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'' PERKINS LIBRARY Duke University Kare Doors Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/lifeofwesleyrise04sout THE LIFE OF WESLEY, VOL. II. Printed by Strahan and Spottiswoode, Printers-Street, London. J -~ ■ 7T. T. Fry sculp- '(':; K O :\l '0 E ^VM :i T :E :F T E E D. FubVsfa v ;'/>•■/. vtamanJEhrtt £• C''. London .March aSse. THE LIFE OF WESLEY; RISE AND PROGRESS fl^ettjoDtsm. By ROBERT SOUTHEY, Esq. POET LAUREATE, MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SPANISH ACADEMY, OF THE ROYAL SPANISH ACADEMY OF HISTORY, AND OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF THE NETHERLANDS, &C. Read not to contradict and confute ; nor to believe and take for granted ; nor to find talk and discourse : but to weigh and consider. Lord Bacon, IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, TATERNOSTER-ROW. 1820. 5003^5 THE LIFE OF WESLEY, CHAPTER XIIL DEATH OF MRS. WESLEY. WESLEY'S SISTERS. — - WESLEY AT EPWORTH. IVLethodism had now taken root in the land. Meeting-houses had been erected in various parts of the kingdom, and settled, not upon trustees, (which would have destroyed the unity of Wesley's scheme, by making the preachers dependent upon the people, as among the Dissenters,) but upon him- self, the acknowledged head and sole director of the society which he had raised and organised. Funds were provided by a financial regulation so well devised, that the revenues would increase in exact proportion to the increase of the members. Assistant preachers were ready, in any number that might be required, whose zeal and activity compensated, in no slight degree, for their want of learning; and whose inferiority of rank and edu- cation disposed them to look up to Mr. Wesley with deference as well as respect, and fitted them for the privations which they were to endure, and the company with which they were to associate. A system of minute inspection had been estab- lished, which was at once so contrived as to gratify VOL. II. b . 2 DEATH OF MRS. WESLEY. [1742. every individual, by giving him a sense of his own importance, and to give the preacher the most perfect knowledge of those who were under his charge. No confession of faith was required from any person who desired to become a member : in this Wesley displayed that consummate prudence which distinguished him whenever he was not led astray by some darling opinion. The door was thus left open to the orthodox of all descriptions, Churchmen or Dissenters, Baptists or Pasdobaptists, Presbyterians or Independents, Calvinists or Ar- miniansj no profession, no sacrifice of any kind was exacted. The person who joined the new so- ciety was not expected to separate himself from the community to which he previously belonged. He was only called upon to renounce his vices, and follies which are near a-kin to them. Like the Free-mason, he acquired by his initiation new con- nections and imaginary consequence ; but, unlike the Free-mason, he derived a real and direct benefit from the change which in most instances was operated in the habits and moral nature of the proselytes. To this stage Methodism had advanced when Wesley lost his mother, in a good old age, ready and willing to depart. Arriving in London from one of his circuits, he found her " on the borders of eternity j but she had no doubt or fear, nor any desire but, as soon as God should call, to depart and to be with Christ." On the third day after his arrival, he perceived that her change was near. « I sate down," he says, « on the bed-side. She 1742.] DEATH OF MRS. WESLEY. 3 was in her last conflict, unable to speak, but I be- lieve quite sensible. Her look was calm and se- rene, and her eyes fixed upward, while we com- mended her soul to God. From three to four the silver cord was loosing, and the wheel breaking at the cistern ; and then, without any struggle, or sigh, or groan, the soul was set at liberty. We stood round the bed, and fulfilled her last request, uttered a little before she lost her speech : £ Children, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to God.' " He performed the funeral service himself, and thus feelingly describes it: " Almost an innumerable company of people be- ing gathered together, about five in the afternoon I committed to the earth the body of my mother to sleep with her fathers. The portion of Scripture from which I afterwards spoke was, JT saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fed away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God ; and the books xvere opened, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. It was one of the most solemn assemblies I ever saw, or expect to see, on this side * eternity." * The epitaph which her sons placed upon her tomb-stone is remark- able. Instead of noticing the virtues of so extraordinary and exemplary a woman, they chose to record what they were pleased to call her con- version, and to represent her as if she had lived in ignorance of real Christianity during the life of her excellent husband. This is the inscription : — Here lies the body of Mrs. Susannah Wesley, the youngest and last surviving daughter of Dr. Samuel Annesley. B 2 4 DEATH OF MRS. WESLEY. Mrs. Wesley had had her share of sorrow. During her husband's life she had struggled with narrow circumstances, and at his death she was left dependent upon her children. Of nineteen children she had wept over the early graves of far the greater number : she had survived her son Samuel, and she had the keener anguish of seeing two of her daughters unhappy, and perhaps of foreseeing the unhappiness of the third j an unhappiness the more to be deplored, because it was not altogether un- deserved. Among Wesley's pupils at Lincoln was a young man, by name Hall, of good person, considerable talents, and manners which were in a high degree Jn sure and stedfast hope to rise And claim her mansion in the skies, A Christian here her flesh laid down, The cross exchanging for a crown. True daughter of affliction she, Inured to pain and misery, Mourn'd a long night of griefs and fears, A legal night of seventy years. The Father then reveal'd his Son, Him in the broken bread made known, She knew and felt her sins forgiven, And found the earnest of her Heaven. Meet for the fellowship above, She heard the call, " Arise, my Love i" I come, her dying looks replied, And lamb-like as her Lord she died. The third stanza alludes to her persuasion that she had received an assurance of the forgiveness of her sins at the moment when her son- in-law Hall was administering the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to her. — See vol. i. p. 29 1 . wesley's sisters. .' 5 prepossessing, to those who did not see beneath the surface of such things. Wesley was much at- tached to him ; he thought him humble and teach- able, and in all manner of conversation holy and unblameable. There were indeed parts of his con- duct which might have led a wary man to suspect either his sanity or his sincerity \ but the tutor was too sincere himself, and too enthusiastic, to enter- tain the suspicion which some of his extravagancies might justly have excited. He considered them as " starts of thought which were not of God, though they at first appeared to be ;" and was satisfied, because the young man " was easily convinced, and his imaginations died away." Samuel formed a truer judgement. " I never liked the man," says he, " from the first time I saw him. His smoothness never suited my roughness. He appeared always to dread me as a wit and a jester : this with me is a sure sign of guilt and hypocrisy. He never could meet my eye in full light. Con- scious that there was something foul at bottom, he was afraid I should see it, if I looked keenly into hi§ eye." John, however, took him to his bosom. He became a visitor at Epworth, won the affections of the youngest sister Kezia, obtained her promise to marry him, fixed the day, and then, and not till then, communicated the matter to her brother and her parents, affirming vehemently that " the thing was of God ; that he was certain it was God's will 5 God had revealed to him that he must marry, and that Kezia was the very person." Enthusiastic as Wesley himself was, the declaration startled him, b 3 6 Wesley's sisters. and the more so, because nothing could be more opposite to some of Hall's former extravagancies. Writing to him many years afterwards, when he had thrown off all restraints of outward decency, he says, " Hence I date your fall. Here were se- veral faults in one. You leaned altogether to your own understanding, not consulting either me, who was then the guide of your soul, or the parents of your intended wife, till you had settled the whole affair. And while you followed the voice of Na- ture, you said it was the voice of God." In spite, however, of the ominous fanaticism or impudent hypocrisy which Mr. Hall had mani- fested, neither Wesley nor the parents attempted to oppose the match : it was an advantageous one, and the girl's affections were too deeply en- gaged. But to the utter astonishment of all par- ties, in the course of a few days, Mr. Hall changed his mind, and pretending, with blasphemous ef- frontery, that the Almighty had changed His, de- clared that a second revelation had countermanded the first, and instructed him to marry not her, but her sister Martha. The family, and especially the brothers, opposed this infamous proposal with proper indignation ; and Charles addressed a poem * to * TO MISS MARTHA WESLEY. When want, and pain, and death, besiege our gate, And every solemn moment teems with fate, While clouds and darkness fill the space between, Perplex th' event, and shade the folded scene, In humble silence wait th' unuttered voice, Suspend thy will, and check thy forward choice ; wesley's sisters. the new object of his choice, which must have stung her like a scorpion whenever the recollection Yet, wisely fearful^ for th' event prepare, And learn the dictates of a brother's care. How fierce thy conflict, how severe thy flight ! When hell assails the foremost sons of light ! When he, who long in virtue's paths had trod, Deaf to the voice of conscience and of God, Drops the fair mask, proves traitor to his vow, And thou the temptress, and the tempted thou ! Prepare thee then to meet th' infernal war, And dare beyond what woman knows to dare ; Guard each avenue to thy flutt'ring heart, And act the sister's and the Christian's part. Heav'n is the guard of virtue; scorn to yield, When screen'd by Heav'n's impenetrable shield : Secure in this, defy th' impending storm, Tho' Satan tempt thee in an angel's form. And oh ! I see the fiery trial near : I see the saint,. in all his forms, appear ! By nature, by religion taught to please, With conquest flushed, and obstinate to press, He lists his virtues in the cause of hell, Heav'n, with celestial arms, presumes t' assail, To veil, with semblance fair, the fiend within, And make his God subservient to his sin 5 Trembling, I hear his horrid vows renew' d, I see him come, by Delia's groans pursued ; Poor injur'd Delia I all her groans are vain ! Or he denies, or list'ning, mocks her pain, What tho' her eyes with ceaseless tears\)'erflow, Her bosom heave with agonising woe ! What tho' the horror of his falsehood near, Tear up her faith, and plunge her in despair ! Yet, can he think (so blind to Heav'n's decree, And the sure fate of cursed apostacy) Soon as he tells the secret of his breast, And puts the angel off, and stands confess'd