"Could fetch the records from earlier age,Or from philosophy's enlightened pageHis rich materials, and regale your earWith strains it was a privilege to hear.Yet, above all, his luxury supreme,And his chief glory, was the Gospel theme:There he was copious as old Greece or Rome,His happy eloquence seemed there at home;Ambitious not to shine or to excel,But to treat justly what he loved so well."
Dr. Rigg says: "In his more intense utterances logic and passion were fused into a white heat of mingled argument, denunciation, and appeal, often of the most personal searchingness, often overwhelming in its vehement home thrusts."
Dr. Whitehead says: "Wesley's style was marked with brevity and perspicuity. He never lost sight of the rule laid down by Horace:
'Concise your diction, let your sense be clear,Not with a weight of words fatigue the ear.'
His words were pure, proper to the subject, and precise in their meaning."
Mr. Wesley studied human character, and sought to adapt his preaching to the masses. One day he was passing Billingsgate market, with Bradford, while two of the women were quarreling furiously. His companion urged him to pass on, but Wesley replied, "Stay, Sammy, stay and learn how to preach."
WESLEY AS A REFORMER.
Slavery.
Thosemoral reforms which have shaken the nations and in some cases revolutionized governments were scarcely known in the days of Wesley. He saw the coming storm and blew a trumpet-blast which gave no uncertain sound. In some of these reforms he was a hundred years in advance of his time.
teapot with word on itWESLEY'S TEA-POT.
Bible and caseWESLEY'S BIBLE AND CASE.
Slavery, in Wesley's time, was strongly supported by the English government. She had enriched herself from the African slave trade. Her great maritime cities were built on the bones, sinews, and flesh, cemented by the blood, of oppressed bondmen. To oppose slavery was to oppose the government. Wesley met this gigantic evil with Christian courage. What was true of England was also true of her colonies. He united with Sharp, Clarkson, Wilberforce, and others to oppose the evil. He represented the slave trade as "that execrable sum of all villainies, commonly called the slave trade." American slavery he declared was "the vilest that ever saw the sun." No addresses delivered on the subject, during the days of the greatest antislavery excitement, exceeded in severity those which fell from the lips and were produced by the pen of John Wesley. HisThoughts on Slaverywas the keynote of the movement.
Wesley's last letter, written only four days before his death, was addressed to Wilberforce, urging him to persevere in the work. It is as follows:
London, February 26, 1791.Dear Sir: Unless the divine Power has raised you up to be anAthanasius contra mundum(Athanasius against the world), I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But "if God be for you, who can be against you?" Are all of them together stronger than God? O, "be not weary in welldoing." Go on, in the name of God, and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.Reading this morning a tract written by a poor African, I was particularly struck by this circumstance—that a man who has a black skin, being wronged or outraged by a white man, can have no redress; it being a law, in all our colonies, that the oath of a black against a white goes for nothing. What villainy is this!That He who has guided you from your youth up may continue to strengthen you in this and all things is the prayer, dear sir, ofYour affectionate servant,John Wesley.
London, February 26, 1791.
Dear Sir: Unless the divine Power has raised you up to be anAthanasius contra mundum(Athanasius against the world), I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But "if God be for you, who can be against you?" Are all of them together stronger than God? O, "be not weary in welldoing." Go on, in the name of God, and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.
Reading this morning a tract written by a poor African, I was particularly struck by this circumstance—that a man who has a black skin, being wronged or outraged by a white man, can have no redress; it being a law, in all our colonies, that the oath of a black against a white goes for nothing. What villainy is this!
That He who has guided you from your youth up may continue to strengthen you in this and all things is the prayer, dear sir, of
Your affectionate servant,John Wesley.
He represents the slave trade as exceeding in barbarity whatever Christian slaves suffered in Mohammedan countries.
Whitefield's letter to Wesley, in 1751, is a clear defense of slavery in the colonies. He quotes Abraham, who had slaves "bought with his money" and "born in his house." The same argument was employed in later years. Whitefield added to his approval of the slave trade the fact that he became himself a slaveholder. At the time of his death, in 1770, he was the owner of seventy-five slaves, who were connected with his Orphan House plantation, near Savannah, Ga. It is not surprising that God should have swept the whole concern, by fire and flood, from the face of the earth.
