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Preface

Six Lives of Wesley have been already published, besides sketches almost innumerable. What then justifies the present writer in publishing another?

Hampson’s, ready for the press when Wesley died, is extremely meagre, and was the work of an angry writer. Coke and Moore’s, issued in 1792, was a hasty publication, written currente calamo, to get possession of the market; and, like most things done in haste, was exceedingly imperfect. Whitehead’s, dated 1793-6, was composed in the midst of disgraceful contentions, and was tinged with party feeling. Southey’s, printed in 1820, has literary charms; but, unintentionally, is full of errors, and, for want of dates and chronological exactitude, is extremely confusing. Moore’s, published in 1824, is the fullest and most reliable; but, to a great extent, it is a mere reprint of Whitehead’s, given to the public about thirty years previously. Watson’s, issued in 1831, was not intended to supersede larger publications, but was “contracted within moderate limits, and” avowedly “prepared with special reference to general readers.”

These are the chief Lives of Wesley. Smaller ones are too numerous to be mentioned; and, besides that, they are not lives, but sketches.

The publications of Hampson, of Coke and Moore, of Whitehead, and of Moore, have long been out of print. Two Lives are still on sale,—Southey’s and Watson’s; but the former is defective in details, and is incorrect and misleading; and the latter, as already stated, was never meant to occupy the place of a larger work.

It has long been confessed that a Life of Wesley, worthy of the man, is a desideratum. Hampson, Coke, Moore, and Whitehead used, with a sparing hand, the materials which were already accessible to all, and added a few original papers, for the preservation of which every one feels grateful. Southey acknowledges that he “had no private sources of information”; and, in the list of books from which his materials were chiefly taken, we find nothing but what is in the hands of most Methodist students. Watson says, he had “the advantage of consulting unpublished papers”; but it is not injustice to Watson, to say that very few of these “unpublished papers” were embodied in his book.

This is not ill natured depreciation of previous biographers, all of whom I revere, and wish to honour. But any ordinary reader, who will take the trouble, may easily perceive, that the Lives of Wesley that have been published, during the last seventy-six years, have contained no additional information worth naming.

In this interval, Wesley has yearly been growing in historic fame, until he is now, among all parties,—Churchmen, Methodists and Dissenters, papists, protestants and infidels, statesmen, philosophers and men of letters,—one of the greatest and most interesting studies of the age. The world wishes to know something more respecting the man, who, under God, was the means of bringing about the greatest reformation of modern times. Since the publications of Whitehead, Coke and Moore—his literary executors—innumerable letters and other manuscripts have come to light; but no subsequent biographer has used them. Besides, in the magazines, newspapers, broadsheets, pamphlets, tracts, and songs, published during Wesley’s lifetime, there is a mine of biographical material incalculably rich; but, hitherto, no one has taken the trouble to delve and to explore it.

Ought this apathy and negligence to continue longer? Is it right to keep the world, the church, and especially the Methodists, in ignorance of what exists concerning one of the most remarkable men that ever lived? I think not; and, hence, as no one else attempted it, I have done my best to collect these scattered facts, and to give them to the public in the following volumes.

For seventeen years, materials have been accumulating in my hands. My own mass of original manuscripts is large. Thousands of Methodist letters have been lent to me. Hundreds, almost thousands, of publications, issued in Wesley’s lifetime, and bearing on the great Methodist movement, have been consulted. Many of Wesley’s letters, hitherto published only in periodicals, or in scarce books, have been used; and not a few that, up to the present, have never yet appeared in print. To mention all who have rendered me generous assistance is almost impossible; but I cannot deny myself the pleasure of naming the late Rev. Joseph Entwisle, Mr. Joseph Miller, of Newcastle, Mr. George Stevenson, of Paternoster Row, and last, but not least, the Rev. Elijah Hoole, D.D., for the ready access he gave me to the collection of manuscripts in the Wesleyan Mission House.

My greatest difficulty has been, not the want of materials, but that of making selections, and of giving in a condensed form all that I thought important. Nothing, likely to be of general interest, has been withheld. Nothing, derogatory to the subject of these memoirs, has been kept back. Whatever else the work may be, it is honest.

I have tried to make Wesley his own biographer. I have not attempted what may be called the philosophy of Wesley’s life. I leave that to others. As a rule, intelligent readers wish only to be possessed of facts. They can form their own conclusions; and care but little about the opinions of those by whom the facts are collected and narrated. The temptation to moralise has oft been great; but I have tried to practise self denial. Wesley was not a designing man: cunning he had none: he was a man of one idea: his sole aim was to save souls. This was the philosophy of his life. All his actions had reference to this. He had no preconceived plans; and, hence, it is needless to speculate about his motives. The man is best known by what he did; not by what philosophers may suspect he thought. Holding these opinions, my one object has been to collect, collate, and register unvarnished facts; and I hope I have not altogether failed.

Much that is false, or erroneous, concerning Wesley, has been published; and it would have been an easy task to have refuted not a few of the statements which even Methodists as well as others have been accustomed to receive without gainsaying; but I had no room for this. Besides, I had no wish to assume the part of a controversialist. Comparison will show, that, in several instances, I differ from previous biographers; but I would rather that the reader should discover this for himself, than that I should state it. It may savour of unpardonable temerity to disagree with the distinguished men who have gone before me; but, if attacked, I am prepared to defend the ground that I have taken. To avoid encumbering the margin, I have omitted thousands of references; but I have them, and can give them, if required.

The work has been arduous; but it has been a work of love. I have not done what I wished, but what I could. A more literary and philosophic writer might have been employed; but no labour has been spared in pursuit of facts, and there has been no tampering with honour and honesty in stating them.

The Portrait inserted in Vol. I. is taken from an exceedingly scarce engraving, published in 1743, and made from a painting by J. Williams. It is more than probable that this was the first likeness of Wesley ever taken.

I only add, that I hope the reader will find the general Index at the end of Vol. III. to be accurate and useful.

L. TYERMAN.

CLAPHAM PARK, July 5th, 1870.

GENERAL CONTENTS.

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Introduction

Methodism, its Greatness—Christianity during the first two centuries—Lutheran Reformation—Statistics of “Wesleyan” Methodism—Welsh Calvinistic Methodists—Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion—Methodist New Connexion—Band Room Methodists—Primitive Methodists—Bible Christians—Primitive Methodists in Ireland—United Methodist Free Churches—Wesleyan Reform Union—Other Methodist Bodies—Methodists in America—Other Churches benefited by Methodism—Sunday Schools—Bible Society—London and Church Missionary Societies—Tract Societies—Dispensaries—Strangers’ Friend Society—Chapels—Newspapers—An immense Organisation, and its Results 1-13

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I. WESLEY AT HOME, AT SCHOOL, AND AT COLLEGE

1703-1725.

Wesley’s Birth—The Wesley Family—Fire at Epworth—Teaching of Wesley’s Mother—Wesley’s Seriousness—Wesley at the Charterhouse—Ambition—Backsliding—Ghosts—Original Letter—Wesley at Oxford—A thankful Janitor—Wesley Ill and in Debt—Original Letters—Dr. Cheyne—Original Letters—Wesley wishes to become a Minister—Letters respecting this—Wesley finds his first religious Friend—Thomas à Kempis and Jeremy Taylor—Wesley begins his Journal—Turning point in Wesley’s history—Original Letter—Other Letters 15-41

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II. WESLEY’S ORDINATION, ETC

1725-1729.

State of England—Dr. Potter—Wesley and Voltaire—Wesley’s First Sermon—A Funeral Sermon—Elected Fellow of Lincoln College—Letter from his Father—Letters to his Brother Samuel—At Epworth and Wroote—Writing Poetry and Hymns—Elected Greek Lecturer—His first Convert—Robert Kirkham—Courtship—William Law—Methodist Doctrines—The Mystics—Wesley becomes M.A.—Gets rid of unprofitable Friends—Plan of Studies—Becomes his father’s Curate—Ordained a Priest—Wroote—Wesley recalled to Oxford 42-59

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III. OXFORD METHODISM, ETC

1729-1735.

Distinguished Men—National Immorality—Methodism needed—Infidelity at Oxford—First Methodists at Oxford—Their Daily Life—Nicknames—Gambold on Wesley—A Starving Girl—Early Rising—Earnest Piety—Wesley has the offer of a Curacy—His Correspondence with Mary Granville—A Query—Wesley’s Walk to Epworth—Methodist Sacramentarian Theory—Letter from Mr. Clayton—Methodism attacked in Fogg’s Weekly Journal—First printed Defence of Methodism—Wesley’s Sermon before the University—First Publication—Female Methodists at Oxford—High Churchism—Wesley urged to become his father’s Successor—Correspondence respecting this—Wesley’s last Letter from his Father—Application for Epworth Rectory—Whitefield—Wesley’s Publications 60-107

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IV. MISSION TO GEORGIA

1735-1737.

Dispersion of Oxford Methodists—James Hutton—Dr. Burton—Oglethorpe—Emigrants to Georgia—Saltzburghers—Other Georgian Emigrants—America in 1735—Wesley’s Reasons for going to Georgia—Letter to his Brother Samuel—Fellow Voyagers—Daily Life on Shipboard—Detention at Cowes—Covenant in the Isle of Wight—Ingham on the Moravians—The Voyage—Savannah—Indians of Georgia—Spangenberg meets Wesley—Tomo-Chichi—Wesley on the Moravians—Begins his Ministry in Georgia—A large Parish—C. Wesley and Ingham in hot water—Wesley and Delamotte at Frederica—C. Wesley returns to England—Original Letters to Wesley from Richard Morgan, Sir John Thorold, and William Chapman—Wesley on the Mystics—Delamotte’s School—Ingham’s Return to England—Wesley on Missionaries—Oglethorpe in Trouble—Original Letters to Wesley—Wesley’s cheerful Religion—Life at Savannah—A Bad Woman—Wesley goes Barefoot—Whitefield thinks of becoming Bishop—Wesley wants Helpers—Thomas Causton—Miss Hopkey—Unfriendly Rumours—Extracts from Wesley’s unpublished Journal—Proposed Marriage—High Churchism—An Excommunication—Wesley Arrested—Letter to Mrs. Williamson—Extracts from Wesley’s private Journal—List of Grievances—Further Facts from Wesley’s manuscript Journal—Findings of the Jury—Wesley Superseded—Immense Labours—Great Excitement in Savannah—Wesley’s Farewell Sermons—Departure—In a Swamp—Companions—Sets sail for England—Storms encountered—Wesley on Conversion, Faith, etc.—Wesley’s Mission to Georgia not a Failure 108-170

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V. WESLEY IN TRANSITION

1738.

Whitefield goes to Georgia—He returns to England—Crime and Criminals—Wesley’s Labours in 1738—Wesley almost a Christian—Doctrines which Wesley was taught by Bohler—When and how was Wesley converted?—Peter Bohler—Wesley in heaviness—His Sermon on “Salvation by Faith”—Doctrines which gave birth to Methodism—Wesley in search of Truth—A petulant Letter to William Law—Further Correspondence—Moravian Follies—Mrs. Hutton and her Lodgers—Correspondence with Samuel Wesley—Strange Confessions—Wesley in a Labyrinth—He becomes a member of the Moravian Society—Rules of Fetter Lane Society—Wesley goes to Germany—Watteville—Cologne—Marienborn—Wesley, under Zinzendorf’s management, turns gardener—Herrnhuth—Christian David—Experiences of Herrnhuthers—Their Daily Life—Wesley returns to London—Letters to the Herrnhuthers and Zinzendorf—Wesley and Bishop Gibson—William Warburton—First Sermons against the Methodists—Wesley’s Rules for Band Societies—His first Hymn-Book 171-211

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Part II

1739.

London in 1739—Moorfields—Metropolitan Depravity—Provincial ditto—Religious Revival in New England—Howel Harris and the Revival in Wales—Great Religious Movement in Scotland—Wesley shut out of Churches—Unpublished Letter from Wesley to Whitefield—A Fracas at St. Margaret’s, Westminster—Whitefield begins Out-door Preaching—Remarkable Lovefeast in Fetter Lane—A Conference at Islington—Haziness—Interviews with Bishops—Wesley’s Labours in London—Answers to Prayer—Original Letter from Whitefield to Wesley—Wesley becomes an Out-door Preacher—Sermons preached by Wesley in 1739—Reasons assigned for Out-door Preaching—Methodist Congregations—“Beau” Nash and Wesley—Persecution—The Scots Magazine—Rev. Ralph Skerrett, D.D.—Rev. John Wilder, M.A.—Rev. Charles Wheatley, M.A.—Rev. Henry Stebbing, D.D.—Rev. Joseph Trapp, D.D.—Rev. Tristam Land, M.A.—Whitefield Abused—Rev. Josiah Tucker—Bishop Gibson—Whitefield’s Reply to Gibson—Wesley and the Bishop of Bristol—Another Attack on Whitefield—The Weekly Miscellany—“The Methodists, a Burlesque Poem”—Rev. James Bate, M.A.—Doddridge on the Methodists—Rev. Joseph Williams, of Kidderminster, and C. Wesley—“Religious Societies”—Strange Scenes at Bristol, Kingswood, and London—Whitefield respecting them—C. Wesley Condemns them—Rev. Ralph Erskine and others, concerning them—Wesley’s Opinion—Kingswood—Kingswood School—First Methodist Chapel Built—The London Foundery—John Cennick, Methodism’s first Lay Preacher—Lay Preaching—Partly unpublished Letter from Whitefield to Wesley—Moravian Heresies—First Methodist Society Founded—Adventures—Differences between Wesley and the Clergy—Wesley and his Mother—Death of Wesley’s Brother, Samuel—Wesley’s Publications in 1739 213-291

1740.

Wesley Robbed—Visit to the Thieves—Strange Occurrences at Bristol—Happy Deaths—The Wesleys at Bristol and Kingswood—Philip Henry Molther—Letters by Molther and James Hutton—Work done by the Moravians—Hutton attacks Wesley—Wesley and the Moravians—Rev. George Stonehouse—Original Letter from Ingham to Wesley—Moravian Disputes—Wesley Expelled from Moravian Pulpits—Wesley’s Letter to the Herrnhuthers—Another Bone of Contention—Unpublished Letter from Whitefield to Wesley—Calvinian Correspondence—Wesley’s Sermon on “Free Grace”—Pamphlets for and against it—Howel Harris on Calvinism—Whitefield’s Answer to “Free Grace”—Whitefield and Wesley separate—Anti-Methodist Publications—Thomas Whiston, A.B.—Rev. Zachary Grey, LL.D.—Aquila Smyth—The Weekly Miscellany—Rev. Alexander Garden—“The Expounder Expounded”—“The Imposture of Methodism Displayed”—Other Publications—Dr. Daniel Waterland—Μεθοδεια—Brutal Treatment—Wesley’s Success and Activity—First Watch-night Meeting—Wesley’s Publications in 1740 292-335

1741.