j When love, and grief, and shame, and anguish meet, To make his crimes and Delia's wrongs complete, That then the injur'd maid will cease to grieve, Behold him in a sister's arms — and live ? Mistaken wretch ! by thy unkindness hurl'd From ease, from love, from thee, and from the world, B 4 8 WESLEY S SISTERS. of its just severity recurred to her in after-life. But these remonstrances were of no avail, for Hall had won her affections also. " This last error," says Wesley, " was far worse than the first. But you was now quite above conviction. So, in spite of her poor astonished parent, of her brothers, of all your vows and promises, you jilted the younger and married the elder sister. The other, who had honoured you as an angel from heaven, and still loved you much too well, (for you had stolen her heart from the God of her youth,) refused to be comforted : she fell into a lingering illness, which terminated in her death. And doth not her blood still cry unto God from the earth ? Surely it is upon your head." Mr. Wesley died before the marriage : it is not to be believed that, under such circumstances, he Soon must she land on that immortal shore, Where falsehood never can torment her more; There all her suff 'rings, all her sorrows cease, Nor saints turn devils there to vex her peace. Yet hope not then, all specious as thou art, To taint, with impious vows, her sister's heart ; With proffer' d worlds lier honest soul to move, Or tempt her virtue to incestuous love. No ! wert thou as thou wast ! did Heav'n's first rays Beam on thy soul, and all the godhead blaze ! Sooner shall sweet oblivion set us free From friendship, love, thy perfidy and thee : Sooner shall light in league with darkness join, Virtue and vice, and heav'n and hell combine, Than her pure soul consent to mix with thine To share thy sin, adopt thy perjury, And damn herself to be reveng'd on thee; To load her conscience with a sister's blood, The guilt of incest, and the curse of God !" oin, T tie, I ine; J WESLEY S SISTERS. 9 would ever have consented to it ; and it is possible that his strong and solemn prohibition might have deterred his daughter from so criminal an union. Samuel observed bitterly of this fatal connection : " lam sure I may well say of that marriage, it will not, cannot come to good. ,, And he proposed that Kezia should live with him, in the hope that it might save her from " discontent perhaps, or from a worse passion." But, like most of her family, this injured girl possessed a lofty spirit. She subdued her resentment, and submitted with so much ap- parent resignation to the wrong which she had re- ceived, that she accompanied the foul hypocrite and his wife to his curacy. But it consumed her by the slow operation of a settled grief. Charles thus describes her welcome release in a letter to John : " Yesterday morning sister Kezzy died in the Lord Jesus. He finished his work, and cut it short in mercy. Full of thankfulness, resignation, and love, without pain or trouble, she commended her spirit into the hands of Jesus, and fell asleep." Till this time John Wesley believed that Mr. Hall was, " without all question, filled with faith and the love of God, so that in all England," he said, " he knew not his fellow." He thought him a pattern of lowliness, meekness, seriousness, and continual advertence to the presence of God, and, above all, of self-denial in every kind, and of suf- fering all things with joyfulness. " But now," he says, " there was a worm at the root of the gourd." For about two years after his marriage there was no apparent change in his conduct ; his wife then 10 wesley's sisters. began to receive her proper punishment from the caprice and asperity of his temper. After a while he seemed to recover his self-command, but soon again he betrayed a hasty and contemptuous dis- position : from having been the humble and de- voted disciple of the Wesleys, he contracted gra- dually a dislike towards them, and at length broke off all intercourse with them, public or private, because they would not, in conformity to his ad- vice, renounce their connection with the Church of England. He had now his own followers, whom he taught first to disregard the ordinances of re- ligion, then to despise them, and speak of them with contempt. He began to teach that there was " no resurrection of the body, no general judge- ment, no Hell, no worm that never dieth, no fire that never shall be quenched." His conduct, was now conformable to his principles, if indeed the principles had not grown out of a determined pro- pensity for vice and profligacy. Wesley addressed an expostulatory letter to him, in which he reca- pitulated, step by step,' his progress in degrada- tion. After stating to him certain facts, which proved the licentiousness of his life, he concluded thus : " And now you know not that you have done any thing amiss ! You can eat, and drink, and be merry ! You are every day engaged with variety of company, and frequent the coffee-houses ! Alas, my brother, what is this ! How are you above mea- sure hardened by the deceitfulness of sin ! Do you remember the story of Santon Barsisa ? I pray God your last end may not be like his ! Oh how have wesley's sisters. 11 you grieved the Spirit of God! Return to him with weeping, fasting, and mourning ! You are in the very belly of Hell ; only the pit hath not yet shut its mouth upon you. Arise, thou sleeper, and call upon thy God ! Perhaps He may yet be found. Because He yet bears with me, I cannot despair for you. But you have not a moment to lose. May God this instant strike you to the heart, that you may feel His wrath abiding on you, and have no rest in your bones by reason of your sin, till all your iniquities are done away." Soon after he had written this letter, which was done more for the purpose of delivering his own soul, as he says, than with any reasonable hope of impressing a man so far gone in depravity, Wesley, in the course of his travelling, came to Mr. Hall's house, at Salisbury, and was let in, though orders had been given that he should not be admitted. Hall left the room as soon as he entered, sent a message to him that he should quit the house, and presently turned his wife out of doors also. Having now thrown oft' all restraint and all regard to de- cency, he publicly and privately recommended po- lygamy as conformable to nature, preached in its defence, and practised as he preached. Soon he laid aside all pretensions to religion, professed him- self an infidel, and led for many years the life of an adventurer and a profligate/ at home and abroad; acting sometimes as a physician, some- times as a priest, and assuming any character ac- cording to the humour or the convenience of the day. Wesley thought that this unhappy man would 12 wesley's sisters. never have thus wholly abandoned himself to these flagitious propensities, if the Moravians had not withdrawn him from his influence, and therefore he judged them to be accountable for his perdi* tion. He seems to have felt no misgiving that he himself might have been the cause ; that Hall might have continued to walk uprightly if he had kept the common path ; and that nothing could be more dangerous to a vain and headstrong man of a heated fancy, than the notion that he had attained to Christian perfection, and felt in himself the ma- nifestations of the Spirit. Weary of this life at last, after many years, and awakened to a sense of its guilt as well as its vanity, he returned to England in his old age, resumed his clerical functions, and appears to have been received by his wife. Wesley was satisfied that his contrition was real, and hastened to visit him upon his death-bed ; but it was too late. " I came," he says, " just time enough not to see, but to bury poor Mr. Hall, my brother-in-law, who died, I trust, in peace, for God had given him deep repentance. Such another monument of divine mercy, considering how low he had fallen, and from what height of holiness, I have not seen, no, not in seventy years ! I had de- signed to visit him in the morning, but he did not stay for my coming. It is enough if, after all his •wanderings, we meet again in Abraham's bosom." Mrs. Hall bore her fate with resignation, and with an inward consciousness that her punishment was not heavier than her fault : — that fault excepted, the course, of her life was exemplary, and she lived 5 wesley's sisters. 13 to be the last survivor of a family whose years were protracted far beyond the ordinary age of man. Mehetabel, her sister, had a life of more un- mingled affliction. In the spring freshness of youth and hope, her affections were engaged by one who, in point of abilities and situation, might have been a suitable husband ; some circumstances, however, occasioned a disagreement with her father, the match was broken off, and Hetty committed a fatal error, which many women have committed in their just but blind resentment — she married the first person who offered. This was a man in no desirable rank of life, of coarse mind and manners, inferior to herself in education and in intellect, and every way unworthy of a woman whose equal in all things it would have been difficult to find. For her person was more than commonly pleasing, her disposition gentle and affectionate, her principles those which arm the heart either for prosperous or adverse fortune, her talents remarkable, and her attainments beyond what are ordinarily permitted to women, even those who are the most highly educated. Duty in her had produced so much af- fection toward the miserable creature whom she had made her husband, that the brutal profligacy of his conduct almost broke her heart. Under such feelings, and at a time when she believed and hoped that she should soon be at peace in the grave, she composed this Epitaph for herself: — Destined while living to sustain A n equal share of grief and pain, All various ills of human race Within this breast had once a place. 14 wesley's sisters. Without complaint she learn'd to bear A living death, a long despair ; Till hard oppressed by adverse fate, O'ercharged, she sank beneath the weight, And to this peaceful tomb retired, So much esteem' d, so long desired. The painful mortal conflict's o'er ; A broken heart can bleed no more. From that illness, however, she recovered, so far as to linger on for many years, living to find in religion the consolation which she needed, and which nothing else can bestow. The state of her mind is beautifully expressed in the first letter which she ever addressed to John upon the subject. " Some years ago," she says, " I told my brother Charles I could not be of his way of thinking then, but that if ever I was, I would as freely own it. After I was convinced of sin, and of your opinion, as far as I had examined your principles, I still forbore declaring my" sentiments so openly as I had inclination to do, fearing I should relapse into my former state. When I was delivered from this fear, and had a blessed hope that he who had be- gun would finish his work, I never confessed, so fully as I ought, how entirely I was of your mind ; because I was taxed with insincerity and hypocrisy whenever I opened my mouth in favour of religion, or owned how great things God had done for me. This discouraged me utterly, and prevented me from making my change as public as my folly and vanity had formerly been. But now my health is gone, I cannot be easy without declaring that I have long desired to know Jbut one thing, that is 12 Wesley's sisters. 