"Let it be noted," says Mr. Tyerman, "that besides all his other honors John Wesley, the poor, persecuted Methodist, was one of the first advocates on behalf of the enthralled African that England had, and that, sixty years before slavery was abolished in the dominions of Great Britain, he denounced the thing in the strongest terms it was possible to employ." Mr. Wesley'sThoughts on Slavery, an octavo of fifty-three pages, issued in 1774, did more to awaken England to the horrors of the African slave trade than any other work on the subject. The writer says, "No more severe arraignment of slavery than this was ever written." This American scourge,through the influence of Wesley's early American preachers, who caught their inspiration from hisThoughts, felt the force of his burning words until that form of slavery, which he declared to be "the vilest that ever saw the sun," was a thing of the past. For two hundred and more years it drifted down, gradually, like other forms of barbarism, into the clear light of a better civilization, to be finally put to death by the Gospel of Methodism. It is true thatUncle Tom's Cabindid much, but Wesley'sThoughtsprepared the way for this wonderful book. Mr. Wesley must ever be known as the man through whose influence slavery found a grave, from which Heaven forbid it should ever have a resurrection!
Temperance.
In regard to the temperance reform Mr. Wesley was as fully pronounced as on the subject of slavery. Liquor drinking was practiced by all classes, from the archbishop to the meanest street scavenger. Ministers by the hundred drank to intoxication, and in their drunken sprees would head mobs in their assaults on Wesley and his helpers. Wesley thundered away at liquor selling and drinking like a modern prohibitionist. Take the following from one of his sermons as an example:
Neither may we gain by hurting our neighbor in his body. Therefore we may not sell anything whichtends to impair his health. Such is eminently all that liquid fire called drams of spirituous liquors. It is true they may have a place in medicine—may be used in some bodily disorders—although there would rarely be occasion for them were it not for the unskillfulness of the practitioner. Therefore such as prepare and sell them only for this end may keep their conscience clean. But who are they who prepare and sell them only for this end? Do you know ten distillers in England? Then excuse these. But all who sell them in the common way, to any that will buy, are poisoners in general. They murder his majesty's subjects by wholesale; neither do their eyes pity or spare. They drive them to hell like sheep. And what is their gain? Is it not the blood of these men? Who, then, would enjoy their large estate and sumptuous palaces? A curse is in the midst of them. A curse cleaves to the stones, the timbers, the furniture of them. The curse of God is in their gardens, their walks, their groves; a fire that burns to the nethermost hell! Blood, blood, is there! The foundation, the walls, the roof, are stained with blood! And canst thou hope, O man of blood, though thou art "clothed in scarlet and fine linen, and farest sumptuously every day"—canst thou hope to deliver thy fields of blood to the third generation? Not so! There is a God in heaven; therefore thy name shall be blotted out. Like as those whom thou hast destroyed, body and soul, thy memory shall perish with thee.[C]
Neither may we gain by hurting our neighbor in his body. Therefore we may not sell anything whichtends to impair his health. Such is eminently all that liquid fire called drams of spirituous liquors. It is true they may have a place in medicine—may be used in some bodily disorders—although there would rarely be occasion for them were it not for the unskillfulness of the practitioner. Therefore such as prepare and sell them only for this end may keep their conscience clean. But who are they who prepare and sell them only for this end? Do you know ten distillers in England? Then excuse these. But all who sell them in the common way, to any that will buy, are poisoners in general. They murder his majesty's subjects by wholesale; neither do their eyes pity or spare. They drive them to hell like sheep. And what is their gain? Is it not the blood of these men? Who, then, would enjoy their large estate and sumptuous palaces? A curse is in the midst of them. A curse cleaves to the stones, the timbers, the furniture of them. The curse of God is in their gardens, their walks, their groves; a fire that burns to the nethermost hell! Blood, blood, is there! The foundation, the walls, the roof, are stained with blood! And canst thou hope, O man of blood, though thou art "clothed in scarlet and fine linen, and farest sumptuously every day"—canst thou hope to deliver thy fields of blood to the third generation? Not so! There is a God in heaven; therefore thy name shall be blotted out. Like as those whom thou hast destroyed, body and soul, thy memory shall perish with thee.[C]
He introduced into his Discipline a rule prohibiting the "buying or selling of spirituous liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme necessity." He went for "prohibiting forever, making a full end of that bane ofhealth, that destroyer of strength, of life, and virtue—distilling." These are his own words. He was a prohibitionist in principle, and in this respect was in advance of many would-be temperance men of these times. To one of his preachers he says: "Touch no dram. It is a liquid fire. It is a sure, though slow, poison. It saps the very spring of life."
Tobacco.
