CHAPTER XVII.

Methodism in Ireland-Friendly Clergy-Hymn-making-Marriage of Charles Wesley-Education-Kingswood School-Theological and Biblical: Using the Press-Making and Selling Books-Marriage of John Wesley.

A

NEW field was entered about 1747. Ireland was then em

inently a land of popery. Hearing that a Methodist Society had been formed in Dublin, John Wesley crossed the Irish Channel, and spent a few weeks in that city, preaching, examining the classes, and strengthening the Society. On his return Charles took his place in Ireland, and spent six months there, preaching with great power in many places. He was surprised at the kindness of his reception, at the absence of persecution. But so soon as the word began to take effect, so soon as the great door and effectual was open, the adversaries appeared. Nor was there any lack of them afterward. Instead of rotten eggs at long range, clubs were used, and many a scar and deep wound was received. This entry occurs in his journal in October: "I opened our new house at Dolphin's-barn, by preaching to a great multitude within and without. After preaching five times to-day, I was as fresh as in the morning." Something more civil than popish shillalahs occurred at Cork-a presentment by the grand jury: "We find and present," say they, "Charles Wesley to be a person of ill fame, a vagabond, and a common disturber of His Majesty's peace, and we pray he may be transported." They made the same presentment with respect to seven other Methodist preachers, most of whose names they misspelled. Well might John Wesley pronounce this "memorable presentment" "worthy to be preserved in the annals of Ireland for all succeeding generations." Charles was in London when these enlightened Hibernians gave judgment concerning his character and declared him worthy of a felon's doom. He wrote a hymn of triumph on the occasion.

John Wesley often visited Ireland, to the end of his life. Forty-two times he crossed the Irish Channel, and spent, in his different visits, at least half a dozen years of his laborious life among that people. There were difficulties, but success had a

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peculiar charm, and true piety an apostolic flavor, in that land. To his long and frequent absences the leaders in London objected; but Wesley's prophetic answer was: "Have patience, and Ireland will repay you." An efficient native ministry was raised up; a distinct, though not an independent, religious connection was formed; so that the Irish Methodists had their own Annual Conference, became a distinguished part of the Wesleyan body, and have had the gratification of presenting to the Wesleyan itinerancy some of its most able and useful ministers. Among these may be mentioned Thomas Walsh, Henry Moore, William Myles, Walter Griffith, Gideon Ousley, and Adam Clarke, to say nothing of those who are now serving their generation, by the will of God, both at home and in the wide field of missions.

American Methodism is indebted for some of its best ministers and members to the Emerald Isle. Strawbridge, Embury, and Drumgoole were only the first installment of spiritual wealth drawn from that source. In Ireland some of the richest trophies of Methodism were won, and there some of its rarest incidents occurred. "Swaddlers" the witty sinners dubbed the new sect. Cennick was preaching in Dublin on a Christmasday. His text was Luke ii. 12: "Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and lying in a manger." A drunken fellow, who was listening at the door to pick up something by which he might ridicule this new religion, hearing the word "swaddling" often repeated, ran along the street exclaiming, "O these people are swaddlers, they are swaddlers!" The name quickly took, and became the badge of opprobrium through Ireland. Even the eloquence of Whitefield could not charm the rioters. Once he was near being killed outright. "I received many blows and wounds-one was particularly large and near my temples. I thought of Stephen, and was in hopes, like him, to go off in this bloody triumph to the immediate presence of my Master." He used to say, in speaking of this event, that in England, Scotland, and America he had been treated only as a common minister of the gospel, but that in Ireland he had been elevated to the rank of an apostle, in having had the honor of being stoned. In his American tours he often entertained friends with a history of narrow escapes from the mobs while preaching in the old country. A Virginia lady, who died at a great age, used to tell how he would catch her on his lap, saying: "Come here, my lit

success.

tle girl," raising his wig and taking her hand, "here, put your finger in that gash-there is where the brickbat hit me." At the Annual Conferences from time to time a few clergymen are seen. Wesley sought their coöperation as a body with small On his fingers he might have counted those of the Established Church who helped him to inaugurate the religious revival. Of Meriton little is known. He was in Cornwall once when Charles Wesley was preaching "against harmless diversions," having three clergymen among his auditors. "By harmless diversions," exclaimed the preacher, "I was kept asleep in the devil's arms, secure in a state of damnation for eighteen years!" No sooner were the words uttered than Meriton added aloud, "And I for twenty-five!" "And I," cried Thompson, "for thirty-five!" "And I," said Bennett, the venerable minister of the church, "for about seventy!" Hodges was the rector of Wenvo, in South Wales, and his heart and pulpit were always open to the Wesleys whenever they visited the principality. The brothers often mention him in their journals, and always with respect and affection. He stood by them when they preached in the open air, and cheerfully bore a share in their reproach. Henry Piers, the vicar of Bexley, and his excellent wife, were both brought to the knowledge of the truth through the instrumentality of Charles Wesley, and were cordially attached both to him and his brother. Some of John's early publications were written in Piers's house, to which he retired as a quiet asylum from his public toils. Samuel Taylor was descended from the celebrated Dr. Rowland Taylor, who was forcibly ejected from his church in "bloody Mary's" reign; whom Bonner was about to strike with his crosier, and was only hindered by Taylor telling him he would strike back. He was vicar of Quinton in Gloucestershire, and, like Wesley, went out into the highways and hedges, and was a sharer in the brutal persecutions of Wednesbury, and other places. The parents of Richard What'coat, one of the first American bishops, belonged to Taylor's parish; and Richard, when a child, sat under his ministry.

