thisbe, or of Hero and Leander? Let any man consider human nature and tell me whether a boy is fit to be trusted with Ovid. And yet to books such as these our youth is dedicated, . , . The measure of prosecuting learning is its usefulness to uood life, and cousoHis Educational Vieics. 99 qiiently all prosecution of it beyond or besides this end is impertinent and immoderate. For my own part I intend to study nothing at all but what serves to the advancement of piety and good life. I have spent about thirteen years in the most celebrated university in the world in pursuing both such learning as the academical standard requires and as my private genius inclined me to ; but I intend to spend my uncertain remainder of time in studying only what makes for the moral improvement of my mind and the regulation of my life. More particularly,
I shall apply myself to read such books as are rather persuasive than instructive ; such as warm, kindle, and enlargfe the affections, and awaken the divine sense in the soul ; being convinced by every day's experience that I have more need of heat than light; though w^ere I for more light, still 1 think the love of God is the best light of the soul of man."
All may not agree with him, but Wesley was a wise man. In matters in which he had such personal experience his words deserve very serious attention.
Let it be remembered that he was no fanatic, he it waswas the embodiment of common sense—only all religious sense.
Instances of his practical common sense are found in his dealing with some honest but misguided people who mingled dross with their gold.
One convert, a few days after his conversion, came 100 Life of John Wesley. riding through Newcastle, hallooing and shouting and driving all the people before him, telling them that God had revealed to him that he should be a king, and should tread all his enemies under his feet. Wesley arrested him and sent him home, advising him to cry day and night to God, lest the devil should gain an advantage over him. On another occasion two, who called themselves prophets, came to Wesley in London, stating that they were sent from God to say he would shortly be " born'd again," and that unless he turned them out they would stay in the house till it was done. He gravely answered that he would not turn them out, and took them down into the room of the society. Here he left them. "It was tolerably cold, and they had neither meat nor drink. However, there thcy sat from morning to evening, when they quietly went away, and I have heard nothing from them since."
First Conferences— Ireland—Arrested — John Nelson — Helping the Poor— Education—Personal Appearance— DiSanctification—Apostolical Succession—"Harmless Soldiers versions"—Happy Experiences—Methodist
"TTT"ESLEY'S first Conference was held MonVV day, June 5, 1744, at the Foundry in London, and continued five days. Besides the two
Hodges, HenryWesleys, four clergymen—John Piers, Samuel Taylor, and John Meriton—were Richards,present; and four lay preachers—Thomas Thomas Max field, John Bennett, and John Downes.
The day before the Conference met, besides the usual Sunday service at the Foundry, a love-feast was held and the sacrament administered to the whole of the London society, numbering between two thousand and three thousand souls. The next
Jay the Conference proceeded to business. It was stated that the Methodists were divided into four sections: (1) The United Societies, consisting of all awakened persons who would join ; (2) the bands, or those who were thought to have remission of sins; (3) the select societies, composed of those who seemed to walk in the light of God's countenance; and (4) the penitents, or persons who for non 102 Life of JoJm Wesley. the present were fallen from grace. Regulations were adopted in regard to three points: (1) What to teach; (2) how to teach; (3) how to regulate doctrine, discipline, and practice. The rules for the preachers were substantially the same as now exist. In addition, they were " as often as possible to rise at four o'clock ; to spend two or three minutes every hour in earnest prayer; to observe strictly the morning and evening hour of retirement; to rarely employ above an hour in conversation; to keep watch-nights once a month; to speak freely to each other, and never to part without prayer."
From this time Conferences were held annually.
The next year they met in Bristol, as also the next two years following. At the Conference of 1745 fourteen itinerants were reported to be then at work in England and Wales. In 1747 there were twenty-two, besides thirty-two local preachers and all the Calvinistic Methodists.
They now crossed over into Ireland. In 1745 an English soldier had formed a small society in Dublin and preached to them. Soon after, Benjamin La Trobe, a Baptist student from Glasgow, arrived and became their leader; and in 1746 John
Cennick came over on invitation of the society and preached with such success that the society soon increased to about two hundred members.
Then Thomas Williams, one of Wesley's itinerants.
More Fahe Charges. 103 came, formed another society, and wrote for Wesley. Wesley determined to go Avitliout delay, and arrived in Dublin August 9, 1747. He preached the same day, and continued laboring for a fortnight, when he returned to London, being succeeded by his brother Charles. This was the first of forty-nine times that he crossed the Irish Channel in his labor of love. The results were great. The societies increased rajjidly in the island; some of Wesley's most eminent colaborers, such a^ Thomas
Walsh, Adam Clarke, Henry Moore, and others, were gained here; and it was by the hand of his Irish converts that Methodism was afterward planted in America, and either ])lanted or nourished in the West Indies, in Africa, India, and Australia.
Everywhere pei-secution \\as rife.' At Oxford, after Wesley had preached a sermon in which he had dealt faithfully with the members of the university, he was no longer allowed to preach there, though his office as fellow required it. Attacks through the press increased both in number and violence. Gibson, Bishop of London, issued a pamphlet charging the Methodists with setting the Government at defiance and breaking the rules of the Church of Avhich they were members, besides doing a disservice to religion by their doctrines and practices, among which he specifies " their setting the standard of religion so high." The Bishop of Lichfield published "A Charge Against Enthu- .