Mr. Wesley sought a reformation on the tobacco question. He believed that the use of the weed was unchristian. He exhorts his people: "Use no tobacco. It is an uncleanly and unwholesome self-indulgence; and the more customary it is the more resolutely should you break off from every degree of that evil custom. Let Christians be in this bondage no longer. Assert your liberty, and that all at once; nothing will be done by degrees."[G]
Such were the teachings of John Wesley on these subjects—teachings which we regard as very remarkable for those times, and fully up to the present.
John Wesley and John Howard Meet.
In 1787 Mr. Wesley met John Howard, the father of prison reform. He says: "I had the pleasure of a conversation with Mr. Howard, I think one of the greatest men in Europe.Nothing but the almighty power of God can enable him to go through his difficult and dangerous employment. But what can harm us if God be on our side?" He says again: "God has raised him up to be a blessing to mankind."
Female Preachers.
It is true that Wesley did not believe that female preaching was authorized by the New Testament, except under extraordinary circumstances. He tells Sarah Crosby that he thinks her case rests on her having an "extraordinary call." He was persuaded, also, that every local preacher had a similar call. If it were not so, he could not countenance their preaching at all. "Therefore I do not wonder if several things occur therein which do not fall under ordinary rules of discipline. St. Paul's ordinary rule was, 'I permit not a woman to speak in the congregation;' yet in extraordinary cases he makes a few exceptions, at Corinth in particular."
Mrs. Crosby said: "My soul was much comforted in speaking to the people, as the Lord has removed all my scruples respecting the propriety of my acting thus publicly."
"I think you have not gone too far," said Wesley, though she had preached to hundreds. "You could not well do less. All you can do more is, when you meet again tell them simply:'You lay me under a great difficulty. The Methodists do not allow of women preachers; neither do I take upon me any such character. But I will just nakedly tell you what is in my heart.' I do not see that you have broken any law. Go on, calmly and steadily." She obeyed, and went on till death. Others followed in the footsteps of Sarah Crosby. Mrs. Fletcher preached, and Hester Ann Rogers really did the same.
It is true that female preaching was never sanctioned by the Wesleyan Conference, but it was substantially practiced to the end of Wesley's life. He broke the bands which had bound women, and which in many Churches bind them still, and allowed her to be a public advocate of spiritual religion—to tell what great things God had done for the soul.
Speaking of Susannah Wesley, a recent writer of the Congregational Church says: "The Methodist Church owes its system of doctrine quite as much, I think, to Susannah Wesley as to her illustrious son. To the instruction of a woman she added the logic of a gownsman and the love of a saint. Finer letters were never written. It is not to be wondered at that Methodists have been pioneers in the enfranchisement of female speech, that they have believed in it and practiced it from the first. They would have disgraced their origin otherwise."
It will be seen that Methodism has inaugurated, really, all the great moral reforms of the last hundred and fifty years. The great missionary movement, which has sent evangelistic agencies into all the earth, had little or no life when Methodism was born. Since that time, what hath God wrought!
WESLEY AND AMERICAN METHODISM PRIOR TO 1766.
Thereal advent of Methodism into America is a subject demanding special consideration. It has been generally supposed that its first introduction was in 1766 by Barbara Heck and Philip Embury, who inaugurated religious services at that time in the city of New York. But it has always seemed to us that Methodism was introduced much earlier.
There had been no less than five members of the "Holy Club"—the Oxford Methodists' fraternity—preaching in America prior to 1766, namely, John and Charles Wesley, Benjamin Ingham, Charles Delamot, and George Whitefield. Whatever may be said of the four former, it is certain that George Whitefield was here, from 1740, preaching as a flaming Methodistevangelistfrom Maine to Georgia. These men all accepted Wesley as their leader, and looked to him for counsel.
Mr. Whitefield's first visit to America was undertaken with the express purpose of assisting Wesley in his great work. But Wesley had left the field before he arrived. GeorgeWhitefield was an Oxford Methodist, a member of the Holy Club, and possessed an undying love for Wesley. He was known in Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New England as a Methodist, and until, in after years, he drew away from Wesley for a time, on some doctrinal question, he was in fullest accord with him. Whatever he did in America during his first and second visits was done as a Methodist. It must be confessed that Whitefield did a marvelous work in all parts of the country years prior to 1766. He was known in New England as a Methodist, and the first Methodist chapel ever erected in this land was built in Boston, the land of the Pilgrims. Charles Wesley stopped in Boston several weeks, on his way from Georgia to England, and preached several times in Dr. Cutler's Church on Salem Street, known as Christ Church, and also in King's Chapel. He also was known as an Oxford Methodist. When Whitefield first entered New England he had not separated from Wesley. He had been to England since his first visit, and had been led, like the Wesleys, into the experience of salvation. He at once entered into their labors, and had inaugurated outdoor preaching at Bristol. It was not until he had visited New England a second, perhaps a third, time, and had adopted the views of Calvin as held by New England divines, that he drew awayfor a time from Wesley. In Pennsylvania, in New Jersey, and in New York God wrought wonders by this flaming Methodist evangelist.
