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SCHOOL  OF  THEOLOGY  LIBRARY. 


NUMBER    2-ff%f.7' 


Acq,„red  MAR  1  5  1905 


John  Wesley. 
At  the  Age  of  Thirty-nine. 

From  Faber's  engraving  of  the  original  painting  by  J.  Williams,  about  2743. 
A  replica  of  this  painting  now  hangs  in  Lincoln  College, 
d   University. 


TH  E   H  I  STO  RY 
OF  METHODISM 


BY 

JOHN   FLETCHER   HURST,    D.D.,   LL.D. 

A  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
Chancellor  of  the  American  University 
Sometime  President  of  the  American  Church  History  Society 
Author  of  "A  History  of  the  Christian    Church,"  Etc.,   Etc. 


BRITISH 
METHODISM 


VOLUME 
THE  FIRST 


New     York 
EATON     &     MAINS 


M  D  CC  C  C I  I 


BOSTON     TJlsri"VER,SITTr 

THEO.     SCHOOL. 


Copyright  by 

EATON  St  MAINS, 

I902. 


FOREWORD 


M 


ETHODISM  is  not  primarily  a  doctrinal  system  or 
a  mode  of  life,  but  a  moral  and  spiritual  force  that 
has  wrought  mightily  during  the  last  sixteen  dec- 
ades of  human  history.  Springing  forth  from  the  Estab- 
lished Church  of  England,  it  simply  but  strongly  asserted  its 
primitive  and  apostolic  character  as  a  renewal  of  Christianity. 
It  has  fully  established  its  appeal  to  the  New  Testament  by 
a  growth  and  development  which  attest  its  ecumenical  qual- 
ity. To  trace  through  all  lands  with  accuracy  and  fidelity  the 
spread  of  this  evangelical  revival  of  the  eighteenth  century 
is  the  purpose  of  this  series  of  volumes. 

The  twofold  adaptation  of  Methodism,  both  to  carry  the 
Gospel  message  to  those  who  have  never  heard  it  and  to 
infuse  new  warmth  and  zeal  into  the  hearts  and  lives  of  those 
who  have  forsaken  their  first  love  or  but  partially  received 
the  true  light,  has  given  it  access  to  nearly  all  the  nations  of 
the  globe.  To  treat  this  world-wide  religious  movement  with 
proportionate  fairness,  and  not  to  be  entangled  among  the 
captivating  details,  has  required  a  rigid  abstinence  from  an 
entrance  upon  the  portrayal  of  man}*  rich  and  varied  scenes. 

The  strong  and  mastering  currents  and  broad  sweeps  of 
progress  have  been  shown  in  their  general  trend  from  the 
small  beginnings  until  these  have  become  the  triumphs  of  a 


Foreword 

continent.  The  hope  is  entertained  that  many  an  alert  mind 
will  by  these  pages  be  stimulated  to  amplify  the  noble  record 
of  Methodism  in  given  localities — towns,  counties,  provinces, 
and  States — -such  as  will  bring  to  proper  measure  this  ever- 
growing story  of  modern  evangelism. 

The  plan  of  treatment  has  been  to  make  the  main  divisions 
by  countries,  and  under  these  to  follow  the  progress  of  events 
as  nearly  as  possible  in  the  order  of  time.  This  geographico- 
chronolooqcal  method,  while  entailing  some  difficulties  in  the 
adjustment  of  suspended  portions  of  the  narrative,  affords 
both  to  the  reader  and  the  writer  the  great  advantage  of  a 
definite  field  of  study  and  of  vision,  and  the  opportunity 
of  marking  how  different  streams  flowing  from  the  same 
fountain  head  have,  a  century  or  more  away  from  their  com- 
mon rise,  again  found  a  united  life.  Two  strikingly  beauti- 
ful instances  of  this  blending  of  the  British  and  the  American 
currents  will  be  found  first  in  the  romantic  story  of  Canadian 
Methodism,  marked  by  its  many  varieties  and  sharp  frictions 
of  the  earlier  day,  but  now  more  signally  characterized  by  its 
singular  solidarity,  and,  second,  in  the  more  recent  joining 
of  the  forces  of  the  American  and  English  Methodists  in  their 
effective  labors  to  kindle  to  a  new  flame  in  the  Fatherland 
the  fires  that  once  blazed  on  German  altars,  and  to  give  added 
glow  and  power  to  the  people  and  work  of  Luther  and 
Zwingli.  The  unity  and  grandeur  of  the  common  progress 
of  the  whole  family  of  Methodists,  rather  than  the  diversity 
of  the  distinct  branches,  have  been  kept  well  to  the  front, with 
sufficient  attention  to  the  minor  issues  and  facts  which  relate 
to  the  origin  and  development  of  the  various  and  separate 
bodies.  The  broad  and  catholic  spirit  of  John  Wesley  is 
finding  its  way  to  a  new,  or  perhaps  a  continuous,  leadership, 
and   bids   fair   during  the   twentieth    century  to   bring    into 


Foreword 

harmonious  and  federated  activity,  if  indeed  not  into  com- 
pact and  organic  union,  the  severed  and  therefore  weakened 
ranks  of  the  Methodist  host. 

The  history  of  Methodism  has  never  received  the  artistic 
illumination  which  it  deserves.  The  whole  chain  of  heroisms 
and  sacrifices  by  which  Wesley  and  his  noble  helpers  and  fol- 
lowers came  into  close  and  loving  touch  with  the  millions 
whom  they  have  led  from  vice  and  ignorance  into  the  joy  and 
light  of  God's  peace  form  most  fitting  themes  for  the  pencil 
and  the  brush.  To  present  in  pictorial  form  the  actors  and 
scenes  in  this  series  of  events,  the  keen  scent  of  the  antiquary 
and  the  taste  and  skill  of  the  artist  have  been  summoned. 
The  results  of  their  research  and  labor  are  confidently  submit- 
ted to  the  eye  of  a  discriminating  public  in  illustrations  which 
enrich  and  enliven  the  narrative.  In  their  quality  and  pro- 
fusion it  is  believed  they  furnish  the  most  thorough  represen- 
tation that  Methodist  history  has  ever  received. 

The  gathering  of  thousands  to  hear  the  Gospel,  and  the 
provision  of  an  organized  Church  to  care  for  and  nourish 
these  multitudes  which  have  grown  into  millions,  easily 
yield  to  the  effort  to  record  the  successive  steps  by  which 
these  results  have  been  achieved.  But  what  eye,  save  the 
All-seeing  one,  shall  follow  the  impulse  given  to  souls  in 
other  communions  on  both  sides  of  the  sea  by  the  vitalizing 
touch  of  John  Wesley,  by  the  flaming  zeal  of  George  White- 
field,  or  by  the  seraphic  fire  in  the  stanzas  of  Charles  Wesley? 
Who  shall  trace  into  the  texture  of  our  national  structure 
the  elements  of  strength  and  endurance,-  brought  to  their 
permanent  place  and  office  in  this  giant  Republic  of  the 
West  by  Francis  Asbury  and  William  McKendree?  The 
going  to  and  fro  of  these  leaders  and  their  itinerant  com- 
rades were  the  veritable  movements  of  God's  own  loom  and 


Foreword. 

shuttle  as  he  wove  the  fabric  of  American  life  and  civiliza- 
tion. What  statistician  shall  tabulate  the  civic,  the  social,  the 
commercial,  the  political  results  of  Methodism  in  its  rapid 
march  across  the  continent,  leavening  each  new  community 
with  industry  and  righteousness,  and  planting  its  strong- 
holds of  piety  in  every  village?  These  subtle,  but  no  less 
real,  results  largely  elude  the  grasp  of  the  historian,  but 
form  a  part  of  the  imperishable  records  kept  by  a  Hand  that 
wearies  not  and  guarded  by  an  Eye  that  never  sleeps. 


The  author  records  his  grateful  acknowledgment  of  the 
assistance  which  he  has  had  in  the  execution  of  his  under- 
taking: To  the  Rev.  Thomas  E.  Brigden,  of  Ramsbottom, 
Manchester,  England,  whose  studies  have  contributed  largely 
to  the  substance  and  form  of  the  British  section,  and  whose 
antiquarian  knowledge  and  zeal  have  provided  the  material 
on  which  its  illustration  has  been  based,  and  to  James  R. 
[OY,  A.M.,  of  the  Methodist  Book  Concern  in  New  York, 
for  similar  aid  upon  the  American  section,  as  well  as  for 
supervising  the  preparation  of  the  illustrations  for  the  entire 
work  and  seeing  it  through  the  press.  Mention  should  also 
be  made  in  this  place  of  the  painstaking  cooperation  of 
Rev.  James  Mudge,  D.D.,  Rev.  Page  Milburn,  Rev.  Frank 
(t.  Porter,  Rev.  S.  Reese  Murray,  Rev.  Albert  Osborn,  Rev. 
E.  L.  Watson,  the  late  Rev.  J.  W.  Cornelius,  and  Mr.  Richard 
H.  Johnston,  of  the  Library  of  Congress. 

John  Fletcher  Hurst. 

Washington,  D.  C, 


GENERAL  VIEW 


British  Methodism 

England   Before  the   Revival. 

The   Oxford   Methodists. 

The  Wesleys  and  Their   Helpers 

Wesley anism   after  Wesley. 

Scions  and   Secessions. 

The  Forward  Movement. 

American  Methodism 

Methodism   in   the   Colonial   Era. 

Methodist   Episcopalianism. 

The  Young  Church  in   the  Young  Republic. 

The   Expansion   of  Methodism. 

The   Progress   of  Divided   Methodism. 

The  Southern   Phalanx. 


World-Wide  Methodism 

Methodism   in   Canada. 

Wesleyan    Churches     and    Missions     in     Aus- 
tralasia. 

(Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  Oceanica.) 

Missions   in    Latin   America. 

(Mexico,  West  Indies,  and  South  America.) 

Methodism   in   Continental   Europe. 

(Scandinavia,  Russia,  Germany,  France,  Switzer 
land,  Italy,  Austria-Hungary,  and  Bulgaria.) 

Methodist   Conquests   in   India  and   Malaysia, 

The  Chinese  and   Korean   Missions. 

The  Work  in  Japan. 

Light  in  the   Dark   Continent. 

(Liberia,  Congo,  Angola,  and  South  Africa.) 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  England  Before  the  Great  Revival. 17 

II.  The  Deep  Causes  of  the  Great  Decline 22 

III.  Spiritual  Paralysis  of  England 32 

IV.  The  Ascent  of  the  Wesley  Family 42 

Y.  John  Westley  the  First 48 

VI.  The  Persecution  of  John  Westley 54 

VII.  A  Noble  Nonconformist 61 

VIII.  From  Puritan  Parsonage  to  Anglican  Rectory 69 

IX.  Samuel  and  Susanna  Wesley 77 

X.  The*  Passing  of  the  Puritans 84 

XL  The  Epworth  Home 88 

XII.  Lights,  Shadows,  and  Toils  in  Epworth 96 

XIII.  Tales  of  the  Epworth  Rectory 109 

XIV.  Leaving  Home 118 

XV.  A  Gown  Boy  at  Charterhouse 123 

XVI.  The  London  of  Wesley's  School  Days  131 

XVII.  Samuel  Wesley,  Jr.,  and  Charles  Wesley 144 

XVIII.  Oxford  Memories,  Men,  and  Manners 156 

XIX.  A  High  Churchman's  Quest  for  Truth  and  Mystic 

Light 167 

XX.  The  Coming  Creed 173 

XXI.  The    Ritualist's  Graveclothes    and  the   Mystic's 

Dreams 185 

XXII.  The  Holy  Club. 190 

XXIII.  The  Bible  the  Text-book  of  the  Coming  Methodism.  201 


Contents  of  Volume  I 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXIV.  (George  Whitefield.-John  Wesley's  Further  Work.  216 

XXV.  The  Genesis  of  Georgia 227 

XXVI.  Oxford  Methodism  Afloat 234 

XXVII.  The    Anglican    Missionaries    in   their    American 

Adullam 241 

XXVIII.  The   Romance  of  Savannah,   and  the    Return   to 

England 253 

XXIX.  The  Herald  of  the  Coming  Revival 261 

XXX.  Whitefield's  First  Visit  to  America 270 

XXXI.  Light  from  the  Land  of  Hus  and  Luther 277 

XXXII.  Peter  Bohler  and  the  Wesleys 284 

XXXIII.  The  Pentecostal  Poet 294 

XXXIV.  The  Birthday  of  Living  Methodism 304 

XXXV.  Casting  off  the  Graveclothes 312 

XXXVI.  Beacon  Fires  of  Revival  in  America  and  Europe.  . .  320 

XXX VII.  England's  Awakening 327 

XXXVIII.  The  First  Fruits  of  Field  Preaching 337 

XXXIX.  Strange  Scenes  of  Conversion  and  Conflict 346 

XL.  The  First  Two  Methodist  Chapels  in  the  World.  . .  358 

XLI.  The  Foundation  of  a  World-Wide  Fellowship 369 

XLII.  The  Old  Customs  and  the  New  Converts 379 

XLIIl.  Facing  the  Prelates 390 

XLIV.  The  Anger  of  the  Primate  and  the  Adventures  of 

the  Presbyters 4°° 

XLV.  Wesley's  Soul-saving  Laymen 4IQ 

XLVI.  The  Meeting  of  Wesley,  Franklin,  and  Edwards.  . .  421 

XLVII.  The  Parting  Currents  of  Methodism 43' 

XLVIII.  Whitefield's  Great  Field  Days 442 

XLIX.  Among  Colliers  and  Country  Folk 450 

L.  The  Last  Days  of  the  Mother  of  Methodism 461 

LI.  A  Stalwart  Evangelist 475 

LII.  Out  of  the  Dungeon  and  the  Jaws  of  Death 483 

LIII.  Black  Country  Brickbats  and  Bludgeons 495 

X 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PHOTOGRAVURES 
John  Wesley Frontispiece 

PAGE 

John  Fletcher  Hurst Facing     17 

The  Holy  Club  Facing  193 

'•  I  AM  A  MAN  OF  ONE  BOOK  " . .  .  • .  Facing   208 

Mobbing  the  Preacher Facing  410 

The  Preacher's  Champion Facing  499 


Vignette  from  Wesley  Tablet,  Westminster  Abbey Title 

I' AGE 

Chapter  Head,  "England  " 17 

Queen  Anne 19 

State  Lottery,  London,  1739 26 

Gambling  Women 27 

The  Election.     Canvassing  f<  >k  Votes 30 

Chapter  Head,  "Church  of  England" 32 

Gin  Lane 36 

Chapter  Head,  "  Wesley  Arms" 42 

Chapter  Head,  "  Oxford  " .■ 48 

Autograph  of  John  Owen 49 

Arms  of  New  Inn  Hall 53 

Portrait  of  Rev.  John  Westley,  M.A 56 

Map:  the  Nonconformist  Wesleys  in  Dorset 58 

Remains  of  Old  Jail  at  Poole 59 

Portrait  of  Rev.  Samuel  Annesley,  D.D 63 

Birthplace  of  Susanna  Annesley 65 

St.  Giles's  Church,  Cripplegate 67 

Rev.  Samuel  Wesley,  Rector  of  Epworth 70 

The  Frontispiece  to  Maggots 72 

Church  of  St.  Andrew,  Holborn,  London 74 


Illustrations 

PAGB 

Arms  OF  I'.XK  I  i  R  COLLEGE,  OXFORD 76 

in  \ri  i.u  Head,  "  Printing  " 77 

South  Ormsbv  Cm  r<  n 78 

Ti  1  le-p  mi  of  s  win  1  Wesley's  Life  of  Christ 80 

(  m  1  1  \  Mary  1 1 81 

Dedk  vtory  Page  of  Samuel  Wesley's  Life  of  Christ 83 

Tomb  of  John  Bi  \\  w.  Bunhill  Fields 86 

(  11  mm  i',K  Head,  "  Epworth  " 88 

Map  of  Lincolnshire.. 89 

F  \( -si mi  1. k  of  the  Signature  of  Samuel  Wesley,  sr 90 

( .1  impses  of  Epworth 91 

(  hurch  of  St.  Andrew,  Epworth 93 

The  Present  Epworth  Rectory  from  the  Garden. 97 

The  Brand  from  the  Burning 99 

The  Gateway  of  Lincoln  Castle 101 

••  Providential  Escape  of  Rev.  John  Wesley,"  etc 103 

The  Epworth  Rectory  in  1823 105 

The  Present  Rectory  from  the  Rear  107 

Glimpses  of  the  Epworth  Rectory 113 

Wesley  Memorial  Church  and  Schools,  Epworth 116 

Chapter  1  [ead,  "London  " 118 

Sheffield,  Duke  of  Buckingham  119 

Arms  of  the  Charterhouse  Schooi 121 

Entrance  to  the  Charterhouse 121 

The  Cloisters  of  thi  Charterhouse 124 

The  Charterhouse 125 

"Good  Old  Thomas  Sutton  " 128 

A    GOWNBOY       '3° 

The  Three  False  Friends 132 

l'.i  i.s  from  Eighteenth  Century  London 134 

Sedan  Chair  and  Chariot,  Eighteen  in  Century 136 

Tin  Dining  Hall,  Charterhouse 13s 

i'  \<  simile  of  Letter  by  John  Wesley 139 

Second  Page  and  Cover  of  Letter 14° 

i'  \(  si  mi  i.i-  of  At  (  oun  is  oi>  Founder's  Day  Dinner 14' 

km  erse  of  ms.  accounts  of  founder's  day  dinner 1 42 

Por  ik  \it  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Wesley,  Jr 145 

1  hree  Literary  Frie  nds  of  Samuel  Wesley,  Jr 149 

\  11  ws  01  Westminster  Schooi 1 53 

Arms  OF  CHRIST  CHUR(  11  COLLEGE,  OXFORD 157 

'I  in  Front  of  Chrisi  Church  Co]  lege,  Oxford 160 

Arms  of  Queen's  Coj  i  ege,  Oxford 161 

Ql  ii  N'S  COl  I  I  '•!'.  i  >xford 162 

Exeter  (  ollege  Chapei   and  Quadrangle 164 

xil 


Illustrations 

PACE 

St.  Mary's  Church,  Oxford 174 

Portrait  of  the  Kt.  Rev.  John  Potter,  Bishop  of  Oxford 176 

Christ  Church  Cathedral,  Oxford 177 

John  Wesley's  Haunts  at  Lincoln  College 179 

Parish  Church  at  South  Leigh 181 

Lincoln  College  in  the  Eighteenth  Century — 182 

John  Wesley's  Credentials 183 

Home  ok  William  Law 188 

Chapter  Head,  "The  Holy  Club" 190 

John  Wesley  and  His  Friends  at  Oxford 191 

Methodism  in  Oxford 196-197 

A  Lesson  for  the  Holy  Club 203 

Bocardo,  1  he  Prison,  Oxford 205 

"Men  of  One  Book  " 209 

Prominent  Members  of  the  Holy  Club .  213 

Arms  of  Pembroke  College,  oxford ...  217 

Pembroke  College,  oxford 218 

St.  Ai. date's  Church,  Oxford 220 

The  Broad  Walk,  Christ  Church,  Oxford 222 

Curious  Map  of  Palestine 224 

Grave  of  Rev.  Samuel  Wesley,  Sr.,  in  Epworth  Churchyard.   .  226 

Chapter  Head,  "  The  Gospel  Ship " 227 

A  "New  Map  of  North  America  " 228 

Portrait  of  Gen.  James  Edward  Oglethorpe 230 

Portrait  of  Tomo-Chi-Chi 2^2 

The  Beginnings  of  Savannah 235 

The  Newsp  \per  Notice  of  the  Wesleys'  Departure 237 

C11  \pi  er  Head,  "  Pioneering  " 241 

Portrait  of  Spangenbbrg 242 

Memorials  of  the  Wesleys  in  Georgia 245 

A 1  tograph  of  Charles  Wesley 24.S 

Page  of  John  Wesley's  MS.  Journal  in  Georgia 250 

Title-page  of  John  Wesley's  First  Hymnai 254 

Psalm  from  the  First  Methodist  Hymnal 255 

A  Fragment  of  Romance  257 

Oglethorpe  in  Old  Age 259 

Chapter  Head,  "  The  Evangelist " 261 

Nave  of  Gloucester  Cathedrai 264 

Church  of  St.  Mary  de  Crypt,  Gloucester 266 

Portrait  of  Rev.  George  Whitefield,  Ace  Twenty-four 271 

St.  Helen's,  Bishopsoate,  London 273 

The  Fathers  of  'the  Protestant  Reformation 279 

Portrait  of  Peter  Bohler 285 

Portr  \i  is  of  Count  Zinzendorf  and  his  Wife 287 

xiii 


Illustrations 

PAGE 

St.  Lawrence's  Church,  King  Street,  London 290 

Tune  Sung  by  John  Wesley 291 

Portrait  of  the  Rev.  Charles  Wesley 295 

Little  Britain , 298 

Plan  of  Streets  Associated    with    the    Conversion  of  the 

Wesleys 300 

St.  George's  Church,  Bloomsbury 305 

Nettleton  Court 307 

Portrait  of  Jacob  Behmen 314 

View  of  Herrnhut 316 

Easter  Commemoration  in  Herrnhut  Cemetery 318 

Chapter  Head,  "Wales" 320 

Portrait  of  Rev.  Jonathan  Edwards 321 


Portrait  of  Howell  Harris. 
Talgarth  Church. 


323 
325 


The  Old  Chapel,  Newgate  Prison. 330 

Samuel  Wesley's  Hymn,  Sung  in  Newgate  Prison  by  Charles 
Wesley 332 

Plan  of  Holborn 334 

Christ  Church,  Oxford 335 

Chapter  Head,  "  Field  Preaching  " 337 

Outdoor  Preaching  in  the  Seventeenth  Century 338 

Hannam  Mount.  Kingswood 341 

Kennington  Common 343 

John  Wesley,  the  Founder  of  Kingswood 347 

Scenes  about  Old  Kingswood 349 

The  French  Prophets  354 

Beau  Nash 356 

Chapter  Head,  "  The  Chapel  " 358 

The  "  Old  Room  in  the  Horsefair  "  Bristol.  „ 359 

Vicinity  of  City  Road  and  Foundry  in  Eighteenth  Century..  .  364 

Vicinity  of  City  Road  Chapel  at  the  Present  Day 365 

The  Foundry  Chapel,  Moorfields 367 

The  Moravian  Chapel  in  Fetter  Lane.    The  Interior 373 

Moravian  Ceremonial  of  Prostration  before  the  Lord 375 

Moravian  Ceremonial  of  Foot  Washing 377 

Membership  Tickets 380-384 

Blundell's  Grammar  School  at  Tiverton 387 

Mrs  Wesley's  Letter  on  the  Death  of  Her  Eldest  Son,  Rev. 

Samuel  Wesley,  Jr 388-389 

The  "  Rev  mil  us  Portrait  "  of  John  Wesley 393 

John  Wesley 397 

Lambeth  Palace 404 

"  The  Liberty  of  the  Subject  " 407 

xiv 


Illustrations 

PAGE 

Chapter  Head,  "  Lay  Evangelism  " 409 

Mobbing  the  Preacher 411 

Salisbury  Plain 4l& 

The  Signature  of  John  Cennick 418 

The  Old  Courthouse,  Philadelphia 423 

New  York  in  1730 424 

Benjamin  Franklin 426 

Franklin's  Printing  Press 427 

Map :  The  Northern  Colonies  in  Whitefield's  Day 428 

A  Prospect  of  the  Colleges  at  Cambridge,  in  New  England  . .  430 

Whitefield's  Signature 432 

Arminius  and  Calvin 433 

Rev.  George  Whitefield 437 

Whitefield's  Tabernacle,  Moorfields 441 

Chapter  Head,  "  Scotland  " 442 

Southwark  Fair 446 

Whitefield  Preaching  in  Moorfields 448 

John  Wesley  at  the  Sand  Hills,  Newcastle 451 

Wesley  Preaching  on  His  Father's  Tomb 455 

Epworth  Church 457 

The  Church  Walk,  Epworth 458 

Methodism  in  Wesley's  County,  A.  D.  1900  459 

Portrait  of  Susanna  Annesley,  before  Her  Marriage  to  Rev. 

Samuel  Wesley 463 

Letter  of   John    Wesley    Containing    His    Account    of    His 

Mother's  Death 465 

Grave  of  Susanna  Wesley,  Bunhill  Fields,  London 466 

Monument  to  Susanna  Wesley,  City  Road,  London..  .    466 

Portrait  of  Susanna  Wesley 468 

Portrait  of  Mrs.  Susanna  Wesley 470 

Facsimile   of  a  Portion  of  a  Letter  of  Emilia  Wesley  (Mrs. 

Harper) 471 

Facsimile  of  a  Portion  of  a  Letter  of  Martha  Wesley  (Mrs. 

Hall) 472 

Autograph  of  Kezia  Wesley 474 

Chapter  Head,  "Mob  Violence" 475 

Portrait  of  John  Nelson 476 

John  Nelson's  Birthplace 478 

Sundial  in  the  Birstall  Churchyard,  John  Nelson's  Handi- 
work.   482 

Memorials  of  John  Nelson 485 

Birstall  Church 492 

The  Cockpit 496 

The  Preacher's  Champion 499 

XV 


John  Fletcher  Hurst. 

From  a  photograph  by  George  C.  Cox. 


<s 


The  History  of  Methodism 


BRITISH  METHODISM 


CHAPTER  I 
England   before   the   Great  Revival 

England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.— Important  Redeeming 
Facts.  Queen  Anne's  Reign.— Periodical  Literature.  The 
Recent  Historians.— Their  Tribute  to  the  Methodist  Re- 
vival. 


I 

v 
ft 

I 


■>»»»di 


HE  England  upon  which  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury dawned  is  sometimes  described,  and 
often  justly,  as  one  vast  political  and  moral 
waste;  a  mere  hunting-  ground  of  corrupt 
courtiers  and  clerics,  the  haunt  of  an  utterly 
dissolute  aristocracy  and  a  brutalized  com- 
monalty. One  lecturer  in  Oxford  University  affirms  that 
"there  is  no  one,  probably,  now  living  who  does  not  con- 
gratulate himself  that  his  lot  was  not  cast  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  It  has  become  by  general  consent  an  object  of  rid- 
icule and  sarcasm.  Its  very  dress  and  airs  had  something 
about  them  which  irresistibly  moves  a  smile.      Its  literature, 

with    some    noble    exceptions,    stands   neglected    upon    our 
2  17 


18  British  Methodism 

shelves.  Its  poetry  has  lost  all  power  to  enkindle  us ;  its 
science  is  exploded;  its  taste  condemned;  its  ecclesiastical 
arrangements  flung-  to  the  winds;  its  religious  ideas  outgrown 
and  in  rapid  process  of  a  complete  and,  perhaps,  hardly 
deserved  extinction." 

This  is  a  strong  judgment,  perhaps  too  severe  if  applied  to 
all  England.  The  triumphs  of  the  century  must  not  be  for- 
gotten. The  ghost  of  the  Stuart  dynasty — which  meant 
Roman  Catholicism — had  been  laid  forever  and  the  Protes- 
tant succession  established.  The  mid-century  witnessed 
remarkable  commercial  development  under  the  peace  policy 
of  Walpole ;  and  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  George  III  to 
increase  the  power  of  the  crown  parliamentary  govern- 
ment became  secure  under  Chatham.  An  age  could  not  be 
utterly  imbecile  which  retained  in  its  literature  such  writers 
as  Defoe,  Samuel  Wesley,  Addison,  Steele,  Swift,  Pope,  and 
Berkele)7,  and  produced  in  its  later  period  Johnson,  Gold- 
smith, Gray,  Gibbon,  Burke,  Burns,  and  Cowper.  Sir  Isaac 
Newton  represented  natural  philosophy  until  1727. 

In  the  days  of  Queen  Anne,  1702-17 14,  there  was  much 
ecclesiastical  activity,  and  three  remarkable  societies  were 
formed  for  the  "  Reformation  of  Manners,"  for  "  Promoting 
Christian  Knowledge,"  and  for  the  "Propagation  of  the  Gospel 
in  Foreign  Parts."  Many  charity  schools  were  established. 
The  poorer  class  of  clergy  were  cared  for  by  the  bigoted  but 
"bountiful"  queen;  many  new  churches  were  built  and  old 
churches  were  restored — in  hideous  style,  we  must  confess, 
with  ponderous  pulpits  and  lofty  pews,  from  which  elect  occu- 
pants could  read  magniloquent  inscriptions  to  the  glory  of  the 
churchwardens. 

The  sturdy  English  parson,  Samuel  Wesley,  and  the  philo- 
sophic Irishman,   Bishop    Berkeley,   made  vigorous  though 


Queen  Anne's  Reign 


19 


unfruitful  attempts  to  develop  foreign  missions,  the  latter 
persuading  the  House  of  Commons  to  vote  him  £20,000  for  a 
college  on  the  island  of  Bermuda. 

The  rector  of  Epworth,  in  the  earlier  years,  and  Gold- 
smith's ideal  Vicar  of  Wakefield,  in  the  later,  were  types  of 
the  country  parson  to  be  found  here  and  there,  who,  as  Gold- 
smith says,  "united 
in  himself  a  priest, 
husband,  and  a  father 
of  a  family,  as  ready 
to  teach  and  ready  to 
obey,  as  simple  in  af- 
fluence and  majestic 
in  adversity."  Gray's 
Elegy,  with  idyllic 
grace,  describes  the 
sacred  charm  that 
breathes  around  the 
village  church,  "far 
from  the  madding 
crowd's  ignoble 
strife."  William 
Law,  the  n  on -juror 
and  mystic,  influ- 
enced by  his  saintly 
life,  as  well  as  by  his 
writings,  not  only  the  Wesleys,  but  Samuel  Johnson.  The 
names  of  Doddridge,  Watts,  Butler,  and  Sherlock,  Hornc, 
Horsley,  Archbishop  Seeker,  and  Archdeacon  Paley,  stand 
out  in  vivid  contrast  with  what  may  safely  be  called  the 
generally  dark  character  of  the  century.  These  very  men, 
as  Gregory  has  well  observed,  of  opposite  theological  schools 


ME    COPPERPLATE 


QUEEN    ANNE. 


20  British  Methodism 

and  political  parties,  "who  agree  in  scarcely  anything- else, 
agree  in  most  emphatically  affirming,  most  graphically  de- 
scribing, and,  alas!  most  helplessly  deploring  the  melan- 
choly condition  of  religion  and  morals  at  the  time  when 
Whitefield  and  the  Wesleys  began  to  call  sinners  to  repent- 
ance." 

We  are,  happily,  not  dependent  on  the  purely  religious 
teachers  of  the  century  for  a  view  of  the  manners  and  morals 
of  the  people.  The  life  of  the  times  is  mirrored  in  the  peri- 
odical literature  which  had  been  started  by  John  Dunton  in 
the  Athenian  Oracle,  and  took  higher  form  in  the  Tatler  and 
Spectator  of  Steele  and  Addison,  and  in  Johnson's  Rambler 
and  Idler.  The  novel  sprang  into  existence  in  the  reign  of 
George  II,  and  the  works  of  Richardson,  Fielding,  wSmollett, 
and  Sterne  vividly  reflect  contemporary  manners.  Much  of 
the  dramatic  literature  was  intolerably  dull  and  coarse,  but 
Fielding  made  the  stage  the  vehicle  of  criticism  of  the  poli- 
tics, literature,  and  follies  of  the  time.  The  actors  Foote  and 
Garrick  did  the  same  in  their  farces,  and  Goldsmith  and 
Sheridan  in  their  comedies.  Swift's  political  writings  and 
his  Journal  to  Stella ;  Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson  ;  Horace  Wal- 
pole's  Letters  and  his  Memoirs  of  George  II ;  Gibbon's  Auto- 
biography; the  powerful  cartoons  of  William  Hogarth  and 
the  caricatures  of  Gillray,  all  contribute  facts  to  warrant  the 
somber  picture  of  the  mid-century  painted  by  their  graver 
contemporaries. 

Let  us  turn  to  the  later  historians.  Hugh  Price  Hughes 
has  justly  observed  that  the  time  is  past  when  it  would  be 
necessary  to  repeat  Macaulay's  withering  rebuke  of  literary 
charlatans  who  profess  to  write  the  history  of  the  eighteenth 
century  without  describing  the  Methodist  movement  and  esti- 
mating: its  influence  on  the  course  of  events.      "  That  race  is 


Tributes  to  the  Methodist  Revival  21 

extinct,  as  Macaulay  prophesied  it  would  be."  The  most  im- 
portant contribution  of  this  generation  to  English  historical 
literature  is  Lecky's  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century.  In  that  great  work  the  story  of  ' '  The  Religious 
Revival"  first  finds  its  true  historical  position.  The  fasci- 
nating History  of  the  English  People,  by  John  Richard 
Green,  also  recognizes  the  importance  of  the  great  revival. 
Canon  Overton,  the  present  rector  of  Epworth,  and  C.  J. 
Abbey  have  written  a  History  of  the  English  Church  in  the 
Eighteenth  Century,  which  Dr.  Rigg,  the  Wesleyan  divine, 
is  able  to  characterize  as  a  "  noble  work."  Stoughton,  a  Con- 
gregation alist  of  a  truly  "catholic  spirit,"  has  a  volume  on 
the  period  in  his  History  of  Religion  in  England.  All  these 
recent  writers,  of  different  schools,  agree  that  irreligion  and 
immorality  had  reached  their  climax  when  the  Methodists 
began  their  work.  In  the  words  of  Green,  "  Never  had  reli- 
gion seemed  at  a  lower  ebb." 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Deep  Causes  of  the  Great  Decline 

Striking  a  Balance  between  the  Evil  and  the  Good.— Political 
Confusion  and  Uncertainty  of  the  Seventeenth  Century. — 
The  Dissolute  Stuarts.— Evil  Example  of  the  First  Georges. — 
Thackeray's  Dark  Picture.— Corrupt  Statesmen. — The  Gam- 
bling Fever.— The  Vices  of  the  Nobility. — Loose  Morals  of  the 
Universities. — Corruption  in  Politics. 

EVEN  if  we  give  the  largest  possible  recognition  to  the 
better  side  of  the  England  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
the  balance  was  against  the  good,   the  hopeful,  and 
the    promising.       Immorality  and  irreligion    were   fearfully 
in  the  ascendant. 

What  were  the  causes  ?  The  political  confusion  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  the  bitter  controversies,  the  religious 
intolerance,  the  return  of  the  dissolute  Stuarts,  the  reaction 
from  the  external  restraints  of  a  Puritanism  which  had  not 
pervaded  the  masses  with  moral  life,  the  legislative  alliance 
of  Church  and  State,  the  long  uncertainty  as  to  a  Romish  or 
Protestant  succession,  the  immorality  of  the  first  two  Georges 
and  their  favorites,  the  evil  influence  of  Walpole,  the  sudden 
commercial  prosperity  in  the  years  of  political  peace,  the 
lack  of  spiritual  leaders,  the  spread  of  Socinian  and  deistic 
principles,  all  contributed  to  the  moral  decay.      "The  truth 


Political  Uncertainty  23 

is,"  says  Dr.  Gregory,  "England  had  never  yet  been  thor- 
oughly evangelized ;  it  had  been  ecclesiasticized  instead.  The 
Italian  missionaries  sent  by  Gregory  the  Great  had  indeed 
fixed  '  the  Church  '  upon  the  soil,  yet  they  and  their  succes- 
sors but  partly  disheathenized  the  nation.  The  very  Chris- 
tianity they  brought  from  Rome  was  to  a  sad  extent  a  mongrel 
compromise  with  paganism,  a  loose  concordat  with  the  ancient 
superstitions.  The  various  subsequent  attempts  to  snatch  up 
again  and  carry  forward  the  arrested  work  by  the  itinerant 
preaching  friars,  Wiclif's  traveling  preachers,  and  the  other 
Elizabethan  evangelists  had  all  been  sporadic  and  spas- 
modic. .  .  .  The  moral  condition  of  the  country  was  such  as 
to  require  a  reevangelization  on  the  largest  scale." 

The  political  uncertainty  of  the  years  preceding  the  evan- 
gelical revival  is  well  expressed  in  the  words  of  the  Jacobite, 
Dr.  Byrom : 

God  bless  the  king — I  mean  our  faith's  defender ; 
God  bless — no  harm  in  blessing — the  Pretender; 
But  who  Pretender  is,  and  who  is  king, 
God  bless  us  all,  that's  quite  another  thing. 

The  prolonged  unsettledness  had  injuriously  affected  na- 
tional morals.  As  the  century  advanced  a  growing  sense  of 
security  pervaded  the  country,  but  the  private  vices  of  the 
first  two  royal  Georges  made  the  court  a  pesthouse.  While 
giving  these  two  kings  credit  for  justice,  courage,  and  mod- 
eration as  rulers,  Thackeray,  in  his  Lectures  on  the  Four 
Georges,  has  painted  a  terribly  faithful  picture  of  those  days, 
now  past  in  England,  of  that  strange  religion  of  king-wor- 
ship, when  priests  flattered  princes  in  the  temple  of  God, 
when  servility  was  held  to  be  ennobling  duty,  when  beauty 
and  youth  tried  eagerly  for  royal  favors,  and  woman's  shame 
was  held  to  be  no  dishonor.      "  I  read  that  Lady  Yarmouth, 


24  British  Methodism 

my  most  religious  and  gracious  king's  favorite,  sold  a  bishop- 
ric to  a  clergyman  for  ,£5,000.  He  had  betted  her  .£5,000 
that  he  would  not  be  made  a  bishop,  and  he  lost,  and  paid 
her.  As  I  peep  into  George  H's  St.  James's  I  see  .  .  .  that 
godless  old  king  yawning  under  his  canopy  in  his  Chapel 
Royal  as  the  chaplain  before  him  is  discoursing.  .  .  .  Whilst 
the  chaplain  is  preaching  the  king  is  chattering  in  German 
almost  as  loud  as  the  preacher ;  so  loud  that  the  clergyman — 
it  may  be  one  Doctor  Young,  he  who  wrote  Night  Thoughts, 
and  discoursed  on  the  splendor  of  the  stars,  the  glories  of 
heaven,  and  utter  vanities  of  this  world — actually  burst  out 
crying  in  his  pulpit  because  the  Defender  of  the  Faith  and 
dispenser  of  bishoprics  would  not  listen  to  him.  .  .  .  No 
wonder  that  skeptics  multiplied  and  morals  degenerated,  so 
far  as  they  depended  on  the  influence  of  such  a  king.  No 
wonder  that  Whitefield  cried  out  in  the  wilderness ;  that  Wes- 
ley quitted  the  insulted  temple  to  pray  on  the  hillside.  I 
look  with  reverence  on  those  men  at  that  time.  Which  is  the 
sublimer  spectacle — the  good  John  Wesley,  surrounded  by 
his  congregation  of  miners  at  the  pit's  mouth,  or  the  queen's 
chaplains  muttering  through  their  morning  office  in  their 
anteroom,  under  the  picture  of  the  great  Venus,  with  the 
door  opened  into  the  adjoining  chamber,  where  the  queen  is 
dressing,  talking  scandal  to  Lord  Hervey,  or  uttering  sneers 
at  Lady  Suffolk,  who  is  kneeling  with  the  basin  at  her  mis- 
tress's side  ?  I  say  I  am  scared  as  I  look  round  at  this 
society,  at  this  king,  at  these  courtiers,  at  these  politicians, 
these  bishops,  at  this  flaunting  vice  and  levity.  Whereabouts 
in  this  court  is  the  honest  man?  Where  is  the  pure  person 
one  may  like?     The  air  stifles  one  with  its  sickly  perfumes. 

44  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  who  controlled  English  political  life 
during  nearly  the  first  quarter  of  a  century  of  the  House  of 


Looseness  of  Morals  25 

Hanover — who  spent  £1,500,000  in  bribery,  and  boasted 
that  he  could  buy  any  man's  conscience — in  private  life 
reveled  in  the  lowest  pleasures,  passing  his  Sundays  tip- 
pling at  Richmond,  and  his  holidays  brawling  over  his 
dogs  or  boozing  at  Haughton  with  boors  over  beef  and 
punch.  We  find  a  later  prime  minister,  the  Duke  of  Graf- 
ton, appearing  with  his  mistress  at  the  play,  and  Lord  Ches- 
terfield instructing  his  son  in  low  vices  as  part  of  a  polite 
education,  and  stating  his  grand  conclusion  on  the  proprieties 
of  life  as  he  writes,  'Your  dancing  master  is  at  this  time 
the  man  in  all  Europe  of  the  greatest  importance  to  you.'  " 

The  fop  was  enthroned  by  "society."  The  picture  of 
Beau  Nash  in  the  famous  Pump  Room  at  Bath  hung  between 
the  busts  of  Newton  and  Pope. 

This  picture  placed  these  busts  between 

(".ives  satire  all  its  strength  ; 
Wisdom  and  Wit  are  little  seen, 

But  Folly  at  full  length. 

The  follies  of  dress  reached  their  height  in  the  dandies, 
beaux,  and  macaronis;  and  the  true  lady,  the  "woman  of 
quality,"  was  distinguished  by  vast  paddings  and  high  head- 
dresses filled  with  wool,  tow,  or  hemp. 

The  passion  for  gambling  attained  its  climax  under  the 
first  two  Georges.  It  was  stimulated  by  the  South  Sea  marfia 
for  stock  speculation  and  by  fantastic  and  wild  schemes  for 
making  fortunes  rapidly.  State  lotteries  were  ranked  among 
the  ordinary  sources  of  revenue,  and  did  much  to  spread  the 
fever.  Westminster  Bridge  was  built  chiefly  from  the  pro- 
ceeds of  these  lotteries.  Even  Addison  writes  to  an  Irish 
friend,  "  Last  week  I  drew  £1,000  in  the  lottery."  Private 
gaming  reached  wild  extravagance.  One  night,  in  1772, 
Fox  lost  £11,000  over  the  card  table.     The  Duke  of  Devon- 


26 


British  Methodism 


shire  lost  an  estate  in  a  game  of  basset.  Lord  Sandwich 
gave  his  name  to  "  a  bit  of  beef  between  two  pieces  of  bread," 
which  formed  his  only  food  during  twenty-four  hours'  spell 
of  hazard.     White's  Chocolate  House  became  a  center  for  the 


E     COPPERPLATE     BY     ROBERTS. 


STATE    LOTTERY,    LONDON,    172,9- 

vice,  and  Swift  tells  us  that  Lord  Oxford  never  passed  it 
without  bestowing  on  it  a  curse  as  "  the  bane  of  the  English 
nobility."  One  of  Gillray's  caricatures  reflects  upon  the  vio- 
lent passion  for  gaming  which  possessed  the  women  of  the 
day,  and  two  of  them  are  represented  as  quarreling,  one  pre- 
paring to  settle  the  dispute  with  the  heavy  candlestick. 


Coarseness  of  Manners 


27 


Manners  were  cruel  and  coarse,  even  among  the  "better 
classes."  Acts  of  outrage  by  "young  gentlemen"  were 
treated  as  subjects  of  jest,  and  almost  of  praise.  The  Mohocks 
— as  one  club  of  these  "gentlefolk"  called  themselves — 
primed  with  drink,  surrounded  their  victims  in  the  street  and 
pricked  them  with 
swords  to  make  them 
caper,  rolled  women 
down  Snow  Hill  in 
barrels,  slit  the  noses 
and  gouged  out  the 
eyes  of  others,  and 
sometimes  employed 
those  bacchanalian 
orgies  to  wreak  ven- 
geance on  personal 
enemies.  Bankrupt 
gentlemen  took  to 
the  road,  and  as 
highwaymen  were 
regarded  as  the  aris- 
tocracy of  the  * '  pro- 
fession." 

At  both  univer- 
sities the  moral  tone 
was  shamefully  low 
and  the  teaching  inefficient.  On  this  point  we  have  the  evi- 
dence of  such  diverse  witnesses  as  Defoe,  Swift,  Johnson, 
Gibbon,  Gray,  John  Wesley,  Lord  Eldon,  and  Lord  Chester- 
field. Dean  Swift  declares :  "I  have  heard  more  than  one 
or  two  persons  of  high  rank  declare  that  they  could  learn 
nothing  more  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge  than  to  drink  ale  or 


DRAWN     BY    GiLLRAY. 


ERPLATE    BY     FAIRMOlT. 


GAMBLING    WOMEN. 

Gillray's  caricature,  "  Settling  the  Odd  Trick."  The  print  is 
interesting  also  as  showing  the  fashion  of  "high  heads," 
which  Wesley  condemned. 


28  British  Methodism 

smoke  tobacco ;  wherein  I  firmly  believe  them,  and  could 
have  added  some  hundred  examples  from  my  own  observa- 
tion." Gray  writes  later  from  Cambridge,  after  describing 
the  Duke  of  Newcastle's  installation  as  Chancellor  of  the 
University  on  August  8,  1749:  "For  the  rest  of  the  per- 
formances, they  were  just  what  they  usually  are.  Everyone, 
while  it  lasted,  was  very  gay  and  very  busy  in  the  morning, 
and  very  owlish  and  very  tipsy  at  night ;  I  make  no  excep- 
tions from  the  chancellor  to  bluecoat."  Lord  Eldon  states 
that  he  had  seen  at  Oxford  a  Doctor  of  Divinity  so  far  the 
worse  for  a  convivial  entertainment  that  he  was  unable  to 
walk  home  without  leaning  for  support  upon  the  wall ;  but 
having  by  accident  stumbled  to  the  rotunda  of  the  Ratcliffe 
Library,  which  was  not  then  protected  by  a  railing,  he  con- 
tinued to  go  round  and  round,  wondering  at  the  unwonted 
length  of  the  street,  but  still  revolving,  and  supposing  he 
went  straight,  until  some  friend — perhaps  the  future  chan- 
cellor— relieved  him  from  his  embarrassment  and  set  him  on 
his  way. 

The  eminence  of  the  men  who  bear  this  testimony  appears 
to  refute  the  charge  of  educational  inefficiency,  but  Goldwin 
Smith  has  well  said:  "The  universities  being  the  regular 
finishing  schools  of  the  gentry  and  the  professions,  the  men 
who  had  passed  through  them  became  eminent  in  after  life ; 
but  they  owed  little  or  nothing  to  the  university.  Only  in 
this  way  can  Oxford  lay  claim  to  the  eminence  of  Bishop 
Butler,  Jeremy  Bentham,  or  Adam  Smith,  while  Gibbon  is 
her  reproach.  The  figures  of  Lord  Eldon  and  Lord  Stowell 
.  .  .  were  more  academical.  Here  and  there  a  tutor  of  a 
better  stamp,  no  doubt,  would  try  to  do  his  duty  by  his 
pupils.  .  .  .  To  the  eighteenth  century  we  mainly  owe  the 
college  gardens  and  walks  as  we  see  them,"  and  these  "  may 


Literature  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  29 

plead  to  a  student's  heart  for  some  mitigation  of  the  sentence 
on  the  race  of  clerical  idlers  and  winebibbers  who,  for  a 
century,  made  the  university  a  place  not  of  education  and 
learning,  but  of  dull  sybaritism  and  a  source  not  of  light, 
but  of  darkness  to  the  nation.  It  is  sad  to  think  how  differ- 
ent the  history  of  England  might  have  been  had  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  done  their  duty,  like  Harvard  and  Yale,  during 
the  last  century." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  century  literature  was  demoralized 
by  political  patronage.  Men  who  could  write  well  found  the 
chiefs  of  both  the  great  parties  of  the  State  willing  to  employ 
them,  as  Macaulay  says,  "with  emulous  munificence."  As 
the  century  advanced  this  ceased.  The  patronage  of  the 
public  was  of  slow  growth,  and  the  abject  poverty  of  authors 
laid  them  open  to  the  special  temptations  of  a  precarious 
livelihood.  Johnson,  Collins,  Fielding,  and  Thomson  were 
all  arrested  for  debt.  Johnson's  spirited  letter  to  Lord  Ches- 
terfield upon  the  completion  of  his  Dictionary  is  one  of  the 
most  famous  in  literature,  and  Ward's  picture  of  the  sturdy 
author  in  the  nobleman's  anteroom  well  expresses  Johnson's 
disgust  with  the  coxcomb  for  whom  he  had  been  excluded, 
and  his  impatience  at  his  repeated  waiting  upon  the  patron 
to  whom  he  dedicated  his  first  prospectus.  Notwithstanding 
the  improvement  effected  by  such  writers  as  Addison  and 
Steele  literature  was  very  impure,  as  kindly  Sir  Walter  Scott 
testifies :  ' '  The  writings  even  of  the  most  esteemed  poets  of 
that  period  contain  passages  which  would  now  be  accounted 
to  deserve  the  pillory.  Nor  was  the  tone  of  conversation 
more  pure  than  that  of  composition,  for  the  taint  of 
Charles  II's  reign  continued  to  infect  society  until  the  pres- 
ent reign  (George  III),  when,  if  not  more  moral,  we  are  at 
least  more  decent."     The  popular  "chap-books,"  sold  by  the 


30 


British  Methodism 


peddlers,  witness  to  the  need  for  Wesley's  work  of  providing 
a  wholesome  cheap  literature  for  the  people.  Of  the  better 
type  only  of  these  chap-books  are  facsimiles  desirable. 

A  volume  published  by  the  British  Historical  Manuscripts 
Commission  in  1897  sufficiently  reveals  the  unbounded  in- 
trigue and  corruption  that  dominated  politics.  We  read  of 
worldly  aldermen  and  councilors  in  good  old  English  towns 
of  whom  Walpole's  cynical  saying,  that  every  man  had  his 


DRAWN    BY    W.     HOGART 


FROM    THE    COPPERPLATE    B*    FAIRHOLT. 


THE   ELECTION.     CANVASSING   FOR   VOTES. 


price,  was  only  too  true.  Harley  is  asked  what  ought  to  be 
paid,  and  is  told  that  at  Devizes  "  ^500  will  buy  one  of  Mr. 
Diston's  friends  and  make  a  majority  for  Mr.  Childs."  A 
letter  to  Harley  tells  of  ,£50  being1  demanded  for  a  vote. 
"  God  be  merciful  to  us,"  says  the  writer;  "  for  if  a  speedy 
stop  be  not  put  to  this  growing  evil,  England  is  undone." 
Men  bribed  their  way  to  the  House,  and  were  utterly  unscru- 
pulous as  to  how  they  voted  or  what  they  did  so  long  as  they 


Political  Corruption  31 

reached  the  golden  haven  of  official  life.     Cowper  did  not 
exasperate  when  he  wrote : 


kt>C) 


The  levee  swarms,  as  if  in  golden  pomp 
Were  charactered  on  every  statesman's  door — 
"  Battered  and  broken  fortunes  mended  here." 

Hogarth's  cartoon  tells  us  the  story  of  many  a   country 
election. 


^—^f-^K BZ 


CHAPTER  III 
Spiritual  Paralysis  of  England 

Infidelity  the   Fashion.— Deism   Dominant  in  Theology.— Bishop 

•  Butler  the  Champion   of  the  Truth. —  Degradation   of  the 

Masses. —  Barbarous    Laws.— Torpor    of    the    Churches. — The 

Parochial  Clergy. — The  Free  Churches  Asleep. — The  Revival 

and  the  Nation. 

IT  was  an  age  of  spiritual  paralysis.  Infidelity  was  a  fash- 
ion among  the  educated  classes,  and  any  serious  regard 
for  religion  was  ridiculed.  Montesquieu,  coming  from 
Voltaire's  France,  observes:  "  There  is  no  religion  in  Eng- 
land ; .  .  .if  one  speaks  of  religion,  everybody  begins  to  laugh. 
When  a  man  said  in  my  presence,  '  I  believe  this  as  I  believe 
the  Creed,'  everybody  burst  out  laughing.  .  .  .  In  France  I  am 
thought  to  have  too  little  religion,  but  in  England  to  have 
too  much."  Bishop  Butler's  well-known  words  were  only 
too  true:  "It  is  come,  I  know  not  how,  to  be  taken  for 
granted  by  many  persons  that  Christianity  is  not  so  much  as 
a  subject  of  inquiry;  but  that  it  is  now  at  length  discovered 
to  be  fictitious,  and  accordingly  they  treat  it  as  if  in  the 
present  age  this  were  an  agreed  point  among  all  people  of 
discernment;  and  nothing  remained  but  to  set  it  up  as  a 
principal  subject  of  mirth  and  ridicule,  as  it  were,  by  way  of 
reprisals  for  having  so  long  interrupted  the  pleasures  of  the 

world." 

32 


Deism  Dominant  in  Theology  33 

This  was  written  in  1736,  and  five  years  afterward  he  de- 
livered his  famous  charge  in  which  he  laments  "  the  general 
decay  of  religion  in  the  nation,"  and  the  growth  of  professed 
unbelief.  Of  the  deists  of  the  first  half  of  the  century 
scarcely  two  thought  alike.  Some  were  sincere  inquirers 
after  truth,  some  the  perplexed  victims  of  an  age  of  bitter 
controversy,  and  some  were  intellectual  fops  following  a 
mental  fashion.  Generally  deism  banished  God  from  the 
universe  which  it  admitted  he  had  made ;  it  denied  a  revela- 
tion in  the  written  word,  or  in  the  word  incarnate,  and  held 
that  all  that  is  good  in  Christianity  is  as  old  as  creation.  The 
brilliant,  dissolute  man  of  fashion  and  politician,  Lord  Boling- 
broke,  Voltaire's  friend,  posed  as  a  Churchman,  and  regarded 
religion  as  a  convenient  engine  of  the  State.  When  it  served 
his  purpose  he  stigmatized  freethinkers  as  the  ' '  pests  of 
society." 

But  Chesterfield  left  his  deistical  works  to  be  published  by 
his  executor,  Mallet,  after  his  death,  and  was  not  undeserving 
of  Johnson's  pungent  criticism:  ' '  Sir,  he  was  a  scoundrel  and 
a  coward  ;  a  scoundrel  for  charging  a  blunderbuss  against  re- 
ligion and  morality ;  a  coward  because  he  had  no  resolution  to 
fire  it  off  himself,  but  left  half  a  crown  to  a  beggarly  Scotch- 
man to  draw  the  trigger  after  his  death."  Toland,  Shaftes- 
bury, Collins,  Woolston,  Morgan,  Tindal,  Chubb  and,  later, 
Hume  and  Gibbon  expressed  various  deistic  theories.  Some 
of  their  works  were  translated  into  German,  and  aided  in  the 
enthronement  of  rationalism  in  Germany  and  those  grosser 
forms  of  infidelity  in  France  which  reached  their  culmination 
during  the  revolution.  In  writing  of  Johnson,  Carlyle  has 
vigorously  described  the  moral  torpor  of  the  nation  at  the  time 
when  the  Methodists  began  their  work :  ' '  The  eighteenth  was 
a  '  skeptical '  century ;   in  which  little  word  there  is  a  whole 


34  British  Methodism 

Pandora's  box  of  miseries.  Skepticism  means  not  intellectual 
doubt  alone,  but  moral  doubt ;  all  sorts  of  ///fidelity,  ///sin- 
cerity, spiritual  paralysis.  Perhaps  in  few  centuries  that  one 
could  specify  since  the  world  began  was  a  life  of  heroism 
more  difficult  for  a  man.  That  was  not  an  age  of  faith — an 
age  of  heroes !  .  .  .  The  '  age  of  miracles '  had  been,  or  per- 
haps had  not  been,  but  it  was  not  any  longer.  An  effete 
world,  wherein  Wonder,  Greatness,  Godhood,  could  not  now 
dwell;   in  one  word,  a  godless  world." 

Among  the  antideistic  writers  Bishop  Butler  stands  first. 
His  immortal  Analogy,  published  in  1736,  was  the  result  of 
twenty  years'  study — the  very  twenty  years  during  which  the 
deistical  notions  formed  the  atmosphere  which  educated  people 
breathed.  Next  in  importance  to  the  Analogy  was  Bishop 
Warburton's  colossal  work  on  The  Divine  Legation  of  Moses. 
The  battle  for  Christianity  was  well  fought,  but  its  truths 
required  not  only  to  be  defended,  but  to  be  applied  to  the 
heart  and  life  of  the  whole  people.  The  first  these  intellec- 
tual giants  were  well  able  to  do,  the  second  was  beyond  their 
power,  and  remained  for  the  Methodists  to  accomplish. 

The  middle  classes  were  better  than  those  above  or  below 
them.  Their  domestic  life  was  more  carefully  protected,  and 
there  were  homes  in  which  the  Puritan  fire  still  smoldered 
and  only  needed  the  breath  of  the  new  evangelism  to  kindle 
it  into  a  flame.  But  even  the  middle  classes  reveled  in 
pastimes  that  were  debasing.  Cockfighting,  bull  and  bear 
baiting,  and  licentious  plays  were  counted  choice  amusements. 
Recreative  reading  was  almost  unknown.  A  popular  litera- 
ture had  yet  to  be  created.  It  is  not  surprising  that  the  lower 
classes  were  ignorant  and  immoral.  Lecky  tells  us  that  gin 
had  been  introduced  in  1684,  but  it  was  about  1724  that  gin 
drinking  began  to  affect  the  masses,  and  it  spread  with  the 


The  Vice  of  Intemperance  35 

rapidity  and  violence  of  an  epidemic.  Small  as  is  the  place 
which  this  fact  occupies  in  English  history,  it  was  probably, 
if  we  consider  its  consequences,  one  of  the  most  momentous 
of  that  century,  because,  as  Dean  Farrar  has  said,  "  from  that 
time  the  fatal  passion  for  drink  was  at  once  and  irrevocably 
implanted  in  the  nation."  Signs  on  the  ginshops  offered 
people  enough  to  make  them  "  drunk  for  a  penny,  dead  drunk 
for  twopence,  and  straw  to  lie  upon."  Hogarth's  ghastly 
pictures  of  Gin  Lane  and  Beer  Street  bear  witness  to  scenes 
of  brutal  sensuality. 

The  criminal  law  was  barbarous.  Blackstone  calculates  that 
for  no  fewer  than  one  hundred  and  sixty  offenses,  some  of  them 
of  the  most  frivolous  description,  the  judge  was  bound  to  pro- 
nounce sentence  of  death.  A  dozen  persons  were  sometimes 
hung  at  a  time.  Men  and  women  competed  for  the  best 
position  to  view  the  scene.  On  the  gibbets  at  country  cross- 
roads bodies  were  left  to  rot  in  chains.  The  marriage  law 
was  in  a  shameful  state.  An  act  of  1753  put  a  stop  to  one 
method  by  which  some  of  the  clergy  earned  a  disgraceful 
livelihood.  Clergymen  confined  for  debt  in  the  Fleet  Prison 
had  been  allowed  for  many  years  to  marry  couples  within  its 
precincts.  The  Grub  Street  Journal  of  February  17,  1735, 
tells  of  these  "ruinous  marriages  .  .  .  by  a  sett  of  drunken, 
swearing  parsons  that  wear  black  coats."  Lord  Mahon  tells 
of  one,  Keith,  who  married  six  thousand  couples  in  a  year. 
This  led  to  infamous  scenes.  Coaches  drove  up  containing 
fashionable  women  who  were  offered  the  official  services  of 
the  men  in  clerical  costume.  So  cauterized  was  the  con- 
science of  some  of  the  better  minded  men  of  the  age  that  we 
find  them,  as  Dr.  Stoughton  remarks,  "  rather  laughing  at  the 
ludicrousness  of  the  scenes  than  frowning  on  their  crime." 

What  were  the  Established  and  Free  Churches  doing-  to 


36 


British  Methodism 


remedy  these  evils?  We  have  marked  the  transient  activity 
of  the  Anglican  Church  in  the  days  of  Queen  Anne,  and  the 
notable  cases  of  personal  devotion  which  gleam  in  the  moral 


DRAWN   BY  WM.    HOGARTH 


GIN    LANE. 


In  this  plate  and  its  companion,  "  Beer  Street,"  Hogarth  effectively  caricatured  the  shocking 
intemperance  of  his  time. 

darkness.  But  the  general  decay  of  the  Establishment  in  the 
mid-century  was  lamented  by  each  of  her  few  enlightened 
leaders.  Archbishop  Leighton  declared  "the  Church  is  a 
fair   carcass  without  a  spirit."     Bishop   Burnet  uttered  the 


Torpor  of  the  Churches  37 

touching  lament,  "I  am  in  the  seventieth  year  of  my  age, 
and  as  I  cannot  speak  long  in  this  world,  in  any  sort,  so  I 
cannot  hope  for  a  more  solemn  occasion  than  this  of  speaking 
with  all  due  freedom.  ...  I  cannot  look  on  without  the  deep- 
est concern  when  I  see  the  imminent  ruin  hanging  over  this 
Church."  He  goes  on  to  deplore  the  ignorance  of  the  clergy, 
their  engrossment  in  party  politics,  and  their  indifference  to 
the  cure  of  souls. 

Archbishop  Seeker  bore  similar  testimony  in  the  very  year 
the  Wesleys  received  "  the  witness  of  the  Spirit."  The  early 
missions  were  stagnant,  the  charity  schools  became  suspected 
of  political  propagandism,  and  "  the  religious  societies,"  says 
Overton,  "  lingered  on  long  enough  to  give  a  sort  of  frame- 
work to  the  societies  of  the  Methodists,  and  then  died  a 
natural  death.  The  Society  for  the  Reformation  of  Manners 
died  out  with  them.  The  Church  continued  to  be  a  name  to 
conjure  with,  but  the  whole  tone  was  perceptibly  lowered,  and 
other  religious  bodies  shared  the  same  plight."  Ryle,  the 
present  Bishop  of  Liverpool  (1900),  states  that  some  of  the 
bishops  were  men  of  powerful  intellect  and  unblamable  lives ; 
the  majority  "were  mere  men  of  the  world."  The  place- 
hunting  of  the  prelates  is  a  favorite  subject  for  the  satirists 
of  the  day. 

The  social  status  of  the  parochial  clergy  had  improved 
since  the  days  described  by  Macaulay,  when  many  of  them 
scarcely  rose  above  the  level  of  domestic  servants  in  the 
houses  of  the  great.  In  moral  tone  they  were  superior,  as  a 
body,  to  the  corrupt  society  of  their  day.  Voltaire,  who  was 
in  England  in  1736,  states  that  upon  the  whole  the  English 
clergy  were  more  moral  than  the  French,  and  that,  compared 
with  a  Parisian  abbot,  "  an  Anglican  dignitary  is  a  Cato." 
But,  he  adds,  "the  Anglican  clergymen  frequent  the  taverns, 


38  British  Methodism 

because  custom  sanctions  it,  and  if  they  get  drunk,  they  do 
it  seriously  and  incur  no  disgrace."  Bishop  Burnet,  on  the 
other  hand,  wrote  with  regret  that  he  had  observed  the  clergy 
in  all  the  places  in  which  he  had  traveled,  "  Papists,  Luther- 
ans, Calvinists,  and  Dissenters,  but  of  them  all  our  clergy  is 
much  the  most  remiss  in  their  labors,  in  private,  and  the 
least  severe  in  their  lives." 

Overton  is  of  the  opinion  that  matters  grew  worse  rather 
than  better  in  the  generation  that  succeeded  Burnet.  The 
best  preaching  of  the  first  half  of  the  century  was  modeled 
upon  Tillotson's  sermons — cool,  clear,  well-reasoned,  latitu- 
dinarian.  Wesley  gladly  recognized  their  moral  teaching. 
They  appealed  on  all  matters  of  religion  to  reason ;  but  they 
lacked  all  spiritual  fire ;   they  supplied  no  moral  dynamic. 

Many  of  the  clergy,  if  they  preached  at  all,  preached 
Jacobite  politics,  and  others  delivered  harangues  of  the  type 
described  by  Bishop  Blomfield  of  London.  When  this  bishop 
was  a  boy  the  Marquis  of  Bristol  presented  the  poor  old 
women  of  Bury  St.  Edmunds  with  scarlet  cloaks,  in  which 
they  all  appeared  at  church  on  the  following  Sunday.  The 
clergyman,  with  a  graceful  wave  of  the  hand  toward  the  re- 
splendent dames,  announced,  "Even  Solomon  in  all  his 
glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these,"  and  proceeded  to 
extol  the  charity  of  their  noble  patron.  -  This  same  worthy, 
who  had  "a  very  corpulent  frame  and  pompous  manner," 
had  occasion  to  notice  the  distribution  of  a  dole  of  potatoes 
to  the  poor  by  the  local  authorities,  and  chose  for  his  singu- 
larly appropriate  text,  "And  when  the  children  of  Israel 
saw  it,  they  said  one  to  another,  It  is  manna."  He  then 
warned  the  recipients  of  the  potatoes  against  the  sin  of  glut- 
tony and  the  wickedness  of  taking  more  than  their  share! 

The  condition  of  the  State  Church — its  fierce  factions,  the 


State  of  the  Free  Churches  39 

worldliness  of  many  of  the  bishops,  the  corruption  of  its 
patrons  and  financial  officials,  the  bitter  strife  and  schism  in 
the  two  Houses  of  Convocation,  resulting  in  the  closing  of 
that  council  for  a  century — rendered  the  Church  powerless  to 
reform  itself. 

What  was  the  condition  of  the  Free  Churches?  In  1702 
Defoe  estimated  the  number  of  Nonconformists  at  about  two 
millions.  Presbyterians  formed  the  largest  body,  Independ- 
ents (or  Congregationalists)  stood  second,  and  the  Baptists 
last.  By  the  close  of  the  century  the  number  had  largely 
increased.  The  ministers  of  these  Churches  had  been  pre- 
served from  the  moral  declension  of  the  Anglican  clergy, 
but  many  of  them  had  lost  their  early  fervor.  Those  were 
not  altogether  dead  Churches  which  numbered  among-  them 
such  men  as  Isaac  Watts,  the  hymn  writer;  Nathaniel  Lard- 
ner,  the  apologist;  and  Philip  Doddridge,  the  author  of  the 
book  which  touched  Wilberforce's  heart  so  deeply.  But 
Stoughton  truly  says  that  "with  certain  exceptions  a  spirit 
of  indifference  respecting  the  masses  of  the  people  infected 
the  respectable  congregations  of  the  Protestant  meeting- 
houses." Defoe,  in  17 12,  considered  Dissenters'  interests  to 
be  in  a  declining  state,  and  Calamy,  in  1730,  wrote  of  "a  real 
decay  of  serious  religion"  among  them. 

Doddridge  and  others  uttered  the  same  lament.  In  our 
own  day  the  eminent  Baptist,  Dr.  Clifford,  speaking  of 
the  general  Baptists,  says  that  at  the  time  of  Wesley's  con- 
version they  were  critical,  contentious,  and  cold.  The  breath 
of  the  Puritan  inspiration  had  ceased  to  stir  their  hearts  and 
move  their  wills.  Even  the  Society  of  Friends  did  not  escape 
the  general  declension.  "  The  religious  society  to  which  we 
nominally  belonged,"  writes  Schimmelpenninck,  "was  at  that 
period  at  its  lowest  ebb."     Dale  attributes  the  weakness  of 


40  British  Methodism 

the  Free  Churches  during  the  first  half  of  the  century  to 
their  departure  from  the  central  articles  of  the  Christian 
faith,  and  from  the  stricter  manners  and  morals  of  their 
fathers. 

Voltaire  was  in  England  from  1726  to  1729,  when,  probably 
unknown  to  him,  the  Holy  Club  was  formed  at  Oxford.  He 
declared  at  that  time  that  all  men  in  England  had  become 
so  disgusted  that  a  new  religion,  or  an  old  religion  revived, 
would  scarcely  make  its  fortune.  But  "an  old  religion  re- 
vived" was  to  bring  a  new  moral  life  to  the  nation  before  the 
-century  closed.  When  the  French  Revolution  came  fifty 
years  of  the  great  revival  had  done  their  work,  and  it  was 
only  the  trailing  edges  of  the  storm  which  swept  England's 
shores.  Lecky  sees  in  Methodism  one  of  the  forces  which 
preserved  England  from  the  revolutionary  spirit  which 
wrought  such  havoc  in  France,  and  observes  how  ' '  peculiarly 
fortunate "  it  was  that  the  commercial  development  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  century  had  been  "  preceded  by  a  religious 
revival  which  created  a  mainspring  of  moral  and  religious 
energy  among  the  poor,  and  at  the  same  time  gave  a  power- 
ful impulse  to  the  philanthropy  of  the  rich." 

This  historian  of  the  century  is  of  the  opinion  that,  "al- 
though the  career  of  the  elder  Pitt  and  the  splendid  victories 
that  were  won  during  his  ministry  form  unquestionably  the 
most  dazzling  episodes  in  the  reign  of  George  II,  they  must 
yield  in  real  importance  to  that  religious  revolution  which 
shortly  before  had  begun  in  England  by  the  preaching  of  the 
Wesleys  and  Whitefield."  Green  also  marks  the  influence  of 
the  revival  on  national  life,  and  says  that  it  "changed  in  a 
few  years  the  whole  temper  of  English  society.  .  .  .  The 
Methodists  themselves  were  the  least  result  of  the  Methodist 
revival.  ...  In  the   nation  at  large  appeared  a  new  moral 


The  Religious  Revival  41 

enthusiasm  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  Reformation.  But  the  noblest  result  of  the 
religious  revival  was  the  steady  attempt,  which  has  never 
ceased  from  that  clay  to  this,  to  remedy  the  guilt,  the  igno- 
rance, the  physical  suffering,  the  social  degradation  of  the 
suffering  and  the  poor." 

We  now  purpose  to  trace  the  ancestry  of  the  man  who, 
Green  considers,  "  embodied  in  himself,  not  this  or  that  side 
of  the  vast  movement,  but  the  very  movement  itself;"  to 
note  those  spiritual  experiences  of  Wesley  and  his  comrades 
which  gave  a  special  tone  and  trend  to  the  movement;  and 
to  tell  the  story  of  the  genesis  and  growth  of  the  Church  and 
world-wide  confederacy  of  Churches  which  resulted.  Meth- 
odists may  well  take  heed  to  the  stirring  counsels  of  the 
eminent  theologian,  Dr.  Dale,  uttered  in  the  City  Road 
Chapel  at  the  centenary  celebration  of  Wesley's  death : 

You  are  the  heirs  of  great  traditions.  You  stand  in  a  noble  succession. 
But— 

"  They  who  on  glorious  ancestry  enlarge, 
Produce  their  debt  instead  of  their  discharge." 

You  have  done  so  much  that  you  are  under  awful  responsibilities  to  the  nations 
in  which  your  societies  are  already  planted,  and  to  the  nations  to  which  you 
have  still  to  make  known  the  unsearchable  riches  of  God's  grace.  Keep  faith 
with  your  fathers ;  keep  faith  with  Christ ;  keep  faith  with  your  children  and 
your  children's  children  :  transmit  to  coming  generations  the  Gospel  which  has 
already  won  such  splendid  triumphs... 


CHAPTER  IV 

The  Ascent  of  the  Wesley  Family 

From  Westley  to  Wesley. — Bartholomew  Westley. — John  Westley 
"the  First." — An  Oxford  Puritan. 


S 


O  far  as  I  can  learn,  such  a  thing  has  scarce  been  for 
these  thousand  years  before,  as  a  son,  father,  grand- 
father, atavus,   tritavus,  preaching  the  Gospel,  nay, 
the  genuine  Gospel,  in  a  line." 

Thus  wrote  John  Wesley  to  his  brother  Charles,  thirty 
years  after  the  date  of  organized  Methodism,  concerning 
their  ancestry.      He  could  have  said  with  equal  truth  that  his 

Seven  Generations  of  the  Wkslkv  Family. 

Sir  Herbert  W^flev  *  -  '  Elizabeth,  Daughter  of 

bit  Herbert  Westlej  ,         £  =  j  Robert  Westley,  of  Dyngar  Castle 

i  —  — 

William        Hurphane 

Ann,  daughter  of  Sir  Henry  Colley=Bartholomew  Westley  -  ^L15  «. 

White,  Niece  of  Dr.  Thomas  Fuller  =  John  Westley  \  ^Ll63.6 

'  I  ob.  1670 

b.  1669    \  Susannah,  Daughter  of  Dr.  Samuel  Annesley=Samuel  Wesley  j  h\  ,f" 

ob.  174^5  )  '   (  OD.  1 


b.  1662 

735 


I  I  I  I    I    I    I    I    I         I      I     I      I     I      II     I     I 

Samuel  '  '':  l69°  John  \  ^i1™  Charles]  *L17°L  and  Sixteen  others. 

I  ob.  1739         J         1 00.  1791  I  ob.  1768 


Charles  \  VT  Samuel  j  b:17f 

I  i>l).  i,-,  54  I  ob.  1837 


Samuel  Sebastian]  J^ 


42 


The  Ancestry  of  the  Wesleys  43 

female  ancestors  were  as  distinguished  as  their  husbands — 
his  mother,  grandmother,  and  great-grandmother  being  re- 
nowned for  their  gifts  of  genius,  for  their  intense  interest  in 
ecclesiastical  life,  and  for  their  suffering  in  obedience  to  con- 
science. 

The  founder  of  Methodism  was  not  fully  acquainted  with 
the  particulars  of  his  remarkable  ancestry.  But  in  those  rare 
moments  when  even  the  busiest  of  men  naturally  inquire 
about  their  forefathers  he  was  profoundly  impressed  that 
Providence  had  favored  his  own  household  in  a  singular  way. 
The  ancestral  line  of  the  Wesleys  revealed  the  fact  that  the 
principles  of  intellectual,  social,  and  religious  nobility  were 
developing  and  maturing  into  a  new  form  of  pentecostal 
evangelism. 

On  the  southwestern  shore  line  of  England  is  the  county 
of  Dorset,  a  part  of  which  was  called  "  West-Leas,"  lea  sig- 
nifying a  field  or  farm.  In  Somerset,  adjoining  Dorset, 
there  was  a  place  called  Welswey,  and  before  surnames  were 
common  we  have  Arthur  of  Welswey  or  Arthur  Wellsesley 
(Wellesley),  and  John  West-leigh,  and  Henry  West-ley. 
There  were  landowners  in  Somerset  named  Westley  in  the 
days  of  Alfred  the  Great,  in  the  ninth  century.  There  was 
an  Edward  Westley  in  the  year  925,  and  a  Guy  Wellesley  in 
930.  The  latter  was  constituted  a  thane,  or  member  of  the 
king's  court.  Arthur  Wellesley  married  a  relative  named 
Westley  in  11 50.  Sir  William  de  Wellesley  was  a  member 
of  Parliament  in  1339.  His  second  son,  Sir  Richard,  became 
the  head  of  the  Wesleys  in  Ireland,  from  whom  descended 
the  Marquis  of  Wellesley,  Governor  General  of  India  under 
William  Pitt,  and  his  greater  brother  Arthur,  Duke  of 
Wellington,  the  conqueror  of  Napoleon  at  Waterloo. 

We  step  out  on  firmer  ground   and  get  nearer  home  in 


44  British  Methodism 

stating  that  a  grandson  of  Sir  William,  Sir  Herbert,  now- 
called  Westley,  was  the  father  of  Bartholomew  Westley,  and 
great-grandfather  of  our  own  John  Wesley.  One  quaint 
narrator  says  that  Sir  Herbert  and  Lady  were  "  persons  per- 
mitted intercourse  with  the  leading  minds  of  the  age,  and 
themselves  took  an  active  part  in  molding  their  community 
in  its  moral,  social,  and  religious  aspects."  In  the  opening 
days  of  the  seventeenth  century  stands  Bartholomew  Westley 
amid  the  quickening  forces  of  the  Elizabethan  age,  and  enter- 
ing upon  his  manhood  before  the  death  of  Shakespeare.  He 
was  about  seven  years  old  when  James  I  came  to  the  throne. 
He  entered  Oxford  as  the  first  on  the  list  of  coming  students 
bearing  the  name  of  Wesley.  After  completing  the  classical 
course  he  graduated  in  "physic,"  which  was  his  means 
of  livelihood  for  some  years  to  come.  In  1620,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-five,  he  married  the  daughter  of  Sir  Henry  Colley,  of 
Castle  Carberry,  Kildare,  Ireland,  by  whom  he  had  one  son 
named  John. 

Having  taken  ' '  holy  orders, "  Bartholomew  Westley  became 
a  Puritan  clergyman  in  the  Established  Church.  In  1640  he 
was  appointed  rector  of  Charm outh,  on  the  coast  line  of  the 
English  Channel,  a  village  remarkable  for  its  romantic  situa- 
tion  between  two  lofty  hills.  On  the  night  of  September  22, 
165  1,  a  small  party  of  horsemen  rode  along  the  quiet  valley 
toward  Charmouth,  and  their  flying  visit  linked  the  life  of 
the  country  rector  with  the  stirring  events  of  the  times. 

The  battle-  of  Worcester  had  just  been  fought,  and 
Charles,  afterward  the  Second,  defeated  by  Cromwell,  sought 
safety  in  flight  to  France.  Expecting  to  take  boat  near 
Charmouth,  the  prince,  with  his  company  disguised  as  a 
wedding  party,  spent  the  night  in  an  inn  near  the  church  and 
attended  early  morning  prayers  conducted  by  Bartholomew 


John  Westley  the  First  45 

Westley.  A  blacksmith  of  the  town,  who  had  been  called  on 
to  shoe  a  horse  for  one  of  the  strangers,  noticed  that  the 
other  iron  shoes  were  not  those  of  the  south  of  England,  but 
of  the  north.  The  proclamation  of  Parliament  having  only 
two  days  before  been  read  at  Lyme  Regis,  close  by,  warning 
everybody  against  harboring  the  prince,  the  blacksmith  com- 
municated his  suspicions  that  the  company  might  be  that  of 
Charles  and  his  disguised  adherents.  Westley  having 
learned  the  facts,  sought  a  magistrate  to  procure  a  warrant  of 
arrest.  An  armed  party  started  in  pursuit  of  the  prince, 
who  meanwhile  had  ascertained  his  danger  and  fled. 

Kings  have  proverbially  good  memories.  The  horseshoe 
incident  was  not  forgotten  when  Charles  came  to  the  throne. 
The  king  violated  his  pledges  that  all  should  enjoy  religious 
liberty,  by  persecuting  Puritans,  ejecting  Nonconforming 
ministers,  and  branding  Westley  as  an  "intruder."  Westley 
went  forth  to  become  one  of  the  valiant  host  of  Nonconform- 
ists. He  retreated  with  some  of  his  faithful  parishioners  to 
the  "  solitudes  of  Pinney,  and  there  in  a  dell  between  rocks  " 
— afterward  known  as  White  Chapel  Rocks — they  worshiped 
God.  Although  the  Royalists  stigmatized  him  "fanatic," 
and  "puny  parson,"  because  of  his  small  stature,  he  was 
kind,  prudent,  and  beloved  by  the  Christian  people  among 
whom  he  lived.  In  his  home  and  before  the  public  he  was  a 
devout  and  godly  man.  In  1680  the  tidings  of  his  son's 
death  reached  him,  and  then  "  his  heart  broke,"  and  the 
gray-headed  confessor  passed  to  his  unknown  grave  at  Char- 
mouth,  at  about  the  age  of  eighty-five. 

There  was  a  John  Westley  who  lived  about  1400,  a  clergy- 
man, and  another,  in  148 1,  rector  of  Langton.  But  the  John 
Westley  who  was  son  of  Bartholomew  and  Ann,  born  1636, 
is  to  us  "  the  First."     In  his  early  training  and  in  energy  of 


46  British  Methodism 

character  he  so  closely  resembled  the  founder  of  Methodism 
that  we  trace  his  career  with  special  interest.  In  the  quiet 
of  the  home  between  the  hills  of  Charmouth  he  received  such 
instruction  from  his  father  as  placed  him  in  advance  of  most 
boys  of  his  age.  His  father  consecrated  him  to  the  ministry 
from  his  infancy.  "  Family  religion,  in  the  household  of  the 
Westleys,"  says  the  author  of  The  Fathers  of  the  Wesley 
Family,  ' '  formed  an  essential  part  of  their  discipline.  It  was 
matter  of  conscience  to  instruct  children  and  dependents  in 
social,  moral,  and  religious  duties.  It  was  also  their  practice 
to  .set  apart  particular  days  for  prayer  and  humiliation  in 
seasons  of  calamity  and  for  thanksgiving  on  occasions  of 
special  benefit." 

John  was  a  thoughtful  lad,  having  a  serious  concern  for 
his  spiritual  life  while  yet  a  schoolboy.  In  his  diary  he 
records  faithfully  God's  dealings  with  his  soul  and  his  frame 
of  mind  while  in  attendance  on  the  means  of  grace.  His 
more  celebrated  grandson,  by  the  same  plan  of  recording  the 
chief  experiences  of  his  life,  reveals  to  us  his  unfaltering 
honesty  of  soul,  and  marks  the  course  of  the  stream  of  grace 
and  power  which  flowed  through  his  whole  ministry. 

Out  from  his  happy  home,  before  he  was  sixteen,  the  lad 
went  as  a  student  to  New  Inn  Hall,  Oxford  University. 
Talented  and  well  trained,  he  soon  won  favor  with  the  learned 
vice  chancellor,  John  Owen,  who  reported  him  one  of  the  best 
students.  He  excelled  in  oriental  languages,  and  was  com- 
mended for  excellence  of  deportment.  Some  of  his  in- 
structors were  the  great  spirits  of  the  age.  Among  the 
students,  and  perhaps  his  associates,  were  many  who  became 
the  famous  men  of  the  subsequent  generation. 

Marshall  Claxton's  historic  painting  of  John  Wesley  and 
his  friends  at  Oxford  might  well  have  its  counterpart  in  an 


The  Oxford  Friends  of  John  Westley  47 

imaginary  grouping  of  students  in  the  days  of  John  Westley 
the  First.  There  is  John  Howe,  six  years  his  senior,  after- 
ward Cromwell's  domestic  chaplain,  and  familiarly  called  the 
"Platonic  Puritan."  Stephen  Charnock  stands  near  him, 
with  aspiring  spirit  and  eloquent  lips,  whose  Discourses  on 
the  Attributes  of  God  is  recognized  as  the  finest  work  on 
the  subject  in  English  literature.  There  is  the  witty  and 
sarcastic  Robert  South,  who  at  this  time  figured  among  the 
most  glowing  eulogists  of  Cromwell,  but  who  thirty  years  later 
denounced  him  "  as  a  beggarly  bankrupt  fellow;"  William 
Penn,  the  Quaker;  Philip  Henry,  the  saintly  father  of  the 
commentator;  Christopher  Wren,  the  architect  of  St.  Paul's; 
Joseph  Alleine,  author  of  An  Alarm  to  the  Unconverted ; 
and  Lancelot  Addison,  father  of  Joseph  Addison,  are  in  the 
foreground.  Back  of  these  are  at  least  twelve  voting  men  who 
afterward  became  bishops — one  of  them,  Sprat,  from  Westley's 
own  county.  Such  were  the  associates  of  our  earnest,  bright- 
souled  student,  who  graduated  as  Bachelor  of  Arts  when 
twenty-one  years  old,  and  two  years  later  received  the  degree 
of  Master  of  Arts. 


CHAPTER  V 

John  Westley  the  First 

Relations  with  the  Puritans. — John  Owen. — Thomas  Goodwin.— 
Puritan  Oxford. — A  Contemporary  at  London.— John  Good- 
win.—Interview  with  Ironside,  Bishop  of  Bristol. 

WE  do  not  wonder  that  the  elder  John  Westley 
adopted  views  of  Church  government  substantially 
the  same  as  those  held  by  his  friend,  the  great  vice 
chancellor,  John  Owen,  who  was  the  leader  of  the  liberal  party 
among  the  Independents.  To  a  rare  amount  of  theological 
learning  Owen  united  a  dignified  presence,  a  face  not  soon  to 
be  forgotten,  eyes  of  penetrating  brightness,  lips  of  firm  re- 
solve, a  countenance  generally  very  grave,  and  which  could  be 
very  stern,  profuse  locks  curling  over  the  shoulder,  and  alto- 
gether the  air  and  bearing  of  a  gentleman.  His  appearance 
had  arrested  Cromwell's  notice.  "  Sir,"  said  the  general,  lay- 
ing his  hand  on  Owen's  shoulder,  "  you  are  a  person  I  must 
be  better  acquainted  with."  "  That,"  replied  the  divine,  with 
the  courtliness  of  a  cavalier,  "  will  be  much  more  to  my  ad- 
vantage than  to  yours."  They  became  friends.  Cromwell 
nominated  him  to  the  vice  chancellorship  after  the  Parlia- 
ment had  appointed  him  to  the  deanery  of  Christ  Church. 

John  Westley  was  a  prototype  of  his  famous  grandson  of 
the  next  century  in  his  sympathy  with  Owen's  vigorous  efforts 


In  Puritan  Oxford 


49 


to  reform  the  evil  customs,  to  curb  the  prevailing  licentious- 
ness, and  to  restore  the  moral  tone  of  the  university.  Our 
facsimile  of  Owen's  handwriting  is  from  the  closing  para- 


AUTOGRAPH    OF   JOHN    OWEN. 

From  a  letter  written  by  Owen  to  Henry  Cromwell,  in  1654,  while  Tohn  Westley 
was  at  Oxford. 

graph  of  a  letter  to  Oliver  Cromwell's  eldest  son,  Henry, 
which  was  written  during  the  second  year  of  Westley's  resi- 
dence, and  refers  to  the  much-needed  reforms.  In  his  Latin 
oration  of  1654  Owen  also  speaks  of  the  conflict  out  of  which 
the  university  rose,  not  with  trophies,  spoils,  and  garlands, 
but  with  scars  and  torn  standards  dragged  in  dust.  They 
had  put  to  flight  wine  shops,  ale  sellers,  mimics,  farces, 
buffoons,  the  public  riots,  and  disgraceful  street  scenes. 
Puritan  Oxford,  when  Westley  left  it,  and  after  Owen's 
reforms  had  been  matured,  was  far  superior  to  the  Royalist 
Oxford  of  a  previous  or  a  later  date,  Antony  a  Wood,  the 
Royalist,  being  an  unwilling  witness.  "  Even  Clarendon 
admits,"  says  Goldwin  Smith,  "that  the  Restoration  found 
the  university  abounding  in  excellent  learning.  Puritan- 
ism might  be  narrow  and  bibliolatrous,  but  it  was  not  ob- 
scurantist nor  the  enemy  of  science.  We  see  this  in  Puritan 
Oxford  as  well  as  in  Puritan  Haiward  and  Yale.  In  Puritan 
Oxford  the    scientific    circle  which  afterward  gave   birth  to 

the  Royal  Society  was  formed." 
4 


SO  British  Methodism 

The  other  of  "  the  two  Atlases  and  Patriarchs  of  Inde- 
pendency," as  Wood  calls  them,  was  Thomas  Goodwin,  Presi- 
dent of  Magdalen  College.  There  has  been  much  fun  since- 
the  days  of  the  Spectator  about  this  Puritan  rabbi's  ' '  night- 
caps," but  "those  caps,  few  or  many,  certainly  covered  a 
larger  amount  of  brains  than  some  ever  had  who  are  fond  of 
laughing  at  the  great  Puritan." 

The  theology  of  these  two  divines  was  Puritan  of  the 
purest  type.  In  spite  of  their  defects  the  veins  of  gold  run- 
ning through  their  works  rendered  them  a  mine  of  wealth  a 
hundred  years  later,  when  people  impoverished  by  rational- 
ism flocked  to  them  as  to  a  spiritual  El  Dorado.  Stoughton, 
the  brilliant  Congregational  historian,  considers  that  the 
Methodism  ultimately  fixed  outside  the  Establishment  by 
Whitefield  and  the  two  Wesleys  was  largely  dug  out  of 
Puritan  ore.  But  this  was  more  true  of  Whitefield's  theol- 
ogy, and  of  the  evangelicalism  in  Calvinistic  form  which 
was  fostered  within  the  Establishment  by  Methodistic  clergy- 
men such  as  Romaine,  Berridge,  and  Venn,  than  of  Wesleyan 
Methodism. 

John  Wesley  the  Great  in  his  earlier  years  was  more 
influenced  by  the  Cambridge  school,  represented  by  Ralph 
Cudworth,  Henry  More,  and  John  Smith,  of  his  grandfather's 
days,  of  whom  the  celebrated  William  Law  was  a  disciple. 
As  the  second  John  Wesley  grew  older  his  knowledge  of  his 
grandfather's  associates  and  their  Puritan  teaching  increased, 
and  with  it  came  an  increase  of  admiration  and  respect.  It 
was,  we  may  well  imagine,  a  labor  of  love  when  he  devoted 
the  seventh  volume  of  his  Christian  Library  to  "extracts 
from  the  works  of  the  Puritans."  In  one  significant  respect 
the  teaching  of  the  Methodist  Wesleys  presented  a  sharp  con- 
trast to  that  of  their  grandfather's  friend,  John  Owen.     In 


A  Sturdy  Puritan  51 

the  great  Puritan's  works  scarcely  a  spark  of  the  missionary 
spirit  is  to  be  found.  In  his  sermon  on  "St.  Paul's  Vision  of 
the  Man  of  Macedonia  "  he  actually  labors  hard  to  prove  that 
the  divine  will  requires  that  to  some  nations  and  regions  the 
Gospel  should  not  be  sent. 

Though  convinced  of  a  call  from  God  to  the  work  of  a 
Gospel  preacher  and  evangelist,  John  Westley  did  not  take 
orders.  He  preached  among  the  seamen  at  Radipole,  and  in 
May,  1658,  when  twenty-two  years  of  age,  after  examination 
and  approval  by  Cromwell's  thirty-eight  "triers,"  he  became 
minister  of  Whitchurch.  How  great  was  his  promise  is  seen 
in  the  fact  that  the  church  in  which  he  had  been  a  private 
member  appointed  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  for  "  God's 
abundant  blessing  "  upon  him.  A  little  later  he  married  the 
niece  of  the  quaint  and  famous  Thomas  Fuller,  and  a 
daughter  of  Rev.  John  White,  known  as  the  "  Patriarch  of 
Dorchester,"  and  a  notable  figure  in  the  Westminster  Assem- 
bly of  Divines.  "  A  grave  man,  yet  without  moroseness." 
says  Thomas  Fuller,  "who  absolutely  commanded  his  own 
passions  and  the  purses  of  his  parishioners,  whom  he  could 
wind  up  to  what  height  he  pleased  on  important  occasions." 

Those  were  exciting  times.  The  fire  burned  high  in  the 
preacher's  soul.  He  "  rode  with  his  sword  in  the  time  of  the 
Committee  of  Safety  and  engaged  with  them  "  in  their  delib- 
erations for  revolutionary  plans,  which  he  acknowledged 
afterward  to  have  been,  for  a  minister,  "  imprudence  in  civil 
matters."  He  is  a  grand  figure  as  he  makes  his  memorable 
defense  before  Dr.  Ironside,  the  Bishop  of  Bristol,  in  courteous 
words  maintaining  his  right  to  preach  without  episcopal 
ordination. 

"I  shall  desire,"  said  Westley,  "those  several  to  be  laid 
together  which  I  look  on  as  justifying  my  preaching :    1 .  I  was 


52  .    British  Methodism 

devoted  to  the  service  of  God  from  mine  infancy;  2.  I  was 
educated  in  order  thereto  at  school  and  in  the  University  of 
Oxford." 

"  What  is  your  age?  "  interrupted  the  bishop. 

"  Twenty-five." 

' '  No,  sure  you  are  not !  " 

"  3.  As  a  son  of  the  prophets,  after  I  had  taken  my  degree, 
I  preached  in  the  country,  being  approved  of  by  judicious, 
able  Christians,  ministers  and  others.  4.  It  pleased  God  to 
.seal  my  labors  with  success  in  the  apparent  conversion  of 
many  souls." 

"  That  is,"  replied  the  bishop,  "  it  may  be,  in  your  way." 

"Yea,"  said  the  brave  preacher,  "to  the  power  of  godli- 
ness from  ignorance  and  profaneness.  If  it  please  your 
lordship  to  lay  down  any  evidences  of  godliness,  agreeing 
with  the  Scriptures,  that  are  not  found  in  these  persons,  I 
am  content  to  be  discharged  from  the  ministry.  I  will  stand 
or  fall  on  the  issue  thereof." 

"  You  talk  of  the  power  of  godliness,  such  as  you  fancy," 
said  the  bishop. 

"Yea,  to  the  reality  of  religion.  ...  I  shall  add  an- 
other ingredient  of  my  mission:  5.  When  the  church  saw 
the  presence  of  God  going  along  with  me,  they  did,  by  fasting 
and  prayer,  on  a  day  set  apart  for  that  end,  seek  an  abundant 
blessing  on  my  endeavors." 

"  Have  you  anything  more  to  say  to  me,  Mr.  Westley?  " 

"  Nothing.     Your  lordship  sent  for  me." 

"  I  am  glad  to  hear  this  from  your  mouth.  You  will  stand 
by  your  principles,  you  say?  " 

"  I  intend  it,  through  the  grace  of  God ;  and  to  be  faithful 
to  the  king's  majesty  however  you  may  deal  with  me." 

"  I  will  not  meddle  with  you." 


The  Examination  of  John  Westley 


53 


"Farewell  to  you,  sir." 

"  Farewell,  good  Mr.  Westley." 

Although  this  dissenting  hero  of  the  seventeenth  century 
was  ecclesiastically  a  "lay  preacher,"  he  was  regularly  in 
charge  of  a  congregation,  an  active  pastor,  and  entirely  con- 
secrated in  time,  talent,  and  service  to  the  work  of  the  minis- 
try.     But  he  was  a  shining  mark  for  his  enemies. 


•^ntJnnKrtl! 


CHAPTER  VI 
The  Persecution  of  John  Westley 

m 

Act  of  Uniformity. — The  Conventicle  and  Five-mile  Acts. — Wan- 
derings.—Imprisonments. — Home  at  Preston. — Early  Death. 

HIS  dialogue  with  the  bishop  reveals  Westley's  good 
breeding  and  Christian  temper,  and  is  not  discredit- 
able to  the  Churchman.  But,  as  Clarke  and  Rigg 
have  pointed  out,  what  is  most  remarkable  is  the  correspond- 
ence between  the  principles  of  this  Westley  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  and  those  which  his  apostolic  grandson 
afterward  embodied  in  the  Discipline  of  Methodism.  Both 
recognized  the  distinction  between  vocatio  ad  opus  and  vocatio 
ad  munus,  and  the  threefold  test  which  Westley  offers  to  the 
bishop  as  authenticating  his  calling  as  a  preacher — "  preach- 
ing gfifts,"  "  ofraces,"  and  "success" — is  identical  with  that 
which  was  adopted  by  John  Wesley — graces,  gifts,  and.  fruit— 
and  which  is  still  a  main  feature  in  the  economy  of  Metho- 
dism. Clarke  was  justified  in  saying  "that  Methodism,  in 
its  grand  principles  of  economy,  and  the  means  by  which  they 
were  brought  into  action,  has  had  its  specific,  healthy  though 
slowly  vegetating  seeds  in  the  original  members  of  the 
Wesley  family." 

In  1662,  as  Westley  was  coming  out  of  church  one  Sunday 

morning,  he  was  arrested  and  carried  to  Blandford  jail.      He 

54 


Persecution  of  Nonconformists  55 

was  released,  and  returned  to  his  charge  for  a  few  months, 
and  then  the  Act  of  Uniformity  coming  into  force,  he  fell 
before  its  power. 

Even  before  the  Act  of  Uniformity  there  had  been  indeed 
persecutions  enough.  Imprisonments  and  persecutions  of 
various  forms  had  been  practiced  broadly  throughout  the 
realm.  John  Bunyan  had  been  cast  into  Bedford  jail,  and 
William  Dewsbury,  with  scores  of  other  Quakers  and  Non- 
conformists, had  been  thrown  into  Warwick  prison.  There 
was  an  ordinance  for  punishing  blasphemy  and  heresy  passed 
May  2,  1648,  giving  authority  to  justices  to  "commit  to 
prison  all  such  as  should  publish  and  maintain  that  the 
Church  of  England  is  no  true  Church,  nor  that  the  ministers 
and  ordinances  are  true,  or  that  a  man  is  bound  to  believe  no 
more  than  his  reason  can  comprehend."  An  older  statute 
required  all  persons  to  resort  to  church  every  Sunday  and 
holy  day,  on  fine  of  one  shilling  for  each  offense.  A  later 
act  made  the  fine  ^20  a  month,  and  an  obstinate  offender 
for  twelve  months  had  to  be  bound  to  good  behavior  by  two 
sureties  in  ^200  each,  till  he  conformed.  Another  act  de- 
clared that  absentees  from  church  for  one  month,  or  persons 
who  frequented  "conventicles  or  persuaded  others  to  do  so, 
under  pretense  of  exercising  religion,  shall  be  committed  to 
prison,  and  there  remain  until  they  conform  themselves." 

In  1 66 1  came  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  which  gave  regular- 
ity to  all  the  persecuting  statutes  of  the  earlier  period.  It 
declared  against  any  toleration,  and  that  all  worship  must  be 
according  to  the  form  in  the  Prayer  Book  or  there  would  be 
no  worship  at  all.  It  required  every  clergyman  to  be  reor- 
dained  if  he  had  not  before  received  episcopal  ordination,  to 
pledge  to  use  the  liturgy,  to  approve  the  faith  and  order  of 
the  Church  of  England,  and  to  consent  and  assent  to  every- 


56 


British  Methodism 


thing  in  the  Prayer  Book.  Many  could  not  see  the  book 
before  the  time  limited  by  the  act  was  expired,  for  the  Com- 
mon Prayer  Book,  with  the  alterations  made  by  the  Convo- 
cation, did  not  appear  until  a  few  days  before  August  24, 


FROM     THE     COPPERPLATE     BY     DEAN. 

REV.   JOHN    WESTLEY,    M.  A. 

This  likeness  of  the  grandfather  of  Rev.  John  Wesley  is  the  earliest  known 
portrait  of  any  member  of  the  Wesley  family. 

when  the  act  came  into  force.  St.  Barnabas  was  added  to 
the  calendar,  and  the  apocryphal  story  of  "Bel  and  the 
Dragon  "  was  inserted  among  the  daily  lessons.      Of  the  seven 


The  Conventicle  Act  57 

thousand  ministers  in  England  who  conformed  and  kept  their 
livings,  few  but  those  in  or  near  London  could  have  seen  it 
until  after  they  had  declared  their  assent  to  it.  Two  thou- 
sand of  the  most  learned  and  most  active  of  the  clergy,  who 
refused  to  conform,  were  ejected  from  their  livings. 

"  The  expulsion  of  these  men,"  says  Green,  "was  far  more  to  the  Church  of 
England  than  the  loss  of  their  individual  services.  It  was  the  definite  expulsion 
of  a  great  party  which,  from  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  had  played  the  most 
active  and  popular  part  in  the  life  of  the  Church.  The  Church  of  England 
stood  from  that  moment  isolated  and  alone  among  all  the  Churches  of  the 
Christian  world.  By  its  rejection  of  all  but  Episcopal  orders  the  Act  of  Uni- 
formity severed  it  irretrievably  from  the  general  body  of  Protestant  Churches. 
And  while  thus  cut  off  from  all  healthy  religious  communion  with  the  world 
without,  it  sank  into  immobility  within.  But  if  the  issues  of  St.  Bartholomew's 
Day  have  been  harmful  to  the  spiritual  life  of  the  English  Church,  they  have 
been  in  the  highest  degree  advantageous  to  the  cause  of  religious  liberty.  A 
common  persecution  soon  blended  the  Nonconformists  into  one.  The  impos- 
sibility of  crushing  such  a  body  as  this  wrested  from  English  statesmen  the 
first  legal  recognition  of  freedom  of  worship  in  the  Toleration  Act ;  their  rapid 
growth  in  later  times  has  by  degrees  stripped  the  Church  of  almost  all  the 
exclusive  privileges  which  it  enjoyed  as  a  religious  body,  and  now  threatens 
what  remains  of  its  official  connection  with  the  State." 

Now  came  the  next  step  in  the  scheme  of  cruelty,  the  Con- 
venticle Act  of  1664,  by  which  it  was  enacted  that  wherever 
five  persons  assembled  for  any  religious  worship  but  that  of 
the  Common  Prayer  every  one  was  liable,  for  the  first  offense, 
to  imprisonment  for  three  months,  or  to  pay  .£5  ;  for  the 
second,  to  be  imprisoned  six  months,  or  to  pay  ^10;  and  for 
the  third,  to  be  transported  for  seven  years,  or  to  pay  ,£100. 
The  Five-mile  Act  completed  the  code  of  persecution  and 
imposed  a  penalty  of  ,£40  and  six  months'  imprisonment  on 
any  Nonconformist  minister  who  came  to  reside  within  five 
miles  of  a  borough  or  town  where  he  had  formerly  preached. 

These  acts  were  applied  with  relentless  severity  from  1662 
to    1688.     Jeremy  White  collected   a  list  of  Nonconformist 


58 


British  Methodism 


sufferers  containing  sixty  thousand  names,  and  he  states  that 
five  thousand  died  in  prison. 

In  August,  1662,  John  Westley  preached  his  farewell  ser- 
mon to  "a  weeping  audience."  While  he  lingered  for  a  few 
months  in  his  old  parish,  his  son  Samuel,  the  future  rector 
of  Ep worth,  was  born,  and  was  baptized  in  the  church  from 


Jolm  Westley,  the  elder. 

iiiilii-ate  the  iMur.se  of  his  wanderings 
during  his  persecutions. 
The  crosses  murk  his  prisons,  halting  pluces  anil 
last  home:  Blandford,  Dorchester,  Melcomb  Regis, 
Itminstcr,  Bridgewater,  Taunton,  Poole,  Preston; 
(where  be  died  in  1678.) 