Whitefield Itinerating—C. Wesley and the Moravians—Wesley among the Moravians in the Midland Counties—Interview with Zinzendorf—Lady Huntingdon and C. Wesley—Methodism’s first Martyr—Whitefield in Trouble—Wesley and John Cennick—The first Methodist Schism—The first Methodist Newspaper—Wesley’s Calvinistic Concessions—Attempted Reunion—Wesley and his Societies—Methodist Visitors—Methodist Tickets—Triumphant Deaths—Persecution—The Scots Magazine—The Gentleman’s Magazine—The Weekly Miscellany—Proposed Methodist Edifice on Blackheath—Horrible Outrages—Wesley Preaches before Oxford University—Seriously Ill—Pamphlets against Methodism—William Fleetwood—Joseph Hart—Arthur Bedford, M.A.—Wesley’s Publications in 1741 336-368

1742.

Wesley’s Defence of his Lay Preachers—Whitefield Preaching in Moorfields—Wesley and Whitefield Reunited—Bitter Attacks on Whitefield in Scotland—Rev. Henry Piers—Formation of Methodist Classes—Wesley’s first Visit to the North—Miss Cooper—Wesley at Bristol—Newcastle on Tyne in 1742—Wesley Preaching there—At Epworth—Wesley and John Whitelamb—Death of Wesley’s Mother—Charles Caspar Graves—C. Wesley forms a Methodist Society at Newcastle—Wesley’s “Orphan House”—Dross mixed with Gold—Persecution—Wesley’s Publications in 1742—Methodist Singing 369-400

1743.

Incidents in Wesley’s Travels—Organisation of Calvinistic Methodists—Newcastle Circuit—Comedy turned into Tragedy—Wesley repelled from the Lord’s Supper—A Magdalen at Grimsby—Terrible Riots in Staffordshire—“Honest Munchin”—Cornwall—C. Wesley at St. Ives—A Trine Conference proposed—Wesley Pastoralizing—Two more London Chapels taken—Methodist Stewards—Methodist Income—Letter from Wesley to his Sister Emily—Persecutions—Wesley to a northern Pamphleteer—Rev. John Andrews, M.A.—“A fine Picture of Enthusiasm”—“The Methodist Unmasked”—Rules of the Methodist Societies—“Thoughts on Marriage”—“Instructions for Children”—“Earnest Appeal” 401-436

1744.

Whitefield’s Labours—Threatened French Invasion—Methodist Loyalty—Troubles—First Methodist Conference—Wesley’s Last Sermon before the Oxford University—Dr. Kennicott on Wesley—Cornish Persecution—Bishop Gibson attacks the Methodists—The Rev. Thomas Church’s “Expostulatory Letter”—Foul Foamings of a “Gentleman of Pembroke College”—Bishop of Lichfield’s “Charge against Enthusiasm”—Presentment at Brecon Assizes—A Three Months’ Journey—Scene in Laneast Church—Strange and stirring Incidents—Wesley’s Lay Preachers—Christian Perfection—Rules of Band Societies—Wesley’s Publications in 1744—Wesley on Revivals of Religion 437-469

1745.

Persecution in Cornwall—Persecution in other places—Rev. John Maud, M.A.—The Craftsman—Rev. Dr. Stebbing—Dr. Zachary Grey again—The Moravians publicly disown Wesley—Rev. Thomas Church, A.M.—Wesley on the Moravians—William Cudworth—A Rough Journey—Wesley’s Manifesto defining his relationship to Church and State—A Popish Priest becomes Wesley’s Guest—Methodism in Osmotherley—A Cornish Termagant—Terrible National Excitement—Panic at Newcastle—Wesley’s Letter to the Mayor of Newcastle—Troops on Newcastle Moor—Wesley preaching to Soldiers—Wesley’s High Churchism—Conference of 1745—Wesley’s Publications in 1745—Wesley on the Sacrament, the Sabbath, Swearing, Drunkenness, etc.—Wesley unawares becomes Rich 470-505

1746.

Whitefield ranging in American Woods—C. Wesley jubilant in Labour and Danger—John Nelson at Nottingham—Lord King makes Wesley a Dissenter—Wesley attends the Conference of the Calvinistic Methodists—Vincent Perronet—A Ten Days’ Ride—Wesley accused of Falsehood—Methodist Preachers—Books to be read by them—Antinomianism—Settlement of Methodist Chapels—Wesley forms a “Tea”-total Society—Twelve young men in Wales—Wesley opens a Dispensary—Conference of 1746—An Autobiographical Hymn—Wesley’s Publications in 1746 506-534

1747.

Letter from Whitefield to Wesley on Union—Howel Harris—Joseph Williams—Thomas Adams—James Relly—Herbert Jenkins—John Edwards—Persecution at Devizes—Wesley going North—Grace Murray—Jeannie Keith—Methodism’s first “Theological Institution”—Wesley coming South—William Darney’s Societies—Methodism begun in Manchester—John and Alice Crosse—Methodism at Northwich—Rev. R. T. Bateman—Wesley’s “Poor House”—Wesley’s Foundery School—Wesley’s Lending Society—Wesley’s huge Income—Conference of 1747—Wesley in Cornwall—Methodism begun in Ireland—Swaddlers—Poor Lodgings—Irish Hymn-Book—Westley Hall’s Infamy—Wesley’s Publications in 1747 535-564

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Introduction

METHODISM: ITS GREATNESS.

IS it not a truth that Methodism is the greatest fact in the history of the church of Christ? Methodism has now existed one hundred and thirty years. Is there any other system that has spread itself so widely in an equal period? We doubt it.

In the first two centuries of the Christian era, during a great part of which men were blessed with plenary inspiration, and miracles were wrought, the Christian religion sprung up in Judæa, Samaria, and Galilee. Churches were raised at Antioch, in the beautiful isle of Cyprus, in the neighbouring provinces of Pamphylia, and Pisidia, and Lycaonia, and Galatia, and Phrygia, and, in fact, throughout Asia Minor in general. Berea, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, and other cities in Greece, were visited with the light of truth. Christianity then spread through a large portion of other parts of the Roman empire, and reached as far as even Lyons in France.

This was marvellous success; but, as it respects geographical extent, the spread of Methodism is more marvellous. The Roman empire embraced the whole of the places above mentioned. It extended three thousand miles in length and two thousand miles in breadth, and comprised the most fertile and best cultivated part of the known world. Its limits were the Atlantic on the west; the Rhine and Danube on the north; the Euphrates on the east; and the deserts of Arabia and Africa on the south. This was a vast area; but, compared with that over which Methodism has spread itself during the last hundred and thirty years, it is insignificantly small. If Methodism does not exist in Palestine, Asia Minor, Arabia, Greece, or Egypt, it exists in Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Africa: and, passing to other regions which the Romans never trod, it has long since entered India and Ceylon; it has already won its triumphs in the flowery land of the Chinese; it has a vast multitude of adherents in Australia, and the islands of the Pacific Ocean; in the West Indies its converts are numbered by tens of thousands; while in America it has diffused its blessings from the most remote settlements of Canada in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south, and from Nova Scotia in the east to California in the west.

“See how great a flame aspires, Kindled by a spark of grace; Jesu’s love the nations fires, Sets the kingdoms on a blaze.”

Take another epoch of the church’s history—the Reformation, begun by Luther, in the year 1517. This immense revival of truth and godliness, in the midst of a corrupted church, established itself in many parts of the German empire, where it continues to the present day. It was propagated in Sweden by one of Luther’s disciples, Olaus Petri. In Denmark, it was spread by Martin Reinard and Carlostadt. In France, it found a patroness in Margaret, Queen of Navarre. In Switzerland, John Calvin became famous as one of its great apostles. It made considerable progress in Spain, Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland. In the Netherlands, upwards of a hundred thousand persons were cruelly put to death because of their embracing it. In all the provinces of Italy, but more especially in the territories of Venice, Tuscany, and Naples, great numbers of people, of all ranks, were led by it to express an aversion to the Papal yoke. In Spain, not a few embraced it, and even Charles V. himself is presumed to have died a Protestant. In England, Henry VIII. unintentionally helped it forward by usurping the chair of church supremacy, hitherto occupied by his holiness the Pope; while his only son, King Edward VI., was its brightest ornament, and, in some respects, its most effectual support. In Ireland, George Brown, Archbishop of Dublin, pulled down images, destroyed relics, and purged the churches within his diocese from superstitious rites. While in Scotland, John Knox, a disciple of Calvin, launched his thunders against the Vatican, until he shook it to its base; and, at last, Queen Elizabeth, by an army, put an end to Popery in the whole of the Caledonian kingdom.

This was a glorious and wide-spread work, the blessed results of which will be felt to the latest generations. But compare it with Methodism, and say which, in the same number of years, made the greater progress, and established itself in the widest extent of country. It is no disparagement to the Protestant Reformation to affirm that, in this respect, Methodism is immensely its superior.

Look at this religious system as it now exists. The “Methodist,” or parent “Conference,” employs in Great Britain and Ireland 1782 regular ministers. Besides these, there were, in 1864, in England only, 11,804 lay preachers, preaching 8754 sermons every sabbath-day. In the same year, the number of preaching places in England only, was 6718, and the number of sermons preached weekly, by ministers and lay preachers combined, was 13,852.[1] To these must be added the lay preachers, preaching places, etc., in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Shetland, and the Channel Islands. The number of church members in Great Britain and Ireland is 365,285, with 21,223 on trial; and, calculating that the hearers are three times as numerous as the church members, there are considerably more than a million persons in the United Kingdom who are attendants upon the religious services of the parent Conference of “the people called Methodists.” Some idea of their chapel and school property may be formed from the fact that, during the last seven years, there has been expended, in Great Britain only, in new erections and in reducing debts on existing buildings, £1,672,541; and, towards that amount of expenditure, there has been actually raised and paid (exclusive of all Connexional collections, loans, and grants) the sum of £1,284,498. During the ten years, from 1859 to 1868 inclusive, there was raised for the support of the foreign missions of the Connexion £1,408,235; and, if to this there be added the amount of the Jubilee Fund, we find more than a million and a half sterling contributed during the decade for the sustenance and extension of the Methodist work in foreign lands. The missions now referred to are carried on in Ireland, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Gibraltar, India, Ceylon, China, South and West Africa, the West Indies, Canada, Eastern British America, Australia, and Polynesia. In these distant places, the committee having the management of the missions employ 3798 paid agents, including 994 who are regularly ordained, and are wholly engaged in the work of the Christian ministry. Besides these, there are about 20,000 agents of the Society (as lay preachers, etc.), who are rendering important service gratuitously; while the number of church members is 154,187, and the number of attendants upon the religious services more than half a million. Space prevents a reference to the other institutions and funds of British Methodism, except to add that, besides 174,721 children in the mission schools, the parent Connexion has in Great Britain 698 day-schools, efficiently conducted by 1532 certificated, assistant, and pupil teachers, and containing 119,070 scholars; also 5328 Sunday-schools, containing 601,801 scholars, taught by 103,441 persons who render their services gratuitously; and that the total number of publications printed and issued by the English Book Committee only, during the year ending June 1866, was four millions one hundred and twenty-two thousand eight hundred, of which nearly two millions were periodicals, and more than a quarter of a million were hymn-books.

These statistics are significant of great facts. At a moderate computation, there are at least two millions of persons regularly worshipping in the chapels, schools, etc., of the original body of “the people called Methodists.”

Leaving what is sometimes called the “Old Connexion,” we proceed to glance at the branches of the Methodist family.

The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists.—The societies of this section of Methodists were founded by Howel Harris, an early friend and companion of Wesley and Whitefield, and principally exist in Wales. At the census of 1851, they had 828 chapels, capable of accommodating about 212,000 persons, and which had cost nearly a million sterling. In 1853 they had 207 ministers, 234 lay preachers, and 58,577 church members. The Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion.—In 1748 Whitefield became the chaplain of the Countess of Huntingdon, who, by his advice, assumed a kind of leadership over his followers, erected chapels, engaged ministers or laymen to officiate in them, and afterwards founded a college at Trevecca, in Wales, for the education of Calvinistic preachers. At her death, the college was transferred to Cheshunt, and there it still exists. Although the name “Connexion” continues to be used, the Congregational polity is practically adopted; and, of late years, several of the congregations have become, in name as well as virtually, Congregational churches. The number of chapels, mentioned in the census of 1851, as belonging to this Connexion, was 109, containing accommodation for 38,727 persons, and the attendance on the census Sunday was 19,159.[2]

The Methodist New Connexion was formed in the year 1797; the principal, if not only difference, between it and the parent body, being the different degrees of power allowed in each communion to the laity. At the Conference of 1869, the New Connexion had, at home and abroad, 260 ministers, and 35,706 church members.

The Band Room Methodists had their origin in Manchester, in 1806. Their chief leaders were John and E. Broadhurst, Holland Hoole, Nathaniel Williamson, and Thomas Painter. Of the earnestness of these godly men there can be no question; but, as in the case of many who have been called revivalists, their zeal was often boisterous and irregular, and sometimes obstinate. Their meetings were chiefly held in what was known as the Band Room, in North Street. Their chief faults were admitting persons to band meetings without showing their society tickets; having penitent benches and noisy prayer-meetings; holding cottage services; and, lastly and especially, acting independently of leaders’ meetings. The Band Room Methodists still exist; but are now called, “The United Free Gospel Churches.” They hold annual conferences; have fifty-nine churches, chiefly in Lancashire and Yorkshire; and differ from the parent Connexion, not in doctrines, but in having no paid ministers.

The Primitive Methodists sprang up in Staffordshire in 1810. The doctrines they teach are precisely similar to those of the original Connexion. At the conference of 1868 they had, at home and abroad, 943 ministers, about 14,000 lay preachers, nearly 10,000 classleaders, 3360 connexional chapels, 2963 rented chapels and rooms for religious worship, 3282 Sunday-schools, above 40,000 Sunday-school teachers, 258,857 Sunday-school scholars, and 161,229 church members.

The Bible Christians, sometimes called “Bryanites,” were founded by William O’Bryan, a Wesleyan local preacher, in Cornwall, in 1815. They principally exist in Cornwall and the West of England, but also have mission stations in the Channel Islands, the United States, Canada, Prince Edward’s Island, and Australia. Like the parent Connexion they have class-meetings, circuits, district-meetings, and a Conference. Their statistics, for 1869, are about 700 chapels and 300 other preaching places, 254 ministers, 1759 lay preachers, 44,221 Sunday-school scholars, 8913 Sunday-school teachers, and 26,241 full and accredited church members.