The Puritans, who first settled New England, held orthodox views on the subject of justification by faith and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. This was their faith for more than half a century. But when they began to decline, legal forms were substituted for spiritual power. The "halfway covenant," as it was called, was introduced, and under it persons became members of the Church without conversion, and it was not even deemed an essential qualification for a minister of the Gospel that he be converted. The Church and State were united, and the courts by legal enactments compelled every man, no matter what his religious faith, to sustain a Church whose creed he did not believe. The same state of things existed in Virginia, where Episcopal rule obtained. The whole land seemed a "valley of dry bones." There was one light in New England. In the obscure town of Northampton Jonathan Edwards was preaching with marvelous effect, and his influence was felt all along the valley of the Connecticut; but it had not reached Boston. There was one man in Boston who waited for the salvation of Israel—Rev. Benjamin Coleman, pastor of Brattle Street Church. He had heard of the work in Northampton, andalso of Whitefield, the youthful evangelist in the South, and longed to witness the like in Boston before he went hence, for he was now seventy years of age. He wrote to Whitefield at Savannah; the latter, anxious to visit the land of the Pilgrims, came in the demonstration of the Spirit, and such a revival as attended his ministry New England had never witnessed. A writer of some note gives the following description of his coming: "At the close of a beautiful autumn day, in 1740, Whitefield had arrived within full view of the city of Boston. Its spires were gleaming in the rays of the setting sun. Its neat, white dwellings were reflected from the mirror surface of the quiet waters, which nearly surrounded the whole site. Its attendant villages loomed up around the whole horizon. Withdrawing his eyes from the first glance at the city, which lay in full view from the hill on which he stood, he looked down the road before him, and saw a multitude of people—officers of the government, ministers of the Gospel, citizens, ladies, and children—who had all come forth to meet the accomplished stranger, and conduct him, amidst smiles and blessings, to the city. It must have been an interesting hour to the youthful hero of the cross. Three thousand miles from his native land, among entire strangers, he was welcomed to the renowned city of the Puritanswith demonstrations of honor which Alexander, or Cæsar, or Napoleon might have coveted. He was coming among them, not the gray-haired veteran hero of a thousand battles, not the brave warrior from the fields of victory, not the monarch with patronage and power in his hand, but the sincere-hearted, pure-minded, and eloquent-tongued Methodist missionary, who had drank from the pure fountain of evangelical truth, and had now come to lead the thirsty Pilgrims of New England to the garden of the Lord,
"'Where living waters gently pass,And full salvation flows.'"
It must be remembered that this most remarkable man was but twenty-six years old, and yet England and America had been thrilled by the power of his unexampled eloquence.
The next day he preached in Brattle Street Church, then in other churches, hoping to afford the people an opportunity to hear. But the multitudes were so great that no church could accommodate them, so he resorted to the open field, as usual. Boston Common was thronged with thousands, while three times each day he preached to them with an eloquence which Boston had never before heard. Hundreds were won to Jesus, and many ministers were aroused and made clearly conscious of their need of salvation. He visited some of the adjacent towns, especially Cambridge.His eloquent appeals aroused Harvard College from its sleep of a century, and there occurred in that institution what never happened before or since—a genuine revival of religion. It was a wonder then; it would be more so now! Dr. Coleman, a graduate of Harvard, wrote at the time: "The college is entirely changed. The students are full of God, and will, I trust, come out blessings to their generation. Many of them appear truly born again, and have proved happy instruments of conversion to their fellows. The voice of prayer and of praise fills their chambers; and sincerity, fervency, and joy, with seriousness of heart, set visibly upon their faces. I was told yesterday that not seven out of the hundred in attendance remained unaffected." "That was," says one writer, "a strange day for Harvard."
This was the introduction of Methodism into New England, and Whitefield at the time was a Methodist evangelist.
