Read Ebook: The life and times of the Rev. John Wesley M.A. founder of the Methodists. Vol. 2 (of 3) by Tyerman L Luke

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On leaving Haworth, Wesley proceeded to Roughlee, a village in the vicinity of Colne, Grimshaw and Colbeck going with him. While Wesley was preaching, a drunken rabble came, with clubs and staves, led on by a deputy constable, who said he was come for the purpose of taking Wesley to a justice of the peace at Barrowford. Wesley went with him. On the way a miscreant struck him in the face; another threw a stick at his head; and a third cursed and swore, and flourished his club about Wesley's person as if he meant to murder him. On reaching the public house, where his worship was waiting, he was required to promise not to come to Roughlee again. He answered, he would sooner cut off his head than make such a promise. For above two hours, he was detained in the magisterial presence; but, at length, he was allowed to leave. The deputy constable went with him. The mob followed with oaths, curses, and stones. Wesley was beaten to the ground, and was forced back into the house. Grimshaw and Colbeck were used with the utmost violence, and covered with all kinds of sludge. Mr. Mackford, who had come with Wesley from Newcastle, was dragged by the hair of his head, and sustained injuries from which he never fully recovered. Some of the Methodists, who were present, were beaten with clubs; others were trampled in the mire; one was forced to leap from a rock ten or twelve feet high, into the river; and others had to run for their lives, amidst all sorts of missiles thrown after them. The magistrate saw all this; and, so far from attempting to hinder it, seemed well pleased with the murderous proceedings. Next day Wesley wrote him as follows:--"All this time you were talking of justice and law! Alas, sir, suppose we were Dissenters , suppose we were Jews or Turks, are we not to have the benefit of the laws of our country! Proceed against us by the law, if you can or dare; but not by lawless violence; not by making a drunken, cursing, swearing, riotous mob, both judge, jury, and executioner. This is flat rebellion against God and the king, as you may possibly find to your cost."

This horrible outrage was chiefly fomented by a popish renegado, who was now the curate of Colne. The following proclamation for raising mobs against the Methodists was issued:--

"NOTICE is hereby given, that if any men be mindful to enlist into his majesty's service, under the command of the Rev. George White, commander-in-chief, and John Bannister, lieutenant-general of his majesty's forces, for the defence of the Church of England, and the support of the manufactory in and about Colne, both of which are now in danger, etc., etc., let them now repair to the drumhead at the cross, where each man shall have a pint of ale for advance, and other proper encouragements."

Besides this, White, within the last month, had preached an inflammatory sermon which, at the end of the year, was published, with a dedicatory epistle to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The title is, "A Sermon against the Methodists, preached at Colne and Marsden, to a very numerous audience; by George White, M.A., minister of Colne and Marsden; and author of 'Mercurius Latinus.' Published at the request of the audience." Octavo, 24 pages.

This clerical railer tells the archbishop that, by means of Methodism, there was, in this remote part of the country, "a schismatical rebellion against the best of churches; a defiance of all laws, civil and ecclesiastical; a professed disrespect to learning and education; a visible ruin of trade and manufacture; a shameful progress of enthusiasm; and a confusion not to be paralleled in any other Christian dominion." He adds, that he has taken pains to "inquire into the characters of these new sectaries, and has found their teachers shamefully ignorant, and criminally arrogant, while many of them have been prevented arriving at the order of priesthood by early immoralities."

The text he professes to expound is 1 Corinthians xiv. 33, and the following are a specimen of his spicy sentences concerning the Methodists and their system:--"A weak illiterate crowd,"--"a labyrinth of wild enthusiasm,"--preachers are "bold, visionary rustics, setting up to be guides in matters of the highest importance, without any other plea but uncontrollable ignorance,"--these officious haranguers cozen a handsome subsistence out of their irregular expeditions. Mr. Wesley has in reality a better income than most of our bishops. The under lay praters, by means of a certain allowance from their schismatic general, a contribution from their very wise hearers, and the constant maintenance of themselves and horses, are in a better way of living than the generality of our vicars and curates; and doubtless find it much more agreeable to their constitution, to travel abroad at the expense of a sanctified face and a good assurance, than to sweat ignominiously at the loom, anvil, and various other mechanic employments, which nature had so manifestly designed them for."