The Primitive Methodists in Ireland seceded from the parent body in 1817. At that time the Irish Conference, at the urgent request of many of the Irish societies, agreed that the ministers in full connection should administer the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper, in circuits making proper application to that effect. This occasioned great commotion. A number of leaders and local preachers assembled at Clones, in the beginning of 1817, and formed themselves into a separate Connexion, the only difference between them and their quondam friends being, that their ministers should not administer baptism and the Lord’s supper, but should leave their societies at perfect liberty to partake of those sacraments in the churches to which they respectively belonged. In 1816 there were in Ireland 28,542 members of society; but in two years, and in consequence of this senseless schism, that number was reduced to 19,052. The new body took the name of Primitive Methodists, and still continue a separated people on the one principle already mentioned. In 1861, they had in Ireland, 61 circuits, 85 ministers, and 14,247 members of society.

The United Methodist Free Churches are an amalgamation of three different secessions from the original Connexion, 1. The Protestant Methodists, who were formed into a distinct body in 1828, when upwards of 1000 members separated from the Leeds societies, because of the proceedings of the special district-meeting convened to settle the disputes arising out of the introduction of an organ into Brunswick Chapel. 2. The Wesleyan Methodist Association, which sprung out of the controversy in 1834, concerning the then proposed Theological Institution. 3. The Reformers, who were expelled, or who seceded, during the terrible agitation which occurred in 1849. These amalgamated bodies have, in 1869, ministers, 312; lay preachers, 3445; chapels, 1228; Sunday-scholars, 152,315; church members, 68,062.

The Wesleyan Reform Union consists of those Reformers of 1849 who refused to amalgamate with the United Methodist Free Churches. In 1868, the Union had 20 ministers, 608 lay preachers, 276 chapels and preaching places, 580 classleaders, 18,475 Sunday-scholars, and 9393 church members.

The above comprise all the Methodist bodies now existing in the United Kingdom. Some others have occasionally sprung up, such as the Tent Methodists, the Independent Methodists, etc.; but they are now either extinct or incorporated with other churches. Not reckoning the Band Room Methodists, nor the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion, and making a moderate estimate of the Sunday-school scholars belonging to the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists and to the Primitive Methodists in Ireland, we arrive at the following results.

┌─────────────────────────┬────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────────┐ │ │ │ Number of │ Number of │ │ │ Number of │ church │ Sunday-school │ │ Denomination. │ ministers. │ members. │ scholars. │ ├─────────────────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ Wesleyan Methodists │ 3157 │ 557,995 │ 776,522 │ │ Welsh Calvinistic ditto │ 207 │ 58,577 │ 80,000 about│ │ New Connexion ditto │ 260 │ 35,706 │ 50,000 about│ │ Primitive ditto │ 943 │ 161,229 │ 258,857 │ │ Ditto (Ireland) ditto │ 85 │ 14,247 │ 20,000 about│ │ Bible Christians │ 254 │ 26,241 │ 44,221 │ │ United Methodist Free │ │ │ │ │ Churches │ 312 │ 68,062 │ 152,315 │ │ Wesleyan Reform Union │ 20 │ 9,393 │ 18,475 │ │ ├────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ Totals │ 5238 │ 931,450 │ 1,400,390 │ └─────────────────────────┴────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────────┘

Marvellous, however, as the success of Methodism has been in the United Kingdom, it has been far more marvellous in the United States. There it holds and preaches precisely the same doctrines as are held and preached in England. There, as here, it is intensely loyal; and, during the late terrific war, sent a hundred thousand white, and seventy-five thousand, black troops into the field of battle under the loyal flag. It is dotting the whole of the vast American continent with its church edifices, and has perhaps the most powerful religious press of which the world can boast. Let the reader ponder the significance of the following statistics for the year 1869, taken from the New York Christian Advocate, and referring exclusively to the Methodist Episcopal Church North.

Bishops 10 Travelling preachers 8,830 Local preachers 10,340 Total ministerial force 19,179 Lay members in full connection 1,114,712 Lay members on probation 184,226 Total lay membership 1,298,938 Number of church edifices 12,048 Number of parsonages 3,963 Value of church edifices $47,253,067 Value of parsonages $6,862,230 Total value of churches and parsonages $54,115,297 Number of Sunday-schools 16,393 Number of officers and teachers 184,596 Number of scholars 1,179,984

In connection with its schools, there are libraries containing more than two millions and a half of books. Its Book Concern has about thirty cylinder power-presses in constant operation; and about 2000 different books on its catalogue, besides tracts, etc., and 14 periodicals, with an aggregate circulation of more than twelve millions every year. It also has a great Missionary Society, with prosperous missions in China, India, Africa, Bulgaria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and other places.

The returns for the Methodist Episcopal Church South, in 1869, are 2581 ministers, 3951 lay preachers, and 535,040 church members.

The Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada has 216 ministers, 224 lay preachers, and 20,000 members.

Besides the above, there are other Transatlantic Methodists, as:—1. The African Methodist Episcopal Church, which, in 1867, had 14 annual Conferences, 673 chapels, 509 travelling preachers, 727 local preachers, 130,950 members, 33,134 Sunday-school scholars, and 40,716 volumes in Sunday-school libraries. 2. The Methodist Protestant Church, with about 90,000 members. 3. The American Wesleyan Methodists, with above 20,000 members. 4. The German Methodists, with 46,000 members. 5. Three or four smaller sects, which need no further notice. The aggregate membership of these several Methodistic bodies may be fairly estimated at about 300,000, and their ministers and preachers at 5000.

These are startling figures; put together in an abbreviated form, they stand as follows:—

┌───────────────────────┬────────────────┬────────────┬───────────────┐ │ │ Ministers │ │ │ │ │ exclusive of │ Church │ Sunday-school │ │ │local preachers.│ members. │ scholars. │ ├───────────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Great Britain, │ │ │ │ │ including Missions │ 5238 │ 931,450 │ 1,400,390 │ │ American Methodist │ │ │ │ │ Episcopal Church │ │ │ │ │ North │ 8840 │ 1,114,712 │ 1,179,984 │ │ Ditto South │ 2581 │ 535,040 │ say 500,000 │ │ Ditto Canada │ 216 │ 20,000 │ say 20,000 │ │ Other American │ │ │ │ │ Methodists │ 5000 │ 300,000 │ say 300,000 │ │ ├────────────────┼────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Totals │ 21,875 │ 2,901,202 │ 3,400,374 │ └───────────────────────┴────────────────┴────────────┴───────────────┘

Some of these figures are estimated numbers, and are so given; the others are statistics officially reported. Put the matter in another form. Is it too much to calculate Methodist hearers only at the rate of twice the number of Methodist church members? If not, the estimated result is as follows:

Church members throughout the world 2,901,202 Sunday scholars 3,400,373 Hearers only 5,802,404 ───────── Total 12,103,979

We thus make a total of more than twelve millions of persons receiving Methodist instruction, and, from week to week, meeting together in Methodist buildings for the purpose of worshipping Almighty God. The statement is startling, but the statistics given entitle it to the fullest consideration.

But rightly to estimate the results of Methodism during the last hundred and thirty years, there are other facts to be remembered.

Who will deny, for instance, that Methodism has exercised a potent and beneficial influence upon other churches: Episcopal, Presbyterian, Independent, and Baptist churches have all been largely indebted to Methodism, either directly or indirectly, for many of the best ministers and agents they have ever had. It is a remarkable fact that, during Wesley’s lifetime, of the 690 men who acted under him as itinerant preachers, 249 relinquished the itinerant ministry. These 249 retirers included not a few of the most intelligent, energetic, pious, and useful preachers that Wesley had. Some left him on the ground of health; others began business, because as itinerant preachers they were unable to support their wives and families; but a large proportion became ordained ministers in other churches. In some instances, the labours of these men, and their brother Methodists, led to marvellous results. To give but one example,—David Taylor, originally a servant of Lady Huntingdon, was one of Wesley’s first preachers, but afterwards left the work. Taylor, however, was the means of converting Samuel Deacon, an agricultural labourer; and the two combined were the instruments, in the hands of God, of raising up a number of churches in Yorkshire and the midland counties, which, in 1770, were organised into the New Connexion of General Baptists; and that Connexion, seventy years afterwards, in 1840, comprised 113 churches, having 11,358 members, a foreign missionary society, and two theological academies.[3]

Sunday-schools are now an important appendage of every church, and have been a benefit to millions of immortal souls; but it deserves to be mentioned that Hannah Ball, a young Methodist lady, had a Methodist Sunday-school at High Wycombe fourteen years before Robert Raikes began his at Gloucester; and that Sophia Cooke, another Methodist, who afterwards became the wife of Samuel Bradburn, was the first who suggested to Raikes the Sunday-school idea, and actually marched with him, at the head of his troop of ragged urchins, the first Sunday they were taken to the parish church.

The first British Bible Society that existed, “The Naval and Military,” was projected by George Cussons, and organised by a small number of his Methodist companions. The London Missionary Society originated in an appeal from Melville Horne, who, for some years, was one of Wesley’s itinerant preachers, and then became the successor of Fletcher as vicar of Madeley. The Church Missionary Society was started by John Venn, the son of Henry Venn the Methodist clergyman. The first Tract Society was formed by John Wesley and Thomas Coke, in 1782, seventeen years before the organisation of the present great Religious Tract Society in Paternoster Row—a society, by the way, which was instituted chiefly by Rowland Hill, and two or three other Calvinistic Methodists. It is believed that the first Dispensary that the world ever had was founded by Wesley himself in connection with the old Foundery, in Moorfields. The Strangers’ Friend Society, paying, every year, from forty to fifty thousand visits to the sick poor of London, and relieving them as far as possible, is an institution to which Methodism gave birth in 1785.

Building churches is one of the great features of the age. Unfortunately, England has had no religious worship census since 1851; but even then, according to the tables of Horace Mann, Esq., Methodism had, in England and Wales only, 11,835 places of worship, with 2,231,017 sittings. In America, according to the census of 1860, Methodism nine years ago provided church accommodation for 6,259,799, which was two and a quarter millions more than was provided by any other church whatever.

The public press is one of the most powerful institutions of the day. England has four Methodist newspapers; Ireland, one; France, one; Germany, one; India, one; China, one; Australia, two; Canada and British America, five; and the United States about fifty.

Let the reader think of twelve millions of people at present enjoying the benefits of Methodist instruction; let him think of Methodism’s 21,875 ordained ministers, and of its tens of thousands of lay preachers; let him think of the immense amount of its church property, and of the well-nigh countless number of its church publications; let him think of millions of young people in its schools, and of its missionary agents almost all the wide world over; let him think of its incalculable influence upon other churches, and of the unsectarian institutions to which it has given rise; and then let him say whether the bold suggestion already made is not strictly true, viz., that “Methodism is the greatest fact in the history of the church of Christ.”

Here we have an immensely ramified church organisation, everywhere preaching the same momentous doctrines, and aiming at the same great purpose. A day never passes without numbers of its converts being admitted into heaven; and without many a poor wayward wanderer being brought by it into the fold of Christ on earth. Thousands of its temples are daily open; and “prayer,” by its churches, in one quarter of the globe or in another, is “made continually.” It has belted the entire planet with its myriad agents, who—in English, French, Dutch, German, and Italian; in the various dialects and tongues of Africa, India, and China; and in the newly formed languages of the Feegee and the Friendly Islands—are calling to the nations, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

In England, it has had much to do with the almost incredible changes that have taken place in English society during the last hundred years. In Ireland, with Popery so rampant, a people so poor, and emigration so vast, it has some five or six hundred chapels, besides having many hundreds of small congregations in cottages, court-houses, market-places, and village-greens. In Australia, it has more church sittings than any other Christian community, the Church of England not excepted; and has, at least, one twelfth of the colonists attending its places of religious worship. In America, it has become the dominant popular faith of the country, with its standard planted in every city, town, and almost every village of the land, and is building chapels at the rate of nearly two every day.[4] In the early period of its history, it had its fair share of persecution, and was, to an extent sufficient one would think to satisfy its founders, pelted and hooted by vulgar mobs, mistreated by magistrates and courts, reviled by religionists, and assailed by swarms of pamphleteers; it has had no national endowments, and has had no favour from parliamentary legislation; it has had no assistance from the State, and has been looked upon with supercilious contempt by what, in England, is called “the Church;” and yet despite all this, there is hardly a nation where its influence has not been felt; and instead of finding it maimed and lame and injured by fighting its past battles and winning its past victories; or weak and palsied and inactive on account of approaching age, it has never been more vigorous, by the blessing of God, than it is at present; and is putting into motion an amount of machinery the ultimate results of which no man’s mind can grasp.

Is all this concerning Methodism strictly true? We believe it is, and hence we believe that the life of Methodism’s founder is a subject well worth knowing. Who was he? What was he? Who were his companions? When and where and how did he pass his time? We will try to show.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE REV. JOHN WESLEY, M.A.

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Chapter I

WESLEY AT HOME, AT SCHOOL, AND AT COLLEGE.

1703-1725.

[Sidenote: 1703]

JOHN WESLEY was born at Epworth, in the county of Lincoln, on the 17th of June, 1703,[5] and was the son of Samuel and Susannah Wesley, the former being the learned, laborious, and godly rector of the Epworth parish from about the year 1696 to his death in 1735. The Wesley family consisted of nineteen children, but, of these, nine died in infancy. The name of one of the dead infants was John, and the name of another Benjamin; and when the subject of this biography was born, his mother united the two names by calling him John Benjamin. Second names are of little use, and are often troublesome, and probably for this reason Wesley’s second name was one which he never used.[6]

When Wesley was born, Queen Anne was commencing the twelve years of English sovereignty which some have regarded as the Augustan age of English learning. War was raging on the continent, and, at home, an embittered fight was being fought between fiery Churchmen and fierce Dissenters. Anne warmly favoured the high church party; and to augment Church livings, gave out of the royal income “the first-fruits and the tenths,” amounting to £16,000 a year. While Wesley was yet an infant, the Whigs raised the cry of “the Church in danger,” but Parliament passed a resolution that the cry was unfounded, and that those who gave it birth were enemies to the queen, the Church, and the kingdom. Five years after this, Dr. Sacheverell preached his firebrand sermon in St. Paul’s Cathedral, and threw the nation into a state of unparalleled excitement, the ultimate result of which was, the Tories became more powerful than ever; and Queen Anne, in meeting her Parliament in 1710, no longer condescended to use the word toleration in reference to Dissenters, but spoke of indulgence to be allowed “to scrupulous consciences,” while, after a long continued struggle, the high church party succeeded in passing the obnoxious bill against occasional conformity. All this occurred during Wesley’s childhood.