V         It         A  N  If  E 

THE    NONCONFORMIST    WESLEYS    IN 
DORSET 

1640-1680 


Bartholomew  Westley  (great-grandfather  of  John  the  Methodist)  was  minister  at  Catherston, 
1640-1662,  when  he  was  ejected.  Charmouth  was  the  scene  of  Charles  It's  attempted  flight,  1651. 
Here  Bartholomew  died,  1680.  John  Westley,  Sr.,  was  a  member  of  "a  gathered  church"  at  Wey- 
mouth, preached  at  Radipole,  and  in  1658  became  minister  at  Winterbnrne  Whitchurch. 

which  his  father  had  been  recently  thrust  out.  When  Samuel 
was  a  few  weeks  old  the  family  fled  to  Melcomb.  Then 
John  Westley  was  hunted  from  town  to  town,  as  indicated 
on  the  accompanying  map  of  Dorset.  He  went  to  Ilminster 
and  Taunton  and  Bridgewater,  in  the  adjoining  county,  nar- 
rowly escaping  imprisonment  with  Joseph  Alleine  and  thir- 


The  Fugitive  Preacher 


59 


teen  other  ministers,  who  with  sixty-seven  Quakers  and 
Baptists  were  confined  in  one  room  for  many  months.  The 
offer  of  a  home  at  Preston,  near  Melcomb  Regis,  was  gladly 
accepted,  and  he  quietly  commenced  preaching  again.  Then 
followed  visits  to  Weymouth,  where  the  landlady  who  gave 
him  shelter  was  fined  £20.  He  was  imprisoned  for  three 
months  at  Dorchester.  He  ministered  to  some  "serious 
people  "  at  Poole.      Here  he  could  see  the  quay  where  the 

Mayflower     used     to  „,  _  ..    ,  .  -^-,,  ..—~——m 

I  Ml 

load    her    cargoes    of  l\  MM 

clay  before  she  car- 
ried the  Pilgrim  Fa- 
thers to  the  land  of 
liberty.  Just  off  the 
water  front  may  still 
be  seen  some  remains 
of  the  old  prison 
where  Westley  lan- 
guished for  six  weary 
months.  He  died  at 
Preston,  at  the  age 
of  forty-two,  in  1678. 
No  stone  marks  the  place  of  his  burial,  nor  is  there  any  known 
monument  to  record  his  worth  ;  but  his  portrait  has  been 
preserved,  and  is  the  earliest  of  any  known  member  of  the 
Wesley  family.  It  represents  "  his  hair  as  long,  dark,  and 
parted  in  the  middle ;  the  forehead  capacious,  the  nose  large, 
the  eyes  soft  and  sweet,  the  face  pale  and  clean-shaven,  and 
the  countenance  full  of  seriousness  and  thought." 

Rigg  speaks  of  one  feature  in  the  character  of  John  West- 
ley  which  should  be  particularly  noted.  Although  his  eccle- 
siastical   opinions    were    at    the    opposite    pole    from    High 


DRAWN     BY 


AN    ENGRAVING. 


REMAINS    OF    OLD    JAIL    AT    POOLE. 
\\  here  John  Westley  was  imprisoned. 


60  British  Methodism 

Churchism,  he  had  none  of  the  temper  of  the  low  fanatic  or 
the  ignorant  sectary.  Like  his  Oxford  contemporary,  John 
Howe,  he  practiced  "  occasional  conformity"  with  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  the  Church  of  those  by  whom  he  was  pro- 
scribed and  persecuted.  As  we  have  seen,  his  godly  father 
was  living  when  this  son  John  died.  His  wife  survived  him 
about  forty  years,  lovingly  cared  for  by  her  kinsfolk,  and  for 
many  years  dependent  upon  her  sons,  Matthew,  the  surgeon, 
and  Samuel,  the  rector. 


CHAPTER  VII 

A  Noble  Nonconformist 

Samuel  Annesley. — At  Queen's  College,  Oxford. — Distinguished 
Labors. — Defoe's  Tributes. — Homes  and  Death. 

THE  father  of  Susanna  Wesley — the  "  Mother  of  Meth- 
odism," as  Isaac  Taylor  calls  her — was  the  courtly 
Dr.  Samuel  Annesley,  the  "Saint  Paul  of  the  Non- 
conformists," the  nephew  of  the  first  Earl  of  Anglesea.  The 
baptismal  register  of  the  ancient  church  of  Haseley,  ten 
miles  from  Shakespeare's  town  of  Stratford-upon-Avon, 
contains  the  following  entry:  "  27th  March,  1620,"  "  Samuell 
the  sonne  of  John  Anslye,  and  Judith  his  wife."  He 
was,  therefore,  it  is  probable,  born  in  Haseley  parish. 
Four  miles  away  was  the  castle  of  the  Earls  of  Warwick, 
who  held  hereditary  connection  with  the  squire  of  the 
village.  Samuel's  father  died  when  the  son  was  four  years 
old,  and  the  boy  owed  his  religious  training  to  his  faith- 
ful mother.  As  a  child  he  dreamed  that  he  was  a 
minister  summoned  before  the  Bishop  of  London  to  be 
burned  as  a  martyr.  At  six  years  of  age  he  daily  read 
chapters  from  the  Bible,   and  Daniel  Defoe,  the   author  of 

Robinson  Crusoe,  who  knew  him  well  in  later  life  and  sat 

61 


62  British  Methodism 

under  his  ministry,  summarized  the  faets  of  his  early  history 
in  an  elaborate  eulogy: 

His  pious  course  with  childhood  he  began, 

And  was  his  Maker's  sooner  than  his  own. 

As  if  designed  by  instinct  to  be  great, 

His  judgment  seemed  to  antedate  his  wit : 

His  soul  outgrew  the  natural  rate  of  years, 

And  full-grown  wit  and  half-grown  youth  appears; 

Early  the  vigorous  combat  he  began 

And  was  an  older  Christian  than  a  man. 

The  sacred  study  all  his  thoughts  confined  — 

A  sign  what  secret  Hand  prepared  his  mind. 

The  Sacred  Book  he  madff-his  only  school, 

In  Youth  his  study,  and  in  Age  his  rule. 

At  fifteen  years  of  age  he  entered  Queen's  College,  Oxford, 
where  he  graduated  with  honors.  Anthony  a  Wood,  who 
much  disliked  him,  says,  "  He  seldom  drank  any  beer,  only 
water,  and  with  much  ado  got  to  be  Baehelor  of  Arts."  It 
was  evidently  a  marvel  to  the  jovial  Royalist  how  this  could 
be  done  without  copious  libations  of  college  ale,  for,  "  never- 
theless," he  writes,  "  he  was  rarely  sick,  and  his  sight  was 
so  strong  he  could  read  the  smallest  print  in  his  seventy- 
seventh  year."  He  was  ordained,  probably,  according  to 
Presbyterian  form.  His  first  service  was  as  chaplain  to  the 
Globe  man-of-war,  the  flagship  of  the  Lord  High  Admiral, 
the  Earl  of  Warwick.  This  earl  was  the  second  son  of  the 
Lord  Brooke  of  Milton's  Areopagitica,  and,  like  his  father, 
held  liberal  views  on  the  question  of  ecclesiastical  forms. 
Cliffe,  in  Kent,  was  Annesley's  first  parochial  appointment. 
The  people  of  the  region  were  notoriously  wicked,  and  they 
welcomed  him  with  pitchforks  and  stones;  but  five  years 
later,  when  he  left  them,  they  protested  with  tears. 

He  .was  the  main  supporter  of  the  well-known  Cripplegate 
Lectures,  "  Cases  of   Conscience."      He  preached  in  various 


DRAWN  BY  W.    B.    DAVIS.  FROM    A  COPPERPLATE. 

REV.  SAMUEL   ANNESLEY,  D.D. 

Father  of  Susanna,  the  mother  of  the  Wesleys. 


63 


64  British  Methodism 

churches,  and  became  a  sort  of  general  superintendent  more 
than  a  century  before  the  office  was  formulated  by  his  grand- 
son for  the  American  Methodists. 

Annesley's  home  life  was  beautiful.  His  second  wife  was 
a  lady  of  distinguished  connections,  the  daughter  of  John 
White,  a  contemporary  and  of  the  same  name  as  the  father-in- 
law  of  John  Westley.  White  was  a  leader  among  the  Puritan 
laity,  a  member  of  the  Long  Parliament,  chairman  of  its 
Committee  on  Religion,  and  a  member  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly  of  Divines.  He  died  in  January,  1644,  and  was 
buried  with  great  ceremony  from  the  Temple  Church,  the 
House  of  Commons  in  a  body  being  present  at  his  funeral. 
Over  his  grave,  on  a  marble  tablet,  was  this  couplet: 

Here  lyelh  a  John,  a  burning,  shining  light, 
Whose  name,  life,  actions,  all  were  White. 

His  daughter,  Mrs.  Annesley,  was  a  woman  of  many 
accomplishments  and  was  remarkable  for  her  piety.  The 
youngest  of  her  children,  Susanna,  who  became  the  mother  of 
John  and  Charles  Wesley,  was  born  on  January  20,  1669,  in 
Spital  Yard,  between  Bishopsgate  Street  and  Spital  Square, 
London.  Her  home  was  probably  in  the  last  house,  which 
blocks  up  the  lower  end  of  the  yard.  Two  hundred  years 
ago  these  now  decayed  houses  were  the  abode  of  well-to-do 
citizens.  Here  Susanna  Annesley  .spent  her  girlhood, 
studied  Church  controversies,  and  asserted  her  personal  de- 
cision, and  from  hence  she  went  forth  to  her  wedding  with 
Samuel  Wesley. 

Annesley  was  tall  and  dignified,  and  of  robust  constitution. 
He  had  an  aquiline  nose,  a  short  upper  lip,  wavy  brown  hair, 
and  a  strong  and  penetrating  eye.  Severe  persecutions  did 
not  disturb  the  geniality  and  cheerfulness  of  his  Christian 
life.      When   John  Wesley  had  set  the  Churches  of  England 


Dr.  Samuel  Annesley 


65 


aflame  with  the  doctrine  of  Assurance  he  asked  his  mother 
whether  her  father  had  ever  preached  it.  She  replied  that 
he  personally  enjoyed  it  and  confessed  it  for  many  years,  but 
did  not  recollect  hearing  him  preach  upon  it  in  particular. 
She  therefore  pre- 
sumed he  regarded  it 
as  a  high  privilege  of 
a  few.  How  well  he 
lived  and  died  let 
these  words  witness : 
' '  Blessed  be  God !  I 
have  been  faithful  in 
the  work  of  the  minis- 
try above  fifty-five 
years," 

In  1648  he  obtained 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Laws  ;  the  same  year, 
when  only  twenty- 
eight  years  old,  he 
preached  the  Fast  Day  sermon  before  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. Cromwell,  in  1657,  appointed  him  Lord's  Day 
Evening  Lecturer  at  St.  Paul's,  and  made  him  vicar  of  St. 
Giles,  the  largest  congregation  in  London. 

The   church   of    St.  Giles,   Cripplegate,   was   rebuilt    three 

hundred  years  ago,  but  there  is  a  considerable  part  of  the  old 

building  still  standing.      Martin  Frobisher,  the  voyager,  is 

buried  there,  and  Foxe,  of  the  Book  of  Martyrs,  lies  in  the 

chancel,  not  far  from  John  Milton,  who  was  laid  there  beside 

his  father  twelve  years  after  Dr.  Annesley  ceased  to  be  vicar. 

Oliver  Cromwell  was  married  in  St.  Giles  August  22,  1620. 

For  five  years  the  brilliant  and  popular  young  clergyman 
5 


BY  J.  D.  WOODWARD. 


AFTER  PHOTO. 


BIRTHPLACE   OF    SUSANNA    ANNESLEY. 
Spital  Yard,  London. 


66  British  Methodism 

preached  the  Gospel,  but  the  storm  came  with  the  new  king, 
and,  like  the  Westleys,  he  was  ejected  for  refusing  to  submit 
to  the  Act  of  Uniformity.  His  ample  means  saved  him  from 
distress  and  made  him  a  blessing  to  many  poor  Dissenting 
ministers. 

A  little  to  the  east  of  the  Wesleyan  Centenary  Hall  and 
Mission  House  in  Bishopsgate  Street  is  St.  Helen's  Place, 
formerly  called  Little  St.  Helen's.  Here  in  1672  Annesley 
formed  a  Nonconformist  church,  which  became  one  of  the 
most  flourishing  in  London.  The  first  public  ordination  on 
which  the  Dissenters  had  ventured  was  held  here  on  a  mid- 
summer's day  in  1694,  the  service  lasting  from  ten  in  the 
morning  until  six  in  the  evening.  Daniel  Defoe's  father  and 
mother  worshiped  in  Annesley's  meetinghouse,  and  here  the 
future  novelist  heard  the  good  pastor  of  whom  he  wrote : 

The  sacred  bow  he  so  divinely  drew 
That  every  shaft  both  hit  and  overthrew. 
His  native  candor  and  familiar  style, 
Which  did  so  oft  his  hearers'  hours  beguile, 
Charmed  us  with  godliness;  and  while  he  spake 
We  loved  the  doctrine  for  the  teacher's  sake. 
While  he  informed  us  what  those  doctrines  meant 
15y  dint  of  practice  more  than  argument. 
Strange  were  the  charms  of  his  sincerity, 
Which  made  his  actions  and  his  words  agree. 

Shortly  before  his  departure  from  this  world  Dr.  Annesley 
said  :  ' '  Come,  my  dearest  Jesus  !  the  nearer  the  more  precious, 
the  more  welcome  !  "  "I  cannot  express  the  thousandth  part 
of  the  praise  that  is  due  to  thee.  ...  I  will  die  praising 
thee.  ...  I  shall  be  satisfied  when  I  awake  with  thy  like- 
ness;  satisfied!    Satisfied!" 

He  died  on  December  31 ,  1696,  at  the  age  <>f  seventy-seven, 
and  was  buried  beside  his  wife  in  old  Shoreditch  Church. 
The   church  was  rebuilt  in    1 73^,  and  only  the  old  chancel 


An  Honorable  Memory 


67 


windows  and  one  or  two  tablets  remain  of  the  older  building. 
Dunton,  the  eccentric  bookseller,  his  son-in-law,  states  that 
"the  Countess  of  Anglesea  desired  on  her  deathbed  to  be 

buried  upon  the  coffin  of 
that  good  man,  Dr.  An- 
nesley."     Dr.  Williams, 
who  founded  the  library 
now  in  Gordon  Square, 
preached  his  funeral  ser- 
mon, and  exclaims :  "  O, 
how  many  places  had 
sat  in  darkness,  how 
many   ministers  had 


DRAWN    BY  P.    E.    FL1NTOFF. 

Tower  and  ancient  wall 


FRQM   PRINTS. 


been  starved,  if  Dr.  An- 
nesley  had  died  thirty- 
four  years  since !  The 
Gospel  he  ever  forced  into 
ignorant  places,  and  was 
the    chief    instrument    in 

the  education  as  well  as  the  subsistence  of  several  ministers." 

This  survey  of  the  ancestry  of  the  Wesleys  shows  us  on 

the    father's    side    three    successive    descents    of    clergymen 

trained  at  Oxford,  and  another  clergyman  of  great  eminence 


Interior  in  1701. 

st.  Giles's  church,  cripplegate. 


68  British  Methodism 

as  his  maternal  grandfather.  On  the  mother's  side  we  find  a 
peer,  that  peer's  younger  son,  and  a  clergyman  of  dis- 
tinguished position  and  character,  in  successive  descent;  and 
as  her  maternal  grandfather  a  lawyer  of  eminence  as  a 
member  of  Parliament  and  statesman.  Four,  if  not  all  five, 
of  the  clergymen  were  educated  at  Oxford,  and  all  except 
Samuel  AVesley  of  Epworth  were  noble  Puritan  confessors, 
whose  principles  were  tested  by  severe  sufferings.  The 
lawyer  was  also  a  Puritan,  and  took  a  leading  part  in  the 
parliamentary  proceedings  by  which  the  despotism  of 
Charles  and  Laud  was  overthrown.  He  died  in  the  year 
of  the  battle  of  Marston  Moor.  "  Among  all  the  generations 
of  the  Wesleys,"  it  has  been  said,  "  as  far  back  as  they  can 
be  traced  there  was  not  an  ignorant  or  ill-bred  person.  The 
men  were  either  divines  with  university  training  or  gentry 
of  liberal  culture,  and  the  ladies  were  ladies  of  gentle  and 
generous  culture,"  and,  as  Wesley  himself  remarks  in  a  letter 
to  his  brother  Charles,  the  doctrine  which  the  divines 
preached  was  ever  the  "  genuine  Gospel." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  his  mature  years  John 
Wesley  became  fully  conscious  of  the  near  alliance,  in  eccle- 
siastical principles  and  in  theological  doctrine,  between  him- 
self and  the  most  moderate  of  the  Puritans;  that  he  felt 
great  union  of  spirit  with  Bartholomew  and  John  Westley  and 
wSamuel  Annesley ;  and  that  his  own  views  as  to  the  Act  of 
Uniformity  and  the  policy  that  prompted  it  came  to  be  in 
substantial  harmony  with  those  of  his  Nonconforming  ances- 
try. Dr.  Drysdale,  in  his  History  of  Presbyterianism  in 
England;  is  warranted  in  saying  that  "Methodism  was  the 
old  Puritan  spirit  of  England,  '  risen  from  the  dead  '  under  a 
new  and  more  hopeful  set  of  conditions,  and  a  more  auspicious 
political  environment." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

From  Puritan  Parsonage  to  Anglican  Rectory 

The  Parents  of  the  Wesleys. — Samuel  Wesley  at  Oxford. — Begin- 
ning of  his  Ministry. — Marriage. — The  Mother  of  Methodism. 
— Susanna  Annesley. 

SAMUEL  WESLEY  was  born  in  1662,  in  Dorsetshire, 
four  months  after  the  English  St.  Bartholomew's  Day 
upon  which  his  father  and  his  grandfather  were 
ejected  from  their  livings  for  Nonconformity.  His  father 
dying  when  he  was  a  lad,  his  education  was  cared  for  by  his 
mother,  and  in  1678  some  friends  of  his  family  sent  him  to 
a  Nonconformist  academy  in  London.  Here  he  made  the 
acquaintance  of  the  eccentric  bookseller  and  literary  man, 
John  Dunton,  afterward  the  editor  of  the  Athenian  Gazette, 
a  precursor  of  the  Tatler  and  Spectator.  Here  also  he 
obtained  entry,  as  the  son  and  grandson  of  distinguished 
confessors,  into  the  best  Nonconformist  circles,  of  which 
one  of  the  leading  families  was  that  of  Dr.  Annesley.  One 
of  his  schoolfellows  was  Daniel  Defoe.  He  heard  Stephen 
Charnock  and  John  Bunyan  preach,  made  notes  of  many 
sermons,  and  wrote  some  verses  and  unwise  lampoons.  One 
of  the  subjects  of  his  foolish  squibs  was  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Doolittle,  who  was  at   the  head  of  a  rival  academy  and   a 

brave    Nonconformist.       Among    his     pupils    was    Matthew 

69 


REV.    SAMUEL    WESLEY,    RECTOR    OF    EPWORTH. 

Reduced  facsimile  uf  the  copperplate  frontispiece  of  liis  I, alia  Commentary  on  Jul.,  published  in 

London,  17.^6. 

70 


The  Author  of  Maggots  71 

Henry,  the  famous  commentator,  and  Edmund  Calamy,  the 
writer  of  the  Nonconformist  Memorials. 

Much  more  creditable  to  Wesley  than  his  attacks  upon 
worthy  men,  both  Conformists  and  Nonconformists,  was  his 
refusal  to  continue  the  translation  from  Latin  of  the  works  of 
John  Biddle,  "the  father  of  the  English  Unitarians,"  when 
he  discovered  the  tendency  of  Biddle's  teaching.  He  lost  a 
considerable  gratuity  by  his  refusal.  But,  while  he  held 
firmly  to  the  doctrines  of  his  fathers,  there  came  a  change 
in  his  ecclesiastical  views. 

He  was  about  twenty  years  of  age  when  he  was  asked  to 
answer  some  strictures  made  upon  the  Dissenters,  and  while 
studying  the  subject  he  decided  to  leave  Nonconformity  and 
go  over  to  the  Established  Church.  With  that  quick  impulse 
which  distinguished  all  his  subsequent  life,  he  rose  early  one 
morning  and  started  afoot  for  Oxford  University ;  entering 
Exeter  College  as  a  servitor,  with  only  two  pounds  and  five 
shillings  in  his  pocket. 

The  young  student  met  his  expenses  partly  by  teaching 
and  partly  by  his  pen.  He  collected  his  poetical  pieces,  which 
were  published  under  the  title  of  Maggots ;  or  Poems  on 
several  subjects  never  before  handled,  by  a  Scholar,  Lon- 
don. The  claim  to  novelty  for  "several  subjects"  is  sustained 
by  the  titles  of  the  pieces :  The  Grunting  of  a  Hog,  A 
Cow's  Tail,  A  Hat  Broke  at  Cudgels,  The  Tobacco  Pipe, 
The  Tame  Snake  in  a  Box  of  Bran.  This  curious  book 
is  extremely  scarce,  and  few  Wesleyan  students  have  ever 
seen  it.  It  was  published  by  that  odd  John  Dunton,  with 
whom,  as  we  know,  Wesley  was  acquainted  before  he  went 
to  Oxford.  Dunton  had  married  Elizabeth  Annesley,  the 
sister  of  Susanna,  who  six  years  afterward  became  Wesley's 
wife.     In  the  year  that  he  published  Wesley's  Maggots  he 


72 


British  Methodism 


fell  into  pecuniary  straits,  and  went  to  America  to  repair 
his  fortune.  On  his  return,  a  year  afterward,  he  lived  in  ter- 
ror of  arrest  for 
debt.  He  ven- 
tured out  one  Sun- 
day in  woman's 
clothes,  and  with 
a  shaven  face,  to 
hear  Annesley 
preach.  On  his 
return  through 
Bishopsgate  Street 
he  was  recog- 
nized and  chased 
by  a  mob,  but  his 
knowledge  of  the 
alleys  and  pass- 
ages of  the  city 
saved  him.  After 
roaming  on  the 
continent  he  re- 
turned to  business 
in  1688.  He  "was 
a  strange  mor- 
tal," says  Tyer- 
man,  "a  man  half 
mad,  and  a  dab- 
bler in  all  sorts  of 
books." 

Wesley  was  at 

(  ).\ford  when  King  James  the  Second  visited  the  city  and.  as 
Macaulay  says,   treated   the    fellows    of    Magdalen    with   an 


//t.v  rwi  f'Mhiff   ////    //t'//irr  mitf.r. 
HrtaihTt    11/////  ,'///\   /}'/// ',  l/////////  /'///.>' 

//'////////,'     //.s/ ///   /////)/ 

U'/itf/i  ./j////nv  //////    //ttt/ie  ■!/■  jr/rf  ff.Furr. 
///v/ /W  //w  nvrr/up  oryrnrtfiTicf 

/'//.W//l?     //IIM-//I    //'   /'///'  // 


ROM  THE   ORIGINAL  COPPERPLATE 


THE   FRONTISPIECE  TO   MAGGOTS. 

The  portrait  represents  the  author,  Samuel  Wesley,  afterward 
Rector  of  Epworth. 


Samuel  Wesley  at  Oxford  73 

insolence  such  as  had  never  been  shown  to  their  predecessors 
by  the  Puritan  visitors.  At  Oxford  Wesley's  character 
ripened.  There  was  awakened  in  him  a  true  pastoral  feel- 
ing of  compassion  and  responsibility  by  visiting  the  pris- 
oners in  the  castle ;  as  his  sons  did  fifty  years  later,  when 
he  wrote  to  them,  "Go  on  in  God's  name  in  the  path  your 
Saviour  has  directed  and  that  track  wherein  your  father  has 
gone  before  you ;  for  when  I  was  an  undergraduate  at  Oxford 
I  visited  them  in  the  castle  there,  and  reflect  on  it  with  great 
satisfaction  to  this  day."  As  quaint  old  Fuller  says,  "Thus 
was  the  prison  his  first  parish ;  his  own  charity  his  patron 
presenting  him  to  it;   and  his  work  was  all  his  wages." 

He  took  his  degree  of  B.  A.  in  1688,  signing  his  name 
Wesley  instead  of  Westley.  He  received  his  M.  A.  degree 
later  from  Corpus  Christi  College,  Cambridge.  Returning 
to  London,  he  was  ordained  deacon  by  the  time-serving  but 
able  Bishop  of  Rochester,  Dr.  Thomas  Sprat,  whom  Dunton 
eulogized  thus : 

Nature  rejoiced  beneath  his  charming  power  ; 
His  lucky  hand  made  everything  a  flower. 
On  earth  the  king  of  wits  (they  are  but  few), 
And,  though  a  bishop,  yet  a  preacher  too  ! 

Twelve  days  after  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Orange  were 
proclaimed  as  King  William  III  and  Mary,  Samuel  Wes- 
ley was  ordained  a  priest  of  the  Church  of  England  by  Dr. 
Compton,  in  St.  Andrew's  Church,  Holborn.  Bishop  Comp- 
ton,  of  London,  was  not  so  chameleon-like  in  his  politics 
as  Dr.  Sprat,  and  he  was  a  dull  preacher,  but  he  was  a 
generous  and  catholic  man,  and  a  friend  of  Dissenters.  It 
was  he  who  crowned  King  William  and  Queen  Mary.  St. 
Andrew's  Church  became  associated  with  the  name  of  the 
notorious  Dr.  Sacheverell,  of  whom  we  shall  hear  again. 
John  Wesley  preached  here  on  the  second  Sunday  after  his 


74 


British  Methodism 


return    from   Georgia,   and   afterward    wrote,   "  Here   too,   it 
seems,  I  am   to  preach  no  more." 

Samuel  Wesley  became  "passing  rich"  on  £28  a  year  as  a 
London  curate, 
then  obtained  a 
n  a  v  a  1  e  h  a  p  - 
lainey,  com- 
m enced  his 
metrical  Life  of 
Christ,  and  in 
1689  married 
Dr.   Annesley's 


1  ImW^n^mmWl  01 


B«r 


!!irr?ss==2F- 


ffic 


accomplished  daughter 
vSusanna  on  another  Lon- 
don curacy  of  ,£30  a  year. 
The  young  couple  com- 
menced their  married  life 
in  Holborn,  in  lodgings 
somewhere  near  the  quaint 
old  houses  still  standing- 
opposite  Gray's  Inn  Road. 
"How  many  children 
has  Dr.  Annesley  ?  "  in- 
quired a  friend  of  Thomas  Manton,  who  had  just  baptized  one 
of  the  family.  "  I  believe  it  is  two  dozen,  or  a  quarter  of  a 
hundred,"  was  the  startling  reply.  vSusanna  was  the  youngest 
of  this  large  family,  and  perhaps  the  most  gifted  of  the  many 


CKAWN  BY  W.  B.  PRICE.  AFTER  PRINTS 

CHURCH  OF  ST.  ANDREW,  HOLBORN, 

LONDON. 
\\  here  Samuel  We>ley  was  ordained  priest  in  1688. 


Susanna  Annesley  75 

beautiful  and  well-educated  daughters.  Her  sister  Judith 
was  a  very  handsome  and  sturdy-minded  woman,  whose  por- 
trait was  painted  by  Sir  Peter  Lely ;  Elizabeth,  who  married 
John  Dunton,  was  lovely  in  person  and  character,  and  Su- 
sanna, if  not  quite  so  fair  as  her  sisters,  shared  largely  in  the 
family  gift  of  beauty.  She  was  slim  and  graceful,  and  re- 
tained her  good  looks  and  symmetry  of  figure  to  old  age, 
although  she  was  the  mother  of  nineteen  children.  The  best 
authenticated  portrait  of  her  is  one  that  was  taken  in  her  old 
age  and  engraved  under  the  direction  of  her  son  John.  It 
shows  "delicate  aquiline  features,  eyes  still  vivid  and  ex- 
pressive under  well-marked  brows;  a  physiognomy  at  once 
benignant  and  expressive."  Her  letters  reveal  "  a  perfect 
mistress  of  English  undefiled,"  some  knowledge  of  French 
authors,  and  a  logical  mind  well  read  in  divinity.  The  secret 
of  her  deep  spirituality  is  revealed  in  one  of  her  letters  to  her 
son:  "  I  will  tell  you  what  rule  I  observed  in  the  same  case, 
when  I  was  young,  and  too  much  addicted  to  childish  diver- 
sions, which  was  this — never  to  spend  more  time  in  any 
matter  of  mere  recreation  in  one  day  than  I  spent  in  private 
religious  duties." 

Bishop  McTyeire's  eloquent  tribute  to  her  virtues,  graces, 
and  gifts  does  no  more  than  justice  to  this  remarkable 
woman : 

"When  I  was  in  Milan  I  visited  the  church  where  Am- 
brose preached  and  where  he  was  buried;  but  I  thought 
more  of  his  patroness,  the  pious  Helena,  than  of  him.  I 
thought  of  Augustine,  and  of  that  mother  whose  prayers 
persevered  for  his  salvation ;  and  in  the  oldest  town  on  the 
Rhine  I  could  not  help  being  interested  in  the  legend  of 
Ursula  and  her  eleven  thousand  virgins.  But  greater  than 
Helena,  or  Monica,  or  Ursula,  there  lived  a  woman  in  Eng- 


76 


British  Methodism 


land,  known  to  all  Methodists,  and  of  whom  in  the  presence 
of  those  I  have  mentioned  it  might  be  said,  '  Many  daughters 
have  done  virtuously,  but  thou  hast  excelled  them  all.'  I 
mean  the  wife  of  the  rector  of  Epworth,  and  the  conscien- 
tious mother  of  his  nineteen  children ;  she  that  transmitted 
to  her  illustrious  son  her  genius  for  learning,  for  order,  for 
government,  and  I  might  almost  say  for  godliness ;  who 
shaped  him  by  her  counsels,  sustained  him  by  her  prayers, 
and,  in  her  old  age,  like  the  spirit  of  love  and  purity,  pre- 
sided over  his  modest  household ;  and,  when  she  was  dying, 
said  to  her  children,  'Children,  as  soon  as  the  .spirit  leaves 
the  body,  gather  round  my  bedside  and  sing  a  hymn  of 
praise.'  " 


■*■  Exeter. 


CHAPTER  IX 

Samuel  and  Susanna  Wesley 

A  Puritan  Spirit  in  Anglican  Form. — Homes  in  London  and  South 
Ormsby. — Literary  Products. 

YOUNG  Puritans  developed  early.  Matthew  Henry 
gravely  examined  himself  when  he  was  eleven  years 
old,  and  his  letters  to  his  father,  written  at  the  age  of 
fourteen,  are  wonderfully  sage  in  their  reflections  and  mature 
in  their  doctrinal  statements.  Susanna  Annesley,  at  the  age 
of  thirteen,  was  interested  in  the  ecclesiastical  and  doctrinal 
controversies  of  the  day.  With  remarkable  independence  she 
made  up  her  mind  to  renounce  Dissent  and  enter  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  one  year  after  Samuel  Wesley  had  come  to  the 
same  decision.  It  is  possible  that  the  two  ecclesiastical  con- 
versions were  not  unconnected.  Young  Wesley  was  seven  or 
eight  years  older  than  his  future  bride,  and  the  friendship  had 
already  begun  which  was  to  ripen  into  love.  In  one  of  her 
later  private  meditations  she  mentions  it  among  her  greatest 
mercies  that  she  was  ' '  married  to  a  religious  orthodox  man  ; 
by  him  first  drawn  off  from  the  Socinian  heresy."  The  same 
feeling  is  expressed  in  the  words  of  the  epitaph  from  her  pen 
inscribed  on  Samuel  Wesley's  tomb  at  Epworth  :  '  'As  he  lived, 
so  he  died,  in  the  true  Catholic  faith  of  the   Holy  Trinity  in 

Unity ;   and  that  Jesus  Christ  is  God  Incarnate,  and  the  only 

77 


78 


British  Methodism 


Saviour  of  mankind."  It  was  natural  that  the  thoughtful, 
fervent  girl  should  be  strongly  influenced  by  one  by  whom  .she 
had  been  settled  in  a  belief  of  such  vital  importance.  "  If  the 
Puritans,"  says  Dr.  Rigg,  "could  not  transmit  to  her  lover 
and  herself  their  ecclesiastical  principles,  at  least  they  trans- 
mitted a  bold  independence  of  judgment  and  of  conduct." 

The   girl  of  thirteen  expressed  her  opinions  against  the 
Church  of  her  distinguished  father,  however,  with  such  tact 


DRAWN    BY    P.    E.     FUNTOF 


PHOTO.     BY    REV.     T.     F.     BRYANT. 


SOUTH   ORMSBY   CHURCH. 
Samuel  Wesley  ministered  in  this  church  1690-1694. 

and  sweetness  of  spirit  as  to  win  his  consent  to  her  confirma- 
tion at  St.  Paul's.  vShe  was  at  once  so  decided  and  gentle, 
and  he  so  tolerant,  that  the  love  between  the  father  and 
daughter  never  lost  its  strength  and  charm.  He  placed  his 
papers  relating  to  the  ancestry  of  the  Annesley  family  in  the 
hands  of  this  favorite  daughter.  These  family  papers  were, 
unfortunately,  destroyed  in  the  fire  that  many  years  afterward 
wrecked  the  Epworth  parsonage. 

Tin's  returning  to  Anglicanism  was  not,  however,  a  sym- 
pathetic look  toward  Rome.      Many  of  the  old  superstitions 


Susanna  Annesley's  Anglicanism  79 

of  popery  still  lingered  in  the  Established  Church,  but  the 
high  convictions  of  the  earlier  Dissenters  were  also  losing 
hold ;  some  churches  were  leaving  their  moorings  and  drift- 
ing toward  Unitarianism,  and  the  young  maiden,  probably 
no  less  than  her  lover,  had  been  repelled  by  much  that  she 
had  .seen  of  Stepney  and  Stoke  Newington  students,  so  dif- 
ferent from  the  spirit  and  deportment  of  her  parents,  from 
the  manners  and  carriage  of  her  noble  relatives,  from  the 
ideal  which  .she  would  have  pictured  of  Puritan  godliness  and 
spirituality.  She  had  fallen  on  an  unheroic  age ;  the  baldness 
of  the  meetinghouse  was  no  longer  redeemed  by  the  heaven- 
liness  of  the  confessors.  There  was  no  more  godliness  in  the 
Established  Church — probably  not  by  any  means  so  much — 
but  there  was  no  pretense  of  superior  godliness.  And  there 
were  at  this  time  great  preachers  in  the  London  churches — 
such  men  as  Barrow,  Tillotson,  Tenison,  Stillingfleet,  South, 
and  Sherlock — with  whom,  for  popular  effect,  even  such  a 
man  as  Charnock  could  hardly  compare ;  while  the  solemn 
beauty  of  the  services  satisfied  her  taste  and  won  her  admira- 
tion. Nevertheless,  "the  Puritan  movement  in  which  she 
had  been  reared,"  says  Buoy,  "  went  with  her  into  the  Church 
of  England.  She  entered  it  essentially  a  Puritan,  and  that 
stern,  heroic  faith,  softened  by  the  grace  of  God,  held  her  all 
her  life.  There  was  a  providence  leading  this  woman  back 
to  Anglicanism  as  plain  as  that  which  led  the  mother  of 
Moses  back  to  the  court  of  Egypt,  and  she,  like  Jochebed, 
had  her  ministry — to  train  a  child  who  should  set  the  people 
free."  "The  Wesleys'  mother,"  says  Isaac  Taylor,  "was 
the  mother  of  Methodism  in  a  religious  and  moral  sense ;  for 
her  courage,  her  submissiveness  to  authority,  the  high  tone 
of  her  mind,  its  independence  and  its  self-control,  the  warmth 
of  her  devotional  feelings,  and  the  practical  direction  given 


80 


British  Methodism 


to  them,  came  up,  and  were  visibly  repeated  in  the  character 
and  conduct  of  her  sons." 

We  left  the  young  curate  and  his  wife  in  their  lodgings  in 


FROM  THE  ORIGINAL   COPPERPLATE. 

REDUCED    FACSIMILE   OF  THE  TITLE   PAGE  OF  SAMUEL 
WESLEY'S    LIFE   OF   CHRIST. 


London,  where  they  "boarded  without  g"oing  into  debt." 
Here  their  son  Samuel  was  born,  who  became  the  poet  and 
satirist  of  Westminster  School  and  master  of  Tiverton  Gram- 


Life  at  South  Ormsby 


81 


mar  School.  There  is  an  inaccurate  story  which  Macaulay 
tells  in  his  History  of  England,  which  has  been  repeated  by 
Southey,  Dr.  Smith,  Dr.  Stevens,  and  others.  It  has  arisen 
out  of  a  confusion  of  persons.     It  is  to  the  effect  that  Samuel 

Wesley  was  asked  to 
preach  on  the  oc- 
casion of  James  II's 
declaration  of  inde- 
pendence, and  was 
promised  preferment 
if  he  would  support 
the  measures  of  the 
court  in  favor  of 
popery ;  and  that 
when  he  did  preach, 
surrounded  by  cour- 
tiers and  soldiers,  he 
preached  against  the 
measures  from  the 
text,  "Be  it  known 
unto  thee,  O  king, 
that  we  will  not  serve 
thy  gods,"  etc.  The 
real  hero  of  the  story 
was  not  Samuel  Wes- 
ley, but  the  Rev.  John  Berry — not  the  father,  but  the  father- 
in-law,  of  Samuel  Wesley,  Junior. 

In  the  autumn  of  1690  the  Marquis  of  Normanby  presented 
Wesley  to  the  living  of  South  Ormsby,  in  Lincolnshire,  worth 
.£50  a  year.  Wesley  himself  describes  the  parsonage  as  "  a 
mean  cot,  composed  of  reeds  and  clay."  This  house  has  dis- 
appeared, and  its  garden  now  forms  part  of  the  park.      "A 


ilftt 

jfr-Jla 

3 

% 

mm 

Jr/ 

Till 

■1 

W^H 

'JNjgf 

k!w1 

393SBJ 

HkU 

fHk  4    7  «j^^^ 

QUEEN  MARY  II. 

'  Our  last  queene  of  blessed  memory,"  who  "  did  delight  much 
into"  Samuel  Wesley's  poetical  Life  of  Christ. 


82  British  Methodism 

flourishing  acacia  and  a  profusion  of  snowdrops  that  mingle 
with  the  fresh  grass  of  early  spring  are  all  that  remain  as 
mementoes  of  the  parsonage  and  its  surroundings." 

His  family  increased  "one  additional  child  per  annum." 
Again  his  pen  came  to  the  rescue  and  Wesley  published  his 
Life  of  Christ,  dedicating  it  to  Queen  Mary.  In  Kemble's 
State  Papers  there  is  a  letter  from  Thomas  Burnet,  of  Kem- 
ney,  to  the  Electress  Sophia  of  Hanover,  July  29,  1697: 

There  is  a  new  edition  of  Mr.  Westley's  famous  poem  on  the  lyffe  of  Christ 
in  7  books  in  folio.  It  hath  the  best  tail-donees  into  it,  that  were  ever  seen  in 
this  country,  for  exactness  of  dessein  and  good  graveing.  It  is  a  heroic  poeme 
composed  for  the  use  of  our  last  queene  of  blessed  memory ;  she  did  delight 
much  into  it,  and  it  is  indeed  the  best  divine  poem  we  have.  The  author  is  ane 
young  clergymen,  a  beneficed  persone,  and  chaplain  to  the  Marquis  of  Nor- 
manby,  who  is  himself  one  of  the  best  poets  of  the  age. 

The  most  interesting  passage  in  this  long  poem,  which 
Dunton,  and  afterward  Pope,  pronounced  "  intolerably  dull," 
is  the  sweet  and  appreciative  portrait  of  the  wife  to  whom 
Wesley  and  Methodism  owed  so  much : 

She  graced  my  humble  roof  and  blest  my  life, 

Blest  me  by  a  far  greater  name  than  wife ; 

Yet  still  I  bore  an  undisputed  sway, 

Nor  was't  her  task,  but  pleasure  to  obey : 

Scarce  thought,  much  less  could  act,  what  I  denied. 

In  our  low  house  there  was  no  room  for  pride  ; 

Nor  need  I  e'er  direct  what  still  was  right, 

She  studied  my  convenience  and  delight. 

Nor  did  I  for  her  care  ungrateful  prove, 

But  only  used  my  power  to  show  her  love  : 

Whate'er  she  asked  I  gave  without  reproach  or  grudge, 

For  still  she  reason  asked,  and  I  was  judge. 

All  my  commands  requests  at  her  fair  hands, 

And  her  requests  to  me  were  all  commands. 

To  other  thresholds  rarely  she'd  incline  : 

Her  house  her  pleasure  was,  and  she  was  mine; 

Rarely  abroad,  or  never  but  with  me, 

Or  when  by  pity  called,  or  charity. 


Dunton's  Athenian  Gazette 


83 


vjo  ^ 

Her   m4ft.  Sacred    Majesty 


» 


By  the  Grace  of  GOD.* 


At  South  Ormsby  Wesley  also  published  his  treatise  on  the 
Hebrew  points.  Here  also  he  wrote  much  for  "The  Athe- 
nian Gazette ;   or  Casuistical  Mercury,  resolving  all  the  nice 

and  curious  questions  _        „ 

proposed  by  the  ingen- 
ious." One  third  of  the 
Gazette  at  this  time  was 
from  Wesley's  pen.  It 
was  so  successful  as  to 
be  republished  as  the 
Athenian  Oracle,  and  in 
1892  a  volume  of  selec- 
tions from  it  was  pub- 
lished in  a  new  series  of 
English  classics. 

Walter  Besant  has 
written  a  prefatory  letter 
to  this  last  reprint,  in 
which  he  says :  "  It  is  a 
treasury,  a  storehouse, 
filled  with  precious 
things  ;  a  book  invalu- 
able to  one  who  wishes 
to  study  the  manners  and 
ideas  of  the  English  bour- 


[Great  Britain,,  France  and  Ireland?  &c,( 


;.   '  Is  mod  humbiy  Dedicated 

\    •        ' ''.-  '   .  BY 

I  •    Her^aj'efiies  mofi- Loyal,    ;.   . 

■•"*;".     -        Moft-  OMient,  : : 
And  moft  Dutiful  Subje&  and  Servant, 

S.Wdleyv 

DEDICATORY    PAGE   OF  SAMUEL  WESLE\  'S 

HEROIC    POEM    ON    THE 

LIFE   OF   CHRIST. 


geois  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  or  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century."  The  editor  of  this  new  edition  of  the 
Athenian  Gazette,  John  Underhill,  regards  John  Dunton  as 
one  of  the  "Fathers  of  English  Journalism"  and  rebukes 
those  who,  like  Tyerman,  call  him  a  "crazy  bookseller." 


George   Fox. 


CHAPTER  X 

The  Passing;  of  the  Puritans 

-William    Penn. —William    Dewsbury    antd    Robert 
Barclay. — Bunyan. — Flavel. — Bates. 


SAMUEL  WESLEY'S  contributions  to  the  Athenian 
Gazette  reveal  theological  views  substantially  the 
same  as  those  of  his  son  John.  He  was  a  moderate 
Arminian.  He  was,  as  a  rule,  generous  in  his  judgment  of 
other  religious  systems,  but  he  shared  the  prejudices  of  his 
time  against  the  Quakers,  whom  he  vigorously  attacked.  In 
the  year  Wesley  came  to  South  Ormsby,  "holy,  tender- 
hearted, much-enduring  George  Fox,"  as  Vaughan  describes 
him,  died,  with  the  characteristic  words  upon  his  lips,  "All 
is  well.  The  Seed  of  God  reigns  over  all,  and  even  over 
death  itself." 

The  saintly  William  Dewsbury,  who  spent  nineteen  years 
in  Warwick  Jail,  died  in  the  year  King  William  was  pro- 
claimed. For  four  years  he  had  suffered  in  one  of  the  most 
loathsome  dungeons  in  the  country.  This  dungeon,  with 
its  open  cesspool  in  the  center,  has  recently  been  uncovered, 
and  remains  as  a  memorial  of  the  sufferings  of  one  of  the 
noblest  of  the  Quakers. 

Robert  Barclay,  the  celebrated  apologist  of  the  Friends, 
and  the  writer  of  the  first  of  those  noble  and  gentle  remon- 


The  Passing  of  Quakers  and  Puritans  85 

strances  against  the  criminality  of  war  which  have  distin- 
guished them,  died  in  the  same  year  as  George  Fox.  About 
ten  years  from  this  time  the  members  of  the  Society  in  Great 
Britain  numbered  twenty-four  thousand.  It  is  pleasing,  in 
after  years,  to  find  the  son  of  the  rector  of  South  Ormsby  and 
Epworth  finding  refuge  from  the  storm  at  Leek,  Stafford- 
shire, in  the  "neat  and  elegant"  home  of  an  old  friend,  a 
typical  Quaker,  "the  same  man  still,"  says  Wesley;  "  of  the 
same  open,  friendly,  amiable  temper." 

Just  before  leaving  South  Ormsby,  Mrs.  Wesley,  to  her 
great  grief,  lost  her  father,  Dr.  Annesley,  who  died  with 
ecstatic  exclamations  on  his  lips.  Cherishing  a  firm  belief  in 
some  ministry  of  love  for  the  "spirits  of  the  just  made  per- 
fect," throughout  the  remainder  of  her  life  Mrs.  Wesley  loved 
to  think  that  her  father  was  still  nearer  to  her  than  while  he 
was  in  the  flesh  in  Spital  Yard  and  she  in  Lincolnshire. 

One  by  one,  in  the  reign  of  William  III,  the  fathers  of 
the  old  Dissent  and  the  last  of  the  Puritans  were  passing 
away.  "They  just  saw  the  morning  of  religious  liberty, 
they  just  touched  the  borderland  of  promise,  they  dwelt 
under  its  vines  and  fig  trees  for  a  little  while,  and  then  died 
in  peace." 

John  Bunyan  finished  his  pilgrimage  in  the  year  of  King 
William's  accession.  When  the  end  came  "  he  felt  the 
ground  solid  under  his  feet  in  passing  the  black  river  which 
has  no  bridge,  and  followed  his  pilgrim  into  the  celestial 
city."  His  own  generation  did  not  recognize  the  beauty  and 
power  of  his  great  spiritual  allegory,  but  his  tomb  in  Bunhill 
Fields  to-day  is  one  of  the  most  famous  in  England.  Near 
him  are  buried  the  mother  of  the  Wesleys  and  her  sister, 
Elizabeth  Dunton,  Daniel  Defoe,  Richard  Cromwell,  and 
Isaac  Watts. 


86 


British  Methodism 


The  imaginative  saint,  John  Flavel,  finished  his  course  at 
Exeter  a  year  after  Annesley  died.  He  had  been  driven 
from  the  scene  of  his  zealous  ministry  at  Dartmouth  by  the 

rabble,  headed  by 
some  aldermen, 
who  burned  his 
effigy  —  an  insult 
he  requited  by 
praying,  "Father, 
forgive  them; 
they  know  not 
what  they  do." 

Philip    Henry 
died   in  the  sum- 


DRAWN    BV    J.     P.     DAVIS.  AFTER    PHOTO. 

TOMB   OF   JOHN    BUNYAN,    BUNHILL    FIELDS. 

Susanna  Wesley,  Elizabeth  Dunton,  Daniel  Defoe,  and  Richard 
Cromwell  lie  in  this  burying  ground. 


mer  of  the  same 
year  as  Annesley. 
Richard  Baxter 
entered  into  the 
"  saints'  everlasting  rest  "  a  few  years  earlier,  living  just  long 
enough  to  see  the  accession  of  a  Protestant  king  pledged  to 
grant  toleration  to  Dissenters.  Of  the  "silver-tongued  Dr. 
William  Bates,"  the  close  friend  of  Archbishop  Tillotson, 
Howe  said:  "God  took  him,  even  kissed  away  his  soul,  as 
hath  been  said  of  those  great  favorites  of  heaven  ;  vouchsafed 
him  that  great  privilege  not  to  outlive  serviceableness. 
To  live  till  one  be  weary  of  the  world,  not  till  the  world  be 
weary  of  him— thus  he  prayed  wisely,  thus  God  answered 
graciously."  He  died  in  1699.  John  Howe  survived  his 
friend  about  five  years.  Richard  Cromwell  called  upon 
him  in  his  last  illness,  and  Calamy  says:  "There  was  a 
groat  deal  of  serious  discourse  between  them ;  tears  were 
freely  shed  on  both  sides,  and  the  parting  was  very  solemn, 


Birth  of  John  Wesley  87 

as  I  have  been   informed  by  one   who  was  present  on  the 
occasion  .'" 

When  the  old  Puritans  had  passed  away,  though  their 
cause  remained  in  the  hands  of  men  who  had  learned  their 
lessons,  the  fire  no  longer  burned  with  the  glowing  heat  it 
had  done  before.  "  Puritanism,"  says  Dr.  Stoughton,  "as  a 
creed,  as  a  discipline,  as  a  form  of  worship,  as  a  religious 
sentiment,  remained;  but  much  of  its  original  inspiration 
passed  away."  The  nation  and  the  world  needed  the  new 
fire  which  was  already  kindling  in  the  quiet  Anglican  rectory 
where  the  "  Mother  of  Methodism  "  was  expressing  her  spirit 
of  consecration  in  the  words  of  her  favorite  poet,  saintly 
Herbert : 

Only — since  God  doth  often  vessels  make. 

Of  lowly  matter,  for  high  uses  meet — 
I  throw  me  at  his  feet. 

There  will  I  lie,  until  my  Maker  seek 

For  some  mean  stuff,  whereon  to  show  his  skill  ; 

Then  is  my  time. 

About  the  beginning  of  1697  Samuel  Wesley  was  presented 
to  the  living  of  Epworth,  in  Lincolnshire,  "in  accordance 
with  some  wish  or  promise  of  the  late  queen;"  here  he  con- 
tinued for  thirty-eight  years,  and  here  John  Wesley  was 
born  on  June  17,  1703,  the  fifteenth  of  the  rector's  nineteen 
children.  John  Benjamin  appears  to  have  been  his  full  name 
when  christened,  but  he  never  used  the  middle  name  or  initial. 


CHAPTER  XI 

The  Epworth  Home 

EpWorth  and  Lincolnshire. — Worthies  of  Wesley's  County. — The 
University  in  the  Home. — The  Alphabet  Party. 

EPWORTH  !  The  very  name  has  a  new charm  to-day,  for 
the  old  Lincolnshire  village  is  linked  with  the  young- 
life  of  this  and  the  coming  centuries  by  a  growing  host 
of  young  people,  members  of  the  "Epworth  League,"  who 
delight  to  call  themselves  "Epworthians,"  and  who,  by  a 
happy  unanimity  of  the  sentiment  of  the  young  people 
of  the  churches,  represent  all  the  Methodisms  of  America. 
Small  as  it  is — the  population  of  Epworth  being  only 
about  two  thousand — its  place  is  very  large  in  the  annals 
of  Anglo-Saxon  Christianity.  In  fact,  the  whole  county  of 
Lincolnshire,  like  the  entire  eastern  coast  of  England  and 
Scotland,  has  been  a  region  of  great  struggle,  and  a  cradle 
of  intense  intellectual  and  moral  activity  and  of  world-wide 
reforms  for  a  thousand  years.  This  entire  eastern  coast  has 
preserved  throughout  its  history  the  strong  evidence  of  the 
enduring  quality  of  that  Norse  strain  which  has  been  such 
an  important  element,  first  in  the  fighting  and  then  in  the 
coalescence  and  development,  of  the  many  races  which  set- 
tled  and    fought  on  the  British    Isles.      All    along  the  coast 

of  the  North  Sea  there  are  to  be  found  very  many  towns 

88 


Great  Names  of  Lincolnshire 


89 


GERMAN 
OCEAN 


which,  in  the  names  they  still  bear,  show  the  traces  of  the 
Norse  invaders.  The  towns  have  been  the  very  centers 
where  the  descendants  of  the  Norsemen  fought  their  first 
battles  and  communicated  their  spirit  of  daring  into  every 
field  of  Anglo-Saxon  activity.  Here,  as  one  example  only, 
arose  the  Brown ist 
sect,  which  became 
the  founders  of  that 
little  body  of  emigrants 
from  immortal  Scrooby 
to  Holland,  who,  in 
turn,  sailed  out  from 
Leyden,  and  came  over 
in  the  Mayflower,  and 
landed  at  Plymouth. 
Rock.  Out  of  this 
humble  beginning 
arose  the  theocracy  of 
New  England,  which 
has  always  been  speak- 
ing with  loud  voice 
and   lifting-    an   heroic 


WWtTHOfU* 


flT£/tSB0/f0i/6H 


MAP   OF   LINCOLNSHIRE. 

Showing  the  location  of  Epworth  and  Scrooby. 

hand  in  every  struggle  in  the  history  of  North  America. 
Lincolnshire  has,  perhaps,  been  the  most  assertive  of  all  the 
seething  counties  of  the  eastern  coast  of  the  British  Isles. 
In  almost  every  great  crisis  of  English  history  we  find  leaders 
from  Lincolnshire.  For  at  least  seven  hundred  years  it  has 
been  represented  in  the  high  places  of  English  life  by  some 
illustrious  son.  The  county  "of  fen,  marsh,  and  wood" 
gave  to  England  Stephen  Langton,  the  first  subscribing 
witness  to  Magna  Charta;  John  Foxe,  the  author  of  the 
Book    of    Martyrs ;    Lord    Burleigh,   the    great   Elizabethan 


FACSIMILE   OF   THE   SIGNATURE   OF 
SAMUEL   WESLEY,  SR. 


90  British  Methodism 

statesman ;  Archbishop  Whitgift,  the  brilliant  prelate  of  the 
same  period;  Thomas  Sutton,  the  founder  of  the  Charter- 
house School,  where  John  Wesley  was  educated ;  Busby,  the 
famous  master  of  Westminster  School,  where  Samuel  Wesley, 

Jr.,  became  master  and 
Charles  Wesley  scholar ; 
Sir  Isaac  Newton,  the 
princely  natural  philoso- 
pher; and  Alfred  Tenny- 
son, the  lordly  poet  of  the 
present  century,  who  was 
born  at  Somersby,  within 
two  miles  of  South 
Ormsby;  what  wonder  that  it  was  this  Lincolnshire  village 
of  Epworth  which  should  give  to  England  and  to  the  world 
John  Wesley,  "the  first  of  theological  statesmen,"  as  Buckle 
calls  him,  and  of  whom  Macaulay  says  he  "  conducted  one  of 
the  most  wonderful  revolutions  the  world  ever  saw;  his 
eloquence  and  his  piercing  logic  would  have  made  him  an 
eminent  literary  man ;  and  his  genius  for  government  was 
not  inferior  to  Richelieu's."  At  Epworth  also  Charles 
Wesley  was  born  ;  "  who  came,"  says  Green,  "  to  add  sweet- 
ness to  this  sudden  and  startling  light,"  and  who,  in  his  own 
distinctive  order  of  sacred  lyrists,  stands  in  the  first  rank 
among  the  poets  of  Tennyson's  county. 

The  old  market  town  of  Epworth  stands  on  a  piece  of  land 
once  inclosed  by  five  rivers,  and  called  the  Isle  of  Axholme. 
Its  population  remains  about  the  same  as  in  the  days  of  the 
Wesleys,  when  the  parishioners  numbered  two  thousand. 
They  live,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  one  street  that  stretches 
out  for  two  miles.  From  the  time  of  Charles  I  down  to  the 
first  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  "stilt  walkers"  had 


The  Turbulent  Fenmen 


91 


fiercely  resisted  every  effort  to  drain  the  fens,  and  when  the 
work  was   accomplished  by  new  settlers  the  older  Fenmen 


DRAWN   BY  JOHN   P.    DAVIS. 


FROM  PHOTOS. 


GLIMPSES   OF    EPWORTH. 


The  long  walk  to  the  church. 
The  market  cross. 


The  baptismal  font  and  ewei. 
Interior  of  St.  Andrew's  Church. 


burned  the  crops,  killed  the  cattle,  and  flooded  the  lands  of 
the  intruders.      The  turbulent  spirit  of  the  Fenmen  lingered 


92  British  Methodism 

still  among  the  villagers  of  Epworth,  who  were  also  profligate 
and  vicious  in  their  habits — as  Samuel  Wesley  discovered  to 
his  cost  during  his  first  twelve  years  among  them. 

The  exterior  of  Epworth  Church  remains  much  the  same 
as  in  Wesley's  day.  Porches,  walls,  buttresses,  and  towers 
have  not  been  altered  since  Adam  Clarke's  print  was  pub- 
lished. Within,  the  pews,  organ,  and  decorations  are  new, 
the  rood  screen  has  been  removed,  the  aisles  have  been  re- 
roofed,  and  six  bells  have  been  hung  in  the  tower. 

The  first  home  of  the  Wesleys  at  Epworth  was  a  typical 
country  parsonage  of  the  seventeenth  century,  a  homely  frame 
structure,  plastered  within  and  roofed  with  straw.  Parker's 
well-known  painting  of  John  Wesley's  deliverance  from  the 
fire  provides  a  partially  imaginary  picture  of  the  house.  An 
old  document  thus  describes  it:  "It  consists  of  five  bayes, 
but  all  of  mud  and  plaster,  the  whole  building  being  con- 
trived into  three  stories,  and  disposed  in  seven  chief  rooms, 
kitchen,  hall,  parlour,  butterie,  and  three  large  upper  rooms, 
and  some  others  of  common  use ;  a  little  garden  empailed 
between  the  stone  wall  and  the  south,  a  barn,  a  dove  coate, 
and  a  hemp  kiln." 

Let  us  take  a  look  into  the  interior  of  the  Epworth  rectory, 
for  in  this  household  we  have,  as  Stevens  well  says,  the  "  real 
origin"  of  Methodism.  Mrs.  Wesley's  education  in  the 
splendid  religious  environment  of  the' twenty  years'  life  in 
her  father's  house  in  London,  and  her  diligent  self-improve- 
ment during  her  married  life,  gave  superior  qualifications  for 
the  training  of  the  school  in  the  home.  The  method  of 
living  and  the  course  of  study  have  been  given  in  a  letter  by 
the  matchless  teacher  herself.  The  children  were  always 
put  into  a  regular  method  of  living,  in  such  things  as  they 
were  carxible,  from  their  birth ;   as  in  dressing,  undressing, 


A  Famous  Mother 


93 


and  changing-  their  linen.  When  turned  a  year  old  they 
were  taught  to  fear  the  rod,  and  to  cry  softly.  "I  insist," 
she  says,  "in  conquering  the  will  of  children  betimes, 
because  this  is  the  only  strong  and  rational  foundation  of  a 
religious  education,  without  which  both  precept  and  example 


DRAWN   BY  J.    D.    WOODWARD. 


TER   A   PRINT. 


CHURCH  OF  ST.  ANDREW,  EPWORTH. 

Where  Rev.  Samuel  Wesley  was  rector,  1696-1735,  and  where  John  and  Charles  Wesley  were 

christened. 


will  be  ineffectual,  but  when  this  is  thoroughly  done  then  is 
a  child  capable  of  being  governed  by  the  reason  and  piety 
of  its  parents,  till  its  own  understanding  comes  to  maturity, 
and  the  principles  of  religion  have  taken  root  in  the  mind." 
As  soon  as  the  child  learned  to  talk,  its  first  act  on  rising 
and  its  last  act  before  retiring  were  to  say  the  Lord's  prayer, 
to  which,  as  it  grew  bigger,  were  added  short  prayers  for 
parents,  some  collects,  a  short  catechism,  and  some  portion 
of  Scripture,  as  memory  could  bear.  That  genius  of  suc- 
cessful management  which  utilizes    every    help  and  helper 


94  British  Methodism 

was  shown  when,  at  the  regularly  designated  hour,  the  oldest 
took  the  youngest  that  could  speak,  and  the  second  the  next, 
to  whom  were  read  the  psalms  for  the  day  and  a  chapter  in 
the  New  Testament.  In  the  morning  they  were  directed  to 
read  the  psalms  and  a  chapter  in  the  Old  Testament.  They 
were  taught  to  be  still  at  family  prayers,  and  to  ask  a  blessing, 
which  they  did  by  signs  before  they  could  speak. 

The  exquisite  manners  of  John  Wesley  came  largely  from 
his  careful  training  in  childhood.  The  children  were  trained 
to  "civil  behavior;  "  saluting  one  another  by  the  proper 
name  with  the  addition  of  "  brother"  or  "  sister,"  yet  nearly 
every  child  had  a  gentle  nickname.  Each  must  ' '  speak  hand- 
somely for  what  was  wanted,"  even  to  the  humblest  servant, 
saying,  "  Pray,  give  me  such  a  thing."  Telling  the  truth 
brought  reward ;  rude,  ill-bred  talk  was  unheard ;  and  the 
children  were  forbidden  freedom  with  the  servants  in  con- 
versation or  association,  lest  something  coarse  or  evil  might 
be  projected  into  their  lives.  But  there  was  recreation  in 
abundance.  They  thus  grew  up  in  that  humble  home  a 
healthy,  happy,  witty  band  of  children. 

There  was  on  the  calendar  of  this  home  "The  Alphabet 
Party."  On  the  fifth  birthday  of  each  child,  the  house 
having  been  set  in  order  the  previous  day  for  the  celebration, 
the  new  pupil  took  the  first  lesson.  To  begin  the  child's 
education  was  better  than  a  banquet,  and  the  first  effort 
must,  if  possible,  be  a  decided  success.  In  the  school  hours 
of  the  learner's  first  day  the  alphabet  was  acquired.  The 
second  day  spelling  and  reading  began  in  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
with  the  Book  of  Genesis.  Much  stress  was  laid  on  good 
reading  and  writing.  Then  came  the  multiplication  table, 
elementary  mathematics,  grammar,  history,  and  geography. 
The  drill  which  John  acquired  in  grammar  flowered  out  into 


University  Extension  95 

his  later  authorship  of  short  grammars  for  the  study  of 
English,  French,  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew.  Reading  aloud 
became  a  specialty  with  the  older  children,  from  such  authors 
as  Milton  and  Shakespeare.  John  Wesley  declared  that 
his  sister  Emilia  was  the  best  reader  of  poetry  that  he  had 
ever  heard.  The  wise  mother  drilled  the  mental  faculties, 
the   "  memory  drill"  being  another  specialty. 

"Why  do  you  go  over  the  same  thing  with  that  child  the 
twentieth  time  ?  "  said  the  rector  impatiently  to  his  wife. 

"  Because,"  said  she,  "  nineteen  times  were  not  sufficient. 
If  I  had  stopped  after  telling  him  nineteen  times,  all  my  labor 
would  have  been  lost." 

There  was  even  a  successful  adaptation  of  university  study 
and  method.  Mrs.  Wesley  taught  first  by  talks  or  lectures, 
then  by  text-books,  and  required  essays  or  papers  from  the 
elder  scholars.  The  classics  were  exalted,  and  the  daughters 
took  the  same  lessons  as  their  brothers.  Mehetabel,  the  first 
one  trained  by  the  systematic  plan  finally  adopted,  could  read 
in  the  Greek  Testament  when  only  eight  years  old.  The 
rector  rendered  assistance  in  the  classics.  In  the  school 
hours  attention  was  given  to  the  culture  of  the  soul,  and 
there  even  was  a  catechism  drill  in  the  primary  department, 
and  the  teaching  of  Christian  doctrines  in  sthe  higher  grades. 
Then  there  were  Mrs.  Wesley's  own  compositions,  so  highly 
commended  by  Adam  Clarke,  but  lost  when  the  rectory  was 
burned.  There  were  elaborate  essays  on  religious  and 
educational  themes  which  she  had  prepared  as  text-books  for 
her  home  school. 


CHAPTER  XII 

Lights,  Shadows,  and  Toils  in  Epworth 

The  Battle  for  Bread. — The  Rectory  in  Ashes. — John's  Rescue. 
— Mrs.  Wesley's  Sermon-Reading. — Samuel  Wesley  and  the 
"Religious  Societies." — His  Missionary  Scheme. 

HAS  there  ever  been  a  home  school  equal  to  this  in  Ep- 
worth rectory?  The  stroke  of  the  family  clock,  reg- 
ulates all  things.  But  morning  and  evening  the  glad 
sound  of  youthful  voices  rings  out  in  singing.  Under  the 
evening  lamp  sit  the  happy  family,  with  sewing  and  witty  talk, 
with  many  games,  with  even  the  sensation  of  a  haunted  house ; 
where  the  ghost  is  often  heard,  but  never  seen,  and,  better 
still,  never  feared.  Buoy  well  .says:  "  Epworth  was  an  ideal 
home ;  the  family  were  the  embodiment  of  the  name  of  their 
church,  St.  Andrew's ;  for  they  were  said  to  have  been  the 
most  loving  family  in  Lincolnshire." 

It  was  not  all  sunshine,  however,  in  the  Epworth  home. 
The  rector  grew  vexed  because  his  wife  would  not  respond 
"amen"  to  his  prayer  for  the  king.  "  Sukey,  if  we  serve 
two  kings,  we  must  have  two  beds,"  and,  as  impulsively  as 
when  he  left  London  for  Oxford,  Samuel  Wesley  hurried 
away  to  the  London  Convocation,  to  return  only  at  the  death 
of    the   king    as    il   nothing  impleasant  had   ever  occurred. 

There  were  many  conflicts  between  the  rash  reetor  and  his 

96 


From  the  Church  to  the  Jail 


97 


ungodly  parishioners.  They  hated  him,  and  he  knew  not 
how  to  win  their  love.  Debts  crowded  in  upon  him.  In 
1705,  when  John  was  two  years  old,  his  father  was  arrested 
in  the  churchyard  for  a  debt  of  ^30  and  hurried  off  to  jail. 
His  good  wife  sent  him  her  rings  to  sell,  but  he  returned 
them,  believing  the  Lord  would  provide  otherwise.     We  see 


DRAWN   BY  J.    P.    DAVIS. 


FROM  AN  ENGRAVING. 


THE    PRESENT    EPWORTH    RECTORY    FROM   THE   GARDEN. 


him  at  work  among  his  "  fellow-jailbirds"  in  Lincoln  Castle 
reading  prayers  and  preaching,  even  securing  books  to  dis- 
tribute among  the  prisoners.  He  writes :  "I  am  now  at  rest. 
I  am  come  to  the  haven  where  I've  long  expected  to  be." 
And  again :    "A  jail  is  a  paradise  in  comparison  of  the  life  I 

led  before   I  came   hither.     No    man   has  worked  truer  for 

7 


98  British  Methodism 

bread  than  I  have  done,  and  few  have  lived  harder,  or  their 
families  either." 

But  the  storm  beat  more  fiercely  upon  the  rectory  for  food 
was  hard  to  find,  the  crop  of  the  previous  year  having  been 
a  failure.  The  angry  neighbors  now  burned  the  flax,  stabbed 
the  three  cows  that  had  given  milk  to  the  family,  and  wished 
"the  little  devils" — the  children  in  the  rectory — would  be 
turned  out  to  starve.  The  delicate;  brave-hearted  wife  toiled 
on,  and  kept  together  the  half-fed  and  half-clothed  children. 

"Tell  me,  Mrs.  Wesley,"  said  the  Archbishop  of  York, 
"  whether  you  have  ever  really  wanted  bread." 

"I  will  freely  own  to  your  grace,"  she  replied,  "that, 
strictly  speaking,  I  never  did  want  bread.  But  then  I  had  so 
much  care  to  get  it  before  it  was  eat  and  to  pay  for  it  after- 
ward as  have  often  made  it  unpleasant  to  me;  and  I  think  to 
have  bread  on  such  terms  is  the  next  degree  of  wretchedness 
to  having  none  at  all." 

Friends  came  to  the  relief  of  the  rector,  and  through  the 
influence  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  he  was  presented  with 
£125.  After  three  months'  imprisonment  he  returned  to 
his  parish  and  his  books. 

Then  came  the  enemy's  torch.  The  rectory  went  down  in 
ashes,  and  only  the  good  providence  of  God  saved  the  lives 
of  John  and  his  mother.  It  was  on  Wednesday  night,  the 
9th  of  February,  1 709.  Mrs.  Wesley  was  ill  in  her  room,  with 
her  two  eldest  daughters  as  companions.  Bettie,  the  maid, 
and  five  younger  children  were  in  the  nursery,  while  Hettie 
was  alone  in  the  small  bedroom  next  to  the  granary,  where 
the  newly  threshed  wheat  and  corn  were  stored.  The  rector 
left  his  study  at  half-past  ten,  locked  the  room  that  contained 
his  precious  manuscripts  and  the  records  of  the  family  and 
parish,  and  retired  to  rest  in  a  room  near  to  his  wife. 


The  Burning  of  the  Rectory 


101 


It  was  a  wild  night.  A  howling  northeast  storm  obscured 
the  half  moon.  The  fire  crept  up  the  straw  roof  and  dropped 
upon  the  bed  where  Hettie  slept.  Scorched  and  alarmed,  she 
ran  to  her  father's  room,  while  voices  on  the  street  cried, 
"  Fire  !  Fire  !  "  The  father  warned  his  wife  and  daughters, 
helped  them  down  stairs,  and  wakened  those  in  the  nursery. 
Bettie  escaped,  with  Charles  in  her  arms,  while  three  children 
followed.      The  brave  father  helped  them  into  the  yard  and 


ER    PHOTO. 


THE  GATEWAY  OF  LINCOLN   CASTLE,   IN  WHICH    SAMUEL 
WESLEY  WAS    IMPRISONED. 

over  the  garden  wall,  and  back  to  the  house  he  rushed,  try- 
ing in  vain  to  find  his  wife.  He  tried  to  reach  the  study  and 
failed.  A  dismal  cry  came  out  from  the  flames,  "  Help  me  !  " 
"  Jacky  "  had  awakened  to  find  the  ceiling  of  his  room  on  fire. 
The  distracted  father  tried  to  force  himself  up  the  stairs, 
but  streams  of  flame  beat  him  back.  He  and  the  children 
committed  the  boy's  soul  to  God.     Within,  Mrs.  Wesley,  lost 


BOSTON     XJlsri"VER.SIir5r 

THEO.     SCHOOL. 


102  British  Methodism 

in  the  excitement,  sought  the  opened  front  doors,  but  was 
forced  back  by  the  blinding-  sheet  of  fire  and  smoke.  At  a 
third  effort  she  was  literally  blown  down  by  the  flames. 
Calmly  she  sought  divine  help.  Wrapped  in  a  cloak  about 
her  chest,  she  waded  knee-deep  through  the  flames  to  the 
door.  Her  limbs  were  scorched,  and  her  face  was  black 
with  smoke,  so  that  when  found  by  her  frantic  husband  he 
did  not  know  her. 

John,  not  yet  six  years  old,  climbed  on  a  chest  to  the  win- 
dow, and  cried  to  be  taken  out.  One  man  was  helped  up 
over  the  shoulders  of  another,  and  the  child  leaped  into  his 
arms.  At  the  same  moment  the  roof  fell  in.  The  boy  was 
put  into  his  mother's  arms.  The  rector,  in  his  search  for 
his  wife,  found  her  holding  the  child,  who  by  this  time 
he  had  thought,  was  burned  to  ashes.  He  could  not  believe 
his  eyes  until  several  times  he  had  kissed  the  boy.  Mrs. 
Wesley  said  to  him,  "Are  your  books  safe?"  "Let  them 
go,"  he  replied,  "  now  that  you  and  all  the  children  are  pre- 
served." "  He  called  on  those  near  him  to  praise  God,  saying, 
"  Come,  neighbors,  let  us  kneel  down;  let  us  give  thanks  to 
God.  He  has  given  me  all  my  eight  children.  Let  the 
house  go;    I  am  rich  enough. " 

To  John  Wesley  for  more  than  fourscore  years  this  event 
was  the  initial  of  his  vivid  reminiscences.  There  was  no 
place  found  in  his  thought  from  that  time  onward  for  a  doubt 
of  a  Supreme  Being  whose  mercy  interposes  in  moments  of 
danger.  The  mother's  escape  was  as  miraculous  as  that  of 
her  celebrated  son.  In  later  years  he  caused  a  vignette  to  be 
engraved  of  a  burning  house,  beneath  his  portrait,  and  these 
words  underscored:  "Is  not  this  a  brand  plucked  from  the 
burning?  " 

The  fire  revealed  anew  the  high  nobility  of  the  good  father. 


Brands  from  the  Burning 


103 


The  next  day,  while  he  was  walking  around  the  ruins  of  the 
rectory,  he  saw  two  objects,  the  only  remains  of  his  study. 
The  first  was  part  of  a  scorched  leaf  of  his  Polyglot  Bible,  on 
which  were  yet  legible  the  words:  Vade ;  vende  omnia  qn<z 
liabcs,  et  attollc  crucem,  et  sequere  me — "  Go;   sell  all  that  thou 


E  STEEL  PLATE   BY  ROTHWELL. 


"THE  PROVIDENTIAL    ESCAPE    OF  THE   REV.  JOHN  WESLEY  FROM  THE   CON- 
FLAGRATION OF  HIS  FATHER'S  HOUSE,  WHEN  ONLY  SIX  YEARS  OF  AGE." 

One  of  the  many  crude  representations  of  this  incident  which  made  such  a  powerful 
impression  upon  the  early  Methodists. 

hast,  and  take  up  thy  cross,  and  follow  me."  This  verse  im- 
pressed him  with  a  new  meaning  in  his  supreme  trial.  An- 
other rescued  paper  contained  one  of  his  own  poems  of  six 
stanzas,  which  has  enriched  the  psalmody  of  all  Christendom, 
beginning : 

Behold  the  Saviour  of  mankind 

Nailed  to  the  shameful  tree ; 
How  vast  the  love  that  him  inclined 

To  bleed  and  die  for  thee ! 


104  British  Methodism 

The  rectory  was  soon  rebuilt  in  a  more  substantial  manner 
and  on  a  more  commodious  plan.  While  the  rector  is  attend- 
ing1 the  Convocation  in  London  the  good  mother  holds  service 
with  her  children  on  Sabbath  afternoons  in  the  kitchen,  read- 
ing good  books  and  sermons.  Neighbors  ask  the  privilege  of 
coming  to  hear,  and  there  are  .soon  as  many  as  thirty  attend- 
ing regularly.  The  rector,  though  displeased  with  the  news, 
is  delighted  with  the  plan  on  his  return.  The  next  year  he 
has  a  conceited  curate,  who  writes  him  words  of  bitter  com- 
plaint against  the  sermon-reading  wife.  She  tells  her  husband 
of  the  good  work,  and  that  as  many  as  two  hundred  come  to 
hear.  The  curate  writes  him  strong  words  of  a  "conventicle" 
— a  pestiferous  gathering  of  Dissenters — and  the  rector  in 
reply  urges  his  wife  to  discontinue  the  meetings.  The  de- 
fense of  the  mother  of  Methodism  is  in  these  noble  words: 

It  is  plain,  in  fact,  that  this  one  thing  has  brought  more  people  to  church 
than  ever  anything  did  in  so  short  a  time.  We  used  not  to  have  above  twenty 
or  twenty-five  at  evening  service,  whereas  we  have  now  between  two  and  three 
hundred,  which  are  more  than  ever  came  before  to  hear  Inman  in  the  morning. 

Besides  the  constant  attendance  on  the  public  worship  of  God,  our  meeting 
has  wonderfully  conciliated  the  minds  of  this  people  toward  us,  so  that  now  we 
live  in  the  greatest  amity  imaginable;  and,  what  is  still  better,  they  are  very 
much  reformed  in  their  behavior  on  the  Lord's  day;  and  those  who  used  to  be 
playing  in  the  streets  now  come  to  hear  a  good  sermon  read,  which  is  surely 
more  according  to  the  will  of  Almighty  God.  .  .  . 

I  need  not  tell  you  the  consequences  if  you  determine  to  put  an  end  to  our 
meeting.  ...  If  you  do,  after  all,  think  fit  to  dissolve  this  assembly,  do  not  tell 
me  that  you  desire  me  to  do  it,  for  that  will  not  satisfy  my  conscience  ;  but  send 
me  your  positive  command,  in  such  full  and  express  terms  as  may  absolve  me 
from  guilt  and  punishment  for  neglecting  this  opportunity  of  doing  good 
when  you  and  I  shall  appear  before  the  great  and  awful  tribunal  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

Noble  words,  thou  mother  of  Methodism  ! 

The  marvelous  service  continued  to  shed  its  light  abroad, 
for  who  could  resist  the  words  and  work  of  that  matchless 
heroine  of  the  spacious  Epworth  kitchen? 


A  Mother's  Prayer 


105 


The  fire  sadly  interfered  with  the  school  in  the  home.  The 
children  were  received  into  friendly  families  tmtil  the  rectory 
could  be  rebuilt,  and  when  they  returned  their  mother  had 
a  difficult  task  to  restore  order  and  good  manners.  She  was 
deeply  impressed  by  John's  escape,  and  two  years  afterward 


THE    EPWORTH    RECTORY    IN  1823. 
From  the  first  edition  of  Adam  Clarke's  Memoirs  of  the  Wesley  Family, 

we  find  her  meditating  in  the  eventide,  and  writing:  "  I  do 
intend  to  be  more  particularly  careful  of  the  soul  of  this  child 
that  thou  hast  so  mercifully  provided  for  than  I  ever  have 
been,  that  I  may  do  my  endeavor  to  instill  into  his  mind  the 
principles  of  true  religion  and  virtue.  Lord,  give  me  grace 
to  do  it  sincerely  and  prudently,  and  bless  my  attempts  with 
good  success." 

Much  as  the  Epworth  children  owed  to  their  mother,  they 
owed  not  a  little  also  to  their  father,  "a  learned  man,  a  com- 
prehensive thinker,  a  racy' writer  and  speaker,  a  brave  worker, 
a  manly  soul,  hasty,  impetuous,  hot,  but  loving,  liberal,  and 


106  British  Methodism 

true."  He  gave  a  good  example  to  his  own  children  by  his 
self-sacrificing  care  for  his  widowed  Nonconformist  mother. 

He  never  failed,  amidst  all  his  distress,  to  make  up  an  annual 
£10  for  her.  His  letters  to  his  sons  at  school  and  college 
show  that  he  was  their  friend  and  teacher.  When  he  was 
not  at  Convocation  he  taught  them  the  rudiments  of  classics. 
He  imparted  to  his  sons  his  own  love  of  books,  for  he  was  a 
bibliomaniac  of  the  strongest  type.  He  encouraged  his 
children  in  a  wide  range  of  reading.  He  criticised  the 
"sorry  Sternhold  Psalms,"  and  in  the  same  letter  expressed 
his  love  for  music  as  "  a  great  help  to  our  devotion." 

In  the  Athenian  Oracle  Samuel  Wesley  wrote:  "  Nothing 
but  a  stock  is  proof  against  the  charms  of  music,  and  espe- 
cially when  good  sense,  good  poetry,  good  tunes,  and  a  good 
voice  meet  together."  He  laments  the  wretched  reading  of 
the  Psalms,  "all  at  the  mercy  of  the  clerk's  nose,"  and  thinks 
this  may  be  one  "reason  why  the  Reformed  Churches  arc 
yet  remiss  in  psalmody."  He  urged  his  son  to  make  trans- 
lations of  the  Bible  into  verse,  and  thus  gave  a  powerful 
stimulus  to  the  scriptural  character  of  the  psalmody  of  the 
coming  revival. 

In  two  of  his  many  enterprises  in  the  press  and  the  pulpit 
the  vigorous  rector  notably  anticipated  the  principles  of  his 
Methodist  sons;  he  was  the  apologist  of  the  "religious 
societies"  of  his  day,  and  he  was  the  advocate  of  "a  broad 
and  comprehensive  scheme"  of  foreign  missions.  The  fervent 
ministry  of  Horneck,  curate  at  the  Savoy  and  canon  of  West- 
minster; of  Smithies,  curate  of  Cripplegate,  and  William 
Berridge,  afterward  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  led  to  the  conver- 
sion of  some  young  men  who  met  together  weekly,  raised 
funds  to  relieve  the  poor,  visited  prisoners,  and  taught  neg- 
lected children.      These  societies  for  religious  fellowship  de- 


Germs  of  Great  Enterprises 


107 


Hip     i    t.  y-g7--)t Z^bbSK 


veloped  into  the  Society  for  the  Reformation  of  Manners. 
Houses  of  ill  fame,  Sunday  markets,  and  habits  of  debauchery 
and  profanity  were  attacked,  and  by  1735  it  was  reported  that 
99,380  prosecutions  had  been  instituted. 

Samuel  Wesley  preached  a  sermon  on  behalf  of  this  society 
in  1698,  and  wrote  his  defense  of  the  gatherings  for  spiritual 
conversation  in  1699.  He  argued  that  they  were  not  ''schis- 
matic," that  they 
were  in  harmony 
with  the  spirit  of 
primitive  Christianity 
and  conducive  to  the 
life  of  the  Church. 
Although  the  reli- 
gious societies  had 
sunk  into  insignifi- 
cance before  John 
Wesley  organized 
Methodism,     "  there 

can  be  no  doubt,"  says  Rigg,  "  that  in  these  societies  are  to  be 
found  the  original  of  the  Methodist  societies,  first  at  Oxford 
and  afterward  elsewhere."  They  must  often  have  been  the 
subject  of  conversation  among  the  peculiarly  wide-awake 
young  folk  in  the  Ep worth  home.  Sixty-five  years  after 
Samuel  Wesley  preached  his  sermon  before  the  Society  for 
the  Reformation  of  Manners,  at  St.  James's  Church,  West- 
minster, we  find  his  son  John  preaching  from  the  same  text, 
in  West  Street  Chapel,  Seven  Dials,  before  the  same  society ; 
and  who  will  doubt  that  John  Wesley  had  much  to  do  with  its 
revival  ? 

Samuel  Wesley's  missionary  scheme  for  the  complete  evan- 
gelization of  the  East — including  India,  China,  and  Abyssinia 


DRAWN  BY  J.    P.    DAVIS. 


AFTER  PHOTO. 


THE  PRESENT  RECTORY  FROM  THE  REAR. 


108  British  Methodism 

—procured  the  sanction  of  the  Archbishop  of  York.  Wesley 
offered  his  own  services.  "  If,"  he  says,  ".£100  per  annum 
might  be  allowed  me — and  .£40  I  must  pay  my  curate  in  my 
absence — I  should  be  ready  to  venture  my  life  on  this  occa- 
sion, provided  any  way  might  be  found  to  secure  a  subsistence 
for  my  family  in  case  of  my  decease  in  those  countries." 

In  the  last  year  of  his  life  the  large-hearted  rector  lamented 
"  that  he  was  not  young  enough  to  go  with  Oglethorpe  as  a 
missionary  to  Georgia."  He  was  not  permitted  to  carry  out 
his  plans,  but  his  children  partook  of  his  spirit,  and  within  a 
century  the  spiritual  children  of  this  country  parson's  son 
landed  in  India  to  do  precisely  as  he  suggested — to  "learn 
the  Hindustan  language,  master  the  Hindu  notions  and  ways 
of  reasoning,  and  bring  over  some  of  their  Brahmans  and 
common  people  to  the  Christian  religion." 


CHAPTER  XIII 

Tales  of  the  Epworth  Rectory 

The  Rector's  Prayer. — Fun  at  the  Parsonage. — The  "Rueful" 
Clerk. — Sammy  and  His  Cat. — The  Ghost  Story. — A  Modern 
Rector. — Epworth  of  To-day. 

IT  is  evident   from  his  letters  that  the  character  of  the 
energetic,  impulsive  rector  of  Epworth  became  mellowed 
as  the  years  went  by,  and  his  Pious  Communicant,  pub- 
lished when  he  was  at  Epworth,  reveals  a  growing  spirit  of 
devotion.     One  prayer  therein  reflects  his  own  sad  experi- 
ences of  poverty : 

I  believe,  O  Lord  !  that  thou  who  feedest  the  ravens  and  clothest  the  lilies 
wilt  not  neglect  me  and  mine  ;  that  thou  wilt  make  good  thine  own  unfailing 
promises — wilt  give  meat  to  them  that  fear  thee,  and  be  ever  mindful  of  thy 
covenant.  In  the  meantime  let  me  not  be  querulous  or  impatient  or  envious  at 
the  prosperity  of  the  wicked  ;  or  judge  uncharitably  of  those  to  whom  thou  hast 
given  a  larger  portion  of  the  good  things  of  this  life ;  or  be  cruel  to  those  in  the 
same  circumstances  as  myself.  Let  me  never  sink  or  despond  under  my  heavy 
pressures  and  continued  misfortunes.  Though  I  fall,  let  me  rise  again.  Let 
my  heart  never  be  sunk  so  low  that  I  should  be  afraid  to  own  the  cause  of 
despised  virtue.  Give  me  diligence  and  prudence  and  industry,  and  let  me 
neglect  nothing  that  lies  in  me  to  provide  honestly  for  my  own  house.  Help 
me  carefully  to  examine  my  past ;  and  if,  by  my  own  carelessness  or  impru- 
dence, I  have  reduced  myself  into  this  low  condition,  let  me  be  more  deeply 
afflicted  for  it  ;  but  let  me  still  hope  in  thy  goodness,  avoiding  those  failures 
whereof  I  have  been  formerly  guilty.  Or,  if  for  my  sins  thou  hast  brought  this 
upon  me,  help  me  now,  with  submission  and  patience,  to  bear  the  punishment 

109 


110  British  Methodism 

of  my  iniquity.  Or,  if  by  thy  wise  providence  thou  art  pleased  thus  to  afflict 
me  for  trial,  and  for  the  example  of  others,  thy  will,  O  my  God  !  not  mine,  be 
done. 

Many  were  the  family  stories  which  were  told  with  much 
zest  by  the  numerous  members  of  the  Wesley  household  in 
later  years.  Some  of  them,  it  is  evident  from  later  research, 
contained  an  apocryphal  element,  but  most  of  them  are  based 
on  facts.  John  Wesley  used  to  tell  how  a  lady  of  doubtful 
character,  a  friend  of  the  loose-living  Marquis  of  Normanby, 
tried  to  force  her  society  upon  his  mother,  whether  she  would 
or  not.  Coming  in  one  day,  and  finding  this  intrusive  visitor 
sitting  with  Mrs.  Wesley,  the  sturdy  rector  "  went  up  to  her, 
took  her  by  the  hand,  and  very  fairly  handed  her  out."  John 
'Wesley  says  that  this  gave  such  offense  to  the  marquis  that 
it  led  to  his  father's  removal  from  the  living  of  South  Ormsby. 
But  in  this  he  appears  to  have  been  mistaken,  and  "  the  ac- 
tual rencontre  may  have  been  with  some  woman  connected 
with  Lord  Castleton,  who  rented  the  hall  and  lived  a  very 
dissolute  life  there." 

Adam  Clarke  relates  a  story,  told  him  also  by  John  Wesley, 
which  was  afterward  corrected  in  some  details  by  Miss  Sarah 
Wesley.  The  revised  version  of  it  is  as  follows :  Samuel 
Wesley  had  a  clerk,  well-meaning  and  honest,  but  weak  and 
vain.  On  the  return  of  King  William  from  one  of  his  mar- 
tial expeditions  this  official  stood  up  in  the  midst  of  a  serv- 
ice, and  with  the  nasal  twang  common  to  such  functionaries 
pompously  said,  "Let  us  sing,  to  the  praise  and  glory  of 
God,  a  hymn  of  my  own  composing: 

King  William  is  come  home,  come  home; 

King  William  home  is  come. 
Therefore  together  let  us  sing 

The  hymn  that's  called  Te  D'um." 

Charles  Wesley  told  his  daughter  that  this  same  clerk  wore 


Fun  in  the  Parsonage  111 

the  rector's  cast-off  clothes  and  wigs,  though  for  the  latter 
his  head  was  far  too  small.  One  morning,  without  intending 
anything  ludicrous,  says  Sarah  Wesley,  the  rector  gave  out  a 
psalm,  reading  the  following  line: 

Like  to  an  owl  in  ivy  bush — 

This  was  sung  according  to  the  custom  of  "  a  line  at  a  time," 
and  the  clerk,  peeping  out  of  his  large  canonical  wig,  pro- 
ceeded with  the  next  line,  and  in  the  orthodox  twang 
drawled  out: 

That  rueful  thing  am  I  ! 

The  congregation,  struck  with  Clerk  John's  appearance,  saw 
the  odd  coincidence,  and,  to  his  mortification,  burst  into  a  fit 
of  laughter.  The  following  is  the  version  of  the  lines  is 
Sternhold's  Psalms  of  1729: 

And  as  an  owl  in  desert  is, 

Lo,  I  am  such  an  one ; 
I  watch,  and,  as  a  sparrow  on 

The  housetop,  am  alone. 

This  was  from  the  version  of  the  Psalms  so  severely  criti- 
cised by  the  rector,  and  banished  by  his  sons  from  the  song- 
worship  of  Methodism. 

Mrs.  Wesley  was  fond  of  telling  how  her  eldest  boy,  Sam- 
uel, began  to  talk  when  he  was  four  or  five  years  old.  The 
cat  was  his  pet,  and  he  was  in  the  habit  of  hiding  in  quiet 
corners  with  it  to  enjoy  his  silent  play.  One  day  his  mother 
grew  anxious,  and  searched  the  house  and  garden  for  him, 
calling  his  name.  At  last  she  heard  a  voice  from  under  the 
table,  saying,  "Here  am  I,  mother!"  and,  stooping  down, 
she  saw  Sammy  and  his  cat.  From  that  time,  to  his  mother's 
delight,  he  spoke  as  well  as  the  other  children. 


112  British  Methodism 

She  gives  a  characteristic  glimpse  of  her  boy  John  in  a 
letter  to  her  husband  in  London  in  17 12:  "Jack  has  bore 
his  disease  bravely,  like  a  man,  and  indeed  like  a  Christian, 
without  any  complaint,  though  he  seemed  angry  at  the  small 
pox  when  they  were  sore,  as  we  guessed  by  his  looking  sourly 
at  them,  for  he  never  said  anything."  When  John  was  a 
child  his  father  once  said  to  him :  "  Child,  you  think  to  carry 
everything  by  dint  of  argument ;  but  you  will  find  how  very 
little  is  ever  done  in  the  world  by  close  reason."  "Very 
little  indeed,"  was  John's  comment  in  after  years. 

Mrs.  Wesley  trained  the  children  to  refuse  food  between 
meals,  and  little  John's  characteristic  and  polite  reply  to  all 
kindly  offers  was,  "  I  thank  you  ;  I  will  think  of  it !"  "  One 
pictures  John  Wesley  at  Epworth,"  wrote  the  present  rector, 
Dr.  Overton,  "  as  a  grave,  sedate  child,  always  wanting  to 
know  the  reason  of  everything,  one  of  a  group  of  remarkable 
children,  of  whom  his  sister  Martha  was  most  like  him  in  ap- 
pearance and  character;  each  of  them  with  a  strong  individu- 
ality and  a  very  high  spirit,  but  all  well  kept  in  hand  by 
their  admirable  mother,  all  precise  and  rather  formal,  after 
the  manner  of  their  day,  in  their  language  and  habits." 
Martha  married  a  clergyman  named  Hall,  who  fell  into  gross 
sin  and  treated  his  wife  cruelly.  Upon  his  deathbed  he 
repented  and  said,  "  I  have  injured  an  angel!  an  angel  that 
never  reproached  me."  This  was  the  Mrs.  Hall  who  dis- 
cussed theological  and  philosophical  questions  with  Dr.  John- 
son, as  recorded  by  Bos  well. 

The  story  of  "the  Epworth  ghost"  must  have  at  least  a 
word.  "Old  Jeffrey,"  as  the  children  named  him,  did  not 
begin  his  antics  until  John  had  left  Epworth  for  the 
Charterhouse  School.  Strange  noises  were  heard  at  night 
and  during  family  prayers — knocks  and  groans  and  rattling 


The  Haunted  Chamber  in  the  Epworth  Rectory         113 


doors  and  pans ; 
trenchers  danced 
and  dogs  howled. 
Clergymen  and 
others  urged 
Wesley  to  leave 
the  "  haunted  " 
parsonage,  but 
he  replied,  "  No; 
let  the  devil  flee 
from  me,  I  will 
not  flee  from 
him"  On  the 
general  question 
of  apparitions 
Mrs.  Wesley 
guardedly  wrote 


DRAWN   BY  i.  P.   DAVIS.  FROM   PHOTOS. 


GLIMPSES  OF  THE  EPWORTH  RECTORY. 

Staircase  to  the  haunted  chamber. — The  main  stair- 
case and  hallway. — "  Jeffery"  haunted  chamber. 


to  "  Dear  Jacky "  in  17 19:  "I 
do  not  doubt  the  fact,  but  I  can, 
not  understand  why  these  ap- 
paritions are  permitted.   If  they 


114  British  Methodism 

were  allowed  to  speak  to  us,  and  we  had  strength  to  bear  such 
converse — if  they  had  commission  to  inform  us  of  anything  re- 
lating to  their  invisible  world  that  would  be  of  any  use  to  us  in 
this — if  they  would  instruct  us  how  to  avoid  danger,  or  put  us  in 
a  way  of  being  wiser  and  better,  there  would  be  sense  in  it ;  but 
to  appear  for  no  end  that  we  know  of,  unless  to  frighten  peo- 
ple almost  out  of  their  wits,  seems  altogether  unreasonable." 
There  is  much  of  Susanna  Wesley's  characteristic  common 
sense  in  these  words.  The  latest  biographer  of  Mrs.  Wesley — 
Eliza  Clarke,  1886 — states  that  about  a  hundred  years  after 
the  Wesleys  had  left  Epworth  strange  noises  were  heard  in 
the  rectory,  and  the  incumbent,  not  being  able  to  trace  or 
account  for  them,  went  away  with  his  family  and  resided 
abroad  for  some  time.  The  present  rector  is  of  the  opinion 
that  "'Old  Jeffrey'  is,  to  some  extent,  answerable  for  a 
marked  feature  in  Wesley's  character — his  love  of  the  mar- 
velous and  his  intense  belief  in  the  reality  of  apparitions 
and  of  witchcraft." 

We  may  not  take  leave  of  the  Epworth  rectory  as  it  was 
in  the  youth  of  the  Wesleys  without  a  glance  at  the  modern 
one,  in  its  bright  and  cheerful  dress. 

This  rectory  had  cost  Samuel  Wesley  £400,  a  marvel  of 
cheapness,  which  can  be  accounted  for  in  no  other  way  than 
that  the  building  material  of  those  days  was  very  cheap,  and 
that  the  bricklayers  who  wrought  upon  it  were  well  paid  at 
two  shillings  a  day  and  the  carpenters  at  eighteen  pence.  It 
is  described  by  a  contributor  to  the  Saturday  Review  as  "a 
long  brick  building  with  a  high-pitched  tile  roof  rising  from 
a  bold  projecting  cornice,  and  is  an  excellent  specimen  of  the 
sterling  unpretentious  architecture  of  the  day;  a  quiet,  genu- 
ine Queen  Anne  house,  very  unlike  the  crude  heaps  of  incon- 
gruities, devoid  of  repose,   which  now  pass  by  that  name. 


A  Visit  to  the  Present  Rectory  115 

The  garden,  with  its  smooth  lawn  and  long  straight  walks 
bordered  with  old-fashioned  flowers,  with  hedges  of  sweet 
peas,  foxgloves,  sweet  williams,  and  snapdragons,  beds  of 
odoriferous  pinks,  and  a  wealth  of  roses,  is  a  delicious  pleas- 
ure ground,  in  the  true  old  English  sense  of  the  word,  the 
rival  of  which  one  might  go  far  to  find."  When  the  rectory- 
was  enlarged  in  1883  some  charred  timbers  of  the  older 
building  were  found. 

The  writer  of  this  work,  in  a  visit  to  Epworth  in  1885,  at- 
tended the  morning  service  in  the  venerable  church  where 
Samuel  Wesley  so  long  ministered.  The  rector,  then  and 
since,  was  John  H.  Overton,  D.D.  He  was  very  courteous 
in  showing  his  visitor  the  church  records  of  the  days  of  Sam- 
uel Wesley.  This  singular  fact  was  observed :  Samuel  Wes- 
ley made  his  entries  on  the  records  in  the  Latin  language, 
while  his  predecessors  and  successors  used  the  English.  All 
the  marriages,  for  example,  were  recorded  as  conjugati.  Dr. 
Overton  was  very  kind  in  conducting  me  throughout  the 
modern  rectory.  What  a  beautiful  entrance  hall,  and  what 
a  spacious  staircase !  Of  course  the  ghost  fable  had  to  come 
in  for  a  question.  To  the  inquiry  how  the  noises  came  about, 
the  rector  answered  that  the  story  beneath  the  roof,  which 
was  one  long,  great  rambling  room,  was  floored  with  a  kind 
of  concrete  which,  on  being  trodden,  made  a  short  metallic 
sound  throughout  the  upper  part  of  the  house.  He  attributed 
the  entire  fancy  to  the  fact  of  the  unfriendliness  of  the 
townspeople,  who  might  throw  missiles  and  make  noises,  to 
which  by  a  vivid  imagination  could  be  attributed  a  preter- 
natural origin.  On  leaving  the  rectory  Dr.  Overton  was 
good  enough  to  give  me  as  a  souvenir  a  fragment  of  a 
charred  beam  which  had  been  found  when  the  rectory  was 
rebuilt  and    put  in    its  modern   and  most  attractive  shape. 


116 


British  Methodism 


Just    before    we    parted    the    doctor    said,    as    nearly    as    I 
recall : 

"  You  may  be  interested  to  know  how  I  became  rector  of 
this  venerable  church.  A  vacancy  having-  occurred,  I  was 
nominated  for  the  position  to  Mr.  Gladstone,  then  prime 
minister.      Mr.  Gladstone  asked  of  his  adviser: 


/iiiV 


m  m 


DRAWN    L(    C 


vmSBm 


AFTER    PHOTO. 


WESLEYAN    MEMORIAL   CHURCH    AND   SCHOOLS,    EPW0RTH. 


"  '  Where  was  Mr.  Overton  educated  ? ' 

"  '  At  Oxford,'  was  the  reply. 

"  *  At  which  college  ?  ' 

"'At  Lincoln  College,'  was  answered.  'And  not  only 
that,  but  Air.  Overton  was  the  occupant  of  the  same  room  in 
which  John  Wesley  lived  when  he  was  a  fellow  of  Lincoln 
College.' 

"  'Then,'  said  Gladstone  quickly,  'let  Mr.  Overton  follow 
on  in  the  footsteps  of  John  Wesley,  and  continue  the  work  of 
Samuel  Wesley  in  the  Epworth  church,  and  live  in  the  old 
rector)-.'  " 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Church.  117 

In  the  preface  to  his  Life  of  Wesley,  in  the  English 
Leaders  of  Religion  series,  this  present  rector  of  Epworth 
and  canon  of  Lincoln  describes  himself  as  "a  native  of  the 
same  county,  a  member  of  the  same  university,  a  priest  of 
the  same  Church,  a  dweller  in  the  same  house,  a  worker  in 
the  same  parish,  a  student  for  nearly  twenty  years  of  the 
Church  life  of  the  century  in  which  John  Wesley  was  so 
prominent  a  figure." 

It  is  gratifying  to  know  from  recent  testimony  that  "  the 
Epworth  of  to-day  is  in  every  respect  an  improvement  upon 
the  Epworth  of  John  Wesley's  childhood.  It  has  not  in- 
creased its  population,  its  market  has  well-nigh  disappeared, 
its  market  cross — where  Wesley  preached  when  he  became 
an  itinerant  evangelist — has  gone  to  decay,  its  flax  industry 
has  been  abandoned  ;  but  its  inhabitants  have,  perhaps,  never 
been  more  prosperous,  thrifty,  or  religious  than  at  this  pres- 
ent. It  is  not  intended  to  attach  to  the  Wesleys  the  credit 
of  improvements  which  have  taken  place  in  the  material  con- 
dition of  the  neighborhood — these  are  to  be  accounted  for  by 
a  variety  of  causes ;  but  in  the  increase  of  godliness,  right- 
eousness, and  sobriety  they  being  dead  yet  speak." 

The  Wesley  Memorial  Church,  a  beautiful  structure  reared 
by  the  English  Wesleyans,  can  be  seen  from  the  old  church- 
yard, and  pilgrims  from  many  lands  now  visit  the  quiet  home 
of  the  Wesleys. 


SI? 

'    j ;»,«"""   ■     ■  ..    . 

:: -w^!riTH>7<fflW:y!lj-v/--,'l.l.-:.=--^-^''  {H  'H 


CHAPTER    XIV 
Leaving  Home 

The  Sons  of  the  Rectory. — The  Best  Schools  in  the  Kingdom. — 
A  Noble  Patron. — The  Spectator  on  Schoolboys. —  Off  fur 
London. 

AS  soon  as  the  sons  of  the  Wesleys  were  old  enough  to 
leave  home  arrangements  were  made  for  carrying 
on  their  education  in  the  best  schools  that  the  king- 
dom afforded.  Samuel  went  to  Westminster  School  in  1704, 
then  to  Oxford  University,  returning  to  the  old  school  as  a 
teacher  about  ten  years  later,  when  his  younger  brother, 
John,  was  entering  the  Charterhouse.  Charles,  the  youngest 
son,  entered  Westminster  School  in  17 16.  Thus  for  four 
years  before  John  went  up  to  Oxford  the  three  brothers  were 
in  London  together. 

In  a  letter  recently  brought  to  light,  the  rector  of  Epworth, 
in  attendance  upon  Convocation  in  London  in  May,  171 1, 
writes  of  the  good  fortune  which  was  in  store  for  his  two 
elder  boys : 

I  bcliev  'twill  be  no  unpleasing  news  to  so  good  a  Friend,  that  my  Son  is 
chosen  from  Westminster  to  Xtchurch,  &  the  week  after  Whitsun-week  I  design 
to  com  to  Oxford  with  him,  &  see  him  matriculated. 

I've  a  younger  son  at  home  whom  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  lias  this  week 
writt  down  for  his  going  into  the  Charterhouse  as  soon  as  he's  of  age :  so  that 
my  lime  has  not  been  all  lost  in  London. 

118 


A  Noble  Patron 


119 


The  younger  son  was  John  Wesley,  who  at  the  age  of  eight 
was  thus  assured  a  free  scholarship  in  the  famous  school  of 
the  Charterhouse.  The  nobleman  to  whose  patronage  the 
lad  was  indebted  was  the  lord  chamberlain  to  Queen  Anne. 
In  his  time  he  was  much 
flattered  as  a  poet,  though 
Dr.  Johnson  declares  him 
to  be  "a  writer  that  some- 
times glimmers,  but  rarely 
shines,  feebly  laborious,  and 
at  the  best  but  pretty."  The 
literary  duke  had  befriend- 
ed the  literary  rector  before, 
helping  him  out  of  his  finan- 
cial troubles  in  1703,  and 
receiving  from  him  an  ac- 
count of  the  rescue  of 
"  Tacky  "  from    the  rectory    after  grangers  engraving  from  the  portrait  by  sir  goofrey 

J  J  -'  KNELLER. 

fire.       A     Latm    memoran-       Sheffield,  duke  of  Buckingham. 

dlim      in       Tohll'S      OWn      hand       The  nobleman  who  nominated  John   Wesley  to  a 

scholarship  at  the  Charterhouse. 

records  the  dates  of  his  ad- 
mission   to    school    and    university   opportunities:     "Joan. 
West  ley  ad  nominat.  duels  de  Bucks  adiniss.  In  Jundat.  Car  thus. 
28  Jan.  ijij-cj..    Ad  Univ.  24  June  1/20." 

