Chapter 44

“Go on, in the name of God! one year will suffice, if we have faith. Richard Pearce, of Bradford, writes, he will give £20; Mr. Iles, of Stroud, that he will give £50! Surely God’s time is come. Set all your shoulders to the work, and it shall be done.”[709]

Again:—

“I have wrote to T. Colbeck, James Greenwood, Jo. Greenwood, Sutcliffe, Southwell, Garforth, and Littledale. The rest, in your circuit, I leave to you. Leave no stone unturned. When you receive the printed letters, seal, superscribe, and deliver them in my name to whom you please. Be active. Adieu!”[710]

Again:—

“I see no help for it. What must be, must be. You must go, point blank, to York, Leeds, and Bradford. Our rich men subscribe twenty shillings a year; and neither brother Boardman, Brisco, Bumstead, nor Oliver can move them. They want a hard mouthed man. Get you gone in a trice. Show them the difference. I beg you eithermendthem orendthem. Let this lumber be removed from among us.”[711]

Again, in a letter to Mr. Hopper:—

“I constituteyou, Christopher Hopper by name, Lord President of the north. Enter upon your province, Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire, without delay. Pray despatch letters to Jacob Rowell, Jo. Heslop, Richard Boardman, and your other deputies without loss of time; and quicken them to put forth all their strength, and make one push for all. But hold! John Fenwick writes to me, ‘I will give £25!’ Do not abate him the five! No drawing back! I think the time is come for rolling away this reproach from us. Your thought concerning the preachers is a noble one. If fifty of them set such an example, giving a little out of their little, such an instance would have an effect upon many. Let one stir up another. Spare no pains. Write east, west, north, and south. You have a ready mind, and a ready pen; and it cannot be used in a better cause.”[712]

Again, in a letter to Mr. Merryweather, of Yarm, dated “London, December 28, 1767.”

“My dear Brother,—I thank Mr. Waldy and you for your ready and generous assistance. It seems, the time is come; but John Fenwick writes from Newcastle, ‘We are all here of opinion that what is done should be done at once; and we think the debt may be paid off in one year, only let us set about it in faith. I will give £25; Mr. Davison, £25;Jo. Morrison, £25; Miss Dales, £50.’ Very well; this will not interfere. Some may give at once, some quarterly, some yearly. You will encourage your neighbours all you can.“I am, etc.,“John Wesley.”[713]

“I am, etc.,

“John Wesley.”[713]

Such were Wesley’s efforts to obtain subscriptions for the first chapel relief fund that Methodism ever raised. This was a great connexional effort to collect £12,000, to defray all the connexional chapel debts. What was the result? This may be gathered from another circular, which Wesley issued two years afterwards.

“November 20, 1769.“My dear Brother,—Two years ago, many of our brethren, who considered the number of the people called Methodists, and the circumstances which a great part of them were in, believed we should pay off the debt at once. I myself was fully persuaded, that between twenty and thirty thousand people were well able to do this; but I was not at all persuaded they were willing. However, I said little upon that head; being unwilling to weaken the hands of those who were of another mind.“It was a good step which was made the first year. Upwards of £5000 were contributed; by which means the most pressing debts were paid; and many of our brethren were firmly persuaded we should make an end of the whole the second year. I well knew the Methodists could do this, but I saw no reason to think they would. And when the collection was brought in, amounting to above £2000, it was full as much as I expected.“But what can be done this third year? £5000 remain unpaid. Are the Methodists able to clear this in one year? Yes, as able as they are to clear £50. But are they willing? That I cannot tell. I am sure a few of them are, even of those who have a large measure of worldly goods; yea, and those who are lately increased in substance, who have twice, perhaps ten or twenty times, as much as when they saw me first. Are you one of them? Whether you are or not, whether your substance is less or more, are you willing to give what assistance you can? to do what you can without hurting your family? ‘But if I do so, I cannot lay out so much, in such and such things, as I intended.’ That is true; but will this hurt you? What, if instead of enlarging, you should, for the present, contract, your expenses? spend less, that you may be able to give more? Would there be any harm in this? ‘But neither can I lay up so much.’ This, likewise, is most true; but is it ill husbandry to ‘lay up treasure in heaven’? Is that lost which is given to God? ‘But I thought we should have paid the debt in one year, and so need no further collections.’ I never thought so; I knew it might be paid in one year, but never expected it would. There is more likelihood of its being paid this year. It will, ifour brethren exert themselves: do you, for one; let nothing be wanting on your part. Yet do not imagine, ‘We shall need no further collections.’ Indeed, we shall, though we owed not one shilling. Do not you remember the original design of the yearly subscription? Paying our debts is but one branch of the design. It answers several other valuable ends, equally necessary. It enables us to carry the gospel through the three kingdoms; and, as long as we pursue that glorious design, this subscription will be necessary; though, it is true, when once this burden is removed, a far smaller contribution will suffice. However, ‘let the morrow take thought for the things of itself’; to-day do what you can, for the love of God, of your brethren, of the cause of God, and of your affectionate brother,“John Wesley.”[714]