At the time of Wesley’s birth, his brother Samuel was a sprightly boy, thirteen years of age, and a few months afterwards was sent to Westminster School, where he became distinguished for his scholarship and genius, and soon obtained a host of literary friends, from Lord Oxford, the Mecænas of his age, down to Addison, Atterbury, Pope, and Prior. Emilia Wesley, so gifted and so beautiful, was a year younger than Samuel, and was developing her exquisite sensibility and taste under the mental and moral cultivation of her mother. The ill-fated Susannah was a frolicsome child, eight years old. Mary, already deformed by an early sickness and the carelessness of her nurse, had arrived at the age of seven, and was fast becoming the favourite of her father’s family. The almost unequalled Mehetabel was six, and was so advanced in learning that two years afterwards she read the New Testament in Greek. Anne was yet an infant; and Martha, Charles, and Keziah were still unborn.

In the year of Wesley’s nativity, his father was writing his “History of the Old and New Testament, in Verse;” and also had the pleasure or mortification (we hardly know which) of having his pamphlet on Dissenting academies surreptitiously published by a man to whom it had long before been sent as a private letter. Before Wesley was three years old his father was ruthlessly thrust into gaol for debt; and before he was six the parsonage was destroyed by fire. When the fire occurred, his brother Charles was an infant not two months old, and he, with John, three of their sisters, and their nurse, were all in the same room, and fast asleep. Being aroused, the nurse seized Charles, and bid the others follow. The three sisters did as they were bidden, but John was left sleeping. The venerable rector counted heads, and found John was wanting. At the same instant, a cry was heard. The frantic father tried to ascend the burning stairs, but found it to be impossible. He then dropped upon his knees in the blazing hall, and despairing of the rescue of his child, commended him to God. Meanwhile John had mounted a chest and was standing at the bedroom window. Quick as thought, one man placed himself against the wall, and another stood upon his shoulders, and just a moment before the roof fell in with a fearful crash the child was rescued through the window, and safely “plucked as a brand from the burning” house.

Our information respecting Wesley’s childhood is extremely limited. If we strip off all the luxuriant verbiage in which imaginative writers have indulged, the naked facts are the following.

Wesley, like all the other members of his father’s family, was indebted for his elementary education to his mother. The principles upon which she acted were unique. When the child was one year old, he was taught to fear the rod, and, if he cried at all, to cry in softened tones. Wesley long afterwards, in his sermon on the education of children, enforces his mother’s practice, urging parents never to give a child a thing for which it cries, on the ground that to do so would be a recompence for crying, and he would certainly cry again.

Another of Mrs. Wesley’s principles of action was to limit her children to three meals a day. Eating and drinking between meals was strictly prohibited. All the children were washed and put to bed by eight o’clock, and, on no account, was a servant to sit by a child till it fell asleep.

The whole of the Wesley children were taught the Lord’s Prayer as soon as they could speak, and repeated it every morning and every night. Rudeness was never seen amongst them; and on no account were they allowed to call each other by their proper names without the addition of brother or sister, as the case might be. Six hours a day were spent at school; and loud talking, playing, and running into the yard, garden, or street, without permission, was rigorously forbidden. None of them, except Kezzy, was taught to read till five years old, and then only a single day was allowed wherein to learn the letters of the alphabet, great and small—a task which all of them accomplished except Mary and Anne, who were a day and a half before they knew them perfectly. Psalms were sung every morning when school was opened, and also every night when the duties of the day were ended. In addition to all this, at the commencement and close of every day, each of the elder children took one of the younger and read the Psalms appointed for the day and a chapter in the Bible, after which they severally went to their private devotions.

Mrs. Wesley, assisted by her husband, seems to have been the sole instructor of her daughters, and also of her sons, until the latter were sent to school in London; and never was there a family of children who did their teacher greater credit.

From early childhood, John was remarkable for his sober and studious disposition, and seemed to feel himself answerable to his reason and his conscience for everything he did. He would do nothing without first reflecting on its fitness and propriety. If asked, out of the common way of meals, to have, for instance, a piece of bread or fruit, he would answer with the coolest unconcern, “I thank you; I will think of it.” To argue about a thing seemed instinctive, and was carried to such a length that on one occasion his father almost chid him, 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.” “I profess, sweetheart,” said the rector in a pet to Mrs. Wesley, “I profess, sweetheart, I think our Jack would not attend to the most pressing necessities of nature, unless he could give a reason for it.”[7]

With all this meditative reasoning, there was mixed devotion. It is a remarkable fact, scarce paralleled, that such was his consistency of conduct, that his father admitted him to the communion table when he was only eight years old;[8] and he himself informs us that, until he was about the age of ten, he had not sinned away that “washing of the Holy Ghost,” which he received in baptism.[9]

Between the age of eight and nine the small-pox attacked him; but he bore the terrible affliction with manly and Christian fortitude. At the time, his father was in London, and his mother writing him remarks: “Jack has borne his disease bravely, like a man, and indeed like a Christian, without complaint.”[10]

This is all that is known respecting Wesley during his childhood years at Epworth. Imagination might conjure up his early thinkings, passions, and attachments, the localities he loved to visit, and the sports, fun, and frolic in which he occasionally indulged; but history, on such subjects, is entirely silent; and for want of its honest statements we look at him in the grave and sober aspect in which facts present him.

While yet a child, only ten and a half years old, Wesley passed from under the tutelage of his accomplished mother, and became a pupil at the Charterhouse, London. For his son’s admission into this distinguished school, the Epworth rector was indebted to the friendly services of the Duke of Buckingham, at that time the Lord Chamberlain of the royal household.[11]

The privilege was great, and, to the day of his death, John Wesley loved the place of his early education, and was accustomed to walk through its courts and grounds once every year. He was not without hardships; but he bore them bravely. Among other acts of cruelty, the elder boys were accustomed, in addition to their own share of animal food, to take by force that which was apportioned to the younger scholars; and, in consequence of this, for a considerable part of the five years that young Wesley spent at the Charterhouse, the only solid food he got was bread. There was one thing, however, which contributed to his general flow of health,—namely, his invariably carrying out a strict command which his father gave him, to run round the Charterhouse garden three times every morning. It is good for a man “to bear the yoke in his youth,” and Wesley learned, as a boy, to suffer wrongfully with a cheerful fortitude, and to submit to the cruel exactions of his elder tyrants without acquiring either the cringing of a slave or a despot’s imperious temper.

Wesley entered the school as the poor child of an impoverished parish priest, and had to endure wrongs and insults neither few nor small; but, though he was only sixteen years of age when he left, he had, by his energy of character, his unconquerable patience, his assiduity, and his progress in learning, acquired a high position among his fellows. An old Methodist pamphlet[12] relates an anecdote, to the effect that the Rev. A. Tooke,[13] master of the school, was struck with the fact that, though Wesley was remarkably advanced in his studies, yet he constantly associated with the inferior classes, and was accustomed to harangue a number of the smaller boys surrounding him. On one occasion Tooke broke in upon him in the midst of an oration, and interrupted him, by desiring him to follow him into a private room. Wesley reluctantly obeyed, and the master, addressing him, asked how it was that he was so often found among the boys of the lower forms, and sought not the company of the bigger boys, who were his equals? To which the young orator replied, “Better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.”

This story was given by “an old member of society,” on what he calls “the most authentic authority,” for the purpose of showing that Wesley, even as a boy, was ambitious. Be it so. What then? Is ambition always, and under all circumstances, a thing to be denounced? Ambition is widely different from vanity, a paltry passion of petty minds; neither is it necessarily accompanied with the use of improper means to attain its object. Ambition is common to the human species. There are but few without it, and who are not desirous of distinguishing themselves in the circle in which they live. You see the passion in the aristocratic noble toiling after a distinction which he desires to win; and you equally see it in the poorest mechanic, who strives to surround himself with poor admirers, and who delights in the superiority which he enjoys over those who are, in some respects, beneath him. Besides, as a rule, a man’s ambition is always in correspondence with his other tastes, and faculties, and powers. Dr. Johnson wisely remarks, that “Providence seldom sends any into the world with an inclination to attempt great things, who have not abilities likewise to perform them;” and Addison, an equally thoughtful student of human nature, observes that “Men of the greatest abilities are most fired with ambition; and, on the contrary, mean and narrow minds are the least actuated by it.” To account for this may be difficult, but none will deny its truth. Perhaps the difference may be occasioned by a man’s consciousness of his own capacities making him despair of attaining positions which others reach; or perhaps, which is more likely still, Providence, in the very framing of his mind, has freed him from a passion, which would be useless to the world, and a torment to himself.

On such grounds, then, we are quite prepared to argue that, even allowing the above anonymous story to be strictly true, and allowing also that it proves that Wesley as a boy was animated with ambition, there is nothing in it which, for a moment, detracts from Wesley’s honour and honest fame.

We wish that this were the only thing to be alleged against him during his Charterhouse career. Unfortunately there is another fact far more serious; for Wesley, while at this seat of learning, lost the religion which had marked his character from the days of infancy. He writes concerning this period of his history: “Outward restraints being removed, I was much more negligent than before, even of outward duties, and almost continually guilty of outward sins, which I knew to be such, though they were not scandalous in the eye of the world. However, I still read the Scriptures, and said my prayers morning and evening. And what I now hoped to be saved by was,—1. Not being so bad as other people. 2. Having still a kindness for religion. And, 3. Reading the Bible, going to church, and saying my prayers.”[14]

Terrible is the danger when a child leaves a pious home for a public school. John Wesley entered the Charterhouse a saint, and left it a sinner.

It was during his residence at this celebrated school, that the mysterious and preternatural voices were heard in his father’s house. The often told story need not be repeated; but there can be no question that its influence upon himself was powerful and important. He took the trouble of obtaining minute particulars from his mother, from his four sisters, Emily, Mary, Susannah, and Anne, and from Robin Brown. He likewise transcribed his father’s diary, containing an account of the disturbances;[15] thereby showing the intense interest he felt in the affair. In fact, it would seem that, from this period, Wesley was a firm believer in ghosts and apparitions. In his twentieth year, we find him writing to his mother, in the gravest manner possible, concerning what he calls “one of the most unaccountable stories he had ever heard;”—namely, that of a lad in Ireland, who ever and anon made an involuntary pilgrimage through the aerial regions, and feasted with demigods in nubibus. In the same letter, Wesley relates an adventure of his own; for, while walking a few days previously in the neighbourhood of Oxford, he had observed a forlorn looking house, which he found was unoccupied by mortals because it was haunted by ghosts. Wesley tells his mother that he purposes to visit this forsaken dwelling, and to assure himself whether what he had heard was true. He further relates that a Mr. Barnesley, and two other of his fellow-students, had recently seen an apparition in a field adjoining Oxford, and that it had since been ascertained that Barnesley’s mother died in Ireland at the very moment when the spectre had been witnessed.[16]

Thus, at this early period of his history, Wesley’s mind, wisely or unwisely, superstitiously or otherwise, was full of the supernatural; and to the calm judgment of his philosophic mother he submits his facts for her opinion. Three weeks afterwards she wrote:[17]—

“DEAR JACKY,—The story of Mr. Barnesley has afforded me many curious speculations. I do not doubt the fact; but I cannot understand why these apparitions are permitted. If they were allowed to speak to us, and we had strength to bear such converse,—if they had commission to inform us of anything relating to their invisible world that would be of any use to us in this,—if they would instruct us how to avoid danger, or put us in a way of being wiser and better, there would be sense in it; but to appear for no end that we know of, unless to frighten people almost out of their wits, seems altogether unreasonable.”

This was not a solution of Wesley’s difficulty. It was rather making mystery more mysterious. The young student was full of anxious inquiry. Isaac Taylor thinks that the strange Epworth episode so laid open Wesley’s faculty of belief, that ever after a right of way for the supernatural was opened through his mind; and, to the end of life, there was nothing so marvellous that it could not freely pass where “Old Jeffrey” had passed before it. Taylor adds: “Wesley’s most prominent infirmity was his wonder-loving credulity; from the beginning to the end of his course this weakness ruled him.” Other opportunities will occur of testing the truthfulness of Taylor’s statement; but here it may be observed, that for young Wesley to have regarded the noises at Epworth with indifference would have been irreligious and irrational. A metaphysician, vain of his philosophic powers, like Isaac Taylor, may “deal with occult folk, such as Jeffrey, huffingly and disrespectfully;” and may pretend to “catch in the Epworth ghost a glimpse of an idiotic creature” belonging to some order of invisible beings “not more intelligent than apes or pigs,” and which, by some “mischance, was thrown over its boundary, and obtained leave to disport itself among things palpable, and went to the extent of its tether in freaks of bootless mischief;” but, in broaching such a theory, Isaac Taylor, wishing to be witty, makes himself ridiculous. John Wesley believed the noises to be supernatural; and Southey, as great an authority as Taylor, defends his belief; and argues that such occurrences have a tendency to explode the fine-spun theories of men who deny another state of being, and to bring them to the conclusion that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in their philosophy. We have little doubt that the Epworth noises deepened and most powerfully increased Wesley’s convictions of the existence of an unseen world; and, in this way, exercised an important influence on the whole of his future life. His notion,[18] that the disturbance was occasioned by a messenger of Satan, sent to buffet his father for a rash vow alleged to have been made fifteen years before, has been shown to be utterly unfounded;[19] but the impressions it produced, or rather strengthened, respecting invisible realities, were of the utmost consequence in moulding his character, and in making him one of the most earnest preachers of the Christian’s creed that ever lived.

During Wesley’s residence at the Charterhouse, his brother Samuel was the head usher of Westminster School; and in 1719, Wesley seems, for a time, to have become his brother’s guest. Charles was now a pupil under Samuel’s tuition; and the latter, writing to his father, says: “My brother Jack, I can faithfully assure you, gives you no manner of discouragement from breeding your third son a scholar. Jack is a brave boy, learning Hebrew as fast as he can.”[20]

In the following year, Wesley was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, one of the noblest colleges in that illustrious seat of learning, and here he continued until after his ordination in 1725. In reference to this period, he writes: “I still said my prayers, both in public and private; and read, with the Scriptures, several other books of religion, especially comments on the New Testament. Yet I had not all this while so much as a notion of inward holiness; nay, went on habitually and, for the most part, very contentedly, in some or other known sin; though with some intermission and short struggles, especially before and after the holy communion, which I was obliged to receive thrice a year.”[21]

Such was Wesley during the first five years he spent at Oxford. He maintained the reputation for scholarship which he had acquired at school; but there was no alteration in his moral and religious character. He said his prayers and read good books, as perhaps most Oxford students did; but, like others, he lived in sin, even habitually, except about thrice a year, when he was compelled to receive the sacrament. No doubt, like all the Wesley family, he was a gay and sprightly companion, and full of wit and humour. He began to amuse himself occasionally with writing verses, a specimen of which is given by Dr. Whitehead and is reproduced by Joseph Nightingale. The verses are six in number, and are merely the translation of a Latin poem respecting a young lady to whom he gives the name of Cloe. As Juno had a favourite peacock and Venus a favourite dove, so Cloe had a favourite flea, whose bliss in being allowed to crawl over the young lady’s person the poet makes it his business to describe. Henry Moore is angry with Dr. Whitehead for having given the verses publicity; but certainly without a cause. Had the piece been written by Wesley in advanced life it might have deserved censure; but being written when he was scarcely beyond his teens, it is only what a smart young fellow, full of vivacity, might be expected to produce.