In  the  numbers  of  The  Spectator  which  Rev.  Samuel  Wes- 
ley would  doubtless  bring  with  him  from  London  after  his 
three  visits  for  Convocation  there  were  articles  upon  the  pub- 
lic school  life  of  the  time  which  would  be  read  with  lively 
interest  by  the  elder  members  of  the  Epworth  family.  The 
strong  and  tender  mother  was  surely  touched  by  the  descrip- 
tion, in  one  day's  issue  of  the  single-sheet  periodical,  of  the 
"armed  pedagogues"  and   their  doings:     "Many  a  white 


120  British  Methodism 

and  tender  hand,  which  the  fond  mother  had  passionately 
kissed  a  thousand  times,  have  I  seen  whipped  until  it  was 
covered  with  blood." 

On  the  other  hand,  in  the  same  number,  there  was  a  reassur- 
ing account  of  the  "  great  tenderness  "  of  other  masters,  such 
as  Dr.  Nicholas  Brady,  of  psalmodie  renown.  And  had  they 
not  heard  that  Richard  Steele,  the  writer  of  some  of  these 
articles  and  the  editor  of  others,  had  been  a  peculiarly  trouble- 
some lad  at  the  school  to  which  John  was  going  ?  Did  not 
Addison,  another  famous  Charterhouse  boy,  often  do  his  les- 
sons for  him  ?  And  was  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  an  idle, 
bound-breaking,  reckless  boy  like  Dick  Steele,  in  spite  of 
his  cleverness,  should  get  badly  beaten  ?  Then  the  rector 
would  remember  that  ' '  Isaac  Barrow,  strong,  masculine,  and 
noble,"  as  he  described  him  in  his  Letter  to  a  Curate,  had 
laid  the  foundation  of  his  scholarship  at  this  same  school,  and 
the  mother  of  the  Wesleys  would  recognize  the  good  sense 
of  Budgell's  article  in  The  Spectator  of  1712  :  "A  private  edu- 
cation promises,  in  the  first  place,  virtue  and  good  breeding; 
a  public  school,  manly  assurance  and  an  early  knowledge  of 
the  ways  of  the  world."  Never  had  boys  a  nobler  "  private 
education  "  than  the  "  plain  living  and  high  thinking"  of  the 
Epworth  rectory  had  afforded  the  Wesleys.  When  John 
went  to  the  Charterhouse  he  suffered  less  from  the  hardships 
of  school  life  than  many  who  had  been  reared  in  the  lap  of 
luxury.  Already  he  was  "  a  diligent  and  successful  scholar 
and  a  patient  and  forgiving  boy,  who  had  at  home  been 
inured,  not  indeed  to  oppression,  but  to  hard  living  and 
scanty  fare."  Nevertheless,  from  the  Epworth  home  to  the 
cheerless  Charterhouse  must  have  been  a  trying  experience 
even  for  a  boy  like  John,  who  was  not  yet  eleven  years  old. 

Of  his  journey  to  London  we  have  no  account.     He  may 


Rough  Paths  from  Epworth 


121 


THE   ARMS   OF   THE   CHARTER- 
HOUSE  SCHOOL. 


have  left  Epworth  in  the  family  "waggon"  of  which  Mrs. 
Wesley  afterward  wrote;  a  long,  light,  narrow  vehicle, 
suited  to  a  country  without  roads. 
Nearly  a  hundred  years  later 
Dr.  Adam  Clarke,  in  describing 
his  own  homeward  journey  from 
Epworth,  says  :  "  We  had  no  road 
for  upward  of  forty  miles,  but 
traveled  through  fields  of  corn, 
wheat,  rye,  potatoes,  barley,  and 
turnips,  often  crushing'  them  under 
our  wheels.  In  all  my  journeys  I 
never  saw  anything  like  this,  but 
the  driver   assured  us   there    was 

no  other  road."    After  leaving  these  bypaths  the  boy  Wesley 
probably  mounted  a  London  coach,  from  which  he  had  his 

first     view    of 


the  city  where 
his  grandpar- 
ents had  lived, 
and  where  his 
uncle  the  sur- 
geon,  M  a  t  - 
thew  Wesley, 
was  still  liv- 
ing, near  Tem- 
ple Bar.  His 
mother's  sister, 
Elizabeth,  the 
wife    of    John 

Dunton,  the  bookseller,  had  died  in    1697,  and  her  eccentric 
husband's  shop  was  at  the  Sign  of  the   Raven,  at  the  Bull 


DRAWN     BY 


D.     WOODWARD.  FROM     A 

ENTRANCE  TO  THE  CHARTERHOUSE. 


Old  print. 


122  British  Methodism 

Head  Court,  not  far  from  the  Charterhouse.     Earlier  it  had 
been  in  The  Poultry. 

As  the  coaches  entered  London  the  Charterhouse  boys  of 
Wesley's  day  were  accustomed  to  climb  the  Coach  Tree, 
at  the  northeast  corner  of  the  Under  Green,  to  see  them  pass. 
Did  any  of  the  climbing-  boys  note  the  slight  figure  of  the 
future  "ecclesiastical  statesman"  who  was  to  bring  new 
honor  to  their  old  school  ?  A  part  of  the  Under  Green  has 
been  built  over,  but  there  still  remains  on  the  eastern  wall 
of  the  Upper  Green  a  visible  sign  of  the  boyish  interest  in 
coaching  in  a  large  figure  of  a  crown  painted  in  white.  Tra- 
dition says  that  this  was  painted  as  a  sign  for  the  boys  to 
stop  at  when  they  played  at  coaches.  Amid  much  horn- 
blowing  the  coaches  rattled  into  the  galleried  courtyards  of 
the  inns,  of  which  two  or  three  only  remain  to  revive  in 
imagination  the  delights  of  travel  in  the  days  when  railroads 
were  not. 


-.,^^|m||LJj 


rV'l'i'i',1     ! 


^■^TifflftPit 


CHAPTER  XV 
A  Charity  Scholar  at  Charterhouse 

The  Foundation  of  Charterhouse. — Dress  and  Discipline. — The 
School  Dons. — "Poor  Brothers." — A  Lad's  Religion. 

THE  school  of  the  Charterhouse  celebrated  its  one  hun- 
dredth anniversary  the  year  that  little  John  Wesley 
came  to  live  within  its  walls,  but  its  buildings  were 
of  great  antiquity.  As  early  as  1372  they  formed  a  part  of 
a  monastery  of  the  Carthusians,  or  Grey  Friars.  Their  high 
reputation  for  learning  and  religion  did  not  save  it  from  the 
"  hammer  of  the  monks  "  in  the  hands  of  Henry  VIII.  The 
monastery  was  dissolved  and  the  bloody  arm  of  the  martyred 
prior  was  hung  up  over  the  entrance  as  a  warning.  "In 
Wesley's  day  the  ancient  gloomy  cloisters  were  still  there, 
brick  built  and  grimy,  with  traditions  of  monks'  cells,  and  a 
ghostlike  smell,  with  an  evil  fame  for  small  boys,  and  even 
large  ones ;  for  did  not  the  prior  and  his  monks  lie  buried  in 
the  spot  known  and  dreaded  as  Middle  Briars?"  The  prop- 
erty next  passed  to  the  Howards,  and  eventually  was  bought 
for  ;£  1 3,000  by  Thomas  Sutton,  one  of  those  merchant  princes 
of  the  days  of  Elizabeth  and  James.  He  devoted  his  vast 
wealth  to  its  endowment  as  a  Protestant  hospital — as  alms- 
houses for    the    aged    and    poor    were    then    called — and  a 

123 


124 


British  Methodism 


grammar  school.     This  school  was  opened  in  1614;   and  thus 

it   came   to   pass  that   on    December  12,  17 14,  John  Wesley 

heard  the  old  school  song  sung  for  the  hundredth  time  to  its 

old  melody : 

Then  blessed  be  the  memory 

Of  good  old  Thomas  Sutton, 
Who  gave  us  lodging — learning — 
And  he  gave  us  beef  and  mutton. 

Young  Wesley,  a  small,  delicately  formed  boy,  became,  by 
virtue   of  Buckingham's  bounty,  one   of  forty-four  boys  on 

"the  foundation"  who  re- 
ceived a  free  education. 
Each  of  these  beneficiaries 
was  required  to  enter  the 
school  with  "  one  new  suit 
of  apparel  besides  that  he 
wears,  two  new  shirts, 
three  new  pairs  of  stock- 
ings, three  new  pairs  of 
shoes,  and  books  for  the 
form  he  is  to  be  in,  or 
money  to  buy  them."  John 
wore  a  broadcloth  gown 
lined  with  baize,  breeches 
of  dark  blue  stuff,  shirt  and 
stockings,  and  stout  shoes 
known  as  "gowsers."  He 
had  his  meals  in  the  gownboys'  dining  hall,  a  low-ceiled 
room  adorned  by  a  carved  chimney-piece  with  the  founder's 
arms  sculptured  above.  Tradition  says  that  it  was  the 
refectory  of  the  lay  brothers  of  the  monastery. 

Here  in  Wesley's  day  discipline  was  so  lax  that  the  boys 
of  the  higher  form  were  suffered  to  rob  the  small  boys  of 


THE  CLOISTERS   OF  THE  CHARTER- 

iiorsE. 

These  were  a  relic  of  the  ancient  Carthusian  monas- 
tery, on  whose  ruins  t he  school 


as  established. 


PM 


'  mm NlPff 


'.'■  % 


TTMfSP!^ 


DRAWN   BY  JOHN  P.    DAVIS. 


ROM   TRIMS. 


THE   CHARTERHnrsi;. 


The  Upper  Green — playground.  The  boys'  dining  room. 

The  chapel  in  which  Wesley  worshiped  as  a  hoy. 

Old  view  of  the  Charterhouse.  Schoolroom  (the  gownboys'  dormitory  above) 

125 


Dons  of  the  School  127 

their  portions  of  animal  food,  and  Wesley  himself  says, 
"  From  ten  to  fourteen  I  had  little  but  bread  to  eat,  and  not 
great  plenty  of  that.  I  believe  this  was  so  far  from  hurting 
me  that  it  laid  the  foundation  of  lasting  health."  Isaac 
Taylor  says:  "Wesley  learned  as  a  boy  to  suffer  wrongfully 
with  a  cheerful  patience,  and  to  conform  himself  to  cruel 
despotisms  without  acquiring  either  the  slave's  temper  or  the 
despot's."  He  faithfully  obeyed  his  father's  instructions  to 
run  round  the  green  three  times  every  morning,  "  and  this," 
declares  a  recent  writer  in  the  Charterhouse  School  Magazine, 
"  would  amount  to  one  mile,  as  we  know  to  our  cost,  having 
repeatedly  done  it  ourselves  in  exceedingly  bad  time."  But  it 
is  in  chapel  "  that  one  naturally  thinks  of  the  little  gownboy 
in  his  black  cloth  gown  and  knee  breeches,  sitting  in  one  of 
the  rows  of  seats  which  may  still  be  seen  just  in  front  of  the 
founder's  tomb;  and  close  to  his  left,  in  a  sort  of  glorified 
pepper  box  of  strange  construction,  sat  the  great  head  master, 
Thomas  Walker.  A  little  further  away,  in  the  corner  near 
the  pulpit,  sat,  in  a  similar  pepper  box,  Andrew  Tooke,  usher, 
or  second  master."  With  the  exception  of  an  additional  bay 
on  the  north  side,  and  a  few  minor  alterations,  the  chapel  still 
remains  as  when  little  John  Wesley  first  saw  it. 

Dr.  Thomas  Walker,  the  schoolmaster  of  Wesley's  day,  had 
been  a  gownboy  and  usher.  In  his  portrait  he  wears  a  full 
wig  and  silk  stockings.  In  one  hand  he  holds  a  copy  of  Ovid's 
Metamorphoses,  and  the  other  is  gallantly  laid  upon  his  heart. 
He  had  already  been  head  master  for  thirty-five  years,  and 
Richard  Steele,  Joseph  Addison,  the  Bishops  of  Carlisle  and 
Gloucester,  and  Davis,  president  of  Queen's  College,  Cam- 
bridge, had  been  among  his  pupils.  A  memorial  tablet  in 
the  chapel  records  his  accurate  knowledge  of  Hebrew,  Greek 
and  Latin,  and  his  diligent  discharge  of  his  duties.     Southey 


128  British   Methodism 

says  that  Wesley's  quietness,  regularity  and  application  made 
him  a  special  favorite  with  Walker. 

Andrew  Tooke,  the  usher,  or  second  master,  whose  virtues 
are  also  inscribed  in  the  chapel,  had  held  his  office  for  nine- 
teen years  when  Wesley  entered.  He  was  a  Fellow  of  the 
Royal  Society,  (iresham  professor  of  geometry,  and  the  author 

of  The  Pantheon,  a  summary  of  my- 
.]  thology  which  went  through  twenty- 

two  editions.  He  also  began  school 
life  as  a  gownboy,  and  succeeded 
Walker  in  the  head  mastership. 
Sarah  Wesley,  the  daughter  of 
Charles  Wesley,  in  a  letter  to  Adam 
Clarke,  written  from  Marylebone  in 
**"  1809,   gives   the   true  version   of  an 

T^-"  anecdote     about     Tooke     and    John 

Wesley  which  was  related  to  her  by 

FROM  THE  COPPERPLATE    BY  C.    H.    JEENS.  fjgj.     f^^g,-   • 

"  GOOD  OLD  THOMAS  SUTTON." 

T,    ,      ,      c  ,,    r.u    .    ,  When  John  Wesley  was  at  the  Charterhouse, 

1  he  founder  ot   the  Charterhouse  •> 

School.  the  schoolmaster,    Mr.  Tooke,  missing  all   the 

little  boys  in  the  playground,  supposed  them  by 
their  quietness  to  be  in  some  mischief.  Searching",  he  found  them  all  assembled 
in  the  schoolroom  around  my  uncle,  who  was  amusing  them  with  instructive 
tales,  to  which  they  listened  rather  than  follow  their  accustomed  sports.  The 
master  rxpressed  much  approbation  toward  them  and  John  Weslev,  and  he 
wished  him  to  repeat  this  entertainment  as  often  as  he  could  obtain  auditors 
and  so  well  employ  Ids  time. 

Sarah  Wesley  wrote  this  letter  to  confute  a  malicious  ver- 
sion of  the  story  by  Nightingale,  which  represents  Wesley  as 
haranguing  his  schoolfellows  from  the  writing  desk  and, 
when  rebuked  for  associating  with  the  smaller  boys,  reply- 
ing, "  Better  to  rule  in  hell  than  serve  in  heaven." 

The  master  of  the  Charterhouse,  superintendent  of  school 
and  hospital,  was  Thomas  Burnet,      lie  had  successfully  re- 


The  "Poor  Brothers"  129 

vSisted  an  attempt  of  James  II  to  thrust  a  Roman  Catholic  on 
the  foundation,  fearlessly  opposing  the  tyrannical  Jeffreys  at 
a  meeting  of  the  governors.  He  was  famous  throughout 
Europe  for  his  learning.  His  portrait  by  his  friend  Godfrey 
Kneller  is  the  finest  in  the  Charterhouse.  He  appears  as  a 
handsome  man,  in  a  black  gown,  with  short  hair.  He  was 
seventy-nine  years  of  age  when  little  Wesley  saw  him,  and 
lived  only  one  year  longer,  dying  in  1 7 1 5 .  He  was  succeeded 
by  King,  "who  always  carried  in  his  pocket  a  copy  of  the 
Imitation  of  Christ." 

Eighty  "decayed  gentlemen,"  called  "poor  brothers," 
were  originally  provided  for,  though  only  forty-three  now 
find  shelter  in  the  hospital.  Thackeray,  one  of  the  most 
famous  of  old  Charterhouse  boys,  has  touchingly  described 
the  impression  made  upon  him  by  the  sight  of  these  vener- 
able men  in  the  old  chapel  on  Founder's  Day : 

Yonder  sit  some  three-score  old  gentlemen  pensioners  of  the  hospital,  listening 
to  the  prayers  and  the  Psalms.  You  hear  them  coughing  feebly  in  the  twilight, 
the  old  reverend  black  gowns.  Is  Codd  Ajax  alive?  you  wonder;  the  Cister- 
cian lads  called  these  old  gentlemen  Codds — I  know  not  wherefore — but  is  old 
Codd  Ajax  alive,  I  wonder?  or  Codd  Soldier,  or  kind  old  Codd  Gentleman,  or 
has  the  grave  closed  over  them?  A  plenty  of  candles  light  up  this  chapel,  and 
this  scene  of  age  and  youth  and  early  memories  and  pompous  death.  How 
solemn  the  well-remembered  prayers  are,  here  uttered  again  in  the  place  where 
in  childhood  we  used  to  hear  them  !  How  beautiful  and  decorous  the  rite;  how 
noble  the  ancient  words  of  the  supplications  which  the  priest  utters,  and  to  which 
generations  of  fresh  children  and  troops  of  bygone  seniors  have  cried  Amen 
under  those  arches  !  The  service  for  Founder's  Day  is  a  special  one,  one  of  the 
psalms  selected  being  the  37th,  and  we  hear — 

"  The  steps  of  a  good  man  are  ordered  by  the  Lord :  and  he  delighteth  in  his 
way.  Though  he  fall,  he  shall  not  be  utterly  cast  down:  for  the  Lord  upholdeth 
him  with  his  hand.  I  have  been  young,  and  now  am  old  ;  yet  have  I  not  seen  the 
righteous  forsaken,  nor  his  seed  begging  bread." 

What  memories  of  his  family  history  must  have  been 
awakened  in  the  mind  of  the  impressionable  boy  by  the  sight 
of  these  venerable  men  and  the  words  of  this  pathetic  psalm  ! 


130 


British  Methodism 


Did  some  echo  of  this  service  linger  in  his  heart  when  in 
manhood  he  translated  Paul  Gerhardt's  hymn  of  trust  in 
God's  "  ceaseless  love"? 

Of  his  religious  life  as  a  schoolboy  Wesley  himself  gives 
us  a  glimpse.  At  the  time  of  his  conversion,  in  1738,  after 
describing  his  early  life  at  Epworth,  he  wrote:  "The  next 

six  or  seven  years  were  spent 
at  school,  where,  outward  re- 
straints being  removed,  I  was 
much  more  negligent  than 
before,  even  of  outward 
duties,  and  almost  continu- 
ally guilty  of  outward  sins, 
which  I  knew  to  be  such, 
though  they  were  not  scan- 
dalous in  the  eye  of  the 
world.  However,  I  still  read 
the  Scriptures  and  said  my 
prayers  morning  and  even- 
ing, and  what  I  now  hoped  to  be  saved  by  was,  (1)  not  being 
so  bad  as  other  people ;  (2)  having  still  a  kindness  for  religion  ; 
and  (3)  reading  the  Bible,  going  to  church,  and  saying  my 
prayers."  Defective  as  this  was,  Rigg  justly  considers Tyer- 
man's  judgment  on  the  schoolboy,  based  on  this  confession, 
too  severe — "John  Wesley  entered  the  Charterhouse  a  saint, 
and  left  it  a  sinner."  It  is  clear  that  "Wesley  never  lost, 
even  at  the  Charterhouse,  a  tender  respect  for  religion,  the 
fear  of  God,  and  the  forms  of  Christian  propriety.  It  was  no 
slight  evidence  of  at  least  the  powerful  restraining  influence 
of  religion  that  he  passed  through  such  an  ordeal  as  his  six  or 
seven  years'  residence  without  contracting  any  taint  of  vice." 


DRAWN   BY  W.    B.   DAVIS.  AFTtlrt  A  PRINT. 

A    GOWN  BOY. 

The  costume  worn  by  John  Wesley  as  a  boy  in 
Charterhouse  School. 


'm^h:^ 


CHAPTER  XVI 

The  London  of  Wesley's  School  Days 

Death  of  Queen  Anne. — A  Funeral  and  a  Resurrection. — Sachev- 

ERELL    AND    THE    GOWNBOY. — HIGHWAYS    AND    BYWAYS.— ADDISON'S 

Hymns. — A   Famous   Controversy. — A    Fateful   Explosion. — A 
Prize  Scholar. — Back  to  the  Old  School. — A  Musical  Link. 

THE  walls  of  the  Charterhouse  were  not  high  enough 
to  separate  its  community  of  eager  boys  from  the  life 
of  the  metropolis.  News  of  great  events  in  London 
must  have  reached  the  young  John  Wesley,  stirring  his 
thoughts  or  touching  his  sympathies.  It  was  in  the  first 
year  of  his  residence  that  the  death  of  Queen  Anne  brought 
George  I  to  the  throne.  The  queen  had  granted  the  rector 
£43  after  the  first  fire  at  the  rectory,  and  to  her  he  dedicated 
one  edition  of  his  History  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 
Her  death  suspended  the  iniquitous  Schism  Act,  which  placed 
the  control  of  education  in  the  hands  of  the  Established 
Church.  Such  a  law  would  have  rendered  impracticable  the 
great  development  of  Methodist  schools  and  colleges.  The 
new  king  adopted  the  opposite  policy,  of  toleration  for  the 
Dissenters.  The  ministers  of  the  three  denominations  in 
London  waited  on  him  to  express  their  loyalty  and  joy.  A 
hundred  of  the  brethren  crowded  together  before  the  king, 
who  stood  there,  as  described  by  Horace  Walpole,  "rather 


132 


British  Methodism 


good  than  august,  with  a  dark  tiewig,  a  plain  coat,  waist- 
coat, and  breeches  of  snuff-colored  cloth."  Williams  took 
the  lead,  he  and  the  whole  party  being  dressed  in  black 
cloaks,  "according  to  the  fashion  of  the  court  on  that  occa- 
sion." "Pray,  sir,"  said  a  nobleman  to  Bradbury,  "is  this 
a  funeral?"  "Yes,  my  lord,"  he  retorted;  "it  is  the  fu- 
neral of  the  Schism  Bill  and  the  resurrection  of  liberty." 

The  irrepressible  Sacheverell  reappeared  on  the  scene  in 
Wesley's  school  days.      "No  sooner,"  wrote  a  pamphleteer, 

"  was  the  queen 
dead,  and  the 
king  likely  to 
come  in  peace- 
ably, as  he  did, 
than  the  distin- 
guished trump- 
eters of  the  town 
began  to  alarm 
people  with  the 
fear  of  Church 
peril.  Since  his 
majesty's  arrival 
Sacheverell  made  an  harangue  that  the  king  was  not  in  the 
interests  of  our  religion.  The  press  is  hard  at  work  to  beat  a 
new  alarm  and  fright  the  rabble  into  mutiny."  There  were 
riots  in  London  and  Oxford.  Within  the  walls  of  the  Charter- 
house the  boys  would  hear  the  shouts  of  the  mob  and  the 
voices  of  the  ballad  singers  droning  out  such  stanzas  as  this: 

See  how  they  pull  down  meetings 

To  plunder,  rob,  and  steal; 
To  raise  the  mob  in  riots, 

And  leach  them  to  rebel. 

O  !  to  Tyburn  let  them  go! 


THE   THREE    FALSE    FRIENDS. 

Caricature  of  Dr.  Sacheverell,  writing  under  the  inspiration  of  Satan 
ami  the  pope,  1710. 


Sacheverell  and  the  Gownboy  133 

Toward  the  close  of  his  school  days  Wesley  had  occasion 
to  visit  Sacheverell,  who  still  held  the  living  of  St.  Andrew's. 
The  boy's  early  environment  must  have  saturated  his  mind 
with  Tory  and  High  Church  ideas,  but  his  regard  for  one  of 
their  chief  exponents  received  a  rude  shock  when  he  visited 
the  turbulent  and  pompous  clergyman.  "  I  remember,"  says 
Alexander  Knox,  "Mr.  Wesley  told  us  that  his  father  was 
the  person  who  composed  the  well-known  speech  delivered 
by  Dr.  Sacheverell  at  the  close  of  his  trial ;  and  on  this 
ground,  when  he,  Mr.  John  Wesley,  was  about  to  be  entered 
at  Oxford,  his  father,  knowing  that  the  doctor  had  a  strong 
interest  in  the  college  for  which  his  son  was  intended,  desired 
him  to  call  on  the  doctor  in  his  way  to  get  letters  of  recom- 
mendation. '  When  I  was  introduced,'  said  Mr.  Wesley,  '  I 
found  him  alone,  as  tall  as  a  maypole  and  as  fine  as  an  arch- 
bishop. I  was  a  little  fellow.'  He  said,  '  You  are  too  young 
to  go  to  the  university ;  you  cannot  know  Greek  and  Latin 
yet.  Go  back  to  school.'  I  looked  at  him  as  David  looked 
at  Goliath,  and  despised  him  in  my  heart.  I  thought,  '  If  I 
do  not  know  Greek  and  Latin  better  than  you,  I  ought  to  go 
back  to  school  indeed.'  I  left  him,  and  neither  entreaties 
nor  commands  could  have  again  brought  me  back  to  him." 

As  John  Wesley  passed  through  the  streets  to  spend  his 
holidays  with  his  brother  Samuel  at  Westminster  he  must 
have  gazed  with  interest  on  the  great  Cathedral  of  St.  Paul's, 
which  had  only  recently  been  rebuilt.  The  population  of 
London  was  about  a  sixth  part  of  what  it  now  is.  Hackney, 
Newington,  Marylebone,  Islington,  Chelsea,  and  Kensington 
were  still  rural  villages.  The  old  streets  were  very  narrow, 
and  the  upper  stories  projected  far  over  the  shops  and  stalls 
below.  The  houses  were  not  numbered,  but  were  known  by 
signs,  such  as  John  Dunton's  "Black  Raven,"  "The  Boar's 


134 


British  Methodism 


Head,"  and  "  The  Leather  Bottle,"  which  made  a  most  pic- 
turesque confusion  for  the  eye.  There  was  no  pavement. 
Cartmen  fought  with  hackney  coachmen ;  sedan  chairmen 
drove  the  foot  passengers  off  the  railed-in  way,  and  the  foot 


DRAWN     BY    P.     E.     FLINTOFF. 

BITS   FROM   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   LONDON. 
Link  racks  and  extinguishers,  and  street  signs.    The  "  Black  Raven1'  was  John  Dunton's  signboard. 

passengers  themselves  struggled  for  the  honor  of  the  wall. 
The  extinguishers,  used  to  put  out  the  torches  of  the  link 
boys,  and  the  iron  frames  for  the  oil  lamps  still  remain  on 
some  of  the  houses  near  Chesterfield  Street,  where  Charles 
Wesley  lived  in  later  years. 


The  Talk  of  London  135 

The  coffeehouses  were  the  chief  social  institution.  At 
Smith's  coffeehouse,  Stockmarket,  Samuel  Wesley  and  his 
colleagues  of  the  Athenian  Society  used  to  meet.  Dick's 
coffeehouse  still  stands,  but  "Button's"  has  been  pulled 
down.  As  young  Wesley  .passed  by  these  he  might  have 
caught  a  glimpse  of  those  famous  old  Charterhouse  boys, 
Steele  and  Addison.  Just  before  John  was  at  the  school 
Addison's  hymns,  "When  all  thy  mercies,  O  my  God"  and 
"The  spacious  firmament  on  high,"  appeared  in  The  Specta- 
tor and  must  have  been  read  with  pride  by  the  Charterhouse 
masters.  More  than  twenty  years  after  (1737)  Wesley  inserted 
them  in  his  first  Hymn  Book,  and  thus  introduced  them  into 
the  public  worship  of  the  churches.  The  great  essayist  died 
the  year  before  Wesley  left  school.  His  body  was  laid  in 
state  in  the  Jerusalem  Chamber,  Westminster,  and  Samuel 
Wesley,  Jr.,  who  was  then  living  in  Dean's  Yard,  may  have 
seen  his  friend  Francis  Atterbury  pass  from  the  deanery  by 
torchlight  to  head  the  funeral  procession  at  midnight. 

The  "  Bangorian  "  controversy,  over  the  divine  rights  of 
kings  and  priests,  the  apostolical  succession  of  Conformist 
bishops  and  the  limits  of  political  and  ecclesiastical  authority, 
created  tremendous  excitement  in  Wesley's  school  days.  It 
engaged  the  pens  of  at  least  fifty  authors,  and  in  a  single 
month  above  seventy  pamphlets  were  published.  It  is  said 
that  at  one  period  even  business  on  'Change  was  interrupted 
by  this  strange  agitation,  and  that  it  really  caused  some  Lon- 
don tradesmen  to  close  their  shops.  Whyte,  in  his  lecture 
on  William  Law,  says  that  Hoadley,  Bishop  of  Bangor,  "oc- 
cupied, roughly  speaking,  some  such  position,  theologically 
and  ecclesiastically,  as  that  which  Bishop  Hampden,  Arch- 
bishop Whately,  Dean  Stanley,  and  Dr.  Hatch  occupied  in  the 
Church  of  England  of  their  day."     Among  Hoadley's  most 


136 


British  Methodism 


brilliant  opponents  was  William  Law,  whose  devotional  writ- 
ings so  deeply  influenced  the  Wesleys.  The  controversy 
resulted  in  the  suspension  of  Convocation  in  171 7,  which  did 
not  meet  again  for  a  hundred  and  thirty-five  years. 

Of  the  Jacobite  rebellion  of   1 7 1 5  ;    of  the  beginnings  of 


DRAWN    BY    W.     B.     DAVIS.  FROM    OLD    PRINTS. 

SEDAN    CHAIR    AND    CHARIOT,    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY. 

government  by  party  in  Parliament ;  of  the  political  plotting 
of  Bishop  Atterbury ,  of  the  disastrous  financial  "  South  Sea 
Bubble,"  which  burst  during  his  last  year  at  school,  young 


The  Explosion  at  the  Foundry  137 

Wesley  would  hear  rumors  and  conversation  in  his  brother's 
home  at  Westminster. 

One  minor  incident,  which  is  linked  in  a  singular  way  with 
the  history  of  Methodism,  ought  not  to  be  omitted.  While 
John  and  Charles  Wesley  were  at  school  an  explosion  took 
place  which  John  must  have  heard,  for  the  Charterhouse  was 
not  many  minutes'  walk  from  the  place  where  it  occurred, 
and  which  Charles  might  have  heard,  as  there  were  few 
buildings  to  break  the  sound,  save  the  quiet  hamlet  of  Char- 
ing, between  the  city  proper  and  Westminster.  As  the 
building  at  which  the  explosion  occurred  became,  twenty- 
three  years  afterward,  the  first  Methodist  chapel,  the  account 
which  appeared  in  Newsletter  of  May  12,  17 16,  has  for  us 
a  more  than  ordinary  interest : 

On  Thursday  night  last,  at  a  quarter  past  nine,  as  they  were  casting  three 
pieces  of  cannon  of  an  extraordinary  size,  at  Mr.  Bayley's,  a  founder  on  Wind- 
mill Hill,  soon  after  the  second  cannon  was  poured  into  the  mould,  the  same 
burst  (occasioned  by  some  small  damp),  whereby  Mr.  Hill,  one  of  the  clerks 
belonging  to  the  Ordnance,  was  so  mangled  that  he  died  }esterday  morning 
between  three  and  four  o'clock.  Mr.  Whiteman,  who  keeps  a  public-house 
hard  by,  and  about  ten  or  twelve  more  being  present  at  this  sad  accident,  were 
so  dreadfully  wounded  that  their  lives  are  despaired  of.  Several  persons  of 
distinction  were  expected  there  on  this  occasion,  but  happily  they  did  not  come. 

That  explosion  was  followed  by  important  consequences  to 
the  nation  and  the  Church.  Vulcan  migrated  with  his  molds 
and  sledges  from  Windmill  Hill,  Moorfields,  to  Woolwich, 
and  created  the  Royal  Arsenal.  The  shattered  foundry, 
after  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century's  abandonment  to  useless- 
ness  and  silence,  became  the  mother  church  of  the  whole 
family  of  Methodist  churches  in  both  hemispheres,  on  all 
continents  and  on  many  a  distant  island  of  the  sea. 

In  1720  John  Wesley  left  the  Charterhouse  for  Christ 
Church  College,  Oxford,  taking  with  him  a  school  "  exhibi- 


138 


British  Methodism 


tion"  prize  of  ,£40  a  year.  A  letter  has  recently  been  brought 
to  light,  and  published  in  the  Charterhouse  Magazine,  which 
was  written  by  John  Wesley  in  1 72 1  to  the  treasurer  of  the 
Charterhouse,  concerning  a  mistake  in  the  payment  of  this 
annuity.     It  is  reproduced  on  the  next  page. 

Wesley  looked  back  upon  his  years  at  school  "not  only 
without   bitterness,    but    with    pleasure."     He   would   have 


DRAWN     BY    J.     P.     DAVIS. 


FROM  A  PRINT. 


THE    DINING    HALL,    CHARTERHOUSE. 
Where  the  Founder's  Day  dinner  was  given. 

agreed  with  the  later  Carthusian,  Thackeray,  that  the  pupils 
educated  there  "  love  to  revisit  it,  and  the  oldest  of  us  grow 
young  again  for  an  hour  or  two  as  we  come  back  into  those 
scenes  of  our  boyhood."  His  brother  Samuel  was  still  usher 
at  Westminster  when  John  revisited  the  Charterhouse  as  one 
of  the  stewards  for  Founder's  Day,  1727,  with  Dr.  King,  the 
head  master,  and  Mr.  Vincent,  "  who  paid  the  bills."  The  bill 
of  fare,  which  has  been  preserved,  speaks  well  for  the  bounty 
of  the  stewards.     The  chapel  was  "lighted,   and  founder's 


A  Student's  Letter  139 

tomb,  with  its  grotesque  carvings,  monsters  and  heraldries, 
darkled  and  shone  with  the  most  wonderful   shadows  and 


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I.    FACSIMILE    OF   THE    LETTER  WRITTEN  BY   JOHN  WESLEY,  WHEN    AN 
OXFORD    STUDENT,    TO   THE  TREASURER   OF   THE  CHARTERHOUSE. 

lights."     We  get  an  interesting  record  of  one  of  Wesley's 
later  visits  in  his  Journal  (1757):   "Aug.  8th.     I  took  a  walk 


140 


British  Methodism 


in  the  Charterhouse.     I  wondered  that  all  the  squares  and 
buildings,   and  especially  the    schoolboys,    looked    so   little. 


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II.  SECOND  PAGE  AND  COVER  OF  THE  LETTER  GIVEN  ON  PAGE  I39. 


But  this  is  easily  accounted  for.      I  was  little  myself  when  1 
was  at  school,  and  measured  all  about  me  by  myself.      Ac- 


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I.    FACSIMILE   OF   THE   ACCOUNTS  OF  THE  FOUNDER'S   DAY   DINNER. 
Held  Dec.  12,  1727,  at  the  Charterhouse.     John  Wesley  was  a  steward. 


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II.    REVERSE   OF  THE   iM' 


»UNTS   OF   THE    FOUNDERS    HAY    DINNER, 


A  Musical  Impulse.  143 

cordingly  the  upper  boys  .  .  .  seemed  to  me  very  big  and 
tall,  quite  contrary  to  what  they  appear  now,  when  I  am 
taller  and  bigger  than  them." 

Another  link  with  the  Charterhouse  is  found  in  Wesley's 
friendship  for  Pepusch,  the  famous  musician,  "a  profound 
student  of  the  ancient  Greek  modes  and  systems,"  who  also 
advanced  English  love  of  music  by  adapting  old  national  and 
popular  airs  to  modern  words.  After  his  wife's  death  he  left 
his  sumptuous  house  and  took  the  post  of  organist  at  the 
Charterhouse.  Wesley  records  several  visits  to  him.  "  Mrs. 
Rich  carried  me  to  Dr.  Pepusch,  whose  music  entertained  us 
much,  and  his  conversation  more."  Mrs.  Rich,  who  had 
been  converted  under  Charles  Wesley's  preaching,  was  the 
wife  of  the  proprietor  of  Covent  Garden  Theater.  The  or- 
ganist's room  is  near  the  governor's  room,  and  is  a  little 
paneled  chamber  with  a  large  window  at  one  end  looking 
into  the  Master's  Court.  Over  the  fireplace  to-day  is  a  lit- 
tle portrait  of  Pepusch  himself.  It  was  here,  no  doubt,  that 
the  two  Wesleys  sat  and  listened  to  the  theories  of  the  great 
doctor,  "who  knew,"  said  John,  "more  about  the  music  of 
the  ancients  than  any  man  in  Europe."  Contact  with  the  first 
musicians  of  their  day,  including  not  only  Pepusch  but  the 
greater  master,  Handel,  must  have  done  much  to  form  the 
musical  taste  of  the  two  brothers,  who  were  the  great  leaders 
of  a  modern  reform  in  the  music  for  worship  in  the  churches. 

To  appreciate  the  astounding  energy  of  the  Wesleys  in 
sacred  psalmody,  and  their  numerous  publications  of  hymns, 
often  accompanied  with  music,  through  all  their  public  career, 
one  must  recognize  the  impulse  which  they  received  from 
this  early  acquaintanceship  with  a  master. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

Samuel  Wesley,  Jr.,  and  Charles  Wesley 

Samuel,  Jr.,  at  Westminster. — The  Young  Schoolmaster. — His  Phi- 
lanthropy.— An  Expensive  Acquaintance. — In  the  Literary 
Set. — Charles  Wesley  at  Westminster. — The  Captain  oe  the 
School. — "A  Fair  Escape"  from  a  Fortune. 

SAMUEL  WESLEY,  the  eldest  of  the  three  brothers, 
left  Epworth  when  he  was  fourteen  years  of  ag'e,  and 
entered,  the  famous  Westminster  School  ten  years  be- 
fore John  came  to  the  Charterhouse.  His  educational  progress 
has  already  been  noted.  His  mother  wrote  to  him  some  of 
those  characteristic  letters  which  reveal  her  own  saintly  spirit 
and  sound  judgment  and  the  principles  which  guided  her  sons 
in  their  lives  of  methodical  and  philanthropic  labor.  Here  is 
one:  "  Begin  and  end  the  day  with  Him  who  is  the  Alpha 
and  the  Omega,  and  if  you  really  experience  what  it  is  to 
love  God,  you  will  redeem  all  the  time  you  can  for  his  more 
immediate  service.  I  will  tell  you  what  rule  I  used  to  observe 
when  I  was  in  my  father's  house  and  had  as  little,  if  not  less, 
liberty  than  I  have  now.  I  used  to  allow  myself  as  much 
time  for  recreation  as  I  spent  in  private  devotion ;  not  that  I 
always  spent  so  much,  but  I  gave  myself  leave  to  go  so  far 
and  no  farther.  ...  In  all  things  endeavor  to  act  upon  prin- 
ciple, and  do  not  live  like  the  rest  of  mankind,  who  pass 

144 


A  Mother's  Counsel 


145 


through  the  world  like  straws  upon  a  river,  which  are  carried 
which  way  the  stream  or  wind  drives  them.  Often  put  this 
question  to  yourself,  Why  do  I  do  this  or  that?  Why  do 
I  pray,  read,  study,  or  use  devotion? — by  which  means  you 


FROM   THE   COPPERPLATE 


THE    REV.    SAMUEL   WESLEY,   JR. 

The  print  was  published  after  his  death;  the  legend  is, 

"  late  master  of  the  grammar  school  at  Tiverton, 

elder  brother  of  the  Rev.  John  Wesley." 

will  come  to  such  a  steadiness  and  consistency  in  your  words 

and  actions  as  becomes   a  reasonable   creature   and  a  good 

Christian." 

In  his  letters  to  his  mother  Samuel  refers  to  his  visits  to 

his  grandmother,  the  widow  of  the  first  John  Westley  and 

niece  of  the  great  Thomas  Fuller.     A  letter  to  his  father, 
10 


146  British  Methodism 

written  in  Latin  when  he  was  twenty,  tells  of  his  work  for 
Sprat,  Bishop  of  Rochester  and  prebend  of  Westminster  Abbey, 
which  put  a  strain  upon  his  patience.  Bishop  Sprat  had  been 
at  college  with  his  grandfather  and  had  ordained  his  father 
as  deacon.  He  selected  Samuel  to  accompany  him  in  his  car- 
riage to  his  country  seat,  to  read  to  him  classical  authors  and 
books  upon  science.  He  was  succeeded  in  the  see  of  Roches- 
ter by  Francis  Atterbury,  Dean  of  Westminster,  who  became 
a  stanch  friend  of  Samuel  Wesley,  and  whose  fall  and  ban- 
ishment, consequent  upon  his  Jacobite  intrigues,  probably 
prevented  Wesley  from  becoming  head  master  of  Westminster. 
About  the  time  John  entered  the  Charterhouse  Samuel  re- 
turned from  his  year's  residence  at  Oxford  to  become  usher 
at  Westminster.  At  Oxford  he  took  part  in  the  great  doctrinal 
controversy  concerning  the  Trinity,  with  which  Samuel  Clarke 
and  William  Whiston  were  identified.  The  discussion  began 
with  the  publication  of  Clarke's  Scripture  Doctrine  of  the 
Trinity,  in  1712.  Clarke's  doctrine  was  Arian,  "  approaching 
near  to  the  orthodox  view,  but  falling  below  it."  His  great 
opponent  was  Waterland.  Whiston,  popularly  known  to-day 
as  the  translator  of  Josephus,  went  further  than  Clarke,  and, 
although  a  clergyman,  had  considerable  influence  among'  the 
Nonconformists,  among  whom  there  was  at  this  time  a  lament- 
able tendency  to  free  thinking.  Samuel  Wesley  published 
two  discourses  against  Whiston,  which  are  now  unknown,  and 
wrote  a  letter  on  the  subject  to  Robert  Nelson,  the  author  of 
The  Fasts  and  Festivals  of  the  English  Church. 

These  controversies  of  the  pre-Methodist  period  did  some 
good.  They  sifted  to  the  bottom  some  of  the  greatest  Chris- 
tian truths,  and  proved  the  strength  of  them.  But  they  also 
did  grave  harm.  Conformists  and  Nonconformists  alike  bear 
witness  that  religion   never  made  less  progress  than  during 


Samuel  Wesley's  Philanthropy  147 

these  prolonged  discussions.  The  battle  against  Arianism 
and  infidelity  was  well  fought  by  the  intellectual  giants  of 
the  early  part  of  the  century,  but,  as  Overton  says,  "  its  truths 
required  not  only  to  be  defended,  but  to  be  applied  to  the 
heart  and  life,"  and  this  was  to  be  the  special  work  of  the 
coming:  leaders  of  the  evano-elical  revival. 

About  a  year  after  John  Wesley  entered  the  Charterhouse 
Samuel  married  the  daughter  of  the  Rev.  John  Berry,  who,  as 
Vicar  of  Whatton,  was  the  subject  of  one  of  his  son-in-law's 
poems,  The  Parish  Priest.  John  appears  to  have  spent  his 
holidays  with  his  brother,  who  wrote  to  his  father  in  17 19, 
"My  brother  Jack  is  with  me,  and  a  brave  boy,  learning- 
Hebrew  as  fast  as  he  can." 

In  the  year  after  John  left  school  Samuel  Wesley,  Jr.,  be- 
came one  of  the  leaders  in  a  movement  of  vast  importance  to 
London.  It  was  largely  through  his  personal  labor  that  the 
first  hospital  for  the  sick,  in  London,  supported  by  voluntary 
contributions,  was  founded  in  Petty  France,  Westminster.  In 
his  frequent  walks  through  Petty  France,  now  York  Street,  the 
poetical  schoolmaster  must  have  looked  with  much  interest 
upon  the  house  in  which  Milton  had  lived  after  he  gave  up 
his  chambers  in  Whitehall  Palace.  Samuel  Wesley's  ecclesi- 
astical views,  however,  were  far  from  being  Miltonic,  but 
his  hio-h  ecclesiasticism  did  not  narrow  his  benevolenee.  In 
this  respect  he  was  a  true  son  of  Susanna  Wesley.  His 
personal  charities  were  innumerable,  and  the  great  hospital 
system  of  London  may  be  regarded  as  in  no  small  degree  a 
memorial  of  his  philanthropy.  A  long  document,  dated  1720, 
hangs  on  the  wall  of  the  secretary's  room  in  the  modern 
Westminster  Hospital,  giving  a  full  account  of  "a  charitable 
proposal  published  in  December  last  ( 1  7 1 9)  to  set  up  an  in- 
firmary in  Petty  France,  where  the  poor  sick  .  .  .  are  attended 


148  British  Methodism 

by  physicians,  surgeons,  apothecaries,  and  nurses,  .  .  .  and 
daily  visited  by  the  clergy."  The  humanitarian  work  of  his 
elder  brother  must  have  enlisted  the  sympathy  of  John,  who 
in  after  years  opened  the  famous  dispensary  for  the  sick  poor 
at  West  Street  Chapel. 

Among  Samuel  Wesley's  friends  at  this  time  was  Harlcy, 
Earl  of  Oxford,  the  founder  of  the  Harleian  collection  of 
books  and  manuscripts  in  the  British  Museum.  He  was 
spending  the  close  of  a  stormy  political  life  in  retirement, 
the  friend  of  scholars  and  men  of  letters.  Wesley  found  his 
visits  to  the  earl  too  expensive.  It  was  the  custom  of  the 
day  for  the  liveried  servants  to  stand  in  a  line  in  the  hall  as 
the  guest  departed,  each  man  expecting  a  gratuity.  At  last 
honest  Samuel,  having  been  often  fleeced,  proposed  a  com- 
position one  day  on  retiring.  Addressing  the  flunkeys  in  a 
body,  he  said,  "  My  friends,  I  must  make  an  agreement  with 
you  suited  to  my  purse,  and  shall  distribute" — naming  a  sum 
—  "once  a  month,  and  no  more."  The  servants  grumbled; 
the  earl  heard  of  the  incident,  and  he  ordered  the  servants 
for  the  future  to  "  stand  back  in  their  ranks  when  a  gentle- 
man retired,  and  to  beg  no  more." 

Lord  Oxford  had  in  his  possession  what  was  supposed  to 
be  the  finest  Arab  horse  in  existence.  Samuel  Wesley,  Sr., 
inserted  a  drawing  of  this  horse  in  his  book  on  Job.  Pope 
and  Swift  were  also  friends  of  the  Westminster  master,  and 
interested  themselves,  as  their  letters  prove,  in  the  circulation 
of  his  father's  book.  Pope  at  this  time  was  one  of  the  liter- 
ary lions  of  fashionable  London,  and  from  the  early  profits 
of  his  translation  of  the  Iliad  purchased  the  famous  villa 
and  grounds  at  Twickenham  which  he  occupied  until  his 
death.  Swift  was  now  Dean  of  St.  Patrick's,  at  Dublin; 
worshiped    by    the    generous,    impulsive    populace    as    their 


THREE    LITERARY    FRIENDS    OF    SAMUEL   WESLEY,    JR, 

HARLEY.  POPE.  DKYDEN. 


149 


Samuel   Wesley's   Hymns  151 

champion,  and  carrying"  on  a  vigorous  correspondence  with 
his  friends. 

Samuel  Wesley  shared  the  poetical  tastes  common  to  his 
two  brothers,  and  in  1736  published  his  Poems  on  Several 
Occasions.  An  example  of  his  satire  is  found  on  the  monu- 
ment to  Samuel  Butler,  the  author  of  Hudibras,  which  was 
placed  in  Westminster  Abbey  in  1721.  Adam  Clarke  printed 
the  lines  from  Samuel  Wesley's  own  manuscript : 

While  Butler,  needy  wretch,  was  yet  alive, 

No  purse-proud  printer  would  a  dinner  give: 

See  him,  when  starved  to  death  and  turned  to  dust, 

Presented  with  a  monumental  bust  ! 

The  poet's  fate  is  here  in  emblem  shown  : 

He  asked  for  bread,  and  he  received  a  stone. 

Eight  of  Samuel  Wesley's  hymns  are  found  in  the  Wesleyan 
Hymn  Book.  They  "  are  not  very  noteworthy,"  says  Canon 
Overton,  "  though  two  or  three  of  them  contain  some  verses 
which  would  have  been  quite  worthy  of  his  brother  Charles." 
Two  of  them  are  included  in  the  Methodist  Hymnal  (New 
York,  1878);  namely,  No.  75,  "  Easter  Sunday,"  which  closes 
with  these  fine  lines : 

'Twas  great  to  speak  a  world  from  naught, 
'Twas  greater  to  redeem  ; 

and  number  977,  beginning: 

The  morning  flowers  display  their  sweets. 

Charles  Wesley,  the  coming  poet  of  the  evangelical  revival, 
went  to  Westminster  School  in  17 16,  two  years  after  his  brother 
John  had  entered  the  Charterhouse.  His  brother  Samuel 
found  a  home  for  the  little  boy  of  nine,  and  defrayed  the 
expenses  of  his  education  until  he  won  a  place  as  king's 
scholar,  in  172 1,  when  his  board  and  schooling  became  free 
A  few  years  later  we  find  him  captain  of  the  school,  and  so 


152  British  Methodism 

becoming  the  link  between  the  masters  and  the  four  hundred 
boys.  The  old  dormitory,  which  was  built  in  1380  as  the 
granary  of  St.  Peter's  Monastery,  was  still  standing,  but  it 
was  in  a  ruinous  condition,  and  Charles  must  have  watched 
the  building  of  a  new  one  with  all  a  schoolboy's  interest. 
The  great  schoolroom,  formerly  part  of  the  ancient  dormitory 
of  the  Benedictines,  with  its  fine  old  chestnut  roof  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  is  a  splendid  room,  and  remains  much 
the  same  as  in  Wesley's  day.  Some  of  the  old  benches  have 
been  preserved,  and  on  one  of  them  is  the  name  of  John 
Dryden,  probably  cut  by  the  poet  himself.  Westminster  has 
been  particularly  rich  in  poets,  and  Charles  Wesley's  best 
work  as  a  sacred  lyrical  poet  was  to  bring  new  honor  to  the 
school  which  trained  Ben  Jonson,  Cowley,  Dryden,  George 
Herbert,  Cowper,  and  Southey. 

"  He  was  exceedingly  sprightly  and  active,"  says  Thomas 
Jackson,  "very  apt  to  learn,  but  arch  and  unlucky,  though 
not  ill-natured."  He  was  famous  among  his  schoolfellows 
for  his  skill  in  fighting,  and  he  used  his  strength  chivalrously. 
Two  years  after  he  came  to  Westminster  a  Scotch  boy,  William 
Murray,  came  from  the  grammar  school  at  Perth.  His  strange 
dialect  and  the  fact  that  his  ancestors  had  favored  the  Pre- 
tender exposed  him  to  much  bullying.  Charles  Wesley 
became  his  champion,  and  fought  many  battles  for  him  on 
the  green  within  the  cloisters.  This  Scotch  lad  afterward 
became  Chief  Justice  of  England  and  Earl  of  Mansfield.  Pie 
remained  a  stanch  friend  of  Charles,  and  often  visited  him 
in  after  years  in  Marylebone. 

While  he  was  at  Westminster  Charles  had  what  his  brother 
John  afterward  called  "a  fair  escape"  from  a  great  fortune 
and  estate.  Garret  Wesley,  a  wealthy  Irish  gentleman,  wished 
to  adopt  him  as  his  heir  on  condition  that  he  should  live  with 


DRAWN    BY   p.   E.    FLINTOFF. 


FROM  PRINTS. 


VIEWS   OF   WESTMINSTER    SCHOOL. 


The  school  door. 


Dormitory  built  while  Charles  Wesley  was  in  school. 

Westminster  School— Little  Dean's  Yard. 
The  old  dormitory  in  Charles  Wesley's  day.  The  great  schoolroom. 

153 


"A  Fair  Escape  "    from   a   Fortune  155 

him.  Charles  consulted  his  father,  who  left  him  free  to  make 
his  choice.  When  he  declined  the  offer  the  position  of  heir 
was  offered  to  Mr.  Richard  Colley,  a  more  distant  kinsman, 
on  condition  that  he  should  adopt  the  Wesley  name  and  arms. 
This  he  did,  and  in  1747  was  created  Baron  Mornington.  This 
baron  was  the  grandfather  of  Arthur,  Duke  of  Wellington. 
The  second  Lord  Mornington,  the  father  of  the  great  duke, 
was  a  talented  musician  and  a  warm  friend  of  Charles  Wesley's 
sons,  the  eminent  organists.  And  so  it  appears  that  the 
spiritual  mission  of  Charles  Wesley  and  the  extension  of  the 
British  Empire  in  India  under  Marquis  Wellesley,  the  new 
song  of  the  great  revival  in  England  and  America  and  the 
deliverance  of  Europe  from  the  grasp  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte, 
were  mysteriously  connected  with  the  choice  of  the  schoolboy 
who  was  left  to  decide  whether  he  would  remain  in  England, 
with  the  prospect  of  poverty  and  labor  before  him,  or  go  to 
Ireland  to  enjoy  the  luxuries  and  honor  of  wealth.  Well 
does  Thomas  Jackson  suggest  that  the  boy  "decided  under 
the  secret  guidance  of  divine  mercy,  exercised  not  only 
toward  him,  but  toward  the  world." 

After  nine  years  at  Westminster,  where  he  laid  a  founda- 
tion of  sound  scholarship  and  formed  many  valuable  friend- 
ships, Charles  Wesley  went  up  to  Christ  Church  College, 
Oxford,  a  few  months  after  his  brother  John  had  become 
fellow  of  Lincoln.  Six  years  later  Samuel  Wesley  also  left 
London,  to  become  head  master  of  Blundell's  School,  Tiver- 
ton.   We  must  now  follow  the  two  brothers  to  the  university. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

Oxford  Memories,  Men,  and  Manners 

Links  with  the  Past. — Tories  and  Whigs.— A  Ramble  with  Wes- 
ley in  Old  Oxford. — Students  Wise  and  Otherwise. 

JOHN  WESLEY  came  up  from  the  Charterhouse  School 
to  Christ  Church  College  of  Oxford  University  in  1720, 
and    Charles    Wesley    followed    from    Westminster    six 
years  later. 

George  I  was  king — the  elderly  little  German  gentleman  who 
could  hardly  speak  a  word  of  English,  whose  manners  were 
shy  and  morose,  who  had  kept  his  wife  prisoner  in  a  castle  for 
years,  and  who  was  dressed  all  in  brown,  even  to  his  stockings. 
But  he  was  a  Protestant,  and,  as  Thackeray  says,  "  better  than 
a  king  out  of  St.  Germain's,  with  the  French  king's  orders  in 
his  pocket  and  a  swarm  of  Jesuits  in  his  train."  That  little 
George,  however,  was  most  unpopular  in  High  Tory  Oxford. 
Tom  Hearne,  the  antiquary,  was  a  type  of  the  Jacobite  Oxonian, 
and  ran  his  head  in  danger  by  persistently  calling  George  I  the 
"  Duke  of  Brunswick,"  and  the  Whigs,  his  supporters,  "  that 
fanatical  crew."  Not  long  before  "  a  good  part  of  the  Presby- 
terian meetinghouse  in  Oxford  was  pulled  down.  The  people 
ran  up  and  down  the  streets  crying:  '  King  James  III !  The 
true  king!    No  usurper  !'     In  the  evening  they  pulled  a  good 

part  of  the  Quakers'  and  Anabaptists'  meetinghouses  down." 

156 


The  Oxford  of  John  Wesley's  Day 


157 


The  small  party  of  Whigs  kept  King  George's  birthday, 
but  the  Conservative  undergraduates  attacked  their  club,  sal- 
lying forth  from  their  Jacobite  stronghold  in  Brazenose  and 
driving  the  Whigs  into  Oriel.  An  Oriel  man,  firing  out  of 
his  window,  wounded  a  gownsman  of  Brazenose.  The  Tories, 
"  under  terror  of  this  dangerous  and  unexpected  resistance, 
retreated  from  Oriel."  "Yet  such  was  the  academic  strength 
of  the  Jacobites  and  Churchmen  that  a  Freethinker  or  a 
'  Constitutioner '  could  scarcely  take  his  degree."  Thus  it 
will  be  evident  that  when  the  Wesleys  came  to  Oxford  they 


1 


found  those  political  High  Church 
and  Jacobite  principles  dominant  for 
which  their  father,  the  rector  of  Ep- 
worth,  had  fought  so  vigorously  a 
few  years  before,  and  which  he 
gradually  surrendered.  Their 
mother  was  a  Jacobite  High  Church- 
woman  in  politics  to  the  last. 

It  was  a  June  day  when  John 
Wesley  entered  Oxford,  and  the 
fine  old  city  looked  its  best.  "  The 
flying  machine,"  as  the  stagecoach 
was  then  called,  rattled  over  streets 
paved  with  small  stones,  with  a  gutter  in  the  middle.  There 
were  no  foot  pavements  then,  and  the  dwelling  houses  were 
of  the  picturesque  type  still  to  be  seen  in  Castle  Street.  The 
famous  High  Street  at  that  time  "had  not  its  equal  in  the 
whole  world,"  but  it  was  not  so  clean  as  it  is  to-day.  In  the 
Pocket  Companion  for  Oxford,  1747,  it  is  said  that  the  butcher 
market  is  held  in  the  High  Street  and  "greatly  diminishes 
the  beauty  of  it;"  and  "another  great  nuisance  is  the  dirt 
which  people  bring  out  of  their  houses  and  lay  in  the  middle 


THE    ARMS    OF   CHRIST 

CHURCH    COLLEGE, 

OXFORD. 

Where  John  Wesley  was  educated. 


158  British  Methodism 

of  the  streets  in  heaps  every  morning."  Rogues  abounded, 
as  well  as  dirt.  In  a  letter  of  1724  Wesley  tells  his  mother 
that  a  gentleman  he  knew  was  standing  at  the  door  of  a  cof- 
fee house  one  evening,  about  seven ;  when  he  turned  round 
his  cap  and  wig  were  snatched  off  his  head,  and  though  he 
followed  the  thief  to  a  considerable  distance,  he  was  unable 
to  recover  them.  "  I  am  pretty  safe  from  such  gentlemen," 
he  adds,  "for  unless  they  carry  me  away,  carcase  and  all, 
they  would  have  but  a  poor  purchase." 

As  Wesley  walked  up  the  corn  market,  through  the  ancient 
city  gate  called  "  Bocardo,"  once  the  prison  of  Cranmer, 
Ridley,  and  Latimer,  he  was  solicited  to  put  a  dole  in  the  hat 
let  down  by  a  string  from  the  window  overhead  by  the  im- 
prisoned debtors.  As  he  found  time  to  survey  the  city  he 
felt  the  spell  of  its  architecture  and  history,  and  when  he 
was  eighty  years  of  age  he  wrote  in  his  Journal  of  the  sur- 
passing beauty  of  its  buildings,  "The  Parks,  Magdalen  Water- 
walks,  Christ  Church  Meadow, "  and  ' '  The  White  Walk. "  In 
the  impression  which  it  makes  upon  those  who  first  visit  it 
Oxford,  perhaps,  can  only  be  compared  with  Washington  and 
Edinburgh.  ' '  The  imposing  streets,"  says  Frederick  Arnold, 
"  of  great  breadth  and  noble  frontage,  the  magnificent  public 
buildings,  the  stately  libraries  and  halls,  the  cathedral-like 
chapels,  the  armorial  gateways,  the  smooth  verdant  lawns, 
the  embattled  walls,  the  time-worn  towers,  the  wilderness  of 
spires  and  pinnacles,  the  echoing  cloisters,  the  embowered 
walks,  create  an  impression,  which  familiarity  only  deepens, 
of  beauty  and  wonder."  Well  did  a  leading  speaker  in  a 
famous  House  of  Commons  debate,  dwelling  on  the  external 
beauty,  the  great  history,  and  the  glorious  associations  of 
Oxford,  say  that  he  did  not  envy  the  temper  and  senti- 
ments of   the  man    who    could    walk   unmoved    anion?  the 


An  Academic  Iona  159 

memories    of    the    illustrious    dead   of   the    university,    and 
without  emotion  pass 

Through  the  same  gateways,  sleep  where  they  have  slept, 
Wake  where  they  waked,  range  that  enclosure  old — 
That  garden  of  great  intellects. 

When  Wesley  entered  Oxford  it  had  reached  the  most 
inglorious  epoch  of  its  academic  history.  "As  a  national 
institution,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  phrase,  the  university 
had  practically  ceased  to  exist."  "Once  open  to  all  Christen- 
dom," says  Brodrick,  "  it  had  become  narrowed  into  an  exclu- 
sively 'Church  of  England,'  and  thus  sectarian,  institution." 
"  One  fact,  however,"  writes  Stedman,  a  fellow  of  All  Souls, 
"redeems  the  history  from  insignificance  and  reasserts  the 
ancient  importance  of  Oxford.  That  fact  is  the  Wesleyan 
movement.  Whitefield  and  the  Wesleys  were  all  Oxford  men  ; 
the  religious  revolution  of  which  they  were  the  leaders  had 
its  origin  in  Oxford.  And  rightly,  for  the  traditions  of 
Oxford  were  the  traditions  of  an  academic  Iona.  In  the  four- 
teenth century  the  poor  preachers  of  Wyclif  had  gone  forth 
from  Oxford  to  work  through  the  country.  In  the  sixteenth 
century  the  followers  of  Erasmus  had  from  Oxford  called 
men  to  the  unnatural  toils  of  unselfish  reformation.  And  in 
the  eighteenth  it  is  once  more  from  Oxford  that  a  new  Church 
movement  makes  its  influence  felt  through  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land." 

When  Wesley  came  to  Oxford  he  found  undergraduate 
manners  very  rough,  but  neither  he  nor  his  brother  joined  in 
the  more  dissolute  orgies  of  the  students.  Southey  quotes 
from  a  diarist  of  1746,  who  asks:  "What  learning  can  they 
have  who  are  destitute  of  all  principles  of  civil  behavior?  .  .  . 
In  this  wicked  place  the  scholars  are  the  rudest,  the  most 
giddy,  and  unruly  rabble,  and  most  mischievous."     One  night 


160 


British  Methodism 


in  every  year  a  big  fire  burned  in  the  center  of  Balliol  Hall, 
and  it  is  said  that  all  the  world  was  welcome  to  a  feast  of  ale 
and  bread  and  cheese. 

But  this  form  of  "  barbaric  hospitality,"  where  every  guest 
"  paid  his  shot "  by  singing  a  song  or  telling  a  story,  was  not 
of  necessity  a  drunken  revel,  and  was  a  common  enough 
English  custom  at  that  time.     Andrew  Lang  has  quoted  from 


THE   FRONT  OF  CHRIST  CHURCH   COLLEGE,  OXFORD. 
The  college  of  Samuel,  Jr.,  John,  and  Charles  Wesley. 

an  old  periodical  of  1726 — the  very  year  Charles  Wesley 
entered  Christ  Church — in  which  there  is  a  .sketch  of  the 
Oxford  freshman  coming  up  from  the  public  school  in  what 
he  conceived  to  be  gorgeous  attire:  "  I  observe  that  you  no 
sooner  shake  off  the  authority  of  the  birch,  but  you  affect  to 
distinguish  yourselves  from  your  dirty  schoolfellows  by  a 
new  drugget,  a  pair  of  prim  ruffles,  a  new  bob-wig,  and  a 
brazen-hilted  sword."  As  soon  as  they  arrived  in  Oxford 
these  youths  were  hospitably  received  "amongst  a  parcel  of 


An  Oxford  Freshman  of  1726 


161 


*  Queims. 


honest,  merry  fellows,  who  think  themselves  obliged,  in 
honor  and  common  civility,  to  make  you  damnable  drunk,  and 
carry  you,  as  they  call  it,  a  corpse  to  bed."  Then  the  fresh- 
man must  declare  his  views  and  see  that  he  is  in  the  fashion ; 
"  and  let  your  declarations  be  that  you  are  a  Churchman  and 
that  you  believe  as  the  Church  believes.  For  instance,  you 
have  subscribed  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  but  never  venture 
to  explain  the  sense  in  which  you  subscribed  them,  because 
there  are  various  senses — so  many,  indeed,  that  scarce  two 
men  understand  them  in  the  same,  and  no  true  Churchman  in 
that  which  the  words  bear,  and  in 
that  which  they  were  written  !  " 

"  Terrae  Filius,"  who  writes  this 
satire,  corroborates  the  diarist's  re- 
ports about  the  bad  manners  of  the 
undergraduates,  and  ' '  lashes  the 
dons  for  covetousness,  greed,  dissi- 
pation, rudeness,  and  stupidity." 
That  there  were  exceptions  to  this 
style  of  living  among  students  and 
dons,  especially  at  Lincoln  College, 
is  very  certain ;  but  that  rough  and 
dissipated  manners  and  disgraceful  idleness  generally  pre- 
vailed, and  that  the  strong  denunciations  in  the  sermons  of 
the  Wesleys  were  warranted,  will  be  increasingly  evident 
when  we  come  to  the  later  testimonies  of  Johnson,  Gibbon, 
Lord  Eldon,  and.  many  others,  who  were  at  Oxford  during 
this  century. 

With  what  interest  the  wide-awake  young  Wesley  must 
have  looked  upon  the  colleges  of  his  ancestors  !     At  one  of 
them  his  great-grandfather  Bartholomew  had  studied  divin- 
ity and  physic.     At  New  Inn  Flail  his  grandfather,  the  first 
ii 


ARMS   OF   QUEEN'S   COL- 
LEGE, OXFORD. 
The  college  of  Samuel  Annesley. 


162 


British  Methodism 


John  Westley,  had  taken  his  degrees.  At  Queen's  College, 
associated  with  John  Wyclif  and  Addison,  Wesley's  mater- 
nal grandfather,  Dr.  Samuel  Annesley,  had  graduated.  The 
grand  front,  copied  from,  the  Luxembourg,  in  Paris,  and  the 
cupola,  so  conspicuous  in  our  illustration,  were  not  in  exist- 
ence when  the   Wesleys  were   in   residence  at   Oxford,  but 


QUEEN  S  COLLEGE,  OXFORD. 
Where  Dr.  Annesley,  the  Wesleys'  maternal  grandfather,  was  a  student. 

were  added  before  they  died.  Their  sturdy  father,  the  rec- 
tor of  Epworth,  had  struggled  with  poverty  and  won  a  name 
for  rare  learning  at  Exeter  College.  The  entrance  has  been 
rebuilt  and  many  alterations  made  since  then,  but  the  old 
Palmer  tower  still  stands  at  the  east  end  of  the  beautiful 
Gothic  chapel  by  Sir  Gilbert  Scott.  But  it  was  at  Christ 
Church  College  that  Samuel  Wesley,  Jr.,  had  taken  his  de- 
gree, and  hither  came  his  brothers,  whose  Methodism  was  to 
arouse  his  fears  and  evoke  his  sarcastic  criticism. 

Fifty-eight  years  after  lie  entered  Christ  Church  Wesley 


The  Sights  of  Oxford  163 

was  visiting  Oxford,  and  wrote  in  his  Journal:  "  Having  an 
hour  to  spare,  I  walked  to  Christ  Church,  for  which  I  cannot 
but  still  retain  a  peculiar  affection.  What  lovely  mansions 
are  these  !"  And  five  years  later  he  "  observed  narrowly  the 
hall,"  the  gardens,  and  the  walks,  and  declared  that  he  had 
seen  nothing  on  the  Continent  to  compare  with  them.  As  a 
youth  of  seventeen  he  passed  through  the  "  Tom  Gateway," 
which  the  fallen  Wolsey  left  unfinished  and  which  Wren 
completed.  Milton  once  lived  within  hearing  of  the  great 
bell  which  hung  there,  sounding  the  curfew  and 

Swinging  slow  with  sullen  roar. 

Passing  into  the  great  quadrangle,  finished  forty-five  years 
before,  the  coming  evangelist  of  England  faced  the  spot 
where  once  an  ancient  stone  cross  and  rostrum  stood,  from 
which  John  Wyclif  preached.  The  base  of  it  is  in  the 
cathedral  to-day.  Passing  up  the  stone  staircase,  with  its 
roof  of  graceful  fan  tracery,  he  entered  the  splendid  hall 
where  Henry  VIII  was  feasted,  where  the  public  disputa- 
tions were  held  in  the  days  of  Edward  VI,  where  Queen 
Elizabeth  and  her  successors  witnessed  stage  plays,  and  where 
Charles  I  held  his  Oxford  Parliament.  Down  the  staircase 
and  beyond  the  old  cloisters  was  the  cathedral,  more  ancient 
than  the  college,  linking  its  history  with  Saxon  times.  Its 
east  end  has  been  reconstructed  and  "  improved"  since  Wes- 
ley's day.  South  of  the  cathedral  is  the  thirteenth  century 
Chapter  House,  and  beyond  the  walls  are  the  Meadow  walks 
and  avenue  of  elms  where  the  young  Methodists  cemented 
many  a  friendship,  and  where  Whitefield  was  to  pass  through 
one  of  his  great  spiritual  experiences. 

We  have  an  interesting  picture  of  Wesley  as  a  Christ 
Church  student  from  the  pen  of  a  contemporary,  Badcock, 


164 


British  Methodism 


who  describes  him  as  "  the  very  sensible  and  acute  collegian, 
baffling  every  man  by  the  subtleties  of  logic,  and  laughing  at 
them  for  being  so  easily  routed ;  a  young  fellow  of  the  finest 
classical  taste,  of  the  most  liberal  and  manly  sentiments;" 
"gay  and  sprightly,  with  a  turn   for  wit  and  humor."     He 


FROM     PHOTO. 

EXETER  COLLEGE    CHAPEL    AND  QUADRANGLE,  OXFORD. 
Where  Samuel  Wesley,  Sr.,  was  a  student. 

wrote  sparkling  letters  to  his  friends,  and  his  brother  vSamuel 
received  some  stanzas  after  the  Latin,  composed  as  a  college 
exercise,  on  "  Chloe's  favorite  flea."  In  more  sedate  mood 
he  sent  verses  on  the  65th  psalm  to  his  father,  who  was 
pleased  with  them,  and  urged  him  not  to  bury  his  talent. 
His  letters  reveal  a  wealth  of  family  affection  and  warm 
interest  in  all  the  little  details  of  the  home  life  at  Rpworth 
and  at  Wroote. 

In  1724  the  family  removed  to  Wroote,  the  living  which 
his  father  at  this  time  held  with  Rpworth.  Begging  for  let- 
ters from  his  sisters,  he  says  :    "I  shoirld  be  glad  to  hear  how 


The  Home  Letters  of  a  Collegian  165 

things  go  on  at  Wroote,  which  I  now  remember  with  more 
pleasure  than  Epworth ;  so  true  it  is,  at  least  to  me,  that  the 
persons,  not  the  place,  make  home  so  pleasant.''''  His  sister 
Emilia  was  the  eldest  of  the  gifted  sisters.  "  Her  love  for 
her  mother  was  strong  as  death,  and  she  regarded  her 
brother  John  with  a  passionate  fondness.  Though  so  much 
younger  than  herself,  she  selected  him  as  her  most  intimate 
companion,  her  counselor  in  difficulties,  to  whom  '  her  heart 
lay  open  at  all  times.''  Wesley  was  a  most  affectionate 
brother,  and  his  letters  show  that  he  was  the  opposite  of  the 
"  semistoical  person,  destitute  of  homely  warmth  and  kind- 
ness," which  some  of  his  critics  have  supposed  him  to  be. 

For  the  first  time  Wesley  became  troubled  about  his  health, 
and  on  one  occasion,  while  walking  in  the  country,  he  stopped 
violent  bleeding  of  the  nose  by  the  somewhat  drastic  method 
of  plunging  into  the  river.  He  read  Cheyne's  Book  of 
Health  and  Long  Life,  a  plea  for  exercise  and  temperance. 
This  book  led  Wesley  to  eat  sparingly  and  drink  water,  a 
change  which  he  considered  to  be  one  means  of  preserving 
his  health.  He  had  a  constant  struggle  "to  make  ends 
meet,"  although  there  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  he  was 
extravagant.  "  Dear  Jack,"  wrote  his  mother,  "  be  not  dis- 
couraged ;  do  your  duty,  keep  close  to  your  studies,  and  hope 
for  better  days.  Perhaps,  notwithstanding  all,  we  shall  pick 
up  a  few  crumbs  for  you  before  the  end  of  the  year.  Dear 
Jacky,  I  beseech  Almighty  God  to  bless  thee."  This  letter 
was  written  just  after  he  had  taken  his  bachelor's  degree,  in 
1724.  Two  years  later  he  secured  the  Lincoln  fellowship, 
which  brought  him  financial  relief. 

Wc  leave  Wesley  at  Christ  Church.  His  portrait,  a  replica 
of  Romney's  famous  painting,  hangs  by  the  doorway  of  the 
great  hall,  in  a  line  with  the  portraits  of  many  other  noted 


166  British  Methodism 

students  of  Wolsey's  College.  The  Wesley  brothers  hold  no 
unworthy  place  in  the  list  of  eminent  Christ  Churchmen, 
which  includes  the  names  of  Sir  Philip  Sydney,  William 
Penn,  John  Locke,  Lord  Mansfield,  the  Duke  of  Wellington, 
the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  Canon  Liddon,  John  Ruskin,  and 
the  evangelical  Bishop  of  Liverpool,  Dr.  Ryle,  who  has  writ- 
ten with  much  sympathy  of  The  Evangelical  Leaders  of  the 
Last  Century. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

A  High  Churchman's  Quest  for  Truth  and  Mystic  Light 

Following  "  Wandering  Fires." — John  Wesley  Chooses  his  Career. 
— Advice  from  Home. — A  Mother's  Letter. — Basal  Books. — The 
Journals  Begun. 

TENNYSON,  in  The  Holy  Grail,  tells  how  mysticism, 
not   less   than   wrongdoing,   broke    up    the    Knightly 
Order  of  the  Round  Table.     King  Arthur  touchingly 
laments  the  fulfillment  of  his  own  dark  prophecy, 

That  most  of  them  would  follow  wandering  fires, 
Lost  in  the  quagmire, 

and,  Another, 

.  .  .  leaving  human  wrongs  to  right  themselves, 
Cares  but  to  pass  into  the  silent  life. 

The  poet  adds,  almost  with  a  touch  of  scorn,  that,  though 

such  knights  may  be   crowned  "otherwhere,"  they  neither 

merit  nor  win  coronation  here. 

The  Christian  knights  of  the  eighteenth  century  narrowly 

.escaped  a  similar  ending  to  their  holy  quest.      How  many 

"human   wrongs"    would    have    remained    unrighted,    how 

different  the  religious  history  of  England  and  America  would 

have  been,  if  the  Wesleys  had  followed  to  the  end  the  cold 

light  of  an  ascetic  high  Anglicanism  or  the  phosphorescent 

gleam   of   mysticism !      Led  by  these  wandering  fires,  they 

167 


168  British  Methodism 

might  have  been  crowned  in  the  spiritual  city,  but  they  could 
not  have  been,  in  their  own  age,  master  builders  of  the  city 
of  God  upon  earth. 

When  John  Wesley  was  twenty-two  years  of  age,  in  1725, 
he  came  to  a  turning  point  in  his  life :  he  faced  the  question 
of  his  future  work.  The  prospect  of  taking  holy  orders 
awakened  his  most  serious  thought,  but  he  realized  his 
spiritual  unfitness  for  the  work  of  the  ministry.  He  had  not 
fallen  into  flagrant  sin  ;  the  aristocratic  and  expensive  iniquity 
of  some  of  the  young  noblemen  at  Christ  Church  was  scarcely 
possible  for  him,  even  had  he  desired  it.  The  letters  of  his 
mother  carried  always  with  them  the  aroma  of  her  tender 
love  and  the  purity  of  the  Ep worth  life.  He  never  lost  his 
strong  and  touching  love  for  his  brothers  and  sisters.  His 
love  of  learning,  stimulated  by  his  father's  letters,  was  a 
safeguard  from  idleness. 

But  the  divine  fire  burned  low.  John  Wesley  had  become 
simply  the  gay  collegian,  a  general  favorite  in  society,  a 
sparkling  wit;  maintaining  a  high  repute  for  scholarship,  but, 
according  to  his  own  account,  comparatively  indifferent  to 
spiritual  things.  He  writes:  "I  had  not  all  this  while  so 
much  as  a  notion  of  inward  holiness ;  nay,  went  on  habit- 
ually, and  for  the  most  part  very  contentedly,  in  some  one  or 
other  known  sin,  though  with  some  intermission  and  short 
struggles,  especially  before  and  after  the  holy  communion, 
which  I  was  obliged  to  receive  thrice  a  year."  Late  one 
night  he  had  a  conversation  with  the  porter  of  his  college, 
which  began  with  pleasantry,  but  ended  with  a  point  that 
deeply  impressed  the  merry  student. 

"  Go  home  and  get  another  coat,"  said  Wesley. 

"This  is  the  only  coat  I  have  in  the  world,  and  I  thank 
God  for  it,"  replied  the  porter. 


To  Preach  or  to  Teach?  169 

"Go  home  and  get  your  supper,  then,"  said  the  young 
student. 

"  I  have  had  nothing  to-day  but  a  drink  of  water,  and  I 
thank  God  for  that,"  rejoined  the  other. 

"  It  is  late,  and  you  will  be  locked  out,  and  then  what  will 
you  have  to  thank  God  for?" 

"  I  will  thank  him  that  I  have  the  dry  stones  to  lie  upon." 

"John,"  said  Wesley,  "you  thank  God  when  you  have 
nothing  to  wear,  nothing  to  eat,  and  no  bed  to  lie  upon ; 
what  else  do  you  thank  him  for?" 

"I  thank  him,"  responded  the  good  man,  "that  he  has 
given  me  my  life  and  being,  a  heart  to  love  him,  and  a  desire 
to  serve  him ;"  and  the  porter's  word  and  tone  made  Wesley 
feel  that  there  was  something  in  religion  which  he  had  not  as 
yet  found. 

He  wrote  home  on  the  subject  of  holy  orders.  His  father's 
reply  was  written  with  a  trembling  pen:  "You  see,"  wrote 
the  old  man,  "  Time  has  shaken  me  by  the  hand,  and  Death 
is  but  a  little  way  behind  him.  My  eyes  and  heart  are  now 
almost  all  I  have  left,  and  I  bless  God  for  them."  He  coun- 
seled delay,  not  liking  "  a  callow  clergyman,"  and  fearing, 
too,  that  his  motive  might  be  "  as  Eli's  son's,  to  eat  a  piece  of 
bread."  But  his  mother  judged  his  character  better,  and 
marked  the  change  in  her  son's  tone  of  thought.  The  rector 
came  around — as  he  generally  did — to  the  opinion  of  his  wife. 
The  latter  writes:  "  Mr.  Wesley  differs  from  me,  and  would 
engage  you,  I  believe,  in  critical  learning,  which,  though 
incidentally  of  use,  is  in  nowise  preferable  to  the  other 
(practical  divinity).  I  earnestlv  pray  God  to  avert  that  great 
evil  from  you  of  engaging  in  trifling  studies  to  the  neglect  of 
such  as  ai~e  absolutely  necessary.  I  dare  advise  nothing. 
God  Almighty  direct  and  bless  you !  .  .  .  Now  in  good  ear- 


170  British  Methodism 

nest  resolve  to  make  religion  the  business  of  your  life,  for, 
after  all,  that  is  the  one  thing'  that,  strictly  speaking-,  is 
necessary,  and  all  things  else  are  comparatively  little  to  the 
purposes  of  life."  Then  his  mother's  words  become  more 
pointed:  "I  heartily  wish  you  would  now  enter  upon  a 
serious  examination  of  yourself,  that  you  may  know  whether 
you  have  a  reasonable  hope  of  salvation  by  Jesus  Christ.  If 
you  have,  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  it  will  abundantly  re- 
ward your  pains ;  if  you  have  not,  you  will  find  a  more  reason- 
able occasion  for  tears  than  can  be  met  with  in  a  tragedy." 

His  father  again  cautioned  him  against  taking  up  the 
ministry  as  a  mere  means  of  livelihood,  adding  that  "the 
principal  spring  and  motive  .  .  .  must  certainly  be  the  glory 
of  God,  and  the  service  of  the  Church  in  the  edification  of  our 
neighbor.  And  woe  to  him  wTho  with  any  meaner  leading 
view  attempts  so  saereel  a  work."  The  young  man  was  in  a 
mood  to  heed  such  noble  words. 

At  this  time,  and  a  year  later,  Wesley  came  under  the  in- 
fluence of  some  remarkable  books  which  he  never  ceased  to 
hold  in  high  esteem,  though  he  found  deliverance  from  their 
ascetic  and  mystic  tendencies.  They  were  Thomas  a  Kempis's 
Imitation  of  Christ  (in  Stanhope's  translation,  The  Christian 
Pattern);  Taylor's  Holy  Living  and  Dying;  and  later,  Law's 
Serious  Call,  and  Christian  Perfection. 

The  Christian  Pattern  profoundly  moved  the  heart  of  Wes- 
ley. It  had  been  his  father's  favorite  book,  his  "great  and 
old  companion."  He  was  fascinated  by  those  brief  quivering 
sentenees  which  make  us  feel  while  we  read  them  as  though 
we  had  laid  our  hand  on  the  heart,  throbbing  with  sorrows 
like  our  own,  which  beat  so  many  years  ago  in  the  old  mys- 
tic's breast. 

George  Eliot,  whose  Adam  Bede,  with  its  powerful  portrait 


The  Christian  Pattern  171 

of  Dinah  Morris,  best  reflects  the  Methodist  life  of  some  of 
the  great  novelist's  early  associates  and  kinsfolk,  must  often 
have  seen  The  Imitation  of  Christ  in  their  hands.  In  The 
Mill  on  the  Floss  she  writes : 

Maggie  turned  from  leaf  to  leaf,  and  read  where  the  quiet  hand  pointed.  .  .  . 
A  strange  thrill  of  awe  passed  through  Maggie  while  she  read,  as  if  she  had  been 
wakened  in  the  night  by  a  strain  of  solemn  music,  telling  of  beings  whose  souls 
had  been  astir  while  hers  was  in  stupor.  .  .  .  She  knew  nothing  of  doctrines 
and  systems,  of  mysticism  or  quietism  ;  but  this  voice  out  of  the  far-off  Middle 
Ages  was  the  direct  communication  of  a  human  soul's  belief  and  experience, 
and  came  to  her  as  an  unquestioned  message.  I  suppose  that  is  the  reason 
why  the  small  old-fashioned  book,  for  which  you  need  only  pay  sixpence  at  a 
bookstall,  works  miracles  to  this  day,  turning  bitter  waters  into  sweetness  ;  while 
expensive  sermons  and  treatises,  newly  issued,  leave  all  things  as  they  were 
before.  It  was  written  down  by  a  hand  that  waited  for  the  heart's  prompting; 
it  is  the  chronicle  of  a  solitary,  hidden  anguish,  struggle,  trust,  and  triumph — not 
written  on  velvet  cushions  to  teach  endurance  to  those  who  are  treading  with 
bleeding  feet  on  the  stones.  And  so  it  remains  to  all  time  a  lasting  record  of 
human  needs  and  human  consolations. 

Wesley  writes  in  his  Journal:  "The  providence  of  God 
directing  me  to  Kempis's  Christian  Pattern,  I  began  to  see  that 
true  religion  was  seated  in  the  heart,  and  that  God's  law  ex- 
tended to  all  our  thoughts  as  well  as  words  and  actions.  I  was, 
however,  very  angry  at  Kempis,  for  being  too  strict,  though  I 
read  him  only  in  Dean  Stanhope's  translation.  .  .  .  Meeting 
likewise  with  a  religious  friend,  which  I  never  had  till 
now,  I  began  to  alter  the  whole  form  of  my  conversation, 
and  to  set  in  earnest  upon  a  new  life.  I  set  apart  an  hour 
or  two  a  day  for  religious  retirement.  I  communicated 
every  week.  I  watched  against  all  sin,  whether  in  word  or 
deed.  I  began  to  aim  at  and  pray  for  inward  holiness.  So 
that  now,  'doing  so  much  and  living  so  good  a  life,'  I 
doubted  not  but  I  was  a  good  Christian." 

Canon  Overton  marks  the  irony  of  the  last  sentence  and 
asks  if  it  is  not  right  in  this  case  to  defend  John  Wesley 


172  British  Methodism 

against  John  Wesley.  While  thoroughly  believing  in  the 
reality  and  importance  of  the  later  change,  he  thinks  it  can- 
not be  denied  that  Wesley  from  this  time  forward  led  a  most 
devoted  life.  Rigg  believes  he  sees  here  the  doctrine  of 
entire  Christian  consecration  and  holiness,  which  afterward 
developed  into  the  Methodist  doctrine  of  Christian  perfection. 
Full  of  spiritual  beauty  are  Wesley's  own  words :  "I  saw 
that  simplicity  of  intention  and  purity  of  affection,  one  design 
in  all  we  speak  and  do,  and  one  desire  ruling  all  our  tempers, 
are  indeed  the  wings  of  the  soul,  without  which  she  can  never 
ascend  to  God.      I  sought  after  this  from  that  hour." 

Jeremy  Taylor's  Holy  Living  and  Dying  strengthened  the 
convictions  awakened  by  a  Kempis.  "  In  reading  several 
parts  of  this  book,"  says  Wesley,  "  I  was  exceedingly 
affected.  ...  I  resolved  to  dedicate  all  my  life  to  God — all 
my  thoughts  and  words  and  actions — being  thoroughly  con- 
scious that  there  was  no  medium,  but  that  every  part  of  my 
life,  not  some  only,  must  either  be  a  sacrifice  to  God  or  my- 
self ;  that  is,  in,  effect,  to  the  devil."  Well  does  Tyerman  note 
that  here  we  have  the  turning  point  in  Wesley's  history.  It 
was  not  until  thirteen  years  after  this  that  he  received  the 
consciousness  of  being  saved  through  faith  in  Christ,  but  from 
this  time  his  whole  aim  was  to  serve  God  and  his  fellow-men. 

Another  result  of  reading  Taylor  was  the  commencement 
of  the  famous  Journals.  They  now  occupy  a  well-recognized 
place  in  the  literature  of  the  eighteenth  century,  but  they 
were  the  outcome  of  Wesley's  spiritual  resolve  to  make  a 
more  careful  use  of  all  his  time,  and  to  keep  an  account  of 
its  employment. 


CHAPTER  XX 

The  Coming  Creed 

Present  Salvation. — Witness  of  the  Spirit. — Rejection  of  Predes- 
tination'.—First  Convert. — "  Virtue  Can  Bear  Being  Laughed 
A  r." — Ordained  by  Bishop  Potter.— Fellow  of  Lincoln. 

ALTHOUGH  during-  the  next  few  years  Wesley  became 
an  ascetic,  with  High  Church  beliefs,  strong  ritualistic 
tendencies,  and  a  mystical  bias,  he  was  repelled  by 
a  Kempis's  extreme  doctrine  of  self- mortification,  and  Taylor's 
morbid  teaching  as  to  the  necessity  of  perpetual  sorrowful 
uncertainty  concerning  personal  salvation.  In  a  letter  to  his 
mother  he  writes : 

If  we  dwell  in  Christ  and  he  in  us  (which  he  will  not  do  unless  we  are  regen- 
erate), certainly  we  must  be  sensible  of  it.  If  we  can  never  have  any  certainty 
of  our  being  in  a  state  of  salvation,  good  reason  it  is  that  every  moment  should 
be  spent  not  in  joy,  but  in  fear  and  trembling,  and  then  undoubtedly  we  are  in 
this  life,  of  all  men,  most  miserable.  God  deliver  us  from  such  a  fearful  doctrine 
as  this  ! 

Here,  in  1725,  we  have  the  basis  of  another  of  the  charac- 
teristic doctrines  of  the  coming  Methodism — that  of  a  present 
salvation  from  guilt  and  fear  through  the  indwelling  of  Christ. 
This  was  opposed  to  the  Carolan  High  Churchmanship  of 
Taylor,  as  well  as  to  Calvinism.  But  Wesley  had  yet  to  learn 
by  experience  the  power  of  evangelical  faith  which  laid  the 
foundation  of  his  later  teaching  on  conversion  and  the  "wit- 
ness of  the  Spirit." 

173 


174 


British  Methodism 


In  the  same  memorable  year,  1725,  Wesley  and  his  mother 
rejected  the  doctrine  of  Predestination,  which  for  centuries 
had  terrified  many  earnest  souls,  and  narrowed  the  sympathies 
and  work  of  the  Christian  Church.  Wesley  asks:  "  How  is 
this  consistent  with  either  the  divine  justice  or  mercy?  Is  it 
mercy  to  ordain  a  creature  to  everlasting-  misery?  .  Is  it  just 

to  punish  man  for 
crimes  which  he  could 
not  but  commit  ?  That 
God  should  be  the 
author  of  sin  and  in- 
justice— which  must, 
I  think,  be  the  conse- 
quence of  maintaining 
this  opinion — is  a  con- 
tradiction of  the  clear- 
est idea  we  have  of 
the  divine  nature  and 
perfections."  To  this 
his  mother  replies : 

The  doctrine  of  Predes- 
tination,   as    maintained    by 
rigid      Calvinists,     is      very 
shocking-,  and    ought    to    be 
abhorred,  because  it  directly 
charges  the  most  high   God 
with  being  the  author  of  sin. 
I  think  you  reason  well  and  justly  against  it,  for  it  is  certainly  inconsistent  with 
the  justice  and   goodness  of  God  to  lay  any  man   under  either  a  physical  or 
moral  necessity  of  committing  sin,  and  then  to  punish  him  for  doing  it. 

Hugh  Price  Hughes,  in  the  Contemporary  Review  for 
March,  1897,  declared: 

John  Wesley  killed  Calvinism.  No  really  instructed  and  responsible  theolo- 
gian dares  to  assert  now  that  Christ  died  only  for  a  portion  of  mankind, although 
the  full  logical  effect  of  asserting  the  redemption  of  the  entire  race  has  not  yet 


FROM  A  COPPERPLATE. 

ST.  MARY'S  CHURCH,  OXFORD. 

In  an  aisle  of  this  church  John  Wesley  won  his  first  convert. 


Wesley's  First  Convert.  175 

been  universally  realized.  Little  did  the  young  Oxonian  dream  in  1725  that  he 
and  his  mother  were  sowing  the  seed  of  the  bitterest  theological  controversy  of 
his  life,  over  which  Methodism  would  be  rent  in  twain  by  an  irreparable  schism, 
that  would  unhappily  leave  the  evangelical  section  of  the  Established  Church  on 
the  wrong  side  of  the  breach,  doomed  to  the  comparative  helplessness  we  wit- 
ness to-day,  although  it  would  burst  his  fetters  and  enable  him  to  exclaim,  with 
prophetic  truth,  "  The  world  is  my  parish." 

In  the  midsummer  of  this  same  year,  while  preparing  for 
1  >rdination,  Wesley  won  his  first  convert.  He  tells  his  mother : 
"  I  stole  out  of  company  at  eight  in  the  evening  with  a  young 
gentleman  witli  whom  I  was  intimate.  As  we  took  a  turn  in 
an  aisle  of  St.  Mary's  Church,  in  expectation  of  a  young  lad  v's 
funeral,  with  whom  we  were  both  acquainted,  I  asked  him  if 
he  really  thought  himself  my  friend;  and,  if  he  did,  why  he 
would  not  do  me  all  the  good  he  could.  He  began  to  protest, 
in  which  I  cut  Prim  short  by  desiring  him  to  oblige  me  in  an 
instance  which  he  could  not  deny  to  be  in  his  own  power,  to 
let  me  have  the  pleasure  of  making  him  a  whole  Christian, 
to  which  I  knew  he  was  at  least  half  persuaded  already;  that 
he  could  not  do  me  a  greater  kindness,  as  both  of  us  would 
be  fully  convinced  when  we  came  to  follow  that  young 
woman."  The  word  went  home.  Eighteen  months  afterward 
the  young  man  died  of  consumption,  and  Wesley  preached 
his  funeral  sermon. 

AVesley's  earnestness  soon  exposed  him  to  the  raillery  of 
the  college  wits,  and  this  evoked  a  characteristic  clarion  blast 
fr<>m  his  father:  "  Does  anyone  think  the  devil  is  dead,  or 
asleep,  or  that  he  has  no  agents  left?  Surely  virtue  can  bear 
being  laughed  at.  The  Captain  and  Master  endured  some- 
thing more  for  us  before  he  entered  into  glory,  and  unless 
we  track  his  steps,  in  vain  do  we  hope  to  share  that  glory 
with  him."  As  leaders  of  the  militant  host  of  God  both 
of  the  Wesleys  owed  much  of  their  moral  muscle  to  their 


176  British  Methodism 

father,  and  the  old  soldier's-  words  echo  in  many  a  holy  war 
song  by  Charles  Wesley. 


FROM  THE  ORIGINAL  PAINTING  BY  VANOERSANK,    1735,    IN  THE   POSSESSION  OF  REV.    BISHOP  JOHN  HEYL  VINCENT. 

THE  RT.   REV.   JOHN   POTTER,    BISHOP  OF   OXFORD. 

The  Church  of  England  bishop  who  ordained  John  and  Charles  Wesley  as  deacons, 
and  John  Wesley  as  presbyter. 

John  Wesley  was  ordained  deacon  by  Dr.  Potter,  Bishop  of 
Oxford,  in  Christ  Church  Cathedral,  on  Sunday,  September 


John  Wesley's  Ordination 


177 


19,  1725  ;  and  priest  on  September  22,  1728.  When  he  was 
examined  for  priest's  orders  the  chaplain  put  a  question 
which  was  an  unconscious  prophecy:  "Do  you  know  what 
you  are  about?  You  are  bidding  defiance  to  all  mankind. 
He  that  would  live  a  Christian  priest  ought  to  know,  whether 
his  hand  be  against  every  man  or  no,  he  must  expect  that 


FROM  PHOTO. 


CHRIST    CHURCH    CATHEDRAL,    OXFORD. 
Since  the  renovation. 

every  man's  hand  should  be  against  him."  Wesley  revered 
Dr.  Potter  to  the  end  of  his  life.  In  a  sermon  written  as  late 
as  17S7  he  refers  to  "  that  great  and  good  man,"  Dr.  Potter, 
who,  when  archbishop,  half  a  century  before,  gave  him 
counsel  for  which  he  had  often  thanked  Almighty  God:  "  If 
you  desire  to  be  extensively  useful,  do  not  spend  your  time 
and  strength,  in  contending  for  or  against  such  things  as  are 
of  a  disputable  nature,  but  in  testifying  against  open,  notori- 
ous vice,  and  in  promoting  real,  essential  holiness." 

Wesley's  first  sermon  was  preached  at  South  Leigh,  a  small 
12 


178  British  Methodism 

village  three  miles  from  Witney,  in  Oxfordshire.  He  records 
in  his  Journal  for  1 77 1  :  "I  preached  at  South  Lye.  Here  it 
was  that  I  preached  my  first  sermon  forty-six  years  ago.  One 
man  was  in  my  present  audience  who  heard  it.  Most  of  the 
rest  have  gone  to  their  long  home."  He  tells  us  that  his 
preaching  was  defective  and  fruitless,  for  "from  1725  to 
1729  I  neither  laid  the  foundation  of  repentance  nor  of 
preaching  the  Gospel,  taking  it  for  granted  that  all  to  whom 
I  preached  were  believers,  and  that  many  of  them  needed  no 
repentance.  From  1729  to  1734,  laying  a  deeper  foundation 
of  repentance,  I  saw  a  little  fruit.  But  it  was  only  a  little — - 
and  no  wonder;  for  I  did  not  preach  faith  in  the  blood  of  the 
covenant." 

There  was  great  rejoicing  in  the  rectory  at  Wroote  on 
March  17,  1726,  when  John  Wesley  was  elected  a  fellow  of 
Lincoln  College.  His  father  had  only  five  pounds  to  keep 
his  family  from  March  until  after  harvest,  but  he  wrote  in 
high  spirits:  "What  will  be  my  own  fate,  God  knows,  before 
this  summer  is  over — sed passi  graviora  [but  we  have  suffered 
heavier  troubles.]  Wherever  I  am,  my  Jack  is  a  fellow  of 
Lincoln." 

For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  Wesley  was  con- 
nected with  Lincoln  College,  and  its  name  appears  on  the  title 
pages  of  all  his  works.  The  college  was  founded  by  Richard 
Fleming,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  in  1427,  and  the  buildings  were 
completed  by  Bishop  Rotherham  in  1475,  who  imposed  upon 
it  the  statutes  which  were  in  force  when  Wesley  was  a  fel- 
low. Fleming,  when  a  graduate  at  Oxford,  had  been  noted 
for  sympathy  with  the  Wyclifites,  but  when  he  became 
bishop  he  deserted  them,  weakly  yielded  to  the  pope's  man- 
date, burned  the  body  of  the  great  Englishman,  and  decided 
to  found  a  theological  college  whose  students  would  "defend 


DRAWN   BY  J.   D.  WOODWARD.  AFTER    PHOTOS. 

JOHN    WESLEY'S   HAUNTS    AT    LINCOLN   COLLEGE,    OXFORD. 

Arms  of  Lincoln  College.  The  chapel,  Lincoln  College.  The  pulpit  in  Lincoln  Chapel. 

Wesley's  rooms,  Lincoln  College,  and  the  "  Wesley  vine." 


The  Wyclif  Heresy 


181 


the  mysteries  of  the  sacred  page  against  those  ignorant  laics, 
who  profaned  with  swinish  snouts  its  most  holy  pearls." 


DRAWN    BY    ,1.    P.     DAVIS. 


FROM  PRINTS. 


CHURCH    AT    SOUTH    LEIGH. 
Here  Rev.  John  Wesley  preached  his  first  sermon,  in  1725. 

Rotherham  was  of  the  same  mind,  and  determined  to  ex- 
tirpate the 'Wyclif  heresy  by  compelling  every  fellow  to  take 
the  following  oath : 

I  will  never  conditionally  or  contumaciously  favor  knowingly  heresies  or 
error,  nor  will  I  appear  secretly  or  openly  to  adhere  to  that  pestiferous  sect, 


182 


British  Methodism 


which,  renewing  ancient  heresies,  attacks  the  sacraments,  estates,  and  posses- 
sions of  the  Church,  but  will  to  the  utmost  of  my  strength,  by  every  means  in 
my  power,  denounce  them  forever;  so  help  me  God  in  the  day  of  Judgment. 

It   is    remarkable,    however,    that   a   manuscript    copy    of 

Wyclif's  Bible  is  one  of  the  most  precious  treasures  in  the 


Lincoln  College    u    of die,  TcuddtioTV  cf 'Ric/iard JF/emmg  OBilhop  of , 
-LincvtrL^ttnmJ    begun,  in-  14 (2f  arui  designed  for    a.  Seminary    fff 
Divme-J    with    a   litem    tx>     Cofdute-    Wicktifff     Tenehf .     ^wdief/tarri anv 
tfur  Bijfigv    of  die    same.  See    completed  the  3uUding    in  J-4-75  Jf 
augmented    hts  Hewnuej ■     ,It has  a,  Kcctvr ,  J%  Felicias ,  a,  Chap  tains  \ 
and  the,  3dhop    0/  Liri£olrv  U  the    Visitor  .  , 

LINCOLN   COLLEGE   IN   THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY. 

library,  and  Goldwin  Smith  well  says:  "The  two  orthodox 
prelates  would  have  stood  aghast  if  they  could  have  foreseen 
that  their  little  college  of  true  theologians  would  one  day 
number  among  its  fellows  John  Wesley,  and  that  Methodism 
would  be  cradled  within  its  walls." 

The  old  manuscript  statutes  of  Bishop  Rotherham  tell  how 


John  Wesley's  Lincoln  Haunts  183 

he  came  to  Oxford  and  heard  a  sermon  from  the  rector ;  who 
exhorted  him  to  finish  the  college,  taking  as  his  text, "  Behold 
and  visit  this  vine,  and  perfect  it,  which  thy  right  hand  hath 
planted;"  with  which  words  the  bishop  was  moved  to  "do 
that  which  he  sought."  Tradition  connects  with  these  words 
the  famous  Wesley  vine  which  grows  upon  the  outer  walls  of 
the  rooms  occupied  by  John  Wesley.     They  were  the  first- 


M<*  hreo&^f  Jft  U  %c#^  -or 

+>  l^\cp{-y\  r^xtfq^,  /xAs»..-tf  Tux.  nlU 


Facsimile  in  the  handwriting  of  Adam  Clarke,  who  adds  these  words  :  "  Transcribed 
literatim  from  Mr.  J.Wesley's  certificate  which  seems  to  have  been  drawn  up  &  sent 
to  Bp  Potter,  to  ascertain  Mr.  J.  Wesley's  age  previously  to  his  being  ordained. 

A.  Clarke." 

floor  rooms  on  the  south  or  right-hand  side  of  the  first  quad- 
rangle, and  opposite  the  clock  tower.  In  these  rooms  the 
"  Holy  Club  "  met  in  1729.  Hundreds  of  visitors  ramble  into 
this  quiet  quadrangle  to-day,  many  of  them  from  the  colonies 
and  America.  They  pluck  a  leaf  from  the  vine,  look  into  the 
study  of  the  man  whose  parish  was  the  world,  visit  the  chapel, 
with  its  windows  of  rich  stained  glass,  stand  in  the  pulpit  from 
which  Wesley  preached,  and  gaze  upon  his  portrait  in  the 
dining  hall.      This  portrait  has  been  recently  purchased,  and 


184  British  Methodism 

is  said  to  be  a  replica  or  early  copy  of  the  portrait  by  J. 
Williams,  and  sold  by  him  on  September  10,  1743.  The 
Wesleyan  Mission  House  claims  to  possess  Williams's  first 
painting.  A  reproduction  of  this  portrait  from  the  mezzotint 
by  Faber  forms  the  frontispiece  of  this  History.  The  paint- 
ing has  been  several  times  engraved.  It  shows  Wesley  at 
thirty-nine  years  of  age,  with  long,  flowing  black  hair  and 
serious  expression.  It  is  the  man  in  his  strength  ;  still  fellow 
of  Lincoln,  but  no  longer  the  ritualist  and  mystic  who  dined 
with  James  Howey  in  this  college  hall. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

The  Ritualist's  Graveclothes  and  the  Mystic's  Dreams 

Scholastic  Honors.  —  Practice  in  Logic.  —  Early  Rising.  — His 
Father's  Curate.  —  Wroote.  — "  Find  Companions  or  Make 
Them." — An  Ascetic  Ritualist.  —  Law's  Powerful  Influence. 

WESLEY  found  the  moral  tone  and  discipline  of 
Lincoln  superior,  on  the  whole,  to  that  of  other 
colleges,  and  the  fellows  "  both  well-natured  and 
well-bred."  He  was  soon  appointed  Greek  lecturer  and 
moderator  of  the  classes.  It  became  his  duty  to  lecture 
weekly  in  the  college  hall  to  all  the  undergraduates  on  the 
Greek  Testament.  The  Greek  text  was  the  basis  of  the 
lecture,  but  the  main  object  was  to  teach  divinity,  not  merely 
a  language.  As  moderator  of  the  classes  he  presided  over 
the  disputations,  held  every  day  except  Sunday.  The  dispu- 
tants argued  on  one  side  or  the  other;  the  moderator  had  to 
listen  to  the  arguments,  and  then  to  decide  with  whom  the 
victory  lay.  John  Locke,  at  Christ  Church  seventy  years  be- 
fore, lamented  the  "unprofitableness  of  these  verbal  niceties ;" 
but  Wesley  writes,  "  I  could  not  avoid  acquiring  thereby  some 
degree  of  expertness  in  arguing,  and  especially  in  discovering 
and  pointing  out  well-covered  and  plausible  fallacies.  I  have 
since  found  abundant  reason  to  praise  God  for  giving  me  this 

honest  art." 