But enough of the oracular utterances of Mr. White. Who was he? First of all, he was educated at Douay, for orders in the Church of Rome. Renouncing popery, he was noticed by Archbishop Potter, and made a priest of the Church of England. An itch for scribbling made him the author of about half-a-dozen worthless ungrammatical publications, including "a burlesque poem on a miraculous sheep's eye at Paris." A devoted son of "the best of churches," he frequently abandoned his church for weeks together; and, on one occasion, read the funeral service more than twenty times in a single night over the dead bodies which had been interred, without ceremony, during his absence from home. He married an Italian governess in 1745; was imprisoned for debt in Chester castle; and there died on April 29, 1751.

Leaving Barrowford, Wesley and his friends went to Heptonstall, where he preached, with unexampled power, in an oval surrounded with spreading trees, and scooped out of a hill, which rose round him and his congregation like a rural theatre. He then made his way, through Todmorden and Rossendale, to Bolton, where with the cross for his pulpit, and a vast number of "utterly wild" people for his audience, he began to preach. Once or twice they thrust him down from the steps on which he was standing, but he still continued his discourse. Then stones were thrown, which seem to have done more injury to the mob themselves than they did to Wesley. One man was bawling in his ear, when his bawling was silenced by a missile striking him on the cheek. A second was forcing his way to the preacher, when another stone hit him on his forehead, and disfigured him with blood. A third stretched out his hand to lay hold on Wesley, when a sharp flint struck him on the knuckles, and made him quiet till Wesley concluded his discourse and went away. It was either on this, or some subsequent occasion, that six papists, from Standish, near Wigan, rode right through the midst of Wesley's congregation; and tradition states, that two of the horsemen, brothers of the name of Lyon, were afterwards hanged for burglary.

Wesley and his friends proceeded from Bolton to Shackerley, six miles farther, where he preached to a large congregation, including not a few Unitarians, the disciples of Dr. Taylor, the divinity tutor of the Unitarian academy founded at Warrington. Wesley, always hopeful, remarks: "O what a providence is it, which has brought us here also, among these silver tongued antichrists!" Wesley visited Shackerley three times after this, and wrote, in 1751: "Being now in the very midst of Mr. Taylor's disciples, I enlarged much more than I am accustomed to do, on the doctrine of original sin; and determined, if God should give me a few years' life, publicly to answer his new gospel." This was done six years afterwards; and Shackerley must always have a place in Methodistic annals, inasmuch as to Wesley's visits here Methodism is indebted for the most elaborated work he ever wrote.

In his onward progress, Wesley came to Astbury, where a lawless mob, headed by "Drummer Jack," surrounded the preaching house, and endeavoured, by discordant noises, to drown his voice. Some years after, the same Drummer Jack was escorting a wedding party to Astbury church, and, on reaching the spot where he had attempted to disturb Wesley's congregation, suddenly expired.

Thus preaching on his way, Wesley, on September 4, got back to London.

Meanwhile, on July 5, Whitefield, after nearly a four years' absence, returned to England from America. On the day he landed, he wrote to his friends, the two Wesleys; but an immediate interview was impracticable, for Wesley himself was on his northern journey, and his brother Charles, besides attending to his ministerial duties, was paying loving attentions to Sarah Gwynne. Three days before Wesley got back to London, Whitefield wrote to him as follows:--

"REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,--My not meeting you in London has been a disappointment to me. What have you thought about an union? I am afraid an external one is impracticable. I find, by your sermons, that we differ in principles more than I thought; and I believe we are upon two different plans. My attachment to America will not permit me to abide very long in England; consequently, I should but weave a Penelope's web, if I formed societies; and if I should form them, I have not proper assistants to take care of them. I intend therefore to go about preaching the gospel to every creature. You, I suppose, are for settling societies everywhere; but more of this when we meet. I hope you don't forget to pray for me. You are always remembered by, reverend and dear sir, yours most affectionately in Christ Jesus,

"GEORGE WHITEFIELD."