When Wesley went to Oxford his health was far from being vigorous and robust. He was frequently troubled with bleeding at the nose. In a letter to his mother, in 1723, he tells her that lately, while walking in the country, he had bled so violently that he was almost choked, nor could he at all abate the hæmorrhage till he stripped himself and leaped into the river.

He also had to struggle with financial difficulty, and was not unfrequently in debt. He sometimes had to borrow; and, more than once, when requesting that his sisters would write to him, playfully remarks, that, though he was “so poor, he would be able to spare the postage for a letter now and then.” His friends were kind to him, and his tutors were considerate. Soon after his entrance, his tutor, Mr. Wigan, retired to one of his country livings, and was succeeded by Mr. Sherman, who kindly told him that he would make his fees as low as possible.[22] Of course he had the £40 per annum, which belonged to him as a Charterhouse scholar; but this, with the utmost economy, was hardly sufficient to meet all the expenses of a young Oxford student. These financial embarrassments are often referred to in the subsequent correspondence.

The following is from an unpublished letter, written by his mother.

“WROOTE, August 19, 1724.

“DEAR JACK,—I am uneasy because I have not heard from you. I think you don’t do well to stand upon points, and to write only letter for letter. Let me hear from you often, and inform me of the state of your health, and whether you have any reasonable hopes of being out of debt. I am most concerned for the good, generous man that lent you ten pounds, and am ashamed to beg a month or two longer, since he has been so kind as to grant us so much time already. We were amused with your uncle’s coming from India; but I suppose these fancies are laid aside. I wish there had been anything in it, for then perhaps it would have been in my power to have provided for you. But if all things fail, I hope God will not forsake us. We have still His good providence to depend on, which has a thousand expedients to relieve us beyond our view.

“Dear Jack, be not discouraged; do your duty; keep close to your studies, and hope for better days. Perhaps, notwithstanding all, we shall pick up a few crumbs for you before the end of the year.

“Dear Jacky, I beseech Almighty God to bless thee!

“SUSANNAH WESLEY.”

The following also, from another unpublished letter by his mother, refers to the same subject.

“WROOTE, September 10, 1724.

“DEAR JACKY,—I am nothing glad that Mr.—— has paid himself out of your exhibition; for though I cannot hope, I do not despair, of my brother’s coming, or, at least, remembering me where he is.

“The small-pox has been very mortal at Epworth most of this summer. Our family have all had it except me, and I hope God will preserve me from it.

“I heartily wish you were in orders, and could come and serve as one of your father’s curates. Then I should see you often, and could be more helpful to you than it is possible to be at this distance.”

We subjoin an extract from another letter, written shortly after the above, and for the first time published in the Wesleyan Times of January 29, 1866.

JOHN WESLEY TO HIS MOTHER.

“OXON, November 1, 1724.

“DEAR MOTHER,—We are most of us now very healthy at Oxford, which may be in some measure owing to the frosty weather we have had lately. Fruit is so very cheap that apples may be had almost for fetching; and other things are both plentiful and good. We have, indeed, something bad as well as good, for a great many rogues are about the town, insomuch that it is exceedingly unsafe to be out late at night. A gentleman of my acquaintance, standing at the door of a coffee-house about seven in the evening, had no sooner turned about, but his cap and wig were snatched off his head, and, though he followed the thief a great distance, he was unable to recover them. I am pretty safe from such gentlemen; for unless they carried me away, carcass and all, they would have but a poor purchase.

“The chief piece of news with us is concerning the famous Jack Sheppard’s escape from Newgate, which is indeed as surprising as most stories I have heard.

“I suppose you have seen the famous Dr. Cheyne’s ‘Book of Health and Long Life,’ which is, as he says he expected, very much cried down by the physicians. He refers almost everything to temperance and exercise, and supports most things with physical reasons. He entirely condemns eating anything salt or high-seasoned, as also pork, fish, and stall-fed cattle; and recommends for drink two pints of water and one of wine in twenty-four hours, with eight ounces of animal, and twelve of vegetable food in the same time. The book is chiefly directed to studious and sedentary persons.

“I should have writ before now had I not had an unlucky cut across my thumb, which almost jointed it, but is now nearly cured. I should be exceedingly glad to keep a correspondence with my sister Emily if she were willing, for I believe I have not heard from her since I have been at Oxford. I have writ once or twice to my sister Sukey too, but have not had an answer either from her or my sister Hetty, from whom I have more than once desired the Poem of the Dog. I should be glad to hear how things go on at Wroote, which I now remember with more pleasure than Epworth; so true it is, at least in me, that the persons, not the place, make home so pleasant.

“The scantiness of my paper obliges me to conclude with begging yours and my father’s blessing on

“Your dutiful son, “For Mrs. Wesley, at Wroote, “JOHN WESLEY.” “To be left at the Post-office, in Bawtry, Nottinghamshire.”

Dr. Cheyne, mentioned in the preceding letter, was educated at Edinburgh, where his habits were temperate and sedentary; but, proceeding to London, he associated with a number of young gentry, to retain whose friendship it was necessary to indulge to the utmost in table luxuries. The result was, Cheyne became nervous, scorbutic, short-breathed, lethargic and listless; and was so enormously fat as to be nearly thirty-three stones in weight. His life became an intolerable burden, and, to cure himself, he adopted a milk and vegetable diet, by means of which he recovered his strength, activity, and cheerfulness. He became the author of several interesting works, one of which was the book just noticed. Wesley, to a great extent, adopted Cheyne’s prescription, and forty-six years after he read his book at Oxford, wrote: “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. When I grew up, in consequence of reading Dr. Cheyne, I chose to eat sparingly, and to drink water. This was another great means of continuing my health, till I was about seven-and-twenty. I then began spitting of blood, which continued several years. A warm climate [Georgia] cured this. I was afterwards brought to the brink of death by a fever; but it left me healthier than before. Eleven years after, I was in the third stage of a consumption; in three months it pleased God to remove this also. Since that I have known neither pain nor sickness, and am now healthier than I was forty years ago.”[23] Cheyne became one of Wesley’s favourites, and no wonder. After reading his “Natural Method of Curing Diseases,” he designates it one of the most ingenious books he had ever seen; but adds, “What epicure will ever regard it? for the man talks against good eating and drinking!”[24] Cheyne died in 1745, calmly giving up his soul to God, says Wesley, without any struggle, either of body or mind.

Except the statement, that his carcass was the only property he had, Wesley makes not the least allusion, in the foregoing letter, to his pecuniary embarrassments. Naturally enough, his mother was more anxious than himself. Hence the following letter, hitherto unpublished, written within a month afterwards.

“WROOTE, November 24, 1724.

“DEAR JACKY,—I have now three of your letters before me unanswered. I take it very kindly that you write so often. I am afraid of being chargeable, or I should miss few posts, it being exceeding pleasant to me, in this solitude, to read your letters, which, however, would be pleasing anywhere.

“Your disappointment, in not seeing us at Oxon, was not of such consequence as mine in not meeting my brother in London; not but your wonderful curiosities might excite a person of greater faith than mine to travel to your museum to visit them. It is almost a pity that somebody does not cut the wezand of that keeper to cure his lying so enormously.

“I wish you would save all the money you can conveniently spare, not to spend on a visit, but for a wiser and better purpose,—to pay debts, and make yourself easy. I am not without hope of meeting you next summer, if it please God to prolong my mortal life. If you then be willing, and have time allowed you to accompany me to Wroote, I will bear your charges, as God shall enable me.

“I hope, at your leisure, you will oblige me with some more verses on any, but rather on a religious subject.

“Dear Jack, I beseech Almighty God to bless you.

“SUSANNAH WESLEY.”

Mrs. Wesley’s brother, referred to in the foregoing letter, was in the service of the East India Company; and, the public prints having stated that he was returning to England in one of the company’s ships, Mrs. Wesley proceeded to London to await his arrival, and to welcome him. The information, however, was untrue, and both she and her son John were doomed to a disappointment. Samuel, at the time, had a broken leg, and had invited John to meet his mother at Westminster. John jocosely congratulates Samuel, that, like the Dutch seaman who broke his leg by a fall from the mainmast of his ship, he might thank God that he had not broken his neck also; and then he adds that his mother’s letter had made him weep for joy, for the two things he most wished for of almost anything in the world, were again to see his mother, and to see Westminster.[25]

Wesley was still in debt, a fact which gave his mother great anxiety. His father also, as usual, was embarrassed, and yet, though offended at his son’s want of thrift, did his utmost to afford him help. The following are painfully interesting letters, and one of them is now for the first time published—

“January 5, 1725.

“DEAR SON,—Your brother will receive £5 for you next Saturday, if Mr. S—— is paid the £10 he lent you; if not, I must go to H——, but I promise you I shan’t forget that you are my son, if you do not that I am

“Your loving father,

“SAMUEL WESLEY.”

“WROOTE, January 26, 1725.

“DEAR SON,—I am so well pleased with your decent behaviour, or, at least, with your letters, that I hope I shall have no occasion to remember any more some things that are past; and since you have now for some time bit upon the bridle, I will take care hereafter to put a little honey upon it, as oft as I am able; but then it shall be of my own mere motion, as the last £5 was, for I will bear no rivals in my kingdom.

“Your affectionate father,

“SAMUEL WESLEY.”[26]

Some will blame the writer for publishing such letters, on the ground that they cast shadows on young Wesley’s character; but it ought to be borne in mind that the work of a biographer is not to hide facts, but to publish them. Why such an unwillingness to look at the specks as well as sunshine in John Wesley’s history? Is it necessary, in order to establish the high position which has been assigned to Wesley, that the reader should be made to think that from first to last he was sui generis, and altogether free from the infirmities, faults, and sins of ordinary men? If it were, we would rather lower the position than pervert the facts; but we maintain, that no such necessity exists. When we say, that from the age of eleven to the age of twenty-two, Wesley made no pretensions to be religious, and, except on rare occasions, habitually lived in the practice of known sin, we only say what is equally true of many of the greatest, wisest, and most godly men that have ever lived. The fact is humiliating, and ought to be deplored; but why hide it in one case more than in another? Wesley soon became one of the holiest and most useful men living; but, except the first ten years of his childhood, he was up to the age of twenty-two, by his own confession, an habitual, if not profane and flagrant sinner; and to his sin, he added the inconvenient and harassing infirmity of his honest but imprudent father, and thoughtlessly contracted debts greater than he had means to pay. His letters are without religious sentiments, and his life was without a religious aim. We yield to no man living in our high veneration of Wesley’s character; but, at the same time, we cannot hide it from ourselves and others, that, being human, he was frail, and, like all his fellows, had need to repent as in dust and ashes, and to seek, through Christ, the forgiveness of his sins and a change of heart.

But leaving this, we turn to another important matter. There is no evidence to show, that, when Wesley went to Oxford, he intended or wished to become a minister of the Established Church; it might be so, but it might be otherwise. It is true that, by obtaining ordination, he would become entitled to one of the Church livings at the disposal of the Charterhouse governors; but Wesley was far too noble and too high principled to seek admission into so sacred an office as the Christian ministry merely to secure for himself a crust of bread. He might intend to devote himself, like his brother Samuel, to tutorship; or he might contemplate some other mode of maintenance. Certain it is, that it was not until about the beginning of 1725, when he had been more than four years at college, that he expressed a wish to become a minister of Christ. The matter was properly submitted to his parents, and both gave him the best advice they could.

His father told him that his principal motive for entering the ministry must be, not, “as Eli’s sons, to eat a piece of bread,” but the glory of God, and the good of men; and that, as a qualification for its sacred functions, he ought to have a thorough knowledge of the Holy Scriptures in their original languages. He was, however, not in haste for his going into orders, and would give him further advice at some future time.

On February 23, 1725, his mother wrote to him as follows:—

“DEAR JACKY,—The alteration of your temper has occasioned me much speculation. I, who am apt to be sanguine, hope it may proceed from the operations of God’s Holy Spirit, that by taking away your relish of sensual enjoyments, He may prepare and dispose your mind for a more serious and close application to things of a more sublime and spiritual nature. If it be so, happy are you if you cherish those dispositions, and now, in good earnest, resolve to make religion the business of your life; for, after all, that is the one thing that strictly speaking is necessary, and all things else are comparatively little to the purposes of life. I heartily wish you would now enter upon a serious examination of yourself, that you may know whether you have a reasonable hope of salvation; that is, whether you are in a state of faith and repentance or not, which you know are the conditions of the gospel covenant on our part. If you are, the satisfaction of knowing it would abundantly reward your pains; if not, you will find a more reasonable occasion for tears than can be met with in a tragedy.

“Now I mention this, it calls to mind your letter to your father about taking orders. I was much pleased with it, and liked the proposal well; but it is an unhappiness almost peculiar to our family, that your father and I seldom think alike. I approve the disposition of your mind, and think the sooner you are a deacon the better; because it may be an inducement to greater application in the study of practical divinity, which I humbly conceive is the best study for candidates for orders. Mr. Wesley differs from me, and would engage you, I believe, in critical learning, which, though accidentally of use, is in nowise preferable to the other. I earnestly pray God to avert that great evil from you of engaging in trifling studies to the neglect of such as are absolutely necessary. I dare advise nothing: God Almighty direct and bless you! I have much to say, but cannot write you more at present. I long to see you. We hear nothing of H—— which gives us some uneasiness. We have all writ, but can get no answer. I wish all be well—Adieu!

“SUSANNAH WESLEY.”[27]

Three weeks after this, his father wrote to him, saying that he was now inclined to his entering orders without delay, and exhorting him to prayer and study in reference to such a step, promising that he would struggle hard to obtain the money for the needful expenses.

Meanwhile, his sister Emilia wrote him a long letter, from which the following extracts are taken:—

“WROOTE, April 7, 1725.

“DEAR BROTHER,—Whether you will be engaged before thirty, or not, I cannot determine; but, if my advice be worth listening to, never engage your affections before your worldly affairs are in such a posture that you may marry soon. The contrary practice has proved very pernicious in our family. I know you are a young man encompassed with difficulties, and have passed through many hardships already, and probably must through many more before you are easy in the world; but, believe me, if ever you come to suffer the torment of a hopeless love, all other afflictions will seem small in comparison of this.

“I know not when we have had so good a year, both at Wroote and at Epworth, as this year; but instead of saving anything to clothe my sister or myself, we are just where we were. A noble crop has almost all gone, beside Epworth living, to pay some part of those infinite debts my father has run into, which are so many, that were he to save £50 a year, he would not be clear in the world this seven years. One thing I warn you of: let not my giving you this account be any hindrance to your affairs. If you want assistance in any case, my father is as able to give it now as any time these last ten years; nor shall we be ever the poorer for it.