185 


186  British  Methodism 

He  became  a  hard  and  wide  student,  and,  indeed,  continued 
such  all  his  life.  Hebrew,  Arabic,  Greek,  Latin,  logic,  ethics, 
metaphysics,  natural  philosophy,  oratory,  poetry,  and  divinity 
entered  into  his  weekly  plan  of  .study.  He  obtained  the 
degree  of  Master  of  Arts  in  1727,  acquiring  much  reputation 
in  his  disputation  for  his  degree.  His  financial  struggles 
were  over,  but  he  was  rigid  in  his  economy  and  was  able  to 
help  his  father  and  his  family  to  the  end  of  life.  He  saved 
about  £2  a  year  by  allowing  his  hair  to  grow  long,  in  spite  of 
the  protest  of  his  mother,  thus  escaping  the  expense  of  a 
wig.  In  a  letter  to  his  brother  Samuel  occurs  his  well-known 
sentence:  "  Leisure  and  I  have  taken  leave  of  one  another. 
I  propose  to  be  busy  as  long  as  I  live,  if  my  health  is  so  long 
indulged  me." 

John's  brother  Charles  came  up  from  Westminster  School 
to  Christ  Church  soon  after  the  former's  removal  to  Lincoln. 
When  John  spoke  to  him  about  religion,  he  said,  "What, 
would  you  have  me  to  be  a  saint  all  at  once?  "  and  would  hear 
no  more.  But  the  heart  of  John  was  set  upon  saintship.  He 
courteously  broke  off  acquaintanceships  which  hindered  him, 
after  fruitless  attempts  to  bring  his  companions  to  his  own 
serious  view  of  life.  He  now  began  the  system  of  early 
rising,  which  he  continued  to  the  end  of  life.  He  could 
say,  after  sixty  years,  that  he  still  rose  at  four  o'clock. 

His  father  was  now  sixty-five  years  of  age,  and  in  feeble 
health.  He  held  the  small  living  of  Wroote  in  addition  to 
that  of  Epworth,  and  needed  a  curate.  A  school  in  York- 
shire had  been  offered  John,  with  a  good  income,  and  he  was 
attracted  by  the  seclusion  it  promised,  but  his  mother  saw- 
that  God  had  better  work  for  him  to  do,  and,  again  following 
her  advice,  he  declined  it.  He  went  to  Lincolnshire  and 
acted  as  his    father's    curate    for   two    and  a    quarter  years, 


"The  Bible  Knows  Nothing  of  Solitary  Religion"       187 

returning  at  intervals  to  Oxford.  This  was  his  only  experi- 
ence of  parochial  work. 

Wroote  was  surrounded  by  fens,  and  often  had  to  be 
reached  by  boat.  During  one  journey,  in  1728,  Wesley 
narrowly  escaped  drowning,  the  fierce  current  driving  the 
boat  against  another  craft  and  filling  it  with  water.  The 
small  brick  church  in  which  he  preached  at  Wroote  was  taken 
down  a  century  ago  and  the  material  used  for  paving  the 
streets  of  Ep worth.  One  incident  of  this  period  is  worth 
preserving,  as  it  bears  upon  the  organized  fellowship  of  the 
Methodists.  He  tells  us  that  he  traveled  several  miles  to  con- 
verse with  a  "  serious  man  "  who  said  to  him,  "  Sir,  you  wish 
to  serve  God  and  go  to  heaven.  Remember  you  cannot  serve 
him  alone  ;  you  must  therefore  find  companions  or  make  them ; 
the  Bible  knows  nothing  of  solitary  religion."  He  was  recalled 
to  Oxford  by  the  rector  of  his  college  in  1729,  and  found  the 
Methodist  movement  commenced  by  his  brother  Charles. 

Wesley  was  becoming  an  earnest  ascetic  ritualist.  He  held 
that  water  should  be  mixed  with  the  wine  in  the  daily  Holy 
Communion.  He  advised  something  near  akin  to  confession, 
as  a  racy  letter  from  his  sister  Emilia  shows : 

To  lay  open  the  state  of  my  soul  to  you,  or  any  of  our  clergy,  is  what  I  have 
no  inclination  to  do  at  present ;  and  I  believe  I  never  shall.  I  shall  not  put  my 
conscience  under  the  direction  of  mortal  man  as  frail  as  myself.  To  my  own 
Master  I  stand  or  fall.  Nay,  I  scruple  not  to  say  that  all  such  desire  in  you  or 
any  other  ecclesiastic  seems  to  me  like  Church  tyranny,  and  assuming  to  your- 
selves a  dominion  over  your  fellow-creatures  which  was  never  designed  you 
by  God. 

The  old  Puritan  spirit  comes  out  in  the  letter  of  this  sister, 
who  had  the  Puritan  blood  in  her  veins.  Her  brother  was 
teaching  almost  all  that  a  High  Anglican  of  to-day  teaches, 
except  that  he  does  not  appear  to  have  held  to  the  "  conver- 
sion of  the  elements"  in  the  Eucharist.      A  little  later,  under 


188 


British  Methodism 


HE-.-   1    8 


the  influence  of  his  friend  Clayton,  he  left  the  guidance  of 
the  Bible  to  follow  that  of  tradition,  or  such  pretended  tradi- 
tion as  the  Apostolical  Constitutions.  He  says  of  himself 
that  he  "  made  antiquity  a  coordinate  rule  with  Scripture." 

The  strict  High  Churchman  also  sought  rest  for  his  heart 
in  mysticism.  He  first  read  William  Law's  Christian  Perfec- 
tion and  Serious  Call,  in  1728  or  1729.  These  two  powerful 
devotional  treatises  did  not  contain   the   mystical  errors  of 

Law's  later  teach- 
ing. Although  in 
later  years  Wesley 
diverged  widely 
from  Law  he  never 
lost  his  admiration 
for  the  Serious 
Call.  A  very  short 
time  before  his 
death  he  .spoke  of 
it  as  a  ' '  treatise 
which  will  hardly 
ever  be  excelled,  if  it  be  equaled,  in  the  English  tongue, 
either  for  beauty  of  expression  or  for  justice  and  depth  of 
thouo-ht."  He  owned  that  Law's  two  books  sowed  the  seed 
of  Methodism. 

George  Whitefield  and  Charles  Wesley  were  equally  im- 
pressed with  the  Serious  Call.  The  later  evangelicals,  who 
would  not  accept  the  name  of  Methodists,  felt  its  power. 
Henry  Venn  read  it  in  1750,  and  framed  his  life  by  it. 
Thomas  Scott,  the  commentator,  as  the  result  of  reading  it, 
dedicated  his  life  anew  to  God.  Samuel  Johnson,  in  his  old 
age,  said:  "I  became  a  sort  of  lax  talker  against  religion, 
for  I  did  not  think   much   against  it,   and  this  lasted  till  I 


DRAWN  BY  P.   E.   FUNTOFF. 

HOME   OK    WILLIAM    LAW. 

Hall  Yard  at  King's  Cliffe,  Northamptonshire,  where  he 
lived  and  died. 


The  Influence  of  William  Law  189 

went  to  Oxford,  when  I  took  up  Law's  Call  to  a  holy  life, 
expecting"  to  find  it  a  dull  book.  But  I  found  Law  an  over- 
mateh  for  me,  and  this  was  the  first  occasion  of  my  thinking 
in  earnest."  Well  might  Southeysay,  "  Few  books  have  ever 
made  so  many  religious  enthusiasts."  The  defect  of  these 
noble  books  is  that  they  do  not  so  well  proclaim  the  power  for 
holiness  as  declare  the  duty  of  it.  It  was  no  narrow  prejudice 
of  the  later  evangelical  teachers  that  there  was  too  little  of  the 
Gospel  in  them.  But  so  far  as  they  go  they  are  worthy  of  the 
reputation  they  have  won,  and  rank,  as  De  Ouincey  would 
say,  with  "  the  literature  of  power." 

But  later  Law  went  astray  into  the  fields  of  mysticism. 
Wesley  visited  him  at  Putney  in  1732,  and  from  that  period 
began  to  read  the  German  mystics.  Their  noble  descriptions 
of  union  with  God  and  internal  religion  deeply  impressed 
him,  but  he  never  followed  Law  into  the  "unfathomable 
confusions"  of  Behmen.  He  never  accepted  the  theories 
which  deny  the  necessity  of  the  means  of  grace.  He  appears 
to  have  extricated  himself  from  the  meshes  of  mysticism 
during  his  sojourn  in  Georgia,  and  writes  to  his  brother 
Samuel:  "  I  think  the  rock  on  which  I  had  the  nearest  made 
shipwreck  of  the  faith  was  the  writings  of  the  mystics ;  under 
which  term  I  comprehend  all  and  only  those  who  slight  any 
of  the  means  of  grace."  He  asks  his  brother  to  give  him  his 
thoughts  upon  the  scheme  of  their  doctrines  which  he  has 
drawn  up,  and  thinks  they  may  be  of  consequence  ' '  not  only 
to  all  this  province,  but  to  nations  of  Christians  yet  unborn." 
Thus  this  Christian  knight  was  delivered  from  this  "wander- 
ing fire  ;"  he  never  passed  ' '  into  the  silent  life,"  and  we  must 
return  with  him  to  Oxford  to  practice  the  counsel  of  the 
"serious"  countryman  who  told  him  that  "the  Bible  knows 
nothing  of  solitary  religion." 


* 


CHAPTER  XXII 
The  Holy  Club 

A  November  Picture. — Further  Search  for  Truth  and  the  Prac 
in  i.  of  Philanthropy.— Charles  Wesley  as  the  First  "Meth- 
odist."—John  Wesley  as  the  "Father  of  the  Holy  Club." 

FOUR  young  men  are  seated  in  the  room  opposite  the 
clock  tower  in  the  first  quadrangle  of  Lincoln  College. 
They  have  the  hopeful  and  radiant  faces  of  men  who 
have  recently  awakened  to  the  higher  purpose  of  life.  The 
leaves  have  fallen  from  the  famous  vine  on  the  wall  outside, 
and  from  the  venerable  elms  of  Christ  Church,  from  whence 
two  of  them  have  come.  For  it  is  November  now,  in  the 
year  1729.  The  long  summer  vacation  is  over,  the  old  city 
is  astir  with  students  beginning  their  winter  work,  and  the 
senior  of  this  group  of  four  has  come  back,  at  the  call  of  his 
college  rector,  to  his  duties  as  a  fellow  and  tutor.  His  suc- 
cessful career  as  a  student  has  already  won  him  repute.  He 
has  learned  to  love  Oxford,  and  especially  his  own  college, 
but  his  eyes  are  open  to  the  moral  decay  of  the  great  univer- 
sity, which  ought  to  be  a  center  of  vital   force  to  the  nation. 

190 


The  Holy  Club. 

John  Wesley  and  His  Friends  at  Oxford. 
From  the  painting  by  Marsh.-.!,  ClaxtonJ 


"It  is  Owing  to  Somebody's  Prayers"  193 

His  heart  is  set  upon  reform.  His  gifted  mother  has  fostered 
in  him  the  conviction  of  some  high  destiny.  He  has  heard 
and  obeyed  the  divine  call  to  holy  living,  and  he  has  returned 
from  the  temporary  seclusion  of  a  country  curacy  to  find 
spiritual  comrades  in  his  own  brother  and  his  brother's 
friends. 

This  is  John  Wesley.  He  is  now  twTenty-six  years  old,  and 
to  him  this  historic  Oxford  has  become  far  more  than  a 
mere  training  ground  for  mental  athletes  and  young  ecclesi- 
astics. The  others  are  Charles  Wesley,  student  of  Christ 
Church,  now  twenty-two,  with  his  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  ; 
William  Morgan,  commoner  of  Christ  Church,  and  Robert 
Kirkham,  of  Merton  College.  Others  join  them  later,  but 
this  is  the  first  time  these  four  have  met  in  John  Wesley's 
room.  It  is  Charles  Wesley,  to  his  immortal  honor,  who  has 
brought  them  together. 

We  have  seen  that  Charles  Wesley  came  up  to  Christ 
Church,  in  1726,  a  bright,  rollicking  young  fellow,  "with  more 
genius  than  grace."  He  had  objected  to  becoming  "  a  saint 
all  at  once."  But  the  rebuff  did  not  estrange  the  brothers,  and 
soon  after  John  went  to  Wroote  Charles  wrote  to  him  in  a 
very  changed  mood,  seeking  the  counsel  which  before  he  had 
spurned.  Lamenting  his  former  state  of  insensibility,  he  de- 
clared :  "  There  is  no  one  person  I  would  so  willingly  have  to 
be  the  instrument  of  good  to  me  as  you.  It  is  owing,  in  great 
measure,  to  somebody's  prayers  (my  mother's,  most  likely) 
that  I  am  come  to  think  as  I  do ;  for  I  cannot  tell  myself  how 
or  why  I  awoke  out  of  my  lethargy,  only  that  it  was  not  long- 
after  you  went  away."  He  not  only  gave  himself  with  zest 
to  his  studies,  but  began  to  attend  the  weekly  sacrament  and 
induce  others  to  unite  with  him  in  seeking    true    holiness. 

He  and  his  companions  adopted  certain  rules  for  right  living, 
13 


194  British  Methodism 

and  apportioned  their  time  exactly  to  study  and  religions 
duties,  allotting  as  little  as  possible  to  sleeping  and  eating, 
and  as  much  as  possible  to  devotion.  This  exact  regularity 
caused  a  young  gentleman  of  Christ  Church  to  say,  derisively, 
"  Here  is  a  new  set  of  Methodists  sprung  up." 

Charles  Wesley  says  that  the  name  of  Methodist  "  was  be- 
stowed upon  himself  and  his  friends  because  of  their  strict 
conformity  to  the  method  of  study  prescribed  by  the  univer- 
sity." But  the  word  was  not  new.  Overton  thinks  that  the 
giddy  undergraduate  who  first  flung  it  at  the  three  friends 
was  hardly  likely  to  know  that  it  was  the  name  of  a  sect  of 
physicians  in  the  days  of  Nero  who  laid  down  strict  rules  for 
their  diet  and  practice.  Nor  would  he  know  that  there  is  a 
reference  in  a  sermon  preached  at  Lambeth,  in  1639,  to  "  plain 
packstaff  Methodists  "  who  despised  all  rhetoric.  John  Wes- 
ley, in  an  address  to  George  II,  designates  his  societies  "  the 
people  in  derision  called  Methodists,"  and  in  his  English 
Dictionary  makes  good  use  of  the  word.  He  defines  a  Meth- 
odist as  "  one  that  lives  according  to  the  method  laid  down  in 
the  Bible." 

Overton,  with  an  honorable  regard  for  his  own  college 
worthy  of  Wesley  himself,  says:  "A  Lincoln  man  may  be 
pardoned  for  remarking  with  satisfaction  that  Lincoln  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  feeble  jokes  which  were  made  upon 
these  good,  earnest  youths.  Christ  Church  and  Merton  must 
divide  the  honor  between  them.  The  Holy  Club,  Bible 
Bigots,  Bible  Moths,  Sacramentarians,  Supererogation  Men, 
Methodists — all  these  titles  were  invented  by  the  fertile 
brains  of  '  the  wits'  to  cast  opprobrium,  as  they  thought,  but 
really  to  confer  honor  upon  a  perfectly  inoffensive  band  of 
young  men  who  only  desired  to  be  what  they  and  their  oppo- 
nents were  alike  called — Christians.      An  Oxford  man  may, 


to 

O 

r 

y 

E 

X 

f 

nl 

a 

C 

i 

2L 

_J 

<" 

f 

s 

o    = 

-5- 

n 

c 

T? 

-c-c    1/-E 

U 

U 

a. 

r 
U 

< 

E. 

■a 

< 

X    ,j 

i  s 

t3 

fill 

<o  r- «  al  2  =  2  t2      -5 


<*  Stal ~o{  o)  :<3|«j  oj  gj  a)  ^  oi  oj  »i  e|  dj «' 


"My  Brother  and  I"  199 

indeed,  blush  for  his  university  when  he  reflects  that  these 
young  men  could  not  even  attend  the  highest  service  of  the 
Church  without  running  the  gauntlet  of  a  jeering  rabble, 
principally  composed  of  men  who  were  actually  being  pre- 
pared for  the  sacred  ministry  of  that  Church." 

Charles  Wesley  eagerly  anticipated  his  brother's  return  to 
Oxford.  "  I  earnestly  long  for  and  desire  the  blessing  God 
is  about  to  send  me  in  you."  He  reports  cheering  success. 
"  A  modest,  well-disposed  young  fellow,  who  lived  next  door, 
had  fallen  into  vile  hands."  Charles  persuaded  him  to  break 
loose  from  his  evil  companions  and  helped  him  to  keep  out 
of  their  way.  He  dreaded  their  derision,  but  Charles  went 
with  him  to  communion  every  week.  An  attractive  picture 
of  Charles  Wesley  at  this  time  is  given  by  John  Gambold,  of 
whom  we  shall  hear  more :  "  He  was  a  man  made  for  friend- 
ship, who  by  his  cheerfulness  and  vivacity  would  refresh 
his  friend's  heart ;  with  attentive  consideration  would  enter 
into  and  settle  all  his  concerns ;  so  far  as  he  was  able  would 
do  anything  for  him,  great  or  small ;  and  by  a  habit  of  open- 
ness and  freedom  leave  no  room  for  misunderstanding." 

When  John  Wesley  returned  to  Oxford  he  at  once  became 
the  leader  of  this  little  band  formed  by  his  brother.  His  age, 
his  genius  for  generalship,  his  position  in  the  university,  his 
superior  learning,  made  this  a  matter  of  course.  And  Charles 
rejoiced  in  this.  A  more  perfect  instance  of  real  brotherhood 
it  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  history.  The  elder  always 
spoke  of  the  work  which  was  being  done  as  their  joint  work. 
"  My  brother  and  I,"  is  the  expression  he  constantly  used  in 
describing  it.  Charles  was  by  no  means  the  mere  "  man 
Friday  "  of  his  brother,  as  some  have  supposed.  He  would 
not  have  been  a  Wesley  if  he  had  not  given  proof  of  magnifi- 
cent individuality.      It  must  be  remembered  that  he  was  the 


200  British  Methodism 

first  Methodist.  He  was  to  take  his  full  share  in  the  work  of 
the  great  revival,  not  only  as  a  poet,  but  as  a  preacher.  But 
John  Wesley  was  nicknamed  "the  Curator  of  the  Holy  Club," 
or,  sometimes,  "  the  Father  of  the  Holy  Club."  The  old  rec- 
tor of  Epworth,  hearing  of  John's  new  title,  wrote:  "  If  this 
be  so,  I  am  sure  I  am  the  grandfather  of  it ;  and  I  need  not 
say  that  I  had  rather  any  of  my  s'ons  should  be  so  dignified 
and  distinguished  than  to  have  the  title  of  '  His  Holiness.'  ' 
Gambold  says:  "Mr.  John  Wesley  was  always  the  chief 
manager,  for  which  he  was  very  fit ;  for  he  not  only  had  more 
learning  and  experience  than  the  rest,  but  he  was  blest  with 
such  activity  as  to  be  always  gaining  ground,  and  such  steadi- 
ness that  he  lost  none.  What  proposals  he  made  to  any  were 
sure  to  charm  them,  because  they  saw  him  always  the  same. 
What  supported  this  uniform  vigor  was  the  care  he  took  to 
consider  well  of  every  affair  before  he  eno-ao-ed  in  it,  making1 
all  his  decisions  in  the  fear  of  God,  without  passion,  humor, 
or  self-confidence ;  for  though  he  had  naturally  a  very  clear 
apprehension,  yet  his  exact  prudence  depended  more  on  hu- 
manity and  singleness  of  heart.  To  this  I  may  add,  that  he 
had,  I  think,  something  of  authority  on  his  countenance, 
though,  as  he  did  not  want  address,  he  could  soften  his  man- 
ner and  point  it  as  occasion  required.  Yet  he  never  assumed 
anything  to  himself  above  his  companions.  Any  of  them 
might  speak  their  mind,  and  their  words  were  as  strictly  re- 
garded by  him  as  his  were  by  them." 


t *oQ      Vwt,    q  .    sfi&ir8 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
The  Bible  the  Text-Book  of  the  Coming  Methodism 

The  Meetings  and  Work  of  the  Holy  Club.— The  Bible  the  One 
Study.— The  Philanthropy  Growing  Out  of  the  Study  of  the 
Bible. — Other  Members:  Kirkham,  Morgan,  Clayton,  Ingham, 
Gambold,  Hervey,  Kinchin,  Whitelamb. 

THE  first  work  of  the  Holy  Club  was  the  study  of  the 
Bible.  The  new  movement  was  spiritual,  humani- 
tarian, but,  first  and  strongest  of  all,  scriptural. 
The  searching-  of  the  Scriptures  was  earnest,  open-minded, 
devout,  unceasing.  Wesley  himself  said:  "  From  the  very 
beginning — from  the  time  that  four  young  men  united 
together — each  of  them  was  homo  uniits  libri ;  a  man  of  one 
book.  .  .  .  They  had  one,  and  only  one,  rule  of  judgment. 
.  .  .  They  were  continually  reproached  for  this  very  thing, 
some  terming  them  in  derision  Bible  Bigots ;  others,  Bible 
Moths;  feeding,  they  said,  upon  the  Bible  as  moths  do  on 
cloth.  .  .  .  And,  indeed,  unto  this  day,  it  is  their  constant 
endeavor  to  think  and  speak  as  the  oracles  of  God." 


BOSTON     ■CT3Sri^7'ETlSIT"^r 
THEO.     SCHOOL.. 


202  British  Methodism 

This  fundamental  fact  in  the  history  of  Methodism  must 
never  be  lost  to  view.  At  first  the  friends  met  every  Sunday 
evening;  then  two  evenings  in  every  week  were  passed  to- 
gether, and  at  last  every  evening  from  six  to  nine.  They 
began  their  meetings  with  prayer,  studied  the  Greek  Testa- 
ment and  the  classics,  reviewed  the  work  of  the  past  day 
and  talked  over  their  plans  for  the  morrow,  closing  all  with 
a  frugal  supper.  They  received  the  Lord's  Supper  weekly, 
fasted  twice  a  week,  and  instituted  a  searching  system  of 
self-examination,  aiming  in  all  things  to  do  the  will  of  God 
and  be  zealous  of  good  works. 

Some  of  John  Wesley's  notes  prepared  for  the  Holy  Club 
have  been  preserved,  and  the  accompanying  facsimile  is 
from  the  notes  on  the  third  chapter  of  John.  One  striking 
fact  can  only  be  imperfectly  conveyed  by  this  facsimile — for 
following  verse  5  and  the  comment  on  Baptismal  Regeneration 
are  two  blank  pages  in  the  notebook  !  Was  this  great  space  left 
because  John  Wesley  was  waiting  for  further  light  on  the  doc- 
trine of  the  New  Birth?  The  notes  on  the  fifth  chapter  of 
Matthew  have  faded, but  the  following  is  an  extract  from  them  : 

IMessed  arc  the  humble  (i)  who  by  Mourning  for  their  sins  (2)  attain  Meek 
ness  (3)  and  a  Hunger  and  Thirst  after  Righteousness  (4)  who  therefore  com 
passionate  all  the  Miserable,  especially  The  Unrighteous,  (5)  and  by  this  Love 
to  Man  ascend  to  Love  of  God  (6)  and  the  Imitation  of   Him  in  doing  Good  to 
all  his   Fellow  Creatures.    (7)  Blessed  are  They  who  for  these  Reasons  are  per- 
secuted, and  have  all  Manner  of  Evil  said  against  them. 

The  first  flower  of  the  study  of  the  Bible  was  a  new 
philanthropy.  William  Morgan,  of  Christ  Church,  visited  a 
condemned  wife  murderer  in  the  castle  jail,  Morgan  also 
conversed  with  the  debtors  in  prison  and  was  convinced  that 
good  might  be  done  among  them.  On  August  24,  1730,  the 
brothers  Wesley  went  with  him  to  the  castle,  and  from  that 
time  forward  the  prisoners  became  their  special  care.      Mor- 


A  Lesson  for  the  Holy  Club  203 

,  s  .  i 

i  c  eye  c-  fi  o     ur  >z  m^A.  a  fc^£_ 

/ 


"j&ti    (P/frrf.  «W    cent-**. A*  IV/L&tfcL 

elites   04^  tfl   y&W)  13-2?:  1 V s?£r  /^ 

J  A,4n    C^7^^    fyirfri-  _6fo2>   :".-".,:•''     - 


A   LESSON    FOR   THE   HOLY   CLUB. 

Facsimile  of  a  page  of  John  Wesley's  Dotes  on  the  third  chapter  of  St.  John's  Gospel,  prepared  for 
the  Holy  Club.  The  manuscript  volume  is  in  the  possession  of  the  Rev.  Charles  H.  Kelly, 
of  London. 


204  British  Methodism 

gan  also  began  the  work  of  visiting  the  sick.  John  Wesley 
wrote  to  his  father  for  counsel,  and  received  an  inspiring 
letter:  "  I  have  the  highest  reason  to  bless  God  that  he  has 
given  me  two  sons  together  at  Oxford,  to  whom  he  has  given 
grace  and  courage  to  turn  the  war  against  the  world  and  the 
devil,  which  is  the  best  way  to  conquer  them." 

The  old  hero  was  delighted  with  .Morgan,  and  declared  he 
must  adopt  him  as  his  own  son  :  "  Go  on,  then,  in  God's  name 
in  the  path  to  which  the  Saviour  hath  directed  you,  and  that 
track  wherein  your  father  has  gone  before  you  !  For  when 
I  was  an  undergraduate  at  Oxford  I  visited  those  in  the  castle 
there,  and  reflect  on  it  with  great  satisfaction  to  this  day. 
Walk  as  prudently  as  you  can,  though  not  fearfully,  and  my 
heart  and  prayers  are  with  you."  The  Bishop  of  Oxford  gave 
the  young  men  his  approval,  and  the  visiting  was  extended  to 
poor  families  in  the  city.  Children  were  also  taught.  One 
of  these,  a  poor  girl,  called  upon  Wesley  in  a  state  of  great 
destitution.  He  said  to  her,  "  You  seem  half  starved  ;  have 
you  nothing  to  cover  you  but  that  thin  linen  gown  ?  "  She 
replied,  "  Sir,  this  is  all  I  have."  Wesley  put  his  hand  into 
his  pocket,  but  found  it  nearly  empty.  The  walls  of  his  cham- 
ber, however,  were  hung  with  pictures,  and  they  seemed  to 
accuse  him.  "It  struck  me,"  he  says,  "  'Will  thy  Master 
say,  "Well  done,  good  and  faithful  steward?"  Thou  hast 
adorned  thy  walls  with  the  money  which  might  have  screened 
this  poor  creature  from  the  cold!  O  Justice!  O  Mercy! 
Are  not  these  pictures  the  blood  of  this  poor  maid?  ' 

It  was  the  practice,  he  says,  of  all  the  Oxford  Methodists 
to  give  away  each  year  all  they  had  after  providing  for  their 
own  necessities,  lie  himself,  having  thirty  pounds  a  year, 
lived  on  twenty-eight  and  gave  away  two.  The  next  year, 
receiving   sixty   pounds,    he   still   lived   on  twenty-eight  and 


Mercy  and  Help 


205 


gave  away  thirty-two.  The  third  year  he  received  ninety 
pounds  and  gave  away  sixty-two.  The  fourth  year  he  re- 
ceived one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds,  and  still  lived  on 
twenty-eight  as  before,  giving  to  the  poor  all  the  rest. 

An  interesting  letter  by  John  Clayton,  a  tutor  of  Brazenose 
College,  throws  much  light  on  the  doings  of  the  Methodists, 


DRAWN    BY  P.    E.    FLINTOFF. 


AFTER  A  PRINT. 


BOCARDO,    THE   PRISON,    OXFORD. 

Where  the  Oxford  Methodists  did  works  of  "mercy  and  help." 


whom  he  joined  in  1732.  Wesley  at  the  time  was  in  Lon- 
don, visiting  William  Law.  Clayton  refers  to  Boeardo, 
a  prison  over  the  North  Gate  where  debtors  were  confined, 
by  the  side  of  St.  Michael's  Church.  The  gateway  was  taken 
down  in  1 77 1 .  Clayton  says:  "  My  little  flock  at  Brazenose 
are,  God  be  praised,  true  to  their  principles.  .   .   .   Boeardo,  I 


206  British  Methodism 

fear,  grows  worse  upon  my  hands.  They  have  done  nothing 
but  quarrel  ever  since  you  left  us;  and  they  carried  matters 
so  high  on  Saturday  that  the  bailiffs  were  sent  for,  who 
ordered  Tomlyns  to  be  fettered  and  put  in  the  dung-eon.  .  .  . 
The  eastle  is,  I  thank  God,  in  much  better  condition.  All  the 
felons  were  acquitted,  except  Salmon,  who  is  referred  to  be 
tried  at  Warwick,  and  the  sheep  stealer,  who  is  burnt  in  the 
hand,  and  is  a  great  penitent."  He  tells  of  progress  in  read- 
ing; there  is  only  one,  a  horse  stealer,  "who  cannot  read  at 
all.  He  knows  all  his  letters,  however."  Clothing  is  put  in 
pawn  by  a  poor  woman  and  the  gown  is  redeemed  at  six- 
pence a  week.  There  are  some  "idle  beggars,"  and  some 
"suffering  innocents."  "The  children  all  go  on  pretty 
well,  except  jervaise's  boy,  who  .  .  .  truants  till  eleven 
o'clock  in  a  morning."  "  I  have  obtained  leave  to  go  to  St. 
Thomas's  workhouse  twice  a  week." 

While  the  number  of  the  Methodists  was  only  four  at  first, 
in  the  following  year  two  or  three  other  students  desired  the 
liberty  of  meeting  with  them,  and  these  were  joined  by  one 
of  Charles  Wesley's  students.  In  1732  Benjamin  Ingham,  of 
Queen's;  Thomas  Broughton,  of  Exeter;  John  Clayton,  of 
Brazenose ;  James  Hervey,  and  two  or  three  others,  were  ad- 
mitted to  the  club,  and  in  1735  George  Whitefield  of  Pem- 
broke became  a  member.  The  numbers  fluctuated,  and  when 
the  Wesleys  sailed  for  Georgia  the  Holy  Club  had  thirteen 
members.  In  1733  there  were  twenty-seven  Methodist  com- 
municants. During  one  of  Wesley's  absences  at  Epworth  the 
number  dwindled  to  five,  but  it  rallied  again  when  its  leader 
was  once  more  at  the  front.  Of  these  early  Methodists  three 
were  tutors  in  colleges  and  the  rest  were  bachelors  of  arts  or 
undergraduates.  All  were  strictly  orthodox  in  doctrine,  or 
counted  themselves  so;   and  practically  they  had  all  things  in 


The  Members  'of  the  Holy  Club  207 

common ;  that  is,  no  one  was  allowed  to  want  what  another 
was  able  to  spare. 

Let  ns  g'lance  at  some  of  these  Oxford  Methodists.  One  of 
the  first  was  Robert  Kirkham,  of  Merton  College.  He  began 
life  at  Oxford  as  a  "frank,  frivolous,  jovial  young  fellow," 
who  wrote  to  Wesley  of  his  revelings  over  a  dish  of  calf's 
head  and  bacon  and  a  newly  tapped  barrel  of  cider.  His 
sister  Betty  was  probably  Wesley's  first  sweetheart,  and  the 
brother  was  evidently  anxious  that  "Dear  Jack"  should 
become  his  brother-in-law,  and  wrote  a  lively  letter  to  that 
effect.  Wesley  was  greatly  impressed  by  the  charms  of  Miss 
Betty,  to  whom  he  refers  under  her  pet  name  of  "  Varanese," 
but  why  the  acquaintanceship  ceased  no  one  seems  to  know. 
Her  brother  Robert,  under  the  influence  of  Charles  Wesley, 
decided  "that  he  would  lose  no  more  time,  and  no  more 
money,"  and  drink  no  more  ale  in  the  evening;  that  he 
would  give  his  mornings  to  reading,  his  evenings  to  the 
Greek  Testament  and  Hugo  Grotius,  strike  off  all  his  drink- 
ing acquaintances,  and  join  the  Wesley  brothers  in  their 
quest  for  holiness.  In  173 1  he  left  Oxford  to  become  his 
uncle's  curate,  and  we  hear  no  more  of  him. 

William  Morgan,  of  Christ  Church,  who  commenced  the 
prison  work,  was  the  son  of  an  Irish  gentleman  of  Dublin. 
He  was  a  warm-hearted  friend  of  Samuel  Wesley,  Jr.,  who 
has  left  a  poem  descriptive  of  his  most  lovable  character. 
He  went  home  to  die  of  consumption  in  1732.  His  brother 
afterward  came  to  Oxford  and  his  father  commended  him 
to  the  care  of  the  Wesleys.  At  first  he  was  a  troublesome 
charge,  "  choosing  men  more  pernicious  than  libertines"  for 
his  companions,  and  acting  the  fashionable  sportsman  with 
his  favorite  greyhound.     But  he,  too,  became  a  Methodist. 

John  Clayton,  from  whose  letter  we  have  quoted,  came  to 


208  British  Methodism 

know  the  Wesleys  through  Rivington,  the  bookseller  of  St. 
Paul's  Churchyard,  London.  Tyerman  describes  him  as 
"  the  Jacobite  Churchman."  He  led  the  Wesleys  to  observe 
the  fasts  of  the  Church,  the  practice  of  many  ritualistic  cus- 
toms, the  use  of  the  mixed  chalice,  the  observance  of  the 
stations  of  the  cross,  and  the  study  of  the  ancient  liturgies. 
He  was  a  man  of  wide  reading  and  a  powerful  preacher. 
His  friendship  with  the  Wesleys  ceased  when  they  broke 
away  from  Church  usages  and  preached  in  the  open  air.  He 
became  a  clergyman  at  Manchester.  When  the  Pretender, 
Charles  Edward  Stuart,  marched  through  Salford  in  1745  this 
High  Churchman  and  Jacobite  fell  upon  his  knees  before  him 
and  prayed  for  God's  blessing  on  the  adventurous  chevalier. 

He  is  said  to  have  visited  Prince  Charles  at  the  Palace  Inn, 
paid  him  deep  respect,  and  was  regarded  as  a  sort  of  royal 
chaplain.  For  this  he  was  suspended  from  his  ministerial 
duties  by  the  bishop.  When  his  sentence  of  silence  expired 
he  was  required  to  preach  before  the  bishop,  who  was  startled 
to  hear  the  bold  Jacobite  announce  as  his  text,  "  I  became 
dumb,  and  opened  not  my  mouth,  for  thou  didst  it."  For 
twenty  years  he  was  chaplain  of  the  Collegiate  Church,  at 
Manchester.  The  Methodist  Chapel  in  Gravel  Lane  stands 
on  what  was  once  his  garden.  In  his  own  house  he  con- 
ducted a  classical  academy,  in  which  he  prepared  young  men 
for  Oxford.  It  is  sad  to  read  of  his  refusal  even  to  recognize 
Wesley  when,  in  after  years,  his  old  friend  visited  Man- 
chester. 

Rigg,  in  his  Oxford  High  Anglicanism,  lias  well  said : 
"Clayton,  the  Jacobite  Methodist  of  Oxford,  who  after  he 
had  become  chaplain  of  the  Manchester  Collegiate  Church, 
and  when  his  intimate  friends,  the  Wesleys,  had  entered 
upon  their  evangelistic  career,  disowned  his  friendship  with 


"/  Am  a  Man  of  One  Book. 

Drawn  by  C.  S.  Reinhart. 


^SS^SSL!9l. 


Ingham  and  Gambold  211 

them,  and  utterly  refused  to  recognize  them  either  personally 
or  ecclesiastically ;  was  a  true  representative  of  the  school  of 
Churchman  ship  in  which,  the  Kebles  were  by  their  father,  a 
clergyman  of  the  old,  old  school,  brought  up."  Newman,  as 
the  aetive  leader  of  the  Tractarian  or  modern  High  Church 
movement,  imbibed  his  Church  principles  from  his  inter- 
course with  Keble  and  his  pupil  Froude,  and  expressly  says 
that  Keble  was  the  real  father  of  the  modern  Oxford  move- 
ment. It  was  Froude  who  brought  Newman  and  Keble  to- 
gether. Routh,  to  whom  we  have  referred  in  a  previous 
chapter,  was  for  three-quarters  of  a  century  the  representative 
of  the  old  High  Church  school  at  Oxford  by  whom  John 
Clayton  would  be  regarded  as  the  ideal  Churchman. 

Benjamin  Ingham,  of  Queen's  College,  joined  the  Metho- 
dists in  the  year  Morgan  died.  He  entered  with  zeal  into 
the  work  of  teaching  forty-two  poor  children,  and  his  evan- 
gelistic power  was  manifest  from  the  first.  We  shall  meet 
with  him  again  as  the  companion  of  the  Wesleys  in  their 
mission  to  Georgia  and  as  the  Yorkshire  evangelist. 

John  Gambold  was  the  son  of  a  clergyman  in  Wales,  and 
soon  became  noted  at  Christ  Church  for  his  sprightliness  and 
his  acquaintance  with  the  English  dramatists  and  poets. 
The  death  of  his  good  father  impressed  him.  He  became 
very  melancholy,  and  abandoned  poetry  and  plays.  One  day, 
he  tells  us,  an  old  acquaintance  entertained  him  with  an  ac- 
count of  "the  whimsical  Mr.  Wesley,  his  preciseness  and 
pious  extravagances."  This  led  him  to  seek  Charles  Wesley's 
room.  They  became  fast  friends.  He  was  introduced  to 
John,  and  joined  the  Holy  Club.  He  became  an  earnest 
ritualist  and  mystic,  but  found  little  joy  in  religion,  neglected 
his  person  and  kept  his  room;  a  close  student  of  the  classics 
and  philosophy.     Ordained  by  Bishop  Potter  in  1733,  he  held 


212  British  Methodism 

a  living-  for  four  years  in  the  quiet  village  of  Stanton-Har- 
court.  He  and  his  sister  there  made  a  home  for  their  friend, 
Wesley's  delicate  youngest  sister,  Keziah. 

When  Wesley  returned  from  Georgia  he  found  Gambold 
"  recovered  from  his  mystic  delusion,  and  convinced  that  vSt. 
Paul  was  a  better  writer  than  either  Tauler  or  Jacob  Bell- 
men." He  met  with  Peter  Bohler,  was  led  out  of  philosophic 
and  Pharisaic  "darkness  into  marvelous  light,"  and  after- 
ward became  a  bishop  among  the  Moravians.  He  was  the 
editor  of  the  large  Moravian  Hymn  Book  published  in  1754, 
to  which  he  contributed,  it  is  said,  twenty-eight  hymns  and 
eleven  translations. 

James  Hervey's  name  is  perhaps  the  best  known  among 
the  group  through  his  once  popular  Meditations  and  Theron 
and  Aspasio.  He  was  an  undergraduate  at  Lincoln  College 
when  John  Wesley  was  a  fellow.  We  shall  meet  with  him 
again  as  a  Calvinistic,  evangelical,  and  charitable  country 
parson,  whose  inflated  style  as  a  writer  does  injustice  to  his 
simple  habits  and  sincere  and  unaffected  piety. 

Thomas  Broughton,  of  Exeter  College,  was  another  Oxford 
Methodist.  He  became  curate  at  the  Tower  of  London,  and 
preached  to  the  prisoners  in  Ludgate  Jail.  Through  White- 
field's  influence  he  was  presented  to  vSt.  Helen's,  Bishops- 
gate,  and  through  faithfulness  to  his  old  friend  he  lost  the 
living.  The  parishioners  objected  to  Whitefield's  occupying 
the  pulpit.  Broughton  declared  that  Whitefield  should 
preach,  insisted  upon  it,  and  lost  his  lectureship.  He  did 
his  utmost  to  get  John  Wesley  appointed  to  Epworth  parish, 
but  failed.  He  was  an  honest-speaking,  zealous  preacher, 
more  pointed  than  pleasant;  the  opposite  of  Hervev  in  style. 
He  became  secretary  to  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian 
Knowledge,   holding  the  office    for  thirty-four  years.       His 


14 


PROMINENT    MEMBERS    OF    THE  HOLY    CLUB. 

THOMAS    BROUGHTON.  BENJAMIN    INGHAM. 

JAMES    HBRVJEY. 

JOHN    CLAYTON.  JOHN    GAMUOI.D. 


Kinchin    and  Whitelamb  215 

portrait  hangs  in  the  board  room  of  the  venerable  society 
to-day. 

Charles  Kinchin  became  dean  of  Corpus  Christi  College, 
and  maintained  a  close  friendship  with  the  Wesleys  all 
through  life.  We  shall  find  him  joining  in  the  later  prison 
work,  and  opening  his  church  to  Wesley  when  others  were 
closed  against  him.  When  he  became  dean  Whitefield 
supplied  his  place  in  the  rectory  of  Dummer. 

John  Whitelamb  was  a  protege  of  Samuel  Wesley,  Sr.,  by 
whom  he  was  sent  to  Lincoln  College.  He  once  saved  the 
rector's  life.  Crossing  a  ferry,  the  barge  upset,  the  two 
horses  were  pitched  overboard,  and  the  rector  was  just  pre- 
paring to  swim  for  life — he  was  then  66  years  of  age — when, 
he  writes,  "John  Whitelamb's  long  legs  and  arms  swarmed 
up  into  the  keel  and  lugged  me  in  after  him.  My  mare  was 
swimming  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  but  at  last  we  all  got  safe 
to  land."  It  was  grateful  and  generous  of  the  rector  to  send 
his  young  rescuer  to  Lincoln  College.  He  assisted  the  rector 
as  amanuensis,  became  his  curate,  and  married  his  daughter 
Mary.  He  was  appointed  rector  of  Wroote.  Within  one 
short  year  his  young  wife  and  her  infant  child  died.  He 
became  disconsolate,  oppressed  with  doubt  and  with  the 
mystery  of  life.  Samuel  Wesley  describes  him  as  "a  good 
scholar,  a  sound  Christian,  and  a  good  liver,"  but  he  seems 
to  have  spent  a  dreary  life  at  Wroote  for  thirty-five  years, 
and  his  story  is  a  sad  one. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

George  Whitefield* — John  Wesley's  Further  Work 

From  the  Gloucester  Taproom.  — A  Boy  Orator. —  Servitor  at 
Pembroke  College. — Whitefield  Meets  Charles  Wesley. — The 
New  Birth. — John  Wesley's  Movements  i 730-1 735.  —  Reading 
on  Horseback.  —  Epworth  or  Oxford?  —  Death  of  Samuel 
Wesley,  Sr. — Dispersion  of  the  Holy  Club. 

DURING  the  last  year  of  its  active  existence  the  Holy 
Club  received  one  who  became,  next  to  the  Wesleys, 
its  most  distinguished  member — George  Whitefield. 
He  was  born  on  December  16,  17 14,  at  Gloucester,  where  his 
father,  who  died  when  he  was  two  years  old,  kept  the  old 
Bell  Inn.  Here  he  was  brought  up,  and  for  a  while,  when 
about  fifteen,  was  a  "common  drawer"  or  bartender  in  the 
inn,  his  mother  having  continued  the  business.  In  other  re- 
spects also  his  early  life  gave  little  promise  of  his  after  calling. 
He  declared  in  later  years,  "I  have  broken  all  the  com- 
mandments from  my  youth."  He  pilfered  money  frequently 
from  his  mother  for  cakes  and  fruits  and  playhouse  tickets. 
But  he  had  intervals  of  deep  religious  sensibility,  and  carried 
often  a  troubled  conscience ;  and  part  of  the  money  he  gave 
to  the  poor.  This  stolen  money  he  afterward  restored  four- 
fold.    He  bought  the  first  religious  book  that  impressed  him, 

Ken's  Manual  for  Winchester  Scholars. 

216 


The  Servitor  of  Pembroke 


217 


*Pembroka.-* 


ARMS  OF  PEMBROKE 
COLLEGE. 

Where  Whitefield  was  educated. 


He  was  the  boy  orator  of  his  school,  St.  Mary  de  Crypt. 
In  those  days  dramatic  performances  played  a  part  in  educa- 
tion. As  Charles  Wesley  at  Westminster  School  was  "put 
forward  to  act  dramas,"  so  Whitefield,  on  account  of  his 
"  good  elocution  and  memory,"  was 
' '  remarked  for  making  speeches 
before  the  corporation  at  their 
annual  visitation,"  and  in  acting  in 
dramatic  pieces  composed  by  the 
master. 

Hearing  the  story  of  a  servitor 
of  Pembroke  College  who  had  paid 
all  his  expenses  that  quarter  by 
waiting  on  other  students  and  had 
saved  a  penny,  Whitefield's  mother 
said,  "  George,  will  you  go  to  Ox- 
ford?" "Yes,"  said  George  with  characteristic  promptness 
and  pluck,  "with  all  my  heart."  So  he  was  sent  back  to 
school  with  those  new  thoughts  of  the  future  which  brought 
new  convictions.  He  read  a  Kempis,  did  wrhat  lay  in  his 
power  to  promote  a  reformation  of  manners  among  the 
boys,  fasted  sometimes  for  eighteen  hours  together,  studied 
the  Greek  Testament,  and  began  to  dream  of  preaching. 

At  eighteen  (in  1733)  he  was  admitted  to  Pembroke  Col- 
lege, Oxford  (the  year  after  Samuel  Johnson  left  that 
same  college),  and,  having  learned  by  his  practice  at  the  inn 
to  be  a  polite  and  ready  servitor,  he  became  in  that  capacity 
a  favorite,  had  all  the  work  he  could  attend  to,  and  thus  his 
wants  were  amply  supplied.  He  read  Law's  Serious  Call, 
which  produced  a  great  impression  upon  him.  He  had 
already  been  powerfully  affected  by  a  Kempis.  He  now 
began  to  attend  communion  at  "  a  parish  church  near  our 


218 


British  Methodism 


college"  (St.  Aldate's),  and  greatly  desired  to  be  in  the  Holy- 
Club,  but  his  poverty,  his  modesty,  and  his  youth  prevented 
his  presuming  to  seek  acquaintance  among  men  so  far  above 
him  in  the  social  scale.  For  a  year  he  longed  to  meet  them, 
but  no  opportunity  seemed  to  offer,  though  he  often  gazed  at 


FROM  PHOTO. 


PEMBROKE    COLLEGE,    OXFORD. 
Where  George  Whitefield  was  entered  as  a  servitor. 

them  with  deep  emotion  as  they  passed   through  a  jeering 
crowd  to  receive  the  sacrament  at  St.  Mary's. 

The  introduction  at  last  came  about  on  this  wise.  A  woman 
in  one  of  the  workhouses  attempted  to  cut  her  throat.  White- 
field  heard  of  it,  and,  knowing  that  both  the  Wesleys  were 
most  kind  to  the  suffering,  sent  an  apple  woman  attached  to 
Pembroke  College  to  inform  Charles  AVesley  of  the  case, 
channnof  her  not  to  tell  him  who  sent  her.  But  she  told  the 
name  of  her  informant,  and  Charles  invited  him  to  breakfast 
the  next  morning.  Whitefield  says :  "I  thankfully  embraced 
the  opportunity  ;   and,  blessed  be  God,  it  was  one  of  the  most 


Whitefield  Joins  the  Holy  Club  219 

profitable  visits  I  ever  made  in  my  life.  My  soul  was  at  that 
time  athirst  for  some  spiritual  friend.  He  soon  discovered 
this,  and,  like  a  wise  winner  of  souls,  made  all  his  discourse 
tend  that  way."  He  was  now  introduced  to  the  rest  of  the 
Methodists,  and  adopted  all  their  rules.  Indeed,  he  went 
further  than  most,  perhaps  than  any,  in  the  matter  of  aus- 
terities. Being  in  great  distress  about  his  soul,  he  spent 
whole  nights  prostrate  on  the  ground  under  the  great  elms 
in  Christ  Church  Walk,  in  silent  or  vocal  prayer,  until  his 
flesh  became  almost  black.  He  chose  the  meanest  sort  of 
food,  though  his  place  as  servitor  gave  him  a  chance  at  the 
best,  since  the  remainder  of  the  repasts  which  he  served  to 
his  wealthy  patrons  was  regarded  as  the  .servitor's  perquisite. 
He  fasted  until  he  was  half  starved,  wore  shabby  clothes, 
and  strove  through  the  utmost  self-mortification  to  become  a 
saint  of  the  highest  sort. 

Light  and  help  did  not  come  to  Whitefield  in  this  vay,  but 
at  length  they  came.  His  exposures  and  privations  brought 
on  severe  illness,  which  lasted  seven  weeks.  He  calls  it  "a 
glorious  visitation."  The  Spirit  made  use  of  it  for  his  en- 
lightenment and  purification.  Charles  Wesley  lent  him  a 
book,  The  Life  of  God  in  the  Soul  of  Man,  and  this  book 
was  the  means  of  bringing  him  into  the  experience  of  saving 
grace.  He  learned  that  true  religion  did  not  consist  in  going 
to  church,  or  faithfulness  in  any  external  duties,  but  was  a 
union  of  the  soul  with  God ;  and  that  he  must  be  a  new  crea- 
ture. It  was  an  era  in  his  history.  He  says:  "  I  found  and 
felt  in  myself  that  I  was  delivered  from  the  burden  that  had 
so  heavily  oppressed  me.  The  spirit  of  mourning  was  taken 
from  me,  and  I  knew  what  it  was  truly  to  rejoice  in  God  my 
Saviour.  The  day-star  arose  in  my  heart.  I  know  the  place  ; 
it  may  perhaps  be  superstitious,  but  whenever  I  go  to  Oxford 


220 


British  Methodism 


I  cannot  help  running  to  the  spot  where  Jesus  Christ  first 
revealed  himself  to  me  and  gave  me  a  new  birth."  This  was 
in  1735,  when  he  was  in  his  twenty-first  year.  He  was  the 
first  of  the  Holy  Club  to  come  into  this  divine  experience. 
That  he    did    not    at    once    communicate    it   to   the   Wesley 


ENGRAVING    Br    LE   KEUX. 


"The  parish  church  near  our  college,''  where  Whitefield  communed.     His  college 
(Pembroke)  is  on  the  right.     The  entrance  to  Christ 

Church  is  in  the  background. 

brothers,  who  for  three  years  still  groped  in  the  twilight  of 
legalism,  may  be  partly  owing  to  the  difference  which,  on 
account  of  their  superiority  in  learning  and  social  position, 
would  keep  him  from  presuming  to  teach  them,  but  still  more 
was  it  due  to  the  fact  that  they  became  at  this  time  separated 
from  him  by  their  preparations  for  departure  to  America. 

And  thus,  unknown  to  his  comrades  in  the  holy  quest,  the 
poor  servitor  of  Pembroke  was  the  first  to  find  the  spiritual 
freedom  which  was  to  be  the  glad  message  and  the  song  of 
the  new  evangel.  Truth,  philanthropy,  and  liberty  were  to 
be  the  wateh words  of  the  comingf  revival. 


A  Period  of  Uncertainty  221 

Let  us  return  to  John  Wesley.  At  the  beginning  of  1730 
he  had  the  offer  of  a  curacy  eight  miles  from  Oxford  for 
several  months,  at  the  rate  of  ,£30  a  year.  He  accepted  it, 
not  only  because  of  the  usefulness  afforded,  but  because  it 
enabled  him  to  retain  his  horse,  when  he  had  begun  to  feel 
he  must  sell  it.  Next  year  John  and  Charles  began  to  con- 
verse together  in  Latin,  a  habit  which  they  kept  up  to  the 
end  of  their  lives,  and  often  found  very  useful,  particularly 
in  their  intercourse  with  the  Moravians.  This  spring  they 
walked  to  Epworth,  seventy-five  miles,  and  after  a  visit  of 
three  weeks  returned  in  the  same  way  to  Oxford.  They 
found  this  pedestrian  tour  very  beneficial  to  their  health,  and 
discovered,  also,  that  they  could  read  as  they  walked,  for  ten 
or  twelve  miles,  without  feeling  faint  or  weary. 

John  Wesley  was  in  London  in  1731  and  again  in  1732, 
when  he  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  Society  for  Pro- 
moting Christian  Knowledge.  During  the  latter  visit,  as 
we  have  seen,  he  went  over  to  Putney  to  see  William  Law. 
whose  books  had  already  benefited  him  so  much.  He  found 
his  conversation  equally  profitable,  and  by  his  advice  began 
to  read  Theologia  Germanica  and  other  mystic  books.  In 
1734  he  traveled  more  than  a  thousand  miles,  and  now  learned 
to  read  on  horseback,  a  practice  which  he  kept  up  nearly  all 
his  life  with  great  advantage  to  his  mind,  and,  strange  to  say, 
his  eyes  do  not  seem  to  have  suffered  from  it.  He  went 
again  to  London  to  oversee  the  printing  of  his  father's 
great  treatise  on  the  Book  of  Job,  and  two  years  later  pre- 
sented a  copy  of  it  to  Oueen  Caroline  (the  consort  of  George 
II),  to  whom  it  was  dedicated. 

Much  of  this  year  was  occupied  with  correspondence  on  the 
question  whether  John  should  endeavor  to  secure  the  succes- 
sion to  the  living  of  Epworth.      His  father  was  fast  failing, 


222 


British  Methodism 


and  had  a  very  natural  desire  that  one  of  his  sons  should  take 
his  plaee,  thus  carrying  on  his  work  and  also  preserving  the 
old  home  for  the  widow  and  the  unmarried  daughters.  Sam- 
uel was  first  thought  of,  but  he  had  only  lately  settled  as  head 
master  at  Tiverton  and  was  unwilling  to  leave  his  school,  and 


OM  PHOTO. 


THE    BROAD    WALK,    CHRIST   CHURCH,    OXFORD. 

"  Being  in  distress  about  his  soul,  he  (George  Whitefield)  spent  whole  nights  prostrate 
on  the  ground  under  the  great  elms  in  Christ  Church  Walk." 

the  two  Samuels,  father  and  son,  did  their  utmost  to  persuade 
John  to  seek  the  post.  He  was  not  insensible  to  their  wishes, 
but  was  by  no  means  disposed  to  comply  with  them,  for  what 
seemed  to  him  good  and  sufficient  reasons.  Twenty-six  of 
these  reasons  were  argued  out  in  the  letters,  but  they  were 
all  reducible  to  two;  namely,  that  he  thought  he  could  be 
more  holy  and  more  useful  at  Oxford.  He  says:  "Another 
can  supply  my  place  at  Ep worth  better  than  at  Oxford,  and 
the  good  done  here  is  of  a  far  more  diffusive  nature.  It  is  a 
more  extensive  benefit  to  sweeten  the  fountain  than  to  do  the 
same  to  particular  streams." 


Death  of  Rev.   Samuel  Wesley,  Sr.  223 

Samuel,  however,  urged  strongly  that  John's  ordination 
vow  obliged  him  to  undertake  parish  work,  and  that  he  per- 
jured himself  if  he  refused  to  do  so.  This  touched  him  at  a 
very  tender  point,  for  his  conscience  was  most  sensitive. 
John  referred  the  matter  for  settlement  to  the  bishop,  whose 
reply  was,  "  It  doth  not  seem  to  me  that  at  your  ordination 
you  engaged  yourself  to  undertake  the  care  of  any  parish,  if 
you  can  better  serve  God  and  his  Church  elsewhere."  And 
Wesley  adds,  "  Now  that  I  can,  as  a  clergyman,  better  serve 
God  and  his  Church  in  my  present  position  I  have  all  reason- 
able evidence."  However,  in  spite  of  all  this,  he  seems  to 
have  yielded  ultimately  to  the  earnest  pleadings  of  his  father 
and  brother,  and,  no  doubt,  also  the  united  appeals  of  his 
mother  and  sisters,  who  would  otherwise  lose  their  home. 
He  consented  to  accept  the  living  if  it  could  be  procured. 
We  have  seen  that  John  Broughton,  one  of  his  own  pupils, 
made  efforts  for  him  with  those  in  whose  gift  it  lay;  so  did 
General  Oglethorpe  and  others.  But  for  some  reason,  prob- 
ably the  reports  of  his  extreme  strictness,  the  application  was 
unsuccessful ;  the  living  of  Epworth  was  given  to  a  gentle- 
man who  appears  never  to  have  resided  there,  and  the  work 
was  transferred  to  a  curate.  God  had  something  more  im- 
portant for  John  Wesley. 

The  good  old  rector,  who  had  had  such  a  hard  struggle  all 
through  life,  finished  his  labors  April  25,  1735,  at  the  age  of 
seventy-two,  shortly  after  finishing  his  learned  treatise  on 
the  Book  of  Job.  His  sons  were  by  his  side  during  his  last 
hours.  His  mind  was  at  rest.  He  said  to  John,  "The  in- 
ward witness,  son,  the  inward  witness — this  is  the  proof,  the 
strongest  proof,  of  Christianity."  But  it  was  some  years  be- 
fore this  son  knew  much  about  that.  The  day  before  his 
death  he   told    Charles,     "  The    weaker  I    am    in   body  the 


224  British  Methodism 

stronger  and  more  sensible  support  I  feel  from  God."  To 
the  question,  "  Are  you  in  much  pain?"  he  replied :  "God 
does  chasten  me  with  pain,  yea,  all  my  bones  with  strong 
pain.  But  I  thank  him  for  all,  I  bless  him  for  all,  I  love 
him  for  all."  Laying  his  hands  upon  the  head  of  Charles, 
he  said:  "  Be  steady.     The  Christian  faith  will  surely  revive 


C^VJT 


at*  -  /  i  ■£' 


CURIOUS   MAP   OF    PALESTINE    FROM   SAMUEL   WESLEY'S   JOB. 

Showing  the  author's  dedicatory  inscription. 

in  this  kingdom;  you  shall  see  it,  though  I  shall  not."  To 
his  daughter  Emilia  he  said,  "Do  not  be  concerned  at  my 
death ;  God  will  then  begin  to  manifest  himself  to  my 
family."  So  he  peacefully  passed  away,  just  before  sunset, 
and  was  buried  "  very  frugally,  yet  decently,  in  the  church- 
yard, according  to  his  own  desire."  Little  did  he  think  to 
what  strange  uses  his  modest  tombstone  would  be  put  in 
after  years. 

John  Wesley  again  returned  to  Oxford,  whence  he  was, 
within  a  few  months,  to  be  removed  to  a  widely  different 
sphere  of  action.      The  group  of  earnest  Christians  who  had 


Influence  of  Oxford  Methodism  225 

composed  the  Holy  Club  was  soon  dispersed.  "  In  October, 
1 735 ,  John  and  Charles  Wesley  and  Ingham  left  England, 
with  a  design  to  go  and  preach  to  the  Indians  in  Georgia  ;  but 
the  rest  of  the  gentlemen  continued  to  meet  till  one  and  another 
were  ordained  and  left  the  university.  By  which  means,  in 
about  two  years'  time,  scarce  any  of  them  were  left." 

Whitefield  had  some  oversight  of  them  until,  in  February, 
1738,  he  also  embarked  for  Georgia.  Kinchin,  Hutchins, 
Kirkham  and  others  were  more  or  less  at  Oxford  subse- 
quently, and  rendered  valuable  service  in  the  outside  work ; 
but  there  was  not  continuously  a  sufficient  number  to  main- 
tain the  frequent  meetings,  and  the  society  was  thus  grad- 
ually dissolved.  The  influence  of  it  remained  a  while  as  a 
sweet  savor  in  Oxford,  and  was  distributed  widely  by  those 
who  left.  After  Wesley's  return  from  Georgia  he  met  some 
of  them,  and  wrote:  "Soon  after  I  returned  to  England  I 
had  a  meeting  with  Messrs.  Ingham,  Stonehouse,  Hall, 
Hutchins,  Kinchin,  and  a  few  other  clergymen,  who  all 
appeared  to  be  of  one  heart  as  well  as  of  one  judgment, 
resolved  to  be  Bible  Christians  at  all  events,  and,  wherever 
they  were,  to  preach,  with  all  their  might,  plain  old  Bible 
Christianity." 

The  main  purpose  of  these  Oxonian  Methodists  had  been 
to  save  their  own  souls  and  the  souls  of  others.  Though  the 
little  society  passed  away,  yet  through  the  lives  of  these  three 
sons  of  genius  and  of  grace,  John  and  Charles  Wesley  and 
George  Whitefield,  first  a  university  was  aroused,  then  a 
kingdom  was  set  in  a  blaze,  and  the  nations  beyond  the  seas 
felt  the  glow  of  the  divine  fires  whose  new  enkindlings  had 
occurred  in  the  Holy  Club. 

To  the  two  Wesleys,  however,  the  great  doctrines  of  justi- 
fication by  faith  and  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  were  not  yet 


226 


British  Methodism 


experimental  verities.     And  they  were  to  learn  their  practical 
force  not  from  the  voice  and  pen  of  any  great  teacher  within 


•Jy^ 


DRAWN    BY  W     B 


TER    PHOTO. 


GRAVE    OF    REV.    SAMUEL    WESLEY,    SR.,    IN    EPWORTH 
CHURCHYARD. 

The  tombstone  has  a  place  in  Methodist  history,  since  it  served  John  Wesley 

for  a  pulpit  when  he  was  forbidden  to  preach  in 

his  father's  church. 

their  own  Church,  but  from  the  lips  of  a  humble  Moravian 
preacher,  and  from  the  glowing-  commentaries  of  the  great 
German  reformer. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

The  Genesis  of  Georgia 

The  Missionary  Inheritance  of  the  Wesleys. — Savannah. — Ogle- 
thorpe.— The  Interest  of  the  Wesleys  in  Georgia. — Tomo- 
chi-chi. — John  Eliot's  Indian  Bible. 

LONG  before  the  dawn  of  the  great  societies  the  mission- 
ary spirit  was  the  heritage  of  the  Wesley  family.  That 
sturdy  Nonconformist,  the  first  John  Westley,  had  a 
burning  desire  to  go  to  Surinam  or  Maryland.  His  son 
Samuel,  the  Epworth  rector,  had  sympathies  that  overleaped 
all  parochial  boundaries.  He  devised  a  great  mission  for 
India,  China,  and  Abyssinia,  and  a  year  before  his  death 
lamented  that  he  was  too  infirm  to  go  to  Georgfia.  Now  the 
imagination  of  his  Methodist  sons  is  fired  with  the  idea  of 
evangelizing  the  Indians,  and  the  recently  widowed  "Mother 
of  Methodism  "  utters  her  famous  missionary  saying. 

A  royal  charter  had  been  granted  in  1732  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  colony,  named  after  the  king,  "  in  that  part  of 
Carolina  which  lies  from  the  most  northern  part  of  the  Savan- 
nah river  all  along  the  seacoast  to  the  southward."  Our  old 
map,  prepared  before  the  colony  had  been  founded,  was 
published  in  a  volume  of  174.1.  This  book  was  ready  just  in 
time  to  record  Whitefield's  new  mission  "  into  those  parts," 
"and  his  great  pains  and  success  in  collecting  contributions 

2">7 


228 


British  Methodism 


for  raising  and  endowing  an  Orphan  House,  which  we  hear 
is  near  finished." 

Savannah,  which  does  not  yet  appear  on  the  maps,  "is  now 
increased,'"  says  the  old  book,  "  to  about  140  houses.    It  lies  in 


HE     COPPERPLATE     BY 


A    "NEW    MAP    OF    NORTH    AMERICA,       I  74 1 . 

This  map,  issued  in  London  in  1741,  shows  the  extent  of  European  knowledge  of  the  North  American 
Continent  at  the  time  of  Whitefield's  first  voyage. 

a  pleasant  and  fruitful  country,  insomuch  that  an  acre  pro- 
duces near  30  bushels  of  Indian  corn.  Last  year  100,000  lbs. 
weight  of  skins  was  brought  by  Indians.  There  are  600 
whites.  The  town  of  Frederica  has  begun  to  malt  and  brew, 
and  the  soldiers'  wives  spin  the  cotton  of  the  country,  which 


The  Founder  of  Georgia  229 

they  knit  into  stockings.  The  Georgia  silk  is  the  best  work- 
ing silk  I  ever  saw.  Beef  is  i^d  per  pound;  pork,  veal  and 
mutton  from  2d  to  4^,  and  tea  6s."  This  was  only  three 
years  after  the  Wesleys  left  Savannah.  The  British  Colonies 
at  this  time  were  a  narrow  fringe  on  the  eastern  coast  of  the 
great  continent.  From  New  York  to  California,  and  from 
Lake  Superior  to  New  Orleans,  was  one  vast  expanse  of  rich 
but  uncultivated  country,  the  wilderness  haunt  of  scattered 
tribes  of  Indians.  Bancroft  names  above  forty  tribes,  with 
180,000  souls,  whose  wigwams  and  hunting  grounds  were 
east  of  the  Mississippi. 

The  founder  of  the  colony  was  James  Edward  Oglethorpe, 
"a  very  remarkable  man,"  says  Lecky,  "whose  long  life  of 
eighty-six  years  was  crowded  with  picturesque  incidents  and 
with  the  most  varied  and  active  benevolence."  Pope  refers 
to  him  in  his  couplet : 

One  driven  by  strong  benevolence  of  soul 
Shall  fly  like  Oglethorpe  from  pole  to  pole. 

He  was  one  of  Johnson's  honored  friends,  and  Boswell 
repeats  his  anecdotes.  He  was  educated  at  Corpus  Christi 
College,  Oxford,  and  entered  the  army.  When  he  was  young, 
and  serving  under  Prince  Eugene,  a  prince  of  Wurtemberg, 
with  whom  he  was  at  table,  took  up  a  glass  of  wine  and  flung 
some  of  it  in  his  face.  To  have  challenged  him  at  once  would 
have  appeared  too  quarrelsome,  and  to  take  no  notice,  coward- 
ly. So,  restraining  his  naturally  impetuous  temper,  the  young 
soldier  fixed  his  eye  on  the  high-born  bully  and,  smiling  all 
the  time  as  if  he  took  the  insult  as  a  jest,  said,  "  My  prince, 
that's  a  good  joke  ;  but  we  do  it  much  better  in  England,"  and 
dashed  a  glassful  of  wine  in  His  Serene  Highness's  face. 
An  old  general  who  sat  by  said,  "  II  a  bien  fait,  mon  prince; 

vous  l'avcz  commence,"  and  thus  all  ended  in  good  humor. 
15 


230  British  Methodism 

Oglethorpe  returned  to  England,  entered  Parliament  in 
1722,  and  was  a  member  for  twenty-two  years.  He  was  hot- 
tempered,  but  a  man  of  indomitable  energy  and  of  practieal 
organizing   ability,    "too    honest   to   take   high  rank,"  says 


FROM  THE  COPPERPLATE  BY  RAVENET. 

GEN.   JAMES    EDWARD    OGLETHORPE. 
Philanthropist  and  founder  of  Georgia. 


Lecky,  "among  the  intriguing  politicians  of  his  time."  He 
was  England's  great  prison  reformer  before  Howard.  Hav- 
ing found  an  old  friend  dying  from  barbarous  treatment  in 
the  Fleet  prison  for  debtors,  he  called  the  attention  of  Par- 
liament, now  under  Walpole's  administration,  to  the  whole 
question  of  prison  management. 

Oglethorpe  was  appointed  chairman   of  the  committee  of 


Oglethorpe's  Prison  Reforms  231 

inquiry  which  supplied  a  subject  for  Hogarth's  pencil.  It 
appeared  that  heavy  fees  were  extorted  from  prisoners,  and 
those  unable  to  pay  them  were  treated  with  utmost  brutality. 
They  were  left,  manacled,  in  a  dungeon  above  a  common 
sewer  where  the  festering  bodies  of  the  dead  were  placed 
awaiting  inquests.  Oglethorpe's  friend  and  others  were 
locked  up  with  prisoners  suffering  from  smallpox,  and  soon 
died.  Others  were  reduced  almost  to  skeletons  by  starvation  ; 
sick  women  died  of  neglect;  men,  tortured  with  thumb- 
screws, lingered  in  slow  agony  under  irons.  The  poet 
Thomson  refers  to  the  prison  inquiry  in  his  lines : 

And  here  can  I  forget  the  generous  band 

Who,  touch'd  with  human  woe,  redressive  search'd 

Into  the  horrors  of  the  gloomy  jail, 

Unpitied  and  unheard,  where  Misery  moans. 

Where  Sickness  pines,  where  Thirst  and  Hunger  burn, 

And  poor  Misfortune  feels  the  lash  of  vice? 

Oglethorpe,  ever  practical,  determined  not  only  to  reform 
the  prison,  but  to  provide  for  the  future  of  the  prisoners, 
and,  like  Berkeley,  turned  his  thoughts  westward.  He  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  founding  a  colony  in  which  poor  debtors, 
obtaining  freedom,  might  find  a  refuge.  The  charter  for 
Georgia  was  secured.  Parliament  granted  him  £  10,000;  the 
Bank  of  England,  £10,000 ;  and  £16,000  was  raised  by  sub- 
scriptions— the  whole  amounting  to  the  purchasing  value  of 
half  a  million  dollars. 

The  two  Samuel  Wesleys,  father  and  son,  and  many  others 
became  intensely  interested  in  the  scheme.  It  was  established 
on  antislavery  principles — and  here  again  Oglethorpe  was  be- 
fore his  age.  "  My  friends  and  I,"  wrote  he,  "determined 
not  to  suffer. slavery  there."  Thus  slavery,  which  existed  in 
its  worst  forms  in  the  British  settlement  of  South  Carolina 
and  to  the  south,  in  the  Spanish  settlement  of  Florida,  was 


232 


British  Methodism 


kept  out  of  Georgia  until  after  Oglethorpe's  return  from 
America.  It  was  intended,  also,  that  the  colony  should  be  a 
missionary  center  as  well  as  a  philanthropic  and  civilizing 
force.     A  friendly  alliance  was  made  with  the  Indians,  who 

showed  a  desire  to 
be  instructed.  Writ- 
ing in  1733,  Ogle- 
thorpe says,  ' '  Their 
king  comes  con- 
stantly to  church,  is 
desirous  to  be  in- 
structed in  the 
Christian  religion, 
and  has  given  me 
his  nephew,  a  boy 
who  is  his  next  of 
kin,  to  educate." 

The  chief's  name 
was  Tomo  -  chi  -  chi, 
and  he  became  of 
great  service  to  the 
colonists.  "We  do 
not,"  he  said,  "know 
good  from  evil,  but 
desire  to  be  instruct- 
ed .  .  .  that  we  may  do  well  with,  and  be  regarded  amongst, 
the  children  of  the  Trustees."  Nor  was  he  alone,  for  another 
chief  declared  that,  "  though  they  were  poor  and  ignorant,  he 
who  had  given  the  English  breath  had  given  them  breath  also ; 
that  he  who  had  made  them  both  had  given  more  wisdom  to 
the  white  man  ;  that  they  were  firmly  persuaded  that  the  Great 
Power  which   dwelt  in  heaven,  and   all  around  " — and  then 


OLD    GERMAN    PRINT. 


TOMO-CHI-CHI. 

The  mico,  or  chief,  of  the  Yamacraws.  He  was  the  guide 
and  protector  of  the  Georgia  colony,  and  the  companion 
and  ally  of  Oglethorpe. 


Wesley  Not  a  Second  Eliot  233 

he  spread  forth  his  hands  and  lengthened  the  sound  of  his 
words — "  and  which  had  given  breath  to  all  men,  had  sent 
the  English  thither  for  the  instruction  of  them  and  their 
wives  and  children." 

Tomo-chi-ehi  went  to  England  in  1734  with  Oglethorpe, 
and  was  presented  to  George  II  at  Kensington.  This  event 
aroused  national  interest.  The  chief  presented  the  English 
king  with   eagles'  feathers,   and   made,  a  speech. 

These  were  some  of  the  Indians  whom  Wesley  expected  to 
find,  as  a  race,  "  docile  children."  It  was  a  century  before 
this  that  John  Eliot  began  his  work  among  the  Pequot  tribe, 
and  thirty  years  later  he  translated  the  Moheecan  Bible — the 
first  Bible  printed  in  America.  At  Cambridge,  the  seat  of 
Harvard  College,  a  small  Indian  college  had  been  founded. 
Eliot  passed  away  at  eighty-six  with  the  words,  "  Welcome, 
joy!  "upon  his  lips,  leaving  1,100  Indians  members  in  six 
churches.  John  Wesley  was  acquainted  with  Eliot's  work, 
for  in  his  Journal  he  quotes  one  of  his  sayings:  "My 
memory  is  gone,  my  understanding  is  gone,  but  I  think  I 
have  more  love  than  ever." 

But  Wesley  was  not  permitted  to  become  another  Eliot. 
With  his  remarkable  faculty  for  languages  and  his  direct 
style  of  speech,  Southey  considers,  he  might  have  done  a 
noble  work  among  the  Indians.  But  he  had  yet  to  find  Eliot's 
Puritan  gospel  of  experience ;  and  when  he  found  it  he  was 
called  to  preach  it  to  the  masses  of  his  own  countrymen, 
whose  moral  need  was  as  desperate  as  that  of  the  wild  children 
of  the  West,  and  even  more  difficult  to  touch'. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

Oxford  Methodism  Afloat 

Beginnings  of  Savannah. — Wesley  Meets  Oglethorpe. — John  and 
Charles  Offer  Themselves  for  the  Work.— John's  Motives. — 
Fellow-Passengers.— The  Moravian's  Faith. 

THE  first  emigration  to  Georgia  was  conducted  by  Ogle- 
thorpe in  person,  who  in  February,  1733,  encamped 
on  the  site  of  the  new  town  of  Savannah.  Four 
beautiful  pines  protected  his  tent,  and  for  a  year  he  sought 
no  other  shelter.  The  streets  were  laid  out  with  the  greatest 
regularity,  as  our  old  print  well  shows,  and  the  houses 
were  built  on  one  model — "each  a  frame  of  sawed  timber, 
24  x  16  feet,  floored  with  rough  deals,"  the  sides  of  boards 
and  the  roofs  shingled.  "Ere  long  a  walk  cut  through  the 
native  woods  led  to  a  large  garden  by  the  river  side,  des- 
tined as  a  nursery  of  European  fruits  and  of  the  wonderful 
products  of  America." 

Thus  began  the  commonwealth  of  Georgia,  the  place  of 
refuge  for  the  distressed  people  of  Great  Britain  and  the 
persecuted  Protestants  of  Europe.  For  soon  there  came  the 
company  of  persecuted  Salzburghers,  who  had  renounced 
Roman  Catholicism  and  were  driven  from  their  German 
home  in  1733-4.    They  were  followed  by  Scotch  Highlanders, 

who  founded   New    Inverness,    in    Darien.      Then   came    the 

2  34 


To  Georgia  or  Not  ? 


235 


first  band  of  Moravian  sufferers  "  for  conscience'  sake." 
The  Methodist  Wesleys  were  to  join  the  fifth  company  of 
emigrants. 

After  his  father's  death  John  Wesley  went  to  London  to 
present  the  rector's  book  on  Job  to  Queen  Caroline. 
There  he  met  some  of  the  Georgian  trustees,  who  were  in 
search  of  a  missionary.      Dr.    Burton,    an  Oxford   friend  of 


,    \^i£  -  -        ■    .  ■  n^.   . 

-    --     -  '  X     Tffl    '  '  "-■  "^^V  " 


^ry"'\  ft  v^v  ,'jy  /T^^w^rf 


j 


L__ 


FROM  A   PRINT   OF    1741 


THE    BEGINNINGS   OF   SAVANNAH. 


Wesley,  introduced  him  to  Oglethorpe  as  a  man  well  fitted 
for  the  work.  Would  Wesley  accept  it  ?  The  thought  of 
his  widowed  mother  made  him  hesitate,  "for"  said  he,  "I 
am  the  staff  of  her  age,  her  support,  and  comfort."  He  con- 
sulted his  brother  Samuel — now  head  master  of  Blundell's 
famous  school  at  Tiverton — and  William  Law.  He  also  went 
to  Manchester  for  the  advice  of  Clayton  and  his  friend,  Dr. 
Byrom.     He  finally  went  to  Epworth  and  laid  the  case  before 


236  British  Methodism 

his  mother.  "  Had  I  twenty  sons,"  was  her  noble  reply,  "  I 
should  rejoice  that  they  were  all  so  employed,  though  I 
should  never  see  them  more." 

Wesley  consented  to  become  missionary  chaplain,  with  a 
stipend  of  £50  a  year.  His  brother  Charles  decided  to  go  as 
secretary  to  Oglethorpe,  and  was  ordained  that  he  might  also 
officiate  as  a  clergyman.  To  Benjamin  Ingham,  Wesley 
wrote  in  his  laconic  way,  "  Fast  and  pray,  and  then  send  me 
word  whether  you  dare  go  with  me  to  the  Indians."  He 
dared  to  go.  Charles  Delamotte,  the  son  of  a  London  mer- 
chant, joined  them,  for  "he  had  a  mind  to  leave  the  world 
and  give  himself  entirely  to  God." 

Wesley's  motives  are  best  learned  from  his  own  candid 
words  in  a  letter  to  a  friend.  The  apparent  selfishness  of 
his  first  motive  must  be  judged  in  the  light  of  his  frank  con- 
fession of  his  need  of  the  first  qualification  for  his  mission 
and  the  higher  altruism  of  his  second  motive :  ' '  My  chief 
motive,"  said  he,  "is  the  hope  of  saving  my  own  soul.  I 
hope  to  learn  the  true  sense  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  by  preach- 
ing it  to  the  heathen.  They  have  no  comments  to  construe 
away  the  text;  no  vain  philosophy  to  corrupt  it;  no  luxuri- 
ous, sensual,  covetous,  ambitious  expounders  to  soften  its 
unpleasing  truths.  .  .  .  They  have  no  party,  no  interest  to 
serve,  and  are  therefore  fit  to  receive  the  Gospel  in  its  sim- 
plicity. They  are  as  little  children,  humble,  willing  to  learn, 
and  eager  to  do  the  will  of  God."  ' '  I  then  hope  to  know  what 
it  is  to  love  my  neighbor  as  myself,  and  to  feel  the  powers  of 
that  second  motive  to  visit  the  heathen,  even  the  desire  to  im- 
part to  them  what  I  have  received — a  saving  knowledge  of 
the  Gospel  of  Christ;  but  this  I  dare  not  think  on  yet.  It  is 
not  for  me,  who  have  been  a  grievous  sinner  from  my  youth 
up,    .    .    .    to  expect  (rod   should  work  so  great  things  by  my 


A  "  Missioner  "  to  the  Indians. 


237 


_  James  Ogletborp,  Efq;  Member  of  Par- 
L'ament  for  Hailemere  in  the  County  of 
Suxrey,  embarks  on  board  the  Simmonds, 
Capt.  CornUh,  for  Georgia,  thi?  Day. 


hands;  but  I  am  assured,  if  I  be  once  converted  myself,  he 
will  then  employ  me  both  to  strengthen  my  brethren  and 
to  preach  his  name  to  the  Gentiles." 

It  is  evident  that  Wesley's  imagination  kindled  at  the 
thought  that  he 
should  be  chiefly, to 
use  his  own  word, 
"a  missioner"  to 
the  Indians.  The 
good  Oxford  don's 
conception  of  their 
receptive  simplic- 
ity almost  raises  a 
sad  smile  to-day. 
"Why,  Mr.  Wes- 
ley, if  they  are  this 
already,  what  more 
can  Christianity  do 
for  them  ? "  ex- 
claimed a  lady  to 
whom  Wesley  ex- 
pressed his  glow- 
ing anticipations. 

THE    NEWSPAPER    NOTICE   OF    THE   WESLEYS' 

A  copy  of    Wal-  departure  for  America. 

ker's  Weekly  Penny 
Journal  for  Oct.  18, 
1735,  has  been  preserved,  and  in  it  is  a  remarkable  notice,  of 
which  we  give  a  facsimile.  That  the  only  three  attendants 
of  Oglethorpe  who  are  named  should  be  members  of  the 
Holy  Club,  and  that  they  accompany  a  man  of  illustrious 
military  career,  proves  how  far  the  Methodist  movement  was 
beginning  to  reach.     And  that  over  half  a  thousand  copies  of 


Tusfday  Morning  James  Oglethorpe, 
Efq,  fee  cut  by  Land  for  Grave 'fend ,  and 
the  ReV.  Mr.  John  Wefley,  Student  of 
Lincoln  College,  Qxon ',  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Charles  We/ley,  Student  of  Chrifl- 
Church-College,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  In- 
gram of  ^ly  ten's,  in  order  to  embark  for 
Georgia, 

There  were  fent  along  with  thefe  Gen- 
tlemen,  as  a  Benefaction  of  fever al  wor- 
thy Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  550  of  the 
Bifhop  of  Man's  Treatifes  on  the  Sacra- 
ment, and  his  Lordfhifs  Principles  and 
Duties  of  Chrifiianity,  for  the  ufc  of 
the  Englifh  Families  fettled  in  Georgia. 


Facsimile  from  Walker's  Weekly  Penny  Journal,  London, 
October  18,  1735. 


238  British  Methodism 

religious  books  should  be  specified  as  gifts  to  go  with  them 
over  to  their  new  field  of  labor  may  be  safely  considered  as 
brought  about  by  John  Wesley,  whose  sense  of  the  impor- 
tance of  books  for  the  religious  life  was  never  wanting. 

On  board  the  Simmonds,  a  vessel  of  two  hundred  and 
twenty  tons,  were  twenty-six  Moravians,  under  the  care 
of  their  bishop,  David  Nitschman,  and  about  eighty 
English  passengers.  Another  vessel,  the  London  Mer- 
chant, was  also  chartered  for  colonists.  Although  they 
started  from  Gravesend  in  October,  it  was  December  before 
they  left  England,  and  many  weeks  were  spent  at  Cowes, 
on  the  Isle  of  Wight,  where  they  had  to  wait  for  the  man- 
of-war  that  was  to  be  their  convoy.  This  gave  time  for 
the  Methodists  to  plan  their  days  as  carefully  as  at  Ox- 
ford. From  four  to  five  every  morning  was  spent  in  private 
prayer,  then  for  two  hours  they  read  the  Bible  together, 
comparing  it  with  the  fathers'.  Breakfast  and  public  prayers 
filled  two  hours  more.  From  nine  to  twelve  Charles  Wesley 
wrote  sermons,  John  studied  German,  Delamotte  read  Greek, 
and  Ingham  taught  the  emigrants'  children;  and  the  re- 
mainder  of  the  day  was  as  carefully  mapped  out,  all  uniting 
with  the  Germans  in  their  evening  service. 

The  friends  went  ashore  at  Cowes,  and  during  a  walk 
agreed  to  consult  each  other  in  all  important  matters,  to  give 
up  their  own  judgment  when  it  was  opposed  to  that  of  the 
rest,  and,  in  case  of  equality,  to  decide  the  matter  by  lot. 
Charles  Wesley  preached  in  the  parish  church,  and  Samuel, 
who  had  opposed  his  brother's  mission,  hoped  Charles  would 
be  convinced  by  the  great  crowds  that  attended  the  services 
that  he  had  no  need  to  go  to  Georgia  to  convert  sinners.  At 
last  the  warship  arrived,  and  they  started  on  December  io. 
In    the   afternoon   they  passed   the    Needles,    "and,"   wrote 


"I  Hope,   Sir,   You  Never  Sin!  "  239 

Wesley,  "the  ragged  rocks,  with  the  waves  dashing  and 
foaming  at  the  foot  of  them,  and  the  white  side  of  the  island 
rising  to  such  a  height,  perpendicular  from  the  beach,  gave 
a  strong  idea  of  '  him  that  spanneth  the  heavens,  and  hold- 
eth  the  waters  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand  !  '  " 

The  voyage,  which  lasted  fifty-seven  days,  was  not  with- 
out suggestive  incidents. 

One  day  Wesley  heard  Oglethorpe  storming  away  in  his 
cabin,  and  opening  the  door,  found  him  in  a  furious  passion 
with  his  Italian  servant,  who  stood  trembling  before  him. 

"You  must  excuse  me,  Mr.  Wesley,"  cried  the  angry 
general,  "  I  have  met  with  a  provocation  too  great  to  bear. 
This  villain,  Grimaldi,  has  drunk  nearly  the  whole  of  my 
Cyprus  wine,  the  only  wine  that  agrees  with  me.  But  I  am 
determined  to  be  revenged.  I  have  ordered  him  to  be  tied 
hand  and  foot  and  to  be  carried  to  the  man-of-war  which  sails 
with  us.  The  rascal  should  have  taken  care  how  he  used  me 
so,  for  I  never  forgive." 

"Then,"  said  Wesley,  looking  at  him  with  great  calmness, 
"  I  hope,  sir,  you  never  sin." 

Oglethorpe  was  at  once  subdued  by  the  gentle  reproof. 
His  vengeance  was  gone,  and  with  characteristic  generosity 
he  pulled  a  bunch  of  keys  from  his  pocket  and  tossed  them 
to  Grimaldi,  saying,  "There,  villain,  take  my  keys,  and  be- 
have better  for  the  future." 

The  general,  in  turn,  could  say  a  word  for  the  Wesleys. 
When  some  of  the  officers,  not  liking  the  gravity  of  the 
ministers,  thought  to  have  some  fun  at  their  expense, 
Oglethorpe  indignantly  said : 

"What  do  von  mean,  sirs?  Do  you  take  these  gentlemen 
for  tithe-pig  parsons?  They  are  gentlemen  of  respectability 
and  learning.      They  are  my  friends,  and  whoever  offers  an 


240  British  Methodism 

affront  to  them  insults  me."  There  was  no  repetition  of  the 
offense. 

One  event  deeply  impressed  Wesley.  On  several  occasions 
there  were  storms,  and  he  felt  restless,  and  afraid  to  die.  He 
had  made  friends  with  the  Moravians  and  was  charmed  by 
their  sweet  spirit  and  excellent  discipline.  He  now  found 
that  they  were  brave  as  well  as  gentle.  One  evening  a  storm 
burst  just  as  the  Germans  began  to  sing  a  psalm,  and  the  sea 
broke,  split  the  mainsail  in  pieces,  covered  the  ship,  and 
poured  in  between  the  decks  as  if  the  great  deep  were 
swallowing  them  up.  The  English  began  to  scream  with 
terror,  but  the  Germans  calmly  sang  on.  Wesley  asked  one 
of  them  afterward  : 

"  Were  you  not  afraid?  " 

"  I  thank  God,  no,"  was  the  reply. 

"  But  were  not  your  women  and  children  afraid?  " 

"No,"  he  replied  mildly,  "  our  women  and  children  are 
not  afraid  to  die." 

At  the  close  of  the  day's  Journal  Wesley  writes,  "This 
was  the  most  glorious  day  which  I  have  hitherto  seen." 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

The  Anglican  Missionaries  in  their  American  Adullam 

Spangenberg  and  Wesley. — Interview  with  Tomo-chi-chi. — Wesley 
the  Ascetic. — Sunday's  Work. — The  High  Churchman. — Bolzius. 
— Inwardly  Melting.  —  Charles  Wesley's  Difficulties.  —  Re- 
turns to  England. 

ON  February  5,  1736,  the  Simmonds  sailed  into  the 
Savannah  River,  casting  anchor  near  Tybee  Island. 
The  next  day  John  and  Charles  Wesley  first  set  foot 
on  American  soil.  "It  was  a  small  uninhabited  island," 
writes  John,  "over  against  Tybee.  Mr.  Oglethorpe  led  us  to 
a  rising  ground,  where  we  all  kneeled  down  to  give  thanks." 
Oglethorpe  took  boat  for  Savannah  and  the  next  day  re- 
turned with  Spangenberg,  a  Moravian  pastor.  Again  Wesley 
caught  a  glimpse  of  the  spiritual  truth  he  needed  as  he 
sought  the  Moravian's  advice  about  his  work.  Spangenberg 
said : 

"  My  brother,  I  must  first  ask  you  one  or  two  questions: 
Have  you  the  witness  within  yourself  ?  Does  the  Spirit  of 
God  witness  with  your  spirit  that  you  are  a  child  of  God?" 
Wesley  knew  not  what  to  answer.  The  preacher,  seeing  his 
hesitation,  asked : 

"  Do  you  know  Jesus  Christ?  " 

"  I  know,"  said  Wesley,  "he  is  the  Saviour  of  the  world." 

241 


242 


British   Methodism 


"  True,"  replied  he,  "  but  do  you  know  he  has  saved  you?  " 
Wesley  answered,    "  I  hope  he  has  died  to  save  me." 
Spangenberg  only  added,  "  Do  you  know  yourself?" 
"  I  do,"  was  the  reply;  but  in  his  Journal  he  wrote,  "  I  fear 

they     were      vain 


words."  Such  a 
spiritual  probing 
Wesley  had  never 
before  received. 
The  conversation 
was  worth  the 
journey  across  the 
ocean.  The  flash 
of  lightning  left 
him  in  darkness. 
He  asked  Span- 
genberg  many 
questions  about 
the  Moravians  of 
Herrnhuth. 

A  few  days  later 
Wesley  was  visited 
by  some  of  the  In- 
dians who  had 
been  so  much  in 
his  thought.  To- 
mo-chi-chi,  the  chief  who  was  presented  to  George  II,  spoke 
as  follows:  "  I  am  glad  you  are  come.  When  I  was  in  Eng- 
land I  desired  that  some  would  speak  the  great  Word  to  me ; 
and  my  nation  then  desired  to  hear  it;  but  now  we  are  all  in 
confusion.  Yet  I  am  glad  you  are  come.  I  will  go  up  and 
speak  to  the   wise  men  of  our  nation  ;  and  I   hope  they  will 


DRAWN   BY  W.    B.    DAVIS, 

SPANGENBERG. 

Moravian  missionary  in  Georgia. 


ROM   A   COPPERPLATE. 


A  Barefoot  Teacher  243 

hear.  But  we  would  not  be  made  Christians  as  the  Span- 
iards make  Christians :  we  would  be  taught  before  we  are 
baptized." 

Wesley  answered:  "There  is  but  One,  he  that  sitteth  in 
heaven,  who  is  able  to  teach  man  wisdom.  Though  we  are 
come  so  far,  we  know  not  whether  he  will  please  to  teach 
you  by  us  or  no.  If  he  teaches  you,  you  will  learn  wisdom, 
but  we  can  do  nothing." 

John  Wesley  found  Savannah,  with  forty  houses,  built  on 
a  bluff  forty  or  fifty  feet  above  the  bend  of  the  river,  which 
here  was  about  a  thousand  feet  across.  He  began  his  min- 
istry with  a  sermon  on  "Charity"  (i  Cor.  xiii),  and  described 
the  deathbed  of  his  father  at  Epworth.  The  courthouse, 
which  served  as  church,  was  crowded,  and  the  mission  began 
with  great  promise.  Ten  days  later  a  ball  had  to  be  given 
up,  for  the  church  was  full  for  prayers  and  the  ballroom 
empty !  A  lady  told  him  when  he  landed  that  he  would  see 
as  well-dressed  a  congregation  on  Sundays  as  most  which  he 
had  seen  in  London.  He  found  that  she  was  right,  and  he 
preached  on  the  subject  of  dress  with  such  effect  that  gold 
and  costly  apparel  disappeared,  and  the  ladies  came  to  church 
in  plain  linen  or  woolen.  He  established  day  schools,  teach- 
ing one  himself  and  placing  Delamotte  in  the  other.  Some 
of  Delamotte's  boys  who  wore  shoes  and  stockings  thought 
themselves  superior  to  the  boys  who  went  barefoot.  To 
cure  their  pride  Wesley  changed  schools  with  his  friend  and 
went  to  teach  without  shoes  and  stockings.  The  boys  stared, 
but  Wesley  kept  them  to  their  work,  and  before  the  end  of 
the  week  he  had  cured  the  lads  of  their  vanity. 

The  Sunday  appointments  were  many.  He  divided  the 
public  prayers,  reading  the  morning  service  at  five,  having 
the  sermon  and  Holy  Communion  at  eleven,  and  the  evening 


244  British  Methodism 

service  at  three.  There  was  a  meeting  at  his  own  house  for 
reading,  prayer,  and  praise.  At  six  o'clock  he  attended  the 
Moravian  service.  He  catechised  the  children  at  two  o'clock, 
and  during  the  latter  part  of  his  stay  he  had  service  for  the 
Italians  at  nine  and  for  the  French  at  one.  In  two  neighbor- 
ing settlements  he  read  prayers  on  Saturday -in  German  and 
French,  and  he  even  studied  Spanish  in  order  to  converse 
with  some  Spanish  Jews. 

All  might  have  gone  on  well  if,  as  Southey  says,  he  could 
have  taken  the  advice  of  Dr.  Burton,  to  consider  his  parish- 
ioners as  babes  in  their  progress,  and  to  feed  them  with  milk. 
But  "he  drenched  them  with  the  physic  of  an  intolerant 
discipline."  His  High  Churchmanship  manifested  itself  in 
all  the  irritating  forms  common  to  the  sectarian  bigots  who 
domineer  over  timid  villagers  in  some  of  the  rural  parishes 
of  England  to-day,  except  that  he  did  not  resort  to  the  mod- 
ern cruelty  of  depriving  the  poor  and  sick  Dissenters  of  relief 
from  public  charities.  He  refused  the  Lord's  Supper  to  all 
who  had  not  been  episcopally  baptized ;  he  re-baptized  the 
children  of  Dissenters,  and  he  refused  to  bury  all  who  had 
not  received  Anglican  baptism.  He  insisted  also  on  baptism 
by  immersion.  He  refused  the  Lord's  Supper  to  one  of  the 
most  devoted  Christian  men  in  the  colony,  Bolzius,  the  pastor 
of  the  Salzburghers,  because  he  had  not  been,  as  he  insisted, 
canonically  baptized.  In  his  ^///published  Journal,  1737,  he 
writes,  "  I  had  occasion  to  make  a  very  unusual  trial  of  the 
temper  of  Mr.  Bolzius,  pastor  of  the  Salzburghers,  in  which 
he  behaved  with  such  lowliness  and  meekness  as  became  a 
disciple  of  Jesus  Christ."  And  many  years  later,  in  com- 
menting on  a  letter  from  this  good  man,  he  says:  "  What  a 
truly  Christian  piety  and  simplicity  breathe  in  these  lines! 
And  yet  this  very  man,  when  I  was  at  Savannah,  did  I  refuse 


o> 


1      '  ^  vf.\ 


DRAWN  BY  P.   E.   FLINTOFF.  FR0M  PHOTOS. 

MEMORIALS    OF   THE   WESLEYS    IN    GEORGIA. 

Wesley  Church,  Frederica.  Ruins  of  Fort  at  Frederica. 

The  Wesley  Monumental  Church,  Savannah. 

"  Wesley's  Oak,"  St.  Simon's  Island.  Wesley  Window,  in  Monumental  Church. 

16 


John  Wesley,   High  Churchman  247 

to  admit  to  the  Lord's  table  because  he  was  not  baptized  .  .  . 
by  a  minister  who  had  been  episcopally  ordained.  Can  anyone 
carry  High  Church  zeal  higher  than  this?  And  how  well 
have  1  been  since  beaten  with  mine  own  staff !  " 

One  thing  only  was  wanting  to  make  him  a  perfect  repre- 
sentative of  the  modern  High  Churchman ;  there  is  no  evi- 
dence that  he  believed  in  the  "conversion  of  the  elements'' 
by  consecration,  or  in  their  doctrine  of  the  real  presence.  In 
a  letter  of  1732  he  wrote  to  his  mother,  "We  cannot  allow 
Christ's  human  nature  to  be  present  in  it  without  allowing 
either  cox-  or  TRANS-substantiation."  That  he  advised  pri- 
vate confession  to  the  priest  we  have  already  learned  from 
his  sister  Emilia's  spirited  letter,  but  there  is  no  evidence 
that  he  made  this  a  part  of  his  fixed  discipline. 

No  wonder  was  it  that  a  plain  speaker  said  to  Wesley  at 
this  time :  "  The  people  say  they  are  Protestants,  but  as  for 
you  they  cannot  tell  what  religion  you  are  of;  they  never 
heard  of  such  a  religion  before,  and  they  do  not  know  what 
to  make  of  it." 

At  the  same  time,  as  Rigg  has  pointed  out,  Wesley  was 
"inwardly  melting,  and  the  light  of  spiritual  liberty  was 
dawning  on  his  soul."  He  attended  a  Presbyterian  service 
at  Darien,  and,  to  his  great  astonishment,  heard  the  minister 
offer  a  devout  extempore  prayer.  He  was  impressed  by  the 
simple  beauty  of  the  life  of  the  Moravians,  and  they  sent  him 
to  the  New  Testament.  He  read  Bishop  Beveridge's  Pan- 
decta  Canonum  Conciliorum,  which  sent  him  to  the  Scriptures 
again  as  a  higher  authority  than  tradition  or  councils.  He 
thus  expresses  to  Wogan  his  opinion  as  to  the  innermost 
nature  of  religion:  "  I  entirely  agree  with  you  that  religion 
is  love  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost ;  that  as  it  is  the 
happiest,  so  it  is  the  cheerfulest  thing  in  the  world ;   that  it 


248 


British  Methodism 


is  utterly  inconsistent  with  moroseness,  sourness,  and  indeed 
with  whatever  is  not  according  to  the  .  .  .  gentleness  of  Christ 
Jesus." 

Charles  Wesley  went  to  Frederica  with  Oglethorpe,  and, 
with  his  friend  Ingham,  became  busy  in  spiritual  work  as 
well  as  in  laying  out  the  town,  which  was  a  hundred  miles 
south  of  Savannah.  His  rigorous  and  repellent  Anglicanism 
crippled  his  good  work.  His  preaching,  sincere  and  faithful 
as  it  was,  procured  him  more  enemies  than  hearers.     Two 


AUTOGRAPH    OF   CHARLES    WESLEY. 
Written  while  he  was  a  resident  in  Georgia. 

women  formed  an  infamous  plot  to  discredit  him  with  the 
governor,  and  the  settlers  made  unfounded  charges  against 
him.  Oglethorpe,  irritated  and  worn  down,  grew  suspicious 
and  harsh. 

The  people  took  advantage  of  his  change  of  feeling. 
Charles  Wesley  was  fired  at  as  he  took  his  meditative 
"  myrtle-walk  in  the  woods,"  and  as  the  shot  whizzed  by  he 
said,  "I  will  thank  Thee,  for  thou  hast  heard  me,  and  art 
become  my  salvation."  But  in  all  this  he  found  training  for 
his  future  work.  There  being  no  church,  he  preached  out 
of  doors  and  in  unconsecrated  places.  He  endured  hardship 
in  a  leaky  hut  compared  with  which  the  mud  and  plaster 
rectory  of  Epworth  was  a  palace.  He  spent  much  time  at 
the  camp,  for  invasion  by  the  Spanish  warships  was  expected 
daily.      But  his   humor    never   failed  him.      lie  writes:     "I 


Roughing  It  in  Georgia  249 

begin  to  be  abused  and  slighted  into  an  opinion  of  my  own 
considerableness.  I  eould  not  be  more  trampled  upon  was  I 
a  fallen  minister  of  state.  I  sometimes  diverted  myself  with 
their  odd  expressions  of  contempt,  but  found  the  benefit  of 
having  undergone  a  much  lower  degree  of  contempt  at  Ox- 
ford." But  at  length  his  strength  gave  way  and  "a  friendly 
fever"  prostrated  him.  "When  my  fever  was  somewhat 
abated  I  was  led  out  to  bury  the  scout  boatman  (killed  by 
the  burst  of  a  cannon),  and  envied  him  his  quiet  grave."  Such 
was  the  despondency  of  the  man  who  had  before  him  more 
than  half  a  century  of  noble  and  abiding  service ! 

John  Wesley  came  to  the  help  of  his  distressed  brother,  and 
they  exchanged  pastorates.  John  came  in  a  flat-bottomed 
barge,  called  a  pettiawga,  and  had  a  narrow  escape  from 
drowning  in  the  night.  He  says:  "  I  wrapped  myself  up 
from  head  to  foot  in  a  large  cloak,  to  keep  off  the  sand-flies, 
and  lay  down  on  the  quarter-deck.  Between  one  and  two  I 
waked  under  water,  being  so  fast  asleep  that  I  did  not  find 
where  I  was  till  my  mouth  was  full  of  it.  Having  left  my 
cloak,  I  know  not  how,  upon  deck,  I  swam  round  to  the  other 
side  of  the  pettiawga,  where  a  boat  was  tied,  and  climbed  up 
by  the  rope  without  any  hurt  more  than  wetting  my  clothes. 
Thou  art  the  God  of  whom  cometh  salvation :  thou  art  the 
Lord  by  whom  we  escape  death." 

When  Charles  Wesley  returned  to  Frederica  he  found  the 
governor's  old  love  for  him  restored,  and  during  the  weeks 
that  followed  they  were  in  much  anxiety  from  the  expected 
invasion  of  the  Spaniards.  The  soldier-statesman  was  de- 
pressed, and,  sending  for  Charles  Wesley,  said:  "  I  am  now 
going  to  death.  You  will  see  me  no  more."  He  then  gave 
Charles  a  diamond  ring,  as  at  once  a  token,  a  testimonial,  and 
memento.     To  Oglethorpe's  remark,  "  that  he  much  desired 


250 


British  Methodism 


.-y 


3       C)        :     C\         . 


s&- 


the  conversion  of  the  heathen,  and  believed  my  brother  in- 
tended it,"  Charles  gave  this  notable  reply:     "  But  I  believe 

it  will  never  be 
under  your  pat- 
ronage, /<?r  ///<•// 
///c//  would  account 
for  it  without 
God."''  The  wind 
•turned  against 
the  Spaniards, 
and  their  ships 
never  came. 

Charles    Wes- 
ley was    sent    to 


*e* 


;<r 


v 


t^^AzK^-  /£*>** 


^> 


FACSIMILE   OF   A    PACK   OF   JOHN   WESLEY'S 
MS.   JOURNAL   IN    GEORGIA. 