Whitefield left London for Scotland before Wesley's arrival, and the two evangelists had no opportunity of meeting until the end of November, when, it is possible, they might, in their hurried ramblings, have a brief interview in town. They were still the warmest friends; but their courses of action were separate. Whitefield was a Calvinist; Wesley was not. Whitefield thought an external union, of the Tabernacle and other congregations with the congregations raised by Wesley, was impracticable; Wesley, so far as there is evidence to show, did not desire it. Whitefield had no societies, for the societies in Wales really belonged not to him but to Howel Harris; Wesley had already societies from one end of the kingdom to the other. Whitefield intended to spend his time chiefly in America; Wesley meant to stay in England. Whitefield, for the reasons he assigns, resolved to form no societies, but to be a mere evangelist; Wesley was resolved, for reasons stated at more than one of his annual conferences, to form societies wherever he and his preachers preached. Here the two friends parted, one in one direction, the other in another, both of them with hearts as warm as ever, and both equally animated with zeal for God and benevolence for man; but each, henceforth, cheerily pursuing his own chosen path, until both, laden with the spoils of a victorious war, were welcomed to the tranquillities and joys of their Father's house in heaven.

Hitherto Whitefield's preaching had chiefly been in fields and lanes, squares and streets, woods and wildernesses; but now, oddly enough, he was admitted into the drawing rooms of the rich and great.

For two years past, the countess had been a widow. Hitherto, she had admirably fulfilled her duties in the higher circles of society. At Donnington Park, she had been the "Lady Bountiful" among her neighbours and dependants; she had evinced great interest in their temporal and eternal welfare; and, besides encouraging the clergy in her own immediate neighbourhood, she had, more than once, dared to give a hearty welcome to the outcast Wesleys and their friends. Her heart was now pierced with the deepest sorrow, and was highly susceptible of religious impressions. Just at this juncture, Whitefield came back to England; his fervid eloquence attracted her attention; she made him her chaplain; and what Whitefield had resolved not to do, she did herself,--she founded societies, built chapels, appointed ministers, and formed a Methodist connexion apart from that which was formed by Wesley. She never renounced the Church of England; but she embraced views hardly compatible with its practices and well being. She was a child of emotion, carried onwards by an impulse not easily resisted or described. She had her annual conferences; the preachers whom she stationed were called "Lady Huntingdon's preachers"; and the connexion over which she presided was known by the name of "Lady Huntingdon's connexion." Perhaps her people were less efficiently organised; but she held to them the same relation that Wesley did to his. Her authority was parental and decisive. No one doubted the purity of her motives, and all trusted the general soundness of her judgment. Chapels were erected in London, Brighton, Tunbridge Wells, Bath, Bristol, Birmingham, and other places. Again and again, revivalists were sent from one end of the land to the other, preaching everywhere, and almost everywhere winning souls for Christ. A college, the first that Methodism had, was opened at Trevecca, for the training of young ministers. The countess was the empress of the new connexion, and Whitefield was her prime minister. Wesley's connexion was Arminian; hers was Calvinist. His continues, and is more extended and powerful than ever; hers has long been broken up into Independent churches. Wesley died March 2, 1791; she on the 17th of June next ensuing.