“I have quite tired you now; pray be faithful to me. Let me have one relation that I can trust. Never give a hint to any one of aught I write to you; and continue to love your unhappy but affectionate sister,

“EMILIA WESLEY.”[28]

Wesley now began to apply himself with diligence to the study of divinity. He writes: “When I was about twenty-two, my father pressed me to enter into holy orders. At the same time the providence of God directing me to Kempis’s ‘Christian’s Pattern,’ I began to see that true religion was seated in the heart, and that God’s law extended to all our thoughts as well as words and actions. I was, however, angry at Kempis for being too strict; though I read him only in Dean Stanhope’s translation. Yet I had frequently much sensible comfort in reading him, such as I was an utter stranger to before. Meeting likewise with a religious friend, which I never had till now, I began to alter the whole form of my conversation, and to set in earnest upon a new life. I set apart an hour or two a day for religious retirement. I communicated every week. I watched against all sin, whether in word or deed. I began to aim at, and to pray for, inward holiness. So that now, doing so much and living so good a life, I doubted not that I was a good Christian.”[29]

What a confession! It was eleven years since Wesley left the parental roof; but he never had a religious friend till now. No wonder he had gone astray.

Having written to his mother, stating some of the difficulties which he had found in Kempis, she, on the 8th June, 1725, sent him a long letter, which, however adapted to an enlightened Christian, was useless, if not misleading, to an anxious inquirer not yet converted. The entire letter is before us, containing, besides a large amount of Christian casuistry, some family affairs of painful interest. These we pass over, and merely give an extract in reference to Kempis:—

“I have Kempis by me; but have not read him lately. I cannot recollect the passages you mention; but, believing you do him justice, I do positively aver that he is extremely in the wrong in that impious, I was about to say blasphemous, suggestion, that God, by an irreversible decree, has determined any man to be miserable even in this world. His intentions, as Himself, are holy, just, and good; and all the miseries incident to men here or hereafter proceed from themselves. I take Kempis to have been an honest weak man, that had more zeal than knowledge.

“Your brother has brought us a heavy reckoning for you and Charles. God be merciful to us all! Dear Jack, I earnestly beseech Almighty God to bless you. Adieu!

“SUSANNAH WESLEY.”

Ten days after the date of his mother’s letter, he wrote to her again, as follows:—

“June 18, 1725.

“You have so well satisfied me as to the tenets of Thomas à Kempis, that I have ventured to trouble you again on a more dubious subject. Dr. Taylor, in his ‘Holy Living and Dying,’ says, ‘Whether God has forgiven us or no, we know not; therefore, be sorrowful for ever having sinned.’ This seems to contradict his own words in the next section, where he says that ‘by the Lord’s supper all the members are united to one another, and to Christ the Head. The Holy Ghost confers on us the graces necessary for, and our souls receive the seed of, an immortal life.’ Now surely these graces are of not so little force as that we cannot perceive whether we have them or not. If we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us (which He will not do unless we are regenerate), certainly we must be sensible of it. If we can never have any certainty of our being in a state of salvation, good reason it is that every moment should be spent, not in joy, but in fear and trembling; and then, undoubtedly, in this life we are of all men the most miserable. God deliver us from such a fearful expectation as this!”[30]

We thus find young Wesley carefully reading Thomas à Kempis and Jeremy Taylor, and groping after two of the great doctrines which afterwards distinguished his ministry: God’s love to all, and the privilege of living in a state of conscious salvation. These and other topics puzzled him, and yet he seemed to have an almost instinctive knowledge of what is truth. We have seen his mother’s sentiments concerning Kempis. His father, on the 14th of July following, observes that though Kempis has gone to an extreme in teaching the doctrine of self-mortification, yet, considering the age in which he wrote, there was no need to be surprised at this. And then he adds: “Making some grains of allowance, he may be read to great advantage. Notwithstanding all his superstition and enthusiasm, it is almost impossible to peruse him seriously, without admiring, and in some measure imitating, his heroic strains of humility and piety and devotion.”

The books of Kempis and Taylor seem to have been the first on practical divinity that Wesley read, and, to the day of his death, were held in high esteem. Kempis’s “Pattern” was one of the first books that Wesley published; and an extract from Taylor’s work forms a part of his “Christian Library.” In his estimation, Taylor was a man of the sublimest piety, and one of the greatest geniuses on earth;[31] and Kempis is always spoken of in terms of high respect. What were the results of Wesley’s reading?

1. To this incident we are indebted for Wesley’s long continued record of the events and exercises of his daily life. In the preface to his first journal, dated September 20, 1740, he states, that about fifteen years ago (1725), in pursuance of an advice given by Bishop Taylor in his “Rules for Holy Living and Dying,” he began to take a more exact account than he had done before of the manner wherein he spent his time, writing down how he had employed every hour. The practice thus begun was uninterruptedly continued until his death, and issued in giving to the world one of the most interesting works in the English language; a work not only containing the best history of the great reformer, and of the rise and growth of the Methodist movement, but sparkling with the most racy remarks respecting men, books, places, science, witches, ghosts, and almost everything with which the writer came in contact.

2. Another, and far more important result of reading Kempis and Taylor, was an entire change of life. He writes respecting Kempis’s “Pattern:” “When I met with it in 1726,[32] the nature and extent of inward religion, the religion of the heart, now appeared to me in a stronger light than ever it had done before. I saw that giving even all my life to God (supposing it possible to do this, and go no further) would profit me nothing, unless I gave my heart, yea, all my heart, to Him. I saw that simplicity of intention, and purity of affection, one design in all we speak and do, and one desire ruling all our tempers, are indeed the wings of the soul, without which she can never ascend to God. I sought after this from that hour.”[33]

Again, in reference to Taylor’s “Holy Living and Dying,” he observes: “In reading several parts of this book, I was exceedingly affected; that part in particular which relates to purity of intention. Instantly I resolved to dedicate all my life to God,—all my thoughts, and words, and actions,—being thoroughly convinced there was no medium; but that every part of my life (not some only) must either be a sacrifice to God, or myself, that is, in effect, the devil.”[34]

Here, then, we have the turning-point in Wesley’s history. It was not until thirteen years after this, that he received the consciousness of being saved through faith in Christ; but from this time, his whole aim was to serve God and his fellowmen, and to get safe to heaven. No man could be more sincere, earnest, devout, diligent, and self-denying; and yet, during this lengthened period, he lived and laboured in a mist.

His father was £350 in debt; but was now resolved to do his utmost to obtain ordination for his son. He urged him to master St. Chrysostom and the articles; and sent his “Letter to a Curate,” in manuscript, to assist him in his preparations; and also wrote to the Bishop of Lincoln in his favour.[35] Meanwhile his mother tried to solve some of his scruples respecting the article on predestination;[36] and wrote him a long letter, not hitherto published, from which we give the following extracts:—

“Wroote, July 21, 1725.

“DEAR JACKEY,—Though I have a great deal of unpleasant business, am infirm, and but slow of understanding, yet it is a pleasure to me to correspond with you on religious subjects; and, if it be of the least advantage to you, I shall greatly rejoice. I know little or nothing of Dr. Taylor’s ‘Holy Living and Dying,’ having not seen it for above twenty years; but I think it is generally well esteemed. I cannot judge of the rules you suppose impracticable; but I will tell you my thoughts of humility as briefly as I can.”

Here follow her remarks on humility. She continues:—

“He is certainly right, that there is but one true repentance, for repentance is a state not a transient act; and this state begins in a change of the whole mind from evil to good, and contains, in some sense, all the parts of a holy life.[37] Repentance, in Scripture, is said to signify the whole of obedience, as faith often includes repentance, and all the subsequent acts of religion: ‘Repent, and thy sins shall be forgiven thee;’ ‘Believe, and thou shalt be saved.’ If, after this change, we fall into the contrary state—a state of wilful impenitence—which is nothing less than a total apostasy—the Scripture is plain; ‘There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin;’ no place is left for repentance; for, by this formal renunciation of our most holy faith, we ‘crucify afresh the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.’ But this is not the case of those who never were converted; or of such who, having been converted, fall nevertheless sometimes into their old sins, through the fault of their nature, or the stress of temptation.

“I don’t well understand what he means by saying, ‘Whether God has forgiven us or no, we know not.’ If he intends such a certainty of pardon as cannot possibly admit of the least doubt or scruple, he is infallibly in the right; for such an absolute certainty we can never have till we come to heaven. But if he means no more than that reasonable persuasion of the forgiveness of sins, which a true penitent feels when he reflects on the evidences of his own sincerity, he is certainly in the wrong, for such a firm persuasion is actually enjoyed by man in this life.

“The virtues which we have by the grace of God acquired, are not of so little force as he supposes; for we may surely perceive when we have them in any good degree. But when our love to God, and faith in the Lord Jesus are weak (for there is a great inequality in our lives); when, though we strive against our sins, we have not so far overcome but that we sometimes relapse into them again,—in such a case we shall be often doubtful of our state. But when, by the assistance of the Holy Spirit, we have made a considerable progress in religion, and when habits of virtue are confirmed; when we find little disturbance from any exorbitant appetite, and can maintain an even tenour of life,—we shall be easy, and free from all torment, doubts, or fears of our future happiness; for perfect love will cast out fears.

“I am entirely of your opinion, that whenever we worthily communicate, with faith, humility, etc., our sins are forgiven, and will never rise in judgment against us if we forsake them. The Scripture is so clear and express in this case, that I think none can question the pardon of his sins if he repent, except such as do not believe it.

“But if you would be free from fears and doubts concerning your future happiness, every morning and evening commit your soul to Jesus Christ, in a full faith in His power and will to save you. If you do this seriously and constantly, He will take you under His conduct; He will guide you by His Holy Spirit into the way of truth, and give you strength to walk in it. He will dispose of the events of God’s general providence to your spiritual advantage; and if, to keep you humble and more sensible of your dependence on Him, He permit you to fall into lesser sins, be not discouraged; for He will certainly give you repentance, and safely guide you through all the temptations of this world, and, at the last, receive you to Himself in glory.

“Your father has written lately to you about your business. I heartily wish you success, for I am greatly troubled at your unhappy circumstances. I can do nothing at present but pray for you. Dear Jack, I beseech Almighty God to bless you.

“SUSANNAH WESLEY.”

Part of Wesley’s reply to his mother’s letter is as follows:—

“July 29, 1725.

“That we can never be so certain of the pardon of our sins as to be assured they will never rise up against us, I firmly believe. We know that they will infallibly do so if ever we apostatize, and I am not satisfied what evidence there can be of our final perseverance, till we have finished our course. But I am persuaded we may know if we are now in a state of salvation, since that is expressly promised in the Holy Scriptures to our sincere endeavours, and we are, surely, able to judge of our own sincerity.

“What shall I say of predestination? An everlasting purpose of God to deliver some from damnation, does, I suppose, exclude all from that deliverance who are not chosen. And if it was inevitably decreed from eternity that such a determinate part of mankind should be saved, and none beside them, a vast majority of the world were only born to eternal death, without so much as a possibility of avoiding it. How is this consistent with either the Divine justice or mercy? Is it merciful to ordain a creature to everlasting misery? Is it just to punish man for crimes which he could not but commit? That God should be the author of sin and injustice (which must, I think, be the consequence of maintaining this opinion), is a contradiction to the clearest ideas we have of the Divine nature and perfections.”[38]

If the ideas of Wesley and his mother, on the way of attaining salvation, had been as scriptural as his ideas on general redemption, both would have been in a holier and happier frame of mind.

Wesley’s religion already made him the subject of contemptuous sneers. Hence the following from his father:—

“WROOTE, August 2, 1725.

“DEAR SON,—If you be what you write I shall be happy. As to the gentlemen candidates you mention, does anybody think the devil is dead, or asleep, or that he has no agents left? Surely virtue can bear being laughed at. The Captain and Master endured something more for us before He entered into glory, and unless we track His steps, in vain do we hope to share that glory with Him.

“Nought else but blessing from your loving father,

“SAMUEL WESLEY.”

Wesley was still in doubt in reference to several matters which had occurred to him during his late religious reading; and to relieve his doubts, his mother sent him some of the ablest letters she ever penned. The subjoined is taken from a long epistle now before us, and only part of which has heretofore been published:—

“WROOTE, August 18, 1725.

“DEAR JACKEY,—Divine faith is an assent to whatever God has revealed to us, because He has revealed it. And this is that virtue of faith which is one of the two conditions of our salvation by Jesus Christ. But this matter is so fully and accurately explained by Bishop Pearson (under ‘I Believe’) that I shall say no more of it.

“I have often wondered that men should be so vain as to amuse themselves with searching into the decrees of God, which no human wit can fathom, and do not rather employ their time and powers in working out their salvation. Such studies tend more to confound than to inform the understanding, and young people had better let them alone. But since I find you have some scruples concerning our article, Of Predestination, I will tell you my thoughts of the matter. If they satisfy not, you may desire your father’s direction, who is surely better qualified for a casuist than I.

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

“I firmly believe that God, from eternity, has elected some to eternal life; but then I humbly conceive that this election is founded on His foreknowledge, according to Romans viii. 29, 30. Whom, in His eternal prescience, God saw would make a right use of their powers, and accept of offered mercy, He did predestinate and adopt for His children. And that they may be conformed to the image of His only Son, He calls them to Himself, through the preaching of the gospel, and, internally, by His Holy Spirit; which call they obeying, repenting of their sins and believing in the Lord Jesus, He justifies them, absolves them from the guilt of all their sins, and acknowledges them as just and righteous persons, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ. And having thus justified, He receives them to glory—to heaven.

“This is the sum of what I believe concerning predestination, which I think is agreeable to the analogy of faith; since it does in nowise derogate from the glory of God’s free grace, nor impair the liberty of man. Nor can it with more reason be supposed that the prescience of God is the cause that so many finally perish, than that one knowing the sun will rise to-morrow is the cause of its rising.”

John Wesley substantially adopted his mother’s predestinarian views, as may be seen in his sermon on the text which she expounds in the foregoing letter; but his notions of that faith by which a sinner is justified were, at present, like those of his mother, vague and general, and far from being clear.

The time for Wesley’s ordination was now approaching, and the money question again rose up like a spectre, and required attention. His father writes:—

“BAWTRY, September 1, 1725.

“DEAR SON,—I came hither to-day because I cannot be at rest till I make you easier. I could not possibly manufacture any money for you here sooner than next Saturday. On Monday I design to wait on Dr. Morley, and will try to prevail with your brother to return you £8 with interest. I will assist you in the charges for ordination, though I am myself just now struggling for life. This £8 you may depend on the next week, or the week after.

“Your affectionate father, “SAMUEL WESLEY.”[39]

Difficulties were overcome, and Wesley, having prepared himself with the most conscientious care for the ministerial office, was ordained deacon on Sunday, September 19th, 1725.

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Chapter II

WESLEY’S ORDINATION, ETC.

[Sidenote: 1725 Age 22]

What was the state of things about the time of Wesley’s ordination? Wesley entered the Charterhouse in the year Queen Anne died. George I., Elector of Hanover, took her place. Endless intrigues in favour of the Pretender sprung up; and Bolingbroke fled to him on the Continent, and became his Secretary of State. Ormond gave magnificent fêtes at Richmond, and gathered around him the most fiery of the Jacobites, and the most intolerant of the high church party, till he also found it expedient to follow Bolingbroke’s example, and secretly escape to France. The clergy, in many instances, preached sermons and published pamphlets in which the temper, orthodoxy, and religion of King George were not painted in the brightest colours, and in which they hesitated not to say that England would soon be eaten up by Hanoverian rats and other foreign vermin. Rumours of invasion and of insurrection became general, and, about a year after George’s coronation, the Chevalier landed in Scotland, to take possession of what he called his kingdom.

The history of this adventure is too well known to be repeated here. Suffice it to observe, that Parliament set a price on the Pretender’s head, by offering a reward of £100,000 for his arrest. In Scotland, King George’s troops were put to live in free quarters, in the houses and upon the estates of Jacobites. In England, gaols were crowded with nonjuring Protestants, high church divines, and Popish squires, monks, and priests; while the Chevalier, like his poltroon father, fled from danger, and left thousands of his hot-headed followers to pay a fearful penalty for their rash adherence to him. Plotters, however, still plotted; among the chief of whom was Bishop Atterbury, the friend and patron of Wesley’s brother Samuel. The prelate was arrested, was tried in the House of Lords, was deprived of his bishopric, was banished from his country, entered the service of the Pretender, and became his confidential agent.

These were times of terrible upheaving, and, surrounded by such commotions, young Wesley quietly pursued his scholastic studies, first in the Charterhouse, London, and afterwards in Christ Church College, Oxford. In the year in which Wesley went to Oxford, the South Sea bubble burst, and, by its gambling, knavish madness, the nation was involved in the most disgraceful kind of bankruptcy. About the same period, Parliament were discussing bills to authorize bishops and county magistrates to summon Dissenting ministers to quarter sessions to subscribe to a declaration of the Christian faith; and, upon their refusal, to deprive them of the benefit of the Act of Toleration; while, oddly enough, at the same time, Walpole, the prime minister, was endeavouring to satisfy the squeamish demand to omit from the “affirmation” of the Quakers the words,—“In the presence of Almighty God”—a demand which Atterbury resisted to the uttermost, insisting that such an indulgence was not due to “a set of people who were hardly Christians.”

Wesley was ordained a deacon by Bishop Potter, the son of a Yorkshire linen-draper; a man of great talent, and immense learning,—somewhat haughty and morose, and yet highly esteemed by a great portion of his contemporaries,—a high churchman, who maintained that episcopacy was of Divine institution, and yet one who cherished a friendly feeling towards the first Methodists, saying concerning them, “These gentlemen are irregular; but they have done good; and I pray God to bless them.” To the day of his death, Wesley held Potter in high esteem, calling him “a great and good man”; and, in a sermon written as late as the year 1787, mentioning an advice which the bishop had given him half a century before, and for which he had often thanked Almighty God, namely, “That if he wished to be extensively useful, he must not spend his time in contending for or against things of a disputable nature, but in testifying against notorious vice, and in promoting real, essential holiness.”[40]

It is a somewhat remarkable circumstance that, just about the time of Wesley’s ordination, Voltaire was expelled from France, and fled to England, where he published his celebrated “Henriade,” a work which was patronized by George I., and which yielded a profit that laid the foundation of the infidels future fortune. During a long life, he and Wesley were contemporaneous, and, perhaps, of all the men then living, none exercised so great an influence as the restless philosopher and the unwearied minister of Christ. No men, however, could be more dissimilar. Wesley, in person, was beautiful; Voltaire was of a physiognomy so strange, and lighted up with fire so half-hellish and half-heavenly, that it was hard to say whether it was the face of a satyr or a man. Wesley’s heart was filled with a world-wide benevolence; Voltaire, though of gigantic mind, scarcely had a heart at all,—an incarnation of avaricious meanness, and a victim to petty passions. Wesley was the friend of all and the enemy of none; Voltaire was too selfish to love, and when forced to pay the scanty and ill-tempered homage which he sometimes rendered, it was always offered at the shrine of rank and wealth. Wesley had myriads who loved him; Voltaire had numerous admirers, but probably not a friend. Both were men of ceaseless labour, and almost unequalled authors; but while the one filled the land with blessings, the other, by his sneering and mendacious attacks against revealed religion, inflicted a greater curse than has been inflicted by the writings of any other author either before or since. The evangelist is now esteemed by all whose good opinions are worth having; the philosopher is only remembered to be branded with well-merited reproach and shame.

Wesley’s first sermon was preached at South Leigh, a small village three miles from Witney. Forty-six years afterwards he preached in the same place, when there was one man present who had been a member of his first congregation.[41]

Another of his early sermons was delivered at Epworth, January 11, 1726, at the funeral of John Griffith, a hopeful young man, son of one of the Epworth parishioners. The text was 2 Samuel xii. 23, and the subject of the brief sermon was the folly of indulging grief, except on account of sin. Funeral sermons, in the common acceptation of the word, the young preacher denounces, for they had been so often prostituted to a mere flattery of the dead that now they were no longer capable of serving good purposes. “It is of no service to the dead,” says he, “to celebrate his actions, since he has the applause of God and His holy angels, and his own conscience. And it is of little use to the living, since he who desires a pattern may find enough proposed as such in the sacred writings.” For such reasons, Wesley, already laconic, reduces all that he has to say of John Griffith into a single sentence. “To his parents he was an affectionate, dutiful son; to his acquaintance an ingenuous, cheerful, good-natured companion; and to me a well-tried, sincere friend.”[42]

In a little more than two months after the delivery of this sermon, Wesley was elected fellow of Lincoln College.[43] The election took place March 17th, 1726. In this affair, his brother Samuel rendered him considerable assistance; his mother, with a full heart, thanked Almighty God for his “good success;”[44] and his father wrote him as follows:—

“DEAR MR. FELLOW ELECT OF LINCOLN,—I have done more than I could for you. On your waiting on Dr. Morley[45] with this, he will pay you £12. You are inexpressibly obliged to that generous man. The last £12 pinched me so hard, that I am forced to beg time of your brother Sam till after harvest, to pay him the £10 that you say he lent you. Nor shall I have as much as that, perhaps not £5, to keep my family till after harvest; and I do not expect that I shall be able to do anything for Charles when he goes to the university. What will be my own fate God only knows. Sed passi graviora. Wherever I am, my Jack is fellow of Lincoln. I wrote to Dr. King, desiring leave for you to come one, two, or three months into the country, where you shall be gladly welcome. Keep your best friend fast; and, next to him, Dr. Morley; and have a care of your other friends, especially the younger. All at present from your loving father,

“SAMUEL WESLEY.”[46]

Writing to his brother Samuel, Wesley says:—

“LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXON, April 4, 1726.

“DEAR BROTHER,—My father very unexpectedly, a week ago, sent me a bill on Dr. Morley for £12, which he had paid to the rector’s use at Gainsborough; so that now all my debts are paid, and the expenses of my treat defrayed; and I have still above £10 remaining. If I could have leave to stay in the country till my college allowance commences, this money would abundantly suffice me till then.

“I never knew a college besides ours, whereof the members were so perfectly well satisfied with one another, and so inoffensive to the other part of the university. All the fellows I have yet seen are both well-natured and well-bred; men admirably disposed as well to preserve peace and good neighbourhood among themselves, as to preserve it wherever else they have any acquaintance.

“I am, etc., “JOHN WESLEY.”[47]

The following, which was also addressed to his brother Samuel, is amusing. Wesley was so poor that he could ill afford to employ a barber to cut and dress his hair, even when his mother wished it, and when he himself thought it might improve his personal appearance.

“My mother’s reason for my cutting off my hair is because she fancies it prejudices my health. As to my looks, it would doubtless mend my complexion to have it off, by letting me get a little more colour, and perhaps it might contribute to my making a more genteel appearance. But these, till ill health is added to them, I cannot persuade myself to be sufficient grounds for losing two or three pounds a year. I am ill enough able to spare them.

“Mr. Sherman says there are garrets, somewhere in Peckwater, to be let for fifty shillings a year; that there are some honest fellows in college, who would be willing to chum in one of them; and that, could my brother but find one of these garrets, and get acquainted with one of these honest fellows, he might possibly prevail upon him to join in taking it; and then if he could but prevail upon some one else to give him £7 a year for his own room, he would gain almost £6 a year clear, if his rent were well paid. He appealed to me whether the proposal was not exceedingly reasonable? But as I could not give him such an answer as he desired, I did not choose to give him any at all.

“Leisure and I have taken leave of one another. I propose to be busy as long as I live, if my health is so long indulged me. In health and sickness I hope I shall ever continue with the same sincerity,

“Your loving brother, “JOHN WESLEY.”[48]

Charles Wesley had just removed from Westminster School to the university, being elected to the same college as that in which his brother had spent the last six years. John obtained leave of absence from Lincoln College, and spent the summer at Epworth and Wroote with his venerated parents. Here he usually read prayers and preached twice every sabbath; pursued his studies with the greatest diligence; and conversed with his father and mother on many of the chief topics of practical religion, noting in his diary such of their rules and maxims as appeared to him important.[49] While here, he wrote his paraphrase on the 104th Psalm,—a production of genius fully showing that if Wesley had cultivated his poetic talents he might easily have attained to no inferior position among the bards of Britain. The following is an extract:—

“Thou, brooding o’er the realms of night, The’ unbottomed infinite abyss, Bad’st the deep her rage surcease, And saidst, Let there be light! Ethereal light Thy call obeyed, Glad she left her native shade, Darkness turned his murmuring head, Resigned the reins, and trembling fled.”[50]

“Make poetry your diversion,”[51] said Wesley’s mother, “but not your business;” and because he acted on this advice his poetical pieces are comparatively few. It is well known, however, that some of the noblest hymns in the Wesleyan hymn-book were written by John Wesley’s pen. What can exceed, in poetic grandeur, the three hymns beginning with the line:—

“Father of all, whose powerful voice,” etc.

Or the two hymns commencing with:—

“O God, Thou bottomless abyss,” etc.

Or the hymn beginning:—

“O God, of good the’ unfathomed sea,” etc.

Or again:—

“O God the Son, in whom combine,” etc.

Or again:—

“Jesus, whose glory’s streaming rays,” etc. “Now I have found the ground wherein,” etc. “Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness,” etc. “Thee will I love, my strength, my tower,” etc.

Or again, the two hymns commencing with:—

“Commit thou all thy griefs,” etc.

Or again:—

“Thou hidden love of God, whose height,” etc.

Let it be granted that these and others were translations; but still it must be ceded that the words, if not the thoughts, are Wesley’s; and that never, in uninspired language, is God adored and praised in loftier or more sacred strains than in the singing of the hymns above mentioned. Apart from his numerous hymn-books, Wesley, at different times, published five volumes of poetry, and, to the day of his death, read it with the richest relish.

Wesley returned to Oxford on the 21st of September, 1726, and resumed his studies. His literary character was now established at the university. All parties acknowledged him to be a man of talents and of learning; while his skill in logic was known to be remarkable. The result was, though he was only in the twenty-third year of his age, and had not yet taken a master’s degree, he was, within two months after his return from Epworth, on November 7th, elected Greek lecturer and moderator of the classes.

At the commencement of the year 1727, Wesley, in a letter,[52] tells his mother that he had drawn up for himself a scheme of studies, and had “perfectly come over to her opinion, that there are many truths it is not worth while to know. If we had a dozen centuries of life allowed us, we might, perhaps, be pardoned for spending a little time upon such curious trifles; but, with the small pittance of life we have, it would be great ill husbandry to spend a considerable part of it in what makes neither a quick nor a sure return.” Wesley adds, that, about the time of his ordination, he had, while watching with a college friend a young lady’s funeral, attempted to make his friend a Christian. From that time this youth was exceedingly serious; and a fortnight ago had died of consumption. Wesley was with him three days before his decease, and on the Sunday following, in accordance with his friend’s desire while living, he did him the last good office that he could by preaching his funeral sermon. Here was Wesley’s first convert.

Another friend must be introduced, not so serious as the sight of a funeral has a tendency to make us, but a sprightly young collegian, more vivacious than religious, who, in 1729, became one of the first four Methodists that met together to read the Greek Testament,[53] and whose portrait occupies a place in the large and beautiful engraving of “The Rev. John Wesley and his Friends at Oxford.” The following letter is valuable only as it tends to show that Wesley, and some of his college friends, were not yet so intensely religious as they became soon after.

“STANTON, February 2, 1727.

“With familiarity I write, Dear Jack.—On Friday night last I received your kind accusation. You generously passed by, or pardoned, all insipid or impertinent expressions; but I am condemned for brevity before I could put forth my defence. My plea is, I writ yours, as likewise one to Harry Yardley, of equal importance, in the space of three hours. My letter was really longer than yours by Scripture proof; for you writ scarce much out of your abundance of thoughts; whereas I writ all that I thought of, and thought of all I could write. I have not the presumption to compare my expressions or style with yours, because there I am excelled beyond all degrees of comparison.

‘For when you write, smooth elocution flows; But when Bob scrawls, rough ignorance he shows.’

I am just going down to a dinner of calves’ head and bacon, with some of the best green cabbages in the town. I wish I could send you a plate of our entertainment while it is hot. We have just tapped a barrel of admirable cider.