England  with 
dispatches  in 
July,  1736,  in  a 
wretched  craft, 
with  a  more 
wretched  captain. 
He  was  again 
prostrated  with 
dysentery  and 
fever.  At  Bos- 
ton, where  they 
were  obliged  to 
run  in  for  re- 
pairs,  he    nearly 


died, but  revived, 
to  perform  re- 
markable labors  for  many  years.  After  a  trying  and  tem- 
pestuous   voyage    of    two    months    he    landed   at    Deal    in 


Charles  Wesley's  Ocean  Hymn  251 

December.  His  thoughts  during-  the  stormy  months  at  sea 
appear  in  the  following  noble  verses,  which  have  the  rhyth- 
mic roll  of  the  ocean-wave : 

A  Hymn  to  be  Sung  at  Sea. 

Throughout  the  deep  thy  footsteps  shine, 

We  own  thy  way  is  in  the  sea, 
O 'era wed  by  majesty  divine, 

And  lost  in  thy  immensity. 

Infinite  God,  thy  greatness  spanned 

These  heavens,  and  meted  out  the  skies; 

Lo,  in  the  hollow  of  thy  hand 

The  measured  waters  sink  and  rise. 

Yet  in  thy  Son,  divinely  great, 

We  claim  thy  providential  care; 
Boldly  we  stand  before  thy  seat, 

Our  Advocate  hath  placed  us  there. 

With  him  we  are  gone  up  on  high; 

Since  he  is  ours,  and  we  are  his ; 
With  him  we  reign  above  the  sky, 

Yet  walk  upon  our  subject  seas. 

We  boast  of  our  recovered  powers  ; 

Lords  are  we  of  the  lands  and  floods ; 
And  earth,  and  heaven,  and  all,  is  ours; 

And  we  are  Christ's,  and  Christ  is  God's. 

He  poured  forth  his  gratitude  for  his  many  remarkable  de- 
liverances in  the  following  hymn  of  praise : 

God  of  my  life,  whose  gracious  power 
Through  varied  deaths  my  soul  hath  led, 

Or  turned  aside  the  fatal  hour, 
Or  lifted  up  my  sinking  head  : 

In  all  my  ways  thy  hand  I  own, 

Thy  ruling  providence  I  see; 
O  !  help  me  still  my  course  to  run, 

And  still  direct  my  paths  to  thee. 


252  British  Methodism 

Oft  hath  the  sea  confessed  thy  power 

And  given  me  back  to  thy  command; 
It  could  not,  Lord,  my  life  devour, 

Safe  in  the  hollow  of  thy  hand. 

Oft  from  the  margin  of  the  grave 

Thou,  Lord,  hast  lifted  up  my  head ; 
Sudden  I  found  thee  near  to  save; 

The  fever  owned  thy  touch,  and  fled. 

When  he  was  strong  enough  he  gladly  hastened  to  Ox- 
ford to  visit  his  Methodist  friends,  and  did  not  forget  the 
prisoners. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

The  Romance  of  Savannah,  and  the  Return  to  England 

Wesley's  First  Hymn  Book. — Sophia  Hopkey. — The  Moravians  Say 
"  No." — The  Sequel.— Home  Again. — What  Georgia  Did  for 
John  Wesley. 

WE  left  John  Wesley  in  Georgia.  These  sea-born 
hymns  by  Charles  Wesley  remind  us  of  one  Ameri- 
can enterprise  by  his  brother  which  is  related  to 
the  psalmody  of  the  coming'  Revival.  While  he  was  in  Georgia 
John  Wesley  published  his  first  Collection  of  Psalms  and 
Hymns.  It  was  printed  "at  Charles-Town"  (Charleston,  S.C.), 
and  the  title-page  is  dated  1737.  In  a  preface  to  a  reprint 
of  this  volume  Osborne  says:  "  It  has  been  supposed  that 
this  Collection  of  Psalms  and  Hymns  was  the  first  published  in 
our  language,  so  that  in  this  provision  for  the  improvement 
of  public  worship  .  .  .  Wesley  led  the  way."  The  arrange- 
ment of  the  hymns  shows  a  strict  regard  "  to  the  usages  of 
a  remote  antiquity,  to  which  he  then  attached  a  very  exag- 
gerated importance.  It  is  pleasant,  however,  to  note  that 
the  foolish  bigotry  which  led  him  to  refuse  the  Lord's  Supper 
to  a  Lutheran  minister  did  not  prevent  him  from  availing 
himself   of    the    Psalms  and    Hymns    of    Dr.    Watts."     His 

father's    hymn  rescued    from    the    Epworth    fire,   Addison's 

253 


254 


British  Methodism 


COLLECTION 

OF 

PSALMS 

AND 

HYMNS. 


hymns,  and  some  of  his  own  noble  translations  from  the  Ger- 
man are  included  in  the  collection. 

There  came  to  John  Wesley  at  this  time  a  romantic  but 
painful  experience.     On  his  arrival  in  Georgia  he  had  been 

introduced  to  Miss 
Sophia  Hopkey,  niece 
of  Mr.  Causton,  the 
chief  magistrate  of 
Savannah.  She  was 
an  attractive  young 
lady,  with  elegant 
manners,  and  by  de- 
grees she  won  the 
heart  of  the  young 
chaplain.  She  at- 
tended all  the  serv- 
ices, sought  his  coun- 
sel before  Holy  Com- 
munion, and  took  to 
light  suppers  and 
early  hours  at  his  sug- 
gestion. She  nursed 
him  through  a  seri- 
ous illness  from  fever, 
and,  consulting  Ogle- 
thorpe as  to  what  dress 
pleased  the  severe 
"  missioner,"  wore 
neat  and  simple  white.  Delamotte  warned  him  against  the 
lady,  who,  he  thought,  was  not  likely  to  promote  his  usefulness. 
That  Wesley  was  deeply  in  love  is  evident,  although  he  does 
not  appear  to  have  "engaged  himself  formally." 


CHJ&LES-rOWN, 

Printed  by  L*wJ*  Timothy.  1717. 


FACSIMILE  OK   TITLE-PAGE  OF  JOHN  WF:SLEY  S 

FIRST   HYMNAL. 

Published  at  Charleston,  S.  C,  1737. 


John  Wesley's  Georgian  Romance 


255 


With  "a  guileless  simplicity,"  says  Overton,  "which  one 
hardly  knows  whether  to  be  provoked  at  or  to  admire,"  John 
consulted  the  Moravians  as  to  whether  he  should  marry  her. 
Their  answer  was  unfavorable,  and  Wesley  meekly  re- 
plied, "  The  will  of 
the  Lord  be  done." 
From  that  time  he 
avoided  all  close  inti- 
macy with  the  lady, 
and  very  soon  after- 
ward she  married  a 
Mr.  Williamson.  We 
reproduce  (on  p.  257) 
the  entry  in  Wesley's 
Journal  recording  her 
engagement,  and  her 
husband's  refusal  to 
allow  her  to  speak 
again  to  her  chaplain. 
When  he  was  eighty- 
two  years  old  Wesley 
still  remembered  the 
trouble  and  disap- 
pointment of  that 
time,  and  wrote:  "  I 
remember  -  formerly, 
when  I  read  these 
words   in   the  church. 

at  Savannah,  'Son  of  man,  behold,  I  take  from  thee  the 
desire  of  thine  eyes  with  a  stroke,'  I  was  pierced  through  as 
with  a  sword,  and  could  not  utter  a  word  more.  But  one 
comfort  is,  He  that  made  the  heart  can  heal  the  heart." 


gQg00QGc&O0QC.33c©O0c0£50 

c^3a°c<So°eC!5SOO^oc  oe°ooo 

P  S  A  L  M  S  and    HYMNS 
For  Sunday. 

I. 

Pfalm   XXXIII. 

I  "^T'E  holy  Souls,  in  God  rejoic?, 

JL  Your  Maker's  Praife  becomes  your  Voice: 
Great  is  your  Theme,  yoar  Songs  be  new 
Sing  of  his  Nime,  his  Word,  his  vVays, 
His  Work*  of  »3rure  and  of  Grace, 
How  wile  and  boJy,  juft  and  tree  ! 

5  Juftice  and  Truth  he.  ever  loves, 

And  the  whole  Earth  his  Goodiie^  proves ; 

His  Word  the  heavenly  Arches  fprcad  : 
How  wide  they  (line  from  North  to  South ! 
And  by  the  Spirit  o?  his  Mou:h 

Were  all  the  Starry  Armies  made. 

3  Thou  gathered  the  wide- flowing  Scss  ; 
Thofe  watry  Trcaf.ircs  know  their  Place 

In  the  vaft  Store- hoafc  of  the  Deep  : 
He  fpake,  and  gi-re  aM  Nature  Birth  , 
And  Fires  and  Seas  and  Heaven  and  Eartb 

His  cverlafting  Orders  keep- 

4  Let  Mortals  tremble  and  adore 
A  GOD  of  fuch  rcliftTefs  Power, 

Nor  dare  indulge  their  feeble  Rsge  : 
yain  are  your  Thoughts  end  weak  your  Hands, 
But  his  erernal  Ccunll-I  ftands. 

Ami  rules  the  World  from  Age  tc  A;;e.  . 

A  1  H- 


PSALM  FROM  THE  FIRST   METHODIST  HYMNAL. 
Facsimile  from  Collection  of  Psalms  and  Hymns,  1737. 


256  British  Methodism 

But  the  matter  did  not  end  here.  Later,  Wesley  felt  it  his 
duty  to  rebuke  Mrs.  Williamson  for  inconsistency  and  to  re- 
fuse her  the  Communion.  He  was  prosecuted  by  her  husband 
for  so  doing,  but,  as  a  High  Churchman,  refused  to  recognize 
the  authority  of  a  eivil  court.  Then  the  storm  burst.  The 
eolonists  found  many  grievances  against  their  rigid  clergy- 
man, and  to  end  the  matter,  on  the  advice  of  his  friends,  he 
decided  to  leave  Georgia. 

So  witli  a  heavy  heart,  on  December  2,  1737,  Wesley  took, 
boat  with  three  friends  for  Carolina,  on  his  way  to  England. 
After  a  trying  journey  of  ten  days  they  reached  Charleston, 
and  went  on  board  the  Samuel.  After  a  stormy  voyage 
Wesley  rejoiced  to  see  "English  land  once  more;  which, 
about  noon,  appeared  to  be  the  Lizard  Point,"  and  the  next 
day  they  landed  at  Deal,  only  a  day  after  Whitefield  had  sailed 
out.  Whitefield  afterward  declared  :  "  The  good  Mr.  John 
Wesley  has  done  in  America  is  inexpressible.  His  name 
is  very  precious  among  the  people ;  and  he  has  laid  a 
foundation  that  I  hope  neither  men  nor  devils  will  ever  be 
able  to  shake.  O,  that  I  may  follow  him  as  he  has  followed 
Christ!  " 

On  his  voyage  home,  and  just  after  he  landed,  Wesley 
poured  o'ut  his  soul  in  language  which  in  after  years  he 
modified  in  some  of  its  expressions.  He  wrote  in  his  Jour- 
nal:  "I  went  to  America  to  convert  the  Indians,  but,  O! 
who  shall  convert  me?  who,  what  is  he  that  will  deliver  me 
from  this  evil  heart  of  unbelief  ?  I  have  a  fair  summer 
religion  ;  I  can  talk  well,  nay,  and  believe  myself,  while  no 
danger  is  near;  but  let  deatli  look  me  in  the  face,  and  my 
spirit  is  troubled.  Nor  can  I  say,  to  die  is  gain  .  .  .  '  I 
show  my  faith  by  my  works,''  by  staking  my  all  upon  it.  I 
would  do  so  again  and  again  a  thousand  times,  if  the  ehoice 


Gloomy  Pages  from  a  Sea  Journal  257 

were  still  to   make.     Whoever   sees   me  sees  I  would  be  a 
Christian.     .     .     .     But  in  a  storm  I  think,  What  if  the  Gospel 


«•<£*  .  X^=»-?-avC--  G>.  s"2.*-^Sls-  v-i&^^L^  £~f^-e^^^^  j. 


-^-i_e. 


/     */      f  cJ         CS       sS //' 


A    FRAGMENT   OF    ROMANCE. 

Facsimile  of  a  passage  in  Wesley's  MS.  Journal,  in  Georgia,  relating  to  the  engagement 
and  marriage  of  Miss  Sophia  Hopkey. 


be  not  true  ?    .    .    .    O !   who  will  deliver  me   from  this  fear 
of    death?   .    .    .    Where  shall  I  fly  from  it?" 

The  day  that  he  landed  in  England,  February  1, 1738,  there 
was  another  gloomy  entry  in  his  Journal,  but  he  ends  it  with 
his  face  toward  the  light:    "This,  then,  have   I  learned  in 


258  British  Methodism 

the  ends  of  the  earth,  that  I  '  am  fallen  short  of  the  glory  of 
God  ;  '  that  my  whole  heart  is  '  altogether  corrupt  and  abomi- 
nable;' .  .  .  that  my  own  works,  my  own  sufferings,  my  own 
righteousness,  are  so  far  from  reconciling  me  to  an  offended 
God,  .  .  .  that  the  most  specious  of  them  need  an  atonement 
themselves ;  .  .  .  that,  '  having  the  sentence  of  death '  in 
my  heart,  ...  I  have  no  hope  .  .  .  but  that  if  I  seek,  I 
shall  find  Christ,  and  '  be  found  in  him,  not  having  my  own 
righteousness,  but  that  which  is  through  the  faith  of  Christ, 
the  righteousness  which  is  of  God  by  faith.''  "I  want 
.  .  .  that  faith  which  enables  everyone  that  hath  it  to  cry 
out,  '  I  live  not ;  .  .  .  but  Christ  liveth  in  me ;  and  the  life 
which  I  now  live,  I  live  by  faith  in  the  Son  of  God,  who 
loved  me,  and  gave  himself  forme.'  I  want  that  faith  which 
none  can  have  without  knowing  he  hath  it ;  [when]  '  the 
Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with  his  spirit,  that  he  is  a  child 
of  God.'  " 

Many  years  later  when  republishing  his  Journals  he  added 
four  short  notes:  "I,  who  went  to  America  to  convert 
others,  was  never  myself  converted,"  was  one  statement,  and 
on  this  he  remarks,  "  I  am  not  sure  of  this."  "  I  am  a  child 
of  wrath,"  was  his  early  record;  "I  believe  not,"  was  his 
later  note.  And  in  another  note  he  says:  *  "  I  had  even  then 
the  faith  of  a  servant,  though  not  that  of  a  son  " — a  distinction 
upon  which  he  dwells  in  one  of  his  sermons.  In  a  touching 
passage  in  a  letter  to  Bishop  Lavington,  written  in  1752,  he 
says  that  the  passages  in  the  Journal  were  written  "  in  the 
anguish  of  my  heart,  to  which  I  gave  vent  between  God  and 
my  own  soul."  But  the  anguish  was  soon  to  pass  away,  and 
he  was  to  know  the  full  joy  of  sonship  in  the  family  of  God. 

The  mission  to  Georgia  never  fulfilled  the  ideal  of  the 
ardent  young  ritualists  and  mystics  who  were  its  apostles.     It 


Results  of  the  Sojourn  in  Georgia 


259 


was  diverted  from  its  noble  and  romantic  purpose  of  founding 
a  primitive  and  perfect  Church  in  a  new  world  and  among 
unsophisticated  Indians.     But  it  was  not  an  utter  failure.     It 


FROM  A  CONTEMPOR 


OGLETHORPE    IN    OLD    AGE, 


brought  the  missionaries  themselves  priceless  lessons,  which 
they  had  the  grace  and  manliness  to  learn.  It  developed  the 
Moses-like  meekness  which  was  blended  with  strength  in  the 


260  British  Methodism 

character  of  the  coming  leader.  It  drew  Whitefield  across 
the  Atlantic  to  preach  a  Gospel  greater  than  his  later  Calvin  - 
istic  creed.  It  did  much  to  mold  the  men  who  were  to  be  the 
founders  of  a  catholic  missionary  Church.  It  gave  to  the 
hymnology  of  the  great  Revival  "  the  wafture  of  a  world-wide 
wing."  It  prepared  the  way  for  a  theology  radiant  with  the 
light  of  a  new  spiritual  experience,  and  broad  as  the  charity 
of  God. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 
The  Herald  of  the  Coming  Revival 

The  Pembroke  "Sets." —  Wesley  and  Whitefield  Contrasted. — 
"The  Boy  Parson  "  and  His  First  Sermon. — His  Reading. — De- 
cisive Letter  from  John  Wesley. — Titled  Ladies  Attracted 
to  Him. 

WE  left  George  Whitefield  at  Pembroke  College,  Ox- 
ford, in  May,  1735,  writing  of  "joys  like  a  spring- 
tide." Like  the  apostolic  Ambrose,  he  could  say, 
"  The  voice  flowed  into  my  ears;  the  truth  distilled  into  my 
heart;  I  overflowed  with  devout  affections,  and  was  happy." 
Wells,  the  latest  historian  of  the  Oxford  Colleges,  contrasts 
Whitefield  with  another  servitor  of  a  later  date,  John  Moore, 
who  rose  to  be  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  through  the  pat- 
ronage of  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  and  who  won  the  good 
opinion  of  the  duke  by  declining  the  hand  of  the  dowager 
duchess  when  she  offered  it  to  him ! 

A  contemporary  of  Whitefield  and  a  friend  of  the  great 
jurist,  Blackstone,  also  of  Pembroke,  tells  us  of  the  "sets"  in 
his  college  days.  There  was  a  reading  set,  who  met  to  study 
the  less  known  Greek  authors ;  and  a  hard-drinking  set,  who 
consumed  ale  and  tobacco;  and  a  set  of  "bucks  of  the  first 
head,"  who  only  drank  wine  and  punch,  and  so  despised  the 

other  set  "  as  very  low."     And  there  were  the  plain  "  matter- 
17  261 


262  British  Methodism 

of-fact "  men,  who  associated  with  all  and  were  interested  in 
polities.  Shenstone,  who  was  considered  a  poet  in  his  time, 
was  at  Pembroke  with  Whitefield,  and,  as  we  have  noted, 
Samuel  Johnson  was  there  the  year  before.  When  Johnson, 
in  1782,  took  Hannah  More  to  see  his  room  above  the  gate- 
way, and  referred  to  the  poets  who  had  been  of  his  college, 
he  exclaimed,  "In  short,  we  were  a  nest  of  singing-birds." 
Whitefield,  in  1735,  became  a  singing-bird  in  another  and  a 
higher  sense;  psalms  of  praise,  he  tells  us,  burst  from  his 
lips,  and,  although  another  was  to  be  "  the  poet,"  he  was  the 
coming  orator  and  herald  of  the  great  revival. 

In  Whitefield  the  experimental  outran  the  doctrinal ;  in 
the  Wesleys  the  doctrinal  and  experimental  kept  equal  pace. 
As  yet  Whitefield  spoke  of  salvation  as  the  new  birth,  but 
he  did  not  speak  of  it  as  justification  obtained  by  faith.  His 
experience  was  clear  as  a  sunbeam.  Me  had  exercised  the  faith 
that  saves,  but  he  knew  not  how  great  the  salvation  was,  nor 
how  simple  the  means  by  which  he  had  attained  it.  He  had, 
in  fact,  experienced  the  mighty  operation  of  a  faith  he  did 
not  intellectually  comprehend.  The  result  is  seen  in  his 
early  printed  sermons,  and  he  himself  afterward  recognizes 
the  fact.  James  Hutton's  biographer  tells  us  that  he  "said 
little  of  justification  through  the  Saviour,  but  forcibly  in- 
sisted on  the  need  of  being  born  again."  His  first  hearers 
"fasted,  they  wept  and  they  strove,  but  how  salvation  was  to 
be  effected  they  knew  not;"  and  Whitefield  tells  us,  "  I  was 
not  so  clear  in  it  as  afterward."  Thus  the  great  doctrine  of 
Luther  and  the  Reformation  had  yet  to  be  learned  and 
taught.  But  the  glorious  experience  gave  a  burning  glow  to 
Whitefield's  defective  doctrinal  teaching. 

It  would  be  difficult,  in  the  entire  range  of  ecclesiastical 
history,  to  find  two  men  whose  personality  and  training  were 


Wesley  and  Whitefield  Contrasted  263 

more  different  than  those  of  Wesley  and  Whitefield.  Wesley 
was  an  acute  logician,  with  a  mind  clear  and  calm  ;  Whitefield 
was  the  child  of  impulse.  Wesley  was  endowed  by  nature 
with  indomitable  courage;  Whitefield  was  naturally  timid. 
Wesley  had  the  advantage  of  a  home  in  which  there  was  an 
atmosphere  of  piety  and  culture;  Whitefield  was  brought  up 
amid  the  vulgar  bustle  of  a  public  inn.  Wesley  had  a  father 
who  was  a  man  of  letters  and  a  leading  clergyman ;  White- 
field  was  practically  fatherless.  Wesley's  mother  wTas  strong- 
minded,  refined,  and  pious;  Whitefield's  mother,  although 
she  was  affectionate  and  was  treated  with  love  and  respect 
by  her  son,  was  far  inferior  to  Susanna  Wesley.  The 
Wesleys  enjoyed  prolonged  training  at  the  great  endowed 
historic  schools  and  in  the  society  of  the  leaders  of  their 
colleges;  Whitefield's  school  days  were  few,  though  not  un- 
fruitful, nor  was  his  school  a  poor  one,  but  he  exchanged  the 
tapster's  blue  apron  for  the  scarcely  less  menial  badge  of  a 
servitor  at  Pembroke  College,  and,  as  Overton  has  said,  was 
at  once  launched  into  the  sea  of  life,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one, 
with  comparatively  little  intellectual  or  moral  discipline,  and 
suddenly  elevated  to  a  degree  of  notoriety  which  few  have 
attained.  "Scarcely  one  man  in  a  thousand,"  he  says, 
"could  have  passed  through  such  a  transformation  without 
being  spoiled.  But  Whitefield's  was  too  noble  a  nature  to  be 
easily  spoiled.  Nature  had  given  him  a  loving,  generous,  un- 
selfish disposition,  and  divine  grace  had  sanctified  and  ele- 
vated his  naturally  amiable  qualities  and  given  him  others 
which  nature  can  never  bestow.  He  went  forth  into  the 
world  filled  with  one  burning  desire — the  desire  of  doing 
good  to  his  fellow-men  and  of  extending  the  kingdom  of  his 
divine  Master." 

Whitefield  left  Oxford  for  much-needed  rest  and  change  of 


264 


British  Methodism 


air  in  May,  1735,  and  did  not  return  until  March,  1736.  At 
Gloucester  he  gave  himself  to  reading  Alleine,  Baxter,  Bur- 
kitt,  and  especially  Matthew  Henry,  upon  whose  commentary 
he  spent  £7  out  of  a  present    of  £10  from   "  Dear  Squire 

Thorold."  Henry 
proved  a  gold  mine  to 
the  young  preacher. 
He  renewed  his  prison- 
visiting  in  his  own  city, 
and  labored  for  the  con- 
version of  his  relatives. 
The  Bishop  of  Glouces- 
ter, Benson,  was  at- 
tracted by  his  earnest- 
ness, and  by  an  account 
which  Lady  Selwyn 
gave  of  his  work,  and 
sent  for  him.  At  the 
top  of  the  old  palace 
stairs  the  bishop  took 
him  by  the  hand,  and 
offered  to  make  him 
an  exception  to  his  rule 
of  ordaining  no  one 
under  twenty-three. 
Whitefield  was  not  yet 
twenty-two. 

Whitefield  was  eager 
for  the  great  work  of  preaching,  but  he  trembled  at  the 
responsibility.  In  one  of  his  last  sermons  he  told  the  great 
crowd  in  his  London  tabernacle:  "I  remember  once  in 
Gloucester — I    know    the    room — I    look    up  at    the  window 


Vf.   B.   PRICE. 


AFTER  A   PRINT. 


NAVE  OF  GLOUCESTER  CATHEDRAL. 
Where  Whitefield  was  ordained. 


The  Boy  Parson  of  Gloucester  265 

when  I  am  there  and  walk  along  the  street — I  know  the  bed- 
side and  the  floor  upon  which  I  prostrated  myself,  and  cried, 
'  Lord,  I  cannot  go.  I  shall  be  puffed  up  with  pride  and  fall 
into  the  condemnation  of  the  devil.  I  am  unfit  to  preach  in 
thy  great  name.      Send  me  not,  Lord,  send  me  not  yet.' ' 

In  such  a  spirit  Whitefield  was  ordained  in  Gloucester 
Cathedral,  where  the  martyr  John  Hooper  had  been  the 
city's  first  Protestant  prelate.  He  afterward  said:  "I  trust 
I  answered  to  every  question  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart, 
and  heartily  prayed  that  God  might  say,  Amen,  And  when 
the  bishop  laid  his  hands  upon  my  head,  if  my  vile  heart 
doth  not  deceive  me,  I  offered  up  my  whole  spirit,  soul,  and 
body  to  the  service  of  God's  sanctuary." 

Whitefield  preached  his  first  sermon  in  the  Church  of  St. 
Mary  de  Crypt,  where  he  had  been  baptized  and  had  re- 
ceived his  first  Communion.  His  theme  was  "  The  Necessity 
and  Benefits  of  Religious  Society,"  with  the  suggestive  text, 
"  Two  are  better  than  one."  Curiosity  drew  a  large  congre- 
gation together;  for  had  not  "the  boy  parson"  been  the 
orator  of  the  local  school  and  tapster  at  the  Bell  Inn  ? 

"  He  preached  like  a  lion,"  said  one.  The  truth  swept 
over  the  audience  like  a  mighty  tempest,  and  word  went  to 
the  bishop  that  the  preacher  had  driven  fifteen  of  his  hearers 
mad.  The  good  bishop  hoped  the  madness  would  not  pass 
away  before  next  Sunday.  Whitefield,  speaking  of  his  first 
effort,  said:  "  Never  a  poor  creature  set  up  with  so  small  a 
stock.  .  .  .  My  intention  was  to  make  at  least  a  hundred  ser- 
mons with  which  to  begin  the  ministry.  But  this  is  so  far  from 
being  the  case  that  I  have  not  a  single  one  by  me  except  that 
which  I  made  for  a  small  Christian  society,  and  which  I  sent 
to  a  neighboring  clergyman  to  convince  him  how  unfit  I  was 
to  take  upon  me  the  important  work  of  preaching."     This 


266 


British  Methodism 


sermon  the  clergyman  retained  a  fortnight,  and  then  returned 
it  with  a  guinea  for  the  loan,  "  telling  me  he  had  divided  it 
into  two  and  had  preached  it  morning"  and  evening  to   his 


FROM   PHOTO. 

CHURCH    OF   ST.    MARY    DE   CRYPT,    GLOUCESTER. 

II, -ir  I'.'-oi-r  Whii,  fh  Id  w;is  liapti/cil,  and  here  he  preached  his  first  sermon. 

congregation."  The  second  sermon  was  more  wonderful 
than  the  first,  from  the  text,  "If  any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is 
a  new  creature." 


"What  If  Thou  Art  the  Man?"  267 

Ten  days  after  his  ordination,  on  June  30,  he  went  to 
Oxford  and  received  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts.  At  Mr. 
Broughton's  request  he  preached  for  a  short  time  in  the  his- 
toric Chapel  of  St.  Peter  ad  Vincula,  at  the  Tower,  London, 
and  visited  the  barracks.  He  hastened  to  Oxford  and  thence 
to  Dummer,  Hampshire,  the  parish  of  the  Oxford  Methodist 
Kinchin,  where  he  spent  eight  hours  a  day  reading  prayers, 
catechising  children,  visiting  the  poor.  He  was  offered  a 
profitable  London  curacy,  which  he  declined. 

While  he  was  in  the  country  Charles  Wesley  returned 
from  Georgia,  and  later  Whitefield  received  a  letter  from 
John  Wesley  that  made  his  heart  leap  within  him.  "What 
if  thou  art  the  man,  Mr.  Whitefield?  Do  you  ask  me  what 
you  shall  have?  Food  to  eat,  and  raiment  to  put  on ;  a  house 
to  lay  your  head  in,  such  as  your  Lord  had  not;  and  a  crown 
of  glory  that  fadeth  not  away."  Whitefield  offered  himself 
to  the  authorities  of  the  Georgian  Mission,  was  accepted,  and 
spent  the  preparatory  month  ranging  the  country,  preaching 
in  London,  Bristol,  Gloucester,  and  Bath.  Tyerman  regards 
this  in  some  respects  as  the  most  important  period  of  his 
life. 

In  London  he  was  in  great  request  for  charity  sermons, 
and  in  less  than  three  months  he  preached  a  hundred  ser- 
mons and  raised  for  charity  schools  more  than  ,£1,000. 
In  Bristol  the  whole  city  was  aroused  and  the  churches  were 
crowded  even  on  week  days,  while  on  Sunday  mornings  the 
streets  were  thronged  with  people  before  dawn,  lighting  the 
way  by  lanterns,  to  hear  him.  He  seemed  never  to  tire,  often 
preaching  four  times  a  day.  Out  into  the  streets  the  weeping 
people  followed  him,  while  the  sick  and  poor  sent  messages 
that  kept  him  from  morning  until  midnight  comforting  and 
consoling  them.     When  he  assisted  at  the  Eucharist  the  con- 


268  British  Methodism 

secration  of  the  elements  had  to  be  repeated  two  or  three 
times.  "I  was  constrained,"  wrote  Whiteiield,  "to  go  from 
place  to  place  in  a  coach  to  avoid  the  hosannas  of  the  multi- 
tude. They  grew  quite  extravagant  in  the  applause,  and 
had  it  not  been  for  my  compassionate  High  Priest,  popularity 
would  have  destroyed  me.  I  used  to  plead  with  him  to  take 
me  by  the  hand  and  lead  me  through  this  fiery  furnace.  He 
heard  my  request,  and  gave  me  to  see  the  vanity  of  all  com- 
mendations but  his  own." 

Whitefield's  first  printed  sermon  was  issued  in  July,  1737. 
It  had  been  preached  in  the  fine  old  Church  of  St.  Mary 
Redcliffe,  Bristol,  and  was  on  "The  Nature  and  Necessity  of 
Our  New  Birth  in  Christ  Jesus  in  Order  to  Salvation."  The 
sermon,  as  printed,  is  not  remarkable  for  eloquence  or 
thought;  it  is  plain,  earnest,  practical.  The  first  sermon 
which  John  Wesley  preached  after  his  evangelical  conver- 
sion was  on  "Justification  by  Faith."  The  two  great  doctrines 
combined  were  the  master  truths  of  the  Methodist  revival. 
At  St.  Stephen's  Church,  Bristol,  Whitefield  says,  "  The  doc- 
trine of  the  new  birth  and  justification  by  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ  (though  I  was  not  so  clear  in  it  as  afterward)  made  its 
way  like  lightning  into  the  hearers'  consciences." 

At  Bath,  where  he  preached  many  times  in  the  Abbey 
Church,  "some  elect  ladies  wrere  stirred  to  give  £160  for  the 
poor  of  Georgia."  Bath  was  now  the  most  fashionable  resort 
in  England,  and  the  notorious  "  Beau  Nash  "  was  at  the  head 
of  its  brilliant  society.  The  eleet  ladies  probably  included 
the  witty  and  eccentric  Lady  Townsend,  the  first  titled  lady 
who  extolled  Whitefield's  preaching,  and  in  a  few  years  he 
was  to  number  among  his  hearers  the  Countess  of  Hunting- 
don, LadyCobham,  the  Duchesses  of  Ancaster,  Buckingham, 
(Jueensberry,  and   many   others.      All   classes,   for  the  first 


A  Mighty  Preacher  269 

time,  now  heard  from  a  tongue  of  fire  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 
The  mighty  doctrines  of  justification  and  regeneration  leaped 
forth  in  living  power.  Heaven  and  hell  were  realities  in 
awful  contrast.  Of  course  the  people  were  moved.  They 
felt  that  Whitefield  was  one  of  them.  His  illustrations, 
drawn  from  common  life  and  spiced  with  humor,  deepened 
the  popular  interest.  "Even  the  little  improprieties,"  re- 
marked Wesley,  ' '  both  of  his  language  and  manner,  were 
the  means  of  profiting  many  who  would  not  have  been  touched 
by  a  more  correct  discourse  or  a  more  calm  and  regular  man- 
ner of  preaching." 

To  all  must  be  added  the  power  arising  out  of  the  divine 
transformation  of  the  man  and  the  eloquence  of  the  Spirit. 
The  God  before  whom  he  stood  was  to  him  so  glorious  in 
majesty  that  Whitefield  would  throw  himself  prostrate  on  the 
ground  and  offer  his  soul  as  a  blank  for  the  divine  hand  to 
write  on  it  what  he  pleased.  Mabie  says  that  when  Corot  in 
his  peasant  blouse  went  out  into  the  fields  at  four  o'clock 
with  his  easel  before  him,  and  studied  the  daybreak,  "the 
day  broke  for  him  as  if  it  had  never  come  out  of  the  sky  be- 
fore;  as  if  he  were  the  first  man  seeing  the  first  day."  So  to 
Whitefield  every  day  seemed  the  first  day  on  which  God  had 
sent  the  Gospel  to  men  and  commissioned  him  to  put  the 
vital  truth  on  the  tablets  of  the  heart. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

Whitefield's  First  Visit  to  America 

Whitefield  Crowds  the  Churches. — And  is  Himself  Crowded 
Out.— Voyage  lo  S  wannah. — Tomo-chi-chi.— The  Orphanage. — 
His  Early  Preaching. 

AT  first  many  of  the  clergy  were  Whitefield's  hearers 
and  admirers,  but  some  soon  grew  angry,  and  com- 
plaints were  made  that  the  parishioners  of  the  churches 
were  crowded  out  and  the  pews  were  spoiled !  A  report  was 
spread  that  the  Bishop  of  London  intended  to  silence  him,  but 
Whitefield  waited  on  the  bishop  and  found  the  report  untrue. 
But  the  clergy  were  most  irritated  because  of  his  friendship 
with  the  Dissenters,  for  which  one  irate  parson  called  him  a 
"pragmatical  rascal."  A  caricaturist  mischievously  repre- 
sented him  leaning  on  a  cushion  with  a  bishop  looking  envi- 
ously over  his  shoulder.  At  the  bottom  were  six  lines  in 
which  the  bishops  were  styled  "  mitered  drones." 

The  papers  stated  that  Whitefield  had  sat  for  this  portrait ; 
but  he  indignantly  repudiated  all  knowledge  of  the  matter, 
and  denied  that  he  had  ever  so  denominated  the  bishops.  His 
friends  urged  him  to  sit  for  his  picture  in  his  own  defense, 
and  to  this  his  aged  mother  added  her  entreaty  that,  if  he 
would  not  let  her  have  the  substance,  he  would  at  least  leave 

her  the  shadow. 

270 


Whitefield' s  Personal  Appearance  271 

Our  portrait  represents  him  two  years  later.  He  was  a  little 
above  middle  stature,  well  proportioned,  and  at  that  time 
slender,  his  eyes  "small  and  lively,  of  a  dark  blue  color;" 
a  slight  squint  in  one  of  them,  greatly  exaggerated  in  the 
caricatures,  did  not  affect  his  general  facial  expression.      His 


■ 


AFTER  AN  ENGRAVING  BY  COCHRAN. 

REV.    GEORGE   WHITEFIELD. 
At  the  age  of  twenty-four. 


voice  excelled  in  melody  and  compass,  and  its  fine  modula- 
tions were  accompanied  by  remarkable  grace  of  action. 
"During  the  months  of  his  first  popularity,"  says  the  philo- 
sophic Isaac  Taylor,  "the  church  walls  rocked  wherever  he 
had  been  announced,  and  the  crowd  that  gathered  round  him, 
instead  of  spending  their  feelings  in  terms  of  heartless  admi- 
ration, wept,  each  for  himself,  as  the  preacher  passed  from 


272  British  Methodism 

their  sight.  This  popularity,  of  which  there  had  been  no 
example  in  the  Church  (or  out  of  it),  occurred  in  good  time  to 
allow  him  to  reconsider  his  purpose  of  going  to  Georgia  as  a 
missionary.  .  .  .  But  to  his  missionary  purpose  he  did  ad- 
here ...  he  went  whither  he  was  carried  by  the  one  motive 
that  ruled  his  life.  So  far  as  this  sovereign  motive  mingled 
with  any  other,  that  other  was  a  pure  and  warm  benevolence. 
The  Orphan  House,  with  the  racking  anxieties  that  attached 
to  it  and  the  perplexities  it  involved  him  in,  gave  evidence 
of  the  simplicity  and  unworldliness  of  his  mind.  This 
scheme,  whether  prudently  devised  or  not,  was  the  scheme 
of  a  youth — let  it  not  be  forgotten — who  had  already  dis- 
covered the  secret  of  his  possessing  unmatched  powers  of 
oratory." 

On  the  day  before  he  left  London  for  Savannah  White- 
field  preached  to  a  vast  crowd  in  the  Church  of  St.  Helen's, 
Bishopsgate,  on  the  text,  "  Brethren,  pray  for  us."  Ogle- 
thorpe had  returned  from  Georgia,  and  had  applied  for 
troops  for  the  defense  of  the  colony  from  the  Spaniards. 
Whitefield  embarked  in  December,  with  the  soldiers,  but  five 
weeks  passed  before  they  left  the  English  coast.  He  preached 
at  Gravesend,  from  whence  the  ship  set  sail,  and  again  at 
Deal,  where  three  weeks  more  were  spent  in  visiting  the 
transport  ships.  On  shore  "all  Deal,"  said  Whitefield, 
"seems  to  be  in  a  holy  flame."  At  the  church  the  people 
stood  on  the  adjoining  roofs  to  listen,  and  looked  in  at  the 
top  windows,  and  as  he  left  next  day  they  were  "running  in 
droves"  to  the  shore.  "The  sea  was  boisterous  and  the 
waves  rose  mountains  high,"  but  in  the  boat  the  fervent 
preacher  and  his  friends  "  went  on  singing  psalms  and  prais- 
ing God,  the  water  dashing  in  their  faees  all  the  way."  The 
ship  was  a  gambling  house  when  he  went  on  board,  but  be- 


"The  New  Lights"   of  Gibraltar 


273 


came  as  orderly  as  a  church,  so  that  the  very  soldiers  stood 
out  before  him  to  say  their  catechism  like  children. 

At  Gibraltar  he  began  the  work  of  Methodism  in  the  army. 
The  Protestant  ministers  and  the  governor  received  him  with 
great  kindness.       At  one  of  the  many  services  a  hearer  was 

4 


s  Blf  @h 

fi  Pi 


':^*TTX 


sun 


BY    J.     D.     WOODWARD. 


AFTER    A    WOOD    ENGRAVING. 


ST.    HELEN  S,    BISHOPSGATE. 
In  this  church  Whitefield  preached  his  last  sermon  before  sailing  for  America. 

so  affected  that  he  wished  himself  "  a  despised  Methodist." 
Great  congregations  assembled  in  the  fortress,  and  he  found 
some  devout  soldiers  gathered  for  prayer,  "  with  whom,"  says 
Whitefield,  "  my  soul  was  knit  immediately."  He  was  told 
that  the  pious  soldiers  used  to  meet  in  dens  and  caves  in  the 
rocks,  and  were  now  in  derision  called  "the  New  Lights." 
"A  glorious  light  they  are  indeed,"  he  writes;  "and  they 
made  me  quite  ashamed  of  my  little  proficiency  in  the  school 


274  British  Methodism 

of  Christ."  When  he  left  Gibraltar  nearly  two  hundred  sol- 
diers, women,  and  officers  accompanied  him  to  the  shore, 
sorrowing  at  his  departure,  and  wishing  him  "  good  luck  " 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord. 

The  Whitaker  cast  anchor  at  the  mouth  of  the  Savannah 
on  May  7,  1738,  and  after  a  manly  address  to  the  soldiers 
and  crew  Whitefield  landed  for  the  first  time  on  the  Ameri- 
can continent.  He  found  Charles  Delamotte  still  at  work  in 
the  day  and  Sunday  schools  established  by  John  Wesley. 
The  Indian  chief,  Tomo-chi-chi,  had  not  yet  declared  himself 
a  Christian.  He  had  significantly  said  to  Wesley:  "  Why, 
there  are  Christians  at  Savannah!  There  are  Christians 
at  Frederica!  Christians  get  drunk!  Christians  beat  men! 
Christians  tell  lies!  Me  no  Christian!"  Whitefield  visited 
him  and  found  him  dangerously  ill,  "on  a  blanket,  thin  and 
meager — little  else  but  skin  and  bones."  His  wife,  Senauki, 
sat  by  him,  fanning  him  with  eagle  feathers.  The  old  chief 
told  Whitefield  that  he  expected  to  go  to  heaven.  But  he 
partially  recovered  and  went  to  meet  Oglethorpe  a  few 
months  afterward,  declaring  that  the  coming  of  "the  great 
man,"  as  he  called  the  governor,  quite  restored  him  and 
made  him  "  moult  like  the  eagle."  He  died  next  year,  nearly 
a  hundred  years  old,  and  was  buried  with  military  honors, 
the  general  and  others  bearing  the  pall. 

Whitefield  tells  us  that  "  America  is  not  so  horrid  a  place 
as  it  is  represented  to  be ;  the  heat  of  the  weather,  lying  on 
the  ground,  and  the  like,  are  mere  painted  lions  in  the  way;" 
and  in  the  same  letter  he  writes,  "  What  I  have  most  at  heart 
is  the  building  of  an  orphan  house."  This  had  been  sug- 
gested to  him  by  Charles  Wesley,  who  had  prepared  a  plan. 
lie  established  little  schools  in  the  surrounding  hamlets,  and 
often  visited  Bolzius,   the  Lutheran  minister  whom  Wesley 


Whitefield  Returns  to  England.  275 

had  repelled  from  the  Lord's  table.  Wherever  Whitefield 
preached  he  was  listened  to  as  if  he  had  been  an  angel  from 
heaven. 

He  found  some  of  the  colonists  dissatisfied  with  Ogle- 
thorpe's prohibition  of  ardent  spirits  and  slavery.  "  Slavery," 
said  Oglethorpe,  "  is  against  the  Gospel  as  well  as  against  the 
fundamental  law  of  England  ;  the  colony  is  an  asylum  for  the 
distressed,  and  it  is  necessary,  therefore,  not  to  permit  slaves 
in  such  a  country,  for  slaves  starve  the  poor  laborer."  It 
seems  curious,  to-day,  to  find  Whitefield  sympathizing  with 
the  malcontent  colonists,  and  writing,  "  The  scheme  was  well 
meant  at  home,  but  was  utterly  impracticable  in  so  hot  a 
country  abroad." 

After  four  months  at  Savannah  Whitefield  returned  to 
England  to  secure  funds  for  his  orphanage  and  to  be  or- 
dained priest.  After  a  nine  weeks'  voyage,  during  which 
provisions  ran  short,  and  the  ship's  company  were  in  a  pitia- 
ble plight,  they  reached  Ireland  in  November,  1738,  with 
"only  half  a  pint  of  water  left."  On  reaching  London 
Whitefield  found  most  of  the  churches  closed  against  him, 
but  he  preached  again  in  St.  Helen's,  where  B  rough  ton,  the 
Oxford  Methodist,  was  lecturer.  He  found  that  many  who 
had  been  awakened  by  his  preaching  twelve  months  before 
were  now  "grown  strong  men  in  Christ  by  the  ministry  of 
his  dear  friends  John  and  Charles  Wesley,"  and  in  his  Jour- 
nal he  significantly  adds :  "I  found  the  old  doctrine  of  justi- 
fication by  faith,  only  much  revived.  Many  letters  had  been 
sent  to  me  concerning  it,  all  of  which  I  providentially  missed 
receiving,  for  now  I  came  unprejudiced,  and  can  the  more 
easily  see  who  is  right.  And  who  dare  assert  that  we  are  not 
justified  in  the  sight  of  God  merely  by  an  act  of  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ  without  regard  to  works,  past,  present,  or  to  come?" 


276  British  Methodism 

This  was  a  doctrine  which  he  had  as  yet  preached  very  in- 
distinctly. His  letter  to  the  people  of  Savannah,  written  on 
shipboard,  shows  how  defective  his  teaching  had  been. 
While  he  admits  that  "  the  author  of  this  blessed  change  is 
the  Holy  Ghost,"  he  specifies  as  the  means  to  attain  this  Holy 
Spirit — i.  Self-denial;  2.  Public  worship;  3.  Reading  the 
Scriptures ;  4.  Secret  prayer ;  5.  Self-examination;  6.  Re- 
ceiving the  sacrament.  Not  a  word  said  about  iaith !  In 
this  the  Wesleys  take  the  lead,  and  Whitefield  follows.  It 
was  the  doctrine  that  was  to  create  the  Methodism  of  1739. 
It  was  to  transform  the  tearful  sympathy  of  convicted  audi- 
ences into  the  glad  triumph  of  the  sons  of  God.  On  his 
return  to  England  he  found,  to  his  surprise,  the  Wesleys 
preaching  it,  and  he  soon  did  the  same. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

Light  from  the  Land  of  Hus  and  Luther 

The    Hussite    Heroes. — The    Moravian    Pilgrims. — A    Carpenter 
and  a  Count.— The  Lord's  Watch. 

IN  an  old  Hussite  hymn  book  in  the  university  library  of 
Prague  there  are  three  most  suggestive  illuminations.  In 
one  John  Wyclif  is  striking  sparks  from  a  stone ;  in  the 
second  John  Hus  is  kindling  coals  with  the  sparks;  in  the 
third  Martin  Luther  is  brandishing  a  flaming  torch.  Thus 
does  the  old  scribe  picture  the  true  relation  of  the  English, 
Bohemian,  and  German  reformations.  It  is  true  that  Hus 
found  his  fire  in  Wyclif's  teaching.  Between  Hus  and 
Luther  the  connection  was  not  so  direct,  but  when  Luther 
read  Hus's  treatise  on  the  Church  he  exclaimed,  "  We  have 
all  been  Hussites  without  knowing  it." 

Let  us  now  trace  the  connection  between  these  three  great 
reformers  and  Wesley.  We  shall  see  that  the  leaders  of  the 
great  religious  movement  of  the  eighteenth  century  in  Eng- 
land owed  much  to  the  spiritual  descendants  of  Hus  and  the 
commentaries  of  Luther. 

More  than  three  hundred  years  had  passed  since  John  Hus 
and  Jerome  of  Prague  had  been  treacherously  martyred  at 
the  Council  of  Constance — the  sapient  council  which  wreaked 


18 


77 


278  British  Methodism 

its  puny  vengeance  upon  Wyclif's  bones.  The  Bohemian 
peasantry  drew  their  swords  to  avenge  their  heroes'  death 
and  win  religious  freedom.  The  blind  Count  Ziska  led  his 
men  to  battle  to  the  sound  of  psalms,  won  victory  after  vic- 
tory, and  with  his  dying  breath  ordered  that  a  drum  should 
be  made  of  his  skin  that  the  sound  of  it  might  put  the  foe  to 
flight. 

But  disasters  followed,  prisons  were  filled  with  Hussites, 
and  the  Bohemian  people  bent  once  more  beneath  the  yoke 
of  Rome.  Then  Peter  of  Chelcic  took  up  the  pen,  and  having 
studied  the  writings  of  Wyclif  and  Hus,  proclaimed  the 
vSermon  on  the  Mount  to  be  the  true  law  of  life,  and  bade  his 
comrades  sheath  the  sword  forever.  The  scattered  Waldenses 
gathered  round  him,  and  gradually  and  quietly,  in  some  way 
that  no  records  tell,  were  laid  the  foundations  of  what  became 
the  Church  of  the  Unitas  Fratrum,  or  the  United  Brethren. 
In  1467  the  last  chains  that  bound  them  to  Rome  were 
snapped:  Bishop  Stephen,  a  Waldensian,  consecrated  one  of 
their  number,  Michael,  a  bishop. 

From  that  day  to  this,  says  Hutton,  the  latest  of  their  his- 
torians, the  Brethren  have  valued  the  Episcopal  ordination  as 
thus  obtained,  although  they  do  not  regard  it  as  essential  to 
the  existence  or  validity  of  their  Church.  Under  Luke  of 
Prague  their  doctrines  were  finally  purged  from  Romanism, 
and  in  1495  the  Brethren's  Church  became  the  first  free 
evangelical  Church  in  Europe. 

The  persecuting  fires  were  rekindled  by  the  pope,  but 
twenty  years  later  reports  were  wafted  southward  across 
the  Riesengebirge,  or  the  Giant  Mountains,  of  Martin  Luther's 
protest  at  Wittenberg.  The  Brethren  hailed  him  as  a  cham- 
pion .sent  by  God.  Through  all  the  horrors  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War  "a  hidden  seed"  was  preserved.     The  ancient 


THE    FATHERS    OF   THE    PROTESTANT    REFORMATION. 

MARTIN  LUTHER. 
JEROME  OF  PRAGUE.  JOHN  HUS. 


"The  Watch  of  the  Lord"  281 

Church  was  scattered,  but  it  gave  to  Europe  its  greatest  edu- 
cator, John  Amos  Comenius.  Early  in  the  eighteenth  century- 
Christian  David,  a  carpenter,  became  known  as  "the  Bush 
Preacher"  of  Moravia,  the  old  Brethren's  hymns  were  sung 
again  by  shepherds  on  the  mountains — and  again  the  old  iron 
foot  of  the  persecutor  came  stamping  down.  Some  were 
loaded  with  chains,  some  were  imprisoned,  some  were 
yoked  to  the  plow  and  made  to  work  like  horses,  and  some 
were  made  to  stand  in  wells  of  water  until  nearly  chilled  to 
death . 

Late  one  night  in  1722  Christian  David  led  a  little  band 
northward  across  the  mountains,  and  after  a  long  and  weary 
march  they  found  a  resting  place  about  a  mile  from  Berthols- 
dorf ,  in  Lusatia,  on  the  estate  of  the  young  Count  Zinzendorf. 
At  the  top  of  a  gentle  slope,  up  which  a  long  avenue  now 
leads,  was  a  wild,  uncultivated  spot  called  the  Watch  Hill, 
and  here,  by  permission  of  the  good  count's  steward,  the  pil- 
grims encamped.  "  It  shall  be  the  Watch  of  the  Lord,"  they 
said,  and  Lord's  Watch,  or  Herrnhut,  it  has  remained  to  this 
day.  Christian  David  seized  his  ax  and  struck  it  into  a 
tree,  exclaiming,  "The  sparrow  here  hath  found  a  house, 
and  the  swallow  a  nest  for  herself,  even  thine  altars,  O  Lord 
of  hosts."  Boggy  and  bramble-grown,  as  the  place  was, 
they  accepted  it  as  the  gift  of  the  Lord,  and  made  it  the  site 
of  their  settlement. 

Others  came — descendants  of  the  ancient  Church — and 
romantic  were  the  tales  they  told.  David  Nitschmann  had 
found  his  prison  door  open  at  dead  of  night.  David  Heickel 
slipped  out  of  his  cell  while  the  faces  of  his  guards  were 
turned.  Hans  Nitschmann,  lying  concealed  in  a  ditch,  heard 
his  pursuers  say,  only  a  foot  away,  "  This  is  the  place  where 
he  must  be,"  and  yet  he  remained  undiscovered.      They  left 


282  British  Methodism 

all  their  goods  behind  them,  and  came  singing'  the  "  Mora- 
vian Emigrant's  Song:" 

Blessed  be  the  day  when  I  must  roam 
Far  from  my  country,  friends,  and  home, 

An  exile  poor  and  mean  ; 
My  father's  God  will  be  my  guide, 
Will  angel  guards  for  me  provide, 

My  soul  in  dangers  screen. 
Himself  will  lead  me  to  a  spot 
Where,  all  my  cares  and  grief  forgot, 

I  shall  enjoy  sweet  rest. 
As  pants  for  cooling  streams  the  hart, 
I  languish  for  my  heavenly  part — 

For  God,  my  refuge  blest. 

Count  Zinzendorf's  ruined  castle  may  be  seen  to-day  in 
Upper  Lusatia,  where  he  was  born  in  1700.  As  a  child  of 
four  years  he  loved  and  trusted  Christ.  The  window  is  shown 
from  which  he  threw  letters  addressed  to  Jesus  Christ,  noth- 
ing doubting  that  he  would  receive  them.  When  the  rude 
soldiers  of  Charles  XII  of  Sweden  suddenly  burst  into  his 
room  and  heard  the  child  engaged  in  prayer  they  were  so 
awestruck  that  they  left  the  place  in  haste.  As  a  boy  he 
came  under  the  influence  of  Pietism — the  great  religious 
movement  inaugurated  by  Spener.  At  Professor  Franeke's 
table  at  Halle  his  eyes  sparkled  at  the  stories  of  weather- 
beaten  missionaries.  As  Spener  had  founded  churches  within 
the  Church — ecclesiolcs  in  ecclesia — for  men  and  women,  so 
Zinzendorf  now  founded  a  Church  within  the  Church  for  boys. 
He  called  his  little  society  "  the  Order  of  the  Grain  of  Mus- 
tard Seed."  The  boys  were  bound  to  comradeship  by  a 
threefold  promise:  (1)  To  be  kind  to  all  men  ;  (2)  to  be  true 
to  Christ;   (3)  to  send  the  Gospel  to  the  heathen. 

In  later  years  such  notable  men  as  Archbishop  Potter, 
Bishop  Wilson  of  Sodor  and  Man,  and  General  Oglethorpe 


Links  with  the  Moravians  283 

were  enrolled  as  members.  When  Zinzendorf  left  school  for 
the  University  of  Wittenberg  Francke  well  said,  "  This  youth 
will  some  day  be  a  great  light  in  the  world."  He  became  the 
renewer  of  the  Brethren's  Church,  the  leader  of  the  new 
Moravian  mission  to  mankind. 

We  have  seen  how  deeply  the  Wesleys  were  impressed  by 
the  tranquil  courage  of  the  Moravians  who  sang  in  the  Atlantic 
tempest.  We  have  recorded  the  conversation  with  Spangen- 
berg,  whom  John  Wesley  met  when  he  landed  in  America. 
Charles  Wesley,  on  his  return  from  Georgia,  met  Count 
Zinzendorf,  conversed  with  him,  and  attended  one  of  the 
Moravian  meetings,  "  where,"  he  says,  "  I  thought  myself  in 
a  choir  of  angels."  A  year  later  the  Wesley  brothers  formed 
their  memorable  friendship  with  Peter  Bohler. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 


Peter  Bohler  and  the  Wesleys 


A  German  Bishop. — Learning  English  and  Teaching  Faith. — A 
Lesson  on  a  Sick-Bed. — Salvation  by  Faith. — Formal  and  Free 
Prayer.— Wesley's  Penitential  Hymn. 

PETER  BOHLER  had  found  peace  with  God  when  he 
was  at  the  University  of  Jena.  He  had  passed  through 
much  mental  anguish  when  his  attention  was  arrested 
by  a  sentence  of  Professor  Spangenberg's  expressive  of  the 
Saviour's  power  to  free  from  sin.  "  I  have  tried  everything 
in  the  world  except  this,"  he  exclaimed,  "but  this  I  will 
try;"  and  within  a  few  days  rest  came  to  him  in  private 
prayer.  He  was  ordained  a  bishop;  not  bishop  of  a  diocese, 
but,  as  Coke  used  to  say,  "  bishop  in  the  Church  of  God;" 
and  Hook  has  pointed  out,  "  Such  as  are  the  bishops  of  the 
Methodist  Ejoiscopal  Church  to  this  day."  He  was  twenty- 
five  years  old  when  he  came  to  England ;  ten  years  younger 
than  John  Wesley,  who  found  him  lodgings  at  Westminster. 
The  Wesley  brothers  traveled  with  him  to  Oxford.  John, 
conversing  earnestly  on  the  way,  was  sorely  puzzled  when 
Bohler  said,  "My  brother,  my  brother,  that  philosophy  of 
yours  must  be  purged  away."     Bohler  wrote  to  Zinzendorf : 

I  traveled  with  the  two  brothers,  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  from  London  to 
( >.\lonl.     The  elder,  John,  is  a  good-natured  man  ;   he  knew  he  did  not  properly 

284 


Bohler  to  Count  Zinzendorf 


285 


believe  on  the  Saviour,  and  was  willing  to  be  taught.  His  brother,  with  whom 
you  often  conversed  a  year  ago,  is  at  present  very  much  distressed  in  his  mind, 
but  does  not  know  how  he  shall  begin  to  be  acquainted  with  the  Saviour.  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 


PETER    BOHLER. 
Born  December  31,  1712,  died  April  27,  1775. 


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  believe  already,  and  try  to  prove  their  faith 
by  their  works,  and  thus  so  plague  and  torment  themselves  that  they  are  at 
heart  very  miserable. 


286  British  Methodism 

At  Oxford  Castle  we  find  John  Wesley  again  preaching. 
Then  he  returned  to  London,  and  gave  great  offense  by  his 
faithful  sermons  at  St.  Lawrence's  and  elsewhere.  Then  he 
visited  his  mother  at  Salisbury,  and  was  preparing  to  visit  his 
brother  Samuel  at  Tiverton  Grammar  School  when  he  heard 
that  his  brother  Charles  was  dying  at  Oxford.  He  hastened 
thither,  and  to  his  relief  found  his  brother  better,  and  by  his 
bedside  he  again  found  the  devout  Moravian. 

Bohler  had  put  himself  under  Charles  Wesley's  care  to 
learn  English.  The  pupil  taught  his  teacher  a  yet  nobler 
lesson.  When  he  seemed  on  the  point  of  death  Bohler  asked 
him,  "  Do  you  hope  to  be  saved  ?  "  Charles  answered,  "  Yes." 
"  For  what  reason  do  you  hope  it?  "  "  Because  I  have  used 
my  best  endeavors  to  serve  God."  Bohler  shook  his  head  and 
said  no  more.  "I  thought  him  very  uncharitable,"  wrote 
Charles  at  a  later  day,  "  saying  in  my  heart,  Would  he  rob 
me  of  my  endeavors?  I  have  nothing  else  to  trust  to."  The 
.sad,  silent,  significant  shake  of  Peter  Bohler's  head  shattered 
all  Charles  Wesley's  false  foundation  of  salvation  by  en- 
deavors. 

On  Sunday,  March  5,  1738,  John  Wesley  wrote:  "I  was, 
in  the  hand  of  the  great  God,  clearly  convinced  of  unbelief,  of 
the  want  of  that  faith  whereby  alone  we  are  saved."  In  later 
years  he  adds,  in  parenthesis,  "(With  the  full  Christian  sal- 
vation.)" To  the  question  whether  he  should  cease  preaching 
his  friend  replied,  "By  no  means."  "But  what  can  I 
preach?"  asked  Wesley.  "Preach  faith  till  you  have  it, 
and  then  because  you  have  it  you  will  preach  faith."  And 
so  on  Monday  morning  he  offered  salvation  by  faith  to  a  man 
under  sentence  of  death  in  Oxford  Castle.  He  went  with  the 
Methodist,  Dean  Kinchin  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  to 
Manchester,   exhorting  wayside  travelers  and  inn  servants, 


Wesley  Breaks  a  Bar  289 

and  praying  with  a  good  Quaker.  Back  they  came  to  Oxford, 
where  Wesley  read  the  Greek  Testament  again  with  critical 
care  to  test  Bohler's  teaching  on  living  faith.  He  was  deeply 
moved  when  the  condemned  man  he  again  visited  rose  from 
prayer  exclaiming  eagerly,  "  I  am  now  ready  to  die.  I 
know  Christ  has  taken  away  my  sins,  and  there  is  no  more 
condemnation  for  me."     wSo  he  died  in  peace. 

On  the  Saturday  after  this  affecting  scene  Wesley  took  a 
step  of  no  little  importance  in  the  history  of  Methodist  wor- 
ship. He  writes  in  his  Journal  of  April  i  :  "  Being  in  Mr. 
Fox's  society,  my  heart  was  so  full  that  I  could  not  confine 
myself  to  the  forms  of  prayer  which  we  were  accustomed  to 
use  there.  Neither  do  I  purpose  to  be  confined  to  them  any 
more,  but  to  pray  indifferently,  with  a  form  or  without,  as  I 
may  find  suitable  to  particular  occasions." 

Rigg  has  well  observed  how  strikingly  this  illustrates  the 
main  principle  of  Wesley's  ecclesiastical  course,  of  using 
whatever  methods  clearly  promised  to  do  the  most  good.  He 
enters  into  no  abstract  controversy  as  to  praying  with  or  with- 
out forms.  Probably  his  experiences  in  America,  where  he 
heard  the  Presbyterian  minister  pray,  and  yet  more  his 
intercourse  with  the  Moravians,  had  helped  to  loosen  the 
bonds  of  servile  ecclesiasticism  in  this  respect.  He  never 
condemned  forms  of  prayer,  which  would  have  precluded 
not  only  the  liturgy  but  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  many  hymns, 
but  he  found  free  prayer  rich  in  blessing,  and  henceforth  he 
held  himself  at  liberty,  according  to  occasion,  to  pray  with- 
out forms.  "The  ritualist  was  already  greatly  changed. 
Already  the  manacles  had  dissolved  from  the  hands  of 
devotion  ;  soon  the  fetters  would  be  broken  which  bound  his 
feet  from  running  in  the  evangelical  way." 

On  the  following  Easter  Sunday  morning,  after  thus  com- 


290 


British  Methodism 


mencing  the  use  of  extempore  prayer  in  social  worship, 
he  preached  "in  our  college  chapel"  of  Lincoln,  and 
closed  the  day  with  the  entry,  "I  see  the  promise;  but  it 
is  far  off." 

Again  Bohler  came  to  his  help  by  bringing  together  some 
friends  to  relate  their  experience  in  his  hearing.      As  they 


FROM    THE    COPPERPLATE     By    GRE1G. 


ST.    LAWRENCE'S   CHURCH,    KING   STREET,    LONDON. 

May  7,  1738. — I  preached  at  St.  Lawrence's.  ...  I  was  enabled  to  speak  strong  words,  and  was  therefore 
the  less  surprised  at  being  informed  that  I  was  to  preach  no  more  here." — Wesley's  Journal. 


testified  with  clearness  and  fervor  to  the  joy  of  faith,  John 
Wesley  and  his  companions  were  "  as  if  thunderstruck." 
Then  an  old  Moravian  hymn  was  sung  which  has  not  yet 
found  a  place  in  the  biographies  of  Wesley.  In  1868  Hoole 
wrote  that  it  was  not  to  be  found  in  any  Moravian  hymn  book 
later  than  1754.  It  was  sung  by  Wesley  with  penitential 
feeling  and  with  tears.  We  give  it  in  the  (English)  Mora- 
vian version  : 


"My  Soul  Before  Thee  Prostrate  Lies" 
Second  German  Tune.     Vol.  1       Page  94. ' 

My    Sou)     be — fore    thee     proflrate     lies, 

ppigpif! 

To    thee     her     Source    my    Spi— rii     flies. 
My  Wants    I    mourn,    tny    Chains    I     fee. 


291 


*p- 


O     let    thy        Pre-fenee     fei      me    free! 


REPRODUCED    FROM    WESLEY'S    TUNE  BOOK.     i  74 

THE   TUNE    SUNG    BY   JOHN    WESLEY    AT    THE 

MORAVIAN    MEETING   DESCRIBED 

BY    PETER    BOHLER. 


Hier  Legt  Mein  Sinn  Sich  vor  dir  Nieder. 

["  My  Sou!  Before  Thee  Prostrate  Lies."] 

i   My  soul  before  thee  prostrate  lies. 
To  thee,  her  Source,  my  spirit  flies  ; 
O  let  thy  cheering  countenance  shine 
On  this  poor  mournful  heart  of  mine. 

2  From  feeling  misery's  depth  1  cry, 
In  thy  death,  Saviour,  let  me  die. 
May  self  in  thy  excessive  pain 

Be  swallowed  up,  nor  rise  again. 

3  Jesu !  vouchsafe  my  heart  and  will 
With  thy  meek  lowliness  to  fill. 
Break  nature's  bonds,  and  let  me  see 
That  whom  thou  free'st  indeed  is  free. 


292  British  Methodism 

4  My  heart  in  thee,  and  in  thy  ways, 
Delights,  yet  from  thy  presence  strays; 
My  mind  must  deeper  sink  in  thee  ; 

My  foot  stand  firm,  from  wandering  free. 

5  I  know  that  nought  we  have  avails. 
Here  all  our  strength  and  wisdom  tails: 
Whp  bids  a  sinful  heart  be  clean  ? 
Thou  only,  thou,  supreme  of  men  ! 

6  Lord,  well  I  know  thy  tender  love, 
Thou  never  didst  unfaithful  prove; 
I  surely  know  thou  stand'st  by  me, 
Pleased  from  myself  to  set  me  free. 

7  Still  will  f  long  and  wait  for  thee 
Till  in  thy  light  the  light  I  see  ; 
Till  thou  in  thy  good  time  appear, 
And  sav'st  my  soul  from  every  snare. 

8  All  my  own  schemes  and  self-design 
I  to  thy  better  will  resign  ; 
Impress  this  deeply  on  my  breast, 
That  I'm  in  thee  already  blest. 

9  When  my  desires  I  fix  on  thee, 
And  plunge  me  in  thy  mercy's  sea, 
Thy  smiling  face  my  heart  perceives, 
Sweetly  refresh'd,  in  safety  lives ; 

io  So  even  in  storms  I  thee  shall  know, 
My  sure  support,  my  boldness  grow  ; 
And  I  (what  endless  age  shall  prove) 
Shall  seal  this  truth  that  God  is  love. 

Dr.  Hoole  says:  "Into  how  many  languages  this  peniten- 
tial hymn  has  been  rendered  it  may  not  be  easy  to  ascertain. 
I  find  it  among  the  hymns  translated  by  the  Tranquebar  Mis- 
sionaries into  the  Tamil  language,  published  in  India  in 
1774.  It  is  hymn  218  in  the  edition  of  1863,  and  begins  in 
Tamil : 

Ing  urn  in  andez  panindu  serum. 

This  translation  contains  two  verses,  the  ninth  and  tenth  of 


"Resolved    to    Seek    It    unto    the    End"  293 

the  original  German,  which  are  omitted  in  the  English  Mo- 
ravian version,  as  sung  by  Mr.  Wesley  and  Bohler. 

Mr.  Wesley  has  paraphrased  the  last  two  verses  of   the 
original  as  follows : 

9  Already  springing  hope  I  feel ; 
God  will  destroy  the  power  of  hell; 
God  from  the  land  of  wars  and  pain 
Leads  me  where  peace  and  safety  reign. 

io  One  only  care  my  soul  shall  know: 
Father,  all  thy  commands  to  do; 
Ah  !  deep  engrave  it  on  my  breast, 
That  I  in  thee  even  now  am  blest. 

John  Wesley  thus  sums  up  the  result  of  his  conversations 
with  Bohler,  the  testimony  of  the  Moravians,  and  the  singing 
of  this  old  hymn:  "  I  was  now  thoroughly  convinced;  and, 
by  the  grace  of  God,  I  resolved  to  seek  it  unto  the  end:  (i) 
By  absolutely  renouncing  all  dependence,  in  whole  or  in  part, 
upon  my  own  works  or  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  the 
other  means  of  grace  continual  prayer  for  this  very  thing, 
justifying,  saving  faith,  a  full  reliance  on  the  blood  of  Christ 
shed  for  me  ;  a  trust  in  him  as  my  Christ,  as  my  sole  justifi- 
cation, sanctification,  and  redemption." 
19 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

The  Pentecostal  Poet 

At  the  Sign  of  "  the  Bible  and  the  Sun." — The  Mechanic  and  his 
Message. — Charles  Wesley's  Pentecost. — The  Songs  of  Salva- 
tion.— The  Singer's  First  Convert. 


CHARLES  WESLEY  was  the  first  of  the  Wesley 
brothers  to  receive  the  name  of  Methodist,  and  he 
was  also  the  first  to  experience  joy  and  peace  through 
believing.  "  While  John  was  entering  this  Bethesda  Charles 
stepped  in  before  him."  Yet,  at  the  house  of  the  Delamottes 
at  Blendon,  Charles  had  been  indignant  when  his  brother 
expressed  his  belief  in  the  possibility  of  conscious  and  instan- 
taneous conversion,  and  wrote,  "  I  was  much  offended  at 
his  worse  than  unedifying  discourse."  Broughton,  another 
of  the  Oxford  Methodists,  was  as  scandalized  as  Charles,  and 
Mrs.  Delamotte  abruptly  left  the  room.  But  John's  long 
struggle  with  doubt  had  taught  him  patience  with  others  who 
had  not  reached  his  standpoint,  and  he  writes,  "  Indeed,  it 
did  please  God  then  to  kindle  a  fire  which  I  trust  will  never 
be  extinguished." 

A  little  to   the  west  of  old  Temple  Bar  stood  the  shop  of 
James  Hutton,  a  dealer  in  secondhand  books,  whose  sign  was 

"the  Bible  and  the  Sun."      lb-  was  the  son  of  the  Wesleys' 

294 


THE    REV.    CHARLES   WESLEY. 


At  the  Sign  of   the  Bible  and  the  Sun  297 

friend,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hutton,  of  Westminster.  His  shop  be- 
came in  the  early  days  of  the  evangelical  revival  what  Riv- 
ington's  in  St.  Paul's  Churchyard  had  been  to  the  Oxford 
Methodists — a  house  of  call  and  a  center  of  literary  interest. 
We  find  Dr.  Byrom  dropping  in  to  breakfast  after  his  arrival 
by  the  Manchester  coach,  and  "  the  so-much-talked-of  "  Mr. 
Whitefield  comes  in  to  wait  for  the  Cirencester  coach.  Hither 
also  came  good  Squire  Thorold,  the  ancestor  of  the  present 
Bishop  of  Winchester,  who  would  pray  and  expound,  and 
here  the  little  "society"  first  met  which  was  afterward 
transferred  to  a  house  in  Fetter  Lane. 

Here,  shortly  before  his  conversion,  we  find  Charles  Wes- 
ley, ill  of  pleurisy,  visited  by  Piers,  the  Vicar  of  Bexley,  whom 
the  sick  man  exhorts  "to  labor  after  that  faith  which  he 
thinks  I  have  and  I  know  I  have  not."  Bohler  comes  to  pay 
a  farewell  visit,  and  points  out  more  clearly  than  ever  the 
nature  of  ' '  that  one  true  living  faith  whereby  through  grace 
we  are  saved."  Charles  receives  a  letter  from  a  friend  which 
quickens  his  desires,  and  is  seeking  Christ  as  in  an  agony. 
His  brother  John  reads  to  him  an  affectionate  letter  in  Latin 
from  Bohler,  praying  that  ' '  you  may  taste  and  then  see  how 
exceedingly  the  Son  of  God  has  loved  you,  and  loves  you 
still."  The  news  is  brought  to  him  that  John  is  forbidden  to 
preach  any  more  at  St.  Lawrence's,  St.  Catherine  Cree's,  and 
Great  St.  Helen's  Churches,  for  he  speaks  "  strong  words" — 
too  strong  for  the  indifferent  clergy  of  the  day,  although  his 
doctrines  are  in  harmony  with  the  homilies  of  his  Church. 
The  Savoy  Chapel  and  St.  Ann's  are  also  closed  against  him, 
for  he  dares  preach  "  free  salvation  by  faith  in  the  blood  of 
Christ." 

And  now,  just  as  Charles  Wesley  is  making  arrangements 
to  remove  to  the  home  of  James  Hutton's  father,  the  clergy- 


298 


British   Methodism 


man  at  Westminster,  he  reeeives  a  visit  from  ' '  a  poor,  igno- 
rant mechanic,  who  knows  nothing  but  Christ,  yet  by  knowing 
him  knows  and  discerns  all  things."  It  is  Bray,  a  brazier 
of  Little  Britain,  whose  house  is  at  the  west  corner  near 
Christ's  Hospital.  As  they  pray  together  the  clergyman  is 
quite  overpowered  and  melted  into  tears.  He  decides  to 
remove  to  the  mechanic's  house  instead  of  to  Westminster,  as 

he    intended,    and 


he  is  carried  to 
his  new  lodgings 
in  a  sedan  chair. 

A  letter  of  Dr. 
Byrom,  written  a 
few  weeks  later, 
gives  us  an  inter- 
esting glimpse  of 
Wesley's  humble 
friend:    "I    dined 


DRAWN    BY  J.    D.    WOODWARD. 


FROM   PHOTO. 


LITTLE    BRITAIN. 


Where  "  Mr.  Bray,  the  brazier,"  lived,  and  where  Charles 
Wesley  was  converted. 


yesterday  and  to- 
day with  M  r. 
Charles  Wesley  at 
a  very  honest  man's  house,  a  brazier,  with  whom  he  lodges, 
with  whose  behavior  and  conversation  I  have  been  very 
much  pleased."  But  Mrs.  Hutton,  of  Westminster,  is  not 
pleased,  and  writes  to  Samuel  Wesley  at  Tiverton:  "Mr. 
Charles  went  from  my  son's,  where  he  lay  ill  for  some  time, 
and  would  not  come  to  our  house  when  I  offered  him  the 
choice  of  two  of  my  best  rooms,  but  chose  to  go  to  a  poor 
brazier's  in  Little  Britain,  that  that  brazier  might  help  him 
forward  in  his  conversion !  " 

The  preaching  of  his  elder  brother  and  of  Whitefield  and 
the  labors  of  Buhler  have  already  stirred  up  a  spirit  of  reli- 


Charles  Wesley  at  the  Brazier's  House  299 

gious  inquiry,  and  the  invalid  has  many  visitors.  Among 
them  is  the  venerable  Ainsworth,  the  Latin  scholar,  "  a  man 
of  great  learning,  above  seventy,  who,  like  old  Simeon,  was 
waiting  to  see  the  Lord's  salvation  that  he  might  depart  in 
peace."  "  His  tears,"  continues  Wesley,  "and  vehemence, 
and  childlike  simplicity  show  him  upon  the  entrance  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven." 

Now  again  we  find  the  work  of  Martin  Luther  a  living 
force  in  England.  On  May  17  Charles  Wesley  first  saw 
Luther's  Commentary  on  the  Galatians,  and  found  it 
"  nobly  full  of  faith."  The  evening  hours  are  spent  in  quiet 
with  the  reformer's  commentary,  and  the  close  of  the  second 
chapter  brings  the  sick  man  a  "comfortable  assurance  that 
He  would  come,  and  would  not  tarry."  "  I  labored,  waited, 
and  prayed  to  feel,  '  who  loved  vie,  and  gave  himself  for 
mc.'1  " 

The  "  Day  of  Pentecost  had  fully  come."  At  nine  o'clock 
on  Whitsunday  morning,  1738,  his  brother  John  and  some 
friends  came  and  sang  a  hymn  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  which 
greatly  comforted  him.  Half  an  hour  later  the  friends  left, 
and  Charles  betook  himself  to  prayer:  "  O  Jesus,  thou  hast 
said,  I  will  come  unto  you;  thou  hast  said,  I  will  send  the 
Comforter  unto  you ;  thou  hast  said,  My  Father  and  I  will 
come  unto  you  and  make  our  abode  with  you.  Thou  art  God, 
who  canst  not  lie.  I  fully  rely  upon  thy  most  true  promise ; 
accomplish  it  in  thy  time  and  manner." 

He  is  composing  himself  to  rest  when  he  hears  some  one 
come  in  and  say:  "  In  the  name  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  arise, 
and  believe,  and  thou  shalt  be  healed  of  all  thy  infirmities." 
These  words  were  uttered  by  Bray's  sister,  who  had  only 
recently  found  peace  and  joy  through  believing,  and  was  con- 
vinced that  it  was  her  duty  to  utter  some  words  of  sympathy 


300 


British  Methodism 


to  the  distressed  clergyman.  She  had  been  overwhelmed  by 
the  thought  that  she,  "  a  poor,  weak,  sinful  creature,"  should 
speak  to  a  minister,  but  her  brother  had  encouraged  her: 
"  Fear  not  your  own  weakness.  Speak  you  the  words,  Christ 
will  do  the  work ;  out  of  the  mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings 
hath  he  ordained  strength." 

The  good  brazier's  words  proved  true.     Charles  Wesley 
was  roused  by  the  words  of  the  trembling  woman,  who  fled 


STREETS   ASSOCIATED   WITH    THE 

CONVERSION  of  the  WESLiEYS 


down  stairs  after  she  had  spoken.  Wesley  sent  for  her,  and 
she  said,  "  It  was  I,  a  weak,  sinful  creature,  that  spoke,  but 
the  words  were  Christ's ;  he  commanded  me  to  say  them,  and 
so  constrained  me  that  I  could  not  forbear." 

Then  Bray  reads,  "  Blessed  is  the  man  whose  transgression 
is  forgiven,  whose  sin  is  covered;"  and  Wesley,  laying 
hold  on  the  atonement  by  simple  faith,  finds  himself  at  peace 
with  God.  He  opens  his  Bible,  and  the  first  words  he  reads 
are  these:  "  And  now,  Lord,  what  is  my  hope?  Truly,  my 
hope  is  even  in  thee.     He  hath  put  a  new  song  in  my  mouth. 


Charles  Wesley's  Hymn  301 

even  a  thanksgiving  unto  our  God ;  many  shall  see  it,  and 
fear,  and  shall  put  their  trust  in  the  Lord."  Thus  Charles 
Wesley  learned  the  new  song  of  the  great  Revival,  and  found 
his  lifelong  inspiration. 

On  the  following  Tuesday  he  began  the  hymn  which 
was  to  link  his  own  conversion  with  that  of  his  brother. 
For  fear  of  pride  he  broke  it  off,  but  acting  on  Bray's 
wise  advice,  he  fought  the  temptation  on  his  knees  and 
finished  the  hymn.  It  echoes,  in  the  third  verse  especially, 
the  words  in  his  Journal  in  which  he  records  his  resolve 
after  his  struggles:  ''In  his  name,  therefore,  and  through 
his  strength,  I  will  perform  my  vows  unto  the  Lord, 
of  not  hiding  his  righteousness  within  my  heart,  if  it 
should  ever  please  him  to  plant  it  there."  A  day  later 
the  brothers  sang  the  hymn  together.  It  deserves  inser- 
tion here  as  one  of  the  historic  documents  of  the  great 
Revival : 

Where  shall  my  wondering  soul  begin  ? 

How  shall  I  all  to  heaven  aspire  ? 
A  slave  redeemed  from  death  and  sin, 

A  brand  plucked  from  eternal  fire, 
How  shall  I  equal  triumphs  raise, 
Or  sing  my  great  Deliverer's  praise? 

O  how  shall  I  the  goodness  tell, 

Father,  which  thou  to  me  hast  showed? 

That  I,  a  child  of  wrath  and  hell, 
I  should  be  called  a  child  of  God  ! 

Should  know,  should  feel  my  sins  forgiven, 

Blessed  with  this  antepast  of  heaven  ! 

And  shall  I  slight  my  Father's  love 

Or  basely  fear  his  gifts  to  own  ? 
Unmindful  of  his  favors  prove? 

Shall  I,  the  hallowed  cross  to  shun, 
Refuse  his  righteousness  to  impart, 
By  hiding  it  within  my  heart  ? 


BOSTON     XJ2STIT7'EI^SIXTr 


302  British  Methodism 

No  :  though  the  ancient  dragon  rage, 

And  call  forth  all  his  hosts  to  war ; 
Though  earth's  self-righteous  sons  engage 

Them  and  their  god  alike  I  dare; 
Jesus,  the  sinner's  Friend,  proclaim  ; 
Jesus,  to  sinners  still  the  same. 

Outcasts  of  men,  to  you  I  call, 

Harlots,  and  publicans,  and  thieves ! 
He  spreads  his  arms  to  embrace  you  all  ; 

Sinners  alone  his  grace  receives : 
No  need  of  him  the  righteous  have, 
He  came  the  lost  to  seek  and  save. 

Come,  O  my  guilty  brethren,  come, 

Groaning  beneath  your  load  of  sin  ; 
His  bleeding  heart  shall  make  you  room  ; 

His  open  side  shall  take  you  in  : 
He  calls  you  now,  invites  you  home  ; 
Come,  O  my  guilty  brethren,  come  ! 

The  passage  in  Luther's  Commentary  on  Galatians  which 
brought  Charles  so  much  comfort  on  the  Wednesday  before 
he  found  rest  inspired  another  triumphant  song,  which  a 
few  weeks  later  brought  joy  to  the  first  convert  won  by  the 
hymns  of  the  minstrel  of  Methodism.  Luther  alludes  to 
his  childhood,  when  he  was  taught  only  to  think  of  Christ 
as  a  severe  judge:  "  At  the  very  hearing  of  Christ's  name 
my  heart  hath  trembled  and  quaked  for  fear."  He  ten- 
derly urges  all  such  troubled  hearts  to  "read  these  most 
sweet  and  comfortable  words,  '  Who  loved  me  and  gave  him- 
self for  me,'  and  so  inwardly  practice  with  thyself  that  thou 
with  a  sure  faith  mayst  conceive  and  print  this  me  upon  thy 
heart,  and  apply  it  unto  thyself,  not  doubting  that  thou 
art  of  the  number  of  those  to  whom  this  '  me  '  belongeth ; 
also  that  Christ  hath  not  only  loved  Peter  and  Paul, 
and  given  himself  for  them,  but  that  the  same  grace  also 
which  is  comprehended  in  this  me  cometh  unto  us  as  unto 


A  Link  with  Martin  Luther  303 

them."     Charles  Wesley's  own  experience  and  personal  faith 
now  illuminated  Luther's  words,  and  he  wrote : 

O  filial  Deity, 

Accept  my  newborn  cry ; 
See  the  travail  of  thy  soul, 

Saviour,  and  be  satisfied  ; 
Take  me  now,  possess  me  whole, 

Who  for  me,  for  me,  hast  died. 
****** 

Jesus,  thou  art  my  King, 

From  thee  my  strength  I  bring  : 
Shadow'd  by  thy  mighty  hand, 

Saviour,  who  shall  pluck  me  thence? 
Faith  supports  ;  by  faith  I  stand 

Strong  as  thy  omnipotence. 

On    June    16    he  makes   this    entry  in   his  Journal:    "Jack 

Delamotte  came  for  me.     We  took  coach,  and  by  the  way 

he  told  me  that  when  we  were  last  together  at  Blendon,  in 

singing 

Who  for  me,  for  me,  hast  died, 

he  found  the  words  sink  into  his  soul ;  could  have  sung  them 
forever,  being  full  of  delight  and  joy." 

Thus  the  Lutheran  Reformation  was  linked  with  the 
Methodist  Revival,  and  through  Germany  there  came  to 
England  and  America  the  first  notes  of  the  songs  of  freedom 
sung  to-day  not  only  by  millions  of  Methodists,  but  by  wor- 
shipers in  every  church  in  every  land. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 


The  Birthday  of  Living  Methodism 


The  Memorable  24TH  of  May. — Wesley's  Heart  "Strangely 
Warmed." — The  Rejoicing  Brothers. — Dying  Sacerdotalism. — 
Living  Methodism. — An  Epoch  in  English  History. 

THREE  days  after  Charles  Wesley's  "  Day  of  Pente- 
cost," in  1738,  came  the  ever  memorable  24th  of 
May,  the  day  of  John  Wesley's  evangelical  conver- 
sion. A  writer  in  the  Contemporary  Review,  1891,  well 
said:  "  That  day  in  ecclesiastical  annals  is  like  the  day  on 
which  Saul  of  Tarsus  saw  Christ,  the  day  upon  which  Augus- 
tine heard  a  voice  exclaim,  '  Tolle  lege,  tolle  lege,'  and  the 
day  on  which  Martin  Luther  realized  the  forgiving  love  of 
God  in  the  convent  of  Erfurth.  On  that  day  Methodism  as 
history  knows  it  was  born." 

John  Wesley,  characteristically,  had  accepted  and  preached 
the  doctrine  of  conscious  salvation  before  his  brother  Charles. 
He  was  the  first  to  be  convinced  that  Bohler's  teaching  on 
the  nature  and  fruits  of  faith  was  scriptural,  and  that  Chris- 
tian faith  was  not  merely  intellectual  assent  to  orthodox 
opinions,  but  a  vital  act,  and  afterward  a  habit  of  the  soul,  by 
which  man,  under  the  influence  of  the  .Spirit  of  God,  trusts 

in   the  personal  Christ,   enters  into  living  union  witli  him. 

3°4 


"What  a  Work  Hath  God  Begun 


305 


and  then  abides  in  him.  It  was  Peter  Bohler  who,  under 
God,  turned  the  Oxford  Methodist,  whose  career  was  cut  short 
in  Georgia,  "into  the  London  Methodist  whose  work  now 
fills  the  world." 
On  May  4  Bohler 
em-barked  for 
Carolina,  and 
John  Wesley's 
deep  conviction 
of  his  own  mo- 
mentous vocation 
is  expressed  in  his 
Journal:  "  O 
what  a  work  hath 
God  begun  since 
his  coming  into 
England !  such  a 
one  as  shall  never 
come  to  an  end 
till  heaven  and 
earth  shall  pass 
away . ' '  The  work 
of  Bohler  was 
consummated  by 
the  influence  of 
L  uther,  w  h  o 
being     dead     yet 

spake  through  his  glowing  commentaries  on  the  epistles  of 
faith. 

We  left  John  Wesley  with  some  friends  at  the  door  of  Mr. 
Bray's  house  in  Little  Britain  on  Whitsunday  morning. 
They  had  been  singing  a  pentecostal  hymn  in  Charles  Wes- 


FROM  THE  COPPERPLATE  BY  WALLlS. 

ST.    GEORGE'S    CHURCH,    BLOOMSBURY,    LONDON. 

On  Sunday,  May  28,  1738,  John  Wesley  preached  in  this  church  on 
"  This  is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world,  even  our  faith." 
It  was  his  first  sermon  after  his  conversion. 


306  British  Methodism 

ley's  sick-room.  Afterward  John  went  to  the  Church  of  St. 
Mary-le-Strand,  where  Dr.  Heylyn  was  rector.  Wesley  had 
arranged  to  assist  the  doctor  in  preparing-  an  edition  of  a 
Kempis,  and  his  friend  William  Law  had  been  the  rector's 
curate  in  the  days  when,  says  Byrom,  he  was  "  such  a  gay 
parson  that  Dr.  Heylyn  said  his  book,  The  Serious  Call, 
would  have  been  better  if  he  had  traveled  that  way  him- 
self." On  this  memorable  Whitsunday  John  Wesley  re- 
cords that  he  heard  the  rector  preach  a  truly  Christian  ser- 
mon on  "  They  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,"  "and 
so,"  said  the  preacher,  "  may  all  you  be,  if  it  is  not  your  own 
fault."  The  curate  was  taken  ill  during  the  service,  so  Wes- 
ley assisted  the  rector  with  the  Communion.  Soon  after  the 
service  he  heard  the  joyful  news  that  his  brother  had  found 
rest  to  his  soul. 

John  Wesley  continued  in  sorrow.  In  a  letter  to  a  friend 
he  said:  "  O  let  no  one  deceive  us  by  vain  words,  as  if  we 
had  already  attained  this  faith!  (Note:  That  is,  the  proper 
Christian  faith).  By  its  fruits  we  shall  know.  Do  we  already 
feel  peace  with  God  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost?  Does  his 
Spirit  bear  witness  with  our  spirit  that  we  are  the  children  of 
God?  Alas!  with  mine  he  does  not.  O  thou  Saviour  of 
men,  save  us  from  trusting  in  anything  but  thee !  Draw  us 
after  thee !  Let  us  be  emptied  of  ourselves,  and  then  fill  us 
with  all  peace  and  joy  in  believing,  and  let  nothing  separate 
us  from  thy  love  in  time  or  eternity." 

His  prayer  was  heard.  On  Wednesday,  May  24,  at  five  in 
the  morning,  he  opened  his  Testament  at.  these  words : 
"There  are  given  unto  us  exceeding  great  and  precious 
promises,  that  by  these  ye  might  be  partakers  of  the  divine 
nature."  As  he  was  about  to  leave  the  house  he  came 
upon   the  words,    "Thou  art  not   far  from  the  kingdom  of 


"I  Felt  My  Heart  Strangely  Warmed" 


307 


God."     In   the  afternoon  he  was  asked  to  go  to  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral,  when  the  anthem  was  sung: 

Out  of  the  deep  have  I  called  unto  thee,  O  Lord.     Lord,  hear  my  voice. 

O  let  thine  ears  consider  well  the  voice  of  my  complaint, 

If  thou,  Lord,  wilt  be  extreme  to  mark  what  is  done  amiss.  O  Lord, 

who  may  abide  it  ? 
]'>ut  there  is  mercy  with  thee,  therefore  thou  shalt  be  feared. 
O  Israel,  trust  in  the  Lord  ;  for  with  the  Lord  there  is  mercy,  and  with 

him  is  plenteous  redemption  : 
And  he  shall  redeem  Israel  from  all  his  sins. 

Within  a  few  minutes'  walk  of  Little  Britain  was  Nettleton 
Court,  on  the  east 
side  of  Aldersgate 
Street,  where  one 
of  the  few  remain- 
ing religious  "  so- 
cieties "  connected 
with  the  Church  of 
England  met  for 
prayer  and  Bible 
study.  In  the 
evening,  very  un- 
willingly, Wesle)'' 
went    to    this    so- 


DY     J    0.    WOODWARD. 

NETTLETON    COURT. 


AFTER    PHOTO. 


ciety,  where  some 

one  was  reading  Luther's  preface  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Ro- 
mans, descriptive  of  saving  faith.  The  decisive  hour  is  best 
described  in  his  own  words : 

About  a  quarter  before  nine,  while  he  was  describing  the  change  which  God 
works  in  the  heart  through  faith  in  Christ,  I  felt  my  heart  strangely  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.  I  began  to  pray  with  all  my  might  for  those  who  had  in  a  more 
especial  manner  despitefully  used  me  and  persecuted  me.  I  then  testified 
openly  to  all  there  what  I  now  first  felt  in  my  heart. 


308  British  Methodism 

Charles  Wesley  was  not  present  at  this  meeting,  for  he 
was  confined  to  his  room  in  Little  Britain,  but  he  gives  a  de- 
lightful description  of  the  hour  following :  ' '  Toward  ten  my 
brother  was  brought  in  triumph  by  a  troop  of  friends,  and 
declared,  '  I  believe.'  We  sang  the  hymn  with  great  joy, 
and  parted  with  prayer."  "  The  hymn  "  was  doubtless  the 
one  already  quoted,  written  by  Charles  two  days  before,  on 
his  own  conversion — "Where  shall  my  wondering  soul  be- 
gin?" During  the  next  year  some  verses  were  published 
which  express  his  joy  in  his  brother's  new  experience  on 
what  he  calls  "  the  memorable  day." 

Bless'd  be  the  name  that  sets  thee  free, 

The  name  that  sure  salvation  brings! 
The  Sun  of  Righteousness  on  thee 

Hath  rose  with  healing  in  his  wings. 
Away  let  grief  and  sighing  flee  ; 
Jesus  hath  died  for  thee— for  thee ! 

The  preface  to  Luther's  Commentary  on  Romans,  which 
kindled  Wesley's  faith,  was  published  in  English  during  the 
latter  part  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign,  and  it  is  probable  that 
it  was  a  reprint  of  this  translation  which  was  read  in  the  little 
room  in  Aldersgate  Street.  One  of  the  passages  which,  as 
Wesley  says,  describe  "the  change  which  God  works  in  the 
heart  by  faith,"  is  as  follows:  "Faith  is  an  energy  in  the 
heart ;  at  once  so  efficacious,  lively,  breathing,  and  powerful, 
as  to  be  incapable  of  remaining  inactive,  but  bursts  forth 
into  operation.  .  .  .  Faith  is  a  constant  trust  in  the  mercy  of 
God  toward  us  .  .  .  by  which  we  cast  ourselves  entirely  on 
God  and  commit  ourselves  to  him,  by  which,  having  an  as- 
sured reliance,  we  feel  no  hesitation  about  enduring  death  a 
thousand  times.  And  this  firm  trust  in  the  mercy  of  God  is 
so  animating  as  to  cheer,  elevate,  and  excite  the  heart,  and 


A  Landmark  in  Methodist  History  309 

to  transport  it  with  certain  most  sweet  affections  toward 
God.  It  animates  the  believer  in  such  a  manner  that,  firmly- 
relying  upon  God,  he  feels  no  dread  in  opposing  himself  as 
a  single  champion  against  all  creatures.  This  high  and  hero- 
ical  feeling,  this  noble  enlargement  of  spirit,  is  injected  and 
effected  in  the  heart  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  who  is  imparted 
to  the  believer  through  faith." 

Wesley's  conversion  not  only  marks  an  epoch  in  his  per- 
sonal experience,  but  is  a  great  landmark  in  the  history  of 
the  Methodist  movement.  Well  does  the  Congregational 
theologian,  Dr.  Dale,  say :  "  That  wonderful  experience,  that 
revelation  of  Christ,  had  a  direct  and  vital  relation  to  all  that 
has  given  the  name  of  John  Wesley  an  enduring  place  in  the 
history  of  Christendom."  Miss  Wedgwood,  as  an  Anglican 
writer,  has  admirably  expressed  the  master-truth  which  ex- 
plains the  whole  sequel  of  Wesley's  life  and  which  furnishes 
the  key  to  the  whole  development  of  Wesleyan  Methodism. 
She  notes  the  change  from  the  depression  of  this  High  Church 
period,  when  his  earnest  nature  was  feeling  the.  incomplete- 
ness of  a  traditional  religion,  and  remarks  that  it  is  evident 
that  he  passed  now  into  a  new  spiritual  region :  ' '  The  birth- 
day of  a  Christian  was  already  shifted  from  his  baptism  to  his 
conversion,  and  in  that  change  the  partition  line  in  two  great 
systems  is  crossed." 

The  most  careful  and  authoritative  student  of  Wesley  in 
the  Anglican  Church,  Canon  Overton,  also  recognizes  the 
great  change  which  his  evangelical  conversion  wrought  in 
Wesley :  "  I  cannot  at  all  agree  with  those  who  would  regard 
all  this  as  mere  enthusiasm.  One  man  is  touched  in  one 
way,  another  in  another,  and  it  appears  to  me  that  soon  after 
this,  but  not  quite  immediately,  Wesley  became  a  different 
man,  so  far  as  his  inward  feelings  were  concerned.      He  had 

20 


310  British  Methodism 

no  more  doubts  or  misgivings  to  the  end  of  his  long  life, 
which  henceforth,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  foes — and,  still 
worse,  of  friends — was  a  singularly  sunny  life  to  the  very 
end." 

His  conversion  revolutionized  the  whole  character  and 
method  of  his  ministry.  The  great  evangelical  doctrines  had 
been  obscured  by  his  sacerdotalism.  His  moral  teaching, 
lofty  as  it  was,  had  lacked  the  inspiration  of  the  mightiest 
motive— the  personal  consciousness  of  God's  love  to  man  and 
the  burning  love  to  God  created  by  the  witness  of  the  Spirit. 
The  faith  of  a  servant  was  transformed  into  the  faith  of  a  son, 
and  from  this  hour,  as  Dr.  Rigg  observes,  "  this  ritualistic 
priest  and  ecclesiastical  martinet  was  to  be  transformed  into 
a  flaming  preacher  of  the  great  evangelical  salvation  and  life 
in  all  its  branches,  and  its  rich  and  varied  experiences. 
Hence  arose  Wesleyan  Methodism  and  all  the  Methodist 
Churches."  The  younger  Methodist,  Rev.  Hugh  Price 
Hughes,  expresses  the  same  conviction  as  to  the  historical 
importance  of  this  event:  "  The  Rubicon  was  crossed.  The 
sweeping  aside  of  ecclesiastical  traditions,  the  rejection  of  the 
apostolical  succession,  the  ordination  with  his  own  hands  of 
presbyters  and  bishops,  the  final  organization  of  a  separate 
and  fully  equipped  Church,  were  all  logically  involved  in 
what  took  place  that  night." 

Oxford  Methodism,  as  the  latest  biographer  of  Fletcher, 
F.  ■W.  Macdonald,  has  observed,  "with  its  almost  monastic 
rigors,  its  living  by  rule,  its  canonical  hours  of  prayer,  is  a 
fair  and  noble  phase  of  the  many-sided  life  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  with  all  its  defects  and  limitations  claims  our 
deep* respect.  But  it  was  not  the  instrument  by  which  the 
Church  and  nation  were  to  be  revived;  it  had  no  message  for 
the  world,  no  secret  of  power  with  which  to  move  and  quicken 


Fruits  of  John  Wesley's  Conversion  311 

the  masses.  To  do  this  it  must  become  other  than  it  was. 
It  must  die  in  order  to  bring  forth  much  fruit.  And  this 
death  and  rising  were  accomplished  in  the  spiritual  change 
wrought  in  John  Wesley,  the  leader  of  the  earlier  and  the 
later  Methodism."  The  place  of  this  spiritual  event  in  the 
history  of  the  English  nation  has  been  well  stated  by  the  his- 
torian Lecky:  "It  is  scarcely  an  exaggeration  to  say  that 
the  scene  which  took  place  at  that  humble  meeting  in  Alders- 
gate  Street  forms  an  epoch  in  English  history.  The  convic- 
tion which  then  flashed  upon  one  of  the  most  powerful  and 
most  active  intellects  in  England  is  the  true  source  of  English 
Methodism." 


CHAPTER  XXXV 
Casting  off  the  Graveclothes 

William  Law's  "  Notional  Faith." — Methodism  not  Mysticism.— 
Withering  Sacerdotalism. — Wesley's  Visit  to  Herrnhut. — 
Living  Proofs. — Methodism  to  Moravianism,  Dr. 

WESLEY,  in  a  letter  to  William  Law,  describes  his 
faith  up  to  the  time  of  his  meeting  with  Peter 
Bohler  as  "a  speculative  notional  shadow,  which 
lives  in  the  head,  not  in  the  heart."  He  upbraids  his  former 
teacher  for  withholding-  from  him  the  true  doctrine  of  faith, 
and  beseeches  him  to  consider  whether  the  true  reason  for 
this  defective  teaching  was  that  he  did  not  possess  this  faith 
himself.  A  correspondence  of  great  interest  followed. 
Canon  Overton  well  says  that  there  is  little  temptation  to 
quote  the  correspondence  fully,  for  it  led  to  an  estrange- 
ment, which  cannot  be  too  deeply  deplored,  between  two 
of  the  holiest  and  ablest  men  of  the  day,  who  were  both 
intensely  in  earnest  about  promoting  one  great  object. 
Although  he  is  an  admiring  biographer  of  Law,  Canon 
Overton  entirely  disagrees  with  Mr.  Tyerman's  condem- 
nation of  Wesley's  letters  as  "petulant  and  harsh,"  and 
vindicates  his  plain  speaking.  It  is  more  pleasant  to  dwell 
on  the  fact  that  Wesley  always  honored  the  character  of 
his  old  friend,  and    only    eighteen    months  before  his  own 


"The  Illuminated  Behmen  "  313 

death  described  Law's  Serious  Call  as  "a  treatise  which  will 
hardly  be  excelled,  if  it  be  equaled,  in  the  English  tongue 
either  for  beauty  of  expression  or  justness  and  depth  of 
thought."  Charles  Wesley  well  called  Law  "Our  John  the 
Baptist."  But  both  brothers  would  have  failed  as  England's 
evangelists  if  they  had  not  found  freedom  from  Law's  defect- 
ive teaching  on  faith  and  the  atoning  sacrifice  of  Christ. 

Two  years  before,  when  Wesley  was  in  Georgia,  he  had 
been  convinced  of  the  errors  of  mysticism  into  which  Law 
drifted.  He  told  his  brother  Samuel  that  the  rock  on  which 
he  had  "  nearly  made  shipwreck  of  the  faith  was  the  writings 
of  the  mystics  "  which  Law  had  recommended  to  him.  Law 
himself  was  fascinated  with  the  writings  of  Jacob  Behmen — 
the  "  illuminated  Behmen,"  as  his  admirers  called  him.  Be- 
tween the  years  1612  and  1624  Behmen's  writings  had  been 
rapidly  circulated  throughout  Europe  and  gave  an  impulse 
to  mysticism  of  every  kind,  good  and  bad.  His  works  reveal 
a  man  of  intense  convictions,  and  appeal  powerfully  to  re- 
ligious feeling.  "Pearls  there  are,  if  patiently  sought  for, 
and  sometimes  of  rare  beauty,  but  it  is  like  diving  for  pearls 
in  a  deep  and  turbid  sea."  "His  language,"  wrote  Wesley, 
"is  barbarous ;  unscriptural  and  unintelligible."  Of  his  great 
work,  Mysterium  Magnum,  he  says :  "  It  is  most  sublime  non- 
sense, inimitable  bombast,  fustian  not  to  be  paralleled !  All 
of  a  piece  with  his  inspired  interpretation  of  the  word  Tetra- 
grammatoii,  on  which  (mistaking  it  for  the  unutterable  name 
itself,  whereas  it  means  only  a  word  consisting  of  four  letters) 
he  comments  with  such  exquisite  gravity  and  solemnity, 
telling  you  the  meaning  of  every  syllable  of  it."  Wesley 
writes  of  some  who  had  been  studying  Behmen,  that  he  had 
"  filled  them  so  full  of  sublime  speculations  that  they  had 
left  Scripture  and  common  sense  far  behind." 


314  British  Methodism 

He  objected  to  many  of  the  mystic  writers,  he  tells  us, 
because  they  appear  to  have  no  conception  of  Church  com- 
munion, depreciate  the  means  of  grace,  are  wise  above  what 
is  written,  and,    indulging    in  unscriptural    speculations,  are 


i 

|tgt 

■:iiiill» 

• 

'\Ms 

1 

1 

1 

fj   } 

B*   ; 

\ 

I    _ __ 

AFTER  THE  ENGRAVING  BY  COOPER. 

JACOB    BEHMEN. 


apt  to  despise  all  who  differ  from  them  as  carnal,  unen- 
lightened men.  Their  whole  phraseology  was  both  unscrip- 
tural and  affectedly  mysterious.  "  I  say  affectedly,  for  this 
does   not   necessarily  result   from    the   nature   of   the    thing 


Withering  Sacerdotalism  315 

spoken  of.  St.  John  speaks  as  high  and  as  deep  things  as 
Jacob  Behmen.  Why,  then,  does  not  Jacob  speak  as  plain  as 
he?"  While  Wesley  appreciated  some  great  spiritual  truths 
emphasized  by  the  mystics,  he  rejected  the  speculative  and 
sentimental  errors  which  afterward  marred  the  work  of  the 
Moravians.  If  Methodism  had  become  mysticism,  it  would 
have  lacked  tlie  force  for  the  moral  revolution  which  England 
needed. 

