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people. His text befitted the occasion: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted; to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." In a few days more, he was standing on the top of Hannam Mount, in Kingswood, proclaiming: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price!" and in the afternoon of that same day he again stood up amid five thousand, and cried, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink!"

Whitefield, committing his outdoor congregations to Wesley, left for Wales to work on the same line of things. As he passed through Kingswood, the colliers stopped him; they had prepared an "entertainment" for him, and offered subscriptions for a charity school to be established among them. Laying, at their request, a corner-stone for the building, he knelt down on the ground and prayed that the gates of hell might not prevail against it; to which rough voices responded "Amen."

With the exception of brief visits to London in June, September, and November, and of a short tour into Wales, Wesley spent from April to the end of 1739 in Bristol and its neighborhood, and delivered about five hundred discourses and expositions in the nine months, only eight of which were in "consecrated places." His preaching plan was as follows: An exposition to one or other of the Bristol societies every night, and preaching every Sunday morning, and every Monday and Saturday afternoon. At Kingswood (including Hannam Mount, Rose Green, and Two Mile Hill), he preached twice every Sabbath, and also every alternate Tuesday and Friday. At Baptist Mills (a suburb of Bristol), he preached every Friday; at Bath, once a fortnight, on Tuesday; and at Pensford, once a fortnight, on Thursday. Besides this, every morning he read prayers and preached at the prison.

When his brother returned from Herrnhut, Charles Wesley met him with great joy in London, and they "compared their experience in the things of God." He now first began to preach extempore. Islington was one of the few London churches which had a rector in sympathy with Methodism, and Charles accepted a curacy under him. But the church-wardens, with the counte

nance of the bishop, soon ousted him, and he was thrown, without knowing why, into the current of great events. Protesting against the intolerance of man, by copying the example of man's Redeemer, he too went forth into the fields calling sinners to repentance. Little did Charles dream what was before him, when he made this entry in his journal: "March 28th. We strove to . dissuade my brother from going to Bristol, to which he was pressingly invited, from an unaccountable fear that it would prove fatal to him. He offered himself willingly to whatever the Lord should appoint. The next day he set out, recommended by us to the grace of God. He left a blessing behind him. I desired to die with him."

His holding forth in society-meetings and in private houses, and his irregular way of saving souls, could not long escape notice. Whilst John Wesley was still at Bristol, Charles had a painful interview at Lambeth with the archbishop. His grace took no exceptions to his doctrine, but condemned the irregularity of his proceedings, and even hinted at excommunication. This threw him into great perplexity of mind, until Whitefield, with characteristic boldness, urged him to preach "in the fields the next Sunday; by which step he would break down the bridge, render his retreat difficult or impossible, and be forced to fight his way forward." This advice was followed. He writes:

June 24th, I prayed and went forth in the name of Jesus Christ. I found near a thousand helpless sinners waiting for the word in Moorfields. I invited them in my Master's words, as well as name: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." The Lord was with me, even me, the meanest of his messengers, according to his promise. At St. Paul's, the psalms, lessons, etc., for the day, put new life into me; and so did the sacrament. My load was gone, and all my doubts and scruples. God shone on my path, and I knew this was his will concerning me. I walked to Kennington Common, and cried to multitudes upon multitudes: "Repent ye, and believe the gospel." The Lord was my strength, and my mouth, and my wisdom. O that all would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness!

At Oxford, the dean rebuked and threatened him for his fieldpreaching; but he seized the opportunity of bearing his testimony to justification by faith, preaching with great boldness before the university. On his return to London, he resumed fieldpreaching in Moorfields, and on Kennington Common. At one time it was computed that as many as ten thousand persons were collected, and great numbers were roused to a serious inquiry

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after religion. His word was occasionally attended with an overwhelming influence.

The three great preachers are now liberated. Thanks to bigotry! God overrules the wrath of man. These things shall turn out for the furtherance of the gospel. "It was by field-preaching," remarks a thoughtful critic of the movement then dating, "and in no other possible way, that England could be roused from its spiritual slumber, or Methodism spread over the country, and rooted where it spread. The men who commenced and achieved this arduous service-and they were scholars and gentlemen-displayed a courage far surpassing that which carries the soldier through the hail-storm of the battle-field. Ten thousand might more easily be found who would confront a battery than two who, with the sensitiveness of education about them, could mount a table by the road-side, give out a psalm, and gather a mob."

"The field-preaching of Wesley and Whitefield, in 1739," says Isaac Taylor, "was the event whence the religious epoch, now current, must date its commencement. Back to the events of that time must we look, necessarily, as often as we seek to trace to its source what is most characteristic of the present time."

[Wesley's Journals; Tyerman's Life and Times of Rev. John Wesley, M.A.; and Watson's Life of Wesley, furnish the substance of this Chapter.]

CHAPTER XII.

Difficulties and Triumphs of Field-preachers-Bodily Agitations: How Accounted for-Active Enemies-Lukewarm Friends-The Word Prevails.

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O wonder Methodists were "made a gazing stock." Their style of preaching and their doctrine were novel. Being convinced," writes Wesley, "of that important truth which is the foundation of all real religion, that 'by grace we are saved through faith,' we immediately began declaring it to others. Indeed, we could hardly speak of any thing else, either in public or private. It shone upon our minds with so strong a light that it was our constant theme. It was our daily subject, both in verse and prose; and we vehemently defended it against all mankind. But in doing this, we were assaulted and abused on every side. We were stoned in the streets, and several times narrowly escaped with our lives. In sermons, newspapers, and pamphlets of all kinds, we were painted as unheard-of monsters." Hutton's Memoirs gives a lively description:

In the year 1739 open-air preaching commenced in England; for the clergy had closed all their churches against the Methodists, and the Bishop of London (Dr. Edmund Gibson) had inhibited any Methodist preacher from becoming an assistant (adjunct) at Islington Church. Both bishop and clergy remained steadfast in their determination to eradicate Methodism, with its advocates, from their pulpits. The congregations which flocked to the open-air preaching were composed of every description of persons from all parts of the town, who without the slightest attempt at order assembled, crying "Hurrah!" with one breath, and with the next bellowing and bursting into tears on account of their sins; some poking each other's ribs, laughing, and throwing stones and dirt, and almost pressing one another to death; others joyously shouting "Halleluiah," etc. In fact, it was a jumble of extremes of good and evil; and so distracted alike were both preachers and hearers, that it was enough to make one cry to God for his interference. After awhile matters proceeded less disorderly, a tolerable silence prevailed, and many present, who had come prepared to hurl stones at the preacher, received something in their hearts for time and eternity. Here thieves, prostitutes, fools, people of every class, several men of distinction, a few of the learned, merchants, and numbers of poor people who had never entered a place of worship, assembled in these crowds and became godly.

The messengers of salvation who go into the highways and hedges seeking lost souls, must take people as they find them.

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That was doubtless a disorderly multitude which heard the words, "How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." The congregation that flocked to the sea-side, "without the slightest attempt at order," were privileged to hear the original of the Parable of the Sower. The multitude to whom the Sermon on the Mount was addressed was not select. When the Master looked upon these masses of human beings-restless, unhappy, ignorant-he was "moved with compassion" for them as sheep having no shepherd. Similar feelings become his servants. Esthetic taste must be held in abeyance, and clerical dignity stand aside; the people must be reached and subdued to the gospel; and Methodism, by its birth and baptism, is pledged to this work. The author of Hutton's Memoirs was a Moravian, of social culture, affecting "stillness;" he delighted to instruct, and was capable of instructing, the choice spirits that could be gathered into a "society-room," or the parlor on "College street, Westminster," or the cosy office of his book-store. An agency is wanted that is bolder and more aggressive; for the world will never be reached and converted at that rate. "Multitudes" must be added to the Church daily. The acute observer before quoted remarks:

Within the Moravian circle, the prevailing force is centripetal; within the Wesleyan, it is centrifugal. The Church of the Brethren has conserved within its small inclosures an idea of what was imagined to be pristine Christianity; and it has moored itself, here and there, in sheltered nooks of the world, amid the wide waters of general impiety or formality; but no such tranquil witness-bearing to primitive principles could have satisfied Wesley's evangelical zeal; and the Methodism which he framed was an invasive encampment upon the field of the world.*

While enemies were ready to revile, those who ought to have been friends were cautious in their indorsement. Even the good Dr. Doddridge wrote (May 24, 1739): "I think the Methodists sincere; I hope some may be reformed, instructed, and made serious by their means. I saw Mr. Whitefield preaching on Kennington Common last week to an attentive multitude, and heard much of him at Bath; but, supposing him sincere and in good earnest, 1 still fancy that he is but a weak man-much too positive, says rash things, and is bold and enthusiastic. I am most heartily glad to hear that any real good is done anywhere to the souls of men," etc. Now and then a more outspoken Christian man ap

*Wesley and Methodism.