“2 o’clock. I am come up again with a belly-full, sufficit. Your most deserving, queer character,—your worthy personal accomplishments,—your noble endowments of mind,—your little and handsome person,—and your obliging and desirable conversation, have been the pleasing subject of our discourse for some pleasant hours. You have often been in the thoughts of M. B., which I have curiously observed, when with her alone, by inward smiles and sighs and abrupt expressions concerning you. Shall this suffice? I caught her this morning in an humble and devout posture on her knees. I am called to read a Spectator to my sister Capoon. I long for the time when you are to supply my father’s absence. Keep your counsel, and burn this when perused. You shall have my reasons in my next. I must conclude, and subscribe myself, your most affectionate friend, and brother I wish I might write,

“ROBERT KIRKHAM.”[54]

The above somewhat frothy epistle indicates an important fact, that Wesley was in love with Miss Betty, Kirkham’s sister, or, at all events, that Kirkham wished to have him for a brother. Nothing more is known of this incipient courtship, except that in a letter to Wesley, dated five days after Kirkham’s, and written by Martha Wesley, it is said, “When I knew that you were just returned from Worcestershire, where I suppose you saw your Varanese, I then ceased to wonder at your silence, for the sight of such a woman, ‘so known, so loved,’ might well make you forget me. I really have myself a vast respect for her, as I must necessarily have for one that is so dear to you.” Wesley soon became far too much immersed in more serious things to have time to think of wooing. He writes:—

“Removing to another (Lincoln) college, I began to see more and more the value of time. I applied myself closer to study. I watched more carefully against actual sins. I advised others to be religious, according to that scheme of religion by which I modelled my own life. But meeting now with Mr. Law’s ‘Christian Perfection’ and ‘Serious Call,’ although I was much offended at many parts of both, yet they convinced me more than ever of the exceeding height and breadth and depth of the law of God. The light flowed in so mightily upon my soul, that everything appeared in a new view. I cried to God for help, resolved, as I had never done before, not to prolong the time of obeying Him. And by my continued endeavour to keep His whole law, inward and outward, to the utmost of my power, I was persuaded that I should be accepted of Him, and that I was even then in a state of salvation.”[55]

William Law will have to be noticed hereafter. Suffice it to remark now, that, after obtaining a fellowship at Emanuel College, Cambridge, and officiating as a curate in the metropolis, he refused to take the oaths prescribed by parliament on the accession of George I., lost his fellowship, left the pulpit, and became tutor to Edward Gibbon, father of the renowned historian. He was now resident at Putney, and is described as rather above the middle size, stout but not corpulent, with broad shoulders, grey eyes, round visage, well-proportioned features, an open countenance, and rather inclined to be merry than mournful. His “Christian Perfection” was first published in 1726, just before Wesley read it; and, in strong, clear, racy language, maintains that Christianity requires a change of nature, a renunciation of the world and worldly tempers, self-denial and mortification, in short, a life perfectly devoted to the service of God. Clergymen are reminded that it is far more important to visit the poor and sick, and to be wholly occupied in the cure of souls, than in studying the old grammarians. Vain books and stage entertainments are denounced in the strongest terms; and a close imitation of the life and example of Christ Jesus is enforced with the utmost earnestness. The work throughout is one of the most intensely religious books in the English language; and had it shown the way of attaining holiness as clearly as it enforces the practice of it, it would in all respects have been unequalled. The “Serious Call” is a kindred book, and written in the same earnest and pungent style. “It is,” wrote Wesley, within eighteen months of his decease,—“It is a treatise which will hardly be excelled, if it be equalled, in the English tongue, either for beauty of expression, or for justness and depth of thought.”[56]

The effect produced upon Wesley,[57] by reading these two invaluable books, was immense. “I was convinced,” says he “more than ever of the impossibility of being half a Christian, and determined to be all devoted to God, to give Him all my soul, my body, and my substance.”[58]

Wesley’s intentions were as sincere and pure as grace could make them; but his ideas of Christian truth were confused, misty, erroneous. He was spending several hours every day in reading the Scripture in the original tongues; and yet he tells us that it was not until years after this that he became convinced of the great truths, which, above all other truths, gave rise to the societies of the people called Methodists. These truths he himself has specified in the following terms:—“The justification, whereof our articles and homilies speak, means present forgiveness, pardon of sins, and consequently acceptance with God. I believe the condition of this is faith; I mean, not only that without faith we cannot be justified, but also that, as soon as any one has true faith, in that moment he is justified. Good works follow this faith, but cannot go before it; much less can sanctification, which implies a continued course of good works, springing from holiness of heart.

“Repentance must go before faith, and fruits meet for it, if there be opportunity. By repentance, I mean conviction of sin, producing real desires and sincere resolutions of amendment; and by ‘fruits meet for repentance,’ I mean forgiving our brother, ceasing from evil and doing good, using the ordinances of God, and in general obeying Him according to the measure of grace which we have received. But these I cannot as yet term good works; because they do not spring from faith and the love of God.

“By salvation I mean, not barely deliverance from hell, or going to heaven, but a present deliverance from sin, a restoration of the soul to its primitive health, its original purity; a recovery of the Divine nature; the renewal of our souls after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness, in justice, mercy, and truth. This implies all holy and heavenly tempers, and by consequence, all holiness of conversation.

“Faith is the sole condition of this salvation. Without faith we cannot thus be saved; for we cannot rightly serve God unless we love Him. And we cannot love Him unless we know Him; neither can we know Him unless by faith.

“Faith, in general, is a Divine, supernatural evidence, or conviction of things not seen; that is, of things past, future, or spiritual. Justifying faith implies, not only a Divine evidence, or conviction, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself; but a sure trust and confidence that Christ died for my sins; that He loved me and gave Himself for me. And the moment a penitent sinner believes this, God pardons and absolves him.

“And as soon as his pardon or justification is witnessed to him by the Holy Ghost, he is saved. He loves God and all mankind. He has the mind that was in Christ, and power to walk as He also walked. From that time (unless he makes shipwreck of the faith) salvation gradually increases in his soul.

“The Author of faith and salvation is God alone. He is the sole Giver of every good gift, and the sole Author of every good work. There is no more of power than of merit in man; but as all merit is in the Son of God, in what He has done and suffered for us, so all power is in the Spirit of God. And therefore every man, in order to believe unto salvation, must receive the Holy Ghost. This is essentially necessary to every Christian, in order to have faith, peace, joy, and love. Whoever has these fruits of the Spirit cannot but know and feel that God has wrought them in his heart.”

The reader has here, in Wesley’s own words, a summary of all the doctrines which technically may be termed the doctrines of the first Methodists. It was the preaching of these doctrines, and of these only, that created Methodism in 1739. And, to be faithful to the principles of their founder, the Methodists of this, and of every age succeeding, must, MUST make these the chief doctrines of their ministry. Wesley preached other truths besides these: but these were the truths which distinguished him from his fellows; which gave birth to the system that bears his name; and which he always made prominent in his sermons and in his books, to the end of life. Methodism will sink and deservedly become extinct, when it ceases to proclaim, as its greatest dogmas, the above summary of Methodistic doctrines, drawn up by Wesley himself in 1744.

This summary is introduced here because, notwithstanding his deep religious feeling, his pure intentions, and his strict morality, the doctrines it embraces were doctrines of which Wesley remained strangely ignorant for nearly thirteen years after his ordination, in 1725. He writes: “It was many years after I was ordained deacon, before I was convinced of the great truths above recited. During all that time, I was utterly ignorant of the nature and condition of justification. Sometimes I confounded it with sanctification (particularly when I was in Georgia); at other times I had some confused notion about the forgiveness of sins; but then I took it for granted the time of this must be either the hour of death, or the day of judgment. I was equally ignorant of the nature of saving faith; apprehending it to mean no more than a ‘firm assent to all the propositions contained in the Old and New Testaments.’”[59]

Such, at this period, were Wesley’s views of Christian truth, principally derived from his mother, from Thomas à Kempis, Jeremy Taylor, and William Law. Some have charged him with embracing the mystic divinity, but, except so far as the mystic writers denied the doctrine of justification by faith, the charge is unfounded. In reply to this accusation, Wesley writes: “It is true that, for a while, I admired the mystic writers. But I dropped them, even before I went to Georgia; long before I knew or suspected anything as to justification by faith. Therefore all that follows of my ‘making my system of divinity more commodious for general use,’ having no foundation, falls to the ground at once. I never was ‘in the way of mysticism’ at all.”[60]

Wesley took his degree of Master of Arts, on February 14, 1727. In his disputation for this he acquired considerable reputation; delivering three lectures on the occasion, one “De Anima Brutorum;” a second, “De Julio Cæsare;” and a third, “De Amore Dei.” These early orations seem to be entirely lost.

Another step taken by Wesley, about the same period, was to rid himself of unprofitable friends. He writes: “When it pleased God to give me a settled resolution to be not a nominal, but a real Christian (being then about twenty-two years of age), my acquaintance were as ignorant of God as myself. But there was this difference: I knew my own ignorance; they did not know theirs. I faintly endeavoured to help them, but in vain. Meantime, I found, by sad experience, that even their harmless conversation, so called, damped all my good resolutions. I saw no possible way of getting rid of them, unless it should please God to remove me to another college. He did so, in a manner utterly contrary to all human probability. I was elected fellow of a college where I knew not one person. I foresaw abundance of people would come to see me, either out of friendship, civility, or curiosity; and that I should have offers of acquaintance new and old: but I had now fixed my plan. I resolved to have no acquaintance by chance, but by choice; and to choose such only as would help me on my way to heaven. In consequence of this, I narrowly observed the temper and behaviour of all that visited me. I saw no reason to think that the greater part of these truly loved or feared God: therefore, when any of them came to see me, I behaved as courteously as I could; but to the question, ‘When will you come to see me?’ I returned no answer. When they had come a few times, and found I still declined returning the visit, I saw them no more. And, I bless God, this has been my invariable rule for about three-score years. 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.”[61]

Thus did Wesley free himself from trifling companions. About the same time, some one proposed to him a well endowed school in Yorkshire, and suggested, as an inducement for him to accept it, that it was situated “in a little vale, so pent up between two hills” that it was scarcely accessible; a place where he could “expect little company from without, and within none at all.”[62] This school was either never offered, or, if it was, the offer was declined.

Wesley now laid down a plan of study, and closely followed it. Mondays and Tuesdays he devoted to the 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; and Sundays, to divinity. In intermediate hours, he perfected himself in the French language, which he had begun to learn two or three years before; sometimes amused himself with experiments in optics; and in mathematics studied Euclid, Keil, and Sir Isaac Newton. First, he read an author regularly through, and then transcribed into a commonplace book such passages as he thought important or beautiful. In this way he greatly increased his stock of knowledge and inured himself to hard working.

His father was now sixty-five years of age, and was already palsied; his mother also was in exceedingly ill health; and hence, in August, 1727, he removed to Lincolnshire, for the purpose of officiating as his father’s curate at Epworth and at Wroote; and here, with the exception of about three months, he remained until November, 1729.

The details of this period of two years and a quarter in Wesley’s history are few. His life at Epworth and Wroote was doubtless the ordinary every-day sort of life of an earnest country parish clergyman. Fortunately, one of his sermons, preached during the time that he was his father’s curate, has been preserved, and is important as showing how, from the very commencement of his ministry, he rigidly adhered to the principle of preaching the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The text is 2 Corinthians ii. 17, and the subject of the sermon is that of “corrupting the word of God.” Among corrupters he notices:—1. Those who introduce “into it human mixtures, and blend with the oracles of God impure dreams, fit only for the mouth of the devil.” 2. Those who mix it “with false interpretations.” 3. Those who do not add to it but take from it, “washing their hands of stubborn texts, that will not bend to their purposes, or that too plainly touch upon the reigning vices of the places where they live.” Those who do not corrupt the word of God “preach it genuine and unmixed,” unimpaired and in all its fulness. “They speak with plainness and boldness, and are not concerned to palliate their doctrine to reconcile it to the tastes of men. They will not, they dare not, soften a threatening so as to prejudice its strength; neither represent sin in such mild colours as to impair its native blackness.”[63]

Here we have Wesley, in the twenty-fifth year of his age, displaying the same conscientious fidelity and unflinching boldness, which so strikingly characterized the whole of his future ministry.

In July, 1728, Wesley repaired to Oxford, where, on Sunday, September 22, he was ordained priest by Dr. Potter, who had ordained him deacon in 1725. Nine days afterwards, he returned to his curacy at Wroote, where, as already stated, he continued preaching and fulfilling other ministerial duties until November 22, 1729.

What were the results of Wesley’s preaching? Wesley himself shall tell us. He writes: “I preached much, but saw no fruit of my labour. Indeed, it could not be that I should; for I neither laid the foundation of repentance, nor of believing the gospel; taking it for granted that all to whom I preached were believers, and that many of them needed no repentance.”[64] Let Christian ministers be admonished. Is it not a fact—a general, if not universal fact—that where these doctrines are not preached all other preaching is almost, if not altogether, useless? Christ’s ministry throughout was in perfect accordance with its commencement, when following John the Baptist, as His high herald, He cried, “Repent ye, and believe the gospel.” This kind of preaching is always useful. Would to God we had more of it at the present day!

Wroote was a wretched place. Wesley says it was “surrounded with bogs;”[65] and, according to Samuel, his brother, the parsonage was roofed with thatch and made lively by the mingled music of “kittens and whelps,” “pigs and porkets,” “bellowing kine and bleating lambs, quacking ducks and fluttering hens.” Describing his father’s presence there, he writes:—

“Methinks I see you striving all Who first shall answer to his call, Or lusty Nan or feeble Moll, Sage Pat, or sober Hetty; To rub his cassock’s draggled tail, Or reach his hat from off the nail, Or seek the key to draw his ale, When damsel haps to steal it;

To burn his pipe, or mend his clothes, Or nicely darn his russet hose, For comfort of his aged toes, So fine they cannot feel it.”[66]

The church was a small brick building, and the population, even as late as 1821, was under three hundred. The people were, says Mehetabel Wesley, “unpolished wights,” as “dull as asses,” and with heads “as impervious as stones.”

Such were Wesley’s parish and parishioners—not exactly the place where a poetical genius and classic scholar was likely to luxuriate; and yet there is no reason to entertain a doubt that Wesley was happy in his new sphere of labour. He loved retirement, and here he had it. It is not improbable that, for many a long year, Wroote would have been his residence, had not the rector of Lincoln College wished to have him back to Oxford. This gentleman had rendered such service to the Wesley family that the venerable father used to say, “I can refuse him nothing.”[67] Accordingly, the following letter, by Dr. Morley, was irresistible.

“October 21, 1729.

“At a meeting of the society, just before I left college, to consider the proper method to preserve discipline and good government, it was, in the opinion of all present, judged necessary that the junior fellows, who should be chosen moderators, shall in person attend the duties of their office, if they do not prevail with some of the fellows to officiate for them. We all thought it would be a great hardship on Mr. Fenton to call him from a perpetual curacy; yet this we must have done, had not Mr. Hutchins been so kind to him and us as to engage to supply his place in the hall for the present year. Mr. Robinson would as willingly supply yours, but the serving of two cures, about fourteen miles from Oxford, makes it, he says, impossible to discharge the duty constantly. We hope it may be as much for your advantage to reside at college as where you are, if you take pupils, or can get a curacy in the neighbourhood of Oxon. Your father may certainly have another curate, though not so much to his satisfaction; yet we are persuaded that this will not move him to hinder your return to college, since the interests of the college and obligation to statute require it.”

And so, because Fenton had a perpetual curacy, too good to be given up; and because Robinson, in his two parishes, had as much work as he could do, Wesley was forcibly removed from Wroote, and brought back to Oxford to fulfil his functions as a fellow. No time was lost. He returned to Oxford on November 22, 1729, and here continued until he embarked for Georgia on the 14th of October, 1735.

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