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employed the same time, the same diligence, and the same intenseness of thought in the several branches of that work for which they willingly gave up all."

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But although Wesley was not desirous that his preachers should labour to obtain a reputation for learning, he repelled the charge of ignorance. the one thing," he says, " which they profess to know, they are not ignorant men. I trust there is not one of them who is not able to go through such an examination in substantial, practical, experimental divinity, as few of our candidates for holy orders, even in the University (I speak it with sorrow and shame, and in tender love,) are able to do. But oh! what manner of examination do most of those candidates go through? and what proof are the testimonials commonly brought (as solemn as the form is wherein they run) either of their piety or knowledge, to whom are entrusted those sheep which God hath purchased with his own blood?"

No founder of a monastic order ever more entirely possessed the respect, as well as the love and the admiration of his disciples; nor better understood their individual characters, and how to deal with each according to the measure of his capacity. Where strength of mind and steadiness were united with warmth of heart, he made the preacher his counsellor as well as his friend: when only simple zeal was to be found, he used it for his instrument as long as it lasted. An itinerant, who was troubled with doubts respecting his call, wrote to him in a fit of low spirits, requesting that he would send a preacher to supersede him in his circuit, because he believed he was out of his place. Wesley repliplied in one short sentence, "Dear brother, you are indeed out of your place; for you are reasoning, when you ought to be praying." And this was all. Thus tempering his authority, sometimes with playfulness, and always with kindness, he obtained from his early followers an unhesitating, a cheerful, and a devoted obedience. One of them, whom he had summoned from Bristol to meet him at Holyhead, and accompany him to Ireland, set out on foot, with only

three shillings in his pocket. It is a proof how confidently such a man might calculate upon the kindliness of human nature, that, during six nights out of seven, this innocent adventurer was hospitably entertained by utter strangers, and when he arrived he had one penny left. John Jane (such was his name) did not long survive this expedition: he brought on a fever bywalking in exceeding hot weather; and Wesley, recording his death in his journal, concludes in this remarkable manner:-"All his clothes, linen and woollen, stockings, hat, and wig, are not thought sufficient to answer his funeral expenses, which amount to 11. 17s. 3d. All the money he had was 1s. 4d.— Enough for any unmarried preacher of the gospel to leave to his executors!" St. Francis himself might have been satisfied with such a disciple.

Men were not deterred from entering upon this course of life by a knowledge of the fatigue, the privations, and the poverty to which they devoted themselves; still less by the serious danger they incurred, before the people were made to understand that the Methodists were under the protection of the law. There is a stage of enthusiasm in which these things operate as incitements; but this effect ceases as the spirit sinks to its natural level. Many of the first preachers withdrew from the career when their ardour was abated; not because they were desirous of returning to the ways of the world, and emancipating themselves from the restraints of their new profession, but because the labour was. too great. Some received regular orders, and became useful ministers of the Establishment; others obtained congregations among the Dissenters; others resumed the trades which they had forsaken, and, settling where the Methodists were numerous, officiated occasionally among them. The great extent of ground over which they were called to itinerate, while the number of preachers was comparatively small, occasioned them, if they were married men, or had any regard for their worldly welfare, thus to withdraw themselves; for the circuits were at that time so wide, that the itinerant could only command two or three

days in as many months, for enjoying the society of his family, and looking after his own concerns. Yet more persons than might have been expected persevered in their course, and generally had reason, even in a worldly point of view, to congratulate themselves upon the part which they had taken. From humble, or from low life, they were raised to a conspicuous station: they enjoyed respect and influence in their own sphere, which was the world to them; and, as moral and intellectual creatures, they may indeed be said to have been new-born, so great was the change which they had undergone.

Conversions have sometimes been produced by circumstances almost as dreadful as the miracle by which Saul the persecutor was smitten down. Such were the cases of S. Norbert, (omitting all wilder legends,) of S. Francisco de Borja, of the Abbe de Rance, and, in our own days, of Vanderkemp. Sometimes the slightest causes have sufficed, and a chance word has determined the future character of the hearer's life. The cases in Methodism have

generally been of the latter kind. A preacher happened to say in a sermon, "there are two witnesses, dead and buried in the dust, who will rise up in judgment against you !" And holding up the Bible, he continued, "these are the two witnesses that have been dead and buried in the dust upon your shelf; the Old Testament and the New!" One man was present who felt what was said, as if his own guilt had been recorded against him, and was thus mysteriously revealed. "I felt," says he, "what was spoken. I remembered that my Bible was covered with dust, and that I had written my name with the point of my finger upon the binding. I thought I had signed my own damnation on the back of the witnesses." This brought on a fearful state of mind. He went home in great terror; and seeing a dead toad in his path, he wished, he says, that he had been a toad also, for then he should have had no soul to lose. the middle of the night, while labouring under such feelings, he sat up in bed, and said, "Lord, how will it be with me in hell?" Just then a dog began to

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howl under his window, and reminded him of the weeping and gnashing of teeth. After a perilous struggle between Methodism and madness, the case came to a favourable termination, and John Furz spent the remainder of his days as a preacher.

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A party of men were amusing themselves one day at an alehouse in Rotherham, by mimicking the Methodists. It was disputed who succeeded best, and this led to a wager. There were four performers, and the rest of the company was to decide, after a fair specimen from each. A Bible was produced, and three of the rivals, each in turn mounted the table, and held forth, in a style of irreverent buffoonery, wherein the Scriptures were not spared. John Thorpe, who was the last exhibiter, got upon the table in high spirits, exclaiming, I shall beat you all! He opened the book for a text, and his eyes rested upon these words, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish! These words, at such a moment, and in such a place, struck him to the heart. He became serious, he preached in earnest, and he affirmed afterwards, that his own hair stood erect at the feelings which then came upon him, and the awful denunciations which he uttered. His companions heard him with the deepest silence. When he came down, not a word was said concerning the wager; The left the room immediately, without speaking to any one, went home in a state of great agitation, and resigned himself to the impulse which had thus strangely been produced. In consequence, he joined the Methodists, and became an itinerant preacher: but he would often say, when he related this story, that if ever he preached by the assistance of the Spirit of God, it was at that time.

Many of Wesley's early coadjutors have left memoirs of themselves, under the favourite title of their "Experience." A few sketches from these authentic materials will illustrate the progress and nature of Methodism; and while they exhibit the eccentricities of the human mind, will lay open also some of its

recesses.

CHAPTER XVII.

JOHN OLIVER.-JOHN PAWSON.-ALEXANDER MATHER.-
THOMAS OLIVERS.

JOHN OLIVER, the son of a tradesman, at Stockport, in Cheshire, received the rudiments of a liberal education at the grammar-school in that town; but at the age of thirteen, in consequence of reduced circumstances, was taken into his father's shop. When he was about fifteen, the Methodists came to Stockport; he partook the general prejudice against them, and calling upon one with whom he chanced to be acquainted, took upon himself to convince him that he was of a bad religion, which was hostile to the church. The Methodist, in reply. easily convinced him that he had no religion at all. His pride was mortified at this defeat, and he went near his acquaintance no more; but the boy was touched at heart also: he left off his idle and criminal diversions, (of which cock-fighting was one,) read, prayed, fasted, regularly attended church, and repeated the prayers and collects every day. This continued some months, without any apparent evil; but having, at his father's instance, spent a Sabbath evening at an inn, with some young comrades from Manchester, and forgotten all his good resolutions while he was in their company, he came home at night in an agony of mind. He did not dare to pray: his conscience stared him in the face; and he became melancholy. The cause of this distemper was more obvious than the cure; and when he was invited one evening to attend a meeting, the father declared he would knock his brains out if he went, though he should be hanged for it. John Oliver knew how little was meant by this threat, and stole away to the sermon. He "drank it in with all his heart;" and having afterwards been informed, by a female disciple, of the manner of her conversion, he was "all in a flame to know these 9

VOL. II.

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