A history of Methodism, for our young people

Preface

The writer of this little volume lias but a few words to say in presenting it to the public. It has been prepared under the conviction that such a book is needed for use in our Sunday Schools, and for general circulation among our people.

Most of the histories of Methodism are elaborate works of several volumes, which a great many Methodists have neither the money to buy nor the time to read. And yet no person who honors the memory of John Wesley, and blesses God for raising him up to do a great work, should consent to live without some knowledge of his wonderful life and labors, and of the results which have followed in every part of the world.

CO^TEISTTS.

Chapter I

Birth and Training of'^ahn Wesley — The Wesley/Family— Susannah Wesley — Narrow Escap^vpf John Wesley — His Studious Tlab its— Education — Charter House School — Oxford — Religious Impressions — Ordained Deacon — First Sermon — Becomes a Fellow of Lincoln College — Charles Wesley— Becomes Greek Lecturer — Takes his Degree of M.'Tk. — Plan of Study — Works, Page 1

Chapter II

Methodists— The "Holy__C_lub "—Self-denials— Doctrinal Views- State of Society — Death of his Father — Missionary to Georgia — New*" Views— Return to England — The Moravian Brethren — Conversion of the two Wesleys, Page 15

Chapter III

First University Sermon — Begins the Printing and Circulation of Tracts — Visits the Moravians in Germany — Opposed by Churchmen — Outdoor Preaching — Howell Harris begins the Itinerant Work — Revivals — Whitefield — Wesley Preaches in the Fields, and Itinerates — At Bath, Page 27

Chapter IV

The Methodist Societies — Kingswood Collieries — School — Purchases the "Foundery " — His First House of Worship — Lay Preachers — John Cennick — Growth of Methodism — More Opposition — Tracft^* on Character of a Methodist — Hymns — Bristol — Charity to the Poor, Page 38

Chapter IX

Wesley's Last University Sermon — Press-gangs-Charges against the Methodists— How Wesley met his Adversaries — Preaches in a Romish Chapel — Methodist Soldiers — Second Conference — Cheap Books — Dispenses Medicines — Third Conference, at Bristol — John Nelson— Incidents, Page 97

Chapter X

Whjtefield^and his Associates — WUriam GrrmshaTV — Preaching Places — Stewards — Education— Conference of 1747— Wesley Visits Ireland— Irish Mobs— Methodist Singing— Murder of John McBurney— Thomas Walsh— Lady Huntingdon— Her School at Trevecca— Kingswood School— Conference of 1749, Page 122

Chapter XI

Earthquake-Incidents of Itinerant Life— Storm at Sea— Wesley's Marriage-Marital Troubles— Hia Wife Leaves Him -Visits Scotland -Cornwall-At Hull-Conference of 1752-The Palatinates iu Ireland-Philip Guier-Wesley Inspects the Prison, Page 139

Chapter XII

WrS°J!r e T ■? L , eeds - We ^y Prostrated with Severe Illness- ^e Kow To? P ?~o LeUer fr ° m W *tefieW-Writes his Notes on the kw Testament-Preaching Tours-Liverpool, p a „ e 151

CONTENTS. Vll

Chapter XIII

Question of Separation — John Fletcher^— Earthquake at Lisbon, 1755 — Popish Ceremonies — Wesley's Tract on the Earthquake — First Engraved Likeness of Wesley — His Letter to Dr. Dodd — Patriotic Spirit — Bristol Conference — Criticisms on Books, Page 158

Chapter XXIII

^Growth of Methodism — Wesley Visits Holland — Death of his Brother Charles — His Extempore Preaching — Last Year of his Life — Last Illness — Death and Burial- Character of Wesley, Page 254

C HAPTER XXIV.

v' Summary of Methodist Progress— Present Condition of Methodism, , Page 266

ILLUSTKATIONS.

John Wesley, the Founder op Methodism, Frontispiece.

Mrs. Susannah Wesley, , Page 13

Tomb of Mrs. Wksley, , "76

Charles Wesley, the Sweet Singer op Methodism, " 129

Old Rigging Loft, William Street, New York, « 196

John Street Church, New York, « 2 68

FOR OUR YOUNG PEOPLE.

Chapter I

John Wesley, from whose labors as a preacher of the Gospel sprung that large body of Christian people called Methodists, was born June 17, 1703. The town of Epworth, in Lincoln county, England, about one hundred and ten miles northwest from the great city of London, was his birthplace. It was not much more than a large village — about two thousand people lived there, and most of them made their living by raising flax and hemp and weaving them into cloth.