“November 20, 1769.

“My dear Brother,—Two years ago, many of our brethren, who considered the number of the people called Methodists, and the circumstances which a great part of them were in, believed we should pay off the debt at once. I myself was fully persuaded, that between twenty and thirty thousand people were well able to do this; but I was not at all persuaded they were willing. However, I said little upon that head; being unwilling to weaken the hands of those who were of another mind.

“It was a good step which was made the first year. Upwards of £5000 were contributed; by which means the most pressing debts were paid; and many of our brethren were firmly persuaded we should make an end of the whole the second year. I well knew the Methodists could do this, but I saw no reason to think they would. And when the collection was brought in, amounting to above £2000, it was full as much as I expected.

“But what can be done this third year? £5000 remain unpaid. Are the Methodists able to clear this in one year? Yes, as able as they are to clear £50. But are they willing? That I cannot tell. I am sure a few of them are, even of those who have a large measure of worldly goods; yea, and those who are lately increased in substance, who have twice, perhaps ten or twenty times, as much as when they saw me first. Are you one of them? Whether you are or not, whether your substance is less or more, are you willing to give what assistance you can? to do what you can without hurting your family? ‘But if I do so, I cannot lay out so much, in such and such things, as I intended.’ That is true; but will this hurt you? What, if instead of enlarging, you should, for the present, contract, your expenses? spend less, that you may be able to give more? Would there be any harm in this? ‘But neither can I lay up so much.’ This, likewise, is most true; but is it ill husbandry to ‘lay up treasure in heaven’? Is that lost which is given to God? ‘But I thought we should have paid the debt in one year, and so need no further collections.’ I never thought so; I knew it might be paid in one year, but never expected it would. There is more likelihood of its being paid this year. It will, ifour brethren exert themselves: do you, for one; let nothing be wanting on your part. Yet do not imagine, ‘We shall need no further collections.’ Indeed, we shall, though we owed not one shilling. Do not you remember the original design of the yearly subscription? Paying our debts is but one branch of the design. It answers several other valuable ends, equally necessary. It enables us to carry the gospel through the three kingdoms; and, as long as we pursue that glorious design, this subscription will be necessary; though, it is true, when once this burden is removed, a far smaller contribution will suffice. However, ‘let the morrow take thought for the things of itself’; to-day do what you can, for the love of God, of your brethren, of the cause of God, and of your affectionate brother,

“John Wesley.”[714]

This appeal was responded to, by a further reduction of debt to the amount of £1700; but new debts were constantly being created, and, for years afterwards, chapel debts were one of Wesley’s sorrows.

The conference of 1767 being concluded, Wesley started, on August 24, for the west of England, preaching at Wycombe, Witney, and other places. He made a brief tour in Wales, and visited most of the societies in the county of Somerset. On September 26, hearing that his old friend, Mrs. Blackwell, was dying, he hurried to London, and found her better. Two days later, he went back to Bristol, where, he says, “I permitted all of Mr. Whitefield’s society that pleased, to be present at the lovefeast. I hope we shall ‘not know war any more,’ unless with the world, the flesh, and the devil.”

Having again wended his way,viâSouthampton and Portsmouth, to London, he set out, on October 20, to Colchester, and “spent three days very agreeably, among a quiet and loving people.”

Returning again to London, he started, on October 26, on what he calls his “little tour through Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire,” which occupied the next five days.