From  the  year  of  his  conversion  Wesley's  sacerdotalism 
withered  away.  He  did  not,  as  an  Anglican  has  observed, 
abate  his  attachment  to  the  ordinances  of  the  Established 
Church,  and  he  did  not  at  once  reach  that  degree  of  inde- 
pendence of  her  hierarchy  and  some  of  her  rules  which  marks 
his  farthest  point  of  divergence.  Dr.  Rigg  has  forcibly  said, 
"  Habits  of  thought  and  feeling  which  had  become  a  second 
nature  still  clave  to  him  for  a  while :  but  these  dropped  off 
one  by  one  until  scarcely  a  vestige  of  them  was  left."  The 
graveclothes  of  ritualistic  superstition  hung  about  him 
even  after  he  had  come  forth  from  the  sepulcher  and  had  in 
his  heart  and  soul  been  set  loose  and  free,  and  he  only  cast 
them  off  gradually,  but  the  new  principle  that  he  had  em- 
braced led  before  long  to  his  complete  emancipation  from  the 
principles  and  prejudices  of  High  Church  ecclesiasticism. 
The  ultimate  separation  of  the  Methodist  societies  from  the 
Anglican  Church,  Dr.  Rigg  says,  was  also  involved  in  this 
change:  "Newman  renounced  justification  by  faith,  and 
clung  to  apostolical  succession,  therefore  he  went  to  Rome ; 
Wesley  embraced  justification  by  faith,  and  renounced  apos- 
tolical succession,  therefore  his  people  are  a  separate  people 
from  the  Church  of  England." 

The  change  which  the  revelation  of  the  living  Christ 
wrought  in  John  Wesley  was    unmistakable,  and   marked  a 


316 


British  Methodism 


new  epoch  in  his  history,  but  he  was  not  free  from  tempta- 
tion and  he  was  still  subject  to  perplexity  from  the  conflict- 
ing counsels  of  friends.  In  the  month  of  June,  1738,  he  set 
forth  from  Gravesend,  accompanied  by  his  friend  Ingham 
and  others,  to  visit  the  Moravian  settlement  of  Herrnhut,  on 
the  borders  of  Bohemia.      "  I  hoped,"  he  records,  "  the  con- 


J.    D.    WOODWARD 


FROM  A  PHINT. 


VIEW   OF    HERRNHUT. 


versing  with  those  holy  men  who  were  themselves  living 
witnesses  of  the  full  power  of  faith,  and  yet  able  to  bear  with 
those  that  are  weak,  would  be  a  means,  under  God,  of  so 
establishing  my  soul  that  I  might  go  from  faith  to  faith  and 
from  strength  to  strength." 

The  travelers  landed  at  Rotterdam,  and  after  leaving  its 
well-paved  road,  with  walnut  trees  on  either  side,  they  began 
to  experience  the  troubles  of  continental  traveling  in  those 
clays.  At  Goudart  several  innkeepers  refused  to  entertain 
them,  and  with  difficulty  they  found  one  who  "did  us  the 
favor  to  take  our  money  for  some  meat  and  drink  and  the  use 
of  two  or  three  bad  beds."  At  Ysselstein  they  found  a  few 
German  brethren    and  sisters,  and   some  English  friends  to 


The  Visit  to  Herrnhut  317 

whom  Wesley  administered  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  some 
time  was  spent  in  hearing  of  ' '  the  wonderful  work  which 
God  is  beginning  to  work  over  all  the  earth."  They  journeyed 
by  boat  to  Amsterdam,  admiring  the  beautiful  gardens  by  the 
river,  the  neat  buildings,  and  clean  streets.  Wesley  went  to 
one  of  the  "societies"  and  heard  singing  in  Low  Dutch  and 
expounding  in  High  Dutch.  At  Frankfort  he  found  Peter 
Bohler's  father,  who  obtained  for  the  party  entrance  to  the 
city  and  entertained  them  generously. 

At  Marienborn  they  found  Count  Zinzendorf  presiding 
over  a  Moravian  community  of  ninety  persons.  Here  Wesley 
spent  a  fortnight,  and  met  with  what  he  sought  for:  "  living 
proofs  of  the  power  of  faith :  persons  saved  from  inward  as 
well  as  outward  sin  by  the  love  of  God  shed  abroad  in  their 
hearts,  and  from  all  doubt  and  fear  by  the  abiding  witness  of 
the  Holy  Spirit."  He  heard  Zinzendorf  preach  in  the  old 
castle  at  Runneberg,  and  attended  a  conference  where  the 
count  spoke  on  justification  and  its  fruits. 

At  Weimar,  after  long  detention  at  the  gates,  Wesley  was 
brought  before  the  duke,  who  asked  him  why  he  was  going 
to  Herrnhut.  "To  see  the  place  where  the  Christians  live," 
was  the  reply.  The  duke  "looked  hard"  and  let  them  go. 
The  students  of  Jena  greatly  interested  the  Oxford  fellow. 
At  Halle,  where  the  "  King  of  Prussia's  tall  men  "  again  de- 
tained the  travelers,  Wesley  inspected  Francke's  Orphan 
House,  in  which  six  hundred  and  fifty  children  were  main- 
tained and  three  thousand  taught.  "Surely,"  he  wrote, 
' '  such  a  thing  neither  we  nor  our  fathers  have  known  as 
this  great  thing  which  God  hath  done !  " 

At  last  they  reached  Herrnhut,  "  the  Jerusalem  of  the 
United  Brethren."  Wesley  heard  Christian  David  preach  on 
the  topics  in  which  he  was  most  of  all  interested.     He  con- 


318 


British  Methodism 


versed  with  the  exiles,  and  listened  entranced  to  the  stories 
of  their  lives.  "  He  heard  the  secrets  of  the  heart  laid  bare, 
the  agonies  of  soul,  the  fights  with  sin,  the  victory  through 
Christ,  the  peace  unutterable  with  God.  He  saw  the  simple 
Herrnhut  life,  admired  the  order  and  quiet,  and  was  present 
at  love  feasts  and  band  meetings."  He  watched  the  burial  of 
a  little  child  in  "God's  Acre."     August  12  was  Intercession 


FROM  AN  OLD  PRINT. 

EASTER   COMMEMORATION    IN    HERRNHUT    CEMETERY. 

"  Tuesday,  8. — A  child  was  buried.  The  burying  ground  (called  by  them  Gottes 
Acker y  that  is,  "  God's  ground  ")  lies  a  few  hundred  yards  out  of  the  town,  under  the 
side  of  a  little  wood.  There  are  distinct  squares  in  it  for  married  men  and  unmarried  ; 
for  married  and  unmarried  women  ;  for  male  and  female  children  ;  and  for  widows." 

— Wesley's  Journal,  1738. 


Day,  when  many  strangers  came  thirty  or  forty  miles.  Wes- 
ley wrote :  "I  would  gladly  have  spent  my  life  here,  but  my 
Master  calling  me  to  labor  in  another  part  of  his  vineyard, 
on  Monday,  14,  I  was  constrained  to  take  my  leave  of  this 
happy  place.  O  when  shall  this  Christianity  cover  the  earth 
as  the  waters  cover  the  sea !  " 


What  Wesley  Owed  to   Herrnhut  319 

Wesley  did  not  approve  of  everything  in  Moravian  teaching 
and  Church  order,  and  he  was  soon  to  have  painful  experience 
of  the  dangers  which  the  quietism  of  some  German  brethren 
was  to  bring  to  the  London  societies,  but  the  deep  obligation 
of  Methodism  to  Moravianism  is  well  stated  by  Dr.  Stevens: 

First,  it  introduced  Wesley  into  that  regenerated  spiritual  life,  the  supremacy 
of  which  over  all  ecclesiasticism  and  dogmatism  it  was  the  appointed  mission  of 
Methodism  to  reassert  and  promote  in  the  Protestant  world.  Second,  Wesley 
derived  from  it  some  of  his  clearest  conceptions  of  the  theological  ideas  which 
he  was  to  propagate  as  essentially  related  to  this  spiritual  life ;  and  he  now  re- 
turned from  Herrnhut  not  only  confirmed  in  his  new  religious  experience,  but  in 
these  most  important  doctrinal  views.  Third,  Zinzendorf's  communities  were 
based  upon  Spener's  plan  of  reforming  the  Established  Churches,  by  forming 
"  little  Churches  within  them,"  in  despair  of  maintaining  spiritual  life  among 
them  otherwise  ;  Wesley  thus  organized  Methodism  within  the  Anglican  Church. 
And,  fourth,  not  only  in  this  general  analogy,  but  in  many  details  of  his  disci- 
pline can  we  trace  the  influence  of  Moravianism. 


m  t  ^tw^^^^tmmmm  w#ms&Tj  wi 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 

Beacon  Fires  of  Revival  in  America  and  Europe 

Jonathan  Edwards.-"  The  Great  Awakening." -Wesley  Reads 
"the  Truly  Surprising  Narrative." — The  European  Conti- 
nent.— Howell  Harris,  the  Apostle  of  Wales.— Rugged  Scot- 
land. 

JUST  before  the  dawn  of  the  Methodist  revival  the 
heavenly  watchers,  whose  vision  is  not  limited  by  na- 
tional boundaries  and  separating  seas,  must  have  marked 
the  outbursts  of  holy  fire  which  relieved  the  darkness  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

In  the  year  in  which  the  Holy  Club  was  formed  Jonathan 
Edwards  began  his  work  at  Northampton,  Mass.,  and 
when  the  Wesleys  sailed  for  America  the  people  of  New 
England  were  in  the  midst  of  a  "Great  Awakening."  Jon- 
athan Edwards,  the  massive  divine,  and  John  Wesley,  the 
Oxford  fellow,  were  not  the  type  of  men  whom  the  popular 
imagination  selects  as  fitted  to  be  great  revivalists.  Yet 
each  in  his  own  land  was  a  prophet  of  fire. 

Some  have  said  of  Edwards  that  he  was  dominated  by  in- 
tellect; that  he  had  little  or  no  emotion,  no  touch  of  tender- 
ness, no  Christlike  compassion;  nothing  but  an  "awful 
goodness."  To  this  Grosart  replies:  "Never  was  there  a 
more  egregious  mistake.     Like  the  ancient  seers,  he  preached 

his  messages  as  ever  in  the  shadow  of  God.      But  it  has  been 

320 


The  Great  Awakening  in  America 


321 


my  privilege  to  hold  in  my  hands  the  little  many-paged 
manuscript  of  the  most  tremendous  of  sermons  ever  preached 
— '  Sinners  in  the  Hands  of  an  Angry  God ' — and  I  bear  wit- 
ness that  every  page,  almost,  remains  blurred  with  the 
preacher's  tears." 

Edwards's  Narrative  of  Late  Surprising  Conversions  in 
New  England  was  published  in  1737,  and  he  observes  : 
"There  was  scarcely  a  single  person  in  the  town  of 
Northampton,  either  old 
or  young,  that  was  left 
unconcerned  about  the 
things  of  the  eternal 
world.  Those  who  were 
wont  to  be  the  vainest 
and  loosest  were  now 
generally  subjected  to 
great  awakenings.  The 
town  seemed  to  be  full 
of  the  presence  of  God." 
Three  hundred  were  con- 
verted in  Northampton, 
and  the  fire  spread  to 
many  other  towns  in 
New  England  and  colo- 
nies farther  south. 

Wesley  heard  of  this 
great  work  in  America,  and  in  October,  1738,  wrote  in  his 
Journal :  ' '  In  walking  I  read  the  truly  surprising  narrative 
of  the  conversions  lately  wrought  in  and  about  the  town  of 
Northampton,  in  New  England.  Surely  this  is  the  Lord's 
doing,  and  it  is  marvelous  in  our  eyes."  Five  years  later 
we  shall  find  Whitefield  visiting  the  scene  of  this  revival. 


'ING   BY  TROTTER 


REV.   JONATHAN    EDWARDS. 


322  British  Methodism 

In  Europe  it  was  as  if  a  subtle,  unseen  train  had  been  laid 
by  many  men  simultaneously  in  many  countries,  and  that 
the  spark  was  struck  and  the  whole  was  suddenly  wrapped 
in  a  divine  flame.  Among  the  Huguenots  who  flocked  to 
England  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  the 
Edict  of  Nantes  was  revoked,  there  were  many  men  and 
women  of  the  noblest  Christian  type.  Persecution  did  not 
quench  the  fire  of  holy  love.  The  Wesleys  found  some  of 
them  ready  to  aid  them  by  their  character  and  work,  and  the 
names  of  these  sons  of  exile  shine  out  like  stars  in  the  com- 
ing history  of  the  Methodist  movement. 

We  have  already  seen  how  the  Moravian  revival,  of  which 
Christian  David  was  the  apostle,  sent  the  pilgrim  bands 
across  wide  seas  to  witness  in  storm-tossed  ships  and  distant 
colonies  to  the  triumphant  joy  of  living  faith.  Their  testi- 
mony, their  songs,  their  fellowship,  and  their  missionary 
fervors  have  left  their  mark  on  Methodism. 

Now  also  "wild  Wales"  supplied  an  evangelist  whose 
torch  lighted  many  a  beacon  fire  upon  his  native  hills.  How- 
ell Harris,  of  Trevecca,  was  unknown  to  the  Wesleys  when, 
a  few  months  before  they  went  to  Georgia,  he  found  the 
same  kind  of  spiritual  joy  which  they  were  seeking. 

He  was  born  on  the  spot  where  the  Calvinistic  Methodist 
College  now  stands  at  Trevecca,  in  the  parish  of  Talgarth, 
Brecknockshire,  South  Wales,  in  17 14.  The  old  church  of 
Talgarth,  where  he  "found  salvation,"  still  stands,  and  a  tab- 
let on  the  wall  informs  us  that  "here,  where  his  body  lies, 
he  was  convinced  of  sin,  had  his  pardon  sealed,  and  felt 
the  power  of  Christ's  blood  at  the  Holy  Communion." 

Like  Charles  Wesley,  Harris  received  the  witness  of  the 
vSpirit  on  a  Whitsunday,  and  could  not  help  telling  on  his 
way  home  from  church  that  he  knew  his  sins  were  forgiven. 


The  Apostle  of  Wales 


323 


"However,"  he  writes,  "I  knew  not  whether  I  should  con- 
tinue in  that  state,  having  never  conversed  with  any  that  had 
his  face  toward  Zion,  and  who  could  instruct  me  in  the  ways 
of  the  Lord."     Soon  after:  "Being  in  secret  prayer,  I  felt 


DRAWN    BY   W.    B.    DAVI! 


FROM   AN   OLD   PR1N 


HOWELL    HARRIS. 
"  The  apostle  of  Wales." 

suddenly  my  heart  melting  within  me,  like  wax  before  the 
fire,  with  love  to  God  my  Saviour,  and  also  felt  not  only  love 
and  peace,  but  a  longing  to  be  dissolved  and  to  be  with 
Christ,  and  there  was  a  cry  in  my  soul  which  I  was  totally 
unacquainted  with  before,  Abba,  Father!  Abba,  Father! 
I  could  not  help  calling  God  my  Father;    I  knew  that  I  was 


324  British  Methodism 

hivS  child,  and  that  he  loved  me  and  heard  me.  My  .soul 
being  filled  and  satiated,  cried  :  '  It  is  enough  ;  I  am  satisfied. 
Give  me  strength  and  I  will  follow  thee  through  fire  and 
water.'  " 

Harris  entered  Oxford  University  after  the  Wesleys  had 
left  and  the  little  band  of  Methodists  were  dispersed.  He 
was  a  student  at  St.  Mary's  Hall,  made  famous  by  the  name 
of  Sir  Thomas  More  and  in  these  later  days  by  that  of  the 
brave  Bishop  Hannington.  The  irregularities  of  Oxford  life 
at  that  time  digusted  him.  He  was  warned  by  his  brother 
"to  beware  of  enthusiasm,"  of  which  the  "Methodist  dis- 
temper" was  considered  a  symptom;  and  collegiate  manners 
certainly  tended  to  cure  this!  His  notes  in  the  old  Latin 
volumes  in  the  library  of  Trevecca  College  show  that  he  was 
not  a  dullard,  but  he  learned  little  at  St.  Mary's  Hall,  and 
he  writes:  "When  I  saw  the  immoralities  which  surrounded 
me  there  I  became  soon  weary  of  the  place,  and  cried  to  God 
to  deliver  me  from  thence ;  and  thus  after  keeping  that  term 
I  was  again  brought  to  my  dear  friends  in  Wales."  At  the 
time  the  Wesleys  and  Ingham  commenced  their  work  in 
Georgia  Howell  Harris  was  preaching  in  Wales  with  marvel- 
ous power.  ' '  The  people  began  to  assemble  by  vast  num- 
bers, so  that  the  homes  wherein  we  met  could  not  contain 
them.  The  word  was  attended  with  such  power  that  many 
cried  out  to  God  for  the  pardon  of  their  sins;  and  such  as 
lived  in  malice  confessed  their  sins,  making  peace  with  each 
other.  Family  worship  was  set  up  in  many  houses,  and  the 
churches  were  crowded." 

A  storm  of  persecution  arose.  Magistrates  fumed,  and 
threatened  the  penalties  of  the  Conventicle  Act,  and  the  clergy 
were  indignant  at  the  presumption  of  this  layman — for  he 
was  the  first  lay  preacher  of  this  whole  Methodist  movement. 


The  Welsh  Revival 


325 


He  was  refused  holy  orders,  and  opened  a  school  at 
Trevecca.  There  he  met  with  the  Rev.  Griffith  Jones,  who 
established  a  system  of  movable  free  schools  in  Wales,  and 
Harris  found  in  him  a  friend.  Several  of  Griffith  Jones's 
teachers  afterward  became  Methodist  preachers.  Persecuting 
malice  ejected  Howell  Harris  from  his  own  school  in  1737, 
but  this  only  sent  him  forth  as  an  evangelist  on  a  larger  scale. 
He  formed 
little  societies 
on  Dr.  Hor- 
neck's  plan. 
He  success- 
fully attacked 
immo  r  a  1  i  t  y 
and  the  vani- 
ties of  wakes 
and  fairs. 
When  White- 
field  met  him 

in  Cardiff,  in  1739,  he  says  he  found  him  "a  burning  and 
shining  light;  a  barrier  against  profanity  and  immorality, 
and  an  indefatigable  promoter  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ." 
During  three  years  he  had  preached  almost  twice  every  day, 
for  three  or  four  hours  together ;  and  in  his  evangelistic 
tours  had  visited  seven  counties,  and  had  established  nearly 
thirty  societies,  and  still  his  sphere  of  action  was  enlarging 
daily. 

The  letters  of  this  apostle  of  Wales  appear  in  his  Life 
by  Hugh  P.  Hughes,  and  the  late  Dr.  James  Hamilton  placed 
them  on  a  parallel  with  those  of  the  dignified  and  saintly 
Rutherford.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  great  Welsh  re- 
vival which  Harris  conducted  was  quite  independent  in  its 
21 


BY   P.   E.    FLINTOFF 


TER   PHOTO. 


TALGARTH    CHURCH. 


326  British  Methodism 

origin  of  that  which  resulted  from  the  preaching  of  Wesley 
and  Whiteneld,  though  a  few  years  afterward  the  warmest 
sympathy  and  close  fraternity  existed  between  Howell  Har- 
ris and  the  English  revivalists. 

In  rugged  Scotland,  also,  a  remarkable  revival  occurred  a 
little  later.  James  Robe,  a  minister  at  Kilsyth,  preached 
"  Regeneration."  At  Kirkintilloch  sixteen  children  began 
a  prayer  meeting.  The  power  of  God  descended  upon 
preacher  and  children.  Thirty  persons  were  awakened 
under  one  sermon,  and  in  a  short  time  many  hundreds  were 
found  weeping  and  praying.  Drunkenness  and  swearing 
were  abandoned,  family  prayer  was  held,  and  multitudes 
gathered  for  worship.  The  same  physical  signs  of  intense 
emotion  appeared  in  Scotland  as  in  America,  where  many 
fell  prostrate,  were  convulsed,  or  trembled  violently,  or 
shrieked  aloud.  The  Presbytery  at  Dunfermline  pronounced 
the  movement  a  "delusion,  and  the  work  of  the  great  de- 
ceiver." The  Wesleys  were  perplexed  by  the  same  mysteri- 
ous influences.  But  the  moral  results  of  the  revival  in 
Scotland  were  real  and  decisive,  and  sprang  out  of  the 
preaching  of  the  same  doctrine  of  regeneration  which  was 
the  burden  of  the  message  of  the  Wesleys  and  Whiteneld. 

Thus  we  find  the  same  mighty  Spirit  working  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic,  and  firing  the  souls  of  men  of  widely 
differing  racial  character.  We  must  now  return  to  Charles 
Wesley,  and  mark  how  his  labors  in  London  prepared  the 
way  for  the  great  work  of  the  coming  year. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 


England's  Awakening 


Four  Stages  in  the  Rise  of  Methodism. — Charles  Wesley  in  the 
Home,  the  Prison,  and  the  Church. — The  Return  of  John 
Weslev  and  Whitefield. — Fetter  Lane  and  the  Baptism  of 
Fire. 

JOHN  WESLEY  himself  has  dated  the  successive  stages 
in  the  rise  of  Methodism. 
The  first  is  biblical.  It  is  the  beginning  of  the 
Holy  Club  at  Oxford  :  "In  1729  two  young  men  reading  the 
Bible  saw  they  could  not  be  saved  without  holiness  fol- 
lowed after  it,  and  incited  others  so  to  do."  Thus  Methodism 
had  its  life-root  in  Bible  study. 

The  second  is  brotherly.  In  his  Short  History  of  the  Peo- 
ple Called  Methodists,  Wesley  further  notes  a  stage  ''at 
Savannah,  in  April,  1736,  when  twenty  or  thirty  persons 
met  at  my  house."  Here  we  find  the  idea  of  fellowship 
bearing  fruit. 

The  third  is  doctrinal.  In  the  spring  of  1738,  when  his 
conversation  with  Bohler  and  careful  reading  of  the  Greek 
New  Testament  had  convinced  him  of  the  vital  importance 
of   the   doctrine    of    justification    by    faith,    Wesley  wrote: 

"  Then  it  pleased   God  to  kindle  a   fire  which  I  trust  shall 

2>V 


328  British  Methodism 

never  be  extinguished."  He  appears  to  regard  this  as  the  first 
spark  of  the  Great  Revival. 

The  fourth  is  organic.  The  beginning  of  the  Methodist 
Church  organization  is  thus  recorded  by  Wesley:  "On  Mon- 
day, May  i,  1739,  our  little  society  began  in  London."  He 
also  states:  "  Just  at  this  time  (1738-9),  when  we  [the  nation] 
wanted  little  of  filling  up  the  measure  of  our  iniquities,  two 
or  three  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England  began 
vehemently  to  call  sinners  to  repentance.  In  two  or  three 
years  they  had  sounded  the  alarm  to  the  utmost  borders 
of  the  land.  Many  thousands  gathered  together  to  hear 
them,  and  in  every  place  where  they  came  many  began 
to  show  such  a  concern  for  religion  as  they  had  never 
done  before."  This  passage  marks  earnest  evangelistic 
and  reformative  enterprise  as  a  characteristic  element  of 
Methodism. 

On  the  1  ith  of  June,  1738,  eighteen  days  after  his  conversion, 
John  Wesley  preached  his  famous  sermon  before  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oxford,  on  "By  grace  are  ye  saved  through  faith" 
— the  keynote  of  his  entire  ministry.  That  sermon  is  the 
first  of  those  which  form  the  standard  of  Methodist  belief. 
That  great  doctrine  he  now  began  to  preach  with  experi- 
mental fervor.  His  conviction  of  its  importance  was  deep- 
ened by  his  visit  to  Herrnhut.  Charles  Wesley  also,  after 
his  conversion,  commenced  to  witness  everywhere  to  the 
marvelous  change  in  his  spiritual  life.  In  the  family,  the 
prison,  and  the  churches  he  spoke  with  the  new  "  tongue  of 
fire."  During  the  week  that  followed  his  pentecost  he  testi- 
fied to  his  dear  friends  the  Delamottes  of  the  love  of  God. 
During  his  visit  with  them  at  Blendon  two  sons,  two  maids, 
and  the  gardener  found  peace. 

Mrs.   Delamotte  was    greatly   opposed   to  the    "new  doc- 


"In  Prison  and  Ye  Visited  Me"  329 

trines."  She  left  the  house  and  refused  to  return  while 
Charles  Wesley  remained  in  it,  but  was  persuaded  by  the 
loving  appeals  of  her  daughters.  When  Charles  Wesley  left 
the  two  maids  at  the  door  caught  his  hand.  "Don't  be 
discouraged,  sir,"  said  one;  "I  hope  we  shall  all  continue 
steadfast."    He  was  unable  to  keep  back  his  tears. 

A  week  later  Mrs.  Delamotte  was  "  melted  into  a  humble, 
contrite,  longing  frame  of  spirit,"  and  not  long  after  found 
the  joy  of  faith.  What  he  was  to  this  family  Charles  Wesley 
was  to  many  others,  and  servants,  parents,  and  children  were 
everywhere  won  by  his  loving  arguments  and  prayers. 

The  Vicar  of  Bexley,  Mr.  Piers,  with  his  wife  and  serving 
man  shared  the  same  blessing.  At  Bexley  with  his  friend 
the  vicar  Charles  Wesley  sang: 

Shall  I,  for  fear  of  feeble  man, 
The  Spirit's  course  in  me  restrain  ? 
Or,  undismayed  in  deed  and  word, 
Be  a  true  witness  of  my  Lord  ? 

What  a  different  sphere  of  labor  he  found  in  the  old  New- 
gate Jail !  Here  he  preached  to  the  malefactors  under 
sentence  of  death,  and  visited  the  prisoners  every  day.  One 
poor  negro,  who  had  robbed  his  master,  lay  ill  of  a  fever. 
The  story  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Saviour  on  his  behalf 
melted  his  heart,  and  to  the  preacher's  joy  the  swarthy  peni- 
tent found  peace.  Charles  Wesley  and  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Bray  spent  a  whole  night  in  the  cell  with  condemned  crimi- 
nals. Joy  was  visible  in  their  faces  as  they  sang  Samuel 
Wesley's  hymn,  preserved  so  strangely  on  a  charred  piece  of 
paper  when  the  rectory  was  burned : 

Behold  the  Saviour  of  mankind, 

Nailed  to  the  shameful  tree  ! 
How  vast  the  love  that  him  inclined, 

To  bleed  and  die  for  thee  ! 


330 


British  Methodism 


' '  It  was  one  of  the  most  triumphant  hours  I  have  ever  known/' 
said  Charles  Wesley.  The  hymn  was  sung  again  next  day  at 
Tyburn,  Oxford  Street,  the  place  of  public  execution.  Ten 
doomed  men  were  full  of  comfort  and  triumph. 

We  have  an   interesting  facsimile  of  the  handwriting  of 


DRAWN  BY    W.  B.   PRICE. 


FROM    WOODCUTS. 


THE   OLD   CHAPEL,    NEWGATE   PRISON. 


The  male  prisoners  are  behind  the  bars,  the  females  behind  the  curtain  in  the  gallery.  The 
vignette  in  the  upper  left-hand  corner  shows  the  condemned  cell,  where  Charles  Wesley 
ministered  to  felons,  1738. 

Sarah  Gwynne,  afterward  the  wife  of  Charles  Wesley,  who, 
during  her  maidenhood,  made  a  copy  of  this  famous  hymn, 
written  by  the  father  of  the  Wesleys  and  sung  by  his  own 
son  at  this  hour. 


In  Westminster  Abbey  331 

Another  hymn  sung,  and  written  for  this  pathetic  occasion, 
by  Charles  Wesley  himself,  was  entitled  "  Faith  in  Christ," 
and  concludes : 

A  guilty,  weak,  and  helpless  worm, 

Into  thy  hands  I  fall ; 
Be  thou  my  life,  my  righteousness, 

My  Jesus,  and  my  all. 

From  Newgate  Jail  and  Tyburn  gallows  to  the  pulpit  of 
Westminster  Abbey  was  another  remarkable  change  of 
scene.  In  the  magnificent  minster,  so  rich  in  historical  as- 
sociation, we  find  Charles  Wesley  preaching  present  salvation 
from  sin  by  faith  in  Christ,  and  assisting  in  the  Communion. 
Other  London  churches,  soon  to  be  closed  against  him,  rang 
with  the  great  proclamation.  He  became  curate  to  his  friend 
Mr.  Stonehouse,  the  Vicar  of  Islington,  whom  Byrom  describes 
as  "  a  very  agreeable  young  gentleman."  "  Regular  work," 
says  Telford,  "  began  to  restore  his  physical  strength."  He 
preached  with  great  boldness,  and  opposition  was  awakened. 
On  September  24,  1738,  "there  was  a  vast  audience,  and 
better  disposed  than  usual.  None  went  out,  as  they  had 
threatened  and  frequently  done  heretofore,  especially  the 
well-dressed  hearers,  whene'er  I  mentioned  '  hell  to  ears 
polite,'  and  ui'ged  that  rude  question,  '  Do  you  deserve  to 
be  damned?  ' '  It  was  characteristic  of  the  Wesley s  that  they 
preached  the  severe  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  to  ' '  well-dressed 
hearers,"  and  its  more  comforting  truths  to  the  poor  and  the 
outcast ! 

John  Wesley  returned  from  Germany  to  London  on  Satur- 
day, September  16,  1738.  His  brother  met  him,  and  "we 
took  sweet  counsel  together,"  says  Charles,  "  comparing  our 
experiences."  On  Sunday  John  at  once  commenced  work : 
' '  I  began  to  declare  in  my  own  country  the  glad  tidings  of 


332  British  Methodism 

salvation,  preaching  three  times,  and  afterward  expounding 
the   .Scripture   to  a  large   company  in   the  Minories."     The 


fi5i^m  Sh  ill  Cndfwthro 


/*)  &S  fyhii  &&*  Aii 

(Jk  Ml  JhrPk  ml 
^falntJ  01/c-rtuas  jUxJmijUil 


_J 


SAMUEL   WESLEY  S    HYMN,   SUNG    IN    NEWGATE    PRISON    BY 

CHARLES   WESLEY. 

In  the  youthful  handwriting  of  Sarah  Gwynne,  afterward  Charles  Wesley's  wife.  The 
MS.  volume  containing  this  and  other  hymns  has  recently  been  found  in  the  cellars 
of  the  Wesleyan  Book  Room,  London. 

Minories  was  a  street  between  Aldgate  and  the  Tower  of 
London,  where,  "in  the  house  of  Mr.  Sims,"  Charles  Wesley 


The  Churchwardens  of  Islington  333 

had  preached  on  the  two  previous  Sunday  evenings.  This 
room  was  to  witness  the  first  of  the  strange  scenes  of  conviction 
which,  a  little  later,  created  so  much  sensation  in  Bristol.  A 
well-dressed  middle-aged  woman  cried  out  as  in  the  agonies 
of  death.  When  she  called  on  Wesley  next  day  the  light  of 
forgiveness  was  beginning  to  steal  over  her  troubled  spirit. 

Charles  Wesley's  work  as  curate  to  Air.  Stonehouse  at 
Islington  was  brought  to  an  end  by  the  violent  opposition  of 
the  churchwardens,  who  employed  two  men  to  prevent  him 
from  ascending  the  pulpit  stairs.  The  Bishop  of  London  ap- 
pears to  have  supported  the  churchwardens'  actions,  on  tech- 
nical grounds,  and  Mr.  Stonehouse  was  weak  enough  to 
consent  that  his  old  friend  should  preach  in  his  church  no 
more.  The  only  parochial  appointment  which  Charles  Wes- 
ley ever  held  in  the  Church  of  England  thus  came  to  an  end. 

George  Whitefield  returned  from  America  to  England  in 
December,  1738,  and  learned  that  many  who  had  been 
awakened  by  his  preaching,  twelve  months  before,  were  now 
"grown  strong  men  in  Christ,  by  the  ministry  of  his  dear 
friends  and  fellow-laborers."  Finding  the  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith  "much  revived,"  and  working  great 
results,  he  began  to  preach  it  as  he  had  not  preached  it  be- 
fore. The  publication  of  his  Journals  had  raised  strong 
prejudice  against  him,  and  he  found  himself  excluded  from 
most  of  the  London  pulpits.  An  incident  not  devoid  of 
humor  occurred  at  Islington  Church,  where  the  churchwar- 
dens stood  at  the  bottom  of  the  stairs  to  guard  the  pulpit 
when  he  attempted  to  ascend,  as  in  the  case  of  Charles  Wes- 
ley. Whitefield  did  not  try  to  force  his  way,  but  quietly 
turned  and  walked  into  the  churchyard,  inviting  the  congre- 
gation to  follow  him.  The  pews  were  soon  empty,  the  people 
thronged  the  churchyard,  and  the  disconcerted  churchwardens 


334 


British  Methodism 


were  left  standing  alone  at  the  foot  of  the  pulpit  stairs. 
Whitefield  preached  from  a  tombstone,  and  his  hearers  were 
deeply  affected  by  his  sermon. 

The  memorable  year  1739  was  ushered  in  by  a  remarka- 
ble love  feast.     It  was  held  in  the  room  in  Fetter  Lane,  to 

which  the  little  religious  ' '  so- 
ciety," organized  in  the  house 
of  James  Hutton  the  bookseller, 
had  been  transferred.  This 
room  must  not  be  confounded 
with  the  Moravian  chapel, 
which  was  not  taken  by  James 
Hutton  until  1740,  nor  must 
the  society  which  met  in  the 
room  be  regarded  as  a  Mora- 
vian society.  The  members 
mostly  professed  to  belong  to 
the    Church    of    England,    and 

and  here  also  was   the    old  chapel  which  the       &g     ^^     t|ley     went      in      a     body 
Moravians  secured  in   1740. 

to  vSt.  Paul's  Cathedral,  headed 
by  Charles  Wesley  and  George  Whitefield,  to  receive  the 
Lord's  Supper.  A  section  of  this  society,  however,  eventu- 
ally became  a  Moravian  society,  and  later  a  church.  When 
Wesley  returned  from  Herrnhut  he  found  that  the  society 
had  increased  from  ten  to  thirty-two  members.  The  agape, 
or  love  feast,  of  the  primitive  Church,  which  had  been  pushed 
out  by  the  encroachments  of  the  ritualistic  and  sacerdotal 
elements  in  ecclesiastical  life,  had  been  revived  by  the  Mo- 
ravians, and  was  used  by  this  "  society  "  in  Fetter  Lane. 

It  was  here,  on  New  Year's  Day,  that  seven  of  the  Oxford 
Methodists  met,  with  sixty  others.  John  and  Charles  Wes- 
ley,  Whitefield,    Westley    Hall,  Benjamin   Ingham,   Charles 


FROM  A    PRINT    OF    1817. 

PLAN    OF   HOLBORN. 

Fetter  Lane,  connecting  Holborn  and  Fleet 
Street,  is  entered  close  by  the  old  Staple's 
Inn,  still  standing,  as  in  Wesley's  day. 
Here  was  the  room  in  which  the  memorable 
love  feast  was  held  on  New  Year's  Day,  1739, 


Whitefield's  Happy  New  Year 


335 


Kinchin,  and  Richard  Hutchins  were  all  ordained  clergymen 
of  the  Church  of  England.  Wesley  writes :  "  About  three 
in  the  morning,  as  we  were  continuing  instant  in  prayer,  the 
power  of  God  came  mightily  upon  us,  insomuch  that  many 
cried  out  for  exceeding  joy,  and  many  fell  to  the  ground.  As 
soon  as  we  were 
recovered  a  little 
from  that  awe  and 
amazement  at  the 
presence  of  his 
majesty  we  broke 
out  writh  one  voice, 
1  We  praise  thee, 
O  God,  we  ac- 
knowledge thee 
to  be  the  Lord.'  " 
Whitefield  pro- 
nounced this  to  be 
"the  happiest 
New  Year's  Day  he  had  ever  seen."  Tyerman  well  regards 
it  as  a  glorious  preparation  for  the  herculean  work  on  which 
Whitefield  and  the  Wesleys  were  entering:  "No  wonder 
that  the  year  thus  begun  should  be  the  most  remarkable  in 
Methodist  history." 

Only  four  hours  after  this  remarkable  scene  in  Fetter  Lane 
Whitefield  was  engaged  in  gathering  in  the  first  fruits  of  the 
year.  He  wrote  on  January  2  :  "  From  seven  in  the  morning 
till  three  in  the  afternoon  people  came,  some  telling  me  what 
God  had  done  for  their  souls,  and  others  crying  out,  '  What 
must  we  do  to  be  saved?  ' '  Three  days  afterward  the  seven 
Oxford  Methodists  just  named  "  held  a  conference  at  Isling- 
ton concerning  several  things  of  great  importance."     White- 


CHRIST    CHURCH,  OXFORD. 

As  it  appeared  when  Whitefield  was  ordained  priest,  1739. 


336  British  Methodism 

field  says:  "What  we  were  in  doubt  about,  after  prayer,  we 
determined  by  lot,  and  everything  else  was  carried  on  with 
great  love,  meekness,  and  devotion.  We  continued  in  fasting 
and  prayer  till  three  o'clock,  and  then  parted,  with  a  full 
conviction  that  God  was  going  to  do  great  things  among  us." 

In  the  same  month  Whitefield  went  to  Oxford  to  be  or- 
dained "priest"  at  Christ  Church.  He  afterward  preached 
at  the  Castle  and  at  St.  Alban's  Church  to  a  crowded  congre- 
gation, gownsmen  of  all  degrees  thronging  the  windows.  He 
writes:  "  God  enabled  me  to  preach  with  the  demonstration 
of  the  Spirit  and  with  power,  and  quite  took  away  my  hoarse- 
ness so  that  I  could  lift  up  my  voice  like  a  trumpet." 

It  was  at  this  time  that  "good"  Bishop  Benson  of  Glou- 
cester commended  Whitefield  to  the  Earl  of  Huntingdon : 
"Though  mistaken  on  some  points,  I  think  Mr.  Whitefield  a 
very  pious  young  man,  with  great  abilities  and  zeal.  I  find 
His  Grace  of  Canterbury  [Dr.  Potter]  thinks  highly  of  him. 
I  pray  to  God  to  grant  him  success  in  his  undertakings  for 
the  good  of  mankind  and  the  revival  of  true  religion  among 
us  in  these  degenerate  days;  in  which  prayer  I  am  sure 
your  lordship  and  my  kind  good  Lady  Huntingdon  will  most 
heartily  join."  Here  we  first  find  the  name  of  the  countess 
who  was  to  occupy  a  prominent  place  in  Whitefield's  subse- 
quent history. 


"I  LOOK,  UPON  ALL  THE  WORLD  A5   MY  PARISH 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII 


The  First  Fruits  of  Field-Preachingf 


Whitefield  Leads  the  Way. —  A  Mountain  for  a  Pulpit,  the 
Heavens  for  a  Sounding  Board.  —  Bristol  Prisoners  and 
Kingswood  Colliers.— The  Wesleys  Defy  Fashion. — Awaken- 
ing London. 


B 


UNYAN  and  Baxter  had  gathered  immense  congrega- 
tions. The  reformers  at  St.  Paul's  Cross  had  seen 
London  citizens  swarming  like  bees  round  the  stone 
pulpit.  Luther  had  filled  the  churches  of  Wittenberg  and 
other  cities  in  Saxony ;  Tauler  at  Strasburg,  Bernard  in 
many  a  cathedral,  had  attracted  multitudes.  The  preachers 
of  Greek  Christendom  had  produced  wonderful  effects  in  An- 
tioch  and  Constantinople ;  but  Wesley  and  Whitefield  were 
the  first  great  preachers  in  both  hemispheres  of  this  terrestrial 
globe."  To  these  "words  of  the  late  Dr.  Stoughton  may  be 
added  that  Whitefield  and  Wesley  were  the  first  great  open- 
air  preachers  of  modern  Christendom.  They  took  up  the 
work  that  had  been  done  among  a  sparse  population  by 
Wyclif's  preaching  friars,  and  restored  field-preaching  to 
its  true  place  in  the  evangelization  of  the  growing  population 
of  both  hemispheres. 

Southey  has  wisely  observed  that  if  they  had  not  been  driven 

to   field-preaching,  by  exclusion   from   church   pulpits,    they 

337 


338 


British  Methodism 


would  have  taken  to  that  course  from  necessity  of  a  different 
nature.  One  .Sunday,  when  Whitefield  was  preaching  in 
Bermonds  Church,  as  he  tells  us,  "  with  great  freedom  in  his 


OUTDOOR  PREACHING  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 

From  a  picture  painted  in  1616,  showing  a  preacher  delivering  a  sermon  to  a  con- 
course of  citizens  at  St.  Paul's  Cross.  In  the  background  the  king  and  lord 
mayor  occupy  a  gallery  built  against  the  wall  of  the  cathedral. 

heart  nnd  clearness  in  his  voice,"  to  a  crowded  congregation, 
near  a  thousand   people  stood  in   the  churchyard  during  the 


Whitefield  at  Bristol  339 

service,  hundreds  went  away  who  could  not  find  room,  and 
he  had  a  strong  inclination  to  go  out  and  preach  to  them  from 
one  of  the  tombstones.  "  This,"  he  .says,  "  put  me  first  upon 
thinking  of  preaching  without  doors.  I  mentioned  it  to  some 
friends,  who  looked  upon  it  as  a  mad  notion.  However,  we 
knelt  down  and  prayed  that  nothing  may  be  done  rashly. 
Hear  and  answer,  O  Lord !  for  thy  name's  sake!" 

On  the  last  Sunday  before  Whitefield  left  London  to  be- 
come the  pioneer  of  field-preaching  he  preached  in  St.  Mar- 
garet's Church,  Westminster.  Here  many  other  famous 
preachers  had  witnessed  for  the  truth,  and  the  churchwar- 
dens' account  for  1549  contains  the  following  entry :  "Paid 
to  William  Curia  we  for  mending  of  divers  pews  that  were 
broken  when  Dr.  Latymer  did  preach."  There  was  some 
danger  of  broken  pews  when,  on  February  4,  1739,  White- 
field  "  did  preach  "  in  the  same  pulpit,  and  a  furious  news- 
paper controversy  was  the  result. 

Three  days  after  he  preached  at  St.  Margaret's  Whitefield 
set  out  for  Bristol  to  preach  and  collect  funds  for  his  orphan- 
age. Rumors  of  the  attitude  of  the  London  clergy  had  pre- 
ceded him,  and  when  he  applied  for  the  use  of  St.  Mary 
Redcliffe  Church  he  met  with  a  repulse,  first  from  the  vicar, 
then  from  the  chancellor  of  the  diocese,  and  lastly  from  the 
dean.  Whitefield  then  applied  for  permission  to  preach  in 
Bristol  prison.  The  keeper  of  the  jail  was  the  Mr.  Dagge, 
"  the  tender  gaoler,"  whom  Johnson  has  immortalized  in  his 
Life  of  the  Poet  Savage.  It  was  he  who  defrayed  the  expense 
of  burying  the  poor  poet  in  St.  Peter's  churchyard.  Dagge 
had  been  one  of  the  first  fruits  of  Whitefield's  ministry  in 
Bristol  prison  in  1737.  He  welcomed  the  preacher  with  joy, 
and  Whitefield  preached  to  the  prisoners  daily  until  the 
mayor  and  sheriffs  closed  this  door  against  him,  alleging  as 


340  British  Methodism 

the  reason  that  "  he  insisted  upon  the  necessity  of  our  being- 
born  again  !  " 

It  was  on  a  bleak  Saturday,  February  17,  1739,  that  White- 
field  first  defied  ecclesiastical  fashion  by  preaching  out  of 
doors.  Kingswood,  formerly  a  royal  forest,  near  Bristol, 
had  become  a  region  of  coal  mines,  "  inhabited,"  says 
Southey,  "  by  a  race  of  people  as  lawless  as  the  foresters, 
their  forefathers,  but  far  more  brutal,  and  differing  as  much 
from  the  people  of  the  surrounding  country  in  dialect  as  in 
appearance."  Two  years  before  Whitefield's  friends  had  said 
to  him,  "  What  need  of  going  abroad  for  this?  "  (to  convert 
the  savages).  "  If  you  have  a  mind  to  convert  Indians,  there 
are  colliers  enough  in  Kingswood."  A  hill,  in  a  place  called 
Rose  Green,  became  his  first  "field-pulpit,"  and  here  he 
preached  to  his  first  open-air  congregation  of  two  hundred 
people.  "  I  thought,"  says  he,  "  it  might  be  doing  the  service 
of  my  Creator,  who  had  a  mountain  for  his  pulpit  and  the 
heavens  for  a  sounding  board;  and  who,  when  his  Gospel 
was  refused  by  the  Jews,  sent  his  servants  into  the  highways 
and  hedges." 

Whitefield  said  that  his  heart  had  long  yearned  toward 
the  poor  colliers,  who  were  as  sheep  without  a  shepherd. 
"Blessed  be  God,"  he  exclaims,  "that  I  have  now  broken 
the  ice.  Some  may  censure  me,  but  if  I  thus  pleased  men,  I 
should  not  be  the  servant  of  Christ."  The  news  of  the 
preaching  swept  through  the  mines,  and  the  people  num- 
bered two  thousand  at  the  second  service,  and  increased 
to  fourteen  and  twenty  thousand.  Sir  James  Stephen,  in 
his  Essays  in  Ecclesiastical  Biography,  has  well  described 
the  scene :  Taking  his  stand  on  some  rising  knoll,  his  tall 
and  graceful  figure  dressed  with  elaborate  propriety  and 
composed    into   an   easy  and   commanding   attitude,    White- 


Wesley  at  Kingswood 


341 


field's  "  clear  blue  eye  "  ranged  over  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands,  drawn  up  in  close  files  on  the  plains  below,  or 
clustering  into  masses  on  every  adjacent  eminence.  A  "  rab- 
ble rout  "  hung  on  the  skirts  of  the  mighty  host ;  and  the 
feelings  of  the  devout  were  disturbed  by  the  scurrile  jests  of 
the  rude,  and  the  colder  sarcasms  of  the  more  polished  spec- 
tators of  their  worship.  But  the  rich  and  varied  tones  of  a 
voice  of  unequaled  depth  and  compass  quickly  silenced  every 
ruder  sound,  as  in 
rapid  succession  its 
ever-changing  melo- 
dies passed  from  the 
calm  of  simple  narra- 
ative  to  the  measured 
distinctness  of  argu- 
ment, to  the  vehe- 
mence of  reproof, 
and  the  pathos  of 
heavenly  consolation. 
Sometimes  the 
preacher  wept  ex- 
ceedingly, stamped 
loudly  and  passion- 
ately, and  was  fre- 
quently so  overcome 

that  for  a  few  seconds  one  would  suspect  he  could  never 
recover,  and  when  he  did  nature  required  some  little  time  to 
compose  him.  The  agitated  assembly  caught  the  passion  of 
the  speaker,  and  exulted,  wept,  or  trembled  at  his  bidding. 
He  stood  before  them,  in  popular  belief,  a  persecuted  man, 
spurned  and  rejected  by  lordly  prelates,  yet  still  a  presbyter 
of  the  Church  and  clothed  with  her  authority ;    "  his  meek  and 


FROM    A    WOODCUT. 


DRAWN     BY    W.     B.     PRICE. 

HANNAM    MOUNT,    KINGSWOOD. 
A  favorite  field-pulpit  of  Wesley  and  Whitefield. 


342  British  Methodism 

lowly  demeanor  chastened  and  elevated  by  the  conscious 
grandeur  of  the  apostolic  succession."  The  thoughtful  gazed 
earnestly  on  a  scene  of  solemn  interest,  pregnant  with  some 
strange  and  enduring  influence  on  the  future  condition  of 
mankind.  But  the  wise  and  the  simple  alike  yielded  to  the 
enchantment,  and  the  thronging  multitude  gave  utterance  to 
their  emotions  in  every  form  in  which  nature  seeks  relief 
from  feelings  too  strong  for  mastery. 

Whitefield  himself  was  profoundly  impressed  by  these 
scenes.  "The  sun  shone  very  bright,"  he  says,  "and  the 
people  standing  in  such  an  awful  manner  around  the  mount, 
in  the  profoundest  silence,  filled  me  with  a  holy  admiration." 
At  another  service  he  says,  "  To  hear  the  echo  of  their  sing- 
ing run  from  one  end  of  them  to  the  other  was  very  solemn 
and  striking.  How  infinitely  more  solemn  and  striking  will 
the  general  assembly  of  just  men  made  perfect  be,  when  they 
join  in  singing  the  song  of  Moses  and  the  Lamb  in  heaven." 
He  saw  the  tears  shaping  "white  gutters  down  the  black 
faces  of  the  colliers — black  as  they  came  out  of  the  coal  pits," 
but  these  tears  were  not  shed  under  any  overwhelming  sense 
of  the  picturesque ;  they  were  the  signs  of  the  Spirit's  opera- 
tion, and  of  broken  and  contrite  hearts.  "  The  open  firma- 
ment above  me,"  says  the  preacher,  "  the  prospect  of  the  ad- 
jacent fields,  with  the  sight  of  thousands  and  thousands,  some 
in  coaches,  some  on  horseback,  and  some  in  the  trees,  and  at 
times  all  affected  and  drenched  in  tears  together,  to  which 
sometimes  was  added  the  solemnity  of  the  approaching  even- 
ing, was  almost  too  much  for  me  and  quite  overcame  me." 

"  Blessed  be  God,"  said  Whitefield,  "  the  fire  is  kindled  in 
the  country."  The  cry  came  up  from  many  regions  for  his 
services.  Now  he  stands  on  Hannam  Mount,  now  on  Rose 
Green,  again  at  Fishponds,  while  even  in  the  heart  of  Bristol 


Wesley  Submits  to  be  More  Vile 


343 


a  bowling-green  was  offered  him,  where  he  preached  to  seven 
thousand  people.  He  was  overwhelmed  with  work,  and  sent 
for  Wesley  to  take  his  place  at  Bristol.  Wesley  heard  him 
preach  on  April  i ,  and  this  is  his  record :  "I  could  scarce 
reconcile  myself  at  first  to  this  strange  way  of  preaching  in 
the  fields,  of  which  he  set  me  an  example  on  Sunday ;  having 


kms. 


mm 


=*    ^« 


^^-ib^y 


-?-*; 


DRAWN     BY    W      B      PRICE. 


ROM    A    WOODCUT. 


KENNINGTON    COMMON. 
The  scene  of  the  early  field-preaching  of  Whitefield  and  the  Wesleys  in  London. 

been  all  my  life  (till  very  lately)  so  tenacious  of  every  point 
relating  to  decency  and  order  that  I  should  have  thought 
the  saving  of  souls  almost  a  sin  if  it  had  not  been  done  in  a 
church."  That  evening  Wesley  expounded  to  the  society  in 
Nicholas  Street  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  "one  pretty  re- 
markable precedent  of  field-preaching,  though  I  suppose  there 
were  churches  in  that  time  also."  The  next  day,  at  four  in 
the  afternoon,   he   "submitted  to  be  more  vile,"   and  pro- 


344  British  Methodism 

claimed  the  Gospel  from  a  hillock  near  the  city  to  about  four 
thousand  people,  from  the  words  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is 
upon  me,  because  he  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the  gospel 
to  the  poor." 

Whitefield  visited  Howell  Harris,  the  lay  evangelist,  and 
Griffith  Jones,  in  Wales,  and  returned  to  London,  preaching 
on  the  way  in  bowling-greens  and  at  market  crosses.  Find- 
ing no  open  churches  in  the  metropolis,  he  took  to  Moorfields 
and  Kennington  Common,  greeted  by  audiences  of  fifty  and 
sixty  thousand.  The  singing  could  be  heard  for  two  miles 
and  the  speaker's  voice  for  one  mile.  Collections  for  the 
Georgian  mission  were  taken  at  every  service,  Whitefield 
acting  as  one  of  the  collectors,  and  declaring  his  arms  were 
made  lame  by  the  weight  of  the  copper.  On  one  occasion  the 
collection  was  £47,  of  which  £16  was  in  halfpence,  which 
would  mean  nearly  eight  thousand  pieces  of  that  coin  alone. 

Charles  Wesley  was  in  Whitefield's  congregation  in  the 
churchyard  at  Islington,  in  April,  1739,  and  was  impressed 
with  the  solemnity  of  the  open-air  service.  "  The  numerous 
congregation, "  he  admits,  ' '  could  not  have  been  more  affected 
within  the  walls  of  the  church."  He  went  with  his  friend  to 
Blackheath,  where  there  was  a  vast  congregation,  and  heard 
the  cries  of  the  mourners  on  every  side.  "  What,"  he  asks, 
"  has  Satan  gained  by  turning  him  out  of  the  churches?" 

Charles  Wesley  himself  became  a  powerful  field-preacher, 
although,  his  dislike  to  "irregularities"  was  even  stronger. 
His  first  open-air  service  was  held,  at  the  invitation  of  a 
farmer,  in  a  field  at  Broadoaks,  Essex,  where  he  preached 
"to  four  hundred  listening  souls,"  and  "returned  to  the 
house  rejoicing."  His  second  service  was  suggested  by  a 
good  Quaker  at  Thaxted.  "  I  scrupled,"  he  says,  "preach- 
ing in  another's  parish  till  I  was  refused  the  church."     The 


The  Courage  of  the  Field-Preachers  345 

church  was  closed  against  him,  so  he  preached  to  many 
Quakers  and  seven  hundred  besides.  He  returned  to  Lon- 
don, and  we  soon  rind  him  preaching  at  Moorfields  and 
Kennington.  Thus  all  three  evangelists  were  committed  to 
a  work  which  did  more  than  anything  else  to  arouse  the 
slumbering  people  and  churches  of  England. 

The  philosophic  critic  of  Methodism,  Isaac  Taylor,  has 
truly  said :  "The  men  who  commenced  and  achieved  this 
arduous  service,  and  they  were  scholars  and  gentlemen,  dis- 
played a  courage  far  surpassing  that  which  carries  the  soldier 
through  the  hailstorm  of  the  battlefield.  Ten  thousand 
might  more  easily  be  found  who  would  confront  a  battery 
than  two  who,  with  the  sensitiveness  of  education  about 
them,  could  mount  a  table  by  the  roadside,  give  out  a  psalm, 
and  gather  a  mob." 


CHAPTER    XXXIX 


Strange  Scenes  of  Conversion  and  Conflict 

A   School    for   Colliers. — Kingswood. — Startling   Conversions. — 
French  Prophets. — At  the  Wells. — A  Baffled  Beau. 

WHEN  Whitefield  left  Bristol  on  April  2,  1739, 
"floods  of  tears  flowed  plentifully,"  and  when  at 
last  lie  forced  himself  away  twenty  friends  es- 
corted him  on  horseback  through  the  city  streets.  Arrived 
at  Kingswood,  the  grateful  colliers  surprised  him  with  "an 
hospitable  entertainment,"  and  afterward  urged  him,  then 
and  there,  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  school.  Very  few  sub- 
scriptions were  in  hand,  and  no  site  had  been  secured,  but  a 
person  standing  by  promised  a  piece  of  land,  and  amid  much 
excitement  Whitefield  knelt  upon  a  stone  which  was  pro- 
vided and  "  prayed  God  that  the  gates  of  hell  might  not  pre- 
vail "  against  the  design.  After  songs  of  praise  he  proceeded 
on  his  way.  It  was  left  to  John  Wesley  to  face  untold  diffi- 
culties in  raising  the  money,  and  eventually  the  burden  fell 
upon  the  income  from  his  own  fellowship.  At  the  end  of 
June  we  catch  sight  of  Wesley  taking  shelter  from  a  violent 
storm  under  a  sycamore  tree  "  in  the  middle  of  Kingswood." 
The  tree  stands  near  a  schoolhouse  which  has  begun  to  rise 

from  the  earth.      Above  the  noise  of  the  pelting  storm  and 

346 


The  Founding  of  Kingswood  School 


347 


the   murmur  of  the  crowd  we   hear  the  clear  voice  of  the 
preacher  declaring  that   ' '  As  the   rain   cometh   down   .    .    . 


JOHN    WESLEY,    THE    FOUNDER   OF    KINGSWOOD. 
The  original  is  preserved  in  the  dining  hall  of  the  new  Kingswood  School. 

from  heaven,  and  returneth  not  thither,  but  watereth  the 
earth  and  maketh  it  bring  forth  and  bud  ...  so  shall  my 
word    be."       Hagenbach    has    well    said:    "Nature    herself 


348  British  Methodism 

seemed  to  be  in  alliance  with  these  holy  men,  and  often  her 
phenomena  were  converted  by  the  earnest  speaker  into 
spiritual  symbols.  An  approaching  storm,  the  setting  sun, 
the  sinQfinof  of  the  birds,  and  the  wind  and  the  clouds  were 
made  to  explain  the  text ;  and  sometimes  just  such  a  natural 
figure  seemed  providentially  designed  for  this  purpose." 

The  Kingswood  School  was  finished  in  1740,  and  the 
colliers'  children  were  gathered  into  it.  John  Cennick,  one 
of  the  first  lay  preachers  employed  by  Wesley,  was  appointed 
to  superintend  the  society  and  school,  and  he  continued 
to  do  so  until  he  joined  the  Moravians,  in  1741.  Five  years 
later  Wesley  laid  the  first  stone  of  the  preachinghouse 
which  still  exists,  in  a  dilapidated  condition,  in  the  group  of 
old  buildings  at  Kingswood.  The  colliers'  children  were 
afterward  transferred  to  the  room  at  the  end  of  this  chapel, 
and  the  school  was  enlarged  that  it  might  become  a  training 
place  for  children  of  another  type — "  the  children  of  Metho- 
dists and  for  the  sons  of  itinerant  preachers."  Wesley 
reserved  one  room  and  a  small  study  for  himself.  The  first 
school  was  in  existence  in  1803.  The  second  school,  of  1748, 
became  the  foundation  of  the  famous  Kingswood  School  now 
located  nearer  Bath,  the  old  premises  becoming  a  reformatory 
in  the  hands  of  the  philanthropic  Mary  Carpenter.  Wesley's 
study  was  fitted  up  as  a  resting  place  for  this  lady,  and  there, 
in  many  an  hour  of  anxious  thought  by  day  and  night,  she 
realized  the  force  of  the  words  which  Wesley  had  written  on 
a  window  pane  in  his  room,  "  God  is  here." 

Strange  things  occurred  at  Bristol  under  Wesley's  minis- 
try. Bristol  became  the  scene  of  phenomena  similar  to  the 
startling  physical  convulsions  which  perplexed  thoughtful 
onlookers  during  the  revival  in  New  England,  and  even  in 
Scotland;  and,  strange  to  say,  these  more  often  accompanied 


D.    WOODWARD.  FROM    CONTEMPORARY     PRINTS. 

SCENES   ABOUT    OLD    KINGSWOOD. 
Wesley's  oriel  window.  Wesley's  walk. 

The  gardens  behind  the  school. 

Old  Kingswood,  main  building. 


Strange  Psychical  Phenomena  351 

the  calm,  logical  utterances  of  John  Wesley  than  the  vehe- 
ment exhortations  of  Whitefield  and  the  impassioned  appeals 
of  Charles  Wesley.  Cries  of  the  sharpest  anguish  were 
heard.  Hardened  sinners  were  stricken  down  as  in  the 
throes  of  death.  A  Quaker  who  was  angry  at  what  he 
thought  to  be  the  affected  groans  and  cries  in  Baldwin  Street 
room  was  knitting  his  brows  and  biting  his  lips  in  displeas- 
ure when  he  was  struck  down  in  a  moment,  as  by  an  unseen 
hand,  and  recovering  after  prayer,  cried  out,  "Now  I  know 
thou  art  a  prophet  of  the  Lord !  " 

John  Hay  don,  the  weaver,  was  a  stout  Churchman  of 
regular  habits,  who  on  the  same  night  the  Quaker  was  pres- 
ent came  to  see  for  himself  what  the  strange  tidings  meant. 
He  went  home  to  his  friends  declaring  that  it  was  all  a  delu- 
sion of  Satan,  but  as  he  was  reading  a  sermon  which  he 
had  borrowed,  on  Salvation  by  Faith,  he  changed  color 
and  fell  to  the  ground.  Wesley  was  sent  for,  and  with  a 
company  of  friends  prayed  earnestly  until  body  and  soul 
were  set  at  liberty,  and  by  the  evening  the  man,  weak  as  a 
child,  was  full  of  peace  and  joy. 

Bold  blasphemers  cried  aloud  for  mercy;  passing  travel- 
ers, pausing  to  hear,  were  smitten  to  the  earth  in  deep  con- 
viction for  sin.  An  irritated  mother,  vexed  by  the  weeping 
of  her  daughter,  became  herself  convulsed  with  sorrow  and 
went  home  in  joy.  A  physician,  who  thought  that  mere 
excitement  or  even  fraud  had  most  to  do  with  these  scenes, 
was  present  at  one  meeting  and  watched  with  keen  eyes 
one  woman  whom  he  had  known  for  years.  She  broke 
out  into  "strong  cries  and  tears."  Great  drops  of  per- 
spiration ran  down  her  face  and  her  body  shook.  He 
was  convinced  that  in  this  case  at  least  there  was  no 
imposition    nor    mere    natural    disorder,    and    when,    in    a 


352  British  Methodism 

moment,  both  body  and  soul  were  healed  he  acknowledged 
"  the  finger  of  God." 

Canon  Overton  considers  these  phenomena  "easily  ac- 
counted for.  The  heat  of  the  crowded  church,  the  electric 
spark  of  sympathy  running  through  the  excited  masses,  the 
wild  terror  and  the  ecstatic  joy  arising  from  the  treatment  of 
the  most  awful  subjects  with  the  most  vivid  realism,  will 
appear  quite  enough  to  throw  sensitive  minds  off  their  bal- 
ance, and  then  react  upon  their  bodily  frames.  But  such 
explanations  would  never  satisfy  one  who  had  so  intense  a 
belief  in  the  supernatural  as  John  Wesley  had." 

But  it  will  be  observed  that  these  scenes  occurred  more 
frequently  in  the  open  air  than  in  "the  heat  of  crowded 
churches."  During  his  nine  months  at  Bristol  Wesley 
preached  five  hundred  discourses  and  only  eight  of  them  in 
churches.  His  preaching  was  singularly  devoid  of  "vivid 
realism,"  whatever  might  be  said  of  Whitefield's.  Southey 
takes  it  for  granted  that  these  manifestations  were  impositions. 

Samuel  Wesley,  "evidently  a  most  well-meaning,  sober- 
minded  man,"  says  Mrs.  Oliphant,  "  but  with  no  special  call 
or  mission  to  the  world,  vexed  the  soul  of  the  reformer  at 
this  period  with  long-winded  letters  upon  these  phenomena, 
full  of  an  anxious,  and  not  unkindly  or  unthoughtful,  endeavor 
to  make  him  believe  that  his  work  is  foolishness  and  his 
followers  impostors  or  madmen."  "  We  cannot  but  feel," 
says  the  novelist,  "that  John  Wesley  has  the  best  of  the 
controversy,  however  impressed  we  may  be  by  the  good 
sense  and  moderation  of  his  brother.  He  says,  with  natural 
warmth,  that  these  effects  were  not  outward  only,  or  he 
would  not  believe  in  them,  but  that  they  were  followed  by 
entire  and  undeniable  reformation  of  life  ;  the  strongest  argu- 
ment that  could  be  adduced  in  their  favor." 


"The  French  Prophets"  353 

It  must,  in  justice  to  Wesley,  be  said  that  such  phenomena 
were  never  encouraged  by  him,  but  every  effort  was  made  to 
control  them.  There  is  no  doubt  that  there  were  some  cases 
of  imposture.  Charles  Wesley  said:  "  Many,  no  doubt,  were 
at  our  first  preaching  struck  down,  both  body  and  soul,  into 
the  depth  of  distress.  Their  outward  affections  were  easy  to 
be  imitated."  Where  he  suspected  affectation  he  ordered 
the  persons  to  be  carried  away.  At  Newcastle  he  declared 
he  thought  no  better  of  anyone  for  crying  out  or  interrupting 
his  work,  and  successfully  secured  quietness.  He  sometimes 
regarded  "  the  fits  "  as  a  device  of  Satan  to  stop  the  work. 

But  when  every  allowance  was  made  for  such  cases  the 
evangelists  themselves  had  good  reason  to  believe  that  the 
large  majority  were  the  result  of  real  and  intense  conviction 
for  sin.  "  From  the  days  of  John  the  Baptist  till  now,"  ob- 
serves Mrs.  Oliphant,  "  such  incidents  have  made  themselves 
visible  wherever  a  new  voice  like  that  of  him  in  the  wilder- 
ness lias  come,  rousing  the  world  into  a  revival  of  religious 
life."  One  of  Wesley's  most  recent  biographers  in  the  An- 
glican Church,  Miss  Wedgwood,  is  convinced  "that  there 
was  something  in  the  personal  influence  of  Wesley  (for  it 
certainly  does  not  remain  in  his  sermons)  which  had  the 
power  of  impressing  on  a  dull  and  lethargic  world  such  a 
horror  of  evil,  its  mysterious  closeness  to  the  human  soul, 
and  the  need  of  a  miracle  for  the  separation  of  the  two, 
as  no  one  perhaps  could  suddenly  receive  without  some  vio- 
lent physical  effect." 

As  soon  as  this  remarkable  work  began  to  attract  notice,  a 
fanatical  sect,  called  the  French  Prophets,  sought  to  make 
converts  among  the  people  whom  they  supposed  to  be  pre- 
pared for  their  message.  The  chief  "prophets"  were  Cami- 
sards  from  the  Cevennes,  who  had  found  refuee  in  London 


354  British  Methodism 

and  the  provincial  towns.  They  professed  inspiration,  fell 
into  trances  and  convulsions,  and  gained  converts  among 
the  higher  classes,  and  even  among  members  of  the  bar. 
The  French  churches  in  London  passed  a  severe  censure 
upon    them    and    their    fraudulent    or    foolish    fanaticism. 


t     I  > 


•  ^  ■    JO  v";,v€^l£ 


-----  v  w 


FROM    AN    OLD    PRtt 


THE    FRENCH    PROPHETS. 


Charles  Wesley  became  acquainted  with  one  of  them,  to 
whom  he  was  introduced  on  his  way  to  Oxford,  and  with 
whom  he  was  compelled  not  only  to  lodge,  but  sleep.  This 
gentleman  insisted  that  the  French  Prophets  were  quite 
equal  to  the  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament.  Charles,  how- 
ever, was  not  aware  that  his  host  was  a  gifted  personage 
until  they  retired  to  bed,  when,  as  they  were  undressing, 
he  fell  into  violent  agitations  and  gobbled  like  a  turkey 
cock.  "I  was  frightened,"  he  says,  "and  began  exorcis- 
ing him  with,  'Thou  deaf  and  dumb  devil!'  He  soon  re- 
covered out  of  his  fit  of  inspiration.     I  prayed,  and  went  to 


A  Fashionable  Watering  Place  355 

bed,  not  half  liking  my  bedfelloAv.  I  did  not  sleep  very 
sound  with  Satan  so  near  me." 

These  "prophets"  gave  Wesley  great  trouble  in  London 
and  Bristol.  He  pronounced  them  ' '  properly  enthusiasts. 
For,  first,  they  think  to  attain  the  end  without  the  means : 
which  is  enthusiasm,  properly  so  called.  Again,  they  think 
themselves  inspired  by  God  and  are  not.  .  .  .  That  theirs 
is  only  imaginary  inspiration  appears  hence — it  contradicts 
the  law  and  the  testimony."  At  Bristol,  he  says,  he 
endeavored  to  point  them  out,  and  earnestly  exhorted  all 
that  followed  after  holiness  to  avoid,  as  fire,  all  who  do  not 
speak  according  to  the  Scriptures.  Many  years  later  (1786) 
he  discouraged  extravagances  among  the  [Methodists  who 
leaped  and  shouted  at  Chapel-en-le-Frith,  crying,  "Glory! 
glory!"  twenty  times  together.  "Just  so,"  said  he,  "do 
the  French  Prophets,  and  very  lately  the  Jumpers  in  Wales, 
bring  the  real  work  into  contempt.  Yet  whenever  we 
reprove  them  it  should  be  in  the  most  mild  and  gentle  man- 
ner possible." 

From  Bristol  Wesley  visited  Bath,  at  that  time  the  most 
fashionable  watering  place  in  England.  "  As  for  Bath, "says 
Thackeray,  "all  history  went  and  bathed  and  drank  there. 
George  II  and  his  queen,  Prince  Frederick  and  his  court, 
scarce  a  character  one  can  mention  of  the  early  part  of  the 
last  century  but  was  seen  in  that  famous  Pump  Room  where 
Beau  Nash  presided.  Chesterfield  came  there  man)-  a  time 
and  gambled  for  hundreds  and  grinned  through  his  gout. 
Mary  Wortley  was  there,  young  and  beautiful;  and  Mary 
Wortley,  old,  hideous,  and  snuffy.  Miss  Chudleigh  came 
there,  slipping  away  from  one  husband  and  on  the  lookout 
for  another.  Walpole  passed  man}'  a  day  there — sickly  super- 
cilious, absurdly  dandified  and  affected — with  a  brilliant  wit, 


356 


British  Methodism 


a  delightful  sensibility;  and  for  his  friends  a  most  tender, 
generous,  and  faithful  heart.  And  if  you  and  I  had  been 
alive  then  and  strolling  down  Milsom  Street — Hush !  we 
should  have  taken  our  hats  off,  as  an  awful,  long,  lean,  gaunt 
figure,   swathed  in   flannels,   passed  by   in   its   chair,   and  a 

livid  face  looked 
out  from  a  window 
- — great  fierce  eyes 
staring  from  under 
a  bushy  powdered 
wig,  a  terrible 
frown,  a  terrible 
Roman  nose.  We 
whisper  to  one  an- 
other, '  There  he 
is  !  There's  the 
Great  Commoner! 
There  is  Mr. 
Pitt.'" 

Into  the  midst 
of  this  Vanity  Fair 
came  the  apostle  of 
the  century  creat- 
ing no  small  stir — 
for  it  was  rumored 
that  "  the  king  of 
Bath,"  Beau  Nash, 
had  decided  to  interrupt  his  service.  The  crowd  was  larger 
than  usual,  expecting  to  witness  the  discomfiture  of  Wesley. 
He  was  "concluding  them  all  under  sin,"  and  they  "were 
sinking  apace  into  seriousness,"  when  Nash  appeared,  and 
marching  up  to  Wesley,  demanded  by  what  authority  he  did 


AFTER    AN    OLD    PRINT. 


BEAU    NASH. 


"Beau  Nash"  and  John  Wesley  357 

these  things.  Wesley  replied,  "  By  the  authority  of  Jesus 
Christ,  conveyed  to  me  by  the  (now)  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, when  he  laid  his  hands  upon  me,  and  said,  '  Take  thou 
authority  to  preach  the  Gospel.'  " 

"This,"  said  Nash,  "is  contrary  to  act  of  Parliament. 
This  is  a  conventicle." 

"  Sir,"  answered  Wesley,  "  conventicles  are  seditious  meet- 
ing's;  but  here  is  no  shadow  of  sedition." 

"  I  say  it  is,"  cried  the  dandy;  "  and  besides,  your  preach- 
ing frightens  people  out  of  their  wits." 

"  Sir,"  said  Wesley,  "  did  you  ever  hear  me  preach?  " 

"  No." 

"  How,  then,  can  you  judge  of  what  you  never  heard?  " 

"  Sir,  by  common  report." 

"  Common  report,"  replied  the  preacher,  "  is  not  enough. 
Give  me  leave  to  ask,  sir,  is  not  your  name  Nash?  " 

"  My  name  is  Nash." 

"  Sir,"  said  Wesley,  "  I  dare  not  judge  of  you  by  common 
report." 

Disconcerted,  Nash  paused,  and  to  gain  time  asked  what 
the  people  thought.  One  from  the  crowd  said  to  Mr.  Wes- 
ley: "  Sir,  leave  him  to  me;  let  an  old  woman  answer  him. 
You,  Mr.  Nash,  take  care  of  your  body;  we  take  care  of  our 
souls;   and  for  the  food  of  our  souls  we  come  here." 

The  woman's  happ3^  sally  turned  the  tables  on  him,  and 

the  fashionable  gamester  slunk  away  without  another  word. 
23 


j^^-f^a^^Sfe 


CHAPTER  XL 
The  First  Two  Methodist  Chapels  in  the  World 

The  Old  Room  in  the  Horsefair,  Bristol.  —  From  the  Fields 
to  the  Foundry. — A  Five  O'clock  Morning  Service. — A  New 
Philanthropy. 

AMERICANS  honor  Bristol  as  the  birthplace  of  John 
Cabot,  who  crossed  the  Atlantic  in    1497-8  and  was 
the  first  man  of  the  Old  World    to    set    foot    upon 
the    northern  mainland    of    the  New  World.     The  men  of 
Bristol  had  a  good  part  in  the  colonization  of  America. 

But  Methodists  on  both  sides  of  the  sea  find  a  common  in- 
terest in  the  fine  old  city  as  the  first  place  in  the  world  where 
a  Methodist  chapel  was  built,  and  where  Methodism  began 
to  crystallize  into  its  distinctive  ecclesiastical  institutions  for 
free  worship  and  fellowship.  No  "storied  windows  richly 
dight,  casting  a  dim  religious  light,"  are  to  be  found  in  the 
"old  room  in  the  Horsefair" — for  Wesley  did  not  call  it  a 
"chapel" — and  it  stands  to-day  in  "  Puritan  simplicity." 
Pope,  anti-Puritan  as  he  was,  who  died  five  years  after  it 
was  opened,  might  have  found  in  it  an  illustration  of  his 
lines,  used  in  a  very  different  connection : 

No  silver  saints,  by  dying  misers  given, 
Here  bribed  the  rage  of  ill-requited  heav'n; 
But  such  plain  roofs  as  piety  could  raise, 
And  only  vocal  with  the  Maker's  praise. 
358 


%  ^f;  gpflpff  fr—^  + 


DRAWN    BY    J.     D.     WOODWARD. 


FROM     PRINTS. 


THE  "OLD    ROOM  IN  THE    HORSEFAIR,"  BRISTOL,  THE    FIRST    HOUSE  BUILT 

FOR    METHODIST  PREACHING. 

Entrance  to  the  "  old  room."  The  room  above  the  chapel. 

Interior  of  the  preaching  room. 


The  Old  Room  in  the  Horsefair  361 

When  the  room  in  the  Horsefair  was  opened  the  English 
Dissenters  had  probably  about  six  thousand  places  of 
worship.  Many  of  these  had  been  destroyed  during  the 
Sacheverell  riots,  and  had  been  recently  rebuilt.  Under 
the  Act  of  Toleration  of  1689  they  were  placed  under  the 
protection  of  the  king's  courts  by  registration,  and  property 
given  for  religious  purposes  could  be  secured  by  trust  deeds 
which  were  recognized  by  the  legal  authorities.  It  will  be 
seen  that  when  Wesley  began  to  register  his  "  rooms  "  and 
"  meetinghouses"  he  took  a  step  which  placed  his  societies 
on  a  level  with  the  existing  Free  Churches  of  the  country, 
and  made  them  new  and  distinct  centers  for  the  worship  of 
the  coming  cosmopolitan  Methodist  Church. 

The  foundation  stone  of  this  first  preaching  room  was 
laid  on  May  12,  1739,  with  "the  voice  of  praise  and  thanks- 
giving." The  eleven  trustees  whom  Wesley  appointed  did 
very  little  to  raise  the  necessary  funds,  and  Wesley  took  up- 
on himself  the  payment  of  the  builder.  Whitefield  urged 
Wesley  to  get  rid  of  the  trustees,  on  the  ground  that  they 
would  have  power  under  the  deed  to  turn  him  out  if  he  dis- 
pleased them  by  his  preaching.  Wesley  took  this  advice, 
canceled  the  deed,  and  became  the  sole  proprietor.  This, 
though  insignificant  at  the  time,  was  a  matter  of  great  im- 
portance, for  in  this  manner  nearly  all  the  chapels  built  in 
the  early  years  of  his  career  were  vested  in  himself.  This 
involved  serious  responsibility,  which,  however,  was  honora- 
bly fulfilled  ;  for  trusts  were  afterward  created,  and  by  his 
"  Deed  of  Declaration"  all  his  interests  in  his  chapels  were 
transferred  to  his  Legal  Conference. 

Three  weeks  after  the  first  stone  was  laid  Wesley  wrote : 
"  Not  being  permitted  to  meet  in  Baldwin  Street,  we  met  in 
the  shell  of  our  new  society  room.      The   Scripture  which 


362  British  Methodism 

came  in  course  to  be  explained  was,  '  Marvel  not  if  the  world 
hate  you.'     We  sung: 

Arm  of  the  Lord,  awake,  awake! 

Thine  own  immortal  strength  put  on! 

and  God,  even  our  own  God,  gave  us  his  blessing."  Here 
the  first  class  meeting  was  held.  Here,  in  Wesley's  life- 
time, eighteen  Conferences  assembled.  From  the  old  pulpit, 
moved  from  its  former  place,  but  otherwise  unchanged,  John 
Wesley  in  1739  expounded  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  the 
"  inalienable  charter"  of  the  Churches  of  God.  It  was  also 
Charles  Wesley's  pulpit,  in  which  he  preached  for  many 
years,  coming  to  it  from  the  small  house  in  Stokes  Croft — 
the  pulpit  in  which  occurred  the  curious  incident  told  by 
Adam  Clarke : 

"I  sat  behind  him.  He  gave  out  a  hymn,  and  prayed; 
but  was  completely  in  the  trammels,  where  he  had  often  been 
before.  He  took  a  text,  spoke  a  little,  but  soon  found  that 
he  could  not  go  on.  He  tried  to  relieve  himself  by  pray- 
ing— he  took  another  text — which  also  was  fruitless.  He 
took  up  the  hymn  book — beckoned  to  me — left  the  pulpit, 
and  retired  to  the  rooms  over  the  chapel." 

Eventually  the  poet  preacher  returned,  told  a  story,  and 
exclaimed  with  a  strong  voice,  yet  a  little  drawling,  "Be- 
lieve— love — obey!"  You  can  picture  him  fixing  his  eye 
close  to  the  page  of  his  little  pocket  field  Bible— being 
short-sighted  and  able  to  see  with  one  eye  better  than  the 
other — reading  his  text,  laying  his  Bible  on  the  pulpit  be- 
side him,  inclining  forward,  lying  in  a  lounging  position,  his 
arm  resting  upon  the  pulpit  Bible  and  cushion,  and  preach- 
ing sometimes  with  power  and  sometimes  in  trammels.  And 
many  others,  men  of  renown,  who  turned  the  old  godless 
world  of  those  days  upside  down,  preached  in  that  pulpit,  and 


"Too  Richly  Ornamented"  363 

lodged  in  the  little  rooms  above,  like  ships'  cabins,  the  doors 
of  which  may  be  seen  in  our  illustration  of  the  "  room  above 
the  chapel."  Whitefield  complained  to  Wesley  that  the 
room  was  too  richly  ornamented.  Wesley  replied:  "The 
society  room  at  Bristol,  you  say,  is  adorned.  How?  Why, 
with  a  piece  of  green  cloth  nailed  to  the  desk,  and  two  sconces, 
for  eight  candles  each,  in  the  middle.  I  know  no  more.  Now, 
which  of  these  can  be  spared?  I  know  not;  nor  would  I  de- 
sire more  adornment,  or  less.  But  '  lodgings  are  made  for 
me  and  my  brother.'  This  is,  in  plain  English,  there  is  a 
little  room  by  the  school  where  I  speak  to  the  persons  who 
come  to  me,  and  a  garret  in  which  a  bed  is  placed  for  me. 
And  do  you  grudge  me  this?  Is  this  the  voice  of  my  brother 
— my  son — Whitefield?  " 

As  Methodism  developed  larger  chapels  were  built,  and 
in  1808  the  "old  room"  with  its  "lodgings"  was  sold  to 
the  Welsh  Calvinistic  Methodists,  who  still  worship  in  it. 

Wesley  was  recalled  to  London  in  June,  1739,  by  letters 
which  reported  that  the  society  in  Fetter  Lane  was  in  great 
confusion.  A  "  French  Prophetess  "  had  given  great  trouble, 
roaring  when  Charles  Wesley  prayed,  and  professing  to  be 
inspired.  John  Wesley  persuaded  the  society  to  disown  her, 
and  thus  he  restored  peace.  Two  members  who  had  re- 
nounced connection  with  the  Church  of  England  were  struck 
off  the  roll — for  this  was  not  a  Moravian  society,  and  the 
Methodist  society  had  not  yet  been  formed. 

During  his  five  days  in  London  Wesley  took  his  place  as  a 
field-preacher.  Whitefield  surprised  him  by  asking  him  to 
preach  at  Blackheath  to  more  than  twelve  thousand  people. 
"Which  I  did,"  he  says,  "though  nature  recoiled,  on  my 
favorite  subject,  '  Jesus  Christ,  who  of  God  is  made  unto  us 
wisdom,  righteousness,  sanctification,    and    redemption.'      I 


364 


British  Methodism 


was  greatly  moved  with  compassion  for  the  rich  that  were 
there,  to  whom  I  made  a  particular  application.  Some  of 
them  seemed  to  attend,  while  others  drove  away  their  coaches 
from  so  uncouth  a  preacher."  He  preached  on  a  Sunday 
morning'  at  seven,  in  Upper  Moorfields,  to  more  than  seven 
thousand  people.  Close  by  Moorfields  Methodism  found,  first 
in  the  Foundry  and  then  in  City  Road  (now  Wesley)  Chapel, 


FROM  AN  OLD  MAP. 

VICINITY  OF  CITY  ROAD  AND  FOUNDRY  IN  EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY. 


a  local  habitation,  and  on  the  Foundry  premises  was  organized 
"  the  mother  church  of  Methodism." 

Our  old  map  shows  where  "the  Foundry"  stood.  All 
traces  of  it  have  now  disappeared.  Moorfields  ceased  to  be 
"  fields  "  before  the  death  of  Wesley.  They  were  separated 
from  the  city  by  London  Wall — then  really  a  wall,  and  not  a 
mere  street,  and  Moorgate  was  then  really  a  gate.  Beyond 
Moorfields  was  the  waste  ground  of  Windmill  Hill,  where 
were   deposited,  in  the  reign   of  Edward  A' I,  one  thousand 


Gospel  Artillery  in  a   Gunshop 


365 


tons  of  human  bones  taken  from  the  charnel  house  of  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral.  On  this  ground  stood  the  ruined  gun 
foundry  shattered  by  the  memorable  explosion  when  Wesley 
was  a  Charterhouse  boy.  It  still  lay  "  a  vast,  uncouth  heap 
of  ruins." 

The  winter  of  1739  was  unusually  severe,  and  in  the  pros- 
pect of  being  unable  to  preach  out  of  doors,  and  with  most  of 
the  churches  closed  against  him,  Wesley,  by  the  advice  and 


VICINITY  OF  CITY  ROAD  CHAPEL  AT  THE  PRESENT  DAY. 


with  the  help  of  two  gentlemen  until  then  unknown  to  him, 
leased  the  Foundry  for  ^115,  and  afterward  restored  and 
almost  rebuilt  the  whole,  at  a  cost  of  ^800,  to  fit  it  for  his 
purpose.  Its  preaching  room  would  seat  fifteen  hundred 
people.  The  band  room  behind  seated  three  hundred.  One 
end  of  the  chapel  was  fitted  up  for  a  schoolroom ;  the  oppo- 
site end  was  the  "book  room,"  and  the  Collection  of 
Psalms  and  Hymns  published  in  1741  bore  the  imprint, 
"Sold  at  the  Foundry,  Upper  Moorfields."  Above  the 
band  room  were  Wesley's  apartments,  whither  he  brought 
his  mother,  and  here,  within  a  quarter  of  an  hour's  walk  of 


366  British  Methodism 

the  church  from  which  her  father  was  ejected,  and  of  the 
meetinghouse  where  he  exereised  his  late  ministry,  the 
mother  of  the  Wesleys  died. 

Wesley's  first  service  was  held  at  the  Foundry  on  Sunday, 
November  n,  1739.  He  wrote:  "I  preaehed  at  eight 
o'clock  to  five  or  six  thousand,  on  the  vSpirit  of  Bondage  and 
the  Spirit  of  Adoption,  and  at  five  in  the  evening  in  the  place 
which  had  been  the  king's  foundry  for  cannon.  O  hasten 
Thou  the  time  when  nation  shall  not  rise  up  against  nation, 
neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more ! 

Silas  Told,  who  became  famous  as  Wesley's  first  teacher  of 
the  "Foundry  School,"  and  as  a  prison  philanthropist,  at- 
tended Wesley's  five  o'clock  service  one  morning  in  June, 
1740.  He  found  it  a  ruinous  place  with  an  old  pantile  cov- 
ering, decayed  timbers,  and  a  pulpit  made  of  a  few  rough 
boards.  "Exactly  at  five  o'clock,"  says  Told,  "  a  whisper 
was  conveyed  through  the  congregation,  '  Here  he  comes! 
here  he  comes !  '  I  was  filled  with  curiosity  to  see  his  per- 
son, which,  when  I  beheld,  I  much  despised.  The  enemy 
of  souls  suggested  that  he  was  some  farmer's  son,  who,  not 
being  able  to  support  himself,  was  making  a  penny  in  this 
manner.  He  passed  through  the  congregation  into  the  pul- 
pit, and,  having  his  robes  on,  I  expected  he  would  have  be- 
gun with  the  Church  service ;  'but,  to  my  astonishment,  he 
began  with  singing  a  hymn,  with  which  I  was  almost  en- 
raptured; but  his  extemporary  prayer  was  quite  unpleasant, 
as  I  thought  it  savored  too  much  of  a  Dissenter.  His  text 
was,  '  I  write  unto  you,  little  children,  because  your  sins  are 
forgiven  you.'  The  enemy  now  suggested  that  he  was  a 
Papist,  as  lie  dwelt  so  much  on  the  forgiveness  of  sins.  Al- 
though I  had  read  this  Scripture  many  times  before,  yet  I 
never  understood  that  we  were  to  know  our   sins  foro-iven  on 


Silas  Told's   Story. 


367 


earth,  supposing-  that  it  referred  only  to  those  to  whom  the 
apostle  was  then  writing ;  especially  as  I  had  never  heard 
this  doctrine  preached  in  the  Church.  However,  my  preju- 
dice quickly  abated,  and  I  plainly  saw  I  could  never  be  saved 
without  knowing  my  sins  forgiven.  Under  this  sermon 
God  sealed  the  truth  on  my  heart.  At  the  close  of  which, 
however  strange  it  may  appear,  a  small  still  voice  entered  my 


DRAWN    BY    P.     E.     FLINTOFF 


FROM    AN    ENGRAVING. 


THE    FOUNDRY    CHAPEL,    MOORFIELDS. 
The  old  artillery  foundry,  as  remodeled  for  use  as  a  Wesleyan  chapel. 

heart  with  these  words,  '  This  is  the  truth !  '  and  instantly  I 
felt  it  in  my  soul.  My  friend,  observing  my  attention,  asked 
me  how  I  liked  Mr.  Wesley.  I  replied,  '  As  long  as  I  live  I 
will  never  part  from  him.'  " 

Five  months  after  the  Foundry  was  opened  Charles  Wes- 
ley began  preaching  in  the  Foundry  chapel,  and  in  May, 
i  740,  he  was  indicted  at  Hicks's  Hall  with  Howell  Harris,  the 
Welsh  apostle,  and  others,  for  preaching  sedition.  Hicks's 
Hall  was  the  Middlesex  Session  House.  Wesley's  friend,  Sir 
John  Gunson,  "  quashed  the  whole."     For  thirty-eight  years 


368  British  Methodism 

the  Foundry  was  the  headquarters  of  Methodism,  and  the 
center  of  many  philanthropic  agencies,  including  the  Charity 
School,  a  dispensary,  almshouse  for  nine  poor  widows,  and  a 
loan  society.  "On  dark  winter  nights,  over  roads  without 
pavements,  and  unlighted  by  gas  or  lamps  of  any  kind  save 
the  flickering  lantern  of  the  serious  and  earnest  worshipers, 
might  be  seen  those  devout  men  and  women,  almost  groping 
their  way  to  the  daily  services  at  the  first  Methodist  chapel, 
led  by  the  tinkling  of  the  Foundry  bell."  The  Foundry 
was  superseded  by  City  Road  Chapel  in  1778.  The  old  pul- 
pit is  preserved  in  Richmond  College,  Surrey. 


CHAPTER   XLI 


The  Foundation  of  a  World-Wide  Fellowship 

Wesley's  Master  Motive. — The  Rise  of  the  United  Societies. — 
From  Fetter  Lane  to  Foundry. — The  Genesis  of  the  Class 
Meeting. — The  General  Rules. — A  Desire  to  Flee  from  the 
Wrath  to  Come. 


O 


NE  of  the  features  of  Wesley's  great  reformation 

was  that  it  was  done  without  a  previously  devised 

plan."      Thus  spoke  the  Rev.  Richard  Green  in 

his  Fernley  Lecture  of  1890.     Wesley's  "one  great  object," 

says  Canon  Overton,  "was  to  promote  the  love  of  God  and 

the  love  of  man  for  God's  sake."     With  this  one  object  he 

went   forward   step  by   step,   confronting   "new   occasions," 

and  ever    finding  in  them   "new  duties."      To  his  master 

purpose    everything    must    yield — personal    tastes,    church 

order,    and    even    cherished    friendships.       Whitefield    was 

possessed    with    a    purpose    as    noble,    but    he    lacked     the 

genius  for  organization  which  characterized  the  many-sided 

Wesley. 

The  hour  had  come  to  fold  the  gathered  sheep  lest  they 

should   faint  and  be   scattered   on   the   hills  again.      "The 

clergy,"  says  Gregory,  "so  far  from  being  spiritual  fathers, 

were  not  even  the  cheap  and  efficient  police  which  the  Eras- 

369 


370  British  Methodism 

tianism   of  the   day  esteemed  them."      The  open-air  work 

had   awakened  multitudes,   and  here    and  there,  under   the 

smoke  of  large  towns  and  in  the  seclusion  of  rural  parishes, 

were  quiet  souls  waiting  for  the  kingdom  of  God,  but,  as  the 

Wesleys  sang : 

Scattered  o'er  all  the  land  they  lie 
Till  thou  collect  them  with  thine  eye, 
Draw  by  the  music  of  thy  name, 
And  charm  into  a  beauteous  frame. 

Wesley  never  forgot  the  words  of  the  ".serious  man  "  who 
told  him  that  if  he  would  serve  God  and  reach  heaven,  he  must 
find  companions  or  make  them,  saying,  "The  Bible  knows 
nothing  of  solitary  religion."  He  had  seen  how  useful  the 
"  societies"  identified  with  the  names  of  Dr.  Woodward  and 
Dr.  Horneck  had  been,  although  they  had  so  woefully  de- 
cayed. He  had  profited  by  the  fellowship  meetings  of  the 
Moravians,  and  the  peculiarities  of  a  few  of  them  could  not 
blind  him  to  the  worth  and  beauty  of  their  principles  of  com- 
munion. "All  these  were  guiding  lines,"  says  Green,  "leading 
him  toward  the  formation  of  his  society,  to  the  idea  of  which, 
when  once  entertained,  he  adhered  with  great  tenacity." 

As  early  as  April,  1739,  Wesley  records  the  beginning  of 
a  little  fellowship  meeting  at  Bristol,  and  refers  to  a  similar 
gathering  in  London.  We  have  details  in  a  letter  dated 
April  9,  1739,  published  in  the  Moravian  Messenger  for  1877, 
under  the  heading  of  "  Extracts  from  Unpublished  Letters 
of  John  and  Charles  Wesley  in  the  Provincial  Archives." 
There  Wesley  took  the  names  of  the  three  women  at  Bristol 
who  ' '  agreed  to  meet  together  weekly,"  and  also  the  names  of 
the  four  men  who  agreed  to  do  the  same.  "  If  this  work  be 
not  of  God,  let  it  come  to  naught.  If  it  be,  who  can  hinder 
it?"    In  his  record  of  the  occurrence  in  his  Journal  for  April  4 


The  Rise  of  the  United  Society  371 

he  asks,  "  How  dare  any  man  deny  this  to  be  (as  to  the  sub- 
stance of  it)  a  means  of  grace  ordained  by  God?  " 

But  these  early  meetings  at  Bristol  were  very  small  and 
were  not  formally  organized  by  Wesley  himself,  although 
he  so  heartily  approved  of  them.  He  dates  the  veritable 
commencement  of  organized  Wesleyan  Methodism  a  few 
months  later  in  the  same  year.  His  account  was  first  pub- 
lished in  1743  as  preface  to  that  most  important  of  early 
Methodist  documents,  The  Nature,  Design,  and  General 
Rules  of  the  United  Societies,  in  London,  Bristol,  Kings- 
wood,  and  Newcastle-upon-Tyne : 

"In  the  latter  end  of  the  year  1739  eight  or  ten  persons, 
who  appeared  to  be  deeply  convinced  of  sin  and  earnestly 
groaning  for  redemption,  came  to  Mr.  Wesley  in  London. 
They  desired,  as  did  two  or  three  more  the  next  day,  that  he 
would  spend  some  time  with  them  in  prayer  and  advise  them 
how  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come,  which  they  saw  continu- 
ally hanging  over  their  heads.  That  he  might  have  more 
time  for  this  great  work  he  appointed  a  day  when  they 
might  all  come  together;  which  from  thenceforward  they 
did  every  week,  namely,  on  Thursday,  in  the  evening.  To 
these  and  as  many  more  as  desired  to  join  with  them  (for 
their  number  increased  daily)  he  gave  those  advices  from 
time  to  time  which  he  judged  most  needful  for  them  ;  and 
they  always  concluded  their  meeting  with  prayer  suited  to 
their  several  necessities.  This  was  the  rise  of  the  L^nited 
Society,  first  in  London  and  then  in  other  places." 

Wesley  took  down  their  names  and  places  of  abode  in 
order  to  call  upon  them  at  their  homes.  He  was  moving  in 
the  same  path  as  the  apostles.  "  In  the  earliest  times,"  says 
he,  "those  whom  God  had  sent  forth  preached  the  Gospel  to 
every  creature.     And  the  body  of  hearers  were  mostly  Jews 


372  British  Methodism 

or  heathens.  But  as  soon  as  any  of  these  were  so  convinced 
of  the  truth  as  to  forsake  sin  and  seek  the  Gospel  salvation 
they  immediately  joined  them  together,  took  an  account  of 
their  names,  advised  them  to  watch  over  each  other,  and 
met  these  catechumens  (as  they  were  then  called)  apart  from 
the  great  congregation,  that  they  might  instruct,  rebuke, 
exhort,  and  pray  with  them,  and  for  them,  according  to  their 
several  necessities." 

"Thus  arose,  without  any  previous  design  on  either  side, 
what  was  afterward  called  a  society;  a  very  innocent  name, 
and  very  common  in  London  for  any  number  of  people  asso- 
ciating themselves  together." 

When  this  society  at  the  Foundry  was  begun — the  first 
society  under  the  direct  control  of  Wesley — the  society  in 
Fetter  Lane  was  still  attended  by  the  Methodist  converts. 
Although  a  section  of  it  afterward  became  a  Moravian  so- 
ciety, it  was  not  so  while  Wesley  belonged  to  it,  as  he  him- 
self has  stated.  Strangely  enough,  even  Tyerman  fell  into 
the  error  of  calling  this  a  Moravian  society.  The  members 
avowed  themselves  adherents  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  two  of  them  were  excluded  because  they  "disowned" 
themselves  as  such. 

Toward  the  close  of  1739  sad  trouble  arose  at  Fetter 
Lane  through  the  introduction  of  strange  mystic  opinions 
by  a  Moravian  minister  named  Molther,  the  private  tutor 
of  Count  Zinzendorf's  son.  He  disparaged  the  means  of 
grace ,  introduced  novel  ideas  of  faith,  and  inculcated  a  form 
of  quietism  called  "  stillness."  The  Wesleys  made  strenuous 
efforts  to  "still"  the  strife  which  arose,  but  not  succeeding, 
they  seceded  from  the  Fetter  Lane  society  on  July  20,  1740. 
About  seventy-two  of  the  members  adhered  to  them,  joining 
the  new  society  at  the  Foundry. 


Fetter  Lane  Chapel 


373 


Fetter  Lane  Chapel  was  taken  by  James  Hutton  ' '  for  the 
Germans"  in  1740,  and  the  residuum  of  the  Fetter  Lane  so- 
ciety, which  had  hitherto  met  in  a  "  room,"  was  organized  as 
a  Moravian  church  by  Spangenberg  in  1742.  Although 
Wesley  appears  never  to  have  preached  in  the  chapel,  it  has 
a  history  of  great  interest.  Baxter  lectured  in  it  for  ten 
years.  It  escaped  the  great  fire  of  London  and  was  used 
for  worship  while  the   churches  were  rebuilding.     Stephen 


DRAWN    BY    W.    B     PRICE. 


FROM   A   PRINT. 


THE    MORAVIAN    CHAPEL    IN    FETTER    LANE.      THE    INTERIOR. 


Lobb,  whom  Macaulay  pillories,  was  its  minister  at  the  time 

of  the  Revolution.      Bold  "Bradbury"  was  its  pastor  when 

it  was  attacked  by  Sacheverell's  High    Church   mob.     And 

here   good   Peter  Bohler  preached   his  last  sermon,  on   the 

morning  of  the  day  he  died. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Charles  Wesley  wrote  his  hymn  on 

"  The  Means  of  Grace,"  which,  in  its  complete  form,  guards 
24 


374  British  Methodism 

against  the  extremes  on  either  side.      It  contains  the  well- 
known  verse : 

Still  for  thy  loving-kindness,  Lord, 

I  in  thy  temple  wait ; 
I  look  to  find  thee  in  thy  word, 

Or  at  thy  table  meet. 

Wesley  describes  the  next  step  in  the  organization  of 
Methodism  with  characteristic  simplicity :  ' '  The  people  were 
scattered  so  wide,  in  all  parts  of  the  town  from  Wapping  to 
Westminster,  that  I  could  not  easily  see  what  the  behavior  of 
each  person  in  his  own  neighborhood  was ;  so  that  several 
disorderly  walkers  did  much  hurt  before  I  was  apprised  of  it. 
At  length,  while  we  were  thinking  of  quite  another  thing,  we 
struck  upon  a  method  for  which  we  have  cause  to  bless  God 
ever  since."  This  was  the  method  of  the  class  meeting, 
which   was  first  adopted  at  Bristol  in  1742. 

There  still  remained  a  larofe  debt  on  the  meeting-house 
built  in  the  "  Horsefair"  three  years  before,  and  Wesley 
called  together  the  principal  men  for  consultation.  How 
should  the  debts  be  paid?  Captain  Foy  said,  "Let  every 
member  of  the  society  give  a  penny  a  week  till  all  are 
paid." 

Another  answered,  "  But  many  of  them  are  poor,  and  can- 
not afford  to  do  it." 

"Then,"  said  Foy,  "put  eleven  of  the  poorest  with  me, 
and  if  they  can  give  anything,  well;  I  will  call  on  them 
weekly,  and  if  they  can  give  nothing,  I  will  give  for  them 
as  well  as  for  myself.  And  each  of  you  call  on  eleven  of 
your  neighbors  weekly,  receive  what  they  give,  and  make 
up  what  is  wanting." 

"  It  was  done,"  says  Wesley.  "  In  a  while,  some  of  these 
informed  me,  they  found  such  and  such  an  one  did  not  live 


A  Layman's  Clever  Invention 


375 


as  lie  ought.    It  struck  me  immediately,   '  This  is  the  thing ; 
the  very  thing  we  have  wanted  so  long.'  " 

The  layman  conceived  the  idea  that  solved  the  financial 
problem  and  that  quickened  in  the  preacher's  mind  the  plan 
by  which  the  spiritual  welfare  of  every  member  might  be 
secured.  Wesley  called  together  all  the  leaders  of  the  classes 
— as  they  were  now  termed — and  desired  each  to  make  par- 


FROM  AN  OLO  PRINT. 

MORAVIAN    CEREMONIAL    OF    PROSTRATION    BEFORE   THE    LORD. 

ticular  inquiry  into  the  behavior  of  those  he  visited.  This 
was  done  and  "many  disorderly  walkers  were  detected." 
Some  turned  from  the  evil  of  their  ways,  others  were  put 
out  of  the  society.  Thus  was  found  a  plan  by  which  disci- 
pline might  be  maintained,  the  unworthy  admonished  or  dis- 
missed, and  the  consistent  encouraged. 

On  Thursday,  April  25,  Wesley  called  together  in  London 
several  earnest  and  sensible  men,  told  them  of  the  difficulty 
of  knowing  the  people  who  desired  to  be  under  his  care,  and 


376  British  Methodism 

after  a  long  conversation  they  adopted  the  new  plan  of 
classes.  "This  was  the  origin  of  our  classes  at  London," 
writes  Wesley,  "  for  which  I  can  never  sufficiently  praise 
God ;  the  unspeakable  usefulness  of  the  institution  having 
ever  since  been  more  and  more  manifest." 

It  was  soon  found  impracticable  for  the  leader  to  visit  each 
member  at  his  own  house,  and  so  it  was  agreed  that  the  mem- 
bers of  each  class  should  come  together  at  some  suitable 
place  once  a  week.  Wesley  writes:  "  It  can  scarce  be  con- 
ceived what  advantages  have  been  reaped  by  this  little  pru- 
dential regulation.  Many  experienced  that  Christian  fellow- 
ship 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  daily  a  more  in- 
timate acquaintance,  so  they  had  a  more  endeared  affection 
for  each  other." 

After  the  division  of  the  society  into  classes  there  came 
the  institution  of  weekly  leaders'  meetings.  The  leaders 
were  untrained  men,  and  the  objection  was  raised  that  they 
had  neither  gifts  nor  graces  for  such  a  divine  employment. 
Wesley,  however,  quietly  remarked,  "  It  may  be  hoped  they 
will  all  be  better  than  they  are,  both  by  experience  and  by 
observation,  and  by  the  advices  given  them  by  the  minister 
every  Tuesday  night,  and  the  prayers  (then  in  particular) 
offered  up  for  them." 

On  February  23,  1743,  John  Wesley  sent  forth  the  Gen- 
eral Rules  in  his  own  name,  and  on  May  1  Charles  Wesley's 
name  was  signed  to  the  important  pamphlet.  The  society 
was  defined  as  "a  company  of  men,  having  the  form  and 
seeking  the  power  of  godliness,  united  in  order  to  pray 
together,  to  receive  the  word  of  exhortation,  and  to  watch 
over  one  another  in  love,  that  they  may  help  each  other  to 


How  to  Become  a  Methodist 


377 


work  out  their  salvation."  There  was  only  one  condition 
required  for  admission  into  these  societies — "a  desire  to  flee 
from  the  wrath  to  come,  and  to  be  saved  from  their  sins." 
But  wherever  this  is  really  fixed  in  the  soul  it  will  be  shown 
by  its  fruits.  It  was  therefore  expected  of  all  who  desired 
to  continue  therein  that  they  should  continue  ' '  to  evidence 
their  desire  of  salvation,  first,  by  doing  no  harm,  by  avoiding 
evil  in  every  kind,  especially  that  which  is  most  generally 


MORAVIAN    CEREMONIAL   OF    FOOT-WASHING. 

practiced."  One  special  test  was  in  the  "avoiding  such  diver- 
sions as  cannot  be  used  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  A 
further  evidence  of  sincerity  was  to  be  shown  by  "  doing  good 
of  every  possible  sort,  and  as  far  as  is  possible,  to  all  men." 
The  third  evidence  of  desire  for  salvation  was  by  "  attending 
on  all  the  ordinances  of  God,"  such  as  public  worship,  the 
ministry  of  the  word,  the  Lord's  Supper,  family  and  private 
prayer,  searching  the  Scriptures,  and  fasting  or  abstinence. 