15 Jesus Christ, and him crucified ; and this desire prevails above all others. And though I am cut off from all human help or ministry, I am not without assistance ; though I have no spiritual friend, nor ever had one yet, except perhaps once in a year or two, when I have seen one of my brothers, or some other religious person, by stealth ; yet (no thanks to me) I am enabled to seek Him still, and to be satisfied with nothing less than God, in whose presence I affirm this truth. — 1 dare not desire health, only patience, resignation, and the spirit of an healthful mind. I have been so long weak, that I know not how long my trial may last ; but I have a firm persuasion, and blessed hope, (though no full assurance,) that, in the country I am going to, I shall not sing Hallelujah, and holy, holy, holy, without company, as I have done in this. Dear brother, I am unused to speak or write on these things : I only speak my plain thoughts as they occur. Adieu ! If you have time from better business to send a line to Stanmore, so great a comfort would be as welcome as it is wanted." She lived eight years after this letter was written, bearing her sufferings with patience and pious hope. Charles was with her in her last illness. He says in his journal, " Prayed by my sister Wright, a gracious, tender, trembling soul ; a bruised reed, which the Lord will not break." " Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be thine ever- lasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended." From these words he preached her 16 WESLEY AT EPW0RTH. [1742. funeral sermon, with a feeling which brought him into " sweet fellowship with the departed ;" and he says, that all who were present seemed to par- take both of his sorrow and his joy. Another of the sisters married a clergyman by name Whitelamb, who had been John's pupil at Oxford, was beholden to the family * during his stay at college, and obtained the living of Wroote after his father-in-law's death. John, in the begin- ning of his regular itinerancy, on his way back from Newcastle, after his first appearance in that town, came to Epworth. Many years had elapsed since he had been in his native place, and not knowing whether there were any persons left in it who would not be ashamed of his acquaintance, he went to an inn, where, however, he was soon found out by an old servant of his father's. The next day being Sunday, he called upon the curate, Mr. Romley, and offered to assist him either by preaching or reading prayers ; but his assistance was refused, and the use of the pulpit was denied him. A rumour, however, prevailed, that he was to preach in the afternoon j the church was filled in consequence, and a sermon was delivered upon the evils of enthusiasm, to which Wesley listened with his characteristic composure. But when the sermon was over, his companion gave notice, as the * Writing to his brother Samuel in 1732, Wesley says, " John Whitelamb wants a gown much : I am not rich enough to buy him one at present. Jf you are willing, my twenty shillings (that were) should go towards that, I will add ten to them, and let it lie till I have tried my utmost with my friends to make up the price of a new one." 1742.] WESLEY. AT EPWORTH. 17 people were coming out, that Mr. Wesley, not being permitted to preach in the church, would preach in the church-yard at six o'clock. " Ac- cordingly," says he, " at six I came, and found such a congregation as I believe Epworth never saw before. I stood near the east end of the church, upon my father's tomb-stone, and cried, *> The kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.'" Wesley has been accused harshly and hastily of want of feeling, because he preached upon his father's grave. But it was from feeling, as much as enthusiasm, that he acted, knowing that he should derive a deeper passion from the ground upon which he stood ; like the Greek tragedian, who when he performed Electra, brought into the theatre the urn containing the ashes of his own child. Nor was there any danger that the act should be misconstrued by those who heard him : mad they might think him, but they knew his domestic cha- racter, and were assured that he had not stood with a holier or more reverential feeling beside that grave when his father's body was consigned to it, earth to earth. Seven successive evenings he preached upon that tomb-stone, and in noplace did he ever preach with greater effect. " Lamentations," he says, " and great groanings, were heard, God bowing their hearts so, and on every side, as, with one accord, they lifted up their voices and wept aloud ; several dropt down as dead ; and, among the rest, such a cry was heard of sinners groaning for the righteous-. VOL. II. c 18 WESLEY AT EPWORTH. [1742. ness of faith, as almost drowned my voice. - But many of these soon lifted up their heads with joy, and broke out into thanksgiving, being assured they now had the desire of their soul, the forgive- ness of their sins." Whitelamb was one of his au- ditors, and wrote to him afterwards in terms which, while they show a just sense of the rash doctrine that he preached, and the extravagance that he encouraged, show also the powerful ascendancy which Wesley had obtained over him by his talents and his virtues. " Dear brother," he says, " I saw you at Epworth on Tuesday evening. Fain would I have spoken to you, but that I am quite at a loss how to address or behave. Your way of thinking is so extraordinary, that your presence creates an awe, as if you were an inhabitant of an- other world. God grant you and your followers may always have entire liberty of conscience : will you not allow others the same ? Indeed I can- not think as you do, any more than I can help ho- nouring and loving you. Dear Sir, will you credit me ? I retain the highest veneration and affection for you. The sight of you moves me strangely. I feel, in a higher degree, all that tenderness and yearning of bowels with which I am affected toward every branch of Mr. Wesley's family. I cannot re- frain from tears when I reflect, this is the man who at Oxford was more than a father to me ! this is he whom I have there heard expound or dispute publicly, or preach at St. Mary's with such ap- plause ! and, oh that I should ever add, whom I have lately heard preach at Epworth ! Dear Sir, 174^.} WESLEY AT EPWOBTH. 19 is it in my power to serve or oblige you in any way ? Glad I should be that you would make use of me. God open all our eyes, and lead us into truth whatever it be." Wesley has said that Whitelamb did not at this time believe in Christianity, nor for many years afterwards. If it were so, the error was not im- probably occasioned by a strong perception of the excesses into which the Methodists had been be- trayed; just as monkery and the Romish fables produce irreligion in Catholic countries. But it is most likely a hasty, or a loose expression, for Whitelamb was a man of excellent character: no tendency to unbelief appears in such of his letters as have been published ; and the contrary inference may be drawn from what he says to Charles : " I cannot but look upon your doctrines as of ill con- sequence ; — consequence, I say; for, take them nakedly in themselves, and nothing seems more innocent ; nay, good and holy. Suppose we grant that in you and the rest of the leaders, who are men of sense and discernment, what is called the seal and testimony of the Spirit is something real, yet I have gpeat reason to think that, in the gene- rality of your followers, it is merely the effect of a heated fancy." This is judicious language, and certainly betrays no mark of irreligion. He offered his pulpit to Wesley,* and incurred much censure for so doing, from those who neither considered the relation in which he stood to him, nor did justice to his principles and feelings. eg 20 WESLEY AT EPWORTH. £1742. Some remarkable circumstances attended Wesley's preaching in these parts. Some of his opponents, in the excess of their zeal against enthusiasm, took up a whole waggon load of Methodists, and carried them before a justice. When they were asked what these persons had done, there was an awkward silence ; at last one of the accusers said, " Why, they pretended to be better than other people; and, besides, they prayed from morning till night." The magistrate asked if they had done nothing else. — " Yes, Sir," said an old man, " an't please your worship, they have converted my wife. Till she went among them she had such a tongue ! and now she is as quiet as a lamb!" — " Carry them back, carry them back," said the magistrate, " and let them convert all the scolds in the town." Among the hearers in the church-yard was a gen- tleman, remarkable for professing that he was of no religion : for more than thirty years he had not attended at public worship of any kind j and, per- haps, if Wesley had preached from the pulpit in- stead of the tomb-stone, he might not have been induced to gratify his curiosity by hearing him* But when the sermon was ended, Wesley perceived that it had reached him, and that he stood like a statue ; so he asked him abruptly, " Sir, are you a sinner ?" — " Sinner enough," was the reply, which was uttered in a deep and broken voice ; and he continued staring upwards, till his wife and ser- vants, who were all in tears, put him into his chaise and took him home* Ten years afterwards, Wesley says in his journal, 9 I called on the gentle- 1742. J WESLEY AT EP WORTH. §1 man who told me he was ' sinner enough/ when I preached first at Epworth on my father's tomb, and was agreeably surprised to find him strong in faith, though exceeding weak in body. For some years, he told me, he had been rejoicing in God without either doubt or fear, and was now waiting for the welcome hour when he should depart and be with Christ." There were indeed few places where his preach- ing was attended with greater or more permanent effect than at Epworth, upon this first visit. ** Oh," he exclaims, " let none think his labour of love is lost, because the fruit does not immediately ap- pear ! Near forty years did my father labour here, but he saw little fruit of all his labour. I took some pains among this people too ; and my strength also seemed spent in vain. But now the fruit ap- peared. There were scarce any in the town on whom either my father or I had taken any pains formerly, but the seed so long sown now sprung up, bringing forth repentance and remission of sins." The intemperate and indecent conduct of the curate must undoubtedly have provoked a feel- ing in favour of Wesley ; for this person, who was under the greatest obligations to the Wesley fa- mily, behaved toward him with the most offensive brutality. In a state of beastly intoxication him- self, he set upon him with abuse and violence in the presence of a thousand people ; and when some persons, who had come from the neighbouring towns to attend upon the new preacher, by his di- rection, waited upon Mr. Romley to inform him c 8 25 WESLEY AT EPWOltTH. [1742. that they meant to communicate on the following Sunday, he said to them in reply, " Tell Mr. Wesley I shall not give him the sacrament, for he is not fit" This insult called forth from Wesley a strong expression of feeling in his journal: " How wise a God," says he, " is our God ! There could not have been so Jit a place under Heaven where This should befal me : first, as my father's house, the place of my nativity, and the very place where, according to the strictest sect of our religion^ I had so long Uved a Pharisee. It was also^tf, in the highest degree, that he who repelled me from that very table, where I had myself so often distributed the bread of life, should be one who owed his all in this world to the tender love which my father had shown to his 3 as well as personally to himself?* CHAPTER XIV. OUTCRY AGAINST METHODISM. VIOLENCE OF MOBS AND MISCONDUCT OF MAGISTRATES. JVIethodism had now assumed some form and con- sistence. Meeting-houses had been built, societies formed and disciplined, funds raised, rules enacted,, lay preachers admitted, and a regular system of itinerancy begun. Its furious symptoms had sub- sided, the affection had reached a calmer stage of its course, and there were no longer any of those outrageous exhibitions which excited scandal and compassion, as well as astonishment. But Wesley continued, with his constitutional fervour, to preach the doctrines of instantaneous regeneration, assur- ance, and sinless perfection. These doctrines gave just offence, and became still more offensive when they were promulgated by unlettered men, with all the vehemence and self-sufficiency of fancied inspiration. Wesley himself added to the offence by the loftiness of his pretensions. In the preface to his third journal he says, " It is not the work. of man which hath lately appeared; all who calmly observe it must say, ' This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.' The man- ner wherein God hath wrought is as strange as the work itself. These extraordinary circumstances seem to have been designed by God for the farther c 4 24 OUTCRY AGAINST METHODISM. [1742. manifestation of his work, to cause his power to be known, and to awaken the attention of a drowsy world." He related cures wrought by his faith and his prayers, which he considered and repre- sented as positively miraculous. By thinking strongly on a text of Scripture which promised that these signs should follow those that believe, and by calling on Christ to increase his faith and confirm the word of his grace, he shook off instantane- ously, he says, a fever which had hung upon him for some days, and was in a moment freed from all pain, and restored to his former strength. He visited a believer at night who was not expected to live till the morning : the man was speechless and senseless, and his pulse gone. " A few of us," says Wesley, " immediately joined in prayers. I relate the naked fact. Before we had done, his senses and his speech returned. Now, he that will ac- count for this by natural causes has my free leave. But I choose to say, this is the power of God*" So, too, when his own teeth ached, he prayed, and the pain left him. And this faith was so strong, that it sufficed sometimes to cure not only himself but his horse also. " My horse," he says, " was so ex- ceedingly lame, that I was afraid I must have lain by. We could not discern what it was that was amiss, and yet he would scarce set his foot to the ground. By riding thus seven miles I was thoroughly tired, and my head ached more than it had done for some months. What I here aver is the naked fact : let every man account for it as he sees good I then thought, * Cannot God heal 7' 1742.] OUTCRY AGAINST METHODISM. 25 either man or beast, by any means, or without any?' Immediately my weariness and headache ceased, and my horse's lameness in the same in- stant. Nor did he halt any more either that day or the next. A very odd accident this also." Even those persons who might have judged fa- vourably of Wesley's intentions, could not but consider representations like these as discreditable to his judgement. But those who were less cha- ritable impeached his veracity, and loudly accused him of hypocrisy and imposture. The strangest suspicions and calumnies were circulated ; and men will believe any calumnies, however prepos- terously absurd, against those of whom they are disposed to think ill. He had hanged himself, and been cut down just in time ; — he had been fined for selling gin ; — he was not the real John Wesley, for every body knew that Mr. Wesley was dead. Some said he was a Quaker, others an Anabaptist : a more sapient censor pronounced him a Presby- terian-Papist. It was commonly reported that he was a Papist, if not a Jesuit ; that he kept Popish priests in his house; — nay, it was beyond dispute that he received large remittances from Spain, in order to make a party among the poor, and when the Spaniards landed, he was to join them with 20,000 men. Sometimes it was reported that he was in prison upon a charge of high treason ; and there were people who confidently affirmed that they had seen him with the Pretender in France. Reports to this effect were so prevalent, that when, in the beginning of the year 1744, a proclamation 26 OUTCRY AGAINST METHODISM. [1742. -was issued requiring all Papists to leave London, he thought it prudent to remain a week there, that he might cut off all occasion of reproach ; and this did not prevent the Surry magistrates from sum- moning him, and making him take the oath of al- legiance, and sign the declaration against Popery. Wesley was indifferent .to all other accusations, but the charge of disaffection, in such times, might have drawn on serious inconveniences ; and he drew up a loyal address to the King, in the name of " The Societies in derision called Methodists." They thought it incumbent upon them to offer this address, the paper said, if they must stand as a distinct body from their brethren j but they pro- tested that they were a part, however mean, of the Protestant Church established in these kingdoms ; and that it was their principle to revere the higher powers as of God, and to be subject for conscience sake. The address, however, was not presented, probably because of an objection which Charles started, of its seeming to allow that they were a body distinct from the National Church, whereas they were only a sound part of that Church. Charles himself was more seriously incommoded by the imputation of disloyalty than his brother. When he was itinerating in Yorkshire, an accusa- tion was laid against him of having spoken treason- able words, and witnesses were summoned before the magistrates at Wakefield to depose against him. Fortunately for him, he learnt this in time to pre- sent himself; and confront the witnesses. He had prayed that the Lord would call home his banished ones ; and this the accusers construed, in good faith, 1742.] OUTCRY AGAINST METHODISM. T{ to mean the Pretender. The words would have had that meaning from the mouth of a Jacobite. But Charles Wesley, with perfect sincerity, dis- claimed any such intention. " I had no thoughts," he said, " of praying for the Pretender, but for those who confess themselves strangers and pil- grims upon earth, — who seek a country, knowing this is not their home. You, Sir," he added, ad- dressing himself to a clergyman upon the bench ; " you, Sir, know, that the Scriptures speak of us as captive exiles, who are absent from the Lord while present in the body. We are not at home till we are in Heaven." The magistrates were men of sense : they perceived that he explained him- self clearly — that his declarations were frank and unequivocal, and they declared themselves per- fectly satisfied. Yet these aspersions tended to aggravate the in- creasing obloquy under which the Wesleys and their followers were now labouring. " Every Sun- day," says Charles, " damnation is denounced against all who hear us, for we are Papists, Jesuits, seducers, and bringers-in of the Pretender. The clergy murmur aloud at the number of communi- cants, and threaten to repel them." He was him- self repelled at Bristol, with circumstances of in- decent violence. 5* Wives and children," he says, " are beaten and turned out of doors, and the persecutors are the complainers : it is always the lamb that troubles the water I" A maid-servant was turned away by her master, " because," he .said, " he would have none in his house who had #8 OUTCRY AGAINST METHODISM. [1742. received the Holy Ghost !-" She had been thrown into the convulsions of Methodism, and continued in them fourteen hours. This happened at Bath, where, as Charles expresses himself, " Satan took it ill to be attacked in his head quarters." John had a curious interview there with Beau Nash, for it was in his reign. While he was preaching, this remarkable personage entered the room, came close to the preacher, and demanded of him by what authority he was acting. Wesley made answer, " By that of Jesus Christ, conveyed to me by the present Archbishop of Canterbury, when he laid his hands upon me and said, * Take thou authority to preach the Gospel/ " — Nash then affirmed that he was acting contrary to the laws : " Besides," said he, " your preaching frightens people out of their wits." — " Sir," replied Wesley, " did you ever hear me preach ?" — " No," said the Master of the Ce- remonies. — " How then can you judge of what you never heard?"— Nash made answer, " By com- mon report." — " Sir," said Wesley, " is not your name Nash ? I dare not judge of you by common report : I think it not enough to judge by." However accurate common report might have been, and however rightly Nash might have judged of the extravagance of Methodism, he was deliver- ing opinions in the wrong place ; and when he de- sired to know what the people came there for, one of the congregation cried out, " Let an old woman answer him : — you, Mr. Nash, take care of your body, we take care of our souls, and for the food of. our souls we come here." He found himself a 1742. J VIOLENCE OF MOBS. 2# very different person in the meeting-house from what he was in the pump-room or the assembly, and thought it best to withdraw. But Wesley had soon to encounter more danger- ous opposition. Bristol was the first place where he received any serious disturbance from the rabble. After several nights of prelusive uproar, the mob assembled in great strength. " Not only the courts and the alleys," he says, " but all the street upwards and downwards, was filled with people, shouting, cursing and swearing, and ready to swal- low the ground with fierceness and rage. They set the orders of the magistrates at nought, and grossly abused the chief constable, till a party of peace officers arrived and took the ringleaders into custody. When they were brought up before the mayor, Mr. Combe, they began to excuse them- selves, by reviling Wesley ;» but the mayor properly cut them short by saying, " What Mr. Wesley is is nothing to you. I will keep the peace. I will have no rioting in this city." And such was the effect of this timely and determined interposition of the civil power, that the Methodists were never again disturbed by the rabble at Bristol. In Lon- don also the same ready protection was afforded. The chairman of the Middlesex justices, hearing of the disposition which the mob had shown, called upon Mr. Wesley, and telling him that such things were not to be suffered, added, " Sir, I and the other Middlesex magistrates have orders from above to do you justice whenever you apply to us." This assistance he applied for when the mob stoned 30 VIOLENCE OF MOBS. [1742. him and his followers in the streets, and attempted to unroof the Foundry. At Chelsea they threw wildfire and crackers into the room where he was preaching. At Long-Lane they broke in the roof with large stones, so that the people within were in danger of their lives. Wesley addressed the rabble without effect ; he then sent out three or four steady and resolute men to seize one of the ringleaders : they brought him into the house, cursing and blaspheming, dispatched him under a good escort to the nearest justice, and bound him over to the next sessions at Guildford. A remarkable circum- stance occurred during this scene. One of the stoutest champions of the rioters was struck with sudden contrition, and came into the room with a woman who had been as ferocious as himself — both to fall upon their knees, and acknowledge the mercy of God. ' These disturbances were soon suppressed in the metropolis and its vicinity, where the magistrates knew their duty, and were ready to perform it ; but in some parts of the country, the very persons whose office it was to preserve the peace, instigated their neighbours and dependants to break it. Wesley had preached at Wednesbury, in Staffordshire, both in the town-hall, and in the open air, without mo- lestation. The colliers in the neighbourhood had listened to him peaceably j and between three and four hundred persons formed themselves into a so- ciety as Methodists. Mr. Egginton, the minister of that town, was at first well pleased with this ; but offence was given him by some great indis- ii 1742.] MISCONDUCT OF MAGISTRATES. 31 cretion, and from that time he began to oppose the Methodists by the most outrageous means. Some of the neighbouring magistrates were ignorant enough of their duty, both as magistrates and as men, to assist him in stirring up the rabble, and to refuse to act in behalf of the Methodists, when their per- sons and property were attacked. Mobs were col- lected by the sound of horn, windows were de- molished, houses broken open, goods destroyed or stolen, men, women, and children beaten, pelted, and dragged in the kennels, and even pregnant women outraged, to the imminent danger of their lives, and the disgrace of humanity. The mob said they would make a law, and that all the Methodists should set their hands to it ; and they nearly mur- dered those who would not sign a paper of recant- ation. When they had had the law in their own hands for four or five months, (such in those days was the state of the police !) Wesley came to Bir- mingham on his way to Newcastle ; and hearing of the state of things at Wednesbury, went there, like a man whose maxim it was always to look danger in the face. He preached in mid-day, and in the middle of the town, to a large assembly of people, without the slightest molestation either going or coming, or while he was on the ground. But in the evening the mob beset the house in which he was lodged : they were in great strength, and their cry was, " Bring out the minister ! we will have the minister !" Wesley, who never, on any occasion, lost his calmness or his self-possession, desired one of his friends to take the captain of 3% VIOLENCE OP MOBS. [1743* the mob by the hand, and lead him into the .house. The fellow was either soothed or awed by Wesley's appearance and serenity. He was desired to bring in one or two of the most angry of his companions : they were appeased in the same manner, and made way for the man whom, five minutes before, they would fain have pulled to pieces, that he might go out to the people. Wesley then called for a chair, got upon it, and demanded of the multitude what they wanted with him ? Some of them made answer, they wanted him to go with them to the justice. He replied, with all his heart ; and added a, few sentences, which had such an effect, that a cry arose, " The gentleman is an honest gentleman, and we will spill our blood in his defence." But when he asked whether they should go to the justice immediately, or in the morning, (for it was in the month of October, and evening was closing in,) most of them cried, " To-night, to-night !" Ac- cordingly they set out for the nearest magistrate's, Mr. Lane, of Bentley-Hall. His house was about two miles distant: night came on before they had walked half the way : it began to rain heavily : the greater part of the senseless multitude dispersed, but two or three hundred still kept together ; and as they approached the house, some of them ran forward to tell Mr. Lane they had brought Mr. Wesley before his worship. " What have I to do with Mr. Wesley?" was the reply : " go and carry him back again." By this time the main body came up, and knocked at the door. They were told that Mr. Lane was not to be spoken with j but 1743.J VIOLENCE OF MOBS. 33 the son of that gentleman came out, and enquired what was the matter. " Why, a'nt please you," said the spokesman, " they sing psalms all day ; nay, and make folks rise at five in the morning. And what would your worship advise us to do ?" " To go home," said Mr. Lane, " and be quiet." Upon this they were at a Stand, till some one ad- vised that they should go to Justice Persehouse, at Walsal. To Walsal therefore they went: it was about seven when they arrived, and the magistrate sent out word that he was in bed, and could not be spoken with. Here they were at a stand again : at last they thought the wisest thing they could do would be to make the best of their way home ; and about fifty undertook to escort Mr. Wesley ; not as their prisoner, but for the purpose of protecting him, so much had he won upon them by his command- ing and yet conciliating manner. But the cry had arisen in Walsal that Wesley was there, and a fresh fierce rabble rushed out in pursuit of their victim. They presently came up with him. His escort 'stood manfully in his defence ; and a woman, who was one of their leaders, knocked down three or four Walsal men, before she was knocked down herself, and very nearly murdered. His friends were presently overpowered, and he was left in the hands of a rabble too much infuriated to hear him speak. " Indeed," he says, " it was in vain to at- tempt it, for the noise on every side was like the roaring of the sea." The entrance to the town was down a steep hill, and the path was slippery, be- cause of the rain. Some of the ruffians endea- VOL. II. D 34< VIOLENCE OF MOBS. [1743. voured to throw him down, and, if they had ac- complished their purpose, it was not likely that he would ever have risen again : but he kept his feet. Part of his clothes was torn off; blows were aimed at him with a bludgeon, which, had they taken effect, would have fractured his skull ; and one cowardly villain gave him a blow on the mouth which made the blood gush out. With such out- rages they dragged him into the town. Seeing the door of a large house open, he attempted to go in, but was caught by the hair, and pulled back into the middle of the crowd. They hauled him to- ward the end of the main street, and there he made toward a shop-door, which was half open, and would have gone in, but the shopkeeper would not let him, saying, that, if he did, they would pull the house down to the ground. He made a stand, however, at the door, and asked if they would hear him speak ? Many cried out, " No, no ! knock his brains out ! down with him ! kill him at once !" A more atrocious exclamation was uttered by one or two wretches. " I almost tremble," says Wesley, " to relate it ! — * Crucify the dog! crucify him!'" Others insisted that he should be heard. Even in mobs that opinion will prevail which has the show of justice on its side, if it be supported boldly. He obtained a hearing, and began by asking, " What evil have I done ? which of you all have I wronged in word or deed ?" His power- ful and persuasive voice, his ready utterance, and his perfect self-command, stood him on this peril- ous emergency in good stead. A cry was raised, 1743.] VIOLENCE OF MOBS. 85 " Bring him away ! bring him away !" When it ceased, he then broke out into prayer ; and the very man who had just before headed the rabble, turned and said, " Sir, I will spend my life for you ! follow me, and not one soul here shall touch a hair of your head !" This man had been a prize- fighter at a bear-garden ; his declaration, there- fore, carried authority with it ; and when one man declares himself on the right side, others will se- cond him who might have wanted courage to take the lead. A feeling in Wesley's favour was now manifested, and the shopkeeper, who happened to be the mayor of the town, ventured to cry out, " For shame ! for shame ! let him go ;" having, perhaps, some sense of humanity, and of shame for his own conduct. The man who took his part conducted him through the mob, and brought him, about ten o'clock, back to Wednesbury in safety, with no other injury than some slight bruises. The populace seemed to have spent their fury in this explosion ; and when, on the following morning, he rode through the town on his departure, some kindness was expressed by all whom he met. A few days afterwards, the very magistrates who had refused to see him when he was in the hands of the rabble, issued a curious warrant, commanding dili- gent search to be made after certain " disorderly persons, styling themselves Methodist preachers, who were going about raising routs and riots, to the great damage of His Majesty's liege people, and against the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King." n, % 36 VIOLENCE OF MOBS. [lJ^S. It was only at Wednesbury that advantage was taken of the popular cry against the Methodists to break open their doors and plunder their houses ; but greater personal barbarities were exercised in other places. Some of the preachers received se- rious injury ; others were held under water till they were nearly dead ; and of the women who attended them, some were so treated by the cowardly and brutal populace, that they never thoroughly re- covered. In some places they daubed the preacher all over with paint. In others * they pelted the people in the meetings with egg-shells, which they had filled with blood and stopt with pitch. The progress of methodism was rather furthered than impeded by this kind of persecution, for it rendered the Methodists objects of curiosity and compassion ; and in every instance the preachers displayed that fearlessness which enthusiasm! inspires, and which, when the madness of the moment was over, made even their enemies respect them. * The most harmless mode of annoyance was practised at Bedford, The meeting-room was over a place where pigs were kept. An alder- man of the town was one of the society ; and his dutiful nephew took care that the pigs should always be fed during the time of preaching, that the alderman might have the full enjoyment of their music as well as their odour. Wesley says, in one of his Journals, " the stench from the swine under the room was scarce supportable. Was ever a preach- ing place over a hog-stye before ! Surely they love the gospel who come to hear it in such a place." f When John Leach was pelted near Rochdale in those riotous days, and saw his brother wounded in the forehead by a stone, he was mad enough to tell the rabble that not one of them could hit him, if he were to stand preaching there till midnight. Just then the mob began to quarrel among themselves, and therefore left off pelting. But the anecdote has been related by his brethren for his praise ! 1743.] MISCONDUCT OF MAGISTRATES. 