On November 1, he set out to visit the societies in Kent and Sussex, and, at the end of the week, returned to London, where he buried the remains of his clerical coadjutor, Benjamin Colley. Here, he says, he received the following letter.

“Sir,—I was yesterday led to hear what God would say to me by your mouth. You exhorted us ‘to strive to enter in at the strait gate.’ I am willing so to do; but I find, one chief part of my striving must be to feedthe hungry, to clothe the naked, to instruct the ignorant, to visit the sick, and such as are in prison, bound in misery and iron.“But if you purge out all who scorn such practices, or at least are not fond of them, how many will remain in your society? I fear, scarce enough to carry your body to the grave. Alas, how many, even among those who are called believers, have plenty of all the necessaries of life, and yet complain of poverty! How many have houses and lands, or bags of money, and yet cannot find in their hearts to spare now and then to God’s poor a little piece of gold! How many have linen in plenty, with three or four suits of clothes, and can see the poor go naked! Pray sir, tell these, you cannot believe they are Christians, unless they imitate Christ in doing good to all men, and hate covetousness, which is idolatry.”

“But if you purge out all who scorn such practices, or at least are not fond of them, how many will remain in your society? I fear, scarce enough to carry your body to the grave. Alas, how many, even among those who are called believers, have plenty of all the necessaries of life, and yet complain of poverty! How many have houses and lands, or bags of money, and yet cannot find in their hearts to spare now and then to God’s poor a little piece of gold! How many have linen in plenty, with three or four suits of clothes, and can see the poor go naked! Pray sir, tell these, you cannot believe they are Christians, unless they imitate Christ in doing good to all men, and hate covetousness, which is idolatry.”

Wesley adds: “I do tell them so, and I tell them it will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah than for them. I tell them, the Methodists, that do not fulfil all righteousness, will have the hottest place in the lake of fire.”

On November 30, Wesley started for Norwich, where he says: “Our friends, the mob, seem to have taken their leave; and so have triflers; all that remain seem deeply serious.”

On December 7, he writes: “I went on to Yarmouth, and found confusion worse confounded. Not only Benjamin Worship’s society was come to nothing, but ours seemed to be swiftly following. They had almost all left the Church again, being full of prejudice against the clergy and against one another.” On December 12, he came back to London, where he continued the remainder of the year, with the exception of a visit to Sheerness. He writes, December 16: “The governor of the fort having given me the use of the chapel, I began reading prayers, and afterwards preached to a large and serious congregation. The next evening it was considerably increased, so that the chapel was hot as an oven. In the afternoon of the day after, the governor sent me word, I must preach in the chapel no more; but, a room being offered, we had a comfortable hour. Examining the society, consisting of four or five and thirty members, I had the comfort to find many of them knew in whom they had believed; and all of them seemed desirous to adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour. Such a town as many of these live in is scarce to be found again in England. In the dock, adjoining to the fort, there are six old men-of-war.These are divided into small tenements, forty, fifty, or sixty in a ship, with little chimneys and windows; and each of these contains a family.”

The Whitefield section of the Methodists seem to have had a society in Sheerness previous to this. Cornelius Winter, now a young man of about five-and-twenty, and acting as a sort of itinerant local preacher, in the county of Kent, tells us that, in 1766, Wesley’s “people made an innovation upon the Calvinistic cause at Sheerness,” upon which he walked over from Sittingbourne, on a severe winter’s night, and preached from the words: “And Gideon said unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all His miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” No doubt, the young preacher intended his text to be a stunning one, and to put an end to Wesley’s “Midianites” poaching on Calvinian preserves. He states that his sermon “had an amazing effect”; that he “became a frequent and acceptable visitor”; and that an “eminent old saint, by the name of Wadsworth, was so pleased with his services, that, when he died, he left him half-a-crown and his Bible,” the first legacy that Cornelius ever had.[715]Young Winter thought he had extinguished Wesley’s Methodism in Sheerness; but, like most young men, he proved himself to be liable to fall into mistakes.

