Life of John Wesley

Front matter

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

L

LIFE

Preface

The older biographies of Mr. Wesley are deficient in many details which have since been published, and which are necessary to a complete and distinct understanding of the man and his work. On the other hand, Tyerman's "Life and Times of John Wesley," while it will probably always remain the standard classic history of the illustrious Founder of Methodism, is too voluminous to obtain a general reading in this busy age. Hence the present attempt to give a brief and popular but still a correct and adequate resume of all the more characteristic incidents of Mr. Wesley's life, such as might help to excite or deepen,, particularly among the young, an interest in "those doctrines and usages of early Methodism that have contributed under God to its spiritual power." The facts narrated, which for the most part are the common heritage of Methodism, have been largely taken from Tyerman, and sometimes verbatim. " Wesley's Journal," the " Memorials of the Wesley Family," and other authorities, have contributed in the same way. A very large part of the book consists in quotations from Wesley himself, in which he is left to tell his own story. The selection and grouping of the incidents, however, are the author's own work. In hope that it may be found successful in accomplishing the object proposed, he offers it to the favorable consideration of the reader. (6)

Contents

Introduction (by Bishop Wilson) 9-11

CHAPTEE I.

Ep worth — The Wesley Family — The Eev. Samuel Wesley — Mrs. Susanna Wesley — Fire — Wesley's Childhood — The Charterhouse — Epworth Noises — Oxford — Unsaved 13-31

Chapter II

The College Porter— " Works of the Law"— The Ministry — Fellow of Lincoln — Fruitless Preaching — Charles Wesley—George Whitefield— The Oxford Club— Death of Mr. Wesley — Georgia — The Moravians — High-churchism — Conversion 32-58

Chapter III

A Dark Hour — The Methodist Revival — Outdoor Preaching — Beau Nash — Persecution — The Foundry — The United Societies — Lay Preachers — Strange Scenes — Calvinism — Class-meetings — The Itinerancy — Preaching from his Father's Tombstone — Death of Mrs. Wesley — Mobs — Happy Deaths — Learning 59-100

Chapter IV

First Conferences — Ireland — Arrested — John Nelson — Helping the Poor — Education — Personal Appearance — Sanctification — Apostolical Succession- — "Harmless Diversions" — Happy Experiences — Methodist Soldiers — Converted Children 101-121

Chapter V

Toils and Dangers — Grimshaw — Charles Wesley's Marriage — True Religion — Grace Murray — The Earthquake — Taming the Shrews — Preachers 122-132

8 Contents.

CHAPTEK VI.

Controversies — Wesley's Marriage — "Sifting" the Preachers — Calvinism — Scotland — Very 111 — An Invalid's Kest 133-140

CHAPTEK VII.

Separation — Sanctified Fanaticism — The Poor Actor — The Use of Money — Berridge — Shirley — " Softness " — Personal Appearance 141-153

CHAPTEE VIII.

Chapel Debts — Finances — Kules of Discipline — Profitable Conversation — Eules for a Eevival — First College Appointments — Whitefield's Death — Happy Experiences — Wesley Sick — The Work of a Methodist Preacher — A None-such — The Sin of Screaming .154-173

CHAPTEE IX.

Discipline — Works of Charity — Sunday-schools — Labors — Late Sleeping — Asbury — Silas Told — Fletcher — in Holland—A Novel 174-185

CHAPTEE X.

Deed of Declaration — Organization of the Church in America — Ordination — Virtual Separation — Consecration of Coke — Ceaseless Labors — Dancing and Novel-reading — Proper Style of Preaching— Beautiful Old Age.. 186-198

CHAPTEE XI.

The Better Land in View — Fletcher's Death — Charles Wesley's Death— Beginning of the End — Dangers and Duty of the Eich — Wesley's Example — Last Sermons —Last Illness— "The Clouds Drop Fatness"— Wesley Bests from his Labors 199-216

Introduction

BY BISHOP A. W. WILSON, D.D.

This is not an attempt to furnish a new life of Mr. Wesley. Very little can now be added to the materials that have accumulated in the last century, and it would be difficult to find a new point of view from which to contemplate the character and work of the Founder of Methodism. The aim of the writer of the following pages has been simply to bring the history of the man and his labors within the compass of a volume that may not seem ponderous for the average reader, especially among the young. If he shall succeed in attracting the attention of the young, and inducing them to acquaint themselves with the principles and processes of the great Methodist movement as they are illustrated in the life of John Wesley, he will have done a good work for the Church of the next generation.