Samuel Wesley, the father of John, came to Epworth about the year 1695, and was the preacher of the Church of England among the poor people there for nearly forty years. The mother of John Wesley, whose name was Susannah, was the daughter of Dr. Samuel Annesley, a very learned man and a pious minister of the gospel. He was remarkable for his love of the Bible when very young, and it is said that when he was only six years old he read twenty chapters a day.

John Wesley's father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and his grandfather on his mother's side, were all preachers. Susannah Annesley was married to Samuel Wesley when she was twenty years old. She was very beautiful, and had a fine mind well-stored with learning. She readLatin and Greek with ease, and was well versed in the branches of a liberal education. In theological studies she took much delight, and even read with interest the knotty questions of religious controversy. She was a woman of great firmness of character, pious, patient, methodical, and energetic. She taught her children herself until they were old enough to be put out to school.

The family at Epworth parsonage was large. There

were nineteen children, but nine of them died in infancy.

Those that lived were Samuel, John, Charles, Emilia,

This large family had to struggle with poverty, but they

managed to live with tolerable comfort, and the children

were well trained by their godly parents. Samuel, the

oldest son, was a very backward child in learning to

talk. It is said that he was not able to speak until he

was five years old, and his parents feared that he would

always be dumb. But one day his mother had not

seen him for some time, and called out very earnestly,

"Where is Samuel?" Sammy, who had hid himself

away with a favorite kitten he was playing with, came

out of his hiding-place with the kitten in his arms, and

said, " Here am I, mother." After this he spoke plainly.

His mother at once began to teach him, and in six hours

he learned the entire alphabet. She then set him to

read the first chapter of Genesis. He had a wonderful

memory, and his mother said she never had to tell him

the same thing twice.

Mrs. Wesley was peculiar in the management of her children. When they were one year old, they were taught to fear the rod ; and if they cried at all, it must be in soft and subdued tones. One of her rules, and a good one too, we think, was, never to give a child anything it cried for ; she said, if it is paid for crying, it will cry again. The children were limited to three meals a day, and were not allowed to eat between meals. They were put to bed at 8 o'clock, and a servant was never permitted to sit by a child till it fell asleep. As soon as the children could speak, they were taught the Lord's Prayer, and they were required to repeat it every night and morning. They were never allowed to be riMe to each other or to other persons, and on no account were they to fail to call each other brother or sister, as the case might be.

Mrs. Wesley kept her children in school six hours — which, if we may presume to say so, we think much too long for young children — nor without permission, were they to talk loud, play, or run in the yard, garden, or street. At five years old they were taught to read ; and they were allowed only one day in which to learn their letters ; and all of them did learn them in one day except Mary and Anne, who were a day and a half at the task. They sung Psalms every morning when school was opened, and every evening when the day's work was done. Of course they had a happy family at Ep worth, and they all loved one another a great deal.

A terrible accident happened when John Wesley was six years old. The parsonage house, which was a very poor one at best, built of timber and mud and the root covered, or thatched, as they call it in England, with straw, took fire one night and the family came near being burned up in it. When the fire broke out John, Charles, (who was an infant,) and three of their sisters

• the same room. with the nurse, were fj^ e ^ Charles in her

The nurse woke up, and Ltak mg ^ tQ follow . the arms, rushed out and told ^ m not wake

thr ee sisters did so and g* ^ ^ ^ ^ Wegley up . When they all g ^^ that John wag not with

counted his cmlrtr ^ ent they he ard a cry, and the father them. At that .mom ^ hougej but the flames drove

triedtornsh-to^ „ ^ ^ John ^

him back. Loo ^ ^ ^^ ^ by ^ fire bum . ng

rovTh^n the room, and had run to the window and rlimbed up on a chest. One man said, "Run for a ladder !" Another, more thoughtful, said, " No, we have no time to get a ladder, let me stand under the window, and let a tall man stand on my shoulders, and he can reach the child." It was done in a moment, and the boy was taken out just as the roof fell in.

When he found all his children safe, Mr. Wesley said, « Come, neighbors, let us kneel down and give thanks to God. I nave all my children, and I am rich enough."

His mother thought deeply about the narrow escape of her son from such an awful death, and seemed to feel that God had saved him to do a special work. In one of her evening meditations upon the goodness of God, she said : " I do intend to be more particularly careful of the soul of this child, that Thou hast so mercifully provided for, than ever I 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." John in after life gratefully remembered his escape, and on one of his portraits had a burning house engraved with the motto, " Is not this a brand plucked from the burning?"