The Countess of Huntingdon was, in many respects, the most remarkable woman of her age and country. She was far from faultless; but she was neither the gloomy fanatic, the weak visionary, nor the abstracted devotee, which different parties have painted her. Her endowments were above the ordinary standard, and were much improved by reading, conversation, study, and observation. Though not a beauty, she was not without the charms of the female sex. Her devotion to the work of God was almost unexampled. Her house was used for Methodist meetings, which were attended by large numbers of the nobility and higher classes, including the Duchesses of Argyll, Bedford, Grafton, Hamilton, Montagu, Queensberry, Richmond, and Manchester, and Lords Burlington, Townshend, North, March, Trentham, Weymouth, Tavistock, Hertford, Trafford, Northampton, Lyttelton, and others,--even William Pitt. During the last forty years of her life, she gave, at least, ?100,000 for the support and extension of her system; and actually sold her jewels to find means for the building of Brighton chapel. Her life was a beautiful course of hallowed labour. Her death was the serene setting of a brilliant sun. Almost her last words were: "My work is done; I have nothing to do but to go to my Father." She was a mother in Israel, whose decease left a vacancy not filled up. Her person, endowments, energy, and spirit were all uncommon. Accustomed to assume great responsibilities and to be deferred to in matters of great importance, she necessarily cultivated self reliance to such an extent as sometimes made her seem obstinate, haughty, and dogmatical. Still, dignity and ease met in her; and in manners she was refined, elegant, and engaging. Honour, heroism, and magnanimity were always conspicuous in her remarkable career; and, for intrepidity in the cause of God, and success in winning souls to Christ, Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, stands unequalled among women.

Six weeks after his return from America, Whitefield commenced preaching in her ladyship's mansion. Among his earliest hearers was the celebrated Lord Chesterfield, "a wit among lords, and a lord among wits." Twice a week, Whitefield preached to these conclaves of nobility and rank, his congregations usually consisting of about thirty persons.

In London, he preached at St. Bartholomew's, and helped to administer the sacrament to a thousand communicants; but, in other instances, his congregations were thin. He found that antinomianism had made sad havoc; but the scattered troops began to unite again. He writes November 19: "Matters were in great confusion by reason of Mr. Cennick's going over to the Moravians"; and again on December 21: "I suppose not less than four hundred, through the practices of the Moravians, have left the Tabernacle. I have also been forsaken in other ways. I have not had above a hundred to hear me, where I had twenty thousand; and hundreds now assemble within a quarter of a mile of me, who never come to see or speak to me; though they must own, at the great day, that I was their spiritual father. All this I find but little enough to teach me to cease from man, and to wean me from that too great fondness which spiritual fathers are apt to have for their spiritual children."

No doubt, this was exceedingly distressing. But there was more than this to annoy the once popular preacher. Just at the time when Wesley got back to London, Whitefield set out for Scotland, where, on former occasions, he had won some of his greatest triumphs; but now a synod of his old friends, the Seceders, met in Edinburgh, on November 16, to adopt the "new modelled scheme and covenant." Hundreds took the oath, and solemnly engaged to use all lawful means to extirpate, not only "popery, prelacy, Arminianism, Arianism, tritheism, and Sabellianism," but also "George Whitefieldism"; and similar decisions were adopted at the synods of Lothian, Ayr, and Glasgow.