3J These things were sufficiently disgraceful to the nation ; but the conduct of many of the provincial magistrates was far more so, for they suffered them- selves to be so far influenced by passion and po- pular feeling, as to commit acts of abominable oppression under the colour of law. The vicar of Birstal, which was John Nelson's home and head-quarters, thought it justifiable to rid the parish by any means of a man who preached with more zeal and more effect than himself; and he readily consented to a proposal from the alehouse-keepers that John should be pressed for a soldier ; for, as fast as he made converts, they lost customers. He was pressed accordingly, and taken before the commissioners at Halifax, where the vicar was one of the bench, and though persons enough attended to speak to his character, the commissioners said they had heard enough of him from the minister of his parish, and could hear nothing more. " So, gentlemen," said John, *« I see there is neither law nor justice for a man that is called a Methodist:" and addressing the vicar by his name, he said, " What do you know of me that is evil ? Whom have I defrauded ? or where have I contracted a debt that I cannot pay ?" — " You have no visible way of getting your living," was the reply. He answered, " I am as able to get my living with my hajids as any man of my trade in England is, and you know it." But all remonstrances were in vain, he was marched off to Bradford, and there, by order of the commissioners, put in the dungeon ? the filth and blood from the shambles ran into the D O 38 MISCONDUCT OF MAGISTRATES. [1743. I place, and the only accommodation afforded him there was some stinking straw, for there was not even a stone to sit on. John Nelson had as high a spirit and as brave a heart as ever Englishman was blessed with ; and he was encouraged by the good offices of many zealous friends, and the sympathy of some to whom he was , a stranger. A soldier had offered to be surety for him, and an inhabitant of Bradford, though an enemy to the Methodists, had, from mere feelings of humanity, offered to give security for him if he might be allowed to lie in a bed. His friends brought him candles, and meat and water, which they put through a hole in the door, and they sang hymns till a late hour in the night, they without and he within. A poor fellow was with him in this miserable place, who might have been starved if Nelson's friends had not brought food for him also. When they lay down upon their straw, this man asked him, " Pray, sir, are all these your kins- folk, that they love you so well ? I think they are the most loving people that ever I saw in my life." At four in the morning his wife came and spake to him through the hole in the door ; and John, who was now well read in his Bible, said that Jeremiah's lot was fallen upon him. The wife had profited well by her husband's lessons. Instead of bewail- ing for him and for herself, (though she was to be left with two children, and big with another,) she said to him, " Fear not ; the cause is God's for which you are here, and he will plead it himself: therefore be not concerned about me and the 1743.3 MISCONDUCT OF MAGISTRATES. 39 children ; for he that feeds the young ravens will be mindful of us. He will give you strength for your day ; and after we have suffered a while, he will perfect that which is lacking in our souls, and then bring uswhere the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest." Early in the morning he was marched, under a guard, to Leeds j the other pressed men were ordered to the alehouse, but he was sent to prison ; and there he thought of the poor pilgrims who were arrested in their pro- gress ; for the people came in crowds, and looked at him through the iron grate. Some said it was a shame to send a man for a soldier for speaking the truth, when they who followed the Methodists, and till that time had been as wicked as any in the town, were become like new creatures, and never an ill word was heard from their lips. Others wished that all the Methodists were hanged out of the way. " They make people go mad," said they ; " and we cannot get drunk or swear, but every fool must correct us, as if we were to be taught by them. And this is one of the worst of them." Here, however, he met with some kindness. The jailor admitted his friends to see him, and a bed was sent him by some compassionate person, when he must otherwise have slept upon stinking straw. On the following day he was marched to York, and taken before some officers. Instead of remon- strating with them upon the illegal manner in which he had been seized, and claiming his discharge, he began to reprove them for swearing 5 and when they told him he was not to preach there, for he d 4 40 MISCONDUCT OF MAGISTRATES. [1743. was delivered to them as a soldier, and must not talk in that manner to his officers, he answered, that there was but one way to prevent him, which was by not swearing in his hearing. John Nelson's reputation was well known in York, and the po- pular prejudice against the Methodists was Just at its height. " We were guarded through the city," he says, " but it was as if hell were moved from beneath to meet me at my coming. The streets and windows were filled with people, who shouted and huzzaed, as if I had been one that had laid waste the nation. But the Lord made my brow like brass, so that I could look on them as grass- hoppers, and pass through the city as if there had been none in it but God and myself." Lots were cast for him at the guard-house ; and when it was thus determined which captain should have him, he was offered money, which he refused to take, and for this they bade the sergeant hand-cuff him, and send him to prison. The hand-cuffs were not put on : but he was kept three days in prison, where he preached to the poor reprobates among whom he was thrown, and, wretches as they were, ignorant of all that was good, and abandoned to all that was evil, the intrepidity of the man who re- proved them for their blasphemies, and the sound reason which appeared amidst all the enthusiasm of his discourse, was not without effect. Strangers brought him food ; his wife also followed him here, and encouraged him to go on and suffer every thing bravely for conscience sake. On the third day a court-martial was held, and he was guarded to it 14 1743.] MISCONDUCT OF MAGISTRATES. 41 by a file of musqueteers, with their bayonets fixed. When the court asked, " What is this man's crime?" the answer was, " This is the Methodist preacher, and he refuses to take money :" upon which they turned to him, and said, " Sir, you need not find fault with us, for we must obey our orders, which are to make you act as a soldier : you are delivered to us ; and if you have not justice done you, we cannot help it." John Nelson plainly told them he would not fight, because it was against his way of thinking ; and when he again refused the money, which by their bidding was offered him, they told him, that, if he ran away, he would be just as liable to suffer as if he had taken it. He replied, ** If I cannot be discharged lawfully, I shall not run away. If I do, punish me as you please." He was then sent to his quarters, where his arms and accoutrements were brought him and put on. " Why do you gird me," said he, " with these warlike habiliments ? I am a man averse to war, and shall not fight, but under the Prince of Peace, the Captain of my salvation : the weapons he gives me are not carnal, like these." He must bear those, they told him, till he could get his dis- charge. To this he made answer, that he would bear them then as a cross, and use them as far as he could without defiling his conscience, which he would not do for any man on earth. There was a spirit in all this which, when it had ceased to excite ridicule from his comrades, ob- tained respect. He had as good opportunities of exhorting and preaching as he could desire : he 42 MISCONDUCT OF MAGISTRATES. [1743. distributed also the little books which Wesley had printed to explain and vindicate the tenets of the Methodists, and was as actively employed in the cause to which he had devoted himself, as if he had been his own master. At last the ensign of his company sent for him, and accosting him with an execration, swore he would have no preaching nor praying in the regiment. " Then," said John, " Sir, you ought to have no swearing or cursing neither ; for surely I have as much right to pray and preach, as you have to curse and swear." Upon this the brutal ensign swore he should be damnably flogged for what he had done. " Let God look to that," was the resolute man's answer. " The cause is His. But if you do not leave off your cursing and swearing, it will be worse with you than with me." The en- sign then bade the corporal put that fellow into prison directly ; and when the corporal said he must not carry a man to prison unless he gave in his crime with him, he told him it was for disobey- ing orders. To prison, therefore, Nelson was taken, to his heart's content ; and, after eight-and- forty hours' confinement, was brought before the major, who asked him what he had been put in confinement for. " For warning people to flee from the wrath to come," he replied j " and if that be a crime, I shall commit it again, unless you cut my tongue out ; for it is better to die than to dis- obey God." The major told him, if that was all, it was no crime : when he had done his duty, he might preach as much as he liked, but he must make no mobs. And then wishing that all men 8 1743.] MISCONDUCT OF MAGISTRATES. 43 were like him, he dismissed him to his quarters. But Nelson was not yet out of the power of the ensign. One Sunday, when they were at Darling- ton, hoping to find an occasion for making him feel it, he asked him why he had not been at church. Nelson replied, " I was, Sir, and if you had been there, you might have seen me ; for I never miss going when I have an opportunity." He then asked him if he had preached since they came there : and being told that he had not pub- licly, wished, with an oath, that he would, that he might punish him severely. John Nelson did not forbear from telling him, that if he did not repent and leave off his habit of swearing, he would suffer a worse punishment than it was in his power to inflict ; and it was not without a great effort of self-restraint, that he subdued his resentment at the insults which this petty tyrant poured upon him, and the threats which he uttered. " It caused a sore temptation to arise in me," he says, " to think that an ignorant wicked man should thus torment me, — and I able to tie his head and heels together ! I found an old man's bone in me ; but the Lord lifted up a standard, when anger was coming on like a flood ; else I should have wrung his neck to the ground, and set my foot upon him." The Wesleys, however, meantime, were exerting their influence to obtain his discharge, and succeeded by means of the Countess of Hunt- ingdon. His companion, Thomas Beard, who had been pressed for the same reason, would probably have been discharged also, but the consequence 44 VIOLENCE OF MOBS. [174& of his cruel and illegal impressment had cost him his life. He was seized with a fever, the effect of fatigue and agitation of mind : they let him blood, the arm festered, mortified, and was amputated; and he died soon after the operation ! Resort was had to the same abominable measure for putting a stop to Methodism in various other places. A society had been formed at St. Ives, in Cornwall, by Charles Wesley. There was, how- ever, a strong spirit of opposition in that country ; and when news arrived that Admiral Matthews had beaten the Spaniards, the mob pulled down the preaching-house for joy. " Such," says Wes- ley, " is the Cornish method of thanksgiving ! — 1 suppose if Admiral Lestock had fought too, they would have knocked all the Methodists on the head \" The vulgar supposed them to be disaf- fected persons, ready to join the Pretender as soon as he should land ; and men in a higher rank of life, and of more attainments, thought them " a parcel of crazy-headed fellows," and were so offended and disgusted with their extravagances, as not only to overlook the good which they really wrought amOng those who were not reclaimable by any other means, but to connive at, and even encourage any excesses which the brutal multitude might choose to commit against them. As the most ex- peditious mode of proceeding, pressing was resorted to; and some of the magistrates issued warrants for apprehending several of these obnoxious people, as being " able-bodied men, who had no lawful calling or sufficient maintenance;" — a pretext ab- 1743.] MISCONDUCT OF MAGISTRATES. 45 solutely groundless. Maxfield was seized by virtue of such a warrant, and offered to the captain of a king's ship then in Mount's Bay ; but the officer refused to receive him, saying, " I have no au- thority to take such men as these, unless you would have me give him so much a-week to preach and pray to my people." He was then thrown into prison at Penzance ; and when the mayor in- clined to release him, Dr. Borlase, who, though a man of character and letters, was not ashamed to take an active part in proceedings like these, read the articles of war, and delivered him over as a soldier. A few days afterwards Mr. Ustick, a Cornish gentleman, came up to Wesley himself, as he was preaching in the open air, and said, " Sir, I have a warrant from Dr. Borlase, and you must go with me." It had been supposed that this was striking at the root ; and that if John Wesley him- self were laid hold ofj Cornwall would be rid of his followers. But, however plausible this may have seemed when the resolution was formed, Mr. Ustick found himself considerably embarrassed when he had taken into his custody one who, in- stead of being a wild hare-brained fanatic, had all the manner and appearance of a respectable clergy- man, and was perfectly courteous and. self-pos- sessed. He was more desirous now of getting well out of the business than he had been of engaging in it ; and this he did with great civility, asking him if he was willing to go with him to the Doctor. Wesley said, immediately, if he pleased. Mr.- Us- tick replied, " Sir, I must wait upon you to your 46 MISCONDUCT OF MAGISTRATES. [1743. inn, and in the morning, if you will be so good as to go with me, I will show you the way." They rode there accordingly in the morning : — the Doctor was not at home, and Mr. Ustick, saying that he had executed his commission, took his leave, and left Wesley at liberty. That same evening, as Wesley was preaching at Gwenap, two gentlemen rode fiercely among the people, and cried out, " Seize him ! seize him for His Majesty's service !" Finding that the order was not obeyed, one of them alighted, caught him by the cassock, and said, " I take you to serve His Majesty." Taking him then by the arm, he walked away with him, and talked till he was out of breath of the wickedness of the fellows belonging to the society. Wesley at length took advantage of a break in his discourse to say, " Sir, be they what they will, I apprehend it will not justify you in seizing me in this manner, and violently carrying me away, as you said, to serve His Majesty." Rage by this time had spent itself, and was suc- ceeded by an instant apprehension of the conse- quence which might result from acting illegally towards one who appeared likely to understand the laws, and able to avail himself of them. The colloquy ended in his escorting Mr. Wesley back to the place from whence he had taken him. The next day brought with it a more serious adventure. The house in which he was visit- ing an invalid lady at Falmouth, was beset by a mob, who roared out, " Bring out the Canorum — where is the Canorum !" a nickname which the 1743.] MISCONDUCT OF MAGISTRATES. 4T/ Cornish-men had given to the Methodists — it is not known wherefore. The crews of some privateers headed the rabble, and presently broke open the outer door, and filled the passage. By this time the persons of the house had all made their escape, except Wesley and a poor servant girl, who, for it was now too late to retire, would have had him con- ceal himself in the closet. He himself, from the imprecations of the rabble, thought his life in the most imminent danger, but any attempt at con- cealment would have made the case more des- perate ; and it was his maxim always to look a mob in the face. As soon, therefore, as the partition was broken down, he stepped forward into the midst of them : — " Here I am ! which of you has any thing to say to me ? To which of you have I done any wrong? To you? or you? or you?" Thus he made his way bare-headed into the street, and continued speaking, till the captain swore that not a man should touch him : a clergyman and some of the better inhabitants came up and interfered, led him into a house, and sent him safely by water to PeUryn. Charles was in equal or greater danger at De- vizes. The curate there took the lead against him, rung the bells backwards to call the rabble to- gether ; and two dissenters, of some consequence in the town, set them on, and encouraged them, sup- plying them with as much ale as they would drink, while they played an engine into the house, broke the windows, flooded the rooms, and spoiled the goods. The mayor's wife conveyed a message to 48 VIOLENCE OF MOBS. [1743. Charles, beseeching that he would disguise himself in women's clothes, and try to make his escape. Her son, a poor profligate, had been turned from the evil of his ways by the Methodists, just when he was about to run away and go to sea, and this had inclined her heart towards those from whom she had received so great a benefit. This, however, would have been too perilous an expedient. The only magistrate in the town refused to act when he was called upon : and the mob began to untile the house, that they might get in through the roof. " I remembered the Roman senators," says Charles Wesley, " sitting in the Forum, when the Gauls broke in upon them, but thought there was a fitter posture for Christians, and told my companion they should take us on our knees." He had, how- ever, resolute and active friends, one of whom succeeded, at last, in making a sort of treaty with a hostile constable ; and the constable undertook to bring him safe out of town, if he would promise never to preach there again. Charles Wesley re- plied, " I shall promise no such thing : setting aside my office, I will not give up my birth-right, as an Englishman, of visiting what place I please in His Majesty's dominions." The point was compro- mised, by his declaring that it was not his pre- sent intention ; and he and his companion, were escorted out of Devizes by one of the rioters, the whole multitude pursuing them with shouts and execrations. Field preaching, indeed, was at this time a ser- vice of great danger j and Wesley dwelt upon this 1743.J VIOLENCE OF MOBS. 49 with great force, in one of his Appeals to Men of Reason and Religion. " Who is there among you, brethren," he says, " that is willing (examine your own hearts) even to save souls from death at this price ? Would not you let a thousand souls perish, rather than you would be the instrument of rescuing them thus ? I do not speak now with regard to conscience, but to the inconveniences that must accompany it. Can you sustain them if you would ? Can you bear the summer sun to beat upon your naked head ? Can you suffer the wintry rain or wind from whatever quarter it blows ? Are you able to stand in the open air, without any covering or defence, when God casteth abroad his snow like wool, or scattereth his hoar frost like 1 ashes? And yet these are some of the smallest inconveniences which accompany field-preaching. For, beyond all these, are the contradiction of sinners, the scoffs both of the great vulgar and the small; contempt and reproach of every kind — often more than verbal affronts — stupid, brutal violence, sometimes to the hazard of health, or limbs, or life. Brethren, do you envy us this ho- nour ? What, I pray you, would buy you to be a field-preacher ? Or what, think you, could induce any man of common sense to continue therein one year, unless he had a full conviction in himself \ that it was the will of God concerning him ? Upon this conviction it is (were we to submit to these things on any other motive whatever, it would furnish you with a better proof of our distraction than any that has yet been found) that we now do VOL. H. E 50 VIOLENCE Ot MOBS. [1743. for the good of souls what you cannot, will not, dare not do. And we desire not that you should : but this one thing we may reasonably desire of you — do not increase the difficulties, which are al- ready so great, that, without the mighty power of God, we must sink under them. Do not assist in trampling down a little handful of men, who, for the present, stand in the gap between ten thousand poor wretches and destruction, till you find some others to take their places." The wholesome prosecution of a few rioters, in different places, put an end to enormities which would never have been committed, if the local ma- gistrates had attempted to prevent them. The of- fenders were not rigorously pursued; they generally submitted before the trial, and it sufficed to make them understand that the peace might not be broken with impunity. " Such a mercy is it," says Wesley, " to execute the penalty of the law on those who will not regard its precepts ! So many inconveniences to the innocent does it prevent, and so much sin in the guilty." 51 CHAPTER XY. SCENES OF ITINERANCY. I:.. When Wesley began his course of itinerancy, there were no turnpikes * in England, and no stage- coach which went farther north than York. In many parts of the northern counties neither coach nor chaise had ever been seen. He travelled on horseback, always with one of his preachers in company ; and, that no time might be lost, he generally read as he rode. Some of his journies were exceedingly dangerous, — through the fens of his native country, when the waters were out, and over the fells of Northumberland, when they were covered with snow. Speaking of one, the worst of such expeditions, which had lasted two days in tremendous weather, he says.. " Many a * Wesley probably paid more for turnpikes than any other man in England, for no other person travelled so much ; and it rarely happened to him to go twice through the same gate in one day. Thus he felt the impost heavily, and, being a horseman, was not equally sensible of the benefit derived from it. This may account for his joining in what was at one time the popular cry. Writing, in 1770, he says, " I was agreeably surprised to find the whole road from Thirst to Stokes ley, which used to be extremely bad, better than most turnpikes. The gentlemen had exerted themselves, and raised money enough to mend it effectually. So they have done for several hundred miles in Scot- land, and throughout all Connaught, in Ireland. And so undoubtedly they might do throughout all England, without saddling the poor people with the vile imposition of turnpikes for ever." E C Z 5°Z SCENES OF ITINERANCY. rough journey have I had before, but one like this I never had, between wind, and hail, and rain, and ice, and snow, and driving sleet, and piercing cold. But it is past. Those days will return no more, and are therefore as though they had never been. Pain, disappointment, sickness, strife, Whate'er molests or troubles life, However grievous in its stay, It shakes the tenement of clay, — When past, as nothing we esteem, And pain, like pleasure, is a dream." For such exertions and bodily inconveniences he was overpaid by the stir which his presence every where excited, the power which he exercised, the effect which he produced, the delight with which he was received by his disciples, and, above all, by the approbation of his own heart, the certainty that he was employed in doing good to his fellow- creatures, and the full persuasion that the Spirit of God was with him in his work. At the commencement of his errantry, he had sometimes to bear with an indifference and insen- sibility in his friends, which was more likely than any opposition to have abated his ardour. He and John Nelson rode from common to common, in Cornwall, preaching to a people who heard will- ingly, but seldom or never proffered them the slightest act of hospitality. Returning one day in autumn from one of these hungry excursions, Wes- ley stopt his horse at some brambles, to pick the fruit. " Brother Nelson," said he, " we ought SCENES OF ITINERANCY. 