John Wesley, from his early childhood, showed a sober and studious disposition. He thought he ought to answer to his reason and his conscience for everything he did. When asked if he would have a piece of bread or some fruit, he would answer, " I thank you, I will think about it." It seemed to be natural to him to reason about everything. He carried this so far that his father one day gave him a mild rebuke, saying, " Child, you think to carry everything by dint of argument ; but you will find how little is ever done in the world by close reasoning." The good old rector said to his wife one day in a pet about this disposition of " Jack," as he was called in the family : " I profess, sweetheart, I think our Jack would not attend to the most pressing necessity of nature unless he could give a reason for it." But with all this demand for reasons there was a sincere spirit of devotion in the boy, and such was the consistency of his conduct that his father admitted him to the Holy Communion when only eight years old. When John was about nine years old he had the small-pox, and he bore this terrible disease with a patience and fortitude that would shame many grown-up Christians. His father was away from home at the time, and his mother, who nursed him, wrote to her husband, "Jack has borne his disease bravely like a man, and indeed like a Christian, without complaint."

When he was eleven he left his humble home at Epworth, and, by the favor of the Duke of Buckingham, entered at the Charterhouse, a famous school in the city of London. He had a hard time among the bad boys at this school. The older and stronger boys would often take from the younger and weaker ones the meat that was allowed with their bread ; they served little Jack in this way, so that for a large part of the five years that he staid there the only solid food he had was bread. But he kept his health by doing every day what his father had told him to do when he left home— this was to run round the garden three times every morning. Thouo-h he was often insulted and mistreated by the big, rough boys of the school, he was very patient, obeyed all the rules, studied very hard, and took a high position among the best scholars. In this public school he did not have the examples and counsels that he had had at his home, and he did not continue to be as good a boy as he had been. He says, outward restraints being removed, he was much more negligent than before, even of outward duties, and was almost constantly guilty of outward sins, which he knew to be such, though they were not thought to be very great sins in the eyes of the world. But he still read his Bible and said his prayers morning and evening. He said he hoped to be saved by not being quite as bad as other people, by having a kindly feeling for religion, by reading the Bible, saying his prayers, and going to church. But he found out afterward that it takes a great deal more than this to make a person a true Christian.

At seventeen, John Wesley left the Charterhouse school and entered as a student at Christ Church College, in the University of Oxford. Both as a school boy and a college student, his life was a hard one for several years. When he was an old man, in thinking over his boyish days, he said : "How marvellous are the ways of God ! How has he kept me even from a child ! From ten to thirteen or fourteen, I had little but bread to eat, and not great plenty of even that. I believe this was so far from hurting me, that it laid the foundation of lasting health."

His father at Epworth had to fight hard with poverty, ana so had he to do at Oxford. He did not seem to know much of the value of money, and spent what little he could get too freely, which often brought him into trouble. He used to write to his mother very often and tell her of his trials ; she always helped him as far as she could, and wrote him very encouraging letters. In one of these she said : " Dear Jack, be not discouraged ; do your duty ; keep close to your studies, and hope for better days. Perhaps we shall pick up a few crumbs for you before the end of. the year." Such words from his noble mother kept his spirits up, and 'he worked on harder than ever. He said in a letter to his mother about his manner of living at college : " We are most of us now very healthy at Oxford ; fruit is so very cheap that apples may be had almost for fetching ; and other things are both plentiful and good." He says they had plenty of rogues about the college, and tells of a gentleman who had his cap and wig snatched off his head by a rogue as he stood at the door ; he ran after the thief, but could not catch him. Jack said to his mother in the same letter : " I am pretty safe from such gentlemen ; for unless they carried me away, carcass and all, they would have but a poor purchase."

All the Wesley children were of a gay, lively, witty turn of mind, and enjoyed life very much. Charles was a gay young man at college, and so was John to a certain extent; but he was at times very serious, and though he says he indulged in many known sins, he tried to keep up a fair moral character. He was human and frail, like all men, and found cause to repent deeply before he became an earnest and happy Christian. Any incident that had religious point in it made a deep impression on his mind. Late one evening the porter of his College, a poor but pious man, came to his room and said he wished to talk with him. Wesley told him, after „' lit Mo pleasantry, to go home and get another coat The porter replied, "This is the only coat I have got in the world, and I thank God for it." Wesley said, " Go home and get your supper." The man replied, "I have had nothing to eat to-clay, but a drink of water, and I thank God for that." Wesley said, " It is late, and you will be locked out, and then what will you have to thank Cod for?" "I will thank Him," replied the porter, •• 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," returned the poor fellow, " that He has given me life and being ; and a heart to love Him, and a desire to serve Him." This conversation made a deep impression on the mind of the young student, and convinced him that there was something in religion to which he was a stranger. •

For five years Wesley studied hard and maintained his reputation as a fine scholar. He amused himself occasionally with writing verses. One of his poems was addressed to a young lady whom he called Cloe ; it was such an effusion as a smart young fellow, full of life, might be expected to produce.