We have said that the first Methodist chapel ever erected in America was built in Boston. Where is the proof? We submit the following facts: While attending the Methodist Ecumenical Conference in London, in 1881, Rev. Dr. Allison, of Nova Scotia, had occasion to examine the archives of the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," under whose auspices both Wesley and Whitefieldcame to America. Dr. Allison tells us that, in the course of his examination, he found letters written by John Wesley while in Georgia. He discovered, also, a most important letter written by Dr. Cutler, of Boston, dated "Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, July, 1750," in which he says: "There are in Boston at this time fourteen independent chapels and one or two churches." He further adds: "There is, in an obscure alley, a Baptist chapel,and just now there has been built a Methodist chapel, a form of religion which I think will not soon die" (Conference report, p. 93). But who was this Dr. Cutler who wrote the letter from Boston in 1750? He was Rev. Timothy Cutler, first rector of Christ Church, Salem Street, Boston. He was president of Yale College as early as 1720. In 1722 he, with six others, mostly Congregationalists, withdrew, and united with the Episcopal Church. He immediately sailed for England, where he received Episcopal ordination and the title of Doctor in Divinity, and was sent by the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" as a missionary to Boston. It was under his ministry that Christ Church was erected, and it was in this church that Charles Wesley, an Oxford Methodist, preached in 1736 several times, during his detention here while on his way from Georgia to England. He speaks of preachingin Dr. Cutler's church as well as in King's Chapel.
drawing of churchST. ANDREW'S CHURCH AT EPWORTH.
Photo of Epworth churchEPWORTH MEMORIAL CHURCH AT CLEVELAND, O.
Here is this Episcopal rector, in 1750, eighteen years before a Methodist chapel was erected in New York or Sam's Creek, Maryland, reporting there was then a Methodist chapel in Boston! Dr. Cutler says it "had been built."
Who built this chapel, whether English Methodist soldiers or some of Whitefield's followers, who might have been pressed out of the dead churches, we do not know, but it was aMethodistchapel. It might have been the former; it may have been the latter. We admit the work did not abide. But that was not the first time that Methodism failed in Boston. Boardman came to Boston, and is said to have formed a class here in 1770, or near that time. But when Freeborn Garrettson visited Boston, in 1787, no trace of Boardman's class could be found. When William Black came, a few years later, he found no trace of Freeborn Garrettson's work; and though Mr. Black had a great revival, when Jesse Lee came, in 1798, no fruit of Mr. Black's labors were found. It still remains true, on the authority of Dr. Cutler, who wrote from personal observation, that there was a Methodist chapel in Boston in 1750; and, if so, it was the first ever erected in America.
WESLEY AND AMERICAN METHODISM.
Sofar as we are able positively to determine Methodism in America originated with immigrants from Ireland. To Barbara Heck must be given the honor of delivering the first Methodist exhortation, which aroused Philip Embury to return from his backslidings to God and give himself to the work of the ministry of Methodism. Blessed be the name of Barbara Heck! An angel would rejoice to share her honors! Who can estimate the value of that earnest personal appeal to that card-playing company?
Soon a cry reached the ear of England's "flying evangelist" that a fire had been kindled in America, where thirty years before he had sought in vain to plant a Gospel the power of which he did not feel. Thomas Ball, of Charleston, speaks of the sheep in the wilderness needing a shepherd. "They have strayed," he says, "from England into the wild woods here, and they are running wild after the world. They are drinking their wine in bowls, and are jumping and dancing, and serving the devil in groves and under the green trees. And are not these lost sheep? And will noneof the preachers come here? Where is Bromfield? Where is John Pawson? Where is Nicholas Manners? Are they living, and will they not come?" This was the cry in and from the wilderness. A call for assistance came also from Philip Embury.
Wesley's Conference met in 1769 in Leeds. Mr. Wesley put the question: "We have a pressing call from our brethren in New York, who have built a preaching house, to come over and help them. Who is willing to go?" When was ever such a question asked, or call made, and Methodist preachers not ready to respond, "Here I am, send me"? An answer came from Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmore, who were willing to face the perils of sea and land to "save the wandering souls of men." The Conference took a collection of twenty pounds to pay their passage, and fifty pounds toward paying the debt on the "preaching house," as an expression of their love for the American brethren. Before these godly men had reached our shores Captain Webb, late from England, and barracks master at Albany, had heard of the work in New York, and, being a local preacher among the Wesleyans, joined Embury and his company and preached to the people in his military regimentals, full of faith and power—preached with a zeal which attracted hundreds to the Methodist faith.
On the arrival of Boardman and Pilmore—menof God—the work prospered. Boardman preached in New York, extending his labors as far east as Boston. Pilmore went to Philadelphia, but extended his labors south as far as Charleston, S. C. The ministry of these holy men was greatly blessed to the people, and new societies were formed as the work extended.