In the enlightenment of the world and the training of the Church, it is to men we must look. Events have their significance and influence only as they express character and tell of vital energies producing them. Every great advance in the history of our race is signalized by the appearance of a man fitted for leadership. The Church of the Covenant begins its course with the call of Abraham, the father of all them that believe. The Church under the law takes its rise from the choice of Moses the lawgiver. Prophecy is incarnated in Samuel and Elijah. The Son of man is the final expression of the truth and power of all that had gone before him; while from him, as God mani-

10 Introduction, fest in the flesh, proceeded the whole energy that was to renovate the nations and save the world.

The fulfillment of the purpose of God in Christ Jesus was committed to human ministry. Peter, John, Paul, and their fellow-laborers and sufferers, were, in their proper persons, the exponents of the mind of their Lord, and by the intenseness of their human sensibilities and energies gave new and higher demonstration, of the truth that to do his will in the world God worketh in men, and hath committed the ministry of reconciliation to men.

It is as it always has been : when God has a work to do, he prepares a man to do it. The men whom he has called are the focal-points of human history, The light has converged upon them and radiated from them. Wycliffe and Huss, Luther and Calvin, and Knox and Wesley — how would the history have been changed had these not appeared! Another civilization and another Church would have been about us had they not lived; and we need not hesitate to say a darker civilization and a feebler Church ; nay, would there have been a Church? The forms of superstition and priestcraft would have been perpetuated undoubtedly as the most effective agencies for the subjugation of mind and the inthrallment of will that the mind has ever known. But the Church, as Christ gave it — luminous, radiant, dispelling darkness, ennobling men, lifting them to the consciousness of manhood in Christ, enfranchising them, offering them the liberty of the sons of God, the freedom of the kingdom of heaven — would surely have had no place among men to-day had these first-born of God not come.

Happy the generation, the Church, that takes note of such men, and follows them as they followed Christ ! We do no wrong to the Master in honoring them. We but glorify God in them. The error and fault of the present

Introduction. 11 generation of Methodists are that they know too little of John Wesley and the men who wrought with him in his great struggle for human souls — for all human souls. They know nothing of the intense convictions which impelled him to the achievement of his broad purpose, the spiritual wisdom which guided him along providential ways to the settlement of the wonderful economy — one and many — in England and America which has conserved the fruits of his labors, and the preternatural experience, evincing the high possibilities of our humanity, which attested the genuineness of his convictions and gave the key-note to the testimony of the Church for the ages to come. For our young people this knowledge is indispensable. ]So man can know Methodism who does not know John Wesley.

Our prayer is that this endeavor to bring the man and his work within reach of all our people may be successful in the largest measure, and that thousands may here find impulse and inducement to such large study of Wesley and Methodism as may yield the best fruits in experience, life, and labor.

Chapter I

Epworth — The Wesley Family — The Kev. Samuel Wesley — Mrs. Susanna Wesley — Fire — Wesley's Childhood — The Charterhouse — Epworth Noises — Oxford — Unsaved.

NEARLY two hundred years ago — June 17, 1703 — in a rectory in Lincoln county, on the east coast of England, the hero of our narrative was born. Epworth, the little town where he first saw the light, consisted principally of a long, straggling street of small houses situated in the middle of a narrow strip of land between three rivers. The country round about was a low-lying plain intersected with numerous creeks and so-called rivers running in from the adjacent sea. A large part of it had but lately been reclaimed from the swamps by draining, and, still comparatively barren, stretched flat and monotonous on one side toward the sea, and was closed in by low, dun hills on the horizon on the other. As might be expected, the people both of the town and country were rough, illiterate, and needy. Schools, even the most rudimentary, w r ere verv few and very poor. Books were scarce and dear, and newspapers almost unknown. Communication w T ith the outside world by stage or private conveyance was difficult and unfrequent over the miserable roads they then had, and few went or came to add freshness and information to the monotonous and restricted life of the obscure little place. There did not seem to be much hope for the future of the family in the rectory standing there at one end of the long street and filled with children from young Samuel, the oldest, down to the babe in the cradle. The face of the landscape, the state of society about them, the want of schools and all other means of culture in the tow T n and neighborhood, were such as to repress every aspiration, and promised only hopeless inferiority of mind and influence. Had Mr. Wesley, their father, been rich, the prospect would have appeared brighter, since he could then have procured the means of improvement for his family. But he had long been burdened with the heaviest poverty. His salary was only about one hundred and thirty pounds a year clear money, and there were nineteen children born, ten of whom lived to be grown. He was not a very good manager, and when he undertook to carry on the rectory farm, as he did, he made more debts than crops. He had the misfortune, too, of having his barn fall down. One year his crop of flax was burned. For some years he was not popular with his parishioners, on account of his politics and other