378  British   Methodism 

Thus  in  well-built  sections  was  laid  the  broad  platform  of 
Methodism.  The  late  Dr.  George  Osborn,  in  an  address 
before  the  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference  in  London,  in 
1 88 1,  spoke  these  memorable  words:  "Methodism  is  built 
for  the  world,  and  is  strong  enough  for  all  years.  .  .  .  There 
is  one  before  me  whose  great-great-grandmother  is  said  to 
have  been  the  thirteenth  person  that  joined  John  Wesley's 
society  in  1739,  and  I  trace  the  succession  of  .saints  in  that 
particular  case  for  generations  from  that  thirteenth  woman 
down  to  the  millions  that  we  speak  of  to-day." 


CHAPTER  XLII 

The  Old  Customs  and  the  New  Converts 

Curious  Class  Tickets.— Bands,  Love  Feasts,  Watch  Nights.— 
Sacraments. — Susanna  Wesley's  Sympathy.— Samuel  Wesley 
on  Schism. — His  Death  in  1739. — A  Mother  Bereft. 

THE  Congregational  theologian,  Dr.  Dale,  regarded  the 
class  meeting  as  "perhaps  the  most  striking  and 
original  of  the  fruits  of  the  revival.  It  was  not  in- 
vented, it  was  the  creation  of  the  circumstances  in  which  the 
revival  was  carried  on  ;  it  was  the  natural  product  of  the 
soil.  ...  It  renders  possible  a  far  more  effective  fulfillment 
of  the  idea  of  the  pastorate  and  a  far  more  perfect  realiza- 
tion of  the  communion  of  saints  than  are  common  in  any 
other  Protestant  community." 

The  late  Professor  Tholuck,  spending  some  time  at  Oxford 
for  the  purpose  of  consulting  its  libraries,  attended  a  Meth- 
odist class  meeting  there  and  afterward  spoke  of  it  as  the 
nearest  reproduction  of  fellowship  in  the  primitive  Church 
that  he  had  ever  enjoyed.  It  was  Wesley's  aim  to  secure 
such  fellowship  and  to  link  it  with  the  Christian  pastorate. 

The  quarterly  visitation  of  the  classes  by  Wesley  or  his 
preachers  and  the  use  of  a  ticket  of  membership  appear  to 
have  begun  in  1742.      It  is  probable  that  similar  tokens  were 

379 


380 


British  Methodism 


V 


given  in  some  of   Dr.  Woodward's  societies,   as   Dr.  Smith 
gives  a   facsimile   of  one   dated   1739.      We   reproduce  this, 

together  with  later  forms.  It  will 
be  seen  that  since  1891  the  term 
"Church"  has  been  substituted 
for  "Society,"  for,  as  Professor 
-pg-^S.  1 1  ^ff^fp    1  H      Findlay  says:    "We  call  ourselves 

now,  and  without  bated  breath, 
the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 
.  .  .  Our  societies  have  all  along 
constituted  a  true  fellowship  with 
Christ  in  the  Spirit,  as  John  Wes- 
ley very  plainly  said.  They  have  possessed  a  Church  life  as 
real   as  any  that  existed  upon  earth.    .    .    .   We   quietly  but 


;ifp;afilSiiyfei: 


y£^r^ 


ftlosry  JJaV/ 


firmly  claim,  as  Methodist  people,  to  constitute  a  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ,  a  sisterhood  and  confederacy  of  Churches 
throughout   the   world.      We    make  that   claim   as  justly  as 


The  Inner  Circle 


381 


does  the  Anglican  Episcopal  Church,  or  the  Presbyterian,  or 
Baptist,  or  Congregational  Churches." 

Besides  the  class  meeting  there  was  soon  an  inner  circle — a 
wheel   within    a  wheel — the   band    meeting.       This   smaller 


Lake  the  17.    v.  5- 

Lord,    iucreafc   onr   Faith 


Jan    1    \155.7?u^  /jfaU*(t-£j 


July  2. 

OSto.  r.    n4^^^ 


company  was  not  obligatory,  but  voluntary,  with  closer  rules 
and  higher  tests  of  faithfulness';  a  unique  society  of  brotherly 
love.     It  was  felt  by  some   that  tliey  needed  counsel    and 


N9 


help  that  could 
not    be    given 


among  a  com- 
pany of  men, 
women,  a  n  d 
children  many 
of  whom  were 
young  in  Chris- 
tian experi- 
ence, and  there 
were  bands  for 
married     men 

and  bands  for  married  women,   while  the    single  men  and 

single  women  had  bands  of  their  own. 

Closely  connected  with  band  meeting  was  the  love  feast, 


382 


British  Methodism 


15  TV*    W  ° 


JUt//ft?3 


a  revival  in  a  simple  form  of  the  agape  of  the  early  Church. 

We   have   seen  Wesley  attending  a   Moravian   love  feast  in 

Georgia  in  1737,  and  the  remark- 
able meeting  at  Fetter  Lane  at  the 
dawn  of  1739.  Under  Wesley's 
arrangements  the  love  feasts  were 
held  every  three  months,  after  the 
visitation  of  the  classes,  and  at  first 
were  confined  to  members  of  the 
bands,  but  after  1759  the  whole 
society  was 
admitted  on 
the  presen- 
tation of  the 


class  ticket.     "  A  little  plain  cake  and 
water"  were  partaken  of  as  a  sign  of 

lJ**>vz*.  6  5 


fellow- 
ship, and 
the  serv- 
ice con- 
sisted of  a  joyous  testimony  of 
Christian  experience. 

Another  institution  peculiar 
to  Methodism  was  the  watch 
night.  The  colliers  at  Kings- 
wood  had  heretofore  given 
many  a  night,  and  especially 
the  last  night  of  the  year,  to 
drunken  revels  and  song. 
When  they  became  Christians 
their  social  customs  underwent  a  transformation,  and  they 
met  as  often  as  possible  and  spent  the  greater  part  of  the 


The  Watch  Night  Service 


383 


March  1789. 


night  in  prayer  and  praise.  Objectors  arose  and  Wesley  was 
urged  to  stop  the  meetings.  He  remembered  that  the  early 
Christians  spent  whole  nights  in 
prayer,  giving  to  them  the  name 
/  rigili<z,  and  he  saw  in  them  an  agency 
for  good.  So  he  sent  the  members 
word  that  on  Friday  night  nearest 
full  moon  (that  there  might  be  light) 
he  would  watch  with  them  and 
preach.  He  began  the  meeting  be- 
tween eieht  and 


£ 


If  we  deny  him,  he 
will  deny  us. 

a  Tim  ii.  ts. 


B 


f    „r  u       c .  t    tinued 

Wo  unto  them,  for  * 


Hofea  vii.  13. 


* 


June    1789. 

nine,     and     con- 
it     until 
%  they  have  fled  from  me.  <>     after  twelve,    ' 

f  little  beyond  the  noon  of  night,"  as 
Wesley  remarked.  The  first  meeting 
at  the  end  of  the  year  was  held  at 
Kingswood,  on  Wednesday,  December 
31,  1 740.  The 
first  watch  night 
in  London  was 
held  on  Friday,  April  9,  1742.  The 
custom  extended  to  other  places. 
Charles  Wesley  wrote  some  trium- 
phant hymns  for  use  on  these  occa- 
sions, including  the  song  with  which 
every  English  watch  night  service 
concludes  to-day,  "  Come,  let  us  anew 
our  journey  pursue."     It  contains  the. ^ 

striking  lines : 

Our  life  is  a  dream  ;  our  time  as  a  stream 

Glides  swiftly  away, 
And  the  fugitive  moment  refuses  to  stay. 


March,  1805. 
A  «  »#  «$  <*?*  &&  <9  -P  <£>«• 

55  CrrtiH  hath  once  fuf  * 
j«  fered  for  fins,  the  Juft  ^ 
^  for  the  unjufl,  that  >S» 
V  he    might   bring  us  to  X 

it  * 

1  Peter  iii.  18.        « 


384 


British  Methodism 


The  meetings  ceased  in  time  to  be  monthly  and  were  held 
quarterly,   but    in    recent  years    they    have   been    confined 

,___ to    New    Year's 

Eve. 

Always  on 
the  outlook  for 
means  of  deep- 
ening religious 
life,  Wesley  in- 
troduced the 
service  for  ' '  re- 
newing  the 
covenant,"  and 
on    Monday, 


August  ii,  1755,  the  society  met  at  six  in  the  evening  at  the 
French  church  in  Spitalfields.  Here  is  his  account:  "  After 
I  had  recited  the  tenor  of  the  covenant  proposed,  in  the  words 
of  that  blessed 
man,  Richard  Al- 
leine,  all  the  peo- 
ple stood  up,  in 
token  of  assent, 
to  the  number  of 
about  eigh  teen 
hundred.  Such  a 
night  I  scarce  ever 
knew  before. 
Surely  the  fruit  of 
it  shall  remain 
forever." 


iHjl[ii  nliti  ililiMiiiWn  ntilili 

TKfleslegan  dibetboDist  Cburcb. 
Quarterly  Ticket  of  Membership. 

MARCH,    1898. 

He  performeth  the  thing  that  is  ap- 
pointed for  me.— Job  xxiii.  14. 

J  li.a 

THE  TICKET   NOW   IN   USE. 

The  term  "  Church  "  is  used  instead  of  "  Society,"  according  to 

the  decision  of  Conference,  1891. 


Very  soon  Wesley  was  driven,  "  sorely  against  his  own  will," 
says  Dr.  Rig£,  to  make  a  distinct  separation  of  his  societies 


Separate  Communion  385 

in  London  and  Bristol  from  the  Church  of  England.  The 
clergy  not  only  excluded  the  Wesleys  from  their  pulpits,  but 
in  1740  repelled  them  and  their  converts  from  the  Lord's 
table.  At  Bristol  especially,  in  that  year,  this  was  done 
with  much  harshness.  The  brothers,  therefore,  adminis- 
tered the  sacrament  in  their  own  preaching  rooms.  The 
practice  having  been  established  at  Bristol,  the  London 
society  at  the  Foundry  claimed  the  same  privilege.  Thus 
full  provision  was  made  for  the  spiritual  wants  of  the  soci- 
eties quite  apart  from  the  services  of  the  Church  of  England, 
although  for  many  years  many  of  the  Methodist  members 
attended  the  communion  service  of  the  Anglican  Church. 
"It  cannot  be  doubted,"  affirms  Professor  Richard  Green, 
"  except  on  certain  High  Church  principles,  that  the  society 
was  a  Church,  although  it  was  not  called  one." 

Susanna  Wesley  was  providentially  at  hand  to  counsel  and 
encourage  her  son  when  he  was  laying  the  foundation  of  or- 
ganized Methodism.  She  stood  by  his  side  when  he  preached 
at  Kennington  Common  to  twenty  thousand  people.  She 
was  present  when  the  question  of  separation  from  the  Fetter 
Lane  society  was  discussed,  and  approved  of  the  withdrawal 
of  the  members  to  the  Foundry.  About  this  time  she  was 
brought  into  fuller  sympathy  than  ever  with  her  son's  views 
of  the  possibility  of  conscious  forgiveness.  John  Wesley 
records  a  conversation  in  which  she  said  that  until  recently 
she  never  dared  ask  this  blessing  for  herself.  "  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  for- 
given me  all  my  sins. "  "I  asked  her, "  says  Wesley,  ' '  whether 
her  father  (Dr.  Annesley)  had  not  the  same  faith,  and  whether 


386  British  Methodism 

she  had  not  heard  him  preach  it  to  others.  She  answered : 
1  He  had  it  himself,  and  declared  a  little  before  his  death  that 
for  more  than  forty  years  he  had  no  darkness,  no  fear,  no 
doubt  at  all  of  his  being  accepted  in  the  Beloved.'  But  that, 
nevertheless,  she  did  not  remember  to  have  heard  him  preach, 
no,  not  once,  especially  upon  it;  whence  she  supposed  he 
looked  upon  it  as  the  peculiar  blessing  of  a  few ;  not-  as 
promised  to  all  the  people  of  God."  At  the  Foundry  Mrs. 
Wesley  enjoyed  the  society  of  her  sons  and  several  of  her 
daughters,  and  attended  all  the  meetings  of  the  infant  Metho- 
dist Church. 

But  Samuel  Wesley,  at  Tiverton,  was  greatly  distressed  by 
the  doctrine  and  the  ecclesiastical  irregularites  of  his  younger 
brothers.  He  declared  in  a  letter  to  his  mother  that  he 
would  "much  rather  have  them  picking  straws  within  the 
walls  than  preaching  in  the  area  of  Moorfields  " — alluding  to 
the  lunatic  asylum.  "  It  was  with  exceeding  concern  and 
grief  I  heard  you  had  countenanced  a  spreading  delusion 
so  far  as  to  be  one  of  Jack's  congregation.  Is  it  not  enough 
that  I  am  bereft  of  both  my  brothers,  but  must  my  mother 
follow  too?  I  earnestly  beseech  the  Almighty  to  preserve 
you  from  joining  a  schism  at  the  close  of  your  life,  as  you 
were  unfortunately  engaged  in  one  at  the  beginning  of 
it.  .  .  .  As  I  told  Jack,  I  am  not  afraid  the  Church 
should  excommunicate  him,  discipline  is  at  too  low  an  ebb, 
but  that  he  should  excommunicate  the  Church.  .  .  .  Pie 
only  who  ruleth  the  madness  of  the  people  can  stop  them 
from  being  a  formed  sect  in  a  very  little  time."  This  letter 
faithfully  presents  the  views  of  many  a  clergyman  of  the 
time  besides  Wesley,  the  master  of  BhindeH's  School. 

This  letter  must  have  been  one  of  the  last  Samuel  Wesley 
ever  wrote;    it  is  dated  only  seventeen  days  before  his  death, 


John  Wesley's  Elder  Brother 


387 


on  November  6,  1739.  In  spite  of  his  stiff  Churchmanship 
he  was  an  amiable  and  benevolent  man,  almost  idolized  by 
the  people  of  Tiverton.  He  shared  his  income  with  his 
needy  relatives,  but  prohibited  the  mention  of  the  fact  while 
he  lived.  His  portrait,  given  on  page  145,  published  about 
the  time  of  his  death,  shows  a  thorough  Wesley  face. 
Eight    of    his    hymns    are    found   in    the    Wesleyan     Hymn 


FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH. 

BLUNDELL'S    GRAMMAR   SCHOOL   AT   TIVERTON. 

Where  Samuel  Wesley,  Jr.,  was  master  at  the  time  of  his  death,  November  6,  1739. 

Book  and  two  (hymns  75  and  977)  in  the  Hymnal  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  His  brothers  hastened  to 
Tiverton  on  the  news  of  his  somewhat  sudden  death. 
"My  poor  sister,"  writes  John,  "is  sorrowing  almost  as 
one  without  hope ;  yet  we  could  not  but  rejoice  at  hearing, 
from  one  who  had  attended  my  brother,  .  .  .  that  before  he 
went  hence  God  had  given  him  a  calm  and  full  assurance  of 
his  interest  in  Christ.  O  may  everyone  who  opposes  it  be 
thus  convinced  that  this  doctrine  is  of  God!" 

A  letter  of  Susanna  Wesley  to  her  son  Charles  has  recently 


388  British  Methodism 

come  to  light  in  which  there  is  a  touching  account  of  her 
sorrow  at  her  son's   death,   and   a  note    in    the    margin    in 


)A*f  CUA^  7Ud:  e?   ysp 


Vt&fk  S  o£v    •LTrLrrJd^.oJtt'ii  <*X.4xs\<?Ut  irxfAx    WiM.  {ff-Qc^p 

t&oJ-  ^<kAv  M  rurhxr^-yrty.  7?vfi-  erf-  £f-  £tfc>t  Xji  'dJ^'y. 

h <Kjrrdx-hjx.ru  OwV,  7J^\r^*Ju)z4k?Kfi  vuyrk^4^,  for Md 

{h&rt'u  isix-giu  J]A.hh*ii-j  <&  xt^vhkA  Ca.tw.njJ}  <rf- J/i-^r£h 
7^f^-rC  fAx  Qr\eJL  7*3  <r^*.rvJ^y<.  %tjvl  hrd  f/rvryd  f^rmX. 


^^  ^7  t^^oY  h2l  k6tu  cm*  $rU0-  /&JJ    ; 

fe/^Wij  Ms.  ?www/t,/Wi'tf>v  y/fi//;tAnti 

w  /Ldjtn2   A  ^  fttriu t7l4KrrUL  vf  /^d  >wr/ 


TIM  A"  <r/-  ^/f  o#i/  7>l« r^  /  /  7A/  ^  t*   »' 


4-Atf  /  j^^ 


MRS.  WESLEY'S  LETTER  ON    THE   DEATH  OF   HER  ELDEST   SON,  REV.  SAMUEL 

WESLEY,  JR. 

Charles's  writing.      It  is  very  likely  that  as  she  was  ill  in 


A  Mourning  Mother  389 

her  own  rooms  John  Wesley  had  not  the  heart  to  tell  her 
the  sad  news  before  he  hurried  to  Tiverton,  for  all  the  family 


farw 

j^hyLf  tkc^;  %j*h  q&  &.i  ?n$  ct^wi&rfl  x*3    I 

Sv'kaJ-  HLo  /nu/^vvW  f<rtrc>,  f\JL  -prod  7*Jrf-  >^  ^<f^      ' 


J  co^h  -*n^h-  >»vvlcA.  St^r-Q  A*>*  ?4/<-&£.>  ^  , 


SECOND    PAGE    OF    MRS.  WESLEY'S    LETTER  (WITH    CHARLES  WESLEY'S  MAR- 
GINAL NOTE). 

knew  how  dearly  she  loved  her  firstborn.  Possibly  one  of 
the  sisters  was  commissioned  to  tell  her  gently.  How  she 
bore  it  the  pathetic  letter  is  witness. 


*^--T\ 


CHAPTER  XLIII 
Facing-  the  Prelates 

The  Causes  of  the  Gathering  Storm.— The  Alarm  of  the  Bishop 
of  London. — Two  Famous  Literary  Bishops— Warburton  and 
Butler, — The  Two  Greatest  Religious  Men  of  their  Century. 

WHEN  we  recall  the  deplorable  condition  of  the 
churches  and  of  English  society  in  the  eighteenth 
century  we  cannot  wonder  that  the  Methodists 
met  with  bitter  opposition.  Their  opponents  were  a  motley 
army,  with  weapons  strangely  various.  The  censures  of  the 
prelate,  the  curses  of  the  priest,  the  lampoons  of  the  press, 
the  caricatures  of  the  artist,  the  slanders  of  the  pamphleteer, 
the  burlesques  of  the  stage,  and  the  bludgeons  of  the  mob 
were  all  turned  against  the  men  whose  sole  quarrel  was  with 
sin  and  Satan. 

The  causes  of  this  gathering  storm  were  equally  various. 
The  "  offense  of  the  cross;"  ignorance  and  hatred  of  the  so- 
called  "new  doctrines;"  horror  of  "enthusiasm,"  as  the 
term  was  then  understood,  were  at  the  root  of  much  opposi- 
tion. Drowsy  shepherds  resented  the  disturbance  of  their 
slumbers: 

The  moping  owl  doth  to  the  moon  complain 

Of  such  as,  wandering  near  her  sacred  bower, 
Molest  her  ancient  solitary  reign. 
390 


The  Opposition  to  Methodism  391 

At  the  same  time  it  would  be  unjust  to  attribute  these 
feelings  to  all  the  prelates  and  clergy  who  opposed  early 
Methodism.  We  must  remember  that  they  looked  at  the 
movement  from  their  peculiar  standpoint  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

There  was  a  widespread  fear  of  any  recurrence  of  the  re- 
ligious and  political  turbulence  of  the  two  preceding  centuries. 
The  movement  among  the  masses  who  thronged  to  the  field- 
preaching  alarmed  the  lovers  of  "quiet,"  and  of  "  our  happy 
establishment  in  Church  and  State  " — as  a  favorite  phrase  of 
the  day  expressed  it. 

Then  the  reaction  against  Puritanism  had  not  .spent  its 
force,  and  at  a  later  stage  we  shall  find  fashionable  letter 
writers  and  pamphleteers  alarmed  at  a  possible  revival  of  the 
hated  "  reign  of  the  saints." 

On  the  other  hand,  absurd  as  it  appears  to  us  to-day,  the 
Methodist  leaders  were  suspected  of  popery:  they  were 
Jesuits ;   their  goal  was  Rome ! 

Further,  false  reports  were  spread  that  the  Wesleys  were 
Jacobites,  and  friends  of  the  Pretender.  This  probably  arose 
from  the  fact  that  Jacobitism  prevailed  among  the  High 
Church  Methodists  of  Oxford,  and  that  the  friend  of  several 
of  them,  William  Law,  was  a  nonjuror. 

We  find,  also,  the  current  literature  of  the  day  slandering 
the  Methodists,  and  in  many  places  prejudices  were  raised 
against  them  before  they  appeared  on  the  scene  to  refute  by 
their  lives  many  false  and  foul  charges. 

To  account  for  the  fury  of  the  mob  is  not  an  easy  task. 
As  Canon  Overton  suggests,  probably  "the  most  part  of 
them  knew  not  wherefore  they  had  come  together. "  "  All  the 
more  shame,"  says  the  Anglican  historian,  "to  those  who 
took  advantage  of  the  people's  ignorance  to  instigate  them  to 


392  British  Methodism 

deeds  of  violence !  Sometimes — one  blushes  to  relate  it — 
these  riots  were  instituted  by  the  clergy ;  they  were  rarely 
stopped,  as  they  ought  to  have  been,  by  the  magistrates." 

Although  some  Anglican  and  Methodist  writers  have  stated 
that  Wesley  did  nothing  that  was  inconsistent  with  the  laws 
of  the  Established  Church,  it  must  be  granted  that  his  "  ir- 
regularities "  were  calculated  to  alarm  the  "  orderly  "  prelates 
of  his  day.  When  he  organized  his  societies,  built  and  regis- 
tered meetinghouses  for  worship,  and,  later,  ordained  minis- 
ters not  only  to  preach,  but  to  administer  the  sacraments,  he 
practically  separated  from  the  State  Church  in  the  eyes  of 
orderly  clergy.  His  brother  Samuel,  as  we  have  seen,  very 
early  called  his  action  "  schismatic."  A  recent  Methodist 
newspaper  observes  that  there  could  be  no  more  curious  illus- 
tration of  the  way  in  which  our  wishes  can  destroy  our  logic 
than  the  fact  that  Wesley  persuaded  himself  to  the  end  that 
he  had  not  separated  from  the  Church  of  England.  Abel 
Stevens,  breathing  the  free  air  of  the  New  World,  has  said 
that  English  writers  have  deemed  it  desirable,  and  have  not 
found  it  a  difficult  task,  to  defend  W^esley  against  imputations 
of  disregard  for  the  authority  and  "order"  of  the  State 
Church,  "  but  it  may  hereafter  be  more  difficult  to  defend 
him  before  the  rest  of  the  Christian  world  for  having  been 
so  deferential  to  a  hierarchy  whose  moral  condition  at  the 
time  he  so  much  denounced,  and  whose  studied  policy 
throughout  the  rest  of  his  life  was  to  disown  if  not  to  defeat 
him." 

Within  five  weeks  of  John  Wesley's  return  from  Germany 
he  and  his  brother  Charles  were  summoned  before  the  Bishop 
of  London,  Dr.  Edmund  Gibson.  The  bishop  was  a  vigorous 
administrator,  and  Sir  Robert  Walpole  was  reproached  for 
allowing  him  the  authority  of  a  pope  :    "  And  a  very  good  pope 


THE   "REYNOLDS    PORTRAIT"    OF   JOHN    WESLEY. 

A  reputed  early  portrait  of  John  Wesley  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  painted  in  the  West  of  England. 
From  the  original,  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Rev.  James  H.  Pawlyn,  Mattock,  England, 
formerly  owned  by  a  relative  of  Rev.  Henry  Moore,  one  of  Wesley's  executors.  Copy- 
right. 


Before  the  Bishop  of  London  395 

he  is,"  replied  the  premier.  He  was  a  pious  and  fearless 
man.  By  preaching  against  masquerades,  of  which  George 
II  was  very  fond,  he  offended  the  court.  He  was  in  favor  of 
the  "  toleration  "  of  the  Dissenters,  but  opposed  to  their  re- 
lief from  political  disabilities. 

When  the  Wesley  brothers  appeared  before  him,  charged 
with  preaching  an  absolute  assurance  of  salvation,  he  heard 
them  fairly,  and  said :  "  If  by  assurance  you  mean  an  inward 
persuasion  whereby  a  man  is  conscious  in  himself,  after  ex- 
amining his  life  by  the  law  of  God  and  weighing  his  own 
sincerity,  that  he  is  in  a  state  of  salvation  and  acceptable  to 
God,  I  don't  see  how  any  good  Christian  can  be  without  such 
an  assurance."  To  the  charge  of  preaching  justification  by 
faith  only,  the  Wesley s  replied,  "  Can  anyone  preach  other- 
wise who  agrees  to  our  Church  and  the  Scriptures?  "  John 
Wesley  inquired  if  his  reading  in  a  religious  society  made  it 
a  conventicle.  The  bishop  warily  replied :  "  No,  I  think  not. 
However,  you  can  read  the  acts  and  laws  as  well  as  I.  I  de- 
termine nothing."  But  in  1739  the  bishop  issued  a  pastoral 
letter  in  which  he  charges  the  Methodists  with  "enthu- 
siasm," or  "  a  strong  persuasion  in  their  mind  that  they  are 
guided  in  an  extraordinary  manner  by  immediate  impulses 
and  impressions  of  the  Spirit  of  God."  They  were  guilty  of 
"  boasting  of  sudden  and  surprising  effects,  wrought  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  in  consequence  of  their  preaching."  As  we  have 
seen,  he  supported  the  churchwardens  of  Islington  against 
their  vicar  and  excluded  Charles  Wesley  from  the  pulpit. 

We  find  John  Wesley  again  facing  the  bishop  in  1740. 
What  did  he  mean  by  perfection?  was  the  question.  When 
Wesley  had  replied  the  bishop  said,  "  Mr.  Wesley,  if  this 
be  all  you  mean,  publish  it  to  the  world."  And  Wesley 
gladly  obeyed  by   publishing  his  sermon  on  Christian  Per- 


396  British  Methodism 

fection.  But  a  little  later  the  rise  of  the  societies  and  the 
field-preaching,  with  its  sensational  accompaniments,  again 
alarmed  the  bishop.  He  wrote  a  pamphlet  against  this 
"sect,"  in  which  he  charged  them  with  "having  had  the 
boldness  to  preach  in  the  fields  and  other  open  places,  and  in- 
viting the  rabble  to  be  their  hearers,"  in  defiance  of  a  statute 
of  Charles  II.  Wesley  replied  in  his  Farther  Appeal  to 
Men  of  Reason  and  Religion.  He  declares  that  the  clergy, 
who  will  not  suffer  him  to  preach  in  the  churches,  are  account- 
able for  his  preaching  in  the  fields.  Besides,  "one  plain 
reason  why  these  sinners  are  never  reclaimed  is  this,  they 
never  come  into  a  church.  Will  you  say,  as  some  tender- 
hearted Christians  I  have  heard,  '  Then  it  is  their  own  fault ; 
let  them  die  and  be  damned!'  I  grant  it  may  be  their  own 
fault,  but  the  Saviour  of  souls  came  after  us,  and  so  we  ought 
to  seek  to  save  that  which  is  lost."  The  able  and  sin- 
cere Bishop  Gibson  could  not  shake  himself  free  from  the 
prejudices  and  Church  "  order  "  which  stood  in  the  way  of  the 
salvation  of  the  despised  "rabble,"  and  in  another  of  his 
pastorals  he  classes  the  Methodists  with  "  deists,  papists, 
and  other  disturbers  of  the  kingdom  of  God." 

William  Warburton,  who  was  not  yet  a  bishop,  was  a  man 
of  a  very  different  type  from  Bishop  Gibson.  Sir  James  Fitz- 
james  Stephen,  in  the  Saturday  Review,  has  said  of  his  books: 
' '  They  do  not  give  the  impression  that  their  author  was  a  good 
man,  or  that  he  had  any  strong  personal  feeling  of  religion. 
But  they  show  in  every  page  a  genuine  intellectual  contempt 
and  dislike  for  his  opponents.  .  .  .  He  worked  all  his  opin- 
ions, all  his  reading,  and  all  his  crotchets  into  one  enormous 
mass,  which  he  called  a  demonstration  of  the  Divine  Lega- 
tion of  Moses.  " 

In  the  preface  to  the  second  volume   of   his  famous  book 


Warburton  on  Methodism 


397 


there  is  this  remarkable  passage:  "Commend  me  to  those 
honester  zealots,  the  Methodists,  who  spend  all  their  fire 
against  vice.  It  will  be  said,  perhaps,  they  are  mad.  I  be- 
lieve they  are.  Bnt  what  of  that?  They  are  honest.  Zeal 
for  the  fancies  and  opinions  of  our  superiors  is  the  known 
road  to  preferment,  but  who 
was  ever  yet  so  mad  as  to  think 
of  rising  by  virtue?  " 

In  his  letters,  however,  this 
trenchant  writer  refers  to  "our 
new  set  of  fanatics,  called  the 
Methodists,"  and  repeats  with 
much  zest  some  of  the  scurrilous 
reports  about  "our  overheated 
bigots."  He  afterward  became 
one  of  the  most  virulent  of  the 
religious  opponents  of  Wesley 
in  his  Doctrine  of  Grace,  of 
which  the  Saturday  Review 
says:  "It  is  certainly  entitled 
to  the  praise  of  being  in  its  way  as  trenchant  and  savage  an 
attack  on  the  Methodists  as  it  was  possible  to  make.  It  is 
very  like  Sydney  Smith's  well-known  article  in  the  Edin- 
burgh Review  long  afterward.  ...  It  is  inconceivable 
that  any  single  person  should  ever  have  been  converted 
to  Warburton's  or  Sydney  Smith's  way  of  thinking  by 
such  performances."  But  these  performances  did  much  at 
the  time  to  ferment  the  bitter  feeling  against  the  Methodists. 

A  more  eminent  prelate  was  Bishop  Butler,  the  author  of 
the  famous  Analogy,  of  which  Wesley  wrote :  "A  strong 
and  well-wrote  treatise,  but,  I  am  afraid,  far  too  deep  for 
their   understanding    to    whom    it    is  primarily  addressed." 


JOHN    WESLEY. 

From  a  portrait  engraved  from  life  by 
Thomas  Holloway,  1776. 


398  British  Methodism 

A  ' 'fine  book  ;"  but  "  Freethinkers,  so  called, are  seldom  close 
thinkers.  They  will  not  be  at  the  pains  of  reading  such  a 
book  as  this." 

Bishop  Butler  was  at  first  favorable  to  the  Methodist 
clergy,  but  Whitefield's  Journal  and  many  strange  re- 
ports reached  him.  He  summoned  Wesley,  and  after  a  con- 
versation on  the  doctrine  of  justifying  faith,  for  which  Wes- 
ley claimed  the  support  of  the  Homilies,  the  bishop  referred 
to  some  expressions  in  Whitefield's  Journal,  and  said: 

"  Sir,  the  pretending  to  extraordinary  revelations,  and  gifts 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  is  a  horrid  thing ;  a  very  horrid  thing !  " 

"My  Lord,"  replied  Wesley,  "for  what  Mr.  Whitefield 
says,  Mr.  Whitefield,  and  not  I,  is  accountable.  I  pretend 
to  no  extraordinary  revelations,  or  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
none  but  what  every  Christian  may  receive,  and  ought  to  ex- 
pect and  pray  for." 

"  You  have  no  business  here,"  said  the  bishop;  "  you  are 
not  commissioned  to  preach  in  this  diocese.  Therefore  I 
advise  you  to  go  hence." 

"  My  Lord,  my  business  on  earth  is  to  do  what  good  I 
can,"  replied  Wesley.  "  Wherever,  therefore,  I  think  I  can 
do  most  good,  there  must  I  stay,  so  long  as  I  think  so.  At 
present  I  think  I  can  do  most  good  here ;  therefore  here  I 
stay.  .  .  .  Being  ordained  a  priest,  by  the  commission  I  then 
received  I  am  a  priest  of  the  Church  universal ;  and  being 
ordained  as  fellow  of  a  college,  I  was  not  limited  to  any  par- 
ticular cure,  but  have  an  indeterminate  commission  to  preach 
the  w.ord  of  God  in  any  part  of  the  Church  of  England.  I  do 
not,  therefore,  conceive  that  in  preaching  here  by  this  com- 
mission I  break  any  human  law.  When  I  am  convinced  I  do 
then  it  will  be  time  to  ask,  '  Shall  I  obey  God  or  man  ?  '  But  if 
I  should  be  convinced  in  the  meanwhile  that  I  could  advance 


The  Greatest  Religious  Men  of  the  Century  399 

the  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  souls  in  any  other 
place  more  than  in  Bristol,  in  that  hour,  by  God's  help,  I  will 
go  hence;   which  till  then  I  may  not  do." 

Wesley  took  his  own  time  and  did  not  leave  Bristol  until 
persuaded  that  it  was  his  duty  to  labor  elsewhere.  And  we 
must  credit  the  famous  bishop  with  a  sincere  desire  to  fulfill 
what  he  thought  to  be  his  duty,  much  as  we  regret  his  treat- 
ment of  Wesley.  They  were  the  two  greatest  religious  men 
of  their  century.  "  The  one  left  behind  him,"  sscys  Professor 
F.  W.  Macdonald,  ' '  the  greatest  philosophical  treatise  ever 
written  in  defense  of  Christianity;  the  other  revived  the 
Church  and  roused  the  nation,  and  left  behind  him  an  ever- 
expanding  organization  for  spreading  the  Gospel  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth.  There  are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the  same 
spirit." 

It  is  pleasing  to  turn  from  the  glimpse  of  Butler  as  a 
prelate  to  the  description  of  Butler  as  minister  given  in 
Surtees's  History  of  Durham:  "  During  the  performance  of 
the  sacred  office  a  divine  animation  seemed  to  pervade  his 
whole  manner  and  lighted  up  his  pale,  wan  countenance  like 
a  torch  glimmering  in  its  socket." 


;~T~:~"    '_,.■:  :^jlJl1J-L±-1  :-^i-iLO  S-\Y.±_c^:  - ■  ■•  '■'■''-      ■'      :         ---—7 


Nbv/S^ 


CHAPTER    XLIV 

The  Anger  of  the  Primate  and  the  Adventures  of  the  Presbyters 

The  Frowns  of  the  Archbishop. — "A  Most  Dark  and  Saturnine 
Creature."— The  Fears  of  the  Dissenters. — "The  World  is 
My  Parish."— The  Wesleys  at  Work. 

SOON  after  Charles  Wesley's  expulsion  from  Islington 
he  and  the  Vicar  of  Bexley  were  summoned  to  Lam- 
beth Palace  to  appear  before  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, Dr.  Potter,  to  answer  for  the  preaching-  of  Charles 
in  Bexley  parish.  The  primate  of  all  England  angrily 
told  Charles  Wesley  that  he  would  not  "proceed  to  excom- 
munication yet,"  and  dismissed  him  "with  all  the  marks 
of  his  displeasure." 

"  Your  Grace  has  taught  me,  in  your  book  on  Church  gov- 
ernment, that  a  man  unjustly  excommunicated  is  not  thereby 
cut  off  from  communion  with  Christ." 

"  Of  that  I  am  the  judge,"  said  the  primate. 

Charles  Wesley  says,  "I  retired  and  prayed  for  particular 

direction;   offering  up   my  friends,  my  liberty,  my  life,  for 

Christ's   sake   and  the   Gospel's."     On   the   next  Sunday  he 

preached  at  the   memorable  open-air  service   at  Moorfields, 

and  thus,  as  he  says,  "broke  down  the  bridge,"  as  he  preached 

"  to  near  ten  thousand  helpless  sinners  waiting  for  the  word." 

The  Archbishop  of  York  (afterward  of  Canterbury),  Thomas 

400 


A  Most  Dark  and   Saturnine  Creature  401 

Herring,  a  few  years  later  instructed  his  clergy  to  repel 
Charles  Wesley  from  the  Lord's  table,  issued  a  circular 
against  "enthusiastic  ardor,"  and  in  a  letter  said  that  John 
Wesley,  "  with  good  parts  and  more  learning,  is  a  most  dark 
and  saturnine  creature." 

The  leading  Dissenters  of  the  day  were  at  first  alarmed 
by  Methodism,  though  some  of  them  lived  to  give  it  their 
blessing.  Bradbury  lampooned  Whitefield,  Barker  sneered 
at  him,  and  the  aged  Dr.  Watts  roundly  rebuked  Dr.  Dodd- 
ridge for  permitting  him  to  preach  in  his  pulpit  at  Northamp- 
ton, where  Doddridge  was  at  the  head  of  a  theological  semi- 
nary.  Doddridge  felt  obliged  to  assure  his  friends  that  he 
saw  no  danger  that  any  of  his  pupils  would  turn  Methodist ! 

There  was  a  deluge  of  pamphlets  and  articles  against  the 
Methodists,  in  which  Wesley  was  branded  as  "a  restless 
deceiver  of  the  people,"  "a  newfangled  teacher  setting  up 
his  own  fanatical  conceits  in  opposition  to  the  authority  of 
God,"  "  a  Jesuit  in  disguise,"  and,  worst  of  all,  "  a  Dissenter." 
Whitefield  was  called  a  "raw  novice,"  "propagating  blas- 
phemies and  enthusiastic  notions  which  strike  at  the  root  of 
all  religion  and  make  it  the  jest  of  those  who  sit  in  the  seat 
of  the  scornful."  The  Methodists  were  denounced  as  "  young- 
quacks  in  divinity,"  "  buffoons  in  religion,"  "  bold  movers  of 
sedition,  and  ringleaders  of  the  rabble."  The  magazines  and 
newspapers  conducted  a  hot  crusade  against  them,  "stirring 
up  the  people,"  writes  Wesley,  "to  knock  these  mad  dogs 
on  the  head  at  once;"  and  we  .shall  find  that  mob  violence 
soon  followed  these  appeals  of  the  press  and  censures  of  the 
prelates. 

In  answer  to  a  clergyman  who  forbade  his  preaching  in  his 
parish  Wesley  gave  utterance  to  the  famous  saying  which 
appears   on   the  Wesley  tablet   in  Westminster  Abbey.      He 


^KEO.     SCHOOL. 


402  British  Methodism 

wrote:  "God  in  Scripture  commands  me,  according  to  my 
power,  to  instruct  the  ignorant,  reform  the  wicked,  confirm 
the  virtuous.  Man  forbids  me  to  do  this  in  another's  parish ; 
that  is,  in  effect,  not  to  do  it  at  all,  seeing  I  have  now  no 
parish  of  my  own,  nor  probably  ever  shall.  Whom,  then, 
shall  I  hear,  God  or  man?  .  .  .  I  look  upon  all  the  world  as  my 
parish ;  thus  far  I  mean  that,  in  whatever  part  of  it  I  am,  I 
judge  it  meet,  right,  and  my  bounden  duty  to  declare  unto 
all  that  are  willing  to  hear  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation. 
This  is  the  work  which  I  know  God  has  called  me  to,  and  sure 
I  am  that  his  blessing  attends  it." 

A  report  was  current  in  Bristol  in  1739  that  Wesley  was  a 
papist,  if  not  a  Jesuit.  Some  added  that  he  had  been  born 
and  bred  at  Rome.  Many  believed  this.  "O  ye  fools,"  ex- 
claims Wesley,  "  when  will  ye  understand  that  the  preaching 
of  justification  by  faith  alone  is  overturning  popery  from 
the  foundation  !" 

Many  were  Wesley's  adventures,  tersely  recorded  in  the 
Journal  during  the  years  of  the  planting  of  Methodism.  At 
Bath,  as  he  was  preaching  to  three  thousand  persons,  a  sen- 
sation was  created  by  the  sudden  appearance  of  the  press- 
gang,  who  seized  on  one  of  the  hearers.  Wesley  protested 
against  this  in  the  name  of  English  liberty — "a  mere  sound 
while  such  a  thing  as  a  pressgang  is  suffered  in  the  land." 
At  Turner's  Hall,  Deptford,  the  floor  gave  way,  but  the  vault 
below  being  filled  with  hogsheads  of  tobacco,  the  congre- 
gation sank  only  a  foot  or  two,  and  Wesley  calmly  pro- 
ceeded with  his  sermon.  At  Cardiff  he  preached  in  the 
shire  hall ;  almost  the  whole  town  came  together.  His 
heart  was  greatly  enlarged,  and  the  people  heard  him  with 
rapt  attention  as  for  three  hours  he  explained  the  Beatitudes. 
At  Kingswood,  before  1739  had  closed,  Wesley  could  write: 


The  Bristol  Mob  403 

"  The  scene  is  already  changed.  Kingswood  does  not  now, 
as  a  year  ago,  resound  with  cursing  and  blasphemy.  It  is  no 
more  filled  with  drunkenness  and  uncleanness,  and  the  idle 
diversions  that  naturally  lead  thereto.  It  is  no  longer  full 
of  wars  and  fightings.  .  .  .  Peace  and  love  are  there.  Great 
numbers  of  the  people  are  mild,  gentle,  and  easy  to  be  en- 
treated. They  'do  not  cry,  neither  strive,'  and  hardly  is 
their  'voice  heard  in  the  streets,'  .  .  .  unless  when  they  are 
at  their  usual  evening  diversion — singing  praise  unto  God 
their  Saviour." 

At  the  Bristol  bridewell  we  find  him  visiting  a  condemned 
soldier.  The  next  day  the  officer  gives  orders  that  neither 
Wesley  nor  his  people  should  be  admitted,  for  they  are  all 
atheists !  A  few  days  later,  as  he  was  expounding  part  of  Acts 
xxiii,  "the  floods  began  to  lift  up  their  voice.  Some  or 
other  of  the  children  of  Belial  had  labored  to  disturb  us  sev- 
eral nights  before ;  but  now  it  seemed  as  if  all  the  host  of  the 
aliens  were  come  together  with  one  consent.  Not  only  the 
court  and  the  alleys,  but  all  the  street,  upward  and  down- 
ward, were  filled  with  people,  shouting,  cursing,  and  swearing, 
and  ready  to  swallow  the  ground  with  fierceness  and  rage. 
The  mayor  sent  orders  that  the)*  should  disperse.  But  they 
set  him  at  naught.  The  chief  constable  came  next  in  person, 
who  was,  till  then,  sufficiently  prejudiced  against  us.  But 
they  insulted  him  also  in  so  gross  a  manner  as,  I  believe, 
fully  opened  his  eyes.  At  length  the  mayor  sent  several  of 
his  officers,  who  took  the  ringleaders  into  custody,  and  did 
not  go  till  all  the  rest  were  dispersed."  On  the  day  follow- 
ing "the  rioters  were  brought  up  to  the  court,  the  quarter- 
sessions  being  held  that  day.  They  began  to  excuse 
themselves  by  sa}'ing  many  things  of  me.  But  the  mayor 
cut    them    all    short,    saying:     'What    Mr.    Wesley    is,    is 


404 


British  Methodism 


nothing'  to  you.      I    will    keep    the    peaee ;    I    will    have    no 
rioting  in  this  city.' 

"Calling  at  Newgate  in  the  afternoon,  I  was  informed 
that  the  poor  wretches  under  sentence  of  death  were  ear- 
nestly desirous  to  speak  with  me,  but  that  it  could  not  be ; 
Alderman  Beecher  having  just  then  sent  an  express  order 


DRAWN    BY    I.    JONES 


AFTER    THE    ENGRA 


BY    HIGHAM. 


LAMBETH    PALACE. 
Where  Charles  Wesley  was  cited  before  Archbishop  Potter. 

that  they  should  not.  I  cite  Alderman  Beecher  to  answer  for 
these  souls  at  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ." 

The  deadly  "spotted  fever"  was  prevalent  in  Bristol,  and 
reckless  of  himself,  Wesley  went  from  house  to  house  min- 
istering to  body  and  soul.  A  protracted  frost  threw  hun- 
dreds out  of  work,  and  while  it  lasted  he  fed  from  a  hundred 
to  a  hundred  and  fifty  every  day.  Later  in  the  year  he 
took  into  his  chapel  twelve  of  the  poorest  people  and  em- 
ployed them  for  four  months  in  carding  and  spinning  wool. 

Charles  Wesley's  life  was  almost  as  full  of  incident.      On 


Charles  Wesley  at  Work  405 

the  way  to  Gloucester  he  says,  "  We  lost  our  way  as  often  as 
we  could."  At  the  society  "  some  without  attempted  to  make 
a  disturbance  by  setting  on  the  dogs  ;  but  in  vain.  The  dumb 
dogs  rebuked  the  rioters."  Before  he  went  into  the  streets 
he  tried  to  borrow  the  church.  "The  minister  (one  of  the 
better  disposed)  sent  back  a  civil  message,  that  he  would  be 
glad  to  drink  a  glass  of  wine  with  me,  but  durst  not  lend  me 
his  pulpit  for  fifty  guineas.  Mr.  Whitefield  durst  lend  me 
his  field,  which  did  just  as  well.  For  near  an  hour  and  a 
half  God  gave  me  voice  and  strength  to  exhort  about  two 
thousand  sinners  to  repent  and  believe  the  Gospel."  At 
Painswick  he  expounded  the  Good  Samaritan  ' '  at  a  public 
house,  which  was  full  above  stairs  and  below."  At  Glouces- 
ter, again,  a  lady  acquaintance,  Mrs.  Kirkham,  challenged 
him:  "What,  Mr.  Wesley,  is  it  you  I  see!  Is  it  possible 
that  you,  who  can  preach  at  Christ  Church  and  St.  Mary's, 
should  come  hither  after  a  mob?"  Wesley  says:  "I  cut 
her  short  with  '  The  work  which  my  Master  giveth  me,  must 
I  not  do  it?'  and  went  to  my  mob.  .  .  .  Thousands  heard 
me  gladly." 

Two  accounts  of  Charles  Wesley's  services  give  us  some 
idea  of  his  power.  The  first  is  from  his  Journal.  The  scene 
was  Kennington.  "The  church  was  as  full  as  it  could 
crowd.  Thousands  stood  in  the  churchyard.  It  was  the 
most  beautiful  sight  I  ever  beheld.  The  people  filled  the 
gradually  rising  area,  which  was  shut  up  on  three  sides  by 
a  vast  perpendicular  hill.  On  the  top  and  bottom  of  this  hill 
was  a  circular  row  of  trees.  In  this  amphitheater  they  stood, 
deeply  attentive,  while  I  called  upon  them  in  Christ's  words, 
'Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  are  weary.'  The  tears  of  many 
testified  that  they  were  ready  to  enter  into  that  rest.      God 

enabled  me  to  lift  up  my  voice  like  a  trumpet,  so  that  all 
26 


406  British  Methodism 

distinctly  heard  me.  I  concluded  with  singing-  an  invitation 
to  sinners."  This  is  how  he  describes  the  conversion  of  one 
penitent  prodigal :  "We  prayed  and  sang  alternately  till  faith 
came.  God  blew  with  his  wind,  and  the  waters  flowed.  .  .  . 
The  poor  sinner,  with  joy  and  astonishment,  believed  the 
Son  of  God  loved  him,  and  gave  himself  for  him.  ■  Sing,  ye 
heavens,  for  the  Lord  hath  done  it !  Shout,  ye  lower  parts 
of  the  earth ! '  In  the  morning  I  had  told  his  mother  the 
story  of  St.  Augustine's  conversion.  Now  I  carried  her  the 
joyful  news,  '  This  thy  son  was  dead  and  is  alive  again.'  " 

The  other  account  of  Charles  Wesley's  work  at  this  time  is 
given  in  a  letter  written  by  Joseph  Williams,  of  Kiddermin- 
ster, for  the  Gentleman's  Magazine.  When  he  showed  the 
letter  Charles  Wesley  modestly  objected  to  its  publica- 
tion, but  it  was  found  after  his  death.  Mr.  Williams  writes 
from  Bristol:  "I  found  him  standing  on  a  table,  with  his 
hands  lifted  in  prayer.  .  .  .  He  preached  about  an  hour,  from 
2  Cor.  v,  17-21,  in  such  manner  as  I  have  seldom,  if  ever, 
heard,  with  evident  signs  of  vehement  desire  to  convince  his 
hearers.  He  supported  his  points  with  many  texts  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  then  freely  invited  all,  even  the  chief  of  sinners, 
and  used  a  great  variety  of  the  most  moving  arguments  and 
expostulations,  in  order  to  persuade,  allure,  compel,  all  to 
come  to  Christ." 

Of  another  meeting  Williams  writes:  "Never  did  I  hear 
such  praying  or  such  singing;  never* did  I  see  and  hear  such 
evident  marks  of  fervency  of  spirit  in  the  service  of  God  as 
in  that  society.  At  the  close  of  every  single  petition  a  serious 
Amen,  like  a  rushing  sound  of  waters,  ran  through  the  whole 
society,  and  their  singing  was  not  only  the  most  harmonious 
and  delightful  I  ever  heard,  but,  as  Mr.  Whitefield  writes  in 
his  Journals,   they   '  sang  lustily  and  with  a  good  courage.' 


A  Public  Benefactor 


407 


Indeed,  they  seemed  to  sing  with  melody  in  their  heart.  .  .  . 
If  there  be  such  a  thing  as  heavenly  music  on  earth,  I  heard 
it  there.  If  there  be  such  an  enjoyment,  such  an  attainment, 
as  that  of  a  heaven  upon  earth,  members  in  that  society 
seemed  to  possess  it." 

Charles  Wesley    averted    from    Bristol    what   might   have 
proved  a  destructive  and  murderous  riot.     The  high  price  of 


FROM  GILROYS  CARICATURE. 


"THE    LIBERTY   OF   THE   SUBJECT. 

The  pressgang. 

corn  maddened  the  colliers,  and  they  marched  as  an  armed 
mob  toward  the  city.  Charles  Wesley  riding  over  Lawrence 
Hill  met  about  a  thousand  of  them  face  to  face.  Among 
them  were  some  Methodists  who  had  been  forced  by  fierce 
threats  to  join  them.  These,  seeing  Wesley,  saluted  him 
affectionately,  and  resolved  to  return  with  him  to  Kingswood. 
Charles  Wesley's  account  of  this  is  very  graphic : 

' '  Many  seemed  inclined  to  go  back  with  me  to  school ; 


408  British  Methodism 

but  the  devil  stirred  up  his  oldest  servants,  who  violently 
rushed  upon  the  others,  beating'  and  tearing-  and  driving 
them  away  from  me.  I  rode  up  to  a  ruffian,  who  was  strik- 
ing one  of  our  colliers,  and  prayed  him  rather  to  strike  me. 
He  would  not,  he  .said,  for  all  the  world;  and  was  quite  over- 
come. I  turned  upon  one  who  struck  my  horse  and  he  also 
sunk  into  a  lamb.  Wherever  I  turned  Satan  lost  ground,  so 
that  he  was  obliged  to  make  one  general  assault,  and  by  the 
few  violent  colliers  forced  on  the  quiet  ones  into  the  town. 

' '  I  seized  on  one  of  the  tallest  and  earnestly  besought  him 
to  follow  me.  That  he  would,  he  said,  all  the  world  over. 
About  six  more  I  pressed  into  Christ's  service.  We  met 
several  parties,  stopped,  and  exhorted  them  to  join  us.  We 
gleaned  a  few  from  every  company,  and  grew  as  we  marched 
along,  singing,  to  the  school.  From  one  till  three  we  spent 
in  prayer,  that  evil  might  be  prevented,  and  the  lion  chained. 
Then  news  was  brought  us  that  the  colliers  were  returned 
in  peace.  They  had  quietly  walked  into  the  city,  without 
sticks,  or  the  least  violence.  A  few  of  the  better  sort  went 
to  the  mayor  and  told  their  grievance.  Then  they  all 
returned  as  they  came,  without  noise  or  disturbance.  All 
who  saw  were  amazed,  for  the  leopards  were  laid  down. 
Nothing  could  have  more  shown  the  change  wrought  in 
them  than  this  rising." 


CHAPTER  XLV 

Wesley's  Soul-saving  Laymen 

Dying  Priestliness. — A  Sturdy  Student. — The  Apostle  of  Wilt- 
shire.— A  Resolute  Mother. — A  Sprightly  Brother. — In  De- 
fense of  Lay  Preaching. 

WESLEY  had  already  become  a  radical  anti-High 
Churchman.  Four  departures  from  conventional 
church  "  order  "  evidence  this.  He  had  organized 
a  system  of  religious  societies  altogether  independent  of  the 
parochial  clergy  and  of  episcopal  control,  and  the  "rules"  of 
his  societies  contained  no  requirement  of  allegiance  to  the 
State  Church.  This  was  a  distinct  step  toward  a  separate 
communion.  '- A  year  later  he  had  built  meetinghouses, 
licensed  and  settled  on  trustees  for  his  own  use. 

The  next  year  he  began,  with  his  brother,  to  administer 
the  sacraments  in  these  houses.  Now  he  took  another  stop 
in  the  same  direction  by  calling  out  lay  preachers,  wholly 
devoted  to  the  work  of  preaching  and  visitation.  When  this 
last  step  was  challenged  he  met  it  in  a  style  which  showed 
how  resolutely  he  was  "casting  off  the  graveclothes "  of 
sacerdotalism.  "  I  do  assure  you  this  at  present  is  my  em- 
barrassment.     That  I  have  not  gone  too  far  yet  I  know,  but 

whether  I  have  gone  far  enough  I  am  extremely  doubtful.  .  .  . 

"409 


410  British  Methodism 

Soul-damning  clergymen  lay  me  under  more  difficulties  than 
soul-saving  laymen." 

The  step  cost  him  a  severe  struggle.  "  To  touch  this 
point,"  he  says,  "  was  to  touch  the  apple  of  mine  eye."  But 
in  his  First  Appeal  to  Men  of  Reason  and  Religion  he 
triumphantly  justifies  lay  preaching  by  Scripture,  Church  his- 
tory, and  Christian  common  sense.  "  God  immediately  gave 
a  blessing  thereto.  In  several  places,  by  means  of  these 
plain  men,  not  only  those  who  had  begun  to  run  well  were 
hindered  from  drawing  back  unto  perdition,  but  other  sinners 
also,  from  time  to  time,  were  converted  from  the  error  of 
their  ways.  ...  I  know  no  Scripture  which  forbids  making 
use  of  such  help  in  a  case  of  such  necessity.  And  I  praise  God 
who  has  given  even  this  help  to  these  poor  sheep  when  their 
own  shepherd  pitied  them  not." 

The  "plain  men"  who  head  the  host  of  Wesley's  lay 
preachers  are  John  Cennick,  Joseph  Humphreys,  Thomas 
Maxfield,  and  John  Nelson.  When  Wesley  was  in  his  eighty- 
eighth  year  he  said,  "  Joseph  Humphreys  was  the  first  lay 
preacher  that  assisted  me  in  England,  in  the  year  1738." 
But  the  memory  of  the  venerable  man  appears  to  have  been 
at  fault  as  to  the  date.  According  to  Humphreys'  own  ac- 
count of  his  experience,  published  in  1742,  he  began  to  assist 
Wesley  at  the  Foundry  in  1740.  This  would  be  soon  after 
John  Cennick  had  begun  to  exhort  at  Bristol.  It  is  remarka- 
ble that  this  Joseph  Humphreys,  one  of  Wesley's  first  lay 
preachers,  was  an  avowed  Dissenter,  who  had  been  trained 
in  a  Dissenting  academy  for  the  Dissenting  ministry.  This 
strange  appointment  shows  how  far  Wesley  had  drifted  away 
from  the  High  Church  moorings  which  held  him  in  Georgia 
only  two  or  three  years  before. 

Joseph  Humphreys  heard  Whitefield  preach  on  Kennington 


'  •  Mobbing  the  Preacher. 


The  First  Lay  Preachers  413 

Common  in  May,  1739,  and  says,  "  I  felt  the  power  of  the 
Lord  to  be  with  him,  and  was  much  affected  to  see  the 
seriousness  and  tears  of  many  of  the  congregation."  He 
afterward  supped  with  Whitefield  and  Howell  Harris,  of 
Wales,  at  the  inn  upon  Blackh.eath  ;  ' '  the  inn  seemed  to  be 
turned  into  a  church,  and  to  me  it  was  like  heaven  upon  earth." 
He  founded  a  society  at  Deptford  which  Wesley  afterward 
visited.  A  large  dancing-room  was  hired.  "  At  first,"  says 
Humphreys,  "  I  only  read  Mr.  Whitefield's  sermons  to  the 
people,  but  afterward  I  could  not  help  giving  short  exhorta- 
tions when  the  reading  was  ended."  One  hundred  and  forty 
men  and  women  joined  the  society.  Humphreys  proclaimed 
justification  through  the  Redeemer's  merits.  "For  this  I 
was  soon  violently  opposed.  I  was  singular  in  the  school; 
threatened  by  my  tutor;  dropped  by  most  of  my  old  friends; 
deemed  beside  myself  by  some,  and  at  last,  on  December  25th, 
1739,  was  expelled  from  the  academy  for  no  other  crime,  I 
thank  God,  but  this."  He  was  admitted  to  another  academy, 
in  Moorfields,  where  he  was  at  liberty  to  pursue  his  studies 
and  attend  the  Methodist  societies.  Persecution  waxed  hot. 
He  was  "preached  and  printed  against  by  the  clergy,  and 
violently  opposed  by  the  rude  mob."  "They  hauled  us 
about,  threw  us  upon  the  ground,  beat  us,  and  pelted  us  with 
stones,  brickbats,  rotten  eggs,  apples,  dung,  and  fireworks. 
My  faith  was  hereby  often  exercised,  for  I  was  frequently  in 
danger  of  having  my  brains  beat  out  by  the  large  flints  that 
were  flung  upon  the  roof  of  the  barn  where  I  preached.  The 
flints  used  to  fall  upon  the  tiles,  and  both  fell  in  together 
among  the  congregation,  so  that  the  place  was  often  un- 
tiled." The  tumult  was  partly  quelled  by  the  magistrate,  Sir 
John  Ganson,  who  befriended  Charles  Wesley  when  he  was 
presented  at  Hicks's  Hall  for  a  seditious  assembly. 


414  British  Methodism 

Humphreys  preached  at  the  Foundry  when  Wesley  visited 
Bristol.  He  afterward  became  Calvinistic,  and  joined  White- 
field.  He  parted  from  Wesley  with  great  affection,  and 
wrote  to  him :  "  I  think  I  love  you  better  than  ever.  I  would 
not  grieve  you  by  any  means,  if  I  could  possibly  help  it." 
Wesley  spent  a  pleasant  hour  with  him  five  years  later,  and 
found  him  "open  and  friendly,  but  vigorously  tenacious  of 
the  unconditional  decrees."  He  afterward  left  Whitefield, 
became  a  Presbyterian  minister,  and  finally  received  episco- 
pal ordination.  He  attempted  hymn  writing,  and  the  follow- 
ing doggerel  lines  from  his  pen,  worthless  as  a  hymn,  show, 
nevertheless,  how  widely  Methodism  and  Moravianism  had 
spread  as  early  as  1 743  : 

Many,  in  these  latter  clays, 
Have  experiene'd  Jesu's  grace  : 
Souls  in  Europe,  not  a  few, 
Find  the  Gospel  tidings  true. 
Britain's  Isle  has  catch'd  the  flame; 
Many  know  and  love  the  Lamb  ; 
Both  in  England  and  in   Wales, 
And  in  Scotland  grace  prevails. 

London,   Wilts,  and  Glou  stershire, 
Feel  our  Saviour  very  dear; 
Bristol  sinners  seek  the  Lord, 
And  in  Kingswood  he's  a'dor'd. 
And  a  few  sheep,  here  and  there, 
Are  beloved  in  Oxfordshire ; 
At  Newcastle  and  near   York, 
We  are  told,  God  is  at  work. 

And  our  Shepherd's  arm  infolds 
Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  souls  ; 
Muthel,  Kilsyth,  Cambuslang 
Late  of  Jesu's  love  have  sang. 
Many  Germans  walk  with  God, 
Through  the  virtue  of  Christ's  blood; 
Likewise  in  America, 
Shines  the  glorious  Gospel  day. 


John  Cennick's   Spiritual  Strivings  415 

Pennsylvania  has  been  blest 
With  an  evangelic  feast  : 
On  South  Carolina  too 
Christ  distils  his  heavenly  clew. 
Lord,  be  praised  for  thy  work 
In  the  Jerseys  and  New  York. 
O,  defend  the  Orphan  House ! 
Lo,  it  stands  amidst  its  foes. 

Hear  our  cries,  the  children  bless, 
Father  of  the  fatherless. 
Thousand  Negroes  praise  Thy  name ; 
And  New  England's  in  a  flame : 
And,  we  hear,  the  Hottentot 
By  our  Lord  is  not  forgot ; 
And  that  Greenland's  frozen  soil 
Now  becomes  his  Cross's  spoil. 

John  Cennick,  who  afterward  became  known  as  the  Mo- 
ravian apostle  of  Wiltshire  and  the  Whitefield  of  North  Ire- 
land, was  another  of  Wesley's  early  lay  preachers.  His 
autobiography  is  found  in  the  Gospel  Magazine  for  1777. 
His  grandparents  were  wealthy  traders,  "but  when  George 
Fox  and  William  Penn  began  preaching  they  became 
Quakers  and  suffered  the  loss  of  all  things,  and  were  im- 
prisoned in  Reading  jail."  Their  grandson  found  inspira- 
tion in  their  memory  when  he  also  suffered.  His  youth  was 
spent  in  revelry,  but  there  came  to  him  times  of  serious 
thought. 

We  find  him  at  midnight  on  Salisbury  Plain,  fasting  and 
praying,  overwhelmed  with  a  sense  of  the  eternal,  and  long- 
ing to  be  eased  of  his  burden.  For  days  together  he  would 
feed  on  nothing  but  stale  bread,  leaves,  acorns,  crab  apples, 
and  grass.  He  felt  himself  tottering  on  the  brink  of  hell, 
and  "  the  shining  of  the  sun,  the  beauty  of  the  spring,  the 
voice  of  singing,  the  melody  of  birds,  the  shade  of  trees,  and 
the  murmur  of  waters,"  all  gave  him  naught  but  pain.      But 


416 


British  Methodism 


at  last  he  burst  his  bonds  and  trusted  in  Christ,  a  flood  of 
heavenly  joy  streamed  over  his  soul,  and  John  Cennick  came 
out  from  the  terrible  struggle  a  happy  and  earnest  Christian. 
He    read   Whitefield's  Journal,    and    visited   the    Methodist 


DRAWN    Gv    J.     0,     WOODWARD. 


SALISBURY    PLAIN. 
The  scene  of  John  Cennick's  spiritual  struggle. 

Dean  Kinchin,  at  Oxford,  who  received  him  very  kindly.  1  le 
met  Whitefield  at  Mr.  Hutton's,  near  Temple  Bar,  heard  of 
the  proposed  school  at  Kingswood,  and  became  one  of  its 
masters.  We  find  him  under  the  "  sycamore  tree  near  t he 
intended  school,"  waiting  with  four  or  five  hundred  colliers 
for  a  young  man  who  was  expected  to  read  a  sermon.  The 
young  man  did  not  appear  in  time,  and  Cennick  was  per- 
suaded to  take  his  place.  Again  and  again  we  find  him  "  ex- 
pounding," under  the  famous  tree,  with  Wesley's  approval. 

Cennick  left  Wesley  during  the  Calvinistic  controversy, 
and  afterward  breaking  away  from  Whitefield,  set  out  on  Ins 
own  career  as  a  preacher  in  Wiltshire,  where  he  united  witli 


Cennick's  Irish  Labors  417 

the  Moravians,  rejecting  the  more  repellent  doctrines  of  Cal- 
vinism. He  was  a  brave  and  lovable  man  and  an  eloquent 
preacher.  When  he  went  with  his  friend,  Howell  Harris, 
to  preach  in  Swindon,  a  great  mob  came  with  an  "  exceeding 
noise,"  fired  muskets  over  the  heads  of  the  hearers,  blackened 
their  faces,  gathered  dust  from  the  highways  and  flung  it  in 
their  eyes,  brought  a  fire  engine  and  drenched  them  with 
ditch-water,  threw  bucketsof  mud  at  them,  and  burnt  effigies 
of  the  preachers  in  the  market  place.  "  It  did  not  matter," 
says  Cennick.  "  When  they  played  the  engine  on  me  Harris 
preached,  and  when  they  played  it  on  Harris  I  preached." 
But  worse  followed. 

At  Stratton  the  people  persuaded  a  butcher  to  save  up  all 
the  blood  he  could,  that  they  might  play  blood  upon  him  with 
the  fire  engine.  Stones  followed,  and  Cennick's  body  was 
black  and  blue  for  three  weeks  afterward.  The  sanguinary 
shower  was  a  brutal  jest  upon  Cennick's  text,  "  The  blood 
of  Jesus  Christ  his  Son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin." 

In  Dublin  Cennick  preached  to  vast  crowds  who  thronged 
Skinner's  Alley,  and  covered  even  the  tops  of  the  houses, 
leaning  over  parapets  to  catch  his  words.  Ten  thousand  peo- 
ple gathered  to  hear  him  at  Ballymena,  and  as  he  preached 
his  first  sermon  a  gentleman  rode  up  and  struck  him  across 
the  face  with  a  riding  whip.  Magistrates  and  clergymen 
headed  a  mob  and  drummed  him  out  of  town.  But  Cennick 
had  a  ready  wit  and  a  kindly  manner  which  won  him  many 
friends.  His  hair  was  light,  his  eyes  were  pleasant,  his  face 
most  youthful,  almost  boyish.  For  five  years  he  traversed 
North  Ireland,  mostly  on  horseback,  and  became  known  as 
"the  preacher."  The  people  lined  the  roads  to  give  him 
welcome,  and  implored  him  to  come  into  their  houses  to  pray. 
They  stood  for  hours  in  pelting  rain  to  hear  him.    In  the  vil- 


418  British  Methodism 

lage  cockpits,  where  the  people  held  their  cockfights,  he 
preached  with  the  water  streaming  from  his  clothes.  The 
Moravians  regard  him  as  the  greatest  of  the  English  breth- 
ren of  that  day,  and  Count  Zinzendorf  called  him  "Paul 
revived." 

He  was  worn  out  by  his  apostolic  labors  while  yet  a  young 
man.  From  the  peat  bogs  of  Ireland,  says  Hntton,  the  Mo- 
ravian historian,  he  retired  to  the  dusty  streets  of  London, 
and  wrote  in  his  pocketbook : 

Now,  Lord,  in  peace  with  thee  and  all  below, 
Let  me  depart  and  to  thy  kingdom  go. 

On  a  summer  afternoon  in  1755  he  lay  upon  his  deathbed 
in  a  small,  plain  room  in  a  London  street,  and  passed  away 

with  the  words,  "Dear 
Saviour,  give  me  patience," 
on  his  lips.  The  lines  of 
weariness  faded  from  his 
tj~.      {  ^i\  HAcJ'  brow,  and  the  peace  on  the 

face  of   "the  preacher"  was 
of  one  who  rested  from  his 
labors. 
Cennick's  hymns  are  in  many  hymnals,  and  are  not  lack- 
ing in  genuine  lyric  fire.     They  owe  something  to  Charles 
Wesley,  who  revised  them  at  Cennick's  request.     Among  the 
best  known  are  "Children  of  the  heavenly  King;"   "  Lo,  he 
comes  with   clouds  descending;"    "  Thou   dear   Redeemer, 
dying  Lamb !  " 

Thomas  Maxfleld's  name  is  associated  with  the  incident 
which  led  Wesley,  once  for  all,  to  give  lay  preachers  a  recog- 
nized place  in  his  organized  society.  Maxfield  was  one  of  the 
first  converts  at  Bristol.  After  traveling  with  Charles  Wes- 
ley as  a  companion  and  servant  he  came  to  London.     He  was 


•I 


y        / 


Thomas  Maxfield  Turns  Preacher  419 

left  at  the  Foundry  to  meet  and  pray  with  the  members  dur- 
ing John  Wesley's  absence.  From  prayer  and  exhortation 
he  was  insensibly  led  into  preaching,  and  his  sermons  were 
followed  by  many  conversions. 

Wesley  considered  this  preaching  of  sermons,  as  distin- 
guished from  the  informal  exhortations  of  a  leader,  an  irregu- 
larity, and  hastened  back  to  London  to  check  it.  He  arrived 
with  an  anxious  look  upon  his  face.  His  mother  inquired  the 
reason  of  his  concern  and  displeasure. 

"  Thomas  Maxfield  has  turned  preacher,"  was  his  abrupt 
reply. 

"  John,"  said  Mrs.  Wesley,  "  you  know  what  my  senti- 
ments have  been.  You  cannot  suspect  me  of  favoring  readily 
anything  of  this  kind.  But  take  care  what  you  do  with  re- 
spect to  that  young  man  ;  for  he  is  as  surely  called  of  God  to 
preach  as  you  are.  Examine  what  have  been  the  points  of 
his  preaching,  and  hear  him  yourself." 

Wesley  heard  Maxfield  preach,  and  was  satisfied.  "It  is 
the  Lord!  "  he  exclaimed,  "let  him  do  what  seemeth  him 
good.  What  am  I  that  I  should  withstand  God?  "  His  last 
scruples  about  employing  unordained  preachers  yielded  to 
his  mother's  argument,  and  the  woman  apostle  of  the  old 
rectory  kitchen,  who  had  alarmed  her  good  husband  by  the 
"  irregularity"  of  her  fireside  services,  gave  an  impetus  to 
the  work  of  the  lay  preachers  which  is  felt  to-day  over  the 
whole  earth.  The  way  was  now  prepared  for  the  extension 
of  Methodism  throughout  the  country,  and  for  the  growth  of 
the  "  circuit  "  system. 

But  Wesley's  enlistment  of  laymen  roused  afresh  the  fears 
of  the  English  prelates.  When  Robinson,  the  Archbishop  of 
Armagh,  met  Charles  Wesley  at  the  Hot- wells,  Bristol,  he 
said : 


420  British  Methodism 

"I  knew  your  brother  well;  I  could  never  credit  all  I 
heard  respecting  him  and  you  ;  but  one  thing  in  your  conduct 
I  could  never  account  for — your  employing  laymen." 

"My  Lord,"  said  Charles,  "the  fault  is  yours  and  your 
brethren." 

"  How  so?  "  asked  the  primate. 

"  Because  you  hold  your  peace  and  the  stones  cry  out." 

"  But  I  am  told,"  said  the  archbishop,  "  that  they  are  un- 
learned men." 

"Some  are,"  said  the  sprightly  poet;  "so  the  dumb  ass 
rebukes  the  prophet." 

John  Wesley's  defense  of  these  "unlettered"  men  was, 
perhaps,  more  to  the  point.      He  wrote: 

"  I  am  bold  to  affirm  that  these  unlettered  men  have  help 
from  God  for  that  great  work — the  saving  of  souls  from  death. 
.  .  .  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  sub- 
stantial, practical,  experimental  divinity  as  few  of  our  candi- 
dates for  holy  orders,  even  in  the  university,  are  able  to  do." 


CHAPTER   XLVI 
The  Meeting  of  Whitefield,  Franklin,  and  Edwards 

The  Vivifier  of  the  Churches. — Infant  Universities. — Friend- 
ship of  Franklin  and  Whitefield.— The  Orphan  House.— Old 
Fires  Rekindled  in  New  England. 

GEORGE  WHITEFIELD  was  called  to  play  an  impor- 
tant part  in  the  history  of  two  nations.  His  work 
was  not  so  much  the  organization  of  any  one  church 
as  the  vivifying  of  them  all.  In  this  respect  his  work  in 
America  was  even  greater  than  in  England.  He  crossed  the 
Atlantic  thirteen  times,  when  the  voyage  was  more  tedious 
than  now,  and  lived  to  see  the  foundation  of  the  Methodist. 
Episcopal  Church  laid  by  Boardman  and  Pilmoor,  for  whom 
his  apostolic  labors  paved  the  way.  After  his  nine  months' 
work  in  England,  resulting-  in  the  inauguration  of  field- 
preaching  and  a  substantial  collection  for  his  orphanage,  he 
paid  his  second  visit  to  America,  reaching  Philadelphia  in 
November,  1739,  and  sending  forward  his  "  family  "  to  Savan- 
nah while  he  himself  went  "  ranging." 

Just  before  and  during  the  voyage  he  wrote  many  letters. 
One  of  them  shows  that  Wesley's  memorable  declaration,  "  I 
look  upon  all  the  world  as  my  parish,"  had  become  a  proverb 

with  the  Methodists:    "  The  whole  world  is  now  my  parish. 
27  421 


422  British  Methodism 

Wheresoever  my  Master  calls  me  I  am  ready  to  go  and 
preach  his  everlasting  Gospel."  Another  letter,  addressed  to 
Howell  Harris,  shows  that  he  was  now  a  Calvinist :  "  Since  I 
saw  you  God  has  been  pleased  to  enlighten  me  more  in  that 
comfortable  doctrine  of  election,  etc.  At  my  return  I  hope  to 
be  more  explicit  than  I  have  been."  Another  reveals  his  pur- 
pose in  regard  to  the  parish  of  Savannah,  of  which  he  had 
accepted  the  living:  "I  intend  resigning  the  parsonage  of 
Savannah.  The  Orphan  House  I  can  take  care  of,  suppos- 
ing I  should  be  kept  at  a  distance.  When  I  have  resigned 
the  parish  I  shall  be  more  at  liberty  to  make  a  tour  round 
America,  if  God  should  ever  call  me  to  such  a  work." 

Moll's  map  of  1 741 ,  elsewhere  reproduced  (page  228),  depicts 
the  America  of  Whitefield's  day,  and  the  "  History"  it  illus- 
trates "  reckons  the  number  of  people  in  Philadelphia  to  be 
12,240,  which  computation  makes  it  to  be  near  as  big  and 
populous  as  the  city  of  Exeter."  It  is  "  one  of  the  best  laid- 
out  Cities  in  the  World,  and  was  it  full  of  Houses  and  Inhabit- 
ants, according  to  the  Proprietary's  Plan,  it  would  be  a  Capital 
fit  for  a  Great  Empire."  From  the  steps  of  the  old  court- 
house, on  a  clear  November  evening,  Whitefield  preached  to 
a  mass  meeting  of  the  inhabitants.  He  was  impressed,  as  in 
England,  with  the  profound  silence  of  the  vast  congregation. 
A  great  awakening  followed  Whitefield's  preaching  and 
twenty-six  societies  for  social  prayer  and  religious  conference 
were  established  in  the  city.  He  met  the  famous  Presbyte- 
rian ministers,  William  and  Gilbert  Tennent,  and  describes 
the  latter  as  "  a  son  of  thunder  who  does  not  fear  the  faces  of 
men."  He  wore  his  hair  undressed  and  a  large  greatcoat 
girt  with  a  leathern  girdle.  This  famous  evangelist  and  Cal- 
vinist became  Whitefield's  successor  in  Boston  and  New 
England  generally. 


Whitefield's  Preaching  423 

White  field  visited  New  York.  He  was  excluded  from  the 
Anglican  pulpits,  and  therefore  began  to  preach  in  Dissenting- 
chapels.  Professedly  he  was  a  Church  of  England  clergy- 
man, practically  he  thus  became  a  Free  Churchman.  But 
this  "  irregularity  "  caused  him  no  uneasiness.     To  one  cler- 


THE   OLD    COURTHOUSE,    PHILADELPHIA. 

gyman  who  denied  him  the  use  of  his  church  he  wished 
"  good  luck  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  as  long  as  he  preached 
the  Gospel,"  and  then  went  forth  to  preach  in  the  field  to  up- 
ward of  two  thousand  people. 

One  who  was  present  at  the  meetinghouse  services  wrote 
as  follows  in  Prince's  Christian  History:  "All  he  said  was 
demonstration,  life,  and  power.  The  people's  eyes  and  ears 
hung  upon  his  lips.  .  .  .  He  preached  during  four  days 
twice  every  day.  He  is  a  man  of  middle  stature,  of  a  slender 
body,  of  a  fair  complexion,  and  of  a  comely  appearance.  He 
is  of  a  sprightly,  cheerful  temper,  and  acts  and  moves  with 
great  agility  and  life.  The  endowments  of  his  mind  are  un- 
common ;  his  wit  is  quick  and  piercing;  his  imagination 
lively  and  florid,  and,  as  far  as  I  can  discover,  both  are  under 


424 


British  Methodism 


the  direction  of  a  solid  judgment.  He  has  a  most  ready 
memory,  and  speaks,  I  think,  entirely  without  notes.  He  has 
a  clear  and  musical  voice  and  a  wonderful  command  of  it. 
He  uses  much  gesture,  but  with  great  propriety.  Every 
accent  of  his  voice,  every  motion  of  his  body,  speaks.  If  his 
delivery  be  the  product  of  art,  it  is  certainly  the  perfection  of 
it,  for  it  is  entirely  concealed.  He  has  a  great  mastery  of 
words,  but  .studies  great  plainness  of  speech.  He  spends  not 
his  zeal  in  trifles.      He  breathes  a  most  catholic  spirit,  and 


frQ^WYORgfrfl 


■J 


7SK 


^^0S^^^M^^^^M^^^^-^^^^^ 


NEW    YORK    IN    1730. 

proposes  that  his  whole  design  is  to  bring  men  to  Christ ;  and 
that  if  he  can  attain  this  end,  his  converts  may  go  to  what 
church  and  worship  God  in  what  form  they  like  best/'  Such 
was  the  beginning  of  Whitefield's  ministry  in  New  York. 

Princeton  College  was  not  then  in  existence,  and  of  its  fore- 
runner, the  celebrated  ' '  log  college,"  he  makes  this  note  in  his 
Journal  :  "  The  place  wherein  the  young  men  study  now  is, 
in  contempt,  called  The  College.  It  is  a  log  house  about 
twenty  feet  long  and  nearly  as  many  broad;  and  to  me  it 
seemed  to  resemble  the  school  of  the  old  prophets.  From 
this  despised  plaee   seven  or  eight  worthy  ministers  of  Jesus 


Franklin  and  the  Preacher  425 

have  been  sent  forth ;  more  are  almost  ready  to  be  sent,  and 
a  foundation  is  being  laid  for  the  instruction  of  many  others." 

America's  great  printer,  electrician,  statesman,  and  diplo- 
matist, Benjamin  Franklin,  met  Whitefield  at  Philadelphia  in 
1739,  and  again  the  next  year.  He  was  attracted  by  White- 
field's  oratory  and  transparent  honesty,  and  printed  his  Jour- 
nals and  sermons.  At  first  he  refused  to  contribute  to  the 
orphanage,  because  it  was  built  in  Georgia  at  a  much  greater 
cost  for  materials  and  workmen  than  if  it  had  been  in  Phila- 
delphia. He  was  a  little  vexed,  too,  because  Whitefield 
rejected  his  counsel.  But  Franklin  himself  must  tell  the 
story  of  his  surrender  to  Whitefield's  eloquence : 

"  I  happened  soon  after  to  attend  one  of  his  sermons,  in 
the  course  of  which  I  perceived  he  intended  to  finish  with  a 
collection  ;  and  I  silently  resolved  he  should  get  nothing  from 
me.  I  had  in  my  pocket  a  handful  of  copper  money,  three 
or  four  silver  dollars,  and  five  pistoles  in  gold.  As  he  pro- 
ceeded I  began  to  soften,  and  concluded  to  give  the  copper. 
Another  stroke  of  his  oratory  determined  me  to  give  the  sil- 
ver; and  he  finished  so  admirably  that  I  emptied  my  pocket 
wholly  into  the  collector's  dish,  gold  and  all."  One  of  Frank- 
lin's club  friends  had  taken  the  precaution  of  emptying  his 
pockets  before  leaving  home.  Toward  the  close  of  the  ser- 
mon he  applied  to  a  neighbor  to  lend  him  money  for  the  col- 
lection !  His  neighbor  happened  to  be,  probably,  the  only 
man  not  affected  by  the  preacher.  His  answer  was,  ' '  At  any 
other  time,  friend  Flopkinson,  I  would  lend  thee  freely,  but 
not  now  ;  for  thee  seems  to  me  to  be  out  of  thy  right  senses  ! " 

Franklin  vigorously  expressed  his  opinion  that  Whitefield 
was  "in  all  his  conduct  a  perfectly  honest  man.  Our  friend- 
ship was  sincere  on  both  sides  and  lasted  to  his  death."  And. 
Franklin's  characteristic  and  outspoken  honesty  is  illustrated 


426 


British  Methodism 


PAINTED     BY 


IAUER.  ENGRAVEO   BY    ANGUS. 

BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN. 


in  his  candid  utterances  to  his  friend,  however  much  we  may 
regret  their  religious  import.      He  says  that  Whitefield  used 

to  pray  for  his  conver- 
sion, but  "  never  had 
the  satisfaction  of  be- 
lieving that  his  prayers 
were  heard."  On  one 
occasion  Franklin  said 
to  him,  when  he  needed 
lodgings,  "You  know 
my  house.  If  you  can 
make  shift  with  its 
scanty  accommodation, 
you  will  be  most  heart- 
ily welcome."  White- 
field  replied  that  if  he 
made  that  offer  for  Christ's  sake,  he  should  not  miss  of  a 
reward.  With  utmost  candor  Franklin  replied,  "Don't  let 
me  be  mistaken ;  it  is  not  for  Christ's  sake,  but  for  your  sake." 
Franklin  describes  Whitefield  as  preaching  from  the  court- 
house steps,  but  we  must  reserve  his  graphic  account  of  the 
service  for  a  future  chapter  on  Whitefield's  preaching.  He 
also  records  the  building  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  which 
was  the  result  of  the  evangelist's  visit.  This  building  after- 
ward became  the  seat  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
Franklin  was  thirty-three  years  of  age  when  Whitefield  met 
him.  About  nineteen  years  before,  he  had  entered  Philadel- 
phia, dirty,  hungry,  and  weary,  his  pockets  filled  with,  shirts 
and  stockings,  and  the  whole  of  his  capital  consisting  of  one 
Dutch  dollar.  He  was  now  a  busy  printer,  famous  as  the 
publisher  of  Poor  Richard's  Almanack,  a  newspaper  editor, 
an  alderman  and  magistrate ;   had  filled  the  office  of  clerk  to 


The  First  Brick  of  Bethesda 


427 


the  General  Assembly,  and  had  recently  been  appointed  post- 
master. 

Through  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  Carolina  Whitefield 
sped  like  a  blazing  comet.  At  Williamsburg  he  was  cour- 
teously entertained  by  the  governor  and  Commissary  Blair, 
and  at  the  college  met  two  masters  who  had  been  his  contem- 
poraries at  Oxford.  On  the  way  to  Bath-Town  the  travelers 
heard  wolves  howling  like  a  kennel  of  hounds.  In  North 
Carolina  they  had  to  swim 
their  horses  through  the 
creeks.  Parties  of  negroes 
and  dancers  celebrating  New 
Year's  Day  were  met;  and, 
overawed  by  the  preacher's 
message,  begged  his  prayers. 
As  he  approached  Charleston 
he  was  astonished  to  find 
people  dressed  almost  like 
Londoners  in  gayety,  and  as 
he  preached  in  the  French 
church  many  were  melted  into  tears,  and  with  difficulty  he 
tore  himself  away  from  importunate  pleaders  for  another 
sermon. 

He  arrived  at  Savannah  in  January,  1740,  and  on  March 
25  laid  the  first  brick  of  his  Orphan  House,  about  ten  miles 
from  the  town,  calling  his  new  house  of  mercy  "  Bethesda." 
About  forty  children  were  now  under  his  care  and  were 
sheltered  in  a  hired  house.  The  workmen  increased  his 
"  family,"  as  he  called  them,  to  a  hundred  persons  who  had 
to  be  daily  fed.  He  had  only  about  £150  in  cash,  but  pro- 
ceeded with  his  work  in  faith,  building  the  house  two  stories 
high  with  twenty  rooms.      Two   smaller   houses  were    also 


FRANKLIN  S    PRINTING    PRESS. 
The  press  used  by  him  in  London  in  1725. 


428 


British  Methodism 


built  as  an  infirmary  and  a  workshop.  Whitefield  visited 
Frederica,  preaching  once  more  before  General  Oglethorpe, 
who  treated  him  very  courteously.  Then  we  find  him  at  the 
Scots'  settlement  at  Darien,  and  needing  further  funds,  he 


THE    NORTHERN    COLONIES    IN    WHITEFIELD  S    DAY. 


again  went  northward,  preaching  and  collecting  at  Charles- 
ton and  Philadelphia.  At  New  York,  again,  in  feeble  health, 
he  would  take  no  rest,  preaching  on  the  common  from  a 
platform  raised  for  the  purpose.  Back  again  he  came  to  Sa- 
vannah in  great  joy,  with  £500,  to  a"  family"  increased  to 


Whitefield  Meets  Edwards  429 

a  hundred  and  fifty.  Once  more  he  went  Gospel-ranging 
until  he  reached  Boston,  the  capital  of  New  England. 

He  was  invited  to  Boston  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Coleman,  and 
was  received  as  an  angel  of  God,  except  by  one  doctor  of 
divinity — who  met  him  in  the  streets  and  said,  "  I  am  sorry 
to  see  you  here;  "  and  to  whom  Whitefield  quietly  remarked, 
"So  is  the  devil."  When  he  preached  his  farewell  sermon  it 
was  computed  that  twenty  thousand  people  were  present. 
Multitudes  were  converted  and  a  marvelous  work  of  grace 
continued  for  a  year  and  a  half  after  his  departure.  "  The 
very  face  of  the  town  seemed  to  be  strangely  altered.  Even 
the  negroes  and  boys  in  the  streets  left  their  usual  rudeness, 
and  taverns  were  found  empty  of  all  but  lodgers." 

He  preached  under  an  elm  at  Cambridge,  "  the  chief  col- 
lege of  New  England  for  training  the  sons  of  the  prophets." 
•  At  Northampton  Whitefield  rejoiced  to  meet  the  great 
divine  and  revivalist,  Jonathan  Edwards,  now  in  feeble  health. 
He  was  mourning  the  declension  of  many  of  the  converts 
of  the  great  awakening  of  five  years  before.  "  When  I  came 
to  remind  them,"  says  Whitefield,  "  of  their  former  experi- 
ences and  how  zealous  and  lively  they  were  at  that  time,  both 
minister  and  people  wept  much."  Edwards  was  soon  to  re- 
joice again,  and  records  the  rekindling  of  the  holy  fire  among 
lapsed  professors  and  young  people.  The  wife  of  Jonathan 
Edwards  wrote  to  a  friend:  "  Mr.  Whitefield  makes  less  of 
the  doctrines  than  our  American  preachers  generally  do,  and 
aims  more  at  affecting  the  heart.  He  is  a  born  orator.  You 
have  already  heard  of  his  deep-toned  yet  clear  and  melodious 
voice.  It  is  perfect  music.  It  is  wonderful  to  see  what  a 
spell  he  casts  over  an  audience  by  proclaiming  the  simplest 
truths  of  the  Bible.  .  .  .  Our  mechanics  shut  up  their 
shops    and    the    day    laborers  throw    down    their    tools    to 


430 


British  Methodism 


go  and  hear   him  preach,  and  few  return  unaffected.     He 
speaks  from  a  heart  all  aglow  with  love." 

After  an  absence  from  England  of  a  year  and  a  half  White- 
field  returned  in  March,  1741.  While  he  was  in  America 
Wesley  had  organized  the  Methodist  societies  in  England  and 


r 


mssm 

...  tialk^.  ■ 

^IMRJI.-oJ?-*       "    :r.,  |tt 

/k    ■    JMH^^?? 
■  ■'  //v  »    il    is   -i     '■'<'■  i'-^ 

£■:  Ili-.Hi'  §§i.  IB'  afcilij/jj 


'--  a-  *-  m  i  it 


•/>: 

..,,, 


"A    PROSPECT    OF   THE   COLLEGES  AT    CAMBRIDGE,  IN    NEW    ENGLAND." 

"  1740.  Wednesday,  Sep.  24.  Preached  at  Cambridge,  the  chief  college  of  New  England  for  training 
the  sons  of  the  prophets.  It  has  one  president,  four  tutors,  and  about  a  hundred  students.  .  .  . 
The  president  of  the  college  and  minister  of  the  parish  treated  me  very  civilly.  In  the  afternoon  I 
preached  again  in  the  court." — Whitefield' s  Journal. 

laid  the  foundations  of  a  great  evangelical  Church.  He  had 
separated  from  the  Moravians  and  rejected  the  doctrine  of 
"stillness,"  which  threatened  for  a  time  the  usefulness  of  a 
noble  missionary  community.  Whitefield  planted  no  new 
Church  in  America,  but  his  success  in  reviving  old  ones  was 
perhaps  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 


CHAPTER  XLV1I 
The  Parting  Currents  of  Methodism 

A  Controversial  Calvinist. — Cennick's  Secession.— A  Famous 
Sermon. —  Two  Sorts  of  Methodists. — The  Reconciled  Evan- 
gelists.— Whitefield's  First  Tabernacles. 


FROM  the  days  of  St.  Augustine  the  subject  of  human 
free  will   and   divine  sovereignty   has  formed  a  great 
theological  battle  ground.      In  the  time  of  Luther  and 
Calvin  it  rent  Protestantism  in  twain.      Now  we  see  it  sepa- 
rating the  leaders  of  the  great  Evangelical  Revival  and  divid- 
ing Methodism  into  two  camps. 

We  found  Whitefield,  during  his  second  voyage  to  America, 
expressing  his  intention  to  give  prominence  to  the  doctrine 
of  election.  His  association  with  the  New  England  divines 
confirmed  his  Calvinism.  He  returned  to  England  as  a 
militant  opponent  of  the  doctrine  of  universal  redemption 
as  held  by  the  Wesleys.  He  did  not  at  first,  as  Thomas 
Jackson  well  says,  receive  the  creed  of  Calvin  as  it  has  been 
softened  by  modern  metaphysicians.  He  avowed  the  doctrine 
of  limited  redemption,  and  contended  for  an  absolute  decree  of 
reprobation  as  well  as  for  a  decree  of  election.     Yet  in  doing 

this  his  compassionate  heart  conflicted  with  his  opinions.     It 

43i 


432 


British  Methodism 


is  easy  to  see  that  when  traversing  the  regions  of  Calvin ian 

reprobation  he  walked  with 

Uneasy  steps 
Over  the  burning  marie. 

But  the  first  division  in  the   English  soeieties  did   not  arise 
directly   from   Whitefield's  action.      In   June,    1740,    Wesley 


p-  - 

$u^^^^/£^ 

/ 

4k*. 

A^^/" 

j 

found  predestination  fiercely  disputed  in  the  society  at  Dept- 
ford.  The  account  of  his  conversation  with  one  hot  dispu- 
tant illustrates,  as  Canon  Overton  has  observed,  his  wonderful 
forbearance,  which  was  one  of  the  secrets  of  his  success,  and 
the  kind  of  material  he  had  to  deal  with  : 

"Mr.  Acourt  said,  'What!  do  you  refuse  admitting  a 
person  into  your  society  only  because  he  differs  from  you  in 
opinion  ? ' 

"  I  answered,  '  No,  but  what  opinion  do  you  mean?  '  He 
said,  '  That  of  election.  I  hold  a  certain  number  is  elected 
from  eternity,  and  those  must  and  shall  be  saved,  and  the 
rest  of  mankind  must  and  shall  be  damned.  Many  of  your 
society  hold  the  same.' 

"  I  replied,  '  I  never  asked  whether  they  held  it  or  no,  only 
let  them  not  trouble  others  by  disputing  about  it.' 

"lie  said,  '  Nay,  but  I  will  dispute  about  it!  ' 

"  '  What !     Wherever  you  come?  ' 

"  '  Yes,  wherever  I  come.' 


The   Calvinistic    Separation  435 

"  '  Why,  then,  would  you  come  among  us,  who  you  know 
are  of  another  mind?  ' 

"  '  Because  you  are  all  wrong,  and  I  am  resolved  to  set 
you  all  right.' 

"  '  I  fear  your  coming  with  this  view  would  neither  profit 
you  nor  us.' 

"  He  concluded,  '  Then  I  will  go  and  tell  all  the  world  that 
you  and  your  brothers  are  false  prophets,  and  I  tell  you,  in 
one  fortnight  you  will  be  all  in  confusion.'  " 

Soon  after  John  Cennick,  Wesley's  schoolmaster  at  Kings- 
wood  and  the  leader  of  the  society  at  Bristol,  became  a 
decided  Calvinist,  preached  against  the  Wesleys  in  their  own 
pulpit,  and  caused  painful  strife.  Charles  Wesley  implored 
him  to  preserve  entire  silence  on  the  controverted  points, 
promising  to  do  the  same  if  he  would  consent.  But  Cennick 
would  not  accede  to  this.  His  opposition  to  the  Wesleys 
became  increasingly  violent,  and  he  wrote  a  letter  to  White- 
field  in  America  urging  him  to  return,  and  concluding: 
"  Fly,  dear  brother.  I  am  alone;  I  am  in  the  midst  of  the 
plague.  If  God  give  thee  leave,  make  haste."  Finally 
Cennick  withdrew  with  fifty-two  of  the  members,  upward  of 
ninety  remaining  with  the  Wesleys.  From  this  time  the 
Wesleyan  and  Calvinistic  Methodists  became  two  distinct 
bodies. 

To  Wesley's  intensely  practical  mind  the  main  reason  for 
opposing  the  Calvinistic  theories  was  what  he  considered  to 
be  their  tendency  to  antinomianism.  To  check  the  progress 
of  what  he  felt  to  be  dangerous  error  he  preached  and  pub- 
lished his  famous  sermon  on  Free  Grace — the  third  sermon 
that  he  had  published.  His  first  published  sermon  was  his 
parting  address  in  Georgia  on  the  Trouble  and  Rest  of  Good 
Men  ;   the   second  was  on   Salvation  by  Faith,   written  soon 


436  British  Methodism 

after  he  found  the  joy  of  faith.  His  sermon  on  Free  Grace 
was  the  most  trenchant  and  impassioned  he  ever  published. 
Charles  Wesley  wrote  a  hymn  of  thirty-six  verses,  which  was 
printed  at  the  end.  It  expresses  the  poet's  conviction  as  to 
human  free  will  thus: 

A  power  to  choose,  a  will  to  obey, 

Freely  his  grace  restores  ; 
We  all  may  find  the  living  way, 

And  call  the  Saviour  ours. 

Thou  canst  not  mock  the  sons  of  men  — 

Invite  us  to  draw  nigh, 
Offer  thy  grace  to  all,  and  then 

Thy  grace  to  most  deny. 

Copies  of  Wesley's  sermon  and  the  hymn  reached  America, 
and  Whiteficld,  greatly  disturbed,  published  a  reply  under 
the  title  of  A  Letter  to  the  Rev.  John  Wesley.  It  con- 
tained extracts  from  private  letters  which  had  nothing-  to  do 
with  the  point  at  issue,  and  revealed  the  unrivaled  orator's 
lack  of  logical  force.  He  identifies  the  doctrine  of  general 
redemption,  as  held  by  Wesley,  with  the  tenets  of  those  who 
deny  redemption  altogether.  "  Infidels  of  all  kinds  are  on 
your  side  of  the  question;  deists,  Arians,  Socinians,  arraign 
God's  sovereignty  and  stand  up  for  universal  redemption." 

Overton  condones  Whitefield's  personalities  and  lack  of 
self-control  on  the  ground  that  he  felt  himself  overmatched. 
His  opponent  was  too  strong  for  him  in  ability  and  learning, 
no  less  than  in  self-control,  and  this  very  feeling  furnishes  a 
strong  excuse  for  the  unseemly  language  and  conduct  of 
Whitefield. 

About  six  weeks  before  his  arrival  in  England  some  one 
obtained  a  copy  of  an  abusive  private  letter  he  had  sent  to 
Wesley  in  1740  and  circulated  it  at  the  doors  of  the  Foundry. 


"  Two  Sorts  of  Methodists  "  439 

Wesley  heard  of  this,  and  having-  procured  a  copy,  tore  it  in 
pieces  before  the  assembled  congregation,  declaring  that  he 
believed  Whitefield  would  have  done  the  same.  In  two 
minutes  the  whole  congregation  had  followed  his  example 
and  all  the  copies  were  torn  to  tatters. 

When  Whitefield  reached  England,  in  March,  1741 ,  and 
preached  at  Kennington  Common,  he  was  greatly  distressed 
to  find  that  his  letters  to  Wesley  had  alienated  many  of  his 
friends.  He  writes  sadly  that  he  "  had  used  some  too  strong 
expressions  about  absolute  reprobation."  ' '  Instead  of  having 
thousands  to  attend  me  scarce  one  of  my  spiritual  children 
came  to  see  me.  At  Kennington  Common  I  had  not  above 
a  hundred  to  hear  me."  He  did  not  refrain,  however,  from 
preaching  against  the  Wesleys,  by  name,  at  Moorfields.  His 
old  friends,  nevertheless,  invited  him  to  preach  at  the  Foundry, 
but  with  Charles  Wesley  by  his  side  he  there  proclaimed  the 
absolute  decrees  in  the  most  offensive  manner,  and  it  was 
evident,  as  Wesley  says,  that  "  there  were  now  two  sorts  of 
Methodists  —  those  for  particular  and  those  for  general 
redemption." 

It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  into  all  the  details  of  the  pain- 
ful but  important  controversy.  It  is  far  pleasanter  to  record 
that  in  course  of  time  the  personal  breach  between  the  evan- 
gelists was  entirely  healed,  although  both  held  fast  their  own 
opinions  and  the  living  stream  of  Methodism  was  divided 
into  two  currents.  "  One  branch,"  says  Bishop  McTyeire, 
"after  refreshing  and  enriching  a  dry  and  thirsty  land,  is 
absorbed  and  lost ;  the  other,  with  well-defined  and  widening 
banks  and  deepening  current,  flows  on." 

Howell  Harris,  the  warm-hearted  Welshman,  and  Lady 
Huntingdon  found  Wesley  ready  to  forgive  Whitefield's 
impetuous  personal  abuse,  and  one  of  the  noblest  character- 


440  British  Methodism 

istics  of  Whitefield  was  revealed  in  his  willingness  to  confess 
his  faults.  He  wrote  to  Wesley  in  October,  1741  :  "  May 
God  remove  all  obstacles  that  now  prevent  our  union  ;  may 
all  disputings  cease,  and  each  of  us  talk  of  nothing  but  Jesus 
and  him  crucified.  This  is  my  resolution.  I  am  without  dis- 
simulation. I  find  I  love  you  as  much  as  ever,  and  pray  God, 
if  it  be  his  blessed  will,  that  we  may  all  be  united  together." 

Later  Wesley's  pardon  was  asked  for  the  unnecessary  and 
offensive  taunts  of  the  widely  circulated  letter.  In  a  pam- 
phlet of  some  years  later  Whitefield  made  the  following  frank 
confession  :  "It  was  wrong  in  me  to  publish  a  private  trans- 
action to  the  world,  and  very  ill-judged  to  think  the  glory  of 
God  could  be  promoted  by  unnecessarily  exposing  my  friend. 
For  this  I  have  asked  both  God  and  him  pardon  years  ago, 
and  though  I  believe  both  have  forgiven  me,  yet  I  believe  I 
shall  never  be  able  to  forgive  myself;  my  mistakes  have  been 
too  many  and  my  blunders  too  frequent  to  make  me  set  up 
for  infallibility.  But  many  and  frequent  as  my  mistakes 
have  been,  or  may  be,  as  I  have  no  part  to  act — if  I  know 
anything  of  my  heart — but  to  promote  God's  glory  and  the 
good  of  souls,  as  soon  as  I  am  made  aware  of  them  they 
shall  be  publicly  acknowledged  and  retracted." 

Whitefield  soon  regained  his  popularity.  Evangelical  Cal- 
vinists,  mostly  Dissenters,  rallied  round  him  and  built  his  first 
tabernacle  in  Moorfields  not  far  from  the  Foundry.  It  was 
only  a  large,  rough  wooden  shed,  but  for  twelve  years  it  was 
Whitefield's  metropolitan  cathedral  and  was  the  scene  of 
great  spiritual  victories.  In  1753  it  was  superseded  by  the 
brick  building,  of  which  we  have  a  print,  and  for  more  than 
a  hundred  years  was  used  by  Whitefield's  successors.  No 
traces  of  it  now  remain. 

A  few  months  later  Whitefield  sent  Cennick  a  contribution 


The  First  Methodist  Newspaper 


441 


of  ,£20,  from  a  lady,  toward  a  chapel  at  Kingswood,  which 
still  stands.  Like  Wesley,  he  began  to  employ  lay  evangel- 
ists. Howell  Harris  was  soon  preaching  in  the  Moorfields 
tabernacle. 

The  first  Methodist  newspaper  was  published  a  month  after 
Whitefield's  arrival  from  America.  The  group  of  Calvinistic 
'Methodists  were  the  principal  contributors.  Its  title  was: 
The  Weekly  History, 
or  an  account  of  the 
most  remarkable  par- 
ticulars relating  to 
the  present  progress 
of  the  Gospel.  Lon- 
don :  Printed  by  I. 
Lewis.      One  penny. 

The  Wesley  an 
Methodists  now  be- 
came distinguished 

from  the  followers  of  Whitefield  as  Arminians.  The  Armin- 
ian  or,  rather,  Remonstrant  Confession  arose  in  Holland  about 
the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  as  a  protest  against 
Calvinism.  The  principle  of  the  Arminian  type  of  doctrine 
was  the  universality  of  the  benefit  of  the  atonement  and  the 
restored  freedom  of  the  human  will.  The  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odists, however,  rejected  the  teaching  of  the  immediate  suc- 
cessors of  Arminius,  who  were  tinged  with  Socinianism  and 
rationalism,  and  Wesleyans,  as  Pope  says,  were  Arminians  as 
opposed  to  Calvinists,  but  in  no  other  sense. 