And added to all this, there was another trouble of a different kind, in which Wesley was involved as well as Whitefield. Dr. Lavington was bishop of Exeter, and was a fervent hater of the Methodists. He had recently delivered a charge to the clergy of his diocese, and some mischievous person had published a piece, which falsely pretended to be the same as that which the bishop had addressed to his assembled ministers. This fictitious charge contained such a declaration of doctrines as exposed Lavington to the stigma of a Methodist, and produced several pamphlets in reply and congratulation. His lordship was enraged; and advertised, in the public papers, that the pamphlet which had been affiliated upon himself was false; that the Methodist leaders were the authors of the fraud; and that, though there might be among the Methodists a few well meaning, ignorant people, yet the sect, as a whole, were deluded enthusiasts, and their teachers something worse than that. Whitefield was accused as the principal, and the Wesleys were suspected as being his accomplices, in the spurious production. This was utterly untrue, but it occasioned Whitefield considerable annoyance. It so happened that the pamphlet had been sent to him in manuscript; but he denied its genuineness, and strongly condemned the injustice of its publication. Still, the bishop persisted in his accusation. Lady Huntingdon wrote to him, assuring him that Whitefield and the Wesleys were innocent, and demanded a candid and honourable retraction of the charges against them. Her letter was accompanied by an acknowledgment, on the part of the printer, that no one was to blame for the publication except himself; and, that he received the manuscript from one who had no connection with the Methodists. His lordship maintained a sullen silence. The countess wrote again, declaring that, unless Lavington complied with her request, she would make the transaction public. This extorted a recantation, and an apology "to her ladyship, and to Messrs. Whitefield and Wesley for the harsh and unjust censures which he had passed upon them, and a wish that they would accept his unfeigned regret for having unjustly wounded their feelings, and exposed them to the odium of the world."

The prelate recanted and apologized; but, henceforth, he became the most bitter and implacable reviler that the Methodist leaders had; and, within two years, began to publish his ribald and infamous attack, entitled "The Enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists compared."

The pamphlet is chiefly remarkable for its being a defence of the Methodists by a clergyman, who had no connection with the Wesleys. It breathes piety, but lacks power.

Having spent a week in London, Wesley set out, on September 12, for Cornwall. He preached to a "multitude" near St. Stephen's Down, who were as silent as death, while he was speaking; but the moment he concluded, "the chain fell off their tongues. Never," says he, "was such a cackling made on the banks of Cayster, or the common of Sedgmoor." The St. Just society consisted "of one hundred and fifty persons of whom more than a hundred were walking in the light of God's countenance." At Newlyn, his congregation were "a rude, gaping, staring rabble rout; some or other of whom were throwing dirt or stones continually."

His time, however, was partly occupied in writing. He had already formed the project of publishing "The Christian Library." Hence the following letter to Mr. Ebenezer Blackwell.

"DEAR SIR,--I have had some thoughts of printing, on a finer paper, and with a larger letter, not only all that we have published already, but it may be, all that is most valuable in the English tongue, in threescore or fourscore volumes, in order to provide a complete library for those that fear God. I should print only a hundred copies of each. Brother Downes would give himself up to the work; so that whenever I can procure a printing press, types, and some quantity of paper, I can begin immediately. I am inclined to think several would be glad to forward such a design; and if so, the sooner the better; because my life is far spent, and I know not how soon the night cometh wherein no man can work.

"I am, dear sir,

"Your affectionate brother and servant,

"JOHN WESLEY."

This was a bold design, which he began to execute in the ensuing year, and for which he was already preparing materials. Mr. Blackwell was a partner in a banking house in Lombard Street, London; and though, for his plain honesty, he was often called the "rough diamond," he was one of Wesley's kindest and most valuable friends. To his country house, at Lewisham, Wesley was accustomed to retire, when writing for the press. Here he found an asylum during his serious illness in 1754. To him, Blackwell was wont to entrust considerable sums of money, for distribution among the poor. Under such circumstances, no wonder that Wesley, with his small purse and large project, should submit his scheme to the London banker, for the purpose of ascertaining his willingness to help in its execution.