Two years later Wesley made another call, and a response came from Francis Asbury and Richard Wright. And never did Providence seem to overrule in a more manifest manner than in the selection of Mr. Asbury. But for him it does not seem that one vestige of Methodism would have survived the War of the Revolution. He navigated the Methodist ship through that fearful storm with consummate skill. It is true that he was arrested and fined twenty-five dollars for preaching, but he held his place. He was obliged to seek shelter in the hospitable home of Hon. Thomas White, of Delaware, where he remained, partly concealed, for nearly two years. The military authorities then discovered that he was a friend and not a foe to American independence, and he was thereafter allowed to exercise his ministry without annoyance. No peril could deter him from his purpose. "In passing through the Indian country, west of the mountains," he is said to have "often encamped in the wilderness, where no one ventured to sleepexcept under the protection of a trustworthy sentinel." He possessed the zeal, industry, and patience of an apostle. He may truly be said to be the father of American Methodism. He lived in the affections of a grateful people and walked in the constant light of perfect love.
On his coming to America he found only 14 itinerant ministers, with a few local preachers, and 371 members. At his death there were nearly 700 itinerants, 2,000 local preachers, and 214,000 members. When unable to preach but little he filled his carriage with Bibles and Testaments, and scattered them as he went, saying, "Whatever I have been doing heretofore, now I know I am sowing good seed."
Dr. Thomas Coke.
This is a name that must ever stand high in the annals of American Methodism. Born in Wales in 1747, a graduate of Oxford University, and settled over South Petherton Parish, Somersetshire, he became acquainted with the Methodists, and, imbibing their spirit, his ministry became truly spiritual and faithful—so much so that it excited so much opposition that he was dismissed from his curacy. He naturally sought counsel of Wesley. Mr. Wesley says, August 18, 1776: "I went to Kingston with Mr. Brown. Here I found aclergyman, Dr. Coke, late a gentleman and commoner of Jesus College, Oxford, who came twenty miles on purpose to see me. I had much conversation with him, and a union then began which I trust shall never end." Dr. Coke was of great service to Mr. Wesley in many ways, preaching in London and in other parts of England and Ireland, and under Mr. Wesley's direction he held the Irish Conference in 1782.
In 1784 Dr. Coke was ordained by Mr. Wesley as general superintendent and sent to America, with Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vassey, to establish a Methodist Church, and to ordain Francis Asbury to the same office of superintendent that they might conjointly take charge of the American work. They arrived in America in 1784, and, having conferred with Mr. Asbury and other ministers, a general convention of ministers was called, to meet on Christmas, for the purpose of organizing the Church.
They assembled in Baltimore, and decided to organize an independent Church to be called the "Methodist Episcopal Church." They elected Dr. Coke and Francis Asbury bishops instead of general superintendents. And so, on that Christmas Day, 1784, the Methodist Episcopal Church became a fact for all coming time.
Dr. Coke has the honor of being the firstProtestant bishop in America, with the exception of some visitors who had been sent here by the Moravians.
Dr. Coke very soon returned to England. He designed, at first, to make America his home; but such were the urgent necessities of the work in England, especially after the death of Wesley, that the General Conference permitted him to remain there, but not to exercise his episcopal functions outside of America. He resided for many years in England. He established missions in the West India Islands. He presided for many years in the Irish Conference, and frequently in England. He made several visits to the United States, the last being in 1804. On that occasion he went as far east as Boston, spending a full week in Providence, R. I. An incident illustrating his humility and undying love for the Church of his choice occurred on his visit to Providence. A gentleman in New York had requested James Burrill, Esq., a lawyer and a highly respectable citizen of Providence, to receive Dr. Coke with the honors due an English bishop, though he was not an English bishop. Rev. Thomas Lyell accompanied Dr. Coke from Newport to Providence. A crowd had assembled on the wharf to see and welcome a bishop. Arrangements had been made for Dr. Coke's entertainment at the palatial residence of John Enos Clark, Esq., a wealthycitizen of Providence, and Mr. Clark's carriage was in waiting. As Dr. Coke landed he inquired of Messrs. Clark and Burrell if there were any Methodists in the town. They knew of none. Mr. Shubal Cady, the class leader, being present, came forward and said, "There is a small class." He then asked, "Where do the Methodist preachers stop when they come to town?" He was informed that they stopped with Mr. Benjamin Turpin, a Quaker gentleman. Dr. Coke then expressed a desire to stop there, if convenient. Mr. Turpin, being present, assured him that he would be pleased to entertain him, though his accommodations were greatly inferior to those of Mr. Clark. Mr. Clark's carriage conveyed the bishop to the residence of Mr. Turpin, where he remained during his stay in Providence.