The Wesley Family. 15

reasons, and his cattle were stabbed in the fields. His house also was burned twice — once partially, and at another time down to the ground. Three times he was elected to represent the diocese in convocation at London, to attend which he was obliged to employ a curate for his parish at home and to incur other expenses, amounting in all to one hundred and fifty pounds. All this kept them very poor. Thirteen years after the rectory was rebuilt Mrs. Wesley writes : " The house is still not half fur- , nished, and I and the children have not more than half enough clothing." "Endless duns and debts" are spoken of in after years by one of the daughters, and a want of sufficient clothes for the family. On one occasion Mr. Wesley was put in jail by a hardhearted creditor for a debt of thirty pounds which he could not pay, and there he was forced to remain three months, until his friends could help him ; his family meantime living on milk and bread raised on the farm, and cared for solely by the unfaltering courage and devotion of Mrs. Wesley. " Tell me, Mrs. Wesley," once asked the Archbishop of York, "whether you ever really wanted bread." "My lord," said she, "I will freely own to your grace 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, as has often made it very unpleasant to me; and I think to have bread on such terms is the next decree of wretchedness to having none at all." And Mr. Wesley writes: "I have had but three children born since I came hither about three years since, but another coming, and my wife incapable of any business in my family as she has been for almost a quarter of a year, yet we have but one maid-servant, to retrench all possible expenses. Ten pounds a year I allow my mother to help keep her from starving. All which together keeps me necessitous, especially since interest-money begins to pinch me, and I am always called on for money before I make it, and must buy every thing at the worst hand ; whereas could I be so happy as to get on the right side of my income, I should not fear, by God's help, but to live honestly in the world, and to leave a little to my children after me. I think as 'tis I could perhaps work it out in time, in half a dozen or half a score of years, if my heart should hold so long ; but for that God's will be done." Nevertheless, scarcely was there a family ever heard of so remarkable for virtue, intelligence, and distinction. John Wesley, the second son and the subject of our biography, was one of the most wonderful men that history mentions. Samuel, the eldest, was early noted for his genius and wit, and grew up to be a learned and talented author, a friend of Addison, Pope, and Prior, and others of the greatest authors of his time. The third and youngest son, Charles, was the finest sacred poet of modern times and perhaps that ever lived, and in some other

Results of Godly Training. 17

respects was not much inferior to John. The seven daughters were also all possessed of superior qualities of mind and character. Emilia was distinguished for her grace of person, her gifts, and her exquisite taste in music and poetry. Mary was beautiful of face and in character, though short and deformed in body. Anne and Susanna married badly and were unhappy, but exhibited in their sad lives traits of surpassing patience and loveliness of character. Mehetabel, almost unequaled in her attainments, learned to read in Greek at the age of nine, while her poetical gifts, accomplishments, and personal appearance were all of the highest order. Martha strongly resembled her brother John in person and mind. Refined in feeling and w T ise in counsel, she was honored with the friendship and society of the great Dr. Samuel Johnson. Hezzy, the youngest, died unmarried at an early age, after a disappointment, " full of thankfulness, resignation, and love."

To what cause can we ascribe such results under such circumstances? For answer we must look to the home alone where these children were reared. There was no other agency at Epworth. And it is the character and methods of management of the parents that determine the character of the home. The example of the Wesley family teaches that where these are w T hat they should be there is every thing to hope for in the children, no matter what 2 poverty or surrounding discouragements may oppress them.

Both Kev. Samuel Wesley, the father, and Mrs. Susanna Wesley, his wife, were descended from ancestors as distinguished for their courage and adherence to principle as they were for their intelligence and piety — the father and grandfather of Mr. Wesley and the father of Mrs. Wesley all being ministers. Mr. Wesley himself was "earnest, conscientious, and indefatigable in his search after truth," and became a learned and accomplished author. In person short of stature — for all the Wesleys were small, none being more than five feet six inches in height, and John weighing but one hundred and twenty-two pounds. He was aifectionate and vivacious toward his children, yet a rigid disciplinarian. Indefatigable in his pastoral labors, he lived to see all enmity against him disappear among his parishioners, and to enjoy universal respect and love. He was so absorbed by his literary and other labors that the care of the large family fell mainly upon his faithful w T ife, Mrs. Susanna Wesley — a name never to be forgotten among wives and mothers. Moving among her large family and under the pressing burdens and perplexities of poverty, she performed her manifold and ceaseless household duties with the utmost order, method, and economy. She would seem to have had enough to do in the ordinary labors necessary for the care of