Happy deaths among the Methodists were now not unfrequent. Wesley mentions several; and the sanctified muse of his brother Charles never attained to loftier poetic heights than when celebrating such events. There were, however, at the end of 1748, a number of deaths painful as well as pleasing. John Lancaster had been a regular attendant at the Foundery's five o'clock morning service, and had been converted; but, by degrees, had left off coming; and had rejoined his old companions, and, fallen into sin. One day, when playing at skittles, he became the accomplice of a thief, and soon after broke into the Foundery, and stole two of the chandeliers. In this instance, he escaped detection; but, emboldened by success, he proceeded to steal nineteen yards of velvet, the property of Mr. Powell; and, for this, was tried at the Old Bailey sessions, in the month of August, and was sentenced to be hanged. The poor wretch sent for Sarah Peters and some other of his old Methodist companions, to visit him in his cell. At the time, there were nine others in the same prison awaiting execution. Six or seven of them joined Lancaster and the Methodists in prayer, reading the Scriptures, and singing hymns. A pestilential fever was raging in the prison; but the visits were oft repeated. Lancaster professed to find peace with God. Thomas Atkins, a youth, nineteen years of age, condemned for highway robbery, said: "I bless God, I have laid my soul at the feet of Jesus, and am not afraid to die." Thomas Thompson, a horse stealer, exceedingly ignorant, was brought into the same state of mind. John Roberts, a burglar, at first utterly careless and sullen, became penitent and believing. William Gardiner, convicted of rape, said on his way to execution, "I have nothing to trust to but the blood of Christ! If that won't do, I am undone for ever." Sarah Cunningham, who had stolen a purse of twenty-seven guineas, at first went raving mad, but, in her lucid intervals, earnestly implored Christ to pity her. Samuel Chapman, a smuggler, seemed to fear neither God nor devil, but, after Sarah Peters had talked to him, he began to cry aloud for mercy, was seized with the jail distemper, and was confined to his bed till carried to the gallows. Ten poor wretches, the above included, were executed at Tyburn, on October 28. Six of them spent their last night together, in continuous prayer; and, on Sarah Peters visiting them early in the morning, several of them exclaimed, with a transport not to be expressed, "O what a happy night we have had! What a blessed morning is this!" The turnkey said he had never seen such people before; and, when the bellman came at noon, to tell them, as usual, "Remember, you are to die to-day!" they cried out, "Welcome news! welcome news!" When brought out for execution, Lancaster exclaimed, "O that I could tell a thousandth part of the joys I feel!" Atkins said, "Blessed be God, I am ready"; Gardiner cried, "I am happy, and think the moments long; for I want to die, to be with Christ"; Thompson witnessed the same confession. Spectators wept; and the officers looked like men affrighted. On their way to Tyburn, the convicts sang several hymns, and especially--

"Lamb of God, whose bleeding love We still recal to mind, Send the answer from above, And let us mercy find: Think on us, who think on Thee, And every struggling soul release; O remember Calvary, And let us go in peace!"

Thus died Lancaster, a condemned felon, a quondam Methodist, one of his last prayers being, that the Foundery congregation might abound more and more in the knowledge and love of God, and that God would bless and keep the Wesleys, and that neither men nor devils might ever hurt them.

And what became of Sarah Peters? Six days after the execution, she was seized with malignant fever; and, ten days after that, she died. She was, says Wesley, "a lover of souls, a mother in Israel. During a close observation of several years, I never saw her, upon the most trying occasions, in any degree ruffled or discomposed; she was always loving, always happy. It was her peculiar gift, and her continual care, to seek and to save that which was lost; and, in doing this, God endued her, above her fellows, with the love that believeth, hopeth, and endureth all things."

Before closing the present chapter, all that remains is to note Wesley's publications during the year 1748. They were the following:--

The whole of the above were class books in Kingswood school.

In his wide wanderings, Wesley met with numbers of friendly Quakers, of whom he speaks in terms of commendation; but their system was one which he abhorred, and, in his "Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion," he speaks of the inconsistencies of their community in the most withering terms. "A silent meeting," said he in a letter to a young lady, "was never heard of in the church of Christ for sixteen hundred years." And, in one of his letters to Archbishop Seeker, he remarks: "Between me and the Quakers there is a great gulf fixed. The sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper keep us at a wide distance from each other; insomuch that, according to the view of things I have now, I should as soon commence deist as Quaker."

In 1749, Wesley spent four months in London and its vicinity, nearly four in Ireland, ten weeks in Bristol, Wales, and the surrounding neighbourhood, and two months in his tour to the north of England.

