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178

EARLY LIFE AND STUDIES OF WESLEY.

His father was a learned, devout and hard-working clergyman of the Church of England, and the son was destined to the same profession. With all the facilities which Oxford could afford, his rare talents and severe application left all rivals behind him in every field of learning he entered. He passed from Latin and Greek to Hebrew and Arabic, became familiar with French, and excelled in mathematics. Eminently handsome, well bred, and of genial manners; brilliant in conversation, fond of society, free from any asceticism, and mingling warmly with the world; with views made large and a spirit made liberal by vast reading and extensive observation; endowed with a strong and vivid imagination, and a keen appreciation of praise, he would seem to have found in oratory, poetry and love, the highest fields for the exertion of his wonderful gifts; and we find these tendencies coloring all his future life.

Overflowing with such munificent capabilities, it became a matter of no little consequence to the world what direction they were to take, for the temporal and eternal fortunes of more millions of men were to be determined by his movements, than have hung upon half the great battle-fields of history. The broad fields through which the stream of his influence was to flow, would either wave with luxuriance, or be swept with desolation. I will snatch from my unwilling limits one sibylline leaf for the incidents which decided Wesley's These being understood, all the mystery of this grand but otherwise incomprehensible life disappears.

Wesley's earnest religious experiences began at Oxford; there his character was formed. Becoming a member, and soon the leader of a band of students who undertook a religious life on system, and who thereby earned the glorious and eternal title of Methodists, he first gave indications of that superb genius for control, in which he fell not a hair's breadth short of his great prototype, Ignatius Loyola. Like many other ingenuous young men. of that period, who afterwards gave a resurrection and a life' to the religion of England, he lamented the cold formalism of the times. The Established Church still stood firm on its well-secured foundations, and its worship was maintained in all its stateliness. But the spirit of Christianity no longer animated the ecclesiastical body. The priest still ministered at the altar, but the sacred fire had gone out. Through the fretted vault 'the pealing anthem' still 'swelled the note of praise:' 'the long drawn aisles' were filled with spectators, but the worshippers were not there.

All this could not satisfy the longings of such a soul as John Wesley's. He turned away from it unsatisfied, and sought the more congenial society of the spiritual Moravians. Soon after his return from America, he visited their

recently enriched our Periodical Literature, was printed in the February No.-1874-of Sheldon's GALAXY, from the facile and racy pen of Mr. Alfred H. Guernsey, entitled JOHN WESLEY-from which I borrow some illustrations:

'Of the seventy-five millions who speak the English tongue, about three and a half millions are members of the Methodist churches; four millions more are pupils in their Sunday-schools, and the regular attendnts upon Methodist worship cannot be less than as

many more-fifteen millions in all. Thus one-fifth of all who speak our language are directly moulded, for this life and the life to come, by Methodism. We doubt if any other Protestant communion really numbers as many. The established churches of England and Germany indeed nominally include more; but in counting their numbers all who do not formally belong to other communions are put down as Episcopalians or Lutherans. Fully two-thirds of the Methodists are i the United States.'

THE FOUNDATIONS OF METHODISM LAID.

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headquarters at Herrnhut, in Germany, to study their doctrines. Those simple-minded Christians won his heart. He joined their society in London, and compiled for them a little hymn-book-the first of forty hymn-books prepared during the next half century by one or both of the brothers' Wesley.

At this time George Whitefield, like some startling meteor, shot athwart the religious sky of England, and arrested universal attention. His lips were touched with a live coal from the celestial altar. His words of flame breathed over the valley of dry bones, and the dead came forth from the charnelhouse. He was doing in the British Islands the same work which Jonathan Edwards was doing in the Thirteen Colonies.

Wesley caught the inspiration and glowed with congenital fire. lowed in his steps. On the 17th of February, 1739-the day from which Methodism ought to date its birth-he heard Whitefield, a clergyman of the Church of England, as he was himself, preach in the open air to two hundred colliers, at Kingswood. This was in open defiance of the order of the Chancellor of the Diocese of Bristol. Ten thousand hearers listened to Whitefield's fifth sermon. On the 3d of April Wesley preached his first open-air sermon at Bristol, and continued his mighty work in London, at Moorfields, Kensington Common, and Blackheath, where all England' flocked to hear him and the wondrous evangelist Whitefield, as men flocked to the Jordan to hear John the Baptizer from the Desert.