53 to be thankful that there are plenty of blackberries,, for this is the best country I ever saw for getting a stomach, but the worst that ever I saw for get- ting food. * Do the people think we can live by preaching?" They were detained some time at St. Ivest, because of the illness of one of their com- panions ; and their lodging was little better than their fare. " All that time," says John, " Mr. Wesley and I lay on the floor : he had my great- coat for his pillow, and I had Burkett's Notes on. the New Testament for mine. After being here near three weeks, one morning, about three o'clock, Mr. Wesley turned over, and finding me awake, * Wesley has himself remarked the inhospltality of his Cornish dis~~ ciples, upon an after-visit in 1748, but he has left a blank for the name of the place. " About four," he says, " I came to ; examined the leaders of the classes for two hours : preached to the largest con- gregation I had seen in Cornwall : met the society, and earnestly charged them to beware of covetousness. All this time I was not asked to eat or drink. After the Society, some bread and cheese were set before me. I think, verily, will not be ruined by entertaining me once a-year." A little society in Lincolnshire, at this time, were charitable even to an excess. " I have not seen such another in all England," says Wesley. " In the class paper, which gives an account of the contribution for the poor, I observed one gave eight-pence, often ten-pence a-week ; another thirteen, fifteen, or eighteen-pence ; another sometimes one, sometimes two shillings. I asked Micah El- moor, the leader, (an Israelite, indeed, who now rests from his labour,) how is this ? are you the richest society in England ? He answered, ' I suppose not; but all of us, who are single persons, have agreed to- gether to give both ourselves, and all we have, to God; and we do it gladly; whereby we are able, from time to time, to entertain all the strangers that come to Tetney, who often have no food to eat, nor any friend to give them a lodging.' " f In his last Journal, Wesley notices the meeting-house of the Methodists at this place being " unlike any other in England, both as to its form and materials. It is exactly round, and composed wholly o£ brazen slags, which, I suppose, will last as long as the earth." E 3 54 SCENES OF ITINERANCY. clapped nie on the side, saying, f Brother Nelson y let us be of good cheer, I have one whole side yet ; for the skin is off but on one side.' " It was only at the beginning of his career that he had to complain of inhospitality and indiffer- ence. As he became notorious to the world, and known among his own people, it was then con-? sidered a blessing and an honour to receive so dis- tinguished a guest and so delightful a companion ; a man who, in rank and acquirements, was supe- rior to those by whom he was generally enter- tained ; whose manners were almost irresistibly winning, and whose cheerfulness was like a per- petual sunshine. He had established for himself a dominion in the hearts of his followers, — in that sphere he moved as in a kingdom of his own ; and, wherever he went, received the homage of gratitude, implicit confidence, and reverential af- fection. Few men have ever seen so many affect- ing instances of the immediate good whereof they were the instruments. A man nearly fourscore years of age, and notorious in his neighbourhood for cursing, swearing, and drunkenness, was one day among his chance hearers, and one of the company, perhaps with a feeling like that of the Pharisee in the parable, was offended at his pre- sence. But, when Wesley had concluded his dis- course, the old sinner came up to him, and catching him by the hands, said, " Whether thou art a good or a bad man I know not ; but I know the words thou speakest are good ! I never heard the like in all my life. Oh that God would set them SCENES OF ITINERANCY. 55 home upon my poor soul !" And then he burst into tears, so that he could speak no more. A Cornish man said to him, " Twelve years ago I was going over Gulvan Downs, and I saw many people to- gether ; and 1 asked what was the matter ? They told me, a man going to preach. And I said, to be sure it is some 'mazed man ! But when I saw you, I said, nay, this is no 'mazed man. And you preached on God's raising the dry bones ; and from that time I could never rest till God was pleased to breathe on me, and raise my dead soul!" A woman, overwhelmed with affliction, went out one night with a determination of throw- ing herself into the New River. As she was pass- ing the Foundery, she heard the people singing : she stopt, and went in ; listened, learnt where to look for consolation and support, and was thereby preserved from suicide. Wesley had been disappointed of a room at Grimsby, and when the appointed hour for preach- ing came, the rain prevented him from preaching at the Cross. In the perplexity which this occa- sioned, a convenient place was offered him by a woman, " which was a sinner." Of this, how- ever, he was ignorant at the time, and the woman listened to him without any apparent emotion. But in the evening he preached eloquently, upon the sins and the faith of her who washed our Lord's feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head ; and that discourse, by which the whole congregation were affected, touched her to the heart. She followed him to his lodging, crying e 4> 56 SCENES OF ITINERANCY. out, " O, Sir, what must I do to be saved ?'* Wesley, who now understood that she had forsaken her husband, and was living in adultery, replied, " Escape for your life ! Return instantly to your husband !" She said, she knew not how to go ; she had just heard from him, and he was at New- castle, above an hundred miles off. Wesley made answer, that he was going for Newcastle himself the next morning; she might go with him, and his companion should take her behind him. It was late in October : she performed the journey under this protection, and in a state of mind which be- seemed her condition. " During our whole jour- ney," he says, " I scarce observed her to smile ; nor did she ever complain of any thing, or appear moved in the least with those trying circumstances which many times occurred in our way. A steady seriousness, or sadness rather, appeared in her whole behaviour and conversation, as became one that felt the burthen of sin, and was groaning after salvation." — " Glory be to the Friend of sinners !" he exclaims, when he relates the story. " He hath plucked one more brand out of the fire ! Thou poor sinner, thou hast received a prophet in the name of a prophet, and thou art found of Him that sent him." The husband did not turn away the penitent j and her reformation appeared to be sincere and permanent. After some time the hus- band left Newcastle, and wrote to her to follow him. " She set out," says Wesley, " in a ship bound for Hull. A storm met them by the way: the ship sprung a leak j but though it was near the SCENES OF ITINERANCY. 5J shore, on which many persons flocked together, yet the sea ran so exceedingly "high, that it was im- possible to make any help. Mrs. S. was seen stand- ing on the deck, as the ship gradually sunk ; and afterwards hanging by her hands on the ropes, till the masts likewise disappeared. Even then, for some moments, they could observe her floating upon the waves, till her clothes, which buoyed her up, being thoroughly wet, she sunk — I trust, into the ocean of God's mercy !" Wesley once received an invitation from a cler- gyman in the country, whom he describes as a hoary, reverend, and religious man, whose very sight struck him with an awe. The old man said, that, about nine years ago, his only son had gone to hear Mr. Wesley preach, a youth in the flower of his age, and remarkable for piety, sense, and learning above his years. He came home, ill of the small-pox j but he praised God for the comfort which he derived from the preaching on that day, rejoiced in a full sense of his love, and triumphed in that assurance over sickness, and pain, and death. The old man added, that from that time he had loved Mr. Wesley, and greatly desired to see him ; and he now blessed God .that this desire had been fulfilled before he followed his dear son into eternity ! One day a post-chaise was sent to carry him from Alnwick to Warkworth, where he had been entreated to preach. " I found in it," says he, ." one waiting for me, whom, in the bloom of youth, mere anguish of soul had brought to the 58 SCENES OF ITINERANCY. gates of death. She told me the troubles which held her in on every side, from which she saw no way to escape. I told her, " The way lies straight before you : what you want is the love of God. I believe God will give it you shortly. Perhaps it is his good pleasure to make you, a, poor bruised reed, the first witness here of that great salvation. Look for it just as you are, unfit, unworthy, unholy, — by simple faith, — every day, every hour." She did feel the next day something she could not com- prehend, and knew not what to call it. In one of the trials, which used to sink her to the earth, she was all calm, all peace and love ; enjoying so deep a communication with God, as nothing external could interrupt. « Ah, thou child of affliction, of sorrow, and pain, hath Jesus found out thee also ? And he is able to find and bring back thy husband — as far as he is wandered out of the way !" The profligates whom he reclaimed sometimes returned to their evil way j and the innocent, in. whom he had excited the fever of enthusiasm, were sometimes, when the pulse fell, left in a feebler state of faith than they were found ; but it was with the afflicted in body or in mind that the good which he produced was deep and permanent. Of this he had repeated instances, but never a more memorable one than when he visited one of his female disciples, who was ill in bed, and after haying buried seven of her family in six months, had just heard that the eighth, her husband, whom she dearly loved, had been cast away at sea. " I asked her," he says, " do you not fret at any of *3 SCENES OF ITINERANCY. 59 these things ?" She said, with a lovely smile, " Oh, no : how can I fret at any thing which is the will of God ? Let Him take all beside, He has given me Himself. I love, I praise Him every mo- ment!"—