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the blind leading the blind, and both falling into the ditch. Unless I warn, in all ways I can, these perishing souls of their danger, am I clear of the blood of these men? Soul-damning clergymen lay me under more difficulties than soul-saving laymen!"

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He justified the measure, by showing how it had arisen: a plain account of the whole proceeding was, he thought, the best defence of it. "And I am bold to affirm," says he, in one of his Appeals to Men of Reason and Religion, "that these unlettered men have help from God for that great work, the saving souls from death; seeing he hath enabled, and doth enable them still, to turn many to righteousness. Thus hath he destroyed the wisdom of the wise, and brought to nought the understanding of the prudent.' When they imagined they had effectually shut the door, and locked up every passage, whereby any help could come to two or three preachers, weak in body as well as soul, who they might reasonably believe would, humanly speaking, wear themselves out in a short time,when they had gained their point, by securing (as they supposed) all the men of learning in the nation, He that sitteth in heaven laughed them to scorn, and came upon them by a way they thought not of. Out of the stones he raised up those who should beget children to Abraham. We had no more foresight of this than you. Nay, we had the deepest prejudices against it, until we could not but own that God gave wisdom from above to these unlearned and ignorant men, so that the work of the Lord prospered in their hands, and sinners were daily converted to God."

Zeal was the only qualification which he required. If the aspirant possessed no other requisite for his work, and failed to produce an effect upon his hearers, his ardour was soon cooled, and he withdrew quietly from the field; but such cases were not very frequent. The gift of voluble utterance is the commonest of all gifts; and when the audience are in sympathy with the speaker, they are easily af fected the understanding makes no demand, provided the passions find their food. But, on the other hand, when enthusiasm was united with strength of talents and of character, Wesley was a skilful preceptor, who knew how to discipline the untutored mind, and to imbue it thoroughly with his system. He strongly impressed upon his preachers the necessity of reading to improve themselves. In reproving and advising one who had neglected this necessary discipline, he points out to him the ill consequences of that neglect. Hence," he says, "your talent in preaching does not increase it is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep; there is little variety; there is no compass of thought.-Reading only can supply this, with daily meditation and daily prayer. You wrong yourself greatly by omitting this; you can never be a deep preacher without it, any more than a thorough Christian. Oh, begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercises. You may acquire the taste which you have not; what is tedious at first, will

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*Sewel relates, with all simplicity and sincerity, in his History of the Quakers, that his mother, a Dutch woman, preached in her native language to a congregation of English Friends, and that though they did not understand a single word, they were nevertheless euified by the discourse. A man returned from attending one of Whitefield's sermons, and said it was good for him to be there-the place, indeed, was so crowded, that he had not been able to get near enough to hear him; but then," said he, "I saw his blessed wig!"

afterwards be pleasant. Whether you like it or not, read and pray daily. It is for your life! there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a pretty superficial preacher. Do justice to your own soul : give it time and means to grow: do not starve yourself any longer."

But when the disciple was of a thoughtful and inquiring mind, then Wesley's care was to direct his studies, well knowing how important it was that he should retain the whole and exclusive direction. Thus, in a letter to Mr. Benson, then one of the most hopeful, and since one of the most distinguished of his followers, he says, "When I recommend to any one a method or scheme of study, I do not barely consider this or that book separately, but in conjunction with the rest. And what I recommend, I know; I know both the style and sentiments of each author, and how he will confirm or illustrate what goes before, and prepare for what comes after., Therefore, I must insist upon it, the interposing other books between these is not good husbandry; it is not making your time and pains go as far as they might go. If you want more books, let me recommend more, who best understand my own scheme. And do not ramble, however learned the persons may be that advise you so to do." To this disciple Wesley had occasion to say, "Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge." This kind of caution was not often wanted. Nor, although many of his early preachers applied themselves diligently to the study of the languages, did he particularly encourage them in their desire of becoming learned men; for he perceived, that provided the preacher were thoroughly master of his system, and had the language of Scripture at command, the more in other points of intellectual culture he was upon a level with the persons among whom he was called to labour, the better would they comprehend him, and the more likely would he be to produce the desired effect. "Clearness," he says to one of his lay assistants, "is necessary for you and me, because we are to instruct people of the lowest understanding; therefore we, above all, if we think with the wise, must yet speak with the vulgar. We should constantly use the most common, little, easy words (so they are pure and proper) which our language affords. When first I talked at Oxford to plain people in the castle or the town, I observed they gaped and stared. This quickly obliged me to alter my style, and adopt the language of those I spoke to; and yet there is a dignity in their simplicity, which is not disagreeable to those of the highest rank." Many of his ablest and most successful assistants perceived the good sense of this reasoning, and acted upon it. "I am but a brown-bread preacher," says Thomas Hanson," that seek to help all I can to Heaven, in the best manner I can," Alexander Mather had received a good Scotch education in his boyhood, and was sometimes tempted to recover his lost Latin, and learn Greek and Hebrew also, when he observed the progress made by others who had not the same advantage to begin with. But this desire was set at rest, when he considered that these persons were not more instrumental than before, "either in awakening, converting, or building up souls," which he regarded as the "only business, and the peculiar glory of a Methodist preacher. In all

these respects they had been useful," he said, "but not more useful than when they were without their learning; and he doubted whether they had been so useful as they might have been, if they had 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."

But although Wesley was not desirous that his preachers should labour to obtain a reputation for learning, he repelled the charge of ignorance. "In 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 replied 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 cheer ful, 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 by walking in exceeding hot weather; and Wesley, recording his death in his journal, concludes in this remarkable manner :-" All his clothes, linen and woolen, stockings, hat, and wig, are not thought sufficient to answer his funeral expenses, which amount to 1l. 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 Metho

dists 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, 66 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 writen my name with the point of my finger upon the binding. I thought I had signed my own damnation on the back of the witness." 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. In 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 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 persh ! 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 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; he 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.

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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

VOL. 11.

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