But Whitefield was departing on his second voyage to America, and upon Wesley's shoulders fell the responsible and gigantic labor of gathering into the garner the harvest which had fallen before the scythe of this mighty reaper. Whitefield's mission was to rouse men. Wesley's to lead and save them. The hour had come to gather the excited but wayward multitude into the fold. Order was the first law of Wesley's mind. He was the prince of organizers. Five years of enormous labors had made England ready for a new ecclesiastical system, and having matured his plan, in the month of June, 1740, he called together in the first meeting-house 'set up' in London, 'the first Conference which gave formal shape to the new Institution.' It was composed of the two Wesleys, four other clergymen of the Church of England, and four lay preachers.

The humble building where they met to perform this significant act had been a ruinous old cannon foundry. Wesley had bought and repaired it partly with his own money, drawn from his only income-his Oxford fellowship-running in debt for the rest. It was a plain structure with two doors; one leading to the chapel, which would hold fifteen hundred persons; the

'I could,' he wrote, 'scarce reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields; having been all my life till very lately so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been done in a church.'

He soon found means to justify himself to himself. Ile was an ordained priest, and as such, he writes, "God, in Scripture, commands me, according to my power, so instruct the ignorant, reform the wicked, con

firm the virtuous. Man forbids me to do this in another's parish; that is, in effect, not to do it at all, seeing I have now no parish of my own, nor probably ever shall. Whom, then, shall I hear-God, or man?' Then follows the famous sentence, 'I look upon all the world as my parish; thus far, I mean, that in whatever part of it I am, I judge it right, meet, and my bounden duty to declare unto all that are willing to hear the glad tidings of salvation.'—Galaxy Article.

180

TRIUMPHS OF WESLEY'S LAST DAYS.

other leading to the preachers' house, school-room and band-room, over which were plain apartments for Wesley. In the chapel the males and females sat apart and in that 'upper chamber' the foundations of Methodism were laid.'

It was Wesley's chief business, to 'preach the Gospel to the poor;' to carry the bread of life to the hungry; and to organize a work that would go on long after his death. He had copied closely the simple plan of Jesus, by founding a voluntary Society, choosing his apostles from the poor and depressed classes of mankind. His evangelists must have known the wants and woes of their hearers, or their hearts could never be won. But once in the fold, they must be kept there there must be no straying from the enclosure.

1 It was resolved at this conference to defend the doctrine of the Church of England by preaching and example; to obey the bishops in all things indifferent; to observe the canons as far as they could with a safe conscience; and to exert themselves to the utmost not to entail a schism in the Church by forming themselves into a distinct sect. They held themselves, and Wesley to the day of his death held himself, members of the national Church. Lay assistants were allowable only in cases of necessity. Their duties were to expound morning and evening; to keep a general watch over the bands and societies; and above all to submit themselves wholly to Wesley's orders. They must not marry, receive money, nor contract debts without his knowledge; must go where he sent them, and employ their time as he directed. This supremacy of Wesley was the corner-stone upon which Methodism rested. No pope, no superior of the order of Jesuits, ever claimed or exercised more absolute control than did the founder of Methodism. In the last year of his life he wrote: In the great revival at London my first difficulty was to bring into temper those who opposed the work; and my next to check and regulate the extravagance of those that promoted it. And this was far the hardest part of my work; for many of them would bear no check at all. But I followed one rule, 'You must either bend or break.'

The early records of Methodism are full of mention of members of the society who, from one cause or another, refused to obey Wesley's directions, and went away or were expelled from the bands. But from first to last Wesley never hesitated or faltered. He was quiet and gentle, but immovable. He grew up to the greatness of his work. The heavier was the load, the more it steadied him; and when the care of all the Methodist churches in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and America rested on his shoulders, he did not seem to feel the weight of the burden.

The history of the early years of Methodism reads like a new volume of the Acts of the Apostles. Its preachers were insulted and mobbed, fined and imprisoned. They were lampooned in pamphlets, and vilified from pulpits. The societies grew slowly. In 1770, thirty years after their first organization, there were 29,911 Methodists in Great Britain and Ireland, and perhaps a score in America. In 1780 there were in the United Kingdom 43,830; in America, 8,504. In 1790, the year before Wesley's death, there were in Great Britain and Ireland, 71,568; in America, 57,631. In 1870 the members of the Methodist societies in Great Britain were about 950,000; in America about 2,300,000. Had Wesley been succeeded in England by such a man as Francis Asbury, one can scarcely doubt that the growth of Methodism in England would have kept pace with its growth in America. That day in 1771 when Francis Asbury, the son of a peasant, was sent with Richard Wright as a reinforcement to America,' should be marked with a white stone in the Methodist calendar. No adequate life of Asbury has ever been written; perhaps none ever can be, for he solemnly enjoined that none should be published. It is doubtful indeed wheth er any faithful portrait of hun is extant. His best monument is the

Methodist Episcopal Church in America; and there can be no nobler one.