WHITEFIELD  S    TAKERNACLE,    MOORFIELDS. 


M 


CHAPTER  XLVIII 

Whitefield's  Great  Field  Days 

A  Presbyter  at  Large."— A  Levee  of  Wounded  Souls. — The  Chil- 
dren's Preacher. — A  Chagrined  Highwayman. — Marvels  at 
Moorfields.— The  Spanish  Invasion  of  Georgia. 

Y  business  seems  to  be  to  evangelize — to  be  a 
Presbyter  at  large."  So  wrote  Whitefield  to  the 
Scotch  reformer,  Ebenezer  Erskine,  in  1 741 , 
when  he  was  asked  to  join  the  Associate  Presbytery.  To 
Ralph  Erskine  he  also  said:  "  If  I  am  neuter  as  to  the  par- 
ticular reformation  of  Church  government  till  I  have  further 
light,  it  will  be  enough.  I  come  simply  to  preach  the  Gos- 
pel." This  apathy  expresses  Whitefield's  relation  to  the 
Scotch  churches,  among  which  we  find  him  moving  like  a 
meteor.  Ralph  Erskine  said  of  him,  "  He  declares  he  can 
refuse  no  call  to  preach  Christ,  whoever  gives  it ;  were  it  a 
Jesuit  priest  or  a  Mohammedan,  he  would  embrace  it." 

vSo,  at  the  invitation  of  the  Erskines,  Whitefield  evangelized 
Scotland,  his  truly  catholic  spirit  bursting  again  and  again 
the  bonds  of  his  Calvinistic  creed.  At  Dunfermline  ' '  a  portly, 
well-looking  Quaker  "  took  him  by  the  hand,  saying :  "Friend 
George,  I  am  as  thou  art.  I  am  for  bringing  all  t<>  the  life 
and  power  of  the  ever-living  God;    and  therefore  if  thou  wilt 

not  quarrel  with  me  about  my  hat,  1  will  not  quarrel  with 

442 


Whitefield  in  Scotland  443 

thee  about  thy  gown."  Whitefield  comments,  "  I  wish  all, 
of  every  denomination,  were  thus  minded." 

His  characteristic  and  amusing  indifference  to  ecclesiasti- 
cal polity  is  illustrated  by  his  account  of  his  appearance  be- 
fore the  Associate  Presbytery.  The  grave  and  venerable  men, 
with  great  solemnity,  proposed  to  discourse  and  set  him  right 
about  Church  government  and  the  Solemn  League  and  Cove- 
nant. "  I  replied,  they  might  save  themselves  that  trouble, 
for  I  had  no  scruples  about  it,  and  that  settling  Church  gov- 
ernment and  preaching  about  the  League  and  Covenant  was 
not  my  plan."  Breaking  away  from  the  formal  business,  the 
fervent  Methodist  told  them  somewhat  of  his  personal  "  ex- 
perience." Some  were  deeply  affected,  others  were  impa- 
tient. Mr.  Erskine  desired  they  would  "have  patience  with 
him,  for  that  having  been  born  and  bred  in  England,  and 
having  never  studied  the  point,  he  could  not  be  supposed  to 
be  so  perfectly  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  the  Covenant." 

One,  much  warmer  than  the  rest,  replied  that  no  indulgence 
was  to  be  shown  to  this  erratic  Englishman,  in  that  England 
had  revolted  most  with  respect  to  Church  government  with 
which  he  ought  to  be  acquainted.  Whitefield  assured  them 
that  he  had  been  too  busy  about  other  matters,  which  he 
judged  of  more  importance,  to  study  the  question.  This  was 
too  much  for  the  grave  Presbytery,  and  several  replied  "that 
every  pin  of  the  tabernacle  was  precious!" 

Finally  they  desired  him  to  preach  for  them  until  he  had 
"more  light."  He  asked,  "  Why  only  for  them?"  Mr.  Er- 
skine said  they  were  the  Lord's  people.  Whitefield  asked  "  if 
there  were  no  other  Lord's  people  but  themselves,  and  suppos- 
ing all  others  were  the  devil's  people,  they  certainly  had  more 
need  to  be  preached  to,  and  therefore  I  was  more  and  more  de- 
termined to  go  out  into  the  highways  and  hedges;  and  that  if 


444  British  Methodism 

the  pope  himself  would  lend  me  his  pulpit,  1  would  gladly 
proclaim  the  righteousness  of  Jesus  Christ  therein." 

Declining  to  take  sides  with  either  of  the  Scotch  parties, 
Whitefield  preached  in  the  kirks  of  some  thirty  towns  and 
cities  as  well  as  in  the  open  air.  Great  power  clothed  the 
word.  In  a  letter  from  Edinburgh  he  mentioned  "three 
hundred  in  the  city  seeking  after  Jesus,"  and  wrote  :  "  Every 
morning  I  have  a  levee  of  wounded  souls.  At  seven  in  the 
morning  we  have  a  lecture  in  the  fields,  attended  not  only  by 
the  common  people,  but  by  persons  of  rank.  I  have  reason 
to  think  several  of  the  latter  are  coming  to  Jesus.  Little 
children  also  are  much  wrought  upon;"  and  later  a  friend 
wrote  to  him,  "  The  little  children  of  this  city  cannot  forget 
you  ;  their  very  hearts  leap  within  them  upon  hearing  your 
name. "  He  tells  James  Habersham,  his  Orphan  House  superin- 
tendent in  Georgia,  that  he  has  collected  ^200  and  bought  five 
hundred  yards  of  cloth  for  "  the  dear  orphans'  winter  wear." 
His  establishment  in  Georgia  was  now  flourishing.  He  se- 
cured  the  help  of  several  Scotch  noblemen  and  ladies,  includ- 
ing Lord  Rae  and  the  Earl  of  Leven  and  Melville,  who  was 
his  host  and  gave  him  a  horse  for  his  long  journeys  to  Lon- 
don by  way  of  Wales. 

Two  anecdotes  of  this  tour  in  Scotland  illustrate  White- 
field's  power  to  rivet  attention  and  his  impulsive  generosity. 
A  gentleman  who  had  been  to  hear  him  in  the  Orphan  House 
Park,  Edinburgh,  was  met  by  his  own  pastor,  a  learned  min- 
ister, as  he  returned.  The  indignant  divine  expressed  his 
surprise  that  so  intelligent  a  member  of  his  flock  should  have 
g<  me  to  hear  such  a  rambling  preacher  as  Whitefield.  ' '  Sir," 
replied  the  admonished  hearer,  "When  I  hear  you  I  am 
planting  trees  all  the  time,  but  during  the  whole  of  Mr. 
Whitefield's  sermon  I  had  no  time  to  plant  even  one." 


Anecdotes  of  Whitefield  445 

During-  one  of  his  journeys  Whitefield  was  told  of  a  widow 
with  a  large  family  whose  landlord  was  about  to  sell  her  fur- 
niture for  rent.  Whitefield  immediately  gave  the  five  guin- 
eas, which  the  widow  needed,  from  his  own  shallow  purse. 
The  friend  who  was  riding  with  him  remonstrated  that  the 
sum  was  more  than  he  could  afford.  The  two  travelers  before 
long  encountered  a  highwayman,  who  with  threats  demanded 
their  money,  which  they  gave.  Whitefield,  of  course,  now 
suggested  to  his  friend  how  much  better  it  was  for  the  poor 
widow  to  have  the  guineas  than  for  the  thief  to  have  them. 
They  had  not  long  resumed  their  journey  before  the  man  re- 
turned and  demanded  Whitefield's  coat,  which  was  better  than 
his  own.  This  request  was  reluctantly  granted,  under  protest. 
Presently  they  again  saw  the  marauder  galloping  toward  them 
most  furiously,  and  now,  fearing  for  their  lives,  they  also 
spurred  their  horses  and  reached  some  houses  before  the 
highwayman  could  stop  them.  The  thief  was  no  doubt 
greatly  chagrined,  for  when  Whitefield  took  off  the  ragged 
coat  he  found  in  one  of  its  pockets  a  carefully  wrapped  par- 
cel containing'  one  hundred  guineas. 

On  his  second  visit  to  Scotland,  in  1742,  multitudes  met 
him  on  the  landing  at  Leith  and  followed  his  coach  to  Edin- 
burgh. The  churches  would  not  contain  the  people,  so  the  man- 
agers of  Heriot's  Hospital  erected  a  shelter,  with  two  thou- 
sand seats,  in  the  hospital  park.  Remarkable  scenes  were 
witnessed  at  Cambuslang,  where  on  one  sacramental 
occasion  more  than  twenty  thousand  persons  were  present 
at  services  lasting  from  early  dawn  to  nightfall.  The 
revival  which  had  commenced  at  Kilsyth  before  White- 
field's  arrival  had  prepared  the  way  for  a  more  mar- 
velous work  of  grace.  Methodism  has  never  made  great 
progress  in   Scotland    as   a  Church    organization,    but    as   a 


446 


British  Methodism 


spiritual  force  it  pervaded  the  old  Churches  and  the  whole 
public  mind. 

The  story  of  Whitefield's  "great  field  day"  in  London 
Moorfields,  in  174^,  records  a  triumph  of  the  Gospel  as  re- 
markable as  any  in  the  annals  of  Christianity.  He  deter- 
mined to  invade  Moorfields  during  the  revels  of  the  Whitsun 
holidays.      Hogarth's  contemporary  picture  of  Southwark  Fair 


^    CARTOON    BY 


SOUTHWARK    FAIR. 
Hogarth's  contemporary  picture  of  Southwark  Fair. 

gives  a  good  idea  of  a  similar  scene.  With  a  heart  full  of 
compassion  for  the  multitude,  and  resolving  "  to  get  the  start 
of  the  devil,"  Whitefield  mounted  his  field-pulpit  at  six  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  Around  him  were  booths  for  mountebanks, 
players,  and  puppet  shows.  Before  him  were  ten  thousand 
people,  the  rudest  rabble  of  the  city.      But  as  he  preached  on 


Whitefield  at  Moorfields  447 

the  text,  "  As  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilder- 
ness," they  gazed,  they  listened,  they  wept,  and  many 
were  stung  with  conviction  for  sin.  At  noon  he  ventured 
out  again.  "The  fields,  the  whole  fields,  seemed,  in  a  bad 
sense  of  the  word,  all  white,  not  for  the  Redeemer's  but 
Beelzebub's  harvest.  All  his  agents  were  in  full  motion, 
drummers,  trumpeters,  merry-andrews,"  entertaining  their 
auditories — not  less  than  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  people. 

The  appearance  of  Whitefield  in  his  black  gown  drew 
crowds  away  from  the  shows.  Expecting  that,  like  Paul,  he 
should  be  "called  to  fight  with  beasts  at  Ephesus,"  he 
preached  from  the  words,  "  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians." 
The  craftsmen  were  aroused,  and  assailed  him  with  stones, 
dirt,  rotten  eggs,  and  dead  cats.  "  My  soul  was  indeed 
among  lions,  but  far  the  greater  part  of  my  congregation 
seemed  to  be  turned  into  lambs,"  wrote  the  preacher. 

At  six  o'clock  he  preaehed  again.  A  trumpeter  tried  in 
vain  to  drown  his  clarion  voice.  A  merry-andrew  got  upon 
a  man's  shoulders  and,  declaring  that  he  had  lost  many 
pounds  that  day  on  account  of  the  preaching,  attempted  many 
times  to  strike  him  with  a  long  whip,  but  fell  down  in  the 
attempt.  Whitefield's  tact  in  managing  the  crowd  and  ready 
humor  stood  him  in  good  stead,  for  a  recruiting  sergeant 
with  his  drum  attempted  to  pass  through.  "  Make  way  for 
the  king's  officer,"  was  Whitefield's  word  of  command.  The 
ranks  opened  while  all  marched  quietly  through,  and  then 
closed  again.  A  large  body  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  field 
attempted  an  organized  attack  with  a  long  pole  for  a  standard. 
"  I  saw,  gave  warning,  and  prayed  to  the  Captain  of  our  salva- 
tion for  deliverance.  He  heard  and  answered  ;  for  just  as  they 
approached  us  .  .  .  they  quarreled  among  themselves,  threw 
down  their  staff  and  went  their  way,"  leaving  many  of  their 


448 


British  Methodism 


company  behind  them.  After  three  hours  of  praying, 
preaching,  and  singing,  he  says:  "We  retired  to  the  taber- 
nacle. My  pocket  was  fttll  of  notes  from  persons  under 
concern.  I  read  them  among  the  praises  and  spiritual  accla- 
mations of  thousands,  who  joined  with  the  holy  angels  in 
rejoicing  that  so  many  sinners  were  snatched,  in  such  an  un- 
likely place  and  manner,  out  of  the  very  jaws  of  the  devil." 


P*l.irtO    BY    E1TRE     CMOtfE,         A.R.A. 

WHITEFIELD    PREACHING   IN    MOORFIELDS. 


This  was  the  beginning  of  the  Tabernacle  Society.  Three 
hundred  and  fifty  awakened  souls  were  received  in  one  day. 
The  number  of  notes  exceeded  a  thousand. 

The  next  day  he  preached  in  Marylebone  Fields,  a  place 
almost  as  much  frequented  by  boxers,  gamesters,  and  such 
like  as  Moorfields.  There  he  preached  in  great  jeopardy,  as 
the  mob  tried  to  overturn  the  pulpit.  "  But  the  Redeemer 
stayed  my  soul  on  himself,  therefore  I  was  not  much  moved, 
except   with   compassion    for  those  to  whom  I  was  delivering 


The  Orphanage  in  Danger  449 

my  Master's  message."  As  he  passed  from  his  pulpit  to  the 
coach  he  felt  his  hat  and  wig-  almost  off,  and  turning  about, 
found  a  sword  just  touching  his  temples.  A  young  man  had 
attempted  to  stab  him,  but  a  gentleman  had  struck  up  the 
sword  with  his  cane.  But  this  caused  a  reaction  in  White- 
field's  favor ;  the  mob  seized  the  man,  and  Whitefield's  friends 
had  to  intervene  to  save  the  assailant  from  their  violence. 

Again  we  have  evidence  of  Whitefield's  power  to  charm 
children.  "  Several  little  boys  and  girls  were  fond  of  sitting 
round  me  on  the  pulpit,  while  I  preached,  and  handing  to  me 
the  people's  notes.  Though  they  were  often  struck  with  the 
eggs,  dirt,  etc.,  thrown  at  me,  they  never  once  gave  way ;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  every  time  I  was  struck  turned  up  their 
weeping  eyes  and  seemed  to  wish  they  could  receive  the 
blows  for  me."  One  of  these  children  went  home  to  sicken 
with  fever,  and  was  heard  to  cry,  as  death  approached,  "  Let 
me  go,  let  me  go  to  Mr.  Whitefield's  God." 

Whitefield  records  in  his  Journal  his  appearance  in  the 
House  of  Commons  in  1741  on  business  connected  with  Geor- 
gia. The  next  year  his  Orphan  House  was  in  danger  from 
Spanish  invasion.  The  Spaniards,  with  forty  sail  of  small  gal- 
leys, had  come  into  Cumberland  Sound.  With  another  fleet 
of  thirty-six  ships  they  entered  Jekyl  Sound.  They  landed 
four  thousand  five  hundred  men  and  marched  through  the 
woods  to  Frederica.  Twenty-eight  ships  attacked  Fort  Wil- 
liam. General  Oglethorpe's  military  force  was  small,  but 
proved  victorious,  and  July  25,  1742,  was  appointed  by  the 
general  "asa  day  of  public  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God  for 
his  great  deliverance  in  having  put  an  end  to  the  Spanish 
invasion."  Mr.  Habersham  had  removed  the  eighty-five  in- 
mates of  the  Orphan  House  to  South  Carolina,  but  within  six 
weeks  they  were  safely  back  again  at  Bethesda. 


CHAPTER  XLIX 
Among  Colliers  and  Country  Folk 

The  Metropolis  of  the  North. — Preaching  from  His  Father's 
Tomb. — "Sinner  Enough." — Denied  the  Sacrament. — Results 
of  the  Sermon  on  the  Tom  is. 


M 


ETHODISM  was  now  taking  root  in  England.  Wes- 
ley had  organized  societies  at  Kingswood,  Bristol, 
and  the  Foundry,  in  London.  The  "  germ  of  Meth- 
odism " — the  class  meeting — was  fully  developed.  Lay 
preaching  was  instituted.  The  greatest  of  the  lay  preach- 
ers, John  Nelson,  was  at  work  at  Birstall.  Eleven  hundred 
members  formed  the  London  society,  and  the  time  had  come 
for  the  extension  of  Methodism  among  the  growing  indus- 
trial population  of  the  North  of  England.  In  1742  Wesley's 
itinerary  took  a  wider  sweep.  During  the  year  he  spent 
about  twenty-four  weeks  in  London,  fourteen  in  Bristol  and 
its  neighborhood,  one  in  Wales,  and  thirteen  in  making  two 
tours  to  Newcastle-on-Tyne ;  taking  on  his  way  Donnington 
Park  (the  residence  of  Lady  Huntingdon),  Birstall,  Halifax, 
Dewsbury,  Mirfield,  Epworth,  Sheffield,  and  other  towns  and 
villages  adjoining  these. 

From  the  standpoint  of  national  history  Wesley's  tour  to 

the  north  was  of  vast  moral  importance.     The  spiritual  force 

450 


Wesley's  Northern  Tour 


451 


of  Methodism  was  brought  to  bear  upon  the  masses  in  the 
manufacturing-  districts  and  upon  the  villagers  of  the  typical 
rural  county  of  Lincolnshire. 

Newcastle-on-Tyne  was  the  metropolis  of  the  north.  Stand- 
ing on  the  boundary  line  of  England  and  Scotland,  it  occu- 
pies a  prominent  place  in  the  history  of  both  countries.  Its 
old  castle  links  it  with  feudal  times.     On  the  banks  of  its 


JOHN    WESLEY    AT    THE    SAND    HILLS,  NEWCASTLE. 


river  The  Venerable  Bede  translated  St.  John's  gospel  into 
Saxon ;  the  martyr-bishop  Ridley  passed  from  its  grammar 
school  to  Cambridge ;  and  John  Knox  thundered  against 
priestcraft  from  the  pulpit  of  its  Cathedral  of  St.  Nicholas. 
It  is,  in  these  later  days,  the  birthplace  of  railways  and  loco- 
motives and  the  very  center  of  the  coal  trade,  which  even  in 
Wesley's  day  was  advancing  by  leaps  and  bounds.  Between 
1700  and  1750  the  output  of  coal  in  England  rose  from 
2,612,000  tons  to  4,773,828  tons,  and  to  6,424,000  in  the  year 
of  Charles  Wesley's  death. 


452  British  Methodism 

To  this  busy  town  of  shipyards,  with  its  vessels  laden  for 
every  land,  John  Wesley  came  with  his  evangel  in  1742,  and 
here,  the  year  following-,  he  built  his  famous  orphanage. 
John  Nelson  had  been  preaching  with  great  success  in  York- 
shire and  had  urged  Wesley  to  visit  the  north.  The  Coun- 
tess of  Huntingdon  had  also  urged  upon  him  the  needs  of 
the  neglected  colliers  on  the  Tyne,  and  a  pressing  letter  from 
her,  saying  that  Miss  Fanny  Cooper,  his  friend,  who  resided 
with  her,  was  dangerously  ill,  hastened  his  journey.  After 
spending  three  days  in  the  Earl's  mansion  in  Leicestershire  he 
went  to  the  mason's  cottage  at  Birstall,  equally  at  home  in 
both  dwellings.  He  found  Nelson  troubled  by  the  teaching  of 
Ingham,  who  had  founded  a  number  of  flourishing  Moravian 
brotherhoods,  but  had  adopted  the  mystical  errors  which  at 
that  time  were  weakening  the  moral  power  of  Moravianism. 
Wesley  preached  on  the  top  of  Birstall  hill,  conversed  with 
Nelson's  converts,  and  then  proceeded  with  John  Taylor  to 
Newcastle.  His  own  account  of  his  visit  is  very  graphic. 
He  had  never  seen  and  heard  before  in  so  short  a  time  so 
much  drunkenness,  cursing,  and  swearing — even  from  the 
mouths  of  little  children.      He  writes: 

At  seven  I  walked  down  to  Sandgate,  the  poorest  and  most  contemptible 
part  of  the  town,  and,  standing  at  the  end  of  the  street  with  John  Taylor,  began 
to  sing  the  100th  psalm.  Three  or  four  people  came  out  to  see  what  was 
the  matter  ;  who  soon  increased  to  four  or  five  hundred.  I  suppose  there  might 
be  twelve  or  fifteen  hundred  before  I  had  done  preaching,  to  whom  I  applied 
those  solemn  words,  "  He  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions,  he  was  bruised 
for  our  iniquities:  the  chastisement  of  our  peace  was  upon  him;  and  by  his 
stripes  we  are  healed." 

Observing  the  people,  when  I  had  done,  to  stand  gaping  and  staring  upon 
me  with  the  most  profound  astonishment,  I  told  them  :  "  If  you  desire  to  know 
who  I  am,  my  name  is  John  Wesley.  At  five  in  the  evening,  with  God's  help, 
I  design  to  preach  here  again." 

At  five  the  hill  on  which  I  designed  to  preach  was  covered  from  the  top  to 
the  bottom.  I  never  saw  so  large  a  number  of  people  together,  either  in  Moor- 
fields  or  at  Kennington  Common.     I  knew  it  was  not  possible  for  the  one  half 


Old  Acquaintances  453 

to  hear,  although  my  voice  was  then  strong  and  clear;  and  I  stood  so  as  to 
have  them  all  in  view,  as  they  were  ranged  on  the  side  of  the  hill.  The  word 
of  God  which  I  set  before  them  was,  "  I  will  heal  their  backsliding,  I  will  love 
them  freely."  After  preaching,  the  poor  people  were  ready  to  tread  me  under 
foot,  out  of  pure  love  and  kindness.  It  was  some  time  before  I  could  possibly 
get  out  of  the  press.  I  then  went  back  another  way  than  I  came  ;  but  several 
were  got  to  our  inn  before  me,  by  whom  I  was  vehemently  importuned  to  stay 
with  them,  at  least  a  few  days,  or,  however,  one  clay  more.  But  I  could  not 
consent,  having  given  my  word  to  be  at  Birstall,  with  God's  leave,  on  Tuesday 
night. 

About  two  months  later  Charles  Wesley  took  his  brother's 
place,  and  Christopher  Hopper,  afterward  a  preacher,  tells 
how  he  ran  with  the  multitude  to  hear  this  man  preaching  at 
a  public  cross  to  the  large  crowd,  "  some  gaping,  some  laugh- 
ing, some  weeping."  When  he  had  concluded  some  said, 
"  He  is  a  good  man  sent  to  reform  our  land;"  others  said, 
"  Nay,  he  is  come  to  pervert  and  deceive  us,  and  we  ought 
to  stone  him  out  of  our  coasts."  This  was  in  May;  in  No- 
vember we  find  John  Wesley  there  again. 

It  was  during  this  tour,  four  months  before  his  mother's 
death,  that  Wesley  revisited  his  birthplace.  He  had  not  been 
at  Epworth  since  he  had  consulted  his  mother  about  his  voy- 
age to  Georgia,  seven  years  before.  He  took  lodgings  at  an 
inn  in  the  middle  of  the  town,  wondering  if  there  were  any 
people  left  who  would  not  be  ashamed  of  his  acquaintance ; 
but  an  old  servant  of  his  father's  and  two  or  three  other  poor 
women  found  him  out.  When  he  asked  if  she  knew  any  in 
the  place  who  were  in  earnest  to  be  saved,  she  answered,  "  I 
am,  by  the  grace  of  God;  and  I  know  I  am  saved  through 
faith."  Many  others,  she  told  him,  could  rejoice  with  her. 
The  curate  was  now  Mr.  Romley,  who  had  been  schoolmaster 
at  Wroote,  had  been  assisted  by  Wesley's  father  in  preparing 
for  Oxford,  and  had  been   his  amanuensis  and  curate.      On 

vSundav  morning  Wesley  offered  to  assist  Mr.  Romley  either 
29 


454  British   Methodism 

by  preaching-  or  reading-  the  prayers,  but  the  curate  would 
have  none  of  his  help.  In  the  afternoon  Wesley  took  his 
seat  in  the  church,  which  was  crowded  in  consequence  of  a 
rumor  that  he  would  preach.  Romley  preached  a  florid  and 
rhetorical  sermon  against  "  enthusiasm,"  with  evident  refer- 
ence to  Methodism. 

But  the  people  were  not  to  be  disappointed.  As  they  came 
out  John  Taylor  announced  that  Mr.  Wesley,  not  being  per- 
mitted to  preach  in  the  church,  would  preach  in  the  church- 
yard at  six  o'clock.  At  that  hour  he  stood  on  his  father's 
tombstone  and  preached  to  the  largest  congregation  ever  seen 
in  Epworth.  "  The  scene  was  unique  and  inspiriting:  a  liv- 
ing son  preaching  on  a  dead  father's  grave  because  the 
parish  priest  would  not  allow  him  to  officiate  in  a  dead 
father's  church."  "  I  am  well  assured,"  writes  Wesley,  "  that 
I  did  far  more  good  to  my  Lincolnshire  parishioners  by 
preaching  three  days  on  my  father's  tomb  than  I  did  by 
preaching  three  years  in  his  pulpit." 

He  could  not  resist  the  appeal  to  remain  a  few  days  longer, 
and  on  eight  evenings  he  preached  from  the  tomb-pulpit. 
In  the  daytime  he  visited  the  surrounding  villages.  He 
waited  on  a  justice  of  the  peace,  and  writes  of  him  as  "  a  man 
of  candor  and  understanding ;  before  whom  (I  was  informed) 
their  angry  neighbors  had  carried  a  whole  wagonload  of 
these  heretics.  But  when  he  asked  what  they  had  done,  there 
was  a  deep  silence ;  for  that  was  a  point  their  conductors  had 
forgot.  At  length  one  said,  '  Why,  they  pretended  to  be  bet- 
ter than  other  people;  and,  besides,  they  prayed  from  morn- 
ing to  night.'  Mr.  S.  asked,  '  But  have  they  done  nothing 
besides?'  'Yes,  sir,'  said  an  old  man:  '  an't  please  your 
worship,  they  have  convarted my  wife.  Till  she  went  among 
them  she  had  such  a  tongue !   And  now  she  is  as  quiet  as  a 


The  Service  in  Epworth  Churchyard 


457 


lamb.'     '  Carry  them  back,  carry  them  back  !'  replied  the  jus- 
tice, '  and  let  them  convert  all  the  scolds  in  the  town.'  ' 

The  churchyard  services  were  attended  with  amazing 
power.  On  the  Saturday  evening  Wesley's  voice  was  drowned 
by  the  cries  of  penitents,  and  many  then  and  there  found  rest 
for  their  souls.  One  gentleman  who  had  not  been  at  public 
worship  for  more  than  thirty  years  stood  there  as  motionless 
as  a  statue.     His  chaise  was  outside  the  churchyard  ;   his  wife 


EPWORTH    CHURCH. 


and  servants  were  with  him.  Wesley,  seeing  him  stand  thus, 
asked  compassionately,  "Sir,  are  you  a  sinner?"  With  a 
deep  and  broken  voice  he  answered,  "  Sinner  enough."  He 
continued  staring  upward  till  his  wife  and  servants,  all  in 
tears,  put  him  in  his  carriage  and  carried  him  home.  Ten 
years  later  Wesley  says:  "I  called  on  the  gentleman  who 
told  me  he  was  '  sinner  enough  '  when  I  preached  first  at  Ep- 
worth on  my  father's  tomb,  and  was  agreeably  surprised  to 


458 


British  Methodism 


find  him  strong-  in  faith,  though  exceeding-  weak  in  body. 
For  some  years,  he  told  me,  he  had  been  rejoicing  in  God  with- 
out either  doubt  or  fear,  and  was  now  waiting  for  the  wel- 
come hour  when  he  should  '  depart  and  be  with  Christ.'  ' 

Wesley  visited  Wroote,  where  John  Whitelamb,  his  brother- 
in-law,  was  clergyman.  The  little  church  would  not  hold  the 
people  who  flocked  to  hear  their  old  friend  who  for  two  years 

had  been  their  min- 
ister. Whitelamb 
wrote  to  Wesley, 
"  Your  presence  cre- 
ates an  awe,  as  if  you 
were  an  inhabitant 
of  another  world." 
His  last  service  at 
Epworth  lasted  three 
hours,  and  "  yet," 
says  Wesley,  ' '  we 
scarce  knew  how  to 
part.  O  let  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  all  his  labor.  I  took  some  pains  among  this 
people,  too,  and  my  strength  almost  seemed  spent  in  vain; 
but  now  the  fruit  appeared.  There  were  scarce  any  in  the 
town  on  whom  either  my  father  or  I  had  taken  any  pains 
formerly,  but  the  seed  sown  long  since  now  sprung  up, 
bringing  forth  repentance  and  remission  of  sins." 

The  next  year  Wesley  again  visited  Epworth,  and,  it  being 


FROM     A     SKETC 


THE    CHURCH    WALK,    EPWORTH. 


Not  Fit  for  the  Sacrament 


459 


the  sacramental  Sunday,  some  of  the  people  went  to  Romley 
to  ask  his  permission  to  communicate.     The  proud  priest  re- 


,:w  /<"'\  :■■  .v...L.  mrtfzjm  A  'ir^.^ 


MS 


METHODISM    IN    WESLEY'S   COUNTY,    A.  D.    1900. 
The  heavy  black  dots  represent  the  location  of  Wesleyan  chapels   at  the   present   day. 

plied,  "  Tell  Mr.  Wesley  I  shall  not  give  him  the  sacrament; 
for  he  is  not  fit."  Wesley's  comment  on  this  is  written  in 
pain  mingled  with  irony :    "  There  could  not  have  been  so  fit 


460  British  Methodism 

a  place  under  heaven  where  this  should  befall  me  first  as  my 
father's  house,  the  place  of  my  nativity,  and  the  very  place 
where  '  according  to  the  straitest  sect  of  our  religion  '  I  had 
so  long  '  lived  a  Pharisee.'  It  was  also  fit,  in  the  highest  de- 
gree, that  he  who  repelled  me  from  that  very  table  where  I 
had  myself  so  often  distributed  the  bread  of  life  should  be 
one  who  owed  his  all  in  this  world  to  the  tender  love  which 
my  father  had  shown  to  his  as  well  as  personally  to  himself." 
Methodism  in  Lincolnshire  owes  its  organized  churches  to 
the  service  of  Wesley  in  his  father's  churchyard.  During- the 
forty-eight  years  that  followed  Wesley  made  many  visits  to 
his  native  county,  preaching  in  nearly  all  its  towns  and  many 
of  its  villages.  In  1761  he  writes,  "  I  find  the  work  of  God 
increases  on  every  side,  but  particularly  in  Lincolnshire, 
where  there  has  been  no  work  like  this  since  the  time 
I  preached  on  my  father's  tomb."  His  last  visit  to  Epworth 
was  paid  just  eight  months  before  his  death,  when  he 
preached  in  the  market  place  to  a  large  crowd  on  ' '  How  shall 
we  escape  if  we  neglect  so  great  salvation?"  At  the  cente- 
nary of  his  death,  in  1891,  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  societies 
of  his  native  county  reported  a  membership  of  twenty  thou- 
sand, or  one  twentieth  of  the  entire  membership  of  the  soci- 
eties in  England  and  Wales;  and  this  in  a  county  the  entire 
population  of  which  is  considerably  under  half  a  million. 
Our  map  of  the  neighborhood  of  Epworth  shows  how  that 
portion  of  England  is  dotted  with  the  churches  which  honor 
the  name  of  one  of  Lincolnshire's  greatest  sons. 


CHAPTER  L 


The  Last  Days  of  the  Mother  of  Methodism 


The  "Release"  of  Susanna  Wesley. — A  Queen  Uncrowned  and 
Saintly.— Some  Interesting  Family  Letters. — The  Sorrows 
of  the  Wesley  Sisters. — A  Friend  of  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson. 

SUSANNA  WESLEY,  "the  mother  of  the  Wesleys " 
and  the  "  mother  of  Methodism,"  lived  to  see  England 
awakening  at  the  call  of  her  devoted  sons,  and  in  the 
metropolis,  the  west,  and  the  North  of  England  she  heard  of 
multitudes  quickened  by  the  new  life  and  enrolled  in  the  new 
fellowship.  The  records  of  her  closing  days  are  brief.  In 
the  last  letter  she  is  known  to  have  written  she  is  rejoicing 
in  the  clear  assurance  which  came  to  her  so  late  in  life  :  ' '  He 
did  by  his  Spirit  apply  the  merits  of  the  great  atonement  to 
my  soul,  by  telling  me  that  Christ  died  for  me.  ...  If  I  do 
want  anything  without  which  I  cannot  be  saved  (of  which  I 
am  not  at  present  sensible),  then  I  believe  I  shall  not  die 
before  that  want  is  supplied." 

Her  son  John  was  at  Bristol  when  he  heard  that  she  was 
failing  fast,  and  after  preaching  to  a  large  congregation  on 
Sunday  evening,  July  18,  1742,  he  rode  off  hurriedly  to  Lon- 
don.     He  reached  the  Foundry  on  the  20th,  and  wrote  in  his 

Journal,  "  I  found  my  mother  on  the  borders  of  eternity;  but 

461 


462  British  Methodism 

she  has  no  doubt  or  fear,  nor  any  desire  but,  as  soon  as  God 
should  call  her,  to  depart  and  be  with  Christ."  Fifteen  years 
before,  she  had  told  John  that  she  did  not  wish  her  children 
to  weep  at  her  parting  from  them,  but  if  they  "  were  likely 
to  reap  any  spiritual  advantage"  by  being  present  at  her  de- 
parture, she  would  be  glad  to  have  them  with  her.  Charles 
was  absent  from  London,  but  her  five  daughters  were  present, 
as  well  as  John. 

On  the  following  Friday  they  saw  that  her  end  was  near. 
John  read  the  solemn  commendatory  prayer,  as  he  had  done 
seven  years  before  for  his  father.  It  was  four  o'clock  when 
he  left  her  side  for  a  moment  to  "  drink  a  dish  of  tea,"  being 
faint  and  weary  with  watching  and  emotion.  ''One  called 
me  again  to  her  bedside,"  he  says.  "  vShe  opened  her  eyes 
wide  and  fixed  them  upward  for  a  moment.  Then  the  lids 
dropped  and  the  soul  was  set  at  liberty  without  one  struggle 
or  groan  or  sigh.  We  stood  around  the  bed  and  fulfilled 
her  last  request,  uttered  a  little  before  she  lost  her  speech, 
'Children,  as  soon  as  I  am  released  sing  a  psalm  of  praise  to 
God ! '  " 

She  was  buried  in  "  the  great  Puritan  necropolis,"  Bun- 
hill  Fields.  A  witness  records:  "At  the  grave  there  was 
much  grief  when  Mr.  Wesley  said,  '  I  commit  the  body  of  my 
mother  to  the  earth  !  '  Then  a  hymn  was  sung,  and  stand- 
ing by  the  open  grave  Wesley  preached  to  a  vast  congregation 
which  he  describes  as  "  one  of  the  most  solemn  assemblies  I 
ever  saw,  or  expect  to  see  on  this  side  eternity."  His  sub- 
ject was  "the  great  white  throne"  of  the  Book  of  the 
Revelation. 

Pilgrims  to  Bunhill  Fields  to-day  find  Susanna  Wesley's 
grave  where  the  numbers  \y  and  42  intersect  on  the  outer 
wall,  a  few  yards  from  the  tomb  of  John  Bunyan,  who  was 


SUSANNA  ANNESLEY,  BEFORE  HER  MARRIAGE  TO  REV.  SAMUEL  WESLEY. 

Drawn  by  Warren  B.  Davis  from  a  photograph  of  the  original  painting  in  the 

Wesleyan  Book  Room,  London. 


Death  of  Mrs.  Wesley  465 

alive  and  preaching-  in  her  girlhood.     The  Rev.  John  Kirk 
has  forcibly  said:    "Forsaking  Nonconformity  in  early  life 


>  Mr4  d \?M  jHi  i     v> -> 


(■      \A\      ~~        C     \    C  £.£'^*  ***"■!    ^—y/-"~°"*l  ■Jtf'*~S*~"-^)    S*^r-1±-  ^A.ffc    A~*&l-*y 

r  ?  x:/^  ^  2^  *£>  /**  *..^2U*f  *  .^^/^> ^  i 


letter  of  john  wesley  containing  his  account  of  his 
mother's  death. 


466 


British  Methodism 


m 


and  maintaining  for 
many  years  a  devout 
discipleship  in  the  Es- 
tablished Church, 
which  in  theory  she 
never  renounces  ;  in 
the  last  two  years  of 
her  life  she  becomes  a 
practical  Nonconform- 
ist in  attending-  the 
ministry  and  services 
of  her  sons  in  a  sepa- 


DRAWN   BY  P.   E.    FLINTOFF. 

MONUMENT  TO   SUSANNA 

WESLEY,    CITY    ROAD, 

LONDON. 

rate  and  unconsecrated 
'  conventicle . '  The  two 
ends  of  her  earthly  life 
separated  by  so  wide 
an  interval,  in  a  cer- 
tain sense  embrace 
and  kiss  each  other. 
Rocked  in  a  Noncon- 
formist cradle,  she  now 
sleeps    in     a    Noncon- 


FROM    PHOTOGRAPHS. 

OR  AVE   OF   SUSANNA    WESLEY,    BUNHILL 
FIELDS,    LONDON. 


Tributes  to  Susanna  Wesley  467 

formist  grave.  There — in  close  contiguity  to  the  dust  of 
Bunyan,  the  immortal  dreamer ;  of  Watts,  one  of  the  Church's 
sweetest  psalmists;  of  her  sister  Dunton,  and  many  of  her 
father's  associates ;  and  directly  opposite  the  spot  where  some 
of  her  children  quietly  rest  in  the  sister  cemetery  round  City 
Road  Chapel — her  mortal  remains  await  the  '  times  of  the 
restitution  of  all  things.'  " 

"  We  set  up  a  plain  stone  at  the  head  of  her  grave,"  says 
her  son  John.  The  stone,  defaced  by  time,  was  replaced  by 
another  in  1828,  which  records  her  age  as  seventy-three,  and 
describes  her  as  "  the  youngest  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Annesley,  D.D.,  ejected  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity  from  the 
rectory  of  St.  Giles,"  and  "the  mother  of  nineteen  chil- 
dren, of  whom  the  most  eminent  were  the  Rev.  John  and 
Charles  Wesley,  the  former  of  whom  was,  under  God,  the 
founder  of  the  societies  of  the  people  called  Methodists." 
These  lines  are  appended  : 

In  sure  and  steadfast' hope  to  rise, 
And  claim  her  mansion  in  the  skies, 
A  Christian  here  her  flesh  laid  down, 
The  cross  exchanging  for  a  crown. 

Three  tributes  to  the  memory  of  Susanna  Wesley  are  worth 
recording  here — one  by  the  philosophic  critic  of  Methodism, 
Isaac  Taylor ;  another  by  the  Methodist  scholar,  Adam  Clarke  ; 
the  last  by  the  Methodist  orator,  Morley  Punshon.  The  first, 
himself  the  son  of  a  mother  who,  with  her  husband's  assist- 
ance, educated  successfully  the  whole  of  her  very  large  family, 
writes  :  "The  Wesleys'  mother  was  the  mother  of  Methodism 
in  a  religious  and  moral  sense ;  for  her  courage,  her  submis- 
siveness  to  authority,  the  high  tone  of  her  mind,  its  inde- 
pendence and  its  self-control,  the  warmth  of  her  devotional 
feelings  and  the  practical  direction  given  to  them,  came  up 


468 


British  Methodism 


and  were  visibly  repeated  in  the  character  and  conduct  of  her 
sons."  Dr.  Adam  Clarke  wrote:  "  I  have  been  acquainted 
with  many  pious  females;    I  have  read  the  lives  of  others; 


SUSANNA   WESLEY. 


FROM  A  STEEL  ENGRAVING. 


but  such  a  woman,  take  her  for  all  in  all,  I  have  not  heard  of, 
I  have  not  read  of,  nor  with  her  equal  have  I  been  acquainted. 
Such  an  one  Solomon  has  described  at  the  end  of  his  Proverbs, 
and  adapting  his  words,  I  can  say,  '  Many  daughters  have  done 


"A  Queen  Uncrowned  and  Saintly"  469 

virtuously,  but  Susanna  Wesley  has  excelled  them  all.'  '  And 
Dr.  Punshon  in  one  of  his  lectures  was  wont  to  say  of  her : 
"Of  rare  classic  beauty,  dignified  and  graceful,  as  became 
her  noble  blood,  one  of  those  firm  but  gentle  natures  which, 
like  sunbeams,  shine  without  an  effort,  and  leave  us  genial 
like  themselves ;  with  a  far-seeing  sagacity  and  with  excellent 
common  sense — a  pattern  of  all  womanly  virtues,  a  lightener 
of  all  manly  cares ;  ruling  her  household  with  a  quiet  power, 
yet  alive  to  the  accomplishments  of  society  and  ready  to  pass 
her  verdict  upon  books  and  men ;  faithful  in  the  common 
things  of  life,  withal  an  heiress  of  the  heavenly  and  holding 
daily  converse  with  the  place  where  she  had  hid  her  treas- 
ure, she  moved  on  in  her  course — a  queen  uncrowned  and 
saintly." 

She  was  a  close  student  and  admirer  of  George  Herbert, 
whose  lines  she  often  quoted : 

Not — thankful,  when  it  pleaseth  me; 

As  if  Thy  blessings  had  spare  days  : 
But  such  a  heart  whose  pulse  may  be 
Thy  praise. 

A  choice  devotional  manual  might  be  compiled  from  her 
written  meditations,  of  which  the  following  is  a  fragment : 
"If  to  esteem  and  have  the  highest  reverence  for  Thee ;  if 
constantly  and  sincerely  to  acknowledge  thee  the  supreme, 
the  only  desirable  good,  be  to  love  thee — I  do  love  thee ! 
If  to  rejoice  in  thy  essential  majesty  and  glory ;  if  to  feel  a 
vital  joy  overspread  and  cheer  the  heart  at  each  perception 
of  thy  blessedness,  at  every  thought  that  thou  art  God,  and 
that  all  things  are  in  thy  power ;  that  there  is  none  superior 
or  equal  to  thee,  be  to  love  thee — I  do  love  thee !  If 
comparatively  to  despise  and  undervalue  all  the  world  con- 
tains which  is  esteemed  great,  fair,  and  good ;  if  earnestly 
30 


470 


British  Methodism 


and  constantly  to  desire  thee,  thy  favor,  thy  acceptance, 
thyself,  rather  than  any  or  all  things  thou  hast  created,  be  to 
love  thee — I  do  love  thee !  " 

We  have  already  given  one  of  Susanna  Wesley's  letters  in 
facsimile,  and  two  of  her  early  portraits.     One  engraving, 

often  given  as  that 
of  Mrs.  Wesley,  is 
really  that  of  Lady 
Rodd,  who  married 
a  relative  of  Mrs. 
Charles  Wesley,  of 
the  Gwynne  fam- 
ily. The  portrait 
here  reproduced  of 
her  in  old  age  was 
the  one  which  John 
Wesley  had  en- 
graved and  pre- 
sented to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  band  at 
the  Foundry  after 
the  death  of  his 
mother. 

We  have  re- 
ferred to  the  warm 
affection  of  the 
Wesley  brothers 
for  their  sisters,  five  of  whom,  all  married,  were  present 
when  their  mother  died.  Of  these,  Emilia  (Mrs.  Harper) 
was  the  eldest.  Her  love  for  her  mother  was  strong  as 
death,  and  she  was  devoted  to  John.  Though  much  younger 
than  herself,  she  made  him  her  most  intimate  companion,  her 


MRS.    SUSANNA    WESLEY. 

The  authentic  portrait  of  Susanna  Wesley  in  advanced  age; 
engraved  under  John  Wesley's  direction  and  distributed  to 
the  members  of  the  band  at  the  Foundry  after  her  death. 


The  Daughters  of  the  Rectory  471 

counselor  in  difficulties,  to  whom  her  heart  lay  open  at  all 
times.  But  when,  as  we  have  seen,  in  his  High  Church  days, 
he  assumed  the  province  of  a  father  confessor,  she  wrote  him 
a  startling  reply,  which  must  have  stung  the  young  ecclesi- 
astic to  the  quick.  After  some  unhappy  love  affair  she  mar- 
ried an  apothecary  of  Ep worth,  a  poor,  shiftless  man,  whom 
she  had,  at  times,  to  keep,  as  well  as  herself,  by  teaching. 
Her  life  was  very  troubled.     She  became  a  Methodist,  and 


■Mlh-Mk  H  Wftd %  Anju-i /lift,  P}iMm  Vtry  IiMJj)  h'/t£ 
■-UH  Mth^i  Of  tfoTwtfX)  frUf  lint  h#b tu-njd  tALMAJtprjrvL  j 
L  hjr city  tWKrt  ItcofJL  fk,Jk*)>s  frf  G<&  vhtftwr  'Zu*/  puf  t-LtuK. 
Jji*M,]&y  rudwif,  tvytour' %(/£&}  iwujt  i/-t/M~cmLM*#m, 

FACSIMILE   OF    A    PORTION    OF   A    LETTER   OF    EMILIA    WESLEY 
(MRS.    HARPER). 

helped  her  brother  in  his  work  in  the  London  societies.  She 
was  a  widow  for  many  years,  and  lived  in  the  house  next 
West  Street  Chapel.  By  opening  the  window  of  her  room 
behind  the  pulpit  she  could  hear  the  service.  Here  she 
died,  in  her  eightieth  year.  She  was  a  thorough  Wesley ; 
sharp-witted,  refined,  independent,  with  a  good  taste  for 
music  and  poetry.  Her  brother  John  pronounced  her  the 
best  reader  of  Milton  he  had  ever  heard. 

Susanna  (Sukey),  like  her  sister  Emilia,  was  born  at  South 
Ormsby,  and  her  lot  was  even  more  troubled.  "  Beautiful, 
vivacious,  accomplished,"  she  had  married  a  wretched  profli- 


472  British  Methodism 

gate,  Ellison.  Her  husband,  h<  >wever,  in  his  later  years  asso- 
ciated with  the  Methodists  at  the  Foundry,  became  thoroughly 
reformed,  and  ended  his  days  in  peace.  Her  sister  Mehetabel 
(Hetty),  Mrs.  Wright,  had  also  married  a  husband  altogether 
unworthy  of  her — an  ignorant,  illiterate,  and  degraded 
plumber.  After  a  living  martyrdom  of  some  twenty  years 
she  died,  in  1750,  leaving  not  a  few  beautiful  verses  behind 
her,  for  she  shared  in  no  ordinary  degree  the  family  poetic 
faculty.  Anne  (Mrs.  Lambert)  was  forty  years  of  age  when 
her  mother  died,  and  was  present  with  her  husband,  a  land 
surveyor,  at  the  funeral.  Her  lot  was  happier  than  that  of 
her  elder  sisters.  She  wrote  to  Charles  Wesley  an  account 
of  her  mother's  death. 

Martha  (Mrs.  Hall)  is  best  known  as  a  friend  of  Dr.  Sam- 
uel Johnson.  Dr.  Adam  Clarke  says  that  she  so  closely  re- 
sembled her  brother  John  in  appearance  that  no  one  would 
have  known  which  was  which  if  they  had  only  been  dressed 
alike.      Her  handwriting,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  facsimile 


FACSIMILE   OF    A    PORTION    OF    A    LETTER    OF    MARTHA    WESLEY 
(MRS.    HALL). 

letter,  was  much  like  his.  She  married  a  weak  and,  as  it 
proved,  immoral  clergyman  named  Hall.  "  He  possessed," 
says   Eliza  Clarke,    "all   the    qualifications   necessary    for    a 


Shadowed  Lives  473 

Mormon  elder,  and  had  he  lived  in  these  days,  would  proba- 
bly have  joined  that  body."  Mrs.  Hall  does  not  appear  to 
have  told  her  relatives  of  her  husband's  infidelities  until  she 
had  been  outraged  by  them  for  many  years.  When  he  re- 
turned in  broken  health  from  the  West  Indies  she  nursed 
him  till  his  death,  in  1776.  During  his  last  hours  he  ex- 
claimed, "I  have  injured  an  angel,  an  angel  that  never 
reproached  me." 

Boswell  gives  interesting  glimpses  of  Mrs.  Hall  as  the 
friend  of  Dr.  Johnson,  who  enjoyed  her  lively  conversation. 
She  introduced  her  brother  John  to  the  famous  literary  man 
in  1784.  It  was  Mrs.  Hall  who  drew  from  Johnson  his  dic- 
tum on  the  "  resurrection  body:  "  "  Nay,  madam,  we  see  that 
it  is  not  to  be  the  same  body,  for  the  Scripture  uses  the  illus- 
tration of  grain  sown.  You  cannot  suppose  that  we  shall  rise 
with  a  diseased  body ;  it  is  enough  if  there  be  such  a  same- 
ness as  to  distinguish  identity  of  person."  The  doctor  told 
the  story  of  hearing  his  mother's  voice  calling  him  when  at 
Oxford.  She  seemed  desirous  of  knowing  more,  but  he  left 
the  question  in  obscurity.  Mrs.  Hall  survived  her  brother 
John  about  four  months  and  was  buried  in  his  grave  at  City 
Road.  On  her  tomb  her  leading  characteristic  is  aptly  ex- 
pressed, "She  opened  her  mouth  with  wisdom,  and  in  her 
tongue  was  the  law  of  kindness." 

Kezia  Wesley  died  sixteen  months  before  her  mother.  We 
reproduce  a  fragment  in  her  neat  handwriting.  It  is  supposed 
that  she  never  survived  the  shock  of  finding  that  Hall,  who 
afterward  married  her  sister  Martha,  had  played  with  her 
affections.  ' '  Hearts  count  for  something  in  women's  lives,  and 
an  unhappy  attachment  often  produces  a  want  of  physical  rally- 
ing power,  especially  in  one  who  has  no  very  strong  ties  to 
life." 


474  British  Methodism 

She  was  the  youngest  child  of  the  Epworth  rectory;  the 
next  in  order  of  birth  to  Charles  Wesley,  who  records  her 
death  in  his  diary:    "  March  ioth,  1741. — Yesterday  morning 

AUTOGRAPH    OF    KEZIA    WESLEY. 
Facsimile  of  concluding  sentences  of  a  letter  from  Kezia  to  her  brother  John  Wesley. 

Sister  Kezzy  died  in  the  Lord  Jesus.  He  finished  his  work 
and  cut  it  short  in  mercy.  Full  of  thankfulness,  resignation, 
'and  love,  without  pain  or  trouble,  she  commended  her  spirit 
into  the  hands  of  Jesus  and  fell  asleep." 


CHAPTER  LI 

A  Stalwart  Evangelist 

John  Nelson,  the  Mason. — A  Riddle  to  Himself.— Wesley's 
Pointed  Preaching. — Sturdy  Methodist  Morality. — The  King's 
Work  and  Speaker's  Confession. 

A  RECENT  writer  in  the  Contemporary  Review,  who 
proclaims  himself  a  "  Churchman  to  the  ringer  tips," 
in  the  course  of  a  bitter  attack  on  modern  Methodism 
says:  "  To  those,  however,  to  whom  the  passion  and  the  fire 
of  unselfish  love  will  always  be  precious,  under  whatever  cir- 
cumstances they  may  happen  to  be  exhibited,  these  old  Meth- 
odist saints  and  martyrs  are  heroes  of  the  highest  type. 
Nearer  than  any  Englishman  had  ever  done  before,  they  ful- 
filled the  idea  that  the  New  Testament  conveys  of  the  Petrine 
and  Pauline  Church."  Robert  Southey,  although  he  had 
scanty  appreciation  for  the  more  spiritual  aspects  of  Metho- 
dism, was  also  compelled  to  admire  one  of  the  greatest  of 
these  early  Methodist  confessors,  and  said  that  John  Nelson, 
the  mason,  "had  as  high  a  spirit  and  as  brave  a  heart  as 
ever  Englishman  was  blessed  with."  It  ought  to  be  remem- 
bered that  this  was  said  by  the  biographer  of  another  English 
Nelson,  a  hero  of  a  very  different  type. 

John  Nelson's  Journal  is  worthy  to  rank  with  John   Bun- 

yan's  Grace  Abounding  as  an  artless  record  of  spiritual  ex- 

475 


476 


British  Methodism 


perience,  written  in  clear,  strong,  Saxon  style,  ringing  with 
truth  and  sincerity.  It  probably  mirrors  his  preaching : 
plain,  straightforward,  glowing;  strong  in  Scripture,  pun- 
gent in  expression,  full  of  common  sense  and  ready  wit.     It 


FROM    THE    ARMINIAN     MAGAZINE,     1792. 


JOHN    NELSON. 


reflects  a  more  joyous  type  of  faith  than  Bunyan's ;  it  lacks 
the  instinctive  literary  skill  which  shaped  his  allegories;  but 
Nelson  also  was  a  dreamer  of  dreams  well  worth  telling. 

We  have  a  sketch  of  the  thatched  cottage  with  latticed 
windows,  in  the  Yorkshire  village  of  Birstall,  where  Nelson 
was  born,  in  1707.  He  tells  us  that  one  Sunday  night,  when 
lie  was  about  nine  years  old,  he  sat  on  the  floor  by  the  side 


A  Roving  Stonecutter  477 

of  his  father's  chair  when  he  was  reading  of  "the  great 
white  throne."  The  boy  fell  on  the  floor  and  wept.  His 
eyes  were  shut,  but  he  saw  the  dead,  small  and  great,  stand 
before  God.  "  I  thought  neither  the  Lord  nor  the  apostles 
said  anything,  but  every  soul  as  he  came  up  to  the  bar  com- 
pared his  conscience  with  the  book,  and  went  away  to  his 
own  place."  He  never  forgot  this  vision,  and  the  excite- 
ments of  the  bull  ring  and  the  cockpit  did  not  banish  "the 
hell  from  his  own  mind  "  when  he  was  alone.  He  made 
many  resolutions,  but  when  temptations  came  they  "  were  as 
a  thread  of  tow  that  had  touched  the  fire."  He  became  pow- 
erful in  build  and  famous  as  a  boxer.  He  followed  one 
prize  fighter,  who  had  mocked  him,  for  three  miles,  to  Mor- 
ley,  and  thrashed  him  soundly.  This  is  worth  noting,  for  in 
after  years  he  held  an  heroic  doctrine  of  nonresistance,  and 
as  an  evanQ-elist  refrained  from  using  his  sinews  of  steel  in 
self-defense,  except  on  very  rare  occasions.  His  father  died 
in  peace,  and  his  last  words  haunted  John,  who  longed  for  a 
rest  he  knew  not  how  to  find.  He  married  a  village  maiden, 
fair-faced  and  true-hearted,  who  consented  to  his  wandering 
in  search  of  work.  In  London  his  fellow-workmen  cursed 
him  because  he  would  not  drink,  but  when  they  began  to  take 
his  tools  from  him  he  knocked  them  down  one  after  the  other ; 
"  then,"  says  he,  "  they  left  me  alone  !" 

"  Surely  God  never  made  man  to  be  such  a  riddle  to  him- 
self, and  to  leave  him  so,"  he  writes.  In  all  his  troubles  he 
had  none  to  open  his  mind  to,  so  he  wandered  up  and  down 
the  fields.  "  What  ails  me?"  said  he.  "  Have  I  not  good 
health,  a  loving  wife,  clothes,  silver  and  gold  as  much  as  I 
need?  Yet  here  have  I  lived  thirty  years,  and  I  would  rather 
be  hanged  than  live  thirty  more  like  them  !  "  He  went  to 
churches  and   the    meetinghouses    of    Romanists,    Quakers, 


478 


British  Methodism 


1  Jissenters  of  all  sorts,  and  had  tried  all  but  the  Jews — a  type 
of  many  sad  souls  in  his  day. 

In  the  spring  Whitefield  came  to  Moorfields,  and  Nelson 
heard  him.  "He  was  to  me  as  a  man  who  eould  play  well 
upon  an  instrument,  for  his  preaching  was  pleasant  to  me, 
and  I  loved  the  man ;  so  that  if  any  offered  to  disturb  him,  I 
was  ready  to  fight  for  him."     But  he  did  not  understand  him, 

though  his  message 
brought  a  dim  hope 
of  mercy.  "  I  was 
like  a  wandering  bird 
cast  out  of  the  nest, 
till  Mr.  John  Wesley 
came  to  preach  his 
first  sermon  in  Moor- 
fields. O  that  was 
a  blessed  morning  to 
my  soul !  As  soon 
as  he  got  upon  the 
stand  he  stroked 
back  his  hair  and 
turned  his  face  toward  where  I  stood,  and,  I  thought,  fixed  his 
eyes  upon  me.  His  countenance  struck  such  an  awful  dread 
upon  me,  before  I  heard  him  speak,  that  it  made  my  heart 
beat  like  the  pendulum  of  a  clock,  and  when  he  did  speak  I 
thought  his  whole  discourse  was  aimed  at  me.  When  he  had 
done  I  said,  '  This  man  can  tell  the  secrets  of  my  heart ;  he 
hath  not  left  me  there,  for  he  hath  showed  the  remedy,  even 
the  blood  of  Jesus.' " 

Southey  has  observed  this  as  a  peculiar  characteristic  of 
Wesley's  preaching — that  in  driving  home  his  exhortations 
he  spoke  as  if  he  were  addressing  himself  to  an  individual ; 


O.CVV 


^T^*^^ 


DRAWN  BY    P.     E.     FLINTOFF. 

JOHN    NELSON'S    BIRTHPLACE 
At  Birstall,  Yorkshire. 


"The  Lord  Hath  Need  of  Thee"  479 

the  hearers  felt  singled  out,  and  the  preacher's  words  were 
then  like  the  eyes  of  a  portrait,  which  seem  to  look  at  every 
beholder.  "  Who  art  thou,"  said  Wesley,  "  that  now  seest 
and  feelest  both  thine  inward  and  outward  ungodliness? 
Thou  art  the  man !  I  want  thee  for  my  Lord ;  I  challenge 
thee  for  a  child  of  God  by  faith.  The  Lord  hath  need  of 
thee.  Thou,  who  feelest  thou  art  just  fit  for  hell,  art  just  fit 
to  advance  his  glory — the  glory  of  his  free  grace  justifying 
the  ungodly  and  him  that  worketh  not.  O  come  quickly ! 
Believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus;  and  thou,  even  thou,  art  recon- 
ciled to  God !  " 

By  such  an  appeal  the  after  course  of  Nelson's  life  was 
determined.  A  string  vibrated  now  that  Whitefield  had 
failed  to  touch.  Nelson  saw  the  "  remedy,  even  the  blood  of 
Jesus."  But  it  was  three  months  before  he  felt  his  heart, 
"hard  as  a  rock,"  melted  by  the  clear  vision  of  God's 
love.  One  day  at  noon,  refusing  food,  he  betook  himself 
to  his  room,  shut  the  door,  and  fell  upon  his  knees, 
crying,  "Lord,  save,  or  I  perish!"  And  as  he  knelt, 
feeling  himself  a  criminal  before  the  Judge,  and  cried, 
"  Lord,  thy  will  be  done;  damn  or  save  "  — "  that  moment," 
he  says,  "Jesus  Christ  was  as  evidently  set  before  the  eye 
of  my  mind,  as  crucified  for  my  sins,  as  if  I  had  seen  him 
with  my  bodily  eyes ;  and  in  that  instant  my  heart  was  set 
at  liberty  from  guilty  and  tormenting  fear,  and  filled  with  a 
calm  and  serene  peace." 

And  then  there  followed  the  awakened  charity  which  was 
the  very  life  of  the  new  philanthropy  of  Methodism.  We 
see  it  in  the  conversion  of  the  Wesleys,  we  see  it  again  in 
the  experience  of  this  stalwart  mason  :  "  My  heart  was  filled 
with  love  to  God  and  every  soul  of  man ;  to  my  wife  and 
children,  my  mother,  brethren,  and  my  sisters;  my  greatest 


480  British  Methodism 

enemies  had  an  interest  in  my  prayers,  and  I  cried,  '  Let 
them  experienee  thy  redeeming  love !  '  " 

The  g'ood  people  with  whom  he  lodged  were  alarmed  by 
the  "praying  and  fuss  "  he  made  about  religion,  and  gave 
him  notice  to  quit,  but  when  the  hour  came  the  man  said  to 
his  wife,  "  Suppose  John  should  be  right  and  we  wrong,  it 
will  be  a  sad  thing  to  turn  him  out  of  doors."  So  he  remained, 
and  soon  after  the  man  and  his  wife  heard  Wesley  and  be- 
came partakers  of  the  same  grace. 

Nelson  at  this  time  was  working  at  repairs  in  the  Courts 
of  Exchequer,  Westminster,  and  his  master  told  him  one 
Saturday  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  work  on  Sunday  to 
complete  the  king's  work  in  haste.  When  Nelson  refused  he 
was  told,  "  Religion  has  made  you  a  rebel  against  the  king." 
"  No,  sir,"  he  replied,  "  it  has  made  me  a  better  subject 
than  ever  I  was.  The  greatest  enemies  the  king  has  are  the 
Sabbath-breakers,  swearers,  drunkards,  and  whoremongers, 
for  these  pull  down  God's  judgments  both  upon  king  and 
country."  He  was  told  he  would  lose  his  work  if  he  would 
not  obey  orders.  "  I  will  not  willfully  offend  God,"  said  he, 
"  for  I  had  much  rather  want  bread.  It  were  better  to  beg 
bread  barefoot  to  heaven  than  ride  in  a  coach  to  hell."  The 
foreman  swore  that  if  he  went  on,  he  would  soon  be  as  mad 
as  Whitefield.  "  What  hast  thou  done  that  thou  needest 
make  so  much  ado  about  salvation?  I  always  took  thee  to 
be  as  honest  a  man  as  any  I  have  in  the  work,  and  could  have 
trusted  thee  with  £500.  Wesley  has  made  a  fool  of  thee., 
and  thou  wilt  beggar  thy  family." 

After  a  "  glorious  Sabbath"  the  mason  went  to  remove 
his  tools,  not  expecting  to  work  there  any  more.  But  the 
foreman  now  gave  him  gfood  words  and  back:  him  set  the 
men  to  work.      No  more  was  said  about  Sabbath  work,  and 


A  Strange  Pair  in  St.  Paul's  481 

Nelson  writes,  "  I  see  it  is  good  to  obey  God,  and  east  our 
care  upon  him  who  will  order  all  things  well."  He  found 
the  dragon  ready  to  devour  his  newborn  soul,  and  was  con- 
vinced that  the  Lord  "never  undertook  to  .save  one  more 
like  the  devil  in  nature"  than  he  was,  but  it  was  also  im- 
pressed upon  his  mind  that  if  he  held  out  to  the  end,  he  should 
have  reason  "  to  sing  louder  in  the  Redeemer's  praise  than 
any  other  soul  in  heaven." 

While  Nelson  was  working  at  Guildford  the  controversies 
with  the  Moravians  and  Calvinists  began  to  disturb  the  soci- 
eties, and  the  mason  returned  to  find  himself  attacked  in  turn 
by  both  parties.  His  knowledge  of  Scripture  and  sturdy  com- 
mon sense  stood  him  in  good  stead  against  mysticism  and 
fatalism.  He  told  the  disputants  who  troubled  him:  "You 
have  been  gadding  about  seeking  for  new  opinions ;  you  are 
gone  out  of  the  highway  of  holiness  and  have  got  into  the 
devil's  pinfold,  you  are  .  .  .  resting  in  opinions  that  give  you 
liberty  to  live  after  the  flesh,  and  if  you  continue  so  to  live, 
you  are  safe  in  his  hold,  out  of  which  you  will  be  brought  to 
the  slaughter."  They  told  him  he  "was  as  stupid  as  Mr. 
Wesley,"  and  left  him  in  his  "blind  estate."  He  worked 
zealously  among  his  comrades,  and  even  hired  one  man  to 
hear  Wesley  preach !  The  man  afterward  assured  Nelson 
that  it  was  the  best  thing  both  for  him  and  his  wife  that  ever 
man  did  for  them. 

One  winter  day  Nelson  seized  a  long-desired  opportunity  to 
speak  with  Wesley.  He  found  him  at  communion  at  St. Paul's 
Cathedral,  and  contrived  to  walk  with  him  after  sacrament. 
And  so  we  see  the  slight  figure  of  the  great  evangelist  and 
the  stalwart  form  of  the  mason  as  they  walk  together  all  the 
way  to  Upper  Moorfields  in  earnest  converse.  When  they 
parted  Wesley  took  Nelson's  hand,  and,  looking  him  full  in 


482 


British  Methodism 


the  face  with  his  penetrating  glance,  bade  him  take  care  he 
did  not  quench  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Ten  days  before  Christmas  he  kneels  again  at  the  same 
communion  table,  and  it  is  impressed  upon   his  mind  that 

he  must  return  to  Birstall. 
"  But  I  had  no  more  thought 
of  preaching  than  I  had  of 
eating  fire." 

At  Birstall  many  came  to 
his  cottage  to  dispute  with 
him,  but  none  were  allowed 
to  leave  without  prayer. 
Soon  eight  persons,  including 
his  wife,  were  witnessing  to 
God's  mercy,  and  enemies 
began  to  report  that  John 
Nelson  ' '  had  forgiven  such 
and  such  an  one  their  sins." 
This  strange  talk  brought 
many  more  to  his  house.  He 
was  greatly  troubled  by  Mo- 
ravian disputants,  including 
Ingham,  but  he  found  that  good  Peter  Bohler,  who  paid  him 
a  visit,  had  not  fallen  into  the  mystical  follies  of  the  London 
brethren. 

One  day  he  stole  off  to  the  fields,  fell  on  his  face  in  the 
meadow  grass,  and  prayed  to  be  taught  the  will  of  God. 
When  he  returned  home  he  found  many  people  waiting  for 
him.  The  question  of  preaching  was  settled  forever.  "If 
it  be  my  Master's  will,  I  am  ready  to  go  to  hell  and  preach  to 
the  devils !  "  was  his  decision.  Of  some  of  his  adventures 
as  a  preacher  our  next  chapter  must  tell. 


SUNDIAL   IN  THE    BIRSTALL  CHURCH- 
YARD,   NELSON'S    HANDIWORK. 


CHAPTER  LII 
Out  of  the  Dungeon  and  the  Jaws  of  Death 

Wesley  and  Nelson  in  Cornwall. — "Now,  Nelson,  Where  is  Thy 
God?"  —  Three  Months  in  the  Army. — Narrow  Escapes  from 
Martyrdom. 

GREAT  was  the  joy  of  Nelson  when  John  Wesley  came 
to  Birstall  after  his  visit  to  Lady  Huntingdon.  He 
sat  in  the  very  place  and  spoke  the  very  words  of 
which  the  mason  had  dreamed  some  months  before.  Wesley 
preached  on  Birstall  hill,  and  talked  to  the  converts  won  by 
Nelson,  speaking  with  power  on  the  need  of  maintaining 
good  works  and  of  avoiding  "stillness."  He  then  went  on 
to  Newcastle,  as  we  have  seen,  and,  under  Nelson,  Birstall 
became  a  great  center  of  missionary  zeal,  from  which 
Cheshire,  Derbyshire,  Lancashire,  Lincolnshire,  as  well  as 
Yorkshire,  were  visited.  Charles  Wesley  also  came  to  Nel- 
son's help,  and  "the  Lord  was  with  him  in  such  a  manner 
that  the  pillars  of  hell  seemed  to  tremble,"  and  scores  joined 
the  society. 

Nelson's  most  bitter  and  violent  opponents  were  the  clergy. 
At  Monyash,in  Derbyshire,  the  clergyman,  with  many  miners, 
"all  being  in  liquor,"  came  in  when  the  hymn  was  given 
out.     The  clergyman  began  to  halloo  and  shout  as  if  he  were 

hunting  with  a  pack  of  hounds,  and  when  Nelson  began  to 

483 


484  British  Methodism 

pray  tried  to  overturn  the  chair  on  which  he  stood,  and,  fail- 
ing to  dislodge  the  stalwart  preacher,  kicked  and  broke  the 
chair.  He  then  seized  Nelson  by  the  collar,  tore  his  coat 
cuff's,  and  took  him  by  the  throat.  "  Sir,"  said  the  mason, 
"  you  and  f  must  .shortly  appear  at  the  bar  of  God  to  give 
an  account  of  this  night's  work." 

At  Grimsby,  Nelson  says:  "  The  congregation  was  so  large 
that  I  was  obliged  to  stand  upon  a  table  at  Brother  Blow's 
back  door,  for  several  days  together.  As  I  was  preaching 
the  minister  and  three  men  came  to  play  at  quoits  as  near  the 
people  as  they  could  get,  but  with  all  their  playing  and  shout- 
ing they  could  not  draw  anyone  from  hearing."  Then  the 
parson  called  the  people  together  with  a  drum  and  gave  them 
drink  to  fight  against  the  Methodists.  At  Epworth  the 
drunken  curate  and  clerk  tried  in  vain  to  carry  Nelson  to  an 
alehouse  and  have  him  punished  for  field-preaching.  But 
Nelson's  bitterest  clerical  persecutor  was  the  Vicar  of  Birstall, 
who  sought  a  chance  of  fastening  on  his  parishioner  a  charge 
of  "  vagrancy." 

Wesley  called  him  to  London.  His  wife  told  him  that  he 
had  no  clothes  fit  to  go  in.  "I  have  worn  them  out  in  the 
Lord's  service,"  said  he,  "  and  he  will  not  let  me  want  long." 
Two  days  after  a  tradesman,  who  was  not  a  Methodist, 
brought  him  a  piece  of  blue  cloth  for  a  coat,  and  black  cloth 
for  waistcoat  and  breeches.  A  neighbor  who  was  going  to 
London  allowed  him  to  ride  his  horse  sometimes,  while  he 
walked  himself,  and  in  this  way  he  reached  the  city.  He 
then  went  on  to  join  Wesley,  who  was  at  Bristol  on  his  way 
to  Cornwall.  Passing  through  Oxford  he  heard  collegians 
swearing  worse  than  he  ever  heard  soldier  or  sailor  do,  and 
when  he  spoke  to  them  one  cursed  him,  and  another  said, 
"These  chaps  belong  to  poor  Wesley."      He    preached    at 


DRAWN  BY  P.   E.   FL1NT0FF. 


AFTER   PRINTS  AND  PHOTOGRAPHS. 


MEMORIALS  OF  JOHN    NELSON. 

Entrance  to  hisjail,  Bradford,  Yorks.  Nelson's  study,  Birstall. 

His  preaching-chair,  made  by  himself.  Old  Wesleyan  Chapel,  Birstall,  which  Nelson 

Bust  in  Birstall  chapel.  helped  to  build. 


31 


Nelson's  grave. 


Stonecutter  and  Oxford  Fellow  487 

Oxford;  collegians  stormed,  "but  the  Lord  put  his  hook  in 
their  jaws  and  kept  them  from  doing  harm  to  the  people." 

John  Downes  was  now  his  companion,  and  as  they  had 
only  one  horse,  they  rode  by  turns.  At  Bodmin  they 
were  joined  by  Wesley.  At  St.  Ives  Nelson  worked  at  his 
trade  for  several  days  and  preached  as  often  as  he  could. 
Poor  Downs  was  ill  of  fever  at  St.  Ives,  and  could  not  preach 
at  all.  It  was  a  rough  life ;  but  Nelson  was  a  strong  man 
and  Wesley  was  tough.  For  three  weeks  he  and  Wesley 
slept  on  the  floor  every  night.  Wesley  had  "  my  greatcoat 
for  his  pillow,  and  I,"  says  Nelson,  "  had  Burkitt's  Notes  on 
the  New  Testament  for  mine.  One  morning,  about  three 
o'clock,  Mr.  Wesley  turned  over  and,  finding  me  awake, 
clapped  me  on  the  side,  saying,  '  Brother  Nelson,  let  us  be 
of  good  cheer ;  I  have  one  whole  side  yet,  for  the  skin  is  off 
but  one  side.''  After  one  service  Wesley  stopped  his 
horse  to  pick  blackberries,  saying  to  his  comrade:  "  Brother 
Nelson,  we  ought  to  be  thankful  that  there  are  plenty  of 
blackberries ;  for  this  is  the  best  country  I  ever  saw  for  get- 
ting a  stomach,  but  the  worst  I  ever  saw  for  getting  food. 
Do  the  people  think  we  can  live  by  preaching?  "  Nelson  re- 
plied that  at  St.  Just  some  one  gave  him  barley  bread  and 
honey.  Wesley  told  him  he  was  well  off,  for  he  had  intended 
to  ask  for  a  crust  of  bread  at  Morva,  but  forgot  it  till  he  was 
too  far  from  the  house. 

He  returned  home  to  support  his  family  by  hewing  stone, 
preaching  after  his  work.  He  was  told  that  the  clergyman 
and  alehouse  keepers  were  resolved  to  get  him  pressed  for  a 
soldier,  and  he  felt  that  trouble  was  at  hand,  but  he  com- 
forted himself  with  the  mighty  promises  of  Isaiah.  The 
vicar  was  now  a  commissioner,  with  authority  to  seize  on  dis- 
orderly persons  and  make  them  serve  in  the  army ;   for  this 


488  British  Methodism 

was  1744,  and  Britain  was  threatened  with  invasion  by 
Charles  Edward  Stuart — who  actually  came  the  next  year. 
One  alehouse  keeper  swore,  "  I  will  press  John  Nelson  for 
a  soldier  if  my  arm  rots  from  my  shoulder.' 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  at  Adwalton,  when  he  was  preach- 
ing, the  constable  and  publican  arrested  him,  at  the  order, 
they  told  him,  "  of  some  people  in  the  town  who  don't  like  so 
much  preaching."  Brought  before  the  commissioners,  he 
found  "  there  was  neither  law  nor  justice  for  a  man  that  was 
called  a  Methodist."  Bail  for  .£500  was  refused,  written  tes- 
timonials from  many  who  respected  the  honest  mason  were 
rejected.  The  magistrate  laughed  at  him,  and  swore  at  him 
for  preaching.  "  Sir,"  said  he,  "  I  have  surely  as  much  right 
to  preach  as  you  have  to  swear!  " 

On  the  way  to  Bradford  jail  many  prayed  for  him,  and 
wept  to  see  him  "in  the  hands  of  unrighteous  and  cruel 
men,"  but  he  said:  "Fear  not;  God  hath  his  way  in  the 
whirlwind,  and  he  will  plead  my  cause.  Only  pray  for  me 
that  my  faith  fail  not." 

He  was  thrust,  by  special  order,  into  the  dungeon  in  Ive- 
gate,  a  loathsome  cellar,  into  which  the  blood  and  filth  ran 
from  the  shambles  down  to  the  foul  straw  upon  the  floor. 
One  man  who  came  to  see  him,  though  he  was  an  enemy  to 
the  Methodists,  when  he  smelt  the  ill  savor  of  the  place,  said, 
"  Humanity  moves  me."  He  went  away  to  offer  bail,  or  even 
take  his  place,  but  all  in  vain.  The  prisoner  must  have  starved 
had  not  friends  brought  him  food.  One  poor  wretch  who 
was  with  him  said:  "Pray  you,  sir,  are  all  these  your  kins- 
folk, that  they  love  you  so  well?  I  think  they  are  the  most 
loving  people  that  ever  I  saw  in  my  life." 

He  was  taken  to  Leeds.  His  ready  wit  was  manifest  when 
"  a  jolly,  well-dressed  woman  "  put  her  face  close  to  his  and 


A  Methodist  Noncombatant  489 

said:  "Now,  Nelson,  where  is  thy  God?  Thou  saidst  at 
Shent's  door,  as  thou  wast  preaching,  thou  wast  no  more 
afraid  of  his  promise  failing  than  thou  wast  of  dropping 
through  the  heart  of  the  earth."  Nelson  replied:  "  Look  in 
the  seventh  chapter  of  Micah,  and  the  eighth  and  tenth 
verses."  ("  Rejoice  not  against  me,  O  my  enemy:  when  I 
fall,  I  shall  arise ;  when  I  sit  in  darkness,  the  Lord  shall  be  a 
light  unto  me."  "  Then  she  that  is  mine  enemy  shall  see  it, 
and  shame  shall  cover  her  that  said  unto  me,  Where  is  the 
Lord  thy  God?") 

His  noble  wife  came  to  strengthen  him  with  words  of  hope, 
"  Be  not  concerned  about  me  and  the  children,  for  he  that 
feeds  the  young  ravens  will  be  mindful  of  us." 

At  York  he  rebuked  the  officers  for  their  blasphemous 
language,  and  reasoned  with  them  about  a  future  state. 
He  refused  to  take  the  enlistment  money,  and  was  sent 
handcuffed  to  prison  again.  After  twenty-four  hours  of 
his  fearless  rebukes,  when  he  looked  swearers  full  in  the 
face  they  were  silenced,  and  oaths  ceased  in  his  presence. 
He  refused  to  bear  arms,  on  the  same  ground  as  the 
Quakers  did,  but  when  he  was  girded  by  force  said, 
"As  you  put  them  on  me,  I  will  bear  them  as  a  cross." 
He  persisted  in  preaching,  in  spite  of  threats  of  a  flog- 
ging, wherever  he  marched  and  wherever  he  was  billeted. 
He  was  sorely  tempted  to  resent  the  insults  of  one  ribald 
officer,  knowing  that  he  ' '  was  able  to  tie  his  head  and 
heels  together.  I  found  an  old  man's  bone  in  me ;  but 
the  Lord  lifted  up  a  standard,  when  anger  was  coming  in 
like  a  flood,  else  I  .should  have  wrung  his  neck  to  the  ground 
and  set  my  foot  upon  him  ;  which  would  have  brought  a 
reproach  upon  the  Gospel  and  wounded  my  own  soul.  But 
God  is  good  to  me  and  showed  me  the  danger.     Then   I 


490  British  Methodism 

could  look  upon  him  with  pity  and  pray  for  him  from  the 
ground  of  my  heart." 

Many  soldiers  and  officers  began  to  admire  his  pluck  and 
consistency.  On  the  march  over  twenty  men  offered  to  carry 
his  gun  or  knapsack  for  him.  A  sen.se  of  the  injustice  of  his 
arrest  and  forced  service  was  awakened  in  many  minds.  His 
friends  in  London  used  their  influence,  and  after  three 
months  of  soldier  life  Lord  Stair  procured  his  release. 
When  he  left  the  regiment  the  lieutenant  said :  ' '  Indeed  he 
has  done  much  good  since  he  came  among  us,"  and  thanked 
him  for  his  private  exhortations;  and  the  major  said:  "I 
wish  I  had  a  regiment  of  such  men  as  he  is,  in  all  respects 
save  one  :  his  refusing  to  fight.  I  would  not  care  what  enemy 
I  had,  or  where  my  lot  was  cast."  Nelson  told  him,  "  If  all 
men  lived  by  faith  in  the  Son  of  God,  wars  would  be  at  an 
end."  "That  is  true,"  said  the  major;  "if  it  were  so,  we 
should  learn  war  no  more.  I  wish  you  well  wherever  you  go, 
for  I  believe  you  Methodists  are  a  well-meaning  people." 
John  Nelson  was,  assuredly,  the  George  Fox  of  the  eighteenth 
century ! 

In  1745,  the  year  of  the  invasion  by  the  Young  Pretender, 
when  England  was  hysterical  with  alternate  fits  of  fear  of 
his  success  and  joy  at  the  defeat  of  his  ragged  regiments,  we 
find  Nelson  and  his  comrades  vigorously  itinerating,  and 
suffering  from  the  madness  of  the  excited  mobs. 

At  Nottingham  the  squibs  intended  for  his  face  burnt  only 
the  rioters  who  threw  them.  The  next  time  he  went  they 
nearly  choked  him  by  filling  his  mouth  with  mud  from  the 
kennel,  but  their  leader  was  so  impressed  by  Nelson's  patience 
and  pluck  that  he  threatened  to  knock  anyone  clown  who 
touched  him  further.  On  his  third  visit  he  was  seized  by  a 
constable,  as  he  sat  by  the  fire  after  the  service,  and  was  hus- 


"The  Methodist  Dog"  491 

tied  through  the  streets  by  a  howling  mob.  But  he  kept  all 
his  wits  about  him,  saying  to  the  constable,  "Take  up  that 
man  who  is  swearing;  if  you  don't,  I  can  make  you  pay  forty 
shillings  for  not  doing  your  duty."  The  unfriendly  alder- 
man before  whom  he  was  taken  said,  roughly,  "  You  might 
be  convinced  by  this  time  that  the  mob  of  Nottingham  won't 
let  you  preach  here ;"  and  "  reddened  "  when  the  ready  mason 
retorted,  "  I  did  not  know  this  town  was  governed  by  the 
mob;  most  such  towns  are  governed  by  the  magistrate!" 
The  alderman,  to  his  credit,  after  further  talk  with  Nelson, 
sent  him  back  under  the  constable's  guard  to  "  Mary  White's, 
where  he  came  from." 

Horbury  was  the  scene  of  an  exciting  incident  which 
shows  that,  as  with  George  Fox  and  Wesley,  something  in 
the  look  of  this  servant  of  God  sometimes  awed  his  enemies. 
"  His  look  is  not  like  that  of  other  men."  said  one  of  the  sol- 
diers who  had  served  with  him.  The  Horbury  men  formed 
a  plot  that  when  Nelson  came  they  would  all  leave  work,  put 
a  halter  round  his  neck,  drag  him  to  the  river  and  drown 
him.  They  surrounded  the  house  where  he  breakfasted,  and 
howled  fiercely  for  "the  Methodist  dog"  to  be  brought  out 
that  the  town  might  be  quit  of  him  forever.  The  parson's 
son,  as  captain  of  the  mob,  had  six  large  hand  bells  brought 
from  the  clerk's  house,  and  these  were  rung  violently  that 
his  voice  might  not  be  heard.  A  half-crazed  man,  six  feet 
high,  was  to  put  the  halter  round  his  neck,  and  a  butcher 
held  the  rope.  Nelson  only  pushed  the  halter  from  his  neck 
and  the  man  fell  as  if  he  had  been  knocked  down  with  an  axe  ; 
the  butcher  stood  trembling  and  touched  him  not.  A 
shout  was  raised  as  the  constable  approached  to  arrest  him, 
and  the  bells  were  silenced.  Without  hesitating  a  moment 
Nelson  said,    "  I  am  glad  you  are  come,  and  I  charge  you  in 


492 


British  Methodism 


the  king's  name  to  do  your  office."  He  asked,  "  What  is  my 
office?"  Nelson  answered,  firmly:  "It  is  to  quell  this  mob, 
and  deliver  me  out  of  their  hands.  If  I  have  broken  the  law, 
take    me  to    a    magistrate,    to    be    punished    by    the    law." 

The  constable  turned   pale,   and 

finally  bade  the   mob  be   silent; 

said    to    Nelson,    "Follow    me," 

went  to  the    stable,  led  out    the 

horse  and    held  the  stirrup,    led 

Nelson  through    the   crowd    and 

bade    him    go, 

in  the  name  of 

the  Lord ! 

But  Nelson 
did  not  always 
find  his  calm- 
ness and  wit 
proof  against 
violence,  as  one 
more  adven- 
ture shows. 
It  was  Easter 
Sunday  at  Hepworth  Moor,  near  York,  when  a  mob  drove 
away  Nelson's  large  congregation  with  showers  of  stones, 
and  then  flung  brickbats  at  the  preacher  till  the  blood 
streamed  down  from  his  head  into  his  shoes.  Then  they 
followed  him  through  the  streets  of  York,  still  stoning 
him,  until  a  gentleman,  full  of  pity,  took  him  by  the  hand, 
drew  him  into  his  house,  and  sent  for  a  surgeon  to  dress  his 
wounds.  In  the  afternoon  he  rode  to  Acknam,  where  "  ten 
young  gentlemen"  pelted  the  women  of  the  congregation 
with  rotten  eggs.     As  he    walked  in  the  fields    before    the 


0m  9 


DRAWN    BY   P  E.    FLINTOF 


BIRSTALL    CHURCH. 


"I  Have  Killed  the  Preacher"  493 

evening  service  a  powerful  man  struck  at  him  savagely, 
swearing  he  would  kill  him.  At  the  third  blow  Nelson  fell, 
and  his  assailant  leaped  upon  him  several  times,  till  he  was 
breathless,  and  the  renewed  bleeding  from  his  morning 
wounds  left  him  unconscious.  The  bully  then  seized  one  of 
the  Methodists  who  was  near  and  flung  him  against  a  wall, 
breaking  two  of  his  ribs.  He  then  went  to  the  gentleman 
who  had  hired  him  and  boasted,  "  I  have  killed  the  preacher; 
he  lies  dead  in  the  croft." 

As  Nelson  lay  bleeding  on  the  ground  "the  parson's 
brother"  and  about  twenty  others  came  to  see  if  he  were 
really  dead.  They  cursed  him  soundly,  dragged  him  into 
the  street  as  consciousness  returned,  and  one  after  another 
struck  him  till  he  was  down  again.  Eight  times  he  struggled 
to  his  knees,  and  eight  times  they  knocked  him  down.  Then 
taking  him  by  his  long  hair,  they  dragged  him  over  the 
stones,  kicking  him  fiercely.  Six  of  them  got  on  his  body 
and  thighs,  "  to  tread  the  Holy  Spirit  out  of  him,"  they  said. 
One  exclaimed,  "  I  have  heard  that  a  cat  has  nine  lives;  but 
I  think  he  has  nine  score."  Another  said,  "  If  he  has,  he 
shall  die  this  day."  The  "  gentlemen  "  then  dragged  him  to 
the  village  well  and  attempted  to  put  him  in,  but  a  woman 
intervened  and  resisted  them,  and  at  last  some  ' '  gentlewomen 
from  the  city  called  the  gentlemen  by  their  names,"  who 
looked  as  men  confounded  at  being  discovered  in  this  das- 
tardly work.  Some  friends  helped  him  into  a  house,  and  the 
next  day  he  met  Wesley  and  "found  his  word  come  with 
power  "  to  his  soul,  and  was  constrained  to  cry  out :  "  O  Lord, 
I  will  praise  thee.  .  .  .  Thou  hast  brought  me  out  of  the 
jaws  of  death." 

Nelson  was  still  in  his  native  town,  "  hewing  stone  and 
preaching,"    when   he   helped   to   build    the   first   chapel,   of 


494  British  Methodism 

which  we  give  a  sketch.  In  the  same  year,  1750,  he  was 
called  away  to  act  as  a  "  traveling  preacher. "  He  died  at 
Leeds,  in  1774,  and  was  buried  at  Birstall,  where  Methodists 
cherish  mementos  of  their  heroic  townsman.  His  ivy-grown 
"study"  in  the  chapel  yard  contains  his  homemade  preach- 
ing-chair, a  sundial  in  the  churchyard  witnesses  to  his  work 
as  a  mason,  and  a  bust  in  the  chapel  wall  presents  his  open, 
animated  face,  of  which  a  portrait  (reproduced  on  page  476) 
was  eiven  in  the  Arminian  Magazine. 


CHAPTER  LIII 

Black  Country  Brickbats  and  Bludgeons 

Barbarous  Sports.  —  Baiting  the  Methodists.  —  Wednesbury 
Riots.  —  The  Poet's  Courage. —Cause  of  the  Outbreaks. — 
Honest  Munchin  and  "  the  Mon  of  God." 


THE  Wesleys  had  been  censured  by  bishops,  cursed  by 
High  Church  clergy,  and  slandered  by  a  host  of  pam- 
phleteers. But  this  stormy  chorus  of  violent  words 
was  only  the  prelude  to  the  ferocious  attacks  of  the  mobs 
which  came,  like  wild  beasts,  howling  on  their  track  in  the 
moral  wilderness  of  England. 

The  "  Black  Country,"  in  the  northern  part  of  Stafford- 
shire, was  the  scene  of  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  violent 
persecutions.  The  towns  of  Wednesbury,  Walsall,  and  Dar- 
laston  had  won  for  themselves  an  unenviable  notoriety  for 
lawlessness.  The  brutal  sports  of  these  towns  reflected  the 
moral  condition  of  the  people.  Bull  baiting  and  cockfight- 
ing  provided  scenes  of  riotous  delight.  Charles  Knight  says 
that  the  Wednesbury  cockfights  were  almost  as  famous  as 
the  races  of  the  Derby  day  at  the  present  time. 

Charles  Wesley  was  the  first  Methodist  who  preached  at 

Wednesbury,  in  November,    1742.     John  soon  followed,  and 

a  society  of  one  hundred  members,  increased  to  more  than 

495 


496 


British  Methodism 


three  hundred  by  the  following  May,  was  speedily  formed. 
The  storm  soon  broke.  Charles  preached  in  May  at  Walsall 
from  the  steps  of  the  market  house,  the  mob  roaring,  shout- 


FROM   HOGARTH'S   PICTURE. 


THE    COCKPIT. 
The  Wednesbury  cockfights  were  almost  as  famous  as  the  Derby  races  of  to-day. 

ing,  and  throwing  stones  incessantly,  many  of  which  struck 
him,  but  none  hurt  him. 

vSoon  after  this  the  rioters  of  the  three  towns  turned  out.  in 
force  and  smashed  windows,  furniture,  and  houses.  People 
were  promiscuously  struck  and  bruised.  The  magistrates, 
on  being  appealed  to  by  the  Methodists  for  protection,  told 
them  they  were  themselves  to  blame  for  the  outrages,  and 
refused  all  assistance.  Mr.  Taylor,  the  curate  of  Walsall, 
encouraged  the  rioters  in  their  violence.    One  of  them  struck 


The  Ruffians  of  Wednesbury  497 

Francis  Ward,  a  leading  Methodist,  on  the  eye  and  cut  it  so 
that  his  sight  was  imperiled.  He  went  into  a  shop  to  have 
it  dressed,  when  the  ruffians  again  pursued  him  and  beat 
him  unmercifully.  He  escaped  into  the  public  house,  and 
was  again  brought  out  and  dragged  along  the  street  and 
through  the  gutters  until  he  lost  his  strength  and  was  hardly 
able  to  stand  erect.  Others,  including  some  women,  were 
knocked  down  and  beaten  and  dragged  along  the  ground. 
There  were  in  and  about  Wednesbury  more  than  eighty 
houses,  all  of  which  had  their  windows  damaged,  and  in  many 
of  which  not  three  panes  of  glass  were  left  unbroken.  Wes- 
ley, in  London,  received  a  full  account  of  this  terrible  six- 
days'  riot,  and  thus  writes:  "  I  was  not  surprised  at  all; 
neither  should  I  have  wondered  if,  after  the  advices  they  had 
so  often  received  from  the  pulpit  as  well  as  from  the  epis- 
copal chair,  the  zealous  High  Churchmen  had  risen  and  cut 
all  that  were  Methodists  in  pieces!  " 

Wesley  proceeded  at  once  to  the  scene  to  render  what  as- 
sistance he  could.     But  no  redress  could  be  obtained.     In 
October  he  went  again  to  this  den  of  wild  beasts.     While  he 
was  writing  at  Francis  Ward's  the  mob  beset  the  house  and 
cried,  "  Bring  out  the  minister;   we  will  have  the  minister!  " 
Wesley  asked  some  one  to  take  their  captain  by  the  hand  and 
lead  him  in.      After  a  few  words  the  lion  became  a  lamb. 
Wesley  now  asked  him  to  bring  two  of  the  bitterest  oppo- 
nents inside.     He  soon  returned  with  a  couple  who  '-  were 
read)*  to  swallow  the  ground  with  rage ;  but  in  two  minutes  they 
were  as  calm  as  he."     Then,  mounting  a  chair  in  the  midst 
of  the  mob,  he  demanded,  "What  do  any  of  you  want  with  me?" 
Some  said,  "  We  want  you  to  go  with  us  to  the  justice." 
•'  That  I  will,"  said  Wesley,  "  with  all  my  heart." 
The  few  words  he  added  had  such  an  effect  that  the  mob 


498  British  Methodism 

shouted,  "  The  gentleman  is  an  honest  gentleman,  and  we 
will  spill  our  blood  in  his  defense." 

Some  dispersed  to  their  homes,  but  Wesley  and  the  rest, 
some  two  or  three  hundred,  set  out  for  the  magistrate's  house. 
Darkness  and  heavy  rain  came  on  in  about  half  an  hour,  or 
by  the  time  they  had  walked  a  mile,  but  they  pushed  forward 
another  mile,  to  the  justice's  house  at  Bentley  Hall.  Some  of 
the  advance  guard  told  that  officer,  Mr.  Lane,  that  they  were 
bringing  Wesley. 

"  What  have  I  to  do  with  Mr.  Wesley?  "  quoth  the  magis- 
trate.    "  Take  him  back  again." 

When  the  crowd  came  up  and  knocked  for  admission  the 
magistrate  declined  to  see  them,  sending  word  that  he  was  in 
bed.  His  son  came  out  and  asked  their  business.  A  spokes- 
man answered,  "  To  be  plain,  sir,  if  I  must  speak  the  truth, 
all  the  fault  I  find  with  him  is  that  he  preaches  better  than 
our  parsons." 

Another  said :  "Sir,  it  is  a  downright  .shame;  he  makes 
people  rise  at  five  in  the  morning  to  sing  psalms.  What 
advice  would  your  worship  give  us?  " 

"  To  go  home,"  said  young  Lane,  "  and  be  quiet." 

Xot  getting  much  satisfaction  there,  they  now  hurried 
Wesley  to  Walsall,  to  Justice  Persehouse.  Although  it  was 
only  about  seven  o'clock,  he  also  sent  word  that  he  had  gone 
to  bed,  and  refused  to  see  them.  Yet  these  very  magistrates 
had  recently  issued  an  order  calling  on  all  officers  of  justice 
to  search  for  and  bring  before  them  any  Methodist  preacher 
found  in  the  district. 

At  last  they  all  thought  it  wise  to  make  their  way  home, 
and  some  fifty  of  the  crowd  undertook  to  convey  Wesley 
back  to  Wednesbury.  But  they  had  not  gone  a  hundred 
yards  when  the  mob  of    Walsall    burst  upon  them.      They 


The  Preacher's  Champion. 

Drawn  by  II.  S.  Hubbell. 


The  Mob  of  Walsall  501 

showed  fight,  but,  being  wearied  and  greatly  outnumbered, 
were  soon  overpowered,  and  Wesley  was  left  in  the  hands  of 
his  new  enemies.  Some  tried  to  seize  him  by  the  collar  and 
pull  him  down.  A  big,  lusty  fellow  just  behind  him  struck 
at  him  several  times  with  an  oaken  club.  If  one  of  these 
blows  had  taken  effect,  as  Wesley  says,  "it  would  have  saved 
all  further  trouble.  But  every  time  the  blow  was  turned 
aside,  I  know  not  how,  for  I  could  not  move  to  the  right 
hand  or  left."  Another,  rushing  through  the  crowd,  lifted 
his  arm  to  strike,  but  on  a  sudden  let  it  drop  and  only 
stroked  Wesley's  head,  saying,  "What  soft  hair  he  has!" 
One  man  struck  him  on  the  breast,  and  another  on  the  mouth 
with  such  force  that  the  blood  gushed  out ;  but  he  felt  no 
more  pain,  he  affirms,  from  either  than  if  they  had  touched 
him  with  a  straw ;  not,  certainly,  because  he  was  over  excited 
or  alarmed,  for  he  assures  us  that  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  he  was  enabled  to  maintain  as  much  presence  of  mind 
as  if  he  had  been  sitting  in  his  study,  but  his  thoughts 
were  entirely  absorbed  in  watching  the  movements  of  the 
rioters. 

When  he  had  been  pulled  to  the  west  end  of  the  town,  see- 
ing a  door  half  open — which  proved,  strangely  enough,  to  be 
the  mayor's,  though  he  did  not  know  it — he  made  toward  it 
to  go  in ;  but  the  owner,  who  was  inside,  would  not  suffer  it, 
saying  the  mob  would  pull  the  house  down  to  the  ground. 
However,  Wesley  stood  at  the  door,  and  raising  his  voice  to 
the  maddened  throng,  asked,  "Are  you  willing  to  hear  me 
speak?"  Many  cried  out:  "No!  No!  Knock  his  brains 
out !  Down  with  him  !  Kill  him  at  once  !  "  Others  said, 
"  Nay,  but  we  will  hear  him  first!  "  Then  he  spoke  a  while, 
until  his  voice  suddenly  failed.  Now  the  cry  was:  "Bring 
him  away!      Bring  him.  away!"     Recovering  his  strength, 


XHBO.   school. 


502  British  Methodism 

he  began  to  pray  aloud.  Then  the  ruffian  who  had  headed 
the  rabble,  a  prize  fighter  at  the  bear  garden,  struck  with  awe, 
turned  and  said  :  "  Sir,  I  will  spend  my  life  for  you!  Follow 
me  and  not  one  soul  here  shall  touch  a  hair  of  your  head !  " 
Others  of  his  companions  joined  with  him  in  this  new  depar- 
ture. An  honest  butcher  also  interposed  and  thrust  away  four 
or  five  of  the  most  violent  assailants.  The  people  fell  back 
to  the  right  and  left,  and  in  the  charge  of  his  new-found  pro- 
tectors Wesley  was  borne  through  the  infuriated  crowd  and 
escorted  to  his  lodgings  at  Wednesbury,  having  lost  only  one 
flap  of  his  waistcoat  and  a  little  skin  from  one  of  his  hands. 
He  says  concerning  it:  "I  took  no  thought  for  one  moment 
before  another;  only  once  it  came  into  my  mind  that,  if  they 
should  throw  me  into  the  river,  it  would  spoil  the  papers 
that  were  in  my  pocket.  For  myself,  I  did  not  doubt  but  I 
should  swim  across,  having  but  a  thin  coat  and  a  light  pair 
of  boots."  "I  never  saw  such  a  chain  of  providences  be- 
fore; so  many  convincing  proofs  that  the  hand  of  God  is  on 
every  person  and  thing,  overruling  all  as  it  seemeth  him 
good." 

In  the  midst  of  all  these  perils  four  brave  Methodists — 
William  Sitch,  Edward  Slater,  John  Griffith,  and  Joan  Parks 
—clung  fast  to  Wesley's  side,  resolved  to  live  or  die  with  him. 
None  received  a  blow  save  William,  who  was  knocked  down, 
but  soon  got  up  again.  When  Wesley  asked  William  Sitch 
what  he  expected  when  the  mob  seized  them  he  answered 
with  a  martyr's  spirit,  "To  die  for  him  who  died  for  us." 
And  when  Joan  Parks  was  asked  if  she  was  not  afraid  she 
said:  "  No,  no  more  than  I  am  now.  I  could  trust  God  for 
you  as  well  as  for  myself." 

When  Wesley  reached  Wednesbury  the  friends  were  pray- 
ing" for  him  in  the  house   from   which   he   had   started.      His 


Charles  Wesley  on  the  Firing  Line  503 

sufferings  awoke  general  sympathy.  Next  morning,  as  he 
rode  through  the  town,  he  says,  "  Everyone  I  met  expressed 
such  a  cordial  affection  that  I  could  scarce  believe  what  I  saw 
and  heard."  Charles  Wesley  met  him  at  Nottingham.  He 
says  that  his  brother  "  looked  like  a  soldier  of  Christ.  His 
clothes  were  torn  to  tatters."  Charles  went  straight  from 
Nottingham  to  the  scenes  of  the  rioting,  boldly  bearding  the 
lions  in  their  den.  He  was  constitutionally  a  timid  man.  as 
he  often  confesses,  but  there  was  nothing  he  feared  so  much 
as  to  offend  his  own  conscience.  Under  the  inspiration  of 
duty  this  poet  of  the  finest  sensibilities  became  a  lion,  wholly 
insensible  to  fear.  Just  a  little  before  this,  in  Sheffield,  the 
house  in  which  he  was  preaching  being  in  danger  of  destruc- 
tion by  the  mob,  he  announced  that  he  would  preach  out  of 
doors.  The  crowd  followed  him,  but  he  finished  his  sermon 
under  a  shower  of  stones.  The  mob  raged  all  night  around 
the  house  where  he  slept,  and  by  morning  had  pulled  down 
one  end  of  it.  But  no  personal  injury  was  received.  He 
preached  again  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  later  in 
the  day  held  another  outdoor  service  in  the  very  heart  of  the 
toAvn,  on  returning  from  which  he  passed  the  ruins  of  the 
little  Methodist  chapel,  whereof  hardly  one  stone  remained 
upon  another.  Again  the  mob  surrounded  his  lodging  place 
at  night.  But  he  tells  us  that  he  was  much  fatigued,  and 
dropped  to  sleep  with  that  word,  "Scatter  thou  the  people 
that  delight  in  war."  He  ascribes  the  disgraceful  tumult  to 
the  sermons  which  were  preached  against  the  Methodists  by 
the  clergy  of  the  Sheffield  churches. 

He  arrived  at  Wednesbury  five  days  after  the  miraculous 
escape  of  his  brother,  and  found  the  Methodists  "standing 
fast  in  one  mind  and  spirit,  in  nothing  terrified  by  their  ad- 
versaries."     He  writes:    "We  assembled  before  day  to  sing 


504  British  Methodism 

hymns  to  Christ  as  God.  As  s<  ><  >n  as  it  was  light  I  walked  down 
the  town  and  preached.  .  .  .  It  was  a  most  glorious  time."  The 
clergyman  at  Darlaston  was  so  struck  with  the  meek  behavior 
of  the  Methodists  in  the  midst  of  suffering  that  he  offered  to 
join  the  Wesleys  in  punishing  the  rioters.  As  for  "honest 
Munchin,"  the  nickname  for  George  Clifton,  the  captain  of 
the  rabble,  who  had  rescued  Wesley,  he  was  so  impressed 
with  Wesley's  spirit  that  he  immediately  forsook  his  godless, 
profligate  gang,  and  was  received  on  trial  into  the  Methodist 
society  by  Charles.  The  latter  asked  him,  "What  think 
you  of  my  brother?"  "Think  of  him!"  was  the  answer. 
"  That  he  is  a  mon  of  God ;  and  God  was  on  his  side,  when 
so  mony  of  us  could  not  kill  one  mon."  Clifton  lived  a  good 
life  after  this,  and  died  in  Birmingham,  aged  eighty-five,  in 
1789,  two  years  before  Wesley.  He  was  never  weary  of 
telling  the  story  of  that  night  when  he  might  have  taken 
life,  had  not  God  stayed  his  hand. 


boston   TJisrirv'EiR.snrz* 

XHEO.     SCHOOL. 


BOSTON   UNIVERSITY 


1    l?n    01310    ISMO