His brother employed the year principally in Bristol, Wales, and London, and in visiting intermediate towns and villages.

In another letter, dated the 3rd of May, he writes:--"If you ever think of returning to England, you must prepare yourself with Methodism. This sect increases as fast as almost any religious nonsense ever did. Lady Frances Shirley has chosen this way of bestowing the dregs of her beauty; and Mr. Lyttelton is very near making the same sacrifice of the dregs of all those various characters he has worn. The Methodists love your big sinners, as proper subjects to work upon; and, indeed, they have a plentiful harvest. Flagrancy was never more in fashion; drinking is at the highest wine mark; and gaming is joined with it so violently, that, at the last Newmarket meeting, a bank bill was thrown down, and nobody immediately claiming it, they agreed to give it to a man standing by."

Whitefield wrote: "I am a debtor to all, and intend to be at the head of no party. I believe my particular province is, to go about and preach the gospel to all. My being obliged to keep up a large correspondence in America, and the necessity I am under of going thither myself, entirely prevent my taking care of any societies. I profess to be of a catholic spirit. I have no party to be at the head of, and, through God's grace, will have none; but, as much as in me lies, strengthen the hands of all, of every denomination, that preach Jesus Christ in sincerity."

His wife arrived from America at the end of June; and, a few weeks afterwards, he set out for the north of England. In Grimshaw's church, at Haworth, he had a thousand communicants; and, in the churchyard, about six thousand hearers. In Leeds, his congregation consisted of above ten thousand. On his way to Newcastle, Charles Wesley met him, and, returning with him, introduced him to the Orphan House pulpit. Under the date of October 8, Charles writes "The Lord is reviving His work as at the beginning. Multitudes are daily added to His church. George Whitefield, my brother, and I, are one; a threefold cord, which shall no more be broken. The week before last, I waited on our friend George at our house in Newcastle, and gave him full possession of our pulpit and people's hearts, as full as was in my power to give. The Lord united all our hearts. I attended his successful ministry for some days. He was never more blessed, or better satisfied. Whole troops of the Dissenters he mowed down. They also are so reconciled to us, as you cannot conceive. The world is confounded. The hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. At Leeds, we met my brother, who gave honest George the right hand of fellowship, and attended him everywhere to our societies. Some at London will be alarmed at the news; but it is the Lord's doing, as they will by-and-by acknowledge."

Rightly or wrongly, we thus find Whitefield disassociated from all churches and all societies,--the friend of all, the enemy of none,--an evangelist, not a pastor, making it the one business of his life to spread gospel truth, and to convert sinners from sin to holiness, and from the power of Satan unto God.

Wesley intended to visit Rotterdam at the beginning of 1749; but was prevented by a request that he would write an answer to Dr. Middleton's book against the fathers. He says: "I spent almost twenty days in that unpleasing employment."

In the middle of the month of February, he and his brother, and Charles Perronet, set out from London for Mr. Gwynne's, in Wales, for the purpose of making final arrangements for Charles's marriage. John's proposal was to give his brother security for the payment of ?100 per annum out of the profits of their publications. This was accepted as satisfactory, and Mr. Gwynne and Mr. Perronet were to act as the trustees. Miss Sally Gwynne promised to let Charles continue his vegetable diet and his travelling; and, though Mrs. Gwynne wished to stipulate that he should not go again to Ireland, this, at her daughter's request, was not enforced. It is a fact, however, that, for some reason, Charles Wesley never visited Ireland after he became the son-in-law of Mrs. Gwynne.