Dr. Coke was invited to preach in the churches. But before he consented he inquired where the Methodist ministers preached when they came to town. Being told that they preached in an old Town House, he refused all other invitations until he had first preached where they did. He knew that Methodism was weak and despised in Providence, and he was determined that the Methodists should receive the benefit first of whatever influence his position gave him. With him it was Methodism first, then a world-wide fraternity with all the family of God.
The missionary spirit dominated Dr. Coke. "He was himself a missionary society." In all his journeys he paid his own expenses. At the age of nearly seventy he proposed to the Wesleyan Conference to go personally to the East Indies and establish a mission. The Conference objected on account of expense. He offered to bear the entire expense himself, to the amount of thirty thousand dollars, and the Conference finally consented. He selected six men to accompany him, and sailed for the Indies. A few days before they expected to land Dr. Coke was found dead one morning in his stateroom. The mission was established, though Dr. Coke was with the glorified. He was buried in the Indian Ocean, where, in after years, Dr. Judson, the great Baptist missionary, rested from his labors.
It has been said, "No man in Methodism, except Wesley, did more for the extension of the work through the world than Dr. Coke." Mr. Asbury says, "He was a minister of Christ, in zeal, in labor, and in services, the greatest man of the last century."
Bishop Asbury continued his labors with marvelous success until March, 1816, when, in great weakness, he preached his last sermon, Sunday, March 24. Hoping to attend the General Conference, which met in Baltimore, May 1, he succeeded in reaching Spottsylvania, and there, on the afternoon of the following Sunday,he fell asleep in Jesus. Dr. Coke died three years before Mr. Asbury. These were great, good, and honored men.
Methodism spread from its first introduction. Robert Strawbridge, accompanied by Robert Williams and John King, was the first to enter Maryland. Captain Webb was the first to introduce Methodism into Pennsylvania. Freeborn Garrettson, assisted by William Black, was the first to enter New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Boardman, Jesse Lee, and Freeborn Garrettson were the first to enter New England, including Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Francis Clark, a local preacher, was the first to enter Kentucky, in 1782. The first Conference preachers were James Haw and Benjamin Ogden. We do not know who first entered Indiana. Lorenzo Dow was the first to carry Methodism into Alabama, in 1803 or 1804. Jesse Lee was the first to enter Florida, then Spanish, in 1807; he crossed the St. Mary's River in a small boat, knelt down in the woods, and implored God to claim the territory for himself. In 1823 J. N. Gallen was appointed to St. Augustine. E. W. Bowman was the first to enter Louisiana, in 1805, where the people were said to know "nothing of God or religion." Joseph Pilmore was first to enter South Carolina, in 1773; in 1785, Asbury, not to speak of Wesley, in 1736. In 1769 Robert Williams,a local preacher, was first to enter Virginia and preach his first sermon at Norfolk. Joseph Tillard was the first Methodist preacher to enter Illinois; he formed the first class. Nathan Bangs preached the first Methodist sermon in Detroit, Mich., and William Mitchell organized the first class. Beverly Allen preached first in Georgia, in 1785. In 1835 L. Stevens entered Iowa. In 1849 William Roberts and J. H. Wilber, on their way to Oregon, spent some time in San Francisco, and in 1849 Isaac Owen and William Taylor were sent as missionaries to California. Wisconsin first heard the Gospel from John Clark.
We have thus given the dates of the introduction of Methodism into the several States, and the names of the preachers so far as we are able to ascertain. There may be some mistakes in these dates and names, but they are substantially correct.
But this work was not prosecuted without fearful persecution. Not all suffered equally. Freeborn Garrettson, in a letter to Mr. Wesley, says: "Once I was imprisoned, twice beaten, left on the highway speechless and senseless (I must have gone to the world of spirits had not God sent a good samaritan that took me to a friend's house); once shot at; guns and pistols presented to my breast; once delivered from an armed mob, in the dead of night, on the highway by a flash of lightning;surrounded frequently by mobs; stoned frequently. I have had to escape for my life at the dead of night. O, shall I ever forget the divine Hand which has supported me?" Of his sufferings and labors in Nova Scotia he writes: "I have traveled mountains and valleys frequently on foot, with my knapsack on my back, guided by Indian paths in the wilderness when it was not expedient to take a horse; and I had often to wade through morasses, half a leg deep in mud and water, frequently satisfying my hunger with a piece of bread and pork from my knapsack, quenching my thirst from a brook, and resting my weary limbs on the leaves of the trees. Thanks be to God! He compensated me for all my trials, for many precious souls were awakened and converted to God." These holy men cared not how they lived, what trials they endured, what hardships they suffered, so that souls were won to Christ. These were but few of their sufferings.