Mrs. Susanna Wesley. 19

so many dependent upon her. But in addition she has in large part to manage the business of the rectory farm; she alone, with some little assistance from her husband, must educate her seven daughters to be accomplished women, and prepare her three sons for entrance into the higher schools of learning; while in the frequent absence of Mr. Wesley she takes the spiritual charge of her children and servants, and sometimes even of her neighbors. Beautiful and graceful in person, she also has a strong and active mind, which she does not neglect to cultivate by reading and thinking. Every morning and evening she retires to her room to spend an hour in secret devotion, a habit she says she formed at thirty, when family cares began to increase and she felt the need of more prayer to be fitted to perform them. Therefore, she is now able to pursue her affairs with the greatest diligence, wisdom, and calm serenity. The children are all governed exactly— by rule. When each child is one year old it is taught to fear the rod, and if it cries at all, to " cry softly." Each one is taught the Lord's Prayer as soon as it can speak, and to repeat it every morning and every night. School is kept up in the house by the mother, and is opened and closed with the singing of psalms by the children. Twice a day each of the older children takes one of the younger — the oldest taking the youngest, and so on— and reads to them a

Psalm and a chapter in the New Testament; after which both older and younger retire for secret prayer. Every evening the mother takes in turn one of the children by itself — " Molly on Monday, Hetty on Tuesday, Nancy on Wednesday, Jacky on Thursday, Patty on Friday, Charles on Saturday, and Emilia and Sukey together on Sunday " — and talks to them as to their spiritual state, with counsels and exhortations suited to their capacity. O that mothers everywhere might thus feel the solemn responsibility of the tender souls committed to their charge!

Thus did this faithful mother labor in her house. Their tempers and manners also were her constant care. None were allowed to have any thing they cried for, because that would teach them to cry. Politeness was required of all from one to another, and even toward the lowest servants. All their doings — their going to bed, their rising, their dressing, eating, exercise, etc. — were strictly regulated by rule. Well may it be doubted whether a more illustrious woman has ever appeared — one more faithful, more wise, more holy. "I have traced her life," says Dr. Adam Clarke, " with much pleasure, and received from it much instruction; and when I have seen her repeatedly grappling with gigantic adversities, I have adored the grace of God that was in her, and have not been able to repress my tears. I have been acquainted w T ith many pious

Wesley's Childhood- — Fire, 21

women; I have read the lives of several others, and composed memoirs of a few; 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. Many daughters have done virtuously, but Susanna Wesley has excelled them all." Here was the secret: The Wesley children attained their high renown, under the blessing of God, from the character and nurture of their parents, especially of their mother; and their parents discharged their duties toward their children with such superior excellence chiefly because they framed their own lives and the lives of their family not as prompted by inclination or according to the maxims and customs of the world around them, but as they found them directed by the unerring and eternal Word of God.

The recorded events of John Wesley's childhood are few. The most remarkable was his escape from the fire which destroyed his father's house. " February 9," writes his mother some months after it occurred, " between the hours of eleven and twelve, our house took fire, by what accident God only knows. It was discovered by some sparks falling from the roof upon a bed where one of the children lay, and burnt her feet: she immediately ran to our chamber and called us; but I believe no one heard her, for Mr. Wesley was alarmed by a cry of fire in the street; upon w T hich he rose, little imagining that his own house was on fire; but on opening his door he found that it was full of smoke, and that the roof was already burnt through. He immediately came to my room (as I was very ill he lay in a separate room from me) and bid me and my two eldest daughters rise quickly and shift for our lives, the house being all on fire. Then he ran and burst open the nursery door, and called the maid to bring out the children. The two little ones lay in bed with her — the three others in another bed. She snatched up the youngest, and bid the

rest follow, which they did, except Jacky

While Mr. Wesley was carrying the children into the garden he heard the child in the nursery cry out miserably for help, which extremely affected him; but his affliction was much increased when he had several times attempted the stairs then on fire and found they would not bear his weight. Finding it was impossible to get near him, he gave him up for lost, and kneeling down he commended his soul to God, and left him, as he thought, perishing in the flames." But the child was preserved. This is his account of what happened in his room when he awoke in it alone: "Seeing the room was very light, I called to the maid to take me up. But none answering, I put my head out of the curtain and saw streaks of fire on the top of the room. I got up and ran to the door, but could get no farther, all the floor beyond it being in a blaze. I

" Son John" Preserved, . 23

then climbed upon a chest that stood near the window ; one in the yard saw me, and- proposed running to fetch a ladder. Another answered : ' There will not be time; but I have thought of another expedient. Here, I will fix myself against the w r all ; lift a light man and set him on my shoulders.' They did so, and he took me out of the window. Just then the roof fell; but it fell inward, or we had all been crushed at once. When they brought me into the house where my father was, he cried out: 'Gome, 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 ! ' "

This wonderful preservation seemed to point out that he was reserved by Divine Providence for some special purpose. His mother evidently so regarded it; and two years afterward, when he was about eight years old, in one of her "meditations," which she was accustomed to write during her hours of devotion, she says:

"Evening, May 17, 1711.

"Son John. What shall I render to the Lord for all his mercies? The little unworthy praise that I can offer is so mean and contemptible an offering that I am even ashamed to tender it. But, Lord, accept it for the sake of Christ, and pardon the deficiency of the sacrifice. I would offer thee myself and all that thou hast given me; and I would resolve — O give me grace to do it! — that the residue of my life shall all be devoted to thy service. And 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 thy true religion and virtue. Lord, give me grace to do it sincerely and prudently, and bless my attempts with good success.' '

God did bless the good mother's efforts, and her boy early displayed an uncommon character for piety, though tfulness, and patient endurance. From early childhood he was remarkable for his sober and studious disposition. He was also exceedingly conscientious, and seemed to feel bound to answer the demands of reason and right in every thing he did, and would do nothing without first reflecting on its fitness and propriety. To argue about a thing, indeed, seemed even then to be instinctive. It is said that at the table if he were asked if he would be helped to any thing which it was unusual for him to take, he would first consider the matter, and reply, " I will think about it." His father on one occasion said to him: "Child, you think to carry every thing by dint of argument; but you will find how little is ever done in the world by close reasoning."

Better than this, he was religious and so consistent that his father, High-churchman that he was,

At the Charterhouse. 25

and living far back in the last century, admitted him to the communion-table when he was but eight years old. Wesley himself, many years afterward, and evidently before he had disentangled himself fully from his High-churchism, said that untjl he was about the age of ten he had not sinned away that "washing of the Holy Ghost" which he received in baptism. This, as well as his native courage and resolution, was shown by the way he endured an attack of that dreadful disease small-pox while his father was away from home, and when he was less than nine years old, "Jack," writes his mother to Mr. Wesley, "has borne his disease bravely — like a man, and indeed like a Christian — without complaint, though he seemed angry at the small-pox when they were sore, as we guessed by his looking sourly, though he never said any thing."

Such was John Wesley till he was ten and a half years old. He was then, through the influence of the Duke of Buckingham, admitted a pupil into the Charterhouse, London. This was a distinguished school, founded by Thomas Sutton in 1611 for the maintenance and education of poor boys. Forty pupils at a time were here to be fed, clothed, and taught free of expense. The building had been originally occupied as a monastery by Carthusian monks, and was called the Charterhouse from Chartreux, the place where their order first arose,

Here his fortitude and patience were severely tried. A poor country boy, alone at school in London, he endured many insults and injuries. Fagging was prevalent, and among other hardships borne by the younger scholars, they had to suffer the want of proper and sufficient food, The older boys took from them their share of the meat they received and ate it themselves. One thing that helped his health was his strict observance of his father's command to "run around the Charterhouse garden three times every morning." But he must have suffered greatly. When he went to Oxford at seventeen his health was far from strong, and once he almost choked to death w T ith bleeding from the nose, a complaint with which he was much affected.

Under all his discouragements he maintained a noble cheerfulness and courage. And when he himself became one of the older boys he did not practice the same cruelties upon those beneath him. On the contrary, he was in the habit of associating with them a great deal, and haranguing them when gathered together. This was cited afterward by his enemies as a proof of his ambitious temperament ; and it is said that when the master of the school had remonstrated with him on his seeking the society of the younger boys so much rather than confining himself to that of his equals, his answer w r as, "Better to rule in hell than serve in heaven." This account may well be doubted. It

Epworth "Noises" 27

is not probable that such a principle should have been so clearly and deliberately adopted by a boy as young as he was then ; and it is very improbable that one capable of doing so would have avowed the fact so frankly. Rather, this habit shows that he was kind and generous, with an innate propensity for public speaking and leadership, and speaks loudly for the magnanimity of the youth who could act so after he had himself received such ill treatment from those who were older.