Wesley's health was not very good while he was at Oxford. He was often troubled with bleeding at the nose Once while he was walking in the country he bled so >'"ich that he was almost choked, and to stop the bleed "'K he had to strip off his clothes and leap into the river.

When Wesley went to Oxford he had not made up his

to more mehned to hecome a teacher, and he was at »He g c m0 re than fonr years before he thought serlusly of entering the ministry. His good father cautioned him against improper motives, and told him he must not become a minister "as Eli's sons did, to eat a piece of bread, but for the glory of God and the good of men." He began when about twenty-two to study divinity in earnest. God, he said, directed him to a book called "Kempis" Christian's Pattern," and he saw that true religion is seated in the heart, and that God's law reaches to all our thoughts as well as words and actions. He met with a religious friend about this time, and he began to change the whole form of his conversation and to set out in earnest upon a new life. An hour or two every day he set apart for private prayer and meditation. He watched against all sin in word and deed.

He began to aim at and pray for inward holiness, and he says, " Now doing so much and living so good a life, I doubted not that I was a good Christian."

Another book fell into his hands, which deeply impressed his heart ; this was called " Holy Living and Dying," and was written by Jeremy Taylor, a pious and eloquent preacher of the Church of England. These were the first books Wesley read on practical divinity, and he held them in very high esteem as long as he lived. He now began to record the events and exercises of his every day life, and thus grew up that marvellous book called Wesley's Journals. Wesley's life was now wholly changed. He determined to give all his life to God, but even this, he said he saw would profit him nothing unless he gave his heart, yea, all his heart to Him. Here was the turning-point in Wesley's life. From this time he never rested until he was satisfied of the pardon of his sins and of his acceptance with God ; but it wa3 thirteen years after this time before that happy day dawned upon him.

After a great deal of thought, reading, conversation with pious people, interchange of letters with his father and mother, and earnest prayer, he made up .his , ttind to be a minister, and was ordained September 19, 1/25.

John Wesley was ordained a Deacon by Bishop Potter, who from very humble life rose to a high place. He was rather a proud, stiff man, and a rigid high-churchman, but had a friendly feeling for the Methodists. Some one complained to him about them, but he only said, "These gentlemen are irregular; but they have done good, and I pray God to bless them." Wesley always thought well of Bishop Potter, and called him " a great and good man."

Wesley preached his first sermon at a small village called South Leigh. Forty-six years afterward he came there and preached again, and found one person who had heard his first sermon. In March, 1726, he was elected Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. A Fellow of an English college is a person who, on account of his good character and learning, is elected by the authorities of the college to share in its revenues and to teach the younger students as a tutor. In the course of time, if the Fellows are diligent and attentive to their duties they may be elected to professorships in their own or some other college. It is said that the room in which Wesley lived is still called "Wesley's room," and a vine that creeps round the window is called "Wesley's vine." The young men in Wesley's college he liked very much. He said in a letter to his brother Samuel, who had helped him to obtain the Fellowship, "All the Fellows I have yet seen are both well-natured and wellbred." He now set himself to study harder than ever, and said to his brother, "Leisure and I have taken leave of one another. I propose to be busy as long as

I live ;" and he was one of the busy men of the world to the day of his death.

In the summer of 1726, Wesley asked leave of absence from his college for a time to go and see his parents at Epworth. While he was there he usually read prayers and preached twice every Sunday This was a great help to his father, who had two parishes on his hands. He still studied hard, and talked freely with his father and mother on religious subjects, and carefully wrote in his diary such rules and advice as he thought would be useful to him in after life.

About this time Charles Wesley had removed from Westminster School, where he had been a scholar for five years, to Christ Church College, Oxford. He was born December 8th, 1708, and was therefore five years younger than John. The names of John and Charles Wesley are forever associated in the history of Methodism. As a Christian Poet, Charles Wesley never had a superior, and a great many of the most familiar and beautiful hymns in our Hymn Book were written by him. John was also a fine poet, and composed some excellent hymns.

In September, 1726, John went back to Oxford, and gladly re-entered upon his studies. Everybody that knew him thought a great deal of him, as a man of good character and much learning. Two months after he came back, and when he was twenty-three, he was elected Greek lecturer and moderator of the classes in Lincoln College.

In thinking over what he ought to study carefully and thoroughly, Wesley made up his mind to study such things as would make a quick and sure return. He said to his mother that he agreed with her in the opinion that there are many things it is not worth while for a person

J 2 A HISTORY OF METHODISM

to know. He said if he had a hundred or two hundred years to Jive, he might be tempted to spend part of his time on curious trifles, but in a short life he thought people should try and learn those things that will be really useful to them.

Besides this care in selecting his studies, he now began to devote himself more earnestly to a religious life. He watched closely against sin ; he advised others to be religious " according," he says, " to that scheme of religion by which I modelled my own life." Wesley now met with two books that had a powerful influence on his life. These were Law's "Christian Perfection" and " Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life." He read them with great interest, and though he did not agree with the author on some points, yet he was by them more deeply convinced " of the exceeding height, and breadth, and depth of the law of God." The light shone so strongly upon his soul that he saw everything in a new view ; he prayed most fervently, and resolved to keep the whole law, inward and outward, to the utmost of his power. He could not rest in being half a Christian, and says he determined to give God all his soul, body and substance. Wesley was truly sincere in trying to be religious, if any man ever was, but it was years after this time before he could say that he knew that God for Christ's sake had pardoned his sins.

In February, 1727, Wesley took his degree of Master of Arts. He was now established in his college as a man of great talent and learning, and of course had a number of companions who knew and cared but little about religion. He determined to break off from all associates except such as he thought would help him to be a Christian. When wild and thoughtless young men came to his room, he treated them kindly, but to

Mrs. Susannah Wesley.

Fa ce page 13.

FOU OUR YOUNG PEOPLE. 13

the question, "When will you come to see me?" he says, " I returned no answer. When they had come a few times, and found I still declined returning the visit, I saw them no more. I knew many reflections would follow ; but that did not move me, as I knew full well it was my calling to go through evil report and good report."

He laid down a plan of study which he followed closely. Mondays and Tuesdays he gave to Greek and Roman classics, historians and poets ; Wednesdays to logic and ethics ; Thursdays to Hebrew and Arabic ; Fridays to metaphysics and natural philosophy ; Saturdays to oratory and poetry, chiefly composing; Sundays to divinty. In his spare hours he studied French and mathematics, and occasionally experimented in optics. Wesley's plan for reading was this — he read a book regularly through, and then transcribed in a common-place book such passages as struck his mind as valuable and beautiful. By this method he forced himself to do much hard work, but he stored his mind with a vast amount of knowledge.

Wesley's father was now sixty-five years old, and suffered much with sickness. He was very anxious to have John to come and assist him in his pastoral work. Mrs. Wesley's health was also bad, and these reasons induced the loving and dutiful son to leave his College studies and become his fathers curate at Epworth and Wroote.

We have already described Epworth where the Wesley family lived. Wroote is pictured as a wretched place, surrounded with bogs and inhabited by a very poor class of people. Samuel Wesley, John's brother, said the parsonage was roofed with straw and made lively by the mingled music of -• kittens and whelps, pigs and porkcts,

lA

1 1 A H1STOIIY OF METHODISM

bellowing kine and bleating lambs, quacking ducks and fluttering hens." The church was a small brick building;, and the population of the town one or two hundred dull and ignorant people. This does not look like a place suited to an elegant scholar like "Wesley, but he seems to have been contented, and perhaps would have staid there many years if he had not been called back to Oxford. His services were so much needed there that Dr. Morely, the Rector of the College, wrote him an earnest letter to come on at once and resume the duties of his Fellowship. He left the poor little parish of Wroote and the musical parsonage, and returned to Oxford in November, 1729.

Chapter II

When John Wesley reached Oxford, he found his brother Charles earnestly trying to lead a truly religious life. Charles, when he came to college, was very sprightly and full of fun and frolic. John spoke to him about religion, but Charles answered him gaily " What, would you have me to be a saint all at once ?" This did not then give much promise of a pious life ; but while John was away at Wroote, a great change came over Charles. He became very serious, read good books with attention, and attended the weekly sacrament. He induced two or three of his fellow students to join him in his plans for leading a better life.