On Thursday, February 24, 1791, he rose at four o'clock in the morning, and rode eighteen miles to visit a magistrate, in whose dining-room he preached This was his last sermon. The same day he wrote his last letter. It was addressed to Wilberforce, and contains this remarkable passage: Unless the Divine Providence has raised you up to be as Athanasius, contra mundum, I see not how you can go througa your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrabi villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised yo1 up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils; but if God be with you. who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? Oh! be not weary of well-doing. Go on, in the name of God, and in the power of hif might, till even American slavery, the vilest that ever saw the sun, shall vanish before it.'

He returned to London on the 25th, and on reaching home seemed quite unwell. The 26th was passed mostly in half-slumber. On the 27th he seemed somewhat better. On the 28th his weakness increased, and his physician wished for further assistance. "No," said Wesley; "I am quite satisfied, and will have no one else." Most of the day was spent in sleep. He awoke after a restless night, but sang the hymn, All glory be to God on high,' and after a while said, I'll get up.' While his friends were arranging his clothes, he broke out into the hymn, I'll praise my Maker while I've breath.' Soon, utterly exhausted, but full of happiness, he was again laid upon his bed. After a while he asked about the key and contents of his bureau, remarking, I would have all things ready for my executors. Let me be buried in nothing but what is woollen, and let my corpse be carried in my coffin into the chapel.' During the night he grew momentarily weaker; his sight failed, and he could not recognize the features of those who stood around. Who are these?' he asked. Sir,' replied one of them, we are come to rejoice with you; you are going to receive your crown.' He replied, 'It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. During the night, he repeated scores of times the words, 'I'll praise, I'll praise,' but could go no further. When the gray morning dawned eleven persons stood around his bed. As the supreme moment approached, Wesley said, clearly and audibly, 'Farewell! his last word on earth. Joseph Bradford, for fifteen years his constant travelling companion, became mouth-piece for all, bursting into the words of the Psalmist, 'Lift up your heads O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and this heir of glory shall come in.' Before the last words had passed his lips, Wesley gathered up his feet, and without a sigh or a groan passed from the here to the hereafter. All then raised the hymn, Waiting to receive thy spirit,' and then they knelt down and prayed that the mantle of the ascended Elijahı might rest upon his followers.

John Wesley died at about ten o'clock on the morning of March 2, 1791, wanting about four month of having completed his eighty-eighth year.--Galaxy Feb. 6, '74.

JAMES OTIS OF MASSACHUSETTS.

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Never was a completer ecclesiastical or social polity founded outside of the Church of Rome. Nor did he invoke the aid of terror to insure subordination. By his matchless power of combination, he constructed a system which has enthralled the deepest religious elements of the human soul; and one which holds a subtler, and I believe a firmer, because a gentler and more enlightened sway, over its disciples, than can be boasted of by the mighty and terrible hierarchy of Rome.

James Otis. Born in Barnstable, Mass., Feb. 5, 1724. Died in Andover, May 23, 1783.-'The Champion of the Colonies, and the Prophet of their greatness:'-These are the titles with which a grateful posterity crowned the flaming orator, the learned jurist, the fearless rebel patriot. He was the earliest leader of the Revolutionary party in Massachusetts, and his legal argument in the case where 'Writs of Assistance'' were asked for to enforce CustomHouse restrictions on Trade, produced a profound impression, not only throughout the Colonies, but in Westminster Hall.

Pitt had put forth his mightiest energies to save the Thirteen Colonies for the throne of England; but they were reserved for a nobler destiny.' His last argument against any and all unconstitutional schemes for taxing the Colonies while they had no representation in Parliament, proved unavailing.

The part which, from the opening of our history, Boston has acted has always been worthy of her noble founders. But the conduct of her citizens during the attempts of England from the year 1761 to subjugate American commerce was of more service to the country and the world than has been generally thought. Although it was but a provincial seaport of shipbuilders and merchants, and numbered scarcely fifteen thousand souls, yet her humble court-room became the first battle-ground for American Independence, for there James Otis, first of all other men, boldly asserted before a supreme judicial tribunal the revolutionary doctrine of the right of the colonists to absolute freedom of commerce under self-imposed laws. He claimed this right

1 One of the first acts which revealed the intentions of Parliament to tax the Colonies by enforcing the revenue laws, was the authorization, in 1761, of Writs of Assistance. These were general search warrants, which not only allowed the king's officers who held them to break open any citizen's store or dwelling, to search for and seize foreign merchandise on which duty had not been paid, but compelled sheriffs and others to assist in the work. The people could not brook such a system of petty oppression. The sanctities of private life might be invaded at any time by hirelings, and the assertion, based upon the guarantees of the British Constitution, that Every Englishman's house is his castle,' would not be true. These writs were first issued in Massachusetts, and immediately great excitement prevailed. Their legality was questioned, and the matter was brought before a court held in the old townhal of Boston. The advocate for the Crown-Mr. Gridley-argued, that as Parliament was the supreme legislature for the whole British nation, and had authorized these writs, no subject had a right to complain. He was answered by James Otis, the younger, then advocate-general of the province. On that occasion the intense fire of his patriotism beamed forth with inexpressible brilliancy, and his eloquence was like lightning, far-felt and consuming. On that day the trumpet of the Revolution was sounded. John Adams afterward

said:-"The seeds of patriots and heroes were there and then sown' and when the orator exclaimed, To my dying day, I will oppose, with all the faculties God has given me, all such instruments of slavery on one hand, and villainy on the other,' the independence of the Colonies was proclaimed. From that day began the triumphs of the popular will. Very few writs were is sued, and these were ineffectual.—Lossing's Hist. of the U. S., pp. 212-15.

2 The Seven Years' War, which doubled the debt of England, increasing it to seven hundred millions of dollars, had been begun by her for the possession of the Ohio Valley. She achieved that conquest, but not for herself. Driven out from its share in the great colonial system, France was swayed by its own commercial and political interests, by its wounded pride, and by that enthusiasm which the support of a good cause enkindles, to take up the defence of the freedom of the seas, and heartily to desire the enfranchisement of the English plantations. This policy was well devised; and we shall see that England became not so much the posses sor of the Valley of the West, as the transient trustee, commissioned to transfer it from the France of the Middle Ages, to the free people who were making for hu manity a new existence in America.-Bancroft, vol. iv p. 462.

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182

BEGINNING OF OTIS'S CAREER.

by virtue of royal charters, the prerogatives of free-born Englishmen, and under Common Law, which extended its shield over all British subjects. Had his words only reached the ears of one rapt listener, they would have done their work. For the youngest barrister of the Colony, the choleric John Adams, a stubborn and honest lover of his country, extensively learned, and a bold thinker, listened in rapt admiration, and caught the inspiration which was to call forth his own heroic opposition to British authority. From that time he declared-in a letter to William Tudor,-that he could never read the Acts of Trade without anger, nor any section of them without a curse.'

In describing the effect of this great speech, Bancroft continues: The people of the town of Boston became alive with political excitement. It seemed as if the words spoken on that day, were a spell powerful enough to break the paper chains that left to America no free highway on the seas but that to England, and to open for the New World all the infinite paths of the ocean. Nay, more! as reason and the constitution are avowed to be paramount to the power of the British Parliament, America becomes conscious of a life of her own. She sees in dim outlines along the future the vision of her own independence, with freedom of commerce and self-imposed laws.'

The subservient Court adjourned the trial over to the next term, waiting for instructions from England. The answer came: the Writs of Assistance were granted. 'But,' says the historian, ‘Otis was borne onward by a spirit which mastered him, and increased in vigor as the storm rose. Gifted with a delicately sensitive and most sympathetic nature, his soul was agitated in the popular tempest, as certainly as the gold leaf in the electrometer flutters at the passing by of the thunder-clouds. He led the van of the American patriots. Yet impassioned rather than cautious, disinterested and incapable of cold calculation, now foaming with rage, now plaintive without hope, he was often like one who, as he rushes into battle, forgets his shield. Excitable, and indulging in vehement criminations, he yet had not a drop of rancor in his breast, and, when the fit of rancor had passed away, was mild and easy to be entreated. His impulses were always for liberty, and full of confidence; yet his understanding in moments of depression would often shrink back from his own inspirations. He never met an excited audience, but his mind caught and increased the contagion, and rushed onward with fervid and impetuous eloquence; but when quieted by retirement, and away from the crowd, he could be soothed into a yielding inconsistency. Thus he toiled and suffered, an uncertain leader of a party, yet thrilling and informing the multitude; not steadfast in conduct, yet by flashes of sagacity lighting the people along their perilous way; the man of the American protest, not destined to enjoy his country's triumph. He that will study closely the remarkable union in Otis. of legal learning with speculative opinion, of principles of natural justice the most abstract and the most radical, with a deeply-fixed respect for the rights of property and obedience to the law, will become familiar with a cast of mind still common in New England.' '

1 Bancroft, vol. iv. pp. 418-20.

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