It is a curious fact, that, in 1767, as in the year previous, Methodism was attacked chiefly by the muses. One of the principal poetic effusions was, “Methodism Triumphant; or, the decisive Battle between the Old Serpent and the Modern Saint,” 4to, 139 pages. In Nichols’ “Literary Anecdotes,” it is stated, that this skittish, satirical production was written by Dr. Nathaniel Lancaster, rector of Stanford Rivers,—“a man of strong natural parts, great erudition, refined taste, and master of a nervous and elegant style. He was a native of Cheshire, lived a recluse, and died deeply in debt, June 20, 1775.”[716]

Of course, Wesley is Dr. Lancaster’s “modern saint”; and the poem, which is not without literary merit, professes to sketch “the state of religion previous to Wesley’s mission; his transcendent character and miraculous powers,” and his subsequent history, till he is brought into “single combat with the old serpent. Satan accepts Wesley’s challenge; leaves his dominions; and repairs to Moorfields, in Britannia.” Then follows a description of the conflict; Wesley is blown up with gunpowder; a seraph heals him; the battle is renewed; with his “massive journals,” Wesley shatters the devil’s horns, batters his skull, squashes his igneous brains, and then, seizing a falchion sent from the armoury of heaven, lops off his cloven feet, and finally pulls off his tail, and suspends it over a fane,—

... “a trophy of victorious faith,And surest proof, that Methodism springs,With all her tenets, from a heavenly source.”

... “a trophy of victorious faith,

And surest proof, that Methodism springs,

With all her tenets, from a heavenly source.”

The whole poem is full of clever, but profane, banter of this description.

Another quarto poetical publication, of forty-seven pages, and, in style and spirit, bearing so strong a resemblance to the former one as almost to affiliate itself, was entitled, “The Troublers of Israel; in which the principles of those who turn the world upside down are displayed. With a preface to the Rev. Dr. D——; to which is prefixed, a short introductory description of modern enthusiasts.

Besides the above, there was a shilling pamphlet published, with the title, “A Dialogue between the Rev. Mr. John Wesley and a member of the Church of England, concerning Predestination.” The author is a most zealous Calvinist, and attacks Wesley’s views with great violence; perhaps thinking that, though man might have reason to complain, God would commend and honour his heavy handed flagellation.

Wesley’s publications, in 1767, were the following.

1. “A Word to a Smuggler,” with this sentence printed on the title page,—“This tract is not to be sold, but given away:” 8vo, eight pages.

Smuggling was, at this period, one of England’s crying evils; and, from the first, Wesley resolutely set his face against it. “A smuggler,” said he, “is a thief of the firstorder, a highwayman or pickpocket of the worst sort. Let not any of those prate about reason or religion. It is an amazing instance of human folly, that every government in Europe does not drive these vermin away into lands not inhabited.”[717]“Every smuggler is a thief general, who picks the pockets both of the king and all his fellow subjects. He wrongs them all; and, above all, the honest traders, many of whom he deprives of their maintenance.”

So general was the evil in Wesley’s day, that not a few, even of the members of his own societies, were tainted with it. At St. Ives, in 1753, he ascertained that nearly the whole society “bought or sold uncustomed goods.” At Sunderland, in 1757, he had to tell the Methodists that, unless they would “part with all sin, particularly, robbing the king,” he should be obliged to part with them. “Carefully disperse the ‘Word to a Smuggler,’” said Wesley at the conference of 1767; “expel all who will not leave off smuggling; and silence every local preacher that defends it.”

2. “An Extract of the Rev. Mr. John Wesley’s Journal, from May 6, 1760, to October 28, 1762.” 12mo, 141 pages.

3. “Christian Letters, by Joseph Alleine.” 12mo, 88 pages.

4. “Extracts from the Letters of Mr. Samuel Rutherford.” 12mo. “The same piety, zeal, and confidence in God,” says Wesley, “shine through all the letters of Mr. Alleine that do in Mr. Samuel Rutherford’s; so that, in this respect, he may well be styled the English Rutherford. In piety and fervour of spirit, they are the same; but the fervour of the one more resembles that of St. Paul,—of the other, that of St. John. They were both men of intrepid courage; but in love Mr. Alleine has the preeminence.”

5. “The Repentance of Believers.” 12mo. This was a sermon for the times, peculiarly adapted to settle the inquiries of the Methodists respecting the subject of Christian perfection, and other points connected with it.

Back to Index Next