In time Grimshaw, incumbent of Haworth, came on. He was converted through the labors of a Methodist, and so helped and cooperated with the intinerant preachers in his part of the country that they were called "Grimshaw's preachers." He visited the classes frequently, attended and preached at the quarterly

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meetings, and held love-feasts in the Societies. He maintained intimacy with the preachers, entertained them at his house, and built a chapel and dwelling-house for them at his own expense. The landlord at Colne complained that Grimshaw had preached in that town "damnation beyond all sense and reason," and that "every week, and almost every day, he preached in barns and private houses, and was a great encourager of conventicles." On account of his preaching excursions through his parish and beyond it, and his outdoor, off-hand talking and praying, he was reported to his bishop by the clergy; but his lordship had too much policy or piety to deal hardly with the good man. Grimshaw afterward observed to a party of friends: "I did expect to be turned out of my parish on this occasion, but if I had, I would have joined my friend Wesley, taken my saddle-bags, and gone to one of his poorest circuits." Four hamlets were comprised in his parish. He preached in these villages monthly, in order to reach the aged and infirm. Frequently he would preach before the doors of such as neglected the parish worship: "If you will not come to hear me at the church, you shall hear me at home; if you perish, you shall perish with the sound of the gospel in your ears." Vincent Perronet was vicar of Shoreham, in the county of Kent. He entered fully into those views of divine truth which the Wesleys inculcated, and became a spiritual and holy man. Two of his sons became itinerant preachers; he wrote various tracts in defense of the Wesleyan tenets; to him Wesley's "Plain Account of the People called Methodists" was originally addressed; and to the end of life he was the cordial friend and the wise adviser of John and Charles Wesley, under all their cares.

The old Methodists were remarkable for their singing. "Happy people love to sing." Naturally, the two brothers were full of poetry; and religion fanned the fire into a holy flame. Their taste in music may be gathered from Wesley's directions to the preachers: "Suit the tune to the words. Avoid complex tunes, which it is scarcely possible to sing with devotion. Repeating the same words so often, especially while another repeats different words, shocks all common sense, necessarily brings in dead formality, and has no more religion in it than a Lancashire hornpipe." On one occasion he writes: "I was greatly disgusted at the manner of singing. Twelve or fourteen persons kept it to themselves, and quite shut out the congregation." It has been

estimated that during his life-time there were published no fewer than six thousand six hundred hymns from the pen of Charles Wesley only. While he was preaching two and three times a day, during the intervals of public worship he was engaged in the composition of hymns. When on his way from Bristol to Newcastle, says he: "Near Ripley, my horse threw and fell upon me. My companion thought I had broken my neck; but my leg only was bruised, my hand sprained, and my head stunned -which spoiled my making hymns, or thinking at all, till the next day." He wrote that animated hymn beginning,

See how great a flame aspires,

Kindled by a spark of grace,

on the joyful occasion of his ministerial success, and that of his fellow-laborers, in Newcastle and its vicinity. The imagery, doubtless, was suggested by the large fires connected with the collieries, which illuminate the whole of that part of the country at night.

At Cardiff he writes: "My subject was wrestling Jacob. Some whole sinners were offended at the sick and wounded, who cried out for a physician. But such offenses must needs come." After preaching on the same topic at Gwennap Gap, that grand amphitheater for field-preachers in Wales, and at the New Room in Bristol, and elsewhere, and being thoroughly saturated with the theme, he composed the hymn,

Come, O thou Traveler unknown,

Whom still I hold, but cannot see.

The venerable Dr. Watts, then rich in years and honors, was too generous and pious to regard with envy the gifts conferred upon Charles Wesley. "Wrestling Jacob" is said to have especially arrested his attention; and, with a magnanimity worthy of his character, he exclaimed, "That single poem is worth all the verses I have ever written!"

At forty years of age Charles Wesley was married. Marmaduke Gwynne, of Garth, Wales, was one of Howell Harris's converts. His wife was one of six heiresses, inheriting each £30,000. Their mansion, with its twenty domestics and private chapel and chaplain, and nine children, would hardly be selected as the place for training the wife who first graced the itinerancy. "I expressed the various searchings of my heart in many hymns