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22 chapters
PREFACE.
PREFACE.
My sole object in the preparation of this little volume has been to meet what I regard as a real want—a Life of John Wesley which shall include all the essential facts in his remarkable career, presented in such a comprehensive form as to be quickly read and easily remembered by all; not so expensive as to be beyond the reach of those of the most limited means, and not so large as to require much time, even of the most busy worker, to master its contents. I have sought to give my readers a faith
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INTRODUCTION.
INTRODUCTION.
What , another Life of John Wesley! Why not? This time a "Young People's Wesley." If ever the common people had an interest in any man, living or dead, that man is John Wesley. It is true that we already have many "Lives" of this remarkable man. They range from the massive volumes of Tyerman down to the booklet of a few pages. The truth abides that of making many books there is no end, and so more Lives of Wesley will be written from time to time as the years and centuries come and go. The reaso
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
During the latter part of the seventeenth and the first part of the eighteenth century England was the theater of stirring events. War was sounding its clarion notes through the land. Marlborough had achieved a series of brilliant victories on the Continent, which had filled and fired the national heart with the spirit of military glory. The English, at that time, had an instinctive horror of popery and power. James II, cruel, arbitrary, and oppressive, had been hurled from the throne as a plott
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
Samuel Wesley , father of John, was for forty years rector of Epworth Parish. He was an honest, conscientious, stern old Englishman; a firmer never clung to the mane of the British lion. He was the son of John Wesley, a Dissenting minister, who enjoyed, for a time, all the rights of churchmen. But, after the death of Cromwell, Charles II, whom the Dissenters had aided in restoring to the throne, and who had promised them toleration and liberty of conscience, on his return, finding the Church par
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
During the first eleven years of Wesley's life two events occurred worthy of note. At the age of five he was rescued from the burning parsonage almost by miracle. On a winter night, February 9, 1709, while all the family were wrapped in slumber, the cry of "Fire! fire!" was heard on the street. The rector was suddenly awakened, and, though half naked, sought to arouse his family. He rushed to the chamber, called the nurse and the children, and bade them "rise quickly and shift for themselves." A
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
It does not seem as if a Life of John Wesley would be complete without an account of what was known as the "Epworth rappings," which occurred in the home of Samuel Wesley in 1716, while John was at the Charterhouse School, London. They occasioned no little speculation among philosophers and doubters in general, not only at the time they occurred, but down to the present day. A brief description of these strange noises, and how they were regarded at the time, may be proper in this place. On the n
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
It was while he was a member of Lincoln College that that unparalleled religious career of Mr. Wesley, which has always been regarded as the most wonderful movement of modern times, began. "Whoever studies the simplicity of its beginning, the rapidity of its growth, the stability of its institutions, its present vitality and activity, its commanding position and prospective greatness, must confess the work to be not of man, but of God." The heart of the youthful collegian was profoundly stirred
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
One of the most remarkable chapters in the life of John Wesley relates to his mission to America. There was a tract of land in North America, lying between South Carolina and Florida, over which the English held a nominal jurisdiction. It was a wild, unexplored wilderness, inhabited only by Indian tribes. Under the sanction of a royal charter in 1732 a settlement was made in this territory, and as a compliment to the king, George II, it was named Georgia. The object of such a settlement was twof
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
Mr. Wesley's religious experience deserves special notice. If he was raised up by God for any purpose, it was to revive spiritual Christianity, which included justification by faith, entire sanctification, and the witness of the Holy Spirit. To understand his own experience on these doctrines is the object of this chapter. Let us first notice the external religious life which Mr. Wesley maintained prior to the wonderful change which occurred soon after his return from America. From his journals
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CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
No sooner had Mr. Wesley experienced the transforming power of grace than he hastened to declare it to all, taking "the world" for his "parish." After confessing to those immediately about him what God had done for his soul he flew with all possible speed to declare it to the miners in their darkness, to the Newgate felons in their loathsome cells, to the wealthy and refined worshipers at St. John's and St. Ives', offering in burning words a common salvation alike to the Newgate felon and to the
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
Divine Providence seems to indicate that some men are ordained or set apart to celibacy; that the special work to which they are particularly called is such as to make it necessary that they should abstain from that otherwise legal, sacred, and highly honorable conjugal relation. Not that this duty is restricted to any order of the clergy—as in the Romish Church—but to particular persons in all the Churches who are divinely selected for special work. This was the case with Elijah and Elisha, wit
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CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
Had the immense labors of John Wesley noted in a former chapter been performed under public patronage, cheered on by all, they would have seemed less arduous. Men may prosecute a reform when public opinion favors it with comparative ease, but with less entitlement to honor than he has a right to claim who does it in the face of passion and interest. The labors of John Wesley were prosecuted in the teeth of opposition such as seldom falls to the lot of man to endure. And what made it more dastard
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CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
Mr. Wesley was well versed in every phase of the theology of his times. Indeed, he was one of the best-read men of his age. That system of scriptural truth which he formulated has stood the test of the most searching criticism, being bitterly assailed on all sides. His theology has the advantage of having been forged in the hottest fires of controversy which have been witnessed during the last two centuries. And it is not presumption in us to say that it has revolutionized, in some marked featur
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
We are always more or less curious about the personal appearance of a distinguished character—the eye, the voice, the gesture, etc. We are told that Mr. Wesley's figure was, in all respects, remarkable. He was low of stature, with habit of body almost the reverse of corpulent, indicative of strict temperance and continual exercise. His step was firm, and his appearance vigorous and masculine; his face, even in old age, is described as remarkably fine—clear, smooth, with an aquiline nose, the bri
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
Mr. Wesley , it has been said, "was no stormy and dramatic Luther. He was no Cromwell, putting his enemies to the sword in the name of the Lord. He was no Knox, tearing down churches to get rid of their members. He was no Calvin; he did not burn anybody for disagreeing with him." George Whitefield was regarded as the prince of modern eloquence. Dr. Franklin (no mean judge) accorded him this rank. Charles Wesley was but little inferior to Whitefield as a pulpit orator; while Fletcher was not infe
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
Those moral reforms which have shaken the nations and in some cases revolutionized governments were scarcely known in the days of Wesley. He saw the coming storm and blew a trumpet-blast which gave no uncertain sound. In some of these reforms he was a hundred years in advance of his time. Slavery, in Wesley's time, was strongly supported by the English government. She had enriched herself from the African slave trade. Her great maritime cities were built on the bones, sinews, and flesh, cemented
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
The real advent of Methodism into America is a subject demanding special consideration. It has been generally supposed that its first introduction was in 1766 by Barbara Heck and Philip Embury, who inaugurated religious services at that time in the city of New York. But it has always seemed to us that Methodism was introduced much earlier. Mr. Whitefield's first visit to America was undertaken with the express purpose of assisting Wesley in his great work. But Wesley had left the field before he
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CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
So far as we are able positively to determine Methodism in America originated with immigrants from Ireland. To Barbara Heck must be given the honor of delivering the first Methodist exhortation, which aroused Philip Embury to return from his backslidings to God and give himself to the work of the ministry of Methodism. Blessed be the name of Barbara Heck! An angel would rejoice to share her honors! Who can estimate the value of that earnest personal appeal to that card-playing company? Soon a cr
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CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVII.
Though persecution and opposition followed John Wesley from the day he lifted up a standard of holiness within the classic walls of Oxford to the hour that God's chariot bore him to the city of the Great King, he never faltered in his purpose nor abated his zeal for an hour. As his end drew near, the opposition which had been so relentless began to give way. In many places it became greatly modified, and in others nearly extinct. That a great change had come began to be manifest in public opinio
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CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Wesley had reached his home—City Road—the proper place from which to be translated to his heavenly mansion. He is waiting for the chariot. His friends are deeply anxious. Joseph Bradford sends the following dispatch to the preachers: "Dear brethren, Mr. Wesley is very ill. Pray! Pray! Pray!" Looking over the whole of an extended life of unparalleled labor and suffering, he exclaims: The day following he was heard to say, "There is no way into the holiest but by the blood of Jesus." He frequently
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CHAPTER XIX.
CHAPTER XIX.
Rev. Dr. Rigg , author of The Living Wesley , says: "No single man for centuries has moved the world as Wesley moved it; since Luther, no man." Dr. Abel Stevens, the historian of Methodism, says Mr. Wesley "possessed, in an eminent degree, one trait of a master mind—the power of comprehending and managing at once the outlines and details of plans. It is this power that forms the philosophical genius in science; it is essential to the successful commander and great statesman. It is illustrated in
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CHAPTER XX.
CHAPTER XX.
When on March 2, 1791, John Wesley closed his eyes to earth and opened them in heaven the visible results of his life were already great. At the opening of this new century they are greater. Only a few rods from where he his "body with his charge laid down, and ceased at once to work and live," is Wesley's Chapel, City Road, the head center of universal Methodism. Standing on the walls of this Zion in 1791 and looking around, what would we see? Confining our vision within the bounds of Great Bri
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