Having completed the negotiations for his brother's marriage, Wesley hurried off to Bristol; and, at Kingswood, collected together seventeen of his preachers, whom he divided into two classes, for the purpose of reading lectures to them every day, during Lent, as he had formerly done to his pupils at Oxford. To one class, he read Bishop Pearson on the Creed; to the other, Aldrich's Logic; and to both, "Rules for Action and Utterance." About a month seems to have been spent in this ministerial training. Who were Wesley's favoured pupils? This is a question we cannot answer; but, from the books selected, we learn that Wesley's object was-- To teach theology; the science of reasoning; the art of elocution. Leisure hours were occupied in making preparations for the "Christian Library," and in preaching in the surrounding neighbourhood. Once a week, also, he spent an hour with the assembled children of the four Kingswood schools; namely, the boys boarded in the new house, the girls boarded in the old, the boys in the day-school taught by James Harding, and the girls taught in the day-school by Sarah Dimmock.

Lent terminated on the 26th of March, and, a week afterwards, he returned to Wales for the purpose of performing his brother's marriage. This took place on the 8th of April, and was, in all respects, a happy one, though there was a considerable disparity in age, Charles being forty, and his bride only twenty-three. Her father was a respected magistrate; her mother an heiress of ?30,000. The change from her father's mansion to a small house in Bristol was great; but she loved her husband, and was never known to regret the comforts she had left behind her. She became the mother of eight children: five died in infancy; three survived their parents, and, by their distinguished talent, added lustre even to the name of Wesley. She died on December 28, 1822, at the age of ninety-six. Her long life was an unbroken scene of devoted piety in its loveliest forms; and her death equally calm and beautiful.

Two days after his brother's marriage, Wesley set out for Ireland, where he landed at three o'clock on Sunday morning, April 16, and, on the same day, preached thrice to the Dublin Methodists. Having spent a fortnight in the city, where the members had increased from four hundred to four hundred and forty-nine, he started off on a visit to the provincial societies. At Edinberry, he had "an exceedingly well behaved congregation," including "many Quakers," and took the appropriate text, "They shall be all taught of God." At Athlone, his audience comprised seven or eight of the officers, and many of the soldiers of the regiment to which John Nelson had been attached. Great numbers of papists also attended, maugre the labour of their priests. Several sinners were converted, including a man, who, for many years, had been "eminent for cursing, swearing, drinking, and all kinds of fashionable wickedness." At Limerick, Wesley preached to about two thousand people, not one of whom either laughed, or looked about, or minded anything except the sermon. Here the society had taken a lease of an old abbey, and had turned it into a Methodist meeting-house. He met a class of soldiers, eight of whom were Scotch Highlanders; and was introduced to a gentlewoman of unspotted character, who, for two years, had fancied herself forsaken of God, and possessed with devils; and who blasphemed and cursed, and vehemently desired and yet was afraid to die. Of the Limerick society, he writes: "The more I converse with this people, the more I am amazed. That God hath wrought a great work among them, is manifest; and yet the main of them, believers and unbelievers, are not able to give a rational account of the plainest principles of religion. It is plain, God begins His work at the heart; then 'the inspiration of the Highest giveth understanding.'"

Here he "spent four, comfortable days," when, having appointed himself to preach at Nenagh, he was obliged to leave; and, for want of better accommodation, was glad to ride on horseback behind "an honest man," who overtook him as he trudged on foot. At Gloster, he preached "in the stately saloon" of a beautiful mansion, built by an English gentleman. At Ferbane, where he meant to dine, he stopped at two different inns, but found that "they cared not to entertain heretics." Again reaching Athlone, he preached in the new built chapel, and, towards the close of his discourse, cried out, "Which of you will give yourself, soul and body, to God?" Mrs. Glass responded, with a cry that almost shook the house, "I will, I will." Two others followed, and the scene became most exciting. Numbers began to cry aloud for mercy, and, in four days, more found peace with God than had done in sixteen months before. At Portarlington, a town chiefly inhabited by French, he met a clergyman, who was a defender of the Methodists, and formed a society of above a hundred persons.

More than nine weeks were occupied in this excursion. On the 5th of July, Wesley got back to Dublin, and, a fortnight afterwards, returned to England; but, before leaving Ireland, we must recur to Cork.

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