One has said: "They braved the rigors of severe winters, and the perils of flood and forest; they slumbered on hardest pillows and housed in lowliest hovels. But in their work they were joyous; in their trials they were patient; in their homes they were contented; in their journeyings the woods echoed their songs; in their pulpits they had power with man; in their persecutions they prayed fortheir enemies; in their old age they testify they have not followed 'cunningly devised fables;' in their death hour they are borne up on their shields, 'where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.' And in their final home, 'These are they who came up out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; thenceforth they are before the throne.'" We are now reaping the fruit of their toil and enjoying the rich heritage they have bequeathed to us.
WESLEY APPROACHING THE CLOSE OF LIFE.
Thoughpersecution and opposition followed John Wesley from the day he lifted up a standard of holiness within the classic walls of Oxford to the hour that God's chariot bore him to the city of the Great King, he never faltered in his purpose nor abated his zeal for an hour. As his end drew near, the opposition which had been so relentless began to give way. In many places it became greatly modified, and in others nearly extinct. That a great change had come began to be manifest in public opinion and feeling. Mob violence, which once swept everything, had entirely subsided, and towns and cities which once welcomed him with brickbats and rotten eggs now hailed him as the greatest of modern evangelists. Many who bade him depart out of their coasts as a crazy fanatic now thought it an honor to welcome him as a man of many virtues and unparalleled labors. In 1789, visiting Falmouth, Mr. Wesley says: "The last time I was here, above forty years ago, I was taken prisoner by an immense mob, gaping and roaring like lions. But how is the tide turned!High and low now lined the street, from one end of the town to the other, out of stark love, gaping and staring as if the king were going by."
Wesley outlived all his early colaborers. He saw them fall one by one, until he stood alone of them all, waiting and watching, but pressing toward the mark for the prize.
The first to fall was the zealous, deeply consecrated, and profoundly intellectual Walsh, at the age of twenty-eight, one of the best biblical scholars of his day. His last words were, "He's come! He's come!" and a cloud received him from human sight. Of him Wesley said: "Such a master of Bible knowledge I never saw before and never expect to see again. If he was questioned concerning any Hebrew word in the Old, or any Greek word in the New, Testament, he could tell, after a little pause, not only how often the one or the other occurred in the Bible, but also what it meant in every place."
Next to follow him was the earnest, fearless, honest Grimshaw, exclaiming: "I am happy as I can be in this world, and as sure of heaven as though I were there. I have my foot on the threshold already."
Next fell Whitefield, in America, one of the most eloquent and effective preachers that ever lifted up his voice among men, by which Wesley was greatly moved.
Then followed the amiable, venerable Perronet, of Shoreham, whom Charles Wesley was wont to call "the Archbishop of Methodism."
Then fell the most saintly man of his time—a real translation—the seraphic Fletcher, shouting, "God is love! O, for a gust of praise to go to the ends of the earth!" Mr. Wesley says of him: "For many years I despaired of finding an inhabitant of Great Britain that could stand in any degree of comparison with Gregory Lopez or Mons. de Renty. But let any impartial person judge if Mr. Fletcher was at all inferior to them. Did he not experience deep communion with God, and as high a measure of inward holiness as was experienced by either one or the other of those burning and shining lights? And it is certain his outward light shone before men with full as bright a luster as theirs. I was intimately acquainted with him for thirty years. I conversed with him morning, noon, and night, without the least reserve, during a journey of many hundred miles, and in all that time I never heard him speak an improper word or saw him do an improper action. To conclude, within fourscore years I have known many excellent men, holy in heart and life, but one equal to him I have not known; one so uniformly and deeply devoted to God, so unblamable a man in every respect I have not foundeither in Europe or America. Nor do I expect to find another such on this side eternity."
Drawing of narrow room with secretary and fireplaceTHE ROOM IN WHICH WESLEY DIED.
Next came the sad tidings of the death of his brother Charles, but little, if at all, inferior to Whitefield as a preacher, and whose sacred lyrics will live so long as human hearts are melted and charmed by the power of song. Just before the silver cord was loosed he